Roman Church you are obliged to get Eternal Life by your Merits instead of putting your whole trust in Gods Mercy through Jesus Christ you shall never enjoy any Peace of Conscience seeing that the most righteous Persons have great Defects and stand in need of Gods Pardon Good works indeed are necessary to Salvation not from any merit in them but as the onely means prescribed by God to attain the the Kingdom of Heaven One of the great Diseases of the Roman Church is that a Sinner after he hath confess'd his Sins to a Priest receiveth from him the Pardon of them A Sinner forgiveth another Sinner Offences committed against God as if a Felon did forgive another Felon Crimes committed against the King Thereby a man makes himself a Judge in Gods Cause A Priest takes upon him to be Judge of Sins which he knoweth not for he knoweth not the Thoughts and the Affections of the Heart in which Sin doth chiefly consist Neither doth he know the truth of the Sinners Repentance without which there is no Pardon Indeed faithful Pastors have received of Christ the Power to remit Sins as touching the Ecclesiastical Penalty and Censure of the Church and to reconcile the Sinner excluded from the Communion to the Church But you would be much disappointed if you thought that the Pardon given you by a Priest doth exempt you from answering for your Actions before Gods Judgment Seat For when the King forgives a Felon he doth not exempt him from being judged by that great Judge Can a man that feareth God and to whom God hath left some liberty of Judgement read without horrour the Cauteles and Rubricks of the Mass in the beginning of the Missal which the Priest hath upon the Altar Whereby Provision is made against the inconveniencies that may happen to the Consecrated Host when it happens that Mice have gnawn the Mass-God or when a Beast hath devoured it or when the Wind hath carried it away or when the Priest or a sick person hath vomited it Can ye find in your heart to worship a God that may be stollen or eaten by Beasts or blown away by the Wind and that being fallen cannot raise himself How many times doth Scripture say That Jesus Christ gave Bread to his Disciples and that we break and eat Bread in the Lords Supper Luke 22.19 20. That Bread is called the Body of Christ as it is in remembrance of him In the same manner as in the next line the Cup is called the New Testament because it is the Sign and the Memorial of it Therefore the Apostles did not worship it The Roman Church holds that Jesus Christ did communicate in the Holy Eucharist with his Disciples All Parties agree that it follows from the Doctrine of that Church that Jesus Christ did eat himself and had his Head and his Feet in his Mouth The Gospel tells us that in that Holy Action the Devil entred into Judas Can ye believe that Jesus Christ and the Devil entred together into him To strengthen these Errours the sixth Chapter of St. Johns Gospel is impertinently alleged in which the Lord Jesus speaks of giving his Flesh to eat for Pope Innocent the III and after him a multitude of Doctors have determined that in that Chapter the Eucharist is not meant at all and that these words of giving his Flesh to eat must be understood of a Spiritual eating by Faith There Jesus Christ speaks to the Capernaïtes to whom he promiseth to give his Flesh for their meat but he never gave them the Eucharist He speaks to them of a manner of Eating necessary to Salvation and without which none can be saved saying John 6.53 Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man there is no Life in you Now many are saved without receiving the Eucharist as the converted Thief crucified with Christ and John the Baptist and many Martyrs And Jesus Christ declareth that by Eating and Drinking he understands Believing when he saith v. 35. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Wherefore he warneth them v. 63. that the words which he said unto them were Spirit and Life It is acknowledged by all that many Priests of the Roman Church are ill-Livers yet it is the Doctrine of that Church that a Priest who hath been wallowing all Night in a Debauch hath the power in the Morning to make a God with five words and hath him in his power I must also humbly beseech your Grace to consider that the Councel of Trent declareth it to be the Tenet of the Roman Church generally believed that Sacraments are Null if the Priest hath no Intention to Consecrate which Intention is presumed but by Conjecture and none can be certain of it so that the People adore an Host not knowing whether it be consecrated which is an Adoration at a venture Neither can any in the Roman Church be certain whether he be baptized for none knoweth the Intention of him that baptizeth nor that of him that gave him Orders These things my Lord I touch summarily of which the Proofs are easie but too long for a Letter To disguise these Truths unto Your Grace I am told that you have been perswaded to read the Invectives of Barklay in which Scripture is hardly alledged and Gualtiers Chronicle which is but a web of false passages of some supposititious Books which are not received by the Learned of the Roman Church or Calumnies imputed unto us and such things as we never thought on If upon those false Passages and Calumnies Your Grace had been pleased to consult with some of our Side expert in such Matters they would have made you see evidently the falshood of them The like I say of some passages of Fathers shewed unto Your Grace most of them taken out of forged Writings whose falshood is acknowledged by our Adversaries We have Fathers only as they were copied out of Manuscripts that were found in Monasteries written by Monks who have falsified them and whose false dealing is discovered by the diversity of the Copies of which I could shew you many Instances if I had the Honour to converse with Your Grace about that Subject But God hath not permitted our Adversaries to bring to an end that Enterprize of corrupting all the Fathers for numberless Passages are found in them which bear witness unto the Truth For which the Doctors of the Roman Church blame them very often and give them many ill words But because that Discourse might grow too to great a length I do only refer Your Grace to a Paper by it self a * Which die Reader shall find in the second Chapter of this Authors Anatomy of the Mass Comparison of the Lords Supper with the Mass that you may know what horrible alteration was made in the Lords Institution and that you may know that by going to Mass you cannot be saved You I say My Lord
