having that saving faith the Romists shew want of charity in damning those who are saved Hee was againe out of the way in bringing his owne Romists into schisme and damnation by dividing them from Protestants which have that one saving faith And now he goes further out of the way in removing the reasons that may make for unity though by unity with Protestants Romists may avoid uncharitablenesse schisme and damnation so it seemes hee is so earnest for division and dis-union that to attaine it he will hazzard both charity and salvation to his owne fellow Romists as a high price and farre above the value of that which hee would purchase though it were the richest jewell in the world Yet on hee goes upon this adventure And whereas differences amongst Romists are brought forth to make Romists more equall to differences among Protestants or to some differences betweene Protestants and Romists and likewise to make Romists thinke there may be a spirituall unity notwithstanding some differences because notwithstanding their owne differences they affirme there is an unity among themselves this the Author thinkes too peaceable and therefore strives to take it out of the way Toward this he is willing to deny that there are such differences amongst Romists and he strives to shew that they agree even in those things wherein they differ But differ they doe and strong evidences wee have for it which may hereafter be produced Neither indeede their Poeticall Heade of unity the Pope nor any one man on earth can make the whole Church to bee inwardly of one minde and soule but onely that Lord and maker of Spirits by his owne Spirit his true and onely Vicar For that one Spirit enlightning and guiding the spirits of men with one faith of one word delivered by the ministery directed and enabled by the same one spirit can onely make a true reall internall and spirituall unity And accordingly S. Paul leading us to the unity of faith thus rightly ordereth his words toward unity One Spirit one Lord one Faith And thus hee goes on and sheweth how this one spirit of one Lord which inwardly workes this unity of faith in the Lords body outwardly also concurres to the working of it by the gifts given to the ministery For this working without in the ministery and inabling them to teach one and the same doctrine of saving faith and inwardly working in the hearts and soules of Christs members these members are brought into the unity of faith and so into one body of Christ and as in this body of Christ there are different members of different measures and capacities by the different gifts of the spirit so these different capacities doe not reach or containe one measure of divine truth Christ the Foundation and Head is made knowne to all his members for by this knowledge they become his members and so have they all unity in so much divine truth as knits them to Christ But by reason of their different measures some attaining such holy truths of which others are short there must needs bee a difference in the apprehension of those truths to which some attaine and others doe not come yet in all is a settled desire and purpose to beleeve the whole truth revealed by God if it be also revealed to them that it is the truth of God And so whatsoever force was in the Champions speech That true spirituall faith beleeveth the whole Body of divine doctrine makes not against us but for us and much more for us then for them For we upon the right motive which is God speaking in his word doe beleeve plainly whatsoever we conceive and what we doe not conceive wee beleeve in purpose and intention And thus have wee perfect unity while in the fundamentalls we have an actuall unity of faith and in the lesser points an unity of purpose and will But in this true and kindly unity one Spirit not one Pope doth cause inwardly one faith And againe that one spirit giving gifts to men not to one man outwardly bringeth to the inward unity of faith And indeede that none but the spirit the true vicar of Christ can make this solid spirituall and internall unity it appeares by the confession of the very Romish craft which hath coyned the Pope to be the head of unity For that they might make and prove him to be such they have put him into the place of the holy Ghost and made him the Vicar of Christ accordingly they say that the holy Ghost speaks by him and so the speech of the holy Ghost being infallible verity is a right ground of unity A foule errour and without ground of Scripture which never since the departure of Christ from earth tyed the holy Ghost to one man so that from him the whole Church should fetch Oracles and resolutions But indeed it is a high and blasphemous imposture which puts the Pope in place of the holy Ghost And when this man speakes it pronounceth of him as the people of Herod The voice of God and not of Man And how little this differs from Montanisme I wish Romists would consider who reduced the promise of sending the Comforter Christs Vicar as Tertullian cals him to be performed in Montanus And the very same place doe the Romists apply to the Pope which was applied to Montanus but yet thus it appeares That even they that erre in the application yet hold truth in the position That the holy Ghost is the true root of union though erroneously and blasphemously they put the Pope into his roome and make the voyce of the Pope to bee the voice of the holy Ghost And surely the Pope himselfe plainely shewes that hee doubts his owne spirituall power of making unity and therefore hee flyes to the grosse and materiall instruments of unity the Sword and Faggot And so calling downe fire on those that obey him not if he have any spirit it seems it is not that spirit which Christ said was the Evangelicall spirit of the Apostles but rather of him which is called the Destroyer And indeed this device of man to make unity of faith by one man called the Pope being thus thrust into the place of the Spirit of God as it proceeded from the spirit of errour so hath it made unity in errour as the last best of Popes Gregory the Great did in a manner prophecie but it never will make unity in solide and universall Faith and Truth for the beleevers in this counterfeit head of unity have both gotten from him an unity in many errors and have beene left in many great and weighty differences whereof there is little hope of resolving them into union the sight whereof turnes our eyes from this humane and fictitious Head of unitie to the true roote and meanes of unity set forth by the Apostle And because this Author strives to put away from mens eyes the differences which arise under this false Head of union let us shew him
a more full spectacle of them which may serve to prove that disunion which hee goes about to confute and to confute that union which hee goes about to prove SECT II. Wherein severall heads and springs of division amongst the Papists are opened 1. The controverted Supremacie of the Pope or Councels 2. Their affected ambiguity in deciding controversies 3. The great number of Questions purposely left undecided 4. The opposition betwixt the Preachers and publick Professors of that Church IN the view of this division wee may first take notice That there is an opposition and division even betweene this supposititious Head of unity and his members and even in this radicall and head-point Whether hee be the Head of unity or not for the Head is divided from much of the Body and the Body within it selfe even about the Head The Pope hee will bee above the Councell and the Councell is thought by many to bee above the Pope And this hath beene decided by Councels and by them the Councell was set above the Pope which indeed agrees much better with the Councell in the Acts and with Saint Paul to the Ephesians lately alledged yea it was made hereticall to deny this Supremacy of the Councell above the Pope And if that the Head of unity bee divided into two how can two Heads bring men onenesse yea how can two Heads but divide the Church into two Bodies It is an undeniable truth That two Masters opposing each other can never cause unity in their servants he that is at unity with some fellow-servants by cleaving to the one Master is at division with others that cleave to the other And they that maâ—e the Councell the Head and root of unity as the Councell of Constance and Basil and many that followed them especially in France how must they not needs differ from those that make the Pope to be Head and Lord of unity by a controlling power over the Councell And accordingly in those points which the Councell decreeth as by a supreme power and the Pope againe dissolves as by a supreme power how can Romists be at unity that are divided in the different beliefes of these two Supremacies Even in that point resolved in Basil That it is hereticall to beleeve the Pope not to be subject to the Councell how is it possible that Romists should bee at unity of whom a part beleeves and a part beleeves it not yea each seeme Hereticks thereby unto the other And thus if in the roote of unity there bee division how great is this division and who can shew how ever this division can bee reconciled by Romists For if there be a free Councell no doubt such a Councell will decree the Pope to be subject to it as they have good reason from Scripture and Antiquity But if the Pope be free and may command the Councell who can expect but that the Pope shall judge for himselfe and subject Councels to his headship and infallibility Behold the great Citie divided into great parts and division growing even from their roote of unity Againe many members of this Head of unity are at division about the Popes earthly Supremacy some hold that hee may onely excommunicate Kings and then can doe no more his power being meerly spirituall others hold that after excommunication hee can depose Kings yea cause their subjects to kill them a weighty controversie and hardly to be decided amongst Papists but onely by the unity of Kings agreeing together to depose Popes Againe in some things hee takes power to dispense and in the same things his Doctors say he hath not power to dispense A paterne of which opposition we may plainly and actually see in the Popes Bull of Dispensation to Henry the eighth for marrying his Brothers wife and the Testimonies under Universitie Seales of the Doctors denying him the power of this Dispensation These and the like questions concerning the power of this Head of unity make division betweene the Head and members and make division betweene the members themselves Secondly wee see divisions doe againe arise from this Head of unity because this Head leaves many things of controversie so doubtfully decided in Councels that their very decisions breed controversies And what unity is to be expected from such a Head who by decisions gives occasion of dissentions and leaves division when he sits of purpose in his Chaire under pretence of making unity So wee know Vega and Catharinus against Soto and upon the Popes Decree in the Councell of Trent entred into mighty Controversies and no wonder for it was a speciall craft in that Councell to use such generall words as might be large enough to hold two differing opinions in them and so leave the controversies not reconciled but still at liberty and distance And now againe where is that vaine shift or rather blasphemous abuse of Scripture in saying that Papists by submission to the Popes Church doe captivate themselves to the obedience of Faith and so keepe unity when the Pope having judged and they submitting to his judgement are yet in division What is this but by submitting to their meanes of unity to be still at division If the Head of unity by deciding make division how endlesse and incurable is that division Thirdly This Head of unity leaves divers controversies wholly undecided so that as it hath not been untold by some of his owne hee doth as it were leave strife and division to them In their Schoole writers bee farre more differences then disputations because divers in one disputation and perchance in one neere a thousand disputations yea in some points foure of five severall opinions each confuting one another and these not of light matters only but of many if not of all the Cavaliers prime points The catholick Church Justification of soules Communion of Saints Purgatory Indulgences Yea Doctor Iohn White in his way to the true Church Digr 24. undertaketh to demonstrate that there is no one point denied or affirmed against us wherein Papists doe not vary amongst themselves and of these differences he gives there divers patternes And many more are to bee seene in Bishop Mortons catholick Apologie And this division hath bin so deadly that we read that the Dominicans have charged the Franciscans with heresie and the Franciscans at length had the burning of foure Dominicans Let us hear a strong Dominican and a cathedrall Professor describing the differences of these Romists even to the charging one another with heresie It often fals out that one Divine doth most constantly affirm that he hath a Theologicall demonstration for some point of doctrine and that hee deduceth it by evident consequence from the sacred Scriptures and the traditions of the Fathers But then another on the contrary doth most certainly affirme that hee hath a Theologicall demonstration that this is heresie and an error in faith and that the contrary is deduced from scriptures by evident consequence Hence he saith of the
