Book truly I cannot determine Only this I may say That if Prelaticall Protestants do allow him for their Champion and approve the Grounds of his Religion it is one of the most Signall Victories that in any Age has been gained by a single Doctour over a whole Church the Governours whereof will be forced to acknowledge that they have no Authority to teach truth or condemn Errours that all the people formerly under them are becom Prophets and that all their Articles Constitutions and Ordonances have been compâ—seâ— and enioyned by an usurped Authority of which they are not willing to be despoyled and perhaps after the example of a late Scottish Bishop to do Pennance for their fault of being Bishops But certainly my Lords the Bishops will hardly with all the Doctours eloquence be perswaded to this compliance with him Regard both to the Kings and Kingdoms safety and their own Character will not permit them to yeeld to an Anarchy first in the Church and presently after in the Kingdom 97. Notwithstanding it cannot be denyed but the Doctour may expect more then ordinary indulgence from them since during their late calamities he did not joyn in the clamour for destroying them He was no Root and branch enemy but on the contrary generously undertook their defence and with great boldness told his then Maisters that though Episcopall goverment and Ordinations as likewise Deans and Chapters which anciently were the Bishops Counsell were not necessary nor perhaps convenient as matters then stood yet neither was their utter destruction they might if the State pleased be retained without sin upon condition that for their Maintenance the ravenous beasts then in power would be content to vomit up three or four hundred thousand pounds of yearly â—ents But my best course is to leave the Doctour to plead his own cause much better then I can doe And I assure him I would not have touched this String nor calld to mind these things passed were it not that hitherto he has made no retractation of any thing written by him and also if his Principles newly published should prevayle in mens minds they would be more destructive to both Kingly and Church goverment then all the Writings of Presbyters and Independents c. 98. But perhaps after all the said Principles though pernicious to Superiours may at least produce Vnity and peace among the people For a man would think if every sober enquirer and who thinks not himself such anone may be allowed to chuse a sence of Scripture for himself what can he desire more Every one then surely will be quiett and contented But I must tell him Quid verbo audio cum facta videam If indeed men could be content to enioy their Faith to themselves and not think themselves obliged to propagate it if they could with patience see their Doctrins confuted their actions derided and their designs opposed peace perhaps might be hoped for ad Graecas Calendas 99. Yet I confess that according to the Welsh Proverb The Gospell and a Stone will drive away a dogg the Doctours Principles and a severe Civill government ioynd together that is a charitable indulgence to tender consciences with a watchfull care to prevent quarrells and eager disputes about Religion may produce that peace which has hitherto never been seen in England since the Reformation and mens minds being enured to tast the pleasure of such a peace may probably in a short time becom as zealous against quarrelling as they are now for it 100. But there is another sort of Peace and Vnity more fitt to be the argument of Writings composed by Ecclesiasticall persons that is Vnity of Faith and Doctrin And this Vnity was intended certainly by Christ when he left his Church established under Spirituall governours to continue in an orderly Succession till the worlds end and was Signifyed by S. Paul saying There is one Body and one Spirit one Lord one Faith and one Baptism c. who also declares that this one Body and one Faith is preserved by Apostles and other Governours instituted by Christ in his Church To the end that Gods people may not be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrin c. This Unity also is proposed and professed by us in the Creed I believe one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Now this Vnity the Doctour seeing utterly chaced out of his Churches principled by him earnestly endeavours to prove it a stranger to the Catholick Church also and would seem to intimate that if it be possible to be attained it must be by his Principles And the truth is if men might enioy their consciences and would be induced to abstain from quarrelling persecuting and hating one another Truth in the end would probably prevaile were there not one hindrance more I feare insuperable which is that Truth or true Religion has no other passions and Carnall affections to combat withall besides quarrelsomnes It requires a bending and even breaking of the Will to the Obedience of Lawfull Superiours it requires yet further a captivating even of the Vnderstanding to the Obedience of Faith taught them by the same Superiours It requires also a free discovery of the most secret and most difficult to be acknowledged crimes in order to painfull Satisfactions to be undertaken for their expiation and for obtaining Absolution and pardon of them It requires from many a totall renouncing of all carnall Lusts and all Externall remedies of quenching them These and many other severe exactions are required by true Religion and only by itâ— and therefore no wonder if Sects dispensing in these things prevaile so much against it Yet Gods grace is omnipotent and can work greater and more difficult effects in the hearts of his servants when he is pleased to exert it 101. It is truly an Attempt worthy so heroicall a Champion to pretend to bring proofs from which saith he it appears that the Church of Rome can have no advantage in point of Vnity above his Protestant Churches which is in effect to demonstrate that one Article of our Faith ceases to be true 102. Let this be examined and first let us enquire what helps for Unity I mean Unity of Faith and Doctrin Protestants have and then compare them with those of Catholicks First for the Doctour himself who as yet must pass for the common Advocate of Protestants till he be disavowed surely he will not pretend to contribute the least advantage to such Unity unles he hopes to perswade any one That a licence given to every Christian to chuse his own Faith out of Scripture be a probable way to make all agree in the same Faith which Licence he gives and justifying it is the principall Design of all his Principles Is not this all one as to say Let every man in England think and doe what he pleases and by this means all will agree to be Good Obedient Subiects to the King Yet the Scripture argues
which yet does not hinder but that Iudges are reputed fitt and proper to end Law suits 4. That neither the Pope nor the Councill of Trent have decided the fore mentioned Controversies we are to ascribe either to the inconsiderablenes of them or to the want of Sufficient clearness of Scripture or Tradition for either party or to a just and prudent care of preventing Schisms in the Church by such Determinations wherein so considerable parties in the Church are divided in opinion 5. Whereas the Doctour says that the Points in Controversy among Catholicks being many of them the same agitated among Protestants are Points of Faith he is manifestly mistaken For there are among Catholicks no Points controverted but such Doctrins where the sense of Scriptures being variously expounded by the two Parties the Church as yet hath determined nothing which sense of them is de Fide though the Parties themselves would each of them have their own to be so not determined I say so clearly as that both sides are agreed that such is the Churches Decision As for Protestants what Doctrins are esteemed Points of Faith and what School Disputes I think no Oedipus can resolue Doctour Stillingfleet elsewhere saith down right That the Church of England holds no Points to be Articles of her Faith but those wherein the Church of Rome also agrees with her and holds the same to be such His words are There is a great deale of difference between the owning of some Propositions in order to Peace and the believing of them as necessary Articles of Faith The Church of England makes no Articles of Faith but such as have testimony and approbation of the whole Christian world of all ages and are acknowledged to be such by Rome it self and in other things she requires Subscription to them not as Articles of Faith but as inferiour Truths which she expects Submission to in order to her Peace and Tranquillity Thus the Doctour But here I cannot well understand why he saith her Subiects Subscribe them as inferiour Truths and yet maintains the Church of England to require no Subscription to her Articles as Truths for that surely is a requiring of assent to them but a Subscription of non-contradiction or non-opposition of them which consists with the parties holding them Errours Now methinks this the Church of England believing nothing as of Faith but what the Popes and the Roman Churches Faith also secures to them to be so should sound somewhat harsh in the ears of many of his Disciples Again it necessarily follows that the Church of Rome notwithstanding its Idolatry Fanaticism c. yet failes in no necessary Point of Faith 6. Lastly that which makes Disputes among Christians about Dostrinall Points pernicious is not the heynousnes of the Errours themselves on either Party but the refusall to submitt to the Churches Authority when condemning them from whence Schisms are inevitable and such Refusers then truly stiled Hereticks No man will deny but that the Errour of the Photinians or Socinians called anciently Homuncionists for affirming Christ to be meer man is a most grievous Errour incomparably exceeding any among Catholicks Yet if one living in the Commuâ—ion of Gods Church should hold this most pernicious Errour not knowing that the Church had condemned it and being ready to renounce it assoon as he knew this S. Augustin professes he durst not call such a man an Heretick How the Doctour would call such an one I know not But this I will iustify that according to the Doctours Principles he ought to pass for as good and as well grounded a Protestant as himself and therefore especially Orthodox for not submitting his judgment to the Church §. 