of those Ages and the chief preservative of Piety and good manners so as they have it among them it hath been one of the greatest engines of Hell for driving out of the minds of men all sense of the duties of a holy and good life I do not deny but some Priests among them make good use of it but those being very few it does give but a small allay to the gross corruptions which even many grave and pious Writers of their own Communion complain of and condemn Shall I here mention the giving Absolution and admitting to the Sacrament upon Confession before any part of the Penance be performed the trifling Penances are often enjoyned the taking Confessions from persons unknown the receiving it when it is apparent they are only reciting their sins without any Compunction And for Contrition they confess it is not necessary Now the generality of that Church being perswaded that if they Confess with a little Attrition and be Absolved and receive the Sacrament they stand clear and innocent in the presence of God whatever their former life have been or their present temper may be Is not here a very sure way to defeat the whole design of Religion and Holiness when men are taught so eaâ—ie a way of getting into the favour of God without repenting of and forsaking their sins And thus it appears that in the Roman Church Confession is no severity but a thing very grateful to flesh and blood The last particular I. K. instances is the prohibition of Priests to Marry Truly if to reckon that impure which the holy Spirit of God hath declared honourable in all without exception be a great sublimity they may well glory in it Our Saviour recommended Cellbate only to those who were able to receive it but the Roman Church will force all in Orders to receive it whether they can or not And though S. Paul makes it one of the Characters of a person fit to be a Bishop that he has been married and educated his children well which I shall not stretch so far as either the Greek or the Russian Churches do now and does not at all command him to abandon her and has elsewhere condemned that in all persons without exception except it be for a time in order to fasting and prayer and conform to this the primitive Church did not require the Clergy to abandon their wives but on the contrary did condemn such as did yet the Roman Church has most tyrannically imposed this on all the Clergy And although we read that God will judge Whoremongers and Adulterers but no where that he will judge the Married yet they have been very gentle to these crying scandals which continue to this day and have allowed the Concubinate when they condemned the Marriage of the Clergy By which they shew they prefer the Traditions of men to the Command of God And thus far I have examined this Branch of the parallel I. K. makes between the Roman and the Christian Religion wherein I have been longer than I intended but as short as the particulars he named did allow When he brings the rest of his c. I doubt not it shall appear they are a sequel of such things which the same or the like considerations will clear But I must follow his next step that the Roman Religion hath been propagated over a great part of the world without the help of Arms or humane enticements by strangers who converted many from Paganism that allowed liberty to their Religion that teaches Severities and Mortification To all which I reply That since the Roman Church is still Christian I deny not but God may bless the honest endeavours of a great many of that Communion so that their labours may have great success on Infidels in converting them to Christianity herein God blessing them as he did the Hebrew Midwives whose charitable tender hearts God rewarded building them Houses passing over their lie But I. K. must not insist on this as a good Argument otherways he will be driven into great absurdities Did not the Arrians by Ulphilas his means who was a stranger to the Goths that were a barbarous cruel and yet vastly numerous people convert them both to Christianity and Arrianism at once From whence we find the whole Roman Empire very soon overrun by Arrianism upon the Incursion of the Goths Vandals and Longobards Philostorgius does also inform us that Theophilus an Arrian converted the Indians to the Christian Faith Did not the Greek Church when it was broke from the Roman convert many Nations the Bulgars the Muscovites and many other northern Kingdoms In fine what will I. K. answer according to his own Argument to the great progress of the Doctrine of Luther and Zuinglius who notwithstanding all the opposition they met and all the persecutions their followers suffered yet did so strangely propagate their Doctrine that before half an Age went about the greater half of the Roman Church fell off from the Obedience of that See to their Doctrine which holds all the Mysteries of the Christian Religion and there was no need of more and instead of all the Juglings the Roman Priests had brought in teaching men an easie way to Heaven did preach all the severities of a holy Life which our Saviour and his Apostles taught And as they taught a severer course of Life to all Christians I do not speak of the particular severities of some Orders in the Roman Church but what must be the necessary conditions upon which all may hope for Salvation so they advanced this without