upon the Succession in the Apostleship of St. Peter For the Fathers of that Council do not acknowledge him in that Quality The Council of Aurange condemneth the Merits in the 12th Canon saying God loveth us according as we shall be by his Grace and not such as we shall be through our Merits In the Year of Our Lord 549 Reparatus Bishop of Cathage called a Synod in which Vigilius Bishop of Rome was anathematized as an Heretick Eutychian And Honorius Bishop of Rome was condemned by the VI and the VII Universal Councils as an Heretick Monothelite In the VI Council of Constantinople assembled again in the Palace of Trulle in the 17 and the 77 Canon the Church of Rome is expresly and by name condemned and is commanded to hinder no more the cohabitation of Priests with their Wives and to Fast no more on the Lords Day upon pain of Deposition or Excommunication Whence it appeareth by the way that the Greek and Eastern Church in which that Council was celebrated in which that Council was celebrated was not subject to the Roman Church since she prescribed Laws to her In the Year 754 a Council composed of 338 Bishops was held at Constantinople in which it was decreed that Images should be removed out of Churches and the worship of them was forbidden There also the Bread of the Eucharist is called the Image and the Figure of the Body of Jesus Christ But in the Year 787 the Empress Irene assembled another Council against that Council at Nicea in which Images were set up again and the Worship of them was commanded upon Pain of Anathema But in the year 794 the Emperour Charles the Great caused that Council of Nicea to be condemned by another Council assembled at Frankford although he knew that Pope Adrian was of a contrary Opinion and had defended that Council of Nicea by an express Book This is My Lord the Condemnation of Errours about our Controversies which I find in the ancient Councils Neither could I find any ancient Council which in matters of Faith condemns the Doctrine that we profess For the Chronicle of Gaultier which was shewed to your Grace representeth things falsly and doth not agree with other Authors of his Religion who justifie us against most of his Calumnies I am ready to undergo any Punishment if in the 500 years which your Grace mentions one only man be found that had a Religion any whit like the present Religion of the Roman Church In the ancient Church the publick Service was celebrated in the vulgar Tongue understood by the People The Laity received the Communion in the two kinds The reading of Scripture was not prohibited to the People The Church did not believe Purgatory Before the year 370 of the Lord no Tract is found of Invocation of Saints There was no Mention of Roman Indulgences nor of the Treasure of the Church in which the Pope hath laid up the Overplus of the penal Works and Satisfactions of Saints and Monks which he distributes among the People by his Indulgences In those days they made no Images of God They worshipped not the Images of Saints They adored not the consecrated Host with Worship of Latria They spake not of Accidents without a Subject They believed not that Mice could gnaw the Body of Christ or that it could be blown away be the Wind or stole or devoured by Beasts as we are taught in the Beginning of the Missal In those days the Bishops of Asia Africa Aegypt Graece c. took no Oath of Allegiance to the Roman Bishop in their Ordination and took no Letters of Investiture from him In those Days they believed not that Jesus Christ had eaten his own Body in the Communion They believed not that it was in the Priests Power to create his Creator The Pope did not style himself God and the Divine Majesty He boasted not that he could not err and that he was the Sovereign Judge of Controversies He drew no Souls out of Purgatory He took not upon him the Power of adding to the Creed He canonized no Saints He gave no Pardons of two or three hundred years He dispensed not with Vows and Oaths He dispensed no with Vows and Oaths He neither gave nor took away Kingdoms He put no Kingdom in Interdict In those days the Blessed Virgin Mary was not called the Queen of Heaven and the Lady of the World The Bishop of Rome did not bestow several Offices upon Saints charging one to look over such a Country another to such a Disease another to such a Trade They spake not in those days of Franciscan Fryars nor of Dominicans nor of Capucins nor of Jesuits nor of Beads Rosaries Agnus Dei and the like Commodities In a Word the Roman Religion is a Religion spick and span new and an horrible defacing of the ancient Religion taught by Christ and his Apostles If Your Grace hath such a great Desire to be instructed about Antiquity you may desire one of those that take upon them to instruct you to give you but one Example upon any of the forementioned Points I am sure that they will never undertake it it being utterly impossible I could shew to Your Grace that all these Inventions were devised to serve the Gain and Ambition of the Pope and his Clergy But I will pass to that which Your Grace addeth Of the Pope's Primacy From thence you pass to the Pope's Primacy and speak thus I sought to be informed whether all the Western Churches had not always acknowledged the Bishop of Rome to be the Primate and the Head of the visible Church established by our Lord for the Conduct of the same and seeing the Protestants were so far from rejecting the first five Centuries that they often both in their Sermons and Books quote and produce the Fathers that writ in those Ages I thought the shortest way for my Information would be to see what were the Sentiments of those Fathers in the controverted Points Truly my Lord that short way which you say you have taken is of an infinite Length and indeed there is no end of it It would have been a far shorter way to have asked of the ablest men of the Roman Church whether it may be found in Gods Word that God hath established the Pope Successor of St. Peter in his Apostleship and in his Primacy over the Universal Church They would have freely confest unto you that the Holy Scripture saith nothing of it and that it is a Tradition about which we have no Commandment of God I observe also that you speak only of the Western Churches whence I gather that he who suggested these things to your Grace knows that the Eastern and the African Church never acknowledged the Bishop of Rome in that Quality and Character Now those Churches were then greater than the Western as also they are ancienter Now by the Councils approved both by the Western and the Eastern Churches which I have already