7. The Doctrin of Pennance Vindicated from the Doctours mistakes 115. NOw notwithstanding what hath hitherto been said I do nothing doubt but those popular Readers for whom only I conceive the Doctour wrote his Book will still resolutely judge every line of it unanswerable The like they will say concerning the other Points of accusation charged by him on the Roman Church as 1. many obstructions of a Holy Life 2. Endless Divisions How happy are we will they think who have escaped out of such a Babel were Frantick Subiects are governed by more Frantick Superiours where mens ears are deafned with endless quarrels and where Lawes are made against Piety In the former regards Papists may deserve our pitty or contempt but in the last our hatred For what cruelty is not too Mercyfull against the Professours of a Religion which teaches so many Doctrins hindring a good life necessary to Salvation that it is scarce possible any of them should be an honest man The Doctour has told them that these wicked men make the Sacrament of Pennance ioynd with Contrition that is as he interprets a remoâ—se of mind for sin sufficient for Salvation But his Adversary in effect bids him with Contrition to ioyne Confession and Absolution He is contented but he will needs have one condition more added which is forsaking of sin which they of the Church of the Rome not requiring notwithstanding all their Confessions and Absolutions a thousand times repeated they destroy the necessity of a good life 116. Here if the Doctour were asked Does the Catholick Church held the Doctrin here by him reproved He could not say she did because then the express Decision of the Councill of Trent disproves him Where three parts of the Sacrament of Pennance are declared Contrition Confession and Satisfaction Now in two of these the forsaking of sin are contained For Contrition implies a sorrow for sin proceeding from a love of God victorious over sin and consequently a detestation of sin And Satisfaction signifies yet more viz A holy revenge taken by the Penitent upon himself for offending God by denying to himself even Lawfull pleasures because unlawfull ones have tempted him to sin which is a great deale more then Protestants require 117. A disposition one may say inferiour to this required by the Councill served Davids turne who says I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord and thou forgivest the iniquity of my sin I cannot now believe the Doctour will acknowledge that a Sinner repentant of his sins out of a love of God Victorious over the Devill the world and the flesh and weho tstifies that sorrow and that Love by submitting to severe Pennances and Mortifications willing also to declare to his own Confusion his most secret sins with a serious purpose of amendment will thereby be put in a state of pardâ—n and Salvation Especially having received from Gods Authorised Ministers Absolution from his sins Absolution I say pronounced by Commission and Iurisdiction from Christ himself and not such an aery Phantosme of an Absolution as the Doctour interprets to be the applying the Promises of pardon in Scripture to the particular case of dying persons for this saith he is that we mean by Absolution and which say I the Silliest
woman in the Doctours Parish can conferr as well and validly as himself But who are these Wee who mean no more then this by Priestly Absolution I am sure not the Prelats of his Church But I must not say his Church when I mean the Church of England who all hitherto have justified this as one essentiall Character of the order of Priesthood and Episcopat unles since the New Reformation not yet ten years old they have been content that this Character should be wiped out by the Doctour and that instead of the Fathers of Gods Church Maister Calvin should be the universall authentick Teacher of their Clergy But I believe the Doctour will in vain expect this compliance from them And I am sure the now highest and worthiest of his Prelats will not be of the number of the Doctours Wee who has solidly asserted this Primitive Doctrin and to confute whom perhaps the Doctour has published so pittifull a sense of Absolution to their preiudice ingratiating himself with all other Sects enemies to all Ecclesiasticall Orders and Ordinations and making every one of them as before Iudges of the Scriptures sense so now Vsurpers of their Offices and as they hope ere long of their Revenues 118. The Church then is manifestly free from the charge here imputed to Catholicks by the Doctour and by him made use of to deterr any one from ioyning themselves to her because in her not by her Doctrins are by some taught destroying the necessity of a good life All the Doctour can say is Some reach some such Doctrins which some also refute and the whole Church disavows This being so with what conscience can the Doctour pretend danger upon this account in being members of the Catholick Church whenas in his own Protestant Churches for which he has layd grounds and Principles every Christian is allowed by himself in these Principles to chuse not only what opinions but what Articles of Faith after using a sober enquiry into the Scriptures they like best And what most horrid Doctrins he has thereby excused and defended all Christendom at this time sees with amazement and detestation 119. Surely when the Doctour wrote this passage he conceived himself quarrelling not with Catholicks who constantly assert against Protestants the necessity of good works to Salvation and their Efficacy in it upon Supposition of our Lords gracious Promise to reward them but with some of his own Protestants perhaps with himself who exclude all Merit of good works from a Christians Salvation or with his Patriarch Luther who said that good Works did more harme then good Therefore he may doe well to ask them pardon after Contrition and Confession of his fault 120. Certainly if he could bring himself to a willingnes of informing himself in true Catholick Doctrins he would find that the way to Salvation there taught is much strayter then that which is chosen by Protestants and Holines of Life far more strictly required For proof of which it were sufficient only to repeat what was even now cited out of the Councill of Trent touching the Doctrin of Pennance But a proof visible of late to all our eys are so many Apostats from the Catholick Church Apostats first from Obedience and Chastity and next from Faith For doe not they declare to all the world that Carnall Liberty and Carnall Lusts drove them first out of their Monasteries and next out of the Church As soon as they come into the aire of Protestancy a woman becoms necessary to them and Fasting insupportable and if they can ravish from Christ a Spouse consecrated to him they promise to themselves a more gainfull and honorable reception But if they will needs have Women because the woman is handsom and attractive is therefore the Pope presently turned Antichrist does our Lord cease to be present in the Sacrament is Purgatory presently extinguished doe Angells and Saints no longer deserve to be acknowledged our Protectours in a word have they forgotten what they formerly beleived and are they in a moment inspired to answer to a new Catechism full of new Articles of Faith gravely proposed to them by a Patriarch and Pandar for impure Apostats out of the Pulpitt What influence has the woman upon them to make all this change Truly the very same the Woman had from the Creation She presents an Apple to them which wonderfully delights them to look upon Especially if growing in England where they heare the fairest are to be had But if besides seeing it they get a tast of the Apple their eys are presently opened and as it were in uno radio solis they see all good and evill and nothing appears good but what the woman approves and without which they can not enjoy and maintain the Woman nor make a companion and Mistress to our noblest young Ladyes 121. But leaving these putrid Carcinomata of the Catholick Church and infamous stains to the Protestant is it not apparent that the Doctrin of Pennance and Mortification hath been rejected by Protestants not because they are hindrances of good life as the Doctour says and I dare say not one understanding person in his own Parish beleives him but for the Severity of them and contradiction to Flesh and Blood Besides this where doe we hear of Restitution of goods got by Usury and deceit among Protestants there being among them no obligation of confessing such sins and by consequence of making Satisfaction without which Absolution cannot be granted The Doctour will not allow me here to name those Schooles of Holiness and Devotion Monasteries though from the Primitive times esteemed a principall Ornament of Gods Church because he will esteem them nothing but Schooles of Fanaticism 122. But in generall most certain it is that among Catholicks the Study of ways promoting Holiness and Piety is incomparably greater but withall more painfull then among Protestants 123. But this satisfies not the Doctour who brings in Bishop Taylour using the same argument with him in his Disswasive from Popery viz the no-necessity of forsaking sins in the Catholick Church since if a man commits them again and again he knows a present remedy toties quoties it is but confessing with Sorrow or Attrition and upon Absolution he is as whole as if he had not Sinned Yea if after Sixty or eighty years together of a wicked life he shall doe this in the Article of his death this instantly passes him into a state of Salvation Yea moreover the Doctour afterwards taxes the Indulgence of the Roman Church because in her Rituall she ordains that Extreme-Vnction should be conferred on persons unable to confess as being under a delirium or wholly insensible if before it be but probable that they desired it or gave any signs of Contrition And hereby saith he if any sins have remained upon them they are taken of by vertue of this Sacred Vnction 124. As touching the too great facility allowed by some Catholick Writers in giving Absolution toties
himself obliged in conscience by breaking all Rules of Piety and humanity to do all manner of despight to his Catholick fellow-Subiects he would hereafter at least please to abstain from reviling and blaspheming Gods Saints or traducing the most Divine exercises of contemplative soules more perfectly practised only in Heauen Jt argued certainly a heart brimm full of the Gall of bitternes that to oppose only one single line of his Adversary pag. 31. in which all that he sayes is the mentioning new Sects and Fanaticisms he could allow one hundred and twenty Pages in a senceless and execrable recrimination not considering or rather perhaps too much considering and intending that such a recrimination should reflect with great disparagement on the English Protestant Church In whose Calendar severall of those Saints to this day possess a place Truly in all reason his Attempt by his Socinian Principles of depriving the Governours of that Church of all Anthority granted by her Princes and Parliaments ought to haue suffised him without traducing her as a Canonizer of Fanaticks What excuse he can make for this I cannot imagine unless perhaps his tenderly scrupulous conscience dictates to him that the Scottish Covenant requires all this and more from the obligation whereof the Bishops cannot it seems and his Brethren Presbiters will not absolue him If so his zeale methinks should incite him yet further and particularly to make use of the power and high esteem he has by his late Book gotten in his Vniversity of Cambridge to become a Godfather in rebaptizing and giving a New Name to an ancient and famous Colledge there which at present has two Names both of them extremely inconvenient and prejudiciall to the Design of his beloued Book being called not only S. Benets but likewise Corpus Christi-Colledge For as long as these names continue neither will S. Benedict pass there for a Fanatick nor the Reall presence be esteemed aground of a worse then Pagan Idolatry But I believe he will scarce be able with all his Rhetorick to obtain from them such a compliance or even perswade his own Parishioners to renounce Heaven except S. Gregory S. Benedict S. Francis c. be excluded thence A Second Request is that since to his great credit order has been taken by his friends more solicitous for him then their own Church to render his Book unanswerable he would hasten his zealous Huguenot Brethren of the Savoy iust such Defenders of the Church of England as himself to enlarge his conquests through France also by sending abroad their French Translation of his formidable Book the Rationall Account There will be no need to fear any officious Searchers