other that hee erreth in the faith and the other retorts the same against him yea this happeneth not only between two particular Divines but between one Schoole and another And indeede these dissentions even to the imputation of heresie doe shame the Pope this infallible judge of controversies for not resolving them and doe almost plainly confesse that he mistrusts his owne infallibilitie and that he doubts it is scarce trusted by others for it is likely the feares either that hee shall not rightly resolve or that both sides will not quietly submit but that some of those who have that burning zeale which consumed the Dominican will bee inflamed against him for his resolutions Fourthly even against decision there is opposition and so are they at division and particularly in that great and weightie point of Idolatrie For that which the Romists call the second Councell of Nice and acknowledge to be a lawfull Councell saith plainely of Images thus Illis salutationes honorariam adorationem tribuant non tamen secundum fidem nostram veram Latriam quae solum divinae naturae competit So that Lorca after the producing of divers testimonies of this Councell thus inferreth Vis autem omnium testimoniorum consistit in hoc quod Imaginibus expressè conceditur adoratio expresse etiam eis negatur Latria And soone after Concilium non solum excludit Latriam sed explicat speciem adorationis dicit enim adorandas esse honoraria adoratione sicut Liber Evangeliorum And hereunto agreeth Pamelius speaking of this Councell as hath before beene alledged Yet Latria or divine worship being thus plainly and as Lorca 〈◊〉 expreâ—sly denied to Images by the Câ—unâ—â—ll great and learned Romists plainly say that Latria or divine worship is to be given to Images even the same worship which is due to the patterne So saith â—â—zorius and Bellarmine acknowledgeth that this was the dâ—ctrine of Alexander Aquinas Cajâ—tâ—ne Bonaventure Marsilâ—us Almaine Carthusian Capreolus and others And accordingly wee reade of a Doctor of Sivill questioned of Heresie for agreeing with the councell in denying Latria contrarie to these Doctors Upon that which hath beene said I inferre that our objection of Romish disunions yet stands firme because there are maine disunions objected by us against Rome which this Author hath not touched and so stand still strong against him among which is eminent that incurable difference of headship it selfe betweene the Pope and the Councell to which some adde the fearfull division of the Popedome when in a schisme the Papacy is two or three headed two or three sitting at once as heads of the Church and others adde the division of successive heads the one denying and annulling the acts of the other SECT III. The weaknesse of the Cavaliers answers are manifested First for Romish differences are not onely of such points as are left at liberty by this Church Secondly their pretended religious orders are so many different Sects and Fashions in the Church Thirdly the distinction of explicite and implicite faith doth fortifie the Protestants objections and no way salve them WHereas to our first objection of difference concerning varietie of opinions in some points found in their Books he gives this first answer That wheresoever they finde our Doctors to bee of a contrarie opinion they shall also finde those points in question not to have beene defined by the Church but left at libertie to bee debated and disputed as men see cause This is plainly overthrowne by that which hath been produced in our fourth observation of Romish differences For there wee see a point oppugned and denied by Romish Doctors which hath been defined yea the power of the Councell above the Pope hath beene defined by Councels and is denyed by Romists To which I may adde that the Popes power hath beene bounded within the limits of a Patriarchate by divers Councells which yet Romish Doctors doe not onely dispute against but utterly deny Besides when they object one to another de Fide The meaning of it in plaine English is this They tell their fellowes that they hold a point contrary to the definition or doctrine of the Church And whereas hee speakes of unity by referring themselves to the future definition of the Church this is no answer for the differences of those who do dispute and deny those points which by the Church are already defined for it were absurd to say that they who doe now not submit to the definition of the Church are ready to submit to it hereafter Againe for those points which have not beene defined certaine it is that for the present they are at very hot contention and difference and their resolving to obey the future definition of the Church doth no whit prove their present unity who are presently at division while the Church doth not by defining make unity betweene them Two that have a question and a quarrell upon the question and upon this quarrell kill one another may as well bee said to agree because they both would referre themselves to the next man that comes Which man not yet coming nor reconciling the difference they in the meane time notwithstanding this supposed future agreement doe presently fight and truly kill one another Except by this Popish sleight wee may truly say that these men being at full agreement and unity were divided and upon this division which was indeede an agreement did fight and kill one another True it is that it is the more shame for the Pope who hath knowne these controversies of the Dominicans and others of a long time And for a while as Vasques saith did forbid them but most wisely though not like an infallible Head of unity deferres to resolve them and so to set them at unity but gives them leave still to dispute and differ being affraid perchance on one side to run against the chiefe Disciples of Evangelicall Thomas and on the other side to lose the profit that comes by the many pretious consequences of free-will Besides when they be not agreed which is the Church that hath supreme power to decide controversies whether the Pope be above the Councell or the Councell above the Pope and if the Pope be of one opinion and the Councell of another how doth he that submits himself to the Church by this submission put himselfe into a way of unity or not rather of division And if such a submission make an unity the Protestants are at unity much better then Romists for they submit themselves to the one and undivided word of God truly opened by Apostles and Pastors endued with gifts from on high by the same spirit which endited it and was given of purpose to cause unity of faith And whereas hee gives a second plaister to that first objection of differences of points not defined that they doe not breake unity of peace nor erect Altar against Altar I say this plaister is much shorter then the sore for
of it yet I cannot deny that hee hath two Errands one to bring forth a jest upon our Fox and his followers under the names of Fox and Geese But if it had pleased this Author duly to follow this Fox in the reading of his Martyrologie he might have found out the true Fox that followes and teares and destroyes those whom our Author by a new Metamorphosis and Romish transubstantiation hath changed into Birds His second Errand he thus expresseth I finde when they are put to name their particular Professors of former ages they doe but muster up those severall single false doctrines which have bin held by other heretiks by Retaile during ten or twelve 〈◊〉 since Christ our Lord many of which doctrines togethâ—r themselves doe now professe in grosse for what other men of former times did they ever or can they ever name as men of their Religion but such as beleeved some one or two of those hereticall doctrines which now themselves embrace and wherein they are contrary to us But all this as it is not very pertinently brought in to excuse Romish uncharitablenesse so it is not very truly objected for wee can prove our doctrines which hee calls heresies by the Fathers and Scriptures and the Scriptures he cannot deny have beene beleeved above twelve ages Besides Popish Authors doe acknowledge that the Waldenses agree with Protestants in more then one or two doctrines for they are said to bee more then twenty wherein wee agree with them And though afterward this Cavalier affirmes it yet hee proves not that for other points these were expresse hereticks in the Protestants opinion neither doe we hide any fundamentall errours in them which we object against Romists But if these had not beene in the world it is most true that the maine point of Popery which is the Popes tyrannicall headship of the Catholick Church the very root of Idolatries errours and divisions hath in all ages been denyed since it was first broached But our Author is still much displeased with fundamentalls because by them wee have unity with those who have heretofore differed in some doctrines from their Papacy for saith he If it were not for this distinction no man could bee of the same Religion with any other that is not wholly of the same Religion so farre forth at the least as that he must not obstinately deny any one doctrine thereof whether it bee important more or lesse when once as hath beene said it is lawfully and sufficiently propounded and commanded to bee beleeved by the true Church as it is true and certaine when Luther rebelled from the Church of Christ our Lord nor in any age before his time there was in the whole world any one Kingdome or Countrey or City or Town or Family of men or Pastours or Flock yea or any one single person so much as of Luthers own much lesse of the now Protestant Religion which is now forsooth so farre refined beyond his Here the Cavaliers true Church being that confederacie whereof the Pope is the head hee would faine dissolve that solid unity which is made by fundamentals in Christ Jesus the true head to mak a fictitious unity in the Pope But if hee should cast off this onely true and substantiall ground of unity which knits together all the sound Churches that are at this day or ever have been through all Nations on the face of the earth since our Saviour to make an unity by agreeing under paine of damnation in all points propounded and commanded by the Pope and his Church of Rome whether important more or lesse hee shall not onely by this meanes breake the unitie of all the true Churches on earth into pieces but of Rome it selfe For to returne almost his owne words Since the Pope who hath rebelled against Christ and usurped the Headship of the Church first coined and established a Religion in Trent neither then nor in any time before there was in the whole world any one Kingdome or Country or City or Towne or Family of men or Pasture or Flocke yea or any one single person who by a supernaturall Faith which this Authour onely approves did imbrace the whole body and every Article of the Trent Religion Yea even at this day it is not received in divers parts that beare the name of the Church of Rome much lesse in Greece Armenia Syria Ethiopia most of which either know not or acknowledge not this Councell nor the Popes Supremacie All these therefore refusing any of these Articles must be torne in pieces from the body of Christ and cast into Hell fire Thus the Scarlet Whore drunke with the bloud of the Saints speaks in the right voice of the Harlot If she may not have the whole childe let it bee cut in pieces Let the Church be distracted and damned if the Pope may not be her Lord and her Tyrant And so whereas Christ was a head that gave himselfe to death to save his body from damnation is not hee an Antichrist that throwes the body of Christ into hell and damnation to make himselfe the head But in a third place hee objecteth not an use of ours but an abuse of his owne For hee abuseth his Reader in saying to him That the making of this distinction betweene Fundamentall and not Fundamentall points of Faith and the resolving not to declare which is which doth save them with a great part of the ignorant world from the imputation of rigour in their proceeding with us For how could they persecute as they doe without extreme note of cruelty But neither the making nor hiding of Fundamentalls is the cause of prosecuting Romists in this Kingdome but the cause of their punishment hath been their owne making of Treasons miraculously revealed by Gods goodnesse notwithstanding their hiding even in the vaults and depths of the earth And though there were no Fundamentalls of Religion but only Fundamentalls of State the Fundamentalls of State are very plain and cannot well be hidden which justifie the execution of Rebells and Traitours But of this some proofe hath been given in the beginning of this Booke and the Authour will call for more towards the end As for that which followes Yea or even how could they dissent without apparent impiety from our beliefe and practice of those Doctrines wherein wee have had and still have prescription of so many ages if the contrary thereof should be confessed by themselves not to be Fundamentall It is so weak that I wish that some childe and not the Cavalier had spoken it to save his reputation For will any man say that it is impiety to dissent from others in ancient errours though these errours be not Fundamentall Tertullian might have taught our Authour much more wisdome who upon the custome of an errour not very Fundamentall thus saith They that have received the holy Ghost preferre truth before custome SECT IIII. Sheweth the differences amongst Popish Divines about their
