and their sight is good enough in that their Teachers have eyes so one of their Authours a Laicos ad dogmata fidei quod attinet non proprijs sed praelatorum suorum oculis videre oportet In matters of faith the people ought not to see with their own eyes but the eyes of their Superiors They need not know what they pray for nor what they are to believe nor what they are to do 1. They need not know what they are to pray for or to whom or whether they pray or not all is muffled up in an unknown Language and they are to venture at they know not what nor how nor whither * Vid. Navar. de Orat. c. 10. n. 36. c. 18. n. 32. Spotsw Hist l. 2. p. 92. Molanus Theol. pract tr 3 c. 9. n. 6. No wonder if they direct the Lords prayer to Saints Male or Female and say our Father to the Virgin Mother and in like manner direct Ave-Marie's to Christ as if they took him to be a Woman or to be with Child and with himself too to be the fruit of his own Womh or to be his own Mother which the words so applyed signifie This ignorance is the dam of such Devotion such as is both horrid and blasphemous to the highest degree of horror And yet their great Clerks will countenance it The wisdom of their Church hath thought it fit that they should not be so wise as to understand what they do when they are serving God The Counsel of Trent â—ulminates a Curse against those who hold that the Masse ought to be celebrated in a known Tongue that is they curse those who approve not that mode of service which the Apostle condemns as (b) Omnis Sermo qui non intelligitur barbarus judicatur Jerom. in 1 Cor. 14. In Navar de horis Canon cap. 13. n. 4. They are directed to address themselves to God or the Virgin Mary thâ—… Grant O Lord or Lady what I ask though I know not what Barbarous 1 Cor. 14. such as is not fit for God or man they curse those who will not offer a blind Sacrifice or blindfold As if one under the Law ought not to have seen whether that which he offered were a Hogg or a Sheep whether he Sacrificed a Lamb or cut of a Doggs neck whether he presented an Oblation or offered Swines blood They think not only the people but even the Clergy unconcerned to know what they say when they speak unto God (c) Clerici aut laici qui Divinis intersuet si non intelligunt quae dicunt non peccant l. 2. c. 51. n. 12. p. 291. The Clergy saith Jacobus de Graffiis or the Laity when they are at Divine service if they understand not what they say they sin not It is so far from being their duty to serve God as Christians that they need not act as Men in his service If the words be but said though with no (d) Quid hoc sit intelligere debemus uti humana ratione non quasi avium voce cantemus Nam mâ—rulâ— psiâ—aci corvi picae hujusmodi voluâ—res saepe ab hominibus docentur sâ—narâ— quod nesciunt scienter auterâ— cantare non avi sed homini divina voluntate concessum est Augustin in ps 18. exposit secunda p. 103. t. 8. more understanding than Mag-pyes are taught to sound them it 's as reasonable service as their Church requires what God requires with them is no matter They expect not that any should understand their service but expert Divines as (a) Supra l. 10 q 5. art 5. Soto tells us Now it is a very small part of their Clergy that pretends to be Divines and a small part of those few that are expert therein it is an attainment which most of their Bishops fall short of their common Priests are sufficiently qualified with the art of reading nor need they be masters of that neither the Masse-book is almost taught to read it self For in the Missals established by Pius the 5th and recognized by Clement the Eighth every syllable is diversely marked whether it is to be sounded long or short What do we speak of Clergy or Priests it is not necessary for their Popes to be able to understand or to read their common prayers themselves spare not to divulge this It is manifest saith Alphonsus a Castro (*) Cum constet plures Papas adeo illiteratos esse ut Grammaticam penitus ignorent l. 1. adevrs Haeres cap. 4. Edit Paris 1534. That many Popes are so illiterate that they are utterly ignorant of the Grammar It seems he may be universal Pastour and the Teacher of the whole World who hath not learned his Grammar and the infallible Guide of all mortals who understands not his own language wherein the Articles of faith their Lawes Ceremonies and Church-service is delivered And is it not very much that two things so different as ignorance and infallibility should have the good hap to meet together in the same person Sect. 2. Secondly They need not know what they are to believe they tell us they are obliged under pain of Damnation to believe whatâ—oever the visible Church of Christ proposeth as revealed by Almighty God Now their Church proposeth for points of faith so revealed not only what they have in Scripture but what they have by Tradition or by the custome of the Church in former ages or by the consent of the Fathers or by the decrees of Councils or by the determination of Popes è Cathedra whereby points of faith become infinitely numerous beyond all account which the learned amongst them can give either to satisfie themselves or others Yet all must be believed and that under pain of damnation when as it is but a very small part of them that can be commonly known The Articles of the Creed called the Apostles are not the hundred part of those points that must be believed by all that will not be damned and yet they generally conclude that it is not necessary for the people to know all of those few Articles How to believe the rest and it may be five hundred times more which they know nothing of nor ever once came into their thoughts they must make what shift they can However they need not know all the Articles of the small Creed as the chief of them teach Not all saith Aquinas (a) Nec tamen necesse est cuilibet explicite credere omnes articulos fidei sed quantum sufficit ad dirigendum in ultimum finem dist 25. q. 2. art 1. vid. Sylvest v. fides but what is sufficient to direct to the last end Not all saith (b) Maxime ad illa quae sunt grossa ad capiendum sicut quod Christus natus est passus alia quae pertinent ad redemptionem vid. Sta. Clara probl 15. p. 94. Scotus but the grosse things as that Christ was born and suffered and
impijs tunc enim credere esset actus imprudentiae secundum D. Tho m. 22. q. 1. art 4. ad secundum idem ibid. vid plures in Jo. Sanc. d. 19. n. 3. 4. if the object of faith be not duely proposed if by slight reasons or by impious persons then it would he imprudence to believe or (u) Id. ibid. p. 95. if they do not doubt of their faith or if their Teachers be fallacious or erroneous or if the proposal (x) Aragon in 2. 2. q. 11. art 2. dub ult ibid. p. 01. be not enforced with reasons with holiness of life with the confutation of the contrary and with some wonders In short if they have not had sufficient instruction in this all agree And this alone will excuse a great part of their Church who for want of such instruction are acknowledged by themselves to be Infidells Thus Navarre delivers it (y) In universa Christiana republica circa haec tanta est socordia ut multos passim invenias nihil magis in particulari explicite de hisce rebus credere quam Ethnicum quendam Philosophum sola unius veri Dei naturali cognitione praeditum Cap. 11. n. 22. p. 142. In the whole Christian Commonwealth he means the Roman Church there is so great neglect as to this that ye may find many every where who believe no more of these things i. e. of Christ and the most necessary Articles of the Christian faith in particular and explicitely than some Heathen Philosophers who have only the natural knowledge of the one true God But if the precept could reach any through all these securities which we cannot easily imagine yet there is one way to clear them all of it so that they may live and dye Infidells without danger from any command requiring faith in Christ For he that hath not that express faith which is commanded in the Gospel but only what is requisite necessitate medij is living or dying if he be sorry for his negligence and purpose to amend which may be in their sense without true Repentance capable of absolution without any instruction from his Confessor (a) Imo in rigore non tenetur confessarius etiamsi sanus sit paenitens eum instruere ante absolutionem aummodo enim doleat de preterita negligentia proponat emendationem in futuâ—um capax est absolutionis sola fide explicita circa mysteria necessario credenda ex medio Fill. tr 28. n. 58. vid. Jo. Sanc. d. 9. n. 18. And by vertue of that he may live in a justified state or if he dye he passeth out of the World as a very good Christian though he believe in Christ no more than a Heathen Sect. 2. Pass we to their other sort of faith which they call explicite it is as they define it An actual assent to the particulars which the Church propounds as revealed by God This with them is justifying faith requisite in the learned and more intelligent amongst them As to the object of it if we view it well it looks untowardly for a thing by which a sinner is to be justified For it is prodigiously extended and takes in things uncertain false impossible impertinent and ridiculous as points that must certainly be believed unto justification For their Church propounds as things revealed by God and so objects of justifying faith not only what is delivered in Scripture but â—nwritten Traditions concerning matters of faith and manners and â—hese if they will be justified they must believe though they know â—ot what they are nor where to find them but in the Churches unerâ—ing fancy She propounds also the unanimous consent of the Fathers â—n several points and though this never was or is impossible to be â—nown yet it must be believed by those that mean to be justified She propounds the decrees of Councils to be believed as Divine truths b Omnia concilia post Chalcedonense potissimum instituta fuerunt non ut erueretur veritas sed ut roboraretur defenderetur atque augeretur semper ecclesiae Romanae potestas ecclesiasticorum libertas Aeneas Sylvius l. 2. de gest conc Basil when it is acknowledged that the design in Councils for many hundred years was not to discover truth but to promote the Roman greatness She propounds also the determinations of Popes these must be believed as infallible when ordinarily they were neither persons of common truth or honesty and we must be justified by believing the dictates of Atheists or (c) Canus loc Theol. l. 6. p. 243. 