of Pardon ch 28. There is no middle place so that he that dwelleth not with Christ can be any where else than with the Devil The fifth Book of the Hypognosticks speaks thus The Catholick Faith grounded upon Divine Authority is that the first place is the Kingdom of Heaven and the second is Hell We believe no third place and find none in the holy Scriptures In the Book of the Vanity of the World chap. 1. Know ye that when the Soul separates from the Body it is at the same Instant placed in Paradise for its good Works or cast down into the Gulf of Hell for its Sins I could bring Your Grace Passages by hundreds out of the Fathers which express that the Souls of the godly are presently after Death carried into Paradise or into Hell I will content my self with one or two Cyprian in the Book against Demetrian speaks thus This temporal Life being ended we are sequestred either in the Habitation of Death or in that of eternal Life And in the same place When men are gone from hence there is no place left for Penitence no Fruit no effect of Satisfaction and in Death it self they pass to Immortality The Fathers were so far from believing that Souls were burnt in Purgatory that many of them believed not that the Souls could be tormented without the Bodies Thus Tertullian in the 48 Chap. of his Apologetick The Soul saith he cannot suffer without solid Matter that is without Flesh And Gregory in the Oration of the Lords Resurrection The Fire can never work upon the separate Soul and Darkness cannot be grievous to it because it hath no Eyes Ambrose in the first book of Penitence Chap. 17. The Soul without the Body and the Body without the Soul cannot be Partakers of Punishment or Reward Chrysostom in the 39 Homily upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians The Soul without the Flesh shall not receive her hiden Goods as likewise she shall not be punisht without the Flesh The Truth is so strong on our side that many of our Adversaries freely confess that the Fathers speak little or not at all of Purgatory Navarrus the Popes Penitentiary in the beginning of the year of Jubile saith No Orthodox doubteth that there is a Purgatory Yet the Ancients make no mention of it or very seldom and that he saith after Roffensis otherwise the Cardinal of Rochester whom he alledgeth Alphonsus de Castro one of the Doctors of the Councel of Trent in his eight Book against Heresies upon the Word Indulgentia speaks thus In the ancient Writers the mention of the Transubstantiation of the Body of Christ is very rare of the Procession of the Holy Ghost more rare yet of the Purgatory they make almost no mention at all especially the Greek Authors as also to this day the Greeks have not believed Purgatory One may see in the Dialogues of Gregory the First That Satan in his time was brewing that Mystery by Visions and Apparitions of Souls some of which said that they purged themselves at the Smoak of Baths others in the Wind others in Rivers and this was already in the year of our Lord 595. But the Popes that came after found out another kind of Purgatory wonderfully gainful whereby they have heaped up to themselves and their Clergy infinite Riches For the Pope by Bulls and Indulgences fetcheth Souls out of Purgatory at the Suit of those that will come to his Price to buy them and particular Masses whose number is infinite are bought very dear and none of them is sung with particular Application to beggers or those that have given nothing Yet they hold one Age to be exempted from Purgatory for say they when Jesus Christ cometh to judge the World then all that live in the World shall be exempted from that Torment In the mean while one may wonder that whilst Jesus Christ is interceding for the Souls that are burning in that Fire for he intercedeth for all the faithful those Souls come not out by this Intercession but by the Popes Indulgence By all that has been said here Your Grace may perceive how much you are mistaken in the Fathers and indeed by your manner of alledging them it is easie to see that you have not read them but that some ignorant men furnish you with Passages which have quite another Sense than that which they put upon them If forsaking what you know from the holy Scripture which as St. Paul saith is able to make us wise upon Salvation you take those things upon Trust which others tell you out of the Fathers and if you greedily embrace all that shall be presented unto you of this kind you will find enough to help your Resolution not to be separated neither in this World nor in the other from my Lady your Dutchess You say that you would know the Grounds of her Religion whilst her Grace did not trouble her self to know the Grounds of yours My Lord how could that Thought come into your Mind to believe Purgatory upon two or three Passages of Fathers distored from their right Sense and to shut your Eyes against all that the Word of God speaks against it Apoc. 14.13 Out of that good Word you might have learned that Blessed are they that dye in the Lord that they rest from their Labours and that their Works follow them Isa 57.1 2. that when the righteous dyeth he shall enter into Peace that we must make to our selves Friends by Alms Luke 16.9 which when we fail may recieve us into everlasting Habitations That Jesus Christ said to the repenting Thief crucified with him Luke 23.43 This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise And yet by the Doctrine of the Roman Church he had need of great Purgation 1 John 1.7 That the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth us from all Sin This is our true Purgatory God who is all just and all good would he take two Payments for the same Debt when the first Payment which is the death of Christ is sufficient would he delight to torment his Children for many Ages in an internal fire for Sins which he hath freely pardoned as we learn of St. Paul Eph. 4.32 Col. 2.13 that God for Christs sake hath forgiven us all our Trespasses Every Father that chastiseth his Children unless he be altogether unnatural doth it to make them better but the Roman Church will have God to burn his Children not to make them more righteous for by their Doctrine they are perfectly righteous before they enter into Purgatory but to content himself and satisfie his Justice Let them find if they can one example in Scripture of any Soul that was sent to Purgatory It is very considerable that in the Levitical Law there are Sacrifices prescribed for all sorts of Sin and Pollution even of Leprosie and the touching of a dead body but that law prescribes no Sacrifice for the dead nor any
A SHORT VIEW OF THE Chief Points IN CONTROVERSY Between the REFORMED CHURCHES And the CHURCH of ROME IN Two LETTERS to the Duke of Bouillon upon his turning PAPIST Written by the Reverend PETER DV MOVLIN Professor of Divinity in the University of Sedan Newly translated out of the FRENCH Copy which was never Printed LONDON Printed for Benjamin Tooke at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1680. To the Honourable Sir NORTON KNATCHBVL Knight and Baronet Honourable Sir THese Letters written fifty years ago to reduce the Duke of Bouillon to the Protestant Religion which he had forsaken never were put to the Press for Fear of provoking that great Lord to confute them with Arguments of Power against which those of Truth and Learning too often cannot stand That they now come out in English the Church of England is obliged Sir to you who having by your diligent Search made your self Owner of a fair Manuscript of the same were pleased to bestow it upon me the Authors Son adding your Request which to me is a Command that I would translate it into English and give it to the Publick I have now obeyed your Order which I could not have done in a more seasonable Conjuncture and I cannot in Duty but