Gods glory How they do speak it they can declare no more then they are according to Mr. Hobbs and therefore onely things finite which is to confine God against the drift of the Psalms Philosophy and Scriptures teach us to finde God by his creatures as St. Paul 1 Rom. 20. remits us to the creatures Invisibilia à constitutione mundi per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur our understanding of God is from these visible things nay it is the onely natural way we have from the effect to finde the first cause and not from the first cause the effect and all things without his confinement So by pictures we ascend to what is represented not tying our selves to the manner in our worship of God under that representation In the pursuit we relinquish the manner and going forward with our discourse we find and with our devotions follow the Infinity of Gods goodness All representatives are essentially inferior to the Prototypes by many degrees yet safely conduct us to the knowledge of them without abasing their natures to the Images So here and all acts of acknowledgment of God in and by his creatures for we know the effect cannot equalize the first cause especially neither in nature nor in manner of existence and therefore we conclude Gods supreme essence and goodness to transcend all we see in the like manner we easily ascend by the use of pictures neither can we do otherwise if we use our reason so that there is no danger of Gods confinement and therefore no Idolatry I remember that Cassian in his Collations tells us of a poor ignorant Monk who out of error had framed to himself in his narrow imagination a conceipt of Gods being corporal and could very hardly be brought to entertain higher thoughts of Gods spiritual essence being unwillng to relinquish his Phantastically ill framed Image of God We are much beholding to Mr. Hobbs who is so tender of Christians dulness that least by their Images they should conceive God to be finite or corporal with this poor Monk he would remove all picturs though God himself not so careful as Mr. Hobbs hath been pleased to talk and walk with Adam which are acts of a corporal and finite creature and othertimes to make resemblance as if he had appeared in corporal shape as to Moses perchance to Jacob and others nay even the Son of God appearing in our poor nature all which would draw us into errors if God had not by his Prophets Apostles and daily by his Church and even by reason taught us the right use of such passages and to know that those sensible representatives were onely conductives to God himself as we teach Students by emblems to conceive things more remote from their present capacity All which will warrant our use of Images yet without Gods confinement and consequently without Idolatry Neither would this if true any way excuse them from sacrilegious Schism except all were compelled to Idolatry St. Augustine saith there can be no just necessity to cut off unity l. 2. Cont Ep. Parm. c. 2. and as he elsewhere Ep. 166. Our Heavenly Master hath so much admonished us to take heed of this That he would make the common people secure even of evil superiors that not for them the chair of saving doctrin should be destroyed Therefore the chair ought not to be forsaken much less destroyed for the errors of the Presidents O how St. Cyprian doth purge that poison of theirs to the quick Epist l. 3. Ep 2. If there be seen darnel to be in the Church our faith and charity ought not to be hindred thereby that because we see darnel to be in the Church we therefore leave the Church c. The Apostle in the second Epist to Timothy 2. saith In a great house there are not onely vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth and certain indeed unto honour but certain also unto contumely but it is onely lawful for God who hath a rod of iron to break the earthen vessels c. Let not any one assume to himself what the Father alone hath given to his Son c. It is saith he a proud obstinacy and sacrilegious presumption which wicked fury assumeth to it self Let our Country men think sadly of this It is objected to me that the Church of Rome doth force her Proselites to beleeve falshoods perniciously under Anathema in the Councel of Trent I answer That if we should make an impossible supposition against all the promises of Christ that the Church should in necessary points teach errors yet even in that case every child of the Church must exteriorly carry himself quiet and not make commotions for that were to seek a cure worse then the disease as in the like impossible supposition our Country-man Waldensis l. 2. c. 27. teaches Non perperam insilire debet He must not leap against the Churches face in rebellion Neither is he bound to beleeve an untruth nor yet is one in danger to incur the censure For the Church cannot reach the minde onely God in a just sentence confirming her act reaches home which cannot be in this case for he should confirm an injustice Whence it followeth that no man is or can be compelled to beleeve untruths but onely not to make Schism which by