344. Hereticks of (d) Sylvest 2. Platin. Chron. Martini Poloni Hildeband Binno Cardin. Conjurers (e) Faex vitiorum Diabolus incarnatus Constan concil Sess 11. art 5. Benedict 9. vid. Baron an 1034. n 3. or incarnate Devils of vicious Beasts (f) Sunt qui scribunt hunc sceleratissimum hominem seu monstrum potius Platina viâ—a Joh. 13. and wicked Monsters For those who cry up â—is Holiness have adorned him also now and then with these other Sacred Titles I know not whether these things are more ridiculous or more horrid how ever letting them pass as they are let us take their faith at best and make it better than they will have it Suppose it rested in the Scriptures and had no thing for its object but Revelation such as is truly Divine yet even so they give such Report of it as will scarce suffer us to think that they can expect to be justified by it Considered in it self they (c) Dominic a Soto de natur grat lib. â—…◠7. d. 79. 81. count it not worthy the name of a vertue They (d) Concil Trident. Sess 6. c. 7 call it a dead idle thing and though they would have it to be an infused habit and the gift of God because the Scripture so calls that which is justifying faith indeed yet they say a (e) Scotus in 3. dist 23. air fide humana quam ipse appellat acquisitam hominem posse assentiri toti praedicationi Christianae Imo ita inquit credimus authoritate ecclesiae quam ipse putat humanam institutione parentum Cui sententiae adhuc explicatius subscribit Durandus q. 1. in 2. sent d. 28. Dicens fidem infusam non esse necessariam nisi uâ— facilius credamus Soto ibid. l. 2. c. 8. p. 81. mere humane quality acquired without any supernatural assistance may perform its proper act and office by actual assent to the whole Christian Doctrine They confess it is commonly found in the worst of men in perditissimis hominibus such as are neither acted nor possessed by the spirit of God such as live and dye in mortal wickedness (f) Bellarm. de Baptism l. 1. c. 14. and are damned for it Yea some of them confess that it is in the Devils This faith saith Cardinal (g) Fiâ—es haec non est ea tantum qua credimus Deum esse qua credimus vera esse
THE Practical Divinity OF THE PAPISTS Discovered to be Destructive of Christianity AND MENS SOULS And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in Vnrighteousness 2 Thess 2. 11 12. LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and Nath. Ponder at the Bible and Three Crowns at the Lower End of Cheapside near Mercers Chappel and at the Peacock in Chauncery Lane near Fleetstreet MDCLXXVI AN Advertisement I Have alwayes thought since I considered and understood what Popery was that the knowing of it would be a sufficient Disswasive from it to those that regard God and their Souls This perswasion together with compassion for those that are seduced and desire to secure those that are in danger engaged me in this present Undertaking Wherein I have discovered what the Practical Divinity of that Church is how pernicious and inconsistent with the way to Salvation declared in the Scripture I have herein the concurrence of some few in comparison of that Church who are sensible of such Doctrine prevailing amongst them as they say is (a) Representation of Curez of Paris p. 3. absolutely opposite to the Rules and Spirit of the Gospel Such as (b) Pag. 4. no man that hath never so little tenderness of his own salvation but must conceive an horror at such as they call a (c) Their Remonstrance p. 2. Poysonous Morality more corrupt than that of Pagans themselves and (d) Their Answer maintaining the Factum p. 8. which permits Christians to do what Pagans Jews Mahometanes and Barbarians would have had in execration such as is in their Style the most palpable (e) Ibid. darkness that ever came out of the bottomless pit such as (f) Ibid. p. 12. overthrows the Essential Points of Christian Religion and the Maximes that are most important and of greatest necessity in order to the salvation of man Of this they have given the World notice in several Discourses (g) Provincial Letters Jesuits Morals two of which I have seen though unhappily not the latter till I had gone through the greatest part of what I intended As to the extent of this Execrable Divinity they declare That whole Societies (h) Remonstrance of Curez of Paris would have these Extravagancies accounted Roman Traditions that The Church is overgrown with this poysonous Morality that (i) Answer maintaining thâ— Factum It is ready to be overwhelmed with the deluge of these Corruptions that The Church is filled with this most palpable darkness Elsewhere they seem to fixe this Charge upon the Jesuits principally as if they would have it thought not to reach much further but withal tell us that the Jesuis (k) Ibid. are the most numerous and the most powerful body of men in the whole Church and have the disposal of the Consciences of all the greatest So that I can represent them no worse than some of themselves do and the worst that can be said falls by their own acknowledgment upon the most considerable part of their Church That they should so far accuse the whole cannot be expected whatever occasion there be for it so long as they think fit to continue in its Communion But then if we regard those who are so great a part of that Church upon the account of their numbers and more in respect of their Authority and Influences the Maximes so branded (l) Supra are Roman Traditions (m) Defence of the Factum the true Doctrine of Faith the true Morality of the Church not asserted by that Society alone but equally if not more by Catholick Writers of all sorts and those that quarrel thereat are factions spirits Hereby so far as the testimony of Adversaries against themselves can clear a matter in question there is evidence both that the Practical Doctrine amongst them is pernicious and damnable and also that it is common and generally followed I intend not here to impeach any Maxime peculiar to the Jesuites but that Doctrine of the Romanists which is far more extensive delivered by Canonists and Divines Secular and Regular of every sort and in part by the Canon Low and their Councils who sometimes glance at this Subject though they make it not their business that which in most particulars and those of greatest moment is ancienter than the Society and in many points such as the Censurers of the Jesuites Morality do not touch but either approve themselves or dare not condemn least they should involve the whole Church in the Condemnation I cannot discern that the Practical Divinity of the Jesuites is more corrupt then that of other Romish Writers their Contemporaries And those that view the Moral Discourses of both and compare them will if I much mistake not discern no other I never yet met with any Author of that Order so intollerably licentious but might be matched if not out-vied by others there is no need to except Escâ—bar or Bauny though most branded nor do their keen Antagonists do it when they speak of others whom they know to be no Jesuits (n) Remonstrance of the Curez of Paris as the most extravagant that ever were There is no reason why the Odium which a Community incurrs should be appropriated to a party nor that the Society only should be noted as the sinck when the corruption is apparent every where So far as the Jesuits are concerned herein it hath been sufficiently exposed by others upon which account I decline those of that Order not putting the Reader to relie upon any Evidence from their Writing Onely because it is requisite to shew their concurrence in some Points which otherwise might not pass for the Common Doctrine I make use of Bellarmine freely whom none can count a Corrupter of Popery however Christianity hath been treated by him and of Suarez sometimes whose Judgment alone is counted equivalent to a thousand others by some (o) Vid. Jâ— Sanc. Disp 44. n. 4â— that are none of the Society I alledge beside though rarely one or two more of those Fathers of like eminency and authority in that Church but none of them save in such points wherein they have not been noted for extravagancies by others or in such wherein those of other Orders concurre with or go beyond them The greatest advantage I make of them is to represent the opinions of others not their own and most herein of Suarez who usually gives an account of the Common Doctrine out of unexceptionable Authors Those whom I principally rely on to make good the Charge are the ancienter and better sort of their Divines and Casuists the strictect of them in points of Morality that I could meet with such as are so far from being Disciples of Ignatius that most of them are Dominicans most opposite of all Orders to the Jesuits and said to be the least tainted with these Corruptions and the greatest part of them
