Churches Monasteries old Hospitals and Colledges with the old forms of government and Statutes which without book are conveyed from hand to hand as in fasting keeping such and such holy daies in memory of certain miracles obtained by invocation of particular Saints Annual obsequies and solemn prayers for the dead benefactors institution of certain Masses to that and such other ends if they can read in running over the Chronicles and Histories of our country where you shall observe a constant memory of all these old truths but not any innovation or change of faith was ever noted by any Historiographer for so many ages together insomuch that our countryman Gulielmus Neubrigensis in his History l. 3. c. 3. witnesseth that neither Puritanisme nor any other heresy could fasten upon England though in alijs mundi partibus tot plluluaverint haereses all other parts of the world had been infected with them A great testimony written by so knowing a man in point especially of our Histories And Wicklef's case confirms all for he got grounds a thousand miles hence as in Bohemia but here was decayed before he was well born or what is more brief that the Church of England retained her primitive communion as well with the Roman as with all other Churches dispersed throughout the world except those which for heresie or schism were noted by the Councels besides our own Histories no Councel no Ecclesiastical History ever imposed the contrary upon our nation yea it appears by all monuments holy and profane that England did positively and clearly communicate with all other or what is all one that England conserved her primitive faith untouched and that was as is shewed before the Catholick faith or the faith of the Catholick Church therefore England till Henry the eighth was a member of the true Church of Christ from which he revolting made her Schismatical All this is witnessed by Ball in his Catalogue and Dr. Humfries Jesuitismes p. 2. and B. Usher in his tract of Succession whereunto an infinity of Protestant writers agree Some will say as of late a Protestant Doctor did that England was not therefore noted in this because there was none to note her besides her own in the West but it appears that invocation of Saints and many other doctrines were brought in as a matter of faith against the ancients that is to say that the Church of Rome did bring in those innovations in the Councel of Trent To this I answer First that the Doctor did not well observe into what a precipice this would cast him for if there were no known professions of Christ but such who were ours it 's evident that then the Roman Communion was the onely Church of God even then when it was in his judgment at the worst or else there was no Church This many of their greatest men have acknowledged as Perkins saith that for many hundred years this Communion had possessed the whole world Napier upon the Revelations that for a thousand years Popery had over-swayed the world to the same tenure many more of them speak All which concludes what I said I answer secondly That the first and purest times of the Church taught the same Truths as almost every one of them is confessed by those of Magdeburge in the fourth Century dedicated to Q. Elizabeth where they give us a list of Justification by works merits Sacramental confession Tradition Invocation of Saints Purgatory Transubstantiation the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass miracles obtained at the reliques of Saints c. This testimony had from Protestants that is from a body of the most learned Protestants who joyntly had studied and examined ex professo the differences betwixt us were enough alone Daneus in his tract of the Church a very fierce Protestant dividing the whole time since Christ into ages giving to the Apostles the first age specifies that even then virginity was introduced as more worthy then marriage The Sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ and there was reverence used to the very symbols Parum importune a great deal to soon Traditionum indigesta moles whole heaps of Traditions were unwisely brought in ordination of Church ministers with anointing them which was also used in baptism extream unction and the like Bishops Primatus ecclesiae Romanae nescio qua credulitate in coelum sublatus est The Roman seats Supremacy I know not by what easie belief was even then cryed up to the very heavens and so began mysterium iniquitatis the great mystery of iniquity A fair confession and in the next age he is more prodigal but here is enough for any ingenious man if you would also read him upon St. Augustine his tract of heresies how he inverts the judgement of the old Church and will have those doctrines which then were esteemed heresies to be true doctrines and in this he shews how Protestants are constrained to turn the Church upside down which is indeed true Protestancy to make all old and first Christians heretiques with us To whom our country-man Perkins in his Problems agreeth bewayling that Gods Church above thirteen hundred years ago was polluted and overspread with these errors Usher in his latine book of Succession of Protestant Religion which in the frontispiece promiseth a deduction from the Apostles downward in the book it self he doth not once make any reall pretence to it as if he had wholly forgotten what was promised in the title he turns himself to discover where there is the least shadow the imperfections of our forefathers as if he gloried to see their nakedness which Christian Charity and modesty would cover but to shew the existence of any Protestantisme he doth not once touch it till the Albigenses began 1170. years after Christ wherein it is also most evident that he gaineth little to his purpose though after much strugling All this must needs convince what before in gross was declared from consent of Councels and the constant sense of the whole Church I answer thirdly As Christians have in all ages upon the same pretences replied to sectaries that some of these points were more explicitly declared in the councel of Trent against these new hereticks but they were generally preached every where even by the Greeks beleev'd before as all writers even our adversaries confess Nay Luther's own writings free the councel of Trent from this calumny because he accused the Church of all these things before the Councel of Trent was dreamed of it being convocated to repress his innovations or new condemnations of these general received truths otherwise not Luther but those Catholicks which first opposed him had been noted and accused of novelty by the rest of the body of the Church And further no man is ignorant that before the Councel of Trent England by Henry the eighth by B. Fisher by Sir Thomas Moore in his works as also in his Tindal c. Germany by Eckins Daventrius Vervesius Hofmesterus and others yes the universal Church