divine law is forbidden And therefore St. Augustines rule is still true There cannot be no necessity of cutting off the Church unity no not in supposition that she should command great errors But you will not object that if the articles commanded by the Church are in themselves true yet if I cannot perceive their truth after all diligence used to that end it were hypocrisie in me and therefore unlawful to adhere to that Church I conceive though falsly teacheth and commandeth false doctrins and extraordinary practises upon those grounds This truly is most seriously objected by some but without all Solidity For surely Christians are obliged by the law of God and reason to depose their own false judgments in obedience to God his Church else this will open a gap to all itching ears of whom we are premonished to introduce each man his fancy and prefer it before the wholesome doctrins of Christ delivered by his Church Neither is it difficult for man though learned to depose his own judgment especially in order to external actions for it is daily done by all sorts of timorate consciences who do mangre their own reason direct themselves by the authority of such whom they know to be more learned then themselves Mr. Hobbbs Chap. 15. and n. 13. saith unusquisque rationem privatam rationi totius civitatis submittere potest Here he labours to lay the grounds of the derivation of power in the Common-wealth to determine what belongs to matters of religion which he faith that the people have transferred to the Magistrate He proves it as he faith evidently I examine it not being pertinent to
by infinite writers of that age of this and the other part of the world did rise against these upstarts and laid novelty to their charge Therefore England and other nations remained in their primitive and Apostolical faith until the aforesaid revolt nay these upstarts themselves never came to that impudency to accuse Catholicks of novelties then rising but referred it to former that is latter preceding ages accusing their forefathers of innovation and this hath always been and is the practise of upstarts Therefore Catholicks who imbrace this faith derived from the Apostles themselves and established by continual succession ought not to be too solicitous of the truth of it seeing they hold it by constant succession and no way interupted possession Neither will the breach which the Greeks have made from the Latins any way help them because they in England are as well broken from the Greeks as they are from the Romans which evidently appears in that they can not give their letters of communication to them no more then to us They hold the propitiatory sacrifice of Mass they hold Transubstantiation seven Sacraments prayer for the dead invocation of Saints veneration of images the Supremacy of a Tope though some of them pretend exemption c. As Balsamon for the patriarch of Constantinople which Zonaras though a Greek Schismatick acknowledgeth to be in the B. of Rome as the rest were accustomed to do nay Nilus after he hath much violented authorities for his pretences against the Popes Supremacy in conclusion yeelds up the bucklers and confesseth that they are bound to obey him in all lawful commands I said that the Greek Church acknowledgeth a Supremacy which I therefore said because that some of those who follow rigidly Photius his heresie touching the procession of the holy Ghost pretend that the Latin Church for that lost the Supremacy and ipso jure et facto it was transferred to Constantinople but the Abettours of this last point are almost vanished as by divers councels especially the great Laterane Linos and last Florence general Councels sufficiently appears where it was not once arrogated neither doth Hieremy their patriarch or any of their posterior writers once say it How ever this fundamental rock of scandal of the sea of Rom's Supremacy if removed according to those few Greeks pretences it would not avail you for you deny any Supremacy they grant this and would onely chalenge it for themselves injuriously which pretence is also ceased These are the stones of scandal betwixt you and us which ye force all to abjure So that the main West and East Churches have nothing to do with you ye are no members of their communion some smal conventicles you may finde here and there in the West in some things agreeing with you though no notable part at all of your communion no not in this very nation But the Roman in her communion over all the world communicates intirely without any dissection of faith we therefore have all security in religion but the reason concerning Protestants is clean otherwise for seeing they have separated themselves from the Roman Church commended by the Apostles the mother from whom they sucked their faith in which their forefathers lived and continued and what is proper to hereticks and schismaticks they went out from us as St. Augustiue used the like argument against the Donatists fusely and frequently out of St. John they I say are bound to make inquiry into the cause of their separation and not so