on whose decisions they so much depend hath a quite different Notion of Justification and Merit That Council after some Months debate upon the Point of Justification at last came to a decision and declared That the only formal Cause of our Justification is God's Justice not by which he himself is just but by which he makes us just wherewith being endowed by him we are renewed in the Spirit of our Minds and are not only reputed but are made truly just receiving every man his own measure of justice which the Holy Ghost divides to him according to each mans predisposition of himself and co-operation And withall denounceth a flat Anathema to all those who shall dare to say that we are formally justified by Christ's righteousness or by the sole imputation of that righteousness or by the sole remission of our sins and not by our inherent grace diffused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost Sess 6. Can. 10 11. And the same Council speaking of the Merit of good Works saith If any man shall say that the good Works of a justified Person do not truly merit the increase of Grace and eternal Life let him be Anathema Sess 6 Can. 32. Now one would think the choice were very easie which of these to believe whether the Council of Trent or this Explainer The accounts they give are too different to be both believed and can there be any question which of them is most authoritative Certainly our Explaâ—ner must be a very bold Person who in defiance of such a celebrated Council durst deliver what he hath done for the belief of Roman Catholicks in this point and he must look upon his Persons of Quality to whom he presents it as a parcel of unthinking and inconsiderate Animals who would swallow any thing without Examination Either he was in earnest or he had a mind to put a cheat upon them if the latter he plainly discovers how good a Christian and how true a Catholick he is If the former surely he did not well consider how fatal the Consequences of that Doctrine would be to the Church of Rome For 1. If this be really the Faith of Roman Catholicks then What becomes of that gainful Trade of Indulgences which is wholly founded upon the Treasure of the Church wherein are heaped up piles of satisfactions of Saints of which the Pope only keeps the Keys and hath power to dispense them where he lists There was a time indeed when Indulgences were look'd upon to be nothing else but a Mitigation or Relaxation upon just Causes of Canonical Penances which are or may be enjoyned by the Pastors of the Church on penitent Sinners according to their several Degrees of Demerits But this is a Doctrine out of date with the present Church of Rome insomuch that Greg. de Valentia saith That this Opinion differs not from that of the Hereticks and makes Indulgences to be useless and dangerous things de Indulg c. 2. And their great Champion Bellarmine among several other Arguments against this Doctrine brings this for one That if this were so there would be no need of the Treasure of the Church which he takes a great deal of pains to prove to be the Foundation of Indulgences But 2. What will become of the profitable Doctrine of Purgatory which is built upon Indulgences and they upon the Treasure of the Church wherein the Merits of Saints are kept to be dispensed by the Pope for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory But 3. What will become of the Pope's Coffers which being once emptied and this Spring dried up which should have supplied them can have no prospect of any other so effectual way to replenish them again Had our Explainer well considered these ill Consequences of his Explanation he would certainly have thought of it more than once before he had exposed it I cannot imagine what should perswade him to such an Explanation unless he had obtained a dispensation to guild his Bait the more easily to catch what he angled for And if this be it is it not a great Argument of the Candour and Ingenuity of our Explainer and a mighty motive to his Persons of Quality to swallow all that shall be propounded by him And now we are come to the last point which he undertakes to explain and shall examine whether he be more ingenuous in that than he hath been in the other The EXPLAINER 4. We firmly believe and highly reverence the Moral Law being so solemnly delivered to Moses upon the Mount Exodus 20. Matth. 