TRUE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC FAITH maintain'd in the CHURCH of ENGLAND By ANDREW SALL Doctor in Divinity Being A Reply to several Books published under the names of J.E. N.N. and J.S. against his Declaration for the Church of England and against the motives for his Separation from the Roman Church declared in a Printed Sermon which he Preached in Dublin Psal 27. v. 1. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple Printed at the Theater in OXFORD 1676. IMPRIMATUR RAD. BATHVRST Vice-Can Oxon. June 23. 1676. To his EXCELLENCY The most Honorable Arthur Earle of Essex Viscount Malden Baron Capel of Hadham Lord Lieutenant General and General Governor of his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of the County of Hertford and one of the Lords of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Council My LORD HERE I present to your Excellency a defence of the true primitive and Catholic Apostolic Faith maintained and professed in the Church of England against the assaults of Adversaries so bold â—s to present the venem they spit against it one of them to a most Illustrious person of the Court of England another to the generality of the people and a third to your Excellency representative of our Gracious Soveraign in Ireland This last in a mockery like that of Judas betraying our Saviour with a kiss while he endeavours to bereave your Excellency of the life of your soul telling you that * I. S. pag. 140. and 304. the Church of England your Mother is not the Church of Christ nor any part of it that no Saint which is to say no just man or true servant of God was ever of it that you cannot without Blasphemy alledg Scripture for your Tenets with other like most insolent opprobries He stiles himself your Excellencies most humble and faithful servant He would have your Excellency burn the defenders of your Church for offering to deny that we are all confessedly Schismatics When our Adversaries are so bold and active it is much our concern to watch and stand on our guard I should prove undeserving the Gracious protection and favour I have from your Excellency enabling me to appear for truth if in this Exigency I did desert the defence of it I will therefore bâ— Gods Holy assistance betake me to the arms oâ— his Holy word to resist the insulting and detect the fraud of subtil and violent adversaries of the true Catholic Faith appearing under the veil of defenders of it and endeavor to shew with unfaigned plain and solid proofs that the Faith we profess in the reformed Church of England in which many other Illustrious nations join with us is the true primitive Catholic Apostolic faith which our Savior Jesus and his sacred Apostles taught and established on earth that our adversaries branding us with Heresy and Schism are themselves the prime cause of all the schisms and confusions which too long have vexed Christianity and are guilty of as many Heresies as Articles coined by them in after ages which I hope we shall prove to be opposit both to Canonical Scripture and to the Doctrin and practice of the Primitive Catholic and Apostolic Church In which opposition certainly the true nature of Heresy doth consist however they to their own advantage would make men believe that the Popes pleasure and decrees must be the rule of all and nothing Heresy but what is opposit to them His pretended Infallibility Supremacy Vice-Godship and such like big sounding Titles but emty as here will appear have frighted a great part of men to becom slaves unto him The invention of Purgatory indulgences remissions and other engines of lucre have increased his means to maintain his usurped power My work will be to shew with plainess of reasons suitable to the sincerity of my intention and apposit to overthrow their sophistry that the forementioned tenets of the Romish faction fewel of all the Combustions of Christendom are not from above conveied by the Holy Ghost but conceived in the mints of earthly passions for the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easy to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without Hypocrisy Jam. 3.17 Such is not the wisdom taught by the Roman Court or Church if they will have it so called It is not pure but corrupted with many pernicious errors as will appear in this Treatise It is not peaceable but contentious not easy to be intreated but obstinat against all reasonable overtures of peace against the continual and ardent desire of all good Christians for a Council truly Occumenical and free wherein the Roman Bishop and faction as others may sit with like freedom and indifferency to judg and to be judged by the â—ord of God and rules of Christian sincerity as practised in those purer ages of primitive Christianity Nothing will satisfy them but a blind obedience and entire submission to their will Far are they from being full of Mercy their thoughts are not of peace but of death and destruction to all their fellow Christians that will not be of their party All this I shall endeavor to demonstrate by a close and serious Examen of the particulars conducing to the discovery thereof with no other design then the Glory of God with no prejudice or Passion against the Roman Church but with a hearty desire of the happiness of it that setting aside all profane policy it may return to that primitive purity and lustre it had when the Faith of it was praised throughout the whole World Rom. 1.8 and so join heart and hands with other Christians to the Edification and thereby to to the Conversion of Infidels and to the encrease and splendor of Christianity This being my real intention as well as the hearty wishes of all good men in the reformed Churches sure I am that my study and endeavors to this end will be protected and countenanced by your Exellency Whose happiness Eternal and Temporal is the hearty and continual Prayer of Your Excellencies most Devoted Servant and Chaplain ANDREW SALL THE PREFACE SAINT John tells us that all the world lieth in wickedness 1 Jo. c. 5. v. 19. that hatred envy malice avarice and ambition are the most common â—actice of men If so who can expect a general apâ—ause of his actions exposed to public view What â—eed tho in it self just and commendâ—ble did ever â—â—ease a bitter enemy What elegancy of speech what â—â—rength of reasons could ever sound well in the ears of â—im whose cause they opposed And if envy reignâ—â—th could that black passion ever omit to lessen â—he credit of such as were applauded But if others â—retend to be wits now called so it is not for them â—o let any action pass without a Censure or without â—inding in it a
perspicacity in striking the nail in the head This indeed is that stumbling stone and Rock of offence This is the chief and I may say the only cause of that irreconcileable disunion of the Roman Church with us We know by certain and well authorized * Tortura torti Pag. 152. records that Pope Paul the Fourth offered Queen Elizabeth to approve of the Reformation if the Queen would acknowledg his Primacy and the Reformation from him and he being dead his Successor Plus the 4. prosecuted the same as appears by his letters written the 5 * Cambden Anno 1560. of * Twisden H. Vind. Cap. IX n. 5. May 1560. and sent by Vincentius Parpalia offering to confirm the Liturgy of the English Church if she would acknowledg his Supremacy This being told by Sir Roger Twisden as he relates himself to an Italian Gentleman versed in public affairs together with the grounds on which he spake it well said the Gentleman if this were heard in Rome among religious Men it would never gain credit but with such as have in their hands the maneggi della corte the management of the court affairs it may be held true And indeed suâ—h as know the spirit of that Court may easily believe that if this great point of the Supremacy the foundation of their power and grandeur were agreed upon they would easily wink at other dissentions Whereof we have a pregnant testimony from Bellarmin Lib. 3. de Ecclesia Cap. 20. asserting that even such as have no interiour Faith nor any Christian vertue are to be taken for members of the Catholic Church provided they do but outwardly profess the Faith of the Roman Church and subjection to the Pope tho it be only for some temporal interest So ready they are in Rome to embrace all sorts of men provided they acknowledg the Popes Supremacy This being established all is well being denyed the best of Men and soundest Believers in Christ must be damned Heretics by sentence of that Court. But I shall declare sufficiently in the 15. Chapter of the 2d part of this Treatise how vain the pretence of Suarez and his party is to make the Popes Supremacy an article of saving Faith how unjust and tyrannical an usurpation it is how far the best Popes in the Primitive Church were from pretending to it and more from pressing it upon Christians as an article of saving Faith And indeed it must appear strange to any impartial judgment that the System of articles contained in the three Creeds and four first general Councels which gained the name of Catholic to the Church first called so should not suffice to make a Church Catholic in all times Therefore the Church of England professing all those Articles is to be taken for truly Catholic tho denying the Popes Supremacy not contained in the foresaid System nor ever own'd by the Church first called Catholic as hereafter will be proved As to the second sort of Universality consisting in taking the Word of God for a common reason or rule of belief how can any pretend the Church of England to be deficient herein having ever protested that the Word of God contained in Canonical Scripture is the prime and only rule of its belief while the Roman Church denies to stand to this rule as unable to make out all the belief it would force upon us What Suarez pretends that the Church of England wants a rule infallible for knowing which is true Scripture and the true meaning of it which they conceive to have themselves in the Popes infallibility I shall declare in the eighth Chap. of the 2d part of this Treatise how vain it is we having in universal tradition and in the Writings of the Holy Fathers means sufficiently certain for knowing which is the true Scripture and which the true meaning of it in points necessary to Salvation As for others less necessary if there be obscurity and diversity of opinions among our Writers so is there among theirs nor could their pretended Infallibility ever make them agree Nay among the best and wisest Fathers of the Church there was alwaies a great diversity of opinions in points not fundamental without breach of Catholic and Christian union Now concerning the third kind of union or universality consisting in a hierarchical order of Bishops Priests and Deacons c. Suarez is much mistaken in saying that we have them not true and legal I will declare at large from the fifth Chapter following that we have all the security they have of a legal sucession and true ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons It s their concern we should not be found deficient herein for any defect conceived in our hierachy will reflect upon theirs Finally touching the fourth manner of Universality signified by the name Catholic that a Church or Faith so called should be extended over all the Earth Suarez exceeds much in denying this property to the Church of England or Faith professed in it saying it passes not the bounds of Brittish land To which is contrary that grave and modest testimony of King James related by Suarez in the same place chapter xv n 6. Nos Dei benesicio nec numero nec dignitate ita sumus contemnendi qui â—â—ono vicinis nostris exemplo praeire possimis quandoquidem Christiani orbis omniumque in eo ordinum inde à Regibus liberisque Principibus usque ad insimae conditionis homines pars propè media in nostram Religionem consensit We by the grace of God are not so despicable either for number or dignity that we may not be a good example to our Neighbours whereas neer the one half of the Christian World and all orders of People in it from Kings and Soverain Princes to the meanest sort of persons have already embraced our Religion I shall declare hereafter from the XIX Chapter descending to particulars that this saying of King James was both true and modest and that more then the one half of the Christian World agrees with the Church of England in unity of Faith sufficient to render them Catholic and that the Church of Rome may cease bragging of her extent being now come so short of that latitude which made her swell to the contemt of all other Christian Churches now far exceeding her in number and lustre of Princes and Kingdoms embracing the Faith professed in them Suarez preventing a check to his argument from this discovery in the XVI Chapter num 4. of his said Book premises that this general extension of the Catholic Church over all the World is to be understood of extension either by right or by actual possession and tho the latter be deficient the former of right cannot want Christ having commanded that his Gospel should be preached to all the World But how can Suarez pretend that this right should belong to the Faith of his Church rather then to that of the Church of England whereas this latter preacheth only for object of
my great comfort and no small grief to consider the disingenuity of Romanists in fomenting animosities among Christians by calumniating thus the opposers of their errors CHAP. XIII Of the several large and flourishing Christian Churches in the Eastern Countries not subject to the Pope TO all men truly zealous of the honour of God and of his Son Jesus Christ it cannot but be comfortable to see how happily the blessed Apostles have complied with the command of our Soveraign Lord and Saviour * Math. 28 â—9 Go and teach all Nations baptizing in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and how gloriously the Churches planted by them have persevered in the Faith of our Saviour in spight of the greatest persecutions and under the greatest Enemies of the Christian name such as the Turk is known to be and yet under his Domions is a numberless number of Christians of which the Grecians are for antiquity number and dignity the chief They acknowledg obedience to the Patriarch of Constantinople under whose jurisdiction are in Asia the Christians of Natolia Circassia Mengrelia and Russia as in Europe also the Christians of Grece Macedon Epirus Thrace Bulgaria Servia Bosnia Walachia Moldavia â—odolia Moscovia together with all the Islands of the Aegean Sea and others about Grece as far as Corfu besides a good part of the large Dominion of Polonia and those parts of Dalmatia and Croatia that are subject to the Turkish Dominion all which Congregations of Christians subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople do exceed in number them of the Romish Communion as I find recorded by diligent a Brerewood inquiries cap. 15. Pagit Christianography cap. 2. Writers whereof Pagit saies that Christians make up the two third parts of the Grand Signiors Subjects All these Churches do deny the Popes Supremacy they account the Pope and his Church Schismatical The Patriarch of Constantinople doth yearly upon the Sunday called Dominica invocavit solemnly excommunicate the Pope and his Clergy for Schismatics They deny Transubstantiation touching which point Cyril Patriarch of Constantinople delivereth this excellent confession as agreeable to the Doctrine of the Church of England as opposite to the Romish In the Eucharist saith b Cap. 17. Pag. 60. he we do confess a true and a real presence of Christ but such a one as Faith offereth us not such as devised Transubstantiation teacheth for we believe the Faithful to eat Christ's body in the Lords Supper not sensibly champing it with our teeth but partaking it with the sense of the soul For that is not the Body of Christ which offereth it self to our Eies in the Sacrament but that which Faith spiritually apprehendeth and offereth to us Hence ensueth that if we believe we eat and participate if we believe not we receive no profit by it Hieremy the Patriarch teacheth a change of bread into the Body of Christ which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a transmutation which is not sufficient to infer a Transubstantiation because it may only signify a mystical alteration which the Patriarch in the same place plainly sheweth saying that the mysteries are truly the Body and Blood of Christ not that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he are changed into humane flesh but we into them for the better things have ever the preeminence The words of Cyril and Hieremy in Greek are to be found with Mr. Pagit in his Christianographie Cap. 4. They deny Purgatory fire So Nilus Arch-Bishop of Thessalonica a Nilus p 219. de purg igne we have not received by tradition from our teachers that there is any fire of purgatory nor any temporal punishment by fire neither do we know of any such Doctrine taught in the Eastern Church b Castr adver haeres l. 12. p. 1.8 Alphonsus de Castro It is one of the most known errors of the Grecians and Armenians that they teach there is no place of Purgatory where Souls after this Life are purged from their corruptions which they have contracted in their Bodies before they deserve to be received into the Eternal tabernacles They administer the Eucharist in both kinds of which c Cyr c 17. p. 61. Câ—rill the Patriarch As the institutor speaketh of his Body so also of his blood which commandment ought not to be rent asunder or mangled according to humane arbitrement but the institution delivered to be kept intire a Resp p. 129 distinct 31. aliter They allow married Priests Hier. Patr. We do permit those Priests that cannot contain the use of marriage They deny the worship of Images Concerning which point b Cyr. resp ad inter 4. p. 97. Cyril speaketh we forbid not the historical use of Pictures Painting being a famous and commendable Art we grant to them that will have them the pictures of Christ and Saints but their adoration and worship we detest as forbidden by the Holy Ghost in holy Scripture least we should before we are aware adore colours instead of our Creatour and Maker They acknowledg the sufficiency of Scripture for an entire rule of Faith and of our Salvation Of which c Damasc de Orthodoxa fide lib. 1. c. 1. Damascen giveth this testimony What soever is delivered unto us in the Law and in the Prophets by the Apostles and Evangelists that we receive acknowledg and reverence and beside these we require nothing else They do not forbid the layty the reading of Scriptures As the reading of Scripture is forbidden to no Christian Man saith Cyril the Patriarch so no Man is to be kept from the reading of it for the word is near in their mouth and in their hearts Therefore manifest injury is offered to any Christian Man of what rank or condition soever he be who is deprived or kept from reading or hearing the Holy Scripture They allow no private Masses as Châ—traeus relates No private Masses saies he are celebrated among the Grecks without other communicants as their liturgies and faithfull relations testifâ— They have prayer in a known tongue They use not prayer for Souls to be delivered out of purgatory nor the extreme unction nor elevating and carrying about the Sacrament that it may be adored nor indulgences nor sale of Masses Neither is there in their Canon any mention made of the sacrifice of the Body and blood of Christ for the living and dead as Chytraeus Guagnirus and others quoted by a Pagit c. 4. Pagit do relate Other differences of less account betwixt the Grecian Church and the Roman you may see related by b Brerew c. 15. Possev dereb Muscov pag. 38. Brerewood and Possevin Of the same Religion with the Grecians are the Christians of the vast and mighty Empire of Muscovia and Russia under their Metropolitan the Arch-Bishop of Mosco nominated and appointed by the Prince the Emperour of Russia and upon this nomination consecrated by two or three of his own suffragans To these may
q. 1. Bonaventure c Scot. 1. Sent. d. prima q. 1. Scotus d Aquin. 1. p. q. 36.42 Aquinas and others do endeavour to excuse the Grecians in their chief error touching the proceeding of the Holy Ghost only from the Father and not from the Son saying that therein they differ from the Roman Church only in the manner of speaking not in the substance of Doctrine CHAP. XIX N. N. His Book intitled the bleeding Iphigenia examined his abusive language bestowed therein upon persons of Honour and his censure upon the Kings Majesty reprehended THo this Book begins with me and in the running Title stiles it self a prefâ—ce to the other greater Book designed against me yet I have so little a share of this preface directed to me as I hope the discreet Reader will excuse me if I be not so large in discussing it as some may expect Truly the matter and style of it is of that nature as made me ambiguous for a time in resolving upon any reply to it But upon more consideration I conceived it my duty to make the reflexions following upon it After having bestowed some few Pages in bemoaning a supposed fall of mine from the Catholic Faith he falls suddenly to lament the sufferings of the Irish and to accuse the supposed authors of it As to the first I have endeavored to give satisfaction in the whole discourse of this Treatise if he has true charity for me he will be glad to find that I am not in that bad condition he supposed And if he will be ingenuous and has not resolved as 't is usual with them to shut his eies against all evidences that may let him see his errors or entertain a charitable thought of his Christian Neighbors he may see cleerly by what I have said hitherto that by embracing the Communion of the Church of England I have not forsaken the true Catholic Faith and Church that I am far from being guilty of the Heresies or associate of those Heretics he mentions Now as to the second touching the miseries of the Irish I heartily condole with him therein but cannot approve of his manner of pleading for them nor of some Doctrines he le ts fall by the way I think it to be a more Christian duty and more becoming a good Pastor to exhort people in affliction to a conformity with Gods Holy will and to an acknowledgment of their sins that drew his anger upon them with due repentance of them then to excuse their errors and thereby to encourage them to provoke divine justice to further severities against them The former I have don on all occasions the second I see you do in the particulars of your Book which I am to examine now I will not debate with you touching the matters of fact you handle who begun or were more faulty in those unhappy revolutions I do not envy you the occasion you had of greater knowledg in that part then I who departed the Country in my younger age two years before those Tragedies begun and never returned until some years after our Soveraigns happy Restauration I leave to others better furnished with notices to examine what you say that way But I may judg of the style and Doctrinal part of your Book grounding my judgment as I hope I shall do upon good reasons And first as touching the style I am probably perswaded that no sober or wise man even of the party you pretend to favour will approve of the harsh and contemtuous language wher with you speak of persons of great honor and quality especially of one of the great Peers of the Realm an Earle and son to one of the greatest Earles of this Monarchy Lord President of that fair and goodly Province of Munster so stiled by your self not to mention his personal talents apt to make even one of lower birth noble and to gain him respect All these titles Honorable qualities could not induce you to give him once any of those civilities and marks of respect that are due to persons of his degree and quality And what is yet more intolerable not contented to abuse his person you extend your contemtuous Language to his whole family linked by manifold ties of consanguinity with the most illustrious families of England and Ireland I know that one of the rules of your Roman * Index expurg noviss edit Matrit 1667. regul gener 16. advertent 5. Todo lo que tiene sonido â—o apariencia de alabanza se les niegue a los que estan fuera de la yglesia Specialmente todos los epitetos de bueno virtuoso y pio nlâ—el titulo de Doctor O maestro ni el de theologo Permittese dar le titulo de Sennor o Don a quien es Sennor temporal y el de Padre o suegro a quien lo es por cortezia aunque no se le deve Expurgatory is to blot out of all Books any honorary title of wit or vertue given to Heretics which is to say in their Language to any Christian that is not of their communion a rule indeed rude enough but I did not hear yet of any rule given for divesting Earles and Lords of their ordinary titles rather the said rules permit it of courtesy if it be not perhaps a branch of that grand power they give to the Pope of deposing Kings of which N. N. may pretend to partake so much as may enable him to degrade an Earle Certainly this practise of speaking with contemt to Peers Presidents of provinces may be sooner learned in the Schole of Rome then in the Schole of Christ and of his Apostles When our dear Saviour was brought before the president of Judea Pilate and most unjustly sentenced to death by him he uttered no bitter or contemtuous word against him When the great Apostle Paul was before Porcius Festus Governour of the same Province and abused by him calling his excellent speech madness Paul answered him in mild and respectful terms * Ac. 2â— 25 I am not mad most noble Festus but speak forth the words of truth and soberness Could not you likewise speak what you conceive to be truth with soberness without offending Governors and great men by contemtuous expressions Doth your calling give you greater right to reprehend Princes and Governors then that of Christ and St. Paul did to them Thus matters do go in the Schole of Christ and of his Apostles but the Roman Schole teaches different Lessons a very famous one N. N. professes to have learned there which is that he honors the Pope or Bishop of Rome whom â—e calâ—s Luminare Majus the greater light more then the King whom he stiles Luminare minus the meaner light This he saith to be the practise of his Catholics which was taught to them by Pope Innocent the Third declaring himself to be as much above Emperors and Kings on Earth as the sun is above the moon in the heavens of which
