King nor more openly renounce his subjection and that allegiance which he oweth him then by giving to some other besides him the name glory honour and service of his Soveraigne so t is not possible that we should offend God more mortally then in attributing to any other but His Majesty the name of our God and Lord which appertains to Him alone and so the honour and service agreeable to these names This was the main crime of the Gentiles who thus broke Gods Covenant and pulled upon themselves most dreadfull wrath and curses in this world and eternall death in the next S. Paul teacheth us Rom. i. 25. That this rendering to the creature a service due to the Creatour was the source and fountain whence all the mischiefs issued forth upon them And 1 Cor. vi 10. he saith plainly That idolaters that is to say Such as render to any creature the service due to God shall never inherit the Kingdome of heaven And conformably to this S. John Rev. xxi 8. protesteth That their portion shall be in the lake burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death For of all the truths that are taught in the Old and New Testaments there is not any one which is so clearly and so often expressed as this very thing not any one which hath been lesse contested by hereticks or more universally and affirmatively forbidden by the Church w ch hath ever constantly broke off from those that under any pretence whatsoever will render to the creature the service due to God Even Rome her self of whom we complain disagrees with us but very little if at all in this point For though she render great honours to divers creatures yet she ever acknowledged That there is a kind of religious service which cannot without sacriledge be given to any thing but God alone this she commonly termeth the adoration of latria to distinguish it from other honours and services which she beleeves may without sin be given to that which is not God If therefore there be any Article in all the Christian faith which should be called fundamentall it is this If there be any which we should preserve inviolably with the price of all that is deare unto us it is this Neverthelesse this very Article doth the Church of Rome oblige us to violate if we will communicate in her services For she doth most expressely command all such as be of her communion to render that soveraigne and highest kind of service which she calleth latria and confesseth to be due to none but God unto a thing which we believe to be a creature and not God himself She would have us to take for our great God for the Creatour of Heaven and earth for the Redeemer of mankind this sacrament which is indeed holy and precious but which yet our sense our reason and our faith grounded on the H. Scriptures findeth to be but bread She would have us give to this subject all the praise of the creation and redemption of the universe to invest it with all the glory that is due to our Soveraigne and highest Lord and hereupon prostrate our selves most humbly our bodies and souls before those altars whereon this is laid and in those streets where we meet it that we should celebrate the day which she hath consecrated to the honour of the Eucharist under the name of the feast of our great God and should pronounce anathema maran-atha against all them who approve not this doctrine and this practise Here I shall venture to addresse my self to any the most passionate among our Adversaries and take them for my Judges in this cause for my Counsellours in this difficultie You Sirs command me to adore the Sacrament of the Eucharist with the adoration of latria Now I cannot I must not conceal from you That I believe this Sacrament in its substance to be an inanimate creature having not yet been able to resist the Authority of my sense of my reason and of the H. Scriptures which tell me that it is nothing but bread My belief being thus what should I doe Shall I adore that which I know to be but a creature Why you cannot but see how God forbids the adoration of a creature under peril of eternall damation Your Authoritie pulls me on one side and Gods on the other In my judgement He forbids the very same thing that you desire Whither shall I turn me in this condition I doubt not but hereupon they 'l soon drive me from their Altars and forbid me to make use of that the Divinitie whereof I neither can nor will acknowledge For they oblige not men to adore their Host but because of a belief they have that it is truly Jesus Christ God blessed for ever Did they not believe it so to be they would not adore it they would not bring it to others to be adored So that since I have not that belief methinks they should not judge it fitting for me to adore it and if I should adore it they would impute this action to nothing but an extreme pusillanimitie and basenesse of spirit which for fear of men can cause me to doe a thing that I my self esteem unlawfull and unpleasing to God And let them not here alledge That I am deceived in the opinion that I have of the substance of the Eucharist For the question is not whether the Eucharist be bread or not this should be disputed apart but whether he who believes that it is bread in substance can adore it without making himself guilty of Sacriledge and giving a creature that honour which is due to the Creatour For if one should grant That he cannot which we now are coming to demonstrate from the premises very evidently I have gained the point that I intended to prove it being cleare that this supposeth We have had reason to separate from Rome seeing we believe that the Eucharist is bread in substance it being impossible for us to yield to that worship which she desires we should give it unlesse we give to a creature that which we are bound to give onely to the Creatour Whence all the odious question concerning schisme is ended For we call that schisme which is a separation made without necessity So that when my conscience forbids me under pain of Gods wrath and my own damnation to obey that which you command me in this particular 't is evident that it is not fancie pleasure or faction but a pure necessity that constraineth me to separate from you If you cannot tax this my opinion much lesse can you condemne my separation Accuse me if you please of stupidity For not being able to conceive how a body that is in heaven can be at the same time in a thousand places on earth how all the quantity of a complete man can be brought within one single point how a thing that my sense and reason knoweth to be bread and the H. Scripture calleth oftentimes bread can
Angels and to avoid them as cursed and excommunicated persons if they should take the boldnesse to preach ought else but that Gospel which is already delivered Gal. i. 8 9. To depart straight out of Babylon and not to be kept in there lest we partake at once of her sinnes and plagues Revel xviii 4. In a schole where those of Ephesus are commended for having hated the Nicolaitans and those of Pergamus blamed for having tolerated their doctrine Rev. ii 6 15. In a schole where even at the beginning the children of the Church had continually so much care to separate from the communion of hereticks as Samosatenians Arians and others Who seeth not that according to this discipline it is sometimes not lawfull onely but even necessary to separate from some Societies that make profession of Christianitie and that in this case we must blame not generally and simply all that make a separation but those onely who make it either lightly and without reason or unjustly and without necessity The matter seems sufficiently cleare For since the conservation of such things as are united is the end of union 'T is evident that we are not to entertain any union but onely with them who may help forward that designe and so farre onely as they may help it forward If therefore there be any who under colour of the blessed name of Christ subvert His doctrine annihilate His authority and our salvation 't is so far from being our duty to unite our selves to them that on the contrary we are obliged to part from them because to unite with them were in effect to disunite from Christ and from His body and in stead of coming to salvation to fall into eternal ruine If in a State a City or Province should oblige those that live within it to perform actions that are contrary to the Majestie and service of the Soveraigne the loyal inhabitants may thereupon separate themselves and even oppose and resist the rebels with all their power if occasion be offered For 't is a law generally engraven by nature in all parts of the Universe even in insensible creatures That every thing seeks after the company of that which is like it and with equal violence avoids to be near or have any thing to do with that which is contrary to it So then both the discipline of Jesus Christ and the lawes of Civil societies and even those of nature her self permit us to avoid the communion of such as under any pretence name or colour whatsoever go about to destroy and ruine Christianity What did I say that they permit us nay they command it so expresly that we cannot refrain from such separations without offending God scandalizing