acts thereof The memorable Saying of SCOTUS The power of the Will in things divine CHAP. XI The fourth and last point of ARMINIANISME touching the Synod of DORT The Synod of Dort not our Rule Private opinions no Rule The Informers imputations nothing at all THE SECOND PART touching POPERY CHAP. I. THe Author uncharitably traduced His profession for the doctrine discipline received and commanded in the Church of England Conformable Puritans Furious zeale The Church of Rome not a sound yet a true Church Private opinions disclaimed The Church of England asserted to her owne publick and proper Tenents The cause of all these Imputations CHAP. II. The Church Representative and Points Fundamentall what they are All that Papists say is not Poperie Particular Churches have and may erre The Catholick Vniversall Church hath not cannot erre Of Generall Councels The Author farre from the Iesuites fancy The XXI Article of the Church of England explaned CHAP. III. Strange accusations Antiquity reverenced not deified Fathers accused of some error by Iesuites The occasion of their enlarged speeches concerning Free-will The Author acquitted of Popery CHAP. IV. Private and publick doctrine differenced In what sense the Church is said to be alwaies visible The Author acquitted from Popery againe by others learned Divines Of the Church of Rome CHAP. V. Touching ANTICHRIST The Pope and Prelacie of Rome Antichristian That he is Magnus ille Antichristus is neither determined by the publick doctrine of the Church nor proved by any good argument of private men Difference among Divines who The Man of sinne should bee The markes of the great Antichrist fit the Turkish Tyrannie every way as well as the Papacy The peace of the Church not to bee disquieted through variety of opinions No finall resolution to be yet had in this point CHAP. VI. Touching IUSTIFICATION The state of a meere naturall man who to please GOD must become a new creature That newnes cannot bee wrought without a reall change of a sinner in his qualities In what sence it may be said that there is an Accesse of Iustification both by daily receiving remission of new sins and by increase of grace injoyning vertuous and good deeds unto faith CHAP. VII A change made in a justified man The Author agreeth in part with the Councell of Trent and therefore maintaineth Popery no necessarie illation The doctrine of the Church of England and of other reformed Churches in this point of Iustification CHAP. VIII Strange Popery GOD onely and properly justifieth CHAP. IX Holinesse of life added unto Iustification and Remission of sinnes GOD justifieth originally and Faith instrumentally CHAP. X. An Accesse declaratory made to the act of Iustification by the works of a lively faith S. PAUL and S. IAMES reconciled The old Prophets and ancient Fathers made new Papists by the Informers CHAP. XI The doctrine of MERIT ex condigno rejected as false and presumptuous Difference between the old and the new signification of Mereri CHAP. XII The quality and conditions of a good work required by the Roman Writers to make it rewardable as farre as they are positive no Protestant disalloweth of To those conditions may others be added CHAP. XIII GOD surely rewardeth good works according to his promise of his free bountie and grace CHAP. XIV The Church of England holdeth no such absolute certainty of salvation in just persons as they have of other objects of Faith expressly and directly revealed by GOD. CHAP. XV. Touching Evangelicall Counsailes Evangelicall Counsailes admitted according to the doctrine of the old Fathers and many learned Divines of our Church Popish doctrine concerning workes of Supererogation rejected CHAP. XVI S. GREG. NAZIANZ defended from the touch of uncircumcised lips CHAP. XVII The exposition of the saying of our SAVIOUR If thou wilt be perfect c. S. CHRYSOST S. AUG S. HIER S. AMBR. make it no imperious precept If it be the Informers are the least observers of it and sinne against their owne consciences CHAP. XVIII Touching LIMBUS PATRUM The dreames of Papists about Limbus Patrum related and rejected The state of mens soules after death The place proportioned to their state The soules of the blessed Fathers before CHRIST'S ascension in heavenly Palaces yet not in the third and highest heavens nor in that fulnesse of ioy which they have now and more of which they shall have heerafter The opinion of old and new Writers Our Canons not to be transgressed The doctrine and faith of the Church of England concerning the Article of CHRIST'S descent into Hell The disadvantage wee are at with our Adversaries Every Novellers Fancie printed and thrust upon us for the generall Tenet of our Church The plain and easie Articles of our CREED disturbed and obscured by the wild dreames of little lesse than blasphemous men by new Models of Divinity by Dry-fatts of severall Catechismes The Beleefe of Antiquity The Author and It far from POPERY CHAP. XIX The seventh point of Popery touching IMAGES The Historicall use of Images maketh nothing for the adoring of them Popish extravagancies CHAP. XX. S. GREG. doctrine concerning Images far from Popery CHAP. XXI No religious honour or worship to bee given unto Images They may affect the mindes of religious men by representing unto them the actions of CHRIST and his Saints In which regard all reverence simply cannot be abstracted from them CHAP. XXII Popish doctrine and practice both about adoration of Images rejected CHAP. XXIII The Church of England condemneth not the historicall use of Images The Booke of Homilies containes a general godly doctrine yet is it not in every point the publick dogmaticall resolved doctrine of the Church The Homily that seemeth to condemne all making of Images is to be understood with a restriction of making them to an unlawfull end Many passages therein were fitted to the present times and to the conditions of the people that then were The finall resolution of this controversie CHAP. XXIV Touching signing with the Signe of the CROSSE To signe with the signe of the Crosse out of Baptisme or upon the breast c. no more superstition than to signe in Baptisme or upon the forehead The practice of the ancient Church The reasons that moved them that might move us to use often signing They lived with Pagans and wee with Puritans both deriders of the signe of CHRIST'S Crosse CHAP. XXV The practice of the primitive Church approved Unadvised Informers Novellers rejected CHAP. XXVI The testimony of S. ATHANASIUS vilified by the Informers The testimonies of other Fathers concerning the efficacie and power of the signe of the Crosse CHAP. XXVII Popery is not the signing with but the adoring of the Crosse Strange effects which GOD hath wrought of old adhibito signo CRUCIS and may doe still by vertue of CHRISTS Death and Passion which that Signe doth represent CHAP. XXVIII The Informers presumption against the current of Antiquity CHAP. XXIX Touching the SACRAMENT of the ALTAR The Informers drawn low
APPELLO CAESAREM A IVST APPEALE FROM TWO VNIUST INFORMERS BY RICHARD MOUNTAGU LONDON Printed by H. L. for Mathew Lownes M. DC XXV TO HIS MOST SACRED MAIESTIE MOST GRACIOUS AND DREAD SOVERAIGNE BY a Missive from a Papist I am sure and J suppose from a Priest I was not long since forced upon the Controversies of these times betweene the Protestant and Romish Confessionists And because it hath bin ever truly counted a readier way for the advancement of Piety rather to lessen and abate than to multiply the number of many needless contentions in the Church therefore when I first undertooke to answer that very worthless Author The GAGGER of all Protestants mouthes for ever I did it with a firmed purpose to leave all Private Opinions and Particular Positions or Oppositions whatsoever unto their owne Authors or Abbettors eyther to stand or fall of themselves and not to suffer the Church of England to be charged with the maintenance of any Doctrine which was none of Her own publickely and universally resolved on For we are at a great disadvantage with our Adversaries to have those Tenents put and pressed evermore upon us for the Generall Doctrine established in our Church which are but eyther the Problematic all Opinions of Private Doctors to be held or not held eyther way or else the Fancies many of them of Factious men disclaimed and censured by the Church not to be held any way Such disadvantages hath This Church too long endured and out of just indignation against this Gagger and his Fellowes I could not but so much the more labour to vindicate Her Freedom ex professo and to assert Her as far as I was able unto Her owne proper true and ancient Tenents such as be without any doubt or question legitimate and genuine such as Shee will both acknowledge and maintain for her owne My direct dealing herein MOST DREAD SOVERAIGNE so reasonable so necessary as I supposed hath very much and highly discontented some Private Divines who desire to have those Opinions which are controverted among ourselves to be taken and defended for the common and publicke Doctrine of the Church but more especially hath it incensed those Classicall Puritans who were wont to passe all their Strange Determinations Sabbatarian Paradoxes and Apocalypticall Frensies under the Name and Covert of The True Professors of Protestant Doctrine supposing as it should seeme that in this case we were all lyable to the Statute that is bound to keepe and foster their Conceits as our owne Doctrines because they have cast them upon Us and upon Our Church like Bastards upon the Parish where they were borne or Vagabonds on the Towne where they last dwelt or were suffered to passe without due correction Such Irchins it was necessary to disband and send them away to shift for themselves that our Mother the Church might no more be troubled with them And yet for this cause have some Informers Articled against me and traduced me to the World for a Papist and an Arminian though the world and themselves know I flatly defied and opposed the One and GOD in Heaven knoweth that I never so much as yet read word in the other It was my happiness MOST GRATIOUS SOVERAIGNE that so meane a Vassall as my poore selfe was sufficiently knowne to be nor So nor So unto Him who if ever any of the Royall ranke was indeed sicut Angelus Domini to discerne my late MOST SACRED LORD and MASTER of ever Blessed memory unto whom that Information should have beene represented by whom in his most able and impartiall judgement I had my Quietus est and Discharge But in regard their Clamours were so impetuous and Accusations so divulged it pleased HIS MAIESTY out of that Goodnesse which was ever eminent in his most blessed disposition not only to grant me leave humbly to Appeale from my Defamers unto His most sacred Cognisance in publicke and to represent my just Defence against their Slanders and false Surmises unto the world but also to give expresse order unto Doct. VVHITE the Reverend Deane of Carlile for the authorising and publishing thereof after it had beene duly read over and approved by him to containe nothing in it but what was agreeable to the Doctrine and Discipline established in the Church of England whereof HIS MAIESTY was most tender It was read approved and sent to the Presse accordingly Since which time it hath pleased the King of Kings to call Him unto Himselfe and to Crowne Him with Glory and Immortality in Heaven before I could returne the Booke into His Royall hands But blessed for ever be the LORD GOD of Heaven that hath preserved YOUR MAIESTY and set YOU upon His Throne as King in stead of HIM to goe in and out before his People in his Place and to execute Judgement in FATHER's room What was then intended unto HIM according to his Owne most Gracious and Royall direct appointment I humbly crave leave upon my bended knees to present unto YOUR MOST EXCELLENT and SACRED SELF And in all lowly wise I cast both It and my Selfe and the best Service I shall be able to do in GODS Church at YOUR MAIESTIES feet desiring no longer to live than I shall be and continue a most conformable and true member of this Church and YOUR MAIESTIES most loyall and faithfull Subject and Servant RICHARD MOUNTAGU THE CONTENTS OF THE SEVERALL CHAPTERS THE FIRST PART TOVching ARMINIANISME CHAP. I. OF the Inscription which the Informers made to their severall Articles CHAP. II. Of S. PETER'S FALL CHAP. III. Of the losse of Faith and Iustification CHAP. IV. Of FALLING FROM GRACE The Tenet of Antiquity therein The doctrine of the Church of England in the 16th Article the Conference at Hampton Court the Book of Homilies and the publick Liturgie CHAP. V. Touching PREDESTINATION Of Arminians Lutherans Calvinists forrain Divines Of the Church of England Submission thereunto The question between them and us CHAP. VI. Dangerous consequents brought by Others upon the irrespective Decree CHAP. VII Lutherans averse from the doctrine of Calvinists The moderation of the Church of England in these great unsearcheable mysteries The Author's submission thereunto The doctrine of Predestination Man the Author of his owne destruction and not GOD. The doctrine of Antiquity contemned by Novellers The Synod of Dort no obligation to us The Saying of DEODATE The Articles of Lambeth forbidden by Authoritie Forraine Doctrine maintained to bring-in Forraine Discipline The Church of England no Patronesse of novell opinions CHAP. VIII Touching Free-will the III. point of Arminianisme CHAP. IX Controversies unnecessarily multiplied the AUTHOR no Favourer of them Questions of obscurity and speculation not fit for Pulpits and popular eares Free-will made no such controversie among moderate men either of the Pontifician or Protestant Side as people are borne in hand withall CHAP. X. The Councell of Trent not wholly to be condemned Man's Will not meerly passive but active and free in the proper
when they leave matter and take offence at words The antiquity of Altars A Sacrifice representative and spirituall acknowledged by all The Author herein farther from Popery than the Informers from Puritanisme CHAP. XXX A reall presence maintained by us The difference betwixt us and Popish Writers is only about the modus the maner of CHRIST'S presence in the blessed sacrament Agreement likely to be made but for the factious and unquiet spirits on both sides Beati pacifici CHAP. XXXI The Author's acknowledgement of his error Consecration of the elements causeth a change yet inferrs no Popish Transubstantiation The Informers out of their element Antiquity maintained Figurists and Novellers condemned CHAP. XXXII Touching CONFESSION Information against the expresse direction and practice of the Church of England No new Popish custome but the ancient and pious manner of Confession for the helpe and furtherance of mens true repentance and for the continuing of them in amendment of life is may be and ought to be urged How Confession of sinnes to a Priest is required by the Church before the Receiving of the LORDS Supper CHAP. XXXIII Touching the Sacrament of ORDERS The new religion full of exceptions though but against words only Ordination acknowledged to bee a Sacrament by M. CALVIN himselfe A Sacrament in lato sensu What our Church meaneth in saying there are but TWO SACRAMENTS CHAP. XXXIV Information against the Church-Book of Ordination which acknowledgeth the giving and receiving of the HOLY GHOST in sacred Orders so that Priests have that interior grace and power conferred upon them for the dispensation of divine mysteries which others have not CHAP. XXXV Touching power of Priesthood to forgive Sinnes Priests have power to forgive sinnes not originally but ministerially The doctrine of the Ordination and Communion-Booke for publick and private Absolution The Informers to lose the profits of their livings and to bee imprisoned without bayle for declaring against it CHAP. XXXVI Priests only and none other have commission from CHRIST to forgive sins The Extravagancies of Puritans and Papists both in this point CHAP. XXXVII THE CONCLUSION The issue of YATES and his FELLOW-Informers fond Accusations Other flying reports defamations neglected The Authors humble submission unto the Church of England and to HIS most sacred MAIESTY FINIS The Approbation I FRANCIS WHITE Doctor of Divinity and Dean of Carlile by the speciall direction and commandement of His most excellent Majestie have diligently perused and read over this BOOK intituled APPELLO CAESAREM A just Appeale from TWO unjust Informers by RICHARD MOUNTAGU and finding nothing therein but what is agreeable to the Publick Faith Doctrine and Discipline established in the Church of England I doe approove it as fit to be printed Dat. 15. Febr. 1624. FRANCIS WHITE APPELLO CAESAREM AN APPEALE FROM THE BRETHREN CHAP. I. Of the Inscription which the Informers made to their severall Articles INFORMERS ERRORS delivered by M. RICHARD MOUNTAGU in his Booke intituled A new Gagg c. and published by Authority this present yeare 1624. MOUNTAGU THese Informers in this Frontispice before their severall suggestions impliedly undertake to make good Three Assertions First that whatsoever They have challenged and articled against in their accusation hath been in terminis so Delivered by M. R. MOUNTAGU in his book as they have tendred it and no otherwise Secondly that all particulars so designed by Them and said to have beene delivered by Him were Published by warrant of Authoritie Thirdly that all things so Published and so Delivered and by Themselves the Informers insisted on and complained against are Errors actuall in themselves and so stand resolved and accounted of in the Doctrine of the Church The first of these three that is to say Whether or not whatsoever is so insisted on as Error hath beene so Delivered and Published as is suggested must hereafter bee examined in convenient Time and Place For haply all hath not beene so by Him Delivered as They have surmised and informed at least not in that sense as is conceived They may mistake his meaning why not For have they assistance of Infallibility annexed unto their conceipts especially in a prest and short style by him ensued and inclining to Scholasticall Character Or they may wilfully mistake his meaning to their owne advantage for Faction and Affection are too frequently interessed in Oppositions Or lastly they may well enough bee guiltie of misreporting his words I dare not trust their consciences in that point too farre I know their Charitic is not too transcendent But for Publication by Authoritie it may touch them neerer than they are aware of It is not unknowne not Authoritie that Puriritanicall Selfe-conceit and Presumption will square Law and Gospel too according unto that untoward Lesbian rule of their owne Private Spirit and speciall opinion and dare challenge any Authoritie old or new for Errors preaching publishing maintaining Errors viz. whatsoever doth not consort or run with the Tide of their Private Spirits motion And it hath beene found by experience practised of such male-content maligners at States in being Civill as well as Ecclesiasticall that they seldome or never talke of anie misbeing misordering misdemeaning in any point or case but that ever and anon directly or upon the By they can lend a lash unto or pinch upon the credite of Authoritie though most Sacred that great Cordolium and Moate-in-the-eye unto popular irregularitie and puritanicall paritie the Idoll of our Godly Brethren It is more than probable these Informers are of this stamp and making I have bin told and am assured they are two Grandees of the faction as great and turbulent as most bee in the Diocesse of Norwich which is not improbably thought to have of that Sect mo than enow They hold Authoritie interessed as farre at least as connivency goeth both for points of Poperie and Arminianisme if they could bee proved his against whom they are objected If it had not beene their purpose thus to have grated upon and galled Authority with little ado by the addition of but one poor word they might have amended and cleered all Had the Information beene carried and conceived thus and SAID to bee published by Authority the Errors of Popery and Arminianisme if any were must have laid all and every one hard upon M. MOUNTAGU interessed alone no reflection could have resulted as now intentionally upon Authoritie For Publication that gave life and living to these dangerous Errors is said to bee precisely the Act of Authoritie which is more than countenancing them in my understanding and I doubt not according to their interpretation Had this beene done M. MOUNTAGU must have borne all alone and what had it been that Hee erred He who may erre For in many things wee erre all but will be no Hereticke especially against the Church of England to the doctrine whereof established He hath more than once subscribed and therefore disclaimeth all aspersion of Poperie and is farther from it than any Puritan
in the kingdome He is indeed well acquainted with such Imputations as Papist and Arminian and I know not what the ordinary language of of our precise Professors against any man that is not as themselves MORE FURIOSO Calvinista And having had this measure often meted unto him from their verie great Zeale and very no-Charitie hee could have been contented to have contemned their malice the rather because a Scold cannot any better way bee charmed than by contempt but because Authoritie was drawne in to lye at the stake for conniving in points so dangerous but God knoweth how he could not possesse his soule in patience but thought himselfe in duetie and in conscience bound to cleere those points from Error which he delivered lest Sacred Authoritie might come in for Maintenance and Champetry as they would have it To come then to the Inscription Errors delivered must be his Tenents and avowed Propositions one way of these twain eyther by Affirmation or Negation For Errare saith S. AUGUST if yet our Informers and the Side regard what S. AUG saith est verum putare quod falsum est falsumque quod verum est vel certum habere pro incerto incertum pro certo sive falsum sit sive verum Howsoever there passeth omni modo a resolution for the thing erred in by Affirmation or Negation So or not so And therefore we cannot justly say He erreth or at all taxe him for Erring that neither denieth nor affirmeth that which is imputed unto him but only reporteth what he findeth This is the case of M. MOUNTAGU in all at least in the major part of these imputed Errors Hee is but a Narrator of other mens opinions suspending his owne judgement sometime peradventure when hee should not have so done out of a due respect unto Peace and Quietnesse in the Church sufficiently already disturbed and not the least by these Brethren and also because hee would not stirre the Hornets neasts of men affected otherwaies Secondly Error is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 respectively against something which is right as being an aberration from a Rule Now I demand of these so forward Informers those delivered Errors by M. MOUNTAGU and published Errors by Authoritie against what common Tenent doe they offend From what Rule are they an aberration I doe not find it expressed by the Informers Contrivers or Subscribers why in what against whose conclusions they are erroneous Against some Rule of Faith they must bee if Errors in Doctrine I know none I am told of none but the private opinions of the Informers or some Classicall resolutions of the Brethren Through all the severall XXI Articles or what you will call them of Popery and Arminianisme I finde no other proofe but Ipse dixit my words are related onely and you must take them upon M. YATES and M. WARD' 's bare words to bee Popery and Arminianisme for other proofe you cannot finde nor must expect So Magisteriall are our Purer Brethren those great Rabbines and Doctors in Israel having annexed unto their Penns and Pulpits infallibilitie of judgement it seemeth as well as the Pope of Rome unto his chayre Popular Spirits have evermore great opinion of their owne singular Illumination And you shall ever observe that each simple Ignoránte a classicall Dictator amongst the Covent tendereth his owne dreames and conceipts Simulachra modis volitantia miris no otherwise but as Oracles upon their owne bare words And such prevailing power have they upon their Proselites none living but Iesuites so great as they that their Sayings are held uncontroleable And hence it is that they vouchsafe us no proofe in their so many false Imputations Better Popery I will abide by it than any one proposition in M. MOUNTAGU For what difference betwixt their Dictates and Papall Decisions an abortive Embryo of the much groned-for Monarchie of our Puritanicall Parochiall would-be Popes over Kings and Kaesars and All that are called Gods Error then is ever against a rule In points of Faith Error is or should bee against the rule of Faith Scripture is they will not deny the rule of Faith as proceeding from Revelation divine the true Constat and Canon of Faith and Manners It is granted aberration from Scripture is Error The farther aberration the greater Error Bring mee in any one point or all points to this Rule Tye mee to it Try mee there Submitto fasceis I fall downe and adore it I would not I will not swerve from it But put the case in application of any Question unto that Rule there be dissents that I say one thing the Informers another the Collectors a third and in conclusion there bee quot homines tot sententiae how many men so many minds For the true and exact decision thereof what shall we do First in equity no man is to be his owne carver and Opinionibus vulgi in errorem rapimur Popular positions are not ever passable Nay rather most commonly it is true that Populus dicit ideò errat Now Private Spirits are of much weaker assurance therefore all that are not unlearnedly madde or insolently wedded unto their owne wills grant that as the Church is Custos regulae so doth it of right apply Examinanda unto that Rule The Church universall in generall causes each particular and private Church for speciall and particular and territoriall questions and querees These Informers against M. MOUNTAGU'S Errors unto what Rule will they stand or whither doe they appeale I disclaime as incompetent Popular Cantonings of dismembred Scripture and Private Interpretations of enforced Scripture I will not bee put over unto Classicall decisions nor that Idoll of some mens Reformation unto any Propheticall determinations in private Conventicles after Lectures For when departed The Spirit of God from mee or any other conformable Minister of the Church of England to speake unto them But because the doubts hang in the Church of England unto the Publicke Doctrine of the Church of England doe I appeale contayned in those two authorised and by All-subscribed Bookes of the Articles and Divine Services of the Church Let that which is against them on Gods name be branded with Error and as Error be ignominiously spunged out let the Author be censured as he well deserveth by Authority if there be any thing in that much maligned book of M. MOUNTAGU either against the Rule immediate the Word of God or against the Rule applied or expounded in the Dictates of the Catholick Church in general or the Tendries of our English Church in particular If I so be taken with the fact or evidence be cleer against me or I be convicted per testes idoneos to have erred thus I will recall and recant whatsoever is so exorbitant and further will deal so with my owne writings as they did with their curious books Act. 19. 19. Qui primas non habui sapientiae modestiae poenitentiae habebo secundas But to come at length up to and joyne issue with
