antagonists He shews them that they understood not what the Unity of the Church is He makes the same reproach to St. Augustin and accuses him of perplexing himself with a thousand contradictions in maintaining on one side that the Baptism of Hereticks is valid and on the other that they are absolutely separated from the body of the Church But St. Ierom is not so used it 's granted that he has better understood the question and it 's proved by his disputes against the Luciferians that he excluded not from the Church even all Hereticks After this it is maintain'd by eleven proofs that the Catholick Church includes all the Christian Societies which retained the fundamentals of Christianity The first proof is drawn from the extent which the Word of God promiseth to the Church for as it is evident that there is no particular Church which hath ever compleated the notion of this extent the promises of God must either be false or verifie themselves by the extent of Christianity in General Here are refuted the pretensions of Mr. Nicole upon the extent of the Romish Communion the second proof is taken out of the places of the Word of God which foretel that the Church shall have a mixture of good and bad of wheat and tares for if crimes hinder not a Christian to be a Member of the true Church why should error have the fatality to hinder from it It is surely a pretention that abuses the light of Nature to say that a Man that kills another is yet a Catholick but if he blames the retrenchment of the Cup he is by that very thing Excommunicated and banished the whole Communion of the Church we need only to ask good reasons for this enormous inequality to make the most resolute Doctors sweat The third proof is drawn from this that God keeps the knowledge of the Truth and Preaching of his Word in Schismatick and erring Societies whence we must conclude that God saves Men in it Other proofs are founded on examples or on the Opinions and Conduct of the Roman Catholicks The examples are the Schisms of the ten Tribes which continued as this Author saith to be the People of God and the Iews that were converted to the Gospel in the Apostles time and who refused to have any Communion with the converted Gentiles For the proofs ad hominem they are drawn either from Father Goar or from Leo Alatius who said that the Schismatick Communions of the East are not out of the Church Or according to Mr. Nicole several persons have been saved tho' of the Arian Communion or else the Gentlemen of Port Royal err which glory in this point of Transubst antiation to have Conformed themselves to the Schismaticks or according to the Confession of the Romish Church that there is a true Mission and a saving Grace in the other Communions so that other sects are Christians and during the Schism of Anti-Popes the true Catholicity was found under divers obediences Mr. Nicole is strongly refuted upon this Article Neither is he with less vigour refuted upon the objection which he hath so much boasted of which is that the Vnity of the Church necessarily includes the Vnity of Communion It is the first difficulty which Mr. Iurieu examins in his answer to the arguments which may be alledged against his system The 2d difficulty is found in the 7th Book of Mr. Arnaud upon the downfal of Morality where he saith this System is that of the indifferency of Religions but 't is strongly denyed him for it 's maintained that one cannot be saved in all the Sects of Christianity and that there are cases wherein we must separate from them which err and that we cannot Communicate in all nor tolerate all nor pass successively from one unto another These are great questions and for to clear them one must have as much wit and depth of Judgment as Mr. Iurieu has He makes a thousand fine remarks upon all this he saith there are two ways which God makes use of to save Men in Heretical Societies one is the Grace he gives them to discern the true spiritual nourishment from the false The other is to bear with their faults according to his great mercy But lest People should abuse this Doctrine the Author brings several Cautions which shew that such as throw themselves into the Communion of Rome have reason to fear their Souls and maintains that it was well done to separate from it as in the last Age. He speaks much upon the important subject of Toleration nor will he have Soveraigns deprived of the liberty of reprehending their Heretick subjects in certain cases nor will he have them that err have any priviledge of maintaining their pretended Truths he examines upon this subject the reasons that have been lately published to maintain the priviledges of a Conscience that really errs and then passes to the visibility and perpetuity of the Church two great questions upon which he says some things that are both solid and curious And so much for the first Book The second runs upon a subject no less important that is upon the Authority of the Church and analysis of Faith The Author begins his proofs against the infallibility of the Church for this reason that the Universal Church being a Collection of all Societies that retain its grounds and principles can no ways be infallible nor has it any need of being unerrable for every part maintaining that each other part being contrary to it's self has fallen into error it follows that the Church being but a Collection of all these parts whereof the one refutes the rest is erroneous in all its parts and that being so how can it be infallible or any single part thereof be unerrable Nor is it less evident that the infallibility of the Church would be to no purpose because it is not possible that a Congregation of all Christian Sects should clear or decide any difficulty And it is confessed here that the unanimous consent of all Communions to teach a certain truth is a kind of infallible judgment given by the Church and moreover the Character of a fundamental truth so hard to be agreed upon is consented to but lest the Socinians might come to cross it it is declared that neither they nor the Fanaticks have any share in it nor yet the other Sectaries of these times After this the Authority of Councils is spoken of and divers reflections made thereon The Councils are considered different ways 1. Either as the meeting of wise Men that have a mind mutually to instruct each other and Communicate their knowledge 2. As commissioned Law-makers that Assemble for to regulate the form of Government 3. As Judges established by their Church to learn the prevarications of Religious Societies The first of these relations belong to them in respect of matters of Faith the 2d In respect of ordering of Discipline and the 3d. in respect of censures and Excommunications this is
exactly ordered and helps to resolve a thousand great difficulties the submission Christians owe unto Councils and upon the infallibility that M. Meaux maintains that Protestants attribute to Councils M. Nicole goes farther for he affirms that they attribute the gift of infallibility to each faithful person to refute him he is given to understand by several examples that it is not necessary to think ones self infallible to be convinced of any Opinion and because the knot of the difficulty lies in this that they which are deceived are no less convinced than the Orthodox the Author acknowledges that the Characters cannot be precisely shewn which distinguish the false and true perswasions and at the same time says that these differences are real and make themselves apparent It is good faith that can convince the publick that Mr. Iurieu is none of those Controvertists whereof M. Simon gives us such ugly Ideas I would say of those that wou'd rather dye than acknowledge that they cannot clear precisely this or that difficulty He gives us at the same time many instructions upon the manner how hearing and reading the Word of God conducts infallibly into the Truth those in whom the Holy Ghost works by an efficacious Grace but lest people may confound the infallibility that is produced by this Grace with the privileged infallibility which was belonging to the Apostles he teaches us the marks whereby to distinguish them after which he fully answers two objections that were proposed to make the Protestant Church seem to become to the highest pitch of impertinence For it was objected that a private Person how ignorant soever he could be should be assured according to their principles that he can understand the true sense of Scripture better than all the Church besides and that he owes no submission to Church or Council unless he sees by his own proper light that their decision is good all these difficulties are solidly answered and made to disappear The reader sees that hitherto M. Iurieu has met with several difficulties in his way but they are but trifles to what he must encounter now for he is going to answer objections that relate to the way of examen and that are without any dispute the main strength of M. Nicole He answers them first indirectly and argues almost thus We must go to the knowledge of Scripture either by Authority or by way of examen but it is impossible that Authority should conduct us to it therefore we must make use of the way of examen He proves the minor in shewing that upon Earth there is no infallible and speaking Authority and tho' there were it would be impossible to have recourse to it because it cannot be known by any certain sign of necessary truth It is the bravest Field in the World wherein the Enemy is led without having any place to retreat to so that if there were able and disinterested Judges as the Platonists and Aristoteleans were to observe the strokes given there are no People in the World they would despise so much as the Christians whereof they would see the greatest part brag of a Doctrine that cannot keep the Field one Moment in sight of the Enemy and which nevertheless subdues every day some of the other party upon this may be well said the absurdity which Sandaicat published concerning the Battle of Cerisoles les Spagnales victoriosos serinder however it be let us mark in a few words what the Author does here He shews that if Faith did not enter the Soul but by the way of Authority M. Nicole would have it the Iewish Church should never have had any good assurance of the Will of God as well because there was not in a long time any Prophet or other infallible Tribunal that declared it as that the Authority of the Prophets themselves might have been suspected to be false that amidst the most famous Miracles because there was none that could infallibly assure them that these Miracles came from God or from the Devil These dreadful difficulties are pushed to the time of Jesus Christ himself and his Apostles and it 's shewn that according to the Roman Church the Iews would have had no reason to be converted to it The same thing is shewn in respect of following ages in a word it is maintained against M. Nicole that his principle is the great road to Pyrrhonisme and Atheism because for to trust well the way of Authority we must know it well but very few could be able to come to the requisite assurance by the way of examen upon this subject and to the end that the difficulty should come to be more inexplicable the Author has invincibly refuted all that M. Nicole brought to prove that the Authority of the Church makes it self easily known so that here is the way of Authority quite shut up by what way then will people enter into the Faith must it be by examen if that be the way M. Iurieu must take away the Obstacles that M. Nicole has put in it and he must answer directly for to answer by retortions as was observ'd by a Modern Author is to furnish Deists with the best Arms that they ever yet made use of and is to compleat what M. Nicole has begun for the dullest amongst them would say after he had seen Mr. Nicoles book and what we have mentioned of Mr. Iurieu that seeing God has not made Man capable of choosing without rashness the only Religion that is Good it is evident that he has Revealed us nothing of it but has left it to our Education and Natural light therefore of necessity to disarm these Libertines he must answer directly to what Mr. Nicole says and let us see how he will behave himself He accuses his adversaries argument against the way of examen of two great faults one that it supposeth no help from the Holy Ghost to them who meditate upon Scripture the other that he supposes a Cartesian principle that would entirely ruine all Religions if it were applyed to Moral knowledge this principle is that we must believe nothing but what we understand clearly distinctly and to be lawfully assured that we have attained this evidence we must first have examined a thing all manner of ways and must have known that it could not have been other ways Our Author says that this condition being impossible in regard of most People and yet all men being obliged to be firmly satisfied of their Religion it follows that Religion is not subject to these preliminary conditions which Des Cartes only requires for the objects of speculation The Remonstrants believe they can draw great Advantages from M. Nicoles objections because they believe that for to answer him the points of Faith must be reduced to a very little number of Articles clearly contained in the Word of God but the Author says that this answer would cure no evil because to be assured to that degree of certainty which is required by
Persecution than the Remonstrants They will have the Fundamental Error of the R. Church to consist in this We must not saith Episcopius in a Writing inserted by Mr. Limborg in the Preface of this Work consider Popery in some of its parts but in its whole not in this Doctrine nor in that which is accused of Heresie for it is almost the same thing on both sides the one is mistaken in one point and the other in another ..... We must look upon the whole Body of the Roman Church which is a composition of ignorant ambitious and tyrannical Men I call them ignorant not because they are not very Learned for sometimes they are too much so but because they know not and are obliged to know only what is prescribed unto them often against their Conscience against Reason and Divine Law It is the most pernicious of all Ignorances because it is a servile one which is upheld only by the Authority of the Pope and Councils and which is the source of the many Sophisms they are constrained to make to maintain such Opinions they have ingaged themselves into whether they find them true or false It extends its Empire as well upon the Practice as Belief because they are both tyed to the Foundations which they are always to suppose unshaken without freeing themselves by examining the solidity thereof Thence Tyranny is form'd It is this which makes it impossible ever to come back from this ignorance and which produceth Idolatry and ridiculous thoughts of the Divine Worship It is the Poyson of true Religion because it leads Men to serve God not according to his Will or by a Principle of Knowledg and Conscience but after that manner which the Pope liketh So that it is in vain to say that in this Church are many things which are good or sufferable this availeth nothing seeing they hold not what is good because it is good but because they are obliged to acknowledge it for such The Remonstrants have upon this establisht Principles which are very opposite to those of the Roman Church They not only believe with other Protestants that Scripture contains clearly all that is necessary to be known to believe to hope to do and to be saved and that all those who read it with an attentive mind and without prejudice may acquire by this reading a perfect knowledge of the Truths contain'd in it and that there is no other Divine Rule of our Faith but they admit also and maintain the necessary consequence of this Principle upon which many Divines expound not themselves distinctly enough Thence it followeth saith Mr. Limborg in this Preface 1. That no Man whoever he be no Assembly how considerable soever its Authority is and how Learned soever its Members are have not a Right of prescribing to the Faithful as necessary to Salvation what God hath not commanded as such in his Word 2. That from the Communion are to be excluded those only whom God hath clearly revealed he will exclude from Heaven 3. That to know certainly Damnable Errors and wholsome Doctrines we must see if in Scripture God hath promised Salvation to those who shall believe these Doctrines or threatned with Damnation those who shall embrace these Errors 4. That the only means to procure the Peace of the Church it to suffer those who retain the Fundamental Doctrines although according to us they are mistaken in things which God hath not commanded nor prohibited expresly under the condition of Salvation or Damnation 5. That if this rule was followed all Christians who have quitted the Roman Church would soon agree in Fundamental Points and differ but in Tenets which have neither been commanded nor prohibited under this condition 6. That consequently none have a right of imposing the necessity of Believing under pain of Damnation these non-essential Tenets 7. That no other means can procure a true Christian Union because constraint may tye the Tongue but not gain the Heart This is the drift of the Preface to come to the Work it self It is composed of three Letters and of a small Treatise of William Bom a Roman Catholick with as many Answers and some other Letters of Episcopius concerning the Infallibility of the Church The matter we see is of the utmost consequence and it is sufficiently known after what manner Episcopius was able to treat thereof Bom was a Priest who was no great Grecian as he confesseth himself and who besides was ingaged in the weakest Hypothesis which the Doctors of Rome ever embraced it is that which makes the Infallibility of the Church reside in the Pope's Person So that although he hath exposed pretty well the common reasons of his Party it may be said of him in relation to his Adversary Par studiis aevique modis sed robore dispar The occasion of this Dispute was a Conference which Bom and Episcopius had at the coming from a Sermon which the last had Preached Some of those who had been present thereat declared That Bom had been reduced to silence upon which he being willing to shew how much these reports were false Writ to two common Friends to put them in mind of the Reasons he had said and added to that a Writing to prove that St. Peter was established chief of the Catholick Church Episcopius at first made some difficulty of Answering this Priest because there is nothing more tedious and more unprofitable for a Protestant than to enter into dispute with a Catholick seeing that as it is an Article of Faith with him that his Church is Infallible so he believes himself obliged in Conscience not to confer with Hereticks but in the design of instructing them and not to have even the thought of receiving any instruction nor any light from them It is not possible without ingaging ones self into an excessive prolixity to relate all the reasons which have been said on each side in this dispute we shall only stop at some of the principal proofs and those which are not so commonly met withal in Books of Controversie Episcopius failed not at first to ask of his Adversary in what place of the Gospel Iesus Christ had appointed any body to be Soveraign Judge of Controversies and to decide without Appeal all the differences which should arise in the Church after the death of the Apostles As there are not in Scripture passages sufficiently express for this institution Bom had recourse to the Practice of the Church upon which Episcopius alledged to him three Acts of the Ecclesiastical History which agrees not well with the Belief of the Infallibility of the Pope 1. The first is drawn from the dispute which fell out towards the middle of the Second Age concerning the day in which the Passover should be celebrated Victor Bishop of Rome Excommunicated the Churches of the Diocess of Asia because they Celebrated this Feast the Fourteenth day of March and not the Sunday following according to the Custom of Rome Palestine and
by a very plain way Why was not Iesus pleased to render the way more easy and did not tell us where we should find such a Judge We are therefore obliged to look for him saith Episcopious and this Disquisition must necessarily aim at either of these two things Either that each particular Society of Christians and even each Member of this Society attribute to it self the Power of Soveraign judging of Controversies or that the Universal Church to wit the Body of all those who profess the Gospel hath at all times right to chuse such a Judge The first cannot be granted because every one looking upon himself as Infallible no body would submit himself to the Decisions of his Neighbour The second is naturally unpracticable for before the Universal Church can choose a Supream Judge of Controversies it must needs have cast it's Eyes upon divers Subjects capable of fulfilling this Charge and examined carefully their capacity And how shall it make this Examination All the Christian Societies must concur in this Election But how should they agree thereupon and whom could they choose who should not be suspitious or uncapable of this Employment Seeing all Christians have already taken Parties and those who are not Christians understand not our Disputes Add to this that tho Men would be decided by the ordinary Judges of the Roman Church there would still a Party of Male-Contents remain If the Pope was chosen France would appeal to the General Council if a Council was assembled Italy would not accept on 't until it had been confirmed by the Pope and this Bishop would only do it upon condition that this Ecumenick Council would acknowledge it self beneath him which is contrary to the pretensions of France The impossibility of this Design is an evident proof according to our Author that God will not have his Church to be governed after the manner of the Kingdoms of the Earth where one is obliged to submit without knowing for what because there is but the Body and some transitory Goods in question But the Kingdom of God extending it self over the Soul and Conscience Men must be instructed convinced and persuaded Men must read pray meditate and live Christianly to obtain the Grace of distinguishing Truth from Falshood In vain would Scripture teach us these Truths and exhort us to these practices if there were an infallible Judge All this would be useless neither is it of great me amongst those who believe they have one All the World knoweth the ridiculous explications the Roman Doctors gave to Scripture before Protestants had put it into the hands of the People and no body is ignorant of the many Truths which have been discovered since it hath been believed that every one should instruct himself in the Will of God by his Word It is true that there have arisen Disputes which are the unavoidable consequences of Examination But if Christians applyed themselves only to Scripture and that instead of deciding of their Differences when Scripture is not clear thereupon they supported each other with a mutual Charity we should soon see them become both more wholsome in their Opinions and more reformed in their Manners It is a consequence very clear and very easie to comprehend but such as apparently will never be justified by Experience V. The last writing of Bom is a small Treatise to prove that St. Peter hath been established Head of the Catholick Church where this Priest relates the common Passage of Controvertists Thou art Peter c. Feed my Sheep c. The Answer of Episcopius is not complete but that which there is on 't appears more than sufficient to refute all the Objections of the Missionaries The first Reason would be even enough which is that although his Adversary had clearly proved his Thesis he would do nothing for all that if he did not shew that the promises made to St. Peter regard also his Successors whereas most of the Fathers have taken them for personal Priviledges as Tertullian in his Book of Chastity c. 21. who speaks thus to Pope Zephirin If because the Lord hath said to Peter Vpon this Rock I will build my Church I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and all that thou shalt bind or unbind upon Earth shall be bound or unbound in Heaven If I say for that cause you imagine that the power of unbinding or binding is passed unto you to wit to all the Churches founded by Peter Who are you that overturn and change the clear intention of the Lord who hath conferred this personally on Peter Vpon thee saith he I will build my Church and I will give thee the Keys and not to the Church and all that thou shalt unbind and not that they shall unbind 2. After having shewed that these Priviledges are not personal it should be proved that they regard only the Bishops of Rome excluding those of Antioch 3. That they regard them all without exception and without condition to wit That all and every one of the Popes are infallible as well in Fact as Right against the Experience and the Sentiment of most of the Doctors of the Roman Communion 4. It should be defined what the Catholick Church is and shewed by formal passages that these Terms denominate the Body of Pastours which is called the Representative Church which is impossible Whereas it is very easy to shew that the Church signifieth in Scripture only the People in opposition to Pastours And in this sense there is nothing more absurd than all that is said of the Power of the Church and it's Priviledges seeing it is but the Body of the Pope's Subjects and Roman Clergy and that Subjects who are far from making Decisions must submit and obey their Lot 5. After all this it should be still proved that the Priviledges given to St. Peter and the Bishops of Rome his Successors import not simply a Primacy of Order and some Authority in things which regard the Discipline and Government of the Church which Protestants could grant without doing a prejudice to their Cause but they do moreover mark a Primacy of Jurisdiction of Sovereignty and Infallibility in matters of Faith which is impossible to be proved by Scripture and all the Monuments we have of Antiquity and which is even contradictory seeing the belief of a Fact or Truth is persuaded and forceth not it self Have not Roman Catholicks much Grace to accuse Protestants of Obstinacy because they refuse to embrace a Hypothesis which supposeth so many dubious Principles whereof most are contested even amongst the Divines of Rome and to ask them to obey the Church without distinctly telling them what this Church is or in what consists the Submission which is required of them or how far it ought to be extended An Abridgment of Universal History The First Part containing the Ecclesiastical History in Two Books by Henry le Bret Provost of the Cathedral Church of Montauban in 125. 3 Volumes At