our neighbours and destroying our selves And though this be a truth received among all Christians yet there is no Society or company of them wherein it is more strictly and more severely practised then among those against whom we now dispute For who knows not with what rigour Rome hath continually rejected the Communion of those who dissent from her In the infancy of Christianitie she anathematized the Churches of Asia for a matter of nothing viz. because they celebrated Easter otherwise then she and in these later dayes how hath she persecuted with fire and sword all those that would venture never so little to oppose her power and greatnesse How many ages have passed over her head since she broke with the Eastern Northern and Southern Churches with which notwithstanding she boasteth much of her having so great conformity of belief and service So nice is she and delicate in this point that we have seen not long ago the chiefest of her Monks the most exquisite of her Religious Orders fly off and separate from the State of Venice and renounce there her Churches and Altars where all the Articles of her faith were dayly publisht where all her devotions and services were continually celebrated onely upon pretence That this wise Commonwealth would not endure that Pope Paul the fift should bereave her of the power she had to make and execute lawes for the government of her subjects So that if separation simply be a crime who seeth not that our Adversaries are faulty too and consequently are not to be admitted to bring in the accusation against us CHAP. IV. That our Separation from Rome was not made rashly willingly or unnecessarily Object BUt they 'l say that They had reason to do so and that We have none Ans So then now we come to the businesse viz. To examine the causes of our separation before sentence be given against it Let us I beseech you leave the odious words of division and schisme and apply them to none but such to whom we shall find they appertain For if we have not had any important cause of our separation from the Church of Rome if she have not required any thing of us which destroys our faith offends our consciences and overthrows the service which we believe due to God If the differences between us have been small and such as we might safely have yeilded unto Then I 'le grant That men may call our Ancestours Schismaticks may condemn their separation to be rash and unjust and may impute to them all the sad disasters and scandals that have attended that action Bâ—t if they were urged to believe and pressed to do a thousand things contrary to their faith and to their conscience if onely for not doing them they were declared Hereticks enemies to J. Christ and his Church if they were deemed unworthy even of the honours or possessions yea even of that life it self which is enjoyed in this world who doth not see That they deserve the pity of men in stead of their hate and That their withdrawing themselves from people who have Treated them in this manner was just lawfull and necessary according to all the laws of heaven and earth Now it is very apparent that they were forced to make this separation for reasons which they in their consciences judged to be very great and important For excepting the motives of conscience all other considerations evidently obliged them to the contrary In separating from the Church of Rome they pluckt upon themselves all the disfavours of the world they incurred the indignation of their Magistrates the hatred of their Countreymen they exposed themselves to the losse of their goods their honours their friends their very countrey nay all that is sweet neare or deare unto them in this life and to the suffering of poverty ignominy banishment tortures and all imaginable punishments Who can believe that men who had the use of sense and reason as well as their neighbours should ever choose with chearfulnesse where there is no necessity to embrace such a side And though they had been so blind as not to have foreseen that such would be the event of their designe which yet is not a jot probable how should We come to have so little experience as
that almost in every page with odious imputations of such opinions whereof he cannot point us out one in all his volumne concerning which he who best knew his own belief and is long since gone to answer for it good or bad said more than once as in his Answer to the directions to N. N. § 28. Whosoever teacheth or holdeth them LET HIM BE ANATHEMA In which volumne though M r Knot declaim oft against reason and say That to it the mysteries of Christian Religion seem impossible c. xiii § 27. p. 808. pro 812. yet he thinks it fitting to charge his Adversary with the sayings not onely of S t Augustine B â— Andrews Hooker Grotius Calvin Beza and the like learned men who yet confessed themselves men but also of Luther Socinus Crellius Volkelius Bonaventure Halensis Dionys Areopagita and I know not what other rabble as if poor Chillingworth were bound to defend all whosoever that wrote before him Whereas all the world knows That he who would not believe the Romane Church whereof he had been a member upon her own bare word would as little believe any particular member of that or any other Society upon theirs and that he disclaimed not her pretended Infallibility which was her worst fault as making all the rest how damnable soever incurable that he might affix it upon another or the next man he met though never so learned or pious And if M r. K. will think it unjust That he should be put to maintain the writings of all Papists or even of those few of his own late Order his citing so much the opinions of Protestants out of our Adversary Brerely is no argument but of his own unreasonablenesse I shall not take notice of half his impertinencies not how he grants what M r Chill affirmed concerning some mens believing contradictions p. 803. lin 5. There is no doubt saith he but that men may believe things which in themselves are contradictions p. 810. l. 18. 'T is needlesse to be proved it being a thing which no man denyeth And yet how in attempting to shew that Master Chillingworth's reasons do not prove it he spends from p. 802. to 815. To take notice of all such peccadilloes would be very tedious to Thee and me Onely because I have mentioned his citing Brerely so oft and not onely M r K. but most of the other English Advocates for the Church of Rome are very faulty therein give me leave to adde a little in that particular M r Chill c. 5. § 91. answering M r Knots alledging the confession of Protestants concerning the Antiquity of some Doctrines in the Church of Rome sets down twenty Doctrines of that Church and entreateh M r K. to inform him what confession of Protestants he hath for them viz. Communion in one kind Latiâ—e Service Indulgences the Popes power in temporalities over Princes picturing the Trinity worshipping of pictures and of the B. Virgin her immaculate conception infallibility of the Pope or Church auricular Confession c. And that as some Protestants confesse the Antiquity but alwayes postnate to Apostolick of some Romane points so there want not Papists who acknowledge as freely the novelty of many of them and the Antiquity of ours To which all that M r K. answereth is p. 867. as followeth 1. Some of these things are not matters of faith and some other points are even ridiculous 2. We deny that any Cath. approved Authour acknowledgeth the novelty of any of our Doctrines or the antiquity of yours except such were ancient heresies How truly spoken the first is the Reader may judge if he have read the Canons of the Councel of Trent Luc. Wadding's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or History of the Immaculate conception printed at Lovain 1624. or any few Romane authours How true the second if he 'l vouchsafe to examine the places I have cited p. 6. or these which follow Though there are some Protestants who confesse the Antiquity though not Primitive which is the onely Antiquity they hold obliging of some few Romane Doctrines so there are not a few Doctours Writers of their own Communion who acknowledge as liberally the novelty of very many others as 1 that Transubstantiation was not named much lesse made an Article of faith before the Laterane Councel Bellarm. de Sacram. l. 2. c. 25. 