lightly beleeve the masters of their error and as it were one part being onely heard to give sense in a matter of so high concernment but they ought diligently to hear the reasons of Catholicks and exactly to weigh all things on which their eternal salvation depends or if they fear any fallacies may be used by us in proof of our Religion let them judiciously read the reasons in Chollingworth which moved him to become Catholick and counterpoise them with those which he puts down for his virtiginous revolt and truly they will be forced to confess that the former are unanswerable and the latter wholy inconsiderable The ground of our hopes of salvation dependeth upon the integrity of our faith and therefore we must look into it for as St. Augustine Cont. Lit. Petil. l. 1. c. 1. It is a dangerous thing to defend the haughty perversness of their forefathers with a more foolish obstinacy neither doth it satisfie as St. Augustine there noteth l. 3. c. 5. if one should say I will follow him because he made me a Christian for none preaching the name of Christ or ministring the Sacrament of Christ is to be followed against the unity of Christ This is often heard from the mouths of many of the wifest amongst them here I wax baptised here I will remain but 't is raw and filly to be born and baptised in this or the other Church except it be in the unity of Christ if from the other we or our forefathers have revolted or been any way seperated we must return from whence we have revoked by schism or heresie That therefore we may proceed in so weighty a matter with more care and solicitude we will shew in the following Chapters in what danger of eternal damnation I speak not of every particular person whom how far invincible ignorance may excuse we leave to Gods secret counsel they have miserably precipitated and cast themselves headlong by separating themselves from the Church of Rome I do not mean here to treate of the infinite subdivisions of schism which are this day risen up within the latitude of Protestantism as in time pasts amongst the Donatists and what sort soever of seperatists have always been among whom they labour sometimes to patch up together but never so much as think to do it with Catholicks but I will consider how piously the Catholick root diligently seeketh the bough that is broken from her if the bough likewise shall labour to close up that breach which is made by it August apud Baron 411. Here therefore with all reason and truth may be averred what Tertullian in his excellent book of praescriptions Chap. 29. religiously incultateth against all sectaries If your state of division is lawful if your souls are secure in this lamentable separation the holy Gospel hath been falsly taught to all the world all Christians have salsly beleeved so many thousand thousands falsly baptized so many acts of faith that is all Sacraments falsly administred so many acts of religion so many miracles adulterously done so many priesthoods so many Sacrifices last of all so many Martyrdoms falsly undergone for the faith of Christ all hath been in vain which in testimony of Christ hath been performed if Christ Church were not the Roman in and with her communion since there was no other acknowledged till ye came CHAP. 2. Catholicks may certainly be saved IT may be convinc'd with irrefragable arguments that Catholicks in the Church of Rome remaining
sense and as St. Basil upon the 115. Psal They constitute their sense the measure of all things is not this to invert the whole frame of Gods spiritual world According to that of St. Basil in his 43. ep As in things which are seen with the eyes experience is of more consideration then reason so in the most excellent tenents of our faith is of more force then any juncture of reason O how St. Augustine meets with these socinians towards the end of his 56 Epistle To these straights they are driven who finding themselves most miserably laid on their backs when their authority is put in ballance to see how it will endure the test against the authority of the Church They do therefore endeavour under the shew and promise of reason to quel the inmoveable authority of the holy Church neither is it any news for it is the accustomary practise of all Here ticks and in his 22. Ep. he saith That if a Catholick desires a reason of his saith that he may understand what he beleeves there must be an eye had to his capacity that he may by reason obtain a proportionable measure of understanding whence we learn that 's the regular discipline of hereticks under a false vizard of reason to lay aside the most firm authority of Gods Church Hence we also learn how Catholicks make due use of reason in matters of Faith explicating holy mysteries according to each capacity I wondered to finde Mr. Hobbs in his 12. Chap. n. 6. to be so positive in attributing it to an error of the vulgar to hold that Faith is not begotten by study and natural reason His principal ground is because it were impertinent to oblige us to give an account of our Faith that is to render a reason of it as he would