onely supposed related and no more It may bee a custome amongst the Informers and others of that Tribe to dictate to their Popular Auditories out of their Pulpits tanquam de tripode though it be quicquid in buccam and the same to be received upon their bare words as divine Oracles whereupon they need not make any suppositions put no cases to bee demurred on seeing they are ubique and in omnibus peremptory resolved and conclusive But with us it is not so we are not so happy to have our bare words passe we must prove what wee speake and well is it if so and then we finde credence They and the Iesuites are rare men to leade mens Faith and Beleefe so in a string In this passage against me it being ad oppositum and they like enough to bee demanded Proofes for what they say all their accusations of Arminianisme and of Popery though they bee false and slanderous yet are they Magisteriall You cannot finde so much as any one proofe annexed unto any of the imputed Errors or brought in to manifest Ideò this or that is an Error Their Stile runneth These are his words or Thus he writeth c. supposing all men will at least should take it upon their words That what hee so writeth is an Error Such Illuminates are our Classicall Brethren May they be intreated a little to descend from this their Chaire of Infallibility and yeeld somewhat according unto reason by producing that Rule against which touching Finall Perseverance the words produced if so be they are mine every way to all intents and purposes doe offend and for which they may justly bee stiled Errors The Rule produced upon tryall and application M. MOUNTAGU must eyther stand or fall Till then he appealeth to all indifferent censures for suspension of their judgements concerning Errors thus by him Delivered and Published by Authority In the Interim to come somewhat neerer unto the Error heer informed against Doth ARMINIUS maintaine touching finall Perseverance you must tell mee my good Informers for I have not read him that sometime the Called and Elect of God the Chosen ones and Iustified by Faith such as S. PETER was though they doe fall totally for a Time shall yet recover necessarily againe and not fall away finally or for ever If this be Arminianisme and so his conclusion then therein He holdeth with ARMINIUS But I have bin assured that ARMINIUS did hold as the Lutherans in Germany doe not only Intercision for a Time but also Abscission and Abjection too for ever That a man Called and Iustified freely through the grace of GOD in CHRIST might fall away again from Grace Totally finally and become a cast-away as IUDAS was for ever For S. PETER upon admission of this Passage as your selves have related it in your calumniatory Information by M. MOUNTAGU'S conclusion did not could not fall finally for CHRIST prayed for him that he might not fall and CHRIST was ever heard in that hee prayed for So that out of your owne mouthes M. MOUNTAGU is acquitted of Arminianisme for if He say any thing to the point it is that S. PETER could not fall finally from Faith nor lose it for ever irrecoverably For say you These are his words Though S. PETER fell totally he fell not eternally that is hee recovered and persevered unto the end and so touching finall Perseverance at least He teacheth in your own confession no otherwise than your selves do Thus Pure malice and indiscreet zeale make men many times lose their witts they know not where I adde if M. MOUNTAGU be an Arminian you are rather Papists for I demand In denying and forswearing CHRIST did S. PETER fall or did he not fall If abnegation and abjuration and execration will inforce a fall he did Now if he fell he needs must fall totally or finally for Cedo tertium a man falleth not who is not off or down from the Place Grace Multi dantur ad gratiam recessus hee that falleth to day may rise againe to morrow hold out unto the end receive the reward of Righteousnesse in finall Perseverance bee crowned with glory and immortalitie I say no more than you have subscribed if you look unto it After we have received the HOLY GHOST wee may DEPART FROM GRACE given and FALL into Sinne and by the grace of GOD wee may arise againe and amend our lives Artic. XVI Nec beatum dixeris quenquam ante mortem quamdiu enim vivimus in certamine sumus quamdiu sumus in certamine nulla est certa victoria was Catholick Doctrine of old But heer also as in the former passage these Informers mistake me for their owne advantage for I speak but only representatively according to the opinion and Tenent of the Roman Schooles I appeale unto their Honesty at least wise Knowledge are not my wordes laid downe directly thus For in YOUR opinion Iustifying faith may diminish and may be abolished and lost Now Iustification being in an instant c. If in their opinion it may be lost namely faith which justifieth then Iustification which is an Effect of faith may also bee lost and may bee recovered after such losse For things transitory are in a like habitude unto being and not being may cease to be and be againe After such losse of Faith and Love transitory in their opinion they againe may revert and finde a being but yet still in their opinion So all heer Delivered Errors or not Errors so or so is still in their opinion not the iudgement specified of M. MOUNTAGU My goodly Brethren this is no faire play to fasten that on me as my Assertion which precisely I relate from anothers mouth which I remember not but as the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and upon that their Doctrine by Them maintained by Him related doe inferre against a Papist a plaine Non sequitur from his owne Tenents unto an inconsequent Argument by Them inferred and opposed against the true and Catholick doctrine of the Church of England touching Iustification by Faith alone CHAP. IV. Of FALLING FROM GRACE The Tenet of Antiquity therein The doctrine of the Church of England in the 16th Article the Conference at Hampton Court the Book of Homilies and the publick Liturgie INFORMERS ANd againe Some hold that Faith may be lost totally and finally which is indeed the Assertion of Antiquity The Learnedst in the Church of ENGLAND assent unto Antiquitie in that Tenet which the Protestants in GERMANIE maintaine at this day having assented unto the Church of ROME MOUNTAGU A Ntiquum obtinent These men are still the same Calumniators and runne still along with all one indirect dealing Their Information in direct tearms standeth thus To make report and no more but to make report of Arminianisme if yet it be Arminianisme which is reported is in point of opinion to bee an ARMINIAN in point of Arianisme with these men to be an ARIAN for M. MOUNTAGU in this case hath done no
certus qui de hac re justo latentique judicio non omnes instruit sed neminem fallit PROSP. Resp 7. ad Cap. GALLORUM Ex REGENERATIS in CHRISTO IESU quosdam RELICTA FIDE pijs moribus APOSTATARE A DEO impiam vitant in suâ AVERSIONE finire multis quod dolendum est probatur exemplis But the greatest question will be concerning the Learnedst in the Church of England said to consent unto Antiquity in this case of falling away from grace Where first I will not deny but that Many in the Church of England reputed learned are of that opinion that Faith had cannot be lost But if it shall appeare that the contrary Tenet is the PUBLICK DOCTRINE of the CHURCH of England then I have not wronged private men in making this comparison between them and Those whom themselves will acknowledge to be their Superiours both in learning and authority Now to give them all due satisfaction which may thinke themselves wronged by my comparative speech I argue as followeth They were the learnedst in the Church of England that drew composed and agreed the ARTICLES in 52. and 62. that ratified them in 71. that confirmed them againe in 604. that justified and maintained them against the Puritans at Hampton Court that have read and subscribed them at their Induction unto Benefices and Consecration unto Bishopricks that penned the Homilies read in Churches But all these have and all such doe assent unto Antiquity in this Tenent and subscribe it truely or in hypocrisie Therefore I may justly avouch it The learnedst in the Church of England assent therein to Antiquitie The Major I suppose no man will question The Informers themselves are peradventure within that Pale The Minor I make good particularly and will prove it accordingly obsignatis tabulis In the forenamed XVI ARTICLE we reade and subscribe this After that we have received the HOLY GHOST wee may DEPART AWAY FROM GRACE and FALL into Sinne and by the Grace of GOD we may rise againe and amend our lives Now let me ask the question Have you subscribed this Article or have you not If you be Beneficed men you have read it and subscribed it professed your assent and consent thereto before GOD and his CHURCH or else by Act of Parliament you have forfeited your spirituall promotions and are deprived IPSO FACTO within two moneths If so then have you subscribed that Arminianisme which you impute as an Error unto me Haply you will be of his minde one of your Tribe who when he was told what hee had subscribed for poore ignorant man he understood it not protested he would teare his subscription if he could come by it and so would have lost his Benefice which few of you will doe if it be a Good one for conscience sake marry for a Poore one you will not stick Haply you will quarrell the Sense of the ARTICLES but then you must remember that the plaine words sound to the meaning for which I have produced them and that untill the CHURCH it selfe expound otherwise it is as free for me to take it according to the letter as for you to devise a figure The ARTICLE insisteth upon men Iustified speaketh of them after Grace received plainly avoucheth They may fall away depart from that state which once they had they may by Gods Grace rise againe and become new men Possible but not Certaine or Necessary But the meaning by you assigned cannot be good being allied unto the stocke you are for by your Tribe the true meaning of the ARTICLE and the Doctrine there Delivered and Published by Authority eyther originall or derived primary or secondary was upon this very point challenged as unsound because against the current of their Institutions And had Arminianisme then been a nickname the challenge without doubt had fastned there but challenged it was in this Sense as Vnsound at the Conference of Hampton Court by those that were Petitioners against the Doctrine and Discipline established in the Church of England And being so challenged before His sacred Majesty was then and there Defended maintained avowed averred for True ancient justifiable good and Catholick by the greatest Bishops and learnedst Divines then living in this Church against that absolute irrespective necessitating and fatall Decree of your new Predestination stiled by you The Doctrine of YOUR DIVINES commonly called CALVINISTS as indeed it is YOURS being never heard of in the world but of late but stiled then and there by the Lord Bishop of London Dr. BANCROFT in publick audience with much vehemencie without any check dislike distaste dissent for we reade of none a desperate doctrine of Predestination At what time also that Reverend Prelate and most accomplished Divine whose memorie shall ever be pretious with all good and learned men the late Bishop of Norwich then Deane of PAULS Dr. OVERALL upon some touch by occasion of mentioning the ARTICLES of LAMBETH did relate unto his most SACRED MAIESTIE those concertations which himselfe had sometimes had in Cambridge with some Doctors there about this very point of Falling from Grace and that it was his Tenet and had beene That a justified man might FALL AWAY FROM GRACE and so ipso facto incur GODS wrath and was IN STATE OF VVRATH and DAMNATION untill he did recover againe and was renued after his fall At which time that Doctrine of the Church of England then quarrelled now stiled Arminianisme accused of Noveltie slandred as pernicious by these Informers and their Brethren was resolved of and avowed for True Catholick ancient and Orthodox by that Royall Reverend Honourable and learned SYNOD The Booke is extant published by warrant and re-published by command this present yeer of the Proceedings at that Conference which will averre all that I say for truth against you heer See the Book And for explication of that Authorized and Subscribed doctrine there is an Homilie in the Booke of Homilies first composed and published in King EDWARD'S time approved and justified in Parliament in Queene ELIZABETH'S daies and Authorized againe of late to be read in Churches entituled OF FALLING AWAY FROM GOD. Which very TITLE is sufficient warrant for the Doctrine or Error in this point imputed to M. MOUNTAGU But that which is Delivered in the Homily will justifie Him unto the full for the Homily doth throughly and wholly insist upon the Affirmation That FAITH once had may againe be LOST Out of the first part of that Homily you may take this my good Informers for your edification Whereas GOD hath shewed unto all them that TRULY do BELEEVE his Gospell his face of mercy in CHRIST IESUS which doth so enlighten their hearts that they be TRANSFORMED into his Image be made PARTAKERS of the heavenly light and of his HOLY SPIRIT be fashioned unto him in all goodnes requisite unto the CHILDE of GOD So if they doe afterward NEGLECT the same if they bee unthankfull unto him if they order not their
lives according to his doctrine and example and to the setting foorth of his glory hee will TAKE FROM THEM his holy word his KINGDOME whereby hee should raigne in them because they BRING NOT FORTH THE FRUIT that he looked for Can your Learning and Understanding make any other construction of these words than that a man may FALL away FROM GRACE become NO childe of GOD at all If you can advance and teach mee that which passeth my poor apprehension They were TRULY called that did TRULY beleeve they were justified by faith that were so called as I conceive it that beheld the face of GOD'S mercie in CHRIST that had their hearts so enlightned with GOD'S SPIRIT that they were meerly transformed from Darknes unto Light into the Image of GOD reformed If these be not attributes of Justified men good Sirs teach us some new Divinity yet in the Doctrine of the Church of England expounded in this Homily these men may prove unthankfull negligent and lose the Interest they had in that his Kingdome of grace by his holie word And yet further in the second part of this Homily wee are sent unto a conclusion more ad oppositum not onely of TOTALL Lapse for a time but also of FINALL Separation and for ever Which is also according to the doctrine expressed in the ARTICLES for he that saith A man may fall away and may recover implieth withall that some men may fall away and may NOT recover which the Homily declareth thus They shall be NO LONGER governed by GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT they shall be PUT FROM the GRACE and BENEFIT which they had and EVER MIGHT have enjoyed in CHRIST they shall be DEPRIVED of the heavenly light and LIFE which they had in CHRIST while that they abode in HIM They that thus fall away unto the state of damnation were TRULY justified for it is said They were in CHRIST they continued sometime in CHRIST for they abode in him But yet this is not all for it followeth They shall bee GIVEN UP unto the POWER of the DIVELL who beareth RULE in all that are CAST-AWAYES from God as he did in SAUL and IUDAS I suppose this is plaine and home enough If you be acquainted with the LITURGY and publicke religious SERVICE of our Church as to your shame few of you and your Divines are or will be unlesse it bee to oppose and cavill at it there you shall find also as much as Falling from grace commeth to In the Forme of holy Baptisme we are taught otherwise than your Masters teach that every child which is duly baptized being before borne in originall sinne and in the wrath of God is now by that Laver of Regeneration received into the number of the CHILDREN of GOD and HEIRES of EVERLASTING LIFE For our Lord IESUS CHRIST doth not deny his GRACE and mercy unto such infants c. So heere they bee put into the state of GRACE And lest it should be left to mens CHARITY as you use to tell the world wee are there taught earnestly to BELEEVE that CHRIST hath favourably RECEIVED these infants that are baptized that he hath EMBRACED them with the armes of his mercy that he hath GIVEN unto them the BLESSING of ETERNALL LIFE and out of that BELIEF and PERSWASION wee are to give thankes faithfully and devoutly for it c. To make which doctrine the more sure against all Novelists it is againe repeated in the Catechisme to the end that children might likewise bee noursed up in it and taught that in their Baptisme they were made the MEMBERS of CHRIST and the children of GOD and that it is CERTAINELY TRUE by the Word of GOD that children being baptized have ALL things necessary for their salvation and if they die before actuall sinne shall be UNDOUBTEDLY SAVED According whereunto all Antiquity hath also taught us Now let this bee acknowledged to bee the doctrine of our Church that children duly baptized are put into the STATE of GRACE and SALVATION which you see you cannot you must not deny and both your and my experience will shew that many so baptized children when they come to age by a wicked and leud life do fall away from God and from that STATE of GRACE and SALVATION wherein hee had set them to a worse STATE wherein they shall never be saved If you grant not this you must hold that all men that are baptized are saved which I know you will never doe To make an end then In my judgement this is the doctrine of the Church of England not delivered according unto private opinions in ordinary Tracts and Lectures but delivered publickly positively and declaratorily in Authenticall Records And you cannot bee ignorant for it is still extant upon Record that your prime Leaders have understood the Tenet of the Church of England to be as I have reported it and accordingly they have complained against it as you have against mee and objected it as one of their reasons why they refused to subscribe Let there then be added EXPRESSE SCRIPTURE EZECHIEL XVIII XXIV and a common UNANIMOUS FATHERS expounding that and other places of Scripture which consent our Church doth by open profession maintaine in these Canons which she set forth to be subscribed unto together with the XXXIX Articles Anno M. D. LXXI and I see no reason wherefore I might not have been as confident in maintaining falling away from grace as you and your Divines are upon weaker grounds in defending the contrary But I have ever bin solicitous to preserve peace and to give as little occasion of disturbance thereof unto distempered humours as was possible Salus Ecclesiae non vertitur in istis and therefore I thought it not tanti and being not urged upon necessity in my Answer to the Gagger to handle this question otherwise than I did I suspended mine owne judgement and lay off aloof in a kind of neutrality Neither doe I now say more than I am urged to doe by the PLAINE and EXPRESSE words of our ARTICLES and Doctrine publickly professed and established in our Church which I hope your selves will give mee leave to doe the rather because I knowe you have subscribed the same with your Hands though what became of your Hearts in the meane time I cannot tell CHAP. V. Touching PREDESTINATION Of Arminians Lutherans Calvinists forraine Divines Of the Church of England Submission thereunto The Question between them and us INFORMERS THe whole XXI chapt of his book savoreth strongly of ARMINIANISME wherin depraving odiously reporting the Doctrine of OUR DIVINES commonly called CALVINISTS and declaring himselfe to consent with the LUTHERANS in this point he hath these words That PETER was saved c. MOUNTAGU MAy not your Sense deceive you in the Savor The Object we know is often represented unto the Sense not as it is but as it seemeth If your Sense be out of frame the Savor of Arminianisme may deceive you and
you may strongly sent that which is but weak Now who can help this Touching this point I beeleeve because Iusee the experience such as your selves can not relish nor savour any thing but only GOD'S secrets For you and men of your Company are never at quiet with GOD'S Arcana Imperij can never let his eternall Predestination alone The most ordinarie Theame of your as I am given to understand and their popular Preachings is touching that comfortable Doctrine of Election and Reprobation M. MOUNTAGU rubbed somewhat upon this sore thus That Men in Curiosity have presumed farre upon and waded deepe into the hidden secrets of the Almighty And you amongst others being galled as guilty have winched at it and hence it is that He seemeth so strongly to SAVOR of Arminianisme who would not have you meddle beyond your Modell but keepe and containe your selves within the bounds of Christian sobriety and moderation and savor of S. PAUL'S counsell Sapere ad sobrietatem He savoreth of Arminianisme but how ARMINIUS savoureth we shall smell it if we can and find it at leasure For having but named Him you fall hote upon Lutheranisme and of M. MOUNTAGU'S consent with Them as if Arminianisme Lutheranisme were two words of one signification or in this point Lutherans and Arminians were divided or as if in your heate you rambled up and downe and could not well resolve what to fasten on Will you have the Imputation runne thus The XXI chap. savoreth strongly of Arminianisme and He declareth himselfe therein to consent with the Lutherans two severall acts upon different objects Or shall it be that He savoreth so of Arminianisme because he declareth himselfe to consent with the Lutherans If Lutheranisme and Arminianisme be distinct heer is an Error committed by these Informers against Error that I am not presented upon point of Lutheranisme in the Title as well as upon point of Arminianisme If not different but the same Lutherans were in being and in name when ARMINIUS was not hatched nor in the shell And if it be an Error of ARMINIUS which was the Positive Doctrine of Lutherans and LUTHER before ARMINIUS was born why is ARMINIUS entituled unto that which is none of his but M. LUTHER'S Why is M. MOUNTAGU accused of Arminianisme said to savor of Arminianisme rather than of Lutheranisme both in this being one and the same thing There lyeth heer a padd in the straw I can ghesse at the cause a tricke of your Brotherly charity Because LUTHER'S opinions were not Dangerous but ARMINIUS errors are Dangerous For we are told in their Insinuations that THIS Arminianisme hath infested and had brought into great perill the STATES of the Vnited Provinces if the KINGS MAIESTY by his gracious care and providence had not helped to quench the fire Scilicet as of old the Pagan Idolaters accused Christianity of all those calamities which befell mankinde Postquam esse in mundo Christiana gens cepit as ARNOBIUS speaketh Blessed bee the PEACE-MAKER amongst men the Generation of that faithfull One shall be ever blessed And blessed be that MAN of PEACE in ISRAEL for ever The reward of the righteous rest upon his Royall Person and Posterity and the faithfull promise of that GRAND-PEACEMAKER betwixt Heaven and Earth be sevenfold returned into his bosome whose Princely care and providence is not confined within the surroundry of the foure Seas but enlarged ultra unto his neighbours those Vnited Provinces primarily and before all But for this particular Sirs Informers can you speake upon knowledge for I must confesse my ignorance and small intelligence in matters of this kinde both for action and speculation that there was no other Snake lurking in covert nothing else but the simple difference about these School-points of Predestination Freewill Finall Perseverance which had so almost indangered the state of those Vnited Provinces Did no craftie Interloper are you sure of that put in his Stocke among those brawling Bankers Did no wiser men or man worke upon perhaps exasperated mindes or exasperate minds to worke upon as it hath hapned elsewhere in points of controverted Divinitie called into question or maintained on foote that Religion may serve for a stalking horse to catch fooles and be pretended to serve turnes Surely those very points being Scholasticall speculations meerly and as farre from State-businesses as Theorie is from Practice are not of themselves aptae natae to breed dangers Those so dangerous opinions in the Netherlands have beene as freely quarrelled and as fiercely pursued in the Vpperlands of as long time without all danger but of Tongue-tryall And why should they be so dangerous heer Those Classicall projects Consistoriall practices Conventuall designes and Propheticall speculations of the Zealous Brethren in this Land doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aime at Anarchy popular confusion Dangerous indeed to Prince and people State Civill and Ecclesiasticall may well come under this Information as being active in Front and not onely upon the Reare Why informe you not against the Fomenters of them Would you not take it ill if your selves were traduced as Dangerous indeed who do more than upon the Bye incline unto them But I am loth to touch heer or to meddle beyond my slipper The State is not the Subject of my Profession I pray for the prosperitie of Prince and Polity but let their courses alone to whom they concerne I excuse not ARMINIUS or Arminians in any misdemeanor onely let not Innocency in different Opinions bee calumniously traduced without cause M. MOUNTAGU in his owne particular is knowne hee giveth GOD the praise therefore to better than your selves or any of your Sect be they who they will bee to foment neyther Faction in State whereof he is incapable nor Schisme in Church whereto he is not inclinable having all his Studies addressed and Prayers directed to one end to make up if it were possible the rents in the Garment of CHRIST IESUS the breaches and ruines in the CHURCH for which cause it is apparant They cannot endure Him Quibus quietamoveri magna merces and live well fare full and fatt by Fishing in troubled waters There is One GOD One Faith One Hope One Baptisme not dividing but composing Christ in his Members and Profession Comparisons are odious yet sometime necessary Gall and Vineger are corrosive but must sometime bee used There is never a Saint-seeming and Bible-bearing hypocriticall Puritan in the Packe a better Patriot everie way than the man that hath Delivered such dangerous Errors Your goodly glozings and time-serving colludings with the State are but like Water-men upon the Thames looking one way rowing another way Your Holy cause you see will not succeed by opposition therefore you come up and seeme to cloze with the Church of England in her Discipline to use the Crosse and weare the Clothes but for her Doctrine you wave it preach against it teach contrary to that which you have subscribed that so through FORRAINE DOCTRINE being infused secretly