true that they made the division from the Catholick Church but did it rightly and worthily for the intollerable errors and damnable doctrins which then infected the whole Church and therefore they followed the command of the voice of God Apoc. 18. Go out of her my people that ye be not made partakers of her sins The damnable doctrins are by themselves reduced cheifly to Idolatry the other differences they conceive may be more easily swallowed and indeed this were a capital one if true and it were no less strange that the Church of Rome which reduced this Island and most part of the two worlds from Idolatry should it self knowingly teach or practise it and no less strange that these few men after so many yeers should see these gross abominations which such an infinity of learned men in so long time nor yet can finde or judge to be so Idolatry according to Divines is taken for a religions worship due to God and given to any creature In this all Christians agree The Church of Rome in the holy Sacrament of Eucharist giveth indeed Divine worship out of infallible supposition that under those Elements is the body and blood of Christ accompanied with his Divinity they do not give it to the accidents no not to the body and blood of Christ properly and precisely but to the Divinity so precise they are in the Divine worship whence it is clear that they do not direct their worship to a creature but to God and though they cannot but involve in their adoration his presence under the Accidents of bread and wine yet do not formally terminate their act to this presentiallity of Christ in the Sacrament which is but a relative a very extrinsecal accident and consequently not capable to terminate a divine worship whence we see the proper object is Christ who certainly is existent and therefore in this they are not mistaken even in all sectaries opinions and therefore there can be no Idolatry even though Christ had not that new ubication under the Elements of bread and wine that being the accessory not the principal which they aim at for they adaequately direct their action to Christ present not to the presence it self abstracting from Christ so that their mistake would be in a circumstance not in a substance and therefore even admitting that impossible supposition yet there would be no Idolatry The other particle is their worship of Images which in no wayes can be called Idolatry First because they do not at all teach Divine worship to be due to them as is clear in the Councel of Trent and as all knowing Protestants will confess Secondly many great Schoolmen do not hold any worship at all to be precisely directed to them it is suffient reverently to retain them and by them to be raised up in devotion to the thing represented by them as by a picture of Christ to be called upon to remember Christ c. As they think it is deducible out of the Councel of Trent Out of which it is evident that the Church of Rome is injuriously defamed of Idoltary And here I wonder much at Mr. Hobbs in his book De Cive who otherwise singularly deserving in moral and socratical Philosophy would so easily preoipitate his judgement in points of this nature He saith in his Chapter 15. n. 18. That if the Common-wealth should command to worship God under a picture that the people were-bound to do it In his Annotations upon the same place he calls himself in question for antilogies in this particular for in n. 14. He had taught that to worship God by a picture or any Image were to limit God to a certain terme which were against the law of nature touching Gods worship which surely destroys the first position To the answer of this he saith the offence would be in the commanders not in the obeyers by reason they worship him thus upon compulsion He adds that if God should specially forbid to be worshiped by the use of an image that then such a command could not be obeyed as it is in the decalogue were expresly Idolatry is prohibited Afterwards in the 16. Chapter n. 10. treating of the ten Commandments he saith that to worship God by an Image is against the law of nature as he said in the 15. c. n. 14. These seem to be strangely inconsistent propositions First the power which he saith n. 17. in the 5. Chap. To be transferred to Magistracy from the people in determining Gods worship he confesseth that it ought to be according to reason He confesseth also in his Annotation cited that to worship God under an Image were against reason because Idolatry not onely because now God hath forbidden it as he saith but in it self namely because as he said before it were to prescribe a term to his infinity and consequently to make God to be finite Whence it followes first that though Idolatry is against the light of reason and therefore intrinsecally wicked yet knowingly I might do it if commanded by a Magistrate so that an inferior power namely a power derived from my self can command me that which is absolutely prohibited by the highest power as is that of nature and I am bound to obey it with neglect of the other though supreme yet the Magistrate cannot command it but against reason and therefore such a command cannot be obligatory because in his 5. Chapter and n. 17. reason is the limit of that power Are not these inconsistences Again he saith that moral compulsion for a command is no more would render an act of Idolatry lawful because it would exempt it from Idolatry This is destructive of all religion and truly of reason in all Schools of Philosophy where Aristotle in his Ethicks and all others teach that we must lose our lives for vertue it self Again he saith that if God make a positive law to the contrary as he supposeth he hath that then I may not obey the former command of a Magistrate how this is reconcilable to his former tenet that worshiping God by Images is against the law of nature and yet onely unlawful if commanded by Magistracy because in the Decalogue or positive law it is again forbidden I know not for surely this law is inferior to that of nature according to all men and reason it self being the law of nature is drawn from the very nature of the thing it self That God hath forbidden Idolatry I doubt not in his first Commandment but whether to worship God by the use of Images is there forbidden Or whether it be Idolatry would deserve Mr. Hobbs his greater diligence to prove it For surely to say that it were a confinement of his Infinity would be as far from a proof as it is from truth clear in the light of reason and evidently against Scripture where we are taught to glorifie God in and by his creatures according to the 18. Psalm Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei c. The heavens speak
