for which I am solicitous that it would rather increase and propagate the prejudice that is against it I do therefore provide a more natural countenance to support it and which legally will supply the defect of the name by having it Licensed by lawful Authority without which it shall never be published IF Dr. Stillingfleet hath in truth cast any contemptuous aspersions upon Mr. Cressy or if he hath suffered any scorn or calumny only for recommending to devout Christians instructions for the practice of Christian vertues and piety in the greatest perfection that this life is capable of If he hath selected the most Sacred things and Persons in the Catholick Church on purpose to be contaminated with his Ink full of Gall and Poyson thereby administring new Arms to Atheists If he hath endeavoured to shew that all the Religion professed in the World and that thing that bears the name of a Catholick Church for so many Ages before the time of Luther and Calvin was nothing for their Worship but Idolatry for their Devotions but Fanaticism and for their doctrine and discipline nothing but faction ambition and avarice And if the Doctor hath imployed his talent of reasoning upon these subjects to discharge his excess of spleen and choler and to give free scope to all unchristian and even inhumane passions with all which the three first Pages do confidently and directly charge him I must confess that Mr. Cressy will not only be excusable for any Zeal and confidence he shall express against such an adversary but that the Doctor hath neither direction or authority from the Church of England in either of the particulars nor would I undertake to vindicate him from that great guilt But if nothing of all this be true and if the Doctor hath neither said or done any thing of this with which he is charged Mr. Cressy shall but comply with his obligations in seriously considering whether he hath observed St. Paul's injunction Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice And of the greater importance any controversie is especially if it hath any relation to Religion the swarving from that rule can never be dispensed with and therefore it will be proper in the first place to examine the evidence that is to prove this charge or charges against the Doctor before we consider the three Imputations by which it is said he would fright men from the Communion of the Catholick Church or the other three Retorsions by which Mr. Cressy is confident to wound the Protestant Churches upon both which reflexions will be made in the proper season Though I am no stranger to the writings of Dr. Stillingfleet but have read I think all that he hath published at least all that I have seen of his and as I always admired the strength and vigour of his ratiocination and the clearness of his style and expressions a faculty not natural to all very Learned and pious men by which he renders the most difficult points and which are usually by others wrapt up in obscure terms plain and intelligible to vulgar understandings So I have been exceedingly delighted with the softness gentleness and civility of his language which can never flow from an insolent or proud spirit in which he represents things which in themselves are light and as such might be neglected in a pleasant not reproachful manner a dialect his adversaries are not acquainted with And when he is compelled to answer Arguments or rather Allegations full of bitterness and reproachful words which would tempt another to take the advantage they are liable to with some sharpness he passes by the provocation and collects what can possibly be found like reason out of what is alledged and refutes it with very much less severity than the matter would justifie and seems sometimes to require Yet knowing Mr. Cressy well too and that he is not of a quarrelsome disposition or apt to give ill words in his discourse and to have a full understanding of what he reads that cannot be imposed upon I had some fear that the Doctor had upon some great provocation exceeded his former limits he had prescribed to himself and retorted the language of his adversaries with a bitterness natural enough for them though not to him And that temper I wished might never depart from him and therefore I was in some pain till I could procure the Doctor 's Book that had raised so much passion in Mr. Cressy and which I had not seen before But when I had carefully read those places to which the exceptions were made and examined as well as I could the signification or implication of every word I begun to suspect that I was mistaken in my former conjecture and that Mr. Cressy was not the Author of that Imputation Refuted but when I again reflected upon the reasons which had first produced that judgment of mine I found they had still the same strength and had then nothing to hope but that his obedience to those Friends whose commands he ought in no wise to resist for the writing and publishing his discourse had prevailed likewise with him to publish it in their and not his own words and I shall hereafter give Mr. Cressy a warrantable reason why I am still of the same opinion The first thing Mr. Cressy lays to his charge is That he accuses the Catholick Church of Fanaticism which he says no man ever presumed to do before and that he hath written 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 he says hath been esteemed the nearest approaching to that of glorified Saints and the evidence that he produces to make this charge good is That the Doctor that he might make an entrance into the invective with a better grace hath produced on his Stage antiquely dressed the famous Teachers and erecters of Schools for Contemplation S. Bennet S. Romaulde S. Bruno S. Francis S. Dominique and S. Ignatius exposing them to the derision of prophane persons for which he threatens him shrewdly upon an Epigram in the Margent out of Martial Before he proceeds farther in his evidence lest the Doctor may be too much exalted with the novelty of his invention of his prophanely imployed Wit he doth assure him that he hath heard that kind of Wit before when he was a young Student in Oxford in a repetition Sermon to the University which he says if fancy be alone considered far better deserved applause wherein the Preacher descanting upon the whole life of our Saviour rendred him and his attendants men and women objects of the utmost scorn and aversion as if they all of them had been only a pack of dissolute vagabonds and cheats But presently the Preacher changing his stile as became a Disciple of Christ with such admirable dexterity and force of reason
a short time they vanished and were no more heard of What was urged or insinuated by any Men of discretion and understanding that might make any impression upon sober unwary and misinformed Men was carefully and learnedly answered by Persons assigned to that purpose that the Church or the State might not undergoe any prejudice by want of seasonable advice without mingling any of the others froth or dregs in their compositions which they left to the chastisement of those who could as dexterously manage the same weapons and were fitter for their company And methinks grave and serious men or they who ought to be grave and serious should be afraid of imitating such adversaries in their licence and excesses lest they should get into a scoffing vein which they should not easily shake off or lose their credit with worthy Men for dishonouring the cause they maintain ironically A man will hardly be thought provident enough or solicitous for his own peace and credit who having discovered this unruly frantick disease will expose himself to the malignity thereof by approaching so near the company of those angry Wasps and Hornets who are like to be willing to take any opportunity to be revenged upon a Person who hath presumed to be offended with their manner of writing and in the same instant submitted his own to their censure which is like to be liable to as many exceptions of weakness and impertinence To which I shall only say that whatever other faults they shall discover in this short writing of mine they shall not find the same of which I complain I shall give no body ill words nor provoke them by contemning their Persons and I chuse rather to be at their mercy than not to endeavour the best way I can to divert men from that indecent way of reviling each other and instead of answering Arguments to traduce the Persons who urge them Truth is of so tender and delicate a constitution that it is defiled by rude handling and hath advantage enough to encounter and conquer its adversaries by the vigour of its own beauty without aspersing the deformity of the other farther than unavoidable reason makes it manifest I shall not interpose in those Arguments which are now most agitated in that scurrilous style that I complain of but chuse to take upon me to make Animadversions upon a Book lately published at least lately come to my sight Intituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Church of England by Doctor Stillingfleet and the imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Author whereof professes himself an avowed Enemy to the Church of England and would be thought as much an enemy to the foul custom introduced into the Controversies concerning it and the liberty men assume to deride Religion instead of vindicating it to wound the profession by a petulant and scornful mention of the Professors and by expressions full of pride and vanity and destructive to peace and government and yet how contrary soever this way of writing is to his practice and inclination he hath some jealousie of himself that upon the insupportable provocation he hath received some phrases of bitterness may have scaped his Pen which he doth believe he hath very good authority not to make any excuse for and there being such plenty of that noisom Gall scattered throughout his whole