of that true Church whereof Christ is the Head They are not so truly Christians of Christ as Papists of the Pope But still I inferre that when the Authour hath his two grounds granted That if Protestants and Papists bee not of that one Church wherein is salvation yet Papists are uncharitable for damning Protestants who are of that Church wherein is salvation so that neither are his grounds sufficiently secured neither if they were are Papists secured sufficiently from uncharitablenesse But after his pretended sufficient securing of his grounds either by way of supererogation or because hee was not secure of his securing hee yet brings in more proofe that we are of two Religions And now for the finall proofe of this last point according even to their practice as well as ours Let my Reader but look upon the body of their Lawes made against us and especially upon the Preambles thereof wherein they plentifully shew how hatefull an opinion they have of our Church Let him looke upon the severall Acts of State which have issued from my Lords of the Councell Let him look upon the Proclamations which have beene made and published from time to time Let him looke upon the large Commissions which have beene granted to Pursuivants whereby that scumme of the world hath beene and is enabled both to ransome and ransack us at their pleasure Surely thus farre there is little said but that many of the late Traytours against the French King may take up for a proofe that they were not of one Religion with that King because against them there issued Acts of State Proclamations Messengers or Pursuivants though all of them perchance were not the scumme of the Countrey to apprehend and ransack them But hee goes farther Let him looke upon those speeches which have beene uttered in both Houses of Parliament not onely against Professours but even the Profession it selfe of our Religion and how his most excellent Majestie hath beene importuned by their petitions to add more weight to our miseries for thus it will easily bee scene how false how rotten how superstitious how idolatrous how detestable how damnable and even destructive of all truth and goodnesse they professe themselves to esteeme our Religion And in fine that wee carry such a marke of the Beast in our foreheads as must needs in their opinion shut up the gates of heaven against us and set open the gates of hell to devoure and swallow us up So that certainly wee are no more of one Church with them in their opinion then they are of one with us in ours Here indeed hee hath many good Epithites of Popery rotten superstitious idolatrous c. but I finde one great one wanting and that is trayterous for this Epithite had a great share in the Parliamentary Complaints and Accusations of Popery But to answer his many words in few because they were answered in that which last preceded wee deny not but that which wee call Popery and Papists call their Religion that is a beleeeving in the Pope and obeying of him commanding Idolatry Treason Rebellion and whatsoever else hee shall please to decree for a point of faith is a rotten superstitious idolatrous and traiterous Religion And of this it is truely said in the prayers of the fifth of November This their Religion is Rebellion their faith is faction their practice murdering of soules and bodies But yet wee charitably hope that there are some though two few who have not so bowed the knees of their soules to this Baal of Rome that they submit their soules and faiths to him in all his idolatrous and trayterous Doctrines Decrees and Commands but being rather in Rome then of Rome are Christs and not the Popes and therefore will heare Christs voice and not the Popes when the Popes voice is the voice of a stranger and an enemy to Christ. CHAP. XII Wherein the Cavaliers tenth and last Chapter is annihilated which hee calleth a Recapitulation SECT I. The totall of the Cavaliers many nothings is cast up in two short Conclusions contrary to all that which hee hath indeavoured to prove And some additionals to that totall examined viz. The false remedies of his impertinent feare lest Papists should grow in love with the civility of Protestants THe Cavalier having said many nothings in his former discourse hee now summes up these nothings which being never so many yet it is well knowne they can amount but to nothing Wherefore not to make this work tedious by unnecessary repetitions I referre the Reader to the former severall confutations and annihilations of the particulars out of which he would here frame this Recapitulation and insteed of the Authour 's not inferred but intruded Conclusion upon forlorne and vanishing premisses this Conclusion still stands right and strong for us that since there is but one true Church and one saving faith and the Protestants notwithstanding any of this Authours hollow answerable and answered objections from difference in Sacraments Traditions c. doe hold and beleeve this saving faith and so are the true Church the Papacie and adherents thereof professing a difference and division from them so farre as to bee of another Church and faith doe excommunicate themselves most heavily even to damnation And secondly The Protestants being the true Church the Romists separating themselves from us persecuting us and pronouncing damnation against us doe herein exceeding uncharitably while they cut off hate persecute and sentence unto hell and damnation the true Church even the living members of Christ Jesus For indeed Papists can never prove against us any change of the Foundation and therefore are uncharitable in damning those who are lively stones built on that onely Foundation and corner stone Christ Jesus But as if Rome were not enough uncharitable and though the Title seemed to tell us that the Cavalier would but have recapitulated his former uncharitable speeches yet hee breakes forth into new Capitulations and Incentives of uncharitablenesse He doubts yea seemes to bee grieved that some of the Romish Communion seeing the faire and just conversation of Protestants may grow into love with them and their Religion But let the Cavalier upon better consideration remember that this is not the great and most dangerous and suspicable fault of Popery that it is so in love with Civility that for it it neglects Religion but that Popery hath so mightily depraved and corrupted Religion that Popish Religion hath destroyed Civility and fairenesse of Nature So that whereas Religion should have advanced men beyond naturall candour and fairenesse Popish Religion hath destroyed this naturall fairenesse and made them worse then men whom true Religion would have lifted up above men unto Saints an evident mark that it is not a true but a false and foule Religion This appeareth plainely in those of the powder Treason divers of which were men of candid natures and ingenuous dispositions yet by Popish Religion turned out of nature made worse then themselves and brought
But this Champion while hee liveth will never be able to prove that the Papacy or the Pope and his faction is the Church And yet untill he prove this all his booke is but a carkasse meere dead paper without strength and life In the meane time they are most guilty of detractions slanders and reproaches of the whole Church of God that lay the title of damnable Heretickes or Schismatickes on all the members of the whole Catholick Church that are not subject unto the Man of sinne which sits as God in the Temple of God SECT II. An absurd complement of the Cavaliers attended with three grosse slanders of the Protestants Religion That it is a profession suted to the pleasure of superiours Secondly that the ground of it is sense and appetite Thirdly that they labour more for conformity then unity are all answered ANd now after his bitter pill of dissention to take away the offence of it and that at parting hee may flatter the taste of his Reader with a farewell of sweetnesse he puts this sugar to it All which I have not said either by way of aggravating their sinnes or of alienating men from their persons which I esteeme and love and desire to serve with my whole heart If the Reader will make a due conjunction of this with the former and make a right construction of the whole he may see it runne into this confusednesse The Romish faction must bee rigorous to Protestants and avoid them as Saint John did Cerinthus c. Yea they must fall foule upon them though holding lesser heresies and call them Dogs they must take them for cruell Robbers of the living and the dead for slanderers and detracters and all this is well done and may bee done without being alienated from their persons But doth this Authour thinke that there will bee a separation a falling foule and an accounting of us for Dogs without alienating of affections from our persons Or would hee have such a not alienating from our persons as upon meeting with us to part presently from us or to fall foule upon us and to call us Dogs Surely whatsoever this Authour afterwards speakes of his intent his former words teach such a separation division and hatred that these later words doe not take them away but onely make a faire shew by a mannerly distinction teaching a counterfeit art of falling foule upon men without being alienated from their persons But will any wise man thinke it a charitable speech if Catesby should say unto Faulx Be not alienated from the person of the King nor of his royall issue nor of the Nobility but onely fall foule upon them and blow them up with gun powder As for that following profession towards their persons so diversly expressed which I esteeme and love and desire to serve with my whole heart I acknowledge them to be faire words and of a very good countenance But perchance by some other way there might have been given to a doubtfull Reader more solid satisfaction For a scrupulous Reader may possibly say that these words by Travellers are vented often but as the froth of complement and by Romists are often eluded by a latent equivocation or mentall reservation and may now bee doubted because they doe come in suspiciously with very bad company even as attendants on exhortations and incentives to separate from Protestants to esteeme them as Dogs and to fall foule upon them yea not to hold the Reader in doubt but to let him see there is no soundnesse in your distinction of not hating our persons you have in this booke before taught that hee who doth not obey your Church bee taken for no other then a Pagan or a Publican that is a meere Idolater in his Religion and for a most infamous and base person in his conversation The Reader might have been more soundly satisfied if in stead of all these verbs esteeme love and serve the Cavalier had onely said this single sentence with one adverb I have heartily taken the oath of Allegiance As for his good intent in shewing us what Heresie