onely the Lords Prayer but DC years after them by Gregory I. Platin. in vit Sixti I. Gregor I. Gregor Epist l. 7. c. 63. p. 664. edit Paris 1571. And all the world knows how lately and through how pleasant a trick the Gregorian Missall came in use in stead of the Ambrosian because being laid upon S. Peters Altar it was torn in peices in the night The story may be read at large in Durand's Rational divin offic l. 5. c. 2. § 5. p. 212. And with what a deal of violence and difficultie this Gregorian Missall was brought into Spain may be seen in Rod. Ximenes his History of Spain l. 6. c. 26. Cassand Praef. de Ord. Rom. 12. That Purgatory was very little or not at all mentioned among the Ancients a thing unknown to Antiquity and received into the Church but lately Episc Fisher Assert Lutherane consutat Artic. XVIII 13. That after PVRGATORY came in INDVLGENCES Idem ibid. Durand Antoninus apud Bellarm. and That the Jubilee was instituted MCCC yeares after Christ by that good man P. Boniface who their Historians say came in like a fox raigned like a lion and died like a dog See a treatise of Indulgences writ by Wesselus al. Basil Groningensis and another of the Jubilee by Santarel the Jesuite 14. Lastly for such citations would be endlesse as I might mind you who it was that Nicephorus Calisthus saith brought Prayer to Saints into the publick Liturgy c. According as M. Knot answers or approves of these I will give him more which I have in readinesse Alphonsus à Castro in his Treatise de justa punit Haeretic l. 2. c. 22. speaking of divers ceremonies which the Church of Rome useth in the consecration of Temples Altars Chalices habits ornaments saith NONE of these things were instituted by Jesus Christ but in after-times by little and little instituted by the Church Yet give me leave to adde one thing more That 't is cleare to me None of the Ancient Christians believed the Church of Rome to be a Guide or Judge of all Controversies in Christianity wherein M r. K. may do very well to satisfie me or as his friends do blame them for this reason among many Because in Epiphanius S. Augustine and others their Catalogues of Hereticks none are branded for denying this which they all did And if it had been believed at all especially as it is generally now viz. to be the original of all other heresies it had been farre more rationall to have put in this and left out all the rest then to have dealt with posterity as we see they have That Tertullian Vincentius Lirinensis and severall others should give us rules to know Hereticks by and forget this the main and clearest And which is stranger yet that not onely Optatus l. 5. contra Parmen mihi p. 130. after a long discourse against the Donatist about the unlawfulnesse of rebaptization Inter licet vestrûm non licet nostrûm nutant remigant animae populorum Well what must be done in this case Quaerendi sunt judices Who shall they be Si Christiani Si Paganus Si Judaeus inconveniences on every side should conclude Ergò in terris hac de re nullum poterit reperiri judicium de coelo quaerendus est Judex Habemê° in Evangelio Testamentum And S. August to the same purpose in Psal xxi èxposition 2. Tabulae aperiantur legantur verba mortui That I say not onely Optatus that learned Bishop and other Ancients should be so much in those early dayes mistaken for certainly your Church was not then in heaven but S. Paul also writing a very long epistle to the Romanes and setting down therein arguments against severall heresies should conclude with quisque suo sensu abundet if I may believe your Bible Rom. xiv 5. oportet esse haereses and not mention a word of any infallible remedy or Judge at Rome which news would have been worth all the rest of the Epistle And again That not onely all the Fathers of the first CCC yeares should passe over this opinion of the Romane Churches great Authority in silence the believing or disbelieving which alone with the Romanists now denominates every man a Catholick or an Heretick but that the Historians also of those dayes should say nothing of it if she had any such thing seemeth no more probable to me then that any learned man hereafter will write the Chronicle of England for these twelve years last and never mention the Lords Fairfax or Cromwell Having said thus much in generall concerning the manner of M. Knots disputes and his unfitting Topicks wherein he mistaketh Antiquity for Truth citations out of Protestants oft falsified for infallible conclusions and beseeching M. Knot if he shall vouchsafe an answer to this paper not to skip over these two last leaves but to give me some reason Why any Christian is BOUND to believe such positions as are confessedly novell And if he will say that all which he cannot with modesty or that any which he cannot with truth of the forenamed Romane Doctours speak that which is not true that he would consider how he puts into my mouth what to answer to much that he alledgeth out of Protestant Doctours against Mr. Chillingworth I come now to take a short view of his particular discourses and begin at his Preface Pref. p. 4. and 5. After he hath given his Readers some admonitions how to read his book I wish that he pretending to answer the whole had printed M. Chill's with it that we might the more readily have compared them and told them that one half of CHARITY MAINTAINED is yet unanswered he who readeth Mr. Chill's book or but the last lines of it sees the reason of that he professeth That he will not meddle with Mr. Chill's answer to the direct to N. N. very ingenuously spoken but why because it is confuted by a book entituled THE JVDGEMENT OF AN VNIVERSITY-MAN CONCERNING Mr. CHILLINGWORTHS PAMPHLET 't was a pretty little Pamphlet but whether that Judgement of an University-man which I never met with any man whosoever that saw unlesse such to whom I have shew'd it be a reall answer to any page of Mr. Chill's book any more then Chaucers tales are I desire any unprejudiced man to determine Onely I must take notice as I passe that Mr Knot doth very well to observe so soon that precept which Tully gives his Oratour and Ulysses in Ovid against Ajax practiseth to skip over the hardest arguments What 't is in an Oratour I 'le not say but I am sure it is no great signe of a good Disputant The next thing he telleth us is § 10. and 11. and so to the end af the Preface how the very title of Mr. Chill's book may be consuted out of Mr. Chill's own words for which he citeth p. 21. mihi lin 3. from whence M. Knot concludeth That millions of Protestants erre damnably and that Mr. Chill
affirmeth That the Protestant Religion is no safe way to salvation I answer I confide to use Mr. Knots words that every indifferent Reader will find this to be clearly false For first he speaketh no more of Protestants than Papists but equally of both Secondly he saith not categorically they do erre but it is to be feared they both Protestants and Papists do Thirdly he saith not absolutely neither but on supposition IF any Protestant or Papist be held in any errour by any sinne of their will then such errour is as the cause of it sinfull and damnable And this none that I know unlesse himself will or can deny It being a truth sufficiently manifest and asserted by his great Masters P. Lombard and T. Aquinas and the greatest stream of Schole-men and Casuists And to tell Mr. Knot my mind freely I am clearly of Mr. Chill's opinion viz. That Protestant Religion is a safe way to salvation and yet that many Protestants go to hell That there are millions of Protestants who think not to be a Papist is enough not to be damned and millions of Papists who think not to be a Protestant is enough to oblige Almighty God and merit heaven And I take both parties to be extreme blame-worthy for deeming so and Mr. Knot must give me leave to wonder if any rationall man shall blame me for saying so without giving his reasons Now we come to M r Knots very large Introduction where § 2. p. 38. he layeth down this proposition to be proved Christian Religion is absolutely and infallibly true And so he spends you above fifteen sheets in pretending to prove it and the Necessity of Grace and the first of these by the last And if M r Chill neither denied the necessity of Grace nor the infallibility of Christian Religion I desire the Reader to consider whether he have not fifteen sheets together of impertinencies And that M r Chill denyed neither of these will clearly enough appear to any that are not willing to be deceived if they can spare leisure to read over M r Chillingworth's pamphlet as M r Knots friend calls it or but consult those very passages from which M r K. taketh the occasion of these long discourses and which he citeth out of Master Chillingworths sixth Chapter where his 3 d § begins thus I do HEARTILY acknowledge and believe the Articles of our Faith to be in themselves Truths as certain and INFALLIBLE as the very common principles of GEOMETRY and MATHEMATICKS But as if M r K. notwithstanding the Metaphysicks he boasteth so much of knew not the difference between certitudo objecti subjecti he seeketh advantage from what followeth immediately viz. But That there is required of us a knowledge of them and an adherence to them of SENSE or SCIENCE That such a certainty is required of us UNDER PAIN OF DAMNATION So that NO man CAN HOPE to be in a state of salvation but he that finds in himself such a degree of faith such a strength of adherence This I have already demonstrated to be a great errour and of dangerous and pernicious consequence And because I am more and more confirmed in my perswasion I will here confirm it with reasons c. p. 311. From which passage whether any just advantage can be taken especially for a digression of so many sheets let every unpassionate Reader judge Chap. 1. § 2. p. 38. He layes down this proposition to be proved Christian faith is absolutely and infallibly true by Christian faith he explains two lines after his proposition himself to mean the true Religion