and instilled cunningly and pretended craftily to bee the Churches at length you may winde-in with FORRAINE DISCIPLINE also and so fill Christendome with Popes in every Parish for the Church and with popular Democraties and Democraticall Anarchies in the State God divide you first in IACOB and scatter you in ISRAEL In this present Passage who or what directed you writing in and beeing of the Church of England unto this Division of OUR DIVINES commonly called CALVINISTS and Lutherans as membra dividentia and ad oppositum YOUR Divines forsooth Of what Livery are you or those YOUR Divines Separatists from others Singular a Part a Faction a Division or else why YOUR Divines Are not You and YOURS Divines of the Church of England If not what make You meddling nestling roosting heer Hy you hence to the Brethren of AMSTERDAM where YOUR Divines are if there be any such For there they say all religions may be met with if a man have lost his Religion there he may finde it there are all Divines the Divels and all If yea what make you with that Title of OUR Divines why divide you non dividenda Mine and Thine Yours and Ours are not for Vnity are not or should not bee heard or once named in the Church of England The Divines heer are or should be all of them Divines who hold or should hold and maintaine the Doctrine established and commanded to bee taught in the Church of England which was never taught nor directed by the precepts or wills or fancies or factions or forgeries of men and is not to be stiled Lutheran or Calvinian but by such onely as mean to set up ALTAR against ALTAR and to foment a Schisme in the Church Such be YOUR Divines it seemeth who are cut out into Division Into their Secret let not my soule enter I am none I professe of that Fraternity no Calvinist no Lutheran but a Christian This I Declare not that which you calumniate that I adhere first unto them consent unto them All of them and Only to them infallibly who have been in their severall times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of GOD and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enspired by GOD secondly unto those that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their true Successors and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Lieutenants and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 observers of the Rules and Traditions enjoyned of old according to deduction from that Prime Rule interpreting the HOLY SCRIPTURES the Rule of faith in places controverted and obscure which is ever in points of lower alloy not according to the fancy and most-what presumption of some one man delighting commonly to oppose and thwart the streame of Antiquity but according to the sense and meaning of those Times that drew water neerer unto the Well head that is to the APOSTLES and their Successors immediately As for consent with Lutherans I doe no where declare it Shew me the place where I preferre them commend them once name them to this purpose You never were so privy unto any thought of mine that you could speake what I thought of them concerning whom I wish that they were men of more allayed spirits and calmer temper than they are or doe shew themselves in opposition And yet why may I not in some things as well as soone as lawfully consent unto them as unto YOUR DIVINES the commonly called CALVINISTS IOHN CALVIN came after in time and was but a Secondary unto MARTIN LUTHER entring in upon his Labours and Reversions and why should he challenge any priviledge of preferment above MARTIN LUTHER that I may not as well and lawfully declare my self for the one as for the other In this Church and Kingdome doth any Rule Canon Law or Authority tie or command me to reverence the one above the other to follow the one rather than the other I may why not consent with the Lutherans rigid or mollified in some things against the Calvinists and in some other differenced opinions with the YOUR Calvinists against them why not who tyed mee more to the one than the other or to eyther more than to BELLARMINE in some things against them both Truth hath latitude and extension No man that I know of hath infallibilitie from errors assigned unto him ex asse Truth is truth whosoever speaketh it and S. AUGUSTINE did embrace it from TYCHONIUS a Donatist in one particular rather than the Tendries of Catholick Authors What if I went thus far or did so much declare my selfe to favour the Lutherans against YOUR Divines Have I therein broken any Statute transgressed any Canon offended against Law opposed Order neglected any Authority If I have Declare against mee let mee answer for it If none of these take notice of YOUR Divines what are private mens opinions unto me who may bee as free in my opinions as they are in theirs But I doe not as you informe Declare any such thing for to Declare importeth a publicke Act an assent upon acknowledgement Doe I in this CHAPT professe correspondency in the point controverted with Lutherans Doe I any where with them or others beside the Church of England the absolutest representation of Antiquitie this day extant What that Church beleeveth I beleeve what it teacheth I teach what it rejecteth I reject what it doth not tender I am not tyed unto I was bred a member of the Church of England brought up a member of the Church of England therein by the meanes and Ministery of that Church I received that Earnest of my salvation when by Baptisme I was inserted into CHRIST In the Union and Communion of that Church I have lived not Divided with Papist nor Separated with Puritan Through the assistance of the grace of GOD'S Spirit which is never wanting unto any that seeke Him I hope to live and dye in the Faith and Confession of that Church than which I know none nor can any be named in all points more conformable unto purest Antiquitie in the best times which I trust to make good against any and all those Brethren in evill Papists and Puritans whosoever who looking and running two severall waies doe like SAMPSON'S foxes joine together in the taile If there bee in any writing preaching saying or thought of mine any thing Delivered or Published against the Discipline or Doctrine of THIS Church I am sory for it I revoke it recant it disclaime it Vultu laeditur pietas if I have done so in any thing unto my Mother in all humilitie I crave pardon and will undergoe Penance But the presumptions of servants are not the Lords directions Every one that prateth readeth lectureth preacheth or professeth must not look to have his Theses Lectiones Harangues or discourses taken as the Dictates or doctrines of our Church Our Mother hath sufficiently made knowne her minde in her publicke promulgated authorized ARTICLES and COMMUNION BOOK with those other to which we have all subscribed that are publickly interessed in the Priesthood and Function of this
them for ever into and in Hell fire That every man is as he is Predestinate a Sinner or Beleever NECESSARILY unavoideably That the Reprobate are incited on and PROVOKED to sinne by GOD. That GOD was the Author of IUDAS treason and the like None of these dropped out of my pen against you therefore that Depravation of YOUR Doctrine or odious relating of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which I relate is confessed by your selves That PETER could not perish IUDAS could not but perish Whether this be good Catholick doctrine I did not touch CHAP. VII Lutherans averse from the doctrin of Calvinists The moderation of the Church of England in these great and unsearchable mysteries The Author's submission thereunto The doctrine of Predestination Man the Author of his owne destruction and not GOD. The doctrine of Antiquitie contemned by Novellers The Synod of Dort no obligation to us The saying of DEODATE The Articles of Lambeth forbidden by Authority Forraine Doctrine maintayned to bring in forraine Discipline The Church of England no Patronesse of Novell opinions INFORMERS BUt I make the world beleeve that the Church of England doth oppose the doctrine of absolute and irrespective Election which the SYNOD of DORT concluded upon and determined and that it agreeth with the Lutherans in this point MOUNTAGU DOE I make men Beleeve it How can you tell that the world is so perswaded through my words It is probable enough that the world thought so and Beleeved so before that my name or the Gaggers came into play among you or were heard of in the world And for the Lutherans this is all I say The Lutherans abhorre it It that is That opinion as I then spake indefinitely not imposing it on you or YOUR Divines as gently as I could as tenderly as was possible And I pray you for the Lutherans is it not so out of your knowledge or heare-say doe not they detest it as horribiliter in DEUM contumeliosum generi humano perniciosissimum and that so farre with such vehemency as their custome is in every thing to be vehement and violent that they sticke not to professe they will rather come off roundly unto Poperie againe than joine with YOUR Divines upon any termes in these Questions of Prescience Perseverance Election and Reprobation wherein they say that by your Tenents Non Diabolus sed DEUS erit AUTHOR mendacij GOD not the Divell is made AUTHOR of sinne But concerning the Church of England's consenting with the Lutherans your Glosse corrupteth my Text. I say no such matter That which I say is this The Gagger objecteth unto us as held by us that which you call the Doctrine of YOUR Divines My answer thereto is Negative Absque hoc no such matter For the Lutherans in Germany doe detest and abhorre it the Church of England hath not taught it And yet this is not enough to inferre that we consent with the Lutherans eyther in their Abhorring and Detesting of it or in those Opinions which they hold against it except there could be given Nihil tertium I adde The Church of England doth not Beleeve it and why may I not say so except you shew the contrary or bring me forth a Creed a Canon a Conclusion in being for Beleeving it in the Church of England What our Church resolveth touching this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resolved in the XVII Article the very words of that Article being expressed in termes as farre as concerned that Decree But touching the execution of that eternall purpose both for inchoation by Grace here and consummation in Glory hereafter thus much is tendred in the selfe same place and Article Therefore they that be endowed with so excellent a Benefite from GOD be called according unto GOD'S purpose by his Spirit working in due season They through GOD'S grace obey that calling they be justified freely they be made sonnes of GOD by adoption they be made like unto the Image of his only begotten Sonne IESUS CHRIST they walke religiously in good works and at length by GOD'S mercy attaine unto everlasting felicity In all which passage both containing GOD'S Decree and execution of that Decree is not one word syllable or apex touching your absolute necessarie determined irresistable irrespective Decree of GOD to call save and glorifie S. PETER for instance infallibly WITHOUT any CONSIDERATION had of or REGARD unto his FAITH OBEDIENCE REPENTANCE and to condemn IUDAS as necessarily without any RESPECT had at all unto his SINNE which say I there and I say truely is the private fancy of some particular men and as I conjecture you are professedly of those SOME And whereas you would make the World beleeve that Ecclesia Anglicana Calvinistat as if he were the father and founder of our Faith as if our Beleefe were to be pinned upon his sleeve and absolutely to be taught after his Institutions shew mee good warrant for it and I yeeld I may rather say that the Church of England hath opposed this doctrine because that many of the Learned your selves will not denie in that Church and most conformable unto the Discipline and Doctrine of the Church have mainly opposed it and the Church it self hath directly and in EXPRESSE words overthrown the ground therof in teaching thus that a Iustified man and therefore Predestinate in your doctrine may Fall away from GOD and therefore become not the Child of GOD. The truth is our Church in these deepe and high points hath in great Wisedeme and Prudence gon on warily and suspensely not presuming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you and YOUR Divines have done and doe to conclude upon GOD'S Secrets not straightning narrowing of mens consciences by determining specially in those Mysteries at which that great Apostle stood at gaze with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Would you and your Party bee advised I would counsaile you that which I desire to follow in this particular my selfe Ne curiosus quaere causas omnium Quaecunque libris vis Prophetarum indidit Afflata caelo plena veraci DEO Nec operta sacri supparo stlentij Irrumpere aude sed prudenter praeteri NESCIRE VELLE QUAE MAGISTER MAXIMUS DOCERE NON VULT ERUDITA EST INSCITIA I must confesse my dissent thorough and sincere from the Faction of novellizing PURITANS men intractable insociable incompliable with those that will not aedificare ad dissensiones but in no one point more than in this their desperate doctrine of Predestination In which as they delight to trouble themselves and others in nothing more so I professe I doe love to meddle nothing lesse I have not I did not desire nor intend to declare my owne opinion in that point evermore with reservation of my dutifull consent with and unto my Mother for I needed not doe it being not forced so to do in following of the Gagger but because I am challenged for Dangerous Doctrine therein
Church of England whose Discipline in that and in other DUTCH Synods is held unlawfull What Ends men had in that Synod I knowe not nor am curious to enquire how things were carried I as little understand or care Whether any or all subscribed absolutely or with protestation I cannot tell Let them looke unto it and answer for it whom it doth concerne This I am sure IOHN DEODATE Minister and Professor in the Church of Geneva and imployed unto that Synod of Dort from his Countrey being lately with me at Eaton professed there unto me his owne opinion in some points contrary to the conclusions of Dort as also the dissension of their Church at Geneva from the PRIVATE opinions as he called them of CALVIN and BEZA And I am as sure that the Church of England never so concluded nor determined it in her Doctrime I am sure it hath been opposed in the Church of England otherwise taught and professed in the Schooles when I was an Auditor there It hath been prohibited to be enjoyned and tendred or maintained as the Authenticall Doctrine of our Church by supreme Authority with sharp reproofe unto those that went about to have it tendred then when those Conclusions or Assertions of Lambeth as they are called in the Conference at Hampton Court were upon sending downe to the Universitie of Cambridge likely enough to have beene there applauded by some through the opinion of the great worth and learning that they had of the then Professor a thorough man everie way upon YOUR Side and an earnest Promoter of the novell opinions against other learned Divines part dead and yet part alive Since which time at the Conference of Hampton Court before HIS MAIESTY by Doctour BANCROFT the then Lord Bishop of London it was stiled against the Articles of Lambeth then urged by the Puritans a Desperate doctrine as I take it to be without reproof or taxation of any And can wee conceive this should have been acted spoken or tolerated against a Doctrine approved by the Church of England Besides in all probability the publick Doctrine of the Church of England is not very likely to have beene or to be upon the Party of a Faction that hath so long had a Schisme on foot against it to bring in Genevanisme into Church and State wholly totally were it possible at least so partially that sensim sine sensu it might creep upon us not as once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by opposing the DISCIPLINE ex adverso but by complying with That formerly oppugned cum infortunio to winde in with the DOCTRINE point per point that men being so seasoned and infected with the ONE may at length more readily willingly and sooner incline unto the OTHER It being so in the nature of man that opinion settled for the excellent worth temper desert and conveniency of any one invention or proposall of some one man men may be disposed unto him in any or all other things though of another nature Considering then your Side your Comportments your Ends it is not in reason probable that you should have the Doctrine of the Church on YOUR Side against Mr. MOUNTAGU your affection to the Church setting reason of profite and interest aside being such as it is well knowne to be Say I it is not probable I say it is directly otherwise For the Church holdeth and teacheth punctually and that in the Opinion and with the dislike of the Learnedst of Your Side that Faith true justifying Faith once had may be lost and recovered againe that a man endued with GOD'S holy Spirit and enlightned with the Heavenly light may LOSE that HOLY SPIRIT have that Light put out become like unto SAUL and IUDAS may be brought into so vile a condition that hee shall be thought meet for no other purpose than to be condemned into Hell Now to your own understanding my good Brethren can the Church of England be thought to patronize YOUR Predestination and so farre to crosse and thwart YOUR Perseverance It is your own GOD hath appointed them to Grace Glorie GOD according to purpose hath called and justified them therefore it is certain that they must and shall be saved infallibly But if the Once justified by a lively Faith may in the opinion of our Church lose that justification they are not saved by an absolute necessitie IRRESPECTIVE without relation unto their Repentance For whatsoever thing may be otherwise than it is is not necessarily to continue one way and ever the same DAVID and PETER falling as they did unlesse they had repented as also they did should have perished eternally which because they repented they did not Certissimè liberantur qui liberantur No man taketh CHRIST'S sheep out of his hand none of GOD'S Elect doe perish for ever which although it be true it is so true upon supposition of the meanes Faith Repentance and finall Persevering in obedience without which they are none of GOD'S Elect nor belonging to CHRIST these being the appointed instrumentall causes of all their salvation as the proper immediate cause of the wicked's destruction is their impenitencie infidelity and disobeying GOD which the very Synod of Dort denieth not that define the wrath of GOD to remaine on them that Beleeve not That life eternall is for them that Beleeve which calleth them Praeteritos or non Electos that perish a Title that cannot accrue unto those that as the Doctrine of YOUR Divines was at least were made by GOD to perish everlastingly Quod ante Gehennam mali pereunt non est DIVINI operis sed HUMANI Quòd autem in Gehenna perituri sunt hoc facit DEI aequitas cui placere nulla potest Peccantis impunitas with FULGENTIUS so I conclude CHAP. VIII Touching Free-will the III. point of Arminianisme INFORMERS HE calles the Question of Freewil betwixt us and the Papists in this point a Question of obscurity MOUNTAGU I CALL it so indeed and in my poor understanding and small capacitie I ever took it to be a Question at least as it is intangled of perplexed obscurity You my good Brethren as it seemeth esteeme it not so Queis meliore luto finxit praecordia Titan. You can easily foord over all the depths therof and cleerly còmprehend all the darkest mirksomnesse therin Admiror stupeo why are you enraged against me if I cannot attaine the measure of your transcendentnesse but confesse my disability and imperfection But cleere or obscure light or darknesse in the point of Free-will in my Opinion what is it to Arminianisme in your information Was ARMINIUS also in the same opinion that the Question of Free-will was obscure Surely so and yet what meaned those dangers you talk of for opposition seeing men are not peremptory but upon resolution and resolution groweth not but upon perswasion which is ever upon evidence to the understanding If not so then wherein doth N. MOUNTAGU Arminianise But esto as you will every way What Error is in it
proper acts thereof To will though drawne to performe many acts in course of life as willingly it could wish them to be otherwise Those in that Councell were Men as well as Pontificians learned men they were at least the major part and spake as well like men as for a factious party in the Church In that place they speak of Free-will in enlarged tearms and not in reference unto actions of grace of piety of repentance or regeneration and godlinesse toward GOD. Now it is I take it a ruled case with all reasonable men that in ADAM and through his Fall non amisimus naturam sed gratiam Indowments of grace above nature or additaments unto nature wee lost in ADAM Nature and naturall indowments were impaired and not extinct and abolished in his Fall Nec qui à Spiritu DEI igitur ideò se putet LIBERUM NON HABERE ARBITRIUM quod ne tunc quidem perdidit saith PROSPER quando Diabolo voluntate suâ se dedit à quo IUDICIUM VOLUNTATIS DEPRAVATUM EST NON ABLATUM Quod ergo NON INTERFECTUM EST per vulnerantem NON TOLLITUR per medentem vulnus sanatur non natura removetur In which sense and regard I inferred then and there a second decision of that Councell Liberum arbitrium non quidem EXTINCTUM esse sed viribus ATTENUATUM The which I might have enlarged and commented upon by the XVI Canon of the Synod of Dort in the IIII. Decision de conversionis modo where the Conveners will in these words proove either themselves Arminians or you Ignorántees or malicious Calumniators will they not Sicuti verò per lapsum homo non desiit esse homo intellectu voluntate praeditus nec peccatum quod universum genus humanum pervasit naturam generis humani sustulit sed depravavit spiritualiter occidit It a etiam haec divina regenerationis gratia non agit in hominibus tanquam TRUNCIS stipitibus nec VOLUNTATEM EIUS QUE PROPRIETATES TOLLIT aut INVITAM VIOLENTER COGIT No otherwise than so saith M. MOUNTAGU peradventure not so much as so but you say He concludeth this his Chapter thus Our Conclusion and yours is all one wee cannot wee doe not deny freedome of will in man whoso doth so is no CATHOLICKE I adde no nor PROTESTANT For I did not conceive that any Protestant till you professed your selves so senselesse would have denied that Conclusion There is FREE-WILL We eat we drinke we sleep wee wake wee walk we rest wee runne wee talk wee hold our peace we consent assent disagree freely wittingly willingly without any constraint out of the naturall power of our Free-will And yet further for your sakes I adde It were well done and worth the while as SCOTUS said well to cudgell him well and thriftily that should deny FREE-WILL so long untill hee did confesse it to be in our power to goe on to cease or hold our hands And if he should commence an action of battery to put in this Barre It was not I that beat him it was FATALL NECESSITY and I was thereby compelled to doe it I had not any FREE-WILL to resist it was not in my power to doe or not to doe otherwise But concerning Freewill the power possibility and activity of the will in the things of GOD towards GOD in the state of grace I have set downe my Errors as you call them in two propositions tendred unto mee and unto you also of the Church of England First that Man in state of naturall corruption cannot turne nor prepare himselfe unto GOD by or through his owne naturall and humane power and strength Secondly that Prevented by grace and by grace assisted hee putteth to his hand to procure augmentation of that grace as also continuance unto the end in that grace No man commeth unto GOD but he is drawne being drawne hee runneth or walketh as his assistance is and his owne agility and disposition unto the end No man beareth fruit in CHRIST IESUS the Vine unlesse that by the Husbandman hee bee engraffed To engraffe is opus Hortulani ALONE When as the branch is engraffed that it may prosper and beare fruit the root must supply the slip sucke and retaine sap supplied from the root This is enough no more need bee curiously insisted on or disputed of The Church of England doth no way contradict this it is the precise doctrine of our Church ARTIC X. The condition of man after the Fall of ADAM it such that he cannot turne nor prepare himselfe by his owne naturall strength and good works to faith and calling upon GOD. Wherefore we have no power to doe good works pleasant and acceptable unto GOD without the grace of GOD by CHRIST preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have it Man is heer in this passage by the Church considered two waies as in Nature depraved as in Nature againe by Grace restored In Nature depraved Freewill is totally denied unto man for any workes of righteousnesse acceptable or pleasing unto GOD before conversion or for works of actuall concurrency in the very act of first converting but not for workes of Nature or Morality of which works only the Proposition was to be understood Si per morale opus virtutes intelligas Philosophicas non neganius posse hominem sine speciali gratiâ multa fortiter temperanter juste agere saith D. WHITAKER And that saying of DAMASCEN is denyed of no man that hath his braines in his head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man being a creature endued with reason doth rather leà de nature than is led by nature and upon appetite or desire may shake off if he please and acquit himself of that desire or close in with it and give consent unto it In state of Grace repayring and restoring Nature Free-will is not denyed man but how Not as in or unto naturall objects hic mota movet It worketh with us we with it together with Grace when wee have once that good will wrought in us And surely if wee have it working at all it is not titulus sine re nor is it inane nihil as some it seemeth thought which the Councell of TRENT condemneth very justly This is not my singular fancy as your opinions most-what are private imaginations of opiniative men ignorant of others wedded to their owne conceits OPERATUR ille COOPERAMUR nos NON enim AUFERT sed ADIUVAT bone voluntatis arbitrium saith S. AUGUSTINE Quaest XV. super Deuteron And againe Quaest L. In spirit ualibus conflictibus sperandum est et petendum est adjutorium DEI. Non ut NOS NIHIL OPEREMUR sed ut ADIUTI COOPEREMUR And again Retract I. XXIII Vtrumque Credere velle DEI est NOSTRÛM utrumque est DEI DEI est quiae praeparat voluntatem NOSTRÛM est quia non fit nisi volentibus nobis and Epist CVII Quomodo dicuntur