have it Englished if our reason doth not acquire it Of how great force this his reason is I leave any man to consider He deals fiercely against inspiration of Faith and saith all the world is mad in asserting it he conceives that every Christian would be a prophet if he had his Faith by supernatural infusion Therefore in order to him Chillingworth and the rest and any who shall desire to know in what manner or how far Catholicks use the assistance of reason perticularly in Faith I will briefly decipher it because here is the main scruple of our new modellers of Christianity To this end we must understand that Logick hath two questions The one is An sit Whether the thing questioned hath any real existence The other is Quid sit Or Propter quid sit That is what the essence of it is or by what cause it is In the first question as Neophites we make enquiry after the truth of Catholick Faith by weighing the motives which being considered ab intrinseco or from the internal principles of them we finde profoundness even surpassing the greatest jugdments with simplicity proportioned to the weak est understandings contempered with sanctity compared to the tenents of all sects either of Infidels or Hereticks wherein they do infinitety exceed them all If we do consider ab extrinseco that is by their inseparable annexed habiliments we finde perpetual and inviolable succession delivered from hand to hand from the very fountain to us witnessed sufficiently by the very Church walls we find also most exemplary holiness of those who imbrace this faith which St. Augustine celebrates in his book intituled of the manners of the Catholick Church also wonderful change of manners in those who are new converts by the ancient much valued Angelical purity and stupendious austerity of both Sexes who imbrace Heremitical Cenobitical or Anachoretical reclusions also the gallowes adorned with the blood of so many illustrous martyrs as in our Country where so many learned men expose themselves to all cruelties for the good of others and voluntarily under go ignominious death daily for the confirmation of others Lastly the working of miracles that is such wonders which either in substance transcend all nature as to restore sight to them that are born blinde or raise the dead and the like or in the manner as to cure diseases without applying causes c. Out of these and the rest of the motives by reason we attain to be able to make a firm judgment first of the manifest credibility of Catholick misteries insomuch that we clearly see that it is more reason to be matriculated into the Church then into any other Sect. This step being made and digested by further penetrating discursively all the motives we find the conjunction of them all to be impossible to the whole latitude of nature which a wise man weighing in comparison to the continual mutation and vicissitude of all natural causes will be able to demonstrate the Catholick to be supernatural and absolutely true because reavealed and inspired by God which is the last resolution of our Faith wherein as you see reason conducteth us in our enquiry to the full result that is to the formal object of our Faith which is God revealing where we stick not for our reason but for the revelation of God wherein Christian Faith is compleated It is true that the first Christians to whom these revelations were immediately made were prophets but to the especial assistance of God in our assenting to these supernatural truths already revealed doth not make prophets which is an action of a different nature from formal revelation as school-men at large demonstrate in the tract of Faith and it is evident in it self wherein Mr. Hobbs seems to have erred Hitherto we use reason in the disquisition of the truth of Faith according to the question An sit In the other question called Quid sit Or by what means or causes is it Which amongst Logicians is the nobler question In this we proceed not by doubtfully enquiring of the truth of objects of Faith or of their real existence which is disputed in the State of our Neophitism but all fluctuancy and doubt deposed touching the truth of them wherein our Socinians boggle for they stick still at An sit But our learned men proceed to the other question labouring to understand the truths speculating the essences and natures of each of them and the Subalternal connexion of them each to other which is the proper Sphear of a divine or school-man for his own and others satisfaction There are the bounds of our reason intervening to attain and to preserve already attained Faith wherein as is clear reason is the servant not mistris But on the contrary ye give no limits to reason but as in the progress or search so in the possession of Faith ye still stick most to your reason and therefore ye doubt or deny what ye understand not for ye perswade your selves that the mysteries necessary to be beleeved ought to be per se nota clear in their very terms insomuch that every one of you brag your absolute comprehension of them And hence it
