a very great charity to your soul I must confess I was on your behalf troubled when I heard you were fallen from the Communion of the Church of England and entred into a voluntary unnecessary schism and departure from the Laws of the King and the Communion of those with whom you have always lived in charity going against those Laws in the defence and profession of which your Husband died going from the Religion in which you were Baptized in which for so many years you lived piously and hoped for Heaven and all this without any sufficient reason without necessity or just scandal ministred to you and to aggravate all this you did it in a time when the Church of England was persecuted when she was marked with the Characterisms of her Lord the marks of the Cross of Jesus that is when she suffered for a holy cause and a holy conscience when the Church of England was more glorious than at any time before Even when she could shew more Martyrs and Confessors than any Church this day in Christendom even then when a King died in the profession of her Religion and thousands of Priests learned and pious men suffered the spoiling of their goods rather than they would forsake one Article of so excellent a Religion So that seriously it is not easily to be imagined that any thing should move you unless it be that which troubled the perverse Jews and the Heathen Greek Scandalum crucis the scandal of the Cross You stumbled at that Rock of offence You left us because we were afflicted lessened in outward circumstances and wrapped in a cloud but give me leave only to remind you of that sad saying of the Scripture that you may avoid the consequent of it They that fà ll on this stone shall be broken in pieces but they on whom it shall fall shall be grinded to powder And if we should consider things but prudently it is a great argument that the sons of our Church are very conscientious and just in their perswasions when it is evident that we have no temporal end to serve nothing but the great end of our souls all our hopes of preferment are gone all secular regards only we still have truth on our sides and we are not willing with the loss of truth to change from a persecuted to a prosperous Church from a Reformed to a Church that will not be reformed lest we give scandal to good people that suffer for a holy conscience and weaken the hands of the afflicted of which if you had been more careful you would have remained much more innocent BUT I pray give me leave to consider for you because you in your change considered so little for your self what fault what false doctrine what wicked and dangerous proposition what defect what amiss did you find in the Doctrine and Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England For its doctrine It is certain it professes the belief of all that is written in the Old and New Testament all that which is in the three Creeds the Apostolical the Nicene and that of Athanasius and whatsoever was decreed in the four General Councils or in any other truly such and whatsoever was condemned in these our Church hath legally declared it to be Heresie And upon these accounts above four whole ages of the Church went to Heaven they baptized all their Catechumens into this faith their hopes of heaven was upon this and a good life their Saints and Martyrs lived and died in this alone they denied Communion to none that professed this faith This is the Catholick faith so saith the Creed of Athanasius and unless a company of men have power to alter the faith of God whosoever live and die in this faith are intirely Catholick and Christian. So that the Church of England hath the same faith without dispute that the Church had for 400 or 500 years and therefore there could be nothing wanting here to saving faith if we live according to our belief 2. For the Liturgy of the Church of England I shall not need to say much because the case will be very evident First Because the disputers of the Church of Rome have not been very forward to object any thing against it they cannot charge it with any evil 2. Because for all the time of King Edward VI. and till the eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth your people came to our Churches and prayed with us till the Bull of Pius Quintus came out upon temporal regards and made a Schism by forbidding the Queens Subjects to pray as by Law was here appointed though the prayers were good and holy as themselves did believe That Bull enjoyned Recusancy and made that which was an act of Rebellion and Disobedience and Schism to be the character of your Roman Catholicks And after this what can be supposed wanting in order to salvation We have the Word of God the Faith of the Apostles the Creeds of the Primitive Church the Articles of the four first general Councils a holy Liturgy excellent Prayers perfect Sacraments Faith and Repentance the ten Commandments and the Sermons of Christ and all the precepts and counsels of the Gospel We teach the necessity of good works and require and strictly exact the severity of a holy life We live in obedience to God and are ready to die for him and do so when he requires us so to do We speak honourably of his most holy Name we worship him at the mention of his Name we confess his Attributes we love his Servants we pray for all men we love all Christians even our most erring Brethren we confess our sins to God and to our Brethren whom we have offended and to Gods Ministers in cases of Scandal or of a troubled Conscience We communicate often we are enjoyned to receive the holy Sacrament thrice every year at least Our Priests absolve the penitent our Bishops ordain Priests and confirm baptized persons and bless their people and intercede for them and what could here be wanting to Salvation what necessity forced you from us I dare not suspect it was a temporal regard that drew you away but I am sure it could be no spiritual BUT now that I have told you and made you to consider from whence you went give me leave to represent to you and tell you whither you are gone that you may understand the nature and conditions of your change For do not think your self safe because they tell you that you are come to the Church You are indeed gone from one Church to another from a better to a worse as will appear in the induction the particulars of which before I reckon give me leave to give you this advice if you mean in this affair to understand what you do it were better you enquired what your Religion is than what your Church is for that which is a true Religion to day will be so to morrow and for ever but that which is a holy
Mary with burning incense and candles to her and you give her presents which by the consent of all Nations used to be esteemed a worship peculiar to God and it is the same thing which was condemned for Heresie in the Collyridians who offered a Cake to the Virgin Mary A Candle and a Cake make no difference in the worship and your joyning God and the Saints in your worship and devotions is like the device of them that 〈◊〉 for King and Parliament the latter destroys the former I will trouble you with no more particulars because if these move you not to consider better nothing can 〈◊〉 yet I have two things more to add of another nature one of which at least may prevail upon you whom I suppose to have a tender and a religious Conscience 〈◊〉 first is That all the points of difference between us and your Church are such as do evidently serve the ends of Covetousness and ambition of power and riches and so stand vehemently suspected of design and art rather than truth of the Article and designs upon Heaven I instance in the Pope's power over Princes and all the world his power of dispensation The exemption of the Clergy from jurisdiction of Princes The doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences which was once made means to raise a portion for a Lady the Neece of Pope Leo the 〈◊〉 The Priests power advanced beyond authority of any warrant from Scripture a doctrine apt to bring absolute obedience to the Papacy but because this is possibly too nice for you to suspect or consider that which I am sure ought to move you is this THAT you are gone to a Religion in which though 〈◊〉 God's grace prevailing over the follies of men there are I hope and charitably suppose many pious men that love God and live good lives yet there are very many doctrines taught by your men which are very ill Friends to a good life I instance in your Indulgences and pardons in which vitious men put a great confidence and rely greatly upon them The doctrine of Purgatory which gives countenance to a sort of Christians who live half to God and half to the world and for them this doctrine hath found out a way that they may go to Hell and to Heaven too The Doctrine that the Priests absolution can turn a tristing repentance into a perfect and a good and that suddenly too and at any time even on our Death bed or the minute before your death is a dangerous heap of falsehoods and gives licence to wicked people and teaches men to reconcile a wicked debauched life with the hopes of Heaven And then for penances and temporal satisfaction which might seem to be as a plank after the shipwrack of the duty of Repentance to keep men in awe and to preserve them from sinking in an Ocean of Impiety it comes to just nothing by your doctrine for there are so many easie ways of Indulgences and getting Pardons so many con-fraternities stations priviledged Altars little Offices Agnus Dei's amulets hallowed devices swords roses hats Church-yards and the fountain of these annexed Indulgences the Pope himself and his power of granting what and when and to whom he list that he is a very unfortunate man that needs to smart with penances and after all he may choose to suffer any at all for he may pay them in Purgatory if he please and he may come out of Purgatory upon reasonable terms in case he should think it fit to go thither So that all the whole duty of Repentance seems to be destroyed with devices of men that seek power and gain and sind errour and folly insomuch that if I had a mind to live an evil Life and yet hope for Heaven at last I would be of your religion above any in the world BUT I forget I am writing a Letter I shall therefore desire you to consider upon the premises which is the safer way For surely it is lawful for a man to serve God without Images but that to worship Images is lawful is not so sure It is lawful to pray to God alone to confess him to be true and every man a liar to cal no man Master upon Earth but to rely upon God teaching us But it is at least hugely disputable and not at all certain that any man or society of men can be infallible that we may put our trust in Saints in certain extraordinary Images or burn Incense and offer consumptive oblations to the Virgin Mary or make vows to persons of whose state or place or capacities or condition we have no certain revelation we are sure we do well when in the holy Communion we worship God and Jesus Christ our Saviour but they who also worship what seems to be bread are put to strange shifts to make themselves believe it to be lawful It is certainly lawful to believe what we see and feel but it is an unnatural thing upon pretence of faith to disbelieve our eyes when our sense and our faith can better be reconciled as it is in the question of the Real presence as it is taught by the Church of England SO that unless you mean to prefer a danger before safety temptation to unholiness before a severe and a holy religion unless you mean to lose the benefit of your prayers by praying what you perceive not and the benefit of the Sacrament in great degrees by faling from Christ's institution and taking half instead of all unless you desire to provoke God to jealousie by Images and Man to jealousie in professing a Religion in which you may in many cases have leave to forfeit your faith and lawful trust unless you will still continue to give scandal to those good people with whom you have lived in a common Religion and weaken the hearts of God's afflicted ones unless you will choose a Catechism without the second Commandment and a Faith that grows bigger or less as men please and a Hope that in many degrees relies on men and vain confidences and a Charity that damns all the world but your selves unless you will do all this that is suffer an abuse in your Prayers in the Sacrament in the Commandments in Faith in Hope in Charity in the Communion of Saints and your duty to your Supreme you must return to the bosom of your Mother the Church of England from whence you have fallen rather weakly than maliciously and I doubt not but you will find the Comfort of it all your Life and in the Day of your Death and in the Day of Judgment If you will not yet I have freed mine own soul and done an act of Duty and Charity which at least you are bound to take kindly if you will not entertain it obediently NOW let me add this that although most of these objections are such things which are the open and avowed doctrines or practices of your Church and need not to be proved as being either notorious or confessed
Nunquam CHRISTO Charior quam sub Cruce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Dissuasive FROM POPERY TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND Together with II. Additional Letters to Persons changed in their Religion I. The first written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome II. The second to a Person newly converted to the Church of England By JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down LONDON Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCLXXXVI THE PREFACE TO THE READER WHen a Roman Gentleman had to please himself written a Book in Greek and presented it to Cato he desir'd him to pardon the faults of his Expressions since he wrote in Greek which was a Tongue in which he was not perfect Master Cato told him he had better then to have let it alone and written in Latin by how much it is better not to commit a fault than to make apologies For if the thing be good it needs not to be excus'd if it be not good a crude apologie will do nothing but confess the fault but never makes amends I therefore make this Address to all who will concern themselves in reading this Book not to ask their pardon for my 〈◊〉 in doing of it I know of none for if I had known them I would have mended them before the Publication and yet though I know not any I do not question but much fault will be found by too many I wish I have given them no cause for their so doing But I do not only mean it in the particular Periods where every man that is not a Son of the Church of England or Ireland will at least do as Apollonius did to the Apparition that affrighted his company on the Mountain Caucasus he will revile and persecute me with evil words but I mean it in the whole Design and men will reasonably or capriciously ask Why any more Controversies Why this over again Why against the Papists against whom so very many are already exasperated that they cry out 〈◊〉 of Persecution And why can they not be 〈◊〉 to enjoy their share of peace which hath returned in the hands of His Sacred Majesty at his blessed Restauration For as much of this as concerns my self I make no excuse but give my reasons and hope to 〈◊〉 this procedure with that modesty which David us'd to his angry brother saying What have I now done Is there not a cause The cause is this The Reverend Fathers my Lords the Bishops of Ireland in their circumspection and watchfulness over their Flocks having espied grievous Wolves to have entered in some with Sheeps-clothing and some without some secret enemies