but that you may perceive the sin whereof it is the off-spring that you may draw your self from the one and from the other by the knowledge which he gives you of the horrour you should have for the Cause by the grief you resent by its Effect You shall see it Sir clearly enough by the consequents of the Maxims upon which the Authors of the Reformation which your Fathers embraced have laid their Foundations The Foundations of the Reformation of Calvin are laid upon these two Maxims which he and all those which have forsook the Church as himself hath delivered as indubitable to the People which have followed him The first is That the Church was fallen into ruine and desolation by Errour in its Faith by Idolatry in its Service and by Tyrannie in its Government The second That to reform and re-establish it â—…n its Original Purity the Faith of its Doctrine of its Service and of its Government was to be reduced to the onely precepts of the Scripture ' of the sense whereof every Believer ought to be Judge for his own proper salvation by the light of the Holy Ghost which conducts him They saw that if they did not suppose these Maxims for the causes of their Reformation they could not pretend any which might oblige them to forsake the Church which they had a mind to leave that they might frame a Contrary Party and make war against her For they could not deny the Church from which they separated the Title of the True Church but in accusing of it as they have done of Errour Idolatry and of Tyrannie And if we suppose this accusation for true they could not bring in the necessity of a Separation to make their Reformation but in excluding the Authority of Tradition and the Judgement of the Church and by reducing the rule of the Reformation to the Scripture it self interpreted by every mans Judgeâ—…ent Your Majestie Sir shall now see that of those Maxims which the Bishops of your Realm already become Schismaticks receiv'd for the causes of the Reformation which they admitted there was first of all Formed the Sect of Puritan-Presbyterians against the Protestant-Episcopalians who could not subsist against them upon the Foundation of these Maxims And that at length the Brownists the more Reformed Puritans did raise themselves upon the same Foundations who have since begot the Independents for the ruine of the Presbyterians by the same reasons by which the others had ruined the Protestants and Episcopacy and with Episcopacy Royalty it self In such sort that all this dreadful disorder which makes your Kingdoms to be a Chaos of lamentable disorder in which your authority finds it self put out comes from these Principles of Reformation which are the natural source thereof That this is so your Majestie Sir may clearly perceive it When the Bishops consented to these Principles of Reformation they abandoned by them the Faith of the Catholick Church concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass concerning Transubstantiation in the holy Eucharist concerning the number and vertue of the seven Sacraments concerning Justification real and inherent in the faithful and of their Merits and the Invocation of Saints concerning Prayer for the Dead and of Purgatory concerning the Authority of the Pope and of the adhering of all the Faithful to the See of St. Peter at Rome But they retain nevertheless the Episcopal Dignity and Authority with a part of the Liturgie and Ceremonies of the Catholick Church But the Puritan-Presbyterians have cast away all Form of Hierarchy and community of the Liturgie and Ceremonies with the Church of Rome as pernicious remainders of the Papal Tyrannie and Idolatry as they call them That they might oppose both Parties according to the first Maxim of their Reformation they brought in a Form of Government altogether novel and composed a Form of Service altogether new Upon which they have had so much advantage against the Protestants in combating them with the reasons of their common Principles and in stirring up the People heated with the zeal of Reformation that it was impossible for them to subsist if the Puritans could but once be supported by the Authority of Parliament against the Authority of the King who onely did support the Protestant Cause not by arguing but by command For Controversy by their Principles was all for the Puritans against the Protestants Could they without Tradition and by the holy Scripture alone interpreted by the judgement of every one find Episcopal Dignity and its Authority with distinction and superiority of power above the other Pastors and Ministers They could certainly without doubt by the Authority of the holy Scripture assisted by Tradition which declares the lawful sense But in doing this the victory which it gives them obligeth them to consent likewise to the Authority and Primacy of the Pope for the Government of the Universal Church as founded in the Primacy St. Peter receiv'd in the College of the Apostles as well for the Form of the Government of the Universal Church as of every particular Church from whence every Bishop derives his Authority Then thus it must be either that the Protestants abandon Episcopacy as a seed of Tyrannie and become Presbyterians or in retaining it to enter again into the Communion of the Pope and Bishops who adhere to him Though there be no need to speak here that their sole Division makes it impossible for them to subsist by the reason which the great Bishop and Martyr St. Cyprian represents to all Bishops in declaring the obligation they have strongly to retain the Unity of the Church by the not to be divided Unity of Episcopacy whereof every one doth solidly possess his share Upon which he admonisheth them that if any one goes to separate himself it shall happen unto him as to a Beam drawn from the body of the Sun which shall have no more part through its division in the unity of the light which continues in the body As to a Bough broken from the Tree which shall spring no more having no more share in the sap which remains in the body and in the root of the Tree Even like a Rivolet cut off from the Fountain which will dry up having no more to do with the course of the water which runs from the Spring This is that also Sir which your Bishops cannot avoyd It must be that being separated from the Mother-Church they should be extinguished and should vanish away as it s come to pass It must be that their very pain â—…as the proper work of the cause of â—…hier errour That their Reformation made them lose their Form But if the Puritans have had this advantage upon the Protestants by the Common Principles of their Reformation that which the same Principles have given the Brownists to withdraw themselves from the Puritans of the Genevian Discipline in the more exact purity which their spirit Interpreter of the sense of the Scripture suggests unto them is yet more great Behold
Truths which now make known to you the fault and the condemnation which God by the wisdome and power of his Judgements hath drawn from it self and his proper works that you may feel the effects How should you have been able to have discovered under this fair shew of Reformation whereof she hath taken the Title under this splendid lustre which she hath put upon her face of Knowledge and Eloquence the gifts whereof shine in her Doctors and Ministers of the reading and particular regard she commands them to have towards the holy Scriptures of the familiar Texts which adorn their Pastors Discourses and Preachings of the popular exercises of her Psalms and Canticles of the Prayers and Orisons which are extracted and interwoven with the Understanding which gives consolation Should you have been able to have discovered I say that under this appearance of Piety she had dis-avow'd her strength if God had not at present let you see it in the works of horrour and confusion deadly to Christian piety and charity destructive to all Form of Religion Enemies to all Order of God which she hath produced by the consequences of her Fundamental Maxims Sir Had your Majestie taken notice of the imposture and deceit which the Father of Lyes hath hidden under these Baits that they themselves whom he made the first Instruments and Authors of the division of the Church did not perceive for they would have abhorred it had they known it would have been such This is then truly the great work of God whereof this false prophet understands not the reason