is and how odious we thank him for it and doe make this use of it That because Heresie is so odious therefore we abhorre the Papacy which hath in it sundry Heresies Idolatries and Doctrines of Divels and is not the Church but a faction in the Church and desire by grace to continue true and lively members of the Church truly Catholick consisting of all Kinreds Tribes and Nations over the face of the whole earth whereof Christ Jesus is the onely and unquestionable Head And if by the Authours mis-perswasions wee should remove from this truly universall Church to become members of the Papacie wee should remove from the Church truely Catholick to a piece and portion in the Church and that not so much a piece of the Church as a faction and disease in the Church whereof the taking away and not the increase is a speciall if not only preservation of the unity and health of the Church truly catholick And towards this let the Pope hear his better even a better Pope then any since him making a question which he cannot well answer but by removing his universall Headship What wilt thou answer to Christ the Head who goest about to subjugate all his members to thee And elsewhere he saith that such a one is the fore-runner of Antichrist But such a one was the Pope within twenty yeers after this was written And if the Pope a thousand yeers since was the fore-runner of Antichrist we may well thinke that Antichrist is not all this time behind his fore-runner And now if the Popes universall Headship bee an Antichristian errour and an errour unanswerable at the last day it were good that the Authour himselfe being moved by his owne motives would withdraw his faith from this Antichristian hereticall Headship and become a right childe of the Church truely Christian and Catholick wherein and not in the Papacy is salvation But how farre from verity this is which followeth I thinke hee cannot but see when he comes to himselfe his words or insimulations are these What indeed doe they but shew by their whole course that they desire and resolve to beleeve and professe according to the occasion and to comply with the superiour powers of this world But doth the Authour beleeve when hee is awaked what hee spake in this dreame Have the Protestants done thus or doth not this Authour know that they have not thus done Whom doe Papists esteeme a superiour Power in the world above the Popes Therefore they have blasphemed him into a King of kings and Lord of lords And did Luther and the first Protestants comply with this superiour Power of the world Hee neglected both the threatnings of Cajetane and the faire promises of Vergerus Againe in Queene Maries dayes did those whom you burned here comply with the superiour powers in point of Religion Yea looke through
Wherein a vaine boast of the Romists confidence in maintaining their Religion by Excommunications is confuted And an inconsiderate charge That treason is pretended against Papists Priests in this Realme because wee dare not avow the punishing them for heresie is retorted BUt I wonder no lesse that this Cavalier should withall boast of his Catholicke Church That shee is so farre from obliging a man that beleeves not in his heart as shee teacheth under pecuniary mulcts to repaire to her Service and Sacraments that she will by no meanes admit him thereunto till hee have first cleared himselfe of that suspicion and sufficiently shewed himselfe free from any such want of beliefe For first what kind of converts are those whom Rome from whatsoever heresie converteth by the Faggot and admits to her Sacraments And is there not very just cause to suspect that they beleeve not from the heart all that she teacheth or at least doe not sufficiently shew themselves free from any such want of beliefe when they are turned to their new faith onely by such woodden arguments Secondly it seemes this Authours Catholicke Church is not the same Catholicke Church whereof Optatus and Saint Austin were members For Catholickes of that Church did compell men to Church by penalties that did not altogether beleeve in their heart as the Church taught And wee know the Churches intent is to bring them to heare and by hearing to beleeve what shee teacheth and so to fit them for the Sacraments Thirdly Bellarmine himselfe confesseth that the Church hath used such meanes for the reducing of Heretickes and in the very terms which the Authour denieth Pecuniary mulâ—ts And whereas our Authour eftsoones speakes of Ostiarii set to keep out men of contrary beliefe what knowne Protestant in France is hindered or at least how commonly are they admitted by the imaginary Ostiarii to bee present at the Masse And in the Archdukes Court Protestants have come to the Masse and known to bee such by most notorious Papists though they came in only to see the acting of it Secondly what Ostiarii did put off Catharinus for holding contrary to Trent That a man by faith may bee sure of his salvation Or Cajetan for holding That infants dying without Baptisme might be saved Who puts off the French that hold the Councell to be above the Pope a point of faith much differing from the present faith of Rome That which followeth I thinke at the first reading may appeare to bee the meere swelling of one that hath drunke the poysoned cup in the hand of the Scarlet Lady This Church enriched and endowed with the holy Ghost proceeds like a body which knowes it selfe to belong to an omnipotent head and feares not to avow both what it saith and what it doth And as on the one side shee expresses all the suavity which can bee conceived and is most ready to wrap up the most enormious sinners of the world and the most mortall enemies which shee hath in the very bowels of her compassion if they will come to God in the way of Penance For can the Reader keep himselfe from laughter when he seeth the lofty description of this Romish fortitude and withall seeth the low pusillanimity and meannesse of the Pope taking in an Excommunication denounced against the State of Venice without penance and satisfaction and so neither avowing what it saith nor what it doth to the plain disavowing of that which this Cavalier saith Againe doth not this Church proceed much rather like a body ruled with a head possest not with a seventh vertue but with many of the seven deadly sinnes whereof a great one is Covetousnesse For doe wee not reade that which may make a modest Romist to blush when hee reades it when the Popes owne souldiers and servants fight for his supremacy a principall point of their forged and fictitious faith he by mony hath been brought from avowing what hee said for those servants and their services It followes Shee goes on so farre if shee see cause to separate them in the quality of Heretickes from her communion and proceeds not against them as against Traytors to Princes or States according to that poore shift of Protestants whose guilty consciences make them not dare though their hearts bee well bent that way to punish our Priests capitally as for a corrupt Religion but they set upon them false and impudent pretexts of Treason First We acknowledge that the Pope doth outgoe this Authour with his Excommunication for hee goes on so farre not onely when hee sees cause but when hee sees no cause to separate from his Communion even without any proofe of heresie for what cause was there seene of excommunicating the King of Navarre out of his Kingdome in the quality of an heretick who was taken for a Romist especially since it is recorded that the King of Spaine's conscience in his death-bed was not satisfied with the Pope's eye-sight of the cause but spake as seeing cause of Restitution where the Pope pretended cause of Excommunication And what cause had the Venetians given of Excommunication when their Restitution without penance shewes plainely that they were without cause excommunicated And what cause had the Pope for excommunicating Queene Elisabeth and giving away her Kingdome And whereas you say Shee proceeds not against them as against Traytors to Princes or States This is so true that I cannot confute it But to make your truth yet more true I must also add this That your Papacy proceeds against Protestants because they will not bee Traytors to Princes or States as appeares by the penance of the Irish Pilgrime formerly mentioned and by the Bull of Pius quintus where hee curseth and excommunicateth those subjects that will not bee Traytors to their Soveraigne And indeed by that Bull the Papists themselves were exceedingly troubled betweene two feares one of being tyed with the cords of this excommunication for want of Treason and another of being tyed up for Treason in obeying this Excommunication Which griefe with the remedy thereof I finde thus described by Master Hart a not unlearned Romist The Bull of Pius quintus for so much of it as is against the Queene is holden among the English Catholicks for a lawfull sentence and a sufficient discharge of her subjects fidelity and so remaines in force but in some points touching the Subjects it is altered by the present Pope For where in that Bull all her subjects are commanded not to obey her and shee being excommunicated and deposed all that doe obey her are likewise innodate and accursed which point is perillous to the Catholicks for if they obey her they bee in the Popes curse and if they disobey her they are in the Queenes danger therefore the present Pope to releeve them hath altered that part of the Bull and dispensed with them to obey and serve her without perill of Excommunication which Dispensation is to endure but till it please
hate the seven thousand that doe not bow their knees to Baal though dispersed among seven millions of Idolaters wee may not hate Israel though in bondage under Pharaoh But to the true Israel even to the pure in heart and those who in Christ Jesus are new creatures and walke according to this rule peace the prayers of peace the true fruits of love doe belong the divine Apostle being herein our guide and example And while thus wee enjoy and imbrace this universall love with the universall body of Christ great is our safety for hereby wee know and may assure our hearts that wee belong to that universall body which alone loveth it selfe with this universall love That is the truly catholick Church which is indued with this catholick love that is a living Church which is a loving Church Our Church therefore imbracing and exercising this catholick love is a Church truly catholick and our Church being a Church of love is a Church of life Let therefore Cassander a Doctor of the Church of Rome conclude for us Qui rectâ sententiâ de Christo capiti injunguntur c. They that by a right beliefe concerning Christ are joyned to the head and by the hand of love and peace are joyned to the bodie of the Church howsoever they may differ in some opinions and rites are by no meanes to bee accounted Schismaticks or separated from the Church though they seeme rejected and excomunicated by some other part of the Church more mighty and possessing the Government CHAP. II. Wherein is declared that Rome wants this catholick love 1. By her separation from other Churches 2. By her hatred to Protestants manifested in the cruell persecutions and massacres practised against them in Popish countries and by the rebellions treasons open hostilitie stirred up against this Kingdome All which prove her to bee uncharitable and un-catholick IT hath been shewed that love and peace must bee catholick and universall that so they may be capable of a catholick and universall Church for as wide and as large as the Church is so large must the love of the Church be The body of Christ is the measure of this love and this love must bee no jot shorter then the body of Christ the body of Christ then extending to all Nations and so being a catholick body must be followed through all Nations with no lesse then a catholick love but love as much as it is short of loving this catholick body of Christ so much is it short of being a catholick love and so much it is indeed uncatholick Now the Romish Church which according to the Church of England is to be understood of the Pope and his adherents doth not make this body of Christ the measure of her love but the body of the Papacie not Christs Kingdome but the Popes Kingdome is the measure of Romish love As much then as the Popes Kingdome is short of the Kingdome of Christ so much is Rome short of a catholick love and so much is shee uncatholick Now wee know that the Kingdome of Christ spreads it selfe much farther then the Kingdome of the Pope yea Christ is known and beleeved where