Gods glory How they do speak it they can declare no more then they are according to Mr. Hobbs and therefore onely things finite which is to confine God against the drift of the Psalms Philosophy and Scriptures teach us to finde God by his creatures as St. Paul 1 Rom. 20. remits us to the creatures Invisibilia à constitutione mundi per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur our understanding of God is from these visible things nay it is the onely natural way we have from the effect to finde the first cause and not from the first cause the effect and all things without his confinement So by pictures we ascend to what is represented not tying our selves to the manner in our worship of God under that representation In the pursuit we relinquish the manner and going forward with our discourse we find and with our devotions follow the Infinity of Gods goodness All representatives are essentially inferior to the Prototypes by many degrees yet safely conduct us to the knowledge of them without abasing their natures to the Images So here and all acts of acknowledgment of God in and by his creatures for we know the effect cannot equalize the first cause especially neither in nature nor in manner of existence and therefore we conclude Gods supreme essence and goodness to transcend all we see in the like manner we easily ascend by the use of pictures neither can we do otherwise if we use our reason so that there is no danger of Gods confinement and therefore no Idolatry I remember that Cassian in his Collations tells us of a poor ignorant Monk who out of error had framed to himself in his narrow imagination a conceipt of Gods being corporal and could very hardly be brought to entertain higher thoughts of Gods spiritual essence being unwillng to relinquish his Phantastically ill framed Image of God We are much beholding to Mr. Hobbs who is so tender of Christians dulness that least by their Images they should conceive God to be finite or corporal with this poor Monk he would remove all picturs though God himself not so careful as Mr. Hobbs hath been pleased to talk and walk with Adam which are acts of a corporal and finite creature and othertimes to make resemblance as if he had appeared in corporal shape as to Moses perchance to Jacob and others nay even the Son of God appearing in our poor nature all which would draw us into errors if God had not by his Prophets Apostles and daily by his Church and even by reason taught us the right use of such passages and to know that those sensible representatives were onely conductives to God himself as we teach Students by emblems to conceive things more remote from their present capacity All which will warrant our use of Images yet without Gods confinement and consequently without Idolatry Neither would this if true any way excuse them from sacrilegious Schism except all were compelled to Idolatry St. Augustine saith there can be no just necessity to cut off unity l. 2. Cont Ep. Parm. c. 2. and as he elsewhere Ep. 166. Our Heavenly Master hath so much admonished us to take heed of this That he would make the common people secure even of evil superiors that not for them the chair of saving doctrin should be destroyed Therefore the chair ought not to be forsaken much less destroyed for the errors of the Presidents O how St. Cyprian doth purge that poison of theirs to the quick Epist l. 3. Ep 2. If there be seen darnel to be in the Church our faith and charity ought not to be hindred thereby that because we see darnel to be in the Church we therefore leave the Church c. The Apostle in the second Epist to Timothy 2. saith In a great house there are not onely vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth and certain indeed unto honour but certain also unto contumely but it is onely lawful for God who hath a rod of iron to break the earthen vessels c. Let not any one assume to himself what the Father alone hath given to his Son c. It is saith he a proud obstinacy and sacrilegious presumption which wicked fury assumeth to it self Let our Country men think sadly of this It is objected to me that the Church of Rome doth force her Proselites to beleeve falshoods perniciously under Anathema in the Councel of Trent I answer That if we should make an impossible supposition against all the promises of Christ that the Church should in necessary points teach errors yet even in that case every child of the Church must exteriorly carry himself quiet and not make commotions for that were to seek a cure worse then the disease as in the like impossible supposition our Country-man Waldensis l. 2. c. 27. teaches Non perperam insilire debet He must not leap against the Churches face in rebellion Neither is he bound to beleeve an untruth nor yet is one in danger to incur the censure For the Church cannot reach the minde onely God in a just sentence confirming her act reaches home which cannot be in this case for he should confirm an injustice Whence it followeth that no man is or can be compelled to beleeve untruths but onely not to make Schism which by divine law is forbidden And therefore St. Augustines rule is still true There cannot be no necessity of cutting off the Church unity no not in supposition that she should command great errors But you will not object that if the articles commanded by the Church are in themselves true yet if I cannot perceive their