Now 1. This is the same vein of Sophistry which I noted even now and runnes through the whole book when he speaks of infallibility The question being not at all de certitudine objecti but subjecti not whether divine truths be absolutely infallible this none doubteth who admits a God in the true notion but whether we are infallibly certain That these or those positions are Divine truths 2. Master Chill tells us in the ninth § of his Conclusion that the end of his book was to confirm the truth of the divine infallible Religion of Jesus Christ 3. M r K. takes notice of it and citeth that very passage and such others c. 1. § 39. p. 66. So that to make a great noise against M r Chill and to endeavour to prove against him what he believeth and granteth nay what he knoweth and confesseth he grants as M r K. doth here and oft elsewhere is such a piece of Jesuitical industry and civility as Protestants never learnt 4. He tells us that in the proof of this proposition he maintaineth the cause of All Christians and of all men and mankind 'T is a comfort to meet with such a charitable person But if he have all Christians nay all men all mankind of his perswasion and saith so himself who are his adversaries If all men all mankind be for the infallibility of all faith then sure M r Chill is so too for though I never saw or knew him otherwise then by his printed book I ever took him for a man and I believe M r K. who hath reason to know him better then I hath found him so And if all be not of Master Knots mind then nothing can be concluded hence but that he was in a passion when he wrote this book so may be the better excused for declaming against reason But 5. Had M r K. read Sextus Empericus and been acquainted with the Pyrrhonians he might have found many and they no fools but famous Philosophers who were not for his absolute infallibility And I wish Mr. Knot may never be one of them I hope be is and will continue a Christian Onely give me leave to tell him That if nothing else could be said for the truth of our Christian Religion but what is in his Infidelitie unmasked and Vanninus his Amphitheatrum heu actum esset de Palladio Since not to trouble you with transcribing his positions which I cited pag. 14. having told us That it is necessary that supernaturall knowledge should be most certain and infallible and That a man is as happy without any belief of Christian Religion as without one that is infallible he saith p. 52. That 't is impossible Christian Religion can retain the highest degree of probability if it have no greater perfection then it receiveth from the sole probable arguments of credibility And then throughout the whole book he hath not one argument which pretends to reach higher than to a probability I wish any of them would reach so high for the infallibility of the Church or living Judge upon which he endeavours to build all the rest unlesse you will grant which indeed he contendeth hard for Conclusionem non semper sequi deteriorem partem That the conclusion may sometimes be stronger than the premises And indeed it concerns him to desire it should be granted for the premises which he bringeth
any more queries then are necessary what necessity of an infallible Judge at all The Christian world had no such Judge sor CCCXXIV years for the Nicene Councel was the first General and if They vnderstood Scripture and were saved then when they had no such thing why may not We now And if they were not saved the Church of Rome must blot out many hundreds and thousands of Saints Martyrs out of her Martyrology Till these twenty questions be insallibly resolved it seems to me impossible that any man should have any infallible knowledge of the Church of Romes Infallibility And I am the more confirmed in the necessity of a plain resolution to this last querie because though M. Knot be sometimes hot and positive in grounding all Christian Religion upon the infallibility of the Church I find beside what I said p. 22. Christ and the Apostles intimating the contrary Joh. v. 39. Act. iv 19. xviii 11. 2. Thess v. 21. 1. Joh. iv 1. Rev. ii 2. But to passe by such places of Scripture because I know that they who make profession of devising shifts will find euasions for them and to omit the positions of many Romane Doctours of lesse note who are as high for the non-necessity of an infallible guide as any Protestant can wish I shall onely hint at Lactantius his large Chapter to this purpose lib. 2. de orig error c. 7. beginning thus Quare oportet in ea re in qua vitae ratio versatur sibi quemque confidere suóque judicio ac propriis sensibus niti ad investigandam perpendendam veritatem quà m credentem alienis erroribus decipi tanquam ipsum rationis expertem Dedit omnibus Deus pro virili portione sapientiam c. and rather insist upon a couple of most eminent Cardinals Baronius and Lugo Both these give their opinions very plainly on our side and which I value more their reasons and examples The former hath spent to our purpose a whole Appendix which he prefixed before the second tome of his Annals printed at Rome MDLXXXVIII where appealing to every particular Protestant's judgement concerning the truth of his cause and not once mentioning the infallibility of the Church he goes on thus Ingens sanè vis humanae insidet rationi c. Great is the power of humane reason if it be left unsettered and free in all things And therefore our Ancestors placing great confidence in the force of truth where they contended with obstinate hereticks when they declined and despised all judgement of the Church were so indulgent as not to refuse to try the judgement even of Infidels and expect their determination Such men being Judges the Jews Joseph Antiq. l. 13. c. 6. had the victory over the Samaritans And an heathen Philosopher being by consent chosen for an Arbitrator to whose judgement they were to stand Origen dialog overcame five most wicked hereticks And Archelaus Epiphan haeres 66. a Bishop in Mesopotamia did consute Manes a most desperate Arch-heretick before certain Heathens who were by consent chosen Judges c. The latter though a Jesuite a Spaniard plainly asserteth this non-necessity tom de virtut fidei dis 1. § 12. n. 247. c. And making it good by foure instances 1. THE BELIEF OF THE INFALLIBILITY IT SELF which must be received from some other motive than it self or its own testimony and consequently saith he all other doctrines of Christianity may be believed upon the same inducements not meerly upon the infallibility of the Church 2. CHILDREN or OLD PEOPLE who are newly converted to the faith do not believe the Infallibilitie before they embrace other Articles for they believe Articles in order as they are propounded this is commonly one of the last 3. RUSTICKS AND COMMON PEOPLE at this day in Spain Italy and other Catholick Countreys who commonly resolve their faith no further than their Parish-Priest or some other learned or holy man at the most 4. He asserteth num 252. That IN THE LAVV OF NATURE most believed onely upon the Authority of their Parents without any Church-propounding And also after the law was written most believed Moses the Prophets before their prophecies were received and propounded by the Church for the sanctity of their lives c. And this discourse wa◠written by speciall order from the late Pope Urban and dedicated to the present Pope Innocent X. And now my patient Reader to draw to a conclusion as my spare-leaves do for I have unawares detained thee very much longer then I intended when I first set pen to paper for this Preface which was after the following English Apologie was fully printed and that is one reason of its immethodicalness If I have writ any thing impertinent I hope that my brother THE UNIVERSITY-MAN Mr. Knots friend will help to excuse me if any thing that savoureth of passion which I shall be very sorry for as soon as it shall be discovered to me that Mr. Knot will be my Advocate each of them being commonly conceived sufficiently guilty of one or both of these faults and hereafter I may do as much for them And further to encourage M r K. to do somewhat for me I do here assure him That if he shall vouchsase punctually to answer these xx questions which seem to me very necessary to be plainly determined before he can assure any man of the Infallibility of the Romane Church on which foundation he layeth so huge a structure and withall to refute that one argument which I mentioned pag. 18. out of Dr. Jer. Taylors nervous discourse then prove that the Church of Rome is infallible by any one infallible argument for he hath told us that nothing lesse can do it I will be his Proselyte Vntill which time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse which I think far the more probable and therefore shall daily pray for it Mr. Knot will be so ingenuous as S. Augustine was to retract his errours in his later dayes and come over to the good Old Catholick Apostolick Faith leaving Romane superstructures For I begin to despair with that Milevitan Bishop of ever seeing while I am upon earth any infallible living Judge in matters of saith and to believe I must as the Jews speak expect the coming of Elias for that purpose having long observed by Mr. Knot 's seven books in this Controversie that Cause patrocinio non bona pejor erit To the Preface p. 8. l. 29. adde That there were Christians in Britain before Augustine the Monk came over is plain out of Eusebius Theodoret Arnobius Tertullian Gildas Bromton and I suppose no man that is not a meer stranger to Antiquity will deny That those Christians had no dependance upon Rome will appear to any who readeth the ancient Histories of Rome or England Platina saith that Antherus the 20 th Pope sate eleven years and made onely one Bishop In a word from the death of S t Peter till the entrance of