2 That for the first MCC years the Holy Cup was administred to the Laity Lindan Panopl l. 4. part 2. c. 56. § Hunc igitur Cassander saepe Albaspinaeus Observ Sacr. l. 1. c. 4. And your friend Petavius in his Treatise against Arnault de la frequent Communion saith None but an extreme ignorant or impudent fellow can deny it 3. That they beleeved the sacrifice of the Eucharist to be but the IMAGE or COMMEMORATION of our Saviours sacrifice on the Crosse Lombard Sent. l. 4. c. 12. Aqu. 3. p. qu. 83. art 1. incorp 4. That the Primitive Christians celebrated not the Eucharist as the Romane Church doth now Durand ration div offic lib. 4. c. 1. Rupertus Abbas Tuit Divin Offic. l. 2. c. 21. he that readeth Justin Martyr in his Apology largely describing the custome of the Primitives in his dayes may think he speaks of the Protestants now 5. That Divine Service was celebrated for many ages in a tongue understood by the people Nic. de Lyr. in 1. ad Cor. 14. Cassander in Liturg c. 28. Alphons à Castro de justa pun haeret l. 3. c. 6. where desending this differing from the Primitive Church he saith That he who should now conform to THEM would be accounted not onely an impious man but an Infidel 6. That the Fathers exhorted the people to read the Scriptures Azor. mor. l. 8. c. 26. part 1. § respondeo 7. That they generally condemned the worship of Images for fear of Idolatry Polyd. Virg. de invent rerum l. 6. c. 13. In which treatise that learned Italian oft ingemiously acknowledgeth the novelty of most of their customes in the Church of Rome except such as came from Jews or Pagans As lib. 5. c. 4. where he saith 8 God and the Primitive Church permitted marriage to Priests and Pope Siricius who lived at the end of the fourth century was the first that forbad it whose laws to that purpose though they came out very thick were little heeded till the eleventh Age. See Gloss decret dist 84. c. 3. and P. Pius II. in his 130. Epist against the Bohemians and Taborites where he opposeth the Modern Church to the Primitive 9. That MCCCC years after Christ many learned Romanists denied the Popes judgement to be infallible Gerson Almain Alphonsus Adrian PP apud Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 2. § Secunda opinio 10. Or his authority to be above that of a generall Councel Camaracensis Gerson Almain Cusan Panormitan Abulensis apud Bell. de Conc. l. 2. c. 14. initio 11. That the Masse was not instituted by Christ and the Apostles who at the consecration used
affirmeth That the Protestant Religion is no safe way to salvation I answer I confide to use Mr. Knots words that every indifferent Reader will find this to be clearly false For first he speaketh no more of Protestants than Papists but equally of both Secondly he saith not categorically they do erre but it is to be feared they both Protestants and Papists do Thirdly he saith not absolutely neither but on supposition IF any Protestant or Papist be held in any errour by any sinne of their will then such errour is as the cause of it sinfull and damnable And this none that I know unlesse himself will or can deny It being a truth sufficiently manifest and asserted by his great Masters P. Lombard and T. Aquinas and the greatest stream of Schole-men and Casuists And to tell Mr. Knot my mind freely I am clearly of Mr. Chill's opinion viz. That Protestant Religion is a safe way to salvation and yet that many Protestants go to hell That there are millions of Protestants who think not to be a Papist is enough not to be damned and millions of Papists who think not to be a Protestant is enough to oblige Almighty God and merit heaven And I take both parties to be extreme blame-worthy for deeming so and Mr. Knot must give me leave to wonder if any rationall man shall blame me for saying so without giving his reasons Now we come to M r Knots very large Introduction where § 2. p. 38. he layeth down this proposition to be proved Christian Religion is absolutely and infallibly true And so he spends you above fifteen sheets in pretending to prove it and the Necessity of Grace and the first of these by the last And if M r Chill neither denied the necessity of Grace nor the infallibility of Christian Religion I desire the Reader to consider whether he have not fifteen sheets together of impertinencies And that M r Chill denyed neither of these will clearly enough appear to any that are not willing to be deceived if they can spare leisure to read over M r Chillingworth's pamphlet as M r Knots friend calls it or but consult those very passages from which M r K. taketh the occasion of these long discourses and which he citeth out of Master Chillingworths sixth Chapter where his 3 d § begins thus I do HEARTILY acknowledge and believe the Articles of our Faith to be in themselves Truths as certain and INFALLIBLE as the very common principles of GEOMETRY and MATHEMATICKS But as if M r K. notwithstanding the Metaphysicks he boasteth so much of knew not the difference between certitudo objecti subjecti he seeketh advantage from what followeth immediately viz. But That there is required of us a knowledge of them and an adherence to them of SENSE or SCIENCE That such a certainty is required of us UNDER PAIN OF DAMNATION So that NO man CAN HOPE to be in a state of salvation but he that finds in himself such a degree of faith such a strength of adherence This I have already demonstrated to be a great errour and of dangerous and pernicious consequence And because I am more and more confirmed in my perswasion I will here confirm it with reasons c. p. 311. From which passage whether any just advantage can be taken especially for a digression of so many sheets let every unpassionate Reader judge Chap. 1. § 2. p. 38. He layes down this proposition to be proved Christian faith is absolutely and infallibly true by Christian faith he explains two lines after his proposition himself to mean the true Religion Now 1. This is the same vein of Sophistry which I noted even now and runnes through the whole book when he speaks of infallibility The question being not at all de certitudine objecti but subjecti not whether divine truths be absolutely infallible this none doubteth who admits a God in the true notion but whether we are infallibly certain That these or those positions are Divine truths 2. Master Chill tells us in the ninth § of his Conclusion that the end of his book was to confirm the truth of the divine infallible Religion of Jesus Christ 3. M r K. takes notice of it and citeth that very passage and such others c. 1. § 39. p. 66. So that to make a great noise against M r Chill and to endeavour to prove against him what he believeth and granteth nay what he knoweth and confesseth he grants as M r K. doth here and oft elsewhere is such a piece of Jesuitical industry and civility as Protestants never learnt 4. He tells us that in the proof of this proposition he maintaineth the cause of All Christians and of all men and mankind 'T is a comfort to meet with such a charitable person But if he have all Christians nay all men all mankind of his perswasion and saith so himself who are his adversaries If all men all mankind be for the infallibility of all faith then sure M r Chill is so too for though I never saw or knew him otherwise then by his printed book I ever took him for a man and I believe M r K. who hath reason to know him better then I hath found him so And if all be not of Master Knots mind then nothing can be concluded hence but that he was in a passion when he wrote this book so may be the better excused for declaming against reason But 5. Had M r K. read Sextus Empericus and been acquainted with the Pyrrhonians he might have found many and they no fools but famous Philosophers who were not for his absolute infallibility And I wish Mr. Knot may never be one of them I hope be is and will continue a Christian Onely give me leave to tell him That if nothing else could be said for the truth of our Christian Religion but what is in his Infidelitie unmasked and Vanninus his Amphitheatrum heu actum esset de Palladio Since not to trouble you with transcribing his positions which I cited pag. 14. having told us That it is necessary that supernaturall knowledge should be most certain and infallible and That a man is as happy without any belief of Christian Religion as without one that is infallible he saith p. 52. That 't is impossible Christian Religion can retain the highest degree of probability if it have no greater perfection then it receiveth from the sole probable arguments of credibility And then throughout the whole book he hath not one argument which pretends to reach higher than to a probability I wish any of them would reach so high for the infallibility of the Church or living Judge upon which he endeavours to build all the rest unlesse you will grant which indeed he contendeth hard for Conclusionem non semper sequi deteriorem partem That the conclusion may sometimes be stronger than the premises And indeed it concerns him to desire it should be granted for the premises which he bringeth