truth after all diligence used to that end it were hypocrisie in me and therefore unlawful to adhere to that Church I conceive though falsly teacheth and commandeth false doctrins and extraordinary practises upon those grounds This truly is most seriously objected by some but without all Solidity For surely Christians are obliged by the law of God and reason to depose their own false judgments in obedience to God his Church else this will open a gap to all itching ears of whom we are premonished to introduce each man his fancy and prefer it before the wholesome doctrins of Christ delivered by his Church Neither is it difficult for man though learned to depose his own judgment especially in order to external actions for it is daily done by all sorts of timorate consciences who do mangre their own reason direct themselves by the authority of such whom they know to be more learned then themselves Mr. Hobbbs Chap. 15. and n. 13. saith unusquisque rationem privatam rationi totius civitatis submittere potest Here he labours to lay the grounds of the derivation of power in the Common-wealth to determine what belongs to matters of religion which he faith that the people have transferred to the Magistrate He proves it as he faith evidently I examine it not being pertinent to
beleeving and doing what she propounds and prescribes shall attain unto eternal salvation which sufficiently followeth out of what hath been said in the first Chapter if well attended much more also might be produced from Christian discoursing upon principles of holy Scripture and consent of old and modern Doctors But to bring our Doctors here is superfluous labour seeing Protestants with whom I have dealt sincerely acknowledge and ingeniously confess so much and many of them of no small account have delivered in books that the Church of Rome is the Church of God and that the errors in her are not so much as do overthrow the foundation of Salvation and therefore with them many have and may now be saved So Morton Regn. Jer. page 94. the Papists are to be thought of the Church of God because they hold the foundation of the Gospel which is faith in Christ Jesus the Son of God Hooker Eccles Polit. page 140. we willingly acknowledge Papists to be of the family of Christ Covel Apol. ad Archep Cant. we affirm those who are of the Churh of Rome to be part of the Church of Christ and those who live and die in the Church of Rome may notwithstanding be saved and he accuseth the Puritans of ignorance that think the contrary Soame Apol. p. 146. if you think that all Papists that die in the Papistical Church are damned you think absurdly and you dissent from the judgment of learned Protestants D. Burlo in his 3. Sermon ad Clerum saith I dare not deny c. D. Laud late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in his great volume against the Jesuite doubteth not of ordinary Papists salvations and of late Doctor Taylour in his liberty of Prophecying out of his principles necessarily concludes so much in his twentieth Paragraph and number the 3 d. he speaks thus They keep the foundation c. and therefore all the wisest personages of the adverse party allowed to them possibility of Salvation whilest their errors are not faults of their will but weaknesses and deceptions of the understanding c. The foundation of faith stands secure enough for all these vain and unhandsome superstructures c. Chillingworth hath both the same tenents frequently and as you may gather by his maner of expression he grants them yet very plainly though unwillingly somtimes he saith that they are not damnable othertimes that they are damnable in themselves but not to Catholicks except they stick to them out of affection of error It was well he added this else he had in one stroke broken the whole phantastick fabrick of his verbal not rational volume flashy no way substantial as any sober man will judge The whole result of his work is that every man beleeving Scriptures and feriously labouring to deduce a probable sence out of them is sufficiently provided for in order to his salvation which is to exclude a necessity of communion with any in point of Religion as every man seeth against all Scripture and the Creed This is by the way There are indeed some amongst them as Field Usher and others who seem somtimes to speak more rigidly touching Catholiks Salvation But they observe not how repugnant this is to a generally admitted and cried up principle amongst them which is this namely that they differ not from us in fuundamentals or necessaries By this they labour hard to make their breach from from us not to be damnable being they differ not in points of necessary belief Which if it hath force doth it not inevitably and with more strength conclude a security for us We must therefore conclude that whether they will or no they do all conclude a possibility of salvation for us adhereing to our faith delivered from our forefathers and to omit innumerable others King James shall serve for all for he speaks in the name of all in his speech to the Parliament Novemb. 9. 1605. we rightly saith he confess that many Papists especially our progenitors putting their onely trust in Jesus Christ and his merits may and are frequently saved detesting according to that and judging the cruelty of the Puritans worthy of fire who will grant no salvation to any Papists Yea D. Potter in his book set forth by the command of King Charles pag. 76. 