there is neither knowledge nor faith of the Pope Accordingly Cassander thinketh not onely the Westerne Churches of Protestants but the Easterne and Southerne also and by name the Russian Syrian AEthiopian and Armenian that beleeve the Apostles Creed and doe not by schisme divide themselves from the communion of other Churches to bee members of the true and catholick Church of Christ. And these parts of the Church are so great and large that a Countrey-man of ours in his diligent Inquiries gives this judgement of the Greek Church alone If wee should collect and put together all the Christian Regions hitherto intreated of which are all of the Greek Communion and compare them with the parts professing the Roman religion wee should finde the Greek farre to exceed if wee except the Roman new and forraine purchases made in the West and East Indies Now to these if wee shall add the Christians in Syria Cyprus Mesopotamia Babylon and Palestine which are by the least computation 50000. families and by the greatest 60000. And if againe we joine with these the Armenians who are under two Patriarchs of their owne whom they terme Catholickes and are esteemed to exercise jurisdictions over 70000. families And if yet further wee shall increase this number by those innumerable Christians of AEthiopia that are spread far and wide in the vaste Dominions of Prester Iohn And lastly if to these wee adde the no little number of Protestant Christians in the West wee may see that the Kingdome of the Pope is far short of the Kingdome of Christ and consequently that the love of Rome at least so much is short of catholick love But if wee leave those other famous and farre dispersed parts of Christs body whom Rome leaves without true catholick love and more particularly and punctually examine Romes want of love to Protestants whereof especially is our present inquirie all the paper in the world were scarce sufficient to containe the words that might be written for the proofe of it with the bloud of Protestants shed by the Romists So that the ancient parable of Iotham hath been fulfilled in our dayes If indeed yee annoynt mee King over you then come and put your trust in my shadow and if not let fire come out of the bramble and devoure the Cedars of Lebanon The fire and lightning of the Popes excommunications fly out against the denyers of his universall Kingdome and Supremacy and that fire is too often seconded with materiall fire For the maintenance of his pride Christians must bee hated spoyled and butchered of Christians There is a method of cruelty set forth against such who are Romes Hereticks and the true Churches Christians This wee finde thus summed up by Azorius the Jesuite 1. Excommunication 2. Irregularity 3. Confiscation of goods 4. Dissolving of all bands bee they oathes fealty service or any other covenant and promise 5. Deprivation of all dignities and honours 6. Losse of Ecclesiasticall buriall 7. Infamy 8. Uncapacitie of all dignities and offices Ecclesiasticall to themselves their favourers receivers and children to the second generation by the fathers side yea though the children were borne before the heresie 9. Losse of life And even Bellarmine himselfe whom learning which once had a name of emollit mores and seeming devotion should have made somewhat milder drinks deeply if not pleasantly in this cup of bloud and delivers it to his Disciples that they may pledge him Solum remedium est mittere illos maturè in locum suum The onely remedy is to send them betimes to their owne place which place though indeed it be heaven it seems yet the good Fathers charitable meaning was by a first death speedily to send Protestants to hell the place of the second
and root of this very errour which damneth men that shall bee saved And indeed it is a vice not beseeming a Cavalier which hee calleth Pusillanimity An errour of â—onscience is caused by pusillanimity of heart whereby a man fears that which should not be feared according to the right judgement of reason and such a conscience is too strict and therefore to bee avoided because it causeth three evills whereof the third is this It damnes him that should be saved But thus this errour of the Cavalier being taken from him by which he thinkes he may follow his erroneous conscience in denouncing damnation to those that are saved the very sinnew and bond of his discourse is cut assunder and all his ensuing labour lost by which hee strives to prove that Protestants and Romists are divided and cannot both bee saved For though they be thus divided a Papist cannot charitably tell a saved Protestant that hee is damned because hee doth erroneously beleeve it Yet will he needs goe on to his proofes of unity though altogether unprofitable and unable to excuse Rome from the charge of being uncharitable to Protestants yea it rather aggravates his charge and makes her more uncharitable in not holding unity with so good Christians as Protestants Yet hee is resolved to goe on and to utter that which hee gathered upon this head or rather upon this word of Unity for the places which hee brings forth it seemes please him well if they doe speake of the word Unity or something neere to the sound of it though the meaning bee nothing of that unity which it concernes him even in this his walke of impertinency and wandering to pursue and prove For sometimes his Allegations seeme to prove that there should bee in the Church one Head and sometimes one Heart and Affection somtimes one Spirit But if the Author would bee pleased to remember his owne businesse he might consider that his worke is to prove that there is in the Church such an entire unity in all points of Doctrine that there can be no difference or dissent in any one point though never so small but that by this difference the unity of the Church and salvation is lost For wee deny not but there must bee one heart and one affection and one spirit in the Church and all this in and under the unity of one Head Christ Iesus Againe we acknowledge that God did found but one Church and one Religion and that without these two there is no salvation But except the Author prove that the unity of this one Church and of this one Religion consists in this that the beliefe of all must be one and the same in all points under paine of Damnation the former words of unity are meere words and not pertinent to this end neither will they make up his taske For when hee comes to his next point that this unity is broken betweene Protestants and Romists wee will presently deny that wee have any way broken that unity of faith which holds us in unity with the Church and consequently wee are still in the state of salvation and so all his errand is lost Therefore the most places being impertinent as proving that which wee deny not and indeed make nothing for him being granted hee hath two or three which by screwes are wrested toward this full unity in points of beliefe though they reach not home to it This perchance hee aymed at in other places but they would not joyne with him SECT II. The argument drawne from the authority of the High Priest among the Iewes answered A First of his unproving and impertinent places is that of Deut. 17. where as our Author saith his whole people should be subject to the determination of the High Priest for the time being and this upon no lesse then paine of death In which sentence there was to be no appeale And a little after The great authority and power which was cast upon the individuall Person of one Iudge But first if wee will reade the words of God himselfe we may see that He speaks of more then one individuall Person For Hee speakes of the Levites the Priests and the Judge And if a man will not hearken to the Priest or to the Judge that then he should dye But secondly it must bee remembred that that which the Priest or the Judge must pronounce must bee the sentence of the Law For even the Prophet must dye which shall presume to speak a word which God hath not commanded Yet thirdly wee well know That this speaking according to the Law was often neglected by the Priests and therefore they brake the Covenant of Levi and led the people into errors as hereafter more fully may bee proved And I hope this Champion will not say that the people lost their salvation if they did not hold unity with the errors of the Priests And whereas hee addeth That there could bee no Religion or Church that did not agree with this Wee take not this to bee the present Question but Whether all beleevers Proselites or Jewes did in every point by the Priests decision hold an unity of beliefe and did in no point differ Now this I thinke will never bee both affirmed and proved For not only humane Testimonies but the Scriptures themselves doe shew us that there were divers sects and opinions among them and yet they joyned together in externall unity not dividing themselves into two Religions and Churches But to put this Author out of trouble in regard of his individuall High Priest the mention of whom seemes to looke asquint on the Pope as his shadow let him remember That the High Priest was himselfe a shadow of Christ and when Christ came this shadow was abolished and when this shadow dyed it left not the Pope either heire or executor and so hee can be at best but the counterfeit of an abolished shadow And thus all this Authors labours for the High Priest are left to the Pope But see how yet it fals out more unhappily against him for after hee had made mention of the individuall High Priest his next proofe ariseth from Korah Dathan and Abiram punished for Schisme and not for Heresie and difference in Doctrine against two individuall persons Moses and Aaron SECT III. It is declared 1. That the unity of the Church may be preserved without an exact agreement in all points of doctrine 2. That the Papists exalt the Pope above God in that they hold all differences from the Popes determination to bee mortall and yet some breaches of Gods Law to bee veniall ANother place of his very impertinent to his purpose is taken or racked out of the Psalmes which differently from the originall and corrected Translations hee thus paraphraseth Hee makes them to bee all after one manner and to bee endued with the same affections and dictamens concerning Gods service But the word dictamens we leave to this Author as
that abides not in Christs doctrine and faith But in all this hee doth not say that the Protestants are not in the Church neither that they remaine not in Christs Doctrine and Faith but it may rather concerne the Papacie which hath made a new Church against the Church of Christ and a new Faith by adding twelve Articles more to the former It doth also plainely shew them that they suffering for Treasons of Powder Rebellion c. cannot expect thereby a Crown of faith but a punishment of perfidiousnesse Saint Augustine is next alledged and hee useth the like or very same words and so the like or the same answer might serve But indeed Augustine so punctually speaketh against the Papacie and pierceth it through that no one place can well bee lost because every one is serviceable against the Papacy for which it is produced These are the words first alledged out of Saint Augustine Would you have men so blinde and deafe as not to heare or reade the Gospel where they may know that faith our Lord left to his Apostles concerning his Church Now what the Papists will answer to this I know not who make many men so blinde as not to reade at all and so deafe as not to heare the Gospel but in Latin And secondly hee sayes that Saint Augustine puts himselfe to shew That this is that Church of Christ which is spread over the whole world Who can more plainly say that the Roman Papacie is not this Church whose universall power and extent is denyed by other Patriarchs and is unbeleeved yea and unknowne in a great part of the Christian world The last place out of Augustine seconded with the consent of Cardinall Perron hee turnes to this use That Catholick is not onely a name of beleefe and faith but of charitie and communion which whosoever should want should also want salvation But withall I must say that long before I knew this opinion of Perron I beleeved this truth and I also beleeved that it did make mightily for us and mightily against the Papacie That it makes mightily for us I have shewed in the first Chapter who doe imbrace a catholick love with the whole body of Christ which is his Church That it makes mightily against the Papacie I have shewed in the second Chapter because it excludes from love and communion many eminent parts of the Church even so much of the Church and body