Colledg of Pamplona and Divinity scholastic Moral Polemic or Controversial in the Colledges of Pamplona Palencia Tudela and Salamanca joyning with these functions of continual teaching which in those parts are exceedingly laborious the practise of very frequent preaching together with a constant and eager study of holy scripture counsels Fathers and History Ecclesiastic in which kind of study I had alwaies my chief delight when duty and employments enjoyned upon me forced me to the study of those other faculties And is this to be a vagrant person that could bear no fruit united to the stock what fruit would be man have me bear But what if we refer him to himself few pages after saying still excessive that before I was vir Apostolicus a most resplendent star in the firmament of the true Church c. now plunged in all the contrary vices and cries * page 27. quomodo obscuratum est aurum mutatus est color optimus how is the Gold become dim how is the most fine gold changed Truly I am to return the same question upon him How came this change or * Thren 4. how came he to know it For I feel no other change in me but to the better to a quiet of conscience and full satisfaction that I am in the right way of worshipping God But I find in his own words an answer to all he saies I was before vir Apostolicus now Apostata vilis dictus a vile Apostate not really but called so and by whom by a party which I prove by demonstrative reasons not railing at random as I. E. that they have apostatized from the true faith and Doctrine of Christ in several points as evidenced both in my former discourse printed and in the second part of this treatise at large wherefore to be called Apostate by them is to me the same as if I were called a Theif or high-way Robber by one that is such himself I knowing my self to be an Alien from those practises or as if I were called an Infidel by a Turk or Pagan If I was induced to make a blind vow of blind obedience to the Pope of Rome and his Ministers I made a former vow of Religious obedience to God and his holy Laws in my baptism if I find the latter vow made to the Pope not to consist with the complyance of the former made to God as I found clearly not to consist then must I stand to my former vow made to God and rescind the latter made to the Pope If this Libeller were contented to rail at me his guilt had bin less but he extends his insolent soul language to the whole Protestant Church belching out streams against it I know not which more of brutish ignorance or hellish malice in most notorious calumnies * Pag. 30 You deserted a Church saies he in which only is Faith Religion Priests Sacrifice Altars Sacraments and real remission not only of originall sin but also of actual mortal sins all which is excluded and exploded and quite abolished by your Protestant Sect. And all this he bables out boldly without giving one word of reason for all or any part of it but I have proved with clear demonstrative reasons from the beginning of this Treatise that in the Protestant Church we have and do profess the same true Catholic faith and Religion which Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught and was professed by the Church first called Catholie That we have a right Hierarchy and due ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons and therefore a due administration of Sacraments and remission of sins both original by Baptism and actuall by contrition and also by absolution upon confession not only allowed but commended and enjoyned to our people and practised by many if neglected by others it s their fault not of our Church and of the horror some have to this practise wee may well say your Church to be the cause by its intolerable tyranny over consciences as well in the reservation of cases to be absolved only by Prelates or by the Pope as in the difficulties daily added touching the mode of Confessions and circumstances to be declared in them which deters many even from the right use of it and is thought to be occasion of more loss then gain of souls among you He tells me * 63. Page that I know in my conscience that the Protestant Sect doth place all happiness in the pleasures honours liberty and contentments of the body and obstructs all means and waies to vertue to Sanctity Piety Mortification c. and doth stifle the fear of a living dreadful God and all this likewise without any proof of it Was there ever seen a more desperate insolency false prophet who dost pretend to dive into the inward of my conscience known only to God and to my self I will declare to the glory of God and edification of the Christian people miserably deluded by such Slaves of fury and lies what I know in my conscience to be true That in the Protestant Church I saw more practise of solid vertue piety and devotion and of the fear of God more apt means used to purchase those vertues both by the doctrine of our Church and by the ordinances of our state then ever I saw among the Romanists Since my coming to the Protestant Church my constant habitation has bin in Trinity Colledg of Dublin where I see more practise of sobriety devotion and piety then ever I saw in a Colledg of so many young men on the Romish side Three times a day they go all to prayers to the chappel at six in the morning ten at noon and four in the evening with admirable reverence and attention their Prayers most grave and pious for all purposes and for all sorts of persons they say kneeling the Psalmes standing and the sacred Lectures they hear sitting reverently and bare-headed with a respect due to the Lessons used by them sacred indeed as taken out of those blessed fountains of Living waters of the old and new Testament not out of the broaken Cisterns of Romantic Legends all being read in a voice audible and language intelligible and thereby sutable to the edification and instruction of all the people present The same order and style I see observed in the Palaces of Princes and Prelates and in the houses of Gentlemen and godly persons all the family being called to pray together in the Chappel or other decent room of the house after the manner now declared When I come to the Royal Castle or palace of Dublin there I see the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to whom a judicious French * Georg Fournier in geograph li. i. cujus praecipua inter omnes qui n Europasunt Pro reges eminent authoritas writer gives the Chief place among all the Viceroyes of Europe with all his flourishing family and many Nobles attending on his Excellency break off discourses and business tho weighty and serious and answer the found
any person departs from the Protestant Church to the Romish they neither curse nor rail nor plot against his life or credit they onely commiserate his fall and pray for him that God may convert him Herein appears the spirit of Christ his meekness and charity But when any comes from the Romish Church to the Protestant he may be sure to have curses calumnies affronts conspiracies against his life and repute follow him while he lives A strong point of policy apt indeed to terrify weak minds that they dare not desert their quarrell but a policy dictated not by that wisdom that is from above peaceable gentle full of mercy c. Jam. 3.17 but from that other called by the same Apostle earthly sensual devilish v. 15. Learned grave and civil discourses about Religion such as those of Isaac Casaubon with Cardinal Peron and Fronto-Ducaeus of Peter Wading with Simon Episcopius and the like I shall alwaies honor and willingly entertain but with scoulds I do not love to spend my time And so I leave you to God Mr. I. E. to direct you while I enter into Lists with an other pretending to subtilty in reasoning the case with me Which is to be the second part of this Book FINIS TRUE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC FAITH maintain'd in the CHVRCH of ENGLAND THE SECOND PART TRUE CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC FAITH Maintain'd in the CHURCH of ENGLAND PART II. Being A Survey of Mr. I. S. his Book Entituled The unerring unerreable Church CHAP. I. An Anatomy of Mr. I. S. his Genius and drifts appearing in his dedicatory Epistle to my Lord Lieutenant of Ireland THE dissections of Anatomy discover imperfections and diseases in the vitals and other exterior parts of the body which a fair skin or cunning dress hides from the eies of a common beholder In like manner a Scholastic examen will lay open the faults and corruptions both in the essential and ornamental parts of a discourse which upon a transient view appear plausible and commendable Unto a mind clouded with passion and prejudice and the favour of an espoused or the dislikes of an adverse party the writing of Mr. I. S. may appear without blemish or fault but an incision being made the flesh and the skin being cut off it will be found void of truth in the proposal of force and form in the argumentation sincerity in the design and lastly modesty and ingenuity in the style and terms which are the several requisites that can make a writing in any degree worth the reading This kind of Anatomy I will now take in hand and by no other art then plain incision shall with truth and perspicuity discover the fallacies and gross errors of the before mentioned Author who delivers boldly his judgment upon what he do's not understand or if he were not really ignorant yet delivers unsincerely and misrepresents those things of which he treats all which I shall demonstrate in the following Chapters After several attacks made by I. E. N. N. and others upon my small Book upon my self and the Church of England comes up confidently to complete the victory Mr. I. S. as Scipio Africanus to the Seige of Numantia to amend the errors of the preceding warriors And to appear a Scipio indeed in his present adventure he promises himself so to beset and straighten us as to make us burn our selves as the Numantines did to prevent their falling into the hands of the Roman Conqueror To compass this magnificent design he proposeth to the Earl of Essex Lord Lieutenant of Ireland my good Lord and Patron in the dedicatory Epistle of his book to his Excellency that I should be burned for a crime he calls a Blasphemy wherein all the learned men of the Church of England are involved with me viz. to say that the Roman Church as now it stands is not a secure way to Salvation And the executioner of this severe sentence passed upon us by Mr. I. S. must not be the Inquisitor of Rome or Spain but our own Kings Prime Minister and Lieutenant in the Kingdom of Ireland He allow's me so much wit as to know that I could not justifie my separation from the Church of Rome if I did hope to be saved in it whereas believing I may to forsake it were a formal schism thus much of wit he doth very injuriously deny to all other learned Protestants saying that all allow the Roman Church to be a secure way to Salvation which is to say they are all confessedly Schismatics The inference is but too clear from his Positions confusedly delivered if thus ordered All men that separate from the Roman Church knowing and allowing it to be a safe way to Salvation are formally and confessedly Schismatics all Learned men of the Church of England do acknowledg and allow the Church of Rome to be a safe way to Salvation Therefore all of them are confessedly and formally Schismatics This Thesis Mr. I. S. presents to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to win his favor To clear the ground of all this discourse and see how bold and blind was the attemt of Mr. I. S. his charging me with Blasphemy see the occasion given to him for it that in the page 226 of my book according to the first Edition of it at Dublin rebuking their ordinary vaunt wherewith they delude the simple saying that Protestants do allow Papists may be saved but Papists do not allow that Protestants may be saved c. I delivered these words following but in neither do they say truth for no Learned Protestant do's allow the Popish Religion in general and absolutely speaking to be a secure way to Salvation for all do agree in affirming that many of their Tenets and practises are inconsistent with Salvation tho ignorance may happâ—ly excuse many of the simple sort but not such as know their error or with due care and inquiry may know it On the other side c. This has netled the poor man to rage Happily he found himself to be of those who know or with due enquiry may know the damnable errors of the Roman Church Now I desire the judicious Reader to consider with what propriety of terms Mr. I. S. calls it a Blasphemy in me to relate this sentiment of Learned Protestants Tho I were mistaken to call such a mistake Blasphemy is extravagant language Three kinds of Blasphemy I find mentioned by Aquinas and other Schole-men 1. To appropriate to God something unbeseeming 2. To deprive him of a perfection due to him 3. To attribute to a creature any of Gods properties To which of these classes will Mr. I. S. reduce my mistake if it be not so what I relate of learned Protestants That one of those who sit in the Market-places selling roots should call it a Blasphemy in another of her trade to say that her Turnips came out of Flanders not being so may be a cause of laughing but that one pretending to learning and a disputant in divinity should
which name of either he pleaseth to term it to put us to silence as to further debates as truly he had need accordingly he appears ill furnished to enter into them We will now proceed to see how ill armed he is to encounter upon the particular points I proposed for motive of my discontent with the Roman Church CHAP. XV. Mr. I. S. his defense of the Popes Supremacy declared to be vain Their pretence to a Monarchical power over all Christians whether in Spiritual or Temporal proved to be unjust and tyrannical OUR Adversary will have us take for an Article of Faith the Supreme power of the Pope over all Christians in Spiritual affairs Whether he hath the like supreme power over Princes in temporal concerns he leaves to our discretion to believe what we please the case being disputable And indeed it is a courtesy in Mr. I. S. to permit us this liberty even touching temporal affairs and beyond commission from the Court of Rome as may appear by what we are to say in this Chapter But what he allows him of Supremacy in Spiritual government over all other Bishops and over all Christians is certainly more then his right more then Christ gave him and more then S. Peter had whose Successor the Pope pretends to be He will never find any mention in History Ecclesiastic of any claim S. Peter should pretend to have of power over S. James in Jerusalem S. Andrew in Achaia over Thomas in the Indies or over any other of the Apostles in their respective Provinces no dependance of them upon him None of those more worthy first Bishops of Rome for five hundred years did ever pretend to any such Supremacy if we are to believe one of the best of them St. Gregory the Great in his many Epistles written against the Ambition of John Patriarch of Constantinople pretending to such a calling of Universal Bishop Neither did he therein act for himself as he do's formally protest to obviate the malice of those who would cast that aspersion upon his proceeding herein a Gregorius lib. 4. Regist Ep. 36. In damnando generalitatis nomine saies he nostrum specialiter aliquid non amamus Neither indeed could the reasons he alledges against the Ambition of John of Constantinople consist with a pretention to such a Prerogative in favor of his own See namely b Jactantiam sumsit ita ut Universa sibi tentet adscribere omnia quae soli uni capiti cohaerent videlicet Christo per elationem pompatici sermonis ejusdem Christi sibi studeat membra subjugare cum fortasse in errore perit qui Universalis diâ—â—tur nullus jam Episcopus remansisse in statu veritatis invenitur ibid. that it is to rob Christ of his priviledg of being Head of the Universal Church that if the whole Church were subject to and depending upon one man he falling into Heresie all the Church would fall with him How foul an Aspersion Papists do cast upon this good Pope Gregory the Great saying he would claim to himself the calling he reprehended in John of Constantinople may appear by these words of his foresaid Epistle 36. written to Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria and to Athanasius Bishop of Antioch saying a Vnt per Sanctam Chalcedonensem Synodum Pontifici sedis Apostolica cui Deo disponente deservio hec Universitatis nomen oblatum est Sed nullus unquam decessorum meorum hoc tam profano vocabulo uti consensit quia videlicet si unus Patriarcha Vniversalis dicitur Patriarcharum nomen ceteris derogatur Sed absit absit hoc à Christiani mente id sibi velle quempiam arripere unde fratrum suorum honorem imminuere ex quantulacunque parte videatur The name of Universal Bishop was by the holy Council of Chalcedon offered only to the Bishop of the See Apostolic in which by Gods providence I do serve but none of my Predecessors did consent to use this profane calling For if one Patriarch or Bishop be called Universal the name of a Bishop is taken from the rest But far be this far be it from the mind of a Christian that any should assume to himself any thing which may seem to diminish in the least the honor of his brethren How can this consist with saying that Gregory did claim to himâ—elf that calling which he reprehended in John of Constantinople since he declares that his Predecessors did refuse that calling and alledges reasons which prove that none ought to admit it The same St. Gregory is the first Author I find to have accused of Anti-Christianism the pretention of the Pope to Supremacy over all Christians in the person of the foresaid John Patriarch of Constantinople of whose ambitious pretention to the like Supremacy he writes thus to the Empress Constantina b Sed in hac ejus superbia quid aliud nisi propinqua jam Antichristi esse tempora designatur quia illum videlicet imitatur qui spretis in sociali gaudio Angelorum legionibus ad culmen conatus est singularitatis erumpere dicens c. Lib. 4. Ep. 34. And what may we understand by this kind of pride but that the time of Anti-Christ is near since he imitates him who despising the social joy of Angels did endevor to rise up to the top of singularity saying I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North I will ascend above the height of the Clouds I will be like the most high This singularity of the Bishops of Rome in despising a fair and brotherly society with other Bishops and pretending a Supremacy over all and an Equality with God in several of his priviledges gave occasion to such as in after Ages called them Anti-christs Certainly this Ambition of being head of the Universal Church a priviledg granted in Scripture only to Christ the boldness of preferring his own laws to the Laws of Christ whereof we gave several instances have great affinity with the qualities of Anti-christ described in Scripture And St. Gregory his prediction that the usurpation of this Supremacy would be a calamity to the Church is found to be too true All the Combustions and dismal Contentions that afflicted this Kingdom for a whole Age did proceed from the Popes pretention to Supremacy It is not the intrinsic quality of speculative doctrines of Faith controverted it is not the alterations of Ceremonies or Language in divine Service did minister fuel to this fatal fire all these things would be easily agreed upon if we did allow but Supremacy to the Pope or he did quit his pretention to it Of this we have certainty by what Sir Roger Twisden affirms out of warrantable Histories and Relations that Pope Paulus IV. finding his fierceness could not avail with Queen Elizabeth offered a Tortura torti pag. 148. to let things stand as they were
defend it and debar from offices and preferment such as will not take such oaths And Mr. I. S. must enter into a formal dispute upon the point The testimony of S. Paul saying Rom. v. that all men sinned in Adam and consequently the Virgin Mary with the rest he values nothing It is a general rule saies he capable of exception but gives us no testimony to prove the Virgin was excepted from that rule He admits that Christ was Universal Redeemer and died for all men but thinks it not a consequence that the Virgin should have bin redeemed or drawn but only preserved from sin and so the consequence of St. Paul was not legal saying 2 Cor. v. 14. If one died for all then were all dead or if if it be legal sure the Virgin was dead by Original sin as the rest or else all were not dead You say it is not unlawful in a community to require certain conditions from such as will be members of it and so may require of them engagement to defend the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary To demand conditions not including a disturbance of conscience nor occasioning dissimilations may be lawful not so to require conditions contrary to a mans conscience and judgment which was our case You say the Oath of Supremacy in opinion of Papists is an heresie why then is it required from me I answer it is only folly or malice can make it appear such as I have declared in the 18. Chapter and the Law is not to be regulated by such passions I gave likewise a short touch to the cruelty used with consciences in the practice of Consession as well in the manner of its exercise as the frequent reservation of cases And here Mr. I.S. must enter again into the deep of the dispute whether Confession ought to be admitted which was not the case in as much as the Church of England doth not only admit but commend and enjoin the practice of Confession in necessary occasions tho not the unnecessary and pernicious superstructures of the Roman Church touching the mode prescribed and the reservation of cases occasioning lamentable perplexities and desperate melancholies of Souls whereof I could declare miserable instances if certain due considerations did not make me supersede enlarging upon this kind of matter Only I will reflect upon a new addition of rigoâ— brought in by Mr. I. S. of which he will have St. Augustin to be Author that the quality of the sin the place time continuance and diversity of persons must be specified This makes me doubt and wonder what kind of person my Antagonist is whether ever he was bred among learned men of the Roman Church or did read their Books for certainly any of them that has but the least tincture of moral Theology will think strange of this paradox That the place and time of sins are to be declared as also the diversity of persons being of the same kind or species But of these kind of lapses Mr. I. S. his Theology makes no scruple if â—e were better acquainted with the practice of Doctors in the Roman Church he would not fetch up doctrines of Fathers opposite to the present practice of that Church If he did but sit certain hours of the day from St. Lukes to May-day or thereabouts in the Halls of Divinity of the Colledges of Palentia and Tudela where he saies no Divinity was ever taught he would learn that it is not the duty of a Penitent to specifie in his Confession the time place and diversity of persons wherein and wherewith his sins were committed and they would tell him that if St. Augustin said the contrary it was one of his errors and a doctrine now out of date But Mr. I. S. is of a stronger stomach can swallow by the gross and cares not so much for chawing or mincing distinctions of doctrines CHAP. XXXIV A reflection upon the many falsities impertinences absurdities and hallucinations of Mr. I. S. his Book which may justifie a resolution of not mis-spending time in returning any further reply to such writings and a conclusion of the whole Treatise exhorting him to a consideration of his miserable condition in deceiving himself and others with vanity Mr. I. S. concludes his Book as he began and did proceed in it pouring out a shower of falsities non sense impertinences and hallucinations of which I will give some testimonies here whereby the Reader may see with how much reason I may resolve not to spend precious time in further answering to or taking notice of such faulty writings The very first words of his Dedicatory Epistle to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland contains a heap of the said faults and falsities He calls his Book A Vindication of both Churches which a viper has endeavoured to bite c. he may better call it an affront of both Churches of the Protestant for the rude injuries offer'd to her of the Popish for having no better defense of her cause to exhibit With what truth or propriety can he say that I endeavor'd to bite both Churches As for the Protestant I gave sufficient testimony of my endeavors to make the world know that in her is professed the true Primitive Catholic Apostolic Faith and therefore is the surest way to Salvation and as for the Roman Church from which I received the belief of a Christian if the matter be well considered I will make good I have not bin a Viper but a dutiful and truly loving Child and more dutiful and true then Mr. I. S. If a Mother infected with a pestilent canker had two sons of which the one knowing the remedy would apply it tho with reluctancy and displeasure of the infected Mother and the other not to displease his Mother would feed the sickness with lenitives or soothing pleasing the Mother but feastering her wound and hastening her ruine which of both do you think were the more truly dutiful and loving Child Certainly the former who would apply a healing hand to the Mother tho against her will This is the difference betwixt you and me I saw that Mother at whose breast I did suck the belief of a Christian and therefore cannot chuse but revere and love her as a Mother sicken of a pestilent canker I tried to apply some beginnings of a remedy and finding her impatient of cure while in her reach I betook me to a distance whence I might apply the cure letting her know that her Innocations proceeding from Ambition and Aâ—aâ—ice are cause of her Pestilent disease that renders her odious to God and men She should return therefore to her former innocency and holiness practiced by St. Peter and his Successors for many Ages which rendred them glorious and venerable to all the world when their study was not to make Princes of Nephews and Nieces and of Peasants Heroes pretending to that end to make all mankind tributary to their power and riches but to purchase heaven for themselves and for