77. confesseth that those things which Protestants think erroneous in the Roman Church are not in themselves damnable to those who beleeve as they profess and that all may be saved with them who bona fide beleeve and profess the Roman Religion as long as they finde no motives sufficient whereby their judgment is convinced that they be in error To conclude all Protestants of any moderation who are not poysoned with the tincture of rigid Calvinisme freely confess that Catholicks in their religion may be faved and do accuse them of want of Charity that they do not think so of them So our adversaries are our judges as appears by their own confession that we may attain unto salvation in the Church of Rome I could give you a longer list but it were superfluous in a confessed doctrine CHAP. 3. Schism is an enormous Crime SChism if we look upon the force of the word it signifieth division if it be in the civil common wealth it is called Sedition if in the Church Schism or the same word may be used for both and be distinguished by Epithites in the one case it is civil Sedition in the other Ecclesiastical Division The Church may be divided two wayes first by revolting from faith which doth not only make Schism but heresie hence it is that they who fall from the faith and doctrin of the Church setting up their contrary opinions as Arrians Macedonians and the like are not onely termed Scismaticks but Hereticks Secondly the Church is divided by revolting from the chief Pastor or general Councels by disobedience or from communion with the other members although faith be conserved intire and this makes pure Schism as it is distinguished from heresie So the Donatists and Meletians at first keeping the faith of the Church but abstaining from communion with the other members in divine worship prayer and other holy rites or when they erected altar against altar then and not before they were properly accounted Schismaticks from whence it is gathered that although Schism continuing is wont to degenerate into heresie because as St. Hierom saith in Tit. 3. There is no Schim which doth not frame to it self some heresie that they may seem to have just cause to revolt from the Church Hence St. Augustine l. 2. contra Cresconium c. 7. Schism is a new revolt Heresie is an inveterate Schism yet speaking in rigour heresie violating the faith of the Church Schism breaking her charity they are both grevious sins seeing they seperate from the Church and consequently from the head which is Christ But now we will onely treat of the greviousness of Schism There are a sort of people who cannot conceive that a Christian Common-wealth
this supreme obliging power in matters of faith and manners and upon the same ground hath always esteemed such hereticks in a damnable condition who have not as well beleeved or adhered to her proposals in faith in one subject as in another and as well to the end of the world as in the primitive times But they say that the burden of Christian religion will be greater then of the Jewes and intollerable if all are obliged to every declared truth in the Church which is contrary to Christ who saith Mat. 11. that his yoak is sweet and his burden is light This is easily answered in order to the Community of Christians whose implicite faith in the superstructures is sufficient according to the generally taught and received doctrin of Doctors Pastors indeed and Doctors have higher obligations to be able to give an account of their faith which obligation is much alleviated by the Synopses of Faith which the Church clearly and yet very contractedly propounds to keep them principally from misunderstanding the holy mysteries of our faith This is the weightiest objection which I finde in Mr. Hobb's besides those which I shall presently touch St. Chrysostome in his 10. homily upon St. Mathew in the person of Christ complaines of Mr. Hobbs Nolite de difficultate conqueri quesi qui doctrinam meam molestam esse dicatis we must not say Christ's doctrin is troublesome least with the Capharnaits we be committed abire retro to be put in the back side of Christ's book Surely St. August found Christian religion in another posture then Mr. Hobbs would have it in his 5. Chapter to Volusian Where he saith that Tanta est Christianarum profunditas literarum ut in eis quotidie proficerem si eas solas ab ineunte pueritia usque ad de erepitam senectutem maximo otio summa studio meliori ingenio conarer addiscere c. He experienced the mysteries of Christianity far to transcend the synagogue he esteemed his whole life though it were imployed in nothing else not to suffice for a perfect understanding of Christian profundities surely they were not so vulgar as Mr. Hebbs would have them There was among the Jewes a difference in points of faith some were ut adirces as the foundation of the rest the denying whereof would have destroyed the whole law others as rami branches where the danger was not so considerable These R. Menassieth in the beginning of his Treatise of the creation of the world declareth So in Christian Religion some things are simply necessary without which heaven is not to be gotten as the faith of Christ c. which our school-men place sub necessitate medij that is as absolutely necessary of which sort there are not so many Other things are necessary onely ex suppositione that is upon supposition that they are made known to us or sufficiently declared then there is necessitas praecepti a command to imbrace them and surely this is no great burden I will also touch that impertinent objection of the Socinians that the Church of Christ is a congregation of all Christians or of all who beleeve in Christ and not of any select body of them and consequently there are no hereticks to be declared so by any sentence of the Church but onely those are hereticks who by their own judgement are such as the Apostle speaketh That is such who against their own judgment do resist known truths not such who by a councel or body of men are declared such This to beleevers is easily made evident to be impious First That Christ hath a Church he hath said it that he also hath instructed her with a regitive power he hath also said it and said both together in these words Dic Ecclesiae and therefore addeth to such as obey not her decrees si eam non audierit sit tibi tanquam Ethnicus et publicanus we must complain to the Church for emergencies and she hath power to excommunicate if we obey not If this be true as it is in other crimes and causes it will easily conclude in the chiefest crime of heresie else we must blasphemously say that Christ hath made provision for the lesser difficulties and not for greater which is to condemn his omniscience or providence Again this regitive power is confirmed in the acts and attributes to the Holy Ghost Spiritus Sanctus vos constituit Episcopes regere Ecclesiam Dei Of this the new Testament in doctrin and practise is aboundant Further that the Church hath power to declare hereticks is evident besides the immediate consequence of it out of Christs words related out of the doctrin and practise of the Apostles They did teach how or did institute the manner post secundam monitionem to declare