and some open at first endeavour'd to give check to those enemies which had put fire into the bed-straw and though God hath very much prosper'd their labours yet they have work enough to do and will have till God shall call them home to the land of peace and unity But it was soon remembred that when King James of blessed memory had discerned the spirits of the English Non-conformists and found them peevish and 〈◊〉 unreasonable and imperious not only unable to govern but as inconsistent with the Government as greedy to snatch at it for themselves resolved to take off their disguise and put a difference between Conscience and Faction and to bring them to the measures and rules of Laws and to this the Council and all wise men were consenting because by the King 's great wisdom and the conduct of the whole Conference and Inquiry men saw there was reason on the King's side and 〈◊〉 on all sides But the Gun-powder Treason breaking out a new Zeal was 〈◊〉 against the Papists and it shin'd so greatly that the Non-conformists escap'd by the light of it and quickly grew warm by the heat of that flame to which they added no small increase by their Declamations and other acts of insinuation insomuch that they being neglected multiply'd until they got power enough to do all those mischiefs which we have seen and felt This being remembred and spoken of it was soon observ'd that the Tables only were now turn'd and that now the publick zeal and watchfulness against those men and those persuasions which so lately have afflicted us might give to the Emissaries of the Church of Rome leisure and opportunity to grow into numbers and strength to debauch many Souls and to 〈◊〉 the safety and peace of the Kingdom In Ireland we saw too much of it done and found the mischief growing too fast and the most intolerable inconveniencies but too justly apprehended as near and imminent We had reason at least to cry Fire when it flamed through our very Roofs and to interpose with all care and diligence when Religion and the eternal Interest of Souls was at stake as knowing we should be greatly unfit to appear and account to the great Bishop and Shepherd of Souls if we had suffer'd the enemies to sow tares in our fields we standing and looking on It was therefore consider'd how we might best serve God and rescue our charges from their danger and it was concluded presently to run to arms I mean to the weapons of our warfare to the armour of the Spirit to the works of our calling and to tell the people of their peril to warn them of the enemy and to lead them in the ways of truth and peace and holiness that if they would be admonished they might be safe if they would not they should be without excuse because they could not say but the Prophets have been amongst them But then it was next enquired who should minister in this affair and put in order all those things which they had to give in charge It was easie to chuse many but hard to chuse one there were many fit to succeed in the vacant Apostleship and though Barsabas the Just was by all the Church nam'd as a fit and worthy man yet the lot fell upon Matthias and that was my case it fell to me to be their Amanuensis when persons most worthy were more readily excus'd and in this my Lords the Bishops had reason that according to S. Paul's rule If there be judgments or controversies amongst us they should be imploy'd who are least esteem'd in the Church and upon this account I had nothing left me but Obedience though I confess that I found regret in the nature of the imployment for I love not to be as S. Paul calls it one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disputers of this world For I suppose skill in Controversies as they are now us'd to be the worst part of Learning and time is the worst spent in them and men the least benefited by them that is when the Questions are curious and impertinent intricate and inexplicable not to make men better but to make a Sect. But when the Propositions disputed are of the foundation of Faith or lead to good life or naturally do good to single persons or publick societies then they
teaches Doctrines and uses Practices which are in themselves or in their true and immediate Consequences direct Impieties and give warranty to a wicked life 101. CHAP. III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general and of Monarchy in special Both which the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by her Doctrines greatly and Christianly support 207. IMPRIMATUR Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à Sacris A DISSUASIVE FROM POPERY To the PEOPLE of IRELAND The Introduction THE Questions of difference between Our Churches and the Church of Rome have been so often disputed and the evidences on both sides so often produc'd that to those who are strangers to the present constitution of affairs it may seem very unnecessary to say them over again and yet it will seem almost impossible to produce any new matter or if we could it will not be probable that what can be newly alleged can prevail more than all that which already hath been so often urged in these Questions But we are not deterr'd from doing our duty by any such considerations as knowing that the same medicaments are with success applied to a returning or an abiding Ulcer and the Preachers of God's word must for ever be ready to put the People in mind of such things which they already have heard and by the same Scriptures and the same reasons endeavour to destroy their sin or prevent their danger and by the same word of God to extirpate those errors which have had opportunity in the time of our late disorders to spring up and grow stronger not when the Keepers of the field slept but when they were wounded and their hands cut off and their mouths stopp'd lest they should continue or proceed to do the work of God thoroughly A little warm Sun and some indulgent showers of a softer rain have made many weeds of erroneous Doctrine to take root greatly and to spread themselves widely and the Bigots of the Roman Church by their late importune boldness and indiscreet frowardness in making Proselytes have but too manifestly declar'd to all the World that if they were rerum potiti Masters of our affairs they would suffer nothing to grow but their own Colocynths and Gourds And although the Natural remedy for this were to take away that impunity upon the account of which alone they do encrease yet because we shall never be Authors of such Counsels but considently rely upon God the Holy Scriptures right reason and the most venerable and prime Antiquity which are the proper defensatives of truth for its support and maintenance yet we must not conceal from the People committed to our charges the great evils to which they are tempted by the Roman Emissaries that while the King and the Parliament take care to secure all the publick interests by instruments of their own we also may by the word of our proper Ministery endeavour to stop the progression of such errors which we know to be destructive of Christian Religion and consequently dangerous to the interest of souls IN this procedure although we shall say some things which have not been always plac'd before their eyes and others we shall represent with a sittingness to their present necessities and all with Charity too and zeal for their souls yet if we were to say nothing but what hath been often said already we are still doing the work of God and repeating his voice and by the same remedies curing the same diseases and we only wait for the blessing of God prospering that importunity which is our duty according to the advice of Solomon In the Morning sow thy seed and in the Evening with-hold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall be alike good CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles is neither Catholick Apostolick nor Primitive SECT I. Scripture the foundation of our faith which was preserved intire in the first Ages of the Church Roman Doctrines unheard of then being innovations They pretend a power to make new articles of Faith Their expurgatory Indices show that they dare not trust the Fathers till they be purged Instances of their dealing with their writings IT was the challenge of St. Augustine to the Donatists who as the Church of Rome does at this day inclos'd the Catholick Church within their own circuits Ye say that Christ is Heir of no Lands but where Donatus is Co-heir Read this to 〈◊〉 out of the Law and the Prophets out of the Psalms out of the Gospel it self or out of the Letters of the Apostles Read it thence and we believe it Plainly directing us to the Fountains of our Faith the Old and New Testament the words of Christ and the words of the Apostles For nothing else can be the foundation of our Faith whatsoever came in after these foris est it belongs not unto Christ To these we also add not as Authors or Finishers but as helpers of our Faith and Heirs of the Doctrine Apostolical the Sentiments and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God in the Ages next after the Apostles Not that we think them or our selves bound to every private opinion even of a Primitive Bishop and Martyr but that we all acknowledge that the whole Church of God kept the Faith entire and transmitted faithfully to the after-Ages the whole Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the form of Doctrine and sound words which was at first delivered to the Saints and was defective in nothing that belong'd unto salvation and we believe that those Ages sent millions of Saints to the bosom of Christ and seal'd the true faith with their lives and with their deaths and by both gave testimony unto Jesus and had from him the testimony of his Spirit AND this method of procedure we now choose not only because to them that know well how to use it to the Sober and the Moderate the Peaceable and the Wise it is the best the most certain visible and tangible most humble and satisfactory but also because the Church of Rome does with greatest noises pretend her Conformity to Antiquity Indeed the present Roman Doctrines which are in difference were invisible and unheard of in the first and best antiquity and with how ill success their quotations are out of the Fathers of the first three Ages every enquiring Man may easily discern But the noises therefore which they make are from the Writings of the succeeding Ages where secular interest did more prevail and the writings of the Fathers were vast and voluminous full of controversie and ambiguous senses sitted to their own times and questions full of proper opinions and such variety of sayings that both sides eternally and inconfutably shall bring sayings for themselves respectively Now although things being thus it will be impossible for them to conclude from the sayings of
a number of Fathers that their doctrine which they would prove thence was the Catholick Doctrine of the Church because any number that is less than all does not prove a Catholick consent yet the clear sayings of one or two of these Fathers truly alleged by us to the contrary will certainly prove that what many of them suppose it do affirm and which but two or three as good Catholicks as the other do deny was not then matter of faith or a Doctrine of the Church for if it had these had been Hereticks accounted and not have remain'd in the Communion of the Church But although for the reasonableness of the thing we have thought fit to take notice of it yet we shall have no need to make use of it since not only in the prime and purest Antiquity we are indubitably more than Conquerors but even in the succeeding Ages we have the advantage both numero pondere mensurâ in number weight and measure WE do easily acknowledge that to dispute these questions from the sayings of the Fathers is not the readiest way to make an end of them but therefore we do wholly rely upon Scriptures as the foundation and final resort of all our perswasions and from thence can never be confuted but we also admit the Fathers as admirable helps for the understanding of the Scriptures and as good testimony of the Doctrine deliver'd from their fore-fathers down to them of what the Church esteem'd the way of Salvation and therefore if we sind any Doctrine now taught which was not plac'd in their way of Salvation we reject it as being no part of the Christian faith and which ought not to be impos'd upon consciences They were wise unto salvation and fully instructed to every good work and therefore the faith which they profess'd and deriv'd from Scripture we profess also and in the same faith we hope to be sav'd 〈◊〉 as they But for the new Doctors we understand them not we know them not Our faith is the same from the beginning and cannot become new BUT because we shall make it to appear that they do greatly innovate in all their points of controversie with us and shew nothing but shadows instead of substances and little images of things instead of solid arguments we shall take from them their armour in which they trusted and choose this sword of Goliah to combat their errors for non est alter talis It is not easie to find a better than the word of God expounded by the prime and best Antiquity THE first thing therefore we are to advertise is that the Emissaries of the Roman Church endeavour to perswade the good People of our Dioceses from a Religion that is truly Primitive and Apostolick and divert them to Propositions of their own new and unheard of in the first ages of the Christian Church FOR the Religion of our Church is therefore certainly Primitive and Apostolick because it teaches us to believe the whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and nothing else as matter of faith and therefore unless there can be new Scriptures we can have no new matters of belief no new articles of faith Whatsoever we cannot prove from thence we disclaim it as not deriving from the Fountains of our Saviour We also do believe the Apostles Creed the Nicene with the additions of Constantinople and that which is commonly called the Symbol of Saint Athanasius and the four first General Councils are so intirely admitted by us that they together with the plain words of Scripture are made the rule and measure of judging Heresies amongst us and in pursuance of these it is commanded by our Church that the Clergy shall never teach any thing as matter of Faith religiously to be observed but that which is agreeable to the Old and New Testament and collected out of the same Doctrine by the Ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops of the Church This was undoubtedly the Faith of the Primitive Church they admitted all into their Communion that were of this faith they condemned no Man that did not condemn these they gave letters communicatory by no other cognisance and all were Brethren who spake this voice Hanc legem sequentes Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti reliquos vero dementes vesanosque judicantes 〈◊〉 dogmatis infamiam sustinere said the Emperors Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius in their Proclamation to the People of C. P. All that believ'd this Doctrine were Christians and Catholicks viz. all they who believe in the Father Son and Holy Ghost one Divinity of equal Majesty in the Holy Trinity which indeed was the summ of what was decreed in explication of the Apostles Creed in the four first General Councils AND what faith can be the foundation of a more solid peace the surer ligaments of Catholick Communion or the 〈◊〉 basis of a holy life and of the hopes of Heaven hereafter than the measures which the Holy Primitive Church did hold and we after them That which we rely upon is the same that the Primitive Church did acknowledge to be the adaequate foundation of their hopes in the matters of belief The way which they thought sufficient to go to Heaven in is the way which we walk what they did not teach we do not publish and impose into this faith entirely and into no other as they did theirs so we baptize our Catechumens The Discriminations of Heresie from Catholick Doctrine which they us'd we use also and we use no other and in short we believe all that Doctrine which the Church of Rome believes except those things which they have superinduc'd upon the Old Religion and in which we shall prove that they have innovated So that by their confession all the Doctrine which we teach the People as matter of Faith must be confessed to be Ancient Primitive and Apostolick or else theirs is not so for ours is the same and we both have received this faith from the fountains of Scripture and Universal Tradition not they from us or we from them but both of us from Christ and his Apostles And therefore there can be no question whether the Faith of the Church of England be Apostolick or Primitive it is so confessedly But the Question is concerning many other particulars which were unknown to the Holy Doctors of the first ages which were no part of their faith which were never put into their Creeds which were not determin'd in any of the four first General Councils rever'd in all Christendom and entertain'd every where with great Religion and veneration even next to the four Gospels and the Apostolical writings OF this sort because the Church of Rome hath introduc'd many and hath adopted them into their late Creed and imposes them upon the People not only without but against the Scriptures and the Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God laying heavy burdens on Mens consciences and making the narrow way to Heaven yet narrower
