sense and as St. Basil upon the 115. Psal They constitute their sense the measure of all things is not this to invert the whole frame of Gods spiritual world According to that of St. Basil in his 43. ep As in things which are seen with the eyes experience is of more consideration then reason so in the most excellent tenents of our faith is of more force then any juncture of reason O how St. Augustine meets with these socinians towards the end of his 56 Epistle To these straights they are driven who finding themselves most miserably laid on their backs when their authority is put in ballance to see how it will endure the test against the authority of the Church They do therefore endeavour under the shew and promise of reason to quel the inmoveable authority of the holy Church neither is it any news for it is the accustomary practise of all Here ticks and in his 22. Ep. he saith That if a Catholick desires a reason of his saith that he may understand what he beleeves there must be an eye had to his capacity that he may by reason obtain a proportionable measure of understanding whence we learn that 's the regular discipline of hereticks under a false vizard of reason to lay aside the most firm authority of Gods Church Hence we also learn how Catholicks make due use of reason in matters of Faith explicating holy mysteries according to each capacity I wondered to finde Mr. Hobbs in his 12. Chap. n. 6. to be so positive in attributing it to an error of the vulgar to hold that Faith is not begotten by study and natural reason His principal ground is because it were impertinent to oblige us to give an account of our Faith that is to render a reason of it as he would have it Englished if our reason doth not acquire it Of how great force this his reason is I leave any man to consider He deals fiercely against inspiration of Faith and saith all the world is mad in asserting it he conceives that every Christian would be a prophet if he had his Faith by supernatural infusion Therefore in order to him Chillingworth and the rest and any who shall desire to know in what manner or how far Catholicks use the assistance of reason perticularly in Faith I will briefly decipher it because here is the main scruple of our new modellers of Christianity To this end we must understand that Logick hath two questions The one is An sit Whether the thing questioned hath any real existence The other is Quid sit Or Propter quid sit That is what the essence of it is or by what cause it is In the first question as Neophites we make enquiry after the truth of Catholick Faith by weighing the motives which being considered ab intrinseco or from the internal principles of them we finde profoundness even surpassing the greatest jugdments with simplicity proportioned to the weak est understandings contempered with sanctity compared to the tenents of all sects either of Infidels or Hereticks wherein they do infinitety exceed them all If we do consider ab extrinseco that is by their inseparable annexed habiliments we finde perpetual and inviolable succession delivered from hand to hand from the very fountain to us witnessed sufficiently by the very Church walls we find also most exemplary holiness of those who imbrace this faith which St. Augustine celebrates in his book intituled of the manners of the Catholick Church also wonderful change of manners in those who are new converts by the ancient much valued Angelical purity and stupendious austerity of both Sexes who imbrace Heremitical Cenobitical or Anachoretical reclusions also the gallowes adorned with the blood of so many illustrous martyrs as in our Country where so many learned men expose themselves to all cruelties for the good of others and voluntarily under go ignominious death daily for the confirmation of others Lastly the working of miracles that is such wonders which either in substance transcend all nature as to restore sight to them that are born blinde or raise the dead and the like or in the manner as to cure diseases without applying causes c. Out of these and the rest of the motives by reason we attain to be able to make a firm judgment first of the manifest credibility of Catholick misteries insomuch that we clearly see that it is more reason to be matriculated into the Church then into any other Sect. This step being made and digested by further penetrating discursively all the motives we find the conjunction of them all to be impossible to the whole latitude of nature which a wise man weighing in comparison to the continual mutation and vicissitude of all natural causes will be able to demonstrate the Catholick to be supernatural and absolutely true because reavealed and inspired by God which is the last resolution of our Faith wherein as you see reason conducteth us in our enquiry to the full result that is to the formal object of our Faith which is God revealing where we stick not for our reason but for the revelation of God wherein Christian Faith is compleated It is true that the first Christians to whom these revelations were immediately made were prophets but to the especial assistance of God in our assenting to these supernatural truths already revealed doth not make prophets which is an action of a different nature from formal revelation as school-men at large demonstrate in the tract of Faith and it is evident in it self wherein Mr. Hobbs seems to have erred Hitherto we use reason in