when he speaks thus God hath certainly done this work And God hath raised him up himself to put this confusion among them which have forsaken the Unity of the Church in dividing themselves into a thousand Sects of which they acknowledge at present that no one can call himself the Church For the Sect of the Protestants cannot pretend to it since she her self subsists no more but that every one sees her justly perished by the same Maxims that separated her from the Church and that the Presbyterians which seduced them have now destroyed them Nor the Sect of the Presbyterians which is under the yoke of the Independents who cut their throats with the same Swords wherewith they warred against the Church For they brought them by their own Maxims to renounce all Discipline all Government all Law and all Rule of Unity and by consequence all Form of the Church This cursed Cham hath then discovered his Father's filthiness that is to say of the first Author of this pretended Reformation who being drunk with the wine of his errour did not himself know â—…t But if God pleases the impudence of his brazen face who hath lost all shamefac'dness being not afraid to discover by his Independence the Foundations of this preposterous Reformation shall now touch his brethren with compunction and shame that they may return to their common Father He will cause the Presbyterians and Protestants to understand that it was the spirit of senslesness and errour which made Luther conceive and undertake the design of dividing the Church under pretext of a false Reformation From whence they will perceive if they can but come to themselves that one ought not to desire neither that any one can do any thing true or lawful but in the union and by the consent of the Church and the rule of Tradition which she hath receiv'd from the Apostles and conserved by a continued succession As God Sir draws light out of darkness so your Majestie sees that he makes your salvation to come out of your calamity But this is not for you alone That which he will do in your Person he will bring to pass in all your Kingdomes by your Person And not onely in all your Kingdomes but in all the places and in all those which are separated from the Church as your Kingdomes are That which you have singular in this cause is by being the greatest King of the party divided from the Church and that your Kingdomes are the greatest and most flourishing Estate that hath receiv'd this novelty of Religion where she hath found the most powerful Sanctuary and where she hath planted her seat the most eminent and most assured This is likewise a reason why God hath put her into this confusion in destroying her by the different Sects which she her self hath ingendred that all the world may know the spirit of errour from whence she hath taken her Original For all the world at present sees what this spirit is and its nature if it is the Spirit of Christ it is the Spirit of peacâ—… and truth if it be the spirit of Satan it is the spirit of trouble and errour which hath raised the trouble and errouâ—… which rules at present in your Kingdomes Since such is the spirit of this new Reformation and its Maxims such arâ—… its works that are at this day discovered and made evident who is that man that can defend it that can preserve iâ—… in his conscience that can have reposâ—… or comfort in his soul by adhering to it There 's no more need of Disputes or Arguments to convince it She is convinc'd by her self according to the character the Spirit of God hath stamp'd upon the Heretical man by the Pen of the Apostle St. Paul who commands us to depart for these reasons There is saith he a perverted spirit that is condemned by it self This is the imagâ—… that all the world doth see at present in this Reformation and its Genius But there rests now one thing to do which is to apply this remedy of Salvation to the Conscience of the People seduced by the errour There is no more to do than to anoint the wound the Scorpion hath made with the oyl where it hath been bruised For the way to heal them is now very easy by reason their Reformation hath receiv'd such a miserable success There is nothing more easy than to make the People know thereupon by the conviction of their Pastors upon the very Foundations and Maxims of their Reformation that they have neither Church nor Faith But then when they supposed contrary to the promise of Jesus Christ the Church was fallen into ruine for pretext of reforming it they have not been able to form an other which hath the conditions of the true Church but an infinity of different and contrary Sects among them none of which can be the Church but in rejecting the authority of Tradition for interpreting the Scripture and the judgement of the Church for the declaration of her Faith They have abandoned the Unity of the Faith that every one might abound in his own sense by the different opinions they have conceived That which of necessity must cast them as it is come to pass into the Independence of all rule and the indifference of all opinion in Religion And as modesty to accuse the Church of Errour in all the Ages hath been the
but by fire and faggots by strange new-devised tortures we shall quickly find that the Court of Rome hath died it self red in Christian blood and equalled the most Tyrannical persecutions of the Heathen Emperours The other Maxim whereupon you say that our Reformation was grounded was this Tâ—…at the onely way to reform the Faith anâ—… Liturgie and Government of the Church was to conform them to the dictates of holy Scripture of the sense whereof every private Christian ought to be the Judge by the light of the Spirit excluding Tradition and the publiâ—…k Judgement of the Church You adde That we cannot prove Episcopacy by Scripture without the Help of Tradition And if we do admit of Tradition we must acknowledge the Papacy for the Government of the Catholick Church as founded in the Primacy of St. Peter Your second supposed ground is no truer than the former we are as far from Anarchy as from Tyranme As we would not have humane Authority like Medusa's head to transform reasonable men into sensless stones So we do not put the reigns of Government into the hands of each or any private person to reform according to their phantasies And that we may not deal like blunderers or deceitful persons to wrap up or involve our selves on purpose in confused Generalities I will set down our sense distinctly When you understand it I hope you will repent of your rash censuring of us of whom you had so little knowledge Three things offer themselves to be considered First concerning the Rule of Scripture Secondly the proper Expounders thereof and Thirdly the manner of Exposition Concerning Scripture we believe That it was impossible for humane reason without the help of divine Revelation to find out those supernatural truths which are necessary to Salvation 2. That to supply this defect of natural reason God out of his abundant goodness hath given us the holy Scriptures which have not their authority from the writing which is humane but from the Revelation which is divine from the Holy Ghost Thirdly that this being the purpose of the Holy Ghost it is blasphemy to say he would not or could not attain unto it And that therefore the holy Scriptures do comprehend all necessary supernatural truths So much is confessed by Bellarmine that All things which are necessary to be believed and to be done by all Christians were preached to all by the Apostles and were all written Fourthly that the Scripture is more properly to be called a Rule of supernatural truths than a Judge or if it be sometimes called a Judge it is no otherwise than the Law is called a Judge of civil Controversies between man and man that is the rule of judging what is right and what is wrong That which sheweth what is strait sheweth likewise what is crooked Secondly concerning the proper Expounders of Scripture we do believe that the Gospel doth not consist in the words but in the sense non in superficie sed in medullâ And therefore that though this infallible Rule be given for the common benefit of all yet every one is not an able or fit Artist to make application of this Rule in all particular cases To preserve the common right and yet prevent particular abuses we distinguish Judgement into three kinds Judgement of Discretion Judgement of Direction and Judgement of