Ordination and that it belongs to the Bishop only to confer it and she allows the Distinction of Orders And tho' there is none under a Deacon because the Scripture makes mention of none yet she acknowledges that they are very antient Sixthly As for the Real Presence tho' Dr. Wake treats of it at length we will omit speaking of it until we come to the XII Article where there are many Books seen that concern this Subject Seventhly We receive says the English Expositor with equal Veneration all that comes from the Apostles let it be by Scripture or Tradition provided we be assured that they are the true Authors of the Doctrine or Practice attributed to them so that when we are shewn that a Tradition was received in all Ages and by all Churches then we are ready to receive it as having the Character of an Apostolical Institution So our Church does not reject Tradition but only the Tenets and Superperstitions which Rome pretends to justify after this way Eighthly And as for the Authority of the Vniversal Church of all Ages the English acknowledges 1. That they have received Scripture from their Hands and it is chiefly for this Authority that they look upon Solomon's Song to be Canonical and reject other Books Apocryphal which perhaps they would have received with as much ease These Books have our respect even before we know by reading whether they be worthy of the Spirit of God but this Reading confirms us in the respect which the Authority of the Church gives unto them as to the Holy Writings II. If there had been an Vniversal Tradition not contested that had come from the Apostles to us concerning the meaning of the Holy Books as concerning their number the Church of England would receive it also but she does not believe that a particular Church such as that of Rome should usurp this Priviledge nor that it ought to force others to follow the Interpretations which she gives of the Passages of Scripture III. When any Disputes arise concerning Faith the best way to appease them is to assemble a Council but it does not follow that such an Assembly can say as the Assembly of the Apostles at Ierusalem It seem'd good to the Holy Ghost and to us nor that it is Infallible or that it's Canons are not subject to Correction IV. Dr. Wake goes on and says When we say I believe in the Holy Catholick Church we do not only understand that Iesus Christ has planted a Christian Church which is to last to the end of the World but also that the Son of God will conserve either among the Christians or in the Vniversal Church Truth enough to denominate it such a Church that is he will never suffer that Truths requisite for Salvation should be unknown in any place So that tho' the Vniversal Church can err it does not follow that it can sink altogether nor become wholly erroneous because then it would cease to be but such a particular Church as that of Rome can err and fall into utter Apostacy And tho' the Fundamental Points be clearly contained in Scripture and that it is very hard that one Man alone should gain-say the Opinion of all the Church nevertheless if this Man was certainly convinced that his Opinion was grounded upon the undoubted Authority of the Word of God we would be so far being afraid to bear with him that we all agree that the most glorious Action that St. Athanasius ever did was that he alone maintained Christ's Divinity against the Pope the Councils and all the Church V. And so tho we acknowledge that God has subjected Christians to the Government of the Church for Peaces sake and to preserve Vnity and Order and that she has power to prescribe to her Children what Doctrines are and are not to be publickly taught in her Communion yet we believe that the Holy Scripture is the only Support of our Faith and the last and infallible Rule by which the Church and we are to govern our selves Ninthly That there are some that think that the Church of England makes the Fathers of the three First Ages Idols and equals them in Authority to the Holy Scripture But Mr. Wake will undeceive them for says he Tho' we have appealed to the Churches of the first Ages for new Proofs of the truth of our Doctrine it is not that we think that the Doctors of those times had more right to judge of our Faith than those had that followed them but it is because that after a serious examination we have found that as for what concerns the common Belief that is among us they have believed and practised the same things without adding other Opinions or Superstitions that destroy them wherein they have acted conformably to their and our Rule the Word of God notwithstanding it cannot be denyed but that they effectually fell into some wrong Opinions as that of the Millenaries and Infant Communion which are rejected by both Parties Tenthly Whether one may be saved in the Roman Church the English think that as she yet conserves the Fundamental Doctrines those that live in her Bosom with a disposition to learn and leave off their pernicious Errors and profess all the truth that they will discover may be saved thro' the grace of God and Faith in Jesus Christ and by a general Repentance that puts their Errors in the number of the Sins they do not know of But that ill use may not be made of this charitable Grant the Expositor limits it as followeth I. That it is harder to be saved in the Communion of this Church since the Reformation than it was before because its Errors were not so well known nor so solidly refuted which rendred the ignorance excusable II. That they that live among Protestants and in a Country wherein they may learn and make publick and open profession of the Truth are more condemnable than the other III. That Priests are yet more than Laicks In a word the Protestants hope that the good Men of the Roman Church will be saved but they have no assurance that they are to be saved Whereas they are assured That they will be saved that live Christian-like in their own Communion They do not know whether God will condemn Roman Catholicks for the Errors they professed taking them for truth but they are assured that the Crime of those that being convinced of Popish Superstitions leave the Protestants thro' motives of Interest and Ambition and maintain Tyrannical and Superstitious Tenets against their Consciences deserve no pardon Eleventhly As for Idolatry the Homilies of the Church of England accuse that of Rome as well as the English Doctors who lived under Edward the VI. and Queen Elizabeth The Catholicks object that the Learned of this Kingdom changed Opinion in the Reign of King Iames the First and begun to maintain that the Church of Rome was not Idolatrous but these Gentlemen are so unlucky in Proofs that of six Authors
not necessary nor ordained by the Apostles and he gives many reasons to which he adds divers Examples in Ecclesiastical History by which one may see he believes it not necessary that there be an Union of Discipline amongst the Churches Upon this occasion he particularly makes use of the Epistles of St. Cyprian by which it appears according to Dr. Barrow that every Bishop lay under a double obligation whereof one regarded his Flock in particular the other the whole Church By the first he was obliged to take care that every thing be done in good order in his Church and that nothing should be done which was not for Edification and this should be endeavour'd by taking counsel of his Clergy and his People By the second he was obliged when the good of his Flock required it to confer with other Bishops touching the means of preserving Truth and Peace But in that time a Bishop knew not what it was to be hindered from acting according to the extent of his Power by appealing to a Superior Power to which he was obliged to give an account of the Administration of his Charge Bishops were then as Princes in their Jurisdictions but they omitted not to keep a certain Correspondence for the preserving an universal Peace Statutum est omnibus-nobis saith St. Cyprian ac aequum est pariter ac justum ut uniuscujusque causa illic audiatur ubi est Crimen admissum singulis Pastoribus portio Gregis sit adscripta quam regat unusquisque praepositus rationem actus sui Domino redditurus and elsewhere Qua in re nee nos cuiquam facimus nec Legem damus cum habeat in Ecclesiae administratione voluntate sui liberum arbitrium unusquisque praepositus rationem actus sui Domino redditurus Dr. Barrow shews after this the Inconveniencies which would attend the Government of the Christian Church if it should acknowledge one Visible Head A famous Divine of the Church of England having maintained the Unity of an Ecclesiastical Discipline so that all the Christian Churches ought to be according to him in the nature of a Confederacy which submits every Church in particular to an entire body if it is permitted so to speak Dr. Barrow believes he is obliged to refute this Tenet and to that end he hath drawn from his Works twelve proofs of this Opinion which that Divine has spread in divers places and which he proposed with great care altho' after a manner very obscure and intricate This last Author having objected for instance to those who believe not that the Unity of Discipline is necessary the Article of the Creed where 't is said I believe in the Holy Catholick or Vniversal Church and the Creed of Constantinople where 't is said The Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Dr. Barrow answers to this that this Article is not in the Abridgment of the Christian Faith which is found in St. Irenaeus Tertullian and St. Cyprian no more than in the Creed of the Council of Nice And 1. That it was not in the Apostles Creed which the Church of Rome makes use of but that it is added after the Times of Ruffinus and St. Augustine against the Heresies and Schisms which sprung up in the Christian Church 2. That it agrees with the Unity of the Catholick Church in many respects and that this is not the manner of Unity which is in Question and which is not decided in the Creed 3 'T is fairly supposed that the Unity which is spoken of in the Creed of Constantinople is that of outward Government 4. That one might reasonably think that the sense of this Article is no other than this That we make profession to remain stedfast in the body of Christians which are scatter'd throughout the whole World and which received the Faith the Discipline and the Manner of living Ordained by Iesus Christ and his Apostles that we are bound to be charitable to all good Christians with which we are ready to Communicate That we are willing to observe the Laws and Constitutions and Ioynt-Opinion of the Churches for the Conservation of Truth Order and Peace Lastly That we renounce all Heretick Doctrines all scandalous Practices and all manner of Factions 5. That it appears that this is the sense of this Article because that he hath put it in the Creed to preserve the Truth Discipline and Peace of the Church 6. That 't is not reasonable to explain this Article in any manner which agrees not with the Apostolick Times and Primitive Church for then there was no Union of Discipline amongst Christians like to what has been since As it was objected to Dr. Barrow that this opinion favours the Independants so afterwards he shews the difference between it and that of these Men after which he draws divers consequences from his own positions as That those who separate from the Communion of the Church in which they live that is established on good foundations are Guilty of Schism and ought to be Censured by and excluded from the Communion of all other Churches and they must not think themselves to be exempted from Error altho some other Church would receive them as a Subject cannot withdraw himself from the obedience of his natural Prince in putting himself under the Protection of another This also is defended by the Apostolick Canons which the antient Church hath observ'd with much Care as Dr. Barrow makes appear by many examples This is according to his opinion a means to extirpate Schisms and not that which is proposed by the Roman Church to wit to Establish a Political Vnion amongst divers Churches by which they are Subordinate to one only Every Church ought to suffer the others to enjoy in peace their Rights and Liberties and content it self to condemn dangerous errours and factions and to assist with Counsel the other Churches when they have need thereof The second Volume contains the explication of the Creed in 34 Sermons upon this Article I believe in the Holy Ghost The rest being briefly explained because that the Author has treated of 'em in other places of his Works marked in a little advertisment which is at the End of his Sermons These Sermons are not simple explications of the Letter of the Creed The Author hath explained the Articles as he had occasion by divers texts of Scripture treating of the matter that he found therein and the particular circumstances of each text He shews first how much doubting is necessary and on the contrary in the two following what Faith is Reasonable and Just. In the fourth and fifth he explains Justification by Faith He afterward proves in four Sermons successively the existence of a Deity by the Works of Creation by the order of the Body of Man consent of all Nations and by supernatural effects The tenth and two following treat of the Unity of God of his power and of the creation of the World In the 13th and to the 20th the Author
from thence to the end of the Last Age. Whilst our Primate was in Wales there was published at London without his consent three works under his name 1. A Body of Divinity or the Substance of Christian Religion 2 Immanuel or the Incarnation of the Son of God 3 A Catechism Intituled The Principles of the Christian Religion The last being full of faults he corrected it and printed it himself in 1652. In the year 1647. whilst he was at the Countess of Peterborough's in London the Society of Lincolns Inn chose him for their Preacher and gave him a lodging and a handsome Pension whilst he was there he published two Books 1. Diatriba de Romanae Ecclesiae symbolo apostolico vetere aliis fidei formulis he there treats of the Creed which is commonly called the Apostles and of the different Copys which have been found in the Roman Church and of divers forms of the Confession of Faith which where proposed to the Catechumenoi and to the Youth of the Eastern and Western Churches 2. His Treatises de anno solari Macedonum Asianorum where he explains divers difficulties of Chronology and Ecclesiastical History and marks the precise time of the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp he compares the year of the Macedonians the Asiaticks c. with the Iulian Account and makes divers curious remarks upon the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies according to the opinion of the Antient Greek Astronomers Melonius Calippus Eudoxius c. In fine he gives the Ephemerides of the Macedonian and Asiatick year compar'd with the Julian year to which he adds the rising and setting of the Stars and the presages of the change Weather in Thrace Macedonia and Greece according to the observations which Antient Philosophers have left us The Parliament at that time took the King Prisoner in the Isle of Wight and wou'd have him absolutely abolish Episcopal Government so that this Prince was obliged to consent that that Government should be suspended for three years but the Presbyterian party were so eager that they would have it utterly extirpated upon this the Primate of Ireland propos'd an Expedient in which he would have had mixed a sort of of Presbyterian and Episcopal Government in lessening the power of the Bishops and bringing them to be Moderators or Presidents of the Assemblies of their Province without whose advice nothing of Importance shou'd be acted whereupon Vsher was accus'd to have been an Enemy to Hierarchy but Dr. Parr vindicates him all along He also informs us that Vsher being in the Countess of Peterboroughs House over against Charing Cross near White-hall when the King was to be beheaded and being upon the top of the house to see this bloody Tragedy the good Archbishop fainted away so that he was forc'd to be carried to bed where he said that God would not forget to punish this wickedness upon the English Nation he added that the Vsurpation of Cromwel would soon expire and that the King would be recall'd but that he himself should not see it we are assured that at another time he foretold that the Romish Religion should one day be powerful in this Kingdom and its reign should be sharp but short 'T is reported also that Preaching in a Church at London he declar'd to his Auditors that a great fire should soon consume a part of the City and when 't was asked him how he knew it he answer'd 't was a Thought which was so strangely impress'd upon his mind that he could not forbear speaking of it If that was true our Primate must be of the number of these Prophets who have sometimes foretold what was to come without knowing it About the middle of the year 1650. he finished the first part of his Annals to the year of the World 3828. unto the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes There is in this Volume all the celebrated Epochs mark'd with great exactness the times of the Reigns of the Kings of Israel and of Iudah compared with each other The succession of the Monarchies of Babylon Persia and Macâ—â—onia the years of the Olympiads the Aera of Nabanassar the most remarkable Eclipses of the Sun The second part was published in 1654. it begun at the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes and ended at the destruction of Ierusalem Usher gives there exact accounts of the Kings of Syria and Egypt with the times of their Reign which he hath put together with more care than any Chronologer hath done before him In fine there is all that can be wished in an Universal History both for exactness and Judgment 'T was after the edition of this work that Cromwell said he desired to see him Usher appear'd before him and the Protector after having received him with great Civility promised to make up part of the loss he sustain'd in Ireland but he kept not his Word to him no more than when he promis'd him the Episcopal Clergy should not be molested as they had been to that time The good Archbishop having obtain'd this promise in a visit he made to the Protector he was oblig'd to put him in mind of it by seeing him a second time where Cromwell ingenuously declar'd that he could not give Liberty of Conscience to men who were sworn Enemies to his Government and who without intermission endeavour'd to destroy him When Vsher entered this Vsurpers Chamber he found him in the hands of a Surgeon who was dressing an Ulcer in his Breast The Protector desired the Archbishop to sit down and said he would speak to him as soon as his Ulcer was dressed Whilst the Surgeon was busie about it Cromwell said that if this Ulcer was once cured he should soon have his Health Vsher replied immediately that he fear'd there was a more dangerous Vlcer in his Heart which must be cur'd before he could promise himself a perfect health 'T is true said the Protector sighing but tho' he seem'd to take this censure of the Archbishop's in good part he refus'd to keep his promise to him Vsher liv'd not long after that falling very sick on the 20th of March of a Pleurisie but the Physitians knew not his Distemper so that he died the day following at Rygate in a Countrey House of the Countess of Peterboroughs in the County of Surrey he was seventy five years old he had been fifty five years in Orders during which time he continually Preach'd fourteen years Professor in the Vniversity of Dublin four years Bishop of Meath and one and thirty years Bishop of Ardmagh he was the hundredth Bishop of that City after St. Patrick Cromwell who sought all occasions to please the people and knew that Vsher had been well belov'd ordered him to be buried with great solemnity in Westminster Abby in the Chappel of Erasmus altho' he would not be at the charge of the Funeral he did also another thing which much prejudiced his Family which was to hinder their selling the Archbishops Library without his consent there was
upon the perpetuity of the Faith of the Church concerning the Eucharist and concerning Bertram in particular his Work intituled Ratramne otherwise Bertram the Priest of the Body and Blood of the Lord printed in Latin and French with an Advertisement wherein in shewn that this Author is a witness not suspicious of the Faith of the Church in the ninth Age at Roan in 12. But the efforts that a great number of Learned men made against the new Tenets which were introducing in that time were unprofitable Whereas those Tenets were too advantageous to the Court of Rome not to maintain them with all their might It lacked but one thing only which was to diminish the power of Emperors to whom they were submitted until then It worked powerfully therein and begun by publishing Suppositious pieces in vertue of which the Popes pretended that the Soveraignty of Rome and Italy belonged to them and that they had an universal Jurisdiction over all the Bishops of the World to that purpose tended the false Donation of Constantine to Pope Sylvester and the Epistles attributed to the first Bishops of Rome of which Blondel and several other learned men have shewn the falshood Notwithstanding the manners of the People Monks and Clergy were in the utmost corruption and a horrible account is given us of the depravation of the tenth Age drawn as well from the writings of modern Catholicks as from the Authors of that time The conduct of the whole Clergy from the Bishops of Rome with the least degree of Priests and Monks was so far from the duties which the Gospel prescribes us that there have been few Ages whilst Europe continued in Paganism more corrupt than that was This is so known that it 's needless to make a further stop thereat and those who would be instructed throughly in it may only consult Vsher and the Authors whom he cites The eleventh Age is in like manner described and they assure us that the year M. after the Birth of our Lord was afflicted with divers Prodigies besides War the Plague and Famine which ravaged Europe a long-time as it appears by the testimony of divers Authors which may be read in Vsher. In that time they reckoned amongst Prodigies the Comets and Eclipses and the Historians a little while after describe them to us in such frightful terms as if we never had seen any we should tremble for fear in reading what they say thereof But when once one hath a wounded imagination nothing ordinary and common is seen all is great and wonderful and we see even that which never was such as was perhaps the Dragon whereof Glaber Rodolphus speaks in his 11. book c. 8. The Saturday night before Christmasday was seen in the Air saith he a surprizing Prodigy a frightful Dragon which was all Shining with Light and which went from the North to the South The evils of that time and the reports of these prodigies true or false made it to be believed that the time was come in which Antichrist was to appear after that the Dragon should be untied This was probably enough grounded upon what is said in the Apocalypse that the Dragon was to be chained during a thousand years and then let loose These thousand years were reckoned from the Birth of our Lord by which the Devil had begun to lose his Power until that time This calculation was not new seeing it is found conformable to that of St. Hippolita's Martyr of St. Cyril and Chrisostome It appeared without doubt more just and better grounded so that they expected from day to day the coming of Antichrist and end of the World Many People made a difficulty to undertake any considerable business and even of re-establishing the Churches which were destroyed fearing they should work for Antichrist Lastly when they saw it did not come they were perswaded that they did not well understand the Propheâ—y and went about rebuilding the Churches and to live as before Richard Victorinus of Scotland who upon the relation of Iohn Major his Compatriot is the first who maintain'd that the Holy Virgin was exempted from Original Sin saith in his Commentary upon the xx Chap. of the Apocalypse that as to the Letter the thousand years were already accomplished a long time since but that it could not be known when Antichrist would come nor when the Serpent would be unloos'd Thus it is that the Interpreters of Prophecies which they understand not never miss of a back door to escape at when the event sheweth that they are mistaken There is a great likelihood that our age will furnish us with some examples of this truth As it 's desired in great evils to know if they shall last long those who of late have arrived to a great many Protestant Churches have made a great many to covet a knowledge of the time to come some thought they foresaw it in the obscurity of the Praedictions of the Apocalypse and have foretold it with sufficient boldness tho' they agree not amongst themselves no more than those who undertook to do the same thing the eleventh and twelfth age Glaber Rodolph saith that in effect the Devil was let loose in 1000 because one Vilgard who taught Grammar at Ravenna and some others had essayed in that time to re-establish Paganism But this event appears too inconsiderable to apply unto him what is said in the Apocalypse of the Dragon who was to be loos'd Also our Archbishop believes that Antichrist was not to be be looked for out of Rome and that the Devil was enough at liberty whilst in the Pontifical Chair sate a Magician such as was Sylvester II. if the Authors of that time may be believed and whilst great errours were brought into the Church as the infinite Power of Popes Transubstantiation and Prayers for the Dead And it is observ'd that Berengarius Wickliff and his Disciples have maintained that from that time this Prophecy of the Apocalypse begun to be accomplished There have been notwithstanding some who have believed that the thousand years were to begin at the Ascension of our Lord as Iohn Purvey saith and Wickliff seems not far from this thought in a place of his Trialogue which Vsher cites Some persons had already been of this opinion in the time of St. Augustin as he testifies in his City of God l. XVIII c. 53. But these people speak with more precaution than the others for they did not positively say that the World would end 1000 years after the Ascension of Jesus Christ but only that it might be that there were but a thousand years from this term unto his last coming annos mille ab Ascensione Domini usque ad ultimum ejus adventum compleri posse One of the new Interpreters of the Apocalypse hath said the same with much prudence that the present Persecution may end in three years and a half God if he will saith he elsewhere can reckon the three years and half of the death of
ignorant in the time of the III. Council of Lateran held under Alexander III. in MCLXXIX This Author saith that some of them presented to the Pope divers books of Scripture translated into French with Comments and demanded instantly of him the Power to preach Two amongst them who passed for the most able were introduced in an Assembly where Mapes was Commissioned as he saith to Question them He asked of them if they believed in God the Father the Son and Holy Ghost They answered Yes Do ye also believe added he in the Mother of Iesus Christ The Vaudois replied they did and made themselves thus saith the Author to be laughed at by all Men. Notwithstanding as it appeared not that they were willing to desist from their design they were excommunicated in the Council yet they continued their Assemblies in Gasconny and in the Neighbouring places where they begun from that time to exclaim against the abuses they had observed at Rome History tells us that Manicheans were mixed among them tho' they were very different in opinions and some were burned who were discovered in divers places of France and Germany St. Bernard hath written in the following Age against I know not what Hereticks whereof he speaks very contemptibly and to whom he also attributes some of the Sentiments of the Manicheans He assures us that they chose rather to die than to be converted and that they not only shewed Constancy but even rejoyced when they were led to the place where they were to be put to Death Mori magis eligebant quà m converti nec modo patienter sed laeti ut videbatur ducebantur ad mortem We may see hereby that seduced Persons as sincerely believe a false Doctrine as the Orthodox do theirs who defend the Truth for infine one would not be burned for what one look'd upon as a lye An Author of that time named William de â—uylaurens in the Prologue of his Chronicle besides adds Arianism to them and saith that they as well as the Vaudois tho' in different opinions licet inter se dissides agreed equally against the Catholick Faith They made the greater progress by reason that Priests were fallen into the utmost contempt whereof here is a proof drawn from a vulgar way of speaking which this Author relates To shew that they were far from doing a thing they were accustomed to say I would rather be a Iew But the Proverb changed and it is said in Gasconny I would rather be a Priest than to do that Mallem esse Capellanus quà m hoc vel illud facere Men were every where so wearied with the Ecclesiastical Tyranny and so scandalized at their lewd course of Life that those who spake against them were hearkened to with Delight and Pleasure as they did to one Arnand of Bresse a Disciple of Peter Abailards who went to censure them at Rome The Poet Gunther speaks thereof more at large in the third book of his Ligurin and concludes thus what he says of ' em Veraque multa quidem nisi tempora nostra fideles Respuerent monitus falsis admixta monebat Our Author relates divers of the violent proceedings against them and amongst others a Declaration of Alphonsus King of Arragon published in MCXCIV wherein he drives the Vaudois out of his Estates prohibites his Subjects to give them any succours upon pain of Confiscation of all their Goods and orders them to add all manner of grievances and affronts to beat and abuse them yet upon Condition they will neither kill nor cripple them praeter solummodo laesionem mortis aut membrorum detruncationem This is a cruel mildness which sometime Persecutors have practis'd and whereof it would not be hard to find fresh Examples The second period of time during which Usher believes the Dragon was let loose extends from the beginning of the Pontificate of Innocent III. unto the beginning of that of Gregory XI to wit from the year 1194. unto 1370. Innocent endeavour'd not a little to establish the indirect Authority of Popes over Kings and that which they pretend to have over all the Bishops of the World He named himself in a discourse which he made upon the Consecration of Popes the Spouse of the Church He maintain'd that all Bishops were but his Vicars and that it was he alone who retain'd an absolute Episcopal Authority So that other Bishops might say of him as of God we have received of his fulness He caused a Synod to be held at Rome in MCCXV which is called the fourth of Lateran where he confirmed a Canon of the III. Council held in the same place by which Alexander III. had absolved from the Oath of Fidelity the Subjects of a Prince who had favoured Hereticks against the Remonstrances of the Court of Rome Here are the terms of the second decree If a Temporal Lord required and advertised by the Church neglect to purge his Lands from the pollution of Heresie let the Metropolitan and the other Bishops of the Province excommunicate him If he makes not satisfaction in a year let the Soveraign Pontif be advertised that he may declare his Subjects absolved from the Fidelity which they owe him and give his Countrey to be possessed by Catholicks who having rooted out the Hereticks may possess it without any contradiction As this Decree is quite contrary to the Authority of Princes some Catholick Authors who have lived in places where this indirect Authority of Popes is refused to be acknowledged over the Temporalities of Kings they say that the Canons attributed to this Council were suppositious or at least that things did not pass therein after a canonical manner so that these Decrees obliged no Body But a famous English Protestant hath shewn that these Decrees are not suppositious that they are obligatory according to the Principles of the Roman Church that they have been received in England that the distinction of those who say that the Decrees of Councils oblige in matters of Faith and not in matters of practice are unreasonable and contrary to the Principles of the same Church and that tho' this distinction was true it could not exempt them from submitting themselves to the Decrees of the IV. Council of Lateran It was in this same Council that Transubstantiation was established and that a Croisade was published against the Vaudois as it was usually done against the Infidels Antoninus in his Chronicle affirms that the County of Thoulouse and Lombardy being full of Hereticks who amongst other errours endeavoured to take from the Church all it's Temporalities omnem Temporalitatem St. Dominick set himself to preach against them and converted a hundred thousand of ' em He took adds he to his help some devout and zealous Persons for the Faith who conquered these Hereticks corporally with the material Sword when they could not convince them with the Sword of the Spirit Quae corporaliter illos Hereticos gladio materiali expugnarent quos ipse gladio verbi Dei
