the Papists Idolaters But that is impossible for you to do You will perhaps to little purpose cite the names of certain Calvinistical Writers that as you hypocritically called themselves English Protestants but withall you will take notice that all very Protestants have laughed at them some have been angry and demonstrated the direct Negative If you were a live member of the English Church you would know that the English Church would be no Church if the Pope were Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters For would you acknowledg that to be a Church that enjoyes her whole Authority and Jurisdiction from Antichrist and Idolaters Is she not rather a member and abortive of Antichrist This is plain reason Mr. Bagshaw and consequently the inference is undeniable That all are schismaticks who upon that score do refuse communion with the Roman Church 17. You proceed against Mr. Thorndike He insinuates say you that we may lawfully pray for the Dead Your proof I told you that this is against Protestancy must be to shew where the English Church has repealed the Antient Canons commanding Prayer for the Dead That will be a hard task On the contrary You your selves object against the Common-Prayer-Book that there is a clause in it that not only insinuates it to be lawful but actually exercises prayer for the dead And you know that within the time of the four first General Counsels received in England above twelve hundred years ago your Progenitors were by the Universal Church declared Hereticks for denying it Yea moreover that there was never extant any Liturgy or Missal in the Church of Christ Eastern or Western wherein there were not prayers for the dead 18. You go on Mr. Thorndike against the Doctrine of the Church of England saies That we may expect some benefit by the prayers of souls departed I suppose holy soules are meant Where does the Church of England contradict this nay more except you will acknowledg your self to be a Socinian and deny that the souls of dead persons have any subsistence at all with perception and use of rational faculties you your self will not be so shameless as to deny what you here lay to Mr. Thorndikes charge For I know none that call themselves Christians except Socinians but acknowledg that the glorified Saints do pray at least in general for the Church Militant Now if they all do pray for us all will you not permit us to expect some benefit by their prayers Must we maintain that all their prayers are to no purpose O but you infer That this in time may easily be improved to our praying unto them As for this inference which is not your defendants but only your own give me leave to tell you That if you believe that the Saints pray for the Church in general it would be no hard matter by one Syllogisme to oblige you to acknowledge that we may pray to God that he would hear and grant their prayers making them beneficial to us And now search all the Solemn Offices and Missals of the Roman Church mark the prayers that occurrs every Saints Feast you will find no other formes but such as that The prayer is alwayes directed to God alone immediately and he is desired to grant us such and such blessings by the intercession of such Saints And if in less solemne Devotions as Litanies Antiphons c. we say Sancte Maria Sancte Michael Sancte Petre ora pro nobis we are by the Church obliged to no other meaning then as before and we imitate express Scripture Laudate Deum omnes Angeli ejus omnes Sancti ejus c. Cardinal Perron will assure you that our prayers to Saints is only prier pour prier a devout wishing that they would pray for us And truly for my part I do heartily wish all the Saints in heaven to intercede in their prayers with God that he would vouchsafe to give you and us all a sincere love both to truth and peace 19. I have reserved your most criminal charge till the last which you thus express If it be not the intent of some to returne into Aegypt I cannot imagine Preface what means the crying up of that great Diana of the Papists the Churches authority and making that the sole interpreter of Scripture What Religion can you possibly be of and talk thus You in your own person standing alone are not a Church If you be but one member of a Church what ever it be as long as you are so you are subject to it it must have Authority over you the Spirit of one Prophet must be subject to an assembly of Prophets are you an Independent much freedom is implyed in that Title yet I believe your Lay Church will think it has authority enough to oblige you not to interpret Scripture for the advantage of that court of Inquisition the Classes of the Presbytery Are you a Presbyterian Your private reason shall be yoaked and chained with bonds strong enough and heavy enough to keep it from stirring to the prejudice of the Holy brethren and Sisters But you will needs call your self an English Protestant and yet will dare to revile all the Authority in your Church boldly protesting that it shall not interpret Scripture for you Your private reason shall over-master it Unless it confesse it self to be no Church that is to have no Authority to oblige its members to receive the sence of scripture from her you will be revenged by bellowing aloud This is the crying up of the great Diana of the Papists Truly I must needs say the Church of England is a very patient Church if she suffer you to speak this Bedlam language and injoy a Benefice too 20. But you do well though you mean very ill when you call this the Diana of the Papists Since you imply that a true obliging Authority if any where can only be found in the Catholick Church As for Sects that have no Succession of Ordination for such to assume Authority and Jurisdiction in matters of Religion is ridiculous even to common sence for it implies that to be men which have an ordinary use of reason is a sufficient qualification to become Ecclesiastical Teachers and Governours The Clergy of England challenging a lawful Ordination have some pretension to a real Authority and if they could justify themselves free from the guilt of Schisme even we Roman Catholicks could not deny but their Authority would oblige in conscience and under the penaltie of damnation because then it would be an Authority participating that of the whole Catholick Church and acting in union with it But of this somewhat more in the last part of this Discourse 21. I do apprehend Mr. Bagshaw that if you make any reply to this you will instead of speaking to the purpose endeavour to aggravate the cause of Doctour Gunning and Mr. Thorndike by saying at adventure that there is a secret intelligence between the Papists and them and that they do