this supreme obliging power in matters of faith and manners and upon the same ground hath always esteemed such hereticks in a damnable condition who have not as well beleeved or adhered to her proposals in faith in one subject as in another and as well to the end of the world as in the primitive times But they say that the burden of Christian religion will be greater then of the Jewes and intollerable if all are obliged to every declared truth in the Church which is contrary to Christ who saith Mat. 11. that his yoak is sweet and his burden is light This is easily answered in order to the Community of Christians whose implicite faith in the superstructures is sufficient according to the generally taught and received doctrin of Doctors Pastors indeed and Doctors have higher obligations to be able to give an account of their faith which obligation is much alleviated by the Synopses of Faith which the Church clearly and yet very contractedly propounds to keep them principally from misunderstanding the holy mysteries of our faith This is the weightiest objection which I finde in Mr. Hobb's besides those which I shall presently touch St. Chrysostome in his 10. homily upon St. Mathew in the person of Christ complaines of Mr. Hobbs Nolite de difficultate conqueri quesi qui doctrinam meam molestam esse dicatis we must not say Christ's doctrin is troublesome least with the Capharnaits we be committed abire retro to be put in the back side of Christ's book Surely St. August found Christian religion in another posture then Mr. Hobbs would have it in his 5. Chapter to Volusian Where he saith that Tanta est Christianarum profunditas literarum ut in eis quotidie proficerem si eas solas ab ineunte pueritia usque ad de erepitam senectutem maximo otio summa studio meliori ingenio conarer addiscere c. He experienced the mysteries of Christianity far to transcend the synagogue he esteemed his whole life though it were imployed in nothing else not to suffice for a perfect understanding of Christian profundities surely they were not so vulgar as Mr. Hebbs would have them There was among the Jewes a difference in points of faith some were ut adirces as the foundation of the rest the denying whereof would have destroyed the whole law others as rami branches where the danger was not so considerable These R. Menassieth in the beginning of his Treatise of the creation of the world declareth So in Christian Religion some things are simply necessary without which heaven is not to be gotten as the faith of Christ c. which our school-men place sub necessitate medij that is as absolutely necessary of which sort there are not so many Other things are necessary onely ex suppositione that is upon supposition that they are made known to us or sufficiently declared then there is necessitas praecepti a command to imbrace them and surely this is no great burden I will also touch that impertinent objection of the Socinians that the Church of Christ is a congregation of all Christians or of all who beleeve in Christ and not of any select body of them and consequently there are no hereticks to be declared so by any sentence of the Church but onely those are hereticks who by their own judgement are such as the Apostle speaketh That is such who against their own judgment do resist known truths not such who by a councel or body of men are declared such This to beleevers is easily made evident to be impious First That Christ hath a Church he hath said it that he also hath instructed her with a regitive power he hath also said it and said both together in these words Dic Ecclesiae and therefore addeth to such as obey not her decrees si eam non audierit sit tibi tanquam Ethnicus et publicanus we must complain to the Church for emergencies and she hath power to excommunicate if we obey not If this be true as it is in other crimes and causes it will easily conclude in the chiefest crime of heresie else we must blasphemously say that Christ hath made provision for the lesser difficulties and not for greater which is to condemn his omniscience or providence Again this regitive power is confirmed in the acts and attributes to the Holy Ghost Spiritus Sanctus vos constituit Episcopes regere Ecclesiam Dei Of this the new Testament in doctrin and practise is aboundant Further that the Church hath power to declare hereticks is evident besides the immediate consequence of it out of Christs words related out of the doctrin and practise of the Apostles They did teach how or did institute the manner post secundam monitionem to declare and excommunicate for heresie they also did declare de facto hereticks as is evident in almost all their Epistles and the Apocalipss and did forbid all commerce with them which is to excommunicate which they did for their false and seditious tenents or innovations in faith as is clear in the texts whence it followeth first that the Church hath this power as first Simon Magus for teaching it lawful to buy the Holy Ghost Secondly the Jewish Christians who taught it lawful to use Sacramental circumcision under Christ were excommunicated by St. John c. Whence