others with a contemt of the earth Soon after he saies I should have taught That there is no Salvation in the Catholic Church without telling where or when I did deliver such a doctâ—ine as indeed he could not do I professing every day my belief in the Catholic Church and protesting I do and will live and die in it If by Catholic Church he means only the Popish or Roman it s a foul abuse of terms especially speaking to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or to any other of sense in a polemic discourse and even speaking of the Roman or Popish Church it is another great piece of untruth to say I should have taught that none may be saved in it as may appear by the second Chapter of this Treatise It s another wilful or rude mistake whereinto he falls very often that by Roman Church I should understand the Diocess of Rome of which I never took any notice or regard in my discourse which was of the Roman Church as opposiâ—e to the Reformed and so containing the whole congregation of men subject to the Pope of Rome and it is to me a wonder that this great pretender to skill in Controversies should not know before now that to be the meaning of the Roman Church in Controversies of this kind What shall I say of his pitiful spite and envy in his Preface to the Reader pretending to rob me of those titles my Emploiments gave me so public and known as appears in the Preface of of this Treatise without shame to be convinced of palpable untruths What of his rashness and rudeness in fixing for a Thesis or Title to the eighth Chapter of his Book That the Protestant Church is not the Church of Christ nor any part of it that they cannot without Blasphemy alledg Scripture for their Tenets Of his prosane policy in accusing me of indiscretion in delivering what I knew to be truth touching the Salvation of Protestants when I was on the Romish side as mentioned in the fourteenth Chapter What of his blasphemous impiety in saying that no Text of Scripture tells us that the Evangelists were in the state of Grace when they wrote the Gospel nor nothing else gives us assurance of it Nay further against the Gospel it self he pronounceth this horrible Blasphemy That not only we are unsure of the Infallibility of the Gospel but that we are assured it is not infallible And this hellish conception of his own he must father upon the Protestant Church saying it s the common doctrine of it that it is impossible to keep Gods Commandments the falsehood of which maliâ—ious imposture I have declared above in the 8th Chapter of this Treatise What of his boldness in challenging me and all Protestants to answer his ridiculous and silly Sophisms with undertakings that they shall never be answered as appears in the eighteenth Chapter touching Transubstantiation and in the twenty sixt touching Purgatory in denying that Scotus Ocham and other Schole-men should deâ—lare Transubstantiation not to be proved out of Scripture as above declared chap. 20. As a so in denying that Costerus should say it is the common opinion of Romish Divines that the Image of God and Christ is to be adored by the worship of Latria as above mentioned Ch. 23. What of his terrible Hallucination in matter of History touching Indulgences declared in Chapt. 29. appearing in every word ridiculously mistaken when he pretends to be most magisterial in correcting mistakes of his Adversary And carrying on constantly to the end this spirit of Untruth Hallucination and Impropriety of terms he concludes his Book with telling me I know in my conscience the Church of Rome is not guilty of the errors I attribute to her for cause of my separation from her How came you Sr to know the interior state of my conscience You tell me I know the Popes Supremacy in temporal affairs over Princes was no article of Faith but a Schole question That the Popes infallibility was but an opinion of some Divines As to the Popes Supremacy I have declared above c. 25. what little comfort is left to Princes by that distinction of the Popes Supremacy in spirituals from that of his power in temporals whereas he backs his spiritual power with a temporal to the ruin and deposing of all Princes and Emperors that resist him The only case of furious Hildebrand with the Emperor Henry the 3d as related by his own most friendly Historians even Baronius is apt to strike a horror into any human heart and a terror into Princes and people if the unspeakable arrogance of the Roman Court should not be bridled As for the Popes Infallibility I have declared above in the 3d Chapter how impertinent your distinction of Pope alone from Pope and his Council together is to escape the force of my Arguments in the present Controversy How falsly you say I should speak only of the Infallibility of the Pope alone my Arguments proving he is fallible still whether alone or in a Council depending upon him as that of Trent You tell me I left the Roman Church because I saw the Bible prohibited in it to the People and the Liturgy performed in an unknown Language But tho that is a great crime of the Roman Church as I have declared in the precedent Chapter it was not the only cause others several grievous I produced more immediatly touching my own concern and daily practise wherein I could not continue with quiet or safety of Conscience You tell me I forsook a Church honored with many Saints for the Protestant Church whereof there was never yet any Saint If this be true S. Peter and S. Paul and the rest of the Apostles were no Saints for I am certainly perswaded they were of the Church that I am of their Doctrine and their Faith and no other being taught in it But you speak with the vulgar of Protestants as condistinct from Roman Catholics Well and how come you to know that none of them was ever a Saint Were you in the hearts of all or did you sit in the Tribunal of God to know what degree of grace they had in his Soveraign inscrutable judgement What is rashness if this be not But you have titular Saints who have purchased that calling by public authority as Dukes Earls and Knights do purchase theirs of such we have none Then you speak of titular Saints not of real ones and upon this account you may not expect to win me from the Protestant Church to yours I hear of some Sectaries about us I know not where who style all of their Congregation Saints to this degree of Sanctity your Church did not aspire yet then if I am to remove to a Church of more titular Saints to these Sectaries I am to go not to you But you speak of Saints that come to Heaven and thither none may come but under the conduct of the Roman Pope he hath the keys of Heaven and none may go
of the house of God I may justly return for answer an other exclamation better grounded and say O N. N. tell us what domineering spirit of blindness what black presumtion is this that so generally possesses your faction amidst the light of so learn'd an age that a person of your years and degree should not know that in the House of my Heavenly Father there are many Mansions that it extends further then the quarters of the Roman Pope that by quitting his jurisdiction I forsake not the whole house of God But tho you declare to your Reader that your purpose is not to deal with me Scholastically but Historically that is to say as I find not by reason but by railing and by calumnies wherewith your usual armories are plentifully stored and by emty flourishes upon false grounds I will not engage in like manner with you but prove Scholastically that is to say with formal and solid arguments demonstrate that in all your cries you beat the air and not me that all of them are grounded upon a false supposition that by forsaking the Romish communion I did not forsake the Catholic Church that the Church of England whose communion I embraced is a very noble and sound member of the Catholic Church and the Doctrine professed in it proposed to the People for the object of their belief is truly Catholic and Apostolic free from all Heresie and falshood And when I have proved so much in a rational and Scholastic style and method it will appear how vain your attemt is of working on me by loud cries against Heresies wherein I am not concern'd as if you were hunting a wild Boar in a forrest to drive him by clamor and shouting into your nets It is reason that wins me and whereby I desire to win others not exclamations and cries of that kind I will not repete the just complaints delivered by many learned Writers of the arrogance of your party of their absurdity and impropriety of terms in pretending that they alone are the Catholic that is to say the Universal Church being at the best but a part of it and the same very corrupt and not the greater part but the less by very much as hereafter will appear To go through with my engagement of proving by Scholastical exact reasons that the Church of England is a true Catholic Church I 'le take up the arguments urged against this verity by one of the ablest Schoolmen that ever wrote in favour of your cause employed by the Pope against our great and learned K. James I mean Francis Suarez Jesuit I will I say take up the arguments wherewith this famous Schoolman pretends to rob the Church of England of the glorious title of a Catholic Church and declare by that way of arguing which Logicians after Aristotle do call argumentum mirabile that they prove the contrary and confirm the Church of England in its right to the title of a true Catholic and Apostolic Church It will indeed appear a singular triumph of truth that the weakest defender of it should wrest Arms out of the hand of the ablest opposer and beat him with his own weapons A trial of this great power of truth I offer now to the view of the ingenious Reader in my encounter with Suarez on this Subject I will not pursue all the amplifications and excursions of this voluminous Writer as not suitable to the brevity and perspicuity I intend to follow yet I will take up the foundations of all his arguments upon this subject and apply them to my purpose aforesaid Franciscus Suarez in his volume entituled defensio Fidei Catholicae Apostolicae adversus Anglicanae sectae errores in his first Book from the 12. Chapter of it forward endeavours to prove that the Church of England is not a Catholic Church therefore that the Faith of it is not a Catholic Faith The first foundation he laies to this purpose is this that these two things Catholic Faith and Catholic Church are so united as the one may not be found separate from the other so that no Church may be Catholic wherein the Catholic Faith is not professed neither may the Catholic Faith be found in any Church that is not Catholic Thence he proceeds to prove that the Roman Church is Catholic because it has a continual succession from the first Church that was so called and retaineth the same Faith which the primitive Catholic Apostolic Church did profess for which he cites Tertullian saying Doctrinam Catholicam esse in Ecclesiâ Romanensi that in the Roman Church Catholic Doctrine is professed which is as much saies Suarez as if he had said it s a Catholic Church from all which Suarez concludes n. 13. that the Church of England is not Catholic because it is not the Roman Church nor united with it and there is but one Catholic Church as we confess in the Creed How hard a task Suarez has in proving to complete his argument that in the present Church of Rome that Faith and no other is taught which the ancient Church called Catholic did teach may appear by all my former discourses against their new coin'd Articles never mentioned in the Primitive Church But my present work will be to shew how his argument wherewith he pretends to prove the Roman Church to be the Catholic doth with more force evince the Church of England to be truly Catholic And thus I form it to that purpose In whatsoever Church that Faith is professed which was taught in the ancient Church first called Catholic and Apostolic that Church is truly Catholic and Apostolic In the Church of England Tertul. in praescriptionibus cap. xx is professed that Faith which was taught by the ancient Church first called Catholic and Apostolic therefore the Church of England is truly Catholic and Apostolic If we prove the minor proposition Suarez cannot in justice deny the consequence And if he will insist upon his pretention of such a disunion of his Church with that of England that both may not be Catholic let the second consequence be of his own making that their Church is no Catholic Church for it is not my intention to make them worse then the Doctors of the Church of England do who allow them to be members tho corrupt of the Catholic Church The minor proposition wherein the stress of my argument consists I prove thus The Faith taught by the ancient Church first called Catholic and Apostolic is that contained in the three Creeds that of the Apostles of Nâ—â—e and Athanasius professâ—d and declared in the first four General Councils of Nice Ephesus Constantinople and Chalcedon received by the faithful in the four first ages of the Christian Church All this Faith is professed by the Church of England as Suarez confesses to have bin declared by King James and is to be seen in his Majesties Epistle to Cardinal Perron written by Isaac Causabon Therefore that Faith is taught in the
Church of England which was taught by the Primitive Church first called Catholic and Apostolic and consequently is a Church truly Catholic and Apostolic according to the foresaid rule given us by Suarez and laid for a foundation of his argument to prove the Roman Church to be Catholic And truly it cannot but appear strange that any Christian not blinded with partiality or prejudice should imagine that the sacred Apostles intrusted to preach saving Doctrine to all the World should not have given a sufficient notice of it in the system of Articles they left to us That those venerable Fathers of the purer ages of Christianity congregated in the four first general Councils should give us but a diminute account of Catholic and Apostolic belief that the Popes Infallibility Supremacy and other articles of latter impression in the Roman Church should be so essential to Christian Faith as none may be saved without a belief of them This argument may be confirmed by the testimony of Athanasius related by Suarez in the chapter above mentioned num 2. saying that the collection of Articles contained in his Creed is the Catholic Faith haec est Fides Catholica c. this is the Catholic Faith which except a Man believe he cannot be saved but in the Church of England that Faith called Catholic and contained in the Creed of Athanasius is believed and professed therefore if any Church professing the Catholic Faith is Catholic it self the Church of England professing this Catholic Faith is truly Catholic The second foundation laid by Suarez in the same chapter n. 6. to prove that his Church is Catholic is to say that it did in all times profess the Faith of that Creed wherein the Church is called Catholic But the Church of England does and alwaies did profess the Faith of the same Creed therefore it has the same right to the like calling The third foundation laid by Suarez from the 15. num of the said chapter is a sign or distinctive used by ancient Fathers for to know a Church or Congregation truly Catholic and to distinguish it from another not Catholic That whensoever any Sect takes its name from the master or teacher of such a Doctrine and the followers of it do call themselves by such a name neither the Doctrine nor the followers of it are Catholic For which he alledg'd the testimony of Athanasius Chrysostom Lactantius and Others And the reason or cause of this distinctive is that every Heresie brings in some novelty against the ancient Faith and new things must have new names whereby to be known and distinguished from others But it is very remarkable how this subtil disputant otherwise very exact and formal in his discourses pretending to rob the Church of England of the name of Catholic by the principle now mentioned comes to confirm the same name upon it not finding it capable of the foresaid note of a Sect not Catholic For pretending to name it from Calvin he finds an obstacle in it because Calvin do's not approve a chief Doctrine of it Then he passes to call it Henrician from King Henry the Eigth because from him the Church of England did learn to acknowledg the King for Head or supreme Governour of the Church in his own dominions Against this also he meets with several obstacles to which I will add this other very considerable that this practice of the Church of England is by many ages more ancient then the time of Henry the Eight whereas it allows no other Supremacy to our King over the Church then such as the Godly Kings of Israel and the Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church did exercise in their respective Dominions as is declared in the 37. Article and in the second Canon of the Church of England Since Suarez can not find the name of Lutheran Calvinist Henrician or any other taken from any particular Author or teacher to be agreeable to this Church it must follow from the above mentioned note of a Catholic Church delivered by him and taken out of ancient Fathers that it is a Church truly Catholic that being the only name it self own 's And the Preachers of it praying for our King do stile him Defender of the Faith truly Catholic and Apostolic and King James in his Monitory to the Emperor and other Christian Princes stiles himself Defender of the Faith truly Christian Catholic and Apostolic of the ancient and Primitive Church and we do all pray heartily that our Kings may never defend any other Faith then this CHAP. II. Suarez his argument taken from the propriety of the word Catholic applied to prove that the Church of England is truly Catholic THe fourth foundation laid by Suarez in the 14th Chap. of his foresaid Book to prove that the Church of England is not Catholic he takes from the propriety meaning of the word Catholic He supposes that according to the etymology of the word in Greek Catholic is the same as Vniversal or Common which Universality he saies is fourfold in relation to the present purpose First as to the matter or object of our belief that it be entire comprehending all points belonging to Christian and saving Faith Secondly that it have an Universal or common reason of belief which common reason or rule must be Divine truth or the Word of God whereby he gives testimony to truth according to that expression of Saint Paul 1 Thess 2.13 When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God Thirdly Universality is required in relation to the degrees and orders of persons according to that description of a Church given by Optatus Milevitanus Lib. 2. contra Parmenianum Certa membra sua habet Ecclesia Episcopos Presbyteros Diaconos Ministres turbam fidelium that the Church has its certain members Bishops Priests Deacons Ministers and a Congregation of the faithful The fourth and chief universality required for the propriety of the name Catholic is that a Church to be such be extended over all the parts of the Earth according to the declaration of the said Optatus Lib. 2. Contra Donatistas ubi ergo erit proprietas Catholici nominis quod sit rationabilis ubique diffusat that the propriety of the name Catholic requires it should be a Church rational and diffused over all places Suarez endeavours to prove that all these proprieties of Universality belonging to a Catholic Church are wanting to this of England that it may be called Catholic First as to the material universality or integrity of Articles necessary to a Catholic Faith he pretends that the Church of England is deficient in several Articles as he promises to prove elsewhere but at present singles out as chief that of the Popes Supremacy which the Church of England denies and he promises to prove that it belongs to a Catholic Faith I commend Suarez his ingenuity and