were Writers before their Order was founded or appeared to the World on this Subject To these I have added other Casuists of this last Age not that there is need to produce any worse than the former but to shew that time hath made little or no alteration amongst them for the better The Romanists when they are ashamed of their Doctrine or think the World will cry shame of it are wont to disown it It is like they may do so here and tell us that these points not being determined by Councils are not the Doctrine of their Church but the opinions of particular Doctors This serves them for a shift in other cases with some colour but it will be absurd to offer at it here For though this be not their Doctrine of Faith which with some generals most about the Sacraments reflected on in the sequel as there is occasion is the business of their Councils yet it is the Practical Doctrine of their Church if it have any and f they think their Catholicks concerned to be Christians more than meerly in opinion And this under several Heads I have collected out of such Writings as are the proper place of it Therefore to say that this is not the Doctrine of their Church because the particulars are not found decided by Councils is to tell us that they are not charged with it unless we can find it where they know it cannot be found and where with any reason it cannot be looked for It is no more reasonable than if one who hath taken a purse should plead though it be found in his hand that he is not to be charged with it unless we can spy it in his mouth when yet he never opens it That Councils should give particular Directions for Conscience and Practice in Cases innumerable was never attempted nor ever can be expeâ—…ed Their Church leaves this to her Divines and Casuists and that nothing may pass them but what is agreeable to her sense no Books are to be published but with the approbation and authority of such as are counted competent Judges hereof So that the Doctrine of their authorized Writers that especially wherein they commonly agree is the Practical Doctrine of that Church or else she hath none such and consequently no care of the lives and consciences of her Members And though this be not Infallible or de fide as they count the Decisions of Councils yet is it as certain they say as the nature of the subject requires nor do they pretend to have any infallible Doctrine for particular directions herein Which yet may justly seem very strange to any man that considers that gross faults in Life and Practice are more infallibly damnable than errours in Faith and Speculation Now upon this their Common Doctrine the substance of the Charge ensuing and the principal articles thereof are grounded As for the opinions of particular Doctors wherein there is no such common concurrence though they be not so certain as the other yet they are even the worst of them safe in practice any of their people may follow them without danger and with a good conscience for this as will appear hereafter is the common judgement of their Schools and Doctors and so far the Doctrine of their Church And if that Church did no farther own these opinions common or particular then under this character this is enough for our purpose when the question is of the danger of Popery in reference to mens Salvation that she counts such rules of life safe and publickly allows them as direction for practice which tend to ruin Religion and mens Souls If they were not counted safe that Church which pretends to so much care of Souls since all in her Communion are exposed to the Danger would be concerned to give warning of it and brand these Maximes as pernicious but this was never yet done not ever like to be These opinions all or the greatest part of them were taught and published in that Church before the Council of Trent there was time enough in Eighteen years to take cognizance of them and their pernicious consequence Yet when they bestowed Anathama's so liberally where there was occasion and for the most part where there was none they thought not fit to bestow one Curse upon these Doctrines how execrable so ever yea some part thereof of worse consequence had there an express Confirmation Their Popes since though they could see occasion to condemn such Propositions as the Five ascribed to Jansenius and those of Baius White and many others could not by the help of a judgement counted infallible discern any thing in the worst of these Doctrines worthy of or fit for their Censure The Cardinals of the Inquisition at Rome and their Setters in other Countries whose business it is to spie whatever in Books particularly is against Faith and Good Manners see nothing of this nature in that which destroys both No Expurgatory Index what havock soever has been made by those Tools in their best Authors hath so far as I have observed touched the Common Opinions here exposed It 's true some others have been expunged and I find above Forty Opinions of the late Casuists censured by Alexander the Seventh and the Cardinals of their Sacred Congregation (p) Index Expurg sub Alexand. VII An. 1666. but hereby more authority is added to those I insist on being thought good enough to pass untouched which must therefore be counted sound Doctrine and safe for Practice in the Judgment of their Virtual Church and the chief parts of their Church Representative There is no ground to expect that this Doctrine as to the principal and most pernicious parts of it will ever be condemned by any Popes or Councils of such Complexion and Principles as that of Trent where it was a Maxime observed religiously that no Determination should pass which either in matter or form would disoblige any considerable Party among them much less all the Roman interest is supported by such Politicks and must be secured whatever become of Souls or Saving Doctrine There are indeed some Dissenters amongst them as there are elsewhere who complain of their Moral Divinity but they are such whose power and interest can reach little further than Complaints and these are so far from being the Voice or Sense of their Church that their Writings which exhibite such Complaints are condemned at Rome (q) Ibid. by the Supreme Tribunal as they call it of the Inquisition In short by the known Custom and settled Order of the Roman Church the people for regulating of their Hearts and Lives are to be directed by their Confessors their Confessors have their direction herein from their Casuists and Practical Authors both Priests and People must believe this to be safe because the Church hath made this provision for them approves the course and obligeth them to take no other And thus that Doctrine the deadly Venome whereof I here discover must be conveyed from
Folio Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews concerning the Priesthood of Christ wherein the Original Causes Nature Prefigurations and discharge of that holy Office are explained and vindicated The nature of the Covenant of the Redeemer with the call of the Lord Christ unto his Office are declared and the opinions of the Socinians about it are fully examined and their oppositions unto it refuted with a continuation of the exposition on the third fourth and fifth Chapters of the said Epistle to the Hebrews being the second Volumn by John Owen D. D. in Folio Î ÎΕΥΜΑΤΟΛΟΓΙΑ Or A Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit wherein an account is given of his Name Nature Personality Dispensation Operations and Effects his whole work in the old and new Creation is explained the Doctrine concerning it vindicated from Oppositions and Reproaches The nature also and necessity of Gospel-Holiness the difference between Grace and Morality or a spiritual Life unto God in Evangelical Obedience and a course of Moral Vertues are stated and declared by John Owen D. D. in Folio A discourse of the Nature Power Deceit and Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling-Sin in Believers together with the ways of its working and means of prevention by John Owen D. D. in Oct. The unreasonableness of Atheism made manifest in a discourse to a Person of Honour by Sir Charles Wolseley Baronet Third Impression The Reasonableness of Scripture-belief A discourse giving some account of those Rational Grounds upon which the Bible is received as the Word of God written by Sir Charles Wolsely Baronet Anti-Sozzo sive Sherlocismus Enervatus In Vindication of some Great Truths Opposed and Opposition to some Great Errors Maintained by Mr. William Sherlock Introduction THe danger of Popery in points of Faith hath been sufficiently discovered to the world by the Divines of the Reformation but their Doctrine which concerns Life and Practice hath not been so much insisted on And yet there is as much occasion for this for here the mischief is as great an unchristian heart and life being at least as damning as erronious belief and hereby the great Apostacy and degeneracy of the Papal Church is as apparent and herein they have proceeded with as much disregard of Christ and the souls of men Their design in this seems to have been not the promoting of Christs interest for that is manifestly prostituted but the securing and greatning of a Faction which under the profession of Christianity might be false to all its realities And their rule is the corrupt inclinations of depraved nature to which they have throughly conformed their practical Divinity which easeth it of the duties for which it hath an aversation how much soever enjoyned and clears its way to those sins to which it is disposed as though there were no need to avoid them This Rule serves their design with great advantage but souls are more endangered hereby and their principles become