do not Protestants suffer more in most other parts of Christendome by the State or the Inquisition where some as our worthy Confessour M r Moll have been and are kept in a close prison or dungeon for above twenty years meerly for Religion or by both So that those arguments which their Christian Moderatour brings supposing them rationall in themselves cannot be such coming from a Romanist unless Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri nèfeceris be an unreasonable Law not Nature's Nay do not the Socinians Anabaptists Arians Atheists suffer too and burn rather then turn witnesse Servetus John of Leiden Hacket Vanninus Fontanier Ket Leggat Theophile Gentilis and many others 4. Victory over all sorts of enemies This makes more for Turcism then Popery for the Alcaron then the Conc. of Trent 5. CONVERSION OF INFIDELS I would fain know what he means by Infidels for he cannot but know that thousands have been converted by Protestants whether all of every nation or how many converts are required to make up this note and whether so many in every age 'T is certain that multitudes of Infidels have been converted to Mahumetanisme and more Christians of late years to Judaisme and Turcisme then Turks or Jews to Christianity or Popery And to see what manner of Christians the Romanists make in both the Indies you need read no other books then their own letters their own Bishop de las Casas book or Benzo's cited p. 30. To turn a rich fruitfull land into a desolate wildernesse is in the new Romane language conversion In a word who ever shall please to examine these notes which are M r Knot 's last argument and other mens first chief and ordinary for the infallibility of the Church or any other that he or his Society can bring shall find that they offend against those properties which Bellarmine Salmeron and other Romane Controvertists require in all Notes as That they should be verae manifestae propriae non communes inseparabiles c. It being the most undoubted note of a distinguishing Note Alteri non quadrare Indeed his marks seem to me so weak arguments that I cannot find how any man can be convinced by them unlesse through the Authority of the propounder so that if a man yields upon them it must be out of civility or fear of gainsaying But when men are resolved upon a Conclusion impertinencies are easily fancied to be as strong demonstrations as any in Euclide The Pythagorians being bred up in positions concerning numbers fancied them the principles even of Naturall bodies Every rack in the clouds is a Regiment in a young souldiers eye and the least scratch in the wall a babie in the childs all chymnes sound their Whittington I wish the best of M r Knots arguments were as concluding as the worst of Mons r Drelincourts 100 against Transubstantiation I heartily wish as I said before for an infallible Judge and shall come with as much prejudice against my own perswasion for as yet I see no hope of any in this world to hear M r Knots argument as he can desire in any Reader But I would be loth to run in a circle and mistake a wish that some person were infallible for a proof that he is And therefore if M r K. shall think this paper deserves any answer besides an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I ever expected in this Controversie I shall beseech him that before he tell us again that he hath proved the Church of Rome infallible He would be pleased to resolve these following questions which I think must necessarily precede the examination of that which he in most leaves taketh for granted I. Whether there be any infallible Judge on earth II. Whether any Church be that Judge and not rather some one of those ten things which Mr. Chill nameth and bringeth Scripture for chap. 3. § 8 III. Whether the Romane Church be that Church IV. If it be in what capacity whether the Infallibility be 1. in the head the Pope as the Jesuites generally and many Canonists affirm or 2. in the body of the Church as Panormitanus Occam Waldensis Antoninus Clemangis Cusanus and others hold and give their reasons And then whether in the whole body diffusive or in the collective in a Councel And if a Councel be infallible then whether it be so onely with the Popes confirmation or without it And which way soever they say I enquire further V. How we shall certainly know who must be members of it 1. Clergy and Laicks or 2. onely Clergy And if so whether 1. onely Bishops as commonly they say or 2. Presbyters too and Deacons or Chorepiscopi at least for we find all these usually subscribing VI. Or let the Councel be as they would have it how shall I be sure they are infallible For 1. Are they so absolutely infallible as that they cannot determine falsly in rebus fidei do what they will Or 2. Are they infallible onely if they use all those good means which God hath given them to find truth that is if they read studie dispute search records pray and lay aside all passions private ends and interests VII How shall I know when they determine aright what is required to a Synodicall Constitution Must all concurre in the Vote or will the major part serve the turn VIII What makes a Councel Generall Must all the Bishops in the Christian world be called IX And when they are called must they all come else is it no General Councel X. Who must call the Generall Councel the Pope or Christian Kings and Emperours and how shall I be assured which of them must XI How farre are their determinations infallible whether in matters of fact as well as faith And XII If in matters of faith onely then whether in fundamentals onely as many Catholicks said of old and D r Holden the Sorbonist at present or in superstructures too as others believe And then XIII How shall I infallibly know which points are fundamental which not XIV But admit all this were determined and our infallible Judge were a General Councel with the Pope yet in a time of schisme when there be two or three Popes at once as there were Clement III Greg. VII Gelasius II and Greg. VIII Celestin II and Honorius II. Anacletus II and Innocent II. Victor IV and Alex. III. Clement VII and Urbane VI. Eugenius IV and Felix V. Gautier the Jesuite will help you to a larger catalogue and these warring one against another as when there were two triple-crowns one at Rome the other at Avignon the Italians for the first the French for the latter the Court and the Cardinals bulls and indulgences at both places And thus were there saith John le Maire many Popes at once one against another for 40 years together so that the learnedst Clergy-men alive knew not which was S t Peters true successour and thus saith reason may there be again Then I
any more queries then are necessary what necessity of an infallible Judge at all The Christian world had no such Judge sor CCCXXIV years for the Nicene Councel was the first General and if They vnderstood Scripture and were saved then when they had no such thing why may not We now And if they were not saved the Church of Rome must blot out many hundreds and thousands of Saints Martyrs out of her Martyrology Till these twenty questions be insallibly resolved it seems to me impossible that any man should have any infallible knowledge of the Church of Romes Infallibility And I am the more confirmed in the necessity of a plain resolution to this last querie because though M. Knot be sometimes hot and positive in grounding all Christian Religion upon the infallibility of the Church I find beside what I said p. 22. Christ and the Apostles intimating the contrary Joh. v. 39. Act. iv 19. xviii 11. 2. Thess v. 21. 1. Joh. iv 1. Rev. ii 2. But to passe by such places of Scripture because I know that they who make profession of devising shifts will find euasions for them and to omit the positions of many Romane Doctours of lesse note who are as high for the non-necessity of an infallible guide as any Protestant can wish I shall onely hint at Lactantius his large Chapter to this purpose lib. 2. de orig error c. 7. beginning thus Quare oportet in ea re in qua vitae ratio versatur sibi quemque confidere suóque judicio ac propriis sensibus niti ad investigandam perpendendam veritatem quà m credentem alienis erroribus decipi tanquam ipsum rationis expertem Dedit omnibus Deus pro virili portione sapientiam c. and rather insist upon a couple of most eminent Cardinals Baronius and Lugo Both these give their opinions very plainly on our side and which I value more their reasons and examples The former hath spent to our purpose a whole Appendix which he prefixed before the second tome of his Annals printed at Rome MDLXXXVIII where appealing to every particular Protestant's judgement concerning the truth of his cause and not once mentioning the infallibility of the Church he goes on thus Ingens sanè vis humanae insidet rationi c. Great is the power of humane reason if it be left unsettered and free in all things And therefore our Ancestors placing great confidence in the force of truth where they contended with obstinate hereticks when they declined and despised all judgement of the Church were so indulgent as not to refuse to try the judgement even of Infidels and expect their determination Such men being Judges the Jews Joseph Antiq. l. 13. c. 6. had the victory over the Samaritans And an heathen Philosopher being by consent chosen for an Arbitrator to whose judgement they were to stand Origen dialog overcame five most wicked hereticks And Archelaus Epiphan haeres 66. a Bishop in Mesopotamia did consute Manes a most desperate Arch-heretick before certain Heathens who were by consent chosen Judges c. The latter though a Jesuite a Spaniard plainly asserteth this non-necessity tom de virtut fidei dis 1. § 12. n. 247. c. And making it good by foure instances 1. THE BELIEF OF THE INFALLIBILITY IT SELF which must be received from some other motive than it self or its own testimony and consequently saith he all other doctrines of Christianity may be believed upon the same inducements not meerly upon the infallibility of the Church 2. CHILDREN or OLD PEOPLE who are newly converted to the faith do not believe the Infallibilitie before they embrace other