it followes secondly that the Church is not a body of all Christians but of all who do joyn in the unity and integrity of faith else if declared by the Church to be hereticks they are no longer of her because by authority derived by Christ they are cast out of her Their own interior guilt will serve to accuse them in the Court of God in Heaven but it is the judicatory act of the Church upon their pertinacy which condemneth them in Earth and this sentence is confirmed in Heaven Quaecunque alligaveritis c. Mr. Hobbs in his 18. Chapter n. 2. requires two vertues necessary to Salvation Faith and Obedience Faith hath no other latitude in her acts then to beleeve Jesus to be Christ n. 5 6. and so forward Besides internal faith he saith that there is necessarily required a profession of many other articles which summarily are contracted compacted into that we call the Creed As he had touched before Chap. 17. n. 21. and afterward more fully in his Annotations to the number 6. Yet he esteemed not Christians bound to beleeve but to profess these if required This seems a bull in Christianity to be bound to profess in matter of belief what I am not bound to beleeve yet this he asserts Chap. 18. n. 6. necessary to salvation out of title of obedience That is I am bound to profess that I do beleeve what I am not bound to beleeve I propound this to Mr. Hobb's second thoughts he boggles much upon it in his Annotations utters evident contradictions and yet he comes not off Nay he saith ch 18. n. 14. that it is enough if one endeavour
comes that the Socinians call in question if not absolutely deny the diety of the Son and of the Holy Ghost hence with the Pelagians they reduce Christs death to example of our imitation onely not to be the price of our redemption hence generally they profess with Chillingworth and others whom I could name that holy Scriptures are to be understood according to each mans small reach of reason as if nothing were contained in them what is not commensurated to our understanding and therefore needs not any supernatural aide from God which Mr. Hobbs very well confutes Chap. 17. n. 28. Yet he saith it belongs to the City to interpret Scriptures at least in all such things which he will please to call juridical or Philosophical which have far too great latitude in his sense For purely supernatural he speaks more reason then any others of these new ones from whom hath proceeded contempt of Prelates and Doctors because every one of the most inferiour Laytie of these Enthusiasts by their impetuous imaginary instinct and private spirit or what is the same their particular ratiocination though most groundless are supreme and infallible Masters and Doctors to themselves Neither do they beleeve any thing to be Divine which flowes not from the sensless impetuosity of their imaginations without any respect to higher considerations Yes truly those who are esteemed the wiser sort following Socinas stick in the same puddle expounding holy Scriptures and all mysteries of our holy Faith not according to the universal reason of the Church delivered by the hands of the ancients to us as Catholicks do but by their private spirits or by the conduct of their private reason A thing ridiculous to conceive that the profoundness of Christian misteries should not exceed the shallow reach of our reason Which error is the Source of all dissonancies and inconstancies amongst them which even by intrinsecal necessary consequence must needs cause a perpetual flux or issuing out of changes of conclusions of Faith for the effect cannot be more noble then the cause On the other side Catholick tenents must by a great necessity be always constant because they depend not upon our daily changable reasons or ratiocination but upon the unvariable word of God revealed and delivered by the Church The sum of all is that the verity of a Philosophicall conclusion is demonstrated by the verity of human reason the verity of Christian reason is proved by the verity of ancient faith indeed one verity may be diverse but never adverse to another Neither doth Divine contradict human but often surmounteth it and therefore it is comprehended by the sparks of our scanted reason but it is setched from else where Ask thy Father c. This is a safe way in which there is no danger to be dashed upon the rocks of errors according to that of Athanasius in his Epistle to Epicietus teaching how Hereticks Schismaticks are to be treated with There is no better way and indeed it is alone sufficient to answer them Those things not to be orthodoxall which our forefathers have not taught us This is plea enough against all pretences in the judgment of Athanasius let therefore Christians and they that bear the name of Christ be ashamed if leaving the fountain of antiquity from whence all sound doctrin floweth to follow certain small rivolets full of vanity and foolery shadowed under a precious shew of reason which from whence they had their Source and beginning none for certain know We Catholicks therefore adhere to the holy Councels and ancient Fathers