more pernitious because they are so taking Perswade a man that he may safely neglect the duties which he owes to God his own soul and others and may gratify the lusts he is addicted to and give him the maximes of Religion and the Authority and Conclusions of Divines and the Teachers whom he trusts for it and he will like that Religion because he loves his sin and is in danger to follow both though he perish for it eternally And indeed this is it which makes the condition of Papists deplorable for though the principles of their belief as it is Popish be mortally poysonous yet there might be some Antidote in the practicalls of Christianity retained and followed by those who are unavoidably ignorant of the danger of their more speculative errours and so some hopes of such but their Practical Doctrine being no less corrupted the remedy it self becomes poyson and their condition who freely let it down hopeless Whether their errours in matters of Faith be directly fundamental hath been with some of their Opposers a question but those who well view their practical Doctrine may discern that it strikes through the heart of Christianity casting off the vitalls of it as superfluities and cuts of those who will believe and follow it from the way of life not onely by encouraging them with security to live and die in all sorts of wickedness but also by obliging them to neglect as needless the greatest and most important concerns of Christians without which God cannot be honoured by us nor Salvation attained This will be apparent by observing what is determined in that Church by those who have the conduct of their lives and Consciences concerning the Worshipping of God Christian knowledge Love to God Faith in Christ Repentance from dead works and Holiness of life as to the Exercise of Christian Vertues the Abandoning of sin and the Practice of good works of all which in particular the following discourse gives an account CHAP. I. Real Worship of God not necessary in the Church of ROME THere is nothing wherein the Honour of God and the Happiness of men is more concerned than Divine Worship Religion provides for these great ends by obliging us to worship God this it doth indispensably and can do no less without abandoning it self for this is essential to it (a) Religio est Virtus per quam homines Dâ—o debitum cultum et reverentiam exhibent Tullius dicit 2. Rhet. quod religio est virtus quae superiori cuidam naturae quam divinam vocant cultum caeremoniamque affert Aquinas 2. 2. q. 81. Art 1. and gives it being And the truth and goodness of it depends as much thereon for no Religion is true and saving but that which obligeth to worship God really Now worship is not real unless mind and heart concur in it whatever it hath without this it wants (b) Nam spiritus interior adorationis qui est ipsa vita et anima adorationis exterioris apellatur quoque ipsa veritas adorationis Vasquez de Adorat l. 1. Disp 1. cap. 2 p. 18. its life and soul and is no more worship really than a picture is a man Hence Christ brands those who draw near to God with their lips without their hearts for hypocrites Matth. 15. 7 8. Mark 7. 6. Such as pretend to be what they are not and to do what really they do not who are but worshippers in shew and fiction no more so indeed than the Stage-Player is the Prince whose part he acts The Romanists seem to acknowledg all this and therefore ought not to deny but that it is as necessary that God should be really worshipped as it is needful that he should have any honour in the world or that there should be any true Religion amongst men or Salvation for them Yet notwithstanding their practical Doctrine makes it needless to worship God really That this may be fully and distinctly manifested let us observe First what they count requisite in Divine Service and in their Mass the former is
account no act of love nor of any other grace will be needful for them that they may be saved Thus in fine here 's a Religion which pretends to be Christian but excuseth and disingageth all that profess it from the love of Christ a Doctrine which bereaves Religion of that which themselves count its life and quite stifles all the spirits of Christianity chops off all Christian vertues all gracious acts and qualities in this one neck and leaves nothing but a gastly Carkase For obliging them to neglect love as needless it makes the rest impossible without it there can be no saving faith no godly sorrow no filial fear no delight in God no desire to enjoy him no genuine gratitude When the life of a true Christian should be made up of these they leave it not possible for him to have one act of true Christian vertue for without love they say themselves there cannot be any one true vertue Here is a way to Heaven for those that never loved God in life or death a path that pretends to Heaven but lies quite Cross to the way of Christ and leads directly to outer darkness A Doctrine that incourageth them to live in hatred of God all their dayes and in the end sends them out of the World under the dreadful sentence of the Apostle 1 Cor. 16 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema Maranatha To conclude this head It is a Doctrine which is damning not only meritoriously but effectually and will certainly ruine eternally all that believe and practise it and hath in it the mortal poyson and malignity of a hundred such speculative Opinions as pass for Heresies And beside the danger and horrible impiety of this Doctrine it is ridiculous to the very highest degree For can any thing be more senseless than to ask how often a man ought to love his best friend and Benefactor whether once in his life be not enough in all Conscience nay whether it be not very fair not to hate him And indeed they state the business all along in such a manner and manage it with such nicety and caution not as if they were afraid lest men should love God too little but as if all the danger lay on the other hand and their great care were that no body should love him too much or love him at all I do not believe that things so palpably impious and ridiculous were ever so solemnly debated by men of any Religion whatsoever CHAP. IV. There is no necessity of saving or justifying faith by the Romish Doctrine Sect. 1. THat no man can be justified or saved without faith is so evident in Scripture that none but an Infidel can question it The Romanists do not express any doubt of it and yet they make no other faith necessary than that which is neither justifying nor saving They have two sorts of faith one for the unlearned and ignorant which they call Implicite The other for the learned and more knowing which they say should be Explicite The former as they describe it is an assent to some general including many particulars with a mind to believe nothing contrary thereunto the general is this That what ever the Roman Church which cannot err believes is true the particulars included are they know not what for they are supposed ignorant Now this we say is no Christian faith and make it apparent that it is no such thing For first it is no belief of any one particular or article of the Christian faith It is only a belief of a general which is no truth at all much less Christian that the Church of Rome cannot err or believe any thing but what is true when the ignorant person neither knows what this Church is nor what she believes nor why he should give her such credit So that the act is a blind conceit unworthy of a Man or a Christian and the object a general error And then as to the particulars which are necessary for Christians to believe this implicite faith doth not actually believe any of them at all if it did it would not be what it is implicite It apprehends them not therefore cannot believe them for as themselves acknowledge (a) Neque enim credi potest quod non cognoscitur Fill. tr 22. n. 39. That cannot be believed which is not known To render this clear to us they thus explain it When (b) Bannes 22. q. 2. art 8. Sect. dubitatur secundo Sum. Rosel verb. fides n. 1. a man is asked whether Christ were born of the Virgin Mary and whether there be one God and three persons and he answers that he knows not but believes touching these things as the Church holds this is to believe implicitely So that a man may have this faith compleatly and yet not believe an article of the Creed and if this be Christian faith a man may have it who believes nothing of Christ They are believers at this rate who have a mind to hold what the Church doth concerning Christ or the Creed though they never know what that is They know not what the Church holds unless the Churches knowing be their knowledge and so believe nothing unless the Churche's believing be their faith and so have no faith to save them unless it be saving faith to believe by an Attorney Secondly as this faith may be without the knowledge and belief of any of the particular Articles which are necessary to be believed by Christians so which is yet more strange it may be with the belief of what is opposite and repugnant to the Christian faith This they acknowledge and clear it to us by instances A man may be disposed to believe what the Church holds and yet may believe that God the Father and God the Son are not equal but one greater and elder than the other or that the persons in the Trinity are locally distant Such is the vertue of implicite faith faith (c) In tantum valet fides implicita quod si quis habens eam falso opinaretur ratione naturali motus Patrem majorem vel priorem Filio vel tres personas localiter distare aâ— simile quid non sit haereticus non peccet dummodo hunc errorem pertinaciter non defendat hoc ipsum credat quia credat ecclesiam sic credere Verb. Credere Sum Rosel v. fides n. 2. After Pope Innocent and Hostiensis Altenstaig that if he who hath it believes these errors or any like them he would be no Heretick he would not sin provided he doth not maintain his error pertinaciously and that he believes because he thinks the Church believes it Or such a Catholick may believe (d) Ut puta vetula credit Trinitatem esse unam Faeminam quoniam credit ecclesiam sic tenere sic credit tamen non est haeretica quia conditionaliter credit si ecclesia sic tenet credit Verb. sides n. 6. that the