19. Eccles 12 13. so expresly confirmed by our Saviour in the Gospel and containing in it self so perfect an Abridgment of our whole Duty both to God and Man Which Moral Law we believe obliges all men to proceed with faithfulness and sincerity in their mutual Contracts one towards another and therefore our constant profession is That we are most strictly and absolutely bound to the exact and intire performance of our promises made to any Persons of what Religion soever much more to the Magistrates and Civil Powers under whose Protection we live whom we are taught by the Word of God to obey not only for fear but Conscience sake and to whom we will most faithfully observe our Promises of Duty and Obedience notwithstanding any Dispensation Absolution or other proceedings of any foreign Power or Authority whatsoever Wherefore we utterly deny and renounce that false and scandalous Position That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as most uncharitably imputed to our Practices and most unjustly pinned upon our Religion These we sincerely and solemnly profess as in the sight of God the searcher of all hearts taking the words plainly and simply in their usual and familiar sense without any Equivocation or Mental Reservation whatsoever The ANIMADVERTER Our Explainer would have the World believe that those of his Communion do highly reverence and have a mighty regard for the Moral Law We do the same but we know and believe the Second Commandment to be part of that Law and therefore dare not be guilty of Image-Worship which perhaps the Explainer did not think of He further tells us that they believe that this Law doth contain in it self a perfect Abridgment of our whole Duty both to God and Man We believe the same and we do further believe that whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all James 2.10 And therefore we dare not worship Images nor give divine Honour to any Creatures nor disobey Magistrates nor deal falsly with our Neighbours under any pretence whatsoever nor do any thing that is there forbidden nor leave undone any thing that is there commanded Whether the Explainer thought of all this I know not but he cannot but know that the Practices of those of his Communion are not correspondent thereunto But the two great things that he would have the World believe of them upon the Credit of his Explanation are these
Communion so sinful and dangerous that no man with safety to his Soul can continue in it it will be high time to come out of it Qu. Whether he or Protestants at present do pretend to such Demonstration for those Tenets they hold contrary to the Roman Church the then onely visible Church in the West that no understanding to which it is sufficiently proposed can in the least doubt of it Ans We have such evidence for the Doctrines which we hold and teach in opposition to the Church of Rome as being sufficiently proposed no man can reasonably doubt of And as for those who will scruple without reason notwithstanding the clearest evidence that the nature of the thing will bear we can only pity and pray for them Qu. Or whether they do not rather say that being fallible they may err even in what they think a Demonstration and if they may err perhaps they have erred even in their Reformation Ans We do not pretend to infallibility nor do we think that the claim which the Bishop of Rome makes to it is any more than a groundless pretence only But à posse ad esse non valet consequentia from a bare possibility of erring to argue a certainty that we have erred in every thing we have done is an argument fitter to be offered to Children than Men. Qu. Whether therefore denying these Doctrines thus delivered by the Church in all Ages as Doctrines delivered by Christ and his Apostles upon no better grounds than these perhaps they may be true and perhaps not be not a putting ones self into the danger of erring even in fundamentals Ans We deny no Doctrines delivered by the Church in all Ages as Doctrines delivered by Christ and his Apostles nor do we own any Doctrine upon such weak grounds as perhaps they may be true and perhaps not But we say that the present Church of Rome doth teach such Doctrines as the Doctrines of Christ and his Apostles which were never taught by the Church in all Ages nor delivered by Christ and his Apostles And in these things we oppose our selves against them and think we have great reason so to do having the holy Scriptures and the Primitive Church on our side And whilst we are thus supported we have no fear of erring in fundamentals Queries of Religion or Liberty WHo this Enquirer is as I am at present ignorant so am I not much concern'd to know but I take him to be one who hath conceived a mighty opinion of himself and his performances He thinks that by these Queries he hath struck at the root of Protestancy as he and those of his Perswasion call it i. e. Reformed Christianity that he hath given it a fatal blow a mortal wound and left it groveling in the dust without the least hopes of recovery Like that overgrown uncircumcised Philistine he defieth the Armies of the Living God and calls for a Man to fight with him For in the close of his Queries he maketh this proud and confident challenge If any give answer As if he should have said if any be so bold and daring so over confident and fool-hardy as to undertake an Answer to these Queries It is desired to be Categorical and short without any discourses of things not demanded Now whether this man do not triumph before the Victory or whether those Queries be so unanswerable as he believes them to be is the thing under consideration And because he hath not only given the Challenge but appointed the Weapon I shall neither decline the one nor the other but