the disquisition of the truth of Faith according to the question An sit In the other question called Quid sit Or by what means or causes is it Which amongst Logicians is the nobler question In this we proceed not by doubtfully enquiring of the truth of objects of Faith or of their real existence which is disputed in the State of our Neophitism but all fluctuancy and doubt deposed touching the truth of them wherein our Socinians boggle for they stick still at An sit But our learned men proceed to the other question labouring to understand the truths speculating the essences and natures of each of them and the Subalternal connexion of them each to other which is the proper Sphear of a divine or school-man for his own and others satisfaction There are the bounds of our reason intervening to attain and to preserve already attained Faith wherein as is clear reason is the servant not mistris But on the contrary ye give no limits to reason but as in the progress or search so in the possession of Faith ye still stick most to your reason and therefore ye doubt or deny what ye understand not for ye perswade your selves that the mysteries necessary to be beleeved ought to be per se nota clear in their very terms insomuch that every one of you brag your absolute comprehension of them And hence it
my designe His proof is because every man in his private worship before the City was made was to be guided by his private reason which therfore he might submit to the publick reason of the Common-wealth If this be true in point of reason as Mr. Hobbs much contendeth in order to the civil Magistrate how much more will this be concluded in respect of spiritual Magistracy to whom this power is conveyed not from the people but from God as Christianity teacheth Mr. Hobbs goeth far beyond this for he will have each one to be obedient to his Civil Church even in things clearly unlawful as he tells us in his 15. Chap. num 18. and elsewhere frequently Thus they condemn Christian obedience in things most congtuous to Christian reason and yet authorise their own tribunals contrary to faith and reason Mr. Hobbs saith n. 17. That except the power of determining Gods worship were in the law of nature translated to the City or Magistracy that there would be infinite sects divisions and consequently confusions in it and therefore he saith consequently enough that every man must submit to it The antecedent I understand not for the law of nature is a law declared according even to him n. 3. Pertacita rectae rationis dictamina by the secret suggestions of right reason in which he differs not from Cicero Lex naturae est ipsa ratio summa insita in natura quae jubét ea quae faeienda sunt prohibetque contraria c. It is not so much declared by reason as it is reason it self in the highest acception seated in nature and it is therefore called Lex naturae because nature signifieth a certain common vertue which impels all men to a general prosecution of good avoydance of evil whence they cannot will any thing under the pure notion of evil In brief the Law or light of nature radically is a power in the soul universally commanding the pursuit of good and declination of evil answerable to the first principles of reason And therefore speaking rigidly the soul in her creation is not so purely tabula rasa a bare table according to Aristotle and his followers Plato and his whole school she is enriched with universal principles which are called primae Conceptiones unresistable principles which have no other proofs then the true apprehension of the terms or extremes united and therefore are primò verae as Aristotle declares these are the first truths in which men cannot differ in use of reason for otherwise if they should fail in these it were in vain to expect any subsequent discourses in superstructures but as their discourses would enlarge so would their errors out of these nature frames her commands universally which is the Law of nature taken formally Whence it follows that in this matter of greatest concernment to humane nature Namely the worship of God there needs no translation of power from each particular person to the City or whole body of men because it is as intimately connatural to each as to all to know what the law of nature dictates by the constant and secret suggestions of reason what is to be done and what is to be avoided as Cicero tells us whence principally comes that we call Synderesis or check of Conscience else it is not a law of nature but some superstructure improperly called natures law which inseperably is infused into the soul to all who have a soul not hindred in her opperations But herein many erre who confound the hypotheses with the principles whence they are deducted that is remoter conclusions with the first which are immediate and serve as principles to all others The Law or light of natures therefore immediately dictates that God is to be worshiped and none can be ignorant of it that know the signification of the terms neither can they be ignorant that Gods worship must be performed in the best manner Thus far Cicero his Summa ratio pure reason convinceth men cannot disagree in this for as Cicoro notes non opinione sed natura constitutum est jus This depends not on opinion which is always ambiguous but is a law as constant and evident as the law of nature But because our natural knowledge of God is deducted only from his creatures for the