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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85088	Two treatises The first, concerning reproaching & censure: the second, an answer to Mr Serjeant's Sure-footing. To which are annexed three sermons preached upon several occasions, and very useful for these times. By the late learned and reverend William Falkner, D.D.	Falkner, William, d. 1682.; Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.; Sturt, John, 1658-1730, engraver.	1684 (1684)	Wing F335B; ESTC R230997	434,176	626

TWO TREATISES The First Concerning Reproaching Censure The Second An ANSWER to Mr SERjEANT's Sure-footing To which are annexed THREE SERMONS Preached upon several Occasions and very useful for these Times By the late Learned and Reverend WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard and sold by William Oliver in Norwich MDCLXXXIV TO THE Most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM By DIVINE PROVIDENCE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY HIS GRACE Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan and one of the Lords of His Majestie 's Most Honourable Privy Council May it please Your GRACE I Humbly present to your Grace's Patronage some Remains of an excellent Person for whom Your Grace was pleased to express a great value while he lived and whom You are still pleased upon all occasions to mention with great kindness Had he lived to have published any of these Discourses himself he would have chosen no other Patron and had he lived a little longer he would have found that he had needed no other For since some may wonder that so great a Man should go off the Stage with no greater Character than one of the Town-Preachers at Lyn Regis it is fit the World should know that Your Grace who is the peculiar Patron of modest and neglected Worth designed better things for him That great honour I have for Dr. Falkner's Memory to whose wise instructions I owe that little Knowledge I have attained to would easily have perswaded me to have given the World a more particular account of his Life which was adorned with as many eminent Vertues as I believe this last Age can shew in any one man But though distance of place could not interrupt our Correspondence nor our Friendship yet it has for many years deprived me of the familiarities and intimacies of his conversation which give the truest Character of any man and I dare not undertake a work wherein I can neither serve my Friend nor satisfie the World As for these posthumous Treatises he designed only the first of them for the Press which concerns Reproaching and Censures which he observed was grown so common a fault that it is generally thought to be none and therefore in the first Part he shews the great Evil and Sinfulness of it and how irreconcileable it is with a true Christian Spirit But then he considered that as men who are most guilty of this vice have no sense of it themselves so they are very apt to charge those with it who are not guilty Whoever has had the courage and honesty to reprove the Schisms and Factions that are among us and to censure the errors and miscarriages of the several Sects and Parties of Christians have been branded with the ignominious name of Railers and Revilers and Accusers of the Brethren and therefore in his Second Part he shews that such just and sober Censures as these which are designed to convince men of their errors and mistakes are so far from being a fault that they are a necessary duty And because some men are transported with such an intemperate zeal that they do not impartially consider what is truly blame-worthy in those who differ from them but censure and condemn at all adventures whatever is said or done by men of such a Party or Character He proposed to himself particularly to consider the several Sects and Professions of Christians and what it is which deserves reproof and Censure in them which he has done with great Candour and Judgement but did not live to perfect it For we have no reason to doubt but the Presbyterians should have had their share too as well as the other Sects amongst us but either that Part was not done or it was lost for no Remains could be found of it As for his Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure-Footing that was written many years since and designed by him for the Press but by that time he had finished it he found that work done to his hand by a very excellent Pen which put an end to that Controversie and therefore he laid it by without any intention to make it publick But since his Death some of his Friends have had other thoughts of it and indeed it is so useful a Discourse that though there is no need of a new Answer to Serjeant since the Publication of Dr. Tillotson's Rule of Faith yet I believe it will not be unacceptable to Learned men He penn'd very few Sermons in long hand which I suppose is the reason why there are no more published These that are besides the usefulness of the several Subjects may serve as a specimen of his plain and pious way of instructing the people My Lord I should be very ungrateful should I neglect this opportunity to make my publick acknowledgements to Your Grace for those extraordinary favours I have so lately received from You on which the ease and comfort of my life does so much depend that I am for ever bound to implore the Divine Majesty to bless Your Grace with all happiness and prosperity in this life and with the rewards