by 〈◊〉 Chevallonius at Paris 1531. there is a very strange deleatur Dele Solus Deus adorandus that God alone is to be worshipped is commanded to be blotted out as being a dangerous Doctrine These instances may serve instead of multitudes which might be brought of their corrupting the witnesses and razing the records of antiquity that the errors and Novelties of the Church of Rome might not be so easily reprov'd Now if the Fathers were not against them what need these arts Why should they use them thus Their own expurgatory indices are infinite testimony against them both that they do so and that they need it But besides these things we have thought it fit to represent in one aspect some of their chief Doctrines of difference from the Church of England and make it evident that they are indeed new and brought into the Church first by way of opinion and afterwards by power and at last by their own authority decreed into Laws and Articles SECT II. The Church has no power to make new Articles The Roman Church has many ready for the stamp Council of Trents new Article against the necessity of Communicating Infants against the Sense of divers Fathers FIRST we allege that this very power of making new Articles is a Novelty and expresly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and we prove it first by the words of the Apostle saying If we or an Angel from Heaven shall preach unto you any other Gospel viz. in whole or in part for there is the same reason of them both than that which we have preached let him be Anathema and secondly by the sentence of the Fathers in the third General Council that at Ephesus That it should not be lawful for any Man to publish or compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defin'd by the Nicene Council and that whosoever shall dare to compose or offer any such to any Persons willing to be converted from Paganism Judaism or Heresie if they were Bishops or Clerks they should be depos'd if Lay-men they should be accursed And yet in the Church of Rome Faith and Christianity increase like the Moon Bromyard complain'd of it long since and the mischief encreases daily They have now a new Article of Faith ready for the stamp which may very shortly become necessary to salvation we mean that of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Whether the Pope be above a Council or no we are not sure whether it be an article of faith amongst them or not It is very near one if it be not Bellarmine would 〈◊〉 have us believe that the Council of Constance approving the Bull of Pope Martin the fifth declar'd for the Pope's Supremacy But John Gerson who was at the Council says that the Council did abate those heights to which flattery had advanc'd the Pope and that before that Council they spoke such great things of the Pope which afterwards moderate Men durst not speak but yet some others spoke them so confidently before it that he that should then have spoken to the contrary would hardly have escap'd the note of Heresie and that these Men continued the same pretensions even after the Council But the Council of Basil decreed for the Council against the Pope and the Council of Lateran under Leo the tenth decreed for the Pope against the Council So that it is cross and pile and whether for a peny when it can be done it is now a known case it shall become an Article of Faith But ofr the present it is a probationary Article and according to Bellarmine's expression is ferè de fide it is almost an Article of Faith they want a little age and then they may go alone But the Council of Trent hath produc'd a strange new Article but it is sine controversiâ credendum it must be believ'd and must not be controverted that although the Ancient Fathers did give the Communion 〈◊〉 Infants yet they did not believe it necessary to Salvation Now this being a matter of fact whether they did or did not believe it every man that reads their writings can be able to inform himself and besides that it is strange that this should be determin'd by a Council and determin'd against evident truth it being notorious that divers of the Fathers did say it is necessary to salvation the decree it self is beyond all bounds of modesty and a strange pretension of Empire over the Christian belief But we proceed to other instances SECT III. The Roman doctrine of Indulgences an Innovation No mention of them in the Canon-Law of Gratian or in P. Lombard What Indulgences the Old Church gave to Penitents What they signifie in the New Roman the value of them disputed but the Merchandise and abuses continue THE Roman Doctrine of Indulgences was the first occasion of the great change and Reformation of the Western Churches begun by the Preachings of Martin Luther and others and besides that it grew to that intolerable abuse that it became a shame to it self and a reproach to Christendom it was also so very an Innovation that their great Antoninus confesses that concerning them we have nothing expresly either in the Scriptures or in the sayings of the Antient Doctors and the same is affirmed by Sylvester Prierias Bishop Fisher of Rochester says that in the beginning of the Church there was no use of Indulgences and that they began after the people were a-while affrighted with the torments of Purgatory and many of the School-men confess that the use of Indulgences began in the time of Pope Alexander the third towards the end of the 12 th Century but Agrippa imputes the beginning of them to Boniface the VIII who liv'd in the Reign of King Edward the first of England 1300 years after Christ. But that in his time the first Jubilee was kept we are assur'd by Crantzius This Pope lived and died with very great infamy and therefore was not likely from himself to transfer much honour and reputation to the new institution But that about this time indulgences began is more than probable much before it is certain they were not For in the whole Canon-Law written by Gratian and in the sentences of Peter Lombard there is nothing spoken of Indulgences Now because they liv'd in the time of Pope Alexander III. if he had introduc'd them and much rather if they had been as antient as S. Gregory as some vainly and weakly pretend from no greater authority than their own Legends it is probable that these great Men writing Bodies of Divinity and Law would have made mention of so considerable a point and so great a part of the Roman Religion as things are now order'd If they had been Doctrines of the Church then as they are now it is certain they must have come under their cognisance and discourses Now lest the Roman Emissaries should deceive any of the good Sons of
stronger than their Supporter Now then in order to the proving the Doctrine of Purgatory to be an Innovation 1. We consider That the Doctrines upon which it is pretended reasonable are all dubious and disputable at the very best Such are 1. THEIR distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in their own nature 2. THAT the taking away the guilt of sins does not suppose the taking away the obligation to punishment that is That when a mans sin is pardoned he may be punished without the guilt of that sin as justly as with it as if the guilt could be any thing else but an obligation to punishment for having sinned which is a Proposition of which no wise man can make sense but it is certain that it is expresly against the Word of God who promises upon our repentance so to take away our sins that he will remember them no more And so did Christ to all those to whom he gave pardon for he did not take our faults and guilt on him any other way but by curing our evil hearts and taking away the punishment And this was so perfectly believ'd by the Primitive Church that they always made the penances and satisfaction to be undergone before they gave absolution and after absolution they never impos'd or oblig'd to punishment unless it were to sick persons of whose recovery they despaired not of them indeed in case they had not finished their Canonical punishments they expected they should perform what was enjoyn'd them formerly But because all sin is a blot to a mans soul and a foul stain to his reputation we demand in what does this stain consist In the guilt or in the punishment If it be said that it consists in the punishment then what does the guilt signifie when the removing of it does neither remove the stain nor the punishment which both remain and abide together But if the stain and the guilt be all one or always together then when the guilt is taken away there can no stain remain and if so what need is there any more of Purgatory For since this is pretended to be necessary only lest any stain'd or unclean thing should enter into Heaven if the guilt and the pain be removed what uncleanness can there be left behind Indeed Simon Magus as 〈◊〉 reports Haeres 20. did teach That after the death of the body there remained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a purgation of souls But whether the Church of Rome will own him for an Authentick Doctor themselves can best tell 3. IT relies upon this also That God requires of us a full exchange of penances and satisfactions which must regularly be paid here or hereafter even by them who are pardon'd here which if it were true we were all undone 4. THAT the Death of Christ his Merits and Satisfaction do not procure for us a full remission before we dye nor as it may happen of a long time after All which being Propositions new and uncertain invented by the School Divines and brought ex 〈◊〉 to dress this opinion and make it to seem reasonable and being the products of ignorance concerning remission of sins by Grace of the righteousness of Faith and the infinite value of Christs Death must needs lay a great prejudice of novelty upon the Doctrine it self which but by these cannot be supported But to put it past suspition and conjectures Roffensis and Polydore Virgil affirm That who so searcheth the Writings of the Greek Fathers shall find that none or very rarely any one of them ever makes mention of Purgatory and that the Latin Fathers did not all believe it but by degrees came to entertain opinions of it But for the Catholick Church it was but lately known to her BUT before we say any more in this Question we are to premonish That there are Two great causes of their mistaken pretensions in this Article from Antiquity THE first is That the Antient Churches in their Offices and the Fathers in 〈◊〉 Writings did teach and practise respectively prayer for the dead Now because the Church of Rome does so too and more than so relates her prayers to the Doctrine of Purgatory and for the souls there detain'd her Doctors vainly suppose that when ever the Holy Fathers speak of prayer for the dead that they conclude for Purgatory which vain conjecture is as false as it is unreasonable For it is true the Fathers did pray for the dead but how That God would shew them mercy and hasten the resurrection and give a blessed sentence in the great day But then it is also to be remembred that they made prayers and offered for those who by the confession of all sides never were in Purgatory even for the Patriarchs and Prophets for the Apostles and Evangelists for Martyrs and Confessors and especially for the blessed Virgin Mary So we find it in Epiphanius S. Cyril and in the Canon of the Greeks and so it is acknowledged by their own Durantus and in their Mass-book antiently they prayed for the soul of S. Leo Of which because by their latter doctrines they grew asham'd they have chang'd the prayer for him into a prayer to God by the intercession of S. Leo in behalf of themselves so by their new doctrine making him an Intercessor for us who by their old doctrine was suppos'd to need our prayers to intercede for him of which Pope Innocent being ask'd a reason makes a most pitiful excuse UPON what accounts the Fathers did pray for the Saints departed and indeed generally for all it is not now seasonable to discourse but to say this only that such general prayers for the dead as those above reckoned the Church of England never did condemn by any express Article but left it in the middle and by her practice declares her Faith of the Resurrection of the dead and her interest in the Communion of Saints and that the Saints departed are a portion of the Catholick Church parts and members of the Body of Christ but expresly condemns the Doctrine of Purgatory and consequently all prayers for the dead relating to it And how vainly the Church of Rome from prayer for the dead infers the belief of 〈◊〉 every man may satisfie himself by seeing the Writings of the Fathers where they cannot meet with one Collect or Clause for praying for the delivery of souls 〈◊〉 of that imaginary place Which thing is so certain that in the very Roman Offices we mean the Vigils said for the dead which are Psalms and Lessons taken from the Scripture speaking of the miseries of this World Repentance and Reconciliation with God the bliss after this life of them that die in Christ and the Resurrection of the Dead and in the Anthems Versicles and Responses there are prayers made recommending to God the Soul of the newly defunct praying he may be freed from hell and eternal death that in the day of Judgment he be not judged