and excommunicate for heresie they also did declare de facto hereticks as is evident in almost all their Epistles and the Apocalipss and did forbid all commerce with them which is to excommunicate which they did for their false and seditious tenents or innovations in faith as is clear in the texts whence it followeth first that the Church hath this power as first Simon Magus for teaching it lawful to buy the Holy Ghost Secondly the Jewish Christians who taught it lawful to use Sacramental circumcision under Christ were excommunicated by St. John c. Whence it followes secondly that the Church is not a body of all Christians but of all who do joyn in the unity and integrity of faith else if declared by the Church to be hereticks they are no longer of her because by authority derived by Christ they are cast out of her Their own interior guilt will serve to accuse them in the Court of God in Heaven but it is the judicatory act of the Church upon their pertinacy which condemneth them in Earth and this sentence is confirmed in Heaven Quaecunque alligaveritis c. Mr. Hobbs in his 18. Chapter n. 2. requires two vertues necessary to Salvation Faith and Obedience Faith hath no other latitude in her acts then to beleeve Jesus to be Christ n. 5 6. and so forward Besides internal faith he saith that there is necessarily required a profession of many other articles which summarily are contracted compacted into that we call the Creed As he had touched before Chap. 17. n. 21. and afterward more fully in his Annotations to the number 6. Yet he esteemed not Christians bound to beleeve but to profess these if required This seems a bull in Christianity to be bound to profess in matter of belief what I am not bound to beleeve yet this he asserts Chap. 18. n. 6. necessary to salvation out of title of obedience That is I am bound to profess that I do beleeve what I am not bound to beleeve I propound this to Mr. Hobb's second thoughts he boggles much upon it in his Annotations utters evident contradictions and yet he comes not off Nay he saith ch 18. n. 14. that it is enough if one endeavour
to beleeve them though he doth not but he must profess them when he is required Is not this to put a lie upon himself for a man to profess to beleeve what he doth not beleeve Nay is not this to put a lie upon Christianity He adds that he cannot exclude such from heaven who internally do not assent to articles declared by the Church if they do not contradict but being commanded will grant them this last particle of external acknowledgement is more modest then I have yet found in any of our Country-men though it cannot be digested by a resonable man that I may profess what I do not beleeve The texts of Scripture whereby he proves the internal belief of Jesus to be Christ sufficient to salvation are very weak in principles of Christianity For besides whom I have named already who were condemned by the Apostles for beleeving false doctrin There were also the Nicolaitans in the Apocalips Chap. 2. Who following Nicolas one of the first seven Deacons who beleeving in Christ yet taught it lawful to commit fornication and to eat meat offered to Idols were heavily threatned from God by St. John so also those hereticks whom St. John signifieth by Jesabel who taught it lawful to do the same Neither will it help Mr. Hobbs his Tenet That Jesabel is said to teach that is not onely beleeve eternally those errors for those of the Church of Thyatira were threatned because they did beleeve those false doctrins and the Apostle St. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy v. 3. useth this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he giveth to Timothy power to denounce to hereticks not to teach otherwise then they had been taught neither is his discourse of faith in Christ but of superstructures as the course of the text sheweth and in it he forbids any to beleeve them In fine it is clear in all Ecclesiastical monuments as well Historical as Doctrinal that from the Apostles to this day not onely such who denied Jesus to be Christ who were properly Infidels or Apostates but who beleeved not any other article propounded by the Church universal as necessary were esteemed hereticks and in state of damnation All the texts for the sufficiency to beleeve in Christ in order to salvation except in cases afore mentioned are understood of all things which belong to faith in him in which is comprehended his Church instructing in all necessaries or else the faith in Christ nakedly understood by Mr. Hobbs would exclude all those benefits which we beleeve to be obtained by him It is true that in particular cases as I noted an implicite faith of many of them might suffice as in the Thief where he had not time for other instruction or profession yet it is evident he beleeved in the whole when he cryed Memento Mei c. But these extraordinary cases are nothing to the ordinary course of Gods providence which we onely touch And thus the Church of God from and with the Apostles always understood this matter and accordingly in her Councels squared her practise But as I said before of the Thief so of the Eunuch and the two thousand converted by St. Peter it is evident that they beleeved in the substance of the whole Creed for the very children of Hierusalem knew the main doctrins which Christ taught as appeared in the publick process against him cryed up and down the streets and therefore these beleeving in him beleeved in all which he had taught which will come home to the Creed at least Mr. Hobbs will tell you in the upshot that the points now in controversy for the most part concern onely contention for a worldly Kingdom gain or victory in point of wit where he expounds them after his own gust and names onely such which may more plausibly be thought to have such appearance omitting the chiefest in agitation about the Sacraments c. Others which concern the principal end and effect of our redemption as free-will and justification he rejects as Philosophical Thus the high misteries of Christian Faith by a Christian are made subjects of division or rather of delusion or collusion Herod was afraid of Christ because he was jealous that his aim would be to get his Kingdom this jealousie was the cause of much innocent blood-shed I hope Mr. Hobbs hath no such design in