Jurisdiction As in the former Instance of the Law the ignorance whereof excâ—…seth no man every Subject hath Judgement of Discretion to apply it particularly to the preservation of himself his estate and interest The Advocates and those who are skilful in the Law have moreover a Judgement of Direction to advise others of less knowledge and experience But those who are Constituted by the Sovereign power to determine emergent difficulties and differences and to distribute and administer Justice to the whole body of a Province or Kingdome have moreover a Judgement of Jurisdiction which is not onely discretionary or directive but authoritative to impose an Obligation of obedience unto those who are under their charge If these last shall transgress the rule of the Law they are not accountable to their Inferiours but to him or them that have the Sovereign power of Legislative Judicature Ejus est legem interpretari cujus est condere To apply this to the case in question concerning the exposition of the holy Scripture Every Christian keeping himself within the bounds of due obedience and submission to his lawful Superiours hath a Judgement of Discretion Prove all things hold fast that which is good He may apply the Rule of holy Scripture for his own private instruction comfort â—…dification and direction and for the framing of his life and belief aceordingly The Pastors of the Church who are placed over Gods people as watchmen and guides have more than this a judgement of Direction to expound and interpret the holy Scriptures to others and out of them to instruct the ignorant to reduce them who wander out of the right way to confute errours to foretell dangers and to draw sinners to repentance The chief Pastors to whose care the Regiment of the Church is committed in a more special manner have yet an higher degree of judgement a Judgement of Jurisdiction to prescribe to enjoyn to constitute to reform to censure to condemn to bind to loose judicially authoritatively in their respective charges If their Key shall erre either their Key of Knowledge or their Key of Jurisdiction they are accountable to their respective Superiours and in the last place to a general Council which under Christ upon Earth is the highest Judge of Controversies Thus we have seen what is the Rule of Faith and by whom and how far respectively this rule is to be applied Thirdly for the manner of expounding holy Scriptures for there may be a privacy in this also and more dangerous than the privacy of the person many things are necessary to the right interpretation of the Law to undeâ—…stand the reason of it the precedents the terms the forms the reports and an ability to compare Law with Law He that wants all these Qualifications altogether is no interpreter of Law He that wants but some of them or wants the perfection of them by how much the greater is his defect by so much the less valuable is his exposition And if he shall out of private fancy or blind presumption arrogate to himself without these requisite means or above his capacity and proportion of Knowledge a power of expounding Law he is a mad-man So many things are required to render a man capable to expound the holy Scriptures some more necessarily some less some absolutely some respectively As First to know the right Analogy of Faith to which all interpretations of Scripture must be of necessity conformed Secondly to know the practice and tradition of the Church and the received expositions of former Interpreters in the successive ages which gives a great light to
the finding out of the right sense Thirdly to be able to compare Texts with Texts Antecedents with Consequents without which one can hardly attain to the drift and scope of the Holy Ghost in the obscurer passages And lastly it is something to know the Idiotisms of that language wherein the Scriptures were written He that wants all these requisites and yet takes upon him out of a phanatique presumption of private illumination to interpret Scripture is a doting Enthusiast fitter to be refuted with Scorn than with Arguments He that presumes above that degree and proportion which he hath in these means and above the talent which God hath given him as he that hath a little Language yet wants Logick or having both Language and Logick knows not or regards not either the Judgement of former Expositors or the practice and tradition of the purest Primitive Ages or the Symbolical Faith of the Catholick Church is not a likely workman to build a Temple to the Lord but ruine and destruction to himself and his seduced followers A new Physician we say requires a new Church-yard But such bold ignorant Empericks in Theology are ten times more dangerous to the Soul than an ungrounded unexperienced Quacksalver to the Body This hath alwaies been the doctrine and the practice of our English Church First it is so far from admitting Laymen to be Directive Interpreters of holy Scripture that it allows not this Liberty to Clergy-men so much as to gloss upon the Text untill they be Licenced to become Preachers Secondly for Judgement of Discretion onely it gives it not to private persons above their Talents or beyond their last It disallows all phantastical and Enthusiastical presumption of incompetent and unqualified Expositors It admits no man into holy Orders that is to be capable of being made a Directive Inâ—…erpreter of Scripture howsoever otherwise qualified unless he be able to give a good account of his Faith in the Latin tongue so as to be able to frame all his Expositions according to the Analogy thereof It forbids the Licenced Preachers to teach the people any doctrine as necessary to be religiously held and believed which the Catholick Fathers and old Bishops of the Primitive Church have not collected out of the Scriptures It ascribes a Judgement of Jurisdiction over Preachers to Bishops in all manner of Ecclesiastical duties as appears by the whole body of our Canons And especially where any difference or publick Opposition hath been between Preachers about any point or doctrine deduced out of Scripture It gives a power of determining all emergent Controversies of faith above Bishops to the Church as to the witness and keeper of the Sacred Oracles And to a lawful Synod as the representative Church Now Sir be your own Judge how infinitely you have wronged us and your self more suggesting that temerariously and without the Sphere of your knowledge to his Majestie for the principal ground of our Reformation which our souls abhorr Is there no mean between stupidity and madness Must either all things be lawful for private persons or nothing Because we would not have them like Davids Horse and Mule without understanding do we therefore put both Swords in their hands to reform and cut off to plant and to pluck up to alter and abolish at their pleasure We allow them Christian liberty but would not have them Libertines Admit some have abused this just liberty may we therefore take it away â—…rom others So we shall leave neither a â—…un in Heaven nor any excellent Creaâ—…ure upon Earth for all have been abused â—…y some persons in some kinds at some â—…imes We receive not your upstart supposititious traditions nor unwritten fundamentals But we admit genuine Universal Apostolical traditions As the Apostles Creed the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of God the Anniversary Festivals of the Church the Lenton fast Yet we know that both the duration of it and the manner of observing it was very different in the Priâ—…nitive times We believe Episcopacy to an ingenuous person may be proved out of Scripture without the help of Tradition but to such as are froward the perpetual practice and tradition of the Church renders the interpretation of the Text more authentique and the proof more convincing What is this to us who admit the practice and tradition of â—…he Church as an excellent help of Exposition Use is the best interpreter of Laws and we are so far from believing that We cannot admit tradition without allowing the Papacy that one of the principal moâ—…ives why we rejected the Papacy as it is now established with Universality of Jurisdiction by the Institution of Christ and superiority above Oecumenical Councils and Infallibility of Judgement was the constant tradition of the Primitive Church So Sir you see your demonstration shaken into â—…ces You who take upon you to remove whole