objects of our understanding in this present condition of conjunction of the soul with the body are onely material or sensible natures deduced from our senses hence our reason cannot reach to know the manner of Gods worship because that onely is best which is pleasing to him note converse that is pleasing to him which we judge to be the best though out of this mistake each nation proceeding or rather standing as we say in their own light differed from each other and every one from truth in determining Gods worship To say therefore as Mr. Hobbs often inculcateth that every particular man must submit to the whole body for determination of this seems to be as impertinent a doctrin as to oblige every blind man to have an inquest of blind men to determine what colour any things were of to whose blind judgment every man should submit though as Aristotle tells us Caeaus non judicat de coloribus The thing were wholy out of their Sphere The determination therefore of the manner of divine worship can onely be had from God because none can know his will but himself For as Mr. Hobbs rightly teacheth n. 14. c. 15. Gods will is not to be thought similis nostrae like to ours but it is to be supposed to have onely some Analogy with ours quod condipere non possumus which our understand can not reach to Which is also Aristotle's Averroes and the best Philosophers doctrin Whence it follows that none can know what man nor of worship inmost agreeable conse quently what is best These wholy transcend our sphere and therefore Christian Divivines most reasonably hold it necessary to have supernaturally revealed truthes communicated to man-kinde to direct them in Gods worship and surely it were as high and pecoaminous presumption in any to offer to determinate this as the building of Babels Tower of which nothing could be expected but eternal confusion Whence it follows that never any worship pleased God which was not inspired by himself no not in the state of nature Mr. Hobbs must therefore retract his injuriously traslated power to his Common-wealth and teach his Disciples to seek this knowledge from God even under the law of nature As now Catholicks observe in all worship exhibited to the Divinity especially directed in all these supernaturals by the Church from which they receive Gods orders Aristotle indeed acknowledgeth the force of an argument drawn from authority to be very estimable even in schools and therefore we may adhere to so great authority as the Church even in reason But those who cannot overcome their own tenuous reasons by overpoising them with so great authority as the Church certainly must either be mad that
comes that the Socinians call in question if not absolutely deny the diety of the Son and of the Holy Ghost hence with the Pelagians they reduce Christs death to example of our imitation onely not to be the price of our redemption hence generally they profess with Chillingworth and others whom I could name that holy Scriptures are to be understood according to each mans small reach of reason as if nothing were contained in them what is not commensurated to our understanding and therefore needs not any supernatural aide from God which Mr. Hobbs very well confutes Chap. 17. n. 28. Yet he saith it belongs to the City to interpret Scriptures at least in all such things which he will please to call juridical or Philosophical which have far too great latitude in his sense For purely supernatural he speaks more reason then any others of these new ones from whom hath proceeded contempt of Prelates and Doctors because every one of the most inferiour Laytie of these Enthusiasts by their impetuous imaginary instinct and private spirit or what is the same their particular ratiocination though most groundless are supreme and infallible Masters and Doctors to themselves Neither do they beleeve any thing to be Divine which flowes not from the sensless impetuosity of their imaginations without any respect to higher considerations Yes truly those who are esteemed the wiser sort following Socinas stick in the same puddle expounding holy Scriptures and all mysteries of our holy Faith not according to the universal reason of the Church delivered by the hands of the ancients to us as Catholicks do but by their private spirits or by the conduct of their private reason A thing ridiculous to conceive that the profoundness of Christian misteries should not exceed the shallow reach of our reason Which error is the Source of all dissonancies and inconstancies amongst them which even by intrinsecal necessary consequence must needs cause a perpetual flux or issuing out of changes of conclusions of Faith for the effect cannot be more noble then the cause On the other side Catholick tenents must by a great necessity be always constant because they depend not upon our daily changable reasons or ratiocination but upon the unvariable word of God revealed and delivered by the Church The sum of all is that the verity of a Philosophicall conclusion is demonstrated by the verity of human reason the verity of Christian reason is proved by the verity of ancient faith indeed one verity may be diverse but never adverse to another Neither doth Divine contradict human but often surmounteth it and therefore it is comprehended by the sparks of our scanted reason but it is setched from else where Ask thy Father c. This is a safe way in which there is no danger to be dashed