it were true which is most false wherewith I am charged by these honest men yet I might answer and what if I doe Who bound the Church of England or Me a Priest and a Member of the Church of England unto defence of all the Decrees or Determinations of that Synod Hath Prince or Parliament or Convocation Edict Statute or Canon I knowe none I have heard of none nor ever shall I hope And till I heare of such quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I answer Let them that are interessed plead for themselves For my part I nor have nor ever will subscribe that Synode absolutely and in all points for in some it condemneth upon the Bye even the discipline of the Church of England but so farre forth onely as their Determinations shall bee found and made conformable unto the doctrine of OUR Church nor I think will the Ferventest amongst you subscribe it in every point For sure I am YOUR Divines as you call them have disavowed sometimes some things resolved of in that Synod as for instance Cooperation of Free-will and Grace Reprobation negative rather than positive But as I said the Synod of Dort is not MY Rule and your Magisteriall Conclusions are NO Rule I hope all not violently precise will say Ampliandum upon your bare imputations who bring nothing to prove me an ARMINIAN but your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee saith thus and thus and we say this is ARMINIANISME Absque hoc And thus much for Arminianisme THE SECOND PART TOUCHING POINTS OF POPERY IN GENERALL CHAP. I. The Author uncharitably traduced His profession for the doctrine and discipline received and commanded in the Church of England Conformable Puritans Furious zeale The Church of Rome not a sound yet a true Church Private opinions disclaimed The Church of England asserted to her owne publick and proper Tenents The cause of all these Imputations NOw come they to POPERY in a larger extent A strange imputation in my opinion considering the subject upon which they work which may argue in them with any indifferent Reader an uncharitable unchristian fiery Puritanicall zeale malice and indiscretion too For did I prevaricate was it a compact between Me and the Papists to collude If I favoured them would I so have handled them as few have beside me in so exasperating a stile Sure A Kingdome I know divided cannot stand But the truth is As with the IESUITE he is an Heretick that is not furioso more a Roman Catholick so with the PURITAN he is a Papist that will not run a-madding with them It is not the first time for this very cause I have been talked of esteemed of traduced as a Papist which I can the better brooke because they have meted this measure to the Church of England it self as sympathizing with Papists in her Liturgy Discipline and Doctrine too It were to be wished that such transported spirits were taught to be more submisse and sparing in their talk I call GOD and all his holy Angels to witnesse I nor am nor have beene nor intend to be heerafter eyther Papist or ROMISH Catholick a Papist of State or of Religion but a Priest a member a follower of the Church and Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND The Originall grounds of Popery are to my understanding against Reason have not their warrant from revealed Truth stand not with the purer practice of prime Antiquity I have been born and bred and brought up in the Confession of the Church of England I have learned loved admired and proposed unto my selfe to follow indeclinably not onely the Discipline of the Church of England whereunto the Puritans and Schismaticks themselves at least the wiser and subtiller sort of them come off roundly now for ends best known amongst themselves remaining quod erant quoad doctrinam tantum non in EPISCOPATU Puritani but the whole and entire Doctrine of that Church proposed in Synods confirmed by Law commanded and established by Act of PARLIAMENT This totall both Doctrine and Discipline I willingly and thoroughly embrace In profession thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have lived and will die and will maintaine it by GOD'S grace to bee Antient Catholick Orthodox and Apostolicall I say it againe a never was or will be a Papist no not in heart though many be arrant Puritans in heart that onely for preferment do conforme hold with the Hare and runne with the Hound who so they might vivere and valere would as willingly have up the Presbyterian Anarchie as would THO. CARTWRIGHT were he living though many once Puritans turne often Papists And no marvell for fleeting is commonly from one extreme unto another Men of moving violent Quick-silver Gun-powder spirits can never rely upon middling courses but dum furor in cursu est runne on headlong into extremes And so I may avow I will not bee a Papist in haste because I never was a Puritan in earnest or in jest having found it true in my small observation that our Revolters unto Popery were Puritans avowed or addicted first And yet it must bee granted All powder doth not take fire alike nor are all Puritan Spirits of one disposition With some of them more braine-sick than the rest all my Booke against the Gagger is quickly branded with Popery or scurrility With others more discreet I doe but walk upon the brinks of Popery wherein is some allaying of that former fervency for upon their better advice I am but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the next dore unto it What they thinke or speake I cannot hinder nor doe I greatly care I professe my selfe none of those furious ones in point of difference now-a-dayes whose profession and resolution is That the farther in any thing from communion with the Church of Rome the neerer unto GOD and Truth that we ought to have no commerce society or accordance with Papists in things divine nor almost humane upon pain of eternall damnation but must bid defiance irreconcileable unto them for ever I am absolutely perswaded and shall bee till I see cause to the contrary that the Church of Rome is a true though not a sound Church of CHRIST as well since as before the Councell of Trent a part of the Catholick though not the Catholick Church which wee doe professe to beleeve in our Creed a Church in which among many tares there remaineth some wheat In Essentials and Fundamentals they agree holding one Faith in one Lord into whom they are inserted through one Baptisme Ecclesia Papalis saith FRANCISCUS IUNIUS neither Papist nor Arminian quâ id habet in se quod ad definitionem Ecclesiae pertinet est Ecclesia And I verily am perswaded that I ought not to goe farther from the Church of Rome in these her worst daies than she hath gone away from her selfe in her best dayes I hold it to bee furious zeale without discretion issuing out of ignorance or malice or both in them who proceed so farre in their extravagant
assertions as to professe that Turks and Turcisme is to be preferred before and rather embraced than Papists and Popery with whom the Puritan-Papist the IESUITE is quit For they teach the like concerning Turkes and Heretickes as they call us But the truth is haec non est illa HELENA these opinions are not the things which offend them so much or moved them to impute these calumnies unto M. MOUNTAGU there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whereas the PURITANS were wont to bee shrowded under the covert of the CHURCH of ENGLAND and to vent publish and tender their many idle dreames fancies and furies unto the world under pretext of the doctrine of OUR CHURCH and our Opposites of the Romish Side did accordingly charge OUR CHURCH with them M. MOUNTAGU out of just indignation against that open wrong and injury done unto his Mother and as he doth assuredly hope to the good service of HIS MAIESTY and the CHURCH hath disbanded them from their shelter taken them off from colluding under the CHURCHES protection and sent them to their owne home to shrowd there if they could and to answer for themselves to make good their own cause by and of themselves and likewise hath asserted the CHURCH unto her owne true Tenents naturall and proper unto that doctrine which is publickly determined and authorized in her authentick Records to the high displeasure no doubt and distaste of such a porent overweening faction as they are Hinc mihi sola mali labes This is the ground of all the POPERY and ARMINIANISME with which I am aspersed The particulars whereof in the one I have wiped away aheady the other will as easily off too I take them in order as they were proposed in the copie that came unto my hands in which they are digested without any good method or due order as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of angry and idle braines POINTS OF POPERY IN PARTICVLAR CHAP. II. The Church Representative and Points Fundamentall what they are All that Papists say is not Popery Particular Churches have and may erre The Catholick universall Church hath not cannot erre Of Generall Councels The Author farre from the Iesuits fancy The XXI Article of the Church of England explaned INFORMERS HE saith that the Church Representative true and lawfull never yet erred in Fundamentals and therefore that hee seeth no cause but to avouch The Church Representative cannot ERRE pag. XLV MOUNTAGU IN this Accusation are two Propositions distinct though connexed and dependent First The Church Representative true and lawfull did never erre in Fundamentals Secondly The Church Representative so true and lawfull cannot erre in Fundamentals Now whether Proposition of these two is Poperie or are both these Propositions jointly or severally taken Popery To explicate the tearms and draw up to anatomize your confusednes The Church Representative is a GENERALL COUNCELL not titularly so as the Conventicle of Trent but plenarily true generall and lawfull Points Fundamentall bee such as are immediate unto faith for instance the ARTICLES of our CREED which only be those Tenents and Points of faith that have indeed and so must have Universality Antiquity Consent Knowledge No man can be saved that beleeveth them not no man can be saved that knoweth them not which must bee understood de viâ ordinariâ except that GOD himselfe have disposed otherwise who may dispense with his owne Ordinances as he will as in case of Infants Naturals frantick persons which through invincible disability are extra Censure Ordinariorum Otherwise the knowledge and beleeving of them is absolutely necessary and required necessitate medij unto salvation To say they are Fundamentals to propose them for Fundamentals that are thus required and must bee knowne and acknowledged upon so great and dangerous an exigence is no Popery as I conceive no not in your opinion The Papists rather are ad oppositum For they enlarge their Tenour make their dignity and degree too common abusing that honour peculiarly due to them by promiscuously communicating it unto other points of inferiour rank and reckoning especially those XII new ARTICLES of the Tridentine CREED Thus upon explication of the tearms we come unto the assertion It is belike Popery to say that in them in these Fundamentall Points A true and lawfull generall Councell never erred de facto because forsooth Papists say that a generall Councell cannot erre If this were right and regular yet first Bate me an ace For all is not Popery that Papists say but what they say as Papists as a Faction divided as in particular by themselves that haply is Popery All is not Heresie that Hereticks hold nor is all Puritanisme that PURITANS beleeve or maintaine They hold many things right with the Church of England but what they hold as PURITANS that is as a schismaticall Party divided from and opposed against the doctrine or discipline or both of the Church of England that wee may be bold to call so Semblably wee are to judge of Papists and so what is said of Papists is not presently and indistinctly Popery but may be said in terminis by Protestants and they be never a whit the more any Papists for so saying Againe to say that this Proposition A true and lawfull Generall Councell never did Erre is Popery cannot sinke into my understanding For I demand Quo warranto hath any Classis or Consistory of Lay-elders or others concluded it so It may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a misreport an error in Storie which goeth no farther than unto the thing done or not done Historicall mistakings mis-relatings who made them Poperie though I professe I neyther know nor acknowledge any mis-report or error in point of Story in so saying Let any Puritan living shew me where when in what any Generall Councell according to true acception or Church representative hath so erred in the resolution and decisions of that Councell for in the debating of doubts questions propositions the case is otherwise and not the same I conceive and acknowledge but foure Councels of this kinde that of Nice of Constantinople of Ephesus of Chalcedon Shew me in what Fundamentall point of Faith any of these Generall Councells have erred But it is Popery peradventure to say It never was therefore in all probability it cannot be If so then inconsequences and Non sequiturs in Logick are in your opinion to be ranged under Points of Popery and so by this your assignement Popery will extend it selfe very farre indeed farther than ever any POPE or Papist did pretend or claime And if you will grant the POPE this so universall and transcendent jurisdiction yet M. MOUNTAGU'S Popery cometh not up so high as unto generality illimited It cannot bee at all it insisteth but upon some points onely and that not by or with a generall vouchee neither but thus only I see no cause Now there may be cause though I see it not It may be though I
would be more pleasing unto GOD and commendable with men if your selves and such Halfers in opinions omnium horarum homines for your private ends would openly avow what covertly you conceale and publickly professe that in which animitùs being rotten at the Core you are dissentients indeed from the Church of England than to be and call your selves at least Conformitants for fashion sake in some few and indifferent points of Ceremony and to be opposites in Truth both from them and most points of Doctrine of the Church of England For the point in question what if I for my part professe so much you may for your part professe the contrary if you please so be it you trouble not the Church with it nor would pin my Faith unto your opinion One thing I promise you for my part I will not lightly talke of my opinion in Pulpits will you say as much for your opinion I thinke not I know nay For your opinions must bee all THE LORDS HOLY TRUTH I am not anie way offended with you for your opinion that The Pope is Antichrist yet much rather might I because you presume to determine so peremptorily of future Contingents which being ever uncertaine quoad nos those things cannot but rashly be defined or absolutely taught as true the event whereof may hap afterwards to prove otherwise Why should you be angry with mee in such points of no assurance because I doe not subscribe unto you I am not tyed unto you more than you to me Who concluded it but your selves to be flat Popery not to Beleeve or Preach that the Pope is that Antichrist or to professe the contrary that he is not that Antichrist Who can finde it to be the doctrine of the Church of England What Synod resolved it Convocation assented to it What Parliament Law Proclamation or Edict did ever command it to be professed or have imposed penaltie upon repugnants or non-consentients unto it Some Protestant Divines at home and abroad I grant have thought so wrote so disputed so in good zeale no doubt against that insolent and insufferable and outrageous Tyrannie and Pride of the Bishops of Rome and their infinite enormities in the Church and out of that affection have been too violently forward out of conjectures and probabilities to pronounce The POPE is that MAN OF SINNE and SONNE OF PERDITION The Synod of GAPP in France made it a point of their Beleefe and concluded it peremptorily to be so And let them and you beleeve it so if you will Their inducements doe not convince or perswade me I never yet saw proofe or argument brought that was perswasive much lesse that was demonstrative in the case I never yet met with argument or reason to the point but at least to my owne satisfaction I was able to answer it If you can give better I am like to yeeld Till then there being no conviction nor compulsion in foro externo or interiori I would gladly know why it should not be as lawfull for mee to opine The Pope is NOT that Antichrist as for others to write to preach to publish to tender unto Proceeders this Proposition The Pope Is Antichrist They thinke one way I am of another minde and so are infinite others with me Why may not I sedatè and tranquillè as well deliver my Negative as M. GABRIEL POWELL publish and print as if the Church of England were of his minde out of violent and transported passion no doubt thus I am as well assured and as throughly perswaded that the POPE is THAT ANTICHRIST as I am resolved IESUS CHRIST was the Sonne of GOD or to that purpose for I have not now the booke by mee Surely this man made it an Article of his faith so will not I. And yet I will not deny but the Pope is an Antichrist I doe not deny it I doe beleeve it These honest Informers should not so have dealt with mee as by a knack of concealement to have done me so palpable a wrong as if my meaning were the Pope was no Antichrist at all So I might have walked not onely upon the Brinks but have come much within the Verge of flat Popery and not injuriously as now have been slandered for and stiled a Papist For that imputation might more than grate upon an universall approoving of the totall doctrine of the Church of Rome in as much as there were of old are now and alway will bee many Antichrists and hee that any way opposeth CHRIST in his Kingdom his Word his Church is an Antichrist which as ingenuously as the former I professe the Pope and the Church of Rome doth And therefore when out of my private opinion onely for which I will not trouble the peace of the Church I denied that the Pope was THAT Antichrist then yet and there I added withall AN Antichrist notwithstanding I hold him or them carrying themselves in the Church as they doe Which Passage and Proposition had bin sufficient with men not partially addicted unto a Side and maliciously bent to calumniate an Opposite as it is too manifest my Informers bee to have discharged mee from guilt or tincture of Popery For will or can any Papist living say that the Bishop of Rome now is an Antichrist But so have I said and written and professed so if these honest Informers had been pleased to have reported it so But it stood not with their prime purpose of calumniating directly it gave check unto their detraction in chief and so they passed it slightly over But as concerning the maine the question on foot Whether the Pope of Rome or the Popes of Rome either are or may be accounted or is THAT Antichrist or Antichrists my irresolution grew as I have remembred from the much insufficiency of their proofes that tender it stoutly strongly affectiouately and tantum non as a point of faith Not any one of their arguments is not all their arguments together are convincing Secondly because it is in Scripture every where tendred as a Prophecy and therefore a Mystery sealed up obscure not manifested nor to bee understood but by evident and plaine event without divine revelation How then these are the very words of Bishop MORTON in excuse of the Fathers concerning their erring in this verie case of ANTICHRIST can ignorance of those things which cannot possibly be understood before the time of their accomplishment in the last daies be held prejudiciall unto the wisedome of the Fathers of former times I may adde thereunto Or the cautelousnes of suspenders and not forward concluders in these times And yet farther because Protestants are divided in the question For all doe not determine or resolve that the Pope is THAT Antichrist remembred in the Scripture and yet none of them have hitherto at any time beene stiled or reputed Papists no not by Puritanicall Opposites The Scriptures as is apparent doe in this question propose us two persons AN Antichrist one with many THE
walke in holinesse and in newnesse of life Remission of sinnes and imputation of CHRIST'S Righteousnesse saith M. PERKINS is Iustification a free pardoning and cancelling of all Bands and Obligations of transgression for CHRIST'S sake through the only merit of his Death Passion and shedding of his bloud Which Act Psal XXXII II. is called Not imputing sin When and where GOD doth so pardon and not impute sinne he addeth unto it out of his love a seconding Act of divine mercy and grace enabling man to abandon everie mortall sinne those sinnes that doe hang so fast on that are more eminent notorious enormious whose property is vastare conscientiam to the amolishing of the whole body of sinne that it raigne not in our mortall bodies although that those delicta ordinariae incursionis as TERTULLIAN nameth them cannot so easily bee put away Have I unto you seemed to confound Iustification with Sanctification if yet you knowe the difference between them or have I ascribed in your seeming anie act of Sanctification unto Iustification You may bee pleased to remember that I went not most punctually to work but è re natâ to confute the Gagger described Iustification at large never suspecting that any professed enemies of Popery as you would seem to bee would so captiously have perverted my true sense and meaning my words at least my passage beeing warranted by YOUR owne Dictators CALVIN PERKINS BEZA For Iustificationis nomen largè accipio saith BEZA and imagine them to bee my words ut complectitur quicquid à CHRISTO consequimur tam per Imputationem quà m per Spiritus in nobis Sanctificationem Annotat in Tit. 111. ver VII and in Opusc To. 11. pa. DCLXXVII Otherwise be it known unto your Masterships that I beleeve Iustification in strictnes of tearms is neither Regeneration nor Renovation nor Sanctification but a certaine Action in GOD applied unto us or a certaine respect or relation whereby we are pardoned and acquitted of our sinnes esteemed righteous before GOD and accepted by him in CHRIST unto life everlasting which wiser men than you have so expressed whom haply for my sake you will hold to be Papists heereafter CHAP. VII A change made in a justified man The Author agreeth in part with the Councell of Trent and therfore maintaineth Popery no necessary illation The doctrine of the Church of England and of other reformed Churches in this point of Iustification INFORMERS ANda little after In the state of grace a man is iust when hee is changed Which change must have concurrence of two things Privation of Beeing to that which was The body of sinne and secondly a new constitution unto GOD in another estate In which he that is altred in state changed in condition transformed in mind renew'd in soule regenerate borne anew unto GOD by grace is iust in the state of Iustification ceasing to bee what he was becoming what he was not before In this maine point he accordeth fully with the Councell of TRENT Sess VI. cap. XXXVII contradicteth the Doctrine of the Church of England in the book of Homilies serm of salvation and all other Reformed Churches MOUNTAGU HEER now at length wee have some though very poore shew of a just and formall accusation the rest are but meer calumniations For heer is a charge of delivering Popery and maintaining it and withall an advancing of that charge by pretending some seeming proofe in a threefold branch 1. of According fully with the Councell of TRENT 11. Contradicting the Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND 111. Dissenting from all other reformed Churches which is done by this one Assertion A change is made in a justified man the substance in briefe of all the former suggestion such an one as maketh mee beleeve that these informations were not gathered by any Scholars or Divines but subscribed unto unadvisedly and collected by some other at odds with his owne little or frantick wits for who can conceive that a just and uniust a carnall and spirituall man should be the same that one regenerate and reformed in the spirit of his mind should be the same that hee was before that a live man should bee dead I confesse I cannot conceive LAZARUS in his grave and sitting at table with our SAVIOUR to have undergone no change nor alteration SAUL a Persecuter and Saint PAUL an Apostle without change the Thiefe upon the Crosse no other man than when hee robbed and killed upon the high-way Was he called justified saved then sure he was changed Had hee not been changed from what hee formerly was hee had not entred into Paradise with our SAVIOUR Hee whose Disciples YOUR Divines are assigned to be never taught you this Learning Fatemur saith he dum nos intercedente CHRISTI justitiâ sibi reconciliat DEUS ac gratuitâ peccatorum remissione donatos pro justis habet cum ejusmodi misericordiâ conjunctam simul esse hanc ejus beneficentiam quòd per Spiritum suum sanctum in nobis habitet cujus virtute concupiscentiae carnis nostrae magis ac magis indies mortificantur Instit III. XIV IX You heare him to speak of righteousnes inhabiting in our hearts by grace diffused from the HOLY GHOST of a progresse in a new course of life from grace to grace from perfection unto perfection which is not a phantasie but reall Nos enim so he addeth sanctifitamur hoc est consecramur DOMINO in veram vitae puritatem cordibus nostris in legis obsequium formatis And somewhat before as hath been remembred already he calleth it a resurrection from death to life and no resurrection but supposeth change when this mortall shall have put on immortality and this corruptible shall have put on incorruption which is indeed the work of the right hand of the Most High and cannot be but betwixt terms that à quo and this ad quem which is the strangest Popery that ever yet I was acquainted withall But why go I about to proove that there is Motion unto those that agree not upon common Principles or bring proofs to ANAXAGORAS for The snowe is white who would not suffer himself to be perswaded so nay because he was otherwise by preconceit perswaded he said it did not so much as seem white unto him YOUR opinions are your owne you will opine what formerly you have thought So doe for mee and there an end If yet you would there make an end and be content to enjoy your conceits unto your selves and make much of them at home but we must come over and conforme our Faith unto your thoughts or wee shall heare of it on both our eares For instance at present Odiously and maliciously you advance this accusation to procure hate and envie unto the part and parties ad oppositum unto you It is the Doctrine you say of the Councell of Trent and M. MOUNTAGU agreeth fully with that Councell But you mistake on each hand and knowe not what you say I do not