Churches at our pleasure have not so much ground left you as to set your Instrument upon Your two main ground-works being vanished all your Presbyterian and Independent superstructions do remain like so many Bubbles or Castles in the Air It were folly to lay closer siege to them which the next puff of wind will disperse ruâ—…at subductis tecta Columnis Howsoever though you have mistaken the grounds of our Reformation and of your discourse yet you charge us that we have renounced the Sacrifice of the Mass Transubstantiation the seven Sacraments Justification by inherent righteousness Merits Invocation of Saints Prayer for the Dead with Pâ—…rgatory and the Authority of the Pope Are these all the necessary Articles of the new Roman Creed that we have renounced Surely no you deal too favourably with us We have in like manner renounced your Image-worship your half Communion your Prayers in a tongue un known c. It seems you were loth to mention these things First you say we have renounced your Sacrifice of the Mass. If the Sacrâ—…fice of the Mass be the same with the Sacrifice of the Cross we attribute more unto it than your selves we place our whole hope of Salvation in it If you understand another Propitiatory Sacrifice distinct from that as this of the Mass seems to be for confessedly the Priest is not the same the Altar is not the same the Temple is not the same If you think of any new meritorious satisfaction to God for the sins of the world or of any new supplement to the merits of Christs Passion you must give us leave to renounce your Sacrifice indeed and to adhere to the Apostle By one offering he hath persected for ever them that are sanctified Surely you cannot think that Christ did actually sacrifice himself at his last Supper for then he had redeemed the world at his last Supper then his subsequent sacrifice upon the Cross had been superfluous nor that the Priest now doth more than Christ did then We do readily acknowledge an Eucharistical sacrifice of prayers and
of this nature I will not now dispute Thirdly some things are neither of the Faith nor against the Faith but onely besides the Faith That is opinions or truths of an inferiour nature which are not so necessary to be actually known for though all revealed truths be alike necessary to be believed when they are known yet all revealed truths are not alike necessary to be known It is not denied but that General or Provincial Councils may make constitutions concerning these for unity and uniformity and oblige all such as are subject to their jurisdiction to receive them either actively or passively without câ—…ntumacy or opposition But to make these or any of these a part of the Creed and to oblige all Christians under pain of damnation to know and believe them is really to adde to the Creed and to change the Symbolical Apostolical Faith to which none can adde from which none can take away and comes within the compass of St. Paul's Curse If we or an Angel from Heaven shall Preach unto you aâ—…y other Gospel or Faith than that which we have Preached let him be accursed Such are your Universality of the Roman Church by the institution of Christ to make her the Mother of her Grandmother the Church of Jerusalem and the Mistress of her many elder Sisters Your Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences and the Worship of Images and all other novelties defined in the Council of Trent all which are comprehended in your New Roman Creed and obtruded by you upon all the world to be believed under pain of damnation He that can extract all these out of the old Apostolick Creed must needs be an excellent Chymist and may safely undertake to draw water out of a Pumice That afflictions come not by chance that prosperity is no evidence of Gods favour or adversity of his hatred that crosses imposed by God upon his servants look more forwards towards their amendment than backwards to their demerits and proceed not from a Judge revenging but from a Father correcting or which you have omitted from a Lord Paramount proving and magnifying before the world his own graces in his Servants for his Glory and their Advantage are undeniable Truths which we readily admit As likewise that the dim eye of man cannot penetrate into the secret dispensations of Gods temporal judgements and mercies in this life so as to say this man is punished that other chastised this third is onely proved But you forget all this soon after when you take upon you to search into yea more to determine the grounds and reasons why the hand of God as well as the Parliament hath been so heavy upon the Head of his late Majestie and his Royal Son Namely on Gods part because he called himself the Head of the Church God purposing by his punishment to teach all other Princes that are in the Schism with what severity he can vindicate his glory in the injury done unto the Unity and Authority of his Church And on the Parliaments part because he would not consent to the Abolition of Episcopacy and suppression of the Liturgie and Ceremonies established in the Church of England First what warrant have you to enquire into the Actions of that bâ—…essed Saint and Martyr which of them should be the causes of his sufferings Not remembring that the Disciples received a check from their Master upon the like presumption Who sinned this man or his Parents that he was born blind Jesus answered neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him The Heroical Virtues the flaming Charity the admirable Patience the rare Humility the exemplary Chastity the constant and frequent Devotions and the invincible Courage of that happy Prince not daunted with the ugly face of a most horrid death have rendred him the Glory of his Country the Honour of that Church whereof he was the chiefest Member the admiration of Christendome and a Pattern for all Princes of what Communion soever to imitate unto the end of the world His Sufferings were Palms his Priâ—…on a Paradise and his Death-day the Birth-day of his happiness whom his Enemies advantaged more by their Cruelty than they could have done by their Courtesie They deprived him of a corruptible Crown and invested him with a Crown of glory They snatched him from the sweet society of his dearest Spouse and from most hopeful Olive branches to place him in the bosome of the holy Angels This alone is ground enough for his sufferings to manifest unto the world those transcendent and unparallel'd graces where with God had enriched him to which his sufferings gave the greatest lustre as the Stars shine brightest in a dark night The like liberty you assume towards the other most glorious Martyr the late Archbishop of Canterbury a man of profound learning and exemplary life of clean hands of a most sincere heart a Patron of all good Learning a Professor of Antient Truth a great friend indeed and earnest pursuer of Order Unity and Uniformity in Religion but most free from all sinister ends either avaritious or ambitious wherewith you do uncharitably charge him as if he sought onely his own Graudeur to make himself the head of a Schismatical body In brief you therefore censure him because you did not know him I wish all your great Ecclesiastiques had his Innocency and fervent zeal for Gods Church and the peace thereof to plead for them at the day of Judgement By applying these particular Afflictions according to your own ungrounded Fancy what a wide gap have you opened to the liberty and boldness of other men who if they should assume to themselves the same freedome that you have done might say as much with as much reason concerning the pressures of other great Princes abroad that God afflicts them because they will not become Protestants as you can say that God afflicted our late King because he wou'd not turn Papist But if you will not allow his Majesties sufferings to be meerly probatory And if for your satisfaction there must be a weight of sin found out to movâ—… the wheel of Gods Justice why do yoâ—… not rather fix upon the body of hiâ—… Subjects or at least a disloyal part of them We confess that the best of us did not deserve such a Jewel that God might justly snatch him from us in his wrath for our ingratitude Reason Religion and Experience do all teach us that it is usual with Aâ—…mighty God to look upon a body politick or Ecclesiastick as one man and to deprive a perverse people of a good and gratious Governour as an expert Physician by opening a vein in one member cures the distempers of another For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes â—…hereof It may be that two or three of our Princes at the most the greater part whereof were Roman Cathoâ—…iques did 〈◊〉 themseâ—…ves or