discourse it will be but just to take a view of his provocation and whether his revenge be no more than proportionable to the occasion and then whether the imputation be not rather confidently retorted than reasonably refuted and whether in the endeavoring the one or the other the bounds and limits of all modesty and civility are not so far transgressed that the Author is liable to just censure I do the rather enter into the List upon this occasion because I may infallibly presume that I know the Author of that Discourse for I no sooner read it which was long after it was published but that it was manifest to me by many particulars contained in it in which I cannot be deceived that it is written by Mr. Cressy with whom I have been acquainted very near fifty years and have very long esteemed him for his parts and learning and for his good nature and his good manners all of which were in as great perfection then as they have been ever since or are at present and therefore as I shall treat him with that candor that becomes an old Friend so I do not suspect his reception and interpretation of it will be such as is worthy of that temper of spirit which he professes to be of nor do I despair of presenting some considerations and reflections to him which may so work upon it as to induce him to believe that both in regard of the matter it self and the manner of treating Dr. Stillingfleet he hath swarved very much from those Rules which he prescribes to others and pretends to observe himself and then the tenderness of his own Conscience will instruct him what reparation he ought to make But before I enter into the debate I must first declare that the Religion I profess and defend is the Religion of the Church of England and not the particular opinions much less the expressions of any member of it how worthy soever and Mr. Cressy who professes to be an adversary to it ought to insist only upon what is owned and avowed by her and not hope to wound her through the sides or by the weakness or passions of those who have deserted her or still adhere to her And in the second place that I do not take upon me to write against the Catholick Church of which the Church of England is a vital part or against the Religion professed in any Catholick Country but against the Roman Catholick Subjects of his Majesties Dominions whose Religion I take to be different from that which is professed and established in any Catholick Country in Europe and disavowed by all the Catholick Countries out of Europe And one of the principal reasons that engages me in this Discourse is to endeavour to draw the dispute that is between the Church and the Laws of England and his Majesties Subjects of his own Dominions who profess to be of the Roman Faith into a narrower room and within that compass that properly contains it And I have always thought that they have had too much countenance and too great a latitude allowed them in reducing the contest to what concerns all the members of the Roman Church equally with themselves as if the Roman Catholicks of England withdraw their obedience from the Kings authority and oppose the Laws of the Land so much to the damage of their Estates and the danger of their lives if the Laws were prosecuted against them only for the support and in the defence of the cause common to all other Catholicks Whereas I say the difference between us depends wholly upon the personal authority of the Pope within the Kings
that contribution should not take well Besides that as in the time of S. Bennet which may be reckoned to be about the year Five Hundred and Fifty Learning did in no degree flourish so it grew less and less for Seven Hundred years after his time or near so much even to the Age in which Erasmus lived who knew the talent of the Monks and Friers very well And truly I think Mr. Cressy's Superiors may believe that he hath taken too much pains in collecting a bundle of reproaches of a false pretender to Visions Miracles and Inspirations and an ignorant fool to be cast upon their Founder not one of which is laid to his charge by the Doctor and must therefore be imputed to another Author and he hath less reason to imagine that those reproaches must fall upon S. Gregory because he confirmed the Rules and writ the life of S. Bennet both which he might do without being guilty of either of those imputations He never knew S. Bennet and confirmed his Rules long after his death which makes some Catholick Writers believe that the Rules were in truth not made by S. Benedict and a known Catholick Antiquary Mr. Broughton takes upon him to pronounce that S. Gregory himself was never a Monk of that Order which is a greater affront to it than any that the Doctor hath put upon it I do not know but that the Church of England hath a just reverence and esteem of the learning and of the piety of S. Gregory and a greater than Mr. Cressy hath as will appear anon however as the most learned men who write many Books seldom write all with the same perfection and accurateness of judgment and their Readers do not look upon all with the same estimation so many do not believe and I doubt not many Catholicks that S. Gregorie's Dialogue of the Life of S. Bennet is for the learning or judgment of it equal to the rest of his Works But Mr. Cressy is very hard to be pleased who hath been so very angry with the Doctor for the rudeness and incivility of his language and is now no less displeased with him for his excess of civility in calling S. Benedict Saint which he says pag. 31. If he was guilty of what the Doctor charges him with savours something of blasphemy Truly though many men cannot comprehend how S. Benedict attained that degree yet no body is sure that he hath it not and his title doth not seem the worse because he doth not appear qualified by any particular Canonization at Rome there being I think no Record of any such but by a general consent amongst many devout persons which is the title of all those Primitive Saints to whose memories our Church pays as much reverence as the other doth before those very costly commencements were established at Rome which have lately conferred all those degrees and the preliminaries to it But I think it is now the civility of most of the Provinces of Europe to treat all men with the same stile that they assume to themselves or their Friends attribute to them and so we use to call those Saints who are commonly called so though we are not sure they are in Heaven and he would believe that he were very unkindly dealt with if he should be charged with want of integrity for calling the Reverend Prelates of our Church Bishops when if he did believe them really to be so he would not when he left the Church have been re-ordained and if he does not believe them to be such his insincerity is more to be reproved than our blasphemy in calling those Saints of whose station we are not so well assured But Mr. Cressy hath a greater insight into History and a more discerning spirit than any man of whom I have ever heard if he hath discovered That the greatest Iudgment and Plague that God ever no doubt in his just anger brought upon the Christian world or any Christian part of it in that general deluge of the Goths Vandals Huns Saxons Danes and other Pagan Nations proved a most unvaluable blessing as he says pag. 32. because God of those stones raised up children unto Abraham that is after these inhumane miscreants had for many hundred years massacred many millions of Christians demolished so many Churches and Religious houses and introduced a brutish savageness into the very nature of the Inhabitants within the Provinces of which they were possessed some of their posterity became Christians and yet for almost an Age after their conversion their manners remained still almost as much Pagan as they were before And for their building of Churches and Schools of piety hear what Monsieur Mezeray who is much more conversant with the transactions of those times than Mr. Cressy is says I know no time in which there were more Churches and Abbies built than in this speaking of the Tenth Century which was near the time when the most general conversion of these Barbarians happened The most wicked persons affected says he very much the title of Founders whist they ruined Churches on one side they built others on the contrary and made sacrilegious Offerings to God of those things which they had ravished from the poor and therefore those structures are not always the best Records of the piety of the Age in which they are erected and very few of the Monasteries into which Kings and Queens and Princes used to retire for attending their Heavenly meditation were erected after the incursion of those barbarous Pagans and before which that numerous Army of Martyrs was likewise expired since that time must be reckoned under the Ten Persecutions So that the unvaluable blessing that Christian Religion received from that impious inundation is not yet discovered or understood and less that the persons who by Gods blessed directions instilled into the hearts of men such an heroical Faith and Divine love were principally the Disciples of S. Benedict I must tell him again that Christianity was well cultivated before S. Bennet's Rules were published or confirmed which was not till after the year Six Hundred and from that time it received greater improvement from the piety and learning of many devout Prelates and from the learning and good lives of the Clergy and of other Religious men than it hath ever done by the disciples of S. Bennet except all the Monasteries that have been ever founded and all the professed Monks shall be looked upon as founded by him upon which computation I doubt many of Mr. Cressy's mistakes are to be imputed nor is he probably well informed of the numbers which have been converted to Christianity by the Protestant Churches though he takes upon him to know that there is not one Village which he would hardly undertake since he cannot but know that the Protestants have many large Plantations in Provinces inhabited by Pagans whereof many have been converted if he did not think that a conversion from Paganism is to little purpose