upon the rocks of errors according to that of Athanasius in his Epistle to Epicietus teaching how Hereticks Schismaticks are to be treated with There is no better way and indeed it is alone sufficient to answer them Those things not to be orthodoxall which our forefathers have not taught us This is plea enough against all pretences in the judgment of Athanasius let therefore Christians and they that bear the name of Christ be ashamed if leaving the fountain of antiquity from whence all sound doctrin floweth to follow certain small rivolets full of vanity and foolery shadowed under a precious shew of reason which from whence they had their Source and beginning none for certain know We Catholicks therefore adhere to the holy Councels and ancient Fathers in the first place after the holy Scriptures neither dare we accuse them of foolery a Christian minde will hurdly permit them to be rashly and presumptuously defamed But these men and others of the some tribe who make the glimmering of their reasons the rules of Faith and Religion easily reject them It is a wonder rather that they do not with their supercilious spectacles clime up the heavens and there with the Albumazar Aicabatius Massaeius and infinite other Astrologers seek out the verity of all Religions and one while for the conjunction of Saturne with the Sun adhere to Judaismes another while for the conjuction of Mars with Jupiter promote the Chaldaick Sect if with Venus the Mahumetical if with Mercarie the Christian So by some little shew of reason drawn from the heavens they may change their religion as for the most part they are wont to do several times of the year according to the several dominations of the planets or certainly every year according to the annual dominion or if this seems to much aerial they may according to the Successory government of those intelligences which they call Seconds appoint the stations retrogradations and cadences of their divers sects and religions as some not without applause of such lunitick persons have unhappily enough attempted as especially some attribute the innovation of Luthers sect to the new lunary inteligences then 1517. undertaking the worlds government And Ticho Brahe affirms that those sects which indeed are derived from mens brain-sick fancies may be found out in the heavens both in their risings and fallings Of which this present age administreth change enough The truth is Judas the Apostle toucheth these home whatsoever they do not know they blaspheme whatsoever like bruit beasts they know they are corrupted in They are indeed so swoln in their imaginations that breaking they corrupt themselves and others CHAP. 6. A digression against Mr. Hales the supposed Author of the Treatise of Schism And a farther proof of Schism in England Mr. HALES who is said and supposed to be Author of the Treatise of Schism objects that Schirm may be spread over all the parts of the Church and so the whole be infected in which case Schism cannot be imputed to one place more then to another and this may peradventure be affirmed of the sepuration of England from other Churches as it was touching the ancient celebrating of Easter wherein also a how Schism is rison for aching not necessary yea saith he in a matter ridiculous If I should bring the general Councel of Nice condemning and separating from these Quarta-decimans he would deride it he accuseth all the ancients of foolishness in this matter Thus he sporteth and trifleth in mysteries of faith to root out all faith out of the mindes of the faithful I deny first what he averreth that the West and East were at variance that is to say that that Schism did invade the whole Church and cleave her into two parts for the matter of Easter but that some considerable part did raise stirs in the East yea in the West also is manifest amongst historians this cause of division in a late work de consilijs made in latine by a Country man of ours is laid open to the very root But to peruse a little more the grounds of his mistakes in this important point of Schism we must alwayes remember what before we noted that
as appears in the Councel What similitude hath this case with the known subjection of England to Rome known I say and acknowledged even by our lawes ever from the conversion of the Country under St. Gregory All lawful mutations of Provinces which were ever made as long as the Church was in her full power had to this effect the especial authority of some general Councel So in the Councel of Constantinople many dioceses and some whole Provinces were made subject to that Patriarch which before were subject to Ephesus and the Primate of Trace So in the Councel of Calcedon exchange of Provinces was decreed between the Patriarch of Antioch and Hierusalem and in the first general Councel the sea of Hierusalem was created a Patriarchate and the refore the Fathers took some Provinces from the Patriarchate of Antioch others from Alexandria And in the foresaid example the Cyprians could not shake off the authority of Antioch till the decree was produced of the Councel of Ephesus Much loss this Iland ought to separate from the Sea of Rome by reason of the titile of conversion and only under Gregory the first but long before the entrance of St. Austin under Pope Elutherius by Elvanus and Meduinus Priests being requested thereunto by King Lucius Anno Dom. 179. Whilest it was possest by the Brittans in which