are some words for it is too long to be all inserted The Cardinal burthened with care unloads it on a Monk this Monk dischargeth it very slightly Boutiller the Son only runs about the Father defers every thing the Commissaries of the Treasury and the Generals of the Armies think they are all called to a Harvest of Gold The Cardinal is charged with the Sins of all the World and even fears his life It happened in 1637. that Grotius and the Earl of Leicester the English Ambassadour having sent their Coaches to meet an Ambassadour of Holland the Swedish Ambassadours Men took the Precedency in spight of the English which made the latter draw their Swords The Duke de la Force who went for the Ambassadour ran to the tumult and thought he could easily decide it but the Swedes made it appear they were prepared for this accident in giving the reasons they had to do so which may be seen in Let. 722. p. 1. I almost forgot to remark that in the 2. part which contains much fewer political Letters than the first that the Opinion of Grotius may be seen upon these two questions to wit if one is obliged to send a Prince such succour as hath been promised him when we are attacked our selves Letter 16. and after what manner the Republick of the United Provinces hold Democracy Let. 209. This is what was thought fit to relate of the Letters of Grotius concerning Politicks The subject of his Embassy may be seen in the new History of Swedland by M. Puffendorf lib. vii c. 4. In this great number of Letters one may well judge that there are some of all sorts but we were contented to mark the principal subjects The Letters of Consolation may be added whereof these are the most considerable the 133. to M. du Maurier upon the Death of his Wife The 334. to G. Vossius upon the Death of his Son Denis The 445. to M. de Thou The 1116. to a Prince of the House of the Palatinate What follows is a Continuation of Bishop Ushers Works Entituled The Antiquities of the British Churches c. And should have followed in pag. 37. after these Words Day of his Death but was there left out through the Printers mistake AFter the death of Innocent St. Augustine and Alypius writ to St. Paulin Bishop of Nola to exhort him to oppose Pelagianism in Italy provided he was in a Condition of making any progress In the mean time Celesâ—â—us that was return'd from Asia whither he was gone after having made some little abode in Sicily came to present himself of his own accord to Zozimus Born in Cappadocia and successor to Innocent He gave him a small Tractate wherein he had particularly expounded his Opinions He ran over therein all the Articles of Faith from that of the Holy Trinity to the Resurrection of the Dead and declared that he held all these Articles after the same manner the Catholick Church did He added likewise that if disputes were rais'd in things that were not matters of Faith as for his own part he had not attributed to himself the authority of forming an absolute Judgment thereof but offered to be examined by Zozimus what he had Written upon these subjects drawn from the authority of the Prophets and Apostles that it might be corrected if there was any errour In fine every sentiment he there explain'd that we have before spoken of and denyed manifestly Original Sin Zozimus cited â—elestius to appear before him in the Church of St. Clement where he caused this Writing to be read and asked of the Author if he verily believed what he said therein Celestius answered Yes after which Zozimus put divers questions to him the sense whereof may be contain'd in these two If he condemned the Doctrines that Paulinus Deacon of Carthage had accused him of maintaining He said to that that he could prove this Paulinus to be an Heretick and would not condemn the propositions whereof he had accused him The other question that Zozimus put to him was if he agreed not with Pope Innocent in what he had condemned and if he would not follow the sentiments of the Church of Rome Celestius answered yes After these formalities Zozimus Writ to the Bishops of Africk a long letter where he relates in what manner Celestius had appeared before him and how he had been examined After that he reproachech them with having acted in this affair with too much precipitation fervore fidei praefestinatum esse and that they had too lightly believed extravagant reports and saith the same to certain Letters of Eros and Lazarus not being well assur'd of their worth Lastly he citeth those that shall have any thing to say against Celestius to appear at Rome in two Months at farthest Notwithstanding he took not away the Excommunication that the Bishops of Africk had pronounced against him As in that time the judgment of a Synod or even of a Bishop and particularly that of the Bishop of Rome was of great weight in what manner soever they had proceeded and that afterward Zozimus was accused of having prevaricated in condemning Pelagius after having approved his Doctrine St. Augustine hath endeavoured to give the best turn he could to this conduct of Zozimus as if this Prelate had acted mildly on Celestius's account only for pitty and thinking to have an account of his Opinions only for the better instructing himself that seeing they could not not be attributed to him as obstinate Heresies it would not be so difficult even to bring him back to the truth Zozimus in a Word according to St. Augustin look'd upon Celestius as a Man of great wit and who being corrected might be very useful to others The will of rectifying but not the falsity of Opinion is commendable In homine acerrimi ingenii qui profecto si corrigeretur plurimis profuisset voluntas emendationis non falsitas dogmatis approbata est 'T is a long while ago saith our Author that the Learned Vossius hath shewn this great Bishop endeavour'd in vain to hide the broken back of Zozimus with his Purple It cannot be doubted after reading the Letters that he Writ to the Bishops of Africk that he not only favoured Celestius but also Pelagius as being Catholicks without dissenting much from the true Faith Zozimus having sent his Letter unto Africk received a Packet from Palestin directed to Innocent whose Death was not yet known There were Letters of Prayle Bishop of Ierusalem and an Apology of Pelagius with a small book wherein he expounded his Opinions very clearly as it may be seen by the reading of it Prayle openly took the part of â—elagius and Zozimus caused to be read publickly these Letters and Writings which were approved by all as appears by what Zozimus writ a little while after to the Bishops of Africa Would to God saith he to them my most beloved Brethren that some of you could have assisted
fit an infinite number of places of the Antient Councils without having respect to the MSS. which makes Vsher to give him the Title of Contaminator Conciliorum As Hilary and Leontius Archbishops of Arles had favoured Semi-Pelagianism Cesario who succeeded Leontius inclin'd to what the Divines of Marseille called Praedestianism to wit the Sentiments of St. Augustine It was by his direction that the second Council of Orange was held in the year DXXXIX which approved the opinions of St. Augustin and our Author gives us an account of all their entire acts A little while after another Council was held at Valence upon the same matters and which also condemned Semi-Pelagianism Boniface II. approved the acts of this Council by a Letter that he writ to Cesario in the year DXXXI and which Vsher hath inserted in his Works Here it is that endeth the History of Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism which was not nevertheless extinguished among the Gauls nor in England by so many Efforts and Decrees of the defenders of Grace as may be seen by the History of Godescalch written by the same Vsher. What can there be concluded from thence according to the Principles of St. Augustin but that God would not apply his Grace to Anathemas to Confiscations to Depositions and to Banishments whereof the Pious Emperors and Holy Councils made use of against the unfortunate Pelagians We may relate the beginning of the third part of the British Antiquities in p. 268. where the Author begins to speak of King Arthur and of the priviledges pretended to be given by him to the University of Cambridge The rest of the Chapter excepting what there is in it concerning Gildas of whose works Vsher makes long Extracts is but a collection of Fables and Citations of Monks The 15 th Chapter treateth of the Colonies that the Facts a People of Scythia and the Scâ—â—ch that inhabited Ireland sent into England and of the manner how these Barbarous People were converted to Christianity There are also in this place more Fables than Truths seeing if we except some general acts the remainder contains only impertinent fictions in this Chapter are also new Fables concerning St. Ursula which some Monks report to have been Daughter to a King of Scotland The 16 and 17 th Chapters which contain the Ecclesiastick Antiquities of Ireland are of the same stamp as the preceding ones and we may wonder how the Archbishop of Armagh hath had the patience to make such a great collection of Fables and to read such a great number of Works of Monks both Manuscript and Printed Those that are minded to know a great part of their fictions concerning the British Isles from the year DXXX unto the end of the fourteenth Age may have recourse to the Original In the same nevertheless may be found some more certain antiquities touching their firâ—â— Inhabitants and the names of these Islands and some considerable changes that happened in them The Author hath also added at the end a Chronological Index where one may see in what time each thing ought to be related It 's a thing much to be wish'd in other Works which contain such disquisitions of Antiquities where commonly there is a strange Confusion Those that desire to be throughly instructed in the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England ought to add to Vsher's Work whereof we have given now the extract a Book in Folio of Doctor Stillingfleets Intituled Origines Britannicae or the Antiquities of the British Churches with a Preâ—aâ—e concerning some pretended Antiquities relating to Britain in vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph Printed at London 1685. The true System of the Church or Analysis of Faith c. by Sieur Jurieu Doctor and Professor of Divinity At Dordrecht Sold by the Widdow Caspar and Theodore Goris 1686 in 8vo THIS piece is chiefly designed to answer Mr. Nicoli but the difficulties that Mr. Arnauld Father Maimbourg and the Bishop of Meaux have propos'd in the chapter of the Church are herein examined with the utmost exactness the whole is reduced to these five general questions 1. What are the essential parts of the Church 2. What is the invisibility and maâ—ks thereof 3. What is its extent 4. What is its Vnity and Schism 5. What is its authority and judgments the exact and profound discussion of these matters take up three Books The first is begun by the comparison of the Church with a Human Body animated and it 's pretended that as the essential parts of man are a reasonable Soul and an Organised Body and the Union of this Body and Soul likewise the essential parts of the Church are Faith and Charity the Profession of Faith the outward practice of Charity and the Union of these four Faith and Charity are the Soul of the Church the outward Profession and Practice the Body and according to this Idea neither the Saints in Paradise nor the Predestinated that are not yet born are any part of the Church which is proved by Scripture after that is examined if false Christians and Heretical Societies make part of the Church and having shewn the prodigious incumbrances whereunto the R. C. cast themselves in maintaining that an ill man may be a true member of the Church and even of those Members on whom God confers the Spirit of infallibility We are taught after what manner the men of the World are in the Church and may be lawful Pastors in it Mr. Nicoli stands here a rude brunt for he pretends that his efforts do make St. Augustin agree with the Scholastick Divines upon the question whether the wicked are true Members of the Church which is full of obvious contradictions As to Heretical or Schismatical Societies it 's needless to prove to the R. C. that they do not belong to the Church for they say it often enough yet without giving good reasons why crimes are more priviledged therein than errors but the incumbrance which may be in this respect hindreth not Mr. Iuricu from fully examining this matter he enters therefore into the discussion of the Unity of the Church He maintains always leaning upon his comparison of human bodies that all the Sects of Christianity belong really to the body of the Church and that in this there is no more absurdity than to maintain that a distemper'd Member is a true part of Mans Body he asks whence comes the Idea of the Unity which excludes from the Church all the Christian Societies but one and he persuades himself that the monstrous errors which are raised in the first Ages have been the true Origin of this Idea in accustoming the Orthodox to think that Hereticks are Members wholly separate from the Body He adds that St. Cyp finding this Idea ready at hand applyed the same to the Novations grounded thereon such strong reasons against the validity of the Baptism of Hereticks that nothing of weight was answered him this occasions the Author to criticise on the Hypotheses of St. Cyprians
Mr. Nicole that Jesus Christ came into this World we must examine according to the Cartesiaen method whether the Gospel be a feigned Book or no and hear all that is said by the Wicked upon this Subject and examine all the moral demonstrations whereon the certainty of things done is grounded Moreover we must be assured by Philosophical reasons and by good answers to Spinoza's Systeme that Man acts freely that he has an immortal Soul and that God prepares pains and recompences Where are Tradesmen or Peasants who are capable of so long a dispute pushed to a contradictory decree So that this cannot be the way to answer well for if we did but retain one or two Articles of our Creed we should have enough to do to render our selves certain of them according to des Cartes method And all this shews that Mr. Nicoles principle ought not to be applyed to matters of Religion And he is shewn several other very inconvenient consequences of this principle and it is concluded that Faith does not depend upon an examen of discussion but upon an examen of attention the effects whereof are Learnedly explained in shewing the manner how Divine Truths are imprinted in our understanding this is very fine and gives us a second example of Mr. Iurieu's sincerity for without troubling himself whether Mr. Nicole will brag of having obliged the Ministers to quit their ground he leaves him wholly to the examin of discussion and maintains that this was not what he ought to have disputed against and he answers an objection of Mr. de Meaux whether there be a time wherein a Christian may doubt of the Truths of Scripture and that according to the Principles of the reformed Church Let us say a word upon the last Book of this answer the Author has not so much indifference for Mr. Nicole but he has taken care to hinder his too great brags of the full victory that he has had in several cases upon the examen of discussion and says that this victory is but of little use to Papists but that it furnisheth Weapons to Libertines and Pagans to combate the Christian Religion Moreover he is not of Opinion that all the Arguments that were thundered against the examen of discussion are good and as to what concerns the way of feeling and this ray that he has so much laught at he is shewn that there is no reason to be so merry upon that word that there are really things in Scripture which are known by the way of feeling and that it is no sufficient Argument against it to say that it deceives Hereticks daily for the Author says if it deceives them it is because it is not assisted by an interiour Grace from the Holy Ghost as when we feel the light of Truth besides this he maintains that the most simple were able to know what was requisite to make them quit the Roman Communion In fine he shews the analysis of Faith according to St. Augustine and he answers Mr. Nicole in several things concerning the calling of the first Reformers and the Schism whereof some would fain have convinced them he answers him I say in all this and accuseth him of a thousand frivolous quibbles unworthy both of a Man of Honour and a witty Man I do not doubt but many of my readers may not understand what the analysis of Faith is Let us then say that we understand by these words the reducing of Faith to its first principles that it is a Metaphor borrow'd from Chymists who call Analysis the Operation that disunites the parts of a compound body setting apart the ingredients until they come to the most simple parts so to make the Analysis of Faith is nothing else but to mount by degrees to its beginning and to the first reasons whereon it is grounded and in this the Religions of the West are very different for tho' it is very true that the Protestants and Catholicks being questioned why they believe the Trinity agree in answering that it is because God has revealed it in Scripture but if you ask them this other question how they do know that God has revealed it in Scripture their answer will be very different the Catholick will answer that it is because he is told that the Roman Church finds the meaning of Trinity in certain passages of Scripture but the Protestant will say it is because he finds that these passages signify the Trinity whence it follows that the Faith of a R. C. is grounded on the Authority of the Church that of a Protestant upon the very Light which he finds in the Object proposed by Scripture There are but few who trouble themselves with this Analysis they content themselves well enough with believing what they have a feeling of Moreover it is a great question with Roman Catholicks whether in the Analysis of Faith they must stop at the Pope or go on to the Council Gregory of Valence in his Analysis Fidei Catholicae maintains firmly that they are to stop at the Pope But Mr. Holden an English Man by Nation and a famous Doctor of Sorbonne holâ—s for the Council in his Divinae fidei Analysis seu de fidei Christianae resolutione which has been re-printed lately at Paris with some additions A Lutheran Professor called Hannekenius refutes the Jesuite in the year 1683 by publishing paralysis fidei Papaeae I do not know whether he will publish such another Paralysis against the Doctor of Sorbonne Mr. Iurieu put at the end of his Book a short answer to what Mr. Ferrand published against the Parallel of Papism and Calvinism if this Article had not passed the bounds already we could give a short extract of this short answer it is admirable and discomforts this Author who to speak the truth has not answered the hopes that the Catholicks of this Country conceived of his Work they were a little surprized with the stroke they received from the parallel and they expected that Mr. Ferrand that was chosen to revenge their common Mother would acquit himself well of the Office but they experienced that he did not hold to what the Church promised it self of him Non illum nobis genetrix pulcherrima talem promisit The Accomplishment of Prophesies or the Deliverance of the Church near at hand c. Corrected and Augmented almost a third part with the Explication of all the Visions of the Apocalypse By the S P. J. PEPETH A. R. at Rotterdam by Abraham Achers 1686. 2. Vol. in 12. THis Work has made such a noise that there are two thousand Copies disposed of in four or five Months and yet there are but a very few gone into France which would have taken off a great many if it were suffered that it might be disposed of there this considerable part of Europe being almost nothing by report in respect of the Booksellers Trade one would think that the first Edition should have sufficed nevertheless there was soon occasion
that every Year they fill 90 Barrels therewith The Inhabitants profess the Grecian Religion And instead of a Bishop which they will not admit of they have a Protopapa as they call him that is an Arch-Priest The Piety that our Author makes appear throughout this whole work obliges him to complain of the little care that those of its Nation have taken to form an Ecclesiastical Body and maintain a Pastor therein Delos is the most celebrated Isle of all the Cyclades It is two or three Leagues about is also very full of Rocks and by consequence Barren And at present an uninhabited Desert Tho' there still remain some Monuments of it's Antient Splendor The most remarkable is a Pile of White Marble on which the Temple of Apollo was supposed to be built 'T is otherwise with Sestos and Abydos whereof there remains not the least Footsteps to be found what is now called the Old Castles of Rometia and Anatolia not being built in the same places nor having any mark of Antiquity Gallipoli which is also near hath preserved very few of 'em But at Lampsaque which hath still kept it's Name and at Heraclea are many more to be found Constantinople having been above Twelve Ages the Seat of the Eastern Empire Mr. Wheeler thought he cou'd not be too large in describing of it Many Writings being extant of the same nature I shall observe in our Author only what 's the most curious 'T is thought that Titus Livy's Works are all entire in the Grand Seignior's Library But Mr. Wheeler being inquisitive about it himself offer'd as he assures us great Sums to the Bacha who hath the charge of the Books yet cou'd not procure a sight of it One of the greatest Conveniences they have for Travellers at Constantinople and almost every where throughout Turky is the Publick Houses to entertain Strangers which they call Karavan-Seras or Kans where Persons may live as well as they please having commonly near 'em Shops that afford all things necessary at a reasonable Price It is true the greatest part of 'em are like Barns and have about the Walls what they call a Sopha a Foot and a half high for Travellers to lye thereon But those which are now built in Cities or great Towns are incomparably more commodious having many Apartments all distinguish'd from each other Our Author wishes the like conveniencies were establish'd amongst Christians which wou'd cut off many useless Expences and be a Remedy for several Disorders that occur from the contrary The Patriarchal Church is an obscure Edifice without Beauty or any considerable Ornaments And the Patriarchs Palace is not larger than one of the most despicable private Houses in London This Prelates Habit also is very plain and little differing from the ordinary garb of Caloyers or of the Monks of St. Basil. Nevertheless 't is hardly to be credited with what earnestness this Dignity is sought after And how dearly those that aspire thereto pay for it to the Grand Visier who to make it the most advantageous he can often upon the least pretence turns out those he has lately put in to sell it to others so that sometimes there have been five Patriarchs in the space of 5 Years The Celebration of the Eucharist Mr. Wheeler saith is an Act of Religion wherein the Greeks appear the most devout yet he thinks it impossible to determine exactly what is their general Opinion upon this Subject At some places they hold Transubstantiation as at Corfou and at Zant. But he assures us the Bishop of Salone and the Convent of St. Luke in Beotia believes in this Sacrament only a Spiritual and Efficacious Presence and as he found none that received the word Transubstantiation or of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except among those that had some connexion with the Roman Church so he doubted not but others which were not yet deceiv'd by 'em are of the same Faith with the aforesaid Bishop and Caloyers Tho' the Turks have always been lookt upon as sworn Enemies to all Learning Nevertheless our Author says They have very Learned Men among 'em and as in the Seraglio there are Historians on purpose to observe great Events so at Constantinople and elsewhere are maintained Professors in all parts of the Mathematicks in Poetry and in the Arabian and Persâ—an Tongues That they have a Bazar or Purse for the Manuscripts of each several Science compos'd in the Turkish Arabick or Persian Language And what appears the most surprizing is their asserting to us that they had seen an antient Book of Astronomy which suppos'd formerly the Use of the Needle and Loadstone altho' it serv'd them not for Navigation From Constantinople Mr. Wheeler pass'd the Bosphorus and came to Chalcedon and this Town which became so famous by having the 4th Council held there in the Year 452. is now but a small Village that the Turks call Cadiqui Mr. Wheeler designing to Visit all the Celebrated Places of Natolia and particularly those where formerly the seven Churches of the Apocalyps were He sail'd from the South-side in passing by the Mount Olimpus of Mysia the place where Ajax kill'd himself for Despair which the Inhabitants have still stamp'd upon their Moneys 'T is very sad to see the deplorable Estate the Christians are there reduced to who having formerly defended their Liberty as much as they cou'd are now constrain'd to pay double to the others of Caratch or Tribute as 9 or 10 Piastres by the Year the Caratch being commonly but five or four and a half to the rest The first of these famous Cities of the Apocalyps that our Author arrived at was Thyatira a place well peopled with Turks but not above 10 or 12 Christians therein The antient stately Buildings of Marble having been for a long time buryed in their own Ruines and the place fill'd with low despicable Houses it 's Name was almost forgotten but at length was discovered by some old Inscriptions that were dug out of the Earth It is not so with Smyrna For that being a very fruitful Soil and situated advantageously for Commerce they have taken care to keep it in it's former Splendor by rebuilding each place as it fell to decay nevertheless it was overturn'd six times by Earth-Quakes and it 's final Ruine according to an Old Tradition is expected by a seventh A greater Number of Christians inhabited there in a much better Estate than in any of the seven Churches Philadelphia only excepted Many Camelions are in that place which obliges our Author to give us a very exact Description of 'em At Ephesus all the Earth is covered with pieces of Marble Pedestals Pillars and all the Ruines of the handsomest and most antient Architecture This City which was formerly the Capital of Asia so famous and populous is not the receptacle at this day of more than 40 or 50 Turkish Families who live in miserable Tenements without having so much as one Christian amongst ' em Which sorrowful Object