belief the Word of God contained in the Gospel and in the other Canonical Scriptures while the Roman preaches articles coined by her self and never given to the Apostles to be preached as we shall shew abundantly hereafter refuting the errors of it CHAP. IV. The Church of England proved to be Apostolic upon the foundation laid by Suarez to rob it of that Title SVarez after having used his best endeavours to deprive the Church of England of her right to the name of Catholic with so little success as we have seen in the precedent Chapter he passes in the 17. Chapter of his foresaid Book to rob it of the name of Apostolic so to deprive King James of the title he gives himself of Defender of the Faith truly Catholic and Apostolic To prove that the Faith of the Church of England is not Apostolic he laies this foundation that two things are requisite to make a Faith or Doctrine Apostolic The first that it proceed in some manner from the Preaching words or writings of the Apostles Secondly that it be conveyed to us by legal tradition and succession The first is contained in those words of St. Paul Ephes 2.19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and forreigners but fellow Citizens with the Saints of the houshold of God are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets The second requisite is declared by Irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 3. in these words Traditionem Apostolorum in omni Ecclesia adest perspicere quae vera velint audire habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis successores eorum usque ad nos Who are willing to hear truth must look upon the tradition of the Apostles in all Churches and we can number those that were ordained Bishops by the Apostles and their successours to our own times Suarez pretends these two requisites to be wanting in the Church of England to merit the Name of Apostolic First saies he because the Doctrine of it was not preached by the Apostles neither was it taken out of their Doctrine or conveyed to us by lawful tradition Against which position he brings King James protesting himself to believe admit and reverence the Canonical Scripture the three Creeds and the first four General Councils in which sacred fountains he judged the Apostolic Faith to be contained and Suarez acknowledges that King James spoke herein not only his own sense but the sense and belief of the whole Church of England which is no small glory to it But how can Suarez make out that the Apostolic Faith and Doctrine is not sufficiently contained in those sacred Fountains of the Scriptures Creeds and Councils received by the Church of England See Reader and admire his answer Tho the Doctrine of the said Books considered in it self saies he be Catholic Apostolic Faith or rather a part of it for he pretends that all Catholic Faith is not contained in those fountains yet as it is received by sectaries either it is not Apostlic or it may not be certainly taken for such First because they cannot be certain whether those Books they receive be Canonical or the Councils legal Secondly that they cannot be certain of the true meaning of the Scriptures Creeds or Councils So that in conclusion the Divinity of our Saviour preached by a Romish Priest is Catholic Apostolic Faith but not so when preached by one of the Church of England I should indeed think this only consequence to be a sufficient confutation of this unhappy subtilty of Suarez but further to his reason when effectively we are secured that the Scripture received by us is truly Canonical and Divine and our adversaries do allow it what need is there for quarrelling about the grounds and motives of our security therein and touching the sense both of Scripture Creeds Councils the * Se tria symbola in eo seâ—su interpretari quem illis esse voluerunt Patres atque concilia a quibus funt condita atque descripta saying of K. James related by Suarez n. 9. that he does take the Creeds in the same sense which the Fathers and Councels by whom they were made were willing to give to them well considered is both pious and prudent When the words of a Scripture or article are capable of different senses all consistent with Christian verity and none repugnant to sound Doctrine it is bâ—t Catholic prety to suspend a firm assent to one and keep a readiness to adhere to what may be the real intention of the sacred writer For example that article of the Apostles Creed touching our Saviours descent into Hell is capable of different senses in relation to the Hell he descended into It s a groundless conjecture of Suarez that King James and the Church of England with him should deny a real descent and say he did suffer the pains of Hell in the garden as may be seen by the grave discourse of learned Dr. Pearson now Bishop of Chester upon that article We believe he descended really into Hell that is to say into some place under the Earth it may be without any absurdity to the Hell of the damned as declared in the second part of this Treatise c. 27. But whether it was that Hell or an other subterranean place he descended into we may with piety and prudence suspend our judgment having no Divine oracle to ground upon the determination of the place And Suarez gives us a signal example of this resignation of our intellects to the intention of the Writer in a matter less sacred then the Articles of the Creed I mean the expressions of Popes touching Indulgencies Finding insuperable difficulties in giving a congruous sense to terms of that art which appear non-sense as those of plena plenior plenissima full more full most full If full or plenary how can another be more full c. He confesses not to understand the propriety of these and other expressions used upon that Subject but will rest upon the judgment of the Church which knows the meaning of those measures as will be seen in the 39. Chapter And certainly all those of his party have need of this kind of resignation to rest upon if they will have quiet for there is no article of Creed or Council without diversity of Opinions touching the true meaning of it among their Doctors But this Author has more to say to us that the points wherein we differ from the Roman Church were never taught by any of the Apostles For example saith he to make the King Supreme Governour of the Church this nettles him still what place of Scripture what History do's warrant this Doctrine What Christian or Godly King did practise such a Supremacy over the Church to which I say that we have a warrant for this subjection to our Princes in the words of St. Paul Rom. XIII 1. Let every Soul be subject unto the higher powers where no distinction is
made betwixt the Ecclesaâ—ic and Secular We have for the same practice the examples of the Godly Kings of â—srael and of Christian Emperours in the Primitâ—â—e Church as will be declared hereafter Chap. XV. 1. And our Doctrine herein being built thus on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets appears thereby to be Catholic and Apostolic And if any Doctrine of ours be not found grounded upon the same foundation of the Apostles and Prophets we are all reaâ—y to make that pious confession of our great King James related by Suarez Chapter XVII n. 15. Ego vero id ingenuè spondeo quoties Religionis quam profiteor ullum caput ostendetur non antiquum Catholicum Apostolicum sed novitium esse ac recens in rebus sc spectantibus ad sidem me statim ab eo dâ—sâ—essurum I do faithfully promise that whensoever any point of the Religion I profess shall be found not to be ancient Catholic and Apostolic but new and modern as to things belonging to Faith I will presently depart from it This much those of the Roman Church cannot say with sincerity and truth since several of their tenents are not built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets but are contrary to them as is declared in the second part of this Treatise Therefore our Church and the Faith of it rather then that of Rome is truly Catholic and Apostolic CHAP. V. Of the Succession and lawful Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Reformed Church of England NOthing is affirmed more confidently nothing more blindly believed by most of the Romish party then the nullity of the Protestant Clergy that our Bishops Priests and Deacons are not such effectively but nominally or by title and therefore unable to give Orders they have not or administer Sacraments depending upon such Orders This I find by experience to be the greatest stop many of the more sober and serious of them have in embracing the Communion of the Church of England They see cleerly nothing is asserted by it which may be thought Heretical or erroneous And what it denies of superstructures added in latter Ages by the Roman Church they easily perceive them not to be essential to Salvation Their main scruple is whether in this separation of the reformed Churches from the Roman a lawful succession of Bishops and Ministers was retained and a legal ordination of them continued whether they may live and die confidently relying upon the Ministery of the reformed Ministers for consecrating absolving c. without recourse to a Romish Priest This point I find to be so necessary for setling the minds of many in this wavering age that I thought convenient to examine it exactly as far as may consist with the brevity and clearness I aim at in this writing To relate the reproches and calumnies of Romish Writers against our Ministery were endless and impertinent The shorter and readiest way will be to shew the truth and right of our cause by positive undeniable arguments touching the lawful succession and due Ordination of our Clergy This being established old stories and slanders will fall of themselves Who would not think it impertinent in me to take notice of that very rude and ridiculous fable of the Ordination of Parker and others at the Naggs-head in Cheapside most vigorously and demonstratively refuted many years ago by Mr. Mason and unhappily revived of late by a certain Gentleman to his own great shame and discredit of his cause being evidently convicted of Impostures by the Lord Bishop Bramhal in a separate Treatise printed upon that Subject Such base stuff as this if suitable to ears possessed with fury and blind passion is unworthy of any mention or regard among serious and sober Men. Now coming to the point after much reading and serious consideration upon the matter I wish heartily I could find the succession of lawful Bishops so cleer and not interrupted in the Roman Church from the Apostles times to the Reformation as we are able to shew it in ours from the beginning of the Reformation to our own daies It shall not be my present work to take notice of doubts occurring touching the former It will suffice for my purpose to demonstrate that from the beginning of Henry the Eight his reign when no doubt was of the legality of our Clergy to this day there has bin a lawful uninterrupted succession and due Ordination of Bishops and other Inferiour Clergy in the Churches of England and Ireland If the testimony of an adversary will avail we have that of * Cudsem de desper Calvini causa Cap. 11. pag. 108. Cudsemius who came into England the year 1608. to observe the state of our Church and the order of our Universities Concerning the state of the Calvinian Sect in England saith he it so standeth that either it may endure long or be changed suddainly or in a trice in regard of the Catholic order there in a perpetual line of their Bishops and the lawful succession of Pastors received from the Church for the honour whereof we use to call the English Calvinists by a milder term not Heretics but Schismatics Bellarmin is peremtory upon the contrary saying of all the Reformed Churches nostri temporis haeretici neutrum habent id est nec ordinationem nec successionem the Heretics of our times have neither ordination nor succession Whatsoever be said of other reformed Churches which I leave to speak for themselves upon this point we have cleer evidences to shew the falsity of the Cardinals assertion as relating to the Reformed Church of England and the more criminal as more wilful calumny of * Bristow Harding Sanders Kellison apud Masonliâ— 1. cap. 2. Vindiciae Eccleâ—ae Anglicanae Bristow Harding Sanders Howlet Kellison and other English Romanists whose malice must be Diabolical or their ignorance supine and unexcusable in slandering their Country with what they knew or easily might know to be an untruth as that stranger Cudsemius with due inquiry came to know For evidencing this point of so great importance * Papists Prisoners in Framblingham Castle in Queen Elizabeths time related by Mr. Mason 1 Book 3. Chap. of his English Edition that it was the cry of Papists to the Protestant Clergy in Queen Elizabeths time and is still the challenge of many among them if you can justify our calling we will come to your Church and be of your Religion I am to premise first as to matter of fact that in all prudence I am to rely with more satisfaction upon the public authentic records of the Church and state of England touching the transactions of both then upon the report of declared bitter Enemies such as those of the Romish faction are known to be Whereas it cannot but appear morally impossible in any impartial judgment that in so grave and wise a Nation as England is known to be the Lords and Officers of Church and State should conspire and agree in deluding
but do not help forward his election and the election is properly held don and perfected before they be performed as any man may see in the aforesaid Bull of Julius the second Neither is the calling together of all the Cardinals necessarily required for it is expresly commanded in no law and as for the text of the Canon law called licet devitanda it shews the validity of the election as is soundly proved by Cardinal Jacobatius who shews that at least a Council is to be called to declare whether the election be good or no and that they may not proceed to the election of another The election therefore of Clement thus made is to be held a nullity as being don by deceit and fraud according to the express text of the law laid down in these words b â—n Câ—in nomine Dominâ— dist 28. But if any shall be elected ordained a Jacobat tr de Concil part â— ar 4. n. 154. or inthronized Pope through sedition presumtion or any ingeny or trick of wit contrary to this our sentence and Synodical decree pronounced in open Council by the autority of God and his Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul we pronounce him subject to the great curse and separated by perpetual Anathema from all Society with Gods Church together with all his authors factors and abettors an Anti-Christ an intruder and destroyer of Christian Religion c. a Abb. in d. licet devitanda n. 11. ver exposuit Ruffiensis And after Cardinal Hostiensis the great Doctor called the Abbot in his commentaries on the text expound's the word ingeny to be craft collusion and deceit and such like as was the election of Joh. the 22. that was afterward condemned in the Council of Basil For when after the Death of Alexander the fifth the Cardinals assembled at Bononia and consulted about the choice of a new Cardinal Cossa who then was Legate there a man potent and warlike obtained of the Electors by his greatness that they would commit the whole power of the election to him which they had no sooner granted him but he forthwith elected himself But for as much as upon examination of the matter in public Council it was found to be compassed by fraud and deceitful tricks he was therefore deprived by the Council From whence it followeth that Clement could not be taken for a true Pope both for that he was chosen by such as had no power to chuse as also that that choice by them made was wrought by fraud and deceit and to the injury of another lawfully chosen before and was therefore void tho it had bin done by such as had bin lawfully enabled to make such an election CHAP. XI Nullities declared in the Popedome of Paul the fifth and others following THe forementioned Roman Catholic author discovereth another egregious fraud and cheat used in the election of Paul the fifth succeeding Clement the Eighth wherewith they turned out the Cardinal of Florence lawfully elected to bring in factiously this Paul before called Cardinal Borgâ—esius The particulars of that intrigue are to be seen in the first chapter of the said treatise n. 15. besides whiâ—h damnable fraud and the nullity of the Cardinals electing both rendring the election void our Author discovereth another foul cause of nullity in the Popedome of Paul the fifth in regard of his notorious Simony For which it is to be presupposed that the Pope as Pope is not free from the crime of Simony nor exemted from incurring censures in that case as Aquinas proves at large concluding and resolving that the Pope as well as any other may incur the vice and come within the compass of the crime of Simony if he takes mony for any spiritual thing Of the same opinion are all the Divines that write upon that place of Aquinas In consequence to which doctrine the * Aquin 2.2 q. 100. art 1. ad 7. Council of Basil even for this crime and sin of Simony called in question examined convicted and condemned Eugenius the fourth then Pope and deprived him of the Papacy The words of the Councils decree are these By this definitive sentence of the great and universal Holy Council which is here recorded in writing for all the World to know and all posterity to take notice of the Council pronounceth decreeth and declareth Gabriel formerly called P. Eugenius the 4. to have bin and so to be a notorious manifest contumacious rebel to the warnings and commandments of the universal Church and that he still persists in the said open rebellion and doth therefore condemn him for a wilful contemner and violater of the holy ancient Canons a perturber of the peace and unity of the Church a notorious scandalizer of the universal Church a perjured incorrigible and Schismatical Simonist and therefore a forsaker of the Faith an Heretic a dilapidator and consumer of the rights and riches of the Church committed to his trust and hath thereby made himself an unprofitable member and not only unworthy and unfit for the Papal power but of all other title degree honour or dignity Ecclesiastical Whom the aforesaid General Council doth by the power of the Holy Ghost declare and pronounce to be by the Law deprived of the Papacy and Bishopric of Rome and by these presents it doth depose remove deprive and throw him out Now that the Pope Paul the fifth was guilty of Simony and deserves to be treated as Eugenius in the Council of Basil our Author declares in the foresaid treatise chapter the 2. from the second number by the words following In the Datary which is an office at Rome wherein all matters of benefices and businesses of that kind are expedited this is the course and custome at this day It is duly observed that the benefices belonging to the Popes collation whether reserved to his gift it falling void in the moneth that belongs to the Papacy which in regard of their far distance from Rome or that they are with cure cannot be given to his Nephew Borghesius are given to some of the Suitors or competitors that are of that Country or next adjoining to it For they take order that none be bestowed presently but ly vacant for a time that so a whole concourse of competitors may flock together for it which is not don for any good end that so they might know the difference of the suitors and give it to the worthiest as by the decree of the Council of Trent they are bound to do but that they may learn which is the richest and so may know how to make the best bargain To this end the time of this competition is appointed at a certain day whereof public notice is given that so all the suitors may come and that the officers of the datary may learn in that time which of all that seek it are best able to buy out and extinguish the pension that is laid upon that living For this is the fashion
not ordained again after their ceremonies Which point of presumtion and contemt of ancient Canons the Church of England refuses to learn from the Romish admitting to the practise of their respective orders among us such as have bin ordained in the Romish Church tho we have far greater reasons to suspect their ordinations as disagreeing with ancient Canons then they have to suspect ours as we have hitherto largely declared By all this discourse it appeareth how groundless is the scruple of such as refuse to join with the Church of England for fear that the ordination of its Clergy is not valid whereas we have all the certainty and even more for the validity of our ordination that the Roman Church hath for hers how much Suarez was mistaken in affirming that the Church of England has not the Ecclesiastic hierarchy composed of Bishops Priests and Deacons necessary to the constitution of a Catholic Church CHAP. XII Of the large extent of Christian Religion professed in the Church of England THe fourth and chief kind of universality proposed by Suarez as necessary to the constitution of a Catholic Church is the extent of it over all the parts of the Earth This he denies to the Church of England as not passing saies he the Limits of the Brittish Dominions But if he speaks of the Faith professed in the Church of England as he ought to do for the present purpose he was greatly mistaken Here I will shew that King James's saying as Suarez relates that the one half of the Christian World do join with us in the same Faith did not exceed the bounds of truth and modesty and that of three parts of Christians two do join with us in the profession of the Faith of Christ contained in the Apostles Creed tho not of all contained in the Creed of Trent whereby the Roman Church alone is singled from us and from all other Christian Churches not unlike Ismael whose hand was against every one and every Mans hands against him And as the Donatists would confine the Church of God to that corner of Africa they inhabited so the Romanists would not have it extended further then their jurisdiction declaring for excommunicated and damned all that join not with them in obedience to their Pope That they may be ashamed or weary of their blind presumtion and cruelty in offering to mangle and deface in this manner the Church of God if avarice and ambition the genuine cause of this proceeding is capable of shame or amendment I will give to the People blinded by them a view of the multitude of illustrious Nations and Religious Believers in Christ which they do rashly if not maliciously condemn and segregate from their communion And beginning with Protestants inhabiting Europe from the remotest parts thereof Eastward in the Kingdom of Polonia containing under its dominion Polonia Lituania Podolia Russia the less Volhinia Massovia Livonia Prussia all which united in a roundish enclosure are in circuit about 2600 miles and of no less space then Spain and France laid together In this so large a Kingdom the Protestants in great numbers are diffused through all the quarters thereof having in every Province their public Churches and Congregations orderly severed and bounded with Dioceses whence they send some of their chiefest men of worth unto their general Synods which they have frequently held with great celebrity and with such prudence and piety as may be a happy example to be followed by all Christian Churches and likely would be followed upon a due consideration if the insatiable avarice and boundless ambition of Rome aspiring desperatly to a monarchical power over all did not obstruct all the waies that sincere piety and zeal of Religion can imagine for the peace of Christians For as much as there are diverse sorts of these Polonic Protestants some embracing the Waldensian or the Bohemic others the Augustan and some the Helvetian confession and so do differ in some outward circumstances of discipline and ceremony yet knowing well that a Kingdom divided cannot stand and that the one God whom all of them worship in Spirit is the God of peace and concord they jointly meet at one general Synod and their first act alwaies is a religious and solemn profession of their unfeigned consent in the substantial points of Christian Faith necessary to Salvation Thus in general Synods at Lendomire Cracovia Petricove Woodslave Torun they declared upon the Bohememic and Helvetic and Augustan confessions severally received amongst them that they agree in the general heads of Faith touching the Holy Scripture the sacred Trinity the person of the Son of God God and Man the providence of God Sin free will the Law the Gospel justification by Christ Faith in his name Regeneration the Catholic Church and supreme head thereof Christ the Sacraments their number and use the state of Souls after Death the Resurrection and life Eternal They decreed that whereas in the forenamed confessions there is some difference in phrases and forms of Speech concerning Christs presence in his holy Supper which might breed dissention all disputations touching the manner of Christs presence should be cut off seeing all of them do believe the presence it self and that the Eucharistical Elements are not naked and emty signs but do truly perform to the Faithful receiver that which they signify and represent To prevent future occasions of violating this sacred consent they ordained that no man should be called to the sacred Ministry without subscription thereunto and when any person shall be excluded by excommunication from the Congregation of one confession that he shall not be receiv'd by them of another Lastly For as much as they accord in the substantial verity of Christian Doctrine they profess themselves content to tolerate diversity of ceremonies according to the diverse practice of their particular Churches and to remove the least suspicion of rebelling sedition wherewith their malicious and calumniating adversaries might blemish the Gospel tho they are subject to many grievous pressures yet they earnestly exhort one another to follow that worthy and Christian admonition of Lactantius defendenda Religio est non occidendo sed moriendo non saevitiâ sed patientiâ non scelere sed side illa enim bonorum haec malorum sunt This is the State of the Professors of the Gospel in the Elective Monarchy of Polonia who in the adjoining Countries on the fouth Transylvania and Hungary are also exceedingly multiplied In the former by the favour of Gabriel Bartorius Prince of that Region who not many years since expelled thence all such as are of the Papal faction in a manner the whole Inhabitants except some few rotten and pâ—trid limbs of Arrians Antitrinitarians Ebionits Socinians Anabaptists who here as also in Polonia Lituania and Borussia have some public assembly are professed Protestants and in Hungary the greater part especially being compared with the Papists Thence Westward in the Kingdom of Bohemia consisting of 3200 Parishes