Arms and under great Persecutions And here I. K. must think how he will answer his own Dilemma That either this was done with Miracles or without them if with them the Doctrine must be true that was confirmed by Miracles if without them that propagation was a great Miracle and thus I. K. will find it hard to avoid the dint of his own Argument Besides when I. K. speaks of the propagation of the Roman Religion he must not prove that from the propagation of Christianity by persons of that Religion though the same Instruments might at the same time have engaged their new Converts to the particular conceits of that Church For as it was observed before God blessing the sincerity of their Labours so that they made Converts to the Christian Doctrine that has so much to be said for it that it is a wonder all the world did not receive it it was not strange if those so converted seeing the foundation of the Divine Mission of Iesus Christ to be true did either in humble gratitude to their charitable Instructors pay them all the returns of acknowledgment and Obedience or being ignorant of that Doctrine which was wholly new to them did easily receive and imbibe any particular Opinions they might infuse in them and so at the same time became Votaries to Christ and to Rome But if I. K. will deal fairly and satisfyingly he must
which yet is as morally certain as any thing can be Let then the simplest man in England provide himself of two New Testaments one published by the Church of England another by the Church of Rome as was that of Rheims Now he knows well what animosities be betwixt the Divines of these Churches and that they are engaged so hotly one against another that they agree in nothing but where the Evidence of truth especially in matters of Fact does bind them And yet he comparing these New Testaments will find that though the phrase the position of words and in some few places perhaps the sence varies but upon a survey of the whole he finds that they do plainly agree in all matters of moment So that from this he is perswaded that both have the same true Book which the Apostles did deliver to the Church and the Iews agreeing with us as to the Old Testament is the same Evidence to him that we have those very Books which were held Sacred by the Iews in our Saviour's time And thus by I. K's leave a man may be satisfied what be the true Books without being assured which is the true Church or the true Religion Being then assured about the Books and studying them in the method already set down he shall be certainly directed by God to find out every thing necessary to Salvation and this is far from setting up a private Spirit to lead us Enthusiastically but is an appeal to the Reason and ingenuity that is common to all men For let me ask I. K. how the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent are to be understood He himself says the meaning of those is plainly and certainly to be known yet every Reader must expound them to himself in that easie and clear sence which best agrees with the words Is this therefore to set up a private spirit to enterpret these Canons I know he will say and with good reason too that it is far from it and with the same warrant do I assert that the considering of Scripture according to the method proposed is not to interpret it by a private Spirit but by the clear conduct of our understandings directed by the divine Grace which is freely given to all that ask it If after all this it be replyed How is it then that there are such different Expositors and Expositions of Scripture the Answer is plain by sending back the Reader to what hath been said of the corruption of mens minds and as long as men live so ill as they do it is to no purpose to expect they shall think or understand aright Besides there be a great many things in the Scriptures which are not Articles of Faith which every man is not bound to know and conceive aright under the hazard of Damnation and about which there may be disputings and different Opinions without any hazard If any set up particular Opinions in matters justly controvertible and of less moment and impose these on all with severe Sanctions and if he have Authority to cast all out of the Church Society that do not agree with him or if he have not that Authority if he do separate from the Communion of the Church because they will not receive or hearken to his conceits he is a Schismatick for a dogmatizing and dictating spirit if strengthned with power doth always lead to persecution and if it want it to separation And thus I think enough is said for proving that the way to Salvation is not at all uncertain in our Church since it is no other but that new and living way which our Saviour did Consecrate through his flesh But in this we are strongly confirmed when we find the ancient Martyrs Fathers and Doctors of the Church going in the same Method and by it Converting the Nations enduring Martyrdome and giving glory to their most holy Faith and to its most holy Author whose Decrees when met in Councils and Doctrines delivered in their writings do so agree with Ours in all matters of Faith that we decline not to put the whole debates between us and them to this Tryal I. K. thinks we cannot know what Fathers or what Councils to receive but by first acknowledging a true Church which must tell what Fathers