prejudicing in the least the Superiority of a Wife Mahomet had been but a little Politick if in lieu of permitting them to have four he had commanded them to have so many and if the contrary were desired of him as a favour it would be as Phaeton did Poenam Phaeton pro munere poscis They are marry'd there without seeing each other and a Man does not see his Wife until after the Consummation of Matrimony and often he does not consummate it for some days after she is brought to him because she hides her self among the Women and will not let the Husband enjoy her These Forms are more frequent among People of Quality because in their Opinion it is like a debauched Person to yield the Last Favour so soon especially the Women of the Royal Family there must be sometimes whole Months to prevail with them It is very probable says Mr. Chardin That this way of Marrying without seeing each other should produce very unhappy Effects but happens perfectly contrary for it may be said That there are more lucky Marriages in those Countries where they do not see the Women at all than in them where they are seen and frequented The reason is evident when we do not see another Mans Wife we do not so soon lose the Love we may have for our own And the Reflection is very good I shall say nothing of several other particularities which the Author mentions here in this great Chapter He reports of the Governour of Irivan which is a little better than the Answer of this which the Ambassador of Viâ—qufort speaks of that upon the demand made him what he would have the Present consist of that was intended him he Answered in Bills of Exchange This Governour understanding That the Box which M. Chardin presented him with was worth 10 Pistols he desired him to take it again and to give him the value of it in Keys Springs and Strings of Watches this and several other things to be seen in that Journal shews that Covetousness is so predominant with the Eastern People that it puts them on a thousand base little Actions If this Article had not been a little too long already I would have related many other things out of this Volume The Author shews much skill in Geography and gives us the Description of some considerable Towns with the Plans of them and an Abridgment of their Histories which may satisfie well enough the desire of any curious Reader He represents us the City of Tauris as very beautiful there are 250 Mosques in it and a place where the Turks may put â—0000 Men in Battalia He prefers their Opinion before any others that will have it to be the Antient Town of Echatane The Letters of Recommendation given him and his Notes on them are not the least curious part of this Book For they help to teach us the Genius of the Persians There we learn that they call their Kings the Vicars of God because they pretend That the Race that Reigned these 250 Years sprung from Ali Son-in-Law and Successor of Mahomet Casbin the Country of the famous Locman the Eastern Aesope appears with great Pomp but it would be nothing in comparison of another Town called Rey if it were true that Rey was what the Persian Geographers maintain it to be upon the credit of all the Eastern Authors who say That in the Sixth Age of Christianity the Town of Rey was divided into 96 Parts whereof each had 46 Streets every Street 400 Houses and 10 Mosques and that the Town had 6400 Colledges 16600 Baths 15000 lesser Mosques 12000 Mills 17000 Channels and 13000 Caravanserais The Magies Chronicles affirm That Chus Grand-Son of Noah was the Founder of Rey and lay'd the first Stone under the Ascendant of Scorpion This is no small comfort to our Northern and Southern Fablers for if on one part they are concerned to be called Dreamers they will have on the other side the satisfaction of having Companions all over the World For what concerns the Magnificence of the Mosques and Mausolees of Com They are not Dreams but Realities since the Author professes himself an eye-witness thereof The Tomb of Fathme Daughter of Mouza-Cazem one of the 12 Califes which the Persians believe were the lawful Successors of Mahomet after Ali is in the chiefest of these Mosques with those of King Abas and Sefi There is but very little wanting in the Worship of Fathme among the Persians to equal it to what most of the Christians pay to the Mother of the Son of God This appears by the Prayers that Pilgrims of Com rehearse and the People are persuaded that the Virgin Fathme was transported to Heaven both Body and Soul yet they do not celebrate the Feast of her Assumption Mr. Chardin gives us in French some of these Prayers as also the famous Elegy of Haly made by the Learned Haran Cary This Panegyrick is writ in great Letters of Gold in the Gallery of the Tomb of Abas and is a piece of Eloquence wherein may be seen not only the Genius of the Persian Poetry but also Transports of the Mahometan Devotion 'T is in Songs divided by disticks the first is all upon Mahomet the six other upon Ali. If I were minded to make a more ample Addition of the Spanish Rotomandos many places of this Poem should be copied out To speak seriously there are some turns of Expressions that have much Force in them as when to express the Beauty of Ali the Poet assures us That God has assigned his Love us a Ioynture to the Ladies of Paradice Naturalists will not find what they look for here but they may examine the White Pot Work of Com and they will find enough to busy themselves in it refreshes Water in Summer very well by the means of a continual Transpiration The first time that this Pot is used a Quart transpires in 6 hours and then less and less afterwards until at last the Pores are closed by gross Matter that is in the Water that stops its passage through the Pores and then a new Pot must be us'd or else the Water would stink in the other The Author set forth from Com the 16th of Iune 1672. and arrived at Ispahan the 23 d. And here the First Volume ends it is to be sold at Amsterdam Reprinted in Twelves at Wolfgang's Reflections on the cruel PERSECUTIONS that the Reformed Church suffer'd in FRANCE through the Conduct and Acts of the last Assembly of the Clergy of that Kingdom with an Examination of the pretended Calumnies whereof the Clergy complains to the King in the Profession of Faith PErhaps there never was seen so strange a difference as is found now between the Catholicks and the Reformed who write upon the Conversions in France The first maintain that they do all mildly and with Christian Charity and upon this make continual Exclamations and Panegyricks The last affirm That they force them by threatning or corrupt them by
other means and that at last they employed an Army of 50000 Men who except killing committed all the Disorders that they usually commit when they live at discretion in an Enemies Country which has made some merry People term it The Dragoon Croisade or the Conversion of the Dragoons They say a great deal more but since it is the sign of prudence not to believe them lightly Qui cito credit levis est corde I would advise the Readers to suspend their judgment a little All wise Men should go on leisurely on these Matters and should neither believe the Relations of the Catholicks nor them of the Reformed until they have well considered all the Circumstances What is most certain upon sight of all their pieces is that either the Reformed Writers must be the boldest Calumniators that ever were in the World or that the Catholick Writers must be the falsest and the boldest Flatterers that have ever been heard of For in fine an Army that Plunders or threatneth to Plunder the Hugonots Houses through all the Kingdom is a thing that 't is hard to suppress the Truth of or to persuade that it is false The Author of this Work dedicates it to God This Dedicatory Epistle has a very singular turn and an uncommon advantage which is that it prosecutes his Praises to the highest without becoming suspected of Flattery I am mistaken if Praises be the only thing aim'd at in it For certainly there enters Censure either directly or indirectly in the Reflections that follow this Dedication they have much Fire and Wit but are very disadvantageous to the Clergy for they shew That they managed their Work after so cheating a way that tho' they have gull'd the People yet there could be nothing so gross and ill knit together as their Artifices This Author complains continually that on all occasions they seemed to have wholly the Edicts of Pacification tho at bottom they had no such thought as the Event has confirmed one might press People far enough both according to the Notions of the Gospel and Maxims of Morals when they are convinced of such Dissimulation but those that are acquainted with the Rights of the Art of Governing and who have experienced that Politick Wisdom is obliged to conceal their intentions and know that this is a necessary evil in this State of corrupted nature will not trouble themselves with all these Complaints but will send all Protestant Writers to Plato's Common-Wealth or to Sir Thomas Moore 's Vtopia because they think like Cato without considering what a Man is in such an Age as this and without thinking that a perfect Regularity does not belong to this World we must stay until the Resurrection new forms Man from Head to Foot to see him in this Order To these Complaints are added others the violent Advices suggested by the Bishops and after this are made some rough Reflections upon the two Orations of the last Meeting of the Clergy spoke by the Bishop of Valence and the Coadjutor of Rouen and there is to be seen the Discourse which the Lieutenant General of Rochelle made to the Heads of the Protestant Families wherein he declared that if they did not quickly learn and enter into the bosom of the Church they should be punished in this World with much Pain and Calamities And here follows an Account of what pass'd at Mounaban and of divers Remarks that help to shew that the Persecutions of the Pagans nor of the Duke of Alva and them of Hungary were not so grievous as those of our Days The Donatists are spoke of and it 's maintained that they are not to be compared with the Hugonots and that the success of the Persecutions raised against them is not to be expected now They found it on this thought that the new Converts change only in the exterior and that they will never be drawn from their Hypocrisy but by having leave to return to their former Belief If a thousand Reports that run were credited it would be thought that there would become a true Samaritanisme in France and a mixt Religion that would neither be Calvinism nor Papism and which would have been soon excommunicated by the Pope in the times that the Court of Rome could maintain his Pretensions There was a Discourse that there is nothing asked of the most of the Proselytes but a general Promise That they would not remain Separatists And the Gazett tells us they are suffered to sing in the very Cathedrals the Psalms of Clement Marot And upon this many cry that it is an effect of the Promise that they complain of But as I have said already A wise Man should not credit things of this nature upon Hear-says we must expect until time clears all these doubtful Matters to see whether the Prelates of France will not by good Apologies annul the complaints spread of them through all Europe As the Common-wealth of Sciences is a State of Abstraction and Precision from all Sects and as such is not to take the part of any Sect of Divines or Philosophers it will be its duty to give an impartial account of the Books that will be published by the Clergy and which it will not neglect The Author makes an end of the First Part of his Book with a Letter upon what happen'd at Guyenne in the time of the M. of Boufflers Croisade It 's strange he says nothing of the Revocation of the Edict of Nanâ—es And we may conclude hence that his Book was Printed before that was known Without doubt it will be the subject of another Work He that made these Reflections does not look as if he would slip so fertile a matter or as if he would stop in so fair a road To understand better the Contents of his Second Part I must first tell the Reader that the Second Assembly of the Clergy brought a parallel of the Doctrine of the Roman Church and that which is imputed to it by Protestants which comprehends in Seven Articles all the Points that are Disputed of and there are three Columns made on each Article of these The first contains the Formal Terms of the Profession of Faith and of the Council of Trent The second the French Translation of these Terms The third is of the Imputations of Protestants which the Clergy pretend to be Calumnies of the highest degree and have all in a Body petitioned the King for a Formal Justice The Author having made several Remarks on all this with his ordinary heat descends to a more particular examination of these Seven Articles and maintains that the Calumnies that were complained of are very unjust Accusations and pretends that the most rigorous and hard expressions of the Ministers contain nothing but pure Truth and marks that the Translation of these pretended Calumnies contain a more injurious meaning than the Original I will not enter on particular proofs it is enough to say that they are passed with much Vigour and Wit and that
the Gauls The conduct of Victor pleased not all the other Bishops who exhorted him in their turn to have sentiments conformable to a Peace Unity and Love to our Neighbours There are still of their Letters adds Eusebius wherein they reprehend Victor with eagerness enough Amongst these Bishops was Irenaeus who in the Letter which he Writ upon this Subject in the Name of the Brothers over whom he presided among the Gauls maintains also that one Sunday must be Celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord yet he advertiseth Victor with much gravity that he ought not to cut off from the Communion whole Churches of God who observe a Tradition and Ancient Custom It will be some difficulty to believe that Bom found in this Affair a Proof of the Authority of the Pope Notwithstanding it is the conclusion he draws from it and grounds 1. Upon that the Bishops who were displeased at this Excommunication would undoubtedly have acted with more haughtiness against Victor if he had not been their Superior whereas they speak unto him with a mildness which marks well that they contested not the Right of Excommunicating the Churches as not being of his Jurisdiction but that they only found fault with the use he made thereof the cause of the Excommunication not being of consequence enough according to them 2. That notwithstanding they were deceived in that and that Victor did well to use this rigour because Blastus one of the principal Patrons of the Opinion of the Asiaticks would have introduced Iudaism under this pretence 3. That the Church approved of the Conduct of Victor in condemning the Bishops of Asia to whom was given the name of Quartodecimal Hereticks 4. That Irenaeus himself hath not doubted of the Superiority of the Bishop of Rome seeing he saith elsewhere That all the Churches must to wit all the Faithful of what place soever they are come to this Church in which the Apostolical Tradition hath been preserved by those who came to it from every Part because of its more powerful Principality Ad hanc enim Ecclesiam propter potentiorem Principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles in qua semper ab his qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae est ab Apostolis Traditio To this Episcopius Replies That the Answer of the Bishops of Asia and the Letter of Irenaeus would not be very respectful if Victor had been the Chief of the Church that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies properly to give a contrary order and those of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acerbius perstringere are not invented to express the submission of a Subject to his Prince and that if these Bishops could take it ill that their Judge a pretended Soveraign and Infallible should banish from the Church and exclude from Heaven so great a number of Churches for so slight a cause they have therefore thought that he might be mistaken in his Decisions upon matters of Faith and that they had a right to examine them 2. That the Heresie of Blastus justifies not the proceedings of Victor seeing the Asiaticks looked not upon the Celebration of the Passover as a necessary Observance and which should precisely be applyed to such a day that they were contented that Victor and other Bishops should Celebrate it on Sunday if they had their Reasons for it but that they having not the same proofs thereof believed themselves not obliged to abandon the Apostolical Tradition It hath not been remarked that our Professor answereth the passage of Irenaeus because we need only to read it throughly to shew that there is no mention there of the Right of the Bishop of Rome in the Decision of Controversies but only of the Characters which they in the time of Irenaeus did acknowledge Apostolical Thereupon he saith That it must be sought for in the places where the Apostles have established Bishops but because it would be too long to make an enumeration of all the Apostolick Churches he stops at one of the most ancient and greatest which is the Church of Rome As this City was the Capital of the Empire Principalitas Potentior and that for that Reason the Inhabitants of divers Provinces negotiated there and were obliged to come thither Irenaeus concludes that the Apostolical Tradition could not fail of having been faithfully kept there since that if the Christians of a Province or of a City had been minded to corrupt it the Christians of other places who were at Rome would have opposed it it being improbable to suppose that so many different Nations would agree to abandon in so little a time the Doctrine of the Apostles II. Bom often alledged passages out of St. Augustin for the Authority of Popes that gave occasion to Episcopius of citing him the 22d Canon of the Council of Millan where St. Augustin was Secretary and another Canon of the 6th Council of Carthage where this Bishop also assisted both which prohibited the drawing Ecclesiastical Causes of the Diocess of Africk on the other side the Sea whether they regard the Inferior Members of the Clergy or the very Bishops That the Deputies of the Pope having represented to the Assembly That this Canon destroyed the Priviledges which the Council had granted to the Patriarch of Rome in permitting Ecclesiasticks to appeal unto him in Judgments had against them by the Ordinaries the Bishops of Africk were extreamly surprized and said all Unanimously That they never heard of such Priviledges Thereupon these Deputies related three Canons which they said to be of the Council of Nice the Fathers of Carthage to Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch and the Authentick Copies of this Council where not finding these three Canons they Writ to the Pope That the Right of Appealing which he pretended to in quality of Supream Judge and belonged not to him by virtue of the Council of Nice seeing the Three Canons upon which he grounded his pretentions were not to be found in the Originals The Exceptions are reduced to this 1. That the Council of Millan prohibits but the Inferior Clerks to Appeal beyond the Sea and that this is evident because Pope Innocent to whom the Synod of Millan submitted all their Decrees as to the Head of the Church approved the Canon in question 2. That there is no reason to believe that the Copy of the Council of Nice which was kept at Rome was supposed but that there is much more likelyhood that those of Constantinople Antioch and Alexandria were defective seeing the Manuscript upon which Ruffinus Writ his History was so and that there are several Canons of this Council cited in that of Calcedonia and in St. Ambros St. Augustin and Ierome which are not found in this Historian 3. That the Decrees which are accused of Supposition have been cited by other Popes before Zozime as Iulius speaks who living but Twenty years after the Council of Nice could easily have been convinced
in his Historical Dissertations p. 45 c. fol. IV. Bom after that takes another turn to Answer the Question of Episcopius touching the Institution of a Soveraign Judge over Controversies who succeeded the Apostles He asks of him a formal passage Wherein Iesus Christ hath ordered the Apostles that if there arose Disputes in the Church they should Convocate a Synod and make Decisions thereupon to which the Faithful should be obliged in Conscience to submit There is no appearance adds he that the Apostles should do it if they had not believed this Action conformable to the Will of their Master nor that the Primitive Church should so soon imitate them if the Apostles had ordered nothing thereupon It must then be that either the Institution of Synods is an Apostolical Tradition or that it is an inseparable Sequel of the Ministery and Promises that Iesus Christ hath made to those who exercise it I am always with you until the end of the World and other Passages which tho they are at every moment in the mouth of Catholicks seem not the stronger for that to Protestants Episcopius confesseth that Iesus Christ hath commanded no where his Disciples to convocate Synods and that notwithstanding they have done it He adds That according to their Example Ecclesiastical Assemblies may be held but that it followeth not that these Assemblies where none less than the Holy Ghost presides have as much Authority as the Apostolick ones The reason hereof is that the Authority of the Apostolick Synods depended not so much on the consent and conformity of their Opinions as on the quality of their persons and of the Authority which God had clothed them with by the Revelations he had made unto them and the Orders he had given them This will appear evident if we take notice of the conduct of the Apostles When they have an express command from God they expect not the Resolutions of a Synod for to act and St. Peter understood no sooner the meaning of the Vision which he had had but he went to Cornelius But when they speak of their own head they say I advise you 1 Cor. vii 25. On these occasions they took advice of one another Sometime they agreed not as it happened to Paul and Barnabas Act. xv 39. But commonly the spirit of Mildness and Peace which fill'd them and which shewed them all the Principles and all the Consequences of the Gospel brought them mutually to consult each other So that their actions being thus conducted by the Spirit of God they could say It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us But tho it was granted that the Convocation of Synods is of a divine Institution doth it follow that all the Synods and Councils which have been held after the Apostles have made good Decisions A Catholick denyes it and if he is asked the reason He must of necessity answer that what distinguisheth true Synods from false ones is that there have been some which have had all the Conditions necessary for a true Synod and have made good Decisions and the others wanting these Conditions have been but Conciliabula But how can it be known that these Conditions are assured marks of the Truth of Synods seeing that there is not one which is not equivocate according to some Doctors of the Roman Church And how can one tell what Synod hath them Will it be known by its Decisions But they should be examined and so to deny the Principle to wit that it might have pronounced a definitive Sentence Is it enough to assure it lawful that it be general Yes for the Gallican Church which receives the Council of Basil but not for Italy It must besides be confirmed by the Pope but who hath given him this Right Is it a Priviledge of the Successors of St. Peter How have they obtained it and whence comes it that the Bishops of Antioch who have succeeded this Apostle as well as those of Rome have had no share in it After all what needs there any trouble to prove the Authority of Synods when People are of the sentiment of Bom and the Iesuites And seeing that St. Peter and his Successours are the Soveraign Judges of Controversies what need is there of these Ecumenick Assemblies convocated with so much difficulty and Expences It 's not enough to interrogate this infallible Judge and to receive his Decisions as Oracles from Heaven The Passages which the Catholick alledgeth here in his behalf and the Answers which he hath made to those of the Protestants have been so often repeated that tho Episcopius refutes them sufficiently after a new manner we notwithstanding do not think it worth while to stop at them We shall only relate the manner wherewith our Professour translates the famous passage of the First Epistle to Timothy III. 15 16. because it is not common and that it destroyeth at once all the proofs which the Roman Church could draw thence Episcopius having proved against his Adversary as an illiterate Person that the Division of the Canonical Books into Chapters and Verses is not of the Sacred Writers and that it is not they who have put the Points and Comma's thereto he sheweth him that it is much more natural and more conformable to the aim of the Apostle to point this place otherwise than the common Copies are And to Translate it thus I have written this unto you That if I delay to come you may know how Men ought to behave themselves in the House of God which is the Church of the living God The stay and prop of Truth and the Mystery of Piety is certainly great God manifested in the Flesh c. When there is want of clear Reasons and convincing Arguments people are constrained to have recourse to Prejudices to Comparisons and to the Reasons of Convenience Therefore the Roman Catholicks say incessantly to us That God who well knew that there would arise Disputes in the Church upon Matters of Faith as there are Processes formed amongst Citizens of one State touching the Goods which they possess ought to establish a Judge who should be consulted at all times and who might instruct us in the true sense of Scripture in contested places and thus end the Differences It seemeth that Iesus Christ otherwise would not have taken care enough of his Church and the faithful who compose it seeing he would not have given them means of assuring themselves perfectly that the Doctrine which appears most conformable to Scripture is true if they might be in doubt as to several Articles of Faith and that what they should most determinately believe thereupon could not pass but for a a greater likelihood of Truth It must be granted that there would be nothing better understood nor more commodious than a Judge of this nature There would be no more need for one to break his Head in examining all things and to seek for truth it should be all found and People would go to Heaven