us she would have us receive with the same faith and respect all the traditions which she approves of Besides the repose and rest in the Kingdome of heaven which she with us promiseth to the faithfull she will have us to believe another in Limbo a prison for children that die without baptisme And besides the torments of hell which she with us threatens to the wicked she denounceth to the faithfull another like it in purgatoric These and severall others like to these are the positions which she addeth to the true and fundamentall Articles of the good Old Christianity and which are the points that divorce us from her Communion For every one knows how carefully she hath established them in her Councels how daily she recommendeth them in her Schools and pulpits how rigourously she exacteth them in confession having long since pronounced and oft since daily still proclaiming and repeating That she esteems them Hereticks Enemies of Christ and worse then Infidels that reject these opinions or any of these And which is more offensive yet not content to teach them by the voice of her Doctours she imprints them in the hearts of her people through continuall observation and use so that among them of her communion the practise of these additionall Articles makes more then a full half of what they esteem Christianity For the greatest part of their service consists in invocation of Angels and Saints in adoring the Sacrament in worshipping images in offering up the Sacrifice of the Altar or in partaking of it in making Confessions and exercising other ceremonies But as for us all the world knows that we have quite another opinion of these matters We content our selves with the intercession sacrifice and monarchy of J. Christ and can joyn to Him neither Saints nor Priests nor the Pope in any of those three qualities which the Scripture of the New Testament attributes to none but Him alone We deem His bloud sufficient for the purgation of our souls having never learnt that either S. Paul or any other Saint was crucified for us nor That after this life the Saints shall enter into any other place but onely one of repose and rest After Baptisme and the Lords Supper we desire no other Sacraments not having heard in His Word that he hath obliged us necessarily to go to the eare of any Priest to receive his absolution or to the hand of any Bishop to have his chrisme We dare not adore the bread which we break nor the cup which we blesse because all confesse That it is not permitted us to adore any but God onely We can neither invocate creatures since we have in the Scripture neither commandment nor example for it nor prostrate our selves before images since we have expresse commands therein against it We scruple at making any thing an Article of our Faith which we have not heard in the Word of God be he an Apostle or an Angel that evangelizeth So that since we find nothing in the Scripture of abstinence from meats distinction of times and other Romane ceremonies nor of the Limbus of infants or purgatory we cannot yet be perswaded that it is necessarie for us to believe them CHAP. VI. That our Separation ariseth not from particular matters of fact or private opinion but from such things as are believed generally by all the Romane Church and so that it is not like to the schisme of the Donatists I Might yet alledge many other differences but this little may suffice to let you see what are the main reasons which oblige us to separate from Rome Whence it appears how unjust a comparison it is that I say not impertinent and silly which some make of our Separation to that of the Donatists For they pretended not to find any thing in the doctrine of the Catholick Church from whence they separated which was contrary to their belief Both the one and the other taught the same faith read the same books exercised the same services The Donatist entring with the Catholicks found nothing either in their belief or discipline which he had not seen and learn'd in his own But as for us 't is impossible that we should enter into the Communion of the Church of Rome without swearing to many doctrines which we formerly never learn'd in the schole of the Scriptures without receiving Sacraments which are utterly unknown to us without bowing our knees before images which is absolutely forbidden without adoring a thing for God whose Deitie we know not without acknowledging him to be the Head and Husband of the Church whom we know to be but a mortall man without subjecting those consciences to an humane which are taught and wont to submit unto none but a divine Authority And as for that which the Donatists alledge That Felix the Ordainer of Cecilian Bishop of Carthage did in former times deliver up the Holy Scriptures to the Pagans during the persecution though it had been true as indeed it was not the Catholicks having clearly justified their innocence in this point by many irrefragable testimonies supposing I say it had been true that he had committed this fault who seeth not that this is not a cause in nature like to those for which we make our separation For this was a matter of fact and not a doctrine a fact of one man that is of Felix alone and not of the whole body of the African Church So that it should have given the Donatists no occasion or cause of separating from Cecilian much lesse any just cause of breaking communion with all Africk For suppose that Felix the Ordainer of Cecilian had committed this fault yet 't is cleare That he did not teach or think that it was lawfull for him to deliver the H. Scriptures up to Infidels but on the contrary by denying that he committed it and standing upon his defence as he did he confessed plainly by consequence that it was a fault The Donatists then might have continued in that communion without any way staining either their Creed or their manners without being forced either to do or believe any thing against their consciences But for all that supposing which yet is manifestly false that Cecilian had defended and preach'd publickly in his pulpit That it was permitted Christians in times of persecution to deliver up the books of HOLY WRIT to the enemies of the Church and supposing again which 't is not fit now to examine that this errour were pernicious and inconsistent with a true faith I cannot discern how the Donatists had any just cause of avoiding the communion of the successours of Cecilian or other Bishops of Africk who unanimously held taught and preached that to commit such a fault was a weaknesse unbefitting the soul of a Christian and made all such submit to the rigours of Ecclesiasticall discipline whom they found guilty of it This crime or what ever you will imagine it was onely Felix's or perhaps Cecilians but not any mans else The
whole Church had no share in it so that it was an intolerable piece of injustice a strange pride and mad fantasticalnes to abhorre a whole Church for the errours of offences of one particular man I would to God the case between the Romane Church and us had been the like That we had seen nothing deplorable but onely the faults of her Pastours and the disorders of her manners or That such of her doctrines which we cannot receive had been the thoughts of some particular men onely Had there been nothing else we should have lived still together Our Fathers would never have separated from Her Communion or if some strange passion which we dream not of had precipitated them into a rupture and schisme like that of the Donatists We do in our Consciences protest that we would have been afraid to follow their errour and that we would have lost no time of uniting our selves with them from whom we had been so imprudently separated For we cannot but confesse That 't is a piece of very high injustice to impute the faults of men to their profession and to accuse their Religion of those extravagancies which they commit especially if against it In such a case we should questionlesse practise the doctrine of our Saviour speaking of them who sit in Moses chair Matt. xxiii 3. All those things which they bid you observe those observe and do but do not after their works The Church wherein they live is not guilty of their errour especially when it highly and oft out of the mouthes of those very men condemneth the faults and disorders of their lives The Church may say to such fugitives The faults of my children are no fit reason to induce you to abhorre Me. Live in my communion you may and not be obliged to communicate with their wicked deeds Those very men who are thus wicked should drive you from the vice in stead of bringing you to it for if you mark it They carry preservatives in their mouthes against the poisons of their manners But alas 'T was not this that drove us from the Church of Rome 'T was not the fall of one Felix nor the weaknesse of some Cecilians 't was not the covetousnesse of her Prelates the licenciousnesse of her Monks the filthinesse of her Court the excesse and abuse of her Sovereigne Pontifes For though she suffered these disorders with too much indulgence yet she neither doth command them nor openly approve of them Though she very gently tolerate such as were debauched or vicious yet she did not force any to be so No man was for entring into her communion constrained to be a slave to any of those vices which bore sway in the midst of her No a man might have lived within it and yet addicted himself to honesty and goodnesse And as yet corruption had not gained so farre as that ill manners were authorized by publick laws But on the contrary during the worst of times though her voice was weak and languishing yet she made some noise against the impietie of the age And oftentimes those very men that gave ill example in their lives preached against it and decryed it horribly in the pulpit That which hath pulled us from her communion is her doctrine and not her actions that which she commands and not that which she suffers that which she requires of us all and not that which she tolerates in some others the articles of her faith and not the faults of her life For the adoration of the Eucharist invocation of Saints veneration of images and those