Articles for they believe Articles in order as they are propounded this is commonly one of the last 3. RUSTICKS AND COMMON PEOPLE at this day in Spain Italy and other Catholick Countreys who commonly resolve their faith no further than their Parish-Priest or some other learned or holy man at the most 4. He asserteth num 252. That IN THE LAVV OF NATURE most believed onely upon the Authority of their Parents without any Church-propounding And also after the law was written most believed Moses the Prophets before their prophecies were received and propounded by the Church for the sanctity of their lives c. And this discourse wa◠written by speciall order from the late Pope Urban and dedicated to the present Pope Innocent X. And now my patient Reader to draw to a conclusion as my spare-leaves do for I have unawares detained thee very much longer then I intended when I first set pen to paper for this Preface which was after the following English Apologie was fully printed and that is one reason of its immethodicalness If I have writ any thing impertinent I hope that my brother THE UNIVERSITY-MAN Mr. Knots friend will help to excuse me if any thing that savoureth of passion which I shall be very sorry for as soon as it shall be discovered to me that Mr. Knot will be my Advocate each of them being commonly conceived sufficiently guilty of one or both of these faults and hereafter I may do as much for them And further to encourage M r K. to do somewhat for me I do here assure him That if he shall vouchsase punctually to answer these xx questions which seem to me very necessary to be plainly determined before he can assure any man of the Infallibility of the Romane Church on which foundation he layeth so huge a structure and withall to refute that one argument which I mentioned pag. 18. out of Dr. Jer. Taylors nervous discourse then prove that the Church of Rome is infallible by any one infallible argument for he hath told us that nothing lesse can do it I will be his Proselyte Vntill which time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse which I think far the more probable and therefore shall daily pray for it Mr. Knot will be so ingenuous as S. Augustine was to retract his errours in his later dayes and come over to the good Old Catholick Apostolick Faith leaving Romane superstructures For I begin to despair with that Milevitan Bishop of ever seeing while I am upon earth any infallible living Judge in matters of saith and to believe I must as the Jews speak expect the coming of Elias for that purpose having long observed by Mr. Knot 's seven books in this Controversie that Cause patrocinio non bona pejor erit To the Preface p. 8. l. 29. adde That there were Christians in Britain before Augustine the Monk came over is plain out of Eusebius Theodoret Arnobius Tertullian Gildas Bromton and I suppose no man that is not a meer stranger to Antiquity will deny That those Christians had no dependance upon Rome will appear to any who readeth the ancient Histories of Rome or England Platina saith that Antherus the 20 th Pope sate eleven years and made onely one Bishop In a word from the death of S t Peter till the entrance of
not to discern the danger We who follow their steps and have seen the whole world in a conspiracy for to reduce them with all possible force and artifice from this separation and to reunite us to Rome One must needs think then that both our Ancestours and We were carried on to this motion so apparently contrary to our own good and welfare by some very strong reason that forced us as it were against our wills to sleight what ever is naturally desirable and in stead of enjoying that to suffer what we are wont to dread which certainly can be no lesse then a strange fantasticalnesse and a silly opinionative humour which should make us take a delight in running counter to others as some without any appearance of reason are pleased to imagine I heartily wish it were in our power to accommodate our selves in this particular with a good conscience to the customes and Services of our Countreymen whose friendship We know very well how much we ought to value and how highly to prize the good favour of those Princes whom God hath set over us especially rather then to displease them needlesly in a matter of such high importance and which they affect with so much passion according to the great and singular devotion which they bear towards those things that they esteem divine We behold likewise and grieve to behold the disorders that this diversitie in Christianitie breeds and the extreme scandal that it gives to Infidels and such as are weak in faith And what ever others say We are not thanks be to God such enemies to His glory and the salvation of mankind as not be as sensible of these dolefull emergencies as of ought that most concerns our temporall good and private interests CHAP. V. Reasons of our Separation from Rome founded upon the diversitie of our Beliefs Object BUt you 'l say If it be thus how can you possibly passe over these considerations your selves which you pretend to think so important why do you not follow them whither they would lead you Seeing you desire the favour of Princes the love of your Countreymen a peaceable and settled condition seeing you would gladly promote the glory of God and the edification of men and do really abhorre the scandal of this disunion why are ye not again reconciled to the Romane Church she opens her arms wide unto you and is not so stiff and rigorous as you seem to apprehend her but for to gain you is willing to yield to some Accommodation and in favour of you to mitigate some of those things that offend you most What I pray is there so strange in her doctrine or in her service that should cause you to forsake her communion to avoid the ancient Churches and Religion of our Fathers to renounce the ordinary publick assemblies of Christian people to sever from all the rest of the world and to suffer all sorts of extremities Our Church adores the same JESVS CHRIST whom you professe to be the Prince and Authour of your Religion She confesseth the unity of His person and the veritie of His two natures She believes Him to be God eternal of the same substance with the Father and with the Holy Ghost and likewise man made in time of the flesh of the blessed Virgin like to us in all things sinne onely excepted truly Immanuel as the ancient Prophesies foretold She acknowledges the truth benefit and necessity of his sufferings and preacheth even as you That His bloud expiated the crimes of mankind That the freedome and salvation of the world is the fruit of His death She exalteth His glory and believes That He sits at the right hand of God in heaven and That He shall come in the last day to judge the world and she hopes after the renovation of this world for a blessed immortality through his grace in one to come She gives to her children baptisme which Christ did institute and refreshes them with His Eucharist and recommends to them piety toward Him and charity toward men She reverenceth the Gospels and the Epistles of the Apostles as books divinely inspired And if there be any other Article in the discipline of our Lord she receiveth and embraceth it as well as you and curseth the names and memory of those who have gone about to overthrow or shake them whether in former or latter ages Ans The truth is We neither can nor will denie that the Church of Rome doth at this day believe all these holy truths We thank our gracious Lord that she hath preserved them through so many ages midst so many disorders But we would to God That she had been as carefull of not adding as of not diminishing That she had foisted in nothing of her own but permitted us to content our selves with that which sufficed the Primitive Christians to bring them to salvation For had she kept within those bounds neither our Fathers nor We had ever had any cause of withdrawing from her Communion We had then sworn to her opinions and performed her service without any scruple finding abundantly in this brief but full and admirably complete rule of wisdome enough to replenish our faith and season our manners understandings and wills with all perfections necessary for attaining to that Soveraigne Happinesse which both you and We naturally desire But who knows not That to the aforesaid divine Articles clearly expressed in the Holy Scriptures authentically preach'd and founded by the Apostles uniformly believed and confessed by Christians of all places and ages Rome hath added divers others which she presseth equally with them forcing all those of her communion to receive them with the same faith as they do those aforesaid thundring out horrible anathemaes against all them that doubt of them and using for the ruine of such all the power and credit that she hath whether in the Church or in the world For besides J. Christ whom she acknowledgeth with us to be the Mediatour of mankind the High-Priest and chief Soveraigne of the Church she would have us hold the Saints departed to be our Mediatours and her Priests our Sacrificers and her Pope to be the Head and Husband of the Church Besides the sacrifice of the Crosse she forceth upon us that of the Altar Besides the bloud of Christ she commands us to expect our cleansing from the sufferings of Martyrs and from the vertue of a certain fire which she hath kindled under ground Besides the water of Baptisme and the refection of the Eucharist she presseth us to receive unction with oyles and the mysteries of her private Confessions Besides the Great God whom she adores and prayes to as we do she commandeth us to adore the holy Sacrament to invocate Angels and beatified Spirits Besides that service of the Gospel wherein she agreeth with us she imposeth upon us divers ceremonies abstaining from meats distinction of times veneration of images Besides the H. Scriptures which are divinely inspired which she confesseth with