took And if he had it could not be wondered at since by the age he was of when he published his Book in defence of Archbishop Laud which some who knew it well assured me to be but twenty eight years I cannot suppose him to be when the Covenant was first appointed to be administred to all Scholars in the Universities above the age of thirteen years if so much and cannot be conceived to be at all instructed in the principles of the Church of England which had been long before that discountenanced and suppressed And no body doubts but that there are very many reverend and learned persons who have now great and unquestionable affection and zeal for that Church who did in their minority and under that accursed and tyrannical Government take that lewd Covenant and whose affection and zeal is not the less for having taken it But of all men it least becomes Mr. Cressy to put them in mind of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy when himself broke from the obligations of them and his own subscription though he was near if not full forty years of age when he last repeated those obligations and himself acknowledges that the Doctor had the courage even in those ill times to write against all the Religions which were then professed and countenanced in his Ironicon that he is so angry with And I do profess that I am not of the Doctor 's mind in all things which he says in that Book yet as Mr. Cressy will never undertake to confute it so I am not sorry that no body else hath gone about to answer it I will not accompany Mr. Cressy in his uncharitable passion which every expression how lawful soever that he dislikes kindles in him by treating others as he doth Archbishop Cranmer whose memory will be preserved as of a most worthy Prelate and glorious Martyr notwithstanding the foul imputations he is pleased to cast upon him Yet I must tell him that if that unhappy and ill advised Queen who had just reason to be offended highly with that Archbishop could have found that the Law would have condemned him for Treason she rather desired to have had him hanged for a Traitor than to have him burned for his Religion since she wanted not other instances enough of her severity in that kind But the Law would not extend to serve her turn that way if it would no body would have blamed her for having prosecuted him with the utmost rigour whereas many good men then did and since have for proceeding the other way with him It is not new to find those who have been adjudged Traitors by the Law of the Land looked upon in his Church as Martyrs which he well knows is the case of some who were executed for the Gunpowder Treason But he will answer that is no act of the Church which hath never declared them Martyrs it may be so and it is as true that the Church hath in some times Canonized those who were by Law known to be guilty of High Treason though not executed for it as Saints for whoever understands the Law as it was in those days cannot doubt but that Thomas Becket was guilty of High Treason and might legally have been proceeded against for it as he was condemned afterwards for it though the assassination of him was in no degree warrantable or to be excused Many other examples of the same kind may be given however it is a very sorry exception that Mr. Cressy takes to Cranmer's subscription of his opinion that he remits the judgment thereof wholly to the King So says he a final judgment both touching Government and Doctrine is by the prime Bishop referred to a King of about nine years old a great glory surely to the English Which is a suggestion below the wisdom and experience of Mr. Cressy who cannot but know that in all Kingdoms hereditary that the King is not less King for being but nine years of age and that all sentences and judgments are as much referred to him then as when he is at full age and the transactions are concluded in the same method and formality as they would be then As that opinion of the Archbishop was considered by the Privy Council and whatsoever was done afterwards which was not in all particulars agreeable to that opinion was concluded by the Parliament Nor is he much graver in his Comical discourse of the Kings Title of being Supreme Governour of the Church of England for he knows that head is not in the title though if it were it would be of no other signification that the King may thereby ordain Bishops and Priests himself which he well knows the Crown always disclaims and the Church never admitted but knows very well that the King hath as much authority to appoint and authorize those who shall do both within his own dominions as the Pope who doth neither with his own hands hath in his own Territories or others where by the consent of the Princes he hath that jurisdiction I shall say nothing in defence of the Hugonots of France of whose communion I do not profess my self to be they are of age let them speak for themselves yet I may say that I do not comprehend how their Confession of faith obliges them to be Traitors and Rebels whensoever the honour of God which he says is the defence of their execrable Religion is concerned and it cannot be denied that there have been many rebellions in France by the Catholicks since there have been any in which the Hugonots joyned who for these many years have given great testimony of their signal affection and fidelity to the King and when they were known to have temptations which many Catholicks did not resist And Mr. Cressy knows that there are many very learned men amongst them whose lives are not reproachable and whose writings for the learning contained in them and the modesty with which they are represented are thought worthy to be answered by the reverend Bishops themselves and other eminent and learned Catholicks who are contented to answer their Arguments and their Allegations with all possible candor and condescension and without any bitterness of language and therefore I cannot but lament on the behalf of our Nation and our manners and of the English tongue that the good spirit of France and the urbanity that is there used in handling Controversies in Religion hath not made greater impression upon Mr. Cressy who hath lived so many years amongst them as might well have disposed him to have followed their example and might have convinced him that rudeness of stile and impetuosity of words in contradictions of the highest importance which can relate to Religion are not essential to the being a good Catholick and since he urges the great liberty the Hugonots enjoy joy in France as an argument against the severity he will call it by a worse name of the Laws of his Country which forbid any exercise of the
combination of the Presbyterians and Independants whom they do likewise as unskilfully to their purpose irreconcile to them as if they could subdue the whole Kingdom and so care not whom they provoke If the noise and clamour and evil-speaking of these men do awaken the sleeping Laws to take that vengeance upon them that they were ordained for and which yet remain in that drowzy posture that their own modesty may reduce them to the manners of Gentlemen and Subjects or if the Kings mercy continue as obstinate toward them as their guilt and provocation so that he thinks fit still to abate the sharp edge of the Laws towards them in which very few men wish his Majestie less merciful there are still other Laws which the dignity of his Government will not suffer him to restrain and which are provided to vindicate those who do their duty from the extravagant passions and insolence of those who observe no rules of good behaviour and of peaceable conversation And what may be inflicted upon them of this kind will be unpitied by all good Catholicks and will never be thought a persecution of their Religion and it may be their Superiours at least upon their observation to what ill use they put their tongues may exact from them that silence for cherishing whereof their Order was first instituted and hereafter only imploy such in their missions as may return to them again without doing them any harm or bringing prejudice to the Religion they profess Mr. Cressy thinks he hath a wonderful advantage against the Church of England because he says he can find no religious Orders in it he cannot hear so much as of one single person whom he might call a Fanatick for leaving the flesh and the world to the end he or she might intirely consecrate themselves to God in solitude and exercises of spiritual prayer and mortification and if God should call any one to such a state of life there is an utter want amongst them of instructors or instructions proper for it I will not enter into any discourse of the benefits or inconveniences or ill uses which are too often made of those Monasteries and Religious houses of the He 's and the She 's I have nothing to say against them nor do I doubt that there are amongst them many persons of great learning and vertue and therefore I shall say no more but that most Catholick Kingdoms think the number of them too great and frequently forbid the erecting more of them and the Popes themselves have done the like in Italy and have dissolved many of them but I may say which is as much as is necessary to say that we have no cause to lament the absence of them in England since any defects which arise by the want of them is so abundantly provided by the noble Colledges in both the Universities and the great Free-Schools all so plentifully endowed not only for the good education of Youth in all principles of vertue piety and good literature but for the support of them after they are bred in the improvement of their parts for the service of the Church and