Antichrist if he ever get into that Seat or be in already and made it necessary for all of the Roman Communion to believe and obey him in all things SECT XI Other instances of new Doctrines and practices in the Roman Church It is easier to shew where our Religion was before Luther than where theirs was before the Council of Trent Great and Excellent persons have complained heavily of the corrupt State of that Church but without redress The Reformation preferred a New cure before an Old sore THERE are very many more things in which the Church of Rome hath greatly turn'd aside from the Doctrines of Scripture and the practice of the Catholick Apostolick and primitive Church SUCH are these The Invocation of Saints the Insufficiency of Scriptures without Traditions of Faith unto Salvation their absolving sinners before they have by Canonical penances and the fruits of a good life testified their repentance their giving leave to simple Presbyters by Papal dispensation to give Confirmation or chrism selling Masses for Nine-pences Circumgestation of the Eucharist to be ador'd The dangerous Doctrine of the necessity of the Priests intention in collating Sacraments by which device they have put it into the power of the Priest to damn whom he pleases of his own Parish their affirming that the Mass is a proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead private Masses or the Lord's Supper without Communion which is against the doctrine and practice of the Antient Church of Rome it self and contrary to the Tradition of the Apostles if we may believe Pope Calixtus and is also forbidden under pain of Excommunication Peractâ consecratione omnes communicent qui noluerint ecclesiasticis carere liminibus sic autem etiam Apostoli statuerunt sancta Romana tenet Ecclesia When the Consecration is finished let all Communicate that will not be thrust from the bounds of the Church for so the Apostles appointed and so the holy Church of Rome does hold The same also was 〈◊〉 by Pope Soter and Pope Martin in a Council of Bishops and most severely enjoyn'd by the Canons of the Apostles as they are cited in the Canon Law THERE are divers others but we suppose that those Innovations which we have already noted may be 〈◊〉 to verifie this charge of Novelty But we have done this the rather because the Roman Emissaries endeavour to prevail amongst the ignorant and prejudicate by boasting of Antiquity and calling their Religion the Old Religion and the Catholick so insnaring others by ignorant words in which is no truth their Religion as it distinguishes from the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland being neither the Old nor the Catholick Religion but New and superinduc'd by arts known to all who with sincerity and diligence have look'd into their pretences BUT they have taught every Priest that can scarce understand his Breviary of which in Ireland there are but too many and very many of the people to ask where our Religion was before Luther Whereas it appears by the premises that it is much more easie for us to shew our Religion before Luther than for them to shew theirs before Trent And although they can shew too much practice of their Religion in the degenerate ages of the Church yet we can and do clearly shew ours in the purest and first ages and can and do draw lines pointing to the times and places where the several rooms and stories of their Babel was builded and where polished and where furnished BUT when the Keepers of the 〈◊〉 slept and the 〈◊〉 had sown tares and they had choak'd the wheat and almost destroyed it when the world complain'd of the 〈◊〉 errors in the Church and being oppressed by a violent power durst not complain so much as they had cause and when they who had cause to complain were yet themselves very much abused and did not complain in all they might when divers excellent persons S. Bernard Clemangis Grosthead Marsilius Ocham Alvarus Abbat Joachim Petrarch Savanarola Valla Erasmus Mantuan Gerson Ferus Cassander Andreas Fricius Modrevius Hermannus Coloniensis Wasseburgius Archdeacon of Verdun Paulus Langius Staphilus Telesphorus de Cusentiâ Doctor Talheymius Francis Zabarel the Cardinal and Pope Adrian himself with many others not to reckon Wiclef Hus Jerom of Prague the Bohemians and the poor men of Lions whom they call'd 〈◊〉 and confuted with fire and sword when almost all Christian Princes did complain heavily of the corrupt state of the Church and of Religion and no remedy could be had but the very intended remedy made things much worse then it was that divers Christian Kingdoms and particularly the Church of England Tum primùm senio docilis tua saecula Roma Erubuit pudet exacti 〈◊〉 temporis odit Praeteritos foedis cum religionibus annos Being asham'd of the errors superstitions heresies and impieties which had deturpated the face of the Church look'd into the glass of Scripture and pure Antiquity and wash'd away those stains with which time and inadvertency and tyranny had besmear'd her and being thus cleans'd and wash'd is accus'd by the Roman parties of Novelty and condemn'd because she refuses to run into the same excess of riot and de-ordination But we cannot deserve blame who return to our antient and first health by preferring a New cure before an Old sore CHAP. II. The Church of Rome as it is at this day disordered teaches Doctrines and uses Practices which are in themselves or in their true and immediate Consequences direct Impieties and give warranty to a wicked Life SECT 1. Repentance according to the Romish Doctors not of obligation as soon as we sin by Gods Law but only before we die The Church requiring it once a Year at Easter is satisfied with a ritual repentance The Objection answered that this is not the Doctrine of the Church but the Opinion of some private Doctors Contrition with them not available without confession to a Priest but Attrition with it is And one act of Contrition will make all sure OUR First instance is in their Doctrines of Repentance For the Roman Doctors teach that unless it be by accident or in respect of some other obligation a sinner is not bound presently to repent of his sin as soon as he hath committed it Some time or other he must do it and if he take care so to order his affairs that it be not wholly omitted but so that it be done one time or other he is not by the precept or grace of Repentance bound to do more Scotus and his Scholars say that a sinner is bound viz. by the precept of the Church to repent on Holy days especially the great ones But this is thought too severe by Soto and Medina who teach that a sinner is bound to repent but once a year that is against Easter These Doctors indeed do differ concerning the Churches sense which according to the best of them is bad enough
devices they serve themselves and they do not serve God They serve themselves by this Doctrine For they teach that what Penance is ordinarily imposed does not take away all the punishment that is due for they do not impose what was anciently enjoyn'd by the Penitential Canons but some little thing instead of it and it may be that what was anciently enjoyned by the Penitential Canons is not so much as God will exact for they suppose that he will forgive nothing but the guilt and the eternity but he will exact all that can be demanded on this side Hell even to the last farthing he must be paid some way or other even when the guilt is taken away but therefore to prevent any failing that way they have given Indulgences enough to take off what was due by the old Canons and what may be due by the severity of God and if these fail they may have recourse to the Priests and they by their Masses can make supply so that their Disciples are well and the want of ancient Discipline shall do them no hurt BUT then how little they serve God's end by treating the sinner so gently will be very evident For by this means they have found out a way that though it may be God will be more severe than the old Penitential Canons and although these Canons were much more severe than men are now willing to suffer yet neither for the one or the other shall they need to be troubled they have found out an easier way to go to Heaven than so An Indulgence will be no great charge but that will take off all the supernumerary Penances which ought to have been imposed by the ancient Discipline of the Church and may be required by God A little alms to a Priest a small oblation to a Church a pilgrimage to the image or reliques of a Saint wearing St. Francis's Cord saying over the Beads with an hallowed Appendent entering into a Fraternity praying at a priviledg'd Altar leaving a Legacy for a Soul-Mass visiting a priviledg'd Cemetery and twenty other devices will secure the sinner from suffering punishment here or hereafter more than his friendly Priest is pleased gently to impose To them that ask what should any one need to get so many hundred thousand years of pardon as are ready to be had upon very 〈◊〉 terms They answer as before That whereas it may be for Perjury the ancient Canons enjoyned Penance all their life that will be supposed to be twenty or forty years or suppose an hundred if the man have been perjur'd a thousand times and committed adultery so often and done innumerable other sins for every one of which he deserves to suffer forty years penance and how much more in the account of God he deserves he knows not if he be attrite and confess'd so that the guilt is taken away yet as much temporal punishment remains due as is not paid here but the Indulgences of the Church will take off so much as it comes to even of all that would be suffer'd in Purgatory Now it is true that Purgatory at least as is believ'd cannot last a hundred thousand years but yet God may by the acerbity of the flames in twenty years equal the Canonical Penances of twenty thousand years to prevent which these Indulgences of so many thousand years are devised A wise and thrifty Invention sure and well contriv'd and rightly applotted according to every mans need and according as they suspect his Bill shall amount to THIS strange Invention as strange as it is will be own'd for this is the account of it which we find in Bellarmine and although Gerson and Dominicus à Soto are asham'd of these prodigious Indulgences and suppose that the Pope's Quaestuaries did procure them yet it must not be so disown'd truth is truth and it is notoriously so and therefore a reason must be found out for it and this is it which we have accounted But the use we make of it is this That since they have declar'd that when sins are pardon'd so easily yet the punishment remains so very great and that so much must be suffered here or in Purgatory it is strange that they should not only in effect pretend to shew more mercy than God does or the primitive Church did but that they should directly lay aside the primitive Discipline and while they declaim against their Adversaries for saying they are not necessary yet at the same time they should devise tricks to take them quite away so that neither Penances shall much smart here nor Purgatory which is a device to make men be Mulata's as the Spaniard calls half Christians a device to make a man go to Heaven and to Hell too shall not torment them hereafter However it be yet things are so ordered that the noise of Penances need not trouble the greatest Criminal unless he be so unfortunate as to live in no Countrey and near no Church and without Priest or friend or money or notice of any thing that is so loudly talk'd of in Christendom If he be he hath no help but one he must live a holy and a severe life which is the only great calamity which they are commanded to suffer in the Church of England but if he be not the case is plain he may by these Doctrines take his ease SECT IV. The Roman Doctors themselves know how to spoil the hopes from these large grants of Indulgences if any should fancy that Purgatory would quickly be emptied and no need to continue Pensions for those that died many Years since Though a plenary or full Indulgence one would think should make all sure yet no such matter for there is a more full and a most full indulgence Other things that they say may evacuate Indulgences so that they lose their force therefore they advise to imploy the Priest and to multiply Masses Cardinal Albernotius his care by his last Will to have fifty thousand Masses said for his Soul WE doubt not but they who understand the proper sequel of these things will not wonder that the Church of Rome should have a numerous company of Proselytes made up of such as the beginings of David's Army were But that we may undeceive them also for to their souls we intend charity and relief by this Address we have thought fit to add one Consideration more and that is That it is not fit that they should trust to this or any thing of this not only because there is no foundation of truth in these new devices but because even the Roman Doctors themselves when they are pinch'd with an Objection let their hold go and to escape do in remarkable measures destroy their own new building THE case is this To them who say that if there were truth in these pretensions then all these and the many millions of Indulgences more and the many other ways of releasing souls out of Purgatory the innumerable Masses said every
us to intercede and we shall prevail for others but that a wicked person who is under actual guilt and oblig'd himself to suffer all punishment can ease and take off the punishment due to others by any externally good work done ungratiously is a piece of new Divinity without colour of reason or religion Others in this are something less scandalous and affirm that though it be not necessary that when the Indulgence is granted the man should be in the state of grace yet it is necessary that at some time or other he should be at any time it seems it will serve For thus they turn Divinity and the care of souls into Mathematicks and Clock-work and dispute minutes and periods with God and are careful to tell their people how much liberty they may take and how far they may venture lest they should lose any thing of their sins pleasure which they can possibly enjoy and yet have hopes of being sav'd at last 3. BUT there is worse yet If a man willingly commits a sin in hope and expectation of a Jubilee and of the Indulgences afterwards to be granted he does not lose the Indulgence but shall receive it which is expresly affirm'd by Navar and Antonius Cordubensis and Bellarmine though he asks the question denies it not By which it is evident that the Roman Doctrines and Divinity teach contrary to God's way who is most of all angry with them that turn his grace into wantonness and sin that grace may abound 4. IF any man by reason of poverty cannot give the prescrib'd Alms he cannot receive the Indulgence Now since it is sufficiently known that in all or most of the Indulgences a clause is sure to be included that something be offered to the Church to the Altar to a Religious House c. The consequent of this will be soon seen that Indulgences are made for the rich and the Treasures of the Church are to be dispensed to them that have Treasures of their own for Habenti dabitur But then God help the poor for them Purgatory is prepar'd and they must burn For the rich it is pretended but the smell of fire will not pass upon them FROM these premises we suppose it but too evident that the Roman Doctors prevaricate in the whole Doctrine of Repentance which indeed in Christ Jesus is the whole Oeconomy of Justification and Salvation it is the hopes and staff of all the world the remedy of all evils past present and to come And if our physick be poison'd if our staff be broken if our hopes make us asham'd how shall we appear before Christ at his coming But we say that in all the parts of it their Doctrine is insinitely dangerous 1. Contrition is sufficient if it be but one little act and that in the very Article of Death and before that time it is not necessary by the Law of God nay it is indeed sufficient but it is also insufficient for without Confession in act or desire it suffices not And though it be