may its preservation be ascribed to God by what a Mass of studied Snares and Devices by what a Power and Multitude of Engines have the Lords of the Earth studied in all Ages to pull in pieces and overthrow this Sacred Empire but all in vain and to no purpose that the whole World might take notice that the most just Judge of all things presides over this Monarchy whose Oracles have foretold its power to last many Ages and to that end how liberally has he promised to enlarge among Mankind the Spirit of Error and Power of Seducing But whither am I wandring 'T is not out of the Scriptures as forreign and not at all pertinent to the present purpose but out of the proper and genuine Principles of the Universal Faith of the Roman Catholicks as far as it is by Protestant Hereticks opposed that it is to be demonstrated which I hope will be the more commodiously dispatched if we distinctly contemplate the admirable frame of this Religious Empire diligently deliberating all its Laws and all those Opinions repudiated or rejected by the Hereticks In the treating of this I had proposed for my Method to follow Euclide and from a few Fundamentals raise the whole structure of this Sacred Monarchy but taught by Experience I found the Materials so various so divers and so contrary to themselves thrown into one mighty Pile of Rubbish by the Architects but all with such wonderful and cunning Arts closed and cemented together that it was not possible to expose them all at one view for though some did appear some were hid and covered over by others that it would be too difficult in the Order wherein they are joyned to represent them fingly Three only Fundamentals omitting all other I have therefore pitcht upon One Definition One Axiom or Proposition And one Postulatum or Request THE DEFINITION The Church is a Spiritual but visible Rule or Empire wherein Men follow the prescribed Faith under one spiritual or visible Head to wit the Pope of Rome and yield him conformable Obedience The AXIOM or PROPOSITION Whatsoever contributes to the Defence and Increase of this Church that and that only ought to be adjudged True Holy and Pious The POSTULATUM or REQUEST May this Church extend it self even to the ends of the Earth Though these be indeed the first Principles which of themselves do not furnish out the whole matter for demonstration yet they suffice to include all the other Principles which in due time we shall bring to such light that not the most obstinate Hereticks shall be able to doubt of them But the Reasons by which I was induced more especially to write to you concerning this matter Right Reverend Brothers do already from what I have said so abundantly appear that it would be superfluous farther to explain them and if you in your judgments shall approve this Holy Design what I have now only vailed in Epistolary brevity I shall more diligently hereafter digest into better order and enlarge with comments endeavouring as much as in me lies with all plainness and ingenuity to explain all the arts of the Catholick Religion So Farewell in the Lord. Paris Cal. Aug. From the Birth of the Blessed Virgin MDCLxvi JANUS ALEXANDRUS FERRARIVS OF THE AUGUSTIN ORDER HIS Second Epistle Concerning the Usefulness and Necessity of the Roman Catholick Faith To the Right Reverend ADRIAN and PETER of WALLENBVRGH WHat I lately promised you Most Reverend Sirs to demonstrate in order the Usefulness and Necessity of all the several Heads of the Roman Catholick Faith now under your favour and protection I attempt Pardon that delay which the interposition of other affairs that distracted me hath hitherto caused which I promise again to redeem by a future complyance and diligence and in the mean time let what I now offer receive your favourable Censure In the first place therefore since the very Rule of Doctrine does require those things to be prefer'd before all others which will either afford the amplest light or give the best assurance of accord We judg we ought to take our beginning from the WORD of GOD for though that may afford the Hereticks never so ready and commodious occasions to maintain their errors yet by the incredible and almost divine dexterity of ours it has been used to be so well wrested and turned that our most advantageous Tenents seem as aptly built upon it as their most pernicious Opinions Wherefore not only Catholick Writers and amongst those the most renowned Bellarmine but even the Fathers of the most holy oecumenical Council held at Trent adjudged all Treaties of Religion should thence have their original and the Legat Cardinal de Monte proposed The Word of God to be the first matter of all such arguings Hist concil Trid. Lib. 6. c. 11. per Istabilire con quali Armi si dovesse pugnare contra gli Heretici ed in quali base dovessere fondare la lor credenza i Catholici to use the most eminent Pallavicini's own words for the establishing with