of their Country insomuch that it may be truly said that more Scholars are liberally maintained upon the sole charge and charity of the several Founders and greater emoluments assigned for the encouragement of learning in England than can be said of any Kingdom in Europe how much larger and richer soever and I believe the Common-wealth of Learning in all other parts doth think and with great reason that all kinds of Learning are at this day in as great a heighth and perfection as they have been in any age in any Kingdom of the world and Mr. Cressy cannot forget though he doth not care to acknowledge that himself had his education in a Religious house founded by Walter Merton where he received a much more liberal and bountiful education and support than he hath ever had from S. Benedict and from whence he brought more learning than he hath found in any other place that he hath since inhabited or I doubt than he hath yet about him In this Religious house where I think he lived as many years as he hath done since under a worse discipline he had opportunity and obligation to consecrate himself to God in as much solitude as would contribute thereunto and to exercises of spiritual Prayer and mortification He was as much bound to chastity and to all kind of temperance as the severe Rules and Statutes of a magnificent Founder could oblige him and which he was likewise sworn to observe And I believe he under went as severe and a much more beneficial Novitiate there in which silence likewise was a part of the mortification as he did afterwards at Douay for I saw him in both those It is very true there and in all other Colledges if they found that the obligations they were under were stricter than they could submit to they are at liberty to quit those benefits their Founder hath bequeathed them and to dispose of themselves according to their inclinations otherwise they may enjoy the other to their lives end as very many do who prefer that solitude before the pleasures of the world It is very true that the Church and State of England did by observation and experience find that vows did not make people chast who would not be restrained by conscience of their duty to God and that those actions were not worthy the name of vertue and piety I speak still only of our own Country which were the effects of force and want of opportunity to decline them In a word the practice they had too much testimony and evidence of made them conclude that the mischief from those inclosures constraints and vows was greater and more apparent than the benefit and advantage and so they thought not fit to restrain that liberty which God and Nature did allow to all those persons who would decline the profit of those Communities in which they were possessed of them and betake themselves to another condition of life And I doubt not but Mr. Cressy knows that many learned Catholicks have always been and still are very averse to those vows and inclosures of Women which seems not to be much favoured by the Church it self the constitutions whereof require a greater number of years than are now required before they receive the vail and whether the scandalous lives of many Religious men abroad brings not a greater prejudice to the Religion they profess than their habit and vows brings honour to it I leave to his observation The other defect he finds in our Church of want of instructors and instructions for those in case God should call any one to such a state of life in solitude and exercises of spiritual prayer and mortification is yet more strange Without doubt if God doth in truth call any one to such a state of life he will not leave him destitute of instruction and
instructors and he may be very confident if he finds neither of those that God hath not called him Sure Mr. Cressy cannot forget the names of very many persons it may be both men and women with whom and in whose conversation he had the honour and the happiness to spend many years of the most innocent part of his life from whose grave and learned information and excellent example he might have led a life more useful to God his Country and himself and in which he would have had less to answer to all three than that which he hath since by worse counsel and example given himself unhappily to And for Books I shall not supply his Catalogue with the names of many more of the same kind which he might as well have mentioned but I shall put him in mind of the excellent pious and devout Sermons which are constantly preached in that Church much better I believe than he hath heard in any other language and there was no restraint upon him but if he had liked other Books of devotion better he might have read the life of Mother Teresa that abounds in those visions he admires and that mystical Theology he delights in and even his own Sancta Sophia if any other man would have taken the pains to have put it together in that Colledge he was bred in with the same liberty he hath done either ever since sure good Books are not wanting in that climate For Miracles whereof he says we do not pretend to one not so much as the curing a Tertian Ague to testifie that our Reformation is pleasing to God I shall say no more than I have done We have not many to boast of and very good Catholicks think they boast of too many and would be glad to be without the mention of most of them and I do believe that very many pious men of his Church do believe that the restoration of the Church of England from that dust and ruines to which the barbarity impiety and sacriledge of the late rebellion had exposed it and in which the Roman Catholicks his Majesties own subjects more delighted and triumphed to see it almost buried than any other Catholicks did is a greater miracle of Gods mercy and power and if we make our selves worthy of it even a testimony of his being pleased with it then all those of which they brag so much are an evidence that he is pleased with what they do I have never had the luck to see his Church History which he is offended with the Doctor for stiling a great Legend which he knows is the stile given to those Collections in all Languages and he challenges the Doctor more scornfully to give to the world a pretty little legend of his reformed Saints The Doctor could very well have given him as large a list of as extraordinary persons of most profound learning and most exemplary lives of the Church of England since the Reformation as any other Christian Kingdom can supply him who it may lawfully be presumed since their deaths have enjoyed those sacred mansions of bliss which God hath prepared for those who please him but we are not ashamed that our Church is too modest to confer the sacred title of Saints which God hath reserved to his own only disposal for them to whom he had before assigned such a proportion of grace as is answerable to that high station and doth not receive the advice nor communicate the power in that particular of or to any person or jurisdiction upon Earth yet it shall be glad and doth pray that all such whom the Church of Rome hath presumed to call to that honour without any ambition or privity of their own may really enjoy the same And we do not in the least degree apprehend the displeasure of God Almighty upon our Church because it doth with all humility and after all possible endeavour to be capable of his favours leave the disposal of all the places and offices and imployments in his own house to his own gracious will and pleasure And though we do not pretend to know so much of their modern Saints as to think that they were of the same Religion with us Yet we do presume to say that the primitive Saints and Martyrs were all as much our Saints and Martyrs as theirs that is that we are as much of the same faith with those as they are We are as firm in the Apostles faith who were the first Saints and Martyrs of Christ as they can pretend to be We adhere as much to all the doctrine they taught and endeavour to practise all the duties which are enjoyned by them as sincerely and diligently as they do During the twelve persecutions which were the times when those prodigious Armies of Martyrs for their numbers were levied it may lawfully be presumed that very much the major part of them for those persecutions raged much more furiously in the East than in any part of Europe never heard of the Church of Rome none of them professed to have any opinion in which we differ from them The first and only subject of their Martyrdom was that they loudly avowed the birth passion and resurrection of our Saviour and their peremptory refusal to offer sacrifice to or to acknowledge the power of the Pagan Gods and the last would have excused them and preserved their lives whatsoever they had thought of the other so that there was no other point of controversie in issue but whether they were Christians and their marvellous and without doubt divine courage in affirming that and asserting that doctrine so soon after they were informed of it and before they were acquainted with any other operation of it than in their courage to lay down their lives for it was the whole ground and merit of their Martyrdom For according to the best evidence we have of those dark times and of that darker affair we may reasonably believe that many thousands of those blessed Martyrs lost their lives within a day an hour or less time according as the wild and brutish rage of the Iudge could find ways for their torture and execution after the moment of their conversion in which the spirit and zeal of the new Christians to die for their faith was little more stupendious than the implacable rage of their persecutors was in the vindication of the honour of their Pagan Gods for which the husband condemned his wife the father his son the brother his brother and all relations those who were nearest and dearest to them to the most exquisite torments that could be devised Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum How the Church of Rome comes to ingross all these Saints and Martyrs to themselves as their peculiar Patrons and Advocates an evidence cannot easily be comprehended except they conclude the because they have a power to make or to declare Saints they have likewise a power to appoint them what they shall do after they are Saints which