A NON EST INVENTVS Return'd to Mr. EDWARD BAGSHAW'S ENQUIRY AND Vainly boasted DISCOVERY Of weakness in the Grounds of the CHURCHES INFALLIBILITY ALSO His Seditious INVECTIVES Against the Moderate Sincerity of PROTESTANTS and savage Cruelty against ROMAN CATHOLICKS Repressed By a Catholick Gentleman PSALM LXIII v. VI. Scrutati sunt Iniquitates defecerunt Scrutinio They made an Enquiry after Iniquities but the Enquirers failed in the Enquiry Printed in the Year MDCLXII Mr. Edward Bagshaw THe Title of your Book is not immodest being called only An Enquiry into the Grounds of the Roman Churches Infallibility But by pronouncing in the conclusion those fatall words MENE TEKEL you confidently declare it cannot be answered The destruction of the Babilonian Monarchy was not more inevitable after the writing that Decretory sentence by an invisible Angels fingers than is the Roman Churches now You have compiled and published this your Book which you judge unanswerable and to deal ingenuously with you so may I too though I be as good a Catholick as the Pope himself What would you have more A reason for it Have but a little patience and you shall not fail of one better then you expect or have knowledge to foresee 2. Yet I conceive it concerns not Catholicks only but the whole Kingdom I mean all good Subjects in it that such a book though pretendedly against Roman Catholicks only yet full of pernicious invectives malicious complaints and seditious reflexions against the State should with a barefac'd impudence stalke abroad in the publick view as fearless of a censure Nor is the Book in it self so highly provoking as in respect of the abominable Preface that no honest subject Protestant or Catholick can read without indignation no reader justify or not mislike without declaring his Thirst after the publick ruine 3. The Apostles advice of redeeming the time forbids me to mispend it by replying line after line to what you have written That therefore which I have to say to you shall be to make good these positions in direct opposition to what you have written viz. 1. That it is against the welfare of English subjects both for body and soul that you and such as you should be permitted to call your selves Protestants and members of the English Church 2. That your instilling suspicions into the peoples minds as if English Divines c. had a design to introduce Popery again is a meer acting over the late Rebellion 3. That your attempt to render Roman Catholick subjects only in an incapacity of Toleration is more groundlesse and in your mouthes most maliciously ridiculous 4. That your whole discourse against the Churches Infallibility only proves that you have nothing to say to the purpose against it I. That it is a publick mischief that Mr. Bagshaw or any such as he should be permitted to call themselves English Protestants 1. IF common fame be true Mr. Bagshaw you are the same person that published so petulant and uncivil a Libel against my Lord Bishop of Worcester and not for that fault alone have been so deservedly Disciplined by Mr. l'Estrange and so smartly whip't that the whole Town has heard your cries How then comes it to pass that you can find leasure to seek out and defy to the combat other enemies But it may be the demolishing of the Roman Church is but an excursion in a Parenthesis whilst you are for your divertisement unbending your thoughts or taking breath awhile against a new combat with an Adversary that has a great deal more zeal sharpness honesty and courage then is for your purpose who hope not to be discern'd whilst in despight of the Act of Oblivion you will not suffer either the King or any of his faithfull Subjects to forget what they have suffered and must expect but still work and preach and print almost totidem Verbis as you did when the horrible Covenant was the only Religion and Gospel of the three Kingdoms 2. These practices Mr. L ' Estrange if he cannot interrupt yet he can call company and bid them take notice of them He will not permit you to Glory as if you could once more couzen the Kingdom into a new Rebellion Never hope to find so much as one English Protestant that will once more be cheated to look upon you as the Assertors of the Subjects Liberties or maintainers of pure Protestant Religion If the Civil Authority will for ever wink at your Caballs and the Ecclesiastick leave open the Pulpits to your Sermons of the old stile and the Presses to your Pamphlets against Bishops and indifferent Ceremonies If you expect Indemnity must be interpreted to regard the future also all that can be said will be Sani Sobrii vigiles perîmus We shall not as heretofore be surprised but we make a Covenant with destruction as if we were afraid it would escape us 3. As for your Pamphlet touching Infallibility though by the Title you pretend to attacque only Roman Catholicks and to demolish the Grounds of the Churches Faith yet in the whole Book there are not quite two small leaves wherein the Church is concern'd at all either in its Grounds or Superstructure Therefore I am confident and it may be Mr. L'Estrange who knows your wayes and Arts much better then I may in a far neater that is his own stile tell you your real Design was to write a Book with the Title against Catholicks meerly to have an opportunity to stuffe the Preface with malicious glances against Protestants too and incense vulgar minds as if Popery forsooth were ready to be introduced 4. Now though my self purely as a Catholick am little concern'd in that part of your book which you purposely wrote against Catholicks and not very much in those passages against Protestants except only in this consideration that you would fain make Catholick Religion your Engine to raise troubles yet as a faithfull Subject to his Majesty and a lover of my Countries peace I cannot but inwardly bewail and must take leave thus publickly to justifie the too reasonable cause of my grief when I see an English Subject openly professing his name and pretending to the Protection of an Honourable Counsellour of State renew the old seditious practise of inflaming the Peoples minds with rage against their Teachers and murmuring suspicions against their Governours A practise that above all others contributed to the raising of the late Rebellion and to the ruine and murder of our late Soveraign of happy memory and his best Subjects and Servants the late Archbishop of Canterbury Earl of Strafford c. Here are still among us God knowes how many Sects that if any Protestant Doctours shall presume to speak or write otherwise then according to what the furious zeal of Sectaries against Ecclesiasticall Unity and peace suggests they must presently be exposed to a general suspicion the Country must be raised upon them and upon the Bishops if they not discountenance them and upon the King unless