return this Translation to the bountiful Giver of the Original Sir you have by your excellent Labours already publisht shewn to the World how well you can match hearty Piety with eminent Learning Now you are pleased to give another Instance of your Affection to both by procuring the setting forth these following Treatises Short indeed they are but as compact with the Sinews of Reason and Learning as any that ever came from the Study of that strong Champion of Gods Cause May God be glorified by it his Truth asserted his Opposers converted and your Zeal for Gods Truth and Glory be rewarded by God and imitated by men So prayeth SIR Your true Honourer and most humble Servant PETER DU MOULIN THE FIRST EPISTLE MY LORD UPON hearing the Report that you purpose to change your Religion I continued a long time doubtful whether I should write to Your Grace about it For being hardly perswaded that such a thought could come into your mind I was afraid to be offensive to Your Grace by my Mistrust But now seeing that Report to continue and increase I could hold no longer from imparting my thoughts to Your Grace upon that Subject being inferiour to none in Fidelity and Affection to your Service You were instructed My Lord from your Infancy by an Excellent Father and a Virtuous Mother in a Religion of which you have learned to fear God and serve him according to his Word In that Religion if you had met with some Scruple you ought at the least to have heard both the Parties and not have taken counsel onely of the Adversaries This is plain tempting of God who being thereby justly provoked blindeth the Spirit of those that seek occasions to turn from his Service Had Your Grace done me that Honour to acquaint me with your Doubts I might have easily shewed you that the Roman Religion is altogether contrary to the Word of God That they celebrate every day a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Redemption of Souls other than the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ That the Communion of the Cup expresly commanded in Scripture is denied to the Laity That the People say Prayers to God which they do not understand and the Publick Service is performed in a Language unknown to them contrary to the express Prohibition of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.16 That the Trinity is represented in carved Stone and Picture and the Adoration of Images is enjoyned by many Popes and new Councels contrary to Gods express Prohibition in the Second Commandment Which was taken away from the Law of God in the Offices and Breviaries that the People might not see it That Bones and Relicks of Saints are adored That by the Doctrine of their Purgatory God is made to burn the Souls of his Children for Sins fully pardoned and for which Jesus Christ hath wholly satisfied and that not to mend the Sinners but to satisfie his Justice That the Pope without any Authority from the Word of God taketh upon him to be Successor to St. Peter in the Apostleship and in the Primacy over the Universal Church To defend which Primacy Epistles and Decretals of the Antient Bishops of Rome were forged and many Books and supposititious Passages the falshood whereof we shew by invincible Proofs In Decrees Councels Canons and Principal Authors of the Roman Church the Pope is called God and the Divine Majesty having all Power in Heaven and Earth By which Power he fetcheth Souls out of Purgatory puts such as he pleaseth in the List of the Saints by Canonizing them giveth Pardons of Sins of two or three thousand years giveth and taketh away Kingdoms dispenseth with Oaths made unto God dissolveth Marriages lawfully contracted boasting that he cannot err in the Faith and that he hath Power to add new Articles to the Creed to be Judge above Scripture and to alter that which God hath instituted in his Word Of these I could bring to Your Grace a thousand Proofs drawn from the Decrees and Councels of Popes and from Publick Experience The Pope boasteth that he hath a Treasure in which he layeth up all the Overplus of the Penitential Works of the Saints and distributeth them unto others by his Indulgences and makes multitudes to travel two or three hundred Leagues to get the Remission of their Sins which is offered to them at home gratis by the Doctrine of the Gospel If a Rich man dieth who hath given any thing to the Church he hath many private Masses Obits and Suffrages for his Money But never any private Mass is sung for a Beggar or one that hath given nothing In the Roman Church departed Saints are prayed to of whom Holy Scripture saith that they know not the Hearts of men and whose Invocation hath neither Command nor Example nor Promise in the Word of God I am told that Your Grace hath given ear to Capucins who have for their Patron and Author of their Order St. Francis whose Life if you had read as our Adversaries themselves have publish'd it you might think that it was purposely written to defame him There you may find how he preach'd unto Birds that being stark naked he embraced a Woman made of Snow to repress his Heats that he took up again the Lice that fell down from his Garments and many the like Feats These Capucins as other Monks boast that they doe Works of Supererogation that is better and more perfect Works than God hath commanded in his Law For which therefore they look for a degree of Glory in Paradise above other Saints who had attained to no greater Perfection than to fulfil the Law of God perfectly who thereby have not got any greater Reward than Eternal Life If by the Doctrine of the
and Sovereign Judges of the Sense of it Yet the Roman Church never made any Interpretation of Scripture which was generally approved We have onely Comments of Doctors who disagree among themselves Truly the Church of Rome intends not to make Scripture plainly understood since she hides it from the People and will not have it to be read and hath forbidden the Translation of it into the vulgar Tongues What Interpretation can we expect from the Pope who boasteth that he can change the Commandments of God and saith that Scripture is subject unto him Be pleased my Lord especially to consider whether it be just and reasonable that the Pope should be Judge in his own Cause and whether the Roman Church can be the Sovereign Judge of her own Duty and whether in this Question whether the Roman Church be a Sovereign Judge in points of Faith the Roman Church her Self can be the Judge To give you some Instances of this Jesus Christ saith to St. Peter Mat. 16.18.19 and to all his Apostles Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven c. Upon which Text the Roman Prelate groundeth his Primacy In Conscience is it just that he should be acknowledged the Sovereign and infallible Judge and Interpreter of those Texts upon which he groundeth his Empire For who can doubt but that he will give Judgment on his own side as indeed by his Interpretations he hath laid up for himself greater Riches than that of the greatest Kings