lewd seditious Books are sold as that none such may be printed And if this kind advertisement of Mr. Cressy hath that operation upon the Magistrates of all sorts both the Printers and Sellers and it may be the Buyers of the multitude of Popish Books which are every day vented with as much freedom as the Book of Common-Prayer they of his own Religion will have new cause to celebrate his prudence and acknowledge the great advantage he hath brought to their cause by his pen as he hath to their persons by his modesty and his manners Mr. Cressy comes at last after very much passion and much more virulence against the poor Protestants than the Doctor hath expressed against the Roman Catholicks to a matter of importance indeed in which he believes which might have kept him from triumphing so soon he is absolute master of the field and that is to peace and unity which he says is more fit to be the subject and argument of writings composed by Ecclesiastical persons that is unity of faith and doctrine pag. 102. and in truth whoever is really an enemy even to that unity of faith and doctrine how hard soever to be attained must be an enemy to mankind but I must tell him too that the writings of Ecclesiastical persons have not hitherto in any age contributed to the production of that unity I mean such who have a pride petulancy of understanding obstinacy of will that will suffer nothing to be called peace and unity but a prostration of all other men to their dictates Mr. Cressy and his Ecclesiastical Friends affect and insolently prescribe a unity that is neither practicable nor desirable and there are other Ecclesiastical persons as humorous who are such enemies to unity that they think it not necessary to peace especially in Ecclesiastical matters that is in matters of Religion all men may think and speak and do what they please and upon the irrationality of these last the former impute all the folly and all the madness that would introduce the most uncontroulable confusion to those who observe order and discipline with more regularity and obedience than any of the pretenders will do It must not therefore be the Ecclesiastical persons who have given each other too ill words to be of one mind who can procure this unity of faith and doctrine that must constitute this peace but it must be the writings and actions of Magistrates who by the execution of those Laws and rules which the wisdom of the State for which they are made have provided for that purpose can infallibly establish that unity and peace that is necessary for it Magistrates who do not pretend any jurisdiction out of their own limits nor will suffer those who live within it to be disobedient much less to revile the Laws which are provided for the publick peace Where there are no Laws confusion is necessary and natural and where the Laws are not executed it is as unavoidable and in some degree necessary So that where unity is not as much provided for as is necessary for peace it is the Magistrates fault and not the fault of Ecclesiasticks who can only prosecute it by the ways prescribed by the Laws I say where unity is necessary for nothing is more mistaken or more misapplied than this precious word Unity Who doth not know or hath not had it frequently in his observation that men who have the same end affect several ways which lead to that end and he who goes the farthest way about may possibly come sooner to the end than he that believes he goes more directly to it However if he comes thither later he is liable to no other reproach than being laughed at for being longer upon the way than he needed to have been I knew two Gentlemen of good quality and fortunes one of which I think is still living who were very near neighbours in Berkshire and lived in that good correspondence and conversation as persons of quality and authority in their Country use to do they had both very frequent occasions to ride to London and the house of one of them was the confessed way of the other thither but the difference was whether from thence the nearest way was by Windsor or by Maidenhead and in that they were so great Opiniators that they still parted at the door and one took the one way and the other that which he conceived to be nearest and in twenty years they never made the journey together How light soever the instance seems to be it will be found fit enough to be applied to very many differences of opinion which by the excess of fancy on the one side and the defect of judgment of the other are blown up into a magnitude that dazles the eyes of too many spectators and for the determination of the rest there wants not a submission and obedience to authority the difference only is where that authority is placed to which obedience ought to be paid We of the Church of England hold ours to be due to the King the Church and the Law Mr. Cressy would have us pay it to the Pope which we cannot submit to not because he is fallible but because he is not a Magistrate who hath any jurisdiction over us In matters that concern Religion we resort to the Articles of the Church which we are obliged to conform to He would have us observe the Canons of the Council of Trent which we are forbidden to do and he as an English Catholick is not bound to upon which we shall enlarge hereafter and this election to believe that the Church of England which flourishes at least as much in learned and pious men as any Church of the world can better direct English-men in the way to Heaven than the Church of Rome is the greatest use we make of our reason which is not like to deceive What that union is that was intended certainly by our Saviour when he left his Church established under spiritual Governours will best appear by the rules he prescribed and the directions he gave in order thereunto which we may lawfully believe he never intended for such a unity as Mr. Cressy and his friends dream of and that he foresaw the same could never be and depended more upon what was necessary towards it upon the civil Magistrates than upon the Ecclesiastical power He prescribed the essential principles himself of that Religion which he intended should be established and left persons trusted by him who not only knew his mind but knew all things which are necessary to be known for the accomplishment of it And no temporal or spiritual authority under Heaven hath power to alter any thing that was setled by him or his Apostles who were the only Commentators intrusted by him to explain whatsoever might seem doubtful in what himself had said and they performed their parts with that plainness in what is necessary that there remains no difficulty to men
Dei Exod. 23. In judicio plurimorum non acquiesces Sententiae ut à vero devies and yet they are the words of Salmeron a man of great learning amongst the Iesuits and confessed of all men to be so in Ep. ad Rom. 5. dif 51. pa. 468. How would they triumph upon the modesty of one of our Clergy if when he had reckoned up the opinions of most of the Fathers upon a difficult Text of Scripture he should conclude Sed si meam quoque sententiam avet audire liberè fatebor in nulla prorsus earum meum qualecunque judicium acquiescere and yet these are the words of Maldonate in his Commentary upon the 11 verse of the 11 ch of St. Matthew Qui est minimus in regno Coelorum major est Iohanne Baptista The question is not whether these very eminent Men and great Scholars for such they were said well and reasonably but whether they who assume this liberty should reproach us who never mention the Fathers but with veneration and rarely dissent from them but when they dissent from one another for taking less liberty or whether they do ingenuously to desire the People should believe that they are so severe observers of the Doctrine of the Fathers that they never tread out of their steps Why may it not become the Church of England to use the same expressions which Cardinal Cajetan so long since did in his Preface to his Commentaries upon the Books of Moses in his excuse for having rejected many expositions of the Fathers Solis sacrae Scripturae authoribus reservata authoritas haec est ut ideo sic credamus esse quia ipsi sic scripserunt Why may it not become any particular member of that Church in a particular point it may be but in a particular expression to differ from a particular Father when Petavius who had as exactly read the Fathers and was as great a Master of universal Learning as this Age hath produced presumes to say Multa sunt à sanctissimis Patribus praesertim à Chrysostomo in homiliis aspersa quae si ad exactae veritatis normam accommodare volueris boni sensûs inania videbuntur in Epipha pa. 244. These and very many more of the like animadversions and detections by Monsieur Dallie anger vex Mr. Cressy and his new Friends much more than any disrespect he is guilty of towards the Fathers of which they cannot assign one instance all that he says besides the mentioning them always with all possible reverence is no more than what Mr. Cressy says of them and of the four first general Councils and which indeed was the cause of Monsieur Dallies writing that Book that those Holy men nor the times in which they lived knew any thing or had heard of any of the points especially in controversie between us and the Church of Rome and therefore that it was a vain affectation to appeal to them for a decision I do not much wonder at any thing Mr. Cressy says upon this argument for he owed to himself some extraordinary observation to make his tale of presenting that unlucky Book as he calls