and I much fear You will never have the honesty to imitate them 3. Observe one thing I pray You in such Protestations and writings of Roman Catholicks They do not deprecate any former faults committed because they are guiltie of none they protest their clearness from those crimes of a few desperate unhappy monsters and writings of their traiterous Masters that occasioned the severity of Laws against all They do not mention their universal fidelitie to the King these last twentie Years as an obligation or merit for which they expect reward from men but as a necessary duty to which their Religion bound them and which if they had not performed they should have incurred a curse from God Yet all this perhaps will not satisfie You. But see our different Complexion for my part though there were not one of Your supposed Religion but were deeply ingaged in infidelity to the King yet if You would only acknowledg that a fault was committed is repented of and a promise made of Loyalty for the future I should hope well and wish You might be believed and confided in for the future 4. Next as to the Clergy Your accusation Preface is most heavy and punctual when You say I need not plead for the not persecuting of Poperie c. when some that yet professe themselves to be of our Church and those of good note too are not afraid to plead for somthing more then its Toleration Since by telling us in print that the Pope is not Master Thorndike in Weights and Measures Antichrist That Papists are not Idolaters nay by affirming That all are schismaticks who upon that score do refuse communion with them they not only blemish the vertue and piety of our first Reformers who all built upon that foundation but likewise shew how willing they are upon any termes how wretched and unworthie soever to returne into Egypt and bring us to our Brick and bondage again If this be not the interest of some I cannot imagine what means the crying up of that Great Diana of the Papists the Churches Authority and making that the sole Interpreter of Scripture The Dr. Gunning upon Math. 9. preaching up of Lent and other political Fish daies as Religious Fasts and of Apostolical Institution quite contrary M. Thorndike ut suprà both to express scripture and an Act of Parliament The insinuating that we may lawfully pray for the dead and likewise expect some benefit by their prayers which in time may easily be improved to our praying unto them These with some other opinions of the like nature so far degenerating from our primitive protestancy do shew that if the Age is willing to be deceived there are not wanting learned men who are willing enough to deceive them 5. This authority that You Mr. Bagshaw take upon You to proscribe all protestants that dare not profess such a detestation of Catholick Vnity as Your party does is alone sufficient to demonstrate how much the English Clergy does neglect their own preservation whilst they permit such as You to call your selves protestants and members of their Church your waies and interests being so directry opposed to theirs 6. All England almost has lately heard Archbishop of Canterbury laid to the charge of the late most unjustly murdered Archbishop of Canterbury as the most heavy point of his accusation that he had a desire of restoring England to Catholick unity Yet there was not produced any proof at all that for that end he deserted any necessarie and essential Doctrines of his own Church the mere desire of unity was his crime A crime that he willingly acknowledged and as he had reason joyfullie boasted of And certainly that Christian must needs be full of a Spirit not from heaven that hates unitie quatenus ipsam Now what my Lord Archbishop desired and died for I am perswaded there is scarce any true genuine English protestant but does commend in him and would not refuse occasion being given to imitate him in 7. If you read Bishop Andrews his works both English and Latine You Bishop Andrews will even in his Controversies against Catholicks find a wonderful caution not to aggravate or multiply differences great care to prevent misintelligence and an exactness in stating disputed points with a most studied impartiality very oft with condescendence Nay even in his sermons before the Court in which his heart only spoke as as an Embassadour for God what pangs may one perceive in his soul when he speaks upon this subject and reflects on the aversion that some who like You call themselves protestants have from Catholick peace and Unitie Hearken to this one passage in his first Sermon on Pentecost Who shall make us of one accord High shall his reward be in heaven and happy his remembrance on earth that shall be the means to restore this accord to the Church that once we may keep a true and perfect Pentecost like this here Erant omnes unanimiter It was a restoring of unity that he so much thirsted after which word shewes that he had a respect to the Catholick Church from which only a separation was made 8. And Doctour Steward likewise a person as replenished with learning prudence Doctour Steward and vertue as any of his time he so longed after this unitie that in his last Will he gave order it should be the argument of the Inscription on his Tombe And no doubt there is but such an Inscription would make it lighter that is render his future condition better 9. These wothy persons were indeed English protestants like those You now arraign They knew the true composition of their own Chuch A Church though I must needs say not firmly built yet however erected by advice of persons in Authority persons of honour and judgment not as Geneva Holland and Cromwels Independent Church by a rebellious Army of Tradesmen They knew that at the first framing of the English Church a way was not so wholly given to passion but that when certain interests of a few great persons were complied with and several too justly complained of Gravamina from the Roman Court remedied there might be a possibility of closing again with that Church which they then only so far deserted They knew there was never any intention so to forsake the Roman Church as if it were a Babel or seat of Antichrist but ever acknowledged it a true Church though not so well Reformed On the contrarie they knew and their successors do still to your hearts torment acknowledg that all the Ordination and spiritual Jurisdiction of the English Church is derived from the Roman which therefore must be a true Church if theirs be any 10. Upon such grounds as these no question my Lord Archbishop of Canterbury not only desired as all honest well minded Protestants do but also hoped that if by his authority and skill he could reduce the English church to that primitive State before your