give others leave to â—…tile them the Heads of the Church within their Dominions But no man can be so simple as to conceive that they â—…ntended a spiritual headship to infuse â—…he life and motion of grace into the â—…earts of the faithful such an head is Christ alone No nor yet an Ecclesiaâ—…ical headship We did never believe â—…hat our Kings in their own persons â—…ould exercise any act pertaining either â—…o the power of Order or Juriâ—…ction Nothing can give that to another which it hath not it self They meant oneâ—…y a Civil or Political Head as Saul is called the Head of the Tribes of Israel to see that pubâ—…ick peace be presâ—…rved to see that all Subjects as well Eccâ—…esiastiques as others do their duties in their several places to see that all things be managed for that great and Architectonical end that is the weal and benefit of the whole body politique both for soul and body If you will not trust me Hear our Church it self When we attribute the Sovereign Government of the Church to the King we do not give him any power â—…o administer the Wâ—…rd or Sacraments but onely that Prerogative which God in holâ—… Scripture hath alwaies allowed to Godly Princes to see that all States and Orders of their Subâ—…ects Ecclesiastical and Civil do their duties and to punish those who are delinquent with the civil Sword Here is no power ascribed no punishment inflicted but meerly political and this is approved and justisied by S. Clara both by reason and by the examples of the Parliament of Paris Yet by vertue of this Political power he is the Keeper of both Tables the preserver of true Piety towards God as weâ—…l as right Justice towards men And is obliged to take care of the souls as well as the skins and carkasses of his Subjects This power though not this name the Christian Emperours of old assumed unto themselves to Convocate Synods to preside in Synods to confirm Synods to establish Ecclesiastical Lawes to receive Appeals to nominate Bishops to eject Bishops to suppress Heresies to compose Ecclesiastical differences in Councils out of Councils by themselves by their delegates All which is as clear in the Historie of the Church as if it were written with a beam of the Sun This power though not this name the Antient Kings of Englaâ—…d ever exercised not onely before the Reformation but before the Norman Conquest as appears by the Acts of their great Councils by their Statutes and Articles of the Clergy by so many Lawes of provision against the Bishop of Romes conferring Ecclesiastical dignities and benefices upon Foreiners by so many sharp oppositions against the exactions and usurpations of the Court of Rome by so many Lawes concerning the Patronage of Bishopricks and Investitures of Bishops by so many examples of Church-men punished by the Civil Magistrate Of all which Jewels the Roman Court had undoubtedâ—…y robbed the Crown if the Peers and Prelates of the Kingdome had not come into â—…he rescue By the Antient Lawes of England it is death or at lest a forfeiture of all his goods for any man to publish the Popes Bull without the Kings Licence The Popes Legate without the Kings leave could not enter into the Realm If an Ordinary did refuse to accept a resignation the King might supply his defect If any Ecclesiastical Court did exceed the bounds of its just power either in the nature of the cause or manner of proceeding the Kings Prohibition had place So in effect the Kings of England were alwaies the Political heads of the Church within their own Dominions So the Kings of France are at this day But who told you that ever King Charles did call himself the Head of the Church thereby to merit such an heavy Judgement He did not nor yet King James his Father nor Queen Elizabeth before them both who took Order in her first Parliament to have it lest out â—…f her Title They thought that name did sound ill and that it intrenched too far upon the right of their Saviour Therefore they declined it and were called onely Supreme Governours in all Causes over all persons Ecclesiastical and Civil which is a Title de jure inseparable from the Crown of all Sovereign Princes Where it is wanting de facto if any place be so unhappy to want it the King is but half a King and the Commonwealth a Serpent with two Heads Thus you see you are doubly and both waâ—…es miserably mistaken First King Charles did never stile himself Head of the Church nor could with patience endure to hear that Title Secondly a Political Headship is not injurious to the Unity or Authority of the Church The Kings of Isâ—…ael and Judah the Christian Emperours the Engâ—…ish Kings before the Reformation yea even before the Conquest and other Sovereign Princes of the Roman Communion have owned it signaâ—…ly But it seems you have been toâ—…d or have read this in the virulent writings of Sandâ—…rs or Parsons or have heard of a ludicrous scoffing proposition of a Mâ—…rriage between the two Heads of the two Churches Sixâ—…us Quintus and Queen Elizabeth for the re-uniting forsooth of Christendome All the satisfaction I shâ—…uld enjoyn you is to perswade the Bishop of Râ—…me if Gregory the Great were living you could not fail of speeding to imitate the piety and humility of our Princes that is to content himself with his Patriarchical dignity and primacy of Order Principâ—…m unit at is and to quit that much more presumptuous and if a Popes word may pass for current Antichristian term of the Head of the Catholick Church If the Pope be the Head of the Catholique Church then the Catholique Church is the Popes Body which would be but an harsh expression to Christian ears then the Catholick Church should have no Head when there is no Pope two or three Heads when there are two or three Popes an unsound Head when there is an heretical Pope a broken Head when the Pope is censured or deposed and no Head when the See is vacant If the Church must have one Universal Visible Ecclesiastical Head a general Council may best pretend to that Title Neither are you more successful in your other Reason why the Parliament persecuted the King Because he maintained Episcopacy both out of Conscience and Interest which they sought to abolish For though it be easily admitted that some seditious and heterodox persons had an evil eye both against Monarchy and Episcopacy from the very beginning of these troubles either out of a fiery zeal or vain affectation of Novelty like those who having the green-sickness prefer chalk and meal in a corner before wholsome meat at their Fathers table or out of a greedy and covetous desire of gathering some sticks for themselves upon the fall of those great Okes yet certainly they who were the contrivers and principal actors in this business did more malign
given us such assurance of his love or done so much for us as Christ. No Saint is so willing or able to help us as Christ. And secondly we have no command from God to invocate them So much your own Authors do confess and give this reason for it Lest the Gentiles being converted should belâ—…eve that they were drawn back again to the worship of the Creature But we have another command Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear thee We have no promise to be heard when we do invocate them But we have another promise Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name ye shall receive it We have no example in holy Scripture of any that did invocate them but rather the contrary See thou do it not I am thy fellow-servant worship God We have no cerâ—…ainty that they do hear our particular prayers especially mental prayers yea a thousand prayers poured out at one Instant in several parts of the world We know what your men say of the gâ—…ass of the Trinity and of extraordinary Revelations But these are bold conjectures without any certainty and inconsistent the one with the other We do sometimes meet in Antient Authors with the Intercesfion of Saints in General which we also acknowledge Or an oblique invocation of them as you term it that is a prayer directed to God that he will hear the intercession of the Saints for us which we do not condemn Or a wish or a Rhetorical Apostrophe