strike good Purposes deeper into our Hearts why should it be misliked The wiser of your Brethren in France acknowledge and bewail the want of them so will you if you consider it well Catholics have an unquestionable Ordination for if we have none yours must fall to the ground you having received yours from us Yours is not only questionable but questioned actually and with seeming probability denied by Catholics 1. For want of a due Minister a Bishop 2. For want of due Matter and Form. 3. For want of due Intention for your Bishops owning no Sacrifice of the new Law could not intend to confer a Power to offer Sacrifice which is essential to Priesthood They were confirmed in their opinions of your want of Ordination by your owning Communion with those Reformed Churches in France and Holland which have no lawful Ordination according to your Principles your directing yours to their Churches advising them to receive the Sacraments from them and admitting those Ministers to the Ministry among you without any new Ordination This is confirmed by the constant Practice of the Church of Rome to Ordain all such Ministers of the Church of England as being admitted to the Communion of the Catholic Church desire to enter into Holy Orders She the Church of Rome condemns Re-ordination as a Sacrilege and never practised it Hence the Priests of the Greek Armenian and Cophtic Communion renouncing their several Errors are admitted to Officiate without any new Imposition of Hands in the Church of Rome because Orders are validly conferred in those several Churches The Protestants would be in a like manner admitted had there not been a certainty from the beginning of the invalidity or nullity of their Orders To conclude they had those same Motives to continue in the Communion of the Catholic Church which S. Austin had which he relates lib. contra Epist Fundam cap. 4. Tenet consensio populorum gentium tenet auctoritas miraculis inchoata spe nutrita charitate aucta vetustate firmata tenet ab ipsa Sede Petri cui pascendas oves post Resurrectionem Dominus commendavit usque ad praesentem Episcopatum successio Sacerdotum Tenet postremò ipsum Catholicae nomen quod non sine causâ inter tam multas haereses sic ista Ecclesia sola obtinuit ut Apud vos autem ubi nihil horum est sola personat veritatis pollicitatio I am retained in the Catholic Church by the Consent of Nations by an Authority begun with Miracles nourished with Hope encreased by Charity established by Antiquity I am retained by a Succession of Priests beginning from S. Peter to whom our Lord after his Resurrection commended the Feeding of his Sheep until this present Pope Innocent XI Lastly I am retained by the very Name of Catholic which with great reason amongst so many Sects this Church alone obtains What have you to oppose against such strong Motives Scripture and the Gospel which if clear for you ought without doubt to be preferred before all those other Motives But they found this very Gospel this Scripture pronounce in their favor and against you This is my Body says the Scripture It is not Christ's Body say you The Commandments of God are not heavy says the Scripture The Commandments of God are impossible say you A reward is due to our good works says the Scripture No works of ours are meritorious nay the best are sins say you Faith without works is dead says the Scripture and you commend Faith so as to make all good works be neglected I grant some amongst you of late do not so crudely teach some of these Doctrins being ashamed of their deformity But you cannot deny but that they were taught by the first Reformers Which was sufficient to convince the World that Scripture gave no evident Verdict for them and make all afraid of their Reformation who had a care of their Souls CHAP. XXXVI Greater Exercise of Piety amongst Catholics than Protestants BAptism is given validly in both Churches but with this difference that we retain the ancient significant Ceremonies instituted by the Apostles or at least in Apostolical Times which may be proved out of Tertullian S. Cyprian S. Ambrose S. Jerom S. Austin and S. Denys you have retrenched all save only the Sign of the Cross And O judicium This is the Finger of God Exod. 8.19 the peevish refractory stubborn Children of your Church have wrangled with her about that and with the same Reasons as she had done with her Mother the Roman Catholic Church so visibly hath God meted unto you your measure Mat. 7.2 and punished you by your sin Sap. 11.17 As ours come to the use of Reason a new Sacrament expects them Confirmation which is the same mentioned so frequently in the Acts of giving the Holy Ghost by Imposition of the Apostles Hands Acts 8.17 which arms them against visible and invisible Enemies with the Spirit of Fortitude to profess their Faith. Of this Protestants We find in every Church Malachy's Prophecy fulfilled Mal. 1.11 a pure Offering made to God Mass said And in Catholic Countries Rich and Poor even the meanest Artisans and Laborers as Porters Water-carriers c. will steal so much time from their almost necessary Rest as to give half an hour to adore God and his Son Jesus in the Morning hoping they will bless their Labors all the Day the better for it O that you did but see with what Attention and Respect they assist at those Divine Mysteries how with their Knees on the Ground their Eyes on the Altar their Heart in Heaven they accompany the Priest and with him jointly make that Oblation to God with what Sentiments they adore Christ present and desire him to appease his Father's Wrath for their Sins by the Merits of his