nor the least obstruction to their dispersing their ware in France for there Catholicks are so confidently secure of the invincible Truth of their Religion that the King himself not only permits but invites yea and expressly commands the subtillest of the Huguenot Ministers to write and publish freely whatsoever they are able to say in defence of themselves or against Catholick Doctrines Now it is manifest that the Doctours friends the zealous Searchers and murderers of all Answers to his Book do not believe that he has any confidence at all either in the truth or honesty of his cause And iust reason they have since it is a cause evidently destructive both to the English Church and state as hath been demonstrated And if themselves had any regard at all either to their Church or the Civill state and peace of the kingdom all betrayed by him they would see and acknowledge that their vigilance would have been much better employed in preventing the birth of so deformed and pernicious a monster My third Request is indeed J fear too reasonable to expect it should be granted by an Adversary of the Doctors temper It is this His design beeing to deterr all English-men from Communion with the Catholick Church from a consideration of dangerous Doctrines and Practises in it he is requested that hereafter he would not abuse the world by fathering on the Church Exotick opinions of particular Schoolmen and by representing the Churches Doctrines lamely falsely and dishonestly His enormous faultiness in this regard in mitation of Doctor Taylor committed in his last Book through every one of the Points mentioned by him may be visible to all heedfull Readers and irrefragable Proofes hereâ—fare in a readiness to be produced if his busy friends the Searchers could be perswaded to rest in their beds in the night time He cannot complain of any difficulty to find out all necessary Doctrines in which Catholicks universally agree as we may for Proteflant Doctrines The Councill of Trent alone will sufficiently furnish him Or if he think fitt to have recourse to the interpretations of its Decisions in all reason and conscience he ought to content himself with such as seem to him most moderate and rationall Christian charity and love of Peace requiring this from him But I fear his unconformity hereto must be pardoned For his principall vocation now being to be a Controvertist to which it seems he is by Superiours engaged and to which employment Preaching Sacraments and all must yield it will be impossible for him to write volumes of Controversy his way if he be confined to matters only which are pertinent or to arguments which are Logically concluding For how could he then delight profanc Readers with ridiculous stories or give scope to his own more profane Fancy in descanting irreligiously on the actions of Saints or fill up many sheets with nasty occurrents raked out of dunghills and charging them on the Church which abhorrs them more then himself How could he I say thus play the Controvertist if he were to assault the Church only in her necessary Doctrines and Discipline exhibited in her Councills I must therefore I fear prepare my self with patience to receive a Refusall to Requests though in my opinion very reasonable and which I here sett down because J believe they will be esteemed such by ingenuous and judicious Readers who surely will not judge the cause of Catholicks prejudiced by the Doctors confutation of a Church no where extant in rerum naturâ except in his own disordered Fancy Lastly he is desired to consider that Almighty God commands us to loue Peace and Truth Zach. 8. 19. both these For Peace alone without Truth is a conspiracy in Errour and an imprudent zeale for Truth may be more pernicious then Errour Both these therefore ought to be loved together And to Hate both Peace and Truth seems a depravation scarce consistent with Human nature or any Rationall Agent besides the Devill himself Since therefore the Doctor by demolishing all Tribunalls in Gods Church which might peaceably end Controversies has endeavoured as much as in him lyes to banish Peace eternally from among Christians it is iustly to be expected from him that being now become by Profession a Controvertist he should give some better testimony to the world that he is at least a Seeker and Promoter of Truth and that his Design in writing Preaching and Disputing is to conquer the iudgments of Dissenters to a belief of that which himself pretends to be Truth But can any reasonable man imagine that he had so much as a desire to convert Catholicks who alone seem to be esteemed by him Dissenters by such a Book as his last is which they cannot read without trembling at the blasphemies of it and without a horrible aversion from one who would make their Church and Faith odious for Doctrines and Practises which the said Church is so far from owning that she condemns them and would moreover persuade them to forsake an established Communion without being informed whither to betake themselves These proceedings are so unreasonnable that it seems manifest he had not so much as a thought of convincing their iudgments so that he will have small reason to wonder that not one single person can be found whom he looks on as an enemy who has given him occasion to erect a Trophey yea moreover though perhaps he will not believe it that a considerable number have against his will had their eyes opened by him to see the desperate state of that cause which seems to seek its last refuge in the Protection of such an Advocat A strange fate certainly this is of a Book so boasted of and to which such conquests have been promised Therefore any sober Reader who shall heedfully reflect on the Doctor 's abilities will hardly be perswaded to believe that he intended his last should be a Book of Controversy but rather an Engin raised by him to work during the space of a few months some considerable mischief against the persons of innocent Catholicks at a season as he thought proper for his purpose when he conceived thereby the whole Kingdom might happily be incensed against them Which holy design if he could effect it would afterward be indifferent to him whether his Book were confuted or not However our hope is that Dominus iudicabit pauperes populi bumiliabit Calumniatorem FINIS Nullos esse Deos in ane coelum Affirmat Selius probatque quod se Factum duÌ„ negat haec videt BeatuÌ„ Martial l. 4. Epigr 21. Pag. 262. Psal. 118. Mem. 2. Cor. 12. v. 2. 3. 4. P. 334. P. 336 P. 336. P. 337. P. 244. Suar. in 3. S Th q 27. Anâ—on Summ. p. 1. tit 8. c. Baron ad A. D. 604. P. 248. P. 235. Irenic P. 392. P. 346. P. 349. P. 350. 13. Principle 15 Principle I. Que. Ansvv. II. Qu. Ansvv. III Qu. Ansvv. IV. Qu. Ansvv. V. Qu. Ansvv. Irenic Eph. iv 4. 5. vers 5. Gesner in Re Bellar. Def. Schlusscâ—b P. 443. Ration Accou p 54. Aug. de Bapt. cont Donat. l. 4. c. 16. P. 180. Conc. Triden Sess. XIV cap. 3. P. 183. P. 181. P. z12 Conc. Tâ—id Ses. XIV c. 8. August lib. 50 hom Hom. 41. Conc. Tâ—id Seâ— VII de Sacram Can. 8. P. 206. Gal. 4. P. 183. Aug. Hom. 50. capvlt P. 681. Luk xvi 9. Lib. de curâ pâ—â— moâ—tuis cap. 4. P. 183. Conc. Tâ—id Ses. xxv Decâ—et de Indulg Ibid. P. 516. P. 188. P. 174. Cor. 14 1. Cor. 14. Vers. 5. 9. 13. 27 28. P. â—15 P. 174. Philast Preface pag. 6. Ibid. p. 22.
scorns or calumnies when merited only for recommending to devout Christians instructions for the practise of Christian Vertues and Piety in the greatest perfection that this life is capable of His Motiues therefore of writing and publishing this Discourse were first his Obedience to certain freinds whose commands he ought in no wise to resist And then a just Indignation in seeing the most Sacred things and Persons in the Catholick Church selected on purpose by him to be contaminated with his inck full of gall and poyson thereby imprudently ministring new aims to Atheists against whom as a considerable and growing Sect among them he and others begin to preach and write by shewing to his utmost ability that all the Religion professed in the world and that thing that bare the name of a Catholick Church for so many Ages before the times of Luther and Calvin was nothing for their Worship but Idolatry for their Devotions but Fanaticism and for their Doctrine and Disciplin nothing but Faction Ambition and Avarice 2. The task therefore here imposed being to answer in the Doctours last Book not the Points of Controversy between the Catholick Church and Protestants reserved for a more learned pen of his worthy Antagonist but those discourses in his Book and principally touching Fanaticism in which the Doctour seems not to have intended to employ his Talent of Reasoning but to discharge his excess of Spleen and choler and to give free scope to all Vnchristian and even in human Passions the Authour hopes he shall not deserve justly a Censure from the Reader if he endeavour here to defend the Truth with as much zeal and confidence as his Adversary hath assaulted it So long as nothing passeth from him that any way woundeth Christian Charity nor any sharpness is used but such as may through Gods Grace prove beneficiall to him and his applauding Readers 3. Now in the Doctours Book there are three Heads of Accusation selected by him with intention to disgrace and fright his Readers from the Communion of the Catholick Church by imputing to her 1. That she is guilty of Severall Opinions and Practises which hinder Devotion and a good life 2. That Fanaticism is not only countenanced by her but made a ground of believing some Doctrins of making some Ecclesiasticall Ordonnanes of erecting Religious Orders and â—kewise of resisting lawfull Authority 3. That there are among her Subiects Divisions about Doctrins of great moment and no possibility of reducing dissenting Parties to Vnity or Obedience 4. These Accusations my purpose is to refute and for his Proofs of them to shew the invalidity of those which are pretended by him to regard the Church her self But as for such as regard the Opinions or Actions of particular persons and which fill up the far greatest number of his leaves some thing shall be said to those among them which seem of any considerable moment and the rest shall be neglected as needing no Answer though never so truly alledged by him And having done this I will as I am perswaded with much greater confidence retort the same Heads of his Accusations upon himself demonstrating that his Protestant Churches as principled by him 1. doe evidently undermine the foundations of Piety and a Good life 2. That the Essence of his Religion is meer Fanaticism in his own sence of the Word and that it iustifies Rebellion against the Civill Magistrate 3. That by the Grounds of his Religion all manner of Divisions and Schims are not only excusable but lawfull and withall incurable 5. He will perhaps when he sees his large Book pretended to be sufficiently answered in a few sheets of paper renew the scornfull complaint made by him in his Preface That those who in some small measure have attempted to answer him have performed it in a way that Ratts answer Books by gnawing some of the leaves of them the Body and Design of them remaining wholly untouched by them Now who those persons are whom he is pleased to resemble to Ratts I can only iudge by guess and if I guess aright particularly of one Authour I could make it appear to the Doctour that the very bowells and most Vitall parts of his great Volume have been eaten through and consumed by that his Adversary 6. However I conceive he wil not have iust reason to apply this Metaphor to