other articles which we rehearsed before are not such things as she onely tolerates as bad or excuseth as doubtfull but beliefs which she commendeth as true and observations which she commandeth as usefull and necessary to salvation Nor doth she onely practise them in the house and privately but likewise preach them in the Temple as perpetuall parts of her Faith So that if we continue in her communion we must needs make profession of believing them that is make our selves guilty of an horrible hypocrisie confessing with our mouth what we do not believe with our heart Now if these were onely the opinions of some one of her Doctours if it were onely some one Divine that were to be blamed and the rest of their Church disavowed these things we should not for such a matter make any scruple of communicating with Her acknowledging ingenuously That 't is an unreasonable thing to impute the opinions and so the faults of a few particular men to a whole entire body Since we see it often happens that they who live in the Communion of a Church are neither in whole nor in part of the same belief with that Church Thus formerly among the Jewes The sect of the Sadducees had their doctrines apart and the Pharisees had likewise theirs And for a mans being a Jew he was not at all obliged to embrace or hold precisely the opinions either of the one or of the other sect And at this very day in the Church of Rome whence we departed the order of the Dominicans hath some opinions proper to themselves and the Franciscans have others and so likewise the Jesuits others peculiar to their respective Orders If therefore there were in the midst of Her onely some one societie of men that held affirmatively those things which we cannot believe and others lived at liberty either to receive or reject them In this case I confesse that it were very difficult to excuse our Separation since the Communion with that body whence we have departed doth not oblige us precisely to any points contrary to our consciences But who knows not that those Articles which we cannot receive are publick not private Doctrines common to the whole Church of Rome and not peculiar to the Pope and his party established authentickly in her Generall Councels by the suffrages of the Deputies of all the Churches in the world that live in her Communion Articles to the belief and observation whereof she obligeth all sorts of persons whatsoever Clergy and Laity Monks and Seculars Men and Women little and great anathematizing all as Hereticks who teach or believe otherwise and besides the thunderbolts of the Church excommunications making use of fire and sword and what else they can against them where ever she hath power Thus it appears that our cause is no whit like that of the Donatists our Separation arising from publick and universall Doctrines of the Church of Rome whereas Theirs had no foundation or reason but onely a pretended act of one particular man neither confessed nor proved The African Church whose communion they fled from presented them nothing in her Creeds and Service which was contrary to their faith whereas Rome whence we are departed will constrain us to think and do severall things that directly overthrow the doctrines which we in our souls and consciences believe CHAP. VII That there are two sorts of Errours the one overthrowing the
me anathema For my part I give heed to â—â—y Jesus who said If any say unto you here is Christ or there believe him not And to this purpose is that which the Egyptian Anchorets c. 69. are reported oft to have said If a true Angel appear to thee be not very ready to entertain him but humble thy self saying I am not worthy to see an Angel while I live in sinne So that though we had some reason to think Christ were present yet 't were good to refrain and not adore him when we are not in all points assured that it is He because this were evidently to profane the act of adoration which must by no means be given to any rashly and at adventure Now our adversaries find nothing in all this matter which doth not shew clearly that the Eucharist is really not the Lord of the world but bread And therefore there is farre lesse reason that the adoration which they give to the Host should be excused by that opinion which they pretend to have of it II. But then secondly Though the opinion of the Romane Church concerning the Eucharist should as we have proved it doth not justifie or at least excuse that adoration which they give it yet 't is cleare That to alledge that opinion of theirs here as an excuse were nothing to the purpose For the question is not concerning the Romanists who professe that they believe that the Eucharist is really and personally the Sonne of God but concerning us who are so farre from believing it that we have not the least suspicion of it being God be thanked fully perswaded that the Sacrament is truly bread And why should we not believe it so since our senses witnesse our reason sheweth the Scriptures teach that it is bread which are the three fountains of all our knowledge and we cannot be sure of any thing but from one of them Having therefore this belief of the Eucharist how can we adore it without rendring our selves guilty of violating all those precepts wherein God hath forbidden us to adore the creatures and incurring all those deaths and curses which he hath denounced against the breach of such precepts I meddle not with other mens consciences nor will I take upon me to judge their actions Almighty God will do that one day And I think I have said enough to shew them that 'T is their duty in the mean while to consider it seriously I speak of my self Since my soul is perswaded that the Eucharist is a creature I cannot adore it without offending the laws of God and overthrowing the foundations of my own salvation And though my perswasion were false yet since I believe it and that upon so many and so certain divine and humane assurances Though the Sacrament were as it is not really the Lord of glory yet 't is cleare That if I shall adore it believing as aforesaid such my service will be false and unlawfull addressed not to God who is the sole true and lawfull object but to a creature which my imagination shall through mistake have substituted in His place Hereupon the Ancient Church hath constantly accused the Arians of adoring the creature and continually called the service which they gave to Christ idolatry and adoration of the creature and with very good reason For though the Lord Jesus is the true God eternall the Creatour of the world and Redeemer of the Church and of the same substance with the Father and though the adoration which is given to Him by them who believe Him to be such be a lawfull worship not condemned but approved and expressely commanded in the Scripture yet they who by a detestable errour hold Him to be but a mere creature and think that the Father made Him of nothing either before or after the Creation of the world as well as the heaven and the earth if they give Him the same adoration which is due to the Father they do evidently bestow on a creature that which belongs to the Creatour onely For they addresse this service not to the true Jesus coeternall and coessentiall with the Father but to a phantasme of a creature forged in their own brain hereby rendring themselves guilty of a crime so often condemned and detested by the Lord in the Scriptures Seeing then that the truth of the word of God and the Authority of the Ancient Church forbids us to adore that which we believe to be but a creature under peril of incurring the curses denounced by the laws of God against those who rob Him of His glory and give it to another We must conclude that neither the opinion of the Church of Rome nor any other consideration can exempt us from the anathemaes of Heaven if we adore as our Adversaries do the Sacrament of the Eucharist firmly believing it to be bread in substance and not as they pretend our B. Saviour really and personally CHAP. XII The errour of those who think they may give to the Host of the Church of Rome that reverence which she commands without adoring Object BUt perhaps some will grant That we cannot lawfully adore the Eucharist while we are of this mind but will say That we may give that worship to the Sacrament which the Church of Rome commands without adoring it For they 'l say Since you acknowledge that the Eucharist is a Sacrament instituted by our Lord can you not kneel at receiving it and addresse your adoration and service not to the Sacrament which you esteem to be a creature but to J. Christ the authour of it whom you believe to be the Creatour of the Universe as he is indeed If one of you should be be baptized at years of discretion think you that he might not receive that Sacrament on his knees without being blamed for adoring the water Nay would it not be his duty to put himself into this respectfull posture rather then any other to shew the reverence which he bears to our Lord and to the seal of the new Covenant and adoption And when your Pastors are consecrated by imposition of hands do they not receive it on their knees Yet none thinks that they do therefore adore those who lay hands on them or the signe which is used to that end And then why do you make such scruple of bowing your knees and bending your bodies in receiving the Eucharist a Sacrament no lesse precious then Baptisme instituted by the same Lord and for the same end one to regenerate us the other to nourish us one to help us into the Church the other to help us to persevere Why are you afraid in this particular rather then in any other of the crime and the punishment that attends adoration of the Eucharist Answ But though this objection have some lustre in it and dazleth many persons perswading them to accommodate themselves outwardly to the Church of Rome retaining in their heart the same opinion which we hold concerning the Eucharist yet nothing can