Passion and preserve them from offending anew that Day and to bless that Days Actions What do Protestants As soon as they are up they have their Hand in the Cupbord in the Cup their Nose Have any by mortal Sins shut against themselves the Gates of Heaven which the Passion of Christ opened they stir up a real Sorrow for that Offence of God purpose Amendment and with these Dispositions address themselves to a Priest with a Resolution to follow his Advice and perform what he shall enjoyn They discover to him all the wounds of their Soul their most secret and most reproachful Sins as to God himself whose Vicegerent he is being assured of an inviolable Secret and it is doubtless a perpetual Miracle that amongst so many thousands of Priests not one should be found faulty in this Point They hearken to his Advice accept his Penance to Fast Pray give Alms visit Prisoners serve Poor in Hospitals or the like according as the Condition of the Penitent permits Then receive Absolution in vertue of the Power given by our Saviour to Priests Joh. 20.23 The Effects of this Sacrament are Remission of Sins past avoiding others making Restitution if
A Defence of the DOCTRIN AND HOLY RITES OF THE Roman Catholic Church FROM THE Calumnies and Cavils OF Dr. BURNET'S Mystery of Iniquity Unveiled Wherein is shewed The Conformity of the present Catholic Church with that of the purest Times Pagan Idolatry truly stated The Imputation of it clearly confuted And Reasons are given why Catholics avoid the Reformation With a Postscript to Dr. R. Cudworth By J. Warner of the Soc. of Jesus The Second Edition LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And are sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Black fryers 1688. The Preface IT is now more than Ten Years since this Book was first published and althô very few Copies of it could be then conveyed into England by reason of the trouble which gives occasion for this second Edition yet one came to Dr. Burnet's Hands who having read it said He was resolved to have nothing to do with its Author These words may proceed as well from a low esteem as otherwise so they did not alter my opinion of the Book it self which I leave to the Readers Judgment I called it Anti-Haman from some resemblance betwixt Haman the Macedonian in an Eastern Court and Dr. Burnet in this Western yet I could not foresee that the Paralel would go so far as since it has done even to set G. B. fair for compleating the last Scene of that Factious Stranger I follow in my Answer Dr. B. Step by Step and to shew that I neither alter his Sense nor dissemble the Strength of his Reasons I give them in his own words I studied to be as short as I could yet I hope I say enough to satisfie an indifferent Judgment only in some few places I have enlarged the thing there treated being in a new Dress and requiring it Such is the Accusation of Idolatry brought in against the Catholic Church by the old and new Iconoclasts but by Dr. Edw. Stillingfleet so much changed that it is quite another thing The first of our late Reformers accused us of using Images and giving to them a Religious Worship not unlike that which the Idolaters gave to their Idols yet they owned this difference that Images were reverenced only for Honor due to God or his Friends the Saints whereas the Pagans in them adored Dead Men or Living Devils that is False Gods. See Calvin l. 1. Inst c. 11. n. 9. Now Dr. E. S. will have the Pagan Jupiter to have been the True God the other Pagan Deities to have been either Names of his Attributes or Spirits Mediating berwixt the Supreme God and Men. An Error so new that I scarce believe any one Christian or Pagan before him ever held it and therefore it may be called the Stillingfleetian Error To confute it it is enough to read any of those Fathers who wrote against Pagans Tertullian or Justin Athenagoras or Minutius Lactantius S. Cyprian Arnobius or Julius Firmicus there being not one of all these but convinces this gross Error But he little expected to be confuted out of any of these by any Priest having assured that none of us read more than Bellarmin and Coccius Which is not the only rash Assertion found in his Works Were this Doctrin true the whole Debate betwixt the Primitive Christians and Pagans were at an end and the Cause yielded to the later For the Pagans said Jupiter was the True God The Christians said he was not the True God but was a Man Born Dead and Buried as other Men What says Dr. E S. Jupiter was the True God Here we see the whole Body of Christians of the four first Ages all the Martyrs the Doctors the Confessors and so many Apostolical Men condemned as denying the True God and that by one who professes himself a Christian and a Doctor of Divinity and Champion of the Reformed Church Those Primitive Christians went farther yet they not only denied him to be God but accused him of grievous Crimes of Adultery of Incest of Rebellion against his own Father and of other most unnatural Sins which are so many horrid Blasphemies if Jupiter be the True God. And which is yet worse all those Blessed Martyrs continued to their last Breath in them and sealed them with their Blood. What will what can Dr. St. say to this And what can a Christian Reader judge of him In fine this bold Assertion of E. S. and some Divines of the new Stamp is contrary to the Apostles who Planted Christian Religion opposit to Jupiter and all Pagan Deities contrary to the Glorious Martyrs who watered it with their Blood contrary to the Holy Fathers who defended it with their Writings contrary to the Primitive Church which