of Christ as extends beyond subjection and obedience to the Papacie And indeed this Champions allegations doe so fight for us against his owne Papacie that a suspicious Reader may doubt hee hath been hired by us But by the next allegation perchance hee thinkes his suspicion may be somewhat cleered where thus hee commenteth in the behalfe of his mother Saint Hierome writing to Pope Damasus saith not onely of the catholâ—ck Church indefinitely but denoting that to bee the Roman that that Church is the Arke out of which whosoever liveth shall bee drowned in the deluge and that that Church is the House out of which whosoever should eate the Lambe were a profane person But doth Hierome here denote the catholick Church both for breadth and length to be Roman and no Church to be catholick which was not Roman that is under the Roman subjection this was farre from his meaning Hee meant that at that time the Roman Church was by one faith the same with the catholick Church anâ— in union with it as a member of the body and that out of this one Church wherewith Rome was then one in faith there was no salvation Secondly Hee did not say that that Church shall bee the Arke out of which shall bee no salvation but that Church is the Arkâ— shewing what it then was and not what it shall be Indeed the Papacie even the Man of sinne the Head and his members in the Mystery of iniquity now call themselves the Church of Rome But Rome at the best had never Religion and the Church faster tyed to it then Jerusalem and therefore we may take leave to say of Rome as it was said of Jerusalem How is the faithfull Citie become an Harlot It hath been manifestly proved that this Mysterie of iniquitie or Papacie is farre different from the ancient Church of Rome and Saint Hierome himselfe hath taught us that Rome should bee the seate of Antichrist and hee did not meane that when Rome is the seate of Antichrist shee should bee taken for the Arke out of which no man should bee saved Therefore this place that made for Rome then while shee was a pure part of the catholick Church makes against her now when she is the seate of the Man of sin or Antichrist and they that might be invited to come to her then as an eminent part of the Arke and catholick Church may now bee driven out from her by a voice from heaven Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues There follow two places out of Lactantius whereof the first indeed saith for us and against these Romists that are divided from us and our Church That they that enter not into the Temple of God or depart out of it shall bee deprived of the hope of salvation But the second place I know not how it may serve for the point in hand but it otherwise is an wholesome exhortation for Romists and I wish it may doe good to the Author No man must flatter himselfe with an obstinate kinde of contention for the questions here about salvation and life which if it bee not watchfully and diligently provided for it will be extinct and lost The Cavalier ends in a tempest which he puls downe on his own head S. Fulgentius hath this dreadfull saying wherewith I will conclude this point c. where he brings in Fulgentius saying That neither Baptisme nor Almes nor Martyrdome can be of any benefit towards his salvation that holds not unity with the Church A place indeed that ought to be dreadfull to the Romists for their Schism described in the second Chapter but no way dreadfull to us for our catholick Charity expressed in the first SECT III. The Cavaliers indeavour to prove that the Protestants and Papists cannot bee both members of this one Church doth not absolve the Papists from uncharitablenesse ANd having thus concluded the Allegations hee thus gives a reason of his conclusion Nor will I so much distrust either the attention or the discretion of my Reader as to thinke that I need presse this point any further A saying good at last but much better at first for if there had bin at first no distrust of the Readers discretion there had beene no neede of any one of those Allegations which have beene brought forth to prove a point not denyed There is but one Church out of which there is no salvation But let us see what immediatly followes So that now in the
saved who avoyd the mortall infection of these points and what caution must be used to preserve this Charity from crossing with Truth HAving discovered many Untruths in at least foure maine points of this Chapter wee are come to a fifth point whose truth is so powerfull that it overcomes mee and makes mee to acknowledge with the Author That it divides Protestants and right Romists so farre as salvation and damnation And I must cleere either side from uncharitablenesse in saying that these who faile in this point are in a state of damnation And it is very true that hee promiseth That this Reason strikes at the roote which is taken from the nature and propertie of Faith The point is this That whosoever doth give his faith and assent to all the Articles of Christian doctrine yet if hee doe it not upon the right and infallible motive hee hath no saving Faith Now hereunto wee subjoyne That true and right Papists or Romists doe not beleeve upon the true and infallible motive Therefore they can have no saving Faith And indeed though they have many and pernitious errors yet this is the great and generall error that makes up the Mystery of iniquity which wee call the Papacie and the Papists call the Church For the ordinary motive of faith in those who are the right and naturall members of the Head of that Mysterie is to beleeve the Articles of Faith because the Church whose mouth head and spirit is the Pope propounds and commands them to bee beleeved And this Author saith that the onely true and infallible ground is The Revelation of Almighty God and the proposition and direction of the Church Wherein first hee joyneth the Church with God in this ground of Faith and so gives as it were halfe of the ground of Faith to the Church from God and makes it halfe unsafe and damnable But even this halfe hee seemes elsewhere wholly to take away and so to leave men wholly to bee damned by a Faith wholly grounded on a motive which cannot raise a saving and supernaturall Faith for hee saith That if the Church hath not decided propounded and commanded a doctrine to bee beleeved by her children a man may thinke and doe as hee sees cause without incurring the crime of heresie Thus wee see that the Revelation of God is not a motive of Faith of it selfe but the Church is the motive of beleeving Gods Revelation so first wee see the Church to put God aside and to take place of him and knowing who is the Head Heart if not the Whole of this Church wee finde him just in his owne place and that is lifting himselfe up above all that is called God And secondly wee see the deadly motive and ground of Faith proposed by Papists to Popish soules even the word of a man and a Man of sinne on whom whatsoever Faith is finally grounded it can give nothing but damnation Neither are wee put by other Papists to lay pieces together to prove this their damning motive of Faith for besides the common voice of the people that they beleeve as the Church beleeves wee have before heard that the Rhemists acknowledge the Popes to bee an Order of Governors to whom wee are bound to cleave in Religion and to obey in all things And thereupon they infer that A Papist is a Christian man a childe of the Church and subject to Christs Vicar So the Christianity of a Papist and his being a child of the Church depends on his cleaving to the Pope and obeying him in all things But yet againe we may see it more acknowledged in their Writers Lorca brings forth Medina affirming that The Testimonie of the Church doth so farre partake of being the formall object or motive of faith that the utmost resolution of faith is into the authoritie of the Church and the proofes produced for it are to bee heard in the common language of Romists If it bee asked why thou beleevest the Trinity in Unity and thou answer Because God saith it It will then bee demanded of thee how thou knowest that God saith it thou hast no other Answer left but this Because the Church saith it and so are they taught in the Catechisme and so answer both the learned and unlearned Behold the common answer and common faith of Romists Now this object of faith being man and not God it cannot raise that supernaturall and saving faith whose object is the prime Veritie even God speaking to the soules of his servants And seeing this humane faith hath so possessed Romists that their Prophets doe make the obeying and cleaving to the Pope in his doctrine the very Character of a Christian and childe of the Church this Church consisting of these children thus adhering to the Pope is against such truely affirmed not to bee the Church and so may the Homily of our Church clearely bee interpreted which denyeth the Church of Rome that is the Pope and his Adherents to bee the true Church for thus to adhere unto the Pope and to lay beliefe on him is so farre from making a true childe and member of the Church that it makes a member of the Papacie and so of Antichrist it makes a Synagogue for Sathan and Hell and not a Church for Christ and salvation And whereas this Author both in this Chapter and the beginning of the eighth objects it to us that wee condemne their doctrines and account the Church of Rome to bee the Seate of Antichrist and the Synagogue of Sathan Hee hath here seene one reason of it and it is a reason of his owne and his fellowes even because the Romish Doctors and Champions tell us that the Church of Rome is made of those children which beleeve in the Pope And this faith being humane cannot make a Church to Christ but to the Pope and thus the Pope stands in the place of Antichrist for putting Christ out of his place and stepping into it whiles thus hee makes his sheepe to heare his voice before Christs yea both herein and often otherwise against Christ. But a second Reason may bee given of their calling the Church of Rome the Synagogue of Sathan the Church of Rome being taken in a larger sense even for all those parts of mankinde that have reference to Rome For they finde this Church of Rome overspred not onely with this false and Antichristian faith but with other mortall errours and abhominations such are grosse and almost universall Idolatry in the worship of Images and especially of the Sacrament confidence in workes for justification and merit and a grosse ignorance even a not knowing of Christ which before hath beene touched Now many seeing a field overcome with these deadly and killing weeds and so overcome that they seemed to cover the face of the field they tooke it to bee a field of Weeds and not of Corne And because the usuall manner of speaking is to say that a horse is blacke and