or perhaps something more in some single Antient Author But for an Ordinary Invocation in particular necessities and much more for publick Invocation in the Liturgies of the Church we meet not with it for the first six hundred years or thereabouts All which time and afterwards also the common principles and tradition of the Church were against it So far were they from obtruding it as a necessary fundamental Article of Christian Religion It is a common fault of your wriâ—…ers alwaies to couple Prayer for the Dead and Purgatory together as if the one did necessâ—…rily suppose or imply the other In whose steps you tread Prayer for the Dead hath often proceeded upon mistaken grounds often from true grounds both inconsistent with your Purgatory Many have held an Opinion that though the souls were not extinguished at the time of their separation from the body yet they did lye in secret reâ—…eptacles in a profound or dead sleep untill the Resurâ—…ection doing nothing suffering nothing in the mean time but onely the delay of their glory Others held that all must pass through the fire of Conflagration at the day of judgement These opinions were inconsistent with your Purgatory yet all these upon these very grounds used Prayer for the Dead Others called the merâ—…ifull Doctors held that the very pains of Hell might be lessened by the prayer of the living Such a prayer is that which we meet with in your own Missal O King of Glory deliver the souls of all the faithfull deceased from the pains of Hell from the deep Lake from the mouth of the Lion that is the Devil that the bottomless pit of Hell do not swallow them up A man may lawfully pray for that which is certain if it be to come but one cannot lawfully pray for that which is past The souls which are in Purgatory by your learning are past the fear of Hell Nor can this petition be any waiâ—…s so wrested as to become appliable to the hour of death This prayer is not for the man but for the soul separated nor for the soul of a sick man or a dying man but for the souls of mâ—…n actually deceased Certainly this prayer must have reference either to the sleeping of the souls or to the pains of Hell To deliverance out of Purgatory it can have no relation Neither are you abâ—…e to produce any one prayer publick or private neither any one indulgence to that purpose for the delivery of any one soul out of Purgatory in all the Primitive times or out of their own antient Missals or Records Such are the Innovations which you would impose upon us as Articles of Faith which the greatest part of the Catholick Church never received untill this day Moreover though the sins of the faithfull be privately and particularly remitted at the day of death yet the publick promulgation of their pardon at the day of judgement is to come Though their â—…ouls be alwaies in an estate of blessedness â—…yet they want the consummation of this blessedness extensively at least untill the body be re-united unto the soul and as it is piously and probably believed intensively also that the soul hath not yet so full and clear a vision of God as it shall have hereafter Then what forbids Christians to pray for this publick acquittal for this Consummation of blessedness So we do pray as often as we say thy Kingdome come or come Lord Jesus come quickly Our Church is yet plainer That we with this our Brother and all other departed in the faith of thy holy name may have our perfect Consummation of blessedness in thy everlasting Kingâ—…me This is far enough from your more gainfull prayers for the dead to deliver them out of Purgatory Lastly concerning the Authority of the Pope It is he himself that hath renounced his lawfull Patriarchal Authority And if we should offer it him at this day he would disdain it VVe have onely freed our selves from his tyrannical usurped Authority But upon what terms upon what grounds how far and with what intention we have separated our selves or rather have suffered our selves to be separated from the Church of Rome you may find if you pâ—…ease in the Treatise of Schism I cannot choose but wonder to see you cite St. Cyprian against us in this case who separated himself from you as well as we in the daies of a much better Bishop than we and upon much weaker grounds than we and published his dissent to the world in two African Councils He liked not the swelling Title of Bishop of Bishops nor that one Bishop should tyrannically terrifie another into â—…edience No more do we He gave a primacy or principality of order to the Chair of St. Peter as Principium unit at is so do we But he believed that every Bishop had an equall share of Episcopal power so do we He provided a part as he thought fit in a Provincial Council for his own safety and the safâ—…ty of his Flock so did we He writ to your great Bishop as to his Brother and Collegue and dared to reprehend him for receiving but a Letter from such as had been â—…ensured by the African Bishops In Saint Cyprians sense you are the Beam that have separated you selves from the body of the Sun you are the Bough that is lopped from the Tree you are the stream which is divided from the Fountain It is you principally you that have divided
the unity of the Church You collect as a Corollary from our supposed principal of the right and sufficiency of private judgement enlightned by the Spirit that no humane Authority can bind the Conscience of another or prescribe any thing unto it I have formerly shewed you your gross mistake in the premises Now if you please hear our sense of the Conclusion Humane Lawes cannot be properly said to bind the Conscience by the sole authority of the Law-giver But partly by the equity of the Law every one being obliged to advance that which conduceth to a publick good thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self And especially by Divine Authority which commands every soul to be subject to the higher powers for conscience sake not prudentially onely The question is soon decided just Lawes of lawfuâ—…l Superiours either Civil or Ecclesiastical have authority to bind the Conscience in themselves but not from themselves How shall we believe that it is not you but God that represents these things to his Majestie that addresseth them to him by your mouth that calleth him that stretcheth out his hand to him that hath set these things before his eyes in Characters not to be defaced What That his Majestie should turn Roman Catholick Are they like Belshazars Characters and are you the onely Daniel that can read them we do not see a Cloven Tongue upon your head nor a Dove seemâ—…ng to whisper in yâ—…ur ear Be not too consident lest some take it to be a little taint of Anabaptism perhaps you have had as strange phantasies as this heretofore whilst you were of a contrary party Be it what it will be you cannot offer it to his â—…ajestie with more confidence or preâ—…end more intimacy with God or to be more familiarly acquainted with his Cabinet Counsail than a Scotch Presbyter And yet your self would not value all his confidence at a Button Wise men are not easily gained by empty shews oâ—… pretences that signifie nothing but the pretenders vanity nor by Enthusiastical interpretation of occurrences It is onely the weight of reason that depresseth the scale of their judgement and maketh them to yield and submit unto it Howsoever it be God or you thaâ—… represent these things to his Majestie you tell us that the end is to reduce him from those errours which he sucked in with his milk which in thâ—… dayes of Peace and abundance it had been disficult for him to discover But now his Eyes and his eares do see and hear those Truths which makâ—… it evident to him that God hath condemned them to reduce him to the Communion of the Church wherein you promise him all manner of blessings Who told you of his Majesties new illumination or what have you seen to believe any such thing when you daâ—…e avoâ—…ch such gross untruths of himself to himself how should he credit your private presumptions which you tell him as a new Mercury dropped down from Heaven You tell us that it is necessary for every one to adhere to the true Church which is the keeper of saving truth That is true but nothing to his Majesty who hath more right already in the Catholick Church than your self You tell us moreover that this Church is the Roman Church That is not trâ—…e but suppose it were most true as it is