Religious you will quarrel as derogating from God Let us therefore call it a sacred veneration or honour For since all things that are appointed on purpose to mind us of God of heaven and the salvation of our souls we call them sacred this name may well be applyed to such a picture But moreover because there are not invented such variety of names as there are things and there are far fewer sorts of outward postures of our Bodies denoting respect then there are Names or Words Hence it comes to pass that when we would express a Civil and a Sacred yea a Religious respect we are forced to use the same outward behaviour of bowing kneeling c. to Fathers and Magistrates that we do to God himself Yea we find in the Scripture Kings adored and a prostration of bodies paid to them Yet for all this no man will suspect that thereby any dishonour was intended to God or the Honour due only to him was paid to creatures 29. In the next place let reason and common sence give judgment of the distinction between the respect that may be paid to the picture of St. Peter and that which ought to be paid to himself in case he appeared to us glorified as he is A Divine respect we pay to neither though sometimes we use such postures as we do when we pray or worship God It is then a sacred veneration only but yet there are some expressions of respect that we would use to the person that would be ridiculous to the picture as reverently to speak to him to beg his prayers to God for us to ask a Question c. 30. Our last Enquiry shall be into the difference of regard if any there be to our Saviours picture and S. Peters the former representing to us him that is both God and man the latter meerly man However we shall find that the regard to both the pictures is of the same species and nature that is only sacred because a picture we never look upon but as an instrument to put us in mind or to call to our memories an object and therefore it being of our own frameing is not capable of any respect beyond that which is due to so material inferiour a thing what ever the object represented by it be True it is that the internal affections and thoughts occasionally raised in our minds will be infinitely different for we shall think upon Christ with Adoration Love Resignation and Obedience due to God only not so of St. Peter but the pictures themselves will be treated by us as sacred pictures only that deserve a respect proportionable And since it is evident they are capable of a sinful disrespect consequently a due respect may be paid to them I say may be not alwaies ought to be for then it would never be fit to put on ones hat c. in a room where there hangs a crucifix 31. To summe up briefly our meaning in this whole matter We find our minds too apt to be distracted from meditating on Divine things therefore we help our selves by such things as will call to our memories and fix our thoughts upon Objects good for our souls to be thought upon Such are holy pictures both in times of prayer and out we find this benefit by them Being such sacred things we must renounce our reason if we deny a respect may be due to them but by honouring with an outward regard a picture we intend only to give a testimony what respect we bear to the person or holy thing represented And though for want of variety of postures we shew some part of the same outward Reverence to the pictures of St. Peter and our Lord yet that signifies we only venerate St. Peter as a glorious Saint yet a creature but that we adore Christ as God And no man that sees or knows us can think otherwise So that unless it be a sin to shew outwardly what we are oblig'd to think inwardly there is not the least fault committed 32. And now Mr. Bagshaw give me leave to acquaint You with Your mistakes First this respect called by the Church Honour and Veneration which We affirme may be paid to sacred Images you call Worshipping of Images meerly to make us odious to your ignorant Proselytes For Worship is commonly taken to be that Honour which is due only to God and which we abhor to give to Images But Secondly you give it another name more abominable calling it Idolatry such as God punished in the worst of Pagans Once at least in your life speak your conscience Do you think or only suspect that we Roman Catholicks do worship false Gods and true Devils Do we consider our Images as they did their Idols to which by Magical conjurations they annexed an evil Spirit to do wonders and to extort Divine worship from the seduced people Take heed Sir how you persist in so unjust a blasphemy against Gods Church A time will come that You will be called to a strict account for it it concerns you therefore to make some reparation 33. But after all this take notice that the Catholick Church though it declare that such a veneration may fitly be given to Holy Images as common Reason and Humane nature cannot choose but allow Yet it commands none to afford them but even so much You may be a Roman Catholick all your life and yet never be obliged to performe any external respect to an Image There is not in Catholick countries a Groom or Kitchin-maid so ignorant but would rather burn an Image then afford it any honour due to God only And shall those that think thus and do only what humane reason generally approves and cannot hinder be esteemed and published by you the only Christians in the World fit to be thrust out of all Christian Kingdomes and executed as traytours though otherwise they be acknowledged most faithful peaceable men and obedient Subjects Are you not afraid of In quo judicio judicaveritis judicabimini 34. You see Sir how since you will not admit of Authorities to justify the Beliefe and Practice of Roman Catholicks but only common sence and reason I have complyed with you And now in one word tell you that You must never hope to make any sober man believe that Roman Catholicks are Idolaters or even faulty in the matter of Images till You can demonstrate 1. That it is unlawful to make use of our Seeing faculty to put us in mind of God 2. That he dishonours the King that shall with reverence bareheaded and in a kneeling posture receive a Letter or Mandate that comes from him 3. That it is a contempt of God to go through a Church with ones head uncovered 4. And that it is unlawful and irreligious to make a scruple of using a leaf of the Bible in the house of Office 35. For a farewel I will conclude this point with a Story the truth whereof several Gentlemen Protestants too in this Town are able