three persons in the God-head are one Woman it would be but a small fault with Angelus to believe this thinking the Church believes the same (e) Siquis non crederet Christum esse verum Deum hominem idem sentiret papa eum non iri damnatum Cardin. St. Angeli ad legaros Bohem. an 1447. Or he may believe that Christ is not true God and Man and yet not be condemned for it if the Pope believed it too (g) Rusticus imperitus qui suo Parocho fidem habens credit aliquid contra articulos fidei excusatur a peccato Probl. 15. p. 98. If trusting a Priest who tells him the Church holds it he believes any thing against the Articles of faith he is excused saith Sancta Clara after Scotus and Gabriel and others (h) Licet alicui articulo fidei discredat explicite credit tamen implicite eidem in generali fide c. ibid. Corduba Though he expresly disbelieve any Article of faith yet he may be said to believe it implicitely So that he may believe that the Creed or the Gospel is not to be believed he may count it a Fable as Pope Leo called it and yet be a Christian as to his belief if this be the Christian faith He may be expresly an Heretick or a monstrous mis-believer and yet implicitely be a faithful Roman-Catholick Thirdly such a faith as this Jewes and Turks and Pagans have even the worst of these who do but acknowledge a God of truth For they believe what this God reveals is true and this general involves all the particulars of the Christian belief so that if the belief of such a general without other faith as to the particulars may be sufficient for Papists such Infidels may pass for as true believers as Roman-Catholicks Yea the faith of such Catholicks will be so much worse than that of these Infidels as it is better to believe Gods veracity and Revelation than to believe the infallibility of the Roman Church or the truth of all therein believed Indeed such a faith was not counted sufficient for Christians till Christians were thought to be something like Asses Aquinas inquires whether all be a like obliged to have an explicite saith He answers negatively and the ground of his conclusion is Job 1. 14. The Oxen were plowing and the Asses were feeding beside them From whence he argues gravely (i) Quia videlicet minores qui significantur per asinos dâ—bent in credendis adhaereâ—… majoribus qui per boves significantur ut Gregorius expouit in 2 moral Aquinas 2. 2. q. 2. art 6. That the people who are signified by Asses are to lye down in the faith of their Superiors who are signified by the Oxen as Gregory expounds it But what if the Oxen go a stray what must become of the Asses then Why they may follow them without hurt believing that they are right when they are in a wrong way for they must not have their names for nothing So he resolves this difficulty (k) Humana cognitio non sit regula fidei sed veritas Divina a qua si aliqui majorum dificiunt non praejudicat fidei simplicium qui eos rectam fidem habere credunt Aquinas ibid. ad tertium Human knowledge is not the rule of faith but Divine truth from which if some of the Superiors the Oxen make defection that hurts not the faith of the simple the Asses who believe them to have the right faith After these two Saints their best Pope and their Angelical Doctor that we may see we owe not this rare notion where their whole Church is so subtilly divided into Oxen and Asses to any lower than the most eminent amongst them Cardinal (l) De justific l. 1. c. 7. p. 706. Bellarmine their great Champion makes use of the same exposition of that Text to maintain the sufficiency of such a faith Stapleton would have us believe that they admit not of this implicite faith save in points of less moment but herein he misrepresents them and would delude us For it is the common Doctrine of the Romanists That an implicite faith in Christ such as Pagans may have and for which none should have the name of Christians is sufficient under the Gospel to pass any into (m) For these are alledged Altisiodorensis Gulielmus Parisiensis Richardusde Media villa Scotus Bradwardin Gabriel Baptista Troâ—amala Vega Medina Corduba Faber Patigianis Herrera c. Victoria Soto Canus Bannes Alvarez in Sta. Clara. Probl. 15. in Bannes in 22. q. 2. art 8. a justifying or saving state This is it which our Divines commonly teach saith (n) Vega pro conc Trident. l. 6. c. 15. p. 92. Vega when they say the faith of one Mediatour either explicite or implicite is enough for justification And (o) Probl. 15. p. 89. haec est communior in Scholis ut declarat sequitur Herrera c. So Bartholom de Ledesma sum de sacram paenit cum ad primam justificationem sides explicita Christi non requiratur ut supponimus tanquam magis probabile commune in Scholis c. Sancta Clara with others tell us this is the more common tenet in their Schools And whereas they make some difference between justification and salvation in this point Bannes helps to remove it (p) in 22. q. 2. art 8. dub ult Dicendum quod gratia est sufficiens causa gloriae unde omne illud sine quo obtineri potest gratia non est de necessitate salutis Aquinas in 4. dist 9. art 1. vid. Soto in 4. dist 5. q. unica art 2. dub ult It is neither Heresie saith he nor Error nor Rashness nor Scandal to assert that a man may also in the same manner he saved because justification being the last disposition to glory it is very probable that he which is justified by an implicite faith may also by the same faith without alteration be saved It is true they say there is a precept for a more express faith though no more than this implicite belief in Christ be needful necessitate medij But they have so many wayes to exempt Infidells even under the profession of Christians from its obligation that few in comparison will be culpable for not observing it By their Doctors they are excused if they (q) Fill. tr 22. n. 40. be dull or gross-witted If they be (r) n. 54. Dico secundo obligationem praedictam esse sub peccato mortali nisi ignorantia aut impotentia excuset Communis doctorum ignorant or impotent or (s) Probabilis est ignorantia quando quis habit fundamentum probabile ut dum rusticus credit aliquid ductus testimonio sui Parochi aut parentum sic doctores Communiter Sancta Clar. ibid. p 87. if their Priest or their Parents mislead them or (t) Quando articuli fidei non modo debito proponuntur ut rationibus frivolis vel ab hominibus
quae dicit Deus haec etenim est etiam in Daemonibus perditissimis hominibus Confut. artic Lutheri art 1. Contarenus is not it by which we believe that there is a God or by which we believe that the things are true which God speaks For this also is in the Devils and the most wicked men Yet at other times this is with them THE CHRISTIAN THE CATHOLICK FAITH as if it were enough to make them true (*) Concil Trident. Sess 6. c. 28. Christians and Catholicks but sure they will not seek for their Christianity and Catholickness in a Room lower than Purgatory However instead of a faith which the Scripture calls for as saving and justifying they commend to Christians a faith which hath no connexion at all necessary or probable with Salvation or Justification All they have to say is That it must necessarily be joyned with love but when they have said this they undo it and all by making love it self unnecessary as we saw before Sect. 3. In fine they seem little concerned for faith who hath it or hath it not or how little it be or how seldome acted It is not (h) Non enim fides interior Romani Pontificis ecclesiae est necessaria Canus loc Theol. lib. 6. c. ult p. 344. necessary that the Pope himself should have this faith though the Devils want it not yea or any other vertue for all his Holiness the Body may do well enough though the Head of it be an Infidel They are obliged to maintain this because their Popes often have been no better And the body may shift pretty well without it too This may be the true Catholick Church made up of the whole company of believers when not one amongst them all hath faith for time was say they (i) Abbas in Sylvest sum v. Concil n. 3. when none at all had faith but only one Woman and it may be so again As for the exercise of it Hurtado thinks an act of faith may be requisite once in a year (*) Existimant aliqui precepeum eliciendae fidei obligare singulis annis veâ—uâ— hoc communiter negatur Petr. a S. Joseph sum de 1. praecep art 1. p. 6. but the Jesuite may seem to deal unmercifully with them putting them to believe some of their Creed once in Twelve moneths those of other Orders would not have them so much oppressed once in 12 years will be enough Bonacina (k) Tom. 2. in 1. praecept disp 3. q. 2. punct 2. saith 4 or 5 moments in a whole life may suffice for this and specifies them but because this may seem too hard he signifieth withall how they may he eased in a manner of them all For once though that be at the point of death an (l) n. 12. implicite act may serve At an other time or two the precept for faith doth not of it self oblige to the act only (m) n. 9. 