and its appurtenances the Marquisates of Lusatia and Moravia the Dukedom of Silesia all which jointly in circuit contains 770. miles and in Austria it self and the Countries of Goritia Tirolis Cilia the principalities of Suevia Alsatia Brisgoia Constance the most part of the People are Protestants especially of the nobility and are in regard of their number so potent that they are formidable to their malignant opposites And they are neer of the same number and strength in the neighbour Countries of the Arch-Duke of Gratzden a branch of the house of Austria namely in Stiria Carrabia Carniola But the condition of the Protestants residing among the Cantons of Helvetia and their confederates the City of Geneva the Town of Saint Gall the Grisons Vallesians seven communities under the Bishop of Sedan is a great deal more happy and settled in so much that they are two third parts having the public and free practise of Religion for howsoever of the 13. Cantons only these five Zuric Scathausen Glarona Basil Abbaticella are entirely Protestant yet these in strength and ampleness of territory much exceed the other seven and hence Zuric in all public meetings and embassies hath the first place being chief of the five Now coming to Germany the whole Empire consisteth of three orders or states the Princes Ecclesiastical the temporal Princes and the free Cities Of the Ecclesiastics the Arch-Bishop of Maidenburg and Breame with the Bishoprics thereunto belonging are under the Protestants as also the Bishopricks of Verden Halberstad Osnaburg and Minden The temporal Princes all none of note excepted besides the Arch-Duke of Austria and the Duke of Bavaria are firmly Protestants And what the multitudes of Subjects are professing the same Faith with these Princes we may guess by the ampleness of Dominions under the government of the chief of them such as are the Prince Elector Palatin the Duke of Saxony the Marquess of Brandenburg the Duke of Wirtenburg Landgrave of Hesse Marquess of Baden Prince of Anhalt Dukes of Brunswic Holst Lunenburg Meckleburg Pomeran Swyburg Among whom the Marquess of Brandenburg hath for his Dominion not only the Marquisat it self containing in circuit about 320 miles and furnished with 50 Cities and about 60 other walled Towns but likewise a part of Prussia the Region of Prignitz the Dukedom of Crossen the Seigneuries of Sternberg and Corbus and lately the three Dukedoms of Cleve Dulic and Berg of which the two former have either of them in circuit 130 miles The free Cities which were in number 88. before some of them came to the possession of the French Polanders and Helvetians are generally Protestants especially those called the Hans Cities very rich and powerful situate in the northern part of Germany inclusively between Dantisk eastward and Hamburg westward As for Ratisbon Argentine Augusta Spire Wormes Francfort upon Main both Papists and Protestants in them make public profession Nearer to us are the Provinces of the low Countries governed by the States General namely Zutphen Vtrecht Overissel Gronninghen Holland Zeland West-Friesland in which only Protestants have the public and free exercise of their Religion The power and strength of these Provinces is too much known for to need a relation of it * Pagi Christianography chap. 2. I find in Mr. Pagit related that they contain about 210 Cities compassed with walls and ditches and 6300 Towns and villages and more and that they keep about 30000 Men in continual garrisons Now passing from the united Provinces into France those of the Religion as they usually stile them are seized of above 70 Towns having garrisons of Soldiers governed by Nobles and Gentlemen of the Protestant Religion they have 800 Ministers retaining pensions out of the public finance and are so dispersed through the chief Provinces of the Kingdom that in the Principality of Orange Poiclou almost all the Inhabitants in Gascony half in Languedoc Normandy and other western Provinces a strong party profess the Protestant Religion Besides the Castles and Forts that do belong in property unto the Duke of Bullen the Duke of Rohan Count of Laval the Duke of Trimovil Monsieur Chastillion the Mareschal of Digniers the Duke of Sully and others Now if to all the forenamed Kingdoms Principalities Dukedoms States Cities abounding with professors of the Reformed Religion we add the Monarchies of Great Britany Denmark Sweden wholly in a manner protestants we shall find them not inferior in number and power to the Romish party especially if we consider that the main bulk here of Italy and Spain are by a kind of violence and necessity rather then out of any free choice and judgment detained in their superstition namely by the jealousy cruelty and tyrannous vigilancy of the inquisition and by their own ignorance being utterly debarred from all reading of the Holy Scriptures and of controversial Books whereby they may come to the knowledg of truth and of their own errors If any shall object that the Protestants in divers Countries before mentioned cannot be reputed as one body and one Church by reason of many differences and contentions among them let him consider that however many private persons living among Protestants rather then of them have strained their weak understanding to coin several erroneous tenents and by them have bred dissentions and animosities yet these wicked practises are not to be imputed to the whole sâ—cred community of Orthodox Churches whose harmony and agreement in necessary points of Faith are to be seen and esteemed by their public confessions of their Faith which they have divulged unto the whole World by public autority and in which they do so agree that there is a most sacred harmony between them in the more substantial points of Christian Religion necessary to Salvation This is manifest out of the Confessions themselves which are the Anglican Scotian French Helvetian Belgic Polonic Argentine Augustane Saxonic Wirtembergic Palatine Bohemic or Waldensian For there is none of the Churches formerly pointed out in diverse places of Europe which doth not embrace one of those confessions and all of them do harmoniously conspire in the principal articles of Faith and which nearest concern our Eternal Salvation as in the divine essence and divinity of the Everlasting God the sacred Trinity of the three Glorious Persons the blessed Incarnation of Christ the Omnipotent providence of God the absolute Supreme head of the Church Christ the infallible verity and full sufficiency of Divine Scriptures for our instruction to life Everlasting c. In none of those confessions is to be seen that heap of desperate Heresies which my Antagonist N. N. attributes to the Church I have followed and wherewith Bellarmine and Becan and other Romish controvertists do make their volums swell to fill the minds of their proselytes with hatred and animosity against the Reformed Churches whilst in them such impious Heresies are most seriously rebuked and learnedly refuted by pen and tongue from Chairs and Pulpits as I am dayly seeing to
be added the Christians called Nestorians for having maintained antiently the errour of Nestorius spread over a great part of Asia For besides the Countries of Babylon Assâ—ria Mesopotamia Parthia and Media wherein many of them are found they are scattered far and wide in the East both northerly to Cathaia and foutherly to India So that beyond the river Tigris eastward there is no other Sect of Christians to be found as learned Brerewood relates except only the Portugals and the Converts made by them in India The Patriarch of the Nestorians to whom all those of the East parts acknowledg obedience hath his seat in the City of Musale on the River Tigris in Mesopotamia or in the Patriarchal Monastery of Saint Ermes fast by Musale In which City tho subject to Mahometans it is recorded that the Nestorians retain yet 15. Temples being esteemed about 40 thousand Souls Sanders relates the great number of suffragan Bishops and Metropolitans subject to the Patriarch of Musale Next to these we may name the Christians of Egypt called Cophti under the Patriarch of Alexandria to whose jurisdiction belong not only the native Christians of Egypt but also those about the bay of Arabia and in the Mount Sinai Eastward and in Afric as far as the greater Syrtis westward To him likewise are subject the Christians called Habassins spread over the wide Empire of Aethiopia with their Prince commonly called Prester John For tho they have a Patriarch of their own whom they call in their idiome Abuna our Father yet are they limited b Zaga Zabo de relig mor. Aethiop apud Damian Goes to chuse one of the jurisdiction of Alexandria and a Monk of Saint Anthony he must be Besides the confirmation and consecration of him belongeth to the Patriarch of Alexandria and by him is he sent with Ecclesiastical a Tho. Ã Jesul 7. p. 3. Tho. Ã Jes lib. 7. p. 3. charge into Habasia The conferring of Bishopries and other Ecclesiastical benefices except the Patriarcship belongeth only to the King Their Priests and other inferiour Ecclesiastical Ministers as also Monks live by their labour as having no tithes nor any Ecclesiastical revenues to maintain them nor being suffered to crave alms All which is recorded by Zaga Zabo an Ethiopian Bishop The Christians of Egypt are so constant in the profession of Christianity that if any of them are by force circumcised by the Turks he is marked in the forehead or hands with the sign of the Cross that all Men may know him to be a Christian The Patriarch of Alexandria's dwelling is now neer the Church of Saint Nicholas in Caire which City is one of the greatest Cities in the World reputed to be eight and twenty miles in length and fourteen in breadth as a Lithgows travels p. 306. Lithgow reporteth and that of Greeks Copates Armenians others there are about two hundred thousand Christians in that City of Caire b Tho. a Jesu de convers gent. lib. 7. par 1. c. 6. p. 363. Thomas a Jesu relates a foul mistake in Baronius who in the end of his sixth to me tells that in the time of Pope Clement the 8. an Embassage was brought from the Church of Alexandria to the Roman Bishop in which the Patriarch and all the Provinces of Egypt and others adjoyning did acknowledg him chief and universal Pastor of the Church but the matter being more diligently examined appeared to be a meer ly and fiction of a certain Impostor Bartavis How great is the extent of Christianity in Aethiopia may appear by the vast extent of that Empire which according to Mr. Brerewood his dimension is equal with Germany France Spain and Italy Others do report it to be as great as all Europe a Apud Pagit p. 38. Horatius Malegueius maketh the dominion of the Aethiopian Emperour larger then any other excepting the Dominion of the Catholic King b Godig de Abass reb lib. 1. c. 32 p. 195. Godignus reports that there are in Aethiopia one hundred and twenty seven Arch-Bishops c Alvares c. 14. Alvares a Portuguese Priest relates that in Macham Talacem which is the Church of the Holy Trinity he saw two hundred mitred Priests together and sixty four Canopies carried over them Their Churches are built round and very rich with hanging of Cloth of Gold Velvet and Plate They have many goodly Monasteries to the Monasteries of the vision of Jesus belong about 3000 Monks Many were the attacks of Rome upon this flourishing Christianity of Aethiopia to bring it under the Dominion of the Pope d Godig p. 367. The more famous I find recorded is that of Andreas Oviedo sent thither with the title of Patriarch in the year 1557. who coming with his letters to the Emperor Claudius received this answer from him That he would never yield obedience to the Bishop of Rome he gave him leave to teach the Portugals but forbad him to speak one word to his Abassins touching Religion and that he would not suffer the Roman yoak to be laid on him or his This Emperor Claudius dying Adamas succeeded who banish'd the said Patriarch Andreas and this was the issue of the Embassy as Godignus relates Under the Patriarch of Jerusalem a Chytr de statu Ecclesiae p. 24. are the Christians inhabiting Palestine mingled with Turks and others The Patriarch keeps his residence in Jerusalem where are now remaining ten Churches of Christians The Patriarchal Church is the Church of Saint Sepulcher in Jerusalem and his house is near unto it To this Patriarch did belong the three Palestines Tyrius adds two Provinces more Rubensis Beritensis He relateth also five Metropolitans to have belonged to this See and about 101 Bishops The Armenians Georgians Abassins and other Christians have several Churches in Jerusalem Under the Patriarch of Antioch are the Christians called Syrians of the place of their chief habitation and Melchites which according to the Syrian Etymology is as much as to say Royalists because their Bishops have followed alwaies in Faith and in their Councils the example and autority of the Emperors of Constantinople They inhabit mingled with Mahumetans part of Syria Beritus Tripolis Alepo and other places in Asia b Boter relat univers par 3. lib. 2. Boterus saith they are the most numerous sort of Christians in the East They live under the jurisdiction of the Arch-Bishop of Damascus by the title of Patriarch of Antiochia For Antiochia it self where the name of Christians was first heard in the World lying at present wast or broken into small villages the Patriarchall seat was translated thence to Damascus where are reported to be above a thousand houses of Christians For altho the Patriarch of the Maronites and of the Jacobites whereof the former keepeth residence in Libanus and the latter in Mesopotomia entitle themselves Patriarchs of Antiochia and by the Christians of their own Sects be so acknowledged yet do the Melchites
say that this severe sentence is not of their making but delivered by Christ against all that will not obey his Vicar upon Earth the Pope of Rome And possible it is that some of the simpler sort may believe it is so But it s long since I knew and proved that none sufficiently conversant in the principles of their own Theology could seriously think it to be so but that according to their principles its blasphemy and Heresy to say without restriction and in general terms as commonly they do that none may be saved out of the communion of the Roman Church And my Antagonist I.S. tells us I did not trespass therein against truth of Doctrine but against policy or prudence as he calls it whereby I put a great stop to the conversion of Protestants if People did think that out of the Romish Communion any may be saved So as the prudence demanded from me was to fashion my Doctrine to the increase of the Popes Dominion be it with truth or untruth and pronounce sentence of damnation against all Christians not subject to him tho I should know no such sentence to be against them in the judgment of God I wish my good Brethren of the Roman Church did reflect upon and acknowledg the great injury they do to themselves in breeding and fomenting this unchristian hostility with the whole Society of Christians separated from their communion so numerous and illustrious as we have seen in the preceeding Chapters imprinting hatred towards all in the hearts of their Children which forceably must beget a return of hatred or disaffection and mistrust How incommodious it s to create to themselves so many Enemies how uneasie and disadvantagious to bereave themselves of the free and amiable society of so many noble Nations and brave People which the apprehension of Heresy makes intractable to them What happened to me with a Spanish young Man that came in my company out of Spain into England makes me more sensible of the misery that Romanists bring upon themselves this way He was of his own disposition chearfull and sociable but as soon as he came among the English People his heart and countenance fell down and he appeared sad and melancholic I inquiring of him the cause of that alteration he answered that he looked upon all those men as Heretics which made their very sight odious to him and their company displeasing The man did not well know what Heresy was and much less did he know whether those Men he saw were Heretics or no. He acknowledged them to be good men just and civil in their dealing and adorned with noble gifts of God yet the prejudice he was in against them by conceiving them to be Heretics made their sight and company odious to him Would not this Man have been more happy in conceiving a better opinion of the People would it not make him live with more ease and comfort among them not to mention now that higher Emolument and duty of maintaining charity towards all Men. CHAP. XVI Inferences from the preceeding Doctrine of this whole treatise against the several objections of N. N. HE that hath not considered the frame I proposed to observe in this treatise and seeth me go through many Chapters of it debating with Suarez and other Romish writers without any mention of N. N. may think I have neglected or forgotten him and his Book But if he will take notice of my purpose made in the beginning of cutting down by the root the whole Fabric of the said Book he shall find I am still upon my intended work The ground and foundation of all the cries and complaint of N. N. against me is a supposition that I have left the Catholic Church and Faith by withdrawing from the communion of the Roman Church and embracing this of England In the whole discourse of this Treatise I have proved that the Church of England is in all propriety Catholic and the Faith professed in it truly Catholic and Apostolic and all this by rules and principles taken from the ablest of Romish Writers for proceeding in this inquiry whereby it remains proved that all the exclamations of N. N. against me went upon a false supposition and consequently are vain and groundless Hence I infer first how vain is his query and more vain his divining answer about what drew me out of Gods house It appears by what is said hitherto and will be further declared in the rest of this Book that in my change I did not leave the house of God but removed to the best and soundest part of it that no private spirit or rash fancy moved me but a sincere acknowledgment of truth by the ordinary means God has disposed for us to come by it I infer secondly how groundless and unreasonable his pretention is that I should have quitted the holy Doctors Gregory Ambrose Augustine and Jerom and all the ancient Fathers and Catholic Doctors He do's not tell how or wherein I have deserted that noble company neither indeed were it easy for him to tell it I live and do firmly resolve to dy in the same Catholic Church which they lived and died in and in the profession of the same Catholic and Apostolic Faith which they professed The same and no other Faith is professed in the Church of England whose communion I have embraced as hath bin sufficiently demonstrated hitherto and I hope by the merits and grace of our Saviour Jesus to enjoy the company of those blessed Saints in Heaven maugreall the censures of Rome Neither was I ever closer with those Holy Fathers in the Romish Church then I am now in the English It is one of the perverse calumnies of our adversaries to give forth that there is not due regard had of them here I see the contrary I have observed diligently the waies of the Universities and method of Study with Learned men in England and Ireland and I see with them far greater application to the study and reading of holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church then ever I saw amongst Romanists Whilst the most learned of these spend their life and forces in speculative notions only serving Schole debates learned Protestants employ their time more happily in the study of the Holy Scriptures of Fathers and credible Histories I infer thirdly how rash and injurious is his censure in saying that by embracing the confession contained in the 39. Articles of the Church of England I have made my self partaker of all the Heresies and an associate of all the Heretics that were from the beginning of the World to this day Of these he makes a great list beginning with Lucifer whom he will have to be the first Heretic before Mans Creation and from him proceeds to Lamech the Gyants all those that entred not into the Ark but perished in the deluge who were all Heretics saies he Then enters Cham with the builders of Babels Esau Jannes and Jambres Corah and Dathan Nadah and
if you speak of a subjective certainty excluding all manner of doubts as well touching the truth of Divine revelation if extant as of the existence of it I do vehemently suspect that both you and your instructors do speak against your sense and experience especially touching points controverted and not explicitly contained in Scripture such as is Transubstantiation for example that mystery which Scotus Ockam Cajetan and others of your ablest Schole men could never find in scripture nor agreeable to the rules of common reason I appeal to your breast for judging whether you have touching this point that degree of certainty excluding all manner of doubt which you pretend to be necessary for all acts of belief touching revealed truths Mr. I. S. must not expect from me that I should take notice off and pursue all the impertinencies he runs upon in his book my intention being only to clear the truth in our main concern and therefore to follow him as far as I find him speak pertinently to the points I proposed for discovering their grosser errors which forced me to a separation from their communion In the first Chapter of his book he enlargeth upon points we allow and know upon firmer grounds then his proofs for them That God is to be adored That he has revealed himself what manner of worship he requires That this worship is true religion That the same is but one That God hath afforded sufficient means to know which is the true saving Religion That divine faith must be grounded upon an infallible autority fully assuring us of the truth of its proposals The controversy is what authority this is whether of the Scripture as we believe or of the Pope and Council as he pretends For a visible Judge to ascertain us of Divine verities I once argued that it became Divine wisdom and goodness to provide us such to determine our controversies which otherwise would be endless It was replied that we ought to be wary in censuring Gods wisdom if this or that seeming to us convenient were not don in the government of the world I acknowledged force in the reply and did further it with an instance that we may as well say that it belongeth to the power and goodness of God not to permit his holy Laws to be transgressed by vile creatures and as we do not judg it a failure in his goodness to permit sins so ought we not to waver in the opinion of his goodness if he has not appointed us a visible Judg for our direction having given us the Holy Scriptures which abound with all light and heavenly doctrine to such as are not willfuly obstinate Mr. I. S. not accustomed to approve any thing in his opponents calls this my acknowledgment weakness and to my instance saies it becomes the goodness of God to permit sins and the scandals of Popes for the exercise of their liberty But if this stout disputant were as provident as he is confident in running upon engagements he might hate foresâ—en a ready reply to his objection that liberty is no less necessary to heresie then to other sins being an essential requisite to all moral actions good or bad Neither is the permission of heresie less conveâ—ienâ— whether for the exercise of liberty or for other reasons which made the Apostle say that there must be here sies among men 1 Cor. 11 2â— neither doth his pretended infallibility of his Church hâ—nder heresies and endless controversies among them But where I prove that the word of God is able to furnish us with all necessary instruction out of St Paul 2 Tim. 3. saying that holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation that the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished to all good works this is the gloss of our Antagonist But I infer the contrary whereas Scriptures tho replenished they be with heavenly light are not sufficient to â—eclare unto us what we ought to believe we might waver in our opinion of Gods goodâ—ess if he did not appoint an infallible living Judg to instruct us Is this to interpret St. Paul or clearly to oppose and contradict him St. Paul sayes that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation and I. S. saies that they are not sufficient to declare unto us what we ought to believe which is clearly to say that they are not able to make us wise unto Salvation for certainly without due belief we can not be saved This interpretation is like to another attributed by a Fryar to Lyra being convinced that the proposition he denyed was in Scripture he replied it was true the Text said so but Nicolas de Lyra said the contrary So t is in our case St. Paul saies that the Scripture is able to make us wise unto Salvation but Mr. I. S. saies the contrary which of them ought we to beleive I should expect from the subtilty of our Sophister to tax me with giving my conclusion for reason of it self such is the identity in sense of my assertion with S. Pauls Text alledged for proof of it That Holy Scripture is sufficient to instruct us for Salvation and a good life is what S. Paul saies and what I say no more nor less but it is for slow wits to fetch out of a Text only what is contained in it Sublime understandings must find in it more then the Author did mean nay the contrary of his words and meaning It is not for them to submit to that rule of Canonists that it is not a right way of interpreting a Text to mend it Mr. S. mends the Text of S. Paul asserting the contrary of it and from the contrary assertion by him substituted he inferrs a contrary consequence to that I inferred from S. Pauls assertion I inferr thus Whereas Scripture is sufficient to our full instruction we ought not to waver in our opinion of Gods goodness if he did not appoint an infallible living Judg to direct us But Mr. S. thinking that a small dâ—scovery thus resolves But I infer the contrary Whereas Scriptures tho replenisht with heavenly light are not sufficient to declare unto us what we ought to believe we might waver in our Opinion of Gods Goodness if he did not appoint an infallible living Judg for to instruct us I leave the judicious Reader to reflect upon the stock of insolencies heaped up in these lines to give the he flatly to S. Paul and pronounce a sentence against the goodness of God if he did not what Mr. I. S. thinks sit to be don But see how our admirable Doctor teacheth S. Paul to mend his error that where he said Scripture is able to make us wise to Salvation he did not say it of Scripture alone but in conjunction with those Auxiliaries Mr. I. S. is pleased to appoint As if one to magnifie his strength did say he could carry two hundred weight and being on a trial found unable to do it to verifie his saying should