in the first place after the holy Scriptures neither dare we accuse them of foolery a Christian minde will hurdly permit them to be rashly and presumptuously defamed But these men and others of the some tribe who make the glimmering of their reasons the rules of Faith and Religion easily reject them It is a wonder rather that they do not with their supercilious spectacles clime up the heavens and there with the Albumazar Aicabatius Massaeius and infinite other Astrologers seek out the verity of all Religions and one while for the conjunction of Saturne with the Sun adhere to Judaismes another while for the conjuction of Mars with Jupiter promote the Chaldaick Sect if with Venus the Mahumetical if with Mercarie the Christian So by some little shew of reason drawn from the heavens they may change their religion as for the most part they are wont to do several times of the year according to the several dominations of the planets or certainly every year according to the annual dominion or if this seems to much aerial they may according to the Successory government of those intelligences which they call Seconds appoint the stations retrogradations and cadences of their divers sects and religions as some not without applause of such lunitick persons have unhappily enough attempted as especially some attribute the innovation of Luthers sect to the new lunary inteligences then 1517. undertaking the worlds government And Ticho Brahe affirms that those sects which indeed are derived from mens brain-sick fancies may be found out in the heavens both in their risings and fallings Of which this present age administreth change enough The truth is Judas the Apostle toucheth these home whatsoever they do not know they blaspheme whatsoever like bruit beasts they know they are corrupted in They are indeed so swoln in their imaginations that breaking they corrupt themselves and others CHAP. 6. A digression against Mr. Hales the supposed Author of the Treatise of Schism And a farther proof of Schism in England Mr. HALES who is said and supposed to be Author of the Treatise of Schism objects that Schirm may be spread over all the parts of the Church and so the whole be infected in which case Schism cannot be imputed to one place more then to another and this may peradventure be affirmed of the sepuration of England from other Churches as it was touching the ancient celebrating of Easter wherein also a how Schism is rison for aching not necessary yea saith he in a matter ridiculous If I should bring the general Councel of Nice condemning and separating from these Quarta-decimans he would deride it he accuseth all the ancients of foolishness in this matter Thus he sporteth and trifleth in mysteries of faith to root out all faith out of the mindes of the faithful I deny first what he averreth that the West and East were at variance that is to say that that Schism did invade the whole Church and cleave her into two parts for the matter of Easter but that some considerable part did raise stirs in the East yea in the West also is manifest amongst historians this cause of division in a late work de consilijs made in latine by a Country man of ours is laid open to the very root But to peruse a little more the grounds of his mistakes in this important point of Schism we must alwayes remember what before we noted that
Schism is not properly a seperation for Heresie or Error in point of doctrin or Faith but in point of disobedience which is not a trivial matter as all common-wealths will easily conceive being that nerve upon which all order de pends and therefore the Quarta-decimans being rebellious to the mandatory decree of Nice all Catholicks had reason to decline their communion I know Theodoret in l. 1. c. 13. of his Ecclesiastical History and other learned men with St. Athanasius in his tract of Synods do esteem that the question of Easter was not defined as a point of faith but commanded to be observed as a custome derived from the Apostles and in confirmation of this they observe that the Councel varieth the form of speech in a migitatory way from the accustomary stile in declaring points of faith saying Visum est ut omnes obtemper arent in question of faith they did not write visum est But credit Ecclesia Catholica Thus the Catholick Church beleeved c. And therefore if his undervaluing the cause of this Schism grew from this gross misprison of the state of the controversie he should do well to resume his better diligence in examining it He might with greater appearance have brought that folemn word combat touching person hypostasis betwixt the eastern western Churches which great Athaenasius more clearly opened and closed up again Many contested ignorantly after the manner of those who fight with their eyes shut and beat the air Some held three hypostasis other but one in the diety from whence great contentions arose But as Athanasius relates When we asked out of what reason they speak these things or why all do use three kinde of words They made answer that they beleeved in the Trinity c. Approving therefore