the Authour of this present Treatise since it was his own fault by heaping together a great Masse of rubbage and stuff altogether impertinent to make a short Answer sufficient Does he think his Adversaries in case they were allowed the liberty and commodity of publishing large Volumes so much at leasure as to follow him step by step in examining Quotations and answering Obiections which are of no moment whether they be true or false He may by such a way of writing beget in the minds of the vulgar sort of Readers a high Opinion of the Vastnes of his unnecessary reading and his well-furnished Library but his Adversaries will be much to blame if they trouble themsselves with defending every Old Story or personall imputations or indeed if hereafter they engage themselves in any Controversy with him except in Points pretended by him of such consequence as to iustify a necessity in Protestants of separating from the Catholick Church And few such Points are to be found in his Books 7. But moreover as short an Answer as this is he wil have less reason to say That the Body and Design of his Book will remain wholly untouched in it He may indeed perhaps have some ill Design in publishing as it were by conspiracy with others a Book so voyd of Christian Charity and moderation Which Design may remain untouched by mee because I am unwilling to declare the grounds of my coniectures moving me to look upon it as an Ominous ill-boading Book fore-running some expected mischeif But for the Body of his Book that is whatsoever appears to me in it of consequence it is truly a very slender dwarfish Body being almost entirely contained in a few sheets at the beginning and in the last single sheet which enwraps his Protestant Principles The publishing of which Principles was truly an act of commendable ingenuity and confidence also For I think he is the first Protestant-Controvertist who upou such a tender Subiect has appeared bare-faced out of the Clouds And moreover I may take leave to tell him that from a heedfull consideration of those his Principles I do collect that He and myself are of the same iudgment in one matter of great importance viz. That no shew of Reason or conscience can be pretended to escape from the Authority of the Catholick Church but by renouncing entirely as he has done in his Principles all Ecclesiasticall or even Civill Authority and by consequence that no Churches proceed Logically in asserting the grounds of their Religion but only Catholicks or Single-Independents The reason hereof is Because for any Ecclesiasticall Superiours to acknowledge any
obligation lying on thers Subiects to submitt to their Authority and at the same time to preferr the Authority of a particular Church before that of the Vniversall which is the fountain of all Authority is to putt out their Subiects eyes and to hale them after them with chains And above all other Congregations the Tyranny of Presbyterians is most brutish who after a denyall of all Visible Authority extant before them endeavour violently to subdue mens consciences to the Jurisdiction of their Classes erected upon controverted Texts of Scripture as interpreted by themselves alone 8. The Doctours Principles therefore being by far the most materiall Part of his Book it is not notwithstanding my business in this Treatise to examine them apart one by one or to trouble my self with making a setled Iudgment whether of the two fore-named Parties Catholicks or Independents has the most solid reasons on their side For being engaged to make Reflexions on that part of his Book which is of least importance writen in an immodest uncivill petulant stile it was not fitt in my Answer to mingle considerations on a Subiect so serious and soberly expressed as his Principles are which indeed deserve to be examined separately with all possible calmness and impassionateness as being an Argument on which all other Controversies do depend and which one way or other makes an end of them all 9. Yet for all this it was not possible for me to avoyd all mention of his Principles in this Answer to a different Subiect since as hath been already intimated and will be seen by the Sequele whatsoever Charge he brings against the Catholick Church and which I pretend here to refute does scarce at all touch Her but lyes most heavily and unmoveably upon his Principles and on any Church acknowledging or adopting them He must therefore dispose himself with the greatest patience he can to be put in mind more then once or twice of his Principles and the fatall Consequences of them From which Consequences till he can effectually clear them he will have little cause to call as he hath done for an Answer to his former large Volume For if it shall appear by the ruine of his that the Principles of Catholick Religion only are solide and inexpugnable that is that the Catholick Church is indeed and to be acknowledged the Pillar and ground of Truth from whose Authority no Appeal is to be admitted then both his Former and latter Books are thereby sufficiently refuted as far as they condemn or but question any Doctrins whatsoever determined by her This being once established he will find his Books not having a few leaves gnawed by Ratts but unà liturâ entirely abolished §. 2. A Vindication of the Honour and Sanctity of S. Benedict c from the Doctours contumelious imputations 10. HAving given this Account of the Motiue and Design of this Treatise it is time to take into consideration the forementioned Heads of Accusation layd by the Doctour against the Catholick Church which he thinks of sufficient weight to deterre any one from ioyning in her Communion I will begin with that touching Fanaticism which though the Second in his Order yet principally concerned me to disprove and particularly that part of it which contains an Invective against the Life and Prayer of Contemplation commended and practised only in the Catholick Church it being a State which from the infancy of the Church hath been esteemed the nearest approching to that of Glorified Saints From whence notwithstanding he has taken occasion to vilify in particular the Authour of this ensuing Treatise Who is very well content to receive his proportion of Scorn with such companions as Thaulerus Suso Rusbrochius Blosius c. 11. Now the Doctour to the end he might make an entrance into his In vective with better grace has prepared a way thereto then which a more proper could not be found for such a purpose by producing on his Stage antickly disgvised the famous Teachers and Erectours of Schools for Contemplation S. Benedict S. Romuald S. Bruno S. Francis S. Dominick and S. Ignatius so exposing them like blind Samson to the derision of profane Readers for from Such only can he expect an applause for his impiously employed Wit And he will find in the end except Repentance prevent it that Selius his argument in the Epigrammatist wil prove a dangerous Fallacy 12. And to the end he may not too much boast of the Novelty of his invention and his profanely employed Witt I doe assure him that I my self being then a young Student in Oxford was witness of a far greater and if Fancy alone be considered far better deserved Applause given to a Preather who in a Repetition-Sermon to the Vniversity descanting on the whole life of our Saviour rendred him and his Attendants men and women Obiects of the utmost scorn and a version as if they all of them had been only a pack of dissolute Vagabonds and Cheats This the Preacher performed taking on him the person of a Iewish Pharisee and Persecutour of Christ. And he performed it so to the life that he would have shamed Lucian and raised envy in the Doctour himself But presently upon it changing his stile as became a Disciple of Christ he with such admirable dexterity and force of Reason answered all the Cavillations and Invectives before made that the loudly repeated Applauses of his Hearers hindred him a good space from proceeding Notwithstanding this the Grave Doctours and Governours of the Vniversity though much satisfied with his Intellectuall abilities yet wisely considering that a petulant histrionicall Stile even in Obiections did not befitt so Sacred a Subiect and that it was not lawfull to personate too naturally a deriding Iew obliged the Preacher to a publick Recantation-Sermon in the same Pulpit the Sunday following And this deservedly For Vitium simulari non potest Virtus potest 13. If the Doctour would now make a second Essay of his Witt and invention on severall Stories as we find them recorded in Holy Scripture he would perhaps find his Fancy as inventive and if Nature had denyed him the Devill would no doubt once more furnish him with Expressions as apt to move the Spleen and laughter of his present applauding Readers as any are now found in his Book by which means he perhaps may arrive at the glory to be acknowledged the Head of a New Sect of the Ecclesiae Malignantium And unless Report deceives us there are already severall Books of the Holy Bible descanted upon in a stile like to his and it may be the unhappy Authours conceive that the same Press may without an Imprimatur be allowed them also 14. It is not now my purpose to make a particular Vindication of each Saint traduced by him But considering the publick Interest obliging the whole Western Patriarchat and most especially England to be tender of the Honour of S. Benedict by whose Disciples if they were Fanaticks Christianity has been
make them write Non-sense by concealing their Sense And thus also he treats M. Cressy again in repeating severall passages of Sancta Sophia touching Contemplative Prayer For selecting from severall places certain abstruse Words and Phrases made use of by Mysticks to express as well as they can their conceptions he presents them all together in a heap before his Readers eyes and then miscalls them Vnintelligible Canting whilst in the mean time he leaves out the interpretation which M. Cressy gives of those words and phrases to make them intelligible Truly it is not without some scruple now that I take notice of any thing that such an Adversary as the Doctour shewes himself doth or can write on an argument so unfitt for Controversy as Contemplative Prayer is which cannot but he disgustfull to such a sensuall Palat as he shews his to be being willing to corrupt the Palats also of his Readers It may be e're long they will see a Treatise on this Argument demonstrating the substance of what so ever the Doctour finds fault withall in M. Cressy's Sancta Sophia to be suitable to what the Fathers of Gods Church have both from Tradition and from their own experience also delivered on that most Divine Subject And the Doctour shall have free leave without any future Reply once more to call what those Holy Fathers write unintelligible Canting and intolerable Non-sence though their expressions be parallelled and confirmed by numerous Texts of Holy Scripture In the mean time for the Readers sake I will here add some Reflexions upon what the Doctour has written 51. He proceeds further saying That the utmost effect of contemplative Prayer if intelligible and practicable is gross Enthusiasm And why Because forsooth M. Cressy says that by a diligent practise of such internall Spirituall Prayer the soule receives from God a heavenly light and Inspiration for her direction in all her actions according to the Psalmists words Accedite ad Deum illuminamini and according to the Prayer in his own Churches Liturgy borrowed from the Roman Fifth Sunday after Easter Lord from whom all good things doe come grant us thy humble servants that