thus Hoc inveni quod fecerit Deus hominem rectum ipse se infinitis miscuit quaestionibus And in the 12. Ch. and 12. v. he saith That of many Books there is no end The questions determinable being thus unlimited the faculty relating to them for an unerring determination must be likewise unlimited and consequently of infinite perfection Will he allow so much to the Pope He challenges me often and defies all my Divinity to answer his Arguments will he give me leave to challenge once all his Sophistry for a direct and formal solution of this Query And whilst he finds it I enquire secondly Whether it be granted and allowed that God has lent his Infallibility to the Pope of Rome to determine without error all questions possible occurring about Religion whether I have not denv'd resolutely the said grant to be made and confuted the foundations they pretend for it to his knowledg being so whether it be a proper kind of arguing to take for a Principle against us the Conclusion in debate whether it be not a damnable arrogance to parallel his Pope with the holy Evangelists and Apostles which all Christians do acknowledg and reverence for unerring Oracles of God to declare his holy Will to us whether it be not insolence to say that our censures upon Romanists for attributing Infallibility to the Pope should reflect upon the sacred Organs of the Holy Ghost speaking to us by their mouth as Mr. I. S. do's most impiously pretend And being I signified the censure of Blasphemy upon their pretence to Infallibility to be of their own Authors not of my making as not concerned for aggravating their crime so much as to shew they are absolutely in an error I will further declare how bitter they are in censuring one another in this particular How little is Mr. I. S. assisted by his brethren for his singular way to escape In the Colledg of Clermont at Paris the twelfth day of December of the year 1661. was defended this Thesis as a Catholic assertion against the heresy of the tenth Age * Christum nos ita caput Ecclesiae agnoscimus ut illius regimen dum in calos al iâ—t primum Petro tum deinde successer thus commisern candem quam habebat ipse Infallibilitatem concesseris quoties ex cathedra loquerentur Datur crgo in Ecclesià R. controversiarum sidei infallibilis judex ctiam extra concilium generale tum in quaestionibus juris â—nm facti Unde post Innocentii X. Alexandri VII constitutiones fide divina credi potest librum cui titulus Augustinus Jansenii esse haereticum quinâ—ue propositiones ex co decerptas esse Jansenii in sensa Jansenii damnatas We acknowledg Christ to be so the Head of the Church that during his absence in heaven he hath delegated the government thereof first to Peter and then to his Successors and do's grant unto them the very same Infallibility which himself had as often as they shall speak è è Cathedra There is therefore in the Church of Rome an infallible Judg of Controversies of Faith even without a General Council as well in questions appertaining to right as in matters of fact Therefore since the Constitutions of Innocent the X. and Alexander the VII we may believe with a divine Faith that the Book intitled The Augustin of Jansenius is heretical and the five Propositions which are gathered out of it to be Jansenius's and in the sense of Jansenius condemned Here we have a great authorized Colledg of his own declare against Mr. I. S. that the Pope even out of a General Conncil is Infallible that he hath the very same Infallibility which Christ himself had and if he slights the Authority of this Colledg which may not be safe for him if he be the man some say pretends to have the honor of being Author of this Book with more consideration he may find the common opinion of the chief Scholemen of his communion to be against him such as are * Aquin 2.2 q. 1. ar 10. Cajet op de authorit Pont. Concil cap. 9. Suar. d. 5. sect 8. Ban. in com brevi dub conclu 3. Valen. d. 1. q 1. punct 7. sect 39. 40. Mald. dub 5. Turri disp 16. dub 1. Can. lib. 6. de locis Theolog. c. 7.8 Bellar. lib. 4. de R. P. c. 2. Aquiâ—as Cajetanus Suarez Bannez Valentia Malderus Turrianus Canus Bellarmin and many others whereof Suarez Bannez and Valentia declare Mr. I.S. his opinion to be heretical and branded for such in the Bull of Leo the Tenth condemning for an error of Luther this Proposition Si Papa cum magna parte Ecclesiae sic vel sic sentiret nec etiam erraret adhuc non est peccatum aut haeresis contrarium sentire praesertim in re non necessariâ ad salutem donec fuerit per Concilium Vniversale alterum reprobatum alterum approbatum and by Sixtus IV. in a Council of fifty two Doctors celebrated at Complutum in the year 1479. Alphonsus Carillo Arch bishop of Toledo being President in it against Petrus Oxoniensis among whose Propositions condemned for erroneous this was the seventh Ecclesia Vrbis Romanae errare potest Here we have our poor Antagonist his peculiar way of defending the Romish quarrel declared for heretical by Popes and the common opinion of Popish Doctors Now let us see another party of them censure the foresaid position of the Clermont Colledg for a horrid impiety and a species of Idolatry for Idolatry say they do's not consist merely in giving to man the name of God but infinitely more when we attribute to him those qualities which are peculiar to God and when we render him those honors which are alone due to the Deity Now this entire submission of our Spirit and of all our intellectuals comprehended in the Act of our Faith is no other then that adoration which we pay to the prime Verity it self and therefore whosoever he be that renders it to the word of a man whatever rank he may hold in the Church who ever says that he believes with a faith Divine that which he would not believe but because a man has affirmed it do's constitute man in the place of God transfers to the creature that which is alone due to the Creator and makes as far as in him lies a kind of Idol of the Vicar of Jesus Christ And a little after they declare it to be a formal Blasphemy in these words But were it possible to offer a greater affront to the prime Minister of Jesus Christ then to conceive they do him honor by a Blasphemy so injurious to Jesus Christ that he should suffer them to equal him with his Master by ascribing to him the same Infallibility which he alone possesses and that men should render that Supreme Cultus of a Divine Faith to his words which is only due to the word of God Thus the party opposite of the
Parisian Doctors in their Declaration against the forementioned Thesis of Clermont Colledg presented to all the Bishops of France extant in the hands of many both in French and English And if their reason exhibited for their censure be considered well we shall find it to comprehend Mr. I. S. his opinion no less then that of the Clermont Jesuits since both the one and the other do bottom the pretended Infallibility of their Church upon the Popes Autority whether in a Council or out of it and so the reason of the Parisian Divines doth conclude in either case that it is a Blasphemy injurious to Jesus Christ to ascribe to the Pope that Infallibility which Christ alone possesses and that men should render that Supreme Cultus of Divine Faith to the words of the Pope which is only due to the word of God The allegations of our Adversary for obedience due to the Church as to Christ and of promises made of the assistance of the Holy Ghost to the Apostles and the Church governed by them will appear very impertinent to his purpose in favor of the Pope and his faction when we come to examine the Texts alledged for which I will assign the Chapter following In the mean time we may conclude from what is said in this Chapter That to ascribe Infallibility to the Pope is Blasphemy in the opinion even of Popish Doctors and Mr. I. S. his pecular way of defending that tenet declared for heretical by Doctors of his own party which was my present undertaking To which may be added the opinion of Mr. * Tabul Suff. cap. 19.20.21 Thomas White of the same Communion whose whole Book called his Tabulae suffragiales is purposely designed against this doctrine of the Popes personal Infallibility affirming it to be not heretical but Archiheretical and that the propagating of this doctrine is in its kind a most grievous sin so weary men of Learning and Parts begin to grow of this intolerable Arrogance of the Roman Church or Court and of their Flatterers CHAP. VII Our Adversaries corruption of Scripture detected OUR Adversary certainly never look'd into the Bible for the Texts he alledges for the Infallibility of his Church but snatch'd them out of some of his old Controvertists whose custom is to clip and cut Scripture to their own pretences without regard of their true meaning Or if he has seen them with their contexts he has bin strangely dull in not perceiving the right sense of them very obvious to any ordinary good understanding or malicious in misrepresenting the meaning of them This is especially seen in his Allegation of these words Joh. XV. 26. When the Paraclete will come whom I will send from my Father the spirit of truth he will give testimony of me and ye will give testimony This he will have us take for a certain testimony of the Holy Ghosts assistance promised to his Church If he did see the half verse immediatly following which he left out or his Tutors cut off he would find that these words were spoken to the Apostles with circumstances making them impossible to be applied to his Church The verse restored to its integrity saies thus And ye also shall bear witness because ye have bin with me from the beginning What man in his senses would think those words appliable to the Council of Trent Were the Fathers of that Council with Christ from the the beginning was the Holy Ghost not yet descended He confirms further his opinion out of Acts the XV. 28. where the Council of the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem deciding the controversy concerning Circumcision delivers their opinion thus It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us signifying that the Holy Ghost did assist them and that grounded on the words aforesaid of our Saviour Joh. XV. 26. When the Paraclete will come he shall give testimony of me and you shall give testimony of me If that be the ground of the Apostles Phrase we have seen before to whom that promise was given whether to the Apostles alone or the Bishops of Rome to be for ever We have seen that the Text in its integrity cannot be applied to the latter But Mr. I. S. of his own autority declares that promise was made by Christ not only to the Apostles but to the Roman Church for ever And to make this latter Text sound somthing like to his purpose he patches it up with a piece of a verse fetch'd out of Matth. XXVIII Vntil the consummation of the world This usual art of theirs of cutting from the Texts what is against their purpose and patching them with other words far fetch'd that may have a gloss or appearance of their pretention may be practiced with more safety in conversation or in a Sermon to a vulgar Auditory then in a serious debate by print exposed to a strict examen This is a cheat like that used in Italy with rotten Apples to set them out for sound They cut off the rotten pieces and glue together the sound fragments to an appearance of a fair Apple but being handled more close it falls in pieces and discovers the cheat This abominable Legerdemain is too often seen in their Pulpits fathering upon the Gospel forsooth most execrable Blasphemies extolling their several new Saints to whom they would gain devotion and by that devotion mony to their Coffers above the Apostles above the Angels above Christ and all that is in heaven to the perpetual scandal of the discreet part of their own flock and edification of none All is sanctified with them by repeting at the end of every desperate discourse some words of the Gospel as a burden of the song tho with no relation in its sense to their purpose This is the art Mr. I. S. useth with the testimony related of Acts XV. touching the assistance of the Holy Ghost in the Council at Jerusalem grounded as he confesses upon the aforesaid Text of John XV. 26. declared to relate only to the Apostles then present and Mr. I. S. of his own head will have it extended to the Roman Church for ever and his Interpretation must be taken for Canonical Scripture by closing it up with this fragment of the twentieth verse of Matthew the XXVIII Vntil the consummation of the world The Text he corrupts and cuts off Matth. XXVIII contains a promise of Christ to the Apostles and Church founded and Faith preached by them that he will assist them for ever saying I am with you all the daies until the consummation of the world St. Hierom better then Mr. I. S. will tell us the meaning of these words glossing thus upon them qui usque ad consummationem seculi cum discipulis se futurum esse promittit illos ostendit semper esse victuros se nunquam à credentibus recessurum In these words our Saviour promises to his Disciples life everlasting and to the Church founded by them and to all true believers in him his
Quae ab initio sunt male constituta tempore non convalescunt That what was unlawful in the beginning grows not by continuance lawful nor this other Non debet quis commodum reportare ex crimine none ought to find an advantage in a guilt for his defence An unjust usurper by a continuance of his usurpation is rendred rather more guilty then excusable We have shown by evident proofs that the pretention of the Roman Church to Infallibility was and is still an unjust usurpation a robbery of a priviledg belonging unto God and his holy Scripture communicated to the Apostles founders of Christian Religion and to the Church truly Catholic and Universal sticking to the Doctrine and Belief which Christ and his Apostles left to us not to that factious party devoted to the Pope of Rome which Mr. I. S. would have us take for the only Church committing in all his discourses a perpetual Solecism against the laws of a Disputant which is to take for granted the subject of the Debate which is constantly deny'd to them But his Logic will not take notice of these niceties Now therefore to accuse us that we disturb them in the possession of their Infallibility is like the complaint of a certain Gentleman against a Merchant calling on him for an old debt He ranted and swore he was a troublesom companion for importuning for the payment of a debt of so many years as if it were but of yesterday his delay in paying was an increase of his guilt The retaining of another mans goods as well as the taking them away against his will is robbery Thus it is in our case the pretention of the Roman Faction to Infallibility was a robbery from the beginning an imposing upon man kind as I have proved and the continuance of it is an increase of their guilt why will Mr. I. S. make this increase of their guilt an excuse of it Besides to say that his Church was in all Ages in peaceable possession of this prerogative of Infallibility as he do's pag. 76. is a wide mistake and as he asserts it without proof he must be contented with a bare denial for an answer while we leave him to look after any pertinent testimony of the Fathers of the first three hundred nay for a thousand years for his purpose which he shall never find In the seventh Chapter of his Book p. 102. he falls abruptly upon the old armory of miracles in favor of his Church Of this I could not but wonder having seen him p. 81. engage his whole Logic against the power of Miracles for breeding in men a saving divine Faith for said he Either they are only probable or evident if probable only they are not proportionable to give us that certainty required for divine Faith if evident absolutely they can be no motive of Faith which is of its own nature obscure In which piece of Logic he gives a clear testimony of his Impiety and Ignorance Impiety in pretending to weaken that strong foundation of Christian Belief taken from the glory of Miracles for which I remit him to what he alledges himself from the foresaid p. 102. Ignorance in pretending that an obscure Conclusion may not be deduced from an evident Premise To prove notum per ignotius a Conclusion clear by a Premise or Medium more obscure is a known fault in arguing but to prove by an evident Medium a Conclusion obscure is a fault of arguing never heard of yet before Mr. I. S. his Logic. By this Canon he makes the belief of Martha to be indiscreet who seeing the resurrection of her brother and other Miracles our Saviour wrought concluded I beleive that thou art Christ the son of God The miracle was evident but the generation of Christ from his heavenly Father obscure And who shall declare his generation Esa III. 8. Having thus helped him against himself for rendring Miracles a congruous way to find out true Religion I gladly accept the challenge to a trial of our Religion by them Our Religion or the object of our necessary Belief is only what is contained in the word of God by Canonical Scripture In favor of this Belief we have all the Miracles written in the Old and New Testament Their Religion as opposite to ours and differing from us are those Articles in debate introduced by the Roman Church Transubstantiation Purgatory Worship of Images c. Will he for shame pretend the stock of Romanies produced by them for these Innovations fit to be compared with the store of glorious Miracles which we have in the behalf of our divine truly infallible Belief contained in holy Scripture While we show his new Belief to be contrary to this divine Faith confirmed with Miracles of infallible truth as we do let him keep to himself his new-coin'd wonders and remember that God is not contrary to himself in putting his Seal to contrary Laws And if he must believe some of the wonders he proposes let Lessius and others help him to understand what to make of those miracles or wonders which Valerius Maximus Titus Livius and other Roman Historians do relate to have bin wrought in favor of their Temples and heathenish Superstitions and let him not expect from me that I should bestow time in examining the truth or false-hood of all his impertinent Allegations In the same seventh Chapter from p. 126. he fastens on me two notorious calumnies first that having left the Roman Church I fixed upon no other to be of the second that I said none may be saved in the Roman Church The falsehood of the first is seen by my public declaration for the Church of England the untruth of the other I declared in the second Chapter of this Treatise whereby all his verbosity upon this subject appears a fret of his Malice without any real ground without shame to tax me often with and repete with his frivolous exclamations without shewing where or when I did say what indeed I never said or wrote That there is no salvation in the Roman Catholic Religion With the same confidence and the like untruth he repetes That it is the constant doctrine of the Church of England that the Romish Religion is a saving Religion or a safe way to salvation which is what we deny them Let the Reader reflect upon what I said in the foresaid second Chapter of this Treatise and see the confusion of this mans brains in not understanding or delivering distinctly our sentiments according to our own expressions or the corruption of his mind in deceiving wilfully his Reader especially that he himself p. 133. alledgeth Doctor Stillingfleet comparing both Churches the Romish to a leaky Ship wherein a man may be saved but with great danger and difficulties and the Protestant to a sound Ship wherein one may be saved without hazard This is the utmost of courtesy or charity that may be and is extended to them Is this to say the Romish Church is a