thus insufficiently sufficient yet it is not necessary For Attrition is also sufficient if a Priest can be had and then any little grief proceeding out of the fear of Hell will do it if the Priest do but absolve 2. Confession might be made of excellent use and is so among the pious Children of the Church of England but by the Doctrines and Practices in the Church of Rome it is made not the remedy of sins by proper energy but the excuse the alleviation the considence the ritual external and sacramental remedy and serves instead of the labours of a holy and a regular life and yet is so intangled with innumerable and inextricable cases of conscience orders humane prescripts and great and little artifices that scruples are more increased than sins are lessened 3. FOR Satisfactions and Penances which if they were rightly order'd and made instrumental to kill the desires of sin or to punish the Criminal or were properly the fruits of repentance that is parts of a holy life good works done in charity and the habitual permanent grace of God were so prevailing as they do the work of God yet when they are taken away not only by the declension of primitive Discipline but by new Doctrines and Indulgences regular and offer'd Commutations for money and superstitious practices which are sins themselves and increase the numbers and weights of the account there is a great way made for the destruction of souls and the discountenancing the necessity of holy life but nothing for the advantage of holiness or the becoming like to God AND now at last for a Cover to this Dish we have thought fit to mind the World and to give caution to all that mean to live godly in Christ Jesus to what an insinite scandal and impiety this affair hath risen in the Church of Rome we mean in the instance of their Taxa Camerae seu Cancellariae Apostolicae the Tax of the Apostolical Chamber or Chancery a book publickly printed and expos'd to common sale of which their own Espencaeus gives this account That it is a book in which a man may learn more wickedness than in all the Summaries of vices published in the World And yet to them that will pay for it there is to many given a Licence to all an Absolution for the greatest and most horrid sins There is a price set down for his Absolution that hath kill'd his Father or his Mother Brother Sister or Wife or that hath lien with his Sister or his Mother We desire all good Christians to excuse us for naming such horrid things Nomina sunt ipso penè timenda sono But the Licences are printed at Paris in the year 1500. by Tossan Denis Pope Innocent the VIII either was Author or Inlarger of these Rules of this Chancery-tax and there are Glosses upon them in which the Scholiast himself who made them affirms that he must for that time conceal some things to avoid scandal But how far this impiety proceeded and how little regard there is in it to piety or the good of souls is visible by that which Augustinus de Ancona teaches That the Pope ought not to give Indulgences to them who have a desire of giving money but cannot as to them who actually give And whereas it may be objected that then poor mens souls are in a worse condition than the rich he answers That as to the remission of the punishment acquir'd by the Indulgence in such a case it is not inconvenient that the rich should be in a better condition than the poor For in that manner do they imitate God who is no respecter of persons SECT VI. Other Instances of dangerous Doctrines as That one man may satisfie for another That a habit of sin is not a sin distinct from those actions by which it was contracted Mischief of this doctrine shewed The distinction of Mortal and venial sins
intervene And whereas Christ said Of every idle word a man shall speak he shall give account at the day of judgment and By your words ye shall be justified and By your words ye shall be condemned Bellarmine expresly affirms It is not intelligible how an idle word should in its own nature be worthy of the Eternal wrath of God and Eternal flames Many other desperate words are spoken by the Roman Doctors in this Question which we love not to aggravate because the main thing is acknowledged by them all BUT now we appeal to the reason and Consciences of all men Whether this Doctrine of sins Venial in their own nature be not greatly destructive to a holy life When it is plain that they give rest to mens Consciences for one whole kind of sins for such which because they occur every day in a very short time if they be not interrupted by the grace of Repentance will swell to a prodigious heap But concerning these we are bidden to be quiet for we are told that all the heaps of these in the world cannot put us out of Gods favour Add to this that it being in thousands of cases impossible to tell which are and which are not Venial in their own nature and in their appendent circumstances either the people are cozen'd by this Doctrine into an useless confidence and for all this talking in their Schools they must nevertheless do to Venial sins as they do to Mortal that is mortifie them fight against them repent speedily of them keep them from running into mischief and then all their kind Doctrines in this Article signifie no comfort or ease but all danger and difficulty and useless dispute or else if really they mean that this easiness of opinion be made use of then the danger is imminent and carelessness is introduc'd and licentiousness in all little things is easily indulg'd and mens souls are daily lessen'd without repair and kept from growing towards Christian perfection and from destroying the whole body of sin and in short despising little things they perish by little and little THIS Doctrine also is worse yet in the handling For it hath infinite influence to the disparagement of holy life not only by the uncertain but as it must frequently happen by the false determination of innumerable cases of conscience For it is a great matter both in the doing and the thing done both in the caution and the repentance whether such an action be a venial or a mortal sin If it chance to be mortal and your Confessor says it is venial your soul is betrayed And it is but a chance what they say in most cases for they call what they please venial and they have no certain rule to answer by which appears too sadly in their innumerable differences which is amongst all their Casuists in saying what is and what is not mortal and of this there needs no greater proof than the reading the little Summaries made by their most leading guides of Consciences Navar Cajetane Tolet Emanuel Sà and others where one says such a thing is mortal and two say it is venial AND lest any man should say or think this is no great matter we desire that it be considered that in venial sins there may be very much phantastick pleasure and they that retain them do believe so for they suppose the pleasure is great enough to outweigh the intolerable pains of Purgatory and that it is more eligible to be in Hell a while than to cross their appetites in such small things And however it happen in this particular yet because the Doctors differ so infinitely and irreconcileably in saying what is and what is not Venial whoever shall trust to their Doctrine saying that such a sin is Venial and to their Doctrine that says it does not exclude from God's favour may be these two Propositions be damned before he is aware WE omit to insist upon their express contradicting the words of our Blessed Saviour who taught his Church expresly That we must work in the day time for the night cometh and no man worketh Let this be as true as it can in the matter of Repentance and Mortification and working out our pardon for mortal sins yet it is not true in Venial sins if we may believe their great S. Thomas whom also Bellarmine follows in it for he affirms That by the acts of Love and Patience in Purgatory Venial sins are remitted and that the acceptation of those 〈◊〉 proceeding out of Charity is a virtual kind of penance But in this particular we follow not S. Thomas nor Bellarmine in the Church of England and Ireland for we believe in Jesus Christ and follow him If men give themselves liberty as long as they are alive to commit one whole kind of sins and hope to work it out after death by acts of Charity and Repentance which they would not do in their life time either they must take a course to sentence the words of Christ as savouring of Heresie or else they will find themselves to have been at first deceived in their Proposition and at last in their expectation Their faith hath fail'd them here and hereafter they will be asham'd of their hope SECT VII Their new doctrine of Probability That a probable opinion may be safely followed in practice The opinion of one grave Doctor or the example of good men makes a matter probable and either side may be chosen Though this is not an Article of their Faith yet it is a Rule of manners Sad instances of wickedness this gives warranty to A strange Instance of obtaining an Indulgence granted upon condition of Visiting an Altar of a distant Church by those that cannot go to it as Nuns and Prisoners if they address to an Altar of their own with that Intention secured by the practice of the Church THERE is a Proposition which indeed is new but is now the general Doctrine of the Leading Men in the Church of Rome and it is the foundation on which their Doctors of Conscience relie in their decision of all cases in which there is a doubt or question made by themselves and that is That if an Opinion or Speculation be probable it may in practice be safely followed And if it be enquir'd What is sufficient to make an opinion probable the Answer is easie Sufficit opinio alicujus gravis Doctoris aut Bonorum exemplum The opinion of any one grave Doctor is sufficient to make a matter probable nay the example and practice of good men that is men who are so reputed if they have done it you may do so too and be safe This is the great Rule of their Cases of Conscience AND now we ought not to be press'd with any ones saying that such an opinion is but the private opinion of one or more of their Doctors For although in matters of Faith this be not sufficient to impute a Doctrine to a whole
common opinion of Divines and Canonists saith Tolet and that in their Cradles they can be made Bishops said the Archdeacon and the Provost and though some say the contrary yet the other is the more true saith the Cardinal Vasquez saith That not only an Image of God but any creature in the world reasonable or unreasonable may without danger be worshipped together with God as his image That we ought to adore the Reliques of Saints though under the form of Worms and that it is no sin to worship a Ray of Light in which the Devil is invested if a man supposes him to be Christ And in the same manner if he supposes it to be a piece of a Saint which is not he shall not want the merit of his Devotion And to conclude Pope Celestine the III. as Alphonsus à Castro reports himself to have seen a Decretal of his to that purpose affirmed That if one of the Married Couple fell into Heresie the Marriage is dissolved and that the other may marry another and the Marriage is nefarious and they are Irritae Nuptiae the Espousals are void if a Catholick and a Heretick marry together said the Fathers of the Synod in Trullo And though all of this be not own'd generally yet if a Roman Catholick marries a Wife that is or shall turn Heretick he may leave her and part bed and board according to the Doctrine taught by the Canon Law it self by the Lawyers and Divines as appears in Covaruvius Matthias Aquarius and Bellarmine THESE Opinions are indeed very strange to us of the Church of England and Ireland but no strangers in the Church of Rome and because they are taught by great Doctors by Popes themselves by Cardinals and the Canon Law respectively do at least become very probable and therefore they may be believ'd and practis'd without danger according to the Doctrine of Probability And thus the most desperate things that ever were said by any though before the Declaration of the Church they cannot become Articles of Faith yet besides that they are Doctrines publickly allowed they can also become Rules of practice and securities to the consciences of their disciples To this we add that which is usual in the Church of Rome the Praxis Ecclesiae the Practice of the Church Thus if an Indulgence be granted upon condition to visit such an Altar in a distant Church the Nuns that are shut up and Prisoners that cannot go abroad if they address themselves to an Altar of their own with that intention they shall obtain the Indulgence Id enim confirmat Ecclesiae praxis says Fabius The practice of the Church in this case gives first a probability in speculation and then a certainty in practice This instance though it be of no concern yet we use it as a particular to shew the Principle upon which they go But it is practicable in many things of greatest danger and concern If the question be Whether it be lawful to worship the Image of the Cross or of Christ with Divine worship First there is a Doctrine of S. Thomas for it and Vasquez and many others therefore it is probable and therefore is safe in practice sic est Ecclesiae praxis the Church also practises so as appears in their own Offices And S. Thomas makes this use of it Illi exhibemus cultum latriae in quo ponimus spem salutis sed in cruce Christi ponimus spem salutis Cantat enim Ecclesia O Crux ave spes unica Hoc passionis tempore Auge piis justitiam Reisque dona veniam Ergo Crux Christi est adoranda adoratione Latriae We give Divine worship says he to that in which we put our hopes of salvation but in the Cross we put our hopes of salvation for so the Church sings it is the practice of the Church Hail O Cross our only hope in this time of suffering increase righteousness to the godly and give pardon to the guilty therefore the Cross of Christ is to be ador'd with Divine Adoration BY this Principle you may embrace any Opinion of their Doctors safely especially if the practice of the Church do intervene and you need not trouble your self with any further inquiry and if an evil custom get amongst men that very custom shall legitimate the action if any of their grave Doctors allow it or Good men use it and Christ is not your Rule but the Examples of them that live with you or are in your eye and observation that 's your Rule We hope we shall not need to say any more in this affair the pointing out this rock may be warning enough to them that would not suffer shipwrack to decline the danger that looks so formidably SECT VIII They teach that Prayers by the opus operatum the work done do prevail It not being essential to Prayer to think particularly of what he says Prevailing like charms even when they are not understood What Attention they require to Prayer Pope Leo ' s strange grant of remission of all negligences in Prayer The command of hearing Mass is not to intend the words but to be present at the Sacrifice though their words are not heard Comparison between Their Prayers and Ours in the Church of England Their absurd manner of numbering prayers by Beads and repetitions of the same words some hundreds of times not to be distinguish'd from that of the Gentiles which our Saviour reproves AS these Evil Doctrines have general influence into Evil Life so there are some others which if they be pursued to their proper and natural issues that is if they be believ'd and practis'd are enemies to the particular and specisick parts of Piety and Religion Thus the very Prayers of the Faithful are or may be spoil'd by Doctrines publickly allowed and prevailing in the Roman Church FOR 1. they teach That prayers themselves ex opere operato or by the natural work it self do prevail For it is not essential to prayer for a man to think particularly of what he says it is not necessary to think of the things signisied by the words So Suarez teaches Nay it is not necessary to the essence of Prayer that he who prays should think de ipsa locutione of the speaking it self And indeed it is necessary that they should all teach so or they cannot tolerably pretend to justifie their prayers in an unknown Tongue But this is indeed their publick Doctrine For prayers in the mouth of the man that says them are like the words of a Charmer they prevail even when they are not understood says Salmeron Or as Antoninus They are like a precious stone of as much value in the hand of an unskilful man as of a Jeweller And therefore Attention to or Devotion in our prayers is not necessary For the understanding of which saith Cardinal Tolet when it is said that you must say your prayers or offices