by thy holy Inspiration we may think those things that be good and by thy mercyfull guiding we may perform the same The word Inspiration therefore needs not trouble the Doctour neither by it is any other thing meant but Divine Grace which sayes he none denyes 52. Yet he must know that this Divine Grace obtaind by Spirituall Prayer constantly exercised though it be in its nature and Kind the same which every good Christian enioyes yet the lights and motions of it extend much farther even to the directing a person not only in necessary dutyes but to the sanctifiing of all his actions otherwise in their own nature indifferent and improving them for the perfectionating the soule in Divine love in soe much as those actions which are performed by ordinary good Christians meerly out of an impulse of Nature or for some sensuall satisfaction are by these done in obedience to the Divine Will discovered to them 53. And whereas to distinguish these Inspirations from those pretended to by Fanaticks it was sayd that in Contemplative persons these direct rather to not doing then doing when both these seem otherwise equally indifferent I wonder why the Doctour should be displeased with this He may remember that in the time of the late Vsurper when himself was a great leading Preacher all the actions almost of his Brethren were pretended to come from a Divine light and Inspiration all warranted by the Bible which Light more it seems to the Doctours mind directed them to nothing but doing viz to reform Religion to rebell against their King to pluck down Hierarchy to multiply Sects to usurp the office of Preaching without any Vocation to imprison Pillage kill their fellow subiects and the like But no such effects proceed from the lights and Inspirations of Internall livers among Catholicks they having the same Vocation that S. Mary Magdalen had leave the many businesses to Martha vnles God by their lawfull Superiours calls them to externall Emploiments which when he does he enables them to perform them with greater Perfection as we see by the Conversion of many Nations performed by such as had spent a great part of their lives in Solitude and Contemplation 54. It is most certain that if Luther Calvin Tindall and such Reformers had by Prayer disposed themselves for such lights as these and also followed the direction of them they would never have procured warre and bloodshed destruction of Kingdoms rebellions of Subjects tearing asunder Gods Church and sacrilegiously invading its revenues neither would they to satisfie their lusts have incesttuously polluted themselves with Consecrated Virgins in a word they would have done all things contrary to what they have done And if the Doctour himself had followed the guidance of such a Light he would never have published such a Book in which pretending to demonstrate that Salvation can scarce possibly be attayned in the Catholick Church whatsoever is alledged by him which truly concerns the Church it self may be contained in twenty or thirty pages whereas the Book it self consists of five or Six hundred all the rest being Scurrilous buffonries petulant revilings of Gods Saints imputing to the Church the Doctrins and practises of madmen or Sectaries condemned by the Church herself and any thing that he could take out of Dunghills which might be serviceable for his unchristian purpose to eradicate out of his Readers hearts Charity and all sense of humanity and all this without any provocation as if enraged to see that the same mercifull indulgence is not denyed to Catholicks alone which is allowed to himself and all Sects among us which vnanimously conspired to his Majesties destruction and of which not any one to this day has renounced the Principles which led them thereto as if I say in that rage his design was to expose innocent and peaceable subiects to all manner of Contempts affronts hatred and mischievous attempts of their fellow Subiects to the disturbance of the kingdoms peace and the renewing of our publick calamities and Tragedies to which he knows that thirty years since such books and Sermons were made use of as a Prologue 55. He must give me leave to add hereto that in the Principles at the end of his Book giving an account of the Faith of Protestants he has layd a foundation to support and iustify not only all manner of Sects but the worst effects of them I mean the late Rebellion and any other that may follow hereafter I will not say this was his Intention but the consequence may easily be demonstrated 56. For in the said Principles this being layd down by him as a ground of Protestancy That every sober enquirer into Scriptures may be infaillibly certain of all necessary Truths contained in them without any obligation to consult or however to obey Ecclesiasticall Superiours and
of Spirituall courage in not daring effectually to aspire to so glorious an Attempt 68. Wee must not here forget two Notable Saints which as the Doctour confidently pretends have given him sufficient advantage so to denigrate their persons as by them to cast an aspersion on the Church These are a Holy Widow and a Virgin S. Brigit and S. Catharine of Siena Both these had Supernaturall Revelations therefore says the Doctour they were Fanaticks But moreover their Revelations touching the Conception of our Blessed Lady do contradict one the other and the Revelations of both are allowed and of one confirmed by the Church in a Councill and by consequence the Doctour with assurance pronounces the Church to be a favourer not only of Fanaticism but Errour also To this purpose the Doctour 69. Hereto I answer 1. That all Catholicks acknowledge both these to have been Saints 2. And that each of them hath been favoured with Supernaturall Revelations the publick Office of the Church testifyes Thus much is confessed but it is utterly denyed that the Church does so approve them as to forbid any one to make iust exceptions against them as wee see many Writers on both sides have done she judges they may in generall be usefull to stirr up devotion in Readers minds but she does not confirme them as infallible For how could it be known to the Pope or Councill that any Speciall Revelation made or pretended to be made to another was from God unles the person also testify them by Miracles And it is observable that when examination is made of Miracles in order to the Canonization of any Saint the testimony of women will not be received Naturally imagination is stronger in them then judgement and whatsoever is esteemed by them to be pious is easily concluded by them to be true This I say upon supposition that such Revelations were not pretended by persons interessed on both sides of the Controversy about the Immaculate Conception And particularly touching S. Catharine of Siena Suares affirms That not any who have written her life have made mention of this Revelation It will suffise therefore to set down here what two illustrious Catholick Writers have declared touching this Point The former is S. Antoninus mentioned by the Doctour If you say saith he that some Saints have had a Revelation of these things as S. Brigit it is to be observed that other Saints who have wrought Miracles as S. Catharin of Siena have had a Revelation of the contrary And since true Prophets doe sometimes think that a thing proceeds from Divine Revelation which they utter of themselves there is not inconvenience to say that such Revelations were not from God but human dreames An example hereof may be found in the Prophet Nathan speaking to David proposing to him his dessign to build a Temple to God For David though he answered him by a Spirit of Prophecy the contrary hereof after wards appeared The other is Cardinal Baronius who treating of certain Revelations of S. Brigit and S. Mathildis hath these words I doe indeed honour and Venerate as is due those two Saints but touching the Revelations had by them or rather ascribed to them I receive only those which the Church receives which we know cannot approve things so repugnant 70. I am sorry I cannot impute it to so harmles a Principle as ignorance that the Doctour speaking of two Writers who both of them rejected these pretended Revelations of both these Saints as illusions and fancies adds What becoms then of the Popes and Councills Infallibility who have approved both By which words an unwary Reader will not doubt but that an Oecumenical Councill had made a Canon with an Anathema against all those who should not acknowledge all the Revelations of S. Brigit to have been Divine and the belief of them necessary to Salvation Whenas all that was done by the Councill was upon occasion of Invectives made against those Revelations by many Catholicks to require Ioannes a Turrecremata to peruse and give his judgment of them which being favourable the Councill saith he approved them that is freely permitted them to be read as contayning nothing contrary to Faith and good Manners Notwithstanding which kind of approbation we see liberty taken and with leave enough from the Church by many Writers to decry both the one and the other and there is scarce a Catholick alive that thinks he has an obligation to believe either of them §. 4. Visions c. no grounds of believing Doctrines among Catholicks 71. THe Doctour thinks it advantageous to his cause against the Catholick Church that it should be believed that Visions Revelations c. are made by Catholicks grounds of believing Severall points of Doctrin as Purgatory Transsubstanciation and Auricular Confession Indeed if he could prove that any such Points of Doctrine have been or the Point of the Conception of our B. Lady should hereafter be declared Articles of Faith upon no surer grounds than modern Miracles or Revelations it would have been the Maister-piece of all that he has or ever shall write But this he durst not say explicitely though perhaps he is willing his Readers should understand that to have been his meaning For then almost all the Councils of Gods Church would have confuted him since they professe that the only ground of their Faith is Divine Revelation made to the Church by Christ and his Apostles and conveyed to posterity in Scripture and Tradition 72. Now this the Doctour being I am sure not able to contradict is it to be esteemed a preiudice to Catholick Faith that Almighty God to confound Hereticks and establish the belief of Catholicks should in severall succeeding ages afford particular Revelations or enable his servants to work Miracles And that he has done so we have such a Cloud of Witnesses that credit must be denyed to History in generall if none of such Witnesses must be admitted As for the Doctour the only expedient made use of by him to invalidate their testimony is to produce it in a stile of Raillery 73. As for the instituting Festivalls for example of the Conception of our Blessed Lady c. it cannot be denyed but it is a Lawfull Church-institution and might at any time on any occasion be appointed And if on some Revelation supposed Divine an occasion was given to the Pope to ordain it this can be no prejudice to it being a Glorifying of God for the Blessed Virgin the Mother of our Lord her being either preserved as some Catholicks say or at least Cleansed as others from the common pollution of Originall Sin at her Conception without any determining which of these two hapned to her and so the Festivall is equally observed by Catholicks of either Opinion The like may be said of the Feast of Corpus Christi of S. Michael the Archangëll c. by none of which the least alteration was made in the Common Faith 74.