you speak all being the Word of God tho not in the same degree of necessity to be explicitly believed by all men Therefore to say that the doctrine of Points not Fundamental is fallible is to say that the Word of God is fallible which without Controversy is a formal Blasphemy Poor Logician is this your Argument in Ferio for which you thought a solid Answer could not be found For a Syllogism in Feriâ— to be concluding the Premises must be allowed and will you have us allow your Premises when one of them is found to be a formal Blasphemy But it seems this horrible Blasphemy did not fall from him unawares it was with deliberation He goes to prove it and see how The Church can err and is fallible in Points not Fundamental therefore these Points are fallible This is another goodly piece of Logic which proves that Points Fundamental are likewise fallible Men can err and have erred in Points Fundamental therefore these also are fallible in your Dialect This is not to distinguish Subjective fallibility from the Objective to pass the imperfections of the faculty upon the object Mr. I. S. looks upon the Sun with squint or dim eies therefore the Sun is dim or squint The Pope can err and is fallible in declaring the Word of God therefore the Word of God is fallible Your brethren of Clermont Colledg who defended in their Theses mentioned chap. 6. that the Pope hath the same Infallibility which Christ had may think that consequence legal The Pope is fallible about the Word of God therefore the Word of God is fallible because the Pope hath the very same Infallibility which Christ the very Word of God hath But we that a low no such Equality of truth to men cannot take fallibility in the Word of God for a consequence of mans fallibility about it From the foresaid Position you proceed to the second grand Thesis prefixed to your Chapter That Protestants cannot without Blasphemy alledg Scripture for their Tenets This is sure a rare shew of your wit a product of your own invention never heard of before I confess to have never heard the like and thus you go to prove it Protestancy or the points wherein Protestants do differ from Papists is but a parcel of fallible doctrine but no fallible doctrine can without Blasphemy be sought for in Scripture therefore Protestants cannot without Blasphemy alledg Scripture for their Tenets Make of the Major what you please for the present what desperate Proposition is that of the Minor That no fallible doctrine may without Blasphemy be sought for in Scripture By this all the Fathers and Doctors of the Church all Divines that alledg Scripture for their several opinions which they do not pretend to be infallible nor more then probable opinions are guilty of Blasphemy in your esteem But that this so much solemnized Argument may not be altogether useless I will retort it upon your self with more force and less cavil proving by it that your Church is not the Church of Christ And thus I argue for it in your own terms No Church is any further the Church of Christ then as it teacheth the doctrine of Christ but the Roman Church as condistinct from the Reformed Protestant Church or in as much as it differs from it doth not teach the doctrine of Christ therefore the Roman Church as condistinct from the Reformed Protestant Church is not the Church of Christ The Minor Proposition That the Roman Church as condistinct from the Protestant Church doth not teach the doctrine of Christ I prove thus The doctrine which the Roman Church as condistinct from the Protestant and opposite to it doth teach is Popes Infallibility and Supremacy over all the Christian Church Transubstantiation Worship of Images Invocation of Saints Purgatory Indulgences half Communion Liturgy in an unknown tongue prohibiting the people to read holy Scripture c. all which I have declared in my former discourse not to be the doctrine of Christ but all contrary to it and in this present Treatise will more fully declare the same Therefore the Roman Church as condistinct from the Protestant and opposite to it doth not teach the doctrine of Christ and consequently is not the Church of Christ CHAP. XI A Refutation of several other Attemts of Mr. I. S. in that eighth Chapter YOU are prolix in pretending that Protestants have not unity of Faith with Papists God forbid they should agree in all with them spare bragging that they claim kindred with you It is a great piece of courtesy and charity in Protestants to admit kindred with you or allow you to be a part tho infected and corrupted of the Catholic Church a courtesy I say in some thing like that of Bellarmin in admitting even the most scandalously wicked of men Epicures in manners and Atheists in belief to the Communion of his Church provided they do but exteriourly own the Romish Religion and Obedience to the Pope tho but for temporal ends His kindness to his Lord the Pope and zeal for his grandeur makes him extend thus his courtesy Our love to our Lord Christ makes us admit kindred with you and to take you for Members of the Church Universal in as much as you confess with us tho but verbally the chief Articles of his doctrine contained in the Creed You proceed to exhort Protestants to an examen of their Belief whether they be in the right I wish your party did comply so well herein with their duty or were permitted to do it as Protestants do and are allowed Here they inquire dispute and read carefully Books for and against their Tenets They are permitted to do it and encouraged in it by their Instructors You will not allow your people to read dispute or doubt at all of your Tenets You say Protestants are obliged in conscience to doubt of their Religion while you tell your own people they are obliged in conscience not to doubt of theirs How came your Church by this Prerogative because 't is unerring and unerrable as the Title of your Book saies but the Book do's not prove as we are shewing Why are Protestants oblig'd to doubt of their Religion because it is new say you This was the Argument of Pagans to stop the preaching of the Gospel more improperly and with less ground used by you Our Religion is the Ancient and yours the New as we prove Where was our Religion say you before Luther A question which for one too old should be cast away We answer where yours never was in the Word of God and in the true Records of Primitive Christianity You conclude your heterogeneous Chapter and your first part of your Book with mentioning the Treatise or Paper I penned some years ago in favor of the Salvation of Protestants against your vulgar Teachers damning all to hell for Heretics without reserve or distinction You say the doctrine I delivered was true but it was indiscretion to declare it in
sake forsooth then would you be obliged to rebel against him because say you with Bellarmin in dubious Cases the Church is obliged to obey the Pope Men are apt to doubt of their duties and the Devil is ready to stir such doubts in them Thus he wrought the first Rebellion in Paradise Cur praecepit vobis Deus c. Why hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden And if the Pope comes out declaring that it is lawful and religious to rebel you must practice accordingly tho Scripture and reason makes you know that Rebellion is an heinous vice This is the great power of the Pope you teach to metamorphose vice into virtues and virtues to vices It is a common boast of your stout Bigots to say that if the Pope did prohibit them to say the Lords Praier Our Father c. they would not say it tho Christ did order them to pray so To that of the Council of Constarce you say it is false that they alledged no other reason for prohibiting the Cup to the Laity then the Decrees of precedent Popes You affirm they alledged also for reason the example of Christ and his Apostles who gave it in one kind whereby it appears you did not read the Council Read the thirteenth Session of it where this matter is handled and there you shall find no montion of Christ and his Apostles to have given the Sacrament in one kind but the contrary is supposed as appears by these words of the Decree Quod licet in Primitiva Ecclesia hujusmodi Sacramentum reciperetur à fidelibus sub utraque specie postea à conficientibus sub utraque à Laicis tantummodo sub specie panis suscipiatur That tho the Sacrament of Communion in the Primitive Church was received by the faithful under both kinds for the future it is to be received by the Priests consecrating under both kinds and by the Laity only under the Species of Bread It is therefore from your self you say that Christ and the Apostles did administer it to the Laity under one kind and the Council do's not pretend to know so much only alledges the custom formerly introduced saying Vnde cum hujusmodi consuetudo ab Ecclesia Sanctis patribus rationabiliter introducta diutissime observata sit habenda est pro lege That this custom being reasonably introduced and long time observed by the Church and holy Fathers it is to be taken for a Law Here you see no mention made of Christ or the Apostles to have don so as you say Upon what ground you do not tell us you will have it taken upon your credit By saying that I may flatter the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by telling him he hath more power in this Kingdom then the King his Master in whose place and name he acts because I accused you of giving more power to the Pope then to God by these priviledges of giving to divine Law what sense he pleases and overthrowing the Ordinances of Christ to set up his own by this your expression I say you are twice criminal in a hainous degree First for imagining it should be a way to flatter my Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to say he had more power in Ireland then the Kings Majesty which he could not hear without horror and indignation Secondly for the falsehood of your supposition to frame your parity When or where did the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland say that notwithstanding the King of England did ordain this or that for the Government of Ireland himself would order the contrary as your pretended Vicar of Christ said in the Council of Constance now mention'd that notwithstanding Christ did order the Communion to be given in both kinds to the Laity he did order himself the contrary And all this senseless and groundless extravagancy you run upon only to find occasion of talking to us of a halter after your wonted grave and modest sâ—â—le But being convinced of a false accusation you deserve by the law of retaliation the punishment due to the crime you do so falsly impose upon us Certainly that of the ducking-stool will appear in all good judgments both due and necessary to so foul a mouth Another Example I produced of your extolling Papal Laws above the Divine in the case of Costerus saying It s a greater sin in a Priest to marry then to keep a Concubine the former being but a transgression of a Papal Law the second of a Divine You answer p. 173. that tho it be but a Papal Law that Priests should vow chastity yet the vow being made it is a trangression of Divine Law to violate it Consult your Casuists Sir and you shall find them all say that a vow made in any matter opposite to Gods orders is null or invalid There is an order of God intimated by St. Paul to the unmarried that if they cannot contain let them marry 1 Cor 7.9 Possible it is that a Priest should find by experience that he cannot contain This you will not deny Then the vow appears to be null because by it was promised a thing contrary to that order of God intimated by St. Paul and consequently the obligation of it ceaseth only the Popes Law prohibiting Priests to marry urgeth To it is opposite that other intimated to the unmarried if they cannot contain let them marry Which of these Laws or Orders must be observed If you say the Popes Law as Costerus do's then follows the Conclusion that you prefer the Popes Laws to those of God You may exclaim at this but you see the Premises containing in them the Conclusion is inbred undenied doctrine among you CHAP. XIII Our Adversary his foul and greater Circle committed pretending to rid his claim to infallibility from the censure of a Circle His many absurdities and great ignorance in the pursuit of this attempt discovered A better resolution of Faith proposed according to Protestant Principles I accused our Adversaries of a Circle committed in their pretence to Infallibility because they prove it by Scripture and the Infallibility of Scripture they prove by the infallibility of their Church which is to go still round in a Circle Mr. I. S. to wind himself out of this Circle presents to us a resolution of his Faith containing in it a greater Circle or many Circles together Having premised some trivial notions to ching the obscurity of Faith and evidence of credibility required to the assent of it he falls on extolling the power and aptness of Miracles to beget such credibility reducing all to the advantage of the Roman Church authorized with Miracles as he pretends and from page 180. he enters into his resolution of Faith thus You ask why I beleive the Trinity I answer because God hath revealed it You ask why I believe that God revealed it I answer because the Church by which God speaks tells us so You ask why I beleive that God speaks by the Church I must
not answer because the Scripture says it neither must I answer that I beleive God to speak by the Church because she works Miracles Here I am to doubt whether this be the same man that spoke to us a little before p. 177. and more at large p. 102. extolling the force of Miracles to beget an evidence of Credibility in the proposer of divine Verities or another of his Auxiliaries that came in his place to carry on the work without regard to what the former said But whoever he be let us see how he disputes against Miracles If the Miracles be absolutely evident says he they can be no motive of Faith which is of its own nature obscure and if they be but morally evident Miracles they can not be the motive because the motive of Faith must be infallible How blind is the attemt of this Man against Miracles how destructive of his own purpose How absurd and ridiculous his argument against Miracles I have declared above in Chap. 9. whither I remitt the Reader Now let us see this mysterious work of our Adversary go on Having excluded Miracles from ascertaining us of the credibility of the Church proposing doctrines to us he tells us how we must answer that question Why I beleive that God speaks by the Church and it must be thus because the Church by which God speaks says that God speaks by her and I am obliged to beleive be speaks by her because he doth credit her with so many Miracles and supernatural marks which makes it evidently credible that he doth speak by her If it be the same Man that wrote the whole page it cannot but appear a wonder that having employed his skill a few lines before in weakning the force of Miracles to ground the infallibility of the Church on he should now take up the same Miracles for his ultimate reason of beleiving in the Church As a nice Man who throwing away the paring of his apple and checking his companion for eating his without paring fell immediatly after upon eating the paring he threw away To cast a patch upon this foul breach of coherence in reasoning our Adversary shuffles in a distinction betwixt the motive of our act of Faith and the motive of our obligation of beleiving which indeed is nothing else at the present then Culicem excoriare to flay a flea after much ado to do nothing The present question immediatly proposed is why am I to beleive that God speaks by the Church the only reason he gives for beleiving in the Church is Miracles What needs that distinction of motive to my beleif and motive to my acknowledgment of obligation to beleive the same reason that makes me beleive intimates to me my obligation of beleiving The primitive Christians who heard the Apostles preach and saw their Miracles knew nothing of these distinctions Seing those Servants of God confirm their doctrine with Miracles they beleived God spake by them and for the same reason or motive thought themselves obliged to beleive them If we have the same Faith that the primitive Christians of Jerusalem and Antioch had as Mr. I. S. says p. 183. why shall not we go the same way to beleive as they did But our Adversary is upon a design of imposing upon us a Faith which the Apostles did not teach which he discovers clearly tho happily not so much to his own knowledg p. 184. in those remarkable words The cheif and last motive whereupon our Faith must rest is the Word of God speaking to us by the Church The Church I say by which God actually in this present Age speaks unto us for we do not beleive because God did speak in the first second or third Age by the Church c. Here you see Reader a plain Confession of the great guilt of the Roman Church deserving the most severe resentment of all true Christians that glorious truly Catholic Apostolic and holy Church of the primitive Ages excluded from the office of being Mistress of our beleif and the Church of this corrupt Age governed by the most corrupt Court in the World if we are to beleive them that are best acquainted with it that of Rome substituted in her place And as this is proposed by our Adversary without any proof so it ought to be rejected by all true Christians with indignation Only I will reflect upon the inconsequence of the Man and how farr he is from his purpose of ridding himself from a Circle in resolving his Faith All that great Labyrinth he works from p. 176. to p. 184. in order to declare his procedure to each act of Faith and able to puzzle the best understanding will certainly be requisite in his opinion to proceed to this last act of Faith which he will have to be the guide of all others that the Roman Church of this Age is infallible in teaching what we ought to beleive This being as he says an act of divine Faith I mean that the Pope with a Generall Council such as that of Trent is infallible in proposing matters of Faith how shall he go about to resolve his Faith upon this particular point Certainly thus according to his former discourse I beleive that the present Church governed by the Pope of Rome in the Councill of Trent is infallible and God speaks by her because the Church by which God speaks says that God speaks by her and I am obliged to beleive that God speaks by her because he credits her by so many Miracles and supernaturall marks which makes it evidently credible that he doth speak by her These are Mr. I. S. his own words and his Confession of Faith set down in the 181. page of his Book And while the Reader reckons how many Circles he committs here endeavouring to rid himself of one I ask of him where be those Miracles wrought by the Fathers of the Councill of Trent and the Popes moderating in it to breed in me an evidence of credibility that God spake by their mouth as the Christians of Jerusalem and Antioch saw the Apostles work for believing that God spake by them being he says I must take the objects of Faith upon credit of the present Church and that credit must be grounded upon Miracles and supernaturall marks appearing for it Will he have us prefer his forg'd Miracles in favour of his newcoin'd-newcoin'd-Faith to those wrought by the Apostles in confirmation of the Faith preached by them Turn Reader to what I said to this purpose in the 9. Chapter of this Treatise The more I consider this resolution of Mr. I. S. his Faith the less I find in it of resolution and the more Circles and obscurities Now I enquire of him further why doth he exclude the Church of the first second and third Age from the office of declaring Gods will and word to us He answers because the declarations of that ancient Church are known to us onely by tradition and tradition says he is not the motive but
the Rule of our belief All this he must say of the Council of Trent or the Church represented in it of this Age that alone and not the Pope out of it must be in his doctrine our infallible Teacher Now further Is not the doctrin of the Council of Trent proposed to us as a Rule of our Faith of equal value and autority with the written word of God both proceeding from the Holy Ghost they say it is Is not moreover that doctrine known to us only by tradition certainly it is I have no notice of it nor can I have but by relation of others and they of no more credit with me but rather of far less then those Venerable Writers that relate to us the doctrine of the primitive Church Are there not Controversies dayly and endless about the sense and meaning of the Councill of Trent as well as about the more ancient Councils witness the dismall broyls betwixt Jesuists Jansenists and Dominicans Where is now Mr. I. S. his living infallible Judg The Councill of Trent and the Popes governing it are dead and gon The Pope now living or any Councill he can congregate less than a general one is not an infallible Judg. Who then will ascertain him will he have a generall Councill congregated for the resolution of his Faith in every doubt that comes into his head How shall we be sure that Pope Innocent and Alexander did not err in their definition of the great debate with the Jansenists Their definition not being in a general Council cannot be to us a warrant of security in Mr. I. S. his opinion The Jansenists will triumph at this and will that please them at Rome and Paris while Mr. I. S. agrees with them upon this particular I ask further Tho a General Council were congregated now to that effect such as that of Trent to ascertain us of the Articles defined against Jansenius how shall I be sure that God speaks by such a Council or the Church represented in it thus in Mr. I. S. his dialect because the Church by which God speaks says that God speaks by her because he doth credit her by so many Miracles and supernatural marks which makes it evidently credible that he doth speak by her Well and where be those Miracles and supernatural marks assisting this Council present to ascertain us that God speaks by it are you sure to find them at hand when the Council is joined likely you are upon the experience of coining Miracles when occasion requires it By this Reader you may see how little Mr. I. S. hath don after so much ado to resolve his Faith without a Circle How rash his assurance was that Protestants will never resolve theirs without such a fault I will now shew briefly The Faith of Protestants is that contain'd in Canonical Scripture as he often supposes my Faith touching each point of those contained in Scripture I resolve thus I believe the Son of God was made Man because I find it written in the holy Scripture I believe what is written in the holy Scripture because it is the infallible Word of God And I believe it is the Word of God because the Apostles preaching it did confirm it with such Miracles and Wonders as only God could work And finally that the Apostles did deliver the Doctrine contained in Scripture and did confirm it with Miracles I beleive in force of universal tradition according to that celebrated notion of it delivered by Vincentius Lyrinensis quod ubique quod semper quod apud omnes est creditum what was alwaies in all places and by all Christians received and believed is to be taken for Universal and Apostolical Tradition This common consent of Christians making up universal Tradition we have in what is unanimously delivered by the ancient Fathers and declared in the first general Councils of those more holy and sincere primitive times Thither I go to take up my belief as to streams immediatly proceeding from the Fountain of Grace with more pleasure and satisfaction then to the muddy Waters of doctrine delivered by the Church of Rome of this corrupt Age past through so many hands defiled with ambition avarice and other earthly passions repugnant to sincerity of which we have too much assurance CHAP. XIV A Reflection upon the perverse Doctrine contained in the resolution of Faith proposed to us by Mr. I. S. and the pernicious and most dangerous consequences of it IT is a Providence of God and the great force of truth that our Adversaries should forget themselves sometimes and discover their wicked intentions covered under sacred pretexts All their Novelties they frequently set forth under the venerable cloak of Antiquity It is a glory of humility says S. Bernard that Pride should wear a cloak of it to be in esteem Gloriosa res humilitas qua se vestire solet Superbia ne evilescat and so it is a glory of Antiquity that Novellers should pretend credit to their inventions by casting on them a color of Antiquity It is very frequent with the Romanists to use this stratagem to cloak their new Decrees with the venerable name of ancient Canons to call their Church ancient Church tho composed of Novelties where it opposes the Reformed Mr. I. S. hath bin pleased to unmask his Church herein to us declaring that the ultimate ground and motive of their belief and their Proselytes must not be the Testimony of that sacred primitive Church govern'd by Christ himself and his blessed Apostles but the Testimony of the present Church of Rome infected with the corruptions which the World knows and both friends and foes do see and cry against with universal scanâ—al Besides the perversness of this Doctrine obvious to every one that will not blind himself wilfully taking from our sigâ—t and view the sweet and comfortable face of primitive Christianity and willing us only to attend the foul and abominable practices of the Roman Court calling it self Church and even the Catholic Universal and only Church to the offence and scandal of all sincere and knowing Men Besides the perversity of this Doctrine the dangerous consequences of it are much to be considered for preventing the growth of this destructive Seed First it followeth hence that as there is no end of Disputes and Controversies among Men nor any is like to be so there will be no end of coining new Articles of Faith all tending to the encrease of power and splendor of the Pope and his Court tho at the expences of disturbance and destructions to Men Cities Provinces and Kingdoms as often happen'd This to be their aim under the pretence of exalting and propagating the Faith of Christ appears by the next attemt of Mr. I. S. in favor of the Popes supremacy to be examined in the Chapter next following Having established the Pope and his present Church as he conceives in the possession of infallible Judges in matters of Faith the next point he takes in hand