set pen to Paper to answer you since if you be never so evidently confuted you are excused from yielding by saying you have said a very little but could have said more and Catholicks are forbidden to yield since they have a world of proofs to demonstrat the Infallibility of the Church far more efficacious then these one or two Texts of Scripture called out by you for your best advantage And even these Texts as they are produced and made use of by Catholicks are unanswerable especially to those that think it reasonable to admit that to be the sence of Scripture which all antiquity has given which all protestants and all reasonable men do They could not foresee that there could arise a Disputant so void of reason as Mr. Bagshaw to whom the whole consent of all Ages of the Church all Councils and Fathers appeared light and inconsiderable if compared with his single reason Therefore till you have proved that Ground demonstratively that is turned sand into a Rock you are not in a capacity either to object or answer 6. And to the end you may set upon such a work to some purpose I pray please to enquire out a Book called Exomologesis or Motives of the Conversion c. where your great Lanista Mr. Chillingworths reasons for such a position are pretended to be answered and in an Appendix to that Book You will find an Examination of the Fundamental Grounds of my Lord Faulklands Discourse on that Subject These are the men you brag of in Your Preface as your great Patrons that is indeed such Protestants as you are that lay such grounds as utterly demolish the whole structure of the English church denying that any Authority upon Earth can oblige any man And this very thing I mean the destruction of the Church of England you Preface your self confesse in your Preface to have Preface been the Design of your small Treatise though written against Papists adding that Nothing can be more unreasonable ib. then this that those Churches or Church-Rulers should Lord it over the Faith or conscientious perswasion of other men who are not certain but they may err and be deceived themselves For that would be to take the Pope's Chair and succeed into his room 7. This therefore having been by your self acknowledged your Design I must repeat what I have already said That the English Bishops and Clergy are far more interessed in your Book for all the Title be only against Catholicks then Catholicks are But as to this horrible position of Yours which utterly destroys all Order and peace Let me tell You that to particular Churches and Church-Rulers if they be members of the Catholick Church infallibility is not at all necessary to make their Doctrines or Orders obliging even in conscience Because all their subjects whilest they remain so are bound I do not say to believe internally but not to contradict their declared Doctrines and to submit to their Orders the refusing of either perhaps not damning but certainly excluding the refusers from an outward communion with that Church So that here you plainly exerto Capite tell the World you are no English protestant though perhaps you would fain have an English Benefice and preach against order in English pulpits 8. Now as for that Great Question of the Infallibility of the Church which You consider only as the conceit of some few Catholicks if You have a mind to write any thing to the purpose to prevent Your mistaking if that be a possible thing give a well-wishing friend leave to informe you in general That there is extant no formal Decision of the Church touching her own infallibility Notwithstanding all Catholicks are bound to acknowledge her to be infallible by a necessary consequence of an essential Article of the Creed Which consequence You may conceive to be thus deduced viz. 9. First it is an Article of our Creed Credo unam Sanctam Catholicam Apostolicam Ecclesiam that is I believe one and but One holy Catholick and Apostolick Church By which Article sincerely professed the person declaring himself a Christian signifies a necessity of his being truly a member in Communion with that One Church and consequently renounces all other Congregations and all Ecclesiastical Communion with persons divided from that One Church 10. In the Second Place Your only Guide common sence and reason tells us that a multitude cannot be called One Society except they be joyned and linked together by a Government and Lawes common to all And therefore the whole Catholick Church being indeed one Body as St. Paul sayes and one General Congregation it must necessarily have both general Rulers and Common lawes universally obliging which does not at all hinder but that under and within that general Congregation there may be many distinct Societies enjoying particular Lawes Priviledges and Rulers upon condition they do not contradict nor refuse to submit to the said general Laws Tribunals and Governours 11. Thirdly our Lord having expressly promised to preserve and continue this Church as one Society to the end of the World so as that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it it followes undeniably that he has provided sufficient and efficacious means to preserve this unity for otherwise one Article of the Creed might happen to fail 12. In the fourth place since universal Experience both in Humane and Divine matters testifies that never any Writing Law or Science could yet be so expressed but that being left to the wits enlightned Reason and interests of particular men to descant upon them there would follow differences of sences and interpretations and consequently Divisions and separated interests destructive to unity to provide against which the only possible remedy hath alwaies been acknowledged to be the constituting of an External lasting Authority of Judges and Magistrates Hence it is that the Supreme Tribunal of a General Council has evermore hitherto been confessed by all Christians to be the only preservative against a breach in the universal Church and because it cannot alwaies be possible to summon such an Assembly therefore by way of provision the supreme Pastour of the Church hath alwaies exercised in matters that concern the common Faith and Discipline an Authority if not to decide at least to compose and silence all differences in Opinions c. and to put in Execution the Ordinances of precedent Councils 13. Now if You will discourse to any purpose in opposition to this as I know You have a great Tooth against it You must either demonstrate that there is no need at all that controversies should be composed and Schismes healed Or if You cannot do this You must contradict the Experience of all mankind by shewing that Judges are not necessary to end Law-suites that writings alone with enlightned reason will do the business and especially that above all Lawes and Sciences the Holy Scriptures that are in some places infinitely obscure and in plain places compiled in