according to his own method shall undertake his Queries in the same order as he hath propounded them Qu. 1. Whether the Flock and Church of Christ to whom was promised grace and eternal happiness be that company and society of People christened in his Name who by order of Government Rules and Decrees from him and his Apostles were united in Faith Worship Discipline and manner of Life called Religion Ans The Church of Christ is either Militant or Triumphant the one on Earth the other in Heaven of the former of which we are now to speak The Church Militant is either Universal or Particular the former comprehending all and every Member of Christ's Mystical Body wheresoever dispersed upon the face of the whole Earth the latter comprizing only a certain Number of Christians formed into a select Body or Society under certain Laws and Rules not differing from those of the Universal Church Such are all Provincial and National Churches and though none of them may arrogate to themselves the Title of the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church yet none will deny but that they are true Members thereof This I have premised to prevent confusion and misunderstanding for the confounding of these two as it often happens in discourses of this kind hath been the occasion of great mistakes Those of the Romish Perswasion by the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church do usually understand the Church of Rome which though it be a manifest Contradiction being the same with a Particular Universal yet do they run away with it and by that specious and gorgeous Title think to bear down all before them aloud proclaiming that to be the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches This thus premised I shall now be as Categorical and short in my Answer to his Query as he can desire Viz. That the Flock and Church of Christ is a Company or Society of People Christned in his Name who by Order of Government rules and decrees from him and his Apostles are united in Faith Worship Discipline and Manner of Life called Religion Qu. 2. Whether by Separation or Excommunication from that Society and Unity are lost those promises Ans Separation and Excommunication are two things for though every one that is excommunicated be thereby separated from that body of which before he was a member yet a man may be in a state of Separation without being under the doom of Excommunication For Separation may be a voluntary Act whereas Excommunication is a formal and Judicial Sentence delivered by a lawful Judge authorized and appointed by the Church to pronounce the same by virtue whereof the sentenced person is divided from the Body separated from the Society and shut out of the Communion of God's Church The case thus stated my answer to this Query will be as followeth viz. 1. Whosoever upon any pretence whatsoever doth separate himself from the Society and Unity of the One Holy Catholick and Aposstolical Church doth in so doing cast himself out of the paternal care and protection of God For it is a certain and undoubted truth He that hath not the Church for his Mother cannot have God for his Father And consequently can have no pretence to the promises of grace here or eternal happiness hereafter 2. Whosoever without just cause doth separate himself from the Society and Unity of that particular Church of which he is a
granted to belong to the Catholick Church yet that can signifie nothing to her till she hath proved her self to be that Catholick Church to which alone those promises confessedly belong Thus you see how candid and faithfull our Explainer hath been in this first Point and now let us examine whether he acquit himself any better in the next The EXPLAINER 2. We humbly believe the Sacred Mystery of the blessed Trinity One Eternal Almighty and Incomprehensible God whom onely we adore and worship as alone having Sovereign Dominion over all things to whom alone 1 Tim. 1.17 we acknowledge as due from Men and Angels all Glory Service and Obedience abhorring from our Hearts as a most detesta bld Sacrilege to give our Creator's Honour to any Creatures whatsoever And therefore we solemnly protest That by the Prayers we address to Angels ane Saints we intend no other than humbly to solicit their assistance before the Throne of God as we desire the Prayers of one another here upon Earth not that we hope any thing from them as Original Authours thereof but from God the Fountain of all Goodness through Jesus Christ our onely Mediator and Redeemer Neither do we believe any divinity or vertue to be in Images for which they ought to be worshipped as the Gentiles did their Idols but we retain them with due and decent respect in our Churches as Instruments which we find by experience do often assist our memories and excite our affections The ANIMADVERTER Our Explainer here in behalf of the Roman Catholicks makes a very good confession of Faith telling us That they humbly believe the sacred mystery of the blessed Trinity One Eternal Almighty and Incomprehensible God whom only they adore