of an exemplary Piety and Vertue in the next which is the hearty Prayer of My LORD Your Grace's most dutiful Servant William Sherlock A TABLE OF THE AUTHOR's CONTENTS OF REPROACHING CENSURE The First Part Concerning the irregular Excesses and great Sinfulness of uncharitable Evil-speaking especially of Superiours CHAP. I. SOME preparatory considerations concerning the evil of Reproaching Page 1 CHAP. II. The excessive disorders and unreasonable extravagancy of speaking evil when men give way to their passions and uncharitable temper manifested especially from the Censures our Saviour underwent Sect. 1. The best deserving persons are oft under obloquy and undeserved Censure p. 12 Sect. 2. Who are apt to be prevailed with to be guilty of the sinful reproaching others and how far this sin becomes spreading and contagious p 24 Sect. 3. The monstrous and unreasonable strangeness of those censures which have been unjustly charged on the most innocent and excellent men and particularly on our blessed Lord and Saviour himself p. 32 CHAP. III. The manifold sinfulness and severe punishment of reproaching and speaking evil especially against Superiors p. 56 CHAP. IV. Contumelious evil-speaking in general and all irreverent and disrespectful behaviour towards Rulers and Governours is contrary to the life of Christ in those things wherein we are particularly commanded to imitate his Example and S. Pauls carriage Acts 23.3 4 5. considered p. 76 The Second Part Concerning the usefulness of a sober Censure of such Parties or persons who practise evil or propagate falshood with an enquiry into some different parties who make profession of Christianity CHAP. I. TO speak against evil persons and practices duly and discreetly and to the just discrediting and disparaging bad Principles and Doctrines is reasonable and good with an account of what Rules are here to be observed p. 121 CHAP. II. The Principles and Practices maintained

he saith In other Regions upon the inspection into some certain causes temporalem jurisdictionem casualiter exercemus we casually exercise temporal jurisdiction And yet this is he who declared that Canon above mentioned in the Council of Lateran and practised the power of deposing in Germany and in other places even in England against King John 7. Papal claims have been mischievous Concerning this claim of Papal Soveraignty and the deposing power I shall observe three things First That it hath been very mischievous to the Christian World and hath been the cause of many Wars and intestine broils especially in Germany and Italy and hence hath proceeded very much blood-shed and very many rebellions When (o) Mar. Pol. in Hen. p. 358. Gregory the Seventh and then (p) Ursperg ad an 1102. Vrbane the Second and Paschalis the Second had undertaken to excommunicate Henry the Fourth the Emperour and to depose him and declare against his Subjects paying him any allegeance first Rodolphus of Saxony was set up against him who perished in his undertaking after which Henry the Fifth his own Son engages in that (q) U●sp p. 257 261. Parricidale bellum as Vrspergensis calls it to fight against his own Father and Soveraign And in the time of divers succeeding Emperours there were frequent deposings and thereupon Civil Wars and almost continual broils hence arose the long remaining high animosities and fierce contests in Italy and some adjacent parts of the Empire between the faction of the Guelphs who adhered to the Pope and the Gibelines who closed with the Emperour In this period of time for many ages sometimes the Emperour and sometimes the Pope were taken Prisoners or forced to escape by flight and reduced to great extremities and the Countries in the mean time were miserably harrassed which were the Seat of these Wars And in these foreign Princes were frequently engaged some on the one side and some on the other even so far as sometimes to take in both the English and French The particulars of these things or the effects of the like proceedings in some other Kingdoms would be too large to be here inserted And besides these things divers secret Conspiracies of Subjects against the lives of their Princes have been the effect of these Romish Principles in contradiction to that honour and reverence which Christianity requireth to be given to them Nor have such evil attempts been made only upon the lives of Protestant Princes but of such also who have adhered to the Romish profession both before and since the Reformation 8. But I shall here take notice that even those persons who were set up in prosecuting this deposing power the promoters of them have smarted by them where it did take effect as very often even before the Reformation it was of no force besides other troubles they were engaged in they oft fell themselves under the like Sentence of the Bishop of Rome and sometimes into great calamities thereby Here I might instance in those two I lately mentioned The Emperour Henry the Fifth who rose up against his Father against whom the Bishop of Rome had declared his Sentence of deposition did prevail against him and took him Prisoner but behaved himself very unworthily towards him and kept him in Prison till he died and Reigned after him But he himself fell under the sentence of Paschalis the Second and was involved in War thereby but he overcame the Pope and took him prisoner But he died Childless having no Issue to succeed him in the Empire which was then Hereditary (r) M. Pol. p. 