divided Jesus from Christ and so themselves from Christians though as it hath been told them and as it is said by a Pope from S. Paul all Christians are called ad societatem Iesu Christi to the society both of Jesus and of Christ 1 Cor. 1.9 But surely if this be the Authors place in Calvin it is likely hee hath either forgotten Calvin or was not trusted with the reading of Calvin and some one that was trusted but not trusty told him it would serve his turne and deceived him As for the wonderfull wisdome which this Author speciously sets forth in the differences of those Order That wisdome is here come to passe which Solomon condemneth when he saith Be not wise over much for humane wisdome hath so far wrought herein that Orders have been multiplied far beyond the gifts of continency yea above the good both of Church and Common wealth And so far were they as this Author saith from stripping themselves from earthly incumberances to fly fast into heaven that too much they stripped both Laiâ—y and Clergy of earthly maintenances and therewith have made to themselves fleshly incumberances But of this wisdome before hath been given to the Reader such a representation that I think it appeared to him not to be spirituall but carnall earthly and divelish if not in the invention yet in the execution and therefore for brevity thither I remit the Reader Only I wish the Author would prove what hee saith by some place of Scripture That God inspired the Founders of Orders with severall spirits and that there is a speciall spirit with which an Order was first endued especially if that Scripture were rightly applyed by Abbot Whitgift That Monkery was a plant which the heavenly Father planted not and therefore should bee pulled up by the rootes Which Prophecie was soon after fulfilled in this Land The Cavalier comes now to dismount a third objection of Protestants concerning Romish difference which ariseth as hee saith in regard of the differences betweene learned and unlearned men which hee assayeth to take away by a distinction of explicite and implicite faith in this manner A man is said to have explicite faith of any article or doctrine when he hath heard it particularly propounded to him and hath some particular knowledge thereof and gives particular assent thereunto But as for implicite faith of any article or doctrine a man is then said to have it when hee beleeves that concerning it which the Church teacheth them explicitely who are capable thereof although for his owne part he have not perhaps so much as heard of it in particular or if he did hee hath forgot it or if he did remember it he hath not capacity enough to apprehend or understand it And when he hath shewed this distinction he labours with great vehemency to prove it and affirmes That without this it would be wholly impossible to maintaine any Church in any unity of faith at all and finally concludes That this sword of ours is turned into a buckler wherewith to defend them First for the pains he takes to make good this distinction hee takes it to make good our objection and so labours for us and against himselfe for upon this distinction being grounded we ground our objection and say that this distinction leaves even the like differences amongst Romists for which they accuse and damne us and leaves no better unity among them then it leaves among us And if thus then it is both a sword in our hand to hurt them and a buckler also to defend us against them neither have they any buckler to defend themselves against this sword much lesse will this sword that wounds them become a buckler to defend the wounds which it selfe gives But the onely safe way is with that King who comes with the weake side to send Ambassadors for peace to the stronger Now to shew that this distinction being strengthened doth strengthen our objection and so is a true sword against Romists I say That in those points of faith which are beyond the explicites or fundamentals are called implicites there are differences among Romists as well as among us and these differences are not onely such as are discovered by the ell by which the faith of the unlearned is found shorter then that of the learned but the Cloth it selfe within the measure of the learned is torne into pieces and the learned themselves doe differ in the beliefe of the said points among themselves as well as from the unlearned And this hath bin shewed before and is indeed a part of D. Whites undertaking formerly mentioned I may instance in a point or two Transubstantiation is an Article of their new faith and not usually reckoned among their explicites the one part of the learned hath beleeved that the substance of Bread being abolished the Body of Christ is brought to the place of it another part beleeves that the substance of Bread is changed into the substance of Christs Body which I nothing doubt was the first meaning of this new doctrine each confutes either And an unlearned man that stands by may easily being over-weighed with the reasons of both either beleeve neither or somewhat else of his owne And indeede I my selfe have asked one of their Proselites whether he would chew or teare the body of Christ with his teeth and he told me that he did not think that their Doctors would say it so also in the point of Image-worship a matter of deepe consequence and much concerning life and death yet by them left among Implicites One side of the Doctors holds a plaine worship of the Image of Christ with Latria or divine honour and others hold this honour given properly to Images to be Idolatrie and either give it improperly or give an inferiour reverence or no religious reverence at all But the unlearned man when he sees the Image set in Churches covered with gold turning his head and eyes weeping working miracls saith with the Lycaonians Gods are common to us in the shape of men and thinkes hee cannot worship God too much and therefore doth it with all his soule and all his might even with a perfect Idolatrie Now are not these differences of momeÌ„t among them in their Explicites many more such there are which it were too tedious to repeat indeed their differences must needs bee much more then ours because many of their learned Explicites are errours and in errours there can never bee a full agreement for if any one hath that good spirit which maks discovery of them he commonly is opposed and contradicted by the others errour as here the not worshippers of the Image with divine worship is opposed by the worshipper Besides he that is in the darke and sees not what to beleeve if he beleeve any thing he can but beleeve an imagination of his owne and not a reall ttuth and so must needs differ from him who seeth
is still busie in bringing in the number of Canonicall Books for fundamentall as before in the Creed when his owne Masters put it not among their Explicites and Fundamentals But yet if the number were on all sides taken for a Fundamentall our Church hath sufficiently expressed her meaning to men whose eyes are single and not troubled with the fiery humour of uncharitablenesse and contention For first for the number of the old they enumerate as himselfe confesseth all the Bookes of the old Testament which they account Canonicall so then if the number of Canonicall Books bee a Fundamentall the Articles have shewed this Fundamentall concerning the old Testament Yet thus hee is not pleased but is still angry with the Articles to his owne hurt and runnes against them with a sword whose point he turns against his owne soule and the head against our Church For hee saith They are rather Iewes then Christians for not admitting the Bookes of Judith the Maccabees c. But the Authour endangereth himselfe in this point to be censured as neither good Jew nor good Christian. For Saint Paul who was an excellent both Jew and Christian saith That whereas great was the preferment of the Jew yet herein it stood chiefly Because that unto them were committed the Oracles of God So that if that was the chiefe preferment of the Jew under the Law and Old Testament that the Oracles of God were committed to them what shall we say of that Christian that takes this chiefe preferment from them and scandalizeth them and others for following them even in that wherein the holy Ghost by Saint Paul giveth them a chiefe preferment Againe if those were the Oracles of God which were committed to the Jewes and these of Iudith and Maccabees were not committed to them by God as his Oracles and accordingly not received by them either these are not Gods Oracles or Saint Pauls word will bee denied that Gods Oracles were committed to the Jewes So that the Authour hath herein good matter not for pennance onely but for true and hearty repentance for shaming the Jewes and us for following them in that very point wherein Saint Paul saith that their preferment or advantage chiefly consisteth Againe the Romists themselves hold the Church of the Jewes to have been the true Church in the time of the Law and the high Priest an unerring head of that Church as our Authour before hath taught us Now is it not against these Romists owne grounds to say That the Church of the Jewes when it was unerring did erre in the number of Canonicall Scriptures a fundamentall of this Authour or else an impertinency Therefore Lorca more warily alloweth though in danger to be censured for a Jew That those Books were anciently given to the Jewes Howsoever if the high Priest had not then the infallibility to discerne Canonicall Scriptures how hath the Pope now that infallibility For our Authour brings in the infallibility of the individuall high Priest to prove as it should seem the present infallibility of the Pope so that the high Priest either had this infallibility and so the Authour is put to shame for shaming the Jews in their discerning and numbering the Canonicall Scriptures or hee had not this infallibility and so he is put to confusion in his proving the Popes infallibility by him that was fallible But hee goes on and talkes of Trifling and not onely talkes of it but doth it They trifle also saith hee when they tell us that they understand those onely Bookes both of the Old and New Testament to be Canonicall of whose authority there was never any doubt in the Church For they know as well as wee that the Apocalyps the Epistle of St. James Saint Jude and one of Saint Peters were not acknowledged till proofes were made during the space of three or foure hundred years after Christ our Lord. But if a Romist had written the same words which our Articles do no question he would have found'out some gentle construction to have made it sound and good perchance hee would have said that there was never any generall doubt in the Church and that the universall Church never doubted them For wee know that the most ancient Fathers received them and used testimonies from them Or upon the word Doubt there was no just sound or sufficient doubt of them no doubt that was worth the name of a doubt But indeed this Article as it seemes mainly looking to the Apocryphals of the Old Testament wherein alone stands the doubt and difference of number between us and Rome it might hold it sufficient to use such words as concerned that difference not mentioning or regarding ancient differences in that of the New Testament wherein between us and Rome is present agreement But yet more trifling and frivolous is our Authours inference Thâ—sâ— men have been pleased out of thâ—â—â— great grace to admit them though the Maccabees must be rejected because they speak of prayer for the dead For we or rather the Scripture hath shewed before why the Maccabees are not received as Canonicall because contrary to this Authour but agreeabe to Saint Paul they were not committed to the Jewes as the Oracles of God So we found them left out of the Canon and doe not thrust them out But they are Romists that bring in the Maccabees to be Canonicall to prove prayers for the dead because they have no proofe for them in the Canon If the Canon prove not prayers for the dead being beneficiall to the Papacie the Papacie must make Canon to prove prayers for the dead For surely if Apocrypha had not been made Canon there had been no Canon to prove their Apocryphall prayer for the dead But now concerning the Bookes of the New Testament the Authour hath discovered an Elephant in an Atome Observe saith hee what this booke of Articles saith concerning the Canonicall Bookes of the New Testament it saith onely this All the bookes of the New Testament as they are commonly received wee doe receive and account them for Canonicall But why doe they not particularly enumerate all the bookes which they acknowledge to be of the New Testament as they had done them of the Old A strange wonder and one that deserved observation and an observation that well deserved a question but the question scarce deserves an answer especially seeing the Authour answers himselfe before he makes the question For first who doth not see that in the bookes of the New Testament there being no differences between us and the Romists it was sufficient to say That those are received for Canonicall which are commonly received And secondly this Authour himselfe so farre answers his owne question before he makes it that hee acknowledgeth the Page fore-going That these men have been pleased out of their great grace to admit Saint James Saint Jude c. Yet now he takes a deep exception for not naming St. Iames which is so admitted