that almost in every page with odious imputations of such opinions whereof he cannot point us out one in all his volumne concerning which he who best knew his own belief and is long since gone to answer for it good or bad said more than once as in his Answer to the directions to N. N. § 28. Whosoever teacheth or holdeth them LET HIM BE ANATHEMA In which volumne though M r Knot declaim oft against reason and say That to it the mysteries of Christian Religion seem impossible c. xiii § 27. p. 808. pro 812. yet he thinks it fitting to charge his Adversary with the sayings not onely of S t Augustine B â— Andrews Hooker Grotius Calvin Beza and the like learned men who yet confessed themselves men but also of Luther Socinus Crellius Volkelius Bonaventure Halensis Dionys Areopagita and I know not what other rabble as if poor Chillingworth were bound to defend all whosoever that wrote before him Whereas all the world knows That he who would not believe the Romane Church whereof he had been a member upon her own bare word would as little believe any particular member of that or any other Society upon theirs and that he disclaimed not her pretended Infallibility which was her worst fault as making all the rest how damnable soever incurable that he might affix it upon another or the next man he met though never so learned or pious And if M r. K. will think it unjust That he should be put to maintain the writings of all Papists or even of those few of his own late Order his citing so much the opinions of Protestants out of our Adversary Brerely is no argument but of his own unreasonablenesse I shall not take notice of half his impertinencies not how he grants what M r Chill affirmed concerning some mens believing contradictions p. 803. lin 5. There is no doubt saith he but that men may believe things which in themselves are contradictions p. 810. l. 18. 'T is needlesse to be proved it being a thing which no man denyeth And yet how in attempting to shew that Master Chillingworth's reasons do not prove it he spends from p. 802. to 815. To take notice of all such peccadilloes would be very tedious to Thee and me Onely because I have mentioned his citing Brerely so oft and not onely M r K. but most of the other English Advocates for the Church of Rome are very faulty therein give me leave to adde a little in that particular M r Chill c. 5. § 91. answering M r Knots alledging the confession of Protestants concerning the Antiquity of some Doctrines in the Church of Rome sets down twenty Doctrines of that Church and entreateh M r K. to inform him what confession of Protestants he hath for them viz. Communion in one kind Latiâ—e Service Indulgences the Popes power in temporalities over Princes picturing the Trinity worshipping of pictures and of the B. Virgin her immaculate conception infallibility of the Pope or Church auricular Confession c. And that as some Protestants confesse the Antiquity but alwayes postnate to Apostolick of some Romane points so there want not Papists who acknowledge as freely the novelty of many of them and the Antiquity of ours To which all that M r K. answereth is p. 867. as followeth 1. Some of these things are not matters of faith and some other points are even ridiculous 2. We deny that any Cath. approved Authour acknowledgeth the novelty of any of our Doctrines or the antiquity of yours except such were ancient heresies How truly spoken the first is the Reader may judge if he have read the Canons of the Councel of Trent Luc. Wadding's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or History of the Immaculate conception printed at Lovain 1624. or any few Romane authours How true the second if he 'l vouchsafe to examine the places I have cited p. 6. or these which follow Though there are some Protestants who confesse the Antiquity though not Primitive which is the onely Antiquity they hold obliging of some few Romane Doctrines so there are not a few Doctours Writers of their own Communion who acknowledge as liberally the novelty of very many others as 1 that Transubstantiation was not named much lesse made an Article of faith before the Laterane Councel Bellarm. de Sacram. l. 2. c. 25. 2 That for the first MCC years the Holy Cup was administred to the Laity Lindan Panopl l. 4. part 2. c. 56. § Hunc igitur Cassander saepe Albaspinaeus Observ Sacr. l. 1. c. 4. And your friend Petavius in his Treatise against Arnault de la frequent Communion saith None but an extreme ignorant or impudent fellow can deny it 3. That they beleeved the sacrifice of the Eucharist to be but the IMAGE or COMMEMORATION of our Saviours sacrifice on the Crosse Lombard Sent. l. 4. c. 12. Aqu. 3. p. qu. 83. art 1. incorp 4. That the Primitive Christians celebrated not the Eucharist as the Romane Church doth now Durand ration div offic lib. 4. c. 1. Rupertus Abbas Tuit Divin Offic. l. 2. c. 21. he that readeth Justin Martyr in his Apology largely describing the custome of the Primitives in his dayes may think he speaks of the Protestants now 5. That Divine Service was celebrated for many ages in a tongue understood by the people Nic. de Lyr. in 1. ad Cor. 14. Cassander in Liturg c. 28. Alphons à Castro de justa pun haeret l. 3. c. 6. where desending this differing from the Primitive Church he saith That he who should now conform to THEM would be accounted not onely an impious man but an Infidel 6. That the Fathers exhorted the people to read the Scriptures Azor. mor. l. 8. c. 26. part 1. § respondeo 7. That they generally condemned the worship of Images for fear of Idolatry Polyd. Virg. de invent rerum l. 6. c. 13. In which treatise that learned Italian oft ingemiously acknowledgeth the novelty of most of their customes in the Church of Rome except such as came from Jews or Pagans As lib. 5. c. 4. where he saith 8 God and the Primitive Church permitted marriage to Priests and Pope Siricius who lived at the end of the fourth century was the first that forbad it whose laws to that purpose though they came out very thick were little heeded till the eleventh Age. See Gloss decret dist 84. c. 3. and P. Pius II. in his 130. Epist against the Bohemians and Taborites where he opposeth the Modern Church to the Primitive 9. That MCCCC years after Christ many learned Romanists denied the Popes judgement to be infallible Gerson Almain Alphonsus Adrian PP apud Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 2. § Secunda opinio 10. Or his authority to be above that of a generall Councel Camaracensis Gerson Almain Cusan Panormitan Abulensis apud Bell. de Conc. l. 2. c. 14. initio 11. That the Masse was not instituted by Christ and the Apostles who at the consecration used
Angels and to avoid them as cursed and excommunicated persons if they should take the boldnesse to preach ought else but that Gospel which is already delivered Gal. i. 8 9. To depart straight out of Babylon and not to be kept in there lest we partake at once of her sinnes and plagues Revel xviii 4. In a schole where those of Ephesus are commended for having hated the Nicolaitans and those of Pergamus blamed for having tolerated their doctrine Rev. ii 6 15. In a schole where even at the beginning the children of the Church had continually so much care to separate from the communion of hereticks as Samosatenians Arians and others Who seeth not that according to this discipline it is sometimes not lawfull onely but even necessary to separate from some Societies that make profession of Christianitie and that in this case we must blame not generally and simply all that make a separation but those onely who make it either lightly and without reason or unjustly and without necessity The matter seems sufficiently cleare For since the conservation of such things as are united is the end of union 'T is evident that we are not to entertain any union but onely with them who may help forward that designe and so farre onely as they may help it forward If therefore there be any who under colour of the blessed name of Christ subvert His doctrine annihilate His authority and our salvation 't is so far from being our duty to unite our selves to them that on the contrary we are obliged to part from them because to unite with them were in effect to disunite from Christ and from His body and in stead of coming to salvation to fall into eternal ruine If in a State a City or Province should oblige those that live within it to perform actions that are contrary to the Majestie and service of the Soveraigne the loyal inhabitants may thereupon separate themselves and even oppose and resist the rebels with all their power if occasion be offered For 't is a law generally engraven by nature in all parts of the Universe even in insensible creatures That every thing seeks after the company of that which is like it and with equal violence avoids to be near or have any thing to do with that which is contrary to it So then both the discipline of Jesus Christ and the lawes of Civil societies and even those of nature her self permit us to avoid the communion of such as under any pretence name or colour whatsoever go about to destroy and ruine Christianity What did I say that they permit us nay they command it so expresly that we cannot refrain from such separations without offending God scandalizing our neighbours and destroying our selves And though this be a truth received among all Christians yet there is no Society or company of them wherein it is more strictly and more severely practised then among those against whom we now dispute For who knows not with what rigour Rome hath continually rejected the Communion of those who dissent from her In the infancy of Christianitie she anathematized the Churches of Asia for a matter of nothing viz. because they celebrated Easter otherwise then she and in these later dayes how hath she persecuted with fire and sword all those that would venture never so little to oppose her power and greatnesse How many ages have passed over her head since she broke with the Eastern Northern and Southern Churches with which notwithstanding