a popular stile far from that studied exactness of Lawes and Sciences are most proper to have their sence agreed in This must be your task and to make it good it will be expected that You should do one miracle more which is to produce but one Example during sixteen hundred years and upwards taking in the Apostles times if You please to shew that differences in Religion have been prevented or composed and separations of divided Churches re-united by disputing out of Scriptures alone without submission to a common Tribunal On the contrary side we Catholicks will be obliged to shew you that all Heresies hitherto appearing have been so far destroyed by General Councils that the Church has been preserved in Unity and we are confident will be so for ever notwithstanding even so formidable an Adversaries opposition as you are 14. In the fifth place This great Tribunal of a General Council is of an Authority so authentick that no Appeal from it must be admitted Yea moreover it has influence not on the outward actions or professions only but even the judgments and hearts of all particular Catholick persons and Churches This appears not only by the universal agreement of all Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers past and present but by the solemn stile of the Decrees made by all such Councils in which Anathema's have been denounced against all Hereticks and Schismaticks and they separated from the Mystical Body of Christ to which alone Salvation is promised 15. In the last place therefore the Church being one and to keep it so Authority having been communicated to it by our Lord which Authority for that purpose must needs under penalty of an Eternal separation from Christ oblige all Christians to submit even their minds to it it seems to us that it followes necessarily and inevitably that the Church is infallible Unless we would say that our Lord has commanded us to hear such a Church and Guide as might lead us to Hell To prevent all suspicion of which he has expresly promised to lead not the Apostles only as you fancy but his Church into all Truth with whom he said he would be present to the end of the world thousands of years after the Apostles were dead 16. These you may suppose Mr. Bag. to be the true grounds of the Churches Infallibility It is Infallible because it is One but it is such an One from which as Separation is damnable So that if you a Presbyterian or Independent c. have a minde to assault these grounds then 1. You must first destroy that Article of our Creed I believe one Catholick Church 2. Next you must prove out of express Scripture not only that Scripture is our only Rule but that we have no other Guide to find out the sence of it but only our private reason or spirit and what these joyn'd together conclude upon will infallibly serve our turn whether it be true or false 3. That all the Antient Church and all Protestants too are mistaken when they say that Schism to you the most innocent thing in the World is a Sin a great exterminating sin for which there cannot possibly be a just cause or sufficient excuse 4. Lastly you must have the confidence befitting a Presbyterian to say that all Christians before you have been poor spirited sheepish deceived people that knew not what the Liberty of a Subject was and that all General Councils that presumed to denounce Anathema's against the private spirit or enlightned reason have been most abhorred conspiracies of Tyrants over Mens souls 17. Whereas if you were an English Protestant truly so called but the very supposition is unsufferable and therefore must be changed therefore I say whereas a true English Protestant would protest his readiness to submit both his tongue and soul to a lawful General Council and consequently would have no quarrel against the Infallibility of the Universal Church He would admit Tradition to be the best Interpreter of Scripture Only his Controversiehumour would spend it self against the Roman Churches pretention to the Title of Catholick and would maintain that the English State and Clergy had authority enough to reform themselves without consulting the Roman or any other Churches Indeed if the Eastern Church had still been in Union with the Roman the case then would be altered The English Church on such a supposition would have had a scruple to oppose both 18. Therefore since it is not in our power to oblige the Turk to permit the Eastern Bishops to meet in a General Council with the West for English Protestants sake not yours good Mr. Bagshaw I will take upon me a little more then your Book can require from me and that is to propose in the mean time a convenient mean and expedient towards the removing this scruple and that is as followeth 19. Since we cannot have speaking Judges that will please them they may I suppose do well to help themselves with Books and for that purpose pitch upon some well known time in which the Eastern and Western Churches were united and out of the Books and Monuments of that Age impartially collect the Doctrines then taught and the Church-government then in use through the whole Church For thereby it will evidently appear whether of the Churches Eastern or Western that now differ in both have deserted that which was anciently in both 20. Now I conceive a more proper time for this purpose cannot be imagined then the Age of the Church in St. Gregory the great 's time when England was converted from Paganisme by St. Augustin the Monk sent by him For it is evident that the whole Church was then in perfect Union the same Doctrines were taught and the same Government and Common laws in use all the Christian World over Besides there are extant more better and clearer Monuments both of the Doctrines and Discipline of that Age then in any other and especially in St. Gregories Epistles sent into all quarters of the World and in other of his works translated into the Greek tongue and freely embraced yea admired by the Greek Church we may find what Authority so learned and Holy a Pope exercised over other Churches according to the then received Ecclesiastical Canons Moreover besides S. Gregories Works our own Country both by wtitings of learned men Councils of Bishops and visible Marks in the foundation of Churches and Monasteries will most abundantly furnish us 21. Now when we have found what in that age was the Belief and practise of the whole Church uniformly Then we are to confront thereto the Doctrines and Discipline of the present Eastern and Western Churches Being assured that both of them have not deserted the Antient Belief and practise because if it were so there would not now be extant any Orthodox Church at all and consequently our Saviours promise of leading his Church into all Truth would have failed 21. Now when it shall appear unto us whether of these two great Churches hath