11. it is requisite by accident and so the neglect of it then will be no special sin nor need be confessed At another time or more if there were occasion ignorance or want of consideration may (n) n 8. excuse them for these two though they ruine the greatest part of the World eternally yet are the greatest security of Roman-Catholicks and not only exempt them from that which is most the duty of Christians but will not suffer them to sin at least mortally do what they can So that after all one act of their faith once in a life time will be enough (o) Existimo tamen sufficere ut isti rudes semel assensum explicite praebuerint articulis ad salutâ—m necessarijs dum sibi proponebantur a confessario vel ab alio Ibid. n. 14. ibi Malderus alij Peter a S. Joseph reduces all the moments and occasions where an act of faith may be thought requisite to six heads and then declares upon each severally either that the precept doth not of it self oblige or that they may be excused from sin in neglecting it at any of them Sum in 1. precept art 1. p. 3. 4 5 6. I think it sufficient saith he after many others for those that are rude to give an explicite assent once to the Articles necessary to Salvation while they are propounded by their Confessor or some other But how must the Confessor propound these Articles to them so as they may pass this one act of faith upon them once for all Why the best way (p) Bonacin ibid. n. 16. he tells us is by a mode of forming the sign of the Cross as it is described for this purpose by Graffius Bellarmine and other great Divines I had the curiosity to see how a Confessor can make the most ignorant persons true believers by the sign of the Cross and so effectually as they never need more believe than once while they live and found it lying thus (q) Graff decis part 1. l. 1. c. 24. n. 3. let the Confessor teach him to form the sign of the Cross with three singers to signifie the mystery of the most Sacred Trinity But first it must be drawn from the top of the head or front to the Navel to shew that the Son of God descended from the highest Heavens into the bowels of his Mother then draw the cross line from the left Arm to the right so the cause of the Incarnation is expressed He came from Heaven to Earth that we who were to be placed amongst the Goats at his left might be removed to his right hand amongst the Sheep This is the admirable expedient the grave Benedictine reflecting on it was put into a transport for he adds (r) Ecce quanta nobis fidei nostrae mysteria unica formandae crucis ratione Mater Ecclesia docuit ut si nihil praeterea sciret rudis homo vel hoc solum ad salutem illi sufficere queat ibid. behold what great mysteries of faith mother-Mother-Church hath taught us by one mode of forming a Cross so that a rude person needs know nothing besides this even this alone may be sufficient for his Salvation Here is a compendious way indeed to Salvation and all the knowledge and faith needful for it he that can be satisfied with it and give himself up to absurd and ridiculous delusions against all the evidence of Gods word may in few minutes with once making the sign of the Cross get all the faith requisite for a Roman-Catholick and when by such admirable conduct of the Cross he hath but once believed he need never more trouble himself with faith while he lives (s) Praeceptum fidei non obligat perse nisi semel forte in vita vid. Jo. Sanc. disp 41. n. 32. Advertant praeceptum fidei non obligare per se nisi tempore usus rationis advenientis vel postea si tunc non est impletum taliter quod post semel elicitum actum fidei raro vel fortasse nunquam
as certain as they would have a decree of the Council of Trent accounted that though sinners neglect the great Duties and Acts of Christians and live in any wickedness opposite to the rule of Christ yet the Church hath a device to save them and by it they may be sure to escape Hell without true Repentance What is this but to declare that the most damnable neglects and practices shall never damn them though they never repent thereof the Church hath a trick to secure them notwithstanding What is this but to proclaim that the Lawes of God and the rules of the Gospel are unnecessary impositions without the observance whereof Salvation may be had The knowledge of Christ explicite faith in him actual love of him which comprize all the rest as they teach are not necessary as means Salvation may be had without them and as for a necessity hereof by vertue of any Precept that is not considerable but in reference to the danger of not observing the precept and there 's no danger in this though the neglect hereof were in their account a mortal sin no more than in Venials or no sins at all if it will not damn those who never truly repent of it So that plainly by excusing sinners from Repentance they make all sins safe and all duties needless and give men assurance that they may live and dye impenitently in the neglect of all even the most important duties and in the practice of any the worst wickedness and yet be saved There never was any Heresie broached in the World more monstrous and pernicious than this which the Council of Trent hath brought forth it hath all the damnable wickedness both as to judgment and practice that ever was or can be on Earth in the bowels of it It promotes the Birth the Growth the continuance thereof for it promiseth safety to impenitency therein yea Salvation too by a knack of a very easie use and new invention It hath in it the venome of all damning opinions practices and neglects for that which makes them all deadly is impenitency not would they without this be finally and unavoydably destructive But this would have impenitency it self swallowed CHAP. VI. Their Doctrine leaves no necessity of Holiness of life and the exercise of Christian Vertues Sect. 1. HOliness of life is needless by the Popish Doctrine though the Lord hath made this every way necessary both as a duty which he indispensably requires and as a means without which he ordinarily will save no man it is declared necessary both wayes at once Heb. 12. 14. The Papists indeed boast much of it and seem sometimes to lay great stress on it as if they would have it to be a character of the true Church concluding theirs is the only true Church because there is no Holiness to be found in the World but amongst them only Thus they pretend it to be of greatest consequence but this is but to serve another turn the design is not for Holiness of life for their Doctors count that more than needs And really they are extream good Husbands here and make a little Holiness go a great way for it is enough to denominate the Universal Church holy if there be but one holy person in it so Costerus (a) Tametsi ejus plurima membra sint emortua impia non amittit tamen Sancti nomen quamdiu vel unus pietatem ex animo colens retinet sanctitatem Enchirid. l. 3. c. 8. Possibile est quod tota fides remaneret in uno solo verum esset dicere quod fides non deficit in ecclesia Abbas in Sylvest v. Concil n. 3. How many soever of its Members be dead and impious so long as there is any one man that retains Holiness the Church must be called holy And then to make this one man holy one act of vertue is enough and that a very slender one too for saith Bannes (b) Quilibet actus charitatis quantumlibet remissus sufficit ad implendum omnia praecepta in 2. 2ae q. 44. a 5. Any one act of Charity how weak soever it be is enough to fulfil all the commandements of God Now he is doubtless a holy man who fulfils all those Commandements Further this one act he need but do once and that not all his life he may defer it till he dye if he have no mind to trouble himself with it in any part of his life before as we have already shewed Yea and he may be excused from it when he is a dying too as well as whilest he lives if he can but get a Priest to absolve him and (c) Vid. above 40 Doctors for this in Jo. Sanc. disp 44. n. 34. Sacramenta Baptismi absolutionis posse conferri etiam ijs qui in periculo vitae sunt licet ipsi vi morbi oppressi non habeant usum rationis aut sensuum modo constét eos antea desiderasse ejusmodi Sacramenta Bellarm. de effect Sacrament l. 2. c. 8. p. 121. Actus charitatis semper requiritur ad justificationem seclusis tamen Sacramentis Sacramenta autem in non ponente obicem eundem habent effectum quem haberet charitas contritio sine Sacramento Canus Relect de paen t. pars 3. p. 844. Thus though an act of charity or repentance be requisite alwayes where the Sacraments cannot be had yet the Sacraments in him that gives no obstruction as he does not who has neither the use of sense or reason have the same effect that love to God or Repentance would have without the Sacrament i. e. the Sacrament will justifie and save them who have no act of love to God or true Repentance the Priest must absolve him if the dying man give but any sign which may be interpreted a desire of it And their Sacrament he must have and be absolved absolutely when speechless and senseless if any can but witness that he desired Confession Antonin 3. part tit 10. c. 2. Sylvest v confess 3. n. 16. Paludan dist 21. q. 2. a. 2. Concl. 2. Yea if he did not desire it nor ever give any sign of Repentance he may be conditionally absolved Rituale Pauli 5. And though he have lived wickedly without restraint all his days if at last gasp he be attrite and have but though it never appear the vertue of Judas â—only hoping better i. e. presuming more than he did by vertue of such absolution he will be as certainly saved as other good Catholicks though the other unfortunate wretch for want of a Priest as vertuous as himself to absolve and give him hope was unhappily damned See here a most compendious way to be holy who can imagine any other but that such principles as these make holiness of life extreamly needful But more particularly we may discover how necessary they judge it by what they determine concerning the necessity of exercising Christian vertues and the forsaking of sin There is no need of