and Councils to receive But this being a matter of Fact we are to judge of it as of all matters of Fact that were transacted some Ages ago and by the evidence of Testimonies are to find out the truth concerning the Fathers and Councils and their Writings and Decrees We have good reason to decline the writers of the latter Ages since we plainly see that upon the overthrow of the Western Empire by the Goths and Vandals and other Northern Nations and of the Eastern Empire by the Saracens and other Mahometans Religion and Learning were quickly brought under sad and lasting decays which is confest by writers on all sides And what I. K. says That we may as well expect the whole Gospel in the first Chapter of S. Matthew as all Faith of the Church in the first four General Councils is very impertinently alledged Did we ask for all the definitions of the Church in the first Canon of Nice his comparison might well take place but it cannot be fitly used in our case who say we are the true Catholick Apostolick Christians because we in all things agree with the Churches of God as they were during their greatest purity both in the persecutions and after those for two Ages Certainly if we hold all that Faith they then held and if they were saved we may be so too and you cannot pass a severe sentence on us which will not likewise take hold of them I. K. cannot deny but they stated the Christian Faith in very formal Creeds and one of them expresly decreed That no new addition should be made to the Creed and so we who receive that Creed though at all this distance from them are really in Communion with them from which those have departed who have made such vast additions to the Creed And thus it appears we are in the same way which our Saviour first opened and in which that glorious cloud of witnesses followed him and are still in Communion with Rome as she was when her Faith was spoken of through the whole world and therefore we are in a safe way to Salvation But because Christians must live together in Unity and Charity and in order to that end must associate together in the Worship of God in mutual Councils and other necessary parts of Government and some External rites for maintaining the visible acknowledgment of the Faith therefore we have rules given in Scripture no less express for obeying the Civil powers in all their Commands that are not plainly contrary either to Natural or revealed Religion which is a clear and constant rule by which we may be satisfied if our minds be right prepared and qualified as was before set down And if by
see such a supplement to what he had so scantly proposed But I am afraid and perhaps not without reason that he knowing how weak his Arguments must needs be for the two positions that follow and yet designing to impose on the Reader all the Six as equally certain he would needs disguise the first Four and propose them so weakly guarded that the proofs of all the Six might be of a piece But I have hitherto helped I. K. henceforth I quit that part and go to enter in a down-right opposition to him in what remains CHAP V. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that the Roman Catholick Religion is true J. K. now comes to that which he drove at all along and proves it thus If Christian Religion be true then that Religion which has the same proofs that it hath at least any of them that are solid must needs be true Since then the miraculous propagation of Christianity is a common solid and evident proof of its truth therefore the Roman Catholick Religion must be true since it is solidly proved by the like propagation for though it contains very hard Mysteries in it above the reach of humane reason as Transubstantiation and some very hard Precepts and Counsells as Vows Fasts Confession prohibition for Priests to marry c. yet it hath been propagated over a great part of the world without the help of Arms or humane Enticements by strangers who have converted Nations from Paganism to embrace the Christian Faith as S. Austin the Monk did in England and Xaverius in the Indies and many others in other places which can be manifestly proved from History nor can any exception be made against it which the enemies of Christianity may not make against the same proâ—f brought for the Christian Religion And to use S. Austin's dilemma This propagation of Roman Catholick Religion was either with or without Miracles if with Miracles it must be true since confirmed by Miracles if without them then no Miracle is greater than this propagation By which it appears we have as good ground to be Roman Catholicks as we have to be Christians By this time I suppose it is clear enough why I. K. would bring no better proofs for the Truth of the Christian Religion and now he thinks he has gained his design but what I said in the former Section has undermined this Fabrick since it is made out that the miraculous propagation is neither the only nor the chief proof of Christianity but that before we believe even the Miracles of our Saviour to be of God two things were to be made out the one that his Doctrine was all holy and such as tended to the glory of God the other was that all he said and delivered agreed with the Prophecies had gone before So by the same rule of proceeding we must first see that all the parts of the Roman Religion are holy and such as