what arms the Hereticks were to be combated and on what Foundations the Catholicks were to ground their Faith we shall effectually show what a stedfast confidence the Doctors of the Roman Catholick Faith ever had of forming the Scriptures as though they were of wax to their own party and purpose For though at that time Er. Vincentius Lunellus following the example of Sylvester Prierius Eckius and others their Predecessors was of opinion the Church was to have the first place in dispute as the main and more solid Pillar of Theology to which both Holy Writ and Traditional Authority should only bowe yet that counsel though not proceeding from an evil mind but certainly very imprudent and dangerous was rejected by the other Fathers because the authority of the Church as then esteemed was to be fixed and determined and ought not to be exposed to the least stretch of controversy for fear some impious or unwary mind should chance to fall into or start a doubt Therefore neither have we placed this Divinity of the Roman Church amongst those truths that are to be demonstrated but even in our former Epistle â—et it down as the first and indubitable Principle and such that whoever durst deny or call in question was not to be chastised with weak and ineffective words but furious stripes and unless he soon and seriously repented As a violater and defiler of the Spouse of Christ a disturber of the Holy State and a Traytor both to the divine and half-divine Majesty have his blaspheming tongue cut out or he taken from the number of the living and burnt in expiatory flames according to Christs own command If any one abide not in me that is in the Church which together with the head constitutes the body he is cast forth as a branch Joh. XV. Verse vi and is withered that is being thrown out of the Communion of the Church he is by various torments
Janus Alexandrus Ferrarius An Augustine FRIAR HIS EPISTLES To the TWO BRETHREN OF WALLENBVRGH Concerning the VSEFVLNESS and NECESSITY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICK FAITH Wherein the Ambition and Avarice of the Church of ROME are Lively Demonstrated in a Mathematical Method by a Continued Series of Connexed PROPOSITIONS Ridenti dicere verum Quis vetat From the Original Latine LONDON Printed by Thomas Ratcliffe and Nathaniel Thompson and are to be Sold at their House in Newstreet near Shoe-Lane 1673. To the Right Honourable ANTHONY EARL of SHAFTSBVRY c. Lord HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND My Lord IF those High and Weighty Employments to which your Great Worth and Abilities approved by the Judgment of the most Experienced King of Christendom have Called you can Admit of any Divertisement it will not I hope be thought a Sin in me if I have Attempted thus to Contribute something towards it or if it should yet be pardoned as the Fault of a too hasty Zeal in a Person desirous to thrust himself amongst the croud of your Adorers For deservedly have you my Lord Drawn the Hearts and Affections of the whole English Nation to your Self and never did King and People so Unanimously agree in the Choice of such a great Minister of State Your Virtues making all the World Admire the Kings Judgment and the Kings Judgment confirming to all the World their long before entertained Opinion of your Virtues The King is my Lord notwithstanding all Popish pretences sole Vicar and Vicegerant under God in his own Realms and Dominions and he has Chosen you his Substitute in the Management of his Highest and Greatest Affairs wherein your Conduct has been such as has given him every day new Encouragement to approve the Work of his own Hands and he cannot but with Delight and Satisfaction hear with what Acclamations of Joy and Content the whole Body of the Nation Applaud your Justice Prudence and Equity whereby you have almost quite removed all Misapprehensions they had sometime conceived against Chancellors Nor has your Zeal in the Protecting and Defending the Settled and Established Protestant Religion in this Kingdom appeared less then your great Abilities in State you having largely Contributed your Counsel and Assistance both to King and Parliament for the Weakning the hands of our common Enemy and may therefore claim a Right to Divertise your Self at their Follies But however my Lord this small Present of mine prove let not my Duty and Devotion be accounted a Crime nor that be Blemished as a Presumption which is a sincere tender of my part of that Service and Affection which all men pay you and which shall ever be Paid you by My Lord Your Lordships most Faithful most Humble and most Obedient Servant J. D. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THat Ignoble pair of Wallenburgh Brethren to whom the following Epistles are written Treacherous Hollanders and Popish Renegado's Created indeed Titular Bishops the one of Adrianople the other of Mysia but in troth corrupt Pentioners of the Popes and sworn Slaves to that Servant of Servants have for a long time exercised their mercinary Pens and with united Forces diligently Employed all their Skill and Power to settle and at length Establish that Synagogue of Satan which has so long stood Tottering And when all the old Deceits and Devices were Detected and Exploded advanced new Methods and Ways Hammered out of their own Brains and among others that Form in use among forreign Civilians of Probation by Witnesses not ancient and pure ones but Corrupt ones of the Church of Rome as if the Testimony of that Queen and Mother of Harlots were abundantly sufficient to confirm all her Ridiculous and for the most part Impious Tenents whilst she Exhibited all things under the Regal Signature of Teste meipsa a Priviledge which even Christ Himself the reverenced Head of the Catholick Church truly called so when conversant on Earth scarce ever assumed or thought worth the Claiming These Epistles are Scourges to those Brethren in Iniquity nor as the title of the Book seems to declare are they so much Demonstrations as Derisions of the Roman Catholick Faith under a vail of Kindness and pretence of Reverence smiting it as we say under the fifth Rib For throughout the whole course of the Epistle the Irony is pleasantly play'd with Sharp Taunts witty Jests and biting Reflections every where mixed which the Author chose rather to couch in the Latine Tongue as most proper for treating of things concerning the Roman Church and more applicable to the Wallenburgh Brethren those two new Atlas 's of the Papal Heaven But our Author both bears another name and is by Nation an Englishman and why then should so much Wit and Ingenility of their own be hid from the English or only revealed to a few of no Ignoble Family who enticed by the crafty Arts of those Emissaries was not only initiated in the Mysteries of the Papal Iniquities but bred up in them even to Surfeit and Lothing till growing up to riper Judgment they could no longer impose upon him those portentuous principles of Popery which not only holy Writ but sober Reason utterly abhors and which are even so repugnant to sense that they are rather to be hist at and lasht by bitter Sarcasms then otherwise taken notice of or endeavoured to be confuted by any thing of solid Argument JANUS ALEXANDRUS FERRARIUS OF THE AUGUSTIN ORDER HIS First Epistle Concerning the Usefulness and Necessity of the Roman Catholick Faith To the Right Reverend ADRIAN and PETER of WALENBVRCH MAny have valiantly Most Reverend Sirs and with Various Success contested for the Welfare of the Church against Hereticks but scarce any with a caution and dexterity like yours For when Reason and Experience had taught us that nothing hitherto hath been more pernicious to our Sacred Republick then that the most material and weighty Points contended for should be maintained by the authority of the Scriptures ancient Principles of Christianity You from your admirable immense height of wit have made right discoveries that things are not to be debated with positive Arguments or absolutely pertinent to the matter which the subtilty of Hereticks might easily either pervert or evade but dilatory Exceptions are to be made use of the Court of Scripture to be waved and all Judges besides the Pope to be refused Or else what before all pleased you best That title of long possession and prescription was to be stretch'd upon the tenters and tedious cavils for worldly profit and advantage started Which manner of acting of use indeed in Courts and Seats of Judicature but in matters relating to Faith and the understanding of Divine things utterly unheard of till now when I more curiously considered I could gather nothing else from it but that you by an uncredible perspicuity of understanding had found out that the Controversies to be handled between Catholicks and Hereticks were not to be treated in a Sacred and Religious but
so macerated and dried up that he becomes fitter for fuel and men gather up those branches and cast them into the fire and they are burnt Nor indeed is there any other way since from a common School-prescript Contra negantem principia non est disputandum There 's no disputing against a denier of Principles We have already found out that the authority of the Church ought to be reckoned among those things which the Philosophers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or indemonstrables which though they cannot themselves be proved yet may serve to prove others Nor ought it to trouble us though Hereticks make such a clamorous babbling that Indemonstrables may be three wayes called so For there are some which for their falsity or obscur'd perplexity and incertainty cannot be demonstrated Others may be called Indemonstrables though they have such and so plain a light of Truth that our heart if never so little intent upon them