primitive faith it remained immaculate and uncorrupted except the question of Pascha in which it was corrupted by Picts and Scots indeed they resisted St. Austin because they thought he sided with the Saxons who had expelled them by force out of the kingdom and because they had an Arch-Bishop of their own of Legancestriae Those other things which the Author so often cited of the Treatise of Schism mentioned for he proves nothing concerning the nullity of power or of all superiority of Christians as they are such so that no obedience but simple reverence is due to our betters except that which may arise by certain convention amongst men not by right This Tenet indeed if made good would make all Schism impossible all superiority ridiculous and arbitrary but it is far from Christian verity being against Scripture it self and all common sense of Christians And truly whatsoever the same Author saith in and for the cause of the Donatists if it hath any favour he doth not onely accuse St. Augustine but the whole Church of foolishness and malice and all the Prophecies of the fignes of the Church upon which St. Augustine before him Optatus Hierom and all Bishops and Doctors rely out of the old and new law the Prophets and the Acts of the Apostles all which in them this man derideth what he speaketh of the use of Images he simply affirmeth as the rest but is so far from proving any thing that he doth not so much as attempt it neither is it a thing worthy my insisting upon since every Abodary Controvertist makes it obvious to children Yet Mr. Hobbs will force me afterward to joyn issue with him in it In fine The Treatise of Schism speaketh many things which seem distructive to Christian faith which he barely proposeth or rather supposeth out of which false supposition he doth falsly conclude that there is no Schism in the Church but as Aristotle Pol. l. 2. c. 4 rightly admonisheth Suppositions indeed may be made as every one pleaseth but not impossible ones Neither is it of more moment what Antonius de Dominis l. 4. and others contend that it was not lawful for the Africans to appeal to Rome according to the 22. Canon Concil Melevit And in like manner England was not bound to recur thither or elsewhere but justly provided for its own right whilest it withdrew it self from the Roman yoak as the African Church living in the district of the Patriarchate procured to it self the same ease First I say that Africa did in no wise withdraw it self from the obedience of the Sea of Rome I add moreover neither did it deny the right of appeals but in certain cases certain persons to wit simple Clearks which did appeal thither without observing any order of law which the Bishop of Rome did doth at this day condemn otherwise read St. Augustine ep 162. Omitting others who expresly affirms the right of appeals to the Sea of Rome So the pretended Canon made by the consent of the Bishop of Rome sheweth no other thing but in no wise as I said did it withdraw it self from the obedience of the Sea of Rome Neither is there the least shew of it but of the clean contrary in the reciprocal letters of that Councel to the Pope and of him to them as may be seen in the body of the Epistle of St. Augustine it would be tedious to learned Readers if I should write them out they will more easily recur to the place cited I add further worthy to be noted If the right of appeals had been there abrogated yet it concludes not that the jurisdiction of the Sea of Rome over them was anulled except any should be so senceless as to imagine that the prefects of the Pretorian Court were not subject to the Roman Emperors because their authority deserved to be advanced to such a height that it was not lawful to appeal from them l. 1. F. de offic Pref. Praet I am not ignorant that some Grecians as Nilus contend that the right of appeals which the Seat of Rome hath for he acknowledgeth that in respect of the other Patriarchs doth not convince that Seat to have jurisdiction over them Because by the same reason the constant Inopolitan having by the Councel of Calcedon Can. 9. the same power over their Metropolitans doth not exexcise jurisdiction over them I answer That be denieth only the Bishop of Rome to have the same power over the general Patriarchs which he hath over other Bishops who are ordained by authority derived from him and therefore concludes that the Pope cannot trouble their ordinary government which is true This therefore confirmeth what hitherto hath been said and maketh good that England by all law remains subject to the Sea of Rome under pain of Rebellion CHAP. 7. Protestants have made this Schism IT is clearer then noon day that not Catholicks but Protestants have made this Schism and divided the Church because when in any Common-wealth governed under the same Prince or Soveraignty and by the same lawes a few men withdraw themselves from the obedience of authority and increasing in number they begin to set up their conventicles make lawes and the rest of the body remaining in the ancient manner of government under their own Soveraign power proclaim a war It is manifest not the Body of the Common wealth which still persevereth in the same state but these few men receding from the Body with their adherents have made the division and blown up the rebellion In the same manner have Protestants behaved themselves towards Catholicks before the scandal of Henry the 8th or