was built and the Church of Loret and when Hercules was Canonized and Aeneas and Francis of Abisa and Ignatius Loyola all this is known But the first beginning of an Error is always impenetrable and can never be found out As for the Consent of Christians which Mr. Arnaud did alledge he was shewn that the Eastern Churches termed Schismaticks by Rome were not of her opinion touching the Lord's Supper and that if they had any Idea of a Real Presence it drew nearer the Consubstantiation of the Lutherans than the Transubstantiation of Rome It is true Mr. Arnaud produces several Attestations of Graecian Priests to shew that the Greeks were of the same opinion with Roman Catholicks but it is likewise true that he obtained the most part of them by Bribes Mr. Wheeler assures us in his Voyages of Greece that he spoke to many Pappas whom M. of Nointel Nephew to Mr. Arnaud had endeavoured to bribe for the same end The Miscellanea of Mr. Smith may also be seen to this effect One might be satisfied with this Answer yet the Superstitions of Rome being not so antient as those of Paganism the Reformed have thought that by a continual search at last that Prodigious Opinion might be discover'd which gave Birth to Transubstantiation And they have accomplisht it for they have shewn how the Energetick Expressions of the Fathers touching Transubstantiation occasioned in the ignorant Ages an obscure Idea of an Union or of an incomprehensible change and they have marked the Authors of these two Opinions differing thus about the Sense of Figure and Vertue Iohn Damascenus in the year 728 began to Preach in the East the Union of the Bread and Body of Iesus Christ and Paschase Ratbert was the first that published Transubstantiation or the change of the Substance of one into the Substance of the other in the Latin Church in the year 818. So that all that the Catholicks of France gained by Dispute was to see their Heroes worsted by a Minister who though Eloquent and Witty enough would nevertheless have yielded to M. Arnaud in many other things This Tryal made the Romish Church sensible that it ran the hazard of losing its reputation with all honest People if its Tenets came once to be examined And therefore their Advocates turned wranglers and barricading themselves with formalities prescriptions and the ends not answering they thereupon pretend that their Adversaries are condemnable without any necessity of examining into the bottom who is in the right and who is in the wrong M. Nicole took upon himself to plead this part and acquitted himself in his lawful Prejudices against the Calvinists with as much cunning and Eloquence as could be expected from a Disciple or Friend of M. Arnaud By ill luck the Iansenists came to the worst both in Rome and in France in the Famous Dispute of the Five Propositions and were forced to say That the Five Condemned Propositions were not in the Augustin of Iansenius whence it clearly followed that neither the Pope nor Councils were Infallible in what they did because they might call People as Hereticks that were not so at all in imputing to them Opinions which they never held nor were to be found in their Works The Iansenists saw this consequence and maintained it openly and did advance several Principles that destroyed the Authority of the Church and its Infallibility The French Protestants presently took notice of this contradiction of Doctrin between the Author of the Prejudices and his Friends or his Disciples and did not fail to promote it M. Pajon did it after shewing with much Wit and Acuteness that the Arguments of a prejudiced Author are more valid in a Iew 's a Pagan's or Mahometan's Mouth against Christianity than they are when used by a Roman Catholick against the Reformed About the same time M. Claude Answered M. Nicole in a direct way shewing that the excess of Corruption which the Doctrin and Worship of the Romish Church was come to made our Predecessors to examin Religion strictly and consequently to separate from a Society that would force them to receive under pain of Damnation a Faith whose practices were altogether opposite to Scripture That was enough to make the Roman Catholicks repent that they gave that turn to their Controversies and that being their last shelter there was no hopes they would leave it for they continued turning their Prejudices into so many meanings and proposing them as confidently as if they had never been refuted And these pitiful evasions pleased the Assembly of the Clergy of France so well in 82. that they made Sixteen Methods of Prescription on which the conversion of the Reformed was to be laboured for And which is yet more these Gentlemen thought them so convincing that they intreated the King that a Copy of them might be given to every Consistory imagining perhaps that some Ministers may happen to be there who might be wrought upon by these Illusions or frightned with the Threatnings of the Pastoral Advertisement The Intendant or some other of the King's Commissaries went on a Sunday accompanyed with some Clergy-men deputed by the Bishop of the Diocess and with Two Apostolick Notaries to acquaint each Consistory with this Writing and give several Copies amongst the People making several Orations to desire them from the King to enter into the Communion of the Roman Catholick Church but all to no purpose M. Pajon Minister of Orleans made presently some Remarks upon this Advertisement and Methods and addressed a Letter to the Clergy wherein there are not so many Figures of Rhetorick as in their Writing but much more Sense and Judgment Dr. Burnet who has always gloried in assisting his Afflicted Brethren seeing most of our Ministers out of a condition of defending themselves gave himself the pains to examin the little Books of the Prelats of France And at last Mr. Iurieu Answered them by way of Recrimination in his Lawful Prejudices against Papism which he proposes to the number of Nineteen which are so many whereof the least plausible has more force than all those of the Clergy We must add to these Books Two other of the same Author wherein he Refutes two of the Indirect ways which the Roman Controvertists use the First is his Apology for the Morals of the Reformed against M. Arnaud and the Second his true System of the Church against M. Nicole All these Methods were in Vogue when the Book of M. de Meaux appeared The turn he gave to the Controversies did much more surprise the Protestants than all the Subtilities which the Divines of France thought of There was a Prelat of great reputation Tutor to the Dauphin that did not intangle himself in the Disputes of Grace and that consequently was neither suspected by Iesuites nor by the Iansenists nor by the Church of Rome nor by the Gallican Church he was seen I say to publish a Book well stocked with Approbations wherein he endeavors to moderate
the most displeasing Tenets of his Sect to put their grosser abuses in Oblivion and finally to bury the most part of School Disputes It was hard to think that a Man supported by all that is great in his Communion whereof he seemed the Oracle should Write to deceive his Fellow-Citizens or that he should think that a bare Exposition of the Doctrin of his Church should be capable to bring back into its Bosom them that had quitted it with so much reluctancy and remained in it in spight of what could be inflicted upon them The Tenets of Rome are not taught in the Indies nor in America nor are we to learn from the uncertain relations of some ignorant Travellers We see its Practices and Devotions before our Eyes The Books of their Doctors are told in every place and most part of our Reformers were either Bishops Priests or Fryars so that neither they nor their Disciples can be ignorant neither of what the Romish Church Believes nor of what it Practises besides the Ministers have no reason to dissemble in their Opinions because the Clergy of it gain far more than those of any other Communion This Reflexion might make M. de Meaux's sincerity very doubtful who declares at the very beginning That he Designs to render the Tenets of the Catholick Church more clear than they are and to distinguish them from such as are falsly imputed to it Nevetheless the Reformed being brought up in a Religion which inspires true Faith and being otherwise moved to desire a Re-union in hopes to see the end of their Miseries fancy'd that the Accusation of this Bishop was but a pretext he used to cast out of his Creed what is troublesom and hard to believe Besides the noise of an Agreement between the Two Religions which was a long time sown among the People and whereof divers ' Ministers were made to draw the Project M. de Meaux and his followers slipt many words which were general Promises of a Reformation upon condition of Re-union If it appears now that there was not the least shadow of sincerity in all the Promises that the Roman Catholicks made and that at that very time the clear-sighted could soon discover that it was but a pure cheat the Reformed cannot be praised enough for not trusting to them nor can the others be blamed enough that make nothing of playing with what is most sacred when they have a design to cheat the simple To know whether M. de Meaux be of this Number as several Protestants pretend and endeavour to prove in shewing the opposition of his Sentiments with those of the other Doctors of his Communion it will not be unprofitable to know the History of his Book because it may be commonly perceived by the way that a design is managed which is the end proposed M. Turenne who saw a long time that his Religion was a hinderance to his Fortune would have been very glad if he could accommodate himself to the Romish Religion But the vile Practices of this Church seem so strange to those who are brought up in other Principles that he could not persuade himself to join with a Society that imposed such ridiculous Superstitions upon its Votaries to cure him of this Scruple M. de Meaux published a small Writing wherein he strained himself to shew That these small Devotions were not of the Essence of the Catholick Doctrine and that one might live and die in its Communion without practicing them This Work or rather the King's Caresses and Liberalities having had Success which all People know our Prelate was of Opinion That he could work the same effect upon others and resolved to print this Manuscript that remained written four years before and to add to it divers Sections as that of the Lord's Supper of Tradition of the Authority of the Church and Pope and obtained the approbation of the Bishop of Rheims and of some other Bishops Sorbonne these several Ages has been looked upon as the source of the French Divinity it 's therefore that not only the Doctors of this University but also Bishops and other Clergy are glad to have the approbation of that famous House at the beginning of what Books they write of Religion M. of Condom had that design but he did not speed for having sent his Exposition as soon as it came from the Press to some of the Doctors of Sorbonne instead of approving the Work they marked several Places either contrary to or favouring but in a very little the Doctrine of their Church So that Edition was presently suppressed and another was composed wherein the Passages were changed that were marked by the Censurers This could not be managed so secretly but the Reformed came to know it Mr. Noguier and M. de la Bastide who knew the Edition that was published and this last did not fail to remark the Alteration that the Author made in the Manuscript and in the suppressed Edition They also reproached him that the true Roman Catholicks were but little pleased at his Moderation and one of them finish'd the Refutation of his Book before any Protestant had Printed his but he was not forbidden to publish it M. de Meaux's Credit was great enough to stifle the direct Answer that those of his own Party made to him But he could not hinder them that were dissatisfy'd from taking an indirect course and to say what they thought and even to refute him The Iesuites and the Friars sharp maintainers of the Superstitions that enrich them could not forgive him at all Father Maimbourg in his History of Lutheranism drew this Prelates Character and criticiz'd on his Book under the Name of Cardinal Contarini and of one of his Works and says well That these Agreements and Managements of Religion in these pretended Expositions of Faith which either suppress or do express in doubtful terms a part of the Doctrine of the Church neither satisfie one side nor the other who equally complain of swerving in a matter so momentous as that of Faith Father Cresset gave this Bishop a more sensible stroke in his Book of the true Devotion to the Blessed Virgin printed at Paris in 4to in the Year 79. with priviledge from the King and the Arch-bishops leave and the consent of his own Provincial and of three Iesuites that are the Censurers of all the Works of that Society The Dauphins Tutor was too powerful an Adversary to be opposed directly But a Writer of lesser Authority that adopted the Opinion of this Prelate touching the Invocation of Saints and Worship of Images felt the weight of Father Cresset's Anger This Author was a German Gentleman called M Widenfelt intendant of the Prince of Suarzemberg and his Book was Entituled Monita Salutaria B. Virginis wholsom Advices of the Blessed Virgin to her indiscreet Votaries This Book made much noise in the World especially after the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Tournay wherein he recommends this Book to his People as full
Domestick shewing his Friend in his Masters Library the suppressed Edition of M. de Meaux's Exposition with Marginal Notes which he assured him were Written by the hands of some of the Doctors of Sorbonne the Friend desired to borrow the Book which the Servant consented to So strange an accident made the borrower use his utmost care to get a Copy of the First Edition but there was such care taken to suppress it that all he could do was but to gather up some loose Leaves whereof he almost made an entire Book and copyed what he wanted out of M. Turenne's Original which he then restored to the Servant it is this same Copy which Mr. Wake has with his Certificate that gather'd it and compared it with the Mareschal's Copy It is not at all likely that Mr. Cramoisi Director of the Printing-House at the Louvre should Print a Book of Importance without the knowledge and good-will of the Author that was a Bishop and Tutor to the Dauphin and a great Favorite at Court and it is more unlikely that Mr. Crà moisi should obtain the King's leave and the Approbation of the French Prelates for a subreptitious Copy And why did not M. de Meaux shew his resentment for a boldness of this nature And how came he to give this Printer not only the Corrected Copy but also all the other Books that he made since We must examin but Fourteen places of the First Edition taken notice of by Dr. Wake to see whether the alteration that M. de Meaux made in it did only concern the exactness and neatness of the style First Edit p. 1. Thus it seems very proper to propose the Doctrine of the Catholick Church to the Reformers in separating the Questions which the Church hath decided from those which belong not to her Faith Second Edit p. 1. It seems that there can no better way be taken than simply to propose the Doctrine of the Catholick Church and to distinguish them well from those that are falsly imputed to her First Edit p. 7 8. The same Church Teaches That all Religious Worship ought to terminate in God as its necessary end So that the honour which the Church gives to the blessed Virgin and to the Saints is only Religious because this honour is given to them only in respect to God and for the love of him And therefore the honour we render our Saints is so far from being blamable as our Adversaries would have it because it is Religious that it would deserve blame if it were not so M. de Meaux has thought it expedient to blot out the last period and to express himself thus in his common Editions p. 7. And if the honour that is rendred to Saints can be called Religious it is because it regards God In the same place speaking of M. Daille the Author expressed it after a very ingenious manner but little favourable to his cause As for Mr. Daille said he he thought that he ought to keep to the Three first Ages wherein it is certain that the Church then was exercised more in Suffering than Writing and has left many things both in its Doctrine and Practice which wants to be made clearer This Acknowledgment was of importance and the Censurers had reason to note it and has not been seen since All the other Alterations are as considerable as these and Dr. Wake protests he could mention more if he were minded to shew all the places wherein the Manuscripts differed from the common Editions The Author may judge whether these be words or things that M. de Meaux has corrected but as to Father Cresset it may be said that this Bishop has strained his boldness to such a degree that none dares give him the Epithet it deserves Is it possible that this Author should not have heard of a great Volume in Quarto Writ against the profitable advice of the Blessed Virgin since the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Tournay who approved this last Book has caused such long Disputes in France Can it be supposed that M. de Meaux was ignorant that the Opinion of this Jesuit was contrary to his Exposition After M. de la Bastide reproached him with it in his Answer to the Advertisement And that the Author of the General Reflexions on his Exposition and M. Iurieu in his Preservative have made great Extracts out of the Book of The True Devotion Since Mr. Arnaud laughed at Father Cresset in his Answer to the Preservative and Mr. Iurieu refuted his Adversary in the Iansenist convicted of vain Sophistry That Mr. Imbert in his Letter to this Bishop offered to refute the Preservative provided he might be secured that no violence should be done him and that he might have the liberty of saying what he thought In fine after that he himself Answered divers passages of the Preservative in his Treatise of the Communion under both kinds Let us add to all this what M. de Meaux had the confidence to advance in his Pastoral Letter upon the Persecution of France I do not wonder says he my dear brethren that you are come in such great numbers and so easily into the Church none of you have suffered violence either in his Body or Goods And so far from suffering Torments that you have not heard talk of any I hear that other Bishops say the same Let this notorious falshood be compared with the Apology for the Persecution which this Prelate made in a Letter to one of his Friends that I read my self Writ and Signed by his own hand The Original whereof a certain Author proffered to shew him And it will be acknowledged that one may be very hard upon the Catholick Religion without committing so gross a contradiction But why should we stay so long upon the discovering the mystery of the Composition the Gentleman had done it himself without thinking of it Confessing that he weighed all his words and racked his Invention to cheat the simple At least this is what they that understand French will soon perceive in reading this period of his Advertisement In the mean time the Italian Version was mended very exactly and with as much care as a Subject of that importance deserved wherein one word turned ill might spoil all the Work Though one must be very dull to look upon these pious Cheats as a sincere dealing M. de Meaux was so fearful lest he might be thought to abolish some abuses and to labour to reform his own Church that he has lately given evident proofs of the hatred that he always bore the Protestants and which he thought fit to hide under an affected mildness until the Dragoon Mission It was in the History of Variations that he unmasked himself and shewed him what he was by the Injuries and Calumnies which he cast upon the Protestants and has given a Model of the manner how he deserves to be treated There were Three Months past when Dr. Burnet whom this Bishop attacked without any cause made
which they quote the Arch-bishop Laud Iackson Feilding Hâ—ylin Hammond and M. Thorndike There is not one but has writ the contrary These are the Points whereon the Enemies of Protestants would make the Church of England pass for half Papists tho there is not one but was taught by other Reformed excepting Episcopacy And this Government is so ancient that even those who think Presbytery better ought not to condemn for some little difference in Discipline a Church that is otherwise very pure unless they are minded to anathematize St. Ignatius St. Clement St. Polycarp St. Irenaeus St. Cyprian and the whole Church of the second and third Age and a great part of the first Without question the Episcopal Clergy of England have the like Charity for Presbyterians I will not alledge the Testimonies of Modern Doctors nor of such as were accused of having favoured the pretended Puritans we see the Marks of its mildness and moderation towards all excepâ—ing some turbulent Spirits amongst 'em which indeed are too common in all Societies If there ever was a time wherein the Church of England differed from Presbytery and had reason so to do it was in the middle of the Reign of K. Iamss the First and notwithstanding you may see how the Bishop of Eli speaks writing for the King and by his Order against Cardinal Bellarmin One may see how much the Protestants of this Country agree by Harmony of their Confessions where each Church acknowledges wherein she agrees with the rest Then lay aside those odious Names seek our Professions of Faith in our Confessions The Reproach you make us concerning the Puritans is altogether absurd because their number is but small and the most moderate among them agree with us in the chief Articles of Religion The Scotch Puritans Confession has no Error in Fundamental Points so that the King might say with reason That the Establish'd Religion of Scotland was certainly true And as for the rest there 's no reason to suspect Dr. Wakes Testimony for the Bishop of London and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury have approved his Books None of the other Doctors contradicted him and some sided with him against Roman Catholicks And these last have not accused him of swerving from the common Doctrine of the Church of England only in the Article of the necessity of Baptism and he proves by several Authorities in his Defence of his Exposition what he therein advanced At the end of this Defence are several curious Pieces 1. A Comparison betwixt the Ancient and Modern Popery 2. An Extract of the Sentiments of Father Cresset and Cardinal Bona concerning the Devotion to the Blessed Virgin 3. The Letter of Mr. Imbert to Mr. de Meaux 4. The Epistle of St. Chrysostom to Caesarius with the Preface of Mr. Bigot which was suppressed at Paris in 1680. and a Dissertation of Dr. Wake upon Apollinarius's Sentiments and Disciples A DISCOURSE of the Holy EUCHARIST wherein the Real Presence and Adoration of the Host is treated on to serve for an Answer to two Discourses printed at Oxford upon this Subject With a Historical Preface upon the same Matter At London 1687. p. 127. in 4to DR Wake Minister of the Holy Gospel at London who is said to be the Author of this Book gives First In few words the History and Origine of Transubstantiation as it hath been ordinarily done amongst Protestants Secondly He names several Illustrious Persons of the Romish Church who have been accused of not believing the Real Presence or Transubstantiation to wit Peter Picherel Cardinal du Perron Barnes an English Benedictine and Mr. de Marca Arch-Bishop of Paris who gave his absolute Sentiment hereon in one of his Posthume Dissertations tho' in the Edition of Paris the places wherein he said it have been changed or blotted out But it could not be hindered but that this Work having appeared before Persons took notice of these Sentiments some entire Copies thereof have fallen into the hands of Protestants who got it printed in Holland in 1669. without cutting off any thing To these Authors are joined F. Sirmond the Iesuite who believed the Impanation and who had made a Treatise upon it which hath never been printed and whereof some persons have yet Copies M. de Marolles who got a Declaration printed in form in 1681. by which he declared that he believed not the Real Presence and which was inserted here in English And in short the Author of the Book Entituled Sure and honest means of Converting Hereticks whom we dare not affirm to be the same who published a Treatise of Transubstantiation which the Fifth Tome of the French Bibliotheque speaks of p. 455. The Cartesians and several others are suspected of not believing the same no more than the Protestants So that if the Catholicks cite some Reformed for them Protestants also want not Catholick Authors who have been of their Opinion Thirdly The Author sheweth the dangerous Consequences which arise according to the Principles of the Romish Church from the incredulity of so many Men of Knowledge be it in respect to Mass or in respect of the Infallibility and Authority of the Church The Treatise it self is divided into two parts The first contains two Chapters and an Introduction wherein is expounded the Nature and Original of the Eucharist much after the Ideas of Lightfoot In the first Chapter Transubstantiation is at large refuted by Scripture by Reason and the Fathers We shall make no stay at it because this Matter is so well known The Second Chapter is imployed to refute what Mr. Walker said concerning the Opinions of several Doctors of the Church of England upon the Real Presence Dr. Wake at first complains That his Adversary in that only repeats Objections which his Friend T. G. had before proposed in his Dialogues and which a Learned Man had refuted in an Answer to these Dialogues printed at London in 1679. As to what concerns the Faith of the Church of England which he maintains to have been always the same since the Reign of Edward He reduces it to this according to the Author who refuted T. G. viz. That she believes only a Real Presence of the invisible Power and grace of Iesus Christ which is in and with the Elements so that in receiving them with Faith it produces Spiritual and real Effects upon the Souls of Men. As Bodies taken by Angels continueth he may be called their Bodies whilst they keep them and as the Church is the Body of Iesus Christ because his Spirit animates and liveneth the Souls of the Believing so the Bread and Wine after the Consecration are the Real Body of Iesus Christ but spiritually and mystically He gives not himself the trouble to prove the solidity of this comparison by Scripture and when he comes to the Examination of the Authors that Mr. Walker hath quoted he contents himself to produce other Passages where they do not speak so vigorously of the participation of the substance of Iesus
Dr. Stillingfleet goes also further then any seeing the History of Arianism was left off at the death of Eusebius Here is an Abstract of what he adds and which is chiefly drawn from St. Athanasius The Falsities of the Arians were not discovered until after the Council of Rimini and it was chiefly at the Council of Seleucia where they declared themselves more openly It was then that the Followers of Basil of Ancyre who rejected the word Consubstantial as well as the Arians would separate themselves from them But the Arians had still recourse in this occasion to their old Artifices and consented to Sign any Creed whatever excepting that of Nice They caused Athanasius to be banished a second time but he was soon re called and his greatest Enemies were obliged to make him Reparation if he may be believed A little while after the Persecution began against him and all the rest who professed the Faith of Nice as our Author describes at large until the Council of Rimini whose Bishops were constrained to abandon the Terms of Hypostasis and Consubstantial The Orthodox Bishops would willingly depose all those who refused to Sign the Symbol of Nice and the Arians did not treat their Adversaries better when they could not prevail with them so that they ceased not Persecuting each other reciprocally Councils declared both for the one and the other which makes our Author reasonably conclude that we must not yield to the Authority of any Council whatever till having well examined the reasons of its Conduct If it was not lawful to do it in times past the Faith of Nice could not be re-established which would have received an irreparable breach at Rimini if the Orthodox Bishops were not restored to their Churches after the death of Constantius and had not re-established in smaller Assemblies what so numerous a Council had destroyed We find a remarkable example hereof in the Fragments of St. Hilary where we see that a Council Assembled at Paris declares that it abandons the Council of Rimini for assenting to that of Nice Dr. Stillingfleet conjectures that the British Churches did as much because St. Athanasius St. Ierome and St. Chrysostom do in divers places praise their Application to the Orthodox Faith Sulpicius Severus speaking of the Bishops of the Council of Rimini saith they refused to be entertained by the Emperor excepting those of England who were to poor too bear this charge Thereupon Dr. Stillingfleet makes divers Reflections whereof these are the Principal 1. That it followeth from thence that what Geoffrey of Monmouth saith of Riches which King Lucius gave the Church of England is false 2. That it is notwithstanding strange that the Bishops of England should not have wherewithal to maintain them at Rimini since before Constantine the Churches had divers Funds besides the Offerings of the People which were considerable in the numerous Churches and since Constantine had granted them great Priviledges as is shewn at length by divers Edicts of this Emperor which are in the Theodosian Codicil and elsewhere He comes thence to the Accusation of Pelagianism which Beda and Gildas had before raised against the Clergy of England He remarks first that Pelagius and Celestius were both born in Great Britain and not in the Armorick Britain as some have believed and Refutes at the same time some places of F. Garnier who hath spoken of Pelagius in his Notes upon Marius Merâ—ator 2. That the Monastick History makes him Abbot of the Monastery of Bangor but that there is little likelyhood that Bangor had had a Monastery famous in that time because the Convents of England are no antienter than the time of St. Patrick and if Pelagius was a Monk he was of such an Order as were Pammachius Paulinus Melanius and Demetriades who were pious persons withdrawn from the Commerce of the World but without Rule 3. That the Occupation of these Men after the Exercises of Piety consisted in the study of Scripture and that it was in such a Retreat that Pelagius Writ his Commentary upon the Epistles of St. Paul and his Letters to Melanius and Demetriades 4. That since he was accused of Heresie he was imployed to defend himself and that after having been Condemned in Africk and Banished he was yet Condemned in a Council at Antioch under Theodotus as Marius Mercator tells us and all that because the Sentiments of Pelagius were not well understood as the Bishop of Worcester justly saith 5. That wretched Pelagius passed the remnant of his Life in obscurity and dyed according to all likelihood without returning into England 6. That without the extraordinary cares of the Bishops of Africk Pelagianism would have been established by the Authority of the See of Rome Though Pelagius had been Condemned by the Emperor and the Councils Agricola Son to Severian Bishop who had embraced Pelagianism brought it into England It was perhaps the severe Edict of Valentinian III. Published in CCCCXXV against the Pelagians who were amongst the Gauls which drove him thence Prosper witnesseth that there were several of them in England which made some believe that Celestius was returned hither but our Author shews that this Opinion has no ground The Adversaries of the Pelagians not being able to defend themselves against so subtil Controvertists sent to demand aid of the Bishops of the Gauls who sent them Germain and Loup two Bishops of great Reputation but suspected to be Semi Pelagians the first being a great Friend to Hilary of Arles and the second being brother to Vincent of Lerins Semi Pelagians It 's found in a certain Writing that is attributed to Prosper Disciple of St. Augustin that it was Celestinus Bishop of Rome who sent him but our Author shews that there is reason to suspect this to be the writing of some other Prosper and that though it were his we have reason to believe that he was deceived Germain and Loup being arrived in England had a publick Conference at Verulam and acted so that they left England in the old Opinions as they believed but they were forced to return sometimes after Our Author relates no Head of the Doctrine of St. Germain and Loup by which we may know whether they Taught Semi Pelagianism or the Predestinarionism in England to free themselves from the suspicions which might be had of them He passeth to the Justification of Fastidius an English Bishop suspected of Pelagianism and of whom there is yet a Book de vita Christiana published by Holstenius It is not so easie to justifie Faustus of Riez from Semi Pelagianism though in his time he passed for a Saint and that he was Prayed to in this quality during many Ages in the Church of Riez Sidonius Apollinaris gives him this fine Encomium Cui datum est soli melius loqui quam didicerit vivere melius quam loquatur To whom alone it hath been given to speak better than he had Learned and to Live better