it of Mr. Dallie to My Lord Falkland and which he says perswaded Mr. Chillingworth to have a light esteem of the Fathers but I cannot but admire and grieve that he hath so much credit with any member of the Church of England how obscure soever as to perswade him to have the same opinion and thereupon to assume the Licence and the rashness to asperse as far as his talent can contribute unto it the memory of that most loved and most esteemed Lord Falkland whose name he is not worthy to pass through his mouth with the odious reproach of being a Socinian and that when no Person of the Church of Rome hath had the courage in so many years to attempt the answering that Book de usu Patrum one of the other Church should think it necessary to take the quarrel upon him and without any reason or any instance of moment reproach Mr. Dallie with his light esteem of the Holy Fathers in language not in any degree decent nor was the matter or the manner at all necessary to the other part of his Book concerning the Church of England nor can any Man who is disposed to make that enquiry meet with a greater encouragement to pursue it than by having read that Book of Mr. Dallies I am glad I am now come to Mr. Cressy's conclusion which is not long and consists in a softer and more civil kind of scolding than the other parts of his Book but with the same bitterness and hath in truth in it somewhat of ingenuity a man would not have expected for after so many reproaches almost in every page of his Book of being a Presbyterian an Independent an Hypocrite indeed all the calumnies cast upon him which a good wit and an ill nature can suggest he confesses at last that the Doctor in one of his Books and the place he cites declares That the Church of England upon the greatest enquiry he can make is the best Church of the World which is a greater and fuller vindication of him for all the contumelious aspersions cast on him and a more ample and clear testimony because it is more innocent that he is a true son of the Church of England than any Mr. Cressy can produce of his being a Roman Catholick Will any Presbyterian or Independent or Anabaptist make that Declaration he well knows they neither can nor will whilst they retain the principles of their parties and they cease to be of either party assoon as they make that declaration he confesses that the Doctor hath subscribed and submitted to and practises all that Church requires of him and hath farther unprovoked given this ample testimony to it that he was not obliged to do and which no man can give that is divided in his affections and equally inclined to another Church that differs from it and yet he is so jealous of the honour and security of the Church of England that Church that he hath Apostatized from that Church that he hath traduced and reviled with all the scurrility of Language of this Church in which he will not permit a possibility of Salvation he is so careful that he will not allow the Doctor to be a member of it but advises like a loving Father the drowzy and sleeping Prelates to be watchful over him as a spy and treacherous person who whilst he perswades them poor simple creatures that he will be a champion for their Church endeavours all he can to destroy and undermine it How will Mr. Cressy answer to his Superiors this preposterous zeal of his own behalf of a Church the most odious and the most formidable to them that when it is even almost undermined by Officers of its own who are trusted to search and survey all its Vaults and most secret Avenues so that it is upon the point of falling
Kings mercy What must all the peaceable and well-affected Catholicks of England think who have enjoyed so long tranquillity by the King's grace and favour to find the calm they were in interrupted by the boisterous and unskilful noise of one of their own Preachers and to hear and see a jealousie kindled of their loyalty and good meaning by the impetuous breath of a Religious man that if it be not allayed by their prudence may devour and destroy their chief and most beautiful habitations Mr. Cressy therefore shall do well and wisely henceforward to demean himself with more temper and civility towards the Church and all the members of it of whose clemency and gentleness he may yet stand in need and if his passion will not suffer him to live as a Friend let his discretion prevail with him to live like a Neighbour at least like an old acquaintance as long as he thinks it convenient to enjoy the benefit of their quarters The advice that I give Mr. Cressy with reference to the matter is That he will contract the Controversie into what concerns the Church of England solely and to say all he can against the Articles and Policy thereof and not to make any sallies against Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists or other Sectaries who declare as great animosity against the Church of England as that of Rome hath always and therefore are more like to agree together And the first question that is proper and pertinent to be debated and which determination will go very far towards the reconciling all inferiour particulars is I. Whether a National Church hath power with the approbation and authority of the Soveraign to remove any errors or inconveniences which have been practised in that Church either by an Original corruption or by degenerating from what might at first be innocent into superstition or scandal and whether the long reception and continuance of what is erroneous or mischievous can restrain the Soveraign power from reforming it when he finds it necessary in the same peaceable order and method as he provides Laws in other cases for the well Government of his Kingdom II. Whether whatsoever is not of the Essence of Christian Religion instituted by our Saviour himself or declared or advised to be practised by the Apostles may not lawfully be looked upon as Religion of State in that it may be altered or improved or abolished by the Soveraign power for the better advancement of those ends which are essential and which no power on Earth can make alteration in And whether Gods promise to his Church be not to be depended upon in every National Church where learning and piety flourishes that it shall not fall into enormous error whereby Christianity shall receive prejudice and be not more like to advance and propagate devotion in that Church and Nation than any Foreign power whatsoever III. Whether the Bishop of Rome hath any authority given by God in the Dominions and over the Subjects of other Princes and what authority and power it is and what obedience and subjection it is which the English Catholicks conceive themselves bound to pay to him by the obligation of their Religion It being absolutely necessary for the personal security of Kings and Princes and for the peace and quiet of Kingdoms that it may be clearly made manifest what the authority and power is that a Foreign Prince doth challenge in an other Princes Dominions contrary to and above the Laws of the Land and what obedience it is that subjects may pay to such a Foreign Prince without the privity and contrary to the command of his own Soveraign nor can any general answer be satisfactory in this point They who conceive the Pope hath a Temporal and Spiritual power in England must explain what the full intent of that power is that the King may discern whether he hath enough of either as to preserve himself the peace of the Kingdom and they who insist upon his having a spiritual power as most of the most moderate Catholicks do without imagining that it can in the least lessen their affection and loyalty to the King which they do really intend to preserve inviolable must as clearly explain and define what they understand that spiritual to be which may otherwise be extended as far as the former intend the temporal and spiritual shall extend nor in truth can they be secure of their own innocence of which they think themselves in possession until they fully know from those who intangle them with distinctions what that spiritual power is and what submission they are bound to pay to it which seeming to be some obligation upon their Conscience it is fit they may be sure it cannot involve them in actions contrary to their duties which they can hardly be secure of and less satisfie others till they absolutely disclaim any power to be in him at all with reference to England as they will upon a full enquiry discover that he hath no other in any Catholick Kingdom but what is granted to him by the Soveraign power and the municipal Laws of the Kingdome which makes it differ so much in all the Catholick Nations of Europe and to be little or nothing out of it IV. Whether Catholick Subjects in England are not bound to give as good security to the King for their fidelity and peaceable behaviour as all his other subjects do and without which they cannot wonder that they may be made subject to such Laws and restraints as may disable them from being dangerous when they profess to owe obedience to a foreign Prince who doth as much profess not to be a friend to their Countrey and will not declare what that obedience is V. Whether his Majestie may not justly and ought not prudently to require the same or as full satisfaction and security for their allegiance as Catholick Subjects give for their fidelity to Catholick Kings if so how can the English Catholicks under pretence of Religion refuse to declare that it is in no Earthly power to absolve them from their fidelity to the King when no French Roman Catholick dares refuse the same it being a Catholick resolution in France and renewed upon the occasion of a seditious Book by a Declaration of the Sorbone concerning the Kings Independency in the Year 1663. Quòd subditi fidem obedientiam Regi Christianissimo ita debent ut ab iis nullo praetextu dispensari possint and whether any Catholick in France or Spain can refuse to profess that he doth not believe that the Pope can depose the King if the King thinks to require it VI. Whether since the Pope so lately caused his Majestie 's Catholick Subjects in Ireland to rebell and when out of the conscience of their sin they submitted to the King and subscribed and swore to the observation of the Articles agreed upon The Pope absolved them from the performance of their Oaths and took upon himself to be their General in the Person of