this interpretation and excuse we examined those who asserted that there was but one hypostasis c. Who affirmed that they understood Hypostasis that is person to be all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is essence c. To conclude all by the grace of God after this interpretation of the words did approve of the best and exactest rules of faith which the Fathers of Nice had instituted Some indeed for their material errors did deny communion but as yet there was no formal Schism betwixt the Churches but perticular persons perhaps it might have grown to a greater head had not great Athanasius interposed or rather had not Christ Jesus hindred it But among us the altar of division is erected against the altar of union with Christ out of which it is impious to celebrate Christs misteries the difference is not of words but substance not against the letter but the life and sense of the holy Soripture If these things be trifles why do you separate your selves Why do you punish Priests with death who are followers and ministers of our communion Against all meekness and clemency of the ancients To conclude Why have you built a new altar framed the stones of scandal and division At leastwise ye have broken down and demolished all the old ones insomuch that ye abhor the very name of tar as these later times in your dâ—inâ— stick yet fiery contention in pulpits and pamphlets about 12. years past sussiciently testifie to what end is all this if the difference betwixt you and us be nothing else but about a Cock and Bull And that the same Author affirmeth it to be lawful to communicate with the Arians and Eutychians Nestorians Photians Sabessians because it is not certain that these invented their heresies out of malice but it is otherwise concerning the Manichees Valentineans Macedonians and Mahometans because it is manifest to all that they taught these blasphemies against their own judgements I wonder at this assertion from a person of his eminency for abstracting from the intention of the former against whom notwithstanding there was sufficient presumption as among the ancients is clearer then the Sun no less then against the other but to grant I say what is not to be granted what is that to me whether they have vomitted out their heresie to the eternal destruction of souls with a formal or onely interpretive intention to deceive As long as I communicate with them and leave the truth taught from the beginning and delivered by the hands of the Fathers unto posterity We must look here upon the heresie not the minde or intention of the heretick that not this damneth the souls of those that communicate or pertinatiously adhere unto it as St. August often argueth in the the errors of St. Cyprian and the Donatists whom this Author also derideth But to come home to him Who knoweth not but that Luther against his own judgement began this Schism Who knoweth not that Henry the eighth framed it out of a fained and adulterate conscience Who of us doth not know that Queen Elizabeth out of no Religion but politick ends perverted the Schism into Heresie If therefore for this reason Communon with such are not lawfull as he affirmed of the last Apostates neither certainly is it lawful here Neither will it help them what the others are wont to object that England did enjoy a priviledg which they call Cyprium indeed Tomakas Câ—drenas and many were that the Bishop of Cyyprus was declared exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Antioch The consequencâ— most not be drawn to England in respect of the Sea of Rome except an express priviledge can be sheweth which hither to was never dreamed of yea besides other common titles of obedience the case of the Bulgars may and ought to be drawn unto us to wit for the title of conversion as the decision of the cause is in the law Indeed there is extant a decree in Con. Consta c. 2. That Bishops must not confound and intermingle their Churches but stand to the appointed rules and their certain limits are affigned to the Patriarchs In the first Councel of Ephesus also it is decreed that no Bishop invade the province of another which was not first and from the beginning under his or his ancestors jurisdiction Hence it was that the cause of the Church of Cyprus was heard which the Bishop of Antioch would have subject unto him but it was judged that that yoak should be shaken off upon another title The Country was converted unto Christ by St. Barnabe whose relicks being found there with St. Mathew's Gospel upon his brest written by St. Barnabe this gave occasion to commence a sute of exemption that they might enjoy the priviledge of a Metropolitan which was granted so that afterwards they were onely subject to Constantinople The general Councel it self in the eighth Canon speaks home of it and checks the Bishop of Antioch for having transgressed Ecclesiastical and Apostolical rules in this pretence namely because he did ordain in Cyprus which was alwayes an act of jurisdiction to which he had no just title because these Churches were never put under him