most false what should a man be beter or more neerer to the knowledge of the Truth and consequently to his salâ—…ation for his submission to the Roman Church As long as you cannot agree among your selves either what this Roman Church is or whâ—…t this infallible Judge is One saith it is the Pope alone Another saith no but the Pope with his Conclave of Cardinals A third will go no less than the Pope and a Provincial Council A fourth will not be contented without the Pope and a General Council A Fifth is for a general Council alone â—…ither with or without the Pope A Sixth party and they are of no small esteeme amongst you here at this present is for the Essential Church that is the Company of all faithfull people Whose reception say they makes the true ratificationof the Acts of its representative Body It were as good to have no infallible Judge as not to know or agree who it is Be not so censorious in condemning others for not submitting to your Roman Church or infallible Judge nor so positive to make this submission so absolutely necessary to salvation untill you agree better what this Judge or Church is It is five to one against you that you your self miss the right Judge Whatsoever becom of your Church you say Ours is perished by the proper Axioms of our own Reformation and hath no more any 〈◊〉 in the world nor pretence to the Privilege of a Church This is hard He perisheth twice that peri sheth by his own weapons Even so Iosephs brethren told Joseph himself with Consciences guiâ—…ty enough one is not This is that which the Court of Rome would be content to purchase at any rate This hath been the end of all their Negotiations and Instructions by all means to support the Presbyterian Faction in England against Episcopacy Not that they loved them more than us but that they feared us more than them There was an Israelitish Church when Elias did not see it but he must be as blind as Bartimaeus that cannoâ—… see the Eâ—…glish Church Wheresoever there is a lawfull English Pastor and an English Flock and a subordination of this â—…lock to that Pastor there is a Branch of the true English Protestant Church Do you make no difference between a Church persecuted and a Church extinguished Have patience and expect the Catastrophe It may be all this while the Carpenters Son is making a Coffin for Juliâ—…n If it please God we may yet see the Church oâ—… England which is now frying in the fire come out like Gold out of the Furnace more pure and more full of lâ—…ster If not his Will be done Just art thou O Lord and Righteous are all thy judgements The Primitive Church was as glorious in the sight of God when they served him in Holes and Corners in Cryptis Sacellis Conventiculis Ecclesiolis as when his worship was more splendidly performed in Basilicis and Cyriacis in goodly Churches and magnificent Cathedralls Your Design stops not at the King of Great Britain but extends it self to all his subjects yea to all Protestants whatsoever I wonder why you stay there and would not adde all the Eastern Churches and the great Turk himself fince you might have done it with another penfull of Ink and with as much pretence of Reason to secure himself from the joint Forces of Christendom thus united by your means A strong Phaâ—…tasie will discover Armies and Navies in the Clouds men and Horses and Chariots in the fire and hear Articulate Dictates from the Bells This is is not to write wakeing but dreaming Yet you
uncertain or fallible rule the more dangerous is the error So our right foundation purgeth away our error in superstruction And your wrong foundation lessens the value of your truths and doubles the guilt of your errors I will by your leave requite your demonstration and turn the mouths of your own Canoâ—…s against your self That Church which hath changed the Apostolical Creed the Apostolical Succession the Apostolical Regiment and the Apostolical Communion is no Apostolical Orthodox or Catholick Church But the Church of Rome hath changed the Apostolical Creed the Apostolical Succession the Apostolical Regiment and the Apostolical Communion Therefore the Church of Rome is no Apostolical Orthodox or Catholick Church They have changed the Apostolical Creed by making a new Creed wherein are many things inserted that hold no Analogie with the old Apostles Creed The Apostolical Succession by ingrossing the whole succession to Rome and making all other Bishops to be but the Popes Vicars and Substitutes as to their Jurisdiction The Apostolical Regiment by erecting a visible and Universal Monarchy in the Church And lastly the Apostolical Communion by excommunicating three parts of the holy Catholick Apostolick Church Again That Church which resolves its Faith not into divine Revelation and Authority but into Humane infallibility or the Infallibilitie of the present Church without knowing or according what that present Church is whether the Virtual or the representative or the essential Church or a body compounded of some of these hath no true faith But the Church of Rome resolves its Faith not into divine Revelation and Authority but into the Infallibility of the present Church not knowing or not according what that present Church is whether the Virtual Church that is the Pope or the Representative Church that is a general Council or the Essential Church that is the Church of Bâ—…lievers diffused over the world or a body compounded of some of these that is the Pope and a General or Provincial Council Therefore the Church of Rome hath not true faith The greater number of your Writers is for the Pope that this infallibility is fixed to his Chair But of all other Judgements that is most fallible and uncertain for if Simony make a Nullity in a Papal Election we have great reason to doubt that that Chà ir hath not been filled by a right Pope these last hundred years These are no other but your own Mediums Such luck you have with your irrefragable demonstrations In case his Majesty will turn Roman Catholick you promise him restitution to his Kingdoms Great undertakers are seldom good performers when you are making your Proselytes you promise them golden Mountains but when the work is done you deal with them as he did with his Saint who promised a Candle as big as his Mast and offered one no bigger than his finger Do you however think it reason that any man should change his Religion for temporal respects though it were for a Kingdom Jeroboam did so you may remember what was the success of it You propose this as the readiest means to restore him Others who penetrate deeper into the true state of his affairs look upon it as the readiest way to ruin his hopes by the alienation of his friends by the confirmation of his foes and in some sort the justification of their former feigned fears Do you think all Roman Catholick Princes desire this change as earnestly as your self Give them leave first to consult with their particular Interests A common Interest prevails more with Confederates than a common faith The Sword distinguâ—…sheth not between Protestants and Papists But what is the ground of this your great Confidence no less than Scripture Seek ye first the kingdom of God and the righteousness of it and all other things shall be added unto you You say the word of God deceives no man True but you may deteive your self out of the word of God The Conclusion alwaies follows the weaker part such as this are commonly your mistaken grounds when they come to be examined The text saith Seek the kingdom of God You would have his Majesty deseâ—…t the kingdom of God The promise is of all things necessary or convenient you will be your own Carver and oblige God Almighty to Kingdoms and particular conditions The promise is made as all tempral promises are with an implicite exception of the Cross unâ—…ess God see it to be otherwise more expedient for us He that denies us gold and gives us patience and other graces more precious than Gold that denies a temporal Kingdom to give an eternal doth not wrong us Tâ—…s was out of your head That the Scots had an antienter Obligation to fidelity towards his Majesty and that Royal Family than the English is a truth not to be doubted or disputed of I think I may safely adde than any Nation in Europe or in tâ—…e known world to their Prince his Majesty being the hundred and tenth Monarch of that line that hath swayed the Scepter of that Kingdom successively The more the