Councill to declare un-appealably the Truth and to do iustice upon the guilty parties Thus the Catholick Church is furnished against Schisms and none of these Defensive arms will the Doctour allow to any of his Protestant Churches and yet he confidently avows that Catholicks have no advantage 109. But let us consider what argumēts an over-weening witt can alledge to prove so strange an affection for he might as well have said That Goverment and such Government as obliges the conscience has not so much force to preserve men in Vnity as Anarchy has 110. As touching his Proofs which take up above an hundred pages our answer to them must be that we may yield him in a manner all the Premises of his faulty Sillogisms and must deny the Consequence of the Conclusions he would draw from them He tells us many Tragicall Stories of miscarriages of Popes how they revolted from the Empire and upon such revolting layd the foundation of greatnes to their See How afterward challenging to themselves a Supreme Temporall Dominion over the whole world they quarrelled with Emperours and other Christian Princes from whence followed rebellions massacres and a whole Iliad of all sorts of mischiefs Well this being granted what follows Therefore says he Papall authority in Gods Church is no good mean to produce peace and order nor consequently Kingly authority in the common wealth since notwithstanding it many Kings have exercised Tyranny and could not always prevent rebellions But S. Peter and S. Paul never thought of such an argument when the most abominable Monster that ever lived governed the Roman world It was to Nero that they commanded Christians to be subiect to pay taxes to yeeld honour c. and this not only out of feare of his power but also for conscience sake It was such an argument as this as the Doctour has reason to remember that was made use of to the destruction of the best King that ever governed this Island Be it therefore granted that after a thousand years of excellent order produced in the Christian world by the government of Popes some of their Successours for about an age or two caused intolerable disorders in the Church and Empire What follows Therefore a Supreme authority in Gods Church is of no good use at all Nay more all manner of Authority is useles for if any authority then Subordination and if Subordination then of necessity a Supreme 111. From hence the Doctour descends to a way of arguing yet less reasonable then this for he tells his Reader of I know not how many Schisms yet all of them after the Church was above twelve hundred years old for before there were scarce any and of yet later disorders since S. Bernards time by reason of quarrels between Bishops and Monastick orders about Exemptions and Priviledges likewise between Regulars and Seculars the other day in England and much more such stuff which Popes either would not or rather could not compose for feare of greater disorders by endangering Schisms yet more pernicious to the Church then the former And what would he conclude from hence The very same as before for his argument in brief is this Subiects are oft times rebellious to their Superiours therefore it were better there were no Superiours at all But might he not as rationally argue that God is Governour of the world yet notwithstanding this the far greatest part of the world not in one or two but in all ages from the beginning hath been rebellious to him therefore his Government is of small benefitt 112. As touching certain truly scandalous quarrells between Bishops and some Regulars concerning Episcopacy and the Churches Government the Doctour ought to have taken notice that never any Regular pretended Episcopacy to be Antichristian as the Doctours freinds the Presbyterians Independents and other later Sects have done Neither have they declared a Government by Bishops to be in it self indifferent or that Ordination and Consecration of Bishops and Priests is a meere Ceremony and conferred as well and Legally by Lay Magistrates as by Ecclesiasticks as the Doctour himself has done The whole controversy consisting among Catholicks about restraining some part of Episcopall Iurisdiction and maintaining Priviledges granted by some Popes to certain Regulars A vast difference therefore there is between Catholicks and Protestants in Disputes touching Church Government and utterly irremediable on the Protestants side whereas wee see it ended or at least silenced among Catholicks 113. But differences of this Nature are not considerable compared to those obiected by the Doctour in the last place which are touching Matters of Doctrin and as he pretends of Faith in which regard he says that the Church of Rome can have no advantage in point of Vnity above others And further he not content with this adds That the Popes Authority being acknowledged by Catholicks the fountain of Vnity and all Catholicks not agreeing in the Popes Infallibility Whereas both Catholicks and Protestants agree in the Infallibility of Scripture which is to Protestants a more certain way of ending Controversy therefore he concludes that Protestants have a more certain and safe way of Vnity then Catholicks For that the Pope has not a sufficient power to reduce to Vnity parties dissenting in Doctrinall Points of weight such as are the Controversies between the Iesuits and Dominicans about Grace and Free Will between the Dominicans and Franciscans about the Immaculate Conception c. is he saith evident since those quarrels have to this day continued many ages and are prosecuted with great eagernes 114. In this manner argues the Doctour whereto the Answer is obvious For. 1. he trifles with and abuses an unskilfull Reader in telling him that the Scripture being acknowledged on both sides to be infallible is a more certain way of ending Controversies then the Popes determination who is not by many Catholick believed to be infallible For how can a Writing the sense whereof is controverted end a Controversy And to say that a writing is of it self a surer mean to end debates then when interpreted by a Iudge to say this and to think to be believed is to call his Readers brutish irrationall creatures and to make all Tribunalls ridiculous 2. It is not the Popes Infallibility but his Authority which ends the Controversies either by Determining the Point in Controversy so as his Determination is accepted by the Church or at least by imposing Silence among Disputants till himself in a Councill unappealeably decide it By which way of imposing Silence severall eager Disputes have been ended by Popes as this age can witness 3. Though all Catholicks do in thesi acknowledge that they are obliged at least to silence when imposed by the Pope Yet it cannot be denyed but that some have not complied with this Obligation But this is not to be imputed to want of Authority in the Pope but to the unrulines of mens passions and pride And the same fault we see in Secular Tribunalls
quoties to sinners returning to their vomit and giving but small signs of their Will to relinquish sins the Doctour does very well to taxe it as a great hindrance indeed to a holy life But because some few have practised or perhaps taught this he does very ill to make this a Disswasive from ioyning to the Church herself expressly condemning in the Councill of Trent such a facility in Confessours saying The Priest of our Lord ought as far as his Spirit and prudence shall suggest to enioyn wholesom and convenient Satisfactions according to the quality of crimes and ability of Penitents Least if they should happen to connive at sins and be indulgent to their Penitents by enioyning sleight Pennances for grieveous Crimes they themselves become partakers of the crimes of others 125. Besides this the Doctour I believe is not ignorant though it was not for his purpose to take notice of it that not very long since among severall dangerous Positions collected out of some Modern Casuists such scandalous relaxations in administring the Sacrament of Pennance had a principall place all which were not only condemnd by the Bishops of France almost in every Diocese but also a Book the Author of which undertook to defend them was solemnly prohibited and condemned by the Pope since which time such Doctrins have been wholly restrained and silenced §. 8. Of conferring Absolution and Extreme Vnction in articulo Mortis 126. IN the next place for as much as concerns the conferring Absolution and administring the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction to persons in Articulo Mortis who do or have given any sign of Sorrow or desire of them the Church in her Rituall does no more then hath been the practise ever since the first Councill of Nicea And S. Augustin treating of this Subiect in a Sermon tells his Auditors that out of Charity and care to dying persons Gods Ministers upon the least testification of Sorrow in such patients administer the Sacrament to them though despairing that they shall live to doe works worthy of Pennance so leaving them to Gods mercy This they did by warrant from the first Councill of Arles and the Declaration of Pope Innocent But withall he seriously exhorts them to doe such works in time of health and not to to an Absolution conferr'd in such circumstances for though they may be confident of enioying the full effect of that Sacrament yet saith he I am not confident of i◠Yet notwithstanding such want of confidence he would not be wanting to them to afford them all his assistance in such a perillous hour And if the Doctour were seriously examined by any one of his freinds or by any but a Catholick whether in such circumstances he would refuse an Absolution I mean an Absolution according to his Mode by applying the Promises of the Gospell to his Patient Sure he would not say that his custom among his Parishioners is to bid the poor agonizant to goe to the Devill for there was no hopes for him He would no doubt tell him of Promises and bid him rely upon them though he will not permit Catholicks to do so 127. But the Doctour in prosecuting this Subiect alters his Method of proceeding For whereas generally in his Book he endeavoured to make Catholick Religion odious by telling Stories of the actions and Doctrins of particular persons disowned by the Church here he absolves some Catholick Doctours among the rest Monsieur Arnaud and charges the Church itself for teaching a Doctrin as he pretends manifestly hindring Devotion and a Good Life viz. in that her Canon Whosoever shall say that the Sacraments do not conferr Grace exopere operato let him be Anathema Now says he if Grace be effectually conferred by the force of the bare Externall action acknowledged by all Catholicks what need can there be of a true preparation of the mind by the exercise of Faith Prayer Repentance c. in order to the receiving the benefitt of them He further adds that thoug◠Cassander interprets this to have respect to the worth of the Priest as if his unworthines could hinder the Validity and Efficacy of Sacraments though the receivers be never so well prepared Yet saith he this cannot consist with the Councills meaning because in the twelfth Canon following it was condemned expressly and it is not to be supposed that the Councill would frame two Canons to condemn the same errour 128. Thus argues the Doctour but under favour deales not fairely in