its notorious vices That which takes place of a minor hath two Propositions in it The Jews in this occasion were damnable Vnbeleivers and what they denied was a fleshly eating of his real Body as Papists do beleive it Where we see two distinct Propositions the second abruptly intruded without any connexion or affinity with the medium placed in the major And thence you pass to your third or rather fourth Proposition bearing by Ergo or therefore the mark of a Conclusion but no more For a Conclusion indeed ought to be a verity contained in the Premises in neither of your Premises is your Conclusion contained nor in both What only seemeth to have some affinity with the Conclusion is that second part of your Minor That what the Jews deny'd was a Fleshly eating of his real Body as the Papists do believe but tho this be so it s far from fetching in the Conclusion That Christ did sufficiently propose unto them a fleshly eating of his real Body as Papists do believe it For tho they deny'd a fleshly eating it was not that only what they denied They denied also a Spiritual eating they denied a Fleshly eating but impertinently to the proposal of Christ They denied what was not demanded of them by a mistake of his meaning which our Saviour corrected immediately by saying Joh. VI. 63. The words he spoke to them were Spirit and Life You alledg that I acknowledged the Jews to have understood Christ of a Corporal and Fleshly eating as Papists do But you conceal fraudulently how I said and proved that they misunderstood him and Christ did tax them with a mis-understanding as now mention'd Where is now in all this any even probable ground for your Conclusion which you pretend to have found out clearly in the foresaid place of St. John that Christ in that occasion did sufficiently propose to them a Fleshly eating of his real Body as Papists do believe it that only in denying such eating they were damnable Unbelievers You affirm decretorially without giving any reason for it that the words of our Saviour The Flesh profiteth nothing it s the Spirit that quickeneth c. was not a check to the Jews for understanding him of a Fleshly eating but to us for judging of this Mystery by the senses of the Flesh and by natural reason Sir we are ready by the help of divine Grace to captivate our seases and reason to the Obedience of Faith in God wheresoever we find him declare his Will to us without any further examen But such captivity of our understanding we do upon good grounds deny to your Decrees as undue to them In what the Church of England believes touching the holy Eucharist there is a large compass for divine Faith to be exercised It s no work of nature by sense or reason to understand or believe so strange an Union tho Spiritual as the Gospel tells us and we believe 'twixt Christ and the faithful Receiver of this Sacrament such streams of divine Grace such feeding of Souls to life everlasting To this we willingly pay a captivity of our understanding because we find it clearly declared in the Word of God tho never surpassing so much the reach of our natural Understanding From niceties touching the mode we do religiously abstain being God was not pleased to declare it according to that grave and religious expression of King James Quod legit Ecclesia Anglicana pie credit quod non legit pari pietate non inquirit What the Church of England reads that it doth piously believe what it doth not read with equal Piety omits to pry into CHAP. XIX Several Answers to my Arguments against Transubstantiation refuted TO all my Reasons touching the absurdity of the doctrine of Transubstantiation and the repugnance of it with all humane reason Mr. I. S. gives an easie Answer that in matters of Faith we must renounce Reason He should first prove that this is a point of Faith a doctrine contained in the Word of God His endeavors for it we have seen and declared to be vain in the precedent Chapter then it being an Article of their making he may not expect from us more subjection of our Intellects then his reâ—son will gain and he confessing Reason do's not assist him I take it for a confession that he is cast in the suit I urged that there was no necessity of forcing men to believe so hard a doctrine neither for the effect of the Sacrament nor for the verification of our Saviours words in the Institution of it Mr. I. S. confesses the first but denies the second upon a very trivial and no less weak Argument which I will shew rather proves against him then for him He saies that allowing the word Body is equivocal and indifferent to be taken for a real or figurative Body yet put in a Proposition it s determined to signifie that of which only the Predicate can be verified but only of Christ's real Body can it be verified that it was given for us therefore this Proposition This is my Body which is given for you is to be understood of Christ's real Body Here we have one Proposition made of two and the Predicate of the former made the Subject of the latter to frame a designed fallacy The former Proposition which is the proper Subject of our debate is this Hoc est Corpus meum this is my Bod. The Subject of this Proposition is the Bread Christ had in his hands and gave his Disciples to eat The Predicate is our Saviours Body and the question is how to understand the words of the Predicate so as they may be agreeable to the Subject The words of the Predicate are indifferent to be taken for a real or figurative Body and to be determined according to the quality of the Subject that so the Identity of both requisite for a true Proposition may be seen according to the rule above mentioned by Mr. I.S. all which proves that the word Body is to be taken rather in a figurative sense then in a real otherwise it could not be agreeable to the Subject which was Bread real and visible and called such before and after Consecration both by Christ and St. Paul Now take notice Reader of the egregious fallacy of our Adversary The foresaid complex Proposition he assumes to work upon This is my Body which is given for you is composed of two Propositions the one is hat now declared relating to what Christ had in his hand This is my Body The other relating to Christ's Body of which as subject of the second Proposition another Predicate is affirmed that it was given for us upon the Cross which was given for you Mr. I. S. to do his own work confounds these two Propositions and makes the Predicate of the former Proposition a Subject to the latter and instead of fitting the said Predicate of the former Proposition to the Subject of it as he should do being to speak to
that place be over or under or in the Earth or whether the pain be heat or cold or darkness or tempest c. This you call raillery but it is not my humor to rally in so serious matters they are the terms wherewith the more grave and modest Writers of your own party do express the matter And such is the unhappiness of your engagement that hardly your doctrine can be mentioned in terms that may not make it ridiculous All this you say is to no purpose for the question is not where Purgatory is or what is the condition of People there but whether there be any such thing as Purgatory I would fain know what purpose is that you say this Discourse is not pertinent to I am confident it is the purpose of fitting my questions to your answers when you want answers fitting my questions You saw your shame discovered in deluding the vulgar with Romantic Notions for which your learned Men could not discover any serious or solid ground and not finding your self with stock to answer that charge you must put it off and say it is not to the purpose You are much a stranger to Disputes and Books if you do not know that there are questions touching the essence quality and situation of Purgatory as well as touching the existence of it You never knew what is good Logic and in it an orderly procedure to a demonstration if you did not learn that the Question Quid sit ought to precede in some measure the Question An sit That to know whether a thing be existent we must have a knowledg of the quality of such a thing at least as far as the understanding of the word and some knowledg of the thing signified by it If you send one to the Market to know whether a Camel be there you must prepare him with some notion of the thing whereby he may distinguish it from a Cow or a Goat otherwise how can he bring you a report of the existence of a Camel in that place It may happen to him as to the other Country-man who hearing a report in his Village of a Monkey which the Bishop of the neighboring City had and desirous to see it having met with an Ass coming out of the Bishops house he cryed out to his companions they should behold the Bishops Monkey If he had bin informed before what the word Monkey did signify he would not have faln into this ridiculous error To prevent such mistakes good Scholars do premise some notion of the Question quid sit what is the thing they look for before they enter into the Question An sit whether such a thing be extant To this purpose I premised a brief discourse touching the quality and notion of Purgatory and thence proceeded immediatly to examin the grounds exhibited by the Roman Church for the existence of it But Mr. I. S. not finding himself furnished to encounter me this way takes another telling us what is of Faith and what is not touching Purgatory and then proposes a stock of Arguments in favor of it which he will have us take for his own tho very trivial and falls a quarrelling with other Protestants I know not what without any mention or regard in the mean time of answering my Arguments according to the foresaid rule of young School-boys to propose one question for answer to another But finding the Arguments he produces to be weak for his purpose he tells us that tho the testimony be and others do alledge in favor of Purgatory be not convincing yet their doctrine must stand because they are many years in possession of it and so must hold while we do not beat them out of it by positive proofs and thence expostulates with me that in all my discourse touching Purgatory I bring no text of Scripture that says there is no such thing Sure there is no man of common sense that understands the English Tongue now so enriched with Latin and Schole-terms passed into common discourses but will perceive the strange halluemation of this man in his expression now proposed It is not for Doctors and Masters in Universities alone among Englishmen to understand the propriety of these terms affirmative and negative and the different duties of him that stands upon the negative and of the other that stands upon the affirmative in a debate that it is the latter ought to produce positive proofs of what he affirms and his Adversary complies with shewing that such proofs are not convincing To understand this much I say I need not appeal to great Doctors any man of common understanding may be a competent judg in it What kind of people then did Mr. I. S. pretend to perswade that I did not comply with the duties of a formal Disputant in refuting the assertors of Purgatory by shewing the Testimonies produced by them were not convincing My purpose was not to prove the existence of any thing but the non-existence of a thing which they call Purgatory To pretend that a non-existence of a thing must be proved by positive arguments is to pretend that a non-entity or nothing should be painted with colors He tells us we are Actors and they defendants in this Controversy that it is our part to exhibit proofs But herein he doth not tell truth For they are Actors and Imposers upon us of Articles to which they will force our belief It is their duty to prove that such an Article is contained in the Word of God And while they do not we are in possession of our liberty of which they pretend to rob us by forcing upon us the belief of Purgatory He tells us they are a long time in possession of this doctrine Be it so may not a possessor be questioned about the title and right of his possession and dispossessed if his titles be not found justified This is the case betwixt us and them We pretend their titles for imposing upon men the belief of Purgatory to be invalid and fictitious they must shew the contrary or forfeit their possession The case thus standing you are not to expect Mr. I. S. to put me off by stratagems of Schole-Boys in returning for answer impertinent questions I must keep you to the point for I desire in earnest to find out the truth The point is whether the Testimonies of Scripture alledged by your Church for asserting Purgatory be convincing I said the chief place alledged by it of the old Testament is the case of Judas Maccabeus sending money to Jerusalem that Sacrifices should be made for his Soldiers defunct Herein you say I am mistaken you have other Testimonies more convincing of your own discovery But will you dare to prefer your own judgment to the judgment of your Church which in her Anniversary Mass for the dead of all Testimonies of the old Testament makes choice of the foresaid place of Judas Maccabeus proposing it for Epistle to be read to the People in that Mass Will you
of those who are to be saved but not without some note of infamy And a little after he added these words Sunt enim in Ecclesiâ credentes quidam acquiescentes divinis praeceptis erga servos Dei officiosi religiosi ad ornatum Ecclesiae vel ministorii satis promti sed in conversatione propriâ impuri obscoeni vitiis involuti nec omnino deponentes veterem hominem cum actibus suis Istis crgo Christus Jesus salutem concedit sed quandam infamiae notam non evadunt There are in the Church some believers and honorers of his Servants and ready to contribute towards the decency of his Service in the Church but in their private life impure and liable to vices not putting off altogether the old man with his works To these therefore Christ Jesus allows Salvation but they shun not a certain note of infamy According to this doctrine of Origen some may depart this life in state of Salvation and be received in Heavenly bliss tho with some blemishes of smaller guilt not inconsistent with Gods amity but occasioning a decrease in their degree of Glory and therefore capable of a pardon of such blemishes or imperfections even in Heaven if so your Text mentioning a pardon of sins in the other life doth not evince the existence of Purgatory If you say that Origen has erred herein as I conceive you will then first think it not a scandal to say that some one or other of the ancient Fathers should err Secondly acknowledg therein a fault of your Church in making choice of the foresaid words of Origen for Gloss ordinary of the above-mentioned passage of Joshua with the Gibeonites and conclude from all that this subtilty which clearly solveth your strongest Argument for Purgatory out of the New Testament is no invention of mine but a doctrine of a very learned Father of the ancient Church approved and received by yours modern with so public a qualification as to take it for an ordinary Gloss upon the fore-mention'd passage of Scripture CHAP. XXVII The attemt of our Adversary to make the doctrine of Purgatory an Article of the Apostles Creed declared to be vain Mr. I. S. makes sure account he found Purgatory in the Apostles Creed where it is said He descended into Hell And what if you are told those words were not in the Apostles Creed from the beginning and that the first time and place they were used in it was in the Church of Aquilcia some four hundred years after Christ that they are not expressed in those Creeds which were made by the Councils as larger Interpretations of the Apostles Creed not in the Nicene or Constantinopolitan not in that of Ephesus or Chalcedon not in those confessions made at Sardica Antioch Seleucia Syrmium not in the Creed expounded by St. Austin de fide Symbolo And * Ruffin in Expositione Symboli Râ—ffinus saies that in his time it was neither in the Roman or Oriental Creeds Sciendum sanè est quod in Ecclesiae Romanae Symbolo non habetur additum descendit ad inferna sed neque in Orientis Ecclesiis habetur hic sermo It is certain saith he that the Article of the descent into Hell was not in the Roman or any of the Oriental Creeds It is not mentioned in several Confessions of Faith delivered by particular persons Not in that of Eusebius Caesariensis presented to the Council of Nice nor in that of Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra delivered to Pope Julius nor in that of Acatius Bishop of Caesarea delivered to the Senate of Seleucia nor in others mentioned by the learned Bishop of Chester Dr. Pearson in that his grave and judicious exposition of the Creed writing upon the fifth Article of it I am perswaded this will appear strange unto you and tho sufficient to weaken the force of your Argument grounded upon the foresaid words of the Creed my Answer will not rely upon it I allow the said words to belong to the Catholic Creed long time received in the Church and embraced by that of England But I deny your inference from those words of the Creed in favor of your doctrine of Purgatory to be pertinent He descended into Hell I believe he did But not into the Hell of the damned say you for all Christians abhor the Blasphemy of Calvin that saies Christs Soul suffered the pains of the damned What then therefore he descended into Purgatory I am sure the more learned and pious men of your Communion will abhor this consequence I never heard any of them say that descent of Christ should have bin to Purgatory First because under the notion of Hell they never understood Purgatory Secondly if you mean he should descend thither suffering the pains of that place it s no less blasphemous then that you call Blasphemy in Calvin for if we believe your Authors the pains of Purgatory are the same with those of Hell and inflicted by the same Ministers of divine Justice that punish the damned souls in hell If you say he descended thither triumphant and glorious without suffering the pains of that place to purposes of divine Providence not manifested to us you may say without any Blasphemy he descended the same manner into the Hell of the damned triumphant and victorious without prejudice to his glory and honor as the Divinity of Christ is there still without prejudice to his glory why may not his Soul be there for a short time with the same immunity and to the same purpose of triumphing over Hell and his Enemies And the words of the Creed being capable of this Exposition more literal and obvious what need is there of your new Invention of Purgatory unknown to Primitive Christianity for the right understanding of that Article of our Creed CHAP. XXVIII How weak is the foundation of the grand Engine of Indulgences in the Roman Church WHEN first I came to examin the grounds of the doctrine of Indulgence used in the Roman Church I confess I was astonished to see how little ground they could shew in the Fountains of divine Faith for this mystery of the Romish belief of so great noise and so much use among them I thought it a strong negative argument against such a dectrine not to be contained in the Word of God that two so great Champions of the Roman Church Cajetan and Suarez both emploied by public authority to defend this doctrine should not meet with any convincing testimony of it in divine Scripture as both do confess plainly Both do examine the two chief Testimonies alledged for this doctrine the first out of John 20.23 Whose soever sins you remitt they are remitted to them The second out of Matth. 18.18 Whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And both do acknowledg them not to convince the doctrine of Indulgences as now practised in the Roman Church Cajetan tom
gains a Plenary Indulgence Whosoever being truly penitent will propose firmly to forsake his sins committed and in the same day will visit any seven Churches or where so many Churches are not to be found shall visit those that be and if there be but one Church in the place shall visit all the Altars of it and pray to God for the extirpation of Heresies once a year shall enjoy the Indulgences allowed to such as visit the seven Churches at Rome Whosoever shall think devoutly of any Mystery of the Passion of our Saviour and in honor of the said Passion shall kiss seven times the ground will in that day obtain the Indulgences allowed to such as go up the holy Stairs in Rome but this once in every year Whosoever in imitation of the foresaid five Saints either shall truly detest his sins with a firm purpose of sinning no more or shall exercise some act of Virtue shall so many times obtain an Indulgence of seven years and so many quadragena's or forty daies Indulgence Whosoever shall read any Chapter of the life of the said Saints or shall visit their Altar or worship their Image and pray for the happy state of our holy Mother the Church and for the Conversion of sinners shall at every time obtain Indulgence of 100. daies The same Indulgence shall any obtain who will give anâ— Alms to the Poor or shall instruct them by himself or by another in things belonging to Faith and good manners Whosoever shall exercise himself in the worship of the holy Eucharist or of the blessed Virgin meditating upon the dignity of that mystery and the benefits redounding from it to us or commiserating the griefs of the said blessed Virgin wherewith she was possessed at the Passion and Death of her Son or in any other manner shall reverence the blessed Sacrament and pray for the necessity of the Church shall obtain Indulgence of 100 daies as often as he doth it Any dwelling in Rome or not distant from it above twenty miles if he hath a lawful impediment not to be present at the solemn blessing which the Roman Pope is wont to give in the Festivity of Easter and Ascension but shall confess and receive and pray for the extirpation of Heresies c. shall enjoy the Indulgences which the people present will enjoy but such as are further distant from Rome shall enjoy the same Indulgences performing the said duties tho they have no lawful impediment for absence All the Indulgences aforesaid may be applied to the faithful deceased by way of Suffrages For to gain the said Indulgences it is enough to have privately with you any Crown or Cross c. blessed by his Holliness with the foresaid Indulgences and to fulfill the duties before mentioned even tho happily you may be obliged to perform them upon another account Whosoever in the point of death commending himself to God shall invoke the foresaid Saints or any of them with his mouth if he can having confessed and received the Communion if he may otherwise having at least contrition shall obtain a plenary Indulgence of all his sins In the distribution of the said Crowns Crosses c. and in the use of them his Holiness commands to observe the Decree of Alexander VII issued the 6. day of February 1657. viz. that Crowns Crosses Rosaries Medals and sacred Images blessed with the foresaid Indulgences may not pass the persons of those to whom his Holiness gave them or such as from them received those things the first time and that they may not be lent or be bestowed otherwise to lose the Indulgences and any of them being lost no other may be subrogated for it by any means notwithstanding any allowance or priviledg to the contrary His Holiness prohibits this form of Indulgences to be printed out of Rome MICHAEL ANGELUS RICCIUS Secret Rome out of the Print of the Reverend Apostolical Chamber 1671. I leave the judicious Reader to gloss upon this grant and the profuseness of it whether it be a rare or difficult thing to gain a plenary Indulgence where grants of this kind are frequent They will tell us it will promote Piety to have such encouragement to Penitence praiers and deeds of Charity But let them consider whether it may not rather be an occasion of continuing in vices and a wicked life if by a verbal Confession and an imperfect kind of contrition or displeasure with sins for penalties following them apt to be conceived by the most wicked livers a security is given of remission of all sins tho never so grievous and repeated and of the eternal pains due to them and likewise all the temporal penalties following them are remitted by a plenary Indulgence so easy to be obtained as we have seen Who will not perceive that encouragement is given hereby to persevere in vices whatsoever other purposes they may have who grant them And if this be well considered Mr. I. S. will cease to admire that Protestant Doctors should accuse the Roman Church of facilitating by these means the way to sinning CHAP. XXXI The dismal unhappiness of the Romish people in having their Liturgy in a Tongue unknown to them EX ore tuo te judico serve nequam thus begins Mr. I. S. his answer to my discourse upon this subject wherein I lamented the misery of the Romish People in having their Liturgy in a tongue unknown to them and thus also shall my reply to him begin which certainly will be to put the Saddle on the right Horse What is it Sr that I have said which may be a judgment against my self in this case That the purpose of nature by speaking is to communicate the sense of him that speaks to the hearer which cannot be obtained if the hearer perceives not the meaning of the words he speaks This say you proves against my self for in the Liturgy or public Service of the Church we speak to God and not to the Congregation and God can understand us tho we do not our selves But stay Sr is not the Liturgy or public Service of the Church as well with you as with us composed of an exchange of speech betwixt God and his People they speaking to him in Praiers and Thanksgivings he speaking to them by the Lessons of sacred Scripture by the Epistles Gospels and Psalms Is it not necessary for both these purposes that the People should understand what they say to God by Prayer and what he says to them by Exhortation And for the first wherein you think your pretension to be obtained for praying I say is not Praier a rational and voluntary Elevation of the mind helped by the expressions and sense of the Praier read or said Is not this elevation of the mind mainly advanced by understanding the word of the Praier read or said whoever heard a Psalm sung with solemn Music may well tell how different a feeling and elevation of mind he hath when he sees or knows the words sung