attently reverently and devoutly you must know that Attention or Advertency to your prayers is manifold 1. That you attend to the words so that you speak them not too fast or to begin the next verse of a Psalm before he that recites with you hath done the former verse and this attention is necessary But 2. there is an attention which is by understanding the sense and that is not necessary For if it were very extremely few would do their duty when so very few do at all understand what they say 3. There is an attention relating to the end of prayer that is that he that prays considers that he is present before God and speaks to him and this indeed is very prositable but it is not necessary No not so much So that by this Doctrine no attention is necessary but to attend that the words be all said and said right But even this attention is not necessary that it should be actual but it suffices to be virtual that is that he who says his office intend to do so and do not change his mind although he does not attend And he who does not change his mind that is unless observing himself not to attend he still turn his mind to other things he attends meaning he attends sufficiently and as much as is necessary though indeed speaking naturally and truly he does not attend If any man in the Church of England and Ireland had published such Doctrine as this he should quickly and deservedly have felt the severity of the Ecclesiastical Rod but in Rome it goes for good Catholick Doctrine NOW although upon this account Devotion is it may be good and it is good to attend to the words of our prayer and the sense of them yet that it is not necessary is evidently consequent to this But it is also expresly affirm'd by the same hand There ought to be devotion that our mind be inflam'd with the love of God though if this be wanting without contempt it is no deadly sin Ecclesiae satisfit per opus externum nec aliud jubet saith Reginaldus If ye do the outward work the Church is satisfied neither does she command any thing else Good Doctrine this And it is an excellent Church that commands nothing to him that prays but to say so many words WELL but after all this if Devotion be necessary or not if it be present or not if the mind wander or wander not if you mind what you pray or mind it not there is an easie cure for all this For Pope Leo granted remission of all negligences in their saying their offices and prayers to them who after they have done shall say this prayer To the Holy and Vndivided Trinity To the Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ crucified To the fruitfulness of the most Blessed and most Glorious Virgin Mary and to the Vniversity of all Saints be Eternal praise honour vertue and glory from every Creature and to us remission of sins for ever and ever Amen Blessed are the bowels of the Virgin Mary which bore the Son of the Eternal God and blessed are the paps which suckled Christ our Lord Pater noster Ave Maria. This prayer to this purpose is set down by Navar and Cardinal Tolet. THIS is the summ of the Doctrine concerning the manner of saying the Divine offices in the Church of Rome in which greater care is taken to obey the Precept of the Church than the Commandments of God For the Precept of hearing Mass is not to intend the words but to be present at the Sacrifice though the words be not so much as heard and they that think the contrary think so without any probable reason saith Tolet. It seems there was not so much as the Authority of one grave Doctor to the contrary for if there had the contrary opinion might have been probable but all agree upon this Doctrine all that are considerable So that between the Church of England and the Church of Rome the difference in this Article is plainly this They pray with their lips we with the heart we pray with the understanding they with the voice we pray and they say prayers We suppose that we do not please God if our hearts be absent they say it is enough if their bodies be present at their greatest solemnity of prayer though they hear nothing that is spoken and understand as little And which of these be the better way of serving God may soon be determin'd if we remember the complaint which God made of the Jews This people draweth near me with their lips but their hearts are far from me But we know that we are commanded to ask in faith which is seated in the understanding and requires the concurrence of the will and holy desires which cannot be at all but in the same degree in which we have a knowledge of what we ask The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man prevails But what our prayers want of this they must needs want of blessing and prosperity And if we lose the benefit of our prayers we lose that great instrumentality by which Christians are receptive of pardon and strengthened in faith and confirm'd in hope and increase in charity and are protected by Providence and are comforted in their sorrows and derive help from God Ye ask and have not because ye ask amiss that is Saint James his rule They that pray not as they ought shall never obtain what they fain would HITHER is to be 〈◊〉 their fond manner of prayer consisting in vain repetitions of Names and little forms of words The Psalter of our Lady is an hundred and fifty Ave Maries and at the end of every tenth they drop in the Lord's Prayer and this with the Creed at the end of the fifty makes a perfect Rosary This indeed is the main entertainment of the peoples Devotion for which cause Mantuan called their Religion Relligionem Quae filo insertis numerat sua murmura baccis A Religion that numbers their murmurs by berries fil'd upon a string This makes up so great a part of their Religion that it may well be taken for one half of its desinition But because so few do understand what they say but all repeat and stick to their numbers it is evident they think to be heard for that For that or nothing for besides that they neither do nor understand And all that we shall now say to it is That our Blessed Saviour reprov'd this way of Devotion in the Practice and Doctrines of the Heathens Very like to which is that which they call the Psalter of Jesus in which are fifteen short Ejaculations as Have mercy on me * Strengthen me * Help me * Comfort me c. and with every one of these the name of Jesus is to be said thirty times that is in all four hundred and fifty times Now we are ignorant how to distinguish this from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general and of Monarchy in special Both which the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by her Doctrines greatly and Christianly support SECT I. Instances of Doctrines taught in the Church of Rome destructive of Societies As Lying and Equivocating especially before a Magistrate to elude his examinations No Contracts Vows Oaths a sufficient security in dealing with them Council of Constance was against keeping Faith with Hereticks and Hus and Hierome of Prague felt the sad effects of it They would have done the same to Luther at Wormes had not the Emperour hindred Of the Popes dispensing with Oaths and Vows and in Contracts of Marriage and Divorces THAT in the Church of Rome it is publickly taught by their greatest Doctors That it is lawful to lye or deceive the question of the Magistrate to conceal their name and to tell a false one to elude all examinations and make them insignificant and toothless cannot be doubted by any man that knows how the English Priests have behav'd themselves in the times of Queen Elizabeth King James and the Blessed Martyr King Charles 1. 〈◊〉 wrote in defence of it and Father Barnes who wrote a Book against Lying and Equivocating was suspected for a Heretick and smarted severely under their hands To him that asks you again for what you have paid him already you may safely say you never had any thing of him meaning so as to owe it him now It is the Doctrine of Emanuel Sà and Sanchez which we understand to be a great lye and a great sin it being at the best a deceiving of the Law that you be not deceived by your Creditor that is a doing evil to prevent one a sin to prevent the losing of your mony IF a man asks his wife if she be an Adulteress though she be yet she may say she is not if in her mind secretly she say not with a purpose to tell you so Cardinal Tolet teaches And if a man swears he will take such a one to his wife being compelled to swear he may secretly mean if hereafter she do please me And if a man swears to a Thief that he will give him Twenty Crowns he may secretly say If I please to do so and then he is not bound And of this Doctrine Vasquez brags as of a rare though new invention saying it is gathered out of St. Austin and Thomas Aquinas who only found out the way of saying nothing in such cases and questions ask'd by Judges but this invention was drawn out by assiduous disputations * He that promises to say an Ave Mary and swears he will or vows to do it yet sins not mortally though he does not do it said the great Navar and others whom he follows * There is yet a further degree of this iniquity not only in words but in real actions it is lawful to deceive or rob your Brother when to do so is necessary for the preservation of your fame For no man is bound to restore stollen goods that is to cease from doing injury with the peril of his credit So Navar and Cardinal Cajetan and Tolet teaches who adds also Hoc multi dicunt quorum sententiam potest quis tutâ conscientiâ sequi Many say the same thing whose Doctrine any man may follow with a safe Conscience Nay to save a man's credit an honest man that is asham'd to beg may steal what is necessary for him says Diana NOW by these Doctrines a man is taught how to be an honest Thief and to keep what he is bound to restore and by these we may not only deceive our Brother but the Law and not the Law only but God also even with an Oath if the matter be but small It never makes God angry with you or puts you out of the state of grace But if the matter be great yet to prevent a great trouble to your self you may conceal a truth by saying that which is false according to the general Doctrine of the late Casuists So that a man is bound to keep truth and honesty when it is for his turn but not if it be to his own hinderance and 〈◊〉 David was not in the right but was something too nice in the resolution of the like case in the fifteenth Psalm Now although we do not affirm that these particulars are the Doctrine of the whole Church of Rome because little things and of this nature never are considered in their publick Articles of Confession yet a man may do these vile things for so we understand them to be and find justifications and warranty and shall not be affirghted with the terrors of damnation nor the imposition of penances he may for all these things be a good Catholick though it may be not a very good Christian. But since these things are affirm'd by so many the opinion is probable and the practice safe saith Cardinal Tolet. BUT we shall instance in things of more publick concern and Catholick Authority No Contracts Leagues Societies Promises Vows or Oaths are a sufficient security to him that deals with one of the Church of Rome if he shall please to make use of that liberty which may and many times is and always can be granted to him For first it is affirmed and was practis'd by a whole Council of Bishops at Constance that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks and John Hus and Hierom of Prague and Savanarola felt the mischief of violation of publick faith and the same thing was disputed fiercely at Worms in the case of Luther to whom Coesar had given a safe-conduct and very many would have had it to be broken but Coesar was a better Christian than the Ecclesiasticks and their party and more a Gentleman But that no scrupulous Princes may keep their words any more in such cases or think themselves tied to perform their safe-conducts given to Hereticks there is a way found out by a new Catholick Doctrine Becanus shall speak this point instead of the rest There are two distinct Tribunals and the Ecclesiastical is the Superior and therefore if a Secular Prince gives his Subjects a safe-conduct he cannot extend it to the Superior Tribunal nor by any security given hinder the Bishop or the Pope to exercise their jurisdiction And upon the account of this or the like Doctrine the Pope and the other Ecclesiasticks did prevail at Constance for the burning of their Prisoners to whom safe-conduct had been granted But these things are sufficiently known by the complaints of the injur'd persons BUT not only to Hereticks but to our friends also we may break our promises if the Pope give us leave It is a publick and an avowed Doctrine That if a man have taken an Oath of a thing lawful and honest and in his power yet if it hinders him from doing a greater good the Pope