us she would have us receive with the same faith and respect all the traditions which she approves of Besides the repose and rest in the Kingdome of heaven which she with us promiseth to the faithfull she will have us to believe another in Limbo a prison for children that die without baptisme And besides the torments of hell which she with us threatens to the wicked she denounceth to the faithfull another like it in purgatoric These and severall others like to these are the positions which she addeth to the true and fundamentall Articles of the good Old Christianity and which are the points that divorce us from her Communion For every one knows how carefully she hath established them in her Councels how daily she recommendeth them in her Schools and pulpits how rigourously she exacteth them in confession having long since pronounced and oft since daily still proclaiming and repeating That she esteems them Hereticks Enemies of Christ and worse then Infidels that reject these opinions or any of these And which is more offensive yet not content to teach them by the voice of her Doctours she imprints them in the hearts of her people through continuall observation and use so that among them of her communion the practise of these additionall Articles makes more then a full half of what they esteem Christianity For the greatest part of their service consists in invocation of Angels and Saints in adoring the Sacrament in worshipping images in offering up the Sacrifice of the Altar or in partaking of it in making Confessions and exercising other ceremonies But as for us all the world knows that we have quite another opinion of these matters We content our selves with the intercession sacrifice and monarchy of J. Christ and can joyn to Him neither Saints nor Priests nor the Pope in any of those three qualities which the Scripture of the New Testament attributes to none but Him alone We deem His bloud sufficient for the purgation of our souls having never learnt that either S. Paul or any other Saint was crucified for us nor That after this life the Saints shall enter into any other place but onely one of repose and rest After Baptisme and the Lords Supper we desire no other Sacraments not having heard in His Word that he hath obliged us necessarily to go to the eare of any Priest to receive his absolution or to the hand of any Bishop to have his chrisme We dare not adore the bread which we break nor the cup which we blesse because all confesse That it is not permitted us to adore any but God onely We can neither invocate creatures since we have in the Scripture neither commandment nor example for it nor prostrate our selves before images since we have expresse commands therein against it We scruple at making any thing an Article of our Faith which we have not heard in the Word of God be he an Apostle or an Angel that evangelizeth So that since we find nothing in the Scripture of abstinence from meats distinction of times and other Romane ceremonies nor of the Limbus of infants or purgatory we cannot yet be perswaded that it is necessarie for us to believe them CHAP. VI. That our Separation ariseth not from particular matters of fact or private opinion but from such things as are believed generally by all the Romane Church and so that it is not like to the schisme of the Donatists I Might yet alledge many other differences but this little may suffice to let you see what are the main reasons which oblige us to separate from Rome Whence it appears how unjust a comparison it is that I say not impertinent and silly which some make of our Separation to that of the Donatists For they pretended not to find any thing in the doctrine of the Catholick Church from whence they separated which was contrary to their belief Both the one and the other taught the same faith read the same books exercised the same services The Donatist entring with the Catholicks found nothing either in their belief or discipline which he had not seen and learn'd in his own But as for us 't is impossible that we should enter into the Communion of the Church of Rome without swearing to many doctrines which we formerly never learn'd in the schole of the Scriptures without receiving Sacraments which are utterly unknown to us without bowing our knees before images which is absolutely forbidden without adoring a thing for God whose Deitie we know not without acknowledging him to be the Head and Husband of the Church whom we know to be but a mortall man without subjecting those consciences to an humane which are taught and wont to submit unto none but a divine Authority And as for that which the Donatists alledge That Felix the Ordainer of Cecilian Bishop of Carthage did in former times deliver up the Holy Scriptures to the Pagans during the persecution though it had been true as indeed it was not the Catholicks having clearly justified their innocence in this point by many irrefragable testimonies supposing I say it had been true that he had committed this fault who seeth not that this is not a cause in nature like to those for which we make our separation For this was a matter of fact and not a doctrine a fact of one man that is of Felix alone and not of the whole body of the African Church So that it should have given the Donatists no occasion or cause of separating from Cecilian much lesse any just cause of breaking communion with all Africk For suppose that Felix the Ordainer of Cecilian had committed this fault yet 't is cleare That he did not teach or think that it was lawfull for him to deliver the H. Scriptures up to Infidels but on the contrary by denying that he committed it and standing upon his defence as he did he confessed plainly by consequence that it was a fault The Donatists then might have continued in that communion without any way staining either their Creed or their manners without being forced either to do or believe any thing against their consciences But for all that supposing which yet is manifestly false that Cecilian had defended and preach'd publickly in his pulpit That it was permitted Christians in times of persecution to deliver up the books of HOLY WRIT to the enemies of the Church and supposing again which 't is not fit now to examine that this errour were pernicious and inconsistent with a true faith I cannot discern how the Donatists had any just cause of avoiding the communion of the successours of Cecilian or other Bishops of Africk who unanimously held taught and preached that to commit such a fault was a weaknesse unbefitting the soul of a Christian and made all such submit to the rigours of Ecclesiasticall discipline whom they found guilty of it This crime or what ever you will imagine it was onely Felix's or perhaps Cecilians but not any mans else The
whole Church had no share in it so that it was an intolerable piece of injustice a strange pride and mad fantasticalnes to abhorre a whole Church for the errours of offences of one particular man I would to God the case between the Romane Church and us had been the like That we had seen nothing deplorable but onely the faults of her Pastours and the disorders of her manners or That such of her doctrines which we cannot receive had been the thoughts of some particular men onely Had there been nothing else we should have lived still together Our Fathers would never have separated from Her Communion or if some strange passion which we dream not of had precipitated them into a rupture and schisme like that of the Donatists We do in our Consciences protest that we would have been afraid to follow their errour and that we would have lost no time of uniting our selves with them from whom we had been so imprudently separated For we cannot but confesse That 't is a piece of very high injustice to impute the faults of men to their profession and to accuse their Religion of those extravagancies which they commit especially if against it In such a case we should questionlesse practise the doctrine of our Saviour speaking of them who sit in Moses chair Matt. xxiii 3. All those things which they bid you observe those observe and do but do not after their works The Church wherein they live is not guilty of their errour especially when it highly and oft out of the mouthes of those very men condemneth the faults and disorders of their lives The Church may say to such fugitives The faults of my children are no fit reason to induce you to