and worship as alone having Sovereign Dominion over all things to whom alone 1 Tim. 1.17 they acknowledge as due from Men and Angels all glory service and obedience abhorring from their hearts as a most detestable Sacrilege to give their Creator's honour to any Creatures whatsoever This is true Primitive Christianity good Catholick Divinity without any mixture of Popery and is it not great pity that any thing should be added thereto or mixed therewith to spoil so good a Confession Thus far we can readily and heartily joyn with them but when they superadd Articles of their own such as were never delivered by Christ or his Apostles nor owned by the primitive Catholick Church and set them in equal place with those of Divine Revelation and primitive practice then we cannot keep pace with them but are forced to stay behind and sit down contented with primitive Christianity so that in truth it is not we that leave them but they that leave us and consequently are guilty of the Separation And this is the case here between us and our Explainer For after all this glorious profession of adoring and worshipping the One Eternal Almighty and Incomprehensible God and him only and abhorring the giving of his glory to any Creatures as a most detestable Sacrilege he introduceth Prayers to Saints and Angels and the Worship of or beofre images as things equally necessary to be performed by Christians Now if Prayers and Adoration be acts of religious worship and the Objects to which they are offered be Creatures then it must needs follow that either all Religious Worship is not due to God alone or else that they do give part of his honour to something that is not God It is true indeed that he endeavours to palliate these practices with some pretended qualifications thereby to shift off the weight of this charge which lieth so heavy upon them but they are so thin and threedbare so empty and insignificant and have been so miserably baffled of late especially in the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented as also in two other little Treatises the one intituled A Discourse concerning Invocation of Saints printed in the year 1684 and the other intituled A Discourse concerning the Object of Religious Worship c. printed 1685 that I cannot but admire at our Explainer's confidence to produce them at this time These Treatises are or upon easie terms may be in every man's hands and there is therein so much said upon this Subject and so much to the purpose as may very well spare me the labour of enlarging thereupon to them therefore I shall refer the Reader for further satisfaction But by these short Remarques which I have made upon this part of our Explainer's Confession it is plain that he hath been no more candid and ingenuous in this than in the former Let us therefore try him in the next The EXPLAINER 3. We firmly believe that no force of Nature or dignity of our best Works can merit our Justification but we are Justified freely by Grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 And though we should by the grace of God persevere unto the end in a godly life and holy obedience to the Commandments yet our hopes of eternal glory are still built upon the mercy of God and the merits of Christ Jesus All other Merits according to our sense of the word signifie no more than Actions done by the assistance of God's Grace to which it hath pleased his goodness to promise a Reward A Doctrine so far from being unsuitable to the sense of the Holy Scriptures that it is their principal design to invite and provoke us to a diligent observance of the Commandments by promising Heaven as a reward of our obedience 1 Tim. 4.8 Rom. 2.6 Rom. 8.13 Hebr. 6.10 Nothing being so frequently repeated in the word of God as his gracious promises to recompence with everlasting glory the Faith and Obedience of his Servants Nor is the bounty of God barely according to our Works but high and plentifull even beyond our Capacities giving full measure heaped up and pressed down and running over into the bosomes of all that love him Luke 6.38 Thus we believe the merit or rewardableness of holy living both which signifie the same thing with us arise not from the self value even of our best actions as they are curs but from the grace and bounty of God And for our selves we sincerely profess when we have done all those things which are commanded us we are unprofitable Servants Luke 17.10 having done nothing but that which was our Duty so that our boasting is not in our selves but all our Glory is in Christ The ANIMADVERTER If this be really the Faith of Roman Catholicks we shall not stick to acknowledge it is ours too and then we shall have no occasion to differ in this point But I am afraid our so near an Agreement is too good news to be true Our Explainer I doubt hath either mistaken or to gain a Proselyte or for some other end which might be serviceable to Holy Church hath very much misrepresented the Doctrine of his own Church in this point For sure I am the Council of Trent which they so much magnifie and