she boasteth much of her having so great conformity of belief and service So nice is she and delicate in this point that we have seen not long ago the chiefest of her Monks the most exquisite of her Religious Orders fly off and separate from the State of Venice and renounce there her Churches and Altars where all the Articles of her faith were dayly publisht where all her devotions and services were continually celebrated onely upon pretence That this wise Commonwealth would not endure that Pope Paul the fift should bereave her of the power she had to make and execute lawes for the government of her subjects So that if separation simply be a crime who seeth not that our Adversaries are faulty too and consequently are not to be admitted to bring in the accusation against us CHAP. IV. That our Separation from Rome was not made rashly willingly or unnecessarily Object BUt they 'l say that They had reason to do so and that We have none Ans So then now we come to the businesse viz. To examine the causes of our separation before sentence be given against it Let us I beseech you leave the odious words of division and schisme and apply them to none but such to whom we shall find they appertain For if we have not had any important cause of our separation from the Church of Rome if she have not required any thing of us which destroys our faith offends our consciences and overthrows the service which we believe due to God If the differences between us have been small and such as we might safely have yeilded unto Then I 'le grant That men may call our Ancestours Schismaticks may condemn their separation to be rash and unjust and may impute to them all the sad disasters and scandals that have attended that action Bâ—t if they were urged to believe and pressed to do a thousand things contrary to their faith and to their conscience if onely for not doing them they were declared Hereticks enemies to J. Christ and his Church if they were deemed unworthy even of the honours or possessions yea even of that life it self which is enjoyed in this world who doth not see That they deserve the pity of men in stead of their hate and That their withdrawing themselves from people who have Treated them in this manner was just lawfull and necessary according to all the laws of heaven and earth Now it is very apparent that they were forced to make this separation for reasons which they in their consciences judged to be very great and important For excepting the motives of conscience all other considerations evidently obliged them to the contrary In separating from the Church of Rome they pluckt upon themselves all the disfavours of the world they incurred the indignation of their Magistrates the hatred of their Countreymen they exposed themselves to the losse of their goods their honours their friends their very countrey nay all that is sweet neare or deare unto them in this life and to the suffering of poverty ignominy banishment tortures and all imaginable punishments Who can believe that men who had the use of sense and reason as well as their neighbours should ever choose with chearfulnesse where there is no necessity to embrace such a side And though they had been so blind as not to have foreseen that such would be the event of their designe which yet is not a jot probable how should We come to have so little experience as
King nor more openly renounce his subjection and that allegiance which he oweth him then by giving to some other besides him the name glory honour and service of his Soveraigne so t is not possible that we should offend God more mortally then in attributing to any other but His Majesty the name of our God and Lord which appertains to Him alone and so the honour and service agreeable to these names This was the main crime of the Gentiles who thus broke Gods Covenant and pulled upon themselves most dreadfull wrath and curses in this world and eternall death in the next S. Paul teacheth us Rom. i. 25. That this rendering to the creature a service due to the Creatour was the source and fountain whence all the mischiefs issued forth upon them And 1 Cor. vi 10. he saith plainly That idolaters that is to say Such as render to any creature the service due to God shall never inherit the Kingdome of heaven And conformably to this S. John Rev. xxi 8. protesteth That their portion shall be in the lake burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death For of all the truths that are taught in the Old and New Testaments there is not any one which is so clearly and so often expressed as this very thing not any one which hath been lesse contested by hereticks or more universally and affirmatively forbidden by the Church w ch hath ever constantly broke off from those that under any pretence whatsoever will render to the creature the service due to God Even Rome her self of whom we complain disagrees with us but very little if at all in this point For though she render great honours to divers creatures yet she ever acknowledged That there is a kind of religious service which cannot without sacriledge be given to any thing but God alone this she commonly termeth the adoration of latria to distinguish it from other honours and services which she beleeves may without sin be given to that which is not God If therefore there be any Article in all the Christian faith which should be called fundamentall it is this If there be any which we should preserve inviolably with the price of all that is deare unto us it is this Neverthelesse this very Article doth the Church of Rome oblige us to violate if we will communicate in her services For she doth most expressely command all such as be of her communion to render that soveraigne and highest kind of service which she calleth latria and confesseth to be due to none but God unto a thing which we believe to be a creature and not God himself She would have us to take for our great God for the Creatour of Heaven and earth for the Redeemer of mankind this sacrament which is indeed holy and precious but which yet our sense our reason and our faith grounded on the H. Scriptures findeth to be but bread She would have us give to this subject all the praise of the creation and redemption of the universe to invest it with all the glory that is due to our Soveraigne and highest Lord and hereupon prostrate our selves most humbly our bodies and souls before those altars whereon this is laid and in those streets where we meet it that we should celebrate the day which she hath consecrated to the honour of the Eucharist under the name of the feast of our great God and should pronounce anathema maran-atha against all them who approve not this doctrine and this practise Here I shall venture to addresse my self to any the most passionate among our Adversaries and take them for my Judges in this cause for my Counsellours in this difficultie You Sirs command me to adore the Sacrament of the Eucharist with the adoration of latria Now I cannot I must not conceal from you That I believe this Sacrament in its substance to be an inanimate creature having not yet been able to resist the Authority of my sense of my reason and of the H. Scriptures which tell me that it is nothing but bread My belief being thus what should I doe Shall I adore that which I know to be but a creature Why you cannot but see how God forbids the adoration of a creature under peril of eternall damation Your Authoritie pulls me on one side and Gods on the other In my judgement He forbids the very same thing that you desire Whither shall I turn me in this condition I doubt not but hereupon they 'l soon drive me from their Altars and forbid me to make use of that the Divinitie whereof I neither can nor will acknowledge For they oblige not men to adore their Host but because of a belief they have that it is truly Jesus Christ God blessed for ever Did they not believe it so to be they would not adore it they would not bring it to others to be adored So that since I have not that belief methinks they should not judge it fitting for me to adore it and if I should adore it they would impute this action to nothing but an extreme pusillanimitie and basenesse of spirit which for fear of men can cause me to doe a thing that I my self esteem unlawfull and unpleasing to God And let them not here alledge That I am deceived in the opinion that I have of the substance of the Eucharist For the question is not whether the Eucharist be bread or not this should be disputed apart but whether he who believes that it is bread in substance can adore it without making himself guilty of Sacriledge and giving a creature that honour which is due to the Creatour For if one should grant That he cannot which we now are coming to demonstrate from the premises very evidently I have gained the point that I intended to prove it being cleare that this supposeth We have had reason to separate from Rome seeing we believe that the Eucharist is bread in substance it being impossible for us to yield to that worship which she desires we should give it unlesse we give to a creature that which we are bound to give onely to the Creatour Whence all the odious question concerning schisme is ended For we call that schisme which is a separation made without necessity So that when my conscience forbids me under pain of Gods wrath and my own damnation to obey that which you command me in this particular 't is evident that it is not fancie pleasure or faction but a pure necessity that constraineth me to separate from you If you cannot tax this my opinion much lesse can you condemne my separation Accuse me if you please of stupidity For not being able to conceive how a body that is in heaven can be at the same time in a thousand places on earth how all the quantity of a complete man can be brought within one single point how a thing that my sense and reason knoweth to be bread and the H. Scripture calleth oftentimes bread can