Church of England promote informe against me spare not In Morboniam all the Councels of Trent in the world if there were ten thousand of them I forsake them all respectively such regard and awfull respect doe I beare unto my Mother the CHURCH of England You quote us the Homilies but it is at randome as if you spake it by Heare-say having never read them and no marvell for I think you dis-repute them as all of your Faction doe Serm. you say of Salvation There are three severall Homilies or as you call them Sermons of that argument with the Title of Salvation In all of them in any one of them shew me any contradiction unto any thing delivered against the Gagger or unto this Error as you call it of the change made in a justified man if you can You cite no words name no place send me to no Text Page nor particular by any direction that I may know where to finde what you intend A meer trick of juggling companions Marry I find some things in those Homilies which I dare say will not down nor digest with you as opposing some other dreames of your Side but I let them alone till opportune time But in the second Sermon of Repentance I finde directly in a man that is justified a change made faith the Homily The fourth part of Repentance is amendment of life or a new life in bringing forth fruits worthy of Repentance For they that doe truely repent them of their sinnes must be cleane abtered and CHANGED they must become new creatures they must be no more the same they were before Now look and compare M. MOUNTAGU'S private Popery with this publick Popery of the Church and goe give your selves the check for malice and indiscretion And afterward having instanced this doctrine in that memorable example of ZACHEUS'S conversion from his evill way of covetousnes and extortion as a common Customer the Homily concludeth with this Epiphonema concerning him thus Heer we see that after his repentance he was no more the same man he had been before but was clean CHANGED and altered It was so farre off that he would continue and abide still in his unsatiable covetousnesse or take ought away fraudulently from any man that hee was most ready and willing to give away his owne Go now and challenge M. MOUNTAGU for his Popery upon like case in like tearms almost delivered In the state of grace a man is just and a just man I hope none is but he that is already iustified when he is changed Which change of his consisteth in two things Privation of Being to that which was formerly in a naturall man the body of sinne and A new constitution unto GOD in another state namely of holinesse in life and conversation I know well enough what you are afraid of what you would say because you neyther understand your selves nor mee that doe not make this change the same with Iustification in the act but an incident instant necessarie consequent thereupon Goe then and befoole your selves for confusedly opposing common sense and reason and well knowne and confessed Divinity on all hands No reasonable man will denie a renewing in a justified man where are evermore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Without alteteration or any other the least change of substance old things are made new saith ORIGEN in his Dialogue against the Marcionites which I have manuscript Nor do Reformed Churches dissent or differ as these Calumniators falsly suggest The Confession of Ausberge requireth novam vitam which is obedientia mandatis DEI and renovatio according to S. PAUL and that also so necessarily that qui admittunt actiones contra Conscientiam sint injusti nec SPIRITUM SANCTUM nec fidem retinent And for the maner I finde it thus Fide apprehenditur remissio Peccatorum quia per fidem accipitur SP. SANCTUS jam corde renovantur induunt novos affectus sic AMBROSIUS Fides bonae voluntatis justae actionis genitrix est In the confession of Saxony more direct In declaratione vocabuli justificari usitatè dicitur Iustificari significat ex injusto justum fieri quod rectè intellectum hic quoque quadrat And what that right understanding is ensueth fully and wholly M. MOUNTAGU'S Popery Ex injusto justum id est absolutum à reatu propter filium DEI id est apprehendentem fide ipsum CHRISTUM qui est justitia nostra quia EIUS merito habemus remissionem DEUS justitiam ejus nobis imputat propter EUM nos justos reputat dato SPIRITU SUO SANCTO nos vivificat regenerat a flat change And in the Belgick Confession yet fuller Credimus veram hanc Fidem unicuique nostrum inditam nos regenerare atque veluti novos homines efficere ut quos ad novam vitam vivendam excitet And in the French likewise Credimus nos qui Naturâ servi sumus peccati hac eadem fide intercedente in novam vitam regenerari Thus these Reformed Churches and so all the rest acknowledge a change in justified persons by the grace of sanctification I remembred before out of the Reverend and learned Deane of Carlile that we are farre from that absurd opinion wherewith our adversaries charge us that GOD in justification doth not change the minde You it seemeth are none of those WEE he speaketh of for he meant it of the publick authorised Doctrine of the Church of England and of Conformers unto the said Doctrine of that Church You have a Church or Conventicles of your owne and Consistoriall fancies it seemeth thence derived nor will you bee freed from that absurd opinion nor let the Church of England willingly be freed from it For if a man list to beleeve you before that Learned Man whose bookes the best amongst you is not worthy to follow or carrie after him in justified persons there is no change CHAP. VIII Strange Popery GOD only and properly justifieth INFORMERS PRoperly to speake saith he GOD only iustifieth who alone imputeth not but pardoneth sinne MOUNTAGU DEUS propter solum CHRISTUM passum resuscitatum propitius est peccatis nostris nec illa nobis imputat Imputat autem CHRISTI justitiam pro nostrâ It a ut jam simus non solùm mundati à peccatis purgati vel sancti good Popery is it not you shall have more of it sed etiam donati justitiâ CHRISTI absoluti à peccatis morte condemnatione justi denique ac haeredes vitae aeternae Thus much the Helvetian Confession against your former Information Now followeth expressely against this Propriè ergo loquendo DEUS solus nos iustificat english this M. YATES duntaxat propter CHRISTUM justificat non imputans nobis peccata sedimputans nobis ejus justitiam And yet you shall need not to english it it is ready englished unto your hands for have you forgot or rather have you read indeed that Homily you but now alledged against me
required by the Roman Writers to make it rewardable as far as they are positive no Protestant disalloweth of To those conditions may others be added INFORMERS THese are his words This is your owne doctrine in the Romane Schooles and so farre the Protestants for these conditions do go along with you MOUNTAGU THis doctrine And what doctrine is this that there is merit of condignity that it is so farre forth due unto good works as that through and for the worke it selfe wrought and performed we may deserve and challenge upon desert or else GOD should wrong us grace goodnesse heaven happinesse at GOD'S hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I never said it never thought it doe detest it from my heart That doctrine which is to be found in the specified place is touching the quality not the validity concerning the condition not the imputation or account of a good worke which conditions specified and remembred by me are 1. That it be morally good not simply evill 2. Freely wrought and not out of compulsion 3. By man yet in this life not after death 4. In the state of grace and not by any naturall man without GOD. Of these conditions which doe not exclude other what Protestants doe not allow I adde and may adde many more Faith is necessarily required in the person before that any thing hee doth can please GOD. For whatsoever is not of faith is sinne These Informers it seemeth are otherwise minded for they traduce and calumniate me for a Papist who require as necessary these conditions unto a good worke which were never to my knowledge denied untill now And these are the conditions concerning which only I write So far the Protestants go along with you Concerning which consent in these particulars I confesse I thought it was reall and I think so still I never could finde I never did imagine I doe not beleeve any Protestant living setting your selves aside so ignorant peevish or prophane as to deny those conditions specified Now it being as I conceived agreed upon on all sides concerning the necessity of them I did make this conclusion unto the GAGGER If your texts doe contradict this either expressely or obliquely look you unto it it concerneth you as much as us And why might I not make it when they oppose a Position in the Protestants hands in which themselves are as deeply interessed as Protestants are But the men proceed to a specification of my consent more particularly CHAP. XIII GOD surely rewardeth good works according to his promise of his free bounty and grace INFORMERS ANd in that very page his words are If this be your Merit wee contradict it not And this is the Merit you plead for MOUNTAGU ANd so it is For all the Gagger's Texts of Scripture plead for that Merit I speak of and no other And that Merit is no more but this Verily there is a REWARD for the righteous doubtlesse there is a GOD that judgeth the earth A point of Popery put into my mouth by the Prophet DAVID and that totidem verbis And so King DAVID is become a Papist as well as I. For my words upon which that inference is made are REWARD in heaven no man denyeth REVVARD appointed for our good workes all doe confesse If this be your MERIT we contradict it not Doe you Dare you doe it that there is no REWARD for the righteous Cast the lye then into the Psalmists throate Psal XIX XI In keeping of them GOD'S Commandements there is GREAT REVVARD and unto him that said GOD REVVARDETH everie man according to his worke not onely according to the Qualitie of the worke that he that soweth of the flesh shall of the flesh reape Corruption and he that soweth in the spirit shall of the spirit reape glory and honour and immortality but according to the degree and proportion of his worke He that soweth sparingly shall reape sparingly and he that soweth liberally shall reape liberally Not of works or for works but according unto works rather For there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alia est merces liberalitatis gratiae aliud virtutis stipendium aliae laboris remuneratio saith S. AMBR. specially in the intercourse betwixt GOD and man where Non debendo sed promittendo DEUS se fecit debitorem S. AUGUST And from this no Protestant I know dissenteth I am sure a speciall man in your bookes though I hold him of another spirit and Sect than you better by farre precisely setteth downe the same in his Comment upon the Epistle to the Galathians See then Reader the sincere and honest dealing of these misdeeming Informers that accuse me of Popery for positive Scripture by a trick of concealement in saying GOD REWARDETH GOOD WORKES CHAP. XIV The Church of England holdeth no such absolute certainty of salvation in just persons as they have of other objects of Faith expressely and directly revealed by GOD INFORMERS TOuching the Doctrine of the certainty of salvation having cited BELLARMINE'S opinion he hath these words This BELLARMINE assigneth and this is enough Faction may transport a man to wrangle for more but when once they ioine issue the difference will not be much CHAP. XXII pag. 186. MOUNTAGU ET quid haec ad IPHICLI Boves what hath this to doe with merit of good workes whereto by the Informers it is consigned Neither in my opinion nor yet in BELLARMINE'S judgement doth Certaintie or Incertainty of salvation depend so necessarily upon Merit or Demerit of good workes If a man continue constant in the course of good workes he is sure and certaine of salvation in BELLARMINE'S judgement and in my opinion also though differently Causally in his as procured by them Consequently in mine as following of them But whether hee that doth good workes be certaine of Salvation that is shall continue to the end faithfull constant in doing good workes and so obtaine Salvation the promise of GOD behighted unto those that doe good is another Question of a different and disparate Nature But to leave these Extravagancies and come to the point unto assurance of which they speake It being by the Gagger fastned unto our Church ignorantly or maliciously verie absurdly as almost everie particular in that Pamphlet is That everie one ought infallibly to assure himselfe of his Salvation and to hold that he is of the number of the Elect and predestinate unto eternall life I tooke him short for such his conclusion so generall that everie one ought singuli generum so the words intend to assure himselfe whereas that assurance upon which the poore fellow grounded his imputation resting upon the infallible purpose and decree of GOD'S predestination of the Elect was by the So perswaded in the Church of England for the Church of England it selfe was not of that opinion restrained unto some only and not enlarged unto all as the man hath it Every one ought Secondly that concerning even those some the Church
of England in the publick received authorised doctrine thereof did not tender nor presse any such Tenet of Certaine assurance to be subscribed or received but left it indifferent and at large Of this minde I was of this minde I professe my selfe to be still and shall untill I see reason and evidence to the contrary which if the Informers can supply mee withall I yeeld otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I see no cause to change Thirdly that if it had been so as they pretend tendred unto us by the Church to be received and beleeved yet was it not a Doctrine so forlorne and uncouth as the simple Gagger imagined having Papists of name and ranke and reckoning that proposed it and propugned it both in and also since the Councell of Trent AMBROSE CATHARINE and ANTONIUS MARINARIUS a Carmelite being put unto it by opposition so canvased the question against SERIPAND SOTO and ANDREAS VEGA that they and other Opposites of certitude and assurance overcome with the strength of those mens reasons acknowledged first a conjecturall probability then came up unto a morall beleef and lastly unto an experimentall faith And VEGA since that Councell writeth thus Maturè tamen omnibus hinc inde pensatis probabiliùs profectò esse crediderim posse aliquos viros spirituales tantopere in exercitijs spiritualibus proficere in familiaritate divinâ ut absque ullâ temeritate possint certò absque ullâ haesitatione credere se invenisse gratiam remissionem peccatorum suorum apud DEUM Thus VEGA concerning certainty of Iustification And BELLARMINE goeth not so farre off for hee approveth S. AUGUSTINE and his Doctrine which is enough against the Gagger And this is that great Bug beare that of which so much adoe is made that I approve the saying of BELLARMINE which I say is enough as indeed it is against that ignorant fellow the Gagger as anie man will discerne that is not maliciously peevish and Puritanicall though simply it be not so nor commeth home Amongst the Papists many learned make Faith not only an intellectuall but a fiduciall assent unto the Promises of GOD in the Gospell that Faith and Confidence are the same And many of them confesse that without miraculous revelation by ordinarie help and particular assistance of Grace a man may understand that he hath Faith Hope and Charitie and that a justified man may have a true and a certain Assurance of his justification without distrustfull doubting And they put a difference in this case betwixt Faith and Certainty of Faith cui non potest subesse falsum Marry you haply men of other making do know all things that belong not only unto your present justification as assuredly as you know that CHRIST IESUS is in heaven but are as sure of your eternall Election and of your future Glorification as you are of this Article of your Creed that CHRIST was borne of the Virgin MARY I professe I am not of that opinion with you And whatsoever you may resolve for your crying ABBA FATHER secundum praesentem justitiam I crave pardon I cannot thinke that you are may or can be so perswaded secundum statum futurum and evermore cry so which is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of your other singularitie that Faith once had cannot be lost totally or finally and for ever CHAP. XV. Touching Evangelicall Counsailes Evangelicall Counsailes admitted according to the doctrin of the old Fathers and many learned Divines of our Church Popish doctrine concerning workes of Supererogation rejected INFORMERS TOuching Evangelicall Counsailes these are his words I know no doctrine of our English Church against them MOUNTAGU SO I say still I know none I doe beleeve there are and ever were Evangelicall Counsailes such as S. PAUL mentioneth in his Consilium autem do such as our SAVIOUR pointed at and directed unto in his Qui potest capere capiat such as a man may do or not do without guilt of sinne or breach of Law but nothing lesse than such as the Papists fabricke up unto themselves in their works of Supererogation It is an error in Divinitie not to put a difference betwixt such works and workes done upon counsell and advice If any man not knowing or not considering the state of the question hath otherwise written or preached or taught what is that to me or the Doctrine of the Church of England His ignorance or fancie or misunderstanding or misapplying is not the Doctrine of Antiquity which with universall consent held Evangelicall Counsailes nor of our Church in which our GAMALIEL hath told us Quis nescit fieri à nobis multa liberè quae à DEO non sunt imperata voveri reddi These Promoters knew it not B. MORTON in his Appeale saith if he doe not say true informe against him for it that we allow the distinction of PRECEPTS and COUNCELS lib. V. cap. IV. sect 3. For his sake excuse mee from Popery who write no more than he did before me what in GOD'S indulgence is a matter of Counsell in regard of strict justice may come under Precept Cap. IV. Sect. V. CHAP. XVI Saint GREG. NAZIANZENE defended from the touch of uncircumcised lips INFORMERS SO he citeth approveth to this purpose the saying of NAZIANZENE We have Lawes that do binde of necessity others that be left to our free choice to keep them or not so as if we keep them we shall be rewarded if we keep them not no feare of punishment or of danger is to bee undergone therefore cap. XV. pa. 103. MOUNTAGU GRave crimen CAIE CAESAR to cite and approve the saying of NAZIANZENE one of the foure Doctors of the Greek Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. BASIL'S opinion viri per omniae incomparabilis as hee is stiled by RUFFINUS viri valdè eloquentis in Scriptur is valdè versati as S. HIER his scholar speaks And to acquit him from the touch of your uncircumcised lips S. AUGUSTINE in commending him did not lavish at all where he saith that he was as indeed he was magni nominis famâ celeberrimâ illustris adeò Episcopus cujus eloquia ingentis merito gratiae etiam in Latinam linguam translata usquequaque claruerunt This man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose books all the Puritans in Europe are not worthie to carrie is phillipped off slightly by these our new Masters as if his saying were not worth the hearing nor the man to bee made any more account of than Iack hold my staffe by these Rabbies Sedeat ergo cum istis sanctis patribus from IGNATIUS downward not worth the looking after etiam sanctus GREGORIUS cum eis vestrae criminationis inanem patiatur invidiam dum tamen cum eis contra novitiam pestem medicinalem proferat ipse sententiam So spake S. AUGUSTINE of old in his commendation against IULIAN the Pelagian Heretick who slighted him then as much touching originall sinne as you doe now touching Evangelicall Counsails And so
publish it according to the CANONS prescribed unto Ministers in such cases knowing it to be the resolved doctrine of Antiquity as I do I am not excusable if I transgresse the CANONS What your ignorance may pleade for you I cannot tell I leave it to them that must look unto it where you live if you offend as you are like enough to do if it come in your way But on the other side there are Texts of Scripture that seem at least to say and have been ever taken of Writers old and new to say that the soules of the Fathers that died before CHRIST were not there whereas now they be as S. IOHN 111. 13. No man hath ascended into Heaven IOHN XIV 3. I goe to prepare a place for you PSAL. XXIV 6. Lift up your heads O you gates and be you lift up you everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in Which Text of that Psalme all Antiquity from IUSTINE MARTYR downeward doe expound of Heaven opened at the Ascension of our SAVIOUR according unto that which we daily professe in our English LITURGIE out of and with Saint AMBROSE When thou hadst overcome the sharpnes of death thou didst OPEN the Kingdome of HEAVEN to all Beleevers So Heb. IX 8. 12. The WAY unto the HOLIEST OF ALL was NOT YET MANIFEST while as the FIRST Tabernacle was standing and Heb. X. 20. Heb. XI 39 40 UPON these grounds and others that I now remember not it hath been the common received opinion of all the FATHERS Greek and Latin that the soules of the Righteous before CHRIST were not in the highest and most glorious Heavens locally which is also the opinion of BULLINGER PETER MARTYR HYPERIUS and others BUCER and MUSCULUS directly write that the Thief was the first who with CHRIST entred into Paradise Upon M. CALVIN it is imposed by many though injuriously that he thought no righteous soule did doth or can goe into Heaven before the generall resurrection but indeed he declineth the question of the place and for the state against the Popish LIMBUS averreth that in respect of genericall happinesse they before CHRIST enjoyed the same that they doe now but for accidentall beatitude and degrees of happinesse he putteth a difference and resolveth that even now they are in profectu untill the day of Doome untill which time they expect in atrijs the consummation of their beatitude CHRISTUS Sanctuarium Coeli ingressus ad consummationem usque saeculorum solus populi eminùs in atrio residentis vota ad DEUM defert Instit 111. 20. 10. If a man should presse his words as they will beare the soules of the Righteous and those now that dye in the LORD nedum of the Fathers before CHRIST are not yet in Heaven but I doe it not This is all he favoureth the opinion of all Antiquity that the soules of the FATHERS before CHRIST were not in COELO SUMMO ET GLORIOSO and yet I hope CALVIN did not maintaine Limbus Patrum ALL this groweth for crossing your newly invented Puritanicall conceit and direct depravation of an Article of our Creed the descent of our Saviour into Hell and in answer unto the Gagger in this point have I in this particular angred the generation of your fellow-brethren The Popish Gagger objected unto the Church of England this TENET that IESUS CHRIST descended not into Hell Unto whom the substance of my Answer was With what face or what forehead can he say that we teach so that in our Creed repeat it openly and ever in the Church professe it in plaine and expresse words that propose it in Baptisme interrogatorily unto God-fathers and God-mothers to be answered unto avowed and publickly beleeved that teach it in our Catechisme unto children that subscribe it in our Articles thus THAT as CHRIST died for us and was BURIED so ALSO it is to bee beleeved that HEWENT DOWNE INTO HELL Artic. 111 that have publickly defended it against Puritanicall opposition and lastly that with us more more really and to purpose doe beleeve it than the Church of ROME doth and those that accuse us of sacrilege for violating an Article of our CREED For they professe that CHRIST onely descended into the uppermost Region of Hell LIMBUS PATRUM really into the other parts and continents virtually onely or effectually in the power of his GOD-HEAD and his Passion Non descendit ad INFEROS reproborum ac in perpetuum damnatorum saith their grand Dictator THOMAS AQUINAS quoniam ex co nulla est redemptio igitur ad eum locum descendit qui vel sinus ABRAHAE vel communiter LIMBUS PATRUM appellatur But the truth is we are at some disadvantage with our Romish Adversaries For as every one through the greedinesse of gaine may write and print almost what hee will especially if it savor of the Lemannian Lake so every private fancy every wilfull opinion ignorant assertion and some blasphemous dotages cast forth by any man that is or hath been of our Confession or is any way divided in Communion from the Church of Rome and us both is by many men and most an end by our Adversaries cast upon the generall Tenent of all Protestants and more specially upon the Church of England though that Church in the generall and approved Doctrine thereof doe detest it more than the Church of Rome doth In this very point the manifold dreames of new refined spirits are made ours their little lesse than blasphemies made ours the tergiversations qualifications disturbing of senses from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima Shéol Hádes Inferi Infernus and what not made ours the toies trash fables of Pagans Poets Philosophers Magicians and who not of what not brought in to trouble and disturb our belief by some that faine would bee and yet are loth to be Puritans made ours The much urging of this Article not to be found in ancient Creeds not to have been taught or beleeved of the Eastern Churches not of that of Constantinople I know not what else tending to make men first waver in their faith then to doubt of their faith and at length flatly to deny their faith if in this why not in other Articles that eyther are or may bee so serupulized all made ours laid unto our charge by our adversary and made the publick Doctrine of OUR Church So the blasphemy of CHRISTOPHER CARLILE that made this Article an Error and a Fable pag. XXVIII 77 against D. SMITH is made ours That horrible blasphemy that CHRIST indured the very torments of Hell and went down to suffer there as BANISTER and AEPINUS taught is made ours That CHRIST did being yet alive suffer in his humane soule INFERNI TREMENDA TORMENTA not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Liturgies discrectly call them but even desperation and the second death as it is in HUMES Rejoinder unto D. HILL in DEERINGS Catechisme in your new fangled Modell of Divinity M. YATES was it not
and I doubt not in others of that stamp are all made ours That by Hell is meant now this now that as almost in every Catechisme such Pamphlets whereof we have abroad so good store as I thinke would freight a Dryfat to the Mart every man making and using and printing a Catechisme a New Modell of his owne according to his owne private motion contrary to Order and Injunction by which we are tyed unto One the best of all And lastly if any man leaning to your Doctrine though not to your Discipline say That we know not the native and undoubted sense of this ARTICLE all is still cast upon the CHURCH of England I confesse these are disadvantages for us against the Papists as it were so many thornes in our sides but yet they choake us not For the Doctrine of the Church is plaine direct affirmative as it should be without figures allegories far-fetched obscure interpretations which never were intended to bee inserted into must not be tolerated in Articles of our CREED easie plaine even and perspicuous of themselves and made so purposely for the use capacity and instruction of the simple and ignorant who are not capable of obscurities It was not impossible that the humane soule of CHRIST should have been or might be or was in triduo mortis separationis suae really truely properly in Hell that land of darkenesse abode and habitation of the damned Not improbable against Scripture religion piety reason No inconveniency incompetency absurdity much lesse impiety No compulsion drew Him thither It was no needlesse thing I have given reasons of it mo than one He went not to deliver to stay to suffer for all was finished upon the Crosse quae praedicta quae praefigurata Therefore according to the Church of England I conclude in the words of Saint AUGUSTINE DOMINUM quidem carne mortificatum venisse in INFERNUM satis constat Neque enim contradici potest IOEL Prophetae qui dixit Quoniam non derelinques animam meam in Inferno Quod ne aliter quisquam sapere auderet in Apostolorum Actibus idem PETRUS exponit vel ejusdem PETRI illis verbis quibus eum asserit solvisse Inferni dolores in quibus impossibile erat eum teneri Quis ergo nisi INFIDELIS negaverit FUISSE APUD INFEROS CHRISTUM But if it be urged he went downe to free those that were bound there as intended by loosing the sorrowes of Death of which though it were impossible himselfe should be holden yet others were then detained under quibus alij tenebantur quos ille noverat liberandos S. AUGUSTINE will rejoine admit it so Quinam tamen isti sunt temerarium est desinire Since him men are growne wiser or more adventurous to resolve The truth is he that will beleeve no more than hee seeth nor embrace but what he hath demonstration for or sensible apprehension were better never meddle with the things of GOD where Faith is the Evidence of what is not seene Antiquity beleeved CHRIST went into Hell they beleeved when he ascended into Heaven he went a way nullius ante trita solo and had the prerogative royall as he well deserved it to be the first that removing the Cherubin at the gates of Paradise made a way for himselfe and for us into Heaven and though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he came up from the field of Blood thousand thousands did attend him and came up with him in his Royall Passe yet they were not brought forth from Limbus Patrum of the Papists The Fathers of old heard no newes thereof the Protestants detest it as much as you and be it knowne unto you so doe I as much as any Puritan in the Kingdome And yet I am of opinion for it is not of that nature or necessity to come within my Creed CHRIST was the first that entred Heaven The soules of the Righteous were not there before Him taking Heaven for that supreme and highest Heaven though otherwise in a more generall sense and acceptance they were in Heaven enjoied Happines did see good though not visione plenâ faciei Many questions peradventure may arise heerabout but fitter for Schooles than popular cognisance I conclude all as I began You understand not the state of Limbus Patrum nor the depth of the Question but scumme upon the surface and gibberish you cannot tell for what CHAP. XXXIV The seventh point of Poperie touching IMAGES The Historicall use of Jmages maketh nothing for the adoring of them Popish extravagancies INFORMERS TOuching Images thus he writeth IMAGES have these uses assigned by your Schooles stay there goe no farther and we charge you not with Idolatry Institutionemrudium Commonefactionem Historiae excitationem Devotionis You and we also give unto them these MOUNTAGU THAT for this and no more than this the Church of Rome is Idolatrous you affirme I deny prove your assertion if you can Though that Church for their enormities deserve no defence yet is it they say a shame to bely the Divell I doe not I cannot I will not denie that Idolatry is grossely committed in the Church of Rome The ruder sort at least are not excusable who goe to it with downe-right Idolatry without any Relative adoration worshipping that which they behold with their eyes the Image of the B. VIRGIN S. PETER S. PAUL the CRUCIFIXE as if CHRIST IESUS were present This Idolatry is ancient in their Schooles THOMAS AQUINAS doth directly vouch it Quòd eadem reverentia exhibeatur imagini CHRISTI ipsi CHRISTO Cùm ergo CHRISTUS adoretur adoratione latriae consequens est quòd ejus IMAGO sit adoratione LATRIAE adoranda which is now an Article of Faith in the Romane Church and the opposite Doctrine flat Heresie for so CABRERA upon that place of THOMAS writeth who alledgeth for his purpose and opinion many old and later Divines of their Schoole And AZORIUS the Iesuite telleth us Constans est Theologorum sententia Imaginem eodem honore cultu honorari coli quo colitur id cujus est Imago and because DURAND of old opposed such grosse Idolatry in THOMAS and his Schollers hee is censured to deliver Doctrine dangerous rash relishing Heresies nay plainely Hereticall say they But what hath Historicall use of Images to do with this so great extravagancy I know none beside your selves that censure or condemne the Historicall use of Images for Idolatry CHAP. XX. S. GREGORIES Doctrine concerning Images farre from Poperie INFORMERS ANd again Images in GREGORIES time were very much improved to bee bookes for the simple and ignorant people Hold you there and wee blame you not MOUNTAGU NOT for Idolaters against the First and Second Commandement for to bee Bookes for the ignorant and unlettered will not reach home unto Idolatry My words concerning S. GREGORY and his times are these XVII pages after the foreremembred Imputation S. GREGORIE is of later date than S. AUGUSTINE and of lesse credite by much