of the Church of Rome To this we reply 1. It is not the private opinion of a few but their publick Doctrine own'd and offer'd to be justified to all the World as appears in the preceding testimonies 2. It is the 〈◊〉 of all the Jesuit Order which is now the greatest and most glorious in the Church of Rome and the maintenance of it is the subject matter of their new Vow of obedience to the Pope that is to advance his Grandeur 3. Not only the Jesuits but all the Canonists in the Church of Rome contend earnestly for these Doctrines 4. This they do upon the Authority of the Decretals their own Law and the Decrees of Councils 5. Not only the Jesuits and Canonists but others also of great note amongst them earnestly contend sor these Doctrines particularly Cassenaeus Zodericus the Archbishop of Florence Petrus de Monte St. Thomas Aquinas Bozius Baronius and many others 6. Themselves tell us it is a matter of Faith F. Creswell says it is the sentence of all Catholicks and they that do not admit these Doctrines Father Rosweyd calls them half Christians Grinners barking Royalists and a new Sect of Catholicks and Eudaemon Joannes says That without question it is a Heresie in the judgment of all Catholicks Now in such things which are not in their Creeds and publick Confessions from whence should we know the Doctrines of their Church but from their chiefest and most leading Doctors who it is certain would fain have all the World believe it to be the Doctrine of their Church And therefore as it is certain that any Roman Catholick may with allowance be of this opinion so he will be esteemed the better and more zealous Catholick if he be and if it were not for fear of Princes who will not lose their Crowns for their foolish Doctrines there is no peradventure but it would be declared to be de fide a matter of faith as divers of them of late do not stick to say And of this the Pope gives but too much evidence since he will not take away the scandal which is so greatly given to all Christian Kings and Republicks by a publick and a just condemnation of it Nay it is worse than thus for Sixtus Quintus upon the XI of September A. D. 1589. in an Oration in a Conclave of Cardinals did solemnly commend the Monk that kill'd Henry the III. of France The Oration was printed at Paris by them that had rebell'd against that Prince and avouched for Authentick by Boucher Decreil and Ancelein And though some would fain have it thought to be none of his yet Bellarmine dares not deny it but makes for it a crude and a cold Apology NOW concerning this Article it will not be necessary to declare the Sentence of the Church of England and Ireland because it is notorious to all the World and is expresly oppos'd against this Roman Doctrine by Laws Articles Consessions Homilies the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy the Book of Christian Institution and the many excellent Writings of King James of Blessed Memory of our Bishops and other Learned persons against Bellarmine Parsons Eudaemon Johannes Creswel and others And nothing is more notorious than that the Church of England is most 〈◊〉 most zealous for the right of Kings and within these four and twenty years she hath had many Martyrs and very very many Confessors in this cause IT is true that the Church of Rome does recriminate in this point and charges some Calvinists and Presbyterians with Doctrines which indeed they borrowed from Rome 〈◊〉 their Arguments making use of their Expressions and pursuing their Principles But with them in this Article we have nothing to do but to reprove the men and condemn their Doctrine as we have done all along by private Writings and publick Instruments WE conclude these our reproofs with an Exhortation to our respective Charges to all that desire to be sav'd in the day of the Lord Jesus that they decline from these horrid Doctrines which in their birth are new in their growth are scandalous in their proper consequents are insinitely dangerous to their souls and hunt for their precious life But therefore it is highly 〈◊〉 that they also should perceive their own advantages and give God praise that they are immur'd from such infinite dangers by the 〈◊〉 Precepts and holy Faith taught and commanded in the Church of England and Ireland in which the Word of God is set before them as a Lantern to their feet and a light unto their eyes and the Sacraments are fully administred according to Christ's Institution and Repentance is preach'd according to the measures of the Gospel and Faith in Christ is propounded according to the rule of the Apostles and the measures of the Churches Apostolical and obedience to Kings is greatly and sacredly urg'd and the Authority and Order of Bishops is preserv'd against the usurpation of the Pope and the invasion of Schismaticks and Aerians new and old and Truth and Faith to all men is kept and preach'd to be necessary and inviolable and the Commandments are expounded with just severity and without scruples and holiness of life is urg'd upon all men as indispensably necessary to salvation and therefore without any allowances tricks and little artifices of escaping from it by easie and imperfect Doctrines and every thing is practis'd which is useful to the saving of our souls and Christ's Merits and Satisfaction are intirely relied upon for the pardon of our sins and the necessity of good works is universally taught and our prayers are holy unblameable edisying and understood they are according to the measures of the Word of God and the practice of all Saints In this Church the children are duly carefully and rightly baptiz'd and the baptiz'd in their due time are Confirm'd and the Confirm'd are Communicated and Penitents are absolv'd and the Impenitents punished and discouraged and Holy Marriage in all men is preferr'd before unclean Concubinate in any and Nothing is wanting that God and his Christ hath made necessary to salvation Behold we set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing Safety and Danger Choose which you will but remember that the Prophets who are among you have declar'd to you the way of salvation Now the Lord give you understanding in all things and reveal even this also unto you Amen THE END TWO LETTERS TO PERSONS Changed in their RELIGION The I. LETTER A Copy of the first Letter written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome M. B. I WAS desirous of an opportunity in London to have discoursed with you concerning something of nearest concernment to you but the multitude of my little affairs hindred me and have brought upon you this trouble to read a long Letter which yet I hope you will be more willing to do because it comes from one who hath a great respect to your person and
yet if any of your Guides shall seem to question any thing of it I will bind my self to verifie it to a tittle and in that too which I intend them that is so as to be an objection obliging you to return under the pain of folly or heresie or disobedience according to the subject matter And though I have propounded these things now to your consideration yet if it be desired I shall represent them to your eye so that even your self shall be able to give sentence in the behalf of truth In the mean time give me leave to tell you of how much folly you are guilty in being moved by such mock-arguments as your men use when they meet with women and tender consciences and weaker understandings THE first is where was your Church before Luther Now if you had called upon them to speak something against your religion from Scripture or right reason or Universal Tradition you had been secure as a Tortoise in her shell a cart pressed with sheaves could not have oppressed your cause or person though you had confessed you understood nothing of the mysteries of succession doctrinal or personal For if we can make it appear that our religion was that which Christ and his Apostles taught let the truth suffer what eclipses or prejudices can be supposed let it be hid like the holy fire in the captivity yet what Christ and his Apostles taught us is eternally true and shall by some means or other be conveyed to us even the enemies of truth have been conservators of that truth by which we can confute their errors But if you still ask where it was before Luther I answer it was there where it was after even in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and I know no warrant for any other religion and if you will expect I should shew any society of men who professed all the doctrines which are now expressed in the confession of the Church of England I shall tell you it is unreasonable because some of our truths are now brought into our publick confessions that they might be oppos'd against your errors before the occasion of which there was no need of any such confessions till you made many things necessary to be professed which are not lawful to be believed For if we believe your superinduced follies we shall do unreasonably unconscionably and wickedly but the questions themselves are so useless abstracting from the accidental necessity which your follies have brought upon us that it had been happy if we had never heard of them more than the Saints and Martyrs did in the first Ages of the Church but because your Clergy have invaded the liberty of the Church and multiplied the dangers of damnation and pretend new necessities and have introduc'd new articles and affright the simple upon new pretensions and slight the very institution and the Commands of Christ and of the Apostles and invent new Sacramentals constituting Ceremonies of their own head and promise grace along with the use of them as if they were not Ministers but Lords of the Spirit and teach for doctrines the commandments of men and make void the Commandment of God by their tradition and have made a strange body of Divinity therefore it is necessary that we should immure our Faith by the refusal of such vain and superstitious dreams but our faith was completed at first it is no other than that which was delivered to the Saints and can be no more for ever So that it is a foolish demand to require that we should shew before Luther a systeme of Articles declaring our sense in these questions It was long before they were questions at all and when they were made questions they remained so a long time and when by their several pieces they were determined this part of the Church was oppressed with a violent power and when God gave opportunity then the yoke was broken and this is the whole progress of this affair But if you will still insist upon it then let the matter be put into equal ballances and 〈◊〉 them shew any Church whose confession of Faith was such as was obtruded upon you at Trent and if your Religion be Pius Quartus his Creed at Trent then we also have a question to ask and that is Where was your Religion before Trent THE Council of Trent determined that the souls departed before the day of Judgment enjoy the Beatisical Vision It is certain this Article could not be shewn in the Confession of any of the antient Churches for most of the Fathers were of another opinion But that which is the greatest offence of Christendom is not only that these doctrines which we say are false were yet affirmed but that those things which the Church of God did always reject or held as uncertain should be made Articles of Faith and so become parts of your religion and of these it is that I again ask the question which none of your side shall ever be able to answer for you Where was your Religion before Trent I could instance in many particulars but I shall name one to you which because the thing of it self is of no great consequence it will appear the more unreasonable and intolerable that your Church should adopt it into the things of necessary belief especially since it was only a matter of fact and they took the false part too For in the 21. Sess. chap. 4. it is affirmed That although the holy Fathers did give the 〈◊〉 of the Eucharist to Infants yet they did it without any necessity of salvation that is they did not believe it necessary to their salvation which is notoriously false and the contrary is marked out with the black-lead of every man almost that reads their Works and yet your Council says this is sine controversià credendum to be believed without all controversie and all Christians forbidden to believe or teach otherwise So that here it is made an Article of Faith amongst you that a man shall neither believe his reason nor his eyes and who can shew any confession of Faith in which all the Trent doctrine was professed and enjoyned under pain of damnation and before the Council of Constance the doctrine touching the Popes power was so new so decried that as Gerson says he hardly should have escaped the note of Heresie that would have said so much as was there defined so that in that Article which now makes a great part of your belief Where was your Religion before the Council of Constance and it is notorious that your Council of Constance determined the doctrine of the half-communion with a Non obstante to Christ's institution that is with a defiance to it or a noted observed neglect of it and with a profession it was otherwise in the Primitive Church Where then was your Religion before John Hus and Hierom of Prague's time against whom that Council was convened But by this instance it appears
and will not allow us to hope well of them but if they will allow us to hope it must be by 〈◊〉 the value of a general repentance and if they allow that they must hope as well of ours as we of theirs but if they deny it to us they deny it to themselves and then they can no more brag of any thing of our concession This only I add to this consideration that your men do not cannot charge upon us any doctrine that is in its matter and effect impious there is nothing positive in our doctrine but is either true or innocent but we are accused for denying your superstructures ours therefore if we be deceived is but like a sin of omission yours are sins of commission in case you are in the wrong as we believe you to be and therefore you must needs be in the greater danger than we can be supposed by how much sins of omission are less than sins of commission 11. YOUR very way of arguing from our charity is a very fallacy and a trick that must needs deceive you if you rely upon it For whereas your men argue thus The Protestants say we Papists may be saved and so say we too but we Papists say that you Protestants cannot therefore it is safest to be a Papist consider that of this argument if it shall be accepted any bold Heretick can make use against any modest Christian of a true perswasion For if he can but out-face the modesty of the good man and tell him he shall be damn'd unless that modest man say as much of him you see impudence shall get the better of the day But it is thus in every error Fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem in immediate succession were circumcised believing it to be necessary so to be with these other Christian Churches who were of the uncircumcision did communicate Suppose now that these Bishops had not only thought it necessary for themselves but for others too this argument you see was ready you of the uncircumcision who do communicate with us think that we may be saved though we are circumcised but we do not think that you who are not circumcised can be saved therefore it is the safest way to be circumcised I suppose you would not have thought their argument good neither would you have had your children circumcised But this argument may serve the Presbyterians as well as the Papists We are indeed very kind to them in our sentences concerning their salvation and they are many of them as unkind to us If they should argue so as you do and say you Episcopal men think we Presbyterians though in errors can be saved and we say so too but we think you Episcopal men are Enemies of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and therefore we think you in a damnable condition therefore it is safer to be a Presbyterian I know not what your men would think of the argument in their hands I am sure we had reason to complain that we are used very ill on 〈◊〉 hands for no other cause but because we are charitable But it is not our case alone but the old Catholicks were used just so by the Donatists in this very argument as we are used by your men The Donatists were so sierce against the Catholicks that they would re-baptize all them who came to their Churches from the other But the Catholicks as knowing the Donatists did give right Baptism admitted their Converts to Repentance but did not re-baptize them Upon this score the Donatists triumphed saying You Catholicks confess our Baptism to be good and so say we But we Donatists deny your Baptism to be good therefore it is 〈◊〉 to be of our side than yours Now what should the Catholicks say or do Should they lie for God and for Religion and to serve the ends of Truth say the Donatists Baptism was not good That they ought not Should they damn all the Donatists and make the rent wider It was too great already What then They were quiet and knew that the Donatists sought advantages by their own sierceness and trampled upon the others charity but so they hardned themselves in error and became evil because the others were good I shall trouble you no further now but desire you to consider