stirring up this old false plea against Christianity for Christ hath assured all men that his Kingdom is not of this world That there hath been always subordination in Church judicatures is evident by St. Paul to Timothy and every where in holy Writ which hath hitherto been continued even in external government as all Histories shew and yet not prejudicial but auxilliary to temporal power But for any controversies is point of temporal power challenged by the Church I know none forasmuch as toucheth faith Yet Mr. Hobbs seems to desire though with much violence to draw even hearing confessions and interpreting scriptures to his new Eutopia as belonging to civil Magistracy There is yet another shift wherein as the Holy Ghost saith mentitur iniquitas sibi they frame an imaginary pillar of security saying that though the first openers of this breach were Schismaticks yet they having been born in this Church are not guilty of it As when a Kingdom is unjustly obtained yet it may be justly possessed by future heirs This I have weighed and answered before yet to the similitude I particularly answer that there is no parity at all to plead prescription against God because in some cases there may be among men else all Hereticks and Turks may more forcibly plead this right then they if naked countenance of possession can give title I might here question the supposition it self for even in temporals the civil and Canon law require more time for prescription in order to some persons then to others as for ordinary persons ten yeers in some forty in some an hundred Again there is a difference not onely in persons but the things possessed as Ecclesiastical require more time then civil and there is always required a quiet possession to begin the count of yeers that there may be titulus probabilis The reason is because then the true lords are thought virtually or implicitely to yeeld their right And thence begins the title in the unjust possessors namely when the ancient lord being able ceaseth to chalenge any right But as I say to let all this pass the disparity from man to God is manifestly clear and therefore admits of no consequence CHAP. 8. Protestants have made the Schism without any cause or ground THE often cited Protestant Doctor in the Treatise of Schism writeth that Schism doth not always make the lesser part culpable which recedeth or is driven out from the rest of the common-weale or body of the Church but the compulsive caus is here chiefly to be looked upon and not always the small number of the receding persons therefore the Protestants say it is
is hurt in their fancies as I have observed some though otherwise able to make unbroken discourses in other matters of less concernment which is easily possible according to Philosophy or else God for other sins blindeth their understandings as he did Pharoah's which obstacle they must labour to remove that they may learn to obey God in his Church else their condition will be every way most miserable if they obey not for want of Christian humility they are in evident danger of hell if they do obey they are in danger because they do against Conscience but the remedy of this is at hand if they relinquish their own judgments not by satisfying which they pretend they cannot do but by captivating to a sure Authority Certainly wicked fury hath made and increased this Schism for granting which is my second answer to the former objection that when unity cannot be kept without detriment of eternal Salvation it may and ought to be broken without sin but when by the conservation of unity no detriment of salvation is incurred and that if this also may be obtained by persevering in unity then at least there shall be no lawful cause to break unity and those who break it do incur certain damnation for sacrilegious Schism But now Protestants remaining in union with the Church of Rome should have suffered no detriment of their eternal Salvation but had been in a certain way to arrive unto it As we have shewed before by their own confession that Catholicks persevering in the same unity may attain unto salvation wherefore it manifestly followeth that they without any cause went out of the Church wherein they might have been saved and cast themselves and their followers into the state of damnation according to that of St. Augustine De unit Eccl. c. 19. None come unto Salvation and life everlasting except he hath Christ for his head and none can have Christ for his head except he he in his body which is the Church Again which is chiefly to be pondered and always to be repeated those damnable doctrins as they call them taught in the Church of Rome ought to have been declared by a general Councel and not by themselves who are the least if any part of the Church Otherwise if it should be lawful for every one to accuse the Church his mother of Heresie and to leave her without any other discussing of the cause a gate should be open to all Heresies the Church of God would be trodden under foot yea all Christianity fall to ruine this hath been the plea of all separatists which they thought sufficiently proved if onely accusing of error be proving as in the cause of England D. Bilson and Covell teach the necessities of Synods in these things the first part p. 374. the other p. 110. And that which another replied first that England might sufficiently judge of heresies newly brought in seeing it is matter of fact to wit whether this or the other doctrin came down from our Fathers Grandfathers c. or whether it were heard of but yesterday or the day before for this even children may perceive The second point also which he not onely by mouth but by pen now frequent in other hands so much urged saying that it is not needful to call a general Councel since by your confessions as Cressy fol. 443. seemeth to insinuate that there is no infallable power in them A doctrin which I was glad to finde amongst you yet I wondred at it being already repugnant to what I had read in your former authors as D. Stapleton and D. Stratford of the Church and of late in a book made by a Country-man of ours in Latine called Systema Fidei Cressie's words are these No man will endeavour to oblige them further then c. to beleeve an obliging authority in the Catholick Church let is be limitted and confined as straitly and with