and hath built to himself an earthly Empire See then how he interprets that Text. Because Christ hath said Whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth the Pope pretends he may also loose those under the Earth drawing Souls out of Purgatory And whereas Jesus Christ in that Text speaks only of loosing Sinners that are bound with Ecclesiastical Censures the Pope from that Text assumes unto himself the Power of loosing Subjects from the Obedience sworn unto their Princes of dispensing with Oaths of freeing Children from the Obedience due to their Fathers and of dissolving Marriages lawfully contracted And whereas Christ gave to all his Disciples that loosing Power the Pope hath reserved unto himself many Cases in which none but himself can give Absolution Besides he so interpreteth that Text as if all that is said unto St. Peter was said unto the Pope of which yet the Scripture saith nothing and giveth to St. Peter no Successor in his Primacy or in his Apostleship Your self My Lord may judge whether the Pope who hath forbidden Marriage unto Bishops can be a good Interpreter of the words of the Apostle 1 Tim. 3.2 3. A Bishop must be the Husband of one Wife having his children subject in all gravity Whether the Pope having taken away the Cup of the Lords Supper from the Laity can be a good Interpreter of these words of Christ Drink ye all of it Whether the Pope and the Roman Church which by Canons of Councels command the Adoration of Images can be good Interpreters of the Second Commandement which forbids it Whether the Pope who makes Ordinances for publick Brothel-houses at Rome can be a good Interpreter of Gods Commandement Thou shalt not commit Adultery Whether the Pope who forbids Flesh and other Meats can be a good Interpreter of the Apostles Precept Whatsoever is set before you eat asking no question for Conscience sake Whether the Roman Church which in the Councel of Trent defineth that Coveting is no sin be a good Interpreter of the Commandement Thou shalt not covet Whether the Pope who brings into the publick Service a Language not understood by the People can be a good Interpreter of the fourteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians where it is so many times forbidden to pray and speak in the Church in an unknown Tongue Whether Pope John XXIII who denied the Immortality of the Soul and for that Crime and many more was condemned by the Councel of Constance could have been a good Interpreter of those Texts of Scripture which speak of Eternal Life For your part My Lord you take another course For without speaking of the Authority of the Roman Church which acknowledgeth no Judge but the Pope you say that you have found in the Fathers of the five first Centuries the Religion which you seem resolved to embrace Wherein you resist openly the Roman Church which admitteth not the Fathers for her Judges and condemn them very often of Errour Ignorance and Heresie Then you contradict the very Fathers who in a thousand places refuse to be believed or received for Judges and send the Reader continually to the Holy Scripture Hardly shall you find many Texts of Scripture wherein the Fathers agree about the Interpretation You may be pleased therefore to consider that you undertake a Journey in a way where you see no Light They are Greek and Latin Fathers which you never read and where you can get no Information for your Judgment A man that hath nothing else to do needs to spend ten years in study before he can get some mediocrity of knowledge in them and the words which they use are taken now in a quite different sense How can you know whether the Passages brought to you be faithfully alledged How can you know whether the Books whence they are taken be not supposititious Of which the Multitude is incredible But after all If the Verdict of the Fathers be received the Roman Church must be cast and it will appear that their Religion is but New Since the Roman Church and the Pope boast that they can alter the Commandements of God and make new Articles of Faith even in that they have a new Religion Now you may ask Who then shall be the Interpreter Who can give us the true Sense of Scripture I answer that since the Question here is of an Interpreter that cannot err and who shall always infallibly find out the true Sense there is no such in being God hath not in any place of his Word bestowed that Gift of Infallible Interpretation upon the Roman Church no more than upon the Greek or the Syrian There is no need of such an Interpreter for things necessary to Salvation are so clearly set down in Scripture that they need no Interpretation Must we have an Interpreter to know that God hath created the World that we must love God with all our heart that the Son of God is dead for us Now I say that all the Points necessary to Salvation are to be found in Scripture in terms as clear as these The Interpretations used by the Pastors of our Churches are taken from the Scripture it self so they are not the Interpreters it is God that expounds himself For Example When they expound these words This is my Body they take the Interpretation from Jesus Christ himself who saith that it is a Commemoration of him and from three Evangelists who say with one accord that Jesus Christ hath given Bread to
his Disciples and from the words of Christ that he drunk the Fruit of the Vine we expound his other words this is my Bloud We expound also these words of Christ This is my Body from St. Pauls words who 1 Cor. 11. saith four times that we eat Bread in the Lords Supper and that we break Bread Certainly that Apostle giveth a clear Exposition of Christ's words This is my Body and this is my Blood saying 1 Cor. 10.16 The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ We alledge also those Texts that say that Jesus Christ is no more in this World that the Heaven doth contain him that Christ is like unto us in all things sin onely excepted and that by consequent he hath not a Body dispersed in a Million of several places at once and inclosed whole in every Crum of the Host and in every Drop of the Chalice Likewise when Jesus saith Do this in remembrance of me We expound not these words as the Councel of Trent doth which puts this Sense upon them I do constitute you to be Priests to sacrifice my Body really under the species of Bread and Wine but we bring the Interpretation which St. Paul addeth 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as you eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lords Death Consider also that there is great Difference between a Judgment of Authority and a Judgment of Discretion With this last we judge of Meats by the Taste without giving Laws to any And it is so that not only Pastours but also every one of the People may and doth judge of the true Doctrine And it is so that St. Paul will have the Corinthians to judge of his Doctrine 1 Cor. 10.15 I speak as to wise men judge ye what I say Of that matter and of the Interpretation of Scripture I have