to be burned as Hereticks very few days before having made new Laws for the discovery of them stricter than had been ever before And there is no reason to believe that he did not die as much a Catholick as he was when he writ against Luther nor did any Catholick Prince forbear to enter into the strictest alliance with him notwithstanding the Popes Bulls of Excommunication Deprivation and Interdiction nor was there one Mass the less said for it in England and after his death his obsequies were with all possible solemnity observed as hath been said before in Paris at Nostre Dame by Francis the First notwithstanding all those Bulls from Rome in all which nothing can be more observable than that the great Emperor Charles the Fifth who had threatned and compelled that weak humorous Pope into all those acts of folly and presumption against the King had no sooner made him commit that insolence but himself entred into a straiter friendship and confederacy with the Excommunicated King than had ever before been between them The other reason why they will very unwillingly expose their interest to this manner of debate is That it would divide their party which if they were solicitous only for truth would not prevail with them Other Catholick Kingdoms and Nations which differ from one another as well in the profession as the exercise of the Roman Religion as the French hold a Council to be above the Pope and the Spaniards the Pope to be above a Council and many other particulars when they come to know that the Crown and Church of England have established only amongst themselves such an exercise of Christian Religion that in all the substantial and essential points is the same which they profess without censuring them or what they find fit to do in their Countries and have only made such alterations as by the constitution of that Kingdom they may lawfully do and which they find more agreeable to the manners of the Nation and for the peace and happiness of the people They will not think themselves concerned in the policy of other Kingdoms nor the Popes authority so much of the Essence of Catholick Religion that they are bound to support all his pretences which are different in all those Countries which are most devoted to him and therefore cannot flow from any determination of our Saviour which would have made it the same in all places besides they too well know that in all the particulars proposed the Catholick Doctors are not of one mind who are now kept united to them by not knowing the constitution of the Church of England nor that the Roman Catholicks in that Kingdom refuse to give that security for their duty to the King and for their peaceable and good behaviour as all other their fellow subjects chearfully give and as are required of all by the Laws of the Kingdom and if they would perform that common duty it is very probable that there appearing no more danger to threaten the State from them than from other men those Laws which the iniquity of their forefathers brought upon them by their conspiracies and treasons may be suspended towards their innocent Children until such time as their peaceable demeanour and good carriage shall make it appear just to be abolished This expedient for the reasons aforesaid will be obstructed by the Religious and regular Clergie who have so absolute a dependence upon the Pope that they are in truth subjects to no other Prince and probably some few of the secular Clergie may concur with them though more of them if they can discern any security to themselves in disclaiming the Popes authority which few of them look upon as of the Essence of their Religion and have in their hearts as well as in their professions as sincere purposes towards the King and his People However I know not why all the Lay Catholicks of his Majesties Dominions should bind up their interest with those who have different obligations from them nor how they can excuse themselves from not throughly examining every one of the particular heads proposed by which they will receive this benefit and information that they will clearly discern what is necessary for them to retain and insist upon without which in their conscience as thus informed they cannot continue members of the Catholick Church and what is so much of the policy of the State that is warrantable or unwarrantable only as it is established by the Soveraign authority and by this means they will know how to give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and to render unto God that which belongs unto God the just distribution whereof is of an equal concernment to all Christians being equally enjoyned by our Saviour Christ. THE END A Brief Catalogue of Books newly Printed and Reprinted for R. Royston Bookseller to his Most Sacred Majestie THe Works of the Reverend and Learned Henry Hammond D. D. containing a Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical with many Additions and Corrections from the Author 's own hand together with the Life of the Author enlarg'd by the Reverend Dr. Fell Dean of Christ Church in Oxford in large Folio Nova Vetera Or a Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the Enemies of the Church of England both Papists and Fanaticks in large Folio by Ieremiah Taylor Chaplain in Ordinary to King Charles the First of Blessed Memory and late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner Reflexions upon the Devotions of the Roman Church With the Prayers Hymns and Lessons themselves taken out of their Authentick Authors In Three Parts In Octavo New The Christian Sacrifice and the Devout Christian and Advice to a Friend these last three Books written by the Reverend S. P. D. D. in 12. Eph. 4. 31. Pag. 11. Pag. 26. Pag. 31. Pag. 32. Pag. 219. Pag. 35. Pag. 68. Pag. 94. Pag. 102. Mark 16. 16. Ver. 14. Mat. 3. 14. Mark 9. 10. Luke 18. 34. Rom. 10. 9 Rom. 1. 29 30. Rom. 10. 9 1 Cor. 3. 11 12. 1 Cor. 4. 5. Mat. 13. 29 30. Lib. 9. Ep. 39. Phil. 1. 15 18. 2 Esa. 4. 21. 26 27. Numb 12. 1. Zach. 8. 19.
orders or the rest come to be called Heresies And who had authority to declare them such If nothing that hath reference to any of these particulars was in practice in their time we have the less reason to acquiesce in the new invention of them and it will be the more worth our enquiry whether they who have put that brand upon them were not rather parties than judges and gainers by their determinations If those particulars can neither be confirmed by Scripture nor defended by reason we need not be troubled for their being called Heresies though there were no Scripture against them nor reason to confute them both which we conceive we have clearly on our sides let us examine them in order Concerning the external administration of Sacraments we take upon us to say that they rob the people of half that which our Saviour instituted and that besides the novelty of it for we say it was near if not full one thousand years before that violence was offered to Christianity they may as well defraud them of both as of either of the species and the answer they give to it can give no reasonable satisfaction to any for to that allegation that the body cannot be without the blood and consequently the bread contains both if our Saviour had thought so he would have instituted it in that manner the whole obligations of mystery depending only upon the institution then our Saviour well knew that in the sence they put upon it it would have been an institution directly contrary to the Law which our Saviour never violated for the eating the flesh with the blood was utterly unlawful and what was unlawful in the institution cannot become lawful since by any authority under Heaven and therefore they who cannot be suffered to receive it in both species are without the benefit of the Sacrament that was instituted by our Saviour and that is all I shall say of the external administration For the examination of the mysteries by natural reason and the verdict of their outward senses I shall only ask whether those outward senses are proper judges that that is bread and that is wine by their sight and their taste and their feeling it before the consecration which no body will deny How different the operation thereof may be after that mysterious action and the spiritual effect of it no man pretends to make a judgement by his outward senses but if he be admitted to taste both after the consecration why his senses should not be as competent discerners whether they remain still bread and wine as they were or are become flesh and blood which they were not before I cannot comprehend no more than why we should be bound to understand those few words literally which are so evidently contradicted by our senses which no other miracle ever was rather than many other metaphorical and allegorical expressions in which the Scriptures abound and which cannot be more controuled by the outward senses than this is For the jurisdiction of Superiors Civil and Ecclesiastical what Judge can there be but the Laws of that Kingdom where such jurisdiction is to be exercised and of that Church which ought to settle the publick manner of mens devotions For the institution of Religious Orders and the obligations of Vows the Bishop of Rome himself doth not pretend any power or authority to erect any Monastery Colledge or Religious House in any Kingdom or Province without the consent and approbation of King or Prince to whom the Soveraignty belongs and if they do admit such institutions to be made