to speak better according to their conjectures 8. That there is no Text in the Bible which priviledges a Man who is not inspired to form an Assembly which should call it self the true and only Church of Iesus Christ and should appropriate to it self it's Priviledges by excluding all others 9. That nevertheless Christians divided themselves into innumerable Sects whereof the most part excommunicates and condemns the other 10. From all this it 's concluded That one cannot look upon any of these Churches nor the Ministers thereof nor the Tenets nor the Ceremonies of them with the same respect which one was obliged to have for the Church and Apostolical Pastors 11. Consequently that these Assemblies have no Right to impose their Doctrine or Worship as a necessary Yoak upon Consciences nor to condemn and excommunicate such as do not the same with them 12. That Baptism and the Supper of the Lord are Sacraments ordained by Iesus Christ whose use is very profitable that the Assemblies of Piety are so likewise provided their Government be not Tyrannical that they are looked upon as the work of some godly Persons who have endeavoured to imitate the model of the Church which they found in Scripture and they confess these Institutors were not infallible and that they left faults in their Works which they are willing to correct when they are better instructed This was the occasion of a Dispute that then made much noise One of Mr. Galenus's Brothers answered these Articles which Mr. Galenus had printed in the Year 1659. with a Reply to his Adversary In 1660. Mr. Pontanus Minister of the Remonstrants at Amsterdam undertook to examine this Opinion in a Treatise which he made of the visible Church of Iesus Christ of it's Office and Worship Without doubt this dispute was spoken of in 1664. seeing one of Mr. Alting's Friends ask'd him his Opinion upon it to which this Professor answered I do not see that the Opinion of Galenus such as you mention it in your Letter is so condemnable it would be in vain now to search the form of the Apostolical Church and the Gifts which the Apostles conferred by imposition of hands I remember I told you that we have a Faith which makes us uncapable of receiving Gifts As we believe that the Signs which according to the Promise of Iesus Christ Mark 16.17 18. should accompany the Faithful viz. the gift of Miracles the gift of Tongues and of Prophecy have ceased in the Church then it is not strange that they descend not to us In the Opinion of some Men this Faith and it's Efficacy lasted not as long as the first Age It wou'd distract us to find out the Signs of it in such distant times after this I do not admire that most Doctors have taken so different ways and that like Painters they have drawn more or less near after the model of the Apostles according as their Pencil was fine or gross Thence sprung so many different Churches to which were given the names of their Doctors as commonly the names of Painters are given to their most excellent pieces It 's true that there are some far better than others but there are none but please some people so much that they despise and condemn sometimes all other Churches how little soever they differ from theirs It 's an evil that could only be deplored hitherto and God only knoweth when it will be remedied When he is pleased to give us this Faith which we have lost he will give us it's Fruits and 't is then we shall be the Image of the Primitive Church In the mean time we must preserve and endeavour to preserve and increase the Faith we have which is that of Tenets and which may conduct us to Salvation notwithstanding the faults of the exteriour form and Government of the Church In answering to the same who asked him his Opinion upon the Visions of Drabicius he saith I know nothing certain upon that business now I cannot approve them and I dare not condemn them I suspend my Iudgment in the design to meditate upon this Subject and perhaps at another time I will write to you at large of it l. 17. In the Twenty first Letter are a great many helps for the History of David and upon the Persecutions which Saul makes against him In answering a Divine of Herborn who exhorted him to make a Translation of Scripture but without swerving from the received Versions and the common Tradition I cannot saith he make that two Councils agree for one ruineth the other to what purpose is it to spoil Paper to say the same things a hundred times over I take notice of another fault which has taken roo◠amongst the Reformed that is that we are very Orthodox upon the Theory or Speculation of Scripture but as to Practice we are altogether Papists Puri puti Pontificii You will acknowledge it if you reflect upon the Actions of both the one and the other You advise me to be silent upon the question of the Sabbath tho' you acknowledge it is of great importance and you will not have me to oppose my self to the received Hypothesis I know full well that it is an Axiom of the prudence of this Age not to touch an evil which is strongly rooted but the Reformers of the past Age had far more Christian Thoughts They had the courage to attack the Errors which were in the peaceable possession of Mens understandings tho' they foresaw the troubles which they would cause throughout all Europe It is in vain to expect to gain time till Men were silent or did agree all to maintain a false Hypothesis this silence and this consent would not render it true I do not take the Testimonies of Men saith Jesus Christ nor would he have St. John Baptist himself to be believed if his words were not conformable to the Writings of Moses 50.27 Upon the famous passage of the Romans 3.25 the Author hath an opinion altogether different not only from the common Interpretation but also from that of Bezae and of Cocceius the first Translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dissimulatio and the second Prateritio But Mr. Alting will have it Transmissio or Translatio a Transposition He founds it upon this That there is a Pleonasmus in the Version of these two learned Interpreters because the terms of Dissimulation Praeterition and Non-imputation give no other Idea but the Patience of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which mention is made in the following vers 2. He adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which answers here to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hegnebbir which is spoken of Sins 2 Sam. 12.13 and Iob 7.21 and that so Paresis mark'd in this place that Action of God considered as a Debtor who transports the Debt or the Crimes of Sinners upon Iesus Christ who is made their Pledge or Surety So the sense of this Passage is according to our Author that God has transported upon Iesus
other Resp. If it be obscure when Pointed why then would they reject the Points but that the Bible might thereby be rejected for its Obscurity 2. We must know the reading of the Text our selves because thereby we must try the Exposition of it by the Ministry but to commit the Reading as peculiarly as the Expounding the Text to the Ministry is plain Popery § 4. But to conclude this Chapter we have proved that the Text was written very plain and that without Points 't would be very obscure as they are constrained to Confess and therefore we say the Text was written with Points and so much for the second Reason CHAP. VI. §. 1. The third Reason stated the Points evidence their own Antiquity and Divine Authority §. 2. The Objection that there are superfluities in the Punctaâ—ion Answered §. 3. The Objection about the Keri and Ketib being only about the Letters and never about Points Answer'd §. 4. The Objection of the insignificancy of the Musical Accents Answered §. 5. The Objection of the Chaldee Names of the Points Vowels and Accents Answer'd §. 6. The summe of the Arguments of the Iews for the Antiquity of the Points Declared § 1. A Third Reason for the Divine Authority of the Points is taken from what the Author of Cosri saith part 3. sect 32. as to the Nature of the Punctation it self being Divine Now we say that for the same Reason why we believe the Text to be God's Word for the same do we believe the Points to be from God We believe the Scripture to be God's Word because it evidenceth its self to be from God by certain Tekmeria or Proofs of the Power Light Purity and Majesty that appears in it manifesting its self to proceed from a Holy Wise Glorious Gracicious God But this it doth only as it is Pointed for without Points the Text speaketh either nothing or else contrary and divers things of which no judgment can be made whether they are good or bad Now saith the Author of Cosri part 3. sect 32. There appears in the fixing of the Points and Accents to be such an Order as cannot be made without Divine Aid which is far beyond the reach of humane Skill Nor had it otherwise been so universally received in all times by all the People of God without alteration because as wise men as they could have Pointed otherwise had it been done by humane Art only and so say we Now to fix and ascertain the sence of the Text universally infallibly right which is the Work of the Punctation requires no less ability than the infallible guidance of the same Spirit of God that first gave forth the Scriptures Men may know the things of men and may rectifie any litteral mistakes in Writings about Arts and Sciences the Matter and Subject whereof they treat being first well known and understood by them but no Man knows the things of God nor can know them but the Spirit of God and he to whom the Spirit reveals them 1 Cor. 2.11 The matter of the Scripture consists of such Misteries that were hid from all Men 'till revealed by the Scripture only The Prophesies of future Events as Isaiah c. are delivered in such cloudy and figurative Expressions and in such Elyptical Sentences as posed the very Pen-men of Scripture themselves to interpret it must needs therefore be impossible for any infallibly to fix and ascertain the right sense of the words of Scripture without Divine Assistance But in all the most deep and dark places of Scripture the Punctation is as compleat and perfect as in the plainest and every where shews it self and the Striptures thereby to be from God by the Divine and Heavenly Subjects that are delivered by the Text as it is at present Pointed We say then that we believe the Bible is God's Word with Faith Divine because of the Authority and Veracity of God who hath declared it so to be therein And we believe that God did indeed declare it so to be as is therein affirmed because the Bible evidenceth its self to our Consciences by infallible Tekmeria or Characters that it did proceed from no other but God himself All God's Works wear his Name and bear some mark upon them of God their Author but his Word is herein exalted above all other Works that bear his Name Psal. 138.2 Thou hast magnified thy Word above all they Name for there no where remains so many and so great prints of the immediate Finger of God as is on the Scripture none but God can make that Revelation of the invisible Nature and Being of God as is in the Scripture nor declare those Counsels which before were hid in God that are plainly expressed in the Scriptures which things the Angels desire to look into Nothing in Heaven or Earth doth bear so much of the Image of God as doth the Scriptures but God himself by nothing hath the great God revealed his Will and given forth to the Sons of Men a Law of Obedience but only by the Scripture nothing evidenceth it self so to be in the least degree but the Scriptures and all this the Bible doth in and by the Punctation only without which it would be nothing at all but whatever wicked men have a mind it should be sect 2. 'T is Objected 1 st There are multitudes of impertinent superfluities in the Punctation very unfit to ascribe to a Divine Original Resp. The Jews best know the usefulness of all parts of the Punctation and as much as they know they highly value buâ— they lament that they are ignorant of a great deal of it as the Musical Use of the Accents which hath been lost and the like but for every one to Condemn every thing he doth not understand would put a final end to Knowledge Mathias Wasmuth in his Vindicia doth at large shew the great usefulness of the most minute parts of the Punctation and in particular of the Accents and so doth Buxtorf de Orig. Punct par 1. cap. 14. from pag. 200. to pag. 262. and others And if some are ignorant of them and yet will not learn who can help it the Punctation is never the worse in it self because some do not or will not understand it all § 3. Obj. 2. 'T is said the Keri u Ketib are only about Letters never about Vowels and Points therefore saith Elias the Points were not when they were first made Resp. 1. Many Jews say Ezra made them and the Points after them and so they agree 2. 'T is Objected the Anomalous pointing of the Ketib with the Points that are proper to the Keri could not be of Ezra Resp. But Kimchi's Preface on Ioshâ—ah says it was done by Ezra for as he there saith they set one word in the Margen and did not Point it Now all the Jews own the Keri and Kerib to be as antient as Ezra and they likewise own that the Ketib is to be always pointed with the Points
1665. The Author himself relates some Passages which are thought to be little to the purpose after which he examines the Hypothesis of Mr. Vossius upon the Version of the LXX and upon the Tetraples and Hexaples of Origen Here follows an Abridgment of what he says of the Version that was declar'd Authentick by the Council of Trent All the Western Church under the time of St. Ierom made use of a Version of the Bible that some call'd Italick some the Old and others the Translation of the LXX the Author of it was not known but only that it was made upon the Version of the LXX Flemminius Nobillius re-establisht it as well as possibly he could and caus'd it to be Printed at Rome An. Dom. 1588. Father Morin reprinted it at Paris with the Greek Copy of the Vatican in the Year 1628. but it was not believ'd that this was the pure Latin Version that the Western Church made use of before that St. Ierom had made another This Father Corrects the Translation of the LXX only in some places and notwithstanding the Tempests that he rais'd against him for daring to have recourse to the Hebrew Text 't is this Version that the Western Church made use of for many Ages altho' some men say that it was not this Author which is now call'd the Translation of the Septuagint When the Council of Trent declar'd this Translation Authentick they did not pretend to declare that it had no defect and that it merited more Faith than the Hebrew and Greek Texts The Council only Commanded that they should use it preferrably to all other Latin Versions which were very numerous Many Catholick Doctors have not understood the sence of the Council for they wou'd not suffer themselves to believe that there remain'd any Faults in this Translation of the LXX some great men run the risque of their Lives being imprison'd in the Inquisition for having believ'd it as Mariana relates Leo Allatius makes mention of a Decree of a general Congregation of the Cardinals Dated the 17 th of Ianuary 1577. bearing that there must not be cut off from the Translation of the LXX even not so much as one Syllable or one Iota but this Decree never being publisht cou'd not Captivate the Faith of any person And Pope Sixtus the 5 th and Clement the 8 th sufficiently evidenc'd they were not of this Opinion since they have endeavour'd to make a Correction of this Translation Sixtus made a Constitution by which he enjoyn'd the rejecting of all Editions that were not conformable to that which he Publisht But Clement the 8 th nevertheless made another and maintain'd in his Bull that he had very exactly Corrected the Defects of the LXX An English Protestant whose Name was Thomas Iamesius writ a very hot Book against the Church entituled Bellum Papalis sive Concordia discors Sixti V. Clementis VIII circa Hieronymianam Editionem Here is some things which are very perplexing to those Persons which have not much Wit and Learning for in fine this Edition of Clement the VIII now passes for Authentick altho' it is not Conformable to the Edition of Sixtus the V. who declar'd all the Editions of the Septuagint void which differ'd from his The rest of the Book the Author employes in speaking of the Versions of the Bible that have been made for the Eastern Church and of those that were publisht in divers Languages in these last Ages by the Catholicks and by the Protestants Afterwards he Examines what concerns it in the Treatise of M. Vossuis de Oraculis Sybillinis We soon expect a Work very like to this we have been speaking of the last Catalogue of Francfort promised it to us it is entituled Christiani Kortholti S. Theol. Doctoris de variis sacrae Scripturae Editionibus editio Nova post primam multo auctior emendatior in 40. Kilonii Keil is a Maritime Town of Holstein where there has been a Celebrated Accademy ever since the Year 1665. Animadversions on The Critical Disquisitions upon the Various Editions of the Bible By the Athenian Society HAving Translated this Abstract We think it necessary to make some Remarks thereon that our Young Student be not lead into Mistakes and dangerous Errors by the Learned Papist whose Interest and Design is to take away our Bible One Mistake we impute to the Abridger and not the Author who seems to say that the Jews use many superstitious Precautions about the Writing of the Bible which they do about the Law only as the Author must needs know though the Abridger might not The Author is a Papist and affirmeth that our Hebrew Bible is corrupt in many places that the Ancient Versions Translated by a better Copy and therefore sayes he would have it That those places of Sacred Text which bad Connexion tells us to be false or corrupted should be restored by the Assistance of the most Ancient Interpreters vid. Critical Enquiries into the various Editions of the Bible pag. 52 53. And to begin with the Service of his Mother the Church of Rome who follow the Vulgar Latin and Translate Gen. 5.15 She shall bruise thy Head which they expound of themselves and not of Christ though 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He in the Hebrew he tells us It might be that the Lattin Interpreter found it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She in his own Copy for that in the writing of this Pronoun the Transcribers might easily mistake is apparent from the Manuscript Exemplars here he forgot the Jews Care in Writing the Law and says he cap. 9. pag. 56. Although there be a very great difference between the Exemplars of the Hebrew Context which are now extant and those which the Seventy Interpreters and St. Jerom made use of and that in our dayes they very much vary one from another yet we ought not thence to conclude that the Iewish Bibles were by themselves corrupted in hatred of the Christians as some Divines have been pleased to report So that though his Opinions are bad and dangerous yet there are others who are far worse both Papists and Protestants whose Arguments he Answers and particularly Dr. Isaac Vossius whose Sentiments are abominable yet published in the English Tongue We have not room here to Answer this Learned Critick the Author of these Critical Enquiries but do intend a distinct Discourse upon the Sacred Original Text of the Old Testament in Defence of its Purity and Perfection as 't is now enjoyed by the Protestant Church wherein we purpose to handle all those Curiosities that are the Subject of Critical Observation about the same if our Discourse about the Original of the Points Vowels and Accents find that Acceptance as may encourage such an Undertaking being very willing to Defend our Religion and the Rule of our Faith to the uttermost of our Power Yet something about it we intend in this Volume but very briefly Novorum Bibliorum Polyglottorum Synopsis Ultrajecti
the Church of Nazianze which before this last Division did not know what Schism was ought for the future to endeavour a perpetual Peace 5. That in the last Discord they were so strongly perswaded that the Bishop of Nazianze acted Sincerely and retained the Truth of Faith that he was reproached with nothing else but suffered himself to be surprized by equivocating words 6. That every thing obliges us to Peace God Angels and all Creatures which Concord holds together 7. That the Jews were happy whilst they were at Peace and unhappy as soon as they were divided 8. That notwithstanding Men ought not to seek after all sorts of Peace but to keep a Medium and that they were obliged vigorously to oppose Heresie when any one was seen to profess it publickly but that for mere Suspicions there should be no Schism When that which afflicteth us saith he is but a Suspicion and what is grounded upon nothing Patience is better than Precipitation and Condescension better than Furiousness It is much better to correct each other reciprocally like Members of one Body than to condemn our selves by a Separation before they mutually understand one another or to lose the Opinion the one had of the other by a Schism and then to undertake to correct others not like Brethren but Tyrants by Edicts and Laws Finally Gregory exhorts the Church of Nazianze to preserve the good Doctrin concerning the Holy Trinity which he expresses in these words We adore one Father one Son and one Holy Ghost in the Son we acknowledge the Father and in the Holy Ghost the Son Before we joyn them we distinguish them and before we distinguish them we joyn them We do not look upon these three things as one God for they are not things which are destitute of a distinct Existence or which have but one Existence just so our Riches are but in names of things and not in things themselves the other three things really are but one It is a thing not in Existence but in Divinity We adore one Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity It hath all but one Throne and one Glory It is above all the World beyond Time uncreated c. This Speech of Gregory as almost all his others is first without any great Order His thoughts are heaped upon one another just as they came into the Author's Head a Fault which is common to most of the Ancient Orators which makes him fall into unnecessary Repetitions Secondly His Arguments seem sometimes to be too far fetch'd and of little Consequence as when he saith the Universe subsists by Peace This Expression is too far sought for one might say quite contrary as some Philosophers That the Contrariety in which are all the parts of the Universe keeps the State they are in hindring one another to be otherwise In the third place his Style is very full of Figures uncorrect and sometimes hard and all this often causeth Obscurity Notwithstanding we must allow that he is full of fine Similitudes of strong and happy Expressions as are those whereof he makes use in that part where he condemns Schism which we before mentioned He is full of Ornaments drawn out of History or Pagan Fables and he speaks of the last in some places as the Philosophers do without openly rejecting it So in speaking of the Flames of Aetna he makes use of this Expression Whether it be something else or the Breathing of a punished Gyant In another place after he had spoken of the Torments of Tantalus Ixion and Tityus he adds Whether it be Truth or a Fable under a Fiction teacheth us a Truth We cannot yet doubt but Gregory did observe all these things as pure Fables but the Greek Philosophers which he had carefully read said the same One would think that the Custom of speaking like others had made Gregory say several things which he had in Pagan Books without Examination But he is far from the Clearness Exactness and Eloquence of Isocrates whom many say he took for a Model I thought it my Duty briefly to take notice here of what you may judge what was the Style of Gregory that I may not repeat it hereafter in speaking of his other Speeches I shall only take notice of some Examples of what I have said when occasion shall offer We must also observe here once for all that Gregory as to what concerns Philosophy followed that of the Platonicks of whom he borrows divers Terms which we cannot understand without knowing it So he saith That God is the most Excellent and the most elevate of all Beings we cannot but raise him above all Essence and place him above all Beings seeing he hath given Beings to other things For to understand the meaning of these Terms being above Essence we must know that the Platonicks did establish a Choice of Beings as they spoke to wit Series of Beings placed upon one another so that as they mounted this Chain they came to more excellent Beings and at last to Sovereign Trinity which is above all the Essences of these Beings that is to say which cannot have relation to any particular Species but which includes in it all their Essences and can produce them upon that reason This is what makes these Philosophers say That the Gods have Superessential Qualities Without knowing this Platonick Tenet we cannot comprehend what Gregory meaneth in the words which we have cited In the same Page he saith That the Angels draw their Principles from Light that they are enlightened by true Reason and that they are Rays of this perfect Light These terms are drawn from the bottom of Platonism as it might be easily shewn in Expounding them but that we should make too great a Digression It shall suffice to mark what the Philosophy of our Author was To return to the History the Arians being informed of the Division which had been at Nazianze drew some Advantage from it and laugh'd at the Orthodox This gave occasion to Gregory to make the Homily which is the Thirteenth of his Speeches where he sheweth the Arians that the Division of Nazianze being sprung but from a Misunderstanding and having lasted but a short time they unjustly insulted over this Church Moreover he sheweth the Advantage of the Orthodox above the Arians and Sabellians in comparing the Sentiments of these three Societies one with another Tho' the Passage is somewhat long it shall be put here because those who have not sufficiently studied these Matters shall better understand what was then the Sentiment of the Orthodox than they could by the Passage of the Twelfth Speech which hath been related Why love ye Vanity saith he unto them and seek for Lyes in giving he speaks to the Arians to the Divinity a Nature which is neither one â—or â—â—â—ple but three Natures disunited and separate and even contrary by the Proprieties which the one hath too much and which the others lack or in establishing