written a Book purposely which I have dedicated to your Grace and which was presented to you by Monsieur de Cabrilles from me I asked your Grace at Liege whether you had received it Your Answer was that you knew not what was in it for you have laboured to strengthen your self with Reasons against us but would not take Notice how we answer them and have conversed much with our Adversaries but hid your self from your Servants who might have cleared your Mind about their Objections and armed you with Answers Of the Condemnation of Hereticks Your Grace saith farther that you have desired to see whether the ancient Hereticks were condemned by Persons of our Religion and whether one man be found in all Antiquity that had the same Religion as we in all Points These Condemnations of Hereticks were made by men sound in the Faith that were of the same Religion as we in all points who have condemned many Errours now received in the Roman Church The Councel of Laodicea approved by many Universal Councels which were held since rejecteth the Books of Judith Tobit Maccabees and other Apochryphal Books The Eliberin Councel held about the year of the Lord 305 hath made this Canon It is decreed that there shall be no Picture in the Church that the things that are adored or served be not painted upon Walls The Councels that have commanded the Adoration of Images are later by 4 or 5 hundred years In the first Nicen Councel the Marriage of the Pastors of the Church was approved upon the Remonstrance of Paphnutius Such is the fourth Canon of the Councel of Gangra If any makes a Difference of a married Priest as if he ought not to participate of the Oblation when he doth administer let him be Anathema This is the XXXV Canon of the Councel of Laodicea Christians must not forsake the Church of God and go to serve Angels and gather Congregations If any them be found applying himself to that secret Idolatry let him be Anathema because he hath forsaken the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God About the year of the Lord 399 a Councel was held at Carthage of which this is the 23 Canon When Service is made at the Altar the Prayer must always be address't to the Father The present Roman Church contradicts that Canon for in their Service they have Prayers addrest unto Saints This is the 25 Canon of the same Councel In the Divine Service let nothing be offered but the Body and Blood of the Lord that is Bread and Wine mingled with Water The 16 Canon of the IV Councel of Carthage absolutely forbids swearing by the Creatures To this the Catechism of the Councel of Trent is contrary which approveth swearing by Relicks The 10 Canon of that Councel of Carthage saith Mulier baptizare non presumat Let not a Woman presume to baptize The Practise of the Roman Church is contrary to that The Milenitan Councel where St. Austin was present and of which he hath made the Canons forbids Appeals from Africk to Rome in these Words It is declared That if the Priests or other Clerks in such Causes as they shall have shall complain of the Judgment of their Bishops the Bishops shall hear them But he that will appeal beyond the Seas let him not be admitted to the Communion by any living in Africk In the VI Councel of Carthage there is a long Epstle of the Councel to Celestin Bishop of Rome who by a new Usurpation would draw to himself the Appeals of the Bishops of Africk whereby the Fathers of the Councel beseech him to receive no more Appeals from their Countrey forbidding him to send any more of his Legats or to use any more forged Canons to raise his Dignity and bring Worldly Pride into the Church of Christ Therefore Baronius and Bellarmin and Cotton Jesuits condemn that Councel In the Councel of Chalcedon held in the Year of the Lord 451 the Legats of the Bishop of Rome pretending to the Primacy and bringing forth a forged Canon of Nicea laboured to hinder the Bishop of Constantinople from being equal with the Bishop of Rome against which the Councel made this Canon The Fathers with good reason have given Prerogatives to the See of Antient Rome because she was the Imperial City And the hundred and fifty Bishops of the first Councel of Constantinople moved with the like consideration have attributed to the most holy See of New Rome which is Constantinople equal Priviledges judging with good reason that the City honoured with the Empire and the Senate and which hath the same Prerogatives as the Antient Rome Imperial ought to be magnified as much as Rome it self in Ecclesiastical things The Popes of our time and their Advocates condemn that Council not only because it equalleth the Bishop of Constantinople with that of Rome but chiefly because it groundeth the preeminence of the Bishop of Rome upon the Dignity of the City because Rome is the Capital City of the Empire and not
is the Sign and Figure of his Body and Blood and that the Signs are ordinarily called by the Names of the things which they represent Thus in his Epist 23 to Boniface Hath not Christ been once sacrificed in himself And yet he is sacrificed unto the People in a sacred Sign and he doth not lye who being asked answereth that he is sacrificed For if the Sacraments had not some Likeness to the things of which they are Sacraments they could not be Sacraments Now by Reaof that Likeness they take often the name of the very things Add to this the Canon De consecr dist 2. cap. 48. i. e. the Roman Code of Canon Law The Immolation of the Flesh which is done by the hands of the Priest is called the Passion the Death and the crucifying of Jesus Christ not in Truth but by a significant Mystery This is then the Sense of these places of St. Austin that the Eucharist is the Sacrifice of the same Price because it is the Sign and the Sacrament of it and because the Signs take commonly the name of the thing signified as the same Father saith St. Aug. quaest 55. in Levit. Idem contra Adimant c. 12. Theod. dialog 1. The signifying thing useth to take the name of the thing signified And the Lord hath made no Difficulty to say This is my Body when he gave the Sign of his Body And Theodoret expounding these words This is my Body saith that the Lord hath given to the Sign the name of his Body And Tertullian Tertul. contr Marc. 4.40 This is my Body that is the Sign of my Body Indeed the Eucharist is called a Sacrifice of our Ransom in the same manner as in the Institution of the Sacrament the Bread is called the Body of Christ and in the same manner as the Cup is called the New Testament because it is the Sacrament and Memorial of the same for neither the Cup nor that which is in it is a Testament St. Austin knew that Jesus Christ hath wholly paid our Ransom on the Cross and that there is no other Ransom but the Death of Jesus Christ to redeem us now the Eucharist is not the Death of Jesus Christ And if to apply the Sacrifice of the Cross unto us we must sacrifice Jesus Christ again by the same Reason to apply the Death of Jesus Christ unto us we must put him to Death