as many provises as any Catholick or indeed any resonable man shall think good I say according to this power of defining and establishing faith it is to no purpose to call a general Councel to declare heresies when every ignorant fellow can do as much in order to the verity of declaring though perhaps not in order to the coercive manner of declaring yea in the very power it self for asmuch as according to this position of Cressy the power of the Church in this particular may be restrained by any silly fellow c. Thus far this Author To these I answer For asmuch as concerneth matter of fact every nation may witness what they have recived but they cannot make infallable discernment of matters of Faith without the supreme judgment of the whole Church in whose onely mouth there can be no errors which is our principal question Many things are conveyed to posterity which are not matters of Faith sometimes not of truth this the Church onely suerly determines To the second objection out of Gressy I answer that his words though very harsh yet in my judgment they may receive a more favourable gloss upon connexion with the other parts of his discourse He doth indeed to much even suspiciously savour of his old friendship with that vertiginous and flashy Apostata Chillingworth a man whom few examples have paralel'd in often turning religion But Cressy wrote this book in Neophitism not being yet fully instructed in the mysteries of our holy faith as St. Hierome noteth of Arnobius which therefore is more excusable in him though he should express his not throughly digested conceits hardly endugh consistent with the verities of the Catholick faith I do not beleeve that his intention was so soon to play the master in teaching what he had not perfectly learned which had been too preposterous 〈◊〉 this whole books 〈◊〉 to give the History or gradation of his conversion how he did reach from one degree to another and how he gathereth the sence of our doctrin and Doctors in his passage wherein as I said it is no wonder if being a Neophite he should boggle in his manner of explication as his expression seemeth to do in this but where he now is he will better and more fully inform himself and I doubt not but wil rectifie those passages which savour of mistakes Neither doth it avail much though many here stumble at these and other of his passages for St. Hier saith ep 76. I think Origen to be read So sometimes for application as Tertullian Novatus Apollinaris Cressy and many more Ecclesiastical writers both Greek and Latin that we may choose what is good in them and avoid the contrary There are some very good things in that book though intermixt with other passages more harsh as he seems to express them which a prudent reader may pick out and discern to his profit It remaineth therefore firm and certain that our Country men are bound under the pain of Schism and rebellion to reunite themselves unto the Church of Rome their mother as
King James of famous Memory calls her in his first speech to the Parliament at least wise until a general Councel he convocated where their cause may be heard and decided which indeed is virtually already done to their hands in the case of Germany Wherein the proverb is true that one egg is not more like to another then these in the main point of Schism though differing from themselves and others in points of Doctrin From what is said we may conclude thus Whosoever divide the unity of the Church without cause are in a damnable state seeing out of the third Chapter Schism is an enormous crime but Protestants do divide the unity of the Church out of the 4 and 5 Chapters and that without cause Chap. 6. therefore Protestants are in a damnable state Wherefore as I said in the beginning considering the danger of their souls they are bound to discuss the causes of their revolt to weigh ponder the reasons of the Catholicks that they may free themselves from such a miserable and dreadful state return to the Church their mother and so have God for their Father love and maintain her unity and so be made partakers of her charity An Exhortation of the Author I know that these sensible objects obvolved and ensnared in the delights of the flesh strongly proposed either by actual possession or clear hopes of attaining do so efficatiously move the powers of souls drowned in sordid bodies that poor man by the weak command of his will is hardly drawn from embracing them therefore we must seek help otherwise we must fly unto holy prayer that we be not swallowed up in this gulf of mudd let more noble objects be proposed it is not in our power not to be moved with those things we see let us therefore look with the eyes of Faith upon the objects of eternal felicity promised to those who confess and follow Christ Jesus certainly they will concern us and by Gods mercies through the tryals of patience we shall at the length attain unto them Let not therefore that be applied to us which in times past Seneca ep 116. spake of the adversaries of Stoick Philosophy You promise too high-things you command too hard things we are poor creatures and we cannot deny all things to our selves least we hear also his answer on the Stoicks part Our vices because we love them we defend them and we had rather excuse them then leave them To be unwilling is the cause not to be able is pretended This consideration may easily imprint a serious reflexion in the hearts of Schismaticks To conclude all let us hear the great Zealot of Peace thundring out to the Churches of Ephesus Ephes 4. I therefore prisoner in our Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called with all humility and mildness with patience supporting one another in charity careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace One body and one spirit as you are called in one hope of your vocation One Lord one Faith one Baptism One God and Father of all which is over all and by all and in us all Amen FINIS ERRATA PAge 27. Line 11. Read Lions P. 83. l. 17. read dissected P. 87. l. 17. read prefects P. 96. l. 14. read impostume P. 127. l. 10. read add faith P. 136. l. ult dele to P. 138. l. 11. read these P. 144. l. 12. read add not P. 174. l. 7. read Epistles P. 195. l. 15. read radices P. 214. l. 13. read continuance P. 239. l. 18. dele not P. 242. l. 10. read not pertinent