tend to the glory of God and then that they 〈◊〉 as fully with both the Testaments as our Saviours Doctrine did with 〈◊〉 and the Prophets If this Method be taken I am afraid I. K. will find it a hard task to prove the holinâ—â—s of all the Roman Doctrines What a Sanctuary for all manner of Vice and Impiety is the 〈◊〉 power of Dispensing Pardoning and giving Indulgences for all sins upon such trifling accounts Witness the present year with all the favours and Indulgences to such as go to the thresholds of the Apostles What a patrociny to impenitence is their Opinion of a simple Attrition being sufficient for the Sacrament And the whole trade of their penances and absolutions looks like a design to quiet all mens Consciences let them lead as bad lives as they will Besides who can believe that to be a true Religion that has tolerated a great many Casuists who have found out distinctions to excuse men from all the duties they owe God and their Neighbour and have studied to satisfie men in the most impious and immoral practises A woman that entertains common and avowed Prostitutes will never be thought an honest woman though none could prove her self guilty of any base act So that Church that not only entertains but cherishes those who have studied to discharge mankind of all sense of Religion and Vertue can never pass for a pure Church Nor does the Doctrine of that Church tend wholly to the glory of God as our Saviours did for what greater dishonour can be done him than to Worship him in a way which himself has so often condemned and never since allowed by the representations of Pictures and Images And that instead of addressing their Adorations and Prayers to him by his Son have found out a great many other Mediators both Angels and Saints and the Blessed Virgin Surely this is highly to the dishonour of God when the Souls of people are turned off from their Faith and dependence on him and his blessed Son into a trusting to and calling on Creatures and when instead of that plain simple and rational Worship that is sutable to the Divine nature and pleasing to him the mimical pageantry of a Thousand little apish practises and an unknown Worship are brought into his Church If we likewise consider and measure the Roman Religion by the second great Topick by which our Saviour cleared himself which was his appealing to the Scriptures we will quickly find good reason to suspect them guilty there since they study nothing more than the suppressing and concealing the Scripture and by all means labour to prove it an incompetent rule to decide Controversies by And yet I am sure I. K. will give me no reason to prove the Scriptures an unproper rule for deciding Controversies and that we must submit to the verdict and decree of the Church that might not with more strength been made use of by the Iews against our Saviour And if I carry this consideration as far as it will go it must necessarily lead me to compare all the Doctrines of the Roman Religion with the Scriptures And as if our Saviours Doctrine had been contrary to the Law of Moses there had been no reason to have believed him for all his mighty deeds which in that case might justly have been imputed to evil spirits so now should an Angel from heaven teach any thing contrary to this Doctrine and Gospel he must be anathematized even though he wrought mighty wonders Therefore we are with the Bereans to examine all new Doctrines by their conformity to the Scriptures and till that appear we are not to look on any thing they do as miraculous And thus far I hope I have said enough to convince I. K. that though what he says of the miraculous propagation of the Roman Religion were true it does not from that follow that the Religion it self must be true But I go next to convince him how much he mistook himself in his account when he asserted that the Christian and the
persons of Eminence and Authority But this hath not been the method of the Roman Conversions which begun in a kind of Alliance with the Prince who being convinced of his advantage in the Change did upon that oblige his subjects to it not without severely punishing sometimes such as refused it so far were they from being persecuted for it If any one were by a fury or tumult killed that does not alter the case nor make it a persecution And thus it is apparent that for all the noise the Roman Church makes of their Conversions they have managed them in a method very different from the way of the primitive Christians How basely and barbarously it hath been carried on in the West Indies the Bishop of Guatimala did inform the world and the Bishop of Angelopolis did within these few years inform the Pope how wretchedly the Jesuits continue to manage it to this day And though we have little reason to believe the accounts given us from the Indies since we see those who publish them are guilty of such Impostures in things nearer us and easily discovered that we have no reason to credit them in things at so great a distance where the forgeries of their account cannot be found out yet even from these a great many of the observations made upon the methods of the Emissaries of the Roman Church may be proved But as for Austin the Monk I. K. cannot sure be so ignorant as to think we owe our Conversion to him for whatever truth may be in the story of Glastenbury it is undoubted