again But what can we ask more since our Adversaries confess that Jesus Christ did not offer himself in Sacrifice in the Eucharist and put that Sacrifice among the unwritten Traditions So much Bellarmine confesseth in the first Book of the Mass Chap. 27. § Quinta The Oblation saith he which is made after the Consecration belongeth to the Integrity of the Sacrifice but not to the Essence of it which is proved because the Lord did not make that Oblation nor the Sacrifice at the first And both Baronius and the Jesuit Salmeron put the Mass and the Sacrifice of the same among the unwritten Traditions As for the Passage you alledge out of the Catechisms of Cyrill of Jerusalem I need say no more but that the Book which you quote is supposititious whose Style is far different from that of the other beforegoing God hath permitted that an evident Sign of Forgery should be in that Book the Author exhorteth his Hearers that they be no more Spectators of the Combats of Gladiators of the Amphitheater and of the Horse-races in the Hippodrome But since Jerusalem was Christian there hath been no Spectacles in the Amphitheater or Hippodrome Gesner in his Bibliotheca saith that he hath seen those Catechisms in the Library of Ausburg under the name of John of Constantinople Of the Invocation of Saints For the Invocation of Saints Your Grace alledgeth St. Ambrose in the Book of Widows where he saith That we must pray to the Angels that have the keeping of us and to the Saints and Martyrs of whom we may expect Assistance St. Ambrose writ that Book when he was a new Christian but he changed his Language after that time for in his Oration for Theodosius written long after he saith Thou alone O Lord must be called upon and prayed to And Mary was the Temple of God St. Ambr. l. 3. c. 12. de Sp. Sanct. but she was not God wherefore we must worship God alone who wrought in that Temple And a little before We read that we must not worship any but God for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve The Comment upon the Epistle to the Romans ascribed to Ambrose upon the first Chapter saith Address is made to the King by Colonels and Governours because the King is a man and knoweth not to whom he ought to commit the Administration of the State but to get Gods Favour who is ignorant of nothing for he knoweth what men are deserving there is no need of any ones Suffrage to help us but of a devout Spirit And upon Colos 1. Christ holds the Primacy in all things wherefore if any beleive that he must have Devotion for some Element or for some of the Angels and Powers let him know that he is in an Errour Chrysostom in his first Sermon of Penitence speaks thus God must be prayed to without an Intercessor And upon Heb. 1. in his third Homily Why do you look up to Angels gaping after them They are Servants to the Son of God sent to several places in your behalf And in the eighteenth Homily upon the Epistle to the Romans towards the end To whom wilt thou have Recourse Whose Help wilt thou implore Wilt thou call upon Abraham But he cannot hear thee Wilt thou call upon those Virgins But they will give thee none of their Oyl Wilt thou call upon thy Father or thy Grand-father but none of them though never so holy hath Power to alter that Judgment These things being considered thou must venerate him and pray to him alone who hath Power to blot out that Obligation and to put out that Flame St. Austin saith S. Aug. Enchir. c. 3. Of God alone we must ask the Good which we hope to do or hope to obtain by our good Works And in the Book of the Quantity of the Soul 34 chap. God alone must be served by the Soul for he alone is the Maker of it And in the last Chapter of the Book of the true Religion Let the Worship of dead men be none of our Religion for if they have lived godly they are not so disposed to seek such Honours but they would have us worship him by whose Illumination they rejoyce that we are Partners of their Dignity We must therefore honour them by way of Imitation and not worship them on the account of Religion And he speaks thus to God Idem l. confess c. 42. Whom can I find to reconcile me with thee Must I address my self to Angels By what Prayers By
what Sacraments Many have tryed these ways and are fallen to the Desire of curious Visions and have deserved to be deceived Tertullian in the thirtieth Chapter of his Apologetick speaks thus I cannot ask these things of any but him of whom I know that I shall obtain them For it is he only that grants them and I am he that have a Right to obtain them being his Servant that call upon him alone Likewise Origen against Celsus the eighth Book saith Above all things we must pray to none but God and his only Son Ignatius who lived near the time of the Apostles saith in the Epistle to the Philadelphians You Virgins have none but Jesus Christ and the Father of Jesus Christ in your Prayers Clemens Alexandrinus speaks thus Cl. Alexand l. 11. Strom. There being none but one only that is truly good which is God both we and the Angels pray to him alone And so Athanasius It is manifest saith he that the Patriarch Jacob in his Prayer joyned none with God but him that is his Word Athan. Orat. 4. cont Arian because it is he only that manifesteth the Father unto us By a notorious Falshood among the Works of this Father was foisted a Book of the Mother of God where she is called the Queen of Heaven and Christians are commanded to adore her But Bellarmine in his Book of Ecclesiastical Writers and Banonius in the year 48. § 19 20. acknowledges the Book to be supposititious By the like Forgery in St. Austin's Book of the Spirit and the Soul there is a Prayer to the Saints inserted but in the same Book Boetius is quoted who was not born when Augustine dyed an evident Proof that the book is falsely attributed to him There is a Book of the same Father Of the Care that must be had of the Dead which is truly his but corrupted and falsified in many places For he is made to speak of Prayers to Saints departed as good and laudable yet he saith there that the departed Saints know nothing of all that the Living do and that if it were otherwise his good and holy Mother would not have forsaken him Then he addeth The Spirits of the deceased are in a place where they see nothing of all that is done or that happeneth to men in this Life And a little after It must be acknowledged that the dead know not that which is done here while it is a doing but they know it afterwards by them that dye and come to them Was St. Austin so much overseen as to teach that those must be called upon by us who understand us not nor know what is done here below unless some dye and perhaps afterwards bring them News of it This Advantage we have in this point that our Adversaries acknowledge that there is no Commandment of God for the Invocation of Saints and that the Holy Scripture saith nothing of it And that under the Old Testament that is for the space of four thousand years the Church used no Invocation of them All the Prayers in Scripture are addressed unto God alone and therefore we have no Assurance or Encouragement to call upon the Saints which we can ground upon the Word of God Is it not enough for us to have the Son of God for our Intercessor who tells us None comes to the Father but by me John 14. For how can we pray with Faith and Assurance to those who discern not the Prayers of the Heart For Scripture tells us that God alone knoweth the Hearts of men 2 Chron. 