Inspired him with resolutions to Re-establish the Faith of Nice had already ordered being at Thessalonica by an Edict of the 27 th of February that all his Subjects should Embrace concerning the Holy Trinity the Opinion that was espoused at Rome and Alexandria that those who should profess it should be named Catholicks and the rest Hereticks that the names of Churches should not be given to the latter and that they should be obnoxious to Civil Punishments as well as to Divine Vengeance Being at Constantinople and having observed the great Multitude of Heterodox whereof this City was full he Published an Edict more Severe the Tenth of Ianuary in the Year CCCLXXXI by which he Recalls all those that might have given any Liberty to Hereticks and takes from them all the Churches they had in the Cities commanding them to deliver them to those who followed the Faith of Nice He sent word after that to Demophilus an Arian Bishop to Subscribe to this Council or resolve to quit the Churches of Constantinople Demophilus without Ballanceing took the latter Party and advertised the People that the next day they should Assemble without the City And the Arians were thus Dispossessed of the Publick Churches which they had during Forty Years After this Theodosius was Accus'd of wanting Zeal and some would have had him employ'd Violence to have reduced the Arians as Gregory reports tho he disapproves of the Heat of those who found fault with the Conduct of Theodosius because of that and declares against those that pretend to force Consciences The Emperor having sent for Gregory received him with much Affection and told him he was going to put him in Possession of Constantinople For fear the People the greatest part whereof followed the Sentiments of Arius should rise Theodosius sent Soldiers to Seize the Church of St. Sophia and made Gregory to be Conducted by others through the midst of the People which Cryed on every side and was in as much Concern and Despair as if Constantinople had been Taken which cou'd not be an acceptable Spectacle to a Wise and Moderate Bishop Tho the Sun was Risen it was so full of Clouds that it might have been said it was Night But the Sun immediately appeared when Gregory went into the Churh This Circumstance deserved not to be taken notice of if our Bishop had not related it as some extraordinary thing after having said That although he is one of those who regards not such sort of Thoughts he believes notwithstanding it is better to add Faith to all than equally to refuse to believe what is said So soon as they were in the Church Gregory was demanded for Bishop by the Cry of all the People which was there which he made to cease in telling them by a Priest that they should give God Thanks and not to Cry He was threatned with no Danger except thaat one Man drew his Sword and immediately put it into the Scabbard But although the Arians had given up their Churches they never the less Murmured amongst themselves and were enraged for their being driven away Gregory believed with a great deal of reason that the Heterodox might be drawn by Mildness and used it more willingly than the Authority of the Emperor He complains of a parcel of unhappy young People who called Mildness Cowardice gave Fury the name of Courage and would have the Arians to be irritated and inflamed with Anger The Moderation of Gregory did not displease Theodosius who some times would send for him and make him eat at his Table Notwithstanding our Bishop would very seldom be at Court though others were continually there to gain the Favour of the Emperor or of his Officers and made use of the pretence of Piety to advance themselves and ruin their Enemies As he was Old and of a weak Constitution he was often Indisposed which his Enemies attributed to too great Tenderness Being one day in Bed a Man was sent to Assassinate him who touched with Repentance confessed to him at his Beds Feet that he was set on work to have committed this Crime and obtained Forgiveness As to the Revenues of the Church Gregory saith that finding no Account out neither in the Papers of those who had been before him Bishops of Constantinople nor amongst those who had the care of gathering them he would not meddle with them and took nothing on 't that he should not render an Account for the same Theodosius at that time called a Council at Constantinople either to Condemn divers Heresies or to Establish Gregory according to the Canons in the Episcopal See of that City But before we relate what passed therein as to what concerneth Gregory it 's necessary to say somewhat of the Speeches he made whilst he was at Constantinople and which remain yet amongst us Basil Bishop of Caesarea Dyed the First day of the Year CCCLXXX Gregory made a Speech in Honour of him some time after not being able to render his Friend this last Duty as soon as he would He praiseth the Ancestors of Basil who were Persons of Quality and moreover Christians from a long time He saith that during the Persecution of Maximinus some of the Ancestors of Basil being retired into a Forest of Pontus without any Provision and Arms to go to Hunt they prayed God to send them some Game or Venison which they saw in this Wood and that in the very Moment God sent them a great number of Deers and such as were of the Fattest who shewed they were troubled not to be called for sooner Gregory is Merry enough on this Subject according to the Custom of Pagan Orators who do the like in respect to the Pagan Fables That which there is of worst consequence in it is That this renders Suspicious the other Narrations of Gregory 2. Afterwards he makes an Abridgment of the Life of Basil and insists on each Place according to his Custom with much Exaggeration Figures and Moralities Speaking of the manner he himself had passed his Life he saith that he wishes His Affairs may prosper better for the future by the Intercessions of Basil. 3. The ways whereby in his time Men advanced in Ecclesiastical Charges were no more Canonical than the ways which are imployed this day upon that account if Gregory may be Believed After having said that in other Professions Men were advanced by degrees and according to the Capacity they had he assures us that the chief Places were attain'd as much through Crimes as Vertue and that the Episcopal Sees were not for those who were the most Worthy thereof but for the most Potent c. No body takes the name of Physician nor of Painter who hath not studied the nature of Maladies that hath not well mixed Colours and Painted many things but a Bishop is easily found not after his being formed with care but out of hand as the Fable hath feigned that the Giants
a Successor to Melece would not hearken to this Proposition A Crowd of young Persons begun to cry out like Magpies and made so much noise that they even forc'd the old Bishops who should have resisted them and brought in question again the Affair of Gregory which had been decided Gregory perfectly describes their Ambition Ignorance and Defects in the Poem he hath made of his Life It is better to read it in the very Author than here Yet the People hearing that the Council gave Gregory a Distast and that the latter spoke of retiring cried out That they should not take away their Pastor and intreated him not to abandon his Flock About that time Timothy Bishop of Alexandria who succeeded Peter and who was of a Violent and Contentious Spirit arrived there with divers Egyptian Bishops The old Malice they had against Gregory upon the account of Maximus the Cynick had so much inflamed them against our Bishop that they began by complaining that the Canons had been violated in transporting Gregory from one Bishoprick to another This excited a great Noise in the Council and it was upon this occasion that Gregory made his Speech of Peace which is the Fourteenth wherein he at length presents the Advantages of Agreement and the evil Consequences of Divisions He highly Censures therein the lightness of the Bishops who had without reason changed their Opinion in his behalf and suffered themselves to be deceived by the Calmness of his Enemies He saith That Back-bitings ought to be slighted which are commonly spread of Moderate Persons and in fine we may easily see by what he hath said that it is not in our Age alone that Men do cover their Passions most unworthily under the fair name of Zeal for the Purity of Faith Gregory testifieth also that he told them For what concerned himself they should not put themselves to so much trouble but that they should endeavour to be reunited That it was time to make People cease laughing at them as wild Men who had learned nothing else but to fight That provided they would agree he consented to be Jonas who should make the Tempest cease That he had taken against his Will the Episcopal Seeâ— and that he quitted it freely and that his Body being weakened with old Age obliged him thereunto Notwithstanding all this they accused him of Ambition he therefore made a Speech which is the Twenty seventh wherein he protests he had accepted of the Bishoprick of Constantinople but by force and brings the People to witness it He saith That he cannot tell whether he ought to call the Seat of Constantinople The Throne of a Tyrant or the See of a Bishop he complains of the Distractions of his Enemies and the Envy they bore him because of his Eloquence and his Learning in the Sciences of the Heathens It may be that made some People envy him but the Post which he was in made a great many more envy him He would have suffered him to have made use of his Rhetorick at Sasine without giving him the least trouble for it After having declared in full Council that he desired to quit the place which was envied him he went to the Emperor's Palace to entreat him to suffer him to withdraw He obtain'd it with some difficulty and afterwards he only thought upon taking leave publickly which he did in the Cathedral in the presence of one hundred and fifty Bishops and all the People We have the Discourse he then made and 't is the Two and Thirtieth in order he there represents the Ill Condition wherein he found the Orthodox Church of Constantinople and the Change he had accomplish'd he makes a Confession of his Faith touching the Blessed Trinity and shews he had done nothing which was worthy of Censure he exhorts the Fathers of the Council to choose a Person worthy of the See of Constantinople to succeed him and afterwards took his leave of all that heard him In this Speech he complains of his Old Age and in the Poem of his Life he saith he was then but a dead Man animated which he could not say if he was according to the common Supposition but Fifty six Years Old As soon as he took his Leave the People and in general all those who had heard him at Constantinople testified a great deal of Grief The Conduct of the Council appears very unequal and Violent since after they Confirmed Gregory in the See of Constantinople they oblig'd him to quit it at the Age of about 80 Years This manner of acting so Unwise and Un-christian like gave pleasure enough to the Enemies of the Council and much diminished the Authority of their Decisions For in fine how can we think that Bishops so Factious so Unjust and so Ignorant as Gregory describes them in divers places were nor capable of Examining maturely the Doctrins in question If their Authority did not make them incline to the Orthodox â—ide it must needs be Chance only that led them into the right way The love of Truth is seldom found with so much Vanity and Ignorance Thus Gregory Abandoned the Bishoprick of Constantinople some few Weeks after he had been established by that Council that Banished him He withdrew into Cappadocia according to Gregory the Priest Author of his Life and went to live at Arianze where he was Born Amongst those that were presented to the Emperor some Bishops put up Nectairus Senator of Constantinople a Man of regulate Manners and comely Countenance but who was not as yet Baptized and who had scarcely any Learning It is not known whether Gregory parted for Cappadocia before this Election was made or staid at Constantinople until he had a Successor named to him Howbeit Gregory writ an Instruction to Nectairus where he begins thus That it seemed as if the Providence of God who before kept the Churches had altogether abandoned the Affairs of this Life That which made him speak thus he says was not his particular Evils tho so great that they would have seemed insupportable to any body else He assures us that the State of the Church only forc'd those words from his Mouth He afterwards describes to Nectaire the boldness of the Arians and Macedonians who were in as great a number at least as the Orthodox and who durst Assemble and form Churches a horrid Attempt after the Decisions of a Council so well Regulated as that which had been newly held Gregory comprehended not how his Holiness and his Gravity it was thus that Bishops were stiled permitted the Apollinists to Assemble He advertised him that Apollinarus said that the Body of the Son of God Existed before the World that the Divinity served him as a Soul and that his Body descended from Heaven and was essential to the Son yet nevertheless Died. Gregory thought tho I know not why that to permit these Men to Assemble was to grant that their Doctrine was truer than that
of the Canonical since there cou'd not be two Truths as if to suffer any one was a sign that they believed his Opinions to be true In fine he advises Nectairus to tell the Emperor that what he had done in favour of the Church would be of no use if Hereticks were admitted to Assemble It was thus that good Gregory who would not whilst the Arians were the strongest Party the Emperor being on their side have any thing undertaken which was blamed in them Exhorted his Successor to forget this good Lesson so difficult it is not to contradict our selves when we take not great care to free our selves from Passion The following Year CCCLXXVIII there was an Assembly of Bishops held at Constantinople where Gregory was called but he would not go to it and thus he Answer'd those which Invited him If I must write the truth to you I am disposed always to shun every Assembly of Bishops because I never saw a Synod which had good Success or which did not rather augment the Evil than diminish it The Spirit of dispute and Ambition without exaggerating upon it is so great there that it cannot be expressed It must not be thought that our Bishop said this without thinking well on it in a time wherein he might have any regret He repeats it again in his Letters LXV LXXI LXXII and LXXIV and also diverted himself by putting this thought in Verse I will never be present saith he at any Synod because none but Geese and Cranes herd there which fight without understanding one another There are Divisions among them Quarrels and shameful things which before were hidden and which are Re-assembled in one Place with Cruel Men. Being returned to Nazianze he found that Church Vacant a second time and by that reason Infected with the Opinions of Apollinarius He was immediately desired to take the Place of his Father but he never would do it and that gave occasion to his Enemies to accuse him of Pride as if he had scorned to take care of a small Church after having possest the Patriarchal See of Constantinople Gregory protests in one of his Letters that he had refused it only because he was too Old and too much Indisposed yet seems nevertheless to promise to lend his Body to the Church as he himself said which makes us believe he really took care of the Church of Nazianze at least until they had provided a Bishop for it We shall not speak of what hapned after the retreat of Gregory because he was not concern'd in it only he writ to several of his Friends to endeavour that the Bishops might live in Peace tho they were to be severely Censured for it At his leisure hours he composed some of the Poetry which we have and particularly that which concerns his Life We may say of his Poetry that the Stile is as Prosaick as that of his Speeches is Elevated As there is often top much Ornament in his Speeches so there is too little in his Verse the turn of which besides is harsh enough But he is not alone among excellent Orators who have been indifferent Poets The rest of his Poetry that is extant not being placed according to the order of Time we cannot well distinguish those that he made at the end of his Life from those writ under the Empire of Iulian as has been already observed unless there be in the very Poetry some matter of Fact which may distinguish the time Gregory died very Old according to the Relation of the Priest who writ his Life And Suidas tells us that he Lived above XC Years and died in the Year CCCXCI the third Year of the Reign of the Emperor Theodosius We have still a Testament which he made being at Constantinople and which is at the beginning of his Works some suspect it to be Supposititious but as it contains nothing Singular and no more than Gregory has said before there is no convincing reason that can make us reject it It is not requisite that I should make here an Encomium upon Gregory of Nazianze It might be seen by his Conduct and those Places we have related of his Writings what judgment may be made of him in general and it is not sure to trust to any whatever when we are to judge with exactness of an Author In his writings is a very faithful description of the Manners of that Age as wherein the Penitency of those that lay on the hard Ground and such as rose at Midnight to sing Hymns and to weep hindred not the Ecclesiasticks from being generally very Corrupt Religion began from that time to serve as a pretence to get Mony and as it is more easie to keep an outward guard upon our selves than to correct our inward Defects so cannot be thought strange that many Persons whose Conversation seemed unblameable were nevertheless after some time found out to be very ill Men. The Elections of Bishops were then for the most part made in Churches by the People amongst whom there was strange Caballing to be advanced Gregory wish'd that this Election depended on the Priests who were more capable of judging of the Capacity of Persons than those that considered nothing but their Riches or Authority where People acted impetuously without Reason and were very easily Bribed Nevertheless his own experience taught him as is evident that the very Bishops did not act on these occasions with more Widom than the Vulgar We only need to read his description of the Council of Constantinople to be convinced herein Their judgments were so much the more to be feared because they determin'd very speedily without being exactly informed of the matter in question but agree'd with very great difficulty as in the business of Maximus and Gregory They scarcely thought on any thing but to enrich themselves and to augment their Authority under pretence of Piety as Gregory reproacheth them in divers Places This inclination commonly possessing the Ecclesiasticks of that time made them gather the People into the Churches and begin to publish both Miracles and Legends much more frequently than before and to Preach up a blind Credulity instead of exhorting Christians to examine their Faith and to maintain it by good Reasons An Example whereof may be seen in the Eightenth Speech of Gregory which is in the Honour of St. Cyprian He Accuses the Bishop of Carthage who bore this name of being a Magician and of having endeavoured to seduce a Christian Virgin named Iustina by the means of a Demon who not being able to accomplish his aim entred into the very Body of Cyprian and was driven away by this Magician by calling upon the God of Iustina Those who have read St. Cyprian know that this Bishop never had such an accident and the refutation of the Fable may be seen in the Oxford Edition of St. Cyprian's Works before a supposititious piece that is Intituled Confessio S. Cypriani
retake that Shield which by their Apostacy they lost that so they may be armed not against the Church which grieves at their Misery but against their Adversary the Devil a modest Petition a bashful Supplication a necessary Humility and an Industrious Patience will be advantageous to them let them express their Grief by their Tears and their Sorrow and Shame for their Crimes by their Groans Ep. 31. ap Cypr. Tertullian in a like manner describes one in this State by lying in Sackcloth and Ashes by having a squalid Body and a dejected Soul by Fasting Praying Weeping Groaning and roaring night and day by throwing himself at the Clergies feet and kneeling before the Faithful begging and desiring their Prayers and Pardon If the Criminals Repentance was thought real he was admitted to part of the Service but not to all for a long time some two three five ten Years and some even to their Lives end On the day appointed for Absolution â—he came cover'd with Sackcloth and Ashes throwing himself at the Feet of the Clergy and Laity and with Tears in his Eyes begging their Pardon and Forgiveness confest his Fault and received Absolution by the Bishops putting his hand upon his Head and blessing him and then he was looked upon as a true Church-Member again 8. In the Eighth Chap. he comes to shew the Independency that Churches had one of another as to Superiority or Preheminence which concludes very strongly against the Usurpations of the See of Rome he Cites the Decree of the African Synod Apud Cyp. Ep. 55. § 16. Pag. 142. That every ones Cause should be heard where the Crime was committed because that to every Pastor was committed a particular Portion of Christ's Flock which he was particularly to rule and govern and to render an Account thereof unto the Lord. Yet he shews there was such a Dependence and Correspondence betwixt one another Cypr. Ep. 67. § 6. Pag. 199. Although they were many Pastors yet they were but one Flock and they ought to congregate and cherish all the Sheep which Christ redeemed by his own Blood and Passion And a little after We ought all of us to take care of the Body of the whole Church whose Members are distended through various Provinces Apud Cypr. Ep. 30. § 4. Pag. 67. Our Auâ—hor treats next of Provincial Synods which he proves were a Convocation of Bishops Presbyters Deacons and deputed Laimen who often met to advise about Eccâ—esiastical Affairs and reguâ—ate what should appear amiss He shews that this Convocation was usually every Year Per singulos annos in unum Conveniamus Apud Cyprian Ep. 75. § 3. Pag. 23â— In these Assemblies they chose out of the gravest and most renowned Bishops two to be Arbitrators and Moderators Apud Euseb Lib 5. Cap. 23. Pag. â—90 The Decrees that they made were binding and who ever broke them came under the Ecclesiastick Censure 9. In the Ninth Chap. our Author treats of the Unity of the Church Here he shews that the Unity of the Church consisted not in an Uniformity of Rites and Usages but every Church was at its own liberty to follow its own particular Customs Iren. apud Euseb. Lib. 5. Cap. 24. P. 193. In some Churches they fasted one day in others two in some more and in others forty hours but yet they still retained Peace and Concord the diversity of their commending the Unity of their Faith And a little after the same Father They retained Peace and Love and for the diversity of such Customs none were ever cast out of the Communion of the Church Also Firmilius apud Cyprian Ep. 75. § 5. Pag. 237. That in most Provinces their Rites were varied according to the Diversities of Names and Places and that for this no one ever departed from the Peace and Unity of the Catholick Church 'T would be well if this Primitive Union was well considered on by such as keep up the Dissentions amongst us at this day they will certainly have a severe Account to make one day to the Prince of Peace nor will their Ignorance excuse them in not making a due distinction betwixt the Fundamentals of Religion and mere Circumstances Our Author proceeds to shew what condescentions there were amongst them from Iustin Martyr who speaking of those Jewish Converts who adhered to the Mosaical Rites says That if they did this only through their Weakness and Imbecillity and did not perswade other Christians to the observance of the same Iudaical Customs that he would receive them into Church-fellowship and Communion Dialog cum Tryphon Pag. 266. After this our Author shews how the whole Churches censur'd such as were Authors of Divisions about the different Observation of Easter Baptizing Hereticks c. and afterwards he brings in Irenaeus saying That at the last day Christ shall judge those who cause Schisms who are inhuman not having the fear of God but preferring their own advantage before the Unity of the Church who for trivial and slight Causes rend and divide the great and glorious Body of Christ and as much as in them lies destroy it who speak Peace but make War truly straining at a Gnat but swallowing a Camel Lib. 4. Cap. 62. Pag. 292. Here our Authors defines Schism according to the Primitive Fathers to be an unnecessary causeless Separation from their lawful Pastor or Parish Church So that who ever separates upon such a Ground is a Schismatick then he comes to lay down such measures as the Primitive Christians did make use of for Separation from their Bishop 1 Apostacy from the Faith 2 Or when a Bishop renounc'd the Christian Faith and through fear of Persecution embrac'd the Heathenish Idolatries as was done in the Case of Martialis and Basilides two Spanish Bishops 3 ly When the Bishops Life was scandalous and wicked he gives Instances of all of them yet he brings in Origen against this last Opinion his words are these Origen Hom. 7. in Ezek. He that hath a care of his Soul will not be scandaliz'd at my Faults who am his Bishop but considering my Doctrin and finding it agreeable to the Churches Faith from me indeed he will be averse but he will receive my Doctrin according to the Precept of the Lord which saith The Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses his Chair whatever therefore they say unto you hear and do but according to their Work do not for they say and do not The Scripture is of me who teach what is good and do the contrary and sit upon the Chair of Moses as a Scribe or Pharisee the Precept is to thee O People if thou canst not accuse me of false Doctrin or Heretical Opinions but only beholdest my wicked and sinful Life but do those things which I speak After having mentioned this Father's Opinion he adds that whether Irenaeus or an African Synod or Origen deserves most Credit he leaves it to the Learned to judge but however our Author gives his own Opinion that they
this Demand of the Court of Rome and particularly the just cause they had to distrust him for his Covetousness after having been deceived so often under the same pretext 3. After that there is the Life of Gregory the 7th by Cardinal Bennon the reasons for which Henry IV. Emperor chose Guibert instead of Gregory are drawn from d' Othon de Frisinge the manner how Silvester the Second was accus'd of giving himself to the Devil with an Account of his Death taken out of Iohn Stella a Venetian the Judgment that Peter Crinitus made of Boniface the 8th the Life of the Emperor Henry the 4th Written by Otbert Bishop of Liege in the year 1106 with some Letters of the same Emperor to the Pope and to divers Princes the cruel manner wherewith Henry was treated by Gregory is sufficiently known and may be seen in their Lives what Princes ought to expect from the Pope if they are so vain to promise an Establishment of those Opinions in their States which the Court of Rome hath endeavoured to spread every where about her Soveraign Authority in all matters Spiritual and Temporal 4. How Popes have to the utmost endeavour'd to render the Election of the Emperor dependent upon the Court of Rome The Princes of Germany have not fail'd to oppose it and one of the principal Ramparts against the Enterprizes of Italy is the Golden Bull given by Charles the 4th in the year 1365 and the 10th of Ianuary 'T was this that oblig'd Orthuinus Gratius to publish this Bull in a Collection wherein he design'd to advertise the Princes of dangerous Abuses that ought to be corrected which was daily put in practice by the Court of Rome 5. One of the Fictions which hath been the worse founded and which was forg'd to establish the temporal Greatness of the Pope is the pretended gift of Constantine where he says that he gave all the West to Pope Silvester and his Successors Now there is none who hath Learning or Sincerity amongst the Roman Catholicks that will not acknowledge this to be meerly Supposititious and that this is not the same that was 200 years since And he is wanting in the serious Refutation of a piece which he dares not now make mention of wherefore we ought not to regard as forreign to our purpose the Refutation of Laurentius Valla here brought against this Gift of Constantine which is throughly examin'd by the Collection of divers Learn'd men who either doubt it to be Authentick or wholly reject it If all these pieces were lost we shou'd not want to object to those Men who look upon this Gift as ridiculous the novelty of their Opinion which opposes the consent of many Ages Thus we must abolish all Writings which prove it with those that condemn it Or in keeping the first we must preserve the second 6. The Vaudois are in the number of those who have complained of the Abuses of the Roman Church and who have endeavour'd to Correct them as may be seen in the Confession of Faith which some of 'em sent formerly to Uladislaus King of Hungary with their Answer to one Augustine Dr. of Divinity addressd to the same Prince This Answer is Dated 6 days after Epiphany The Confession and Answer are much better Translated than most of the Pieces in the Ages past and contain Opinions very conformable to those of the Reformed on the Sacraments Invocation of Saints Purgatory Holy Scripture and some other Articles those who desire to know in what those who have written these Epistles differ'd from the Reform'd at this day may have recourse to the Original tho 't is not to be found only in this Book but also in the Collections of the Historians of Bohemia by Freber 7. After this of the Vaudois are some Pieces concerning the Doctrin of Wickliff and the manner how they were condemn'd viz. in a Book of one William Woodward who lived at the end of the 14th Age against the Opinions of Wickliff in 18′ Articles which are at the beginning of this Treatise and with a much greater number of Articles which were attributed to Wickliff whether true or false and condemn'd in the Council of Constance with the Censure and Refutation of 44 in particular Without doubt several of these Treatises are attributed to Wickliff as some Learn'd Protestants have made appear Some seem to be ill understood as the last Omnes Religiones indifferenter introductae sunt à Diabolo If Wickliff had said he understood by Religions the Order of the Monks against whom he was much Incensed as it appears by the Articles of Page 277. against the Religions Nevertheless the censure of this Proposition supposes that we must take the word Religions in the most common sense of the different manners of serving God as are the Iudaick and Christian Religions But when they will condemn any one or take all that he says in the worst sense it ought to render their Explications extreamly suspected who has given us his Opinion of the Ancient Hereticks as well as the Orthodox Fathers hurried away by their Zeal ordinarily render'd 'em as worthy to be condemn'd as possible There are Remarks also upon this ill Custom and the manner whereby Aeneas Silvius exposes the Opinions of Wickliff which he says pass'd from England to Bohemia and in the Sentence of the Council of Constance against him who declared him to be a Heretick after his Death commanded to take up his Bones if it was possible to distinguish 'em from those of the Faithful who were buried near him and cast them out of the Church-yard 8. Aeneas Silvius saith in his History of the Bohemians That the Opinions of Wickliff were transferr'd from England into Bohemia by a Bohemian Gentleman who Studied at Oxford and returning into his own Country carried some of Wickliff's Books with him However the Council of Constance after they had condemn'd him also condemn'd Iohn Hus and Ierom of Prague and their Disciples as may be seen at large by divers Pieces which are here inserted touching the affairs of the Bohemians It is shewn there also what pass'd in the Council of Basil the Demands that were made to 'em and their Answers thereon Orthuinus Gratius has not forgot on this occasion the celebrated Letter of Poggius to Leonard Arretin upon the Death of Ierom of Prague but he endeavours to be beforehand with the Reader against Poggius that he may not believe all he says to the honour of Ierom of Prague This is apparent that this History has too much effect upon the mind of the Reader and makes him suspect Ierom of Prague of Hypocrisie and the same Author hath put after the Letter of Poggius a Discourse of Leonard Arretin against Hypocrites where Gratius having easily apply'd the Truths that Leonard Arretin advances to the Fathers of the Councel which is not to be believed altho' the Application was but too just 9. This Piece that follows