constantly approves them and nothing can be propounded that seems then them more firm and evident Others again may be called so not that they are utterly not to be demonstrated but which already have been demonstrated so that they want not the utmost probation but are taken in the progress of resoning as Principles already certain and evident They therfore i.e. the Hereticks that the authority of our Church is in the first sense Indemonstrable out of derision easily grant But the second and third they deny nay from thence they conclude taking it from your own hint Judgment without evidence or proof of the matter is but rashly given That it is a rashness to believe the authority of the Church Yet am I of the mind that it is all those three wayes and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply and perfectly indemonstrable For that it is so in the first signification from hence manifestly appears that by universal confession it pertains not to Knowledge but to Faith and therefore according to St. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an assent is required to Faith not made apparent for as Clemens Alexandrinus truly sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We embrace Faith from an indemonstrable Principle for what he speaks of the word of God as it manifests it self to him by its own light we much more commodiously pronounce for the Church Whence it is no wonder whilst Faith by general consent is so obscure that 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of things not seen that likewise that proposition The Church of Rome is Mistress of Divine Faith and manners appears not of such evident certainty There is therefore both for its falseness and obscurity between this and other indemonstrable Propositions this vast and terrible difference That the rest onely cannot be demonstrated but this neither can nor ought For certainly That ought not to be done which whilst any one undertakes he both makes himself a laughing-stock and exposes the whole matter to danger and debate But whosoever endeavours to demonstrate the Authority of the Roman Church out of its vulgarly known Principles must as Experience witnesses of necessity run into many wild mazes and windings or fall into greater obscurities and uncertainties Wherefore assenting herein with the very Hereticks themselves we conclude That the Divinity of the Roman Church is in the first sence indemonstrable But how that may likewise be said of the second signification will be of somewhat more difficult disquisition for as you have very well hinted Most Reverend Brothers In vain do we seek for the evidence of things in the Roman Faith as things which do not appear that is by the interpretation of the Apostle things that have no being from whence it happens that when we hear those words The Roman Church is Mistress of all we do not immediately yield stedfast assent to it as if it were an undoubted Truth nor find we any force upon our Souls to constrain our belief of it Wherefore this proposition seems not to deserve any place among those which with one single prospect of the Mind are at once perceived and approved of by us But yet indeed to remove that difficulty it should diligently be weighed that the Mind of Man may be two several ways affected for either it is simple and unbyassed by any thing of prejudice or otherwise disposed to some agreeing temper and as it were seasoned with some savour for the most part it has not light proper for discerning this Truth nay sometimes is so absolutely indocible to any belief that without that light which proceeds from a flaming Faggot it can never be effectually illustrated but this is so ordained and established without any arguing or fear of Error that though as the Proverb says The Church should sheep with both Eyes yet it hath conclusively both for knowledge and all faith that manly magisterial Ipsa Dixit But of such a mind the perception is like to that which when quickest sighted deny the seeing of Phantasms Visions it does pretend distinctly and accurately to see every thing no otherwise then those who beholding their first Vital Light on a Sunday are reputed to see Fayries and Hobgoblins and other Spirits of the Night Wandring Fires and Terrors of the Grave which others in the clearest light and under what Star soever born nay though they had Lynceus his Eyes cannot at all discern Nor ought any one to derogate from this Judgment of ours that in the manner we have declared many Spirits are so senseless and insipid as to adhere without any discernment or Examination to what has from their tenderest age been taught them or rather commanded them by their Nurses and Tutors For it does not from thence follow that in those kinds of knowledge they should not see as clear as others for even Experience it self teaches That those who are weak-sighted do in the thickest darkness see a thousand