this little So that this being not a little but a great point S. Basill doth not speak against us but for us who sayes that in these great points there should be no difference Now it might be called little by some not for the little weight of the point but for the litte odds in the sound of the word so that in the little difference of a syllable the great point lay affirmed or denyed And indeed it were better that death were imbraced then any such point of divine doctrine should bee betrayed Besides â—s there a desire on our side of betraying or delivering up any lesser points of divine doctrine but rather a charitable hope that men may be saved though differing in opinion concerning some lesser matters by not knowing that they be divine doctrines or not reaching to them by a weake and inferiour degree of a faith But who so will truely judge our maine quarrell with Romists hee shall finde it to be a defence of divine doctrine against humane fictions and traditions And Romists most grossely offend against the words and example of S. Basil who permit many syllables of the divine doctrine in the second Commandement forbidding worship of imâ—ges to be left out of their Catechismes and the divine doctrine of halfe a Sacrament to be denyed and made voyd to the people and the divine doctrine of praying in a known tongue in the Church to be actually betrayed Saint Gregory Nazianzen is next who as our Author saith thus delivers himselfe Nothing can be more dangerous then those hereticks who when they run straight through all the rest doe yet with one word as with some drop of poyson infect the true and sincere faith of our Lord. If this Champion had gotten this place by his owne knowledge he could not well but take notice that the sincere faith whereof Gregory speaks is the faith contained in the Nicene Creed which Creed is set at the head of the Tractate and accordingly the one word of which hee speaks as being dangerous to the faith is the word that giveth not to Christ one Substance with the Father This word Nazianzen often names in this discourse so that the Cavalier could not well oversee it if hee had seene the place yea hee saith plainly that it lets in the Arian heresie And if it be thus this Champion is yet far from his Conclusion by this Antecedent which must thus lead the way It is most dangerous to differ in one word of the Creed which concernes a point fundamentall even the Deity of Christ therefore it is most dangerous to differ in points out of the Creed which are extra-fundamentall and of the Popes decreeing But let Romists look whether this place doe not fight against them who thrusting the word Roman after or into the word Catholick have drawne the soules of too many to beleeve in the Pope or Popish Church in stead of God and so have changed the very foundation of their faith Saint Hierome must have the same answer no man denying but that for some one word or two contrary to the faith or Creede in points fundamentall many heresies have been and ought to bee cast out of the Church It followes Saint Leo saith That out of the Catholick Church there is nothing pure According to that of the Apostle Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne But what doth this here where the question is not Whether they sin that be out of the catholick Church but Whether they be out of the catholick Church that differ in any smal point of doctrine from some other members of the same Church But because this place wants help hee adds a second If it be not one it is no faith at all We acknowledge there is but one saving and fundamentall Faith in Christ Iesus as but one Baptisme and this faith was once delivered to the Saints and the Saints still doe so uniformely receive it as that they who have any other fundamentall faith have none at all But if Romists will have faith to bee one in all points then by this Popes doctrine they have no faith for their faith is not one in all points with the one faith once delivered to the Saints nor with the faith in the time of Leo for in that one faith there was no worship of Images no universall Monarchy of the Pope no worship of Bread The Cavaliers first place of Augustine I am loth to bring forth to spare both the Cavalier and the Reader It is somewhat long but very short of the Cavaliers mark it proves against the Donatists That the Church in earth and the Church in heaven are not two Churches but one But who denyes this yea who denyes the true Church on earth to bee but one and this is the Protestants maine businesse to keep it one though differing in some lesser points of doctrine And it is our Authors businesse to breake this unity even by this place which he produceth under a shew of proving unity but not proving by it such an unity as by it hee may make a division hee is faine to set a second Buttresse to support his wall of separation Thus hee reareth it To shew moreover by the judgement of Saint Augustine that the Church in her doctrine was to be truly one hee spake thus of the Donatists who called upon the same God preached the same â—ospel sung the same Psalmes had the same Baptisme observed the same Easter and the like in those things they were with mee yet not wholly with mee in schisme not with mee in heresie not with me in a few not with mee but in regard they were not with mee in a few their being with mee in many could not help them If the Cavalier had gone on in his Allegation the very next words would have given him an answer to the objection which hee drew out of the former for those words say that the one thing wherein they were not one was Charity And the want of this hee proves out of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 13. to make all the rest unprofitable But our question is not of want of charity but of differing in some small point of faith True it is that this uncharitablenesse was back'd with an error which hee called an heresie That the Catholick Church was onely in the part of Donatus and so as Saint Augustine infers that the Church was not catholick But let our Author remember That this voucheth an Article of the Creede as denyed by the Donatists but with the denyall of any such Article he cannot charge us But yet that their error did not kill nor cut them off all from being truly of the Church except the error were accompanied with the want of that one thing which was true charity we have great probabilities if not proofes out of Optatus and Saint Augustine the former of which commonly calls them brethren and the later denies not but some of them might be
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