very Divell within the bounds of worship as well as that cautelous Doctrine of DURAND that Images are to be worshipped improperly in as much as They doe put men in minde of the persons by them represented who are then adored before the Images as if they were then really present there Or as that honest conclusion of MARTIN AIALA Nemo in Ecclesiâ dicit qui rectè sentit Sanctos deberi adorari sed venerari whether in themselves or their representations But Doctrine without limitation of YOUR pointeth you unto and putteth you backe unto no other but the precedently remembred Doctrine of Dulia and Latria My words are If this you call DULIA and no more we admit it we give it too But whatsoever you say howsoever you qualifie the the thing with gentle words terming it DOULIA or HYPERDOULIA we say in your practice you far exceed and give them that honour which you call LATRIA and is indeed a part of DIVINE respect and WORSHIP so doe not we Let practice and doctrine goe together and we agree that is give them no LATRIA formall or interpretative and we agree CHAP. XXIII The Church of Engl. condemneth not the historicall use of Images The Book of Homilies containes a generall godly doctrine yet is not in every point the publicke dogmaticall resolved doctrine of the Church The Homily that seemeth to condemn all making of Images is to bee understood with a restriction of making them to an unlawful end Many passages therein were fitted to the present times and to the conditions of the people that then were The finall resolution of this controversie INFORMERS ALL directly contradicteth the doctrine of the Church of England in the Booke of Homilies MOUNTAGU YOu enlarge too much for all For in your opinion doth the English Church condemn the Historicall or civill use of Images which yet is a part of that all It doth not in practice all the world knoweth that nor yet in Precept or Doctrine that I know Shew me that ponam manum meam super os Men as learned as anie of your Side no disparagement to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and selfe-conceit are I doe assure you of a contrary minde I have named Bishop MORTON alreadie unto you And yet were it not so you shew no great wisedome in that Limitation which your selves put unto my contradicting the Church of England namely in saying that I doe it directly For where can you finde in any writings of mine expresse words against any one point established or delivered in the authorised doctrine of the Church of England and words are not direct which be not expresse Thirdly to come unto the issue you name the Homilies and mean I take it the second Tome of Homilies in the Sermon against the perill of Idolatry If you had vouchsafed us any proofs of your assertions we should have gone directly to worke with your allegations but because you take a rounder course to tender every thing in Magisteriall Dictates wee must shoote at Rovers after you and come up to you as conveniently as we may I answer then first that I willingly admit the Homilies as containing certaine godly and wholesome exhortations to move the people to honour and worship Almighty GOD but not as the publick dogmaticall resolutions confirmed of the Church of England The XXXIII Article giveth them to containe godly and wholesome Doctrine and necessary for these times which they may doe though they have not dogmaticall positions or doctrine to be propugned and subscribed in all and every point as the Books of Articles and of Common Prayer have They may seeme secondly to speake somewhat too hardly and stretch some sayings beyond the use and practice of the Church of England both then and now and yet what they speake may receive a faire or at least a tolerable construction and mitigation well enough For you have read peradventure it is not unlikely that you have heard by relation how strangely some of the ancientest Fathers do speake and how they hyperbolize sometimes in some points in their popular Sermons which in dogmaticall Decisions they would not doe nor avow the doctrine by them so delivered resolutivè as in case of Free-will of Invocation of Saints and others S. CHRYSOSTOME especially speaketh strangely of the Blessed Eucharist as good Popery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as ever Papist conceived of Transubstantiation or orall manducation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To. VI. pa. 407. Then Angels assist the Priest at the Altar the whole troopes of Heavenly Powers cry aloud To. VI. pa. 46. and To. V. pa. 528. Dost thou imagine that at that time thou conversest with man Sure it is a thought of a stonie heart to thinke that thou art then upon the earth and not rather following the Angels in their Quires and Tom. V. pag. 511. Know you not that this Table is replenished with fire such and so consuming that unlesse GOD'S grace assisted powerfully men could not endure but should be consumed with the violent heate thereof Tom. 6. pag. 16. And a little before home to the purpose a man would think for Transubstantiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When thou beholdest our LORD SACRIFICED there and the Priest standing by the Sacrifice and praying ever it and every one present BEREDDED with that most precious BLOOD dost thou suppose thou conversest then with man or hast thy station upon earth Which speeches cannot all of them possibly bee true in the literall sense no not in the opinion of the Church of Rome and were none of them literally true no not in the opinion of S. CHRYSOSTOME himselfe Now after this enforcing sort may our Homilies speake and bee so interpreted Things are not ever of one and the same man touching one and the same thing at different times unto distinct Auditories upon divers occasion spoken after one and the same way In verie Scripture there are many Hyperbolicall sayings that being literally taken will not hold weight at the ballance of the Sanctuary In the writings of the Fathers as appeareth by that of S. CHRYSOSTOME there are dogmaticall conclusions for resolution in points and retoricall inforcements to edifie affections disposed for and according to the Auditory Now our Homilies are all popular Sermons fitted unto the capacitie and conditions of the common people to edifie them to worke upon them ever strong in passion but weake in understanding The will is more in them to bee edified than the judgement the consciences and hearts of men to be wrought upon for good life and conversation than the understanding and apprehension for any peece of knowledge and that also disposed accordingly as fitted for times for persons and different occasions as they doe or may happen As the ancient Fathers of the primitive times had verie few or no Churches at all at least of note dignitie or of receipt because they lived in times of fierce persecution and were seldome or few of them stationarie but compelled subindè
MOUNTAGU NO MAN denyeth you doe But pardon me I meant it of discreet moderate understanding Divines I should have exempted you I perceive my error and such as you out of the number Pardon mee this fault I will commit it no more If I have any occasion hereafter to speake of learned and moderate men I will ever except and exempt you and yours I must confesse my error and simplicity for I would have thought that in the Sacrament everie man would have confessed a change that the consecrated Elements had beene somewhat more than meere ordinary Bread and Wine For I did conceive a sacramentall Beeing of them and not onely a naturall in their use and designment Vbi accesserit CONSECRATIO de pane fit caro CHRISTI And S. AUGUSTINES Saying is common and well knowne Accedat Verbum ad elementum fiet Sacramentum And CYRIL of Ierusalem Catech. v. saith to the same purpose Precamur DEUM hominum amantem ut emittat SANCTUM suum SPIRITUM in res propositas ut FACIAT PANEM CORPUS CHRISTI VINUM SANGUINEM CHRISTI For quicquid contigerit SPIRITUS SANCTUS illud ipsum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is sanctified and changed saith S. BASIL in his Liturgie and who is not of the same minde Speaketh he not unto the selfe same purpose You never heard it seemeth of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in HIM not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of THEOPHYLACT in MATTH XXVI not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in GREGORY NYSSEN nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in HIM in CHRYSOSTOME and others For it appeareth you are not much versed in Antiquity and ignorantly imagine that if these be granted Popish Transubstantiation must needs ensue which if it were so then that Popish Minion as Bish MORTON calleth it were not as it is a Babe of yesterdayes birth never heard of in the world for MCC yeers after CHRIST but a change of the elements that is Transmutation and Transelementation do not inferre you must knowe Transubstantiation For in the other two the matter remaineth but in this the matter is destroied the quantity and accidents onely remain There is a Conversion Sacramentall that is of signification and of operation and use as also in the Water of Baptism And in Conversions that are substantiall whether by divine power or course ordinary there is evermore tertium quid novum noviter productum out of that which is converted But in their Transubstantiation the Body of CHRIST is not produced anew nor receiveth any substantiall change Many be the differences that might be insisted upon but I passe them over The poor men that tendred this for Popery were doubtlesse out of their element and meddled beyond their latchet or else they may goe to their bookes afresh studie somewhat more strongly and then perhaps they will begin to sent it that Change Transmutation Transelementation doe not conclude as they simply beleeve Transubstantiation Then that speech of S. CYPRIAN will not relish of anie Poperie Iste panis quem DOMINUS Discipulis suis porrigebat non effigie sed naturâ mutatus omnipotentiâ verbi factus est caro Et sicut in personâ CHRISTI humanitas videbatur latebat Divinitas ita Sacramento visibili invisibiliter divina se infundit Substantia Nor that Saying of S. AMBROSE by these puny Divines censured for Popery as also Mast MOUNTAGU for approving it and subscribing to it Before Consecration it was bread common bread but after Consecration it becommeth the FLESH OF CHRIST because then the Sacrament is consummate Which did not seem Popery unto Bishop MORTON pag. 106. The Fathers saith he doe note in Baptisme a certaine change AMBROSE speaking of the water in Baptisme saith The nature thereof is by Benediction changed And hee is produced in the like case for proofe of Transubstantiation in the Eucharist In the margin he setteth down his words thus Fortè dices meus panis est usitatus sed panis iste ante verba Sacramentorum PANIS est ubi accesserit Consecratio de pane fit CARO CHRISTI The very words by mee recited out of Lib. IV. cap. 4. de Sacram. Is this Popery in M. MOUNTAGU Is it good Catholick Doctrine in Bish MORTON Hee approveth it and explaneth it thus and yet S. AMBROSE if you can light upon the right edition saith also of the elements Operatorius sermo est sunt quae erant in aliud commutantur But esse quod erant doth utterly take away and abolish that fiction of Transubstantiation unto another nature They remained what they were indeed yet changed in use to be Instruments by Faith of Grace as his owne similitude doth illustrate Tu ipse eras vetus Creatura postquam consecratus es nova Creatura coepisti esse Accipe igitur quemadmodum sermo CHRISTI omnem Creaturam mutare consuevit It was intolerable insolence in such Ignaroes to challenge this for Popery which they understood not or else malice Puritanicall to traduce me for Popery so publickly which in that learned Bishop they approve for good Divinitie In conclusion you manifest your selves meere Sacramentaries or worse that denie CHRISTS Body and his Bloud to be in the Sacrament I dare call it so in despight of detraction of the Altar For you informe against these words as Popish Bee contented with That it is the Body of CHRIST and doe not seeke nor define how it is so and wee shall not contest nor contend Which GOD forbid the Church of ENGLAND should maintain said Bishop BILSON The Figurists Significatists Symbolists taught you this Doctrine who acknowledge nothing receive nothing but naked and bare signes and figures I must subscribe unto our Church against you and them and Papists all three Transubstantiation or the Change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the LORD cannot bee proved by holy writ but it is repugnant to the plaine words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion unto many superstitions The BODY of CHRIST is given taken and eaten in the SUPPER only after an heavenly and SPIRITUALL maner and the meanes whereby the BODY of CHRIST is received and eaten in the SUPPER is Faith ARTIC XXVIII CHAP. XXXII Touching CONFESSION Information against the expresse direction and practice of the Church of England No new Popish custome but the ancient and pious manner of Confession for the helpe and furtherance of mens true repentance and for the continuing of them in amendment of life is may be and ought to be urged How Confession of sinnes to a Priest is required by the Church before the Receiving of the LORDS Supper INFORMERS WE require men saith he to make speciall confession of their sinnes unto a Priest if they finde their consciences troubled with any weighty matter eyther when they be sick or before receiving of the LORDS Supper MOUNTAGU BALAM at last went not to fetch divinations as at other times but set his face toward the
for Papists because wee are not so contentious nor brabbling as you would have us For heer what need you quarrell the not excepting against the terme Sacrament It was not proposed whether Ordination were a sacrament or not but whether in that which they call the Sacrament of holy Orders and the Church of England at least holy Orders any interior Grace were given by imposition of hands Iust as not long since you sought a knot in a rush for using the like phrase of sacrament of the Altar So if being to say somewhat against Transubstantiation I doe not quarrell the word I am a Papist though I dispute never so earnestly against the thing See how apt and disposed men are that love faction and division to take hold and fasten upon any thing to maintaine it But I can otherwise excuse my selfe and I beleeve shall not finde them in the excepting humor for it Know then Sirs Informers I durst not except against the phrase for feare of drawing more fists about my eares than my owne viz. of all YOUR DIVINES and they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom you call CALVINISTS For have you not read it or doe you not remember it what BELLARMIN hath said that CALVIN admitteth Ordination for a Sacrament And BELLARMINE doth not belie CALVIN for he doth so indeed These are his words lib. IV. ca. 19. sect 31. Superest Impositio manuum quam ut in veris legitimisque ordinationibus Sacramentum esse concedo ita nego locum habere in hâc fabulâ c. How that is and in what sort he expresseth himself lib. IV. cap. 14. sect 20. Nam impositionem manuum quâ Ecclesiae Ministri in suum munus initiantur ut non invitus patior vocari Sacramentum ita inter ordinaria Sacramenta non numero He admitteth it a Sacrament but not an ordinarie Sacrament No Papist living I think will say or desire more It is not for all but for some Which Saying of his is semblably expressed in that short small but perfect Catechisme in our Communion Book where the Question being asked How many SACRAMENTS are there the Answer is made TWO onely as generally necessary unto salvation not excluding others from that name and designation though from the prerogative and degree For touching sacramentall unction it is observed out of M. HOOKER that in the Writings of the antient Fathers all Articles peculiar unto Christian faith all Duties of Religion contayning that which sense or naturall reason cannot of it selfe discerne are commonly called Sacraments And this is not denied by B. MORTON For if wee should speak of improper Sacraments saith hee which are mentioned by the antient Fathers our Adversaries would not deny that not onely seven but seventy times seven Sacraments might bee named Therefore for the Church of England's sake be good to Master MOUNTAGU in this sinne of omission and unto the Church of England for the antient Fathers sakes unto them and unto all for B. MORTON'S and M. CALVIN'S sake who is the Father of your Divines called Calvinists who for Orders will you suffer them to bee called Holy goeth as farre as may be both for force and for forme of administration as if Ordination did in his opinion consist in relation unto some such gift or grace supernaturall as onely GOD can bestowe being the powerfull meanes of GOD though in different degrees unto eternall life It followeth CHAP. XXXIV Information against the Church-Booke of Ordination which acknowledgeth the giving and receiving of the HOLY GHOST in sacred Orders so that Priests have that interior grace power conferred upon them for the dispensation of Divine mysteries which others have not INFORMERS BUt denieth our Church to hold any such opinion These are his words This indeed is contrary to expresse words of our Bible and therefore directly contrarie to our opinion doctrine practice CHAP. XXXVIII fol. 269. MOUNTAGU COunterfeyting at length will be dismasked and Hypocrisie appeare in the true comportment For heer Sorex suo se indicio The Ape discovers himselfe to bee so by cracking of nuts so doe these men who what and what Side they are of Puritans in Faction and engrayned in their affection that way howsoever pretending conformity by subscription For what is that trowe ye that M. MOUNTAGU denieth our Church to hold which these Informers and their Abbetters hold not which they deny which in their opinion is Popery The Gaggers imputation upon us and our Church was that in the doctrine of the Church of England no interior Grace is given by imposition of hands in the Sacrament of holy Orders In effect that when it is formally and solemnly said RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST this is but idle and without effect This imputation M. MOUNTAGU denieth to be true and just and affirmeth that in the resolution and doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND by imposition of hands internall Grace is conferred Now this these good Informers have presented to be a Popish error namely the publike and by Parliament established and authorised doctrine of our Church So said their grand Patriarches and Fathers before them the Puritan Vndertakers and Complayners unto Parliament also against the doctrine and discipline of the CHURCH Papisticus quidam ritus are their owne words stultè quidem ab illis sine ullo Scripturae fundamento institutus à disciplinae nostrae authoribus pace illorum dixerim non magno primum judicio acceptus minore adhuc in Ecclesiâ nostrâ retinetur Eccles discipli pag. 53. They say Wee cannot give the HOLY GHOST and therefore we doe foolishly to bid men RECEIVE it And yet these men that are of the Clergy M. YATES and M. WARD have subscribed I hope That interior Grace is given that is the HOLY GHOST is given in Ordination who present M. MOUNTAGU as a Papist for saying so How can these Priests answer the one Act or the other When they entred into Priesthood their profession was then amongst other things acknowledged and subscribed that the booke of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons contayneth nothing contrary unto the Word of GOD and yet now it contayneth For this is expressely contayned there which M. MOUNTAGU amongst other points of Popery delivereth That interior Grace that is the HOLY GHOST is conferred in HOLY ORDERS and that this is the opinion doctrine and practice of the Church of England I may and do conclude with the VIII Canon against them leaving the execution which I hope will not be neglected unto Authority The Canon is Whosoever shall hereafter affirme or teach that the forme and manner of making and consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons contayneth any thing in it contrary to the Word of GOD let him be excommunicate IPSO FACTO These men have affirmed it in most publick maner for Popery is contrary to the Word of GOD and they have imputed Popery to me for saying as I and they have subscribed I referre it to Them unto whom it belongeth
this Information Upon the Endictment I pleade Not guilty of both Accusations of Arminianisme and Popery and call therein for tryall for it by God and my Countrey the Scriptures as the Rule of Faith the Church interpreting and applying that Rule from time to time against all Novellers and signanter unto this English Church against Forreyners Dare any of the Brethren joine issue with mee upon this Absque hoc They dare not But to close with them first in Generall then in Particular for Arminianisme at large Arminianism in the several parts I disavow the name and Title of ARMINIAN I am no more Arminian than they Gomarians not so much in all probabilitie They delight it seemeth to bee called after mens names for anon they sticke not to call themselves CALVINISTS which Title though more honorable than Gomarian or Arminian I am not so fond of or doating upon but I can be content to leave it unto those that affect it and hold it reputation to bee so instiled I am not nor would be accounted willingly ARMINIAN CALVINIST or LUTHERAN names of Division but a CHRISTIAN For my Faith was never taught by the doctrine of men I was not baptized into the Beliefe or assumed by grace into the Family of any of these or of the Pope I will not pin my Beliefe unto any mans sleeve carry he his head never so high not unto S. AUGUSTINE or any ancient Father nedum unto men of lower ranke A CHRISTIAN I am and so glory to be only denominated of CHRIST IESUS my Lord and Master by whom I never was as yet so wronged that I could relinquish willingly that royall Title and exchange it for any of his meniall servants And further yet I doe professe that I see no reason why any member of the Church of England a Church every way so transcendent unto that of Leyden and Geneva should lowt so low as to denominate himselfe of any the most eminent amongst them But as those two Townes and States next unto God have stood by supportance of the Crowne of England for esse and benè esse in Temporalibus so likewise if CHRIST IESUS must needs be divided both One and Other even the most eminent in one and other ought to take name rather and denomination of Us or some of Ours than wee be nicknamed ARMINIANS or CALVINISTS of some of them Indignor I avow for my owne part to doe it and will not doe my mother that wrong to admit it nedum to seeke it Againe for ARMINIANISME I must and doe protest before God and his Angels idque in verbo Sacerdotis the time is yet to come that I ever read word in ARMINIUS The course of my studies was never addressed to moderne Epitomizers but from my first entrance to the studie of Divinity I balked the ordinarie and accustomed by paths of BASTINGIUS'S Catechisme FENNERS Divinitie BUCANUS Common places TRELCATIUS POLANUS and such like and betooke my selfe to Scripture the Rule of Faith interpreted by Antiquitie the best Expositor of Faith and applyer of that Rule holding it a point of discretion to draw water as neer as I could to the Well-head and to spare labour in vaine in running farther off to Cisternes and Lakes I went to enquire when doubt was of the dayes of old as God himselfe directed me and hitherto I have not repented me of it I have not found anie Canon Order Act Direction in the Church of England against it for it I have found many I never held it wisedome to tyre my selfe with haling and tugging up against the streame when with ease enough I might and with better discretion should secundo flumine navigare We know the further the current is the more muddy troubled and at length brackish the water is CALLIMACHUS said well Assyrius magnam Euphrates vim volvit aquarum At multâ illuvie foedaque it turbidus ulvâ If ARMINIUS in Tenents agreeth unto Scripture plaine and expresse if he hath agreeing unto his opinions the practice tradition and consent of the ancient Church I embrace his opinions let his person or private ends if hee had any alone I nor have nor will have confarreation therewith If CALVIN so farre in account and estimation before ARMINIUS dissenteth from Antiquity and the universall ancient Church I follow him not No private man or peculiar spirit ever did or ever shall tyrannize upon my Beliefe I yeeld only unto God and the Church Nor doe I wrong CALVIN or any other in this more than they have wronged the ANCIENT FATHERS So much in generall for ARMINIANISME now to particulars imputed by the Informers CHAP. II. Of S. PETER'S FALL INFORMERS TOuching the Doctrine of Finall Perseverance these are his words As S. PETER was a private man Christ did pray for Him that though his Faith fell totally for a Time yet it might not fall eternally CHAP. 8. FOL 64. MOUNTAGU TOuching the doctrine of Finall Perseverance I took not upon me to Touch it much lesse to Determine it all I doe not there mention it or meddle with it I grant these words remembred by the Informers are found in my Booke in the quoted place of fol. and chapt and mo words than these to make up a perfect period which they have dismembred to their owne behoofe My words indeed are these Your Masters and my addresse is unto the Gagger touching his Romish Teachers onely consider S. PETER two wayes even in this Prayer made for him by our SAVIOUR as a Private man as a Publicke person or as they love to speake as Head of the Church As a private person CHRIST did pray for him that though his Faith fell totally for a time yet it might not fall eternally and for ever as IUDAS failed and fell and hee was heard in that he prayed for These are my words in publick Record But can you say they are mine in due consideration that is ex animi sententiâ delivered For all have reference by as good Logick as ever PETER RAMUS taught you in Cambridge unto those words Your Masters c. and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Artists speake must all and every passage be conceived Not any man but Partiaries would have taken them spoken Dogmaticè in course of determined resolution but Diegetice by way of Narration onely reporting the proposals of some Romane Disputers not my determination for and in the point But let them bee mine absolutely every way Yet secondly any ingenuous Reader might conceive that they are not Assertive thus His Faith did fall but only Suppositive Though his Faith did fall In effect thus To put the case that S. PETER fell away totally for a Time from GOD and CHRIST in denying CHRIST yet hee fell not finally and for ever for he recovered footing and fastnesse againe and held it out constantly unto the last Why this admitted an Error should bee reputed an Error of mine I cannot see For though it be Published it is not Delivered