duty that the oaths require because by taking the Oathes we should free our selves oftimes from the loss of our Estates and sometimes of our lives whereas by such Voluntary protestations we cannot challenge any temporal commodity nay perhaps we anger those that take it worse from us that we prove our selves good subjects then they would if we had been ill ones This is all I can at present say to such a scruple If this satisfy not God mend those that are in fault 21. Let us now see Your second reason why only Papists must not be tolerated though they were never so good subjects That You deliver in these words There is another thing practised by Preface them which makes it highly questionable whether a Kingdom professing Christianity ought to tolerate them in that is their Worshipping of Images which is a sin so contrary to the express letter of the Divine Law and so repugnant to the common sence and reason of all men that God punished it severely even in the Heathen Chaldeans as well as in his own people the Jewes 22. You are hard put to it Mr. Bagshaw to find reasons to kill Roman Catholicks The saying is Furor arma but it has put a straw into Your hands to wound us with Yet I am likewise hard put to it too how to defend my self against even such a weapon that is how to discourse upon this point of Images with one that professes he will neither accept Fathers Councels nor the whole Church it self for an Interpreter of Scriptures or Decider of Controversies but only his own private enlightned reason It cannot be helped therefore Reason alone must be judge between us You will needs have it so Let reason then be our judge but upon condition that You will not call that reason which is against common sence 22. You say The worshipping of Images is a sin repugnant to the common sence and Fresâ— reason of all sober men so that your common sence and reason concludes that there is not a Catholick in the world that is a sober man and not devoid of common sence and reason and by consequence all France Spain Italy Germany Savoy Greece c. are but one large Bedlam 24. Well however give one of these Bedlam men leave to propose to such a sober man as you are that is all compounded of Reason some few Questions First then suppose there were represented to you while You were thinking of other matters or talking a picture of our Lord hanging on the Crosse could you possibly avoid the calling to mind who our Lord was and what he had done or suffered for you And if not being able to forbid the entrance of such thoughts into your mind on such an occasion would your reason dictate to you that you had done ill in changing your thoughts from the world to God would you repent of it asking pardon of God and praying that such a tentation might never befal you afterwards Does your enlightned reason suggest this to you Truely if it do I believe you are of a temper of mind almost specifically different from all mankind besides and must change their nature before You make them of your perswasion or Church And yours is not a common sence if it either tell You that by Your beating down Crosses and breaking Church windows our good Countrymen think more of God then they did while those remembrances were standing or if they think less that it is better for them to forget him 25. To make a step further Let it be supposed that at the same time You saw before you several pictures of several persons in quite contrary manner regarded by you as of St. Peter and Judas of our Late Soveraign and Bradshaw you are beholding to me for this example Or put case you had in one hand a Bible and in the other the infamous story of Pantagruel does not your common sence and reason tell you that such pictures or books force upon your mind quite contrary thoughts and affections the which regard those pictures or books not simply considered but as representing such persons and containing such matter The which thoughts being just and not at all harmful to you and withal almost impossible to be avoyded I cannot find any reason why reason should forbid them I am sure common sence will not 26. If then it be according to reason and common sence and likewise unavoydable to admit such different thoughts will not reason also warrant you to expresse outwardly by words or actions whatsoever you may without any fault think inwardly For my part I cannot imagine any scruple in this If then I may and must think reverently or contemptuously of the Objects I may as well speak or behave my self externally after the same manner to them respectively For whatsoever is ill or good in words or actions is so likewise in thoughts 27. Now to shew that such thoughts or affections regard not the persons only but the pictures also as representations of such persons ask Your own heart and You will find that You would not place S. Peters picture or the Kings in an unclean dishonest place If any one should spit upon either of them your heart would rise against him and tempt you to strike him which it would not do if the same contemptuous usage were shewed to the picture of Judas or Bradshaw Now this is so naturally imbibed in the hearts of all mankind that in all Kings Courts a respect and outward mark of reverence is required to the Chamber of presence or Chair of State and a refusal of it much more a contemptuous behaviour would be criminal To apply this to the forementioned Books You could not bring your reason to permit You to tear out a leafe of the Bible for an unclean use as you could without the least remorse do to the story of Pantagruel or Aesops fables 28. Let us now consider what kind of respect this is that we express to such images Comparing the images of Saint Peter and our Soveraigns together we find that a respectful regard is had to both and a contemptuous usage of either would displease us Yet it is not the same kind of respect For St. Peters image we consider as of a man that puts us in mind of heaven and heavenly things one highly favoured by Almighty God a principal Courtier in his Kingdom and one that by his writings and example has been a great instrument of promoting our eternal happiness We do not so esteem of every good King Therefore to shew the difference of our respect to each we would choose to give St. Peters picture a place in our Oratory and the Kings in our Gallery But what names to give to these different respects is not easie to determine It is plain that which is given to the Kings picture is purely a civil respect but what shall we call that which is given to St. Peters If we say it is