it may seem strange that he should be counted a Cheat when he was thus trading in another Country since his stuff had the very same mark which makes their other reliques currant as good ware unquestionably good and than which their best have no better for he wrought wonders or the Devil for him and by one Carcass which he feigned to be a Martyrs (k) Multos infirmos varijs morbis liberasse ibid. he freed many that were sick from variety of Diseases But I suppose he was not free of the Company and they like not Interlopers The Court of Rome can furnish Altars with holy Reliques out of common Graves and none must count them Cheats for it And if this Huckster had but procured a Commission from thence he might have transsubstantiated the bones in any Church yard yea those of a Sheep or a Hog either into the bones of Martyrs or Apostles as well as others By this we may judge what their reliques are the best of them meer cheats and consequently how criminal it will be to give them worship the highest of all (*) In bonis quoque viris pio zelo praeditis summa quasi religionis in hujusmodi reliquijs c. Cassander Consult c. de reliquijs yet they are so far from abandoning this that it is in a manner the sum of their Religion And so it is expressed by some of their own Communion (l) Huc fere summa religionis vocatur avaritia sacerdotum Monachorum quorundam hypocrisi quos alit populi stultitia in Math. 23. The whole of Religion is allmost brought to this to wit their Religious treatment of reliques through the Covetousness of Priests and the Hypocrisie of Monks fed by the foolishness of the people Thus their great Erasmus in his Annotations approved by Pope Leo 10. his Breve (m) Hist of Counc of Trent p. 473. Sect. 4. Let us see in the next place if Perjury may not prove as blameless and as necessary Breach of Oaths is no less with them than a vertue or a necessary duty in many cases of which a further account hereafter let me now instance but in one Suppose a Prince that has Protestant Subjects should for their satisfaction give them the security of his most solemn Oath that they should not suffer for their Conscience either in Life Estate or Liberty that Religion does oblige the Prince to break all such Oaths or to count himself no wayes obliged by them because they are against the Lawes of the Church against that particularly of the general Council of Lateran under Pope Innocent 3. which forbids all favour to be shewed to Hereticks under â—hâ— severest penalties and decrees that favourers of Hereticks are under Excommunication So that in this case it must be the Princes duty to be perjur'd and to break his Oath made in favour of his heretical Subjects that by the sacred decree of the Church He must forswear himself if he will not be Excommunicated and consequently deposed and thereby exposed to the violence of every hand Yea he puts himself into the state of Damnation and sins mortally if he be true to his Oath So Pope Martin 5. Declared in writing to Alexander Duke of Lithuania (n) Sciâ—… te â—oâ—taliter peccare si servabis fidem datam Haereticis Apud Cochlaeum l. 5. hist â—uâ—fitarum know sayes he that thou sinnest mortally if thou keep thy Oath with Hereticks Hereby it appears that no Papists Princes or Subjects can possibly give any security which may be trusted that Protestants shall injoy any thing which is in their power to deprive them of for the greatest securities that can be given in this case are ingagements of faith and truth God being invocated for confirmation in solemn Oaths but by the principles of their Religion they are so far loosed from all such Bonds that they are not at all to be trusted by any but credulous fools unless it can be supposed that they will act as other men than Papists and contemn all the Authority of that Church which leaves no hopes of salvation but in obedience to it For another general Council that of Constance has determined that no faith is to be kept with Hereticks In the nineteenth Session of that Assembly it was decreed that no safe conduct given by Emperour King or secular Prince to Hereticks or any defamed (o) Quocunque vinculo se astrinxerint concesso for Hereticks though with a design to reduce them by what ingagements soever they have obliged themselves shall hinder those Hereticks from being prosecuted unless they recant (p) Etiamsâ— salvo conductu confisi ad locum venerin judicij alias non venturi nec sic pâ—omiâ—tentem ex hoc in aliquo remaâ—sisse obligatum in Crab. Tom. 2. p. 1111. though they come to the place of Judgment relying upon such security and would not have come otherwise And it is declared further that one thus bound by promise was not hereby in the least obliged And what they decreed and declared they immediatly practised for the Emperour Sigismund having given safe conduct to John Huss and so ingaged the publick faith and his own honour that he should come and go safe to and from the Council and Pope John 22. then present in the Council having given his promise and ingaged his faith if he had any for his safety yet the honour and faith of the Emperour was born down by the principles of their Church and the Pope as soon as the poor man was drawn into danger past escaping made nothing of his promise pretending when he was urged with it that he was over-ruled and so notwithstanding all the security an Emperour and a Pope had given him he was first miserably imprisoned and after cruelly burnt to ashes Hereby the world Protestants especially have this plain and useful admonition that they must trust to nothing among Papists those that will be true to that Church but what will keep them out of their power The principles of their Religion for such are determinations of General Councils bind them to observe no faith or truth or common honesty with those whom they count Hereticks no not when life is concerned Their Religion obliges them to violate the most sacred Oaths and the most solemn ingagements of faith and truth rather than an Heretick shall be safe in any of his concerns where they can reach him It is a vertue a duty in that Religion to snap asunder all securities by which the world and humane society hath hitherto been preserved to ruine a Heretick no fear of perjury or any other perfidiousness must be a hindrance in the case Nor is perjury so necessary or innocent only when it is mischievous to us but when it does mischief to themselves and the world also The practice of their Popes for many ages may satisfie us herein and to those who are acquainted with Htstory which gives an account thereof
jactat se habere quod non babet Aquinas ibid. When oâ—… thinks that good he has is from himself When he thinks that what he has from God is for his merits And when he boasts that he hath what he has not If their great Azpilcueâ—a could see none of this most deadly crime amongst Christians having the merit of congruity and condignity before him either his sight fail'd him or his Church was not visible Others with his eyes can see not only mortal pride but as deadly a sin infidelity (q) Credere id viz. predicta in genere est actus infidelitatis Navar. ibid. n. 8. In universali dicere bonum aliquod habere à se non à Deo vel suis meritis hoc pâ—rtinet ad infidelitatem est mortale peccatum infidelitatis Angel sum v. superâ—iâ— where this is part of a Creed To make up one article of two deadly sins must be a sure mark of the only Church Seriously finding so many of their Authors on this head charging the opinion of merit with mortal pride and therein following not only the greatest of their Doctors but the most infallible of their Bishops I have wondred why they did not either make that none of their faith or this no such sin What salâ—… they will find against deadly sin when it is in their faith I know not but if part of their belief had proved arrogance though that founds like the worst of pride they might have come off well enough for arrogance is a Venial sin except in some rare cases It is says Cajetan r Est autem frequenter venialis arrogantia dum absque prejudicio proximi astimat quis se plus scientiae aut bonitatis aut authoritatis habere quam habet Sum. v. arrogantia peccatum est quia contra rectam rationem est Sed mortale non est nisi vel id quod sibi usurpat sit contra divinam reverentiam ut Rex Tyri Ego Deus Sum. aut contra proximum ut tyrannis vel finis ultimus in bujusmodi elatione ponatur Ibid. frequently Venial when without prejudice of others a man values himself as having more knowledg or goodness or authority than he hath and again it is a sin but it is not mortal unless when it usurps against God as the King of Tyre when he said I am God now none are observed to do this except the Pope who has the Law in his own hand or against others by Tyranny which is so odious as all disclaim it and affecting it is no worse than affecting to kill men without consent which with him is (s) Ibid v. vovendi condit not deadly or unless it be made ones ultimate end which none will own Accordingly Angelus determines that (t) Utrum sit mortale peccatum Resp quod sic quum ex tali superbia vel contentione fit quae sit mortalis alias communiter peccatum veniale erit Sum. v. arrogantia arrogancy is commonly a Venial fault unless upon the account of something else that is mortal as when it arises from mortal pride but that as he and others define it we heard before is scarce to be found