abhorre Me. Live in my communion you may and not be obliged to communicate with their wicked deeds Those very men who are thus wicked should drive you from the vice in stead of bringing you to it for if you mark it They carry preservatives in their mouthes against the poisons of their manners But alas 'T was not this that drove us from the Church of Rome 'T was not the fall of one Felix nor the weaknesse of some Cecilians 't was not the covetousnesse of her Prelates the licenciousnesse of her Monks the filthinesse of her Court the excesse and abuse of her Sovereigne Pontifes For though she suffered these disorders with too much indulgence yet she neither doth command them nor openly approve of them Though she very gently tolerate such as were debauched or vicious yet she did not force any to be so No man was for entring into her communion constrained to be a slave to any of those vices which bore sway in the midst of her No a man might have lived within it and yet addicted himself to honesty and goodnesse And as yet corruption had not gained so farre as that ill manners were authorized by publick laws But on the contrary during the worst of times though her voice was weak and languishing yet she made some noise against the impietie of the age And oftentimes those very men that gave ill example in their lives preached against it and decryed it horribly in the pulpit That which hath pulled us from her communion is her doctrine and not her actions that which she commands and not that which she suffers that which she requires of us all and not that which she tolerates in some others the articles of her faith and not the faults of her life For the adoration of the Eucharist invocation of Saints veneration of images and those other articles which we rehearsed before are not such things as she onely tolerates as bad or excuseth as doubtfull but beliefs which she commendeth as true and observations which she commandeth as usefull and necessary to salvation Nor doth she onely practise them in the house and privately but likewise preach them in the Temple as perpetuall parts of her Faith So that if we continue in her communion we must needs make profession of believing them that is make our selves guilty of an horrible hypocrisie confessing with our mouth what we do not believe with our heart Now if these were onely the opinions of some one of her Doctours if it were onely some one Divine that were to be blamed and the rest of their Church disavowed these things we should not for such a matter make any scruple of communicating with Her acknowledging ingenuously That 't is an unreasonable thing to impute the opinions and so the faults of a few particular men to a whole entire body Since we see it often happens that they who live in the Communion of a Church are neither in whole nor in part of the same belief with that Church Thus formerly among the Jewes The sect of the Sadducees had their doctrines apart and the Pharisees had likewise theirs And for a mans being a Jew he was not at all obliged to embrace or hold precisely the opinions either of the one or of the other sect And at this very day in the Church of Rome whence we departed the order of the Dominicans hath some opinions proper to themselves and the Franciscans have others and so likewise the Jesuits others peculiar to their respective Orders If therefore there were in the midst of Her onely some one societie of men that held affirmatively those things which we cannot believe and others lived at liberty either to receive or reject them In this case I confesse that it were very difficult to excuse our Separation since the Communion with that body whence we have departed doth not oblige us precisely to any points contrary to our consciences But who knows not that those Articles which we cannot receive are publick not private Doctrines common to the whole Church of Rome and not peculiar to the Pope and his party established authentickly in her Generall Councels by the suffrages of the Deputies of all the Churches in the world that live in her Communion Articles to the belief and observation whereof she obligeth all sorts of persons whatsoever Clergy and Laity Monks and Seculars Men and Women little and great anathematizing all as Hereticks who teach or believe otherwise and besides the thunderbolts of the Church excommunications making use of fire and sword and what else they can against them where ever she hath power Thus it appears that our cause is no whit like that of the Donatists our Separation arising from publick and universall Doctrines of the Church of Rome whereas Theirs had no foundation or reason but onely a pretended act of one particular man neither confessed nor proved The African Church whose communion they fled from presented them nothing in her Creeds and Service which was contrary to their faith whereas Rome whence we are departed will constrain us to think and do severall things that directly overthrow the doctrines which we in our souls and consciences believe CHAP. VII That there are two sorts of Errours the one overthrowing the
be more weak or vain Thanks be to God we are not so ill taught as to scruple receiving the Sacrament on our knees Our Brethren of England never receive it otherwise and when we communicate with them we do very easily and readily conform our selves to their order And 't is held among us a matter of such indifferency that though we receive the Holy Supper standing yet we do not exclude them from the number of Brethren who receive it sitting or kneeling And if the Church of Rome had required no other thing of us then onely to receive the H. Communion on our knees I confesse we should have had no just cause in this particular of separating from it since we might with a good conscience perform what they demand But alas how stupid must we be if we believe that she requireth no more of us in this Article how hypocriticall if we pretend to believe it when we do not For all the world knows that the Romanists require us to believe that thing which we see on their Altars and between the hands of their Priests to be really and in truth the eternall Sonne of God and That it hath under the species which our senses see and touch no other substance but His and consequently commands us to adore it to bow our selves before it to give thereto all the humiliation of our bodies and of our souls terminating on it the act of our veneration as on its true object She deeply and plainly excommunicates all such as doubt either of the truth of the first of these two Articles or of the holinesse of the second Observe the Decrees and Canons of Her Councels Concil Trident. Sess 13. the confessions of Her Faith the sermons of Her Ministers the devotions of Her People and the universall practise of all them who adhere to Her communion and you shall find these two points written graven and imprinted all manner of wayes in such legible characters that you shall scarce find any point of the Apostles Creed which she confesseth more clearly or which she presseth more severely You 'l say I am willing to honour the Sacrament but not adore it No saith She you must adore it And lest you should pretend to hide under that equivocall word any veneration lesse then the highest like that which we may render to the creature without offending the Creatour You must render it she saith the worship or service of latria which is due to the true God Well you 'l say but I will addresse this service of latria which she requireth of me to Jesus Christ who is in heaven and not to the Sacrament of his bodie which is upon the earth No saith she I do not intend it so I would have you in the veneration which you make in communicating to render the service of latria to the most holy Sacrament Nullus itaque dubitandi locus relinquitur quin omnes Christi fideles pro more in Catholica Ecclesia semper recepto latriae cultum qui vero Deo debetur huic Sanctissimo Sacramento in veneratione exhibeant ibid. c. 5. See with what a deal of care she hath expressed her sense and excluded all others without leaving them the least place For if she had said that the faithfull should adore J. Christ in the Sacrament supposing the rest of her doctrine had left us in doubt of her meaning we might yet have interpreted this expression as 't is used in the books of some of her Doctours viz. That in receiving the Eucharist we should adore the Lord with whom we communicate by the Eucharist and so we might have pretended that she doth not oblige us to adore any creature But she expresly to exclude all such exposition useth quite another expression saying That the service of latria should be given to the Sacrament So that now there is no reason to doubt of her meaning For what I pray you is it that she calleth the Holy Sacrament Is it Jesus Christ residing in heaven Who is so ignorant as not to know whether it be He or no Is it not precisely that which the Priest blesseth upon the Altar that which he puts into the mouth of the Communicants that which they must swallow down into the stomach Yes that is the very thing to which she would have you addresse your adoration the bending of your knees and the