strange and discoloured Figures which fly before a quick and piercing Eye Thus as those who with the violence of a Feaver grow distracted often fancy things in their imaginations which the soundest minds could never conceive yet neither weakness of Eyes nor Feavers nor Distractions are reckoned among Vices So though neither stupidity nor folly nor an unapt propension to Faith in any thing are accounted among Virtues of the Mind yet they are used so to instruct and perfect Man as to make him at first view embrace this Principle of the Churches Authority and firmly adhere to it for it is necessary that between our Faculties and those Observations laid down to us a certain due reason or proportion should interpose that as it is in the Proverb Time and Straw ripens Medlars that is brings them to a perfect rottenness and corruption None therefore need think it a wonder if what we have asserted concerning the Divinity of the Roman Church do seem a little obscure to an Understanding not yet initiated or at all accustomed to our Principles whilst that I may use the solemn words of our
Reverend ADRIAN and PETER of WALLENBVRGH Most Reverend Men T IS true indeed you say That Dialogue lately sent from Italy and which by Letter I Communicated to You contains a true Image of the Roman Church Who Usinulca is Boys may learn out of Argenis who Rethulus Sarmens Crendassa The transposition of the Letters shows Valentia is Rome Mentirdut Tridentum or Trent by Instructors are signified Bishops and by Tutors Emperors and Kings Thus all things are made plain But what to some People seems inconvenient that the speakers should take the rule of their discourse rather from Petronius Aretine Miletus then from holy Scriptures or graver Histories that our Siderius do's not at all value For he says That as he believes the minds of holy Men in their closer converse with God would be best expressed in the delicate and lovely Hebrew Stile so Minds estranged from the first truth and alienated from all goodness are best represented in a Scheme of Obscene and Adulterous Expressions And to that purpose he praises in that book which we all account Holy those Orations of Ezekiel Cap. XVI XXIII as well as those of Hosea However it ought to be I altogether leave to you but I must tell you the Author of this Dialogue is a Heretick and a most implacable Enemy of our Church of Rome Wherefore I think we ought to labour more diligently that our begun demonstrations may be the sooner perfected that so the fundamentals of the Catholick Faith may more plainly appear And to that end what comes next in order is PROPOSITION VII That Religion which we call Christian as it was by Christ at first delivered to his Apostles is in it self and in the Nature of its Principles most unapt for Salvation Whereupon it was of absolute necessity for those first publishers of the Gospel enormously to wander and go astray from the very Foundation of the Catholick Doctrine and that Scope of the whole Faith EXPLICATION T is now about One Thousand Six Hundred Sixty seven Years if we may believe the incertain calculation of a certain Roman Abbot since there was in Judaea of Kingly Stock indeed but very poor Parentage Born one Jesus Sirnamed Christ He both the Holiness of His Life and the Miracles by which He grew Famous and other Excellent Doctrine made Himself appear not only to be a Man but even a Divinity it self Whence He called Himself Son of the most Highest and thought it no Robbery to be Equal with God There flourished then in the Roman World two most powerful kinds of Religion one of which was the Worship of the Jews the other that so called of the Gentiles The first prescribed by the Creator of all things and confirmed by many Prodigies acknowledged but one God and yet Groaned under such a mighty Load of Ceremonies that it moved not so much the People by the rules of its Governance as because it contained so much of the Authority of the Legislator The latter devised only from the Wit of Mankind as the invention of several Men are always diverse and several contained many things different from nay even contrary to the rules of Divine Worship all which notwithstanding centred in this That though they taught the Worship of many gods they did not one damn the other whence that Religion though composed of such manifold variety seemed not at all the less Simple or United Therefore both those toilsom rites of the Jews and the Idolatry of the Gentiles the most Wise Jesus quite took away and reduced all Religion to the first Principles of right Reason and Native or simple Ingenuity One only thing he added and effectually exhibited the Mystery the Propitiation and Attonement of one particular Deity which by the Sufferings and Death of that Deity was to be perfected Which Doctrine fetch'd from the most secret holy recesses of Heaven and to all past Ages of Mankind utterly unheard of did most