professed it amidst the severest Persecutions and Torments contrary to God who confirmed it with Miracles and contrary to that same very Jupiter himself who owned himself to be a filthy seducing Devil What can the Learned World judge of so rash an Assertion What will he stop at who to oppose Popery will contradict all the first Ages of Christianity and God himself What credit can he deserve in obscurer Points of Divinity who in so clear a Matter of Fact dares contradict all Antiquity I hope he will open his Eyes acknowledge his Error and give Glory to God by renouncing that Arch-Devil otherwise it may be written on his Tomb Here lieth E. S. who owned no other God but the Pagan Jupiter This Epitaph will be very Honorable to the Church of England in which he makes so great a Figure There was published lately a Treatise in which the Idolatry as found in Scripture is very Learnedly and Solidly Explicated Some fancied a disagreement in our Sentiments because that Honorable Person says the Pagan Deities were Stars and I say they were Men. Yet in this there is no contradiction at all for he explicates that Idolatry which is mentioned in Scripture and reigned in the East and he adds that the Greeks to get the reputation of Antiquity to their Nation cut off the Heads of those Idols and set on them others of their Kings that is they retained the Gods but called them by the Names of such as have been famous amongst them either for Regal Power or for War or for inventing some useful Arts. And it is known to all the World that the chiefest Gods of the Romans were taken from the Greeks Now that I confined my self to the Idolatry of the Greeks and Romans is evident for Chap. 7. Sect. 3. pag. 52. I say Our only Dispute is about the Greeks and Romans whose Idolatry was banished the World by Christian Religion And Sect. 5. pag. 83. Our Dispute is not of the first Beginners and Planters of Idolatry but of those who lived at and since the time of Christ till Christianity prevailed But in my Revision of D. M. his Second Letter pag. 122. I distinguish these two sorts of Idolatry and give the precedency in Time
Gods let them know how much better the Lord of them is But if they were astonish'd at their power and vertue let them understand by them how much mightier he is who made them There is yet another Species of Idolatry of such who Deified and Adored all Creatures which was grounded on that Opinion of the Stoicks that God was the Soul of the World which is exprest by Virgil Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet But nothing about this occurring in Scripture and not much in Fathers I let it pass These are the several Species of Idolatry which occur and are most conspicuous amongst Pagans All were absolutely inexcusable for leaving the Creator for the Creature Yet amongst all methinks the cause of those who adored the Sun was somewhat more excusable than the rest for altho Reason teaches it evidently not to be a God yet Experience shews it to have one Property of God for the Sun gives Light and Life to all that have Eyes and Heart it gives without Interest it never appears but as a common good and besides its visible effects produces many other by hidden Influences These Considerations do not excuse but they somewhat diminish the guilt of those who adored that wonderful Instrument the work of the most High. Ecclesiastici 43.2 To sum up what we have said we find that even the wisest Men have been guilty of the greatest Folly that can enter into man's head how weak soever to take for a God a thing so much inferiour to them in nature that they expected help of a thing helpless and direction from what is senseless To this they were disposed by the humane Shape striking their fancy they were moved to it by love of a dead Master Fear of a living Tyrant Flattery to one on whom their fortune depended and these altogether heightened by the Illusion of the Divel Sometimes Gratitude to beneficial Creatures enclined Men to renounce the great Benefactor Yet these motives how powerful soever could never have made Men so prodigiously to renounce the use of Reason had they not by former sins so far left God as to deserve to be left by him not that they received no Grace at all from him but that they had not such Graces as would keep them in what was good and prevent their fall into those sensless Errors SECTION III. What were the Gods of the Pagans Or What things were represented by their Idols where it is proved that Pagan Gods had been Men. THE Occasion I have to treat of this Quaestion is given by G. B. and E. Still who pretend that Chiefly one and he the true God was adored by the Idolaters who used several Statues and Names only to represent his several Atributes And that by Jupiter they understood the true God. What I have cited out of Scripture and Fathers is sufficient to convince the contrary seeing that it appears that dead Men Stars c. were adored Vossius l. 1. de Idol cap. 5. p. 30. says Idolatry began with the Adoration of Angels thence past to the Souls of Men. Lactantius l. 2. c. 14. says the Aegyptians first adored the Stars afterward their Kings S. Cyril of Alex. l. 1. contra Jul. p. 17. saith the same of the Chaldaeans But the Aegyptians whilst the Israelites lived amongst them adored either Apis or Joseph under the shape of an Ox or Calf And in imitation of them the Israelites in the Desert Exod. 32. and the ten Tribes at their Schism from the Temple of Hierusalem the third of Kings 12.28 which continued amongst them till they were removed quite out of the Country Altho that was not the only Idolatry they