assignements devised unto them Nam si omnem malignitatem si tantam malitiem excogitatam DEUS exactor innocentiae odit indubitatè quaecunque condidit non in exitum operum constat condidisse quae damnat licèt eadem opera per ea quae condidit administrentur Quando haec sit tota ratio damnationis perversa administratio conditionis à conditis in the opinion of TERTULLIAN and not any previous NECESSITATING Decree So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 GOD cannot be blamed nor accused in the judgement of CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 GOD is no causer of what is evill which the Heathens saw and taught as hee there at large discourseth out of them And children have read it in the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They accuse GOD but the cause is in themselves Their owne disposednesse to evill no necessitating Decree maketh them so liable unto just punishment As if he had read it in the wise man GOD made man right but he sought out many inventions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We were made saith NAZIANZENE that we might be well and happy and such we were being made estated in Paradise of Felicity there to enjoy pleasure in aboundance we forfeited our seisure upon our owne Transgression Home and pithily as his stile and phrase is concise and sententious not diffused His fellow and faithfull ACHATES in course of life and studies Great S. BASIL hath a Sermon to the purpose That GOD is not Author or Cause of evill neither poenae nor culpae as they speak That malum poenae is from culpa meerly originally that culpae malum is of man himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not out of any positive act of GOD upon him which he instanceth in PHARAOH whom GOD saith he found so did not fashion or make so and having in long suffering forborne him long ne sic quidem morti illum tradidit donec ipsemet se praecipitem dedit And though we read saith he in the Apostle of Vessels of wrath fitted and disposed unto Perdition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us not so conceive it as if PHARAOH had been made an evill vessell for in so saying or opining we transfer the fault in Him from Him to HIM that made him But reading in the Text of the Apostle Vessels conceive it so and beleeve it that All we and every one of us were and was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for and to some profitable and behoofefull use S. PAUL saith that vessels of dishonour if they be purged may become vessels of honour which were impossible if GOD had made them so and inevitably decreed them to continue so for ever Therefore S. BASIL might well bid us take heede of that sense And because ADAM was the root of all and ADAM'S case an exemplar of all mankinde concerning ADAM he writeth thus Erat prius ADAM in sublimi constitutus non loco quidem sed arbitrio cùm statim animâ imbutus in Coelum laetus suspexit majorem in modum ob illa visa gavisus amore ardenti complecteretur cum cujus munere tanto frueretur beneficio vita donandus esset immortali ubi vocis divinae et commercij fruitus societate cum Angelis ex aequo Archangelis aeternùm regnaret Qui luxurians veluti prae satietate corporea praetulit intellectualibus atque ita excidit paradiso depulsus est spe illâ immortalitatis And then concludeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He became evill NOT NECESSITATED ANY WAY but through his owne misadvisednesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus he fell to transgresse through his wicked owne-will and because of transgression was lyable unto death Nor was there any absolute decree passed upon IUDAS to make him a Traytor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of his owne proper motion he undertooke the Treason saith CHRYSOSTOME to let us know that of his owne accord and mind therto disposed he ran headlong upon that audacious transgression no way moved or caused but onely that a wicked heart within Him issued out that Treason into which he thrust himselfe Unlesse from damned Hereticks or stoicall Philosophers I never yet read in Antiquity of any prime previous determining Decree by which men were IRRESPECTIVELY denied grace excluded from glory or enforced to salvation as they must be that cannot perish if they would nor can be saved though most they desire DEUS quippè apud quem non est iniquitas cujus universae viae misericordia veritas omnium hominum bonus Conditor justus est ordinator Neminem indebitè damnans neminem debitè liberans Nostra plectens cùm punit noxios sua tribuens cùm facit justos Nam nec damnati justa quer monia nec justificati verax est arrogantia si vel ille dicat non merüisse se poenam vel iste asserat merüisse se gratiam saith PROSPER and what S. AUGUSTINE taught in this point the world knoweth But it mattereth not now as it should seem by these Promoters what he or his compeers taught nor much what the Church of England tendreth we must be confined unto Forrayne opinions of some late Writers and tyed to the Conclusions of Dort I derogate nothing from that Synode nor any particular man in that Synode For those Divines that were there of our Church the principall of them sometime was my worthy friend and acquaintance since is my Reverend and much reverenced Diocesan the major part of them were my antient acquaintance likewise and one of them brought up with me of a childe so that personall respects rather seem to affie me unto that Synod And indeed I do reverence the Conveners for their places worth and learning but I have nothing at all to doe with their Conclusions farther than they doe consent and agree to and with the Conclusions and Determinations of that Synod of London which established the Doctrine of our Church to which I am bound and have subscribed If those Conclusions goe along with these I embrace them willingly will stand unto them and as I can propugne them If they be Contra I will none of them if Praeter I may choose to receive them For I am not bound unto them no Law directeth mee the Church doth not compell me The Synod was Forinsecus and but partiall I see no reason why any of those worthy Divines of our Church there present should take any offence at my dissenting who had no authority that I know of to conclude me more than I do at them for differing from me in their judgements Quisque abundet in sensu suo For I am not yet acquainted with any obligatory or compulsory act for or to the contrary whereby the Church in generall or any man in particular is bound or tyed to receive abbet maintaine or beleeve all or any of the Articles concluded on in that Synod farther than they agree with the AUTHORISED Doctrine of the
negare liberum voluntatis arbitrium qui confitentur omnem hominem quisquis credit in DEUM non nisi SUA LIBERA VOLUNTATE credere And PROSPER de vocatione gentium SED etiam voluntas hominis subjungitur ei Gratiae atque CONIUNGITUR Quae ad hoc praedictis est excitatae praesidijs ut divino in se cooperetur operi incipiat exercere ad meritum quod superno semine concepit ad studium de suâ habens mutabilitate si deficit de gratiae opitulatione si proficit And FULGENTIUS de Incarnat cap. XX. Quâ gratiâ humanum non aufertur sed sanatur non adimitur sed corrigitur non removetur sed illuminatur non evacuatur sed adjuvatur atque SERVATUR ARBITRIUM ut in quo infirmitatem homo habuit in eo habere incipiat sanitatem quo errabat eodem in viam redeat in quo caecus fuit in eo accipiat lumen ubi fuit iniquus serviens immunditiae iniquitati ad iniquitatem ibi gratiâ praeventus atque adjutus serviat justitiae in sanctificationem To this purpose the words are so evident in the ARTICLE there can be no tergiversation or eluding of them I could name you many that at least doe write so I content my selfe with one whom I dare say you will not reject The learned Bishop of Lichfield is the man I meane in his Appeale pag. XIII Yet have they also he speaketh it of the Centuriators of MEYDENBURG out of the cleere and sound testimony of the same Father S. GREGORY drawne a doctrine of Orthodoxall Truth in the doctrine of FREE-WILL holding that a man's will in respect of any spirituall good is not free in it selfe untill that it be freed by grace Then it is free in his opinion And this opinion he saith is an Orthodoxall Truth and his opinions in your opinion are neither Popish nor Arminian How can the same opinion be Popery in M. MOUNTAGU who goeth not any farther than that Bishop hath gone and hee had warrant from Antiquity COOPERATORES sumus gratiae DEI operantis in nobis Non enim DORMIENTIBUS provenit regnum coelorum saith LEO nee OTIO DESIDIAQUE TORPENTIBUS beatitudo aeternitatis ingeritur who yet denieth not that without GOD wee can doe nothing it is GOD that worketh the will and the deed All our works thou hast wrought in us and the like Quaeutique sine DEO nulla est nec proprietatem obtinet dignitatis the righteousnesse hee meaneth of a regenerate man nisi Spiritu sui vegetetur Authoris Dicente enim Discipulis suis Domino SINE ME NIHIL POTESTIS FACERE dubium non est hominem bona agentem à DEO habere effectum operis initium voluntatis LEO ser 8. Epiph. The freedome of will doth not exclude out GOD'S prerogative royall nor circumscribe it and GOD'S preeminence in the work of our salvation his chiefe hand in the businesse his grace preventing and concurring doth not take away mans Free-will in cases wherein Will is interessed Causes may be many and manifold unto severall acts and particular ends In this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and concatenation of causes there is a progresse ordinary from the first to the last and a reflection from the last unto the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Second causes and subordinate are reduced unto the originall prime and beginning cause of all and agunt in virtute prime If in no respect else yet in this regard It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of GOD that giveth the encrease To conclude then That man hath FREE-WILL is not by us gainsaid saith that worthy and learned Bishop of MEATH Freedome of will we know doth as essentially belong unto man as reason it selfe and he that spoileth him of that power doth in effect make him a very BEAST Quis nostrûm saith S. AUGUSTINE against the Pelagians dicit quod primi hominis peccato perierit arbitrium de humano genere Libertas quidem perijt per peccatum sed ILLA quae fuit in Paradiso habendi PLENAM cum immortalitate justitiam To deny Freewill at all is wilfull folly but to give unto it that power and sway as many doe is little lesse than Blasphemie Truth is ever in the midst betwixt two extreames and so is it heer most wisely tempered and qualified with moderation in the doctrine of the Church of England according to which I endevour to square my beleefe and opinions CHAP. XI The fourth and last point of ARMINIANISME touching the Synod of DORT The Synod of Dort not our Rule Private opinions no Rule The Informers imputations nothing at all INFORMERS HEe expresly maketh the Church of England to cast off the defence of sundry points which the Synod of DORT maintayned and determined MOUNTAGU IN ALL my writing to my remembrance I name that SYNOD but once onely and no more That at DORT and another Nationall Synod at GAPP in France and that respectively and in gentle nay honourable termes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the two last in the Church of Rome the one at FLORENCE the other at TRENT and pronounce not I hope in any disgrace unto the Synod of DORT that we may as well tender unto our Adversaries the Protestant conclusions and decisions of those TWO Synods as they presse us with the ANATHEMATISMES of Trent or Florence Beside this one time and occasion I never name DORT And for the particular points and passages of my Booke I protest that to my remembrance it came not so much as within the compasse of my thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For what had I to doe with that Synod not once named by the Gagger I undertooke the defence of the publick doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND of which I am being not curious in alienâ republicâ with which I had nothing to do That fellow had as the use and custome of Papists is schismatically dividing himselfe from us cast upon the Church as of PUBLICK allowance many and some absurd propositions of PRIVATE Tenents particular fancies of some idle conceits I pleaded not guilty unto the Indictment and tooke off the CHURCH falsly charged from that issue wherein it may bee some other had joined against right and reason You or any Puritan or Papist make it plaine that any thing by me disclaimed for being the PUBLICKE ESTABLISHED doctrine of our Church is yet the doctrine of the Church and I am ready to recant If the Synode of DORT hath determined otherwise let their determinations stand for me I quarrell them not I meddle not with them Those that like the Decrees of that Synod or are bound to maintaine the Decrees of that Synode let them maintaine them if they like them Non equidem invideo I have no part nor portion in them I am not tied to uphold them farther than they consent unto that which I am bound to maintain the doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND And if
that point And these honest well-meaning Informers if they had imagined indeed that I did so acquit them rather should have challenged mee of contradiction than of Popery For it seemeth as much Popery to accuse the Fathers of Errors as to excuse them of Erring seeing those three IESUITES than whom scarce were ever three more eminent in the Society doe not excuse or acquit them but accuse them rather for going so farre in applauding of Free-will In this point it is plaine my meaning was that their Vnderstandings were not so darkened as their words at first apprehension may seeme to import to erre so grossely in the point as they seeme to doe nor did then and in that particular those worthie Lights of the Church of GOD faile in discerning of the Truth of GOD in that particular as to use the words of the forenamed learned Bishop they inclined contrary to Scripture unto Pelagianisme For things must bee taken and considered as they are spoken and upon what occasion and ground they are spoken If you were not so acute to conceive this indeed so honest to expresse it yet your dullest Readers would have observed it had there beene in you so much ingenuity as to have added that which ensueth in M. MOUNTAGU thus That they being to deale against fatall Necessity urged by many PATNIMS Philosophers in those dayes as also against the execrable impiety of the MANICHEES they extended the power of FREE-WILL unto the uttermost and set it upon the Tenters especially having then no cause to fear anyenemy at home unto the contrary ante mota certamina PELAGIANA There being yet no PELAGIANS sprung up in the world enemies to Grace advancers of Nature and Naturall powers beyond degree of Power and of Possibility In effect M. MOUNTAGU as touching freewill heer in this case hath said the same and no more but the same that before him Bishop MORTON did in his Appeale pag. CCII. THE occasion of this difference we learne to have beene a whirlwind of contrary Heresies wherewith in those dayes the Church of GOD was miserably afflicted Then the MANICHEES and before them the STOICALL CHRISTIANS had taught an absolute fatall Necessity of every mans Actions thereby taking from man the guilt of sinne For the overthrow of which pestilent Heresie as is confessed concerning S. CHRYSOSTOME some FATHERS did contrarily yeeld too much unto the power of will This was the occasion of their by-sliding who notwithstanding did often recover their footing and in their more intimate meditations gave direct acknowledgement of our Orthodoxall Defence Iust to an haire up and downe the same Popery that M. MOUNTAGU hath Delivered That Bishop and my poor self say one and the same thing and yet will even the Informers I dare say acquit Him of Popery why not Me as well in the selfe same case with him CHAP. IV. Private and publick doctrine differenced In what sense the Church is said to be alwaies visible The Author acquitted from Popery againe by others learned Divines Of the Church of Rome INFORMERS HE calleth the doctrine of the INVISIBILITY of the Church a private opinion no doctrinall decision nor to bee imputed unto the resolved doctrine of the Protestants Nusquam est saith hee quod nun quam videtur CHAP. V. pag. XLVIII And againe pag. L. Moderate men on both sides doe confesse that this controversie may cease MOUNTAGU MY words were onely these It may be some private opinions have run upon Invisibility of the Church But since you put me to it if there bee any such doctrine as you speak of it is a private opinion and I will now say expressely I hold that doctrine a PRIVATE opinion yet then and there I did not ponere that any had so said in terminis or runne that way but onely with restriction by a May-be of concession that some men singular from the doctrine of the Church in their owne private opinions had fallen upon and supported an Invisibilitie Now every man but your selves knowes that the doctrine of a Church Publick and Authorized is one thing and your doctrine or my doctrine and private opinion is another thing For such doctrine as you talk of I know none I acknowledge none but that of Libertines and Brownists with whom if you have any commerce intercourse or confarreation look unto it the Church of England as it detesteth them so is it for and of another straine ARTIC XIX touching the Church thus we read The VISIBLE CHURCH of CHRIST is a congregation of faithfull men in the which the pure word of GOD is preached and the Sacraments be duely ministred c. Where Church and Visible are convertible tearmes That doctrine then to which you should and would seeme to have subscribed talketh of no invisible but a visible Church tendreth no Invisibility And it is a Position drawne out from thence and published that there is a Church of CHRIST not onely invisible but also visible Though for invisible it is more than that Article specifieth yet is it most true that there is a Church also invisible which was never denied or thought upon to be denied Secondly it is also concluded thence that the visible Church is a Catholick Church So the Church is visible and the Church is invisible both which I beleeve and professe distinctly taken and as it ought to bee understood For these though seeming are not contradictory Propositions The Church is invisible in her more noble parts the Saints both regnant in heaven and militant in earth such as be secreti and occultè intus such as bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the secret hidden the reserved Ones of GOD Psal LXXXIII IV. as Iewels of price of value of account I doe also beleeve and professe a visibility of the Church on earth necessarily toto sui though not totâ se in some part or other at all times though in all parts of the world or it selfe intire at no one time Nothing visible in the amplest maner that can be is so visible that there is nothing in it or of it but is visible It never was it never shall be it is wholly impossible to bee that at some time or other there could not be found in any one part or corner of the world not any part visible of that Church Catholick The Divell never did nor ever shall so farre and fully prevaile against GOD and GOD'S Kingdome as to effect or procure such an absolute desolation And so is it true for of this onely restrainedly I spake Non est quod nusquam videtur not generally true I grant and without limitation There ever was and will bee ever upon earth a visible Church some where or other with visible cognisances marks and signes to be discerned by such as be assigned by the XIX Article to which men may repaire to heare GOD'S Word where Sacraments are ministred and may be received unto salvation where Priesthood and Ordination is and may be had according to CHRIST'S
mission and commission You cannot produce any time out of any Records or Memorials extant or remembred in which and by which it may appeare that these things were otherwise The Churches of the East Asia Greece and Africa were a long time visible eminent and glorious The Churches of the West have held it out longer Since there first was a Church in England France Spaine and Rome there hath not ceased to bee a Church there And if in any of these places or all these places the Church should cease or not bee visible yet would it be still visible otherwhere though not ever alike nor to like purpose Againe I do call those Some mens doctrines in this point Private Opinions and so well may I doe in respect of the disinvalidity and disproportion of them being private mens opinions and no publick proposals or resolutions of the Church I call them not so in regard of paucity of proposers for they may bee many a strong potent prevailing partie that thus opine and runne a course to themselves in their owne Tenents against or beside publick enacted and authorized doctrine And yet even private opinions also are against you That worthy Divine my deare friend while he lived D. RI. FIELD lib. 111. pag. XIX saith It cannot bee but they are the true Church must by profession of the truth make themselves knowne in such sort that by their profession and practice they may be discerned from other men But without all question that Church must needs be visible the members whereof doe make open and publick profession of their Faith in such sort that by their practice and profession they may be knowne and distinguished from other men And therefore that learned man rightly resolveth That BELLARMINE laboureth in vaine to prove that there is and alwayes hath beene a VISIBLE Church and that not consisting of some few scattered Christians without order or Ministry or use of Sacraments for all this we do grant and most willingly yeeld unto howsoever perhaps SOME FEW have been of ANOTHER OPINION Marke my good Informers D. FIELDS Popery to the purpose and with all D. HUMFREYES another Papist SECRET abodes are no Christian Convocations because this communion of Saints is an OPEN testification of Christianity and D. WILLET no Papist I hope unlesse your selves be saith that The ONLY absence of word and Sacraments doe make a nullity in a Church therefore an existence in a Church is made by their presence But how can you or any man possibly conceive that the Word should be preached and Sacraments administred in a Church Invisible The L. Bishop of LICHFIELD hath as much Popery in this point as M. MOUNTAGU hath In his Appeale thus he writeth Now Protestants and Romanists doe concarre in words and almost in sence So that the difference is not so much in the position as in the application of the Invisibility of the Church And before him long since that IEWELL of his time hath uttered these expresse words The generall or outward Church of GOD is VISIBLE and may be seene in his Defence against HARDING And this Doctrine is sufficiently and to this purpose explaned by that right worthy and learned Deane Dr. WHITE in his just Defence of his deceased Brother against the cavills of a Iesuite And he that hath read moe Papists than ever you have heard of concludeth thus Whereunto our learned adversaries for the greater part agree Great Ignorance then it must be or malice or faction or all that by the Information of these poore Divines M. MOUNTAGU is promoted for a Papist for saying that with moderate men on both sides this Controversie might cease or for calling the opinion of the INVISIBILITY of the Church a private opinion But as I said so I see it fareth still now adayes as with the Iesuite and Iesuited Papist such as be by farre the major part of that side every man is an Heretick a Lutheren a Calvinist I know not what that is not a desperate Papist to goe unto the Divell with them though it be upon a second pouder-plot so also with our Puritans very Sibs unto those Fathers of the Society every Moderate man is bedaubed with these goodly habiliments of ARMINIANISME POPERY and what not unlesse hee will be frantick with them for their Holy Cause Yet well fare BELLARMINE a man of a better spirit than some of the Paternitie who ingenuously confesseth concerning this particular Notandum est multos ex nostris tempus terere dum probant ABSOLUTE Ecclesiam non posse deficere nam CALVINUS caeteri Haeretici id concedunt And that learned Deane of CARLILE of late against FISHER saith the same It is but lost labour to spend time in proving against us that there is alway in the world a true Church for we have ever acknowledged it and have ever been Papists in opinion for so doing or else these good Fellowes are and ever will bee I know what I could have produced many moe to purpose and amongst them diverse whom they will not cast off for Papists as M. PERKINS M. CLAPHAM D. SPARKS c. I will yet adde a little more Poperie to the former and so leave my friends and Informers to chew the Cud upon it as they do after Lectures The Church of Rome hath ever beene visible The Church of Rome is and ever was a true Church since it was a Church Therefore the true Church hath been visible I say Remember it lest you mistake my saying or maliciously mistake it a True Church ratione essentiae and Being of a Church not a Sound Church every way in their Doctrine CHAP. V. Touching ANTICHRIST The Pope and Prelacy of Rome Antichristian That hee is Magnus ille Antichristus is neyther determined by the publick doctrine of the Church nor proved by any good argument of private men Difference among Divines who The Man of sinne should be The markes of the great Antichrist fit the Turkish Tyrannie every way aswell as the Papacie The peace of the Church not to bee disquieted through varietie of Opinions No finall Resolution to bee yet had in this point INFORMERS COncerning ANTICHRIST thus hee writeth I professe ingenuously I am not of opinion that the Bishop of ROME personally is THAT ANTICHRIST nor yet that the Bishops of ROME successively are THAT ANTICHRIST Chap. X. pag. 74. MOUNTAGU WHat if I am not of that opinion what if ingenuously I professe so much that I am not of that opinion as indeed I am not I was occasioned to shew my opinion in the point by the Gagger who charged our Church in generall with the private Fancy and opinion of some men that the Pope of Rome was that very Antichrist mentioned and foretold in the Scripture I must needs avow it or disclaime it That I could not doe without wronging the Church and my selfe therefore I thought it an honest mans part ingenuously to professe what I thought Sure it