wonderfully Illustrate as well the immense Wisdom and Goodness of God as the strict and unalterable observance of Divine Justice whence of necessity there must needs arise and be confirmed in minds at all seasoned with Divine Grace both an Admiration and Reverence of the Deity and a veneration of Love Duty Gratitude In which both the knowledge and use of all Religion is consummated This Christ having suffered a most cruel Death and again got the Victory over it being to return to His Fathers place committed the farther propagation of that Saving Doctrine which he had chiefly Expounded to the Jews and the Preaching it among all other Nations of the World to certain of his Kinsmen and Followers Weak and unlearned Men and of the meanest of the People These being Born in an obscure place bred up among Sordid Fisher-men and oppressed with Poverty having their minds dejected and incapable of great things understood nothing but what was mean and low yet they had heard the magnificent promises of their Master which being fully perswaded that he was a Man altogether Divine they could not at all think Vain or He in the least a Lyar. Whereupon when they beheld no way lie open for them to arrive at ampler Fortunes here which indeed they had senced against themselves by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dejection of mind but that though they went about under a most honourable Embassy in the name of God yet they were every where most contumeliously treated and obnoxious to the most grievous injuries they placed their hopes in a future age dreaming that what for the present was denied them should be enjoyed by them after Death not unlike to that Nuper Tarpeio quae sedit culmine Cornix Est bene non potuit dicere dixit Erit A Crow sitting on the Tarpeian Hill Could not cry all is well but cry'd it will And seasoned as it were by a kind of prepossession with this error they understood nothing rightly of all those things they had either received from ancient Prophecies or the Promises they had heard from their Master for they most unseasonably and importunately recommended nothing more then Patience Forbearance abstaining from Pleasures Humility and Moderation of Mind together with taking up as they called it of the Cross and Crucifying of the Flesh Self-denial contempt of the World and neglect of Riches In a word the defrauding of Sense and renouncing even Humane Nature They urged likewise Obedience to Kings and Princes and that Magistracy was not to be strove against under any pretence of Religion or holy Orders but the Powers Established by God to be submitted to Thus broke they the minds of Men and recalled them from all studies after Riches Honours or Power and to that end whatever they taught of the Glory or Majesty of the Church they applied to some Spiritual Excellency and Inward Grace of the Soul whence it came to pass that by all those who are only wise for the present they were not only treated with Contempt and Scorn
Dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them but it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister And again He that would be the greatest among you let him be as the least and he that would command as him that serveth Which words might possibly disturb them and lead them into that Error as if it were forbid them to affect Government or seek Empire over Emperours but however that were In this at least the Apostles grievously err'd that they gave the same Precepts to their Successors which had been given to them when the Reason of things are quite otherwise For as Severinus of Mozambane has most rightly observed in his Golden Commentary to his Brother Laelius Postquam recentiorum Portuna sacerdotum De Statu Im. Gem. cap. 2. immane quantum a tenuibus Antiquis-simorum rebus discessit Absurdum fuerit illosamplius adstringere velle Obsoletis super modestia ejus Ordinis hominum a salvatore promulgatis Et fortasse istae leges ad prima illa tempora duntaxat debebant valere Nam id revera ridiculum erat homines Piscatores aut Textores Primum locum affectare quibus in diem victus aut labore manuum aut stipibus collatis quaerebatur Since the fortunes of the latter Clergy has been so wonderfully changed even from the slightest things of the Ancient it would be absurd any longer to tie up them to those obsolete Laws for the Modesty sake of that first Order of men to whom they were at first published by our Saviour and possibly those Laws were designed only to be of force in those first Times For it would certainly have been very Ridiculous that Fishermen and Weavers should have affected the first places who were daily to seek their Bread either from the Labour of their hands or Set-wages Which distinction the Apostles not observing gave occasion to Hereticks and to those who are often worse then Hereticks Politicians to think that those Answers of our Saviours might appertain