and such obligations by vows to be entred into as are prejudicial to the peace and happiness of their Dominions the institution is theirs and not the Popes and when their reason or their experience discovers any mischief or detriment to their other subjects to redound from those Institutions either in their original or by new orders and concessions or that the subjects under those Institutions are become less their subjects than their other fellow-subjects are and that they depend more on some foreign Prince than on them in their own Territories they may and ought to alter the form and institution or to suppress if they cannot reform the whole and if they cannot do this they cannot provide for the peace and happiness of the people committed to their charge And the like for fasting that is the observation of publick Fasts Celibacy paying of Tithes they can be no otherwise regulated than by the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws of every Nation and Province and are so regulated and not in the same manner in all the Catholick Kingdoms and Provinces in Europe And therefore since that is the greatest objection Mr. Cressy makes against the reading of the Scripture that the contradictions which arise upon those particulars may be improved and inflamed into Heresies by the passion and humor of the Court of Rome we will rather acquiesce in the advice of the Primitive Fathers of the Church and believe that what the four first general Councils did not prohibit us to do we may lawfully continue the practice of and since the Church of England in conformity with the purest antiquity permits and enjoyns us to read the Scriptures we will obey its directions without caring what that of Rome forbids Mr. Cressy comes now in excuse of his just indignation against the Doctor 's Principles to discover a secret that his own unhappiness if not guilt gave the first occasion that those principles should be known and received into the Church of England and this discovery must be the more ingenuous because he is sure no man now alive knows any thing of it Then he tells you a story of his accidental finding and buying at a Book-sellers Shop Monsieur Dallies Book Of the true use of the Fathers which he shewed that night to his Noble Dear Lord Lucius Lord Falkland who reading a little of the Contents desired him to give it to him which he willingly did and that my Lord shortly after sent him a most civil Letter full of thanks both in his own and Mr. Chillingworth's name for that small present telling him that that little Book had saved him a most tedious labour of reading almost twenty great Volumes and then tells another story of Mr. Chillingworth and I confess when I read this notable discovery and knew that I was no great stranger to the transactions which had been in that time in that company I could not suddenly comprehend what his meaning or purpose was in making that relation but I quickly found that all his meaning was under the stile of his Noble Dear Lord as in truth he deserved from him the highest expressions of gratitude he could utter to traduce the memory of that incomparable Lord and to cause him to be thought a Socinian and I cannot enough lament that he hath found credit enough with two or three Persons of the Church of England who I am sure never knew I
think never saw that excellent Person to take upon them to asperse a Noble man of the most Prodigious learning of the most exemplar manners and singular good nature of the most unblemished integrity and the greatest Ornament of the Nation that any Age hath produced with the Character of a Socinian Mr. Cressy well knows that before that time of his Journey into Ireland in the Year One thousand six hundred thirty eight that Noble Lord had perused and read over all the Greek and Latine Fathers and was indefatigable in looking over all Books which with great expence he caused to be transmitted to him from all parts and so could not have been long without Mr. Dallies Book if Cressy's presenting it to him had not given him opportunity to have raised this scandal upon his memory nor could that Book have been so grateful to him if he had not read the Fathers For Mr. Chillingworth if Mr. Cressy had not been very wary in saying any thing that might redound to the honour of any of the present Prelates he cannot but know that the present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had first reclaimed him from his doubtings and they were no more nor had he ever declared himself a Catholick except being at S. Omers amounts to such a Declaration before ever he was sent for by Arch-Bishop Laud and I am very much deceived which I think I am not in that particular if Chillingworth's Book against Mr. Knott was not published before the time of Cressy's Journey in thirty eight into Ireland and I know had been perused by him and therefore Mr. Dallies Book could not interrupt him in his study of the Fathers nor induce him to fix his mind upon Socinian grounds which now serves his turn to reproach all men and the Church of England it self for refusing to believe his miracles or to submit to that authority to whose blind guiding he hath lazily given up himself and all his faculties Yet he does so much honour to those grounds that he does confess that they obstructed a good while his entrance into the Catholick Church the contrary whereof I know to be true as much as negative can be true and that he never thought of entring into the Religion he now professes till long after the death of the Lord Falkland and Mr. Chillingworth nor till the same rebellious power that drove the King out of the Kingdom drove him likewise from the good preferments which he enjoyed in the Church and then the necessity and distraction of his fortune together with the melancholick and irresolution in his nature prevailed with him to bid farewell to his own reason and understanding and to resign himself to the conduct of those who had a much worse than his If the having read Socinus and the commending that in him which no body can reasonably discommende in him and the making use of that reason that God hath given a man for the examining of that which is most properly to be examined by reason and to avoid the weak arguments of some men how superciliously soever insisted upon or to discover the fallacies of others be the definition of a Socinian the party will be very strong in all Churches but if a perfect detestation of all those Opinions against the Person and Divinity of our Saviour or any other doctrine that is contrary to the Church of England and the Church of England hath more formally condemned Socinianism than any other Church hath done as appears by the Canons of One thousand six hundred and forty can free a man from that reproach as without doubt it ought to do I can very warrantably declare that that unparallel'd Lord was no Socinian nor is it possible for any man who is a true Son of the Church of England to be corrupted with any of those Opinions But in truth if Mr. Cressy hath that Prerogative in Logick as to declare men to be Socinians from some propositions which he calls Principles which in his judgment will warrant those deductions though he confesses he does not suspect the Doctor will approve such consequences yet he is confident with all his skill he cannot avoid them that is he is a Socinian before he is aware of it and in spight of his teeth this is such an excess in the faculty of arguing as must make him a dangerous Neighbour and qualifies him excellently to be a Commissioner of the Inquisition who have often need of that kind of subtilty that will make Heresies which they cannot find All this invention is to perswade his new friends of that which they call the old Religion that his old Friend's Religion is new that they have no reverence for antiquity no regard for the Authority of the Fathers and only make use of their natural reason to find out a new Religion for themselves whereas in truth whoever will impartially and dispassionately make the enquiry shall find that there is no one substantial controversie between the Roman and the Church of England but what is matter of Novelty and hath no foundation in Antiquity and that the Fathers are more diligently read and studied in our Church than they are in theirs and more reverence is paid to them by us than by them though neither they nor we nor any other Christian Church in the World do submit or concur in all that the Fathers have taught who were never all of one mind and therefore may very lawfully have their reasons examined by the reasons of other men This that I say concerning the reading and the reverence paid to the Fathers ought to be believed till they can produce one Prelate or Member of the Church of England who hath ever used such contemptuous words of the Fathers Ego ut ingenuè fatear plus uno summo Pontifici crederem in his quae fidei mysteria tangunt quà m mille Augustinis Ieronymis Gregoriis c. Credo enim scio quòd summus Pontifex in his quae fidei sunt non posse errare quoniam authoritas determinandi quae ad fidem spectant in Pontifice residet which are the words of Cornelius Mussus an Italian Bishop and much celebrated amongst them for his extraordinary learning in Epis. ad Rom. cap. 14. pa. 606. Michael Medina a man as eminent in the Council of Trent as any who sate there in the debate whether a Bishop was Superiour to a Presbyter jure Ecclesiastico or jure Divino when they who sustained the former alledged Saint Ierome and S. Augustine to support their opinion Medina said aloud Non mirum esse si isti nonnulli alii Patres re nondum eo tempore illustratâ in eam haeresim incidissent How would Mr. Cressy and his Friends insult if a Doctor of the Church of England should publish in Print by the authority of the Church Illud asserimus quo juntores eo perspicaciores esse Doctores contra hanc quam objectant multitudinem Respondemus inquit ex verbo