we received the Faith at farthest in the second Century and that it did overrun our Island farther than the Roman Conquest Tertullian witnesses The Rites of our observing Easter do also prove we had not the Christian Faith by any sent from Rome so that long before the time of Avstin the Monk this Island was converted And that famed story of the Monks of Bangor as it proves what footing Christianity had then so it shews how proud and insolently cruel that pretended Apostle was And it is apparent he was a man of an Ambitious temper his great design on those of Bangor being to engage them to a subjection to the Pope and to comply with their Rites in the observation of Easter But if what is delivered by ancient Historians of his setting on the King of the Northumberlands to destroy these Monks be true he is to be looked on as an Emissary of Hell rather than an Apostle of Christ. Besides the King of Kent to whom he came was so favourable to the Christian Faith that as he had married a Christian Queen so he allowed the Christians a Church near Canterbury And so it is no wonder if a Prince so prepared was soon prevailed on But Austins first coming to him with all that pomp of Crosses carried before him has nothing primitive in it and the fabulous Legends of the Monks are little to be credited Thus far I have examined I. K's proofs for the truth of the Roman Religion and I doubt not upon a sober review of what hath been said he himself will acknowledge he must see for other and better Arguments before he can oblige any to believe the Roman Religion to be the true Catholick and Apostolical Religion CHAP VI. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that every thing the Roman Church teaches as an Article of Faith must be true J. K. advances to his last attempt which is the finishing of the whole contrivance to perswade the belief of every thing the Roman Church delivers as an Article of Faith for if that Religion be a true Religion then it is free from all fundamental errors and does erre against no fundamental point of Religion and if that be acknowledged then it does not erre against this point that God is not the Author of any error or corruption whatsoever that being unquestionably a fundamentâ—l point Now if the Roman Religion does not eâ—re against this it does not teach that God is the Author of any error or corruption and if it do not that then it teaches nothing as an Article of Faith which is either error or corruption for whatever it teaches as an Article of Faith is teaches as that which hath been delivered by God This then may be applied to every particular Article of Faith which the Roman Church teacheth for if that be either error or corruption it teaching God to be the Author of it makes him to be the Author of error or corruption which is to erre against a fundamental point and by consequence that Religion shall be no true Religion If by true Religion I. K. understands a Religion that has no mixture of error or corruption in it then it is needless to prove that if the Roman Religion be true it hath neither error or corruption in it for the proving it a true Religion must carry the other along with it But if by true Religion be only meant a Religion that holds all the fundamentals of Christianity so that Salvation may be had in its Communion then it is a most wretched Inference that it must be true in all itâ— definitions of Faith And to confute this I shall for once turn the Tables on I. K. and become an Advocate for the Roman Church to shew they may be still a true Church and a true Religion though they have a large mixture of errors and corruptions And this I do not so much out of love to them but from a general principle of charity to overthrow this unmerciful Opinion that damns all men as erring fundamentally for believing any error in a matter of Faith And let me first ask I. K. whether he takes the Church of Corinth to have had a true Religion when S. Paul wrote to it This sure he cannot deny if he read but S. Pauls first salutation and yet in that Church there were various parties some for Cephas some for Apollo some for Paul and some for Christ and great difference of opinion there was whether Moses Law did oblige or not Now these questions concerning Circumcision and the Law were matters of Faith and in all contradictory opinions one must be true another false those therefore that were of the false side must by I. K's doctrine be all irrecoverably lost as being in a fundamental error for each side believed his Opinion was of God But S. Paul taught another doctrine that whoso builds on the foundation Jesus Christ shall be saved though he build upon it wood hay and stubble And the distinction he there makes between those who build Gold Silver and precious stones and wood hay and stubble can only relate to sound and unsound Doctors the one building good and useful Superstructures upon the foundation the other teaching trifling Doctrines that will not bear the Tryal and yet that both may be saved is a plain demonstration against I. K. The same Apostle also tells us that neither Circumcision