likewise to our Days then which no Opinion can be more pernicious to our Church or more scandalous to Pious minds And hence it comes to pass that the Right of Fishing which in all Lands nay even in the Super-caelestial and Infernal Waters does Jure Divino belong to our Popes is at this day Prohibited them and that neither in the Brittish Ocean the Baltick Sea the Lake Lemane nor the Rivers of Germany they are admitted such free Fishing as formerly Nay it was once to be feared least it would have been Prohibited in the Neighbouring Adriatick Epist Piscat venet ad Paulum V. as one of his own Tribe Pisanius di Pizzoni an Honest man and a Lover of his Country very Brotherly admonishes So much is that Puzillaminity of the Apostles and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Simplicity in which they used to Glory hurtful to the present Church DEMONSTRATION Since the Apostles aim'd at nothing High nothing Sublime but with broken and dejected minds praised and recommended only Plebeian Virtues such as Modesty Patience Humility by which not only the Churches Welfare is impeded but the whole Structure utterly overturned It is of necessary consequence that they Enormously have straied from the foundation of the Catholick Doctrine and the whole Scope of that Faith and therefore the Religion by them delivered is in it self and the Nature of its Principles very unapt for the attaining of Salvation which is what was to be Demonstrated It will be therefore our Business quite to remove or at least to amend all ill placed things from those Principles and accommodate them to the Establishment of the Sacred Empire which in our next Letters we shall begin to do In the mean time Farewel and take diligent care of Brevingius Health Paris Cal. June MDCLxvii JANUS ALEXANDRUS FERRARIUS OF THE AUGUSTIN ORDER HIS Seventh Epistle Concerning the Usefulness and Necessity of the Roman Catholick Faith To the Right Reverend ADRIAN and PETER of WALENBVRCH Right Reverend Brothers THat the Christian Religion as it was at first dictated by the Apostles is both in its self and in the Nature of its Principles not at all fit or proper for attaining Salvation or establishing the Royal Priesthood of Rome We have in the preceding Epistle at large set forth There remains that we as evidently demonstrate what is therefore to be done with it To which end we lay down PROPOSITION VIII Though the Christian Religion do's unreasonably and even to abhorrency differ from the ends and aim of our holy Roman Church yet it is not at all adviseable that where it is approved by Reason introduced by Custom and established by the Authority of Princes attempt should be made openly to ruine it at one violent impetuous stroke EXPLICATION Sect. 1. There have been those indeed who have adjudged it ought utterly to be overthrown and openly destroyed as altogether so erroneous from the most profitable and therefore main end of True Faith That there seemed but little hopes it should ever by any Art or Industry be wrought to our purpose or if possibly it were never so well accomodated there was still some hazard lest at some time or other it should unawares revert to its pristine Nature and to that dull and Sterril genius first possest it And that this was no vain fear the experience of former as well as present times has taught us For from whence have the Rebel Hereticks raised more and more serviceable Engins to assail the Powers of our Sacred Empire then from the most hidden and secret Mysteries of the Christian Religion Which if they had been not only hidden and as it were Plaistred over but utterly blotted out they could never have provided themselves of such vast quantity of Arms against our Church Sect. 2. But though this may have prudently enough been thought of by some yet before we can assent to it we think it convenient other ways of proceeding be first examined For in affairs of this kind which are on every side encompassed with difficulties the first way presenting it self is not obstinately to be held but all are to be made trial of that after having diligently compared one with another we may make choice of the safest and easiest Sect. 3. And the first thing herein to be taken notice of is what has in this case been the opinion of wise Men in former times Among which we may account of Mahomet a Man as the event testifies of a very clear Judgment whose example we should be the more earnest to imitate because he so happily prosecuted the same purpose and was verst in the same cause with us Wherefore the very Hereticks themselves make him a Colleague with our Pope and whilst they will have Antichrist to be two-headed or at least two-horned they give the right Horn to our most holy Father and the Left they place on Mahomet For this Mahomet when