not citing the Councills Canon entirely which had he done would have spoyled his inferences from it The words are Whosoever shall say that by the Sacraments themselves of the New Law Grace is not conferr'd ex opere operato but that a belief alone of the Divine Promise is Sufficient for the obtaining Grace Let him be Anathema Which Canon was made specially against Luthers errour who attributed all good to Faith alone making the Sacraments entirely useless In which Errour I doe not know that he is followed by any Sober Protestants except the Doctour who by his discourse seems to renounce all benefitt from the Sacraments themselves he will owe Grace to nothing but his own Faith Prayer c. In his opinion the Sacraments of the New Law as well as the old are infirma egena elementa weak and beggarly elements But Scripture and Tradition have taught the Church and the Church us otherwise viz. That by Baptism the Grace of Regeneration is conferr'd that the Holy Eucharist is Semen immortalitatis that by Extreme Vnction and the Priests Prayers sins are forgiven c. 129. Neither from hence can the Doctour rationally inferr that there will be no need of a true preparation of mind by the excuse of Faith c. since the Church herself requires such preparation as the Doctour speaks of And the very term of Preparation implies that some Benefitt is expected to be received from the Work it self besides and beyond what is obtained by Preparations 130. But this being a Doctrinall Controversy and brought in only by the way in this his present discourse the prosecution of it ought to be reserved for his worthy Adversary if he think good Yet this right I will doe the Doctour that he has with Monsieur Arnaud justly censured one particular Writer who required as necessary for example to a worthy receiving of the most holy Eucharist no other preparation of mind but only an absence of Mortall sins to be had by Confession of them But will any rationall man judge that because there are found in a Church a few Teachers of Security and Sowers of pillows under mens Ellbows that therefore it is dangerous to be a member of a Church most free from warranting that Doctrin which is scarce received by one Bishop in it 131. Yea moreover if he would search among School-men who make the largest allowances in this business he will find that generally all require Faith and Repentance in
the Receivers of Baptism and these two joyned with Confession for the Sacrament of Pennance they require also the State of Grace that is the habit of Faith Hope and Charity and so of Devotion for the Eucharist c. And whosoever wants any such predispositions is reckoned by them among such as do Ponere obicem §. 9. Of Prayer for the Dead 132. ANother scandalous thing for which the Doctour accuseth the Church of Rome is her Charity Charity to the dead who are not able to help themselves and which evidently has been practised by all Churches from the beginning till Protestantism arose 133. But wherein lyes the fault of this Charity The Doctour tells us that the care of a good life is taken off among Catholicks by supposing an expâ—ation of sin by the Prayers of the living after death Whereas wee Protestants says he in our plain Doctrin teaching that every impenitent Sinner must expect no less then eternall vengeance in another world if this will not prevail upon men to leave their sins and lead a good life we cannot imagine a groundles fiction of Purgatory should ever doe it 134. Who would not think now that the Doctour in such a way of discoursing is willing that his Readers should believe that Catholicks very seldom if ever endeavoured to terrify impenitent Sinners with the threatning of eternall torments in Hell fire And no doubt if he had plainly said so he would not have wanted some believing Readers it being in this age so gainfull a trade to traduce Catholicks by odious false imputations both in pulpits presses and any where else 135. Therefore though I must not expect to be believed by all that I understand the Doctrin of the Catholick Church so well as the Doctour yet I will not forbear plainly to declare it Catholicks are taught 1. that finally impenitent sinners if guilty of mortall sins shall irremediably suffer everlasting torments of Hell 2. That Catholicks guilty of mortall or venial sins and repenting of them before death unless they also undergoe such Pennances and Satisfactions as the Church imposes or such as in any faulty indulgence of their Spirituall Superiours herein the quality of their sins and the imperfection of their Contrition in Gods iustice requires and by that means dye in perfect Charity and their Souls entirely purged from the stains of them shall suffer most greivous yet temporall punishments after death since no unclean thing remaining so can enter into the Kingdom of God 3. We are taught that many conditions are required of us to the end our Lords all sufficient Merits and Satisfactions may be applied to us by the Charity Alms and Prayers of devout Catholicks 136. Now such being the Catholick Doctrin touching this Point with what shew of reason can any one affirm that this Doctrin takes away the care of a good life It teaches all that Protestants teach touching the pains of Hell attending a wicked life and withall it teaches the terrible consequences of a tepid negligent imperfect though otherwise not bad life which Protestants do not teach Protestants require to Repentance only a change of life but the Catholick Church besides this requires Satisfaction for past sins herein following Primitive Antiquity whose Doctrine in this Point is thus declared by S. Augustin It is not Sufficient for a Penitent sinner to change his manners to the better and to recede from evill actions except for sins past Satisfaction be made to God by the dolour of Pennance by humble sighs and groans by the Sacrifice of a contrite heart and by Almsgiving c. Thus it is that the Catholick Church hinders a good life and thus do Protestants promote it 137. Yea but says the Doctour a fear of such temporall torments is in a manner taken away by an expectation of the Charity and Devotion of living freinds especially if the dead person had been rich and had left means of procuring Masses c. for his soule Be it so yet how ever some terrour there is to Catholicks restraining them from Security in an imperfect life which Protestants laugh at whilst they promise imperfect Soules with all their stains a present possession of heaven after death to be obtained not by laborious Good Works but by Faith that is a strong fancy that their sins are certainly forgiven and that they are of the number of Gods Elect in whom God sees no sins though themselves their neighbours see too too many 138. But the Doctour pleases himself in one great advantage which he has found against this Doctrine which is thus expressed by him How easy is it according to this Doctrin for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God But with his leave such easines of being saved is not thereby promised to rich men Yet thus much We will allow to the Doctour that in some small regard rich men may enioy an advantage as to Salvation which poor men want And this surely he will not deny when he considers that speech of our Saviour who though he had formerly said How hardly shall a Rich man enter into the Kingdom of heaven Yet speaking to Rich men he counsells them saying Make to your selves freinds of the Mammon of iniquity that when ye faile they may receiue you into euerlasting Tabernacles Which speech of his seems exactly pertinent to the present Subiect Here it is euident that Rich men by the ir riches may procure that which poor men for want of the Mammon of iniquity cannot 139. Yet in many other regards it is certain that poor men haue a very great advantage aboue the Rich being free from many Temptations and Snares to wich Wealth ease and plenty exposes men So that at least for escaping Hell and Purgatory the Poorer are in a much fairer and easier way The poor also are these Freinds here Spoken of by our Lord beloued of God who not only with ease enter into his Kingdom but by their credit can help to bring their rich benefactors thither also 140. But after all this the application of the Churches and particular persons Prayers and Suffrages for the Deceased that are Procured by the Alms of the Rich Whether it be not Vniuersall or whether to recompence this the Poor do not share more the Common Prayers of the Church not made with respect to particular persons the Church hath determined nothing And of these Common Prayers of the Church more applied to the Poor and freindles S. Augustin speaks thus J quote him because being a Father of great Reputation he may perhaps more safely escape the Doctours contempt and drollery A Question being putt to the said Father by S. Paulinus Bishop of Nola whether it were any benefit or advantage to the soule after death to be buried in the Memoriall or near the Shrine or Tombe of a Martyr he answered it was that so this might mind the Kindred or freinds of the Deceased to recommend such a soule to the
at the best a few Sensuall incestuous Fryars abroad and Popular Preachers at home yea as we have lately seen even Mechanicks Souldiers or any other ignorant persons actuated by the Spirit of Pride and Licentiousness to begin a Sect fitt for the palats and complexions of Seekers after Novelties 162. Matters therefore standing thus in these later times can any rationall man be perswaded that if any of those Holy Fathers cited by the Doctour had lived among us or if such Heresies had been spred among their Disciples and pretended to have been evidently deduced from Gods Word they would have been so zealous in their Exhortations to a promiscuous reading of Scriptures But how much think we would such their zeale have been cooled in case such an Architect of Principles as the Doctour is had been in Vogue in their times For Principles they are which evidently contain the most pernicious Soule-destroying Heresy that ever assaulted Gods Church Principles which banish Peace Charity Humility and Obedience vtterly from the Church and State Principles which if through Gods judgment they should generally prevaile what think you would become of our Saviours Promise for there would not be left in the world one Church at all true or false Since where every one is acknowledged the only inventer and Iudge of his own Faith there may meet a Multitude but it is no Church none having right over another errour and truth vertue and vice being equally Iustifiable Lastly these are Principles the admirable vanity of which I think was never paralleld by any Heresiarch but a certain Rhetorius mentioned by Philastrius who taught That all Heresies were in their precepts of life innocent and in their Doctrins true Omnes Hereses rectê ambulare vera docere 163. Non sum ambitiosus in malis I may with a good conscience protest that it is only Truth and a Charitable compassion to soules miserably seduced by so Comprehensive a Heresy as is contained in the Dostours Principles which hath moved mee to fix such a brand upon them Not that I suspect that he would approve such consequences but I am confident with all his skill he cannot avoyd them 164. Now I must acquaint the Doctour that my iust indignation against these Principles is heightned from my own unhappines