humiliation of your body and in a word all the parts of that inward veneration wherewith you communicate If this be not it which you regard when you bend your knee to any thing else She anathematizeth you she holdeth you for an heretick and a rebell one that deserves the anger of God and eternall fire And that you may know that she hath regard not to the holinesse of the action which you celebrate but to the honour of the subject which is proposed to you she would have you prostrate your self before it not onely at the time of Communion but likewise out of it in the very streets and publick passages and in all places where you meet it An evident signe that Her intention is precisely such as Her self explaineth it to be viz. That you hold this for your true God and finally render it all the honours due to the Soveraigne Deity If then you esteem this subject to be truly a Creature is not this an open mocking of God and men and a miserable deceiving of your self To tell us That you can do that which the Romane Church requireth without adoring that at all which you believe to be but a bare creature For as for that which you said concerning baptisme I confesse that being at yeares of discretion you may receive it upon your knees But if the Church to whom you come for it should command you to believe that which you see in form of water to be really and in substance not water but the true God Creatour of heaven and earth and consequently command you to render adoration to it and the service of latria and to that purpose to fall upon your knees I say That in such a case you cannot obey such a commandment without violating your conscience and treading under foot the Law of God and rendring your self really guilty of adoration of a creature The same I say concerning the Ministers which receive imposition of hands and the Believers who receive the Eucharist upon their knees For if one should teach or command either the one or the other to believe That the Pastor who imposeth hands on them or the portion of the Eucharist which they receive is truly and in substance the great God who created the world and by consequence expresly enjoyn men to adore either the one or the other of these two subjects who doubteth but that this were openly to denie our faith and to renounce our profession when we fall upon our knees before these things after such a commandment But men neither teach nor command any such thing among
enough to shew that we were not transported out of an humour or frowardnesse or other small cause but forced by an extreme and irresistible necessitie to separate our selves from them Whence it followeth that in this case our separation was just That which is necessary being not to be blamed as unjust CHAP. XIX That there are many other beliefs in the Church of Rome which overthrow the foundations of our faith and salvation as the Veneration of images the Supremacie of the Pope c. BUt besides this Article there are great store of others to the profession and practise whereof they will oblige us against our wills which are of so great importance in religion that we cannot confesse them nor observe them any more then that of Transubstantiation without violating our consciences and exposing our souls to an evident danger of offending God and losing that portion in his grace and glory which we desire and hope for For example Believing as we do That there is nothing divine in images and That we are very severely forbidden by our Lord to prostrate our selves before them under pain of moving Him to jealousie and stirring up His indignation against us and our posteritie How and with what conscience can we bow our bodies before those in the Church of Rome offer to them wax-candles dresse them and carry them in procession and go in pilgrimage to places where they are consecrated and perform such other acts as she demandeth of us in her Communion to testifie that adoration which she thinketh due to them in Religion In times past when a report was spred among the Donatists That one Paul and one Macarius both Catholicks would come into those parts and set an image upon the altar where the Eucharist was to be celebrated the Christians were much astonished saying one to another That to eat there was to eat of a thing sacrificed to an idol And Optatus who recordeth it saith lib. 3 pag. 356. E. that if this rumour was true they had good reason to say so If the holy Fathers permitted the Donatists to abhorre the Churches of the Catholicks to avoid communicating with them in the Eucharist as an unclean and profane meat in case they could find any image upon the altar where they consecrated it How can they be excused who communicate at the Altars of Rome partake of her Devotions frequent her Churches where we know not by an uncertain rumour but by the report of our eyes and other senses that every one is full of images where we see them daily consecrated anew and the people crowding to prostrate themselves before them Believing as we do that Christ is the sole Head of the Catholick Church with what conscience can we give that title and this dignitie to the Pope of Rome and kisse his feet and render him all other honours which Rome is wont to give him in relation thereto Believing as we do that the truth of the heavenly doctrine is the onely foundation of our faith with what conscience can we depend upon the Authority of Pope or Councels submitting to them even the books of H. Scripture which are divinely inspired Believing as we do that the sacrifice offered by Christ upon the Crosse hath perfectly expiated our sinnes with what conscience can we swear That there is a necessity and efficacy in the sacrifice of the Romane Altar Believing as we do that invocation by prayers makes part of the service of God and not having learnt in the schole of the Scriptures to pray to any but Him how and with what conscience can we addresse to so many severall creatures those prayers and invocations which Rome commandeth us to addresse to them And particularly how can we invocate Dominicus a Monk Ignatius Loyola Charles Borromeus late Bishop of Millain and others like them who we know hated and persecuted that holy Faith whereof we by the grace of God make open profession By the considerations already represented about the point of the Eucharist it is easie to see that these articles and divers others which for brevity sake I omit overthrow the foundations of Faith and Piety so that it is not lawfull for us to comply with those which hold them CHAP. XX. A conclusion of this Treatise That They who are of our perswasion are obliged to forsake the communion of Rome and They who are not are to prove and trie their own faith before they condemne our separation from them THus I think I have sufficiently justified our Separation from the Church of Rome Whence it appears how lamentable the condition of them is who having the same opinion which we have concerning her doctrine and services do not depart from her Communion but accuse us for so doing For who doth not see that it is a necessary prudence and not a vain superstition to avoid that which men judge to be pestilentiall and mortall and that on the other side it is an unexecusable carelesnesse to doe and exercise continually what men acknowledge to be contrary to the glory of God the edification of their neighbours and the salvation of their selves If I may be permitted to addresse my self in this particular to those who are in so dangerous an errour I shall conjure them by their pietie to God by their charity to men by the care which they should have continually of their own and others souls to think seriously of joyning themselves hereafter to those whose belief they hold and quitting the communion of those whose Faith they disapprove And let them not slatter themselves to think that the Church of Rome retaineth the Apostles Creed and the summe of Christian doctrine since it is evident That one at least of those errours which they adde thereto are mortall For as those good and wholesome meats which a man eateth at his refreshment hinder him not from dying if by and by he swallow some poyson semblably true and wholesome doctrine doth not preserve those which believe it if together with it they entertain some pernicious and damnable errour in other particulars Evil hath this advantage above good that it spreads much farther and is farre more active For neither truth nor vertue can save a man unlesse they be pure and sincere without the intermixture of any ill and dangerous habite whereas errour and vice damne a man be they mingled with never so many truths and vertues For as a man though he be chaste and modest shall not inherit the Kingdome of heaven if he be covetous or a slanderer of his neighbour so shall he not be exempted from hell torments for believing some principall truths of the Gospel if it be found that after all he hath adored creatures or made profession of adoring them But as for you Sirs who continue sincerely in the Church of Rome verily believing all that she teacheth you I shall beseech you That if you do reject our belief you would be pleased at least not to condemne our separation imputing