amongst Christians SECT XVI AMbition was wont to be counted a deadly crime the world and the Church too has reason to judg it so since the most of their miseries and ruins may be imputed to it but the Church of Rome and her Champions are concerned not to think so ill of it stilo curiae in the sense of the Court it may pass for Venial Angelus inquires (u) Utrum ambitio sit peccatum mortale Resp quod non simpliciter sed pro ratione finis vel secundo ratione rei quae appetitu Sum. v. ambitio whether ambition be a mortal sin he answers negatively it is not so simply but may be so in respect of its end and so may any thing in it self lawful be if its end be criminal or it may be so if the thing affected be a crime but that is accidental and still ambitiousness the inordinacy of the affection is excused and may transgress all bounds if the honour and power affected be lawful Thus Cajetan he will yield it more than (x) Non est autem mortale peccatum nisi vel ex parte rei in qua appetitur honor puta si quis vult honorari ob crimen aliquod vel ex parte finis quia vult haheri ut Deus Cajetan v. ambit Venial when one will be honoured for a crime or would be counted a God accordingly it is resolved by Sylvester (y) Sum. v. superbia n. 7. with Navar (z) Quamvis regulariter appetitus inordinatus honoris non excedat metas culpae venialis Cap. 23. n. 15. regularly an inordinate appetite or greediness of Honour exceeds not the bounds of a Venial fault Indeed if pride and ambition had been branded as damnable two Cardinal vertues had been concern'd and which is more the Vatican Throne both in its foundation and supports SECT XVII VAin glory is another capital crime in their account and pregnant with many other they define it to be an inordinate affecting of humane glory and yet determine that an (a) Appetitus eorum etiam inordinatus regulariter est venialis c. Idem ibid. n. 9. inordinate affecting of praise or favour or honour or reverence or glory is but regularly a Venial sin only it may happen to be mortal in some case as when one would inordinately have glory from others for a deadly end or for a mortal sin or that which he makes his last end in all other cases this capital evil is but a slight fault According to their common Doctrine Cajetan will have it to be mortal (b) Solum peccat mortaliter qui gloriatur de aliquo quod est peccatum mortale secundo qui ponit suum finem ultimum in gloria humana Sum. v. glor van then only when one glories in mortal sin but to glory in Venials they count it a small fault or sets his ultimate end in vain glory (c) Colligo ex Alex. in 2. 2. Thom. 2. 2. q. 132. Henr. de Gandavo in quodl 1. q. 24. quod vana gloria de se non dicit aliquid quod sit contra charitatem Dei aut proximi Sum. v. van glor n. 1. Angelus collects out of Alexander and Aquinas that vain glory of it self imports not any thing contrary to the love of God or man Aquinas himself says (d) Inanis gloria non est mortale peccatum uisi charitati perfecte adversatur Aquinas 2. 2. q. 132. art 3. that if love of humane glory though vain be not perfectly repugnant to charity it is not Mortal And Sylvester (e) Intendit ergo S. Tho. quod appetitus vanae gloriae ex suo genere non sit mortale Sum. v. van gl n. 2. delivers this as the sense of their Oracle that the
are alledged for it and amongst them Martin Navar Medina Peter Navar Arragon Bannes Du Vallius with others besides Jesuits Aâ— present take only the words of Navar who speaks fully (a) In foro tamen conscientiae ad effectum non peccandi sufficit eligere pro vera ejus opinionem quem merito censemus esse virum idonea scientia conscientia praeditum cap. 27. n. 288. In the Court of Conscience says he it is enough for the avoiding of sin to take his opinion for true whom we probably think to be a man of sufficient knowledg and Conscience and quotes their Glosse and Panormitan for it To whom let me add Sancta Clara who not only tells us as we have heard before (b) Deus nat gr probl 15. p. 99. supra that at this day it seems to be the common opinion of their Schools and Doctors that the people erring with their Teacher or Pastor are wholly excused from all fault but also when any has a probable ground for what he does (c) Probabilis est quando quis habet fundamentum probabile ut dum rusticus credit aliquid esse licitum ductus testimonio sui parochi vel parentun tunc iste licet contra veritatem erret nulla culpa errat sic Doctores communiter secundum illud ignorantia justa probabilis excusare debet ibid. p. 78. as when a Countrey-man believes any thing to be lawful induced thereto by the testimony of the Parish-Priest or of his Parents although he mistake yet his mistake is void of sin according to the rule in Law just and probable ignorance ought to be excused So that to make a sin to be no sin not only the judgment of a grave Doctor so determining but of a Parish-Priest who are known to be sufficiently ignorant yea of Parents also more ignorant than they will suffice and herein says he the Doctors generally concur In fine if it be the common opinion that invincible as Divines or probable ignorance as the Canonists call it is excused from all sin and that it is an instance hereof (d) Durandus .cum excuset probabilis ignorantia puta si habet aliquem Doctorem authenticum famosum cujus opinioni nâ—titur in Sylvest v. confess n. 2. Vervec dubitans consulens viros Doctos falso consulâ—nâ—…s laborat ignorantia invincibili ibid. v. Ignor. n. 5. Justa ignorantia qualis est cum quis petit consilium a viris habitis pro praeditis scientia conscientia in id sufficienti qui falso ei consulunt haec omnino excuset Navar. c. 23. n. 46. Graff l. 2. c. 131. n. 2â— l. 4. c. 9. n. 8. Sancta Clara. ibid. p. 96. Herrera Faber ibi â—onacina de peccat d. 2. q. 8. p. 2 n. 9. 16. when one is mislead by a sufficient Authour then this is the common Doctrine of the Romanists and not the extravagancy of some particular Sect or Order amongst them If then this principle be so destructive to Religion the Souls of men and humane Societies as some of the French Romanists brand it in reference to the Jesuits the charge falls upon the common Doctrine of the Roman-Church for there it is generally taught and received and was so before Ignatius had founded his Order And this prevents their ordinary exception against our alledging particular Authours against them they cannot with reason or modesty make use of this shift longer for a single Doctor is so far Authorized by the common Doctrine of their chief Writers and so of their Church that any or all in their Church have warrant to rely on him And so in producing a particular Author in esteem with them we do in effect alledge their common Doctrine And indeed by the premises the opinion of a grave Doctor is the Doctrine of their Church so far that any of their Church are allow'd to folow it both as to belief and practice Their Church if we know her sense by the declaration of the generality of her approved Authors does allow all Romanists to follow the opinions I have charged them with though they be plainly destructive of worship faith and holiness both of heart and life For I have charged them with nothing without a considerable Authour and what is so grounded is with them probable and what is probable is safe and allowed both as to faith and manners Or if there be any particular in the charge in which there is not a common concurrence or which is contradicted though by a multitude of their Writers yet since there is at least one grave Doctor for it it is in their account safe and any Romanist has liberty by the Doctrine now insisted on to follow it if he please rather than that which upon the account of more Assertors may be thought safer But as to the purpose for which I now take notice of it this Principle serves to rid their Church of all sin that is of all Conscience to avoid any For if that be safe which is probable and that will be probable which is countenanced by the opinion of particular Doctors then all the sins which they or any of them have already concluded to be no sins and these are an infinite number may be safely committed and all that any of them hereafter may determine to be no crimes may be practis'd with as little Conscience and as much security So that a Train is laid hereby to blow up the whole rule of Christianity and all innocency and holiness which consists in conformity thereto It has done horrible execution already and what has hitherto escaped is at the mercy of it being wholly under the Mine and may be dispatch'd when ever the Casuists their Engineers who are daily at work about it shall think fit Sect. 17. Let me but add some of the Rules they lay down for the direction and relief of scrupulous Consciences They must (e) Sexta medicina usus aequitatis circa leges de qua S. Thom. persuadendo sibi non pâ—ccare qui legem in sensu benigniori servet quamvis in dariore violet Navar. c. 27. n 283. Caeteris paribus inter sententiam benignam duram circa praecepta potius benigna inter pretatio facienda est secundum Jo. de Amb. Vervec Archi. ratio est quia praecepta Dei ecclesiae non suat ad tollendam dalcedinem quam aufert interpretatio serupulosa Sylvest v. Scrupul n. 4. perswade themselves that they sin not though they break the Law in a strict sense if they observe it according to some complaisant interpretation A benign sense is rather to be put upon any precept than that which is strict for the precepts of God and the Church are not against that pleasantness which a scrupulons interpretation takes away And that a person may the better be pleased he may make the interpretation himself and so make it as benign as he desires and as