if not guilt in being the first who gave occasion that they should be known and received into the Church of England This I am sure neither he nor perhaps any one now alive does know and therefore I will acquaint him with the true Story concerning them 165. As I remember it was in the year 1638. that I had occasion to accompany a Noble freind in a iourney from Dublin to London When we were ready to return I went to a Booksellers shop to search out some bâ—oks to be carried back into Ireland and among others I bought Daillé du vray usage des Peres a Book at that time not at all taken notice of That Book the same night I shewd to my Noble dear Lord Lucius Lord Falkland who perusing and liking the Contents of it desired me to give it him which I willingly did About a month after my return into Ireland he sent me a most civill letter full of thanks both in his own but especially in M. Chillingworths name for that small present telling me that that litle Book had saved him a most tedious labour of reading almost twenty great Volumes 166. This Mysterious speech I easily understood For M. Chillingworth a litle before was returned out of Flanders where he had professed himself a Catholick and being sent for by Archbishop Laud was strictly examined by him touching his Religion And whether he went to Masse or Common Prayer to whom he gaue this account That he had entertained such scruples touching Catholick Religion and withall was as yet so vnsatisfyed with the grounds of the English Protestant Religion that at the present his conscience would not permitt him to goe either to Masse or to Common Prayer And therefore with his Graces leaue he was resolued to spend a year or two in a solitude and the Study of Greek and Latin Fathers fully purposing to embrace that Religion which appeared to him most consonant to what the Fathers generally taught The Archbishop much commended his design and dismissed him with his blessing and a promise also that he should enioy entire liberty to prosecute so laudable a Study Very busy in this Study I found and left him in England But it was presently after interrupted by that vnlucky Book of Daillé which perswaded him to a light esteem of the Holy Fathers vpon whose authority he would no longer rely But yet this did not bring him into the Church of England so as to think himself obliged to belieue her Doctrins and whose authority he saw was much inferiour to the other and from all subordinate but diuided English Sects he had a horrible aversion and contempt Therefore without any long demurr he fixed his mind vpon Socinian grounds which he afterwards shewed in a litle Book of one of them which was an Answer to certaine Theses Posnanienses which Theses as J remember asserted the Authority of the Catholick Church in opposition whereto the Socinian reiecting all Externall Authority layd these very grounds of his Religion That in all necessary Doctrins the Scripture was clear Therefore euery sober Enquirer might with ease find them in it without any help of a Teacher or at least any obligation to believe him Vpon these grounds M. Chillingworth dilated his Discourses with much art and gracefullness of Stile in his Book against a learned Catholick writer And the same grounds so discoursed on Doctour Stillingfleet has contracted Methodically into his Principles And both these Books though manifestly destroying all Authority in the English or any other Church haue been patiently and quietly suffred yea commended by Superiours here to their infinit dammage as is seene at this day which dammage is J belieue more sensible to them since they see no considerable prejudice to Catholicks by them for J doe not remember to haue heard of any one Established Catholick Shaken in his Faith by such grounds Though I confess they obctructed a good while my entrance into the Catholick Church 167. Now it being certain that these Princi ples came originally into England from the Socinians a Sect maintaining a Fundamentall Heresy it is of small edification and less glory to the English Church in case as the Doctour pretends his Faith and hers are built on the same Principles that she should consequently acknowledge herself forced to desert the grounds vpon which she proceeded since the Reformation as being grounds by M. Chillingworths discovery found to be Sandy and ruinous and consequently acknowledge all her Articles of belief all her Laws Constitutions Canons c. misgrounded The consideration of this besides disreputation cannot but raise great Scruples in the minds of her Disciples and Subiects till she not only disavow
this her Champion but likewise assert her Authority by Answering all the Discourses of M. Chillingworth my Lord Falkland M. Digges M. Whitby Doctour Stillingfleet and severall other Doctours and Professours in the Vniversities who all exalt their Single judgments above her Authority 168. And as for Doctour Stillingfleet there is another task to be undertaken by him which I believe will give him excercise enough For he knowing that the Socinians as well as himself do make the plain evidence of Scripture in all necessaries to all Sober enquirers a Principle of their Religion and upon this Principle building their Heresy his Study must be to beat them from this Principle which can be done no other way but either by confessing that the Doctrin of Christs Divinity is not necessary to be believed or by demonstrating to them that they do not understand the plainest Texts of Scripture not having been sober enquirers into it This will be a task becoming such an Hectorean Controvertist as the Doctour is esteemed to be considering how even among his freinds the Socinâ—ans among all Protestant Sects are acknowledged to have been very Laborious and far most exact in interpreting the most difficult Books of Scripture and this not without good Success except where their iudgment has been perverted by a resolution to defend their peculiar Hereticall Doctrins Now by this time I believe the Doctour sees what a world of work his Principles have cut out for him which he is obliged to justify not only against Catholicks who abhorr them but Socinians also who invented them as necessary for maintaining their Heresy lastly against my Lords the Bishops his Superiours as I verily believe His Principles therefore being of so very main importance being the only considerable Subiect treated of in his Book my Readers must not wonder that in so short a Treatise I have so oft put him in mind of them since a horrour of the consequences of them forced me to look on them as mihi saepe vocandum ad partes monstrum nullâ virtute redemptum a vitijs §. 13. The Conclusion vvith Advices to the Doctour 169. THus much I judged sufficient to make up an Answer to those parts of the Doctours Book which do not purposely treat of a Doctrinall Controversy for no more was required from mee indeed not quite so much it being only the Section of Fanaticism in which J was particularly concerned But the others intruded themselves J know not well how and by that means forced me also to neglect observing the order in which they lye in his Book Which being no very great fault J hope a pardon from the Doctour will without much difficulty be obtained 170. J shall also stand in need of another pardon for a fault such as it is willingly committed and not yet repented of because J beleive except himself none will esteem it a fault It is this Observing in the Doctours Book a world of Quotations out of Authours which J never saw nor intend to see containing many dismall Stories and many ridiculous passages of things done or said by severall Catholicks in former and some latter times if J had had a mind to examine and say something as in Answer to them an impossibility of finding out those Authours must have been my excuse But J have a better Excuse then that For if the Doctour would have lent mee those Books out of his Library I should have thanked him for his Civility but withall I should have refused to make use of his Offer For to what purpose would it have been to turn over a heap of Books to find out Quotations in which neither the Church nor myself were any way concerned Not concerned J say though they had been Opinions or Actions even of Popes themselves being assured that at least never any Pope how wicked soever ha's brought any Heresy into the Church It is to me all one whether all his Allegations be true or false as to any advantage he can make of them against the Catholick Church unless the Doctour will undertake to demonstrate That it is unlawfull or but considerably dangerous to be a Member of a Church where any persons doe or have lived who have been obnoxious to Errours or guilty of ill Actions 171. Yet J must acknowledge that in one regard a Book written in such a Stile as the Doctour's is may have an influence on the Whole Church and against his intention produce a good effect in it For it may be hoped that Catholicks of the present Age will seriously consider the horrible consequences of seditious licentious and otherwayes unwarrantable Doctrins and Practises of a few Catholicks in former times which have not only been pernicious to the Authours themselves but by the Scandalousness of them have exposed the Church her self how innocent soever to the detestation of such who are without For Sins when Scandalous are an Vniversall and never ceasing Plague which moved our Saviour to say Vae mundo a Scandalis Woe to the whole world because of Scandalls 172. Hoping therefore that by occasion of the Doctours Book such a Benefit may accrew to his Catholick Readers as to render them more watchfull over themselves to prevent hereafter the like Scandals J think my self obliged in requitall seriously to advise him touching the dangerous State he is now in as to his Soule in regard likewise of Scandall He would laugh at me if I should tell him that this danger proceeded from his not being a Member of the Catholick Church It is not that therefore that I now mean though Woe unto him if in the day of Iudgment he be found separated from our Lords Mysticall Body 173. Not to hold him in suspence J take leave to admonish him that since the world sees that he manifestly professes himself a Member of the English-Protestant Church established by Law his Mind must either answer to his Profession or he must be a shamefull Hyppocrit Now in case he be not an Hypocrit he is desired as a genuine English-Protestant to cast his eyes on and to examine severall of the first Constitutions of his Church there he will find an Excommunication denounced ipso facto against all such as shall in the manner there expressed openly oppose any thing contained in the Nine and-thirty Articles in the Books of Common Prayer and of Ordinations of Bishops and Priests c. Which Excommunication is there declared to remain in force till the Offender repent not of his boldness and disrespect but of his Wicked Errour which he ought to revoke 174. After he has considered this he may please to reflect on his Book called Irenicum not to mention his Sermons during the late Rebellion and so comparing together the said Constitutions ratifyed with an Excommunication and his own Book let him ask his conscience whether he has not incurred this Excommunication of the Legality and Validity whereof he being now supposed a declared Protestant cannot nor ought to