this same opinion of inerrability was the cause of their Error as it is even now in the Romish Papacy Their presumption of not erring was so far from being an Argument of inerrability that it made them to runne into error and to lead the people after them blinde after blinde into the ditch of error This wee see in their owne words for thus they say Come let us devise devices against Ieremiah for the law shall not perish from the Priest yea this presumption of not erring was thought a very sure ground of erroneous judgement in this strange controversie whether Christ be Christ Do any of the Rulers or of the Pharises beleeve on him as if they should say The Rulers and the Pharises the Priests and the Doctors cannot erre and they have judged this controversie that Christ is not Christ And therefore without controversie men ought not to beleeve in Christ. But is there then no use of judgement of the Church yes surely very great The Church yea the Priests or Ministers of the Church according to the covenant of Levi ought to speake the Law of God to the people and judge controversies thereby And then as the Thessalonians hearing Saint Paul wee must not thinke that wee doe so much heare their word as the very word of God And this word being followed will make a true and inerrable judgement and truth ever being one it will ever cause unity And so are we come to the fourth point and indeede the point most proper to the present question though the place bee not proper to prove the Popish unity which this Author would picke out of it For whereas to raise this unity out of this text he would thereby enforce an absolute yeelding to the judgement of the Church without appealing to Scripture hee must remember that in this judgement of the Church the Scripture is implyed and included And the including of it is the onely right meanes of causing true christian unity For the case wherein a man not hearing the Church is to be accounted an Heathen is sinning against a brother Now sinning against a brother is plainly forbidden by Scripture being contrary to that Royall law of love which commands a man to love his Neighbour as himselfe So that not to heare the Church in a case of sinning against a brother is not to heare the Church advising or judging according to Scripture And so upon the matter it is a not hearing of the Scripture speaking by the mouth of the Church and then see how unhandsomely ariseth the Inference of this Author That he that will not hear the Church judging according to Scripture may not appeale to the Scripture that is he may not appeal from Scripture to Scripture But much more right and reasonable is this consequence That if a man shall wilfully not hearken to the Church in a case thus evidently judged by Scripture let such an one bee accounted as an heathen And indeed I can scarce thinke that if this man who is questioned and accused by his brother were guiltlesse and so by the Word of God should bee acquitted that this Author himselfe would have him taken for a heathen being judged by the Church against Gods Law and Scripture to bee an offender But in this case the curse lights on the false Judges that call good evill as it doth on those that falsely damne Protestants And thus also the Cavaliers imaginary contrariety of two Churches judging one against another is prevented and removed through this stedfast rule of unity for two Churches judging one case according to one right rule and such is the Scripture cannot pronounce of one case more then one judgement And so the man whom hee would affright is put out of feare for being tossed betweene two damnations by two contrary judgements for there is but one right judgement according to the Scripture and so but one damnation to bee feared which any man may avoyd by hearing the Church judging uniformely according to the Scripture for if the Church make a man a heathen against the Word of God we have seen that Christ did not take such a one for an heathen for Christ tooke the blinde man into his company whom the Jewish Prelates had unjustly excommunicated and made like an heathen And no wonder for Nicodemus Christs Disciple takes it for a confessed ground neither is it denyed by the Pharisees That the Law is Judge and from the Law all Judgement should proceed Doth our Law saith hee judge any man Accordingly S. Paul tels the High Priest That hee sits to judge after the Law Therefore when the Judgement is contrary to the Law it hath in it a nullity Now in all Judgements according to the Law as there is a power and efficacie so there is an harmonious unity But when there are two Popes a Pope and an Antipope or two successively that Judge one against the other how are the poore Popish souls that depend on a Popes word as a divine Law tossed miserably between two damnations But this while the children of the Church are safe from this distraction by the unity of that judgement which proceedeth from the constant unity of verity in the Scriptures CHAP. VI. The Testimonies of the Fathers which the Cavalier in his fourth Chapter alledgeth for the necessity of his conceited unity are turned upon himselfe and the Papists THis Champion of Rome goes from Scriptures which indeed went from him runs after Fathers which also run from him And although he please himself much when he findes the word Unity especially Books written for Unity yet hee must still bee put in minde that all mention of unity in the Fathers doth not prove this unity which hee undertakes They write of unity in love and unity under lawfull Pastors that flocks bee not divided by partiall and schismaticall setting up Pastors against Pastors in one and the same Flock But our Authors businesse is as I said before and himselfe now and then remembers that there must bee an universall unity in all points of doctrine decreed by the Pope bee they great or small which hee will never prove by any Fathers to bee absolutely necessary to salvation or to a reall unity in the Church Yet thus hee strives to wrest out this unity Others have written and framed expresse Catalogues of all the heresies which had risen in the Church of Christ our Lord from his ascension to heaven till their owne time expressely shewing hereby that both the unity of the Church was directly broken by the obstinate beliefe of any one doctrine which was held in disobedience to the same Church and withall that whosoever did so breake it must forfeit the salvation of his soule thereby And this was done by Saint Epiphanius Bishop of Cyprus by Phylastriâ—s Bâ—shop of Brescia who are both cited to this purpose by the incomparable Saint Augustine in his Treatise de haeresibus ad quod vult
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
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