pitty that a few treacherous Shebas and a pack of bawling seditious Orators under the vizard and shadow of pure Religion to the extreme scandal of all honest professors should be able to overturn such an antient fabrick and radicated succession of Kingly Government But take heed Sir how you beleeve that any ingagement of the Presbyterian faction in Scotland proceeded either from conscience or gratitude or fidelity or aimed at the resetling of his Majesty upon his throne No no their hearts were double their treaties on their parts were meer treacheries from the beginning I mean not any of those many loyal patriots that never bowed their knees to Baal-berith the God of the Covenant in that Nation Nor yet any of those serious converts that no sooner discoveâ—…ed the leger de main of a company of canting impostors but they sought to stop the stream of Schism and sedition with the hazard of their own lives and estates Nor even those whose eyes were longer held with the Spirit of slumber by some stronger spels of disciplinarian charmers but did yet later open their eyes and come in to do their duties at the sixth or ninth hour All these are expunged by me out of this black Roll. Let their posterities enjoy the fruit of their respective loyalties And let their memories be daily more and more blessed But I mean the obstinate Ring-leaders and Standard-bearers of the Presbyterian Covenant of both robes and the setters up of that mishapen Idol It is from these I say that no help or hope could in reason be expected They who sold the Father and such a Father were not likely to proove loyal to the Son They who hanged up one of the most antient Gentlemen in Europe the gallant Marquâ—…ss of Montrose being then their lawful Vice-roy like a dog in such base and barbarous manner together with his Maâ—…esties Commission to the publike dishonour of
world know to have been none of yours VVhat Faith he professed living he confirmed dying In the Communion of the Church of England he lived and in that Communion at his death he commended his soul into the hands of God his Saviour That which you have confessed here concerning King Charls will spoil your former demonstration that the Protestants have neither Church nor Faith But you confess no more in particular here than I have heard some of your famous Roman Doctors in this City acknowledge to be true in general And no more than that which the Bishop of Chalcedon a man that cannot be suspected of partiality on our side hath affirmed and published in two of his Books to the world in Print That Protestantibus credentibus c. persons living in the Communion of the Protestant Church if they endeavour to lâ—…arn the truth and are not able to attain unto it but hold it implicitely in the preparation of their minds and are ready to receive it when God shall be pleased to reveal it which all good Protestants and all good Christians are they neither want Church nor Faith nor Salvation Mark these words well They have neither Church nor Faith say you If they be thus qualified as they all are they want neither Church nor Faith nor Salvation saith he Lastly Sir to let us see that your intelligence is as good in Heaven as it is upon Earth and that you know both who are there and what they do you tell us That the Crown and Conquest which his late Majestie gained by his sufferings was proâ—…ured by the intercession of his Grandmother Queen Mary We should be the apter to believe this if you were able to make it appear that all the Saints in Heaven do know all the particular necessities of all their posterity upon Earth St. Austin makes the matter much more doubtfull than you that 's the least of his Assertion or rather to be plainly false faâ—…endum est nescire quidem â—…ortuos quid hic agatur But with presumptions you did begin your Dedication and with presumptions you end it In the mean time till you can make that appear we observe that neither Queen Maries constancy in the Roman Catholick Faith nor Henry the Fourths change to the Roman Catholick Faith could save them from a bloody end Then by what warrant do you impute King Charles his sufferings to his errour in Religion Be your own Judge Heu quanta de spe decidimus Alas from what hopes are we fall'n Pardon our errour that we have mistaken you so long You have heretofore pretended your self to be a moderate person and one that seriously endeavoured the reuniting of Christendome by a fair Accommodation The widest wounds are closed up in time and strange Plants by Inoculation are incorporated together and made one And is there no way to close up the wounds of the Church and to unite the disagreeing members of the same mystical body Why were Caleb and Joshua onely admitted into the Land of promise whilst the carkasses of the rest perished in the VVilderness but onely because they had been Peace-makers in a time of Schism VVell fare our learned and ingenuous Country-man St. Clara who is altogether as perspicacious as your self but much more charitable You tell us to our grief that there is no accommodation to be expected that Cardinal Richelieu was too good a Christian and too good a Catholique to have any such thought that the one Religion is true the other false and that there is no society between light and darkness This is plain dealing to tell us what we must trust to No Peace is to be expected from you unless we will come unto you upon our knees with the words of the Prodigal Child in our mouths Father forgive us we have sinned against Heaven and against thee Is not this rare Courtesie If we will submit to your will in all things you will have no longer difference with us So we might come to shake a worse Church by the hand than that which we were separated from If you could be contented to wave your last four hundred years determinations or if you liked them for your selves yet not to obtrude them upon other Churches If you could rest satisfied with your old Patriarchal power and your Principium unit at is or Primacy of Order much good might be expected from free Councils and Conferences from moderate persons And we might yet live in Hope to see an Union if not in all Opinions yet in Charity and all necessary points of saving truth between all Christians to see the Eastern and Western Churâ—…hes joyn hand in hand and sing Ecce quà m bonum quam jucundum est habitare fratres in unum Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity But whilst you impose upon us daily new Articles of Faith and urge rigidly what you have unadvisedly determined we dare not sacrifice Truth to Peace nor be separated from the Gospel to be joyned to the Roman Church Yet in the point of our separation and in all things which concern either doctrine or discipline we profess all due obedience and submission to the judgement and definitions of the truly Catholique Church Lamenting with all our hearts the present condition of Christendome which renders an Oecumenical Council if not impossible mens judgements may be had where their persons cannot yet very difficult wishing one as general as might be and untill God send such an Opportunity endeavouring to conform our selves in all things both in Credendis Agendis to whatsoever is uniform in the belief or practice in the doctrine or discipline of the Universal Church And lastly holding an Actual Communion with all the divided parts of the Christian world in most things in voto according to our desires in all things FINIS Plut. Sir Henry wotton No differences in the Church directly about the Sacrament for the first 800 years 1 Cor. 11. Theod. ex Ignatio Leo. Ser. 4. de Quad. Epiph. hâ—…r 30. 46. Aug. l. de Hâ—…re c. 64. â—…el l. 1. de Sac. Euch. 〈◊〉 1. Bel. ibid. Syn. Nic. 2 Act 6. Disp. 179. c. 1 Yet different Observations And different expressions The first difference about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament Exact Syn. Rom. sub Nich. 2. Dâ—… Cons. dist 2 cap. Egâ—…â—…er Alex. Gab. Bonâ—…v c. Scot. in 4. sent dist 11. q. 3. T. 3. q. 75. d. 81. c. 1. The determination of the manner of the presence opened a flood-gate to a Deluge of Controversies Lib. de câ—…r Theol. Schol. Gloss. de Con. d. 2. cap. Timâ—…rem Guidmâ—…nd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de ver Vasq. disâ—… 184. 6. 8. Uasq T. 3. q. 75. d. 181 c. 4. Bel. l. 3. de Euc. c. 3. in fine In 4 d. 44 q. 7. art 〈◊〉 q. 3. I. ib. 4. de Euch. c. 25 Chap. 27. Conc. Uien Bâ—…ll 4. de