367 368. and this was by many in that age accounted Gods just judgement upon him who had acted so unchristianly and undutifully against his Father And after his death the Empire came to the Saxon line 9. But I shall particularly take notice of Frederick the Second who was substituted Emperour in the place of Otho who was deposed He made many Laws in favour of the Church and encreased its wealth and revenue and was (ſ) Avent l. 7. p. 525 535. Nic. de Cusa as Historians relate concerning him an excellent most wise and flourishing Prince Yet he was both excommunicated and (t) M. Pol. in Honor. in Fred. deposed by Honorius who had Crowned him And this Sentence was again renewed by Gregory the Ninth who succeeded Honorius in three several Bulls of deposition (u) Avent P. 537 538. In the first of these in the courtship of Rome he declared the Emperour to be a Beast and in the last of them to be an Heretick but whatever great words were used (*) Chron. Ursperg p. 337. Vrspergensis who was an Abbot at that very time declared that it was pro frivolis causis falsis upon trifling and untrue grounds and occasions And against this Frederick did Innocent the Fourth erect the Banner of the Cross as against the Turk and denounce the Sentence of deposition in the Council of Lions to the astonishing terror of them who heard it Amidst these Circumstances his own Son Henry whom he had designed his Successor and had declared him so rose up in rebellion against his Father and being condemned of parricide by (x) Avent p. 533. the Sentence of seventy Princes was imprisoned and not long after died in Sicily And when Frederick had encountred with various difficulties after his flight into (y) M. Pol. p. 399. in Fred. Apulia he there died in distress and misery And this was the kind requital he met with for his affection to the Pope and interesting himself in his quarrel against the preceding Emperour 10. Secondly I observe that the pretended pleas for this Papal power are very vain Many of these and the most considerable I have examined (z) Christ Loyalty B. 1. ch 6. B. 2. ch 1. Sect. 1. Observ 2. The vain pleas for Papal power otherwhere But here I shall take notice of some things urged by Innocent the Third in a decretal Epistle which hath been confirmed by Gregory the Ninth and other Romish Bishops since And it is strange to see how extravagantly impertinent these proofs are For an evidence of the Popes chief decisive power in the highest matters of right he reserreth to Deut. 17.8 9 10 11 12. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgement thou shalt get thee to the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse And thou shalt come unto the Priests the Levites and unto the Judge And thou shalt do according to the Sentence which they of that place shall shew thee And then he tells us (a) 3. Decretal l. 4. Tit. 17. c. 13. quia Deuteronomium lex secunda interpretetur that because the word Deuteronomy signifieth a Second Law it is thence proved that what is there determined must be observed in the time of the New Testament and the Apostolical See is the place which God chùseth Now the proof is much alike that Rome is

shape to their souls but referr to them by expressing the resemblance of the bodies in which they once dwelt and to which they were and shall be again united though now separated from them And therefore this notion allows the Images of God in like manner as the Church of Rome sets up Images of Angels and Saints deceased not making any considerable difference betwixt these so far as concerns the representing every one of them by their Image and consequently must allow the worshipping every one of these Images with a proportionable honour in relation to the Beings represented by them 4. If this notion were of any weight the Jewish Church might then have been warranted in setting up Images of God and worshipping them also with respect to God provided they were not like him nor esteemed so to be And yet God plainly forbad their making any Image of him in the likeness of male or female or any other thing though he had sufficiently taught them and they well knew that the Deity was not in shape like to any of these And God declares his dislike against any such Images because they could frame nothing which they could liken to him which being a reason of perpetual and abiding truth doth concern the Christian state as well as the Jewish and the laying down this reason doth sufficiently declare against all such Images as are not like to him 13. Secondly Of the Romanists worshipping the Eucharist with Divine Worship I shall shew that the Romanists give proper Divine worship to that which is not God And here I shall particularly instance in the Sacrament of the Eucharist to which they profess to give that Latria or high worship which is due to the true God alone This is the plain Doctrine of the Council of Trent (q) Conc. Trid. Sess 13. c. 5. fideles omnes Latriae cultum qui vero Deo debetur huic Sacramento deferre that all good Christians do give to this Sacrament that properly Divine worship which is due to the true God And in the beginning of that Session they strictly forbid all Christians thenceforward to believe otherwise and their sixth Anathema is against him who shall say that Christ in the Eucharist is not to be adored with that which is the proper Divine worship In like manner it is expressed in the Roman Catechism published by the authority of Pius the Fifth (r) Catech. ad par de Euch. Sacr. in init huic Sacramento divinos honores tribuendos esse that Divine honour is to be given to this Sacrament And the words of Adoration in the Missal and the acts of adoration unto this Sacrament are accordingly to be understood to give Divine honour thereunto And Azorius is for giving this Divine worship even to the (Å¿) Instit Mor. part 2. l. 5. c. 16. species or appearances of Bread and Wine in this Sacrament But the Council of Trent seem not to extend it so far and the Roman Catechism declares that when they affirm this Sacrament is to be worshipped they understand this of the Body and Blood of Christ therein 14. We greatly reverence the holy Sacrament as an excellent institution of our Saviour but reserve the Divine honour to God alone for there is nothing which is not truly God be it otherwise never so sacred to which such worship may be given S. Paul was an eminent Apostle but with detestation disclaimed the receiving it Act. 14.13 14 15. The brazen Serpent under the Law was of Gods institution for the healing those Israelites who looked upon it but yet it was a great sin to worship it with Divine honour If the homage peculiarly due to a Prince be given to any other in his Dominions though it be to one he hath highly advanced he will account this a disparaging his dignity and practising Treason and Rebellion and God who is a jealous God will not give his worship to another But this practice of the Roman Church depends upon their Doctrine of Transubstantiation This is grourded upon transubstantiation for if that substance which is in the Sacrament be no longer Bread and Wine but be changed into the substance of the very Body and Blood of Christ in union with his Divinity then and only then may Divine honour be given unto it And if it be in truth the very same glorified Christ who is at Gods right hand and nothing else then is that worship which is due to Christ the Son of God which is proper Divine Worship as much to be performed to this Sacrament as to him in Heaven since both is substantially one and the same thing wholly and intirely The (t) Sess 13. c. 1 4 5. Anath 1. 2. Council of Trent declares that by the consecration of the Bread and Wine there is a conversion of their whole substance into the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ And they say the Body and Blood of Christ with his soul and Divinity and therefore whole Christ are contained in the Eucharist but the substance of the Bread and Wine remains not but only the species or appearance thereof and that this the Church calls Transubstantiation On this Doctrine it founds the Divine worship of the Sacrament and it anathematizeth him whosoever shall speak against this Transubstantiation and forbids all Christians that they shall not dare to believe or teach otherwise concerning the Eucharist than as this Council hath determined Now if this Doctrine of Transubstantiation be true the giving Divine worship to this Sacrament is but just but if this be false as the (u) Article 28. Church of England declares then is the giving Divine honour thereto certainly and greatly sinful and evil 15. It is acknowledged that this holy Sacrament administred according to Christs institution doth truly and really exhibite and communicate Christs Body and Blood with the benefits of his Sacrifice in an Heavenly Mystical and Sacramental way but the manner of this gracious presence it is needless curiously to enquire And though the elements of Bread and Wine remain in their proper substances yet are they greatly changed by their consecration from common Bread and Wine to contain under them such Spiritual and Divine Mysteries which is the effect of Divine power and grace Nor is it possible that these elements should tender to us Christ and the benefits of his Passion if this work had not been ordered by the power and authority of God in his Institutions who hath the disposal of this grace But that the elements of Bread and Wine remain in their substance and that they are not transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ is generally asserted by all Protestants whilst the contrary is universally affirmed by the Romanists and is made one great branch of the true Catholick Faith and the new Roman Creed according to the famous Bull of Pius the Fourth which is so solemnly sworn unto Indeed there are such expressions frequently

great veneration as being founded upon the highest evidence since no evidence can be above infallible certainty and there can be no evidence against it but what appears to be such is a mistaken fallacy and therefore no doubts ought to be admitted for there cannot be any need of reforming the Doctrine of such a Church By this method also so far as men believe this they are kept in a peaceable subjection but in a way of fraud and neglect of truth We account all honest and prudent ways to promote peace with truth to be desireable But if stedfastness in errors such as those of the Scribes and Pharisees or of any Hereticks or Schismaticks be more desirable than to understand or embrace the truth then may the devices of the Roman Church be applauded which have any tendency to promote peace And yet indeed all their other projects would signifie little if it were not for the great strictness and severity of their Government This pretence to Infallibility is in the consequence of it blasphemous because as it pretends to be derived from God it makes him to approve and