in controverted points of Divinity Images in his time were much improved and yet not unto honour or adoration Reverence and respect was given unto them to be bookes for the simple and ignorant people to be remembrances of things by representation Hold you there and we do not blame you for any Idolatry Words abused by the Informers in leaving out that passage To be remembrance of Things by representation of which that mitigation is to be understood especially Hold you there and we blame you not This is that improvement I speak of in S. GREGORIES time wherein Images from no use in the most ancient times were improved unto an Historicall use in S. GREGORIES time whose time as himselfe I under-valew unto S. AUGUSTINE These men seeme to take improved through ignorance of the phrase for approved which is also true Before S. GREGORIE I know no such confessed employment for them He was the first that gave such publick approbation unto them declaratorily though it was true doctrine in it selfe before he ever professed it such who yet did ever vehemently disclaime and detest the worshipping of them as appeareth in his Rescript unto SERENUS of Marseils about demolishing them in his Churches upon misuse unto Idolatry Now had the Church of Rome gone no farther in practice or precept than that which S. GREGORY recommendeth our Church I suppose for so our doctrine is would not blame them nor have departed from them about that point Haply furious ones in our Church would proceed but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are singular illuminates let them gang alone Instruct mee what Popery is in that historicall use of them and then I will be of another opinion CHAP. XXI No religious honour or worship to be given unto Images They may affect the mindes of religious men by representing unto them the actions of CHRIST and his Saints In which regard all reverence simply cannot be abstracted from them INFORMERS ANd a little after IMAGES are not utterly unlawfull unto Christians in all maner of religious imployment The Pictures of CHRIST the blessed VIRGIN and SAINTS may bee made and had in houses set up in Churches The Protestants have them they despight them not Respect and honour may bee given unto them The Protestants do it and use them for helps of piety MOUNTAGU BUt how and how farre you have very honestly left out For hee hath added In rememoration and for more effectuall representment of the Prototype which is no more but the bare historicall use of them And you by leaving that out would make men beleeve that he intended a religious respect and pious honour to be due unto them and so to draw on unto a downe-right worship of them But this was not his meaning He is in that case as jealous of Gods honour as any gloyting Puritan in the Pack In our Churches for ought that I knowe it is not forbidden to have them for if so then all Tombs Monuments Statues Pictures Paintings are to be demolished and defaced Nor are they utterly and absolutely unlawfull for any religious employment Our strictest Writers do not condemne or censure S. GREGORY for putting upon them that historicall use of suggesting unto moving or affecting the minde even in pious and religious affections For instance in remembring more feelingly and so being empassioned more effectually with the Death Bloudshed and bitter Passion of our SAVIOUR when we see that story fully and lively represented unto us in colours or work by a skillfull hand And I know not the man that is made of humane mould but when he readeth on this Book his tragicall endurances for man will reflect upon himselfe and his owne soule and conscience with a lively apprehension of mans sinne GOD'S love CHRIST'S endeared charitie in undergoing these unknown sufferings for our sake If this be Popery let the B. of Lichfield say For we see that the Church of Rome in the dayes of S. GREGORY saith he as their learned CASSANDER witnesseth as S. GREGORY'S owne writings do showe did allow of such Pictures as historicall Monuments whereby the unlearned might bee put in remembrance of things done but in no case suffered to worship them Which how little it differeth from the doctrine of Protestants their owne learned Cardinall may witnesse saying even of M. CALVIN that hee doth not simply condemne the having of Images but admitteth of them for an historicall use that is to this end to represent the Acts of CHRIST and holy SAINTS and not to worship them lib. 1. cap. 2. sect 25. in his Appeale But it hath distasted some that respect and honour should be given unto them Strange it should displease anie that can approve of any be it but a civill use of them I cannot tell unlesse men would instantly have them pulled downe in all places demolished stamped to powder whosesoever whatsoever wheresoever The setting of them up suffering them to stand using them for ornaments for helps of memorie of affection of rememoration cannot be abstracted to my understanding from reverence and honour simply in due kinde Can a man have the true representation of his Prince Parents Patrons c. without awe respect regard love reverence mooved by asspect and wrought in him I professe my imperfection or what they will call it it is so with me Vnco impacto in Latrinas in Gemonias in malam Crucem the pictures statues paintings representations of CHRIST the VIRGIN APOSTLES MARTYRS HOLY men and women unlesse the very having and preserving of them do in some sort imply respect regard and honour done unto them without offence justly given without scandall or inclination to impiety IUNIUS was no Papist not in your opinion I hope Hee in his Animadvers upon BELLARMINE de Imaginibus saith Hoc nemo NOSTRÛM dicit non esse colendas nec ullo modo SUO MODO COLI PROBAMUS velut Imagines at non religioso cultu qui aut superstitiosus est aut impius Nec cum aliorum scandalo sive cultus separatus sive conjunctus cum torum cultu intelligatur quorum sunt Imagines M. MOUNTAGU scarce saith so much and yet he is a Papist CHAP. XXII Popish doctrine and practice both about adoration of Images rejected INFORMERS BUt hee concludeth with the Papists thus Let your practice and doctrine goe together we agree MOUNTAGU NO my good Informers he doth not so conclude You misinform against him for concluding with the Papists You finde it not in him Let YOUR Practice and YOUR Doctrine but Let practice and Doctrine Can you finde no difference betwixt these two I can let men see a verie maine difference and the not malignant eye will soone discerne it YOUR Practice and YOUR Doctrine fetcheth in all and runneth out into the extravagant Idolatrous blasphemous doctrine of religious adoration eyther primary or secondarie absolute or respective to that of THOMAS CABRERA VASQUEZ the Divell and all For with a trick of relative worship VASQUEZ empaleth the
mutare sedes so had they very few I grant or no pictures at all in publicke use amongst them not so much as for ornament sake And the reason was because they lived continually amongst Pagans and were themselves for the most part such as had abandoned and come over from Paganisme unto CHRIST that were bred in brought up in inured to and fast settled unto Idolatry in Image-worship Therefore they spake against them with some tartnesse and inveighing sort least happely by conversing with or neighbouring upon Pagans or through former use of being mis-led by those Pagans which was the case of the Israelites in Egypt and the bordering Nations upon Canaan the novell and tender shoots of Christianity might receive hurt and learne to worship Idols as those Pagans did In like sort peradventure OUR Predecessors and Fathers comming late out of Popery living neere unto Papists and Popish times conversing with them having beene nuzzled and brought up amongst them and knowing that Images used to be crept unto incensed worshipped and adored amongst them might if they were suffered to stand as they did put them in minde of their former practice induce them to doe as they had sometime done at least in heart to worship and adore them therefore in a godly zeale such as moved EZECHIAS to destroy the braesen serpent they spake thus vehemently and indeed hyperbolically against them For the people with whom they then dealt were by all meanes to bee preserved from the taint and tincture of their superstitious practices And for this cause I say it may seem the Church-Governours of those times in their popular Sermons tooke that course which the ancient Fathers did and stretched their exhortations and enforcements as also their dehortations somewhat hard upon the Tentors For in their dogmaticall resolutions and doctrinall positions they are more reserved and goe not so farre We may do well then to consider why wherefore when and to what manner men these popular Sermons were made and doe speake and not presse everie passage hand over head for advantage I rest in that judgement and censure which our Church hath passed upon them Artic. xxxv where it is said in terminis THEY containe a godly and wholesome doctrine necessary for THESE times the times in which and for which this Homily against Images and the perill of Idolatry was specially made To conclude Images may be had and made but with some limitation The Image of GOD Almighty is not to bee made at all and no Image is to bee made for religious worship no not of relation as they speak which yet is minimae Entitatis but ut ornatui sint ut memoriae ut Historiae and that they may bee made for such ends no law of GOD forbiddeth saith our GAMALIEL CHAP. XXIV Touching signing with the SIGNE of the CROSSE To signe with the signe of the Cross out of Baptisme or upon the brest c. no more superstition than to signe in Baptisme or upon the forehead The practice of the ancient Church The reasons that mooved them that might moove us to use often signing They lived with Pagans and wee with Puritans both deriders of the signe of CHRIST'S Cross INFORMERS OF signing our selves not children onely in Baptisme with the signe of the Cross he speaketh very superstitiously We use signing with the signe of the Crosse both in the forehead and elsewhere Caro signatur ut anima muniatur said TERTULLIAN and so we MOUNTAGU NOT onely in Baptisme Tell me then are ye come so farre home unto the Church of England as to allow signing with the Crosse in Baptisme that Popish Ceremony as your Forefathers and Patriarches of the schisme were wont to exclaime against it There is hope you may grow in time upon better advice in love and practice with some of M. MOUNTAGU'S Popery with the signe of the CROSSE in the forehead and elsewhere If it be not superstitious to signe in the forehead why is it to signe any other part of the bodie why more out of Baptisme than in Baptisme Is one part of the body more subject and liable to superstition than another the brest or belly or armes than is the forehead Superstition is in Subjecto or in Actione In that if you fasten superstition you must give us some reason why one part is more subject and liable unto it than another and wherfore you put this difference betwixt the parts And concerning actions religious and pious actions are more liable to superstition to be committed in them than common civill or ordinary actions be nay all superstition whatsoever reflecteth upon religion It is not but in such acts as bee of themselves or appliedly acts of religion and piety Therefore in all probability if it bee superstitious to signe the forehead without Baptisme it is more superstitious to do it in Baptisme Nor can the Injunction of the Church give any priviledge of immunity unto a superstitious action of it self to bee used in point of piety without superstition for if to signe with the signe of the Crosse be superstitious in it selfe as by your opinion it seemeth to bee then cannot the Church command it to bee used on the forehead in Baptisme because no act of the Church can acquit and discharge the action of that naturall and inherent property If it be not superstitious absolutely originally and in it self eat your words of superstition and elsewhere or give us some reason why extra Baptismum it should bee superstition to use it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to signe the brest forehead legs head or any one part or all the body and not so in Baptisme for the forehead The ancient Church used it in Baptism as we do TERTULLIAN spake of Baptism the words remembred Caro signatur ut anima muniatur which he learned not of MARCION nor MONTANUS as some have fabled but of the practice of the Church before they were born And you shall finde if you overlook the place againe that I remembred the words for Baptisme and not otherwise you have chopt off the vinculum that tyed my words together and relate them as if I cited TERTULLIAN in generall tearms for any signing with the Crosse in any place at any time For which action though lawfull I doe not alledge him I say though lawfull for where is it forbidden What hindereth but that I may signe my self with the signe of the Crosse in any part of my body at any time at night when I goe to bed in the morning when I rise at my going out at my returning home The ancient Church so used it out of Baptisme ordinarily and so may wee for ought I knowe without just scandall and superstition The practice of Antiquity you will not deny you cannot if you knowe any thing in Antiquity Therefore I will not trouble you with testimonies you shall onely have some reasons for their practice First out of CYRIL against IULIAN remembred in the Apologie against
whether they stand not therefore excommunicate not to bee restored untill they repent and publickly revoke such their wicked rerors the Censure of the Canon But I proceed from Ordination to Execution of Priesthood from the Originall denied unto the Ministeriall part rejected also by them and so I shall have done with them CHAP. XXXV Touching power of Priesthood to forgive Sinnes Priests have power to forgive sins not originally but ministerially The Doctrine of the Ordination and Communion Book for publick and private Absolution The Informers to lose the profits of their livings and to be imprisoned without baile for declaring against it INFORMERS THis is the Doctrine saith hee of our Communion-Booke and the practice of our Church accordingly that Priests have power not only to pronounce but to give Remission of sinnes CHAP. XI Pag. 78. 79. MOUNTAGU FIRST be pleased whosoever shalt view or reade this Apologie to take the true state and Tenent in the point informed against by these Promoters It was imposed by the Gagger as a doctrine authorised in our Church None but GOD can forgive sinnes or retaine them It was answered by me that in some sense it was true None else can doe it viz. by authority and right originall because all sinne is properly committed against GOD Tibi soli peccavi and that in some sense also it was not true For by delegation others also might doe it ministerially GOD doth forgive them by the ministery of men The Priest to doe this hath power conferred upon him by GOD in as ample sort as he or any man can receive it And that this was indeed the doctrine of our Church I proved by the witnesse of an enemy and therefore the stronger producing the verdict of a Papist who confesseth that Protestants hold that Priests have power not only to pronounce but to give remission of sinnes Which seemeth to bee the doctrine of the COMMUNION BOOKE in the visitation of the fick where the PRIEST saith AND BY HIS AUTHORITY COMMITTED UNTO MEE I ABSOLVE THEE FROM ALL THY SINNES This is my relation hitherto of what I finde So that heer is committed crimen falsi by these Informers I relate what one of that Side saith I say it not my selfe but only recognize the truth of his relation which I could not deny For in the visitation of the sick in the Communion-Booke the doctrine and practice is as hee relateth it So that were it not justifiable which is heere reported these honest faithfull Brethren had put a trick upon mee namely an Assertion for a bare Relation as if I had justified what I doe but report But it is justifiable it is the doctrine and practice of the Church of England The Bishop of Meath was of that opinion Pag. 109. against a Iesuites challenge HE hath done us open wrong in charging us to deny that PRIESTS HAVE POWER TO FORGIVE SINS And hee giveth a reason irrefragable Whereas the very formall words which our Church requireth to be used in the Ordination of a Minister are these WHOSE SINNES THOU DOST FORGIVE THEY ARE FORGIVEN AND WHOSE SINNES THOU DOST RETAINE THEY ARE RETAINED The execution of which authority accordingly is put in practice in the Visitation of the sick And no man can say more or come more fully home unto Popery in this point than Bishop MORTON in his Appeale Pag. 270. And indeed the POWER OF ABSOLUTION whether it be GENERALL or PARTICULAR whether in PUBLIKE or in PRIVATE it is professed in OUR CHURCH where both in our PUBLIKE SERVICE is proclaimed pardon and Absolution upon all penitents and a PRIVATE applying of PARTICULAR ABSOLUTION unto Penitents by the office of the MINISTER And greater power than this no man hath received from GOD. In as much then as these Informers declare and speake against some part of the Communion-Booke in the Visitation of the sick for Absolution in remission of sinnes and that they stand convicted thereof per evidentiam facti by statute of 1. of Elizab they are to lose the profits of all their spirituall promotions and benefices for one yeare unto the KING and without baile or maineprise to suffer imprisonment for halfe a yeare If they are not beneficed their indurance is the longer the punishment alotted is one whole yeares imprisonment which it were not amisse that Authority would deservedly inflict upon them to teach them better manners heereafter than to call that a point of Popery which is apparant and confessed to be the expresse and avowed doctrine and discipline of the Church confirmed for performance by Act of Parliament I leave the censure of their deserts unto Authoritie whom it toucheth and proceede to the next Information upon the same point though with some addition CHAP. XXXVI Priests onely and none other have commission from CHRIST to forgive sinnes The extravagancies of Puritans and Papists both in this point INFORMERS ANd a little after It is consessed that all Priests and none but Priests have power to forgive Sinnes CHAP. XII Pag. 83. MOUNTAGU ANd is it not so confessed when by publick warrant in Ordination that power is given unto all Priests to do so in those solemne words of Ordination WHOSE SINS YOU FORGIVE THEY ARE FORGIVEN and unto none but Priests because none have else such Ordination If this bee not confessed I will put my selfe to you to school to learne and to know what is confessed The fact is apparant you cannot say nay haply you will nay certainly you do question Quo jure quà m rectè it is confessed The truth is you cannot deny the thing But with you Puritans this doctrine and practice of the Church is held to be Popery And heer you inferre necessarily that Priests have no more power to doe this than Lay-men have For what else can you mean by And none but Priests but eyther that neyther one nor other have that power or else that one as much and as great as other To which you incline I cannot say assuredly No great difference for both are exact Puritanisine you cast Confession upon both one and other Any Lay-man may heare it as well as a Priest and therefore it is probable you will not be very precise for Absolution to conferre it on a Lay-man as well as on a Priest So the power of the keyes are to both alike in equall assise But Sirs Absolution is a part of that Priestly power which could not be given by Men or Angels but onely and immediately by Almighty GOD himself a part of that paramount power which the GOD of glory hath invested mortall men withall In which respect and not otherwise as some claime it hath beene said The head of the EMPEROR hath been subjected unto the PRIEST'S hands In which regard no earthly power is of equall value and assise unto it as not onely the ANCIENTS you shall have a Catalogue of them if you desire it but Bishop MORTON confesseth None can arrogate this power and authority unto himself none
in that evidence and fulnesse as we They dyed in that CHRIST in whom we though not incarnate and already come as do we But this their being their living their dying so will not inferre that Place to have received them then wherein now with us they bee and where one day all GOD'S chosen ones shall be For the same faith hath not ever the same measure nor proportion in all nor the same dispensation at all times The same hope is more eminent in some than in others The same persons inlarged in their Indowments or Atchievements are likewise enhansed and ennobled in their Accruments Temporall or Eternall Personall or Originall Their bodies are not as yet reunited unto their soules yet shall they be raised up out of the dust and bee made conformable in their Resurrection unto life to the now-glorified body of CHRIST our Saviour Their soules then departing and at Rest in Peace in Happines and Blisse in the hands of GOD yet were not in that degree of state as now they bee in had not that fulnesse of joy which now they have nor have as yet that measure and proportion that they shall have heerafter They were then in Heaven as they be now in Heaven though not as now nor yet where as now for particular place not in Hell or any part of Hell as the word and meaning is in Scripture This is sufficient against that dream of their Limbus Patrum in the Roman Church which is conceived and dreamed to have beene a Part and Region of Hell far distant and removed from Heaven Not then in that Heaven where they are now in that Part that Site that Region those Mansions of Heaven in which now they are For Heaven so spacious extended so capacious as we both conceive and see is not nor hath beene so narrowed or streightned in roomth that there cannot bee diverse Designations Regions Habitations Mansions or Quarterings there to speak after the phrase and language of men remote neer different distinct one from or to another fitted applied disposed proportioned and accommodated unto the severall states measures times qualities habitudes and indowments of men that were to bee carried and translated thither before and since the comming of CHRIST in the time of Promise and of accomplishment and performance of Promise in the time of veiles types shadowes and that other of Substance Revealing and Consummation They were in happinesse therefore not in any part of Hell for no part of Hell is capable thereof or fitted for any no not the least degree or participation of joy and happinesse I absolutely subscribe unto TERTULLIAN Aliud Inferi aliud sinus ABRAHAE and that which S. AUGUSTINE Tom. 11. Epist LVII spake somewhat doubtingly Non facilè alicubi Scripturarum Inferorum nomen positum reperitur in bono that which Tom. III. de Gen ad literam lib. XII cap. XXXII hee is peremptory in Nondum inveni adhuc quaero nec mihi occurrit Inferos alicubi in bono posuisse Scripturam duntaxat Canonicam The Fathers then were not in the Popish LIMBUS Patrum For their Limbus is though the verge and uppermost region yet a region and part of Hell Whosoever either commeth or ever yet came within the fringe and confines of Hell except the humane soule of our SAVIOUR who finished all suffrings and penalties upon his cross came thither to suffer torment and paine whosoever came thither except him alone who only was liber inter mortuos returned not out any more from thence but sedet aeternumque sedebit infelix Between LAZARUS in ABRAHAM'S bosome which was the Rest of the Righteous before CHRIST and DIVES in Hell a place of woe and torment was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a vast void gulfe immeasurable and that also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as saith the holy Text so seated fixed fastned for ever that it was not removeable at any time They cannot come thence saith Father ABRAHAM it is impossible that they should and he speaks it before that imagined harrowing of Hell by our SAVIOUR intimating sufficiently that they were not in Hell But as they were not there so were not they likewise in Heaven STRICTLY taken for the THIRD Heaven that receptacle of the righteous now together with the glorified body of our SAVIOUR For that place was not then stantibus ut tunc fitting or accruing to them Such a royall habitation the None-such of GOD did not befit their then inferiour states and conditions But then you will aske me If neither in Heaven above nor in Earth beneath nor in Hell where possibly could they consist or were they disposed A being they had therefore an ubi for their subsisting To which first I answer They had both and in generall tearms the Scripture speaketh they had that subsistence in the hands of GOD with GOD in his holy Hill in the Tabernacles of Peace in Paradise in ABRAHAM'S bosome with LAZARUS with ABRAHAM ISAAC and IACOB in the Kingdome of Heaven and of GOD. Why then they were in Heaven at least Doubtlesse yes in a more generall notion The word is ambiguous as I have declared against the Gagger put forth for condition alone place alone or place and condition together In regard of state and condition they were in Heaven that is happie and blessed as then was convenient In regard of ubi also they were in Heaven in a more generall and enlarged sense in some part of Heaven where GOD disposed them You will aske in particular Where was that I must and doe answer negatively I cannot tell I dare not define I have no warrant for resolution I answer positively You should not ask nor curiously enquire but be content to be ignorant of that which GOD hath not revealed And then farther It is not profitable to knowe for GOD else would not have concealed it So that to enquire it pressingly is but curiosity to determine it resolvedly is but presumption at the best Therefore M. CALVIN and other Protestant Divines that I could name content themselves onely with the state in speciall of joy and rest with the ubi in generall to be Heaven but presume not to descend unto particular where seeing GOD hath not been pleased to discover it It is enough to knowe they were not in Hell as the Papists meane it and it is more than probable they were not in Heaven as you conceit it For first no Scripture affirmeth it expresly that the Rest of those Righteous was there where now it is Secondly it is not that I could ever reade or understand collected out of any place of Scripture by any one Orthodox Writer for fifteene hundred yeeres after CHRIST Thirdly no Writer of any one confession hath demonstrated it to be so intended in any Scripture Fourthly no Article or Determination of our Church concludeth it or so tendreth it to bee conceived and embraced and therefore whatsoever my private opinion otherwise might bee I am tyed not to preach or