the disorder of our understandings through the corruptions of the natural man we be brought under Errors we have our selves to blame Next to this we are to associate our selves with all who Worship God as long as there is not some great corruption in it so that we can no longer continue in it without sin If others be formal or guilty in it that is none of our fault and can never warrant our departure from that Communion of Saints in worship Therefore the particular Forms of Worship are to be agreed on by the Guides and Pastors of the Church which must still be received by all till they put us to act or assist in somewhat that is evil or be defective in some necessary part of Divine worship And the great rule by which the Guides of the Church ought to compose these Forms is the constant and universal practice of the Churches of God in their best times Calculating these as near as may be to the present Constitutions and tempers of men so as to avoid all unnecessary scandal and to edifie the people by them Therefore we dare appeal to all just and impartial Judges if our Church have not observed this rule in all the parts of our Worship to bring things as near as could be to the Primitive Forms and if in some particulars we have departed from them such as the not Commemorating expresly the dead or receiving gifts in their Names in the holy Communion the not using the Chrism in Confirmation nor the sign of the Cross on all occasions or if we kneel in Churches on Sundays and betwixt Easter and Pentecost which are the most considerable things that now occurr to me in which we are not exactly conform to the Primitive Church these are both things of less importance and by the following Superstition and other abuses were very much corrupted And it is certain that all things not Necessary when much abused how innocent nay how useful soever they may be yet may very reasonably be left out and laid aside as the Pastors of the Church see cause If after all this Evidence there be great divisions among us we owe these next to the corruption or manners to the daily practises of such as I. K. who as is offered to be made out by many have under all disguises laboured the renting us to pieces and our sins are such that these wicked designs prove daily but too successful But after all the mist and dust any may study to raise I doubt not but to serious considerers it will appear that we of this Church are in a clear and safe way and that our doctrine is no other than what our Saviour and his Apostles delivered and what the first Christians and their Successors for many Ages believed and that we are in the same Method of finding out the true Faith which they followed all which I shall conclude with these excellent and divinely Charitable Versicles of our Litany That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of Grace to hear meekly thy Word and to receive it with pure affection and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived and that it may please thee to have mercy upon all men We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. THE END A Brief Catalogue of Books newly Printed and Reprinted for R. Royston Bookseller to his Most Sacred Majesty THE Works of the Reverend and Learned Henry Hammond D. D. containing a Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical with many Additions and Corrections from the Author 's own hand together with the Life of the Author enlarged by the Reverend Dr. Fell Dean of Christ-Church in Oxford In large Folio A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament Briefly explaining all the difficult Places thereof The Fourth Edition corrected By H. Hammond D. D. In Folio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the Enemies of the Church of England both Papists and Fanaticks in large Folio by Ier. Taylor Chaplain in Ordinary to K. Charles the First of Blessed Memory and late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner Antiquitates Christianae or The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus as also The Lives Acts and Martyrdoms of his Apostles In two parts The first part containing the Life of Christ Written by Ieremy Taylor late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner The second containing the Lives of the Apostles by William Cave D. D. Chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty The Second Part of the Practical Christian consisting of Meditations and Psalms illustrated with Notes or Paraphrased relating to the Hours of Prayer the ordinary Actions of Day and Night and several Dispositions of Men. By R. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick The Royal Martyr and the Dutiful Subject in two Sermons By Gilbert Burnet New The Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of Receiving the Holy Communion c. The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to God or a Book of Devotions c. Both written by the Reverend S. Patrick D. D. in 12. A Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the present Neglect and Contempt of the Protestant Religion and Church of England c. Considerations concerning Comprehension Toleration and the Renouncing the Covenant In Octavo New Animadversions upon a Book Entituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Second Edition By a Person of Honour In Octavo Reflections upon the Devotions of the Roman Church With the Prayers Hymns and Lessons themselves taken out of their Authentick Authors In Three Parts In Octavo Deut. 13 1. Gal. 1. 8 9. S. Mat. 12. 24 to 31. 1 Thess. 2. 11. 2 Thess. 3. 10. 1 Cor. 7. 4 5.