patronize all their gross errors and Heretical Doctrines And if any other persons should have the confidence to require all they say to be received upon their authority as unquestionable and infallibly true though it appear never so unlikely to the hearers or be known by them to be false such a temper would not be thought tolerable for converse but it is only admired in those of Rome where there is as little reason to admit it as any where else and no proof at all thereof but very much to be said to confute it For 5. First It is hard to believe The asserters of Infallibility are not agreed who is the keeper thereof that that Church should have been possessed of Infallibility for above 1600 years which doth not yet agree where to fix this Infallibility It is great pity that if they have Infallibility they should not know where it is And it is strange it should be accompanied with so much uncertainty that those of the Romish Communion should still disagree and be to seek who the person or persons is or are that are Infallible and whether any be such or not Many of the Romish Church claim Infallibility to belong to the Pope This way goes Bellarmine and many others who assert the judgment of Councils Whether the Pope whether General or Provincial to receive their firmness from the Pope's Confirmation and then (e) de Pont. Rom. l. 4. c. 1 2 3. asserts that he cannot err in what he delivers to the Church as a matter of Faith And yet (f) de Pont. Rom. l. 2. c. 30. he grants that the Pope himself may be a Heretick and may be known to be such and by falling into Heresie may fall from being Head or Member of the Church and may be judged and punished by the Church And this is to give up his Infallibility since he who may fall into Heresie and declare it may err in what he declares And (g) Theol. Mor. l. 2. Tr. 1. c. 7. n. 1 2. Layman who asserts that the Pope in his own Person may fall into notorious Heresie and yet that in what he proposeth to the whole Church he is by Divine Providence infallible still acknowledgeth that this latter assertion is not so certain that the contrary should be an error in Faith Yea he admits it possible and to be owned by grave Authors such as Gerson Turrecremata Sylvester Corduba and Gr. de Valentia that the Pope may propose things against the Faith And this is to profess his Infallibility to be uncertain and indeed to be none at all And some of the Popes have been so unwary as in their Publick Rescripts to let fall such expressions which betrayed themselves to have no confidence of their own Infallibility Pope Martin the fifth determined a case proposed concerning the (h) Extrav Com. l. 3. Tit. 5. c. 1. sale of a yearly Revenue to be no Vsury because one of the Cardinals had given him an account that such parts were allowed to be lawful by the Doctors Now it is not like that if that Pope thought his own judgment to be Infallible that he would profess himself to proceed in his Declaration upon the judgment of others And Pope Innocent the third considering those words of S. Peter Submit your selves therefore to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether to the King as Supreme c. would have it observed that the King is not expresly called Supreme (i) Decretal l. 1. Tit. 33. c. 6. Solite sed interpositum for sitan non sine causa tanquam but this word as is interposed perhaps not without cause but for sitan and perhaps are not a stile becoming the pretence to Infallibility since the one acknowledgeth and the other disclaims the doubtfulness of the thing declared But so much modesty was very needful in this Epistle when both this Observation it self and many other things in that Epistle were far enough from being infallibly true as the founding the Pope's authority upon Jer. 1.10 and on God's creating two great Luminaries and such like things of which above 6. But others of the Romish Church or a General Council own the infallible judgment in matters of Faith to be only fixed in a general Council That Adrian the sixth was of this Opinion is owned by (k) de Pont. Rom. l. 4. c. 2. Bellarmine to whom (l) L●ym ubi sup Layman adds Gerson and others of the French Church Now there is much more to be said for this than for the former Notion And though a General Council cannot claim absolute infallibility of judgment in all cases because it is possible the erring Party may happen in some cases to be the greater number as appeared in some of the Arian Councils which so far as concerned the greatness of them bad fair for the Title of General ones Yet if a General Council be regularly convened and proceed orderly with a pious intention to declare truth and without design of serving interests and Parties there is so much evidence concerning Matters of Faith that it may be justly concluded that such a Council will not err in them but that its Determinations in this case are infallibly true But the admitting the Infallible Decision of such a General Council in points of Faith is so far from the interest of the Church of Rome that the eager promoters of the Popish interest will by no means close with this For a General Council having respect to the whole Catholick Church and not being confined to the particular Roman limits The Church of Rome can upon this principle plead no more for any Infallibility resident in it than the Church of Constantinople or the Church of England may do To this purpose the General of the Jesuits Lainezius (m) Hist Conc Trid. l. 7. p.