best is hee who by a fundamentall faith is built upon Christ the true foundation can never be damned by unbeleeving any Article of faith created and coined by the Pope a counterfeit foundation And here while the Authour doth quarrell with the poornesses of the Doctour not being able to maintaine a combate with his richâ—s it seemes hee doth it with a greater poornesse For what a poore quarrelling is it with the Doctour for saying That Papists will not let Protestants to bee saved though they beleeve the same Creed except they will beleeve the same Mathematicks and govern themselves by the same Kalendar when thiâ— Authour knowes his meaning and expressed it himselfe in the words nearly preceding That the Romane Church makes â—oyes fundamentalls And might not the Pharisees thus have taken a poore exception at our Saviour for saying that they strained Gnats whereas they strained not Gnats but payed the tythe of Mint and Cummin Besides he doth not say that it is really so done but premising this When every thing must be called Foundation wee shall never know where to stop where to consist If we should beleeve their Sacrificium incruentum their unbloudy sacrifice in the Masse if we did not beleeve their Sacrificium cruentum too that there was a power in that Church to sacrifice the bloud of Kings wee should be said to be defective in a fundamentall Article If we should admit their Metaphysickes their transcendent Transubstantiation and admit their Chimiques their Purgatory fires and their Mythologie and Poetry their apparitions of soules and spirits they would bind us to their Mathematicks too and they would not let us be saved except we would reforme our Almanackes to their ten daies and reforme our clockes to their foure and twenty houres for who can tell when there is an end of Articles of faith in an arbitrary and occasionall Religion So the Doctour only shewes how such an unlimited making of fundamentalls may goe on in a perpetuall procession it having already made things not so profitable as Clocks and Kalendars Articles of faith and points fundamentall Witnesse the Service in an unknowne tongue the Lords Supper without wine c. But the Cavalier fights in earnest with this supposition and tells us that Romists doe rather governe themselves with the lesse perfect Kalendar which now is used in this place Yea hee gives a morall of this their deed letting the world see thereby how willingly we can accommodate to them in all things which belong not meerly to Religion The controversie of Kalendars I leave to the Critickes of time to bee decided and rectified in their emendatione Temporum But the argument of accommodation taken from our Almanackes is retorted by a greater argument remembred in our Almanackes For when in them wee see the Papists Treason on the fifth of November wee are thereby put in mind that Papists doe not accommodate to Protestants in all things that belong not meerly to Religion For it is not meerly a matter of Religion for a King to sit in Parliament and yet the Papists would have accommodated him by blowing him up with powder thus sitting in Parliament But the Cavalier having thus spoken to ill effect to amend the matter brings not forth the Doctours words but his saying to this effect But that the Reader may be his owne guide and the Doctour the speaker of his owne effect and the Cavaliers faire carriage may more plainly appeare I will here confront the Doctours words with the Cavaliers The Doctours words are these Call not superedifications foundations nor call not the furniture of the house foundations call not ceremoniall and rituall things essentiall parts of Religion and of the worship of God otherwise then as they imply disobedience for obedience to lawfull authority is alwaies an essentiall part of Religion The Cavalier thus repeats him That difference in beliefe in points which are not very important is not to prejudice a mans salvation unlesse by not beleeving them hee commit a disobedience withall For saith he obedience indeed is of the essence of Religion I thinke that the Cavalier seeing his face in this glasse finds that it lookes red with blushing at the mis-reporting of the Doctour The Doctour speakes of ceremonies the Cavalier reports him speaking of differences in beliefe The Doctour speakes of ceremonies commanded by lawfull authority the Cavalier of points of faith commanded by the unlawfull authority of the Pope But if it please him to remember what hath been already told him That the Church much lesse the Pope hath an Inerrability in points of small importance and where she hath no Inerrability she hath no authority Again in respect of the different capacities of the hearers all are not capable of every little point and subtlety of faith and I thinke no Pope hath power to command his disciples to beleeve that which their capacity is not able to understand But lawfull Rites or Ceremonies not being points of faith but of action and being easie to bee understood the obedience to lawfull authority in them may more concerne the essence of Religion then obedience to the Pope in those small points of faith wherein the Pope hath no unerring power and no authority to make a lawfull command for the people doe not sinfully disobey where the Pope hath no lawfull authority to command The Author having thus lost his premisses and proofes yet goes on to a conclusion which cannot but be lost in the losse of his premisses so that his concluding inferences This shall serve for discharge both of what they object against our unity in faith and of what they alledge in the behalfe of theirs And I conceive that I have sufficiently secured these two maine grounds upon which this whole discourse is turned are but commendations of a false conception and of a discourse which is turned upon grounds over-turned For neither is his first ground sufficiently secured That there is but one true Faith and one true Religion and Church out of which there is no salvation the word Out being understood in the sense of the Authour that is That if a man be out of the faith professed in the Church in the least haire part or degree that there can bee to him no salvation Nor more secured is his second ground That Catholicks and Protestants cannot possibly be accounted of that one Religion Church and Faith For as it may be true that Protestants and all Catholickes doe not agree in every small title and mite of faith yet it is most true that true Catholickes and Protestants are so entirely of one saving Faith and Religion that they are also of one Church And from these Catholickes I desire not to exclude all of the Romane Diocesse But indeed Papists whose humane faith is grounded on the Pope as their foundation being ready to beleeve Idolatry Treason or whatsoever the Pope shall decree for a matter of faith these I know not how to account members with us
to the acting of the most unnaturall of Treasons A foule Religion that doth blacke even the white of nature yet the Cavalier desiring Romishly to dye white into black hee prescribes Antidotes and Remedies of Love and Charity and thus adviseth his Readers to hatred and opposition against Protestants See how Saint John carryed himselfe towards Cerinthus and Policarpe to Marsyon and Saint Anthony to the Arrians and a thousand others And lest it should bee thought that Saints fall not foule but onely upon such Hereticks that deny even the very prime Articles of Christian Religion which concerne either God the Father or the immediate person of Christ our Lord himselfe Cast but an eye upon Saint Bernard that milde and mercifull man of God and see how hee treats the Hereticks of his time who had too much affinity with those of ours See yee Dogges see yee Detractors Behold how hee gives his Romists patternes and presidents to make them fall foule with us but indeed his first Presidents are impertinent for they shew a falling foule with such as wee are not wherefore because his first patternes were incongruous and would not serve the turne those heresies of Cerinthus not belonging to us hee leapes over many hundred yeeres of the purer times of the Church where it seemes hee could not finde grounds for his better falling foule with us and at length comes unto the times of Popish errours and superstitions there hee findes a good old man one I thinke of the seven thousand which belonged to Gods Election though not altogether without a glasse on his eyes party-coloured by the prejudice of his birth and education in those times of superstition This good man hee seeth angry with some of his time that derided the Baptisme of infants Prayers for the dead and the Suffrages of Saints the former of which did justly deserve a sharpe reproofe and indeede upon that hee chiefely insists in his confutation But the later wee impute to the superstitious darknesse of the times and would have covered these sores of this holy man but that this Authour will needes discover the nakednesse of his father Yet if he will but looke into that very Sermon of Bernard hee shall see more just and weighty reasons to accuse his owne Romists for crimes which draw Almighty God himselfe to fall foule with some of their chiefe limbs and members For here hee disputes against that forbidding of marriage which defiles the Church with adulterous incestuous and unnaturall sinners whom hee calls The monsters of men yet by Romes forbidding marriage such monsters have been too often found among those who yet are called Priests Abbots Monkes and Friars But yet that this Champion may still nourish his root of wormwood and division and that the Romish palates may be still kept in distaste and loathing of us he saith of Protestants That they are cruell enough to such as they see not and withall their civility and curtesie and suavity in ordinary conversation they can find in their Hereticall hearts at a clap to rob all dead men of the help and comfort of the prayers of the living and all living men of the prayers of the Saints who are in heaven and the same Saints of all the honour which Catholickes pay to them here on earth to omit in this place their infinite and innumerable detractions and slanders and reproaches of the whole Church of God But here is as little verity as charity for the three All 's are all three untruths For it is not true that Protestants rob all the dead of the prayers of the living For first those dead which are in heaven are not robbed of prayers by denying prayers to those that are not in heaven but supposed to be in Purgatory Secondly those prayers that belong to the dead wee give for them and that is to joyne with them in their own prayers even the prayers of the soules of Saints under the Altar We pray that God would hasten the comming of Christ and so their resurrection and their consummation in glory And to this end that God will hasten the judgement of the great Whore which hath shed their bloud and avenge it on her A second untruth is this That wee rob all living men of the prayers of the Saints in heaven I might indeed say that this building is of another stuffe and different from the foundation That wee are cruell to those that wee see not for wee see those that are living But howsoever it is also untrue for wee allow and imbrace the prayers of the Saints in heaven for the living yea wee doubt not but that those soules who are in the triumphant part of the Church and perfect in charity doe love that part of the Church which is here militant and pray for her victory and that it may bee joyned with her in triumphant glory True it is that we find not in the Scripture that the Saints departed have such knowledge of the particular affaires of the Saints living that wee can beleeve by a supernaturall faith that they know our necessities our thoughts and desires And what is without faith being sinne we dare not offer prayers without faith lest they should bee turned into sinne Thirdly it is no lesse untrue That wee rob Saints of all the honour which true Catholickes pay unto them The name of the Saints is to us as a precious ointment and it is kept by us in everlasting remembrance We delight to make mention of their heavenly vertues of their valiant actions and constant passions of their wise counsells powerfull exhortations excellent expositions of divine truths in their sayings sermons and writings We desire to follow their examples to bee instructed by their knowledge to bee inflamed with their zeale and enlived with their heats who quicken being dead as the dead Prophet enlived the dead souldier These honours we doe them and thus should it bee done to those whom God doth honour And if thus we doe honour them then far from truth is it that wee rob them of all that honour which true Catholickes pay them And lastly where hee speakes of infinite detractions slanders and reproaches of the whole Church of God this is a most unjust and unjustifiable slander We reverence the whole Church of God as our Mother we love her peace and to this end is that which is written in the first Chapter and to this end are these lines which write against this slander Wee reproach not the whole Church but a botch a wen a disease and burthen in the Church A faction that disturbs and distracts the Church and which to set up a counterfeit head teares the true body of Christ into pieces And this seemes also to bee the businesse of this Champion in this worke and even at this time when by unjust accusations hee both perswades to uncharitable divisions and strives by his clamours to terrifie soules into the net of the Papacie