the Greeks foolishness and to the Jews a stumbling-block they forbore to Preach Christ Crucified whom only Paul professed to know and set up another Christ Beautiful Splendid Clad in Chiness habit who with wonderful Magnificence had formerly descended from Heaven into Europe and foretold the Reign of our Pope Palafor in Epist ad Innoc. x. Pontif viii Joan. And also in Diario de Mr. de St. Amour Doctoris Sorbon alegatorum Nothing Preached they of Christ Crucified nothing of Mortification nothing of Fasting nothing of Repentance nothing of yearly receiving the Sacrament so that if the Church would again teach the Chinesses and Instruct them in the right Rules of Faith they would oppose it and cry out they were deceived for no Fasting Religion no Penitent and Weeping Faith dreadful to Nature enemy to the Flesh destined to Death and Danger No Saviour Crucified had their Masters the Jesuits told them of They will protest they Embraced him not as Man and God Scourged Spit on Contemned loaden with Wounds hanging on the Cross and Dead but received a Saviour Beautiful Lovely Glorious such as the Jesuits paint him in the Chiness habit and a Law and course of Life Easie Pleasant Sweet Delightful Merry and Peaceable 14. Yet this new Method some have disallowed and among those great stirs were raised in this matter by John Palafox de Mendoza Bishop of the City of Angels in America and Dean of the Counsel of the Indies a man too Simple and Rude to understand these Arts. He possibly imagined with himself that Anathema which St. Paul pronounced Gal. 1.8 Even against an Angel from Heaven preaching any other Gospel was to this day and even in the Indies themselves of force and did not rightly Interpret another saying of the same St. Paul So that Christ be Preached that is so that Christs Name be retained Led by which Errors this Morose old man publickly damn'd that Jesuitical Catechism whereupon it was no wonder if he were disturbed in his Bishoprick cast out of the City and by the Ignatian Society made a comman Laughing-stock having a Cross put upon him made of Bulls Horns whilst they sung as a Litany From Bishop Palafox Good Lord deliver us as himself in his Letters most lamentably complains Certainly he that thus durst stickle for the ancient Purity and Simplicity of Religion was worthy to be turned out of doors there eternally and bitterly to Weep and exercise Fasting as long as he pleased 15. Indeed many good and simple Men throughout Europe were much offended at the declarations and importunate complaints of this Bishop and such like imprudent Men whom that the Pope might in some measure satisfie and perhaps being justly fearful by sacred edict he restrained the publication of that Method the instrument of which prohibition was lately transmitted us by Hurtado a Spanish Divine Thomas Hurt in Opusc Colon. â— 1655. But that Censure is not at all to be interpreted as relating to the Christians Inhabiting beyond Ganges and the Equinoctial Line when it was only made in favour of those who yet in Europe retain some remains of ancient Christianity as to omit others the famous Didacus de Moralez a Jesuite Rector of the Colledge of St. Joseph in the City of Manilia which is the Capital of the Phillipines has taught us in one entire and solid volume 16. And since things are so I believe that the safest way which the Emperours of old held in Converting the Roman Commonwealth into a Dominion For as they left some resemblances of the late liberty though the liberty was wholly taken away so it will be convenient to expose some image of Christ though himself by degrees be utterly abolished To which end we may observe the advice of the most Religious Machiavel Whoever would innovate the form of the Commonwealth in that attempt Disput de Repub. lib. 1. c. 25. it is necessary that he retain some shadow of things that were before for so it comes to pass that the People do not think any thing changed though all things be innovated For the People use to look no farther then things are Visible and outward appearances and as such takes and receives them though the Magistrate plainly creates new things and new duties are imposed upon Men yet retaining the same names they are thought still to be the same Hence may evidently be gathered The CONCLVSION Since the Condition and State of things permits not that Christ be taken from the midst of us by open Violence 't is adviseable to dispatch Him by a lingering Consumption and whilst He Withers and Pines away by Babylonish or Egyptian Arts so temper harden and paint Him over that He may be imposed upon duller Understandings as the Image of a lively and perfect body Which Arts that I may truly set forth and particularly explain I humbly supplicate that Spirit which resides in the Cabinet of our Popes Brest not to think we unworthy of his Guidance and Inspiration And you likewise Most Reverend Men assist me with your Prayers and Intercession to him Dated in the Library of the great Convent these Calends of December MDcLxvii FINIS