6.30 I might say that in the Roman Church many Saints are prayed to that never were in the World and others whose Holiness is very dubious and whose Lives were very bad Three hundred and seventy years past in the Christian Church without any Invocation of Saints The first that used it was Gregory Nazianzen who yet invocating the Souls of Constantius who was an Arian of Athanasius and of Basil added this Clause If thou understand me and If the Dead have any Sense But the Invocation of Saints was not received till a long time after in the Publick Service All these things considered My Lord I cannot wonder enough that Your Grace chooseth rather to be ruled by one Passage of St. Ambrose which perhaps is forged than by the Word of God and the Church of the first Ages after Christ For would you subscribe to all that St. Ambrose saith In the first book of Virgins he saith that the Angels fell by lying with Women In his Speech upon Gratian and Valentinian and upon the first Psalm he saith that some rise again sooner than others And in his Oration of the Faith of Resurrection he makes three sorts of Resurrection the first of the Patriarchs and Apostles the second of the Gentiles converted to the Faith the third of those that come from the South and the North. In his first Book of Offices chap. 50. he condemneth second Marriages In the first Book of the Holy Ghost he teacheth that the Baptism in the name of the Holy Ghost alone without naming the Father and the Son is valid In the tenth Sermon upon the 118 Psalm he saith that the Damned which are in Hell shall in the end be saved when the time of their Punishment is fulfilled The Roman Church believeth not with Ambrose that all Saints shall be burnt with the material Fire of the day of Judgment as we shall see hereafter Neither doth the Roman Church believe with Ambrose that Melchisedeck was Jesus Christ himself Many Pages might be filled with the like Errours of this Father whose Authority you value more than that of God speaking in the Holy Scriptures Of Prayer for the Dead and of Purgatory Your Grace endeth your Allegations of Fathers with Theodoret and Austin The first of which is alledged to say We believe that there is a Fire of Purgatory in which Souls are purged like Gold in the Furnace The other saith He that will not till his Field shall be chastised in this World and after his Death shall be punisht in the Fire of Hell or in that of Purgatory And addeth that he hath made a whole Book of the Prayers for the Dead and that the whole Antiquity hath so practiced it They that have helped you with these Passages have miserably abused your Grace It is true that all the ancient Church prayed for the Dead but in a manner which the Roman Church condemneth and holds to be ridiculous and erroneous Not one Passage can be found in the genuine Works of any Father by which it can appear that he prayed for the Dead to draw them out of Purgatory Could Your Grace have the Patience to read St. Austins Book of the Care to be taken of the Dead you would find that there is not one Word of Purgatory in the whole Book The Christian Church in the III and IV Ages after Christ prayed for the Saints for the Apostles and Martyrs
Service for their Relief yea Deut. 26.12 14. it opposeth it plainly for he that brought unto the Temple or Sanctuary his first Fruits Tithes and Offerings to give Thanks unto God for his Income and all the Crop of the Year was commanded to protest that he had not taken away ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the dead All these things My Lord drawn out of the Word of God any founded upon the Nature of the Gospel which the Son of God hath brought you from Heaven are they not better than some Passages of the Fathers which you alledge contrary to their Intention and which say things that the Roman Church approveth not How comes it to pass My Lord that since your Marriage you have taken another Rule for your Religion than the Word of God You will be guided by the Fathers but the Fathers send you back to the Scripture and will not have you to rest upon their Authority acknowledging that they themselves are subject to Errour And for such the Roman Church doth acknowledge them and in a thousand things find fault with them Certainly the Holy Scripture without the help of mens Glosses hath light enough of its own to lead us to Salvation O! My Lord it is dangerous to dally with God and to bow the rule of his Word to the Will of another As for My Lady Duchess your wife I wonder not that being nursed in that Persuasion that her Religion is good she doth her utmost to draw you to it thinking thereby to do Service to God Having no Instruction in the Word of God her Grace doth that which she thinks to be good and I hope that God finally will be merciful to her But you My Lord who have been carefully instructed in the Word of God in whose Family God had planted his Covenant whom God hath blest with so many effects of his Assistance cannot but have a dreadful Account to give unto God I could alledge ti Your Grace the memory of my Lord your Father whom God had endowed with an incomparable Capacity the Sorrow of your Lady Mother whose Death you hasten by your Change the Anguish of your nearest Relations and of all your Servants and Subjects whom you fill with Confusion and the Inconvenience to your Affairs which you do your self acknowledge I choose rather to exhort your Grace in the name of God and as your most humble and faithful Servant that you take pitty of your own Soul and that at least you delay the taking of that final Resolution till your Return unto this your Town and till I may endeavour to shew to those Doctors in your Presence that they abuse your Grace with those Passages of the Fathers wherewith they have armed you But I am sure they dare not appear before me to maintain those things which they infuse into your mind You have been many years harkning to them alone without asking any of our Counsel or Assistance Grant us at least that we may have some days to answer them I make no Doubt but that by speaking thus I may loose both your Graces and your Ladies Favour But having but few days to live I commit to God all that may come of it and will endeavour to discharge my duty with a good Conscience Which I will always do without any Diminution of the Respect and Obedience which I owe to your Grace and without intermitting my continual prayers to God for Your Grace and for my Lady Dutchess as being My Lord Your Graces most humble and most obedient Servant PETER DU MOULIN FINIS