of these things with as much caution as they were written with charity TILL I hear from you I shall pray to God to open your heart and your understanding that you may return from whence you are fallen and repent and do your first work Which that you may do is the hearty desire of Your very affectionate Friend and Servant JER TAYLOR The II. LETTER Written to a Person newly converted to the Church of England Madam I Bless God I am safely arrived where I desired to be after my unwilling departure from the place of your abode and danger And now because I can have no other expression of my tenderness I account that I have a treble Obligation to signisie it by my care of your biggest and eternal interest And because it hath pleased God to make me an Instrument of making you to understand in some fair measure the excellencies of a true and holy Religion and that I have pointed out such 〈◊〉 and errors in the Roman Church at which your understanding being forward and pregnant did of it self start at as impersect ill-looking Propositions give me leave to do that now which is the purpose of my Charity that is teach you to turn this to the advantage of a holy life that you may not only be changed but converted For the Church of England whither you are now come is not in condition to boast her self in the reputation of changing the opinion of a single person though never so excellent She hath no temporal ends to serve which must stand upon fame and noises all that she can design is to serve God to advance the honour of the Lord and the good of souls and to rejoyce in the Cross of Christ. First therefore I desire you to remember that as now you are taught to pray both publickly and privately in a Language understood so it is intended your 〈◊〉 should be 〈◊〉 in proportion to the advantages which your prayer hath in the understanding part For though you have been often told and have heard that ignorance is the mother of devotion you will sind that the proposition is unnatural and against common sense and experience because it is impossible to desire that of which we know nothing unless the desire it self be fantastical and illusive it is necessary that in the same proportion in which we understand any good thing in the same we shall also desire it and the more particular and minute your notices are the more passionate and material also your affections will be towards it and if they be good things for which we are taught to pray the more you know them the more reason you have to love them It is monstrous to think
that devotion that is passionate desires of religious things and the earnest prosecutions of them should be produced by any thing of ignorance or less perfect notices in any sense Since therefore you are taught to pray so that your understanding is the praecentor or the Master of the Quire and you know what you say your desires are made humanc religious express material for these are the advantages of Prayers and Liturgies well understood be pleased also to remember that now if you be not also passionate and devout for the things you mention you will want the Spirit of prayer and be more inexcusable than before In many of your prayers before especially the publick you heard a voice but saw and perceived nothing of the sense and what you understood of it was like the man in the Gospel that was half blind he saw men walking like Trees and so you possibly might perceive the meaning of it in general You knew where they came to the Epistle when to the Gospel when the Introit when the Pax when any of the other more general periods were but you could have nothing of the Spirit of prayer that is nothing of the devotion and the holy affections to the particular excellencies which could or ought there to have been represented but now you are taught how you may be really devout it is made facil and easie and there can want nothing but your consent and observation 2. WHEREAS now you are taken off from all humane considences from relying wholly and almost ultimately upon the Priests power and external act from 〈◊〉 prayers by numbers from forms and out-sides you are not to think that the Priests power is less that the Sacraments are not effective that your prayers may not be repeated frequently but you are to remember that all outward things and Ceremonies all Sacraments and Institutions work their effect in the vertue of Christ by some moral instrument The Priests in the Church of England can absolve you as much as the Roman Priests could fairly pretend but then we teach that you must first be a penitent and a returning person and our absolution does but manifest the work of God and comfort and instruct your Conscience direct and 〈◊〉 it You shall be absolved here but not 〈◊〉 you live an holy life So that in this you will 〈◊〉 no change but to the advantage of a strict life we will not slatter you and cozen your dear soul by pretended minisieries but we so order our discourses and directions that all our 〈◊〉 may be really effective and when you receive the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist or the Lords Supper it does more good here than they do there because if they consecrate rightly yet they do not communicate you fully and if they offer the whole representative Sacrifice yet they do not give you the whole Sacrament only we enjoyn that you come with so much holiness that the grace of God in your heart may be the principal and the Sacrament in our hands may be the ministring and assisting part we do not promise great effects to easie trifling dispositions because we would not deceive but really procure to you great effects and therefore you are now to come to our offices with the same expectations as before of pardon of grace of sanctification but you must do something more of the work your self that we may not do less in effect than you have in your expectation We will not to advance the reputation of our power deceive you into a less blessing 3. BE careful that you do not flatter your self that in our Communion you may have more ease and liberty of life for though I know your pious soul desires passionately to please God and to live religiously yet I ought to be careful to prevent a temptation lest it at any time should discompose your severity Therefore as to confession to a Priest which how it is usually practised among the Roman party your self can very well account and you have complained sadly that it is made an ordinary act easie and transient sometime matter of temptation oftentimes impertinent but suppose it free from such scandal to which some mens folly did betray it yet the same severity you 'l find among us for though we will not tell a lie to help a sinner and say that is necessary which is only appointed to make men do themselves good yet we advise and commend it and do all the work of souls to all those people that will be saved by all means to devout persons that make Religion the business of their lives and they that do not so in the Churches of the Roman Communion as they find but little advantage by periodical confessions so they feel but little awfulness and severity by the injunction you must confess to God all your secret actions you must advise with a holy man in all the affairs of your soul you will be but an ill friend to your self if you conceal from him the state of your spiritual affairs We desire not to hear the circumstance of every sin but when matter of justice is concerned or the nature of the sin is changed that is when it ought to be made a Question and you will find that though the Church of England gives you much liberty from the bondage of innumerable Ceremonies and humane devices yet in the matter of holiness you will be tied to very great service but such a service as is perfect freedom that is the service of God and the love of the holy Jesus and a very strict religious life for we do not promise heaven but upon the same terms it is promised us that is Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus and as in Faith we make no more to be necessary than what is made so in holy Scripture so in the matter of Repentance we give you no easie devices and suffer no lessening desinitions of it but oblige you to that strictness which is the condition of being saved and so expressed to be by the infallible Word of God but such as in the Church of Rome they do not so much stand upon MADAM I am weary of my Journey and although I did purpose to have spoken many things more yet I desire that my not doing it may be laid upon the account of my weariness all that I shall add to the main business is this 4. READ the Scripture diligently and with an humble spirit and in it observe what is plain and believe and live accordingly Trouble not your self with what is difficult for in that your duty is not described 5. PRAY frequently and effectually I had rather your prayers should be often than long It was well said of Petrarch Magno verborum 〈◊〉 uti decet cum superiore 〈◊〉 When you speak to your superiour you ought to have a bridle upon your tongue much more when you speak to God I speak of what is decent in respect of
our selves and our infinite distances from God but if love makes you speak speak on so shall your prayers be full of charity and devotion Nullus est amore superior ille te coget ad veniam qui me ad multiloquium Love makes God to be our friend and our approches more united and acceptable and therefore you may say to God the same love which made me speak will also move me to hear and pardon Love and devotion may enlarge your Letanies but nothing else can unless Authority does interpose 6. BE curious not to communicate but with the true Sons of the Church of England lest if you follow them that were amongst us but are gone out from us because they were not of us you be offended and tempted to impute their follies to the Church of England 7. TROUELE your self with no controversies willingly but how you may best please God by a strict and severe conversation 8. IF any Protestant live loosely remember that he dishonours an excellent Religion and that it may be no more laid upon the charge of our Church than the ill lives of most Christians may upon the whole Religion 9. LET no man or woman affright you with declamations and scaring words of Heretick and Damnation and Changeable for these words may be spoken against them that return to light as well as to those that go to darkness and that which men of all sides can say it can be of effect to no side upon its own strength or pretension THE END BOOKS written by J. Taylor D. D. Lord Bishop of Down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Course of Sermons for all the Sundays of the year together with a discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministerial in fol. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ in fol. the 7. Edit The Rule and Exercises of holy living and dying oct The Golden Grove or a Manual of daily Prayers sitted to the days of the week together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness to which is added a Guide to the Penitent in 12. A Collection of Polemical and Moral discourses in fol. A Discourse of the Nature Offices and Measure of Friendship in 12. Ductor Dubitantium or the Rule of Conscience fol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Supplement to the ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or course of Sermons for the whole year All that have been Preached and Published since the Restauration to which is adjoyned his Advice to the Clergy of his Diocese A Discourse of Confirmation in oct Several Chirurgical Treatises by Richard Wiseman Serjeant-Chirurgeon the Second Edition in fol. The Catholick doctrine of the Eucharist in all Ages in Answer to what Mr. Arnaud Doctor of the Sorborn alledges touching the Belief of the Greek Moscovite Armenian Jacobite Nestorian Coptic Maronite and other Eastern Churches in fol. XXII Sermons preached before His MAJESTY King CHARLES II. at Whitehal by H. Killigrew D. D. and published by the Reverend Dr. Patrick Quarto Winter-Evening Conserence in three parts between Neighbours The third part being newly printed in octavo Animadversions upon a book Intituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stilling fleet in Vindication of the Church of England by a person of Honour ALL Sold by R. Royston Book seller at the Angel in Amen-Corner 1 〈◊〉 6. 4. Phil. 2. 14. Contra 〈◊〉 De verae fide Moral reg 72. c. 1 reg 80. c. 22. Epist. Pasch. 2. De incarn Christi 〈◊〉 2. cap. de Origen error Lib. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. comperimus de consecr dist 2. in 1 Cor. 11. Eccl. 11. 6. De unit Eccles. c. 6. * Ecclesia ex sacris canonicis Scripturis 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 ex illis ostendi non potest Ecclesia non est S. Aug. de uni Eccles. c. 4. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiam ibi decernamus causam nostram * Lib. Candiscip Eccl. Angl. injunct Regin Elis. A. D. 1571 Can. de 〈◊〉 Dat. 3. Calen Mart. 〈◊〉 * Quod sit metrum regula ac scientia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Ecclesia l. 2. c. 〈◊〉 ‖ Novum Symbolum condere solum ad Papam spectat quia est caput sidei Christiane cujus authoritate omnia quae ad fidem spectant 〈◊〉 roborantur q. 59. a. 1. art 2. sicut potest novum symbolum condere ita potest novos articulos supra alios multiplicare * Papa potest facere novos articulos fidei id est quod modo credi oporteat cum sic 〈◊〉 non oporteret In cap. cum Christus de 〈◊〉 n. 2. ‖ Papa potest inducere novum articulum 〈◊〉 In idem * Super 2. Decret de jurejur c. nimis n. 1. ‖ Apud Petrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. instit per. ca. 69. * Jobannes Clemens aliquot folia Theodoretilaceravit abjecit in focum in quibus contra transubstantiationem praeclare disseruit Et cum non it a pridem Originem excuderent totum illud caput sextum Jobannis quod commentabatur Origines omiserunt mutilum ediderunt librum propter candem causam * Sixtus Senensis epist. dedicat ad Pium Quin. laudat 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 verba Expurgari emaculari curasti omnium Catholicorum Scriptorum ac praecipuè veterum 〈◊〉 scripta Index expurgator Madr. 1612. in Indice libror expurgatorum pag. 39. Gal. 1. 8. Part. 2. act 6. c. 7. De potest Eccles. Concil 〈◊〉 De Concil author l 2. c. 17. S. 1. Sess. 21. c. 4. Part. 1. Sum. tit 10. c. 3. In art 18. 〈◊〉 * Intravit ut vulpes regnavit ut leo 〈◊〉 ut canis de eo 〈◊〉 dictum Tertul. 1. ad Martyr c. 1. S. Cyprian lib. 3. Ep. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. Concil Nicen. 1. can 12. Conc. 〈◊〉 c. 5. Concil Laodicen c. 2. S. Basil. in Ep. canonicis habentur in Nomocanone Photii can 73. * Communis opinio D. D. tan Theologorum quam Canonicorum quod sunt ex abundantia meritorum quae ultra mensuram demeritorum suorum sancti sustinuerunt Christi Sum. Angel v. Indulg 9. * Lib. 1. de indulgent c. 2. 3. * In 4. l sen. dist 19 q. 2. ‖ Ib dist 20 q. 3. Vbi supra In lib. 4. sent Verb. Indulgentia Vt quid non praevides tibi in die judicii quando nemo 〈◊〉 per alium excusari vel defendi sed unusquisque sufficiens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sibi ipsi Tho. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. de imit c. 24. * Homil. 1. in ep ad Philom ‖ Serm. de Martyrib Serm. 1. de Advent 〈◊〉 18. 22. * Neque ab iis quos sanas lente languor abscedit sed illico quem restituis ex integro convalescit quia consummatum est quod facis perfectum quod largiris S. Cyprian de coena Domini vel potius Arnoldus P. Gelasius de vincul anathem negat 〈◊〉 deberi 〈◊〉 si culpa corrigatur * 〈◊〉 gratiae finalis peccatum veniale in