to justify In the year 1651. a devout Italian Friar being appointed to preach in the Great Dome at Padua the Archbishop present and having been informed that among his Auditors there were some English Protestants that in discourse had earnestly objected as you do Idolatry to Catholicks He therefore that he might occur to such a scandal made choice of the Doctrine concerning Images for the subject of a great part of his sermon And when he came to that point holding in his hand a Crucifix he told his hearers That that Image did in one glance lively represent even to the most ignorant beholder our Lord Jesus God and Man and almost all the circumstances of his most bitter and accursed death so patiently and willingly suffered for us Thereupon with great passion and Rhetorick he magnified the Love of our Lord hanging on the Cross earnestly pressing his hearers to return a proportionable Love and Duty to him And during this discourse he often with great reverence and tenderness of affection embraced and devoutly kissed the Crucifix Having said much to this purpose after a little pause he pursued his Discourse telling them he could not believe or suspect that any one that had heard and seen what he had said and done could reasonably imagine that he had any intention to dishonour our Lord by that which he had done to the Crucifix which represented him much less that he adored it as if he thought it a kind of God that he put his trust in it as expecting any good from it as if he knew not what Divinity Vertue or Sanctity was in that carved piece of wood Notwithstanding because he had heard that such a scandalous imputation was by some misperswaded persons laid on the Church he would then and there undeceive them Thereupon he spit upon the Crucifix threw it scornfully to the ground and trampled it under his feet 36. You see Mr. Bagshaw what kind of Idolaters the Papists are Against this Idolatry let us see what express Scripture you can produce This is the great crime for which there can be no expiation but oppressions emprisonments and Gallowses Now if what hath been here said give you no satisfaction in case you have a mind to reply do not practice your old way of snatching a phrase or expression out of a single Authour a Schoolman or Controvertist and making the whole Church answerable for one mans indescretion But search what the Church her self has declared in the Council of Trent and dispute against that as well as you can and be assured you shall either be answered or else told that you are unconquerable IV. VI. That Mr. Bagshaw's whole Discourse against the Churches Infallibility is nothing to the purpose 1. HItherto of your Preface Now I come to your book which truly will afford very little businesse And in grosse concerning your grave Discourse I must tell you That if you would be as merciful to our Estates and our Lives as You are to this our fundamental Doctrine we should find You a a very commodious Adversary For notwithstanding all your blustring You have not given this Doctrine one blow that smarts at all But God bless us from Your Swords and Your Sermons 2. The Title of your book is The great Question about the Infallibility of the Pope and Church of Rome This Question you undertake to determine We are likely to have good stuff in a Book that mistakes the subject to be discoursed on You should not have said The great Question about c. but Two Questions the one a great one about the Infallibility of the Roman Catholick Church which if it be disproved destroys the foundation of that Church the other a very little question about the Popes personal infallibility in which the Church it self is not concerned at all but only Cardinal Bellarmine and a few Writers zealous for that Court. And when you had said this in all reason having a design to triumph over Roman Catholicks you ought not to have said a word about this little trifling unconcerning Question but have bent all your forces against that Great one which was only to the purpose 3. But You very wisely have spent your whole book upon it only though a subject that You your self in your Preface confess is not yet decided in the Schools amongst learned men which is as much as to say no Catholick is obliged to maintain and consequently no Protestant needs trouble himself about it Nay moreover you say the two Councils of Basil and Constance and in your Book the sixth General Council have vertually decided the contrary having preferred the Authority of a Council above the Pope which therefore may reverse his decisions and actually condemned a Pope of Heresie you might have added the seventh and eighth General Councils which ratifyed the same condemnation and to them You might have joyned Pope Agathon the successour of Pope Honorius that was condemned and his Successours Pope Leo the second and the rest till Pope Adrian the second who lived in the time of the eighth Council 4. Why do You write Books Mr. Bagshaw so confessedly to no purpose at all And why do you trouble your self about a subject that the Authour whom you pretend to confute cannot himself believe what ever opinion or suspition he may have of it For no Catholick can be said to believe any thing as a Christian Verity merely upon discourse of Reason or probable deduction from Scripture but only when such a verity appears either expressly contained in the Bible or is formally decided by a General Council or received by unquestionable Tradition of the Church Now it is apparent even out of Bellarmine himself that none of these wayes the Popes Infallibility has been confirmed Nay more Never yet has any Pope declared that himself is Infallible But you are wise in the midst of folly You write out of all danger of being confuted because no body thinks himself touched so that you have an easie and cheap triumph of it Notwithstanding by your own example I do much doubt your Honourable patron by whose command You say You wrote finds not Epist Dedic his expectation answered if he did expect any great matter and I am sure being very knowing and wise he will not believe that as you brag you have killed the Enemy having left no Argument unanswered since evidently you have mistaken your enemies person through your whole book excepting only the two last leaves where obiter and in answer to an Objection supposed to be made by moderate and ingenuous Papists you make an offer to speak de tribus capellis that is the Pope's being infallible not in himself but in and with a Councill which though it be the only matter in question you call only a Conceit of which you will speak a little and you keep your word you say very little and that little to no purpose at all 5. Therefore to what purpose should any Catholick