begins to apply his Rules for Criticism to the Books of the Bible and proves by them that Moses was really the Author of the Pentateuch since 't is Established by Holy Scripture by the Authority of Iesus Christ by the consent of all Nations and by the Authentick Testimonies of the most Ancient Authors It is necessary to observe that this Dissertation upon the Bible and all the rest of the Book is disposed in such order that each Article contains a following Discourse where he only proposes his opinion and maintains it by some Reasons which all the World agrees to After that is the Notes that include the Proofs and Authorities of what has been advanced in the precedent Article Following this Method the Author to prove that Moses writ the Books that bear his Name Cites in the Notes many passages of the Old and New Testament He says that the Samaritan Pentateuch being writ in ancient Hebrew Characters must necessarily be composed before the Captivity of Babylon where the use of these Characters were lost He relates the Testimonies of Manethon Philocorus Atheneus and other ancient Authors that Iosephus and the Primitive Christians have preserved some passages of to which he adds other Authors of a latter date and whose Works still remain amongst us as St. Strabo the Abridgment of Trogue-Pompeus Iuvenal Pliny Tacitus Longinus Porphirius Iulian c. And from this universal Consent he draws an invincible Argument to prove that Moses writ the Law and that he was the Law-giver of the Iews In the Notes he Answers Eleven Objections which seem to be drawn from the Critical History upon the Old Testament and the Sentiments of some Dutch Divines upon this Book which contains the Reasons of those who pretend that the Pentateuch is a Collection made upon the ancient Memoirs and Writings of Moses but compiled by some other In short he maintains that when they wou'd suppose that the reasons that are alledg'd against the Antiquity of the Pentateuch are all unanswerable they shou'd prove only that there is some Names of Towns or Countries changed some little words inserted to clear Difficulties and in fine that the Narration of the Death of Moses was necessary to be added to finish the History of the Pentateuch We have not the same certainty according to M. Du Pin in respect to the rest of the Historical Books since we are absolutely ignorant of the Authors of ' em The Judgment that he gives of the Book of Iob is that the Foundation of Narration is true But that the manner how this History is related the Stile that it is writ in the Discourses that were held between Iob and his Friends and what is said of his mean condition must be confest to have been much amplifyed and adorned with many feigned Circumstances to render the Narration more agreeable and useful For the Book of Wisdom which is commonly attributed to Solomon he thinks it to be composed by a Grecian that was a Jew who to imitate the Books of Solomon had taken many thoughts from thence In respect to the Book of Ecclesiasticus some have imagin'd that Iosephus acknowledg'd it to be Canonical because he cites a passage out of it in his Second Book against Appion But according to the observation of Mr. Pithou this allegation which is not in the ancient Version of Ruffinus was added to the Text of Iosephus * The Book of Esther was according to some in the Iews Canon but others deny it s ever being there Meliton rejects it and the Six last Chapters of this Book are not in the Hebrew Origen believed they were formerly and that they have since been lost But it is evident they are taken from many places says our Author and that they contain such things as were apparently Collated by some Greeks that were Iews St. Ierom formally rejects the Book of Baruck and denies its being Canonical in his Preface upon Ieremiah The Story of Tobias also is not in any ancient Catalogue placed in the Rank of Canonical Books no more than that of Iudith In a word the ancient Christians followed the Canon of the Iews for the Books of the Old Testament there is none else cited in the New and a great part of these are very often mentioned The first Catalogues of Canonical Books made by the Greek and Latin Ecclesiastick Authors comprehended none but these In the Chronicle of Eusebius the Books of the Maccabees are opposed to those of Holy Writ and placed with Iosephus and Africanus The Book of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus are in the ancient Catalogues placed in the number of such Books as are most useful Except Canonical Nothing can be concluded in favour of their Divinity from any passages of the Fathers since Origen St. Ierom and St. Hillary place them in the number of Apocryphal Books Even from the time of St. Gregory the Great these Books were not in the Canon of the Holy Scripture since this Pope speaks in those terms We do nothing unreasonable in bringing the Testimony of such Books as are not Canonical since they were publisht for the Edification of the Church Many Ecclesiastical Authors both Greek and Latin agree only upon 22 Canonical Books joyning the History of Ruth to the Iudges and the Lamentation of Ieremiah to his Prophesies altho' they lived after the Third Council of Carthage and Innocent the First who placed the Maccabees and other Apocryphal Books in the Canon of Holy Writ Which shews adds the Author that these Definitions were not approved by all Authors nor followed by all Churches until it was intirely determined by the Council of Trent This Ecclesiastical Assembly has this common with others That the last Decrees do still abolish the preceeding ones Besides it is just that the Church of Rome who hath power to make new Articles of Faith should also have power to make those Books Canonical whence they take these new Articles III. In the Third Article of this Dissertation where there is the History of the Hebrew Text the Version of the 70 and other Greek Translators the History of Aristeus is refuted almost by the reasons that are mentioned in the Extract of Mr. Hodi Nevertheless he believes not that it can be absolutely denyed that there had been a Greek Version of the Bible made in the times of Ptolomy Philadelphus because there 's no likelyhood that the Authors of Books attributed to Aristeus and Aristobulus have wholly invented this mater But he rejects as a conjecture without any Ground the Opinion of Father Simon viz. That this Version was called the Version of the Seventy because it was approved by the Sanhedrin He also maintains against the common receiv'd opinion of the Learned that the Caldaick Language was not the only Language spoke by all the Iews at their return from the Babylonish Captivity but that many amongst them did then speak Hebrew and all of 'em understood it but that
Author of the Apostolick Constitutions is the first who attributed them to the Apostles before which time they were only call'd Ancient Canons or Ecclesiastick Canons 'T is he who hath inserted many words there to perswade us that the Apostles were the Authors of 'em and in his Constitutions which he would father upon Clement Romanus he attributes many things to 'em which don't agree with the Apostles such are those which concern Temples Catechumens Energumens Feast-Days c. There were even some things absurd and wicked such as that which orders Women to be Shav'd and not Men lib. 1. and that other which permits Womenâ—Slaves to suffer themselves to be corrupted by their Masters lib. 8. Constit. cap. 32. Altho' Baronius Bellarmin and some other Catholick Criticks receiv'd the Acts of the Passion of St. Andrew Mr. du Pin rejects 'em with his ordinary liberty as a Book doubtful and whereof we can make no use to prove an Article of Faith and which was not cited as we have it now till the Seventh or Eighth Age. In the speaking of the Sybils the Author says many things agreeable to what Mr. Petit does and shews in his Notes that there is nothing more uncertain than the Name and Number of these Prophetesses The most particular thought is his refutation of Mr. Vossius who maintained that in the Verses of the Sybils which Otacilius Crassus brought from Greece after the Conflagration of the Capital was slipt in some Iewish Prophesies that however past for the Sybils which are those that the Fathers have cited To Answer to this M. Du Pin shews that this System altho well enough invented suffers many difficulties and that the Doctrin of the Sybils Books is rather that of a Christian than that of a Iew Iesus Christ being therein more plainly foretold than in the Prophets and the Resurrection Judgment Reign of a Thousand Years with Antichrist being there remarkt in formal Terms Twou'd be a groundless imagination to say with Ierom that the Sybils had received the gift of Prophesying in Recompence for their Virginity It s very well known they applyed themselves entirely to things of greater Consequence and that it was often their Fate to be mistaken in profane Histories and cite Supposititious Books such as Hystaspus and Mercurius Trismegistus c. It is not easie to determine either when or by whom these false Oracles of the Sybils were made But as they made no noise till since the time of Antoninus the Pious he Conjectures that these Verses were towards the beginning of the Second Age 'T was says our Author by a Pious Fraud much like this by which a passage concerning Iesus Christ got into the Fourth Chapter of the 18 th Book of the Antiquities of the Iews But the perplexed turn and sequel of the Discourse shews that it enter'd in by force This he proves by Origen Theodoret and Photius to which Mr. Huet answers that these ancient Authors had Manuscripts of Iosephus from whence the Iews had taken away this passage The Book that bears Hermas's Name who was a Disciple to the Apostles is certainly his It was received as Canonical in many Churches and St. Ireneus and Origen cited it as such altho it is fill'd with a great Number of Visions Allegories and Similitudes which make it very tedious Amongst the Works that are attributed to St. Clement he admits as true only the two Epistles to the Corinthians The first of which according to our Author after Holy Scripture is one of the finest Monuments of Antiquity But the Second is not so certainly his The Apostolick Constitutions is a work of the Third or Fourth Age which from time to time was reformed changed and augmented according to the different Customs of times and places False Dionysius the Areopagite was an Author of the Fifth or Sixth Age whose Books were first cited in 532 by the Hereticks that were call'd Serezians The Author speaks there of the Trinity and Incarnation in such Terms as have been used only since the Fourth Age of the Church He proves in his Notes that the true Dionysius the Areopagite never was in France that Photinus Preached Christianity the first in that Kingdom and that from the time of Ireneus his Successor the Faith was only establisht in Two Provinces of the Gauls since there were Martyrs no where else in the Kingdom He rejects the Vulgar Edition of the Letters of St. Ignatius but receives the Seven that the Learned Isaack Vossius published from a Greek Manuscript of the Florence Library which is perfectly conformable to the Version that Usher has published He refutes two opposite Opinions whereof one is that of Belarmin Baronius and Possevinus who received all that were in Greek or who admitted the Three Latin ones as Father Haloix did who altho in a clearer time were not however the best Criticks The other is that of some Protestants as Salmasius Blondel Aubertinus and Dailleus who to the utmost of their power endeavour'd to destroy the Credit of Usher and Voissius's Editions All the World now agrees that the Letter of Polycarp to the Philipians is truly his and that the other Works that are attributed to him are supposititious The Martyrdom of this Saint is described after a very Circumstantial manner in a Letter from the Church of Smyrna to the Churches of Pontus and our Author relates a passage from thence that Merits a particular Notice The Heathens having hindred the Christians from carrying away the Body of Polycarp which continued untouched in the middle of the Flames said it was for fear they shou'd adore it instead of Iesus Christ The Church of Smyrna makes this reflection upon it Senseless as they were to be ignorant that the Christians adored Jesus Christ only because he was the Son of God and that they loved the Martyrs only who are his Disciples and Imitators because of the Love they Testified to have for their King and Master Afterwards the Centurian having burnt the body of this Martyr the Christians carryed away his bones more precious than the rarest Stones and more pure than Gold which they buried in a place where they assembled together to celebrate with joy and cheerfulness the day of his Martyrdom Thus Honouring the Memory of those that Gloriously fought for Religion that they might Confirm and Instruct others by their Examples This is adds Mr. du Pin the Opinion of the ancient Church concerning the respect due to Martyrs and their Relicks explained after a very curious way equally distant from the Contempt that the Hereticks of our time have for 'em and the Superstition of some Catholicks Speaking of Papias who though a Disciple of St. Iohn the Evangelist pass'd in the Judgment of Eusebius for a very Credulous Man and of a most indifferent Wit who pleased himself with the hearing and relating Stories and Miracles He says That he made Errors and Falsities pass for the
suspected places viz. the Roman Libraries in quorum MSS. certum est pleraque eorum quae Curiae Romanae placitis adversabantur esse erasa aut omissa It is certain that almost every thing which was contrary to the Maxims of the Roman Court was either taken away or omitted in the Manuscripts of their Libraries I shall speak more fully to the last Dissertation of Mr. Du Pin where he pretends to prove that neither Pope nor Church have any power either direct or indirect over the Temporalties of Kings 1. Because our Lord exercised no Temporal Jurisdiction 2. That all the power that he gave to his Apostles was only to publish the Gospel'Baptize to Bind and Unbind Sinners to Celebrate the Eucharist to separate the Wicked from the Church and Establish a Discipline 3. Because Christ and his Apostles forbid the Church to exercise any Temporal Authority 4. That according to the opinions of the Ancient Popes and Holy Fathers the power of the Church extended no farther than Spiritual Affairs 5. Because the Primitive Church exercised over its Members only the pain of Deposition and Excommunication for when She desired to put an end to her Rebellions by Penalties and Exiles She had recourse to a Secular power Mr. Du Pin adds that if in the following Ages the Church had the power of Condemning to Temporal punishments it was by the Concession of Princes To prove this first he shews that Jesus Christ suffered not his Apostles to make use of the Sword or to wish for fire from Heaven upon those that resisted them Secondly he relates a hundred fine passages of the Fathers who say very positively that Religion ought to constrain no one These are the same passages that the Refugees alledge to the French Converters to shew them the great difference between the Maxims of the first Ages and these Dragooning Missioners who compell'd the Protestants to Sign another Confession of Faith But what use wou'd Mr. Du Pin make of this Does not he see that M. Schelstrate will answer him 't is a mocking of the World to refer 'em to such Maxims as the Fathers themselves laughed at when instead of suffering Persecution they were in a Condition of making others suffer Does not he see that if these Maxims were good the Clergy of France cou'd not justify the Approbation which he has given of the Conduct he maintains In a word these Maxims are perfect Burlesk if the Church can have recourse to a Secular power forcibly to constrain Hereticks to enter into its Communion Common sense plainly says that if Jesus Christ forbid his Church to use Violence he has also forbidden their desiring such Assistance from Kings and if he had permitted them to compel Persons by the Intervening of Kings he has not command them in case of Necessity to make use of all the power they can furnish themselves with I mean by the credit they may have with the Multitude But all this is inconclusive Thus Mr. Schelstrate ruins his Adversaries if we come to Arguments ad hominem But it s true the proofs of Mr. Du Pin considered abstractedly are very solid I mean those which I have already spoken of and those that he founds upon the Nature of the Royal Power for he plainly shews by Scripture and the Fathers that it depends upon God Almighty that its only justifiable in him and that the Church is only obliged to suffer with patience where Princes abuse their Power These Maxims were so evident to the Holy Fathers that St. Ambrose who durst not abandon them in retaining a Church contrary to the Orders of the Emperour nevertheless he set a great value upon himself because he practised no other Resistance than that of Sighs and Tears See how Witty Men are mistaken if they are not Orthodox in their Actions they are at least so in their Words The Answering these Objections it seems Mr. Du Pin has found much difficulty in for altho' he proves very evidently the opinion that he wou'd refute is New yet he cannot Demonstrate it to his Antagonists because they may maintain that they are Truths that have continued a long time undiscovered and now are made manifest to the Church The Mystery of Transubstantiation is of this Number since M. Allix has shewn us that before the Council of Trent it was strongly rejected This is therefore indeed what was never revealed as an Article of Faith till the 16 th Age. Why may not they also say that the Power of the Church over the Temporalties of Kings is another Truth that lay undiscovered till Gregory the Seventh This is a little perplexing but the Council of Constance the Terrible Shield of the French Church is yet more difficult I shall only speak a little to that of all the Learned Disputes of the Author against Cardinal Bellarmin who to prove that the Temporalties of Moriarchs ought to submit to the Tribunals of the Church has Collected in one Piece all matter of Fact that he has found in Ecclesiastick History and the Old Testament with all the Reasons that his great Wit and Learning cou'd furnish him with From whence it appears that we may learn a thousand curious things in the answer of Mr. Du Pin to this Famous Cardinal We find many places in the Acts of the Council of Constance where it attributes to the Church the Right of Deposing Princes but we shall content our selves with relating the words of the 14 th Session where 't is Decreed that all those who observe not its determinations shall be eternally Infamous and deprived of all Dignity Estate Honour Charge and Benefice Ecclesiastical and Civil altho it should even be a King an Emperor a Cardinal or a Pope The Council of Basil Decreed the same thing Mr. Du Pin answers to that 1. That 't is a Menace without effect 2. That we may understand it shou'd be done only with the consent of Princes and by their Voluntary Submission 3. That as it was done in a time when the general Opinion attributed to the Church any power over Kings so these Decrees were rash 4. That these Councils determined it not in Form since they did not examin it but spoke only according to the General Style of the Prelates of that time so that this cannot be a Decision made Conciliariter It wou'd be needless to tell the Reader that these Answers neither taken together nor separately can any way injure this Decree from whence it follows either that the Church has a Right to depose Soveraigns or that it has made a very false Decision I say Decision fâ—r 't is as impossible to make a Decree without defining the the Doctrin which is the Insparable foundation of this Decree as it is to declare this particular Proposition for an Article of Faith We ought to believe St. Peter because he was inspired of God without declaring this General Proâ—osition as an Article of Faith we must believe all those that speak by the
profound a Silence that they are not permitted to ease themselves by Complaints and Tears There are Two Inquisitors at Goa he which is call'd the Grand Inquisitor is always a Secular Priest and the other is a Dominican Monk The Huissiars are Persons of the Chiefest Quality who think it a Glory to be of the Noble Function and have no other Recompence than the Honour of serving so holy a Tribunal Afterwards he Relates the particular Formalities he observed there He says t is no wonder that such Men as only Examine the outside and appearances of things should be deceived in Favour of the Integerity of this Jurisdiction For they make a great shew of Justice and Humanity There must be Seven Witnesses to Convict the Accused and if the Criminal Confesses he 's guilty he is acquitted of his Fact for the Confession and obtains the Favour of being Suspended to the Secular Power But in Reality they violate all the Laws of Justice and Charity never suffering him to see the Witnesses that accuse him nor is he never permitted to reproach them with it They persist in the Desiring him to confess the Crime that he is supposed guilty of and almost force him by this detestable Maxim that is amongst 'em we will rather burn thee as guilty than suffer it to be thought that we have imprisoned thee unjustly Thus the Inquisition is always in the Right and cannot Err which infatuates the People and makes them believe that the Holy Spirit presides over all their Actions for the Miserable Victims of the S. Office Reciprocally accuse one another to make others alike guilty of their imaginary Crimes so by Consequence a Man may be very innocent and have Forty or Fifty Witnesses against him In short the Goods of those that are punished with Death and those that escape it by Confession are equally Confiscated since they are all reputed guilty Nevertheless that which is very particular is that these pretended Offenders from whom by Torture they very often force a Confession are also obliged to Declare publickly that they used much Clemency towards ' em If a Man pleases himself after being escaped from their hands with endeavouring to justify himself he shall never more have forgiveness and on the Contrary he that will live securely is forc'd to tell the World his Goods were most justly Confiscated He is not therefore permitted to discover the least thought of his Heart This is certainly an imitating the Cruelty of Caligula who after he had caused the Sons of a Roman Knight to be Stabâ—'d command the Father to Sup with him and to add to his Grief the punishment of Imprisoning him Perijsset says Seneca nisi carnisici Conviva placuisset Those that they treat most rigorously are the Iews which were chased by Ferdinand and Isabella and fled for refuge into Portugal They force them to turn Christians and altho' they have been there near two Ages they still call 'em New Christians by way of contempt The scandal of Heresie or Judaism is never defaced for Rome always preserves her Suspicions and Distrusts It looks very suspiciously as if she was not well perswaded of the force and evidence of the reasons she makes use of since she distrusts the sincerity of those Converts she has made Be it how it will yet these new Christians have not got the good opinion of the Inquisitors and Suspicions in respect to them are more severely punished than a real Crime in another But to return to what personally regards our Author he says that after being a long time shut up in the dark Lodgings of the Holy Inquisition he was permitted Audience He prostrated himself at the feet of the Inquisitor by this humble posture and his tears to prevail upon him But this obdurate Judge having commanded him to rise up conjured him coldly by the Bowels of the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ to confess his crime He with a good courage recited all we have related and alledged the Council of Trent to justifie himself about Images He observ'd only that the Inquisitor appeared surprized and that he was so ignorant he never heard that Council mentioned before But they sent him back without making any explanation of the Crimes he was guilty of He was carried three or four times back to the same Audience and the same desires were reiterated to make him confess without further clearing of the Matter so that at last he abandoned himself to Despair through the slowness and cruelty of these dumb Proceedings and resolved to put a Period to his Life To effect which he feigned himself sick and said he wanted bleeding they let him Blood and assoon as he was alone he again opened his Vein and had bled to death if the Keeper had not entred who instead of having that Compassion which such a sight ought to have produced chain'd up his Flands and his Neck What redoubled his discontents was those that served him with what he had never spoke to him that by all manner of Circumstances they might encrease his Terror As to what they call the Acts of Faith which are the days wherein they condemn the Guilty and absolve the Innocent they come but once in two or three years so he expected that time with much impatience He was however very much surprized when at Midnight a Keeper brought him a suit of black Cloth streaked with white and roughly commanded him to put it on he doubted not but it was to be the preparation to his punishment Thus after many efforts being fill'd with mortal Apprehensions he took the Habit two hours after he was brought out and conducted under a Gallery where was a doleful sight there he saw 200 of his miserable Companions set in order against a Wall to whom they did not so much as permit the use of their Eyes They were not all cloathed after the same manner For their Habits were different according to the nature of their Crime and Condemnation those that are destined to fire have Garments whereon the Picture of the Sufferer is laid upon fire-brands with flames and Devils all about him As they were ignorant of the formalities of the holy office so there might be observ'd in their Faces the divers motions of fear shame and grief wherewith they were inspir'd For it seems 't is a part of their Ingenuity to forget nothing that may add to their fear As soon as the day appear'd the miserable Wretches were conducted to the Church holding in their Hands a yellow Wax Candle for the Act of Faith where every one received his Judgment After two years Imprisonment our Author was condemned to serve five years in the Gallies with Confiscation of his Goods those who were to be burnt were given up to the Secular power by the holy Inquisition with instant prayer to use them with Clemency or at least if they thought them worthy of Death that it might be without effusion of Blood The secular Justice doubts