of a religious worship be to be taken from the opinion that those which use it have of it ye shall scarce find any which either can be called justly an adoration of the creature or condemned in conclusion as forbidden by our Lord. The Pagans will by this means preserve themselves from that crime which S. Paul chargeth them with of having adored the Creature Rom. i. 25. and served them which by nature are no Gods Gal. iv 8. For they will plead That they believed that Jupiter to whom they gave soveraigne adoration was the great God creatour and preserver of the world the Father of Gods and men as their Poets ordinarily term him And no man can denie but that a person of such a qualitie deserveth adoration and so according to these principles no man should accuse them of idolatry for giving adoration to a subject which they thought deserved it And if the Israelites believed that the golden calf was really the God which brought them out of Egypt Exod. xxxii as the most part of the Romane Divines seem to hold they might with the same colour and shift excuse themselves for that worship which they did to it in the wildernesse say that they took it for their Lord. They might have affirmed That it was their ignorance to take their molten image for a God but not idolatry to adore it having once imposed upon it that name The Collyridians that adored the B. Virgin as we said even now would have been able by this means to defend themselves against S. Epiphanius who taxeth them expresly of idolatrie if they did but think as Card. Baronius supposeth that the B. Virgin was really a Deity and that she had nothing humane in her For they would have said suppose it were an errour to think the Blessed Virgin a Goddesse yet the service which We render her who are of this opinion cannot be so ill interpreted as to be Idolatry seeing that such a service is due to that nature which they attribute to Her S. Augustine in his preface to his Sermons on the xciii Psalme p. 216. I. Tom. 8. speaks of certain hereticks that honoured the Sun and said That it was J. Christ Such may in the same manner excuse the service that they rendred to this great luminarie and say that they rendred it not to a creature but that they believed the subject to which they rendred it was J. Christ Yet neverthelesse we see that the Spirit of God calleth continually the services rendred by Pagans to Jupiter and by the Israelites to the golden calf Idolatries and those who rendred them adorers of creatures and idolaters And Epiphanius following that style calleth the Collyridians as we observed even now a sect of such as made idols and their opinion an heresie And S. Augustine blameth the honour that some whom he speaketh of gave to the Sunne he esteeming it a contempt cast upon the Creatour And in truth who sees not that this errour we now speak of is but a vain pretence and such as can no wayes excuse them that render divine services to creatures For if it were not there would be no sinne no crime so abominable but it might be committed and excused without errour Rebells having shaken off the yoke of their lawfull King and submitted to a Tyrant and adhered to his Conspiracy might say They thought this was the true Governour of the Nation and consequently pretend That they who called them Rebells and Traitours did them a deal of wrong And so we may say the same I confesse That ignorance excuseth where it is against a mans will when the subject which we misconceive is so concealed that whatsoever desire we have or pains we take to find out the truth 't is not possible for us to discover it As if one should suppose a Subject so like his Prince that 't is impossible to distinguish one from the other in this case such would be excusable as should give him the honour and service due to their true Soveraigne But where the ignorance of the object proceedeth not from the obscuritie and difficultie of the thing but from the malice or negligence of the man 't is so farre from excusing the fault that it aggravateth it extremely Such was the errour of those who during the holy League took the Cardinal of Bourbon for the true King of France meerly their passion and not any obscuritie that was in the thing made them ignorant of that which was as clear as any thing in the world viz. That Henry the Great was the lawfull King of the Realm So that this errour according to all laws divine and humane hindered not their crime from being great deserving the name and punishment of a true rebellion Such very such and indeed lesse tolerable is the errour of those who take a creature for the Creatour and consequently adore it as if it were really He. For what I beseech you did the Pagans see in their Jupiter or the Israelites in their golden calf that obliged them to believe one or t'other to be the Soveraigne God who made the heavens and preserves mankind by his providence Nay on the contrary what did they meet with in those objects that did not in a high and evident manner declare That they were nothing lesse then that great Divinitie whereof these mad men gave them onely the name and the service And what cause can the superstitious Collyridians alledge why they should be ignorant of that which reason and the H. Scriptures witnesse so clearly viz. That the holy Virgin is a woman and not a Goddesse or Those that honoured the Sunne why they esteemed J. Christ to be truly the Sunne Take them out of their passion and they had nothing either in the nature of the thing or in H. Scripture that could bring them into so ridiculous an errour The ignorance of all these things then was visibly affected and voluntary bred from their vice onely and not from any obscuritie of the things which they were ignorant of whence it followeth that 't is so farre from being able to excuse or diminish the impiety of such services that contrariwise 't is one of their crimes for which God will enter into judgement with them and will ask them hereafter why they were ignorant of that which was so clearly and graciously made manifest Now to apply what hath been said to our present purpose If the Sacrament of the Eucharist be truly bread in substance as we firmly believe it to be upon the credit of our sense of our reason and of the word of God I say That the contrary opinion which those of the Church of Rome hold thinking it to be not bread but the Lord of the world doth not at all hinder that service which they render to it in the consequence of their belief from being truly the adoration of a creature and deserving that name and rank which the H. Scriptures give ordinarily to such services
us God forbid they should We believe and preach That our Ministers are men and mere creatures so that no man can take the kneeling which is before them who give imposition of hands for an adoration addressed to them all the profession of our Churches and nature of the things themselves directly contradicting it In like manner the Church of England believeth and teacheth publickly That the Eucharist is bread in substance and that to adore it were grievously to offend God So that the kneeling which is in their communion cannot be taken for an adoration of ought else but Jesus Christ who is in heaven and not of bread which is upon the earth Did the Church of Rome believe and likewise teach that the Eucharist were bread in substance and not a subject fit to be adored we think that then we might bow the knee in her Communion without wounding our consciences But while she teacheth that which she now believeth while she exacteth of us this kneeling as a true adoration of the Sacrament who is so blind as not to see that we cannot obey her without making our selves according to the judgement of our own consciences guilty of adoreing a meer creature since we believe the Sacrament so to be CHAP. XIII That he who believeth the Eucharist to be bread in substance cannot give it the reverence which is practised in the Church of Rome withoul evident falshood hypocrisie and perfidiousnesse Object FOr to say Though the intention of the Church of Rome be that we should addresse this kneeling and adoration whereof that is the mark to the Sacrament there present That we may neverthelesse use it otherwise and addresse it to J. Christ sitting in heaven at the right hand of His Father lifting up our hearts raising our affections and thoughts to Him and by this means kneel with our Adversaries without adoring as they do that which we believe to be but a creature Answ This is a false and dangerous excuse of the flesh which might it take place would open a large and dangerous gate to impietie and hypocrisie and ruine the foundations of all religion And for the better understanding of it I must begin with it a little higher God being the Creatour and Redeemer of whole man that is to say both of his soul and of his bodie would have him which is but reasonable serve Him entirely using both the one and the other of these two parts to that end Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit both which are Gods saith the Apostle 1 Cor. vi 20. And as in offices which concern our neighbours he commandeth us sincerity willing us to love them inwardly and to edifie and help them outwardly so doth He command that in piety which regardeth Himself we should joyntly make use of our hearts and bodies And as He abominates that man who loving his neighbour in his heart should abuse him with his tongue or hurt him with his hand or contrariwise should give him an almes with his hand and hate him in his heart So will He not approve of that man who pretends to reverence Him in the secret of his soul and yet with his tongue blasphemeth His name nor him who blessing Him with his mouth shall curse Him with his heart 'T will stand one man in no stead to plead for himself That his soul did his duty but the bodie failed of his nor another to excuse the defaults of the soul by the service of the body So that in effect these excuses will be but a meer mockery The union of the mind and the body being so neare that when the mind is disposed as it should the body cannot but perform its devoir and he that abusing God or his neighbour with his tongue would have us believe that notwithstanding all that he loveth them sincerely in his heart is a bold lyar deserving to be punished not onely for his blasphemy or wrong but likewise for his impudence According to these undoubted Maximes we are bound not onely to receive in our hearts the truths which God hath revealed in Religion but likewise outwardly to professe them And we are all bound not onely not to disbelieve with our hearts the errours and impieties which are contrary to the truth of God but likewise not to confesse them outwardly in any kind For if it be enough to retain in the heart the knowledge and love of truth and it be permitted to deny it outwardly sometimes S. Peter had not fell in denying his Master for no man can doubt but that his heart within knew well enough what his tongue disavowed without And so to denie our Lord before men would be no sinne and confession with the mouth would be of no use which all are things evidently false For that action of S. Peter is grievously blamed in the Gospel and his tears if we had no other proof shew us sufficiently that he thought he did extremely offend God And our Lord Matth. x. 33. protesteth expressely that He will denie him before His Father in heaven that is to say that at the great day of judgement He will not own him for His nor put him in the number of His blessed children who will deny him before men And lastly S. Paul Rom. x. 9 10. teacheth us That with the heart men believe unto righteousnesse and with the tongue they make confession unto salvation and to be saved he doth not onely require That you should believe the Lord in your heart but likewise that you should confesse him with your mouth The same reasons do necessarily induce us to believe That it is not enough to banish from our hearts the belief of impietie and such errours as are contrary to the foundations of true Religion unlesse we also banish the confession of them from our mouthes For to confesse an errour which overthroweth the fundamentalls of Religion is clearly to deny our Râ—ligion Since then we are forbidden under pain of an eternall curse to confesse with our mouth the errours which we detest with our hearts T is cleare that if we believe the adoration of the Host of the Church of Rome to be an errour contrary to the foundations of piety as we do indeed That we cannot confesse it without violating the commandment of J. Christ and pulling upon our souls eternall ruine and damnation For where is the Christian who firmly believing that the Sacrament is a creature and being asked if he should give it the adoration of latria will not dread to answer Yes and whose conscience will not feel a thousand remorses if any passion cause his tongue to say so And how can we say that the Sacrament is to be adored or confesse it more clearly then by prostrating our selves before the Host of the Church of Rome and giving it in the presence of men the same outward veneration which is the mark and substance of that which we give to Him Object But you 'l perhaps deny That with
expresse leave what think you would he have done if he had been in the Romanists case with what horrour would he have refused and detested it since here is nothing but naked and plain demonstrations of honour and service to a creature All that may hence be concluded is in appearance to favour those who serve Kings to assist them at the ceremonies of the Religion of their Master if so be their service obligeth them to render any service to their persons so that the action which they exercise be one of the functions of their charge and that elsewhere they make a cleare and open profession of fearing the Lord onely that they acknowledge not that for God which is adored in such devotions Yet I know not whether the difference that is between the Old and New Testament will permit us to extend the consequence of this example thus farre God having formerly in the time of the Churches infancy permitted in his children divers things which he forbids them now under the light of the Gospel where our charitie should be so exquisite that we should rather endure all sorts of mischiefs then give the least cause of scandall to our Neighbours and I believe it were more safe to renounce those Dignities which oblige us to any appearances contrary to our Religion then to cause any to stumble by our enjoying and exercising them CHAP. XVI That to think it is lawfull for a man to exercise the ceremonies of a Religion which he believeth not doth by consequence diminish the glory of and cast a blur on the Martyrs BUt to this one example which they without any reason bring out of the Old Testament we may justly oppose the belief and perpetuall practise of the Saints under the first and second Covenant who have not more abhorred confessing with the mouth errours contrary to pietie then they have detested practising amongst those who teach them any of those actions that have reference to such errours Holding as well those to be Apostates and deserters of the Faith who defiled themselves with some false and unlawfull service as those who expresly and publickly professed errour For example Had not the three Hebrew children in Babylon Dan. iii. been of this perswasion why should they have been willing to have incurred the indignation of the King their Protectour and to have been deprived not onely of all their goods and honours but likewise cast into a hot fiery furnace there to endure a very grievous and horrible death rather then to prostrate themselves at his commandment before the golden image which he caused his people to adore Had it not been easie for them to have kept themselves from all this mischief by doing that which the King commanded but in another sense and with an intention different from that wherein he required it viz. by referring and addressing their adoration whereof bowing or prostration was the mark not to the golden image before them but to God the Creatour But this illusion and catch was so farre from prevailing with them that they never once thought of it but with a brave generositie befitting that piety whereof they made profession they answered boldly at the first word that they would not prostrate themselves before the statue thinking which was very true That since that action which was required of them signified in the custome of that people an acknowledgement of a Godhead in the inanimate creature they could not practise it without idolatry or damnable hypocrisie and consequently without rendring themselves guilty of a very enormous sinne against God and an irreparable scandal against their neighbours The same may I say of all the excellent and famous Personages that have from the first dawning of Christianitie to this houre with so much courage and glorie sealed the truth with their bloud For if a man might be permitted to counterfeit in this manner and without deserving punishment to exercise impious services and superstitious adorations provided that in the secret of his heart he referre and give those very services to God the Creatour which other men give to the creature why should those holy and blessed Witnesses of God have exposed themselves to such troubles and sufferings Why should they continually have made such scruple of casting two or three grains of incense into the Censer in presence of their Soveraigne Prince who commanded them Why might they not have done this with an intention of rendring this service either to God or to the Prince there present that he might smel the sweet odour and not to the idol as others intend and perform it If this petty quirk of Logick might have made the action cōmendable or at least tolerable and excusable what an incredible stupidity was it in those great men not to have used it Who perceives not that after the rate of our new Sophisters all the Christian courage of those holy Personages was but a piece of sillinesse all their constancy a sottish and childish opinionativenesse and wilfulnesse For who would not judge them either infinitely simple as not knowing or not thinking on so easie a subtilty or extremely imprudent if knowing it they would not have used it at such a time since for want of using it they miserably lost both their goods and lives and all that was deare and precious to them upon earth But if the Romanists be in the right the Martyrs beside suffering should have had a deal of crime and sinfulnesse in their fault For to lose a mans life needlesly and to spill ones own bloud in a bravery is an enormous offence against God who forbids us to violate or take away our neighbours life much more our own and detesting those who procure another mans death cannot but extremly abominate them who are the cause of their own destruction But God forbid that in stead of setting forth the praises and the glory which all Christians have ever given to these holy Martyrs we should be so ungratefull and malicious as to reproach their memory by accusing them either of imprudence or injustice meerly to gratifie such as having not courage enough to confesse openly what they believe privately in their hearts would in stead of condemning their own weaknesse tax all those of rashnesse who are not so fearfull as they Let us rather acknowledge that these Saints whose names have ever been precious and blessed in the Church have well and rightly judged thinking that none can with lesse then such a resolution perform the duty of a good and faithfull Christian nor otherwise avoid the infamy and punishments which they deserve who desert so holy a discipline CHAP. XVII That this dissembling is condemned by our Lord in the Scriptures FOr in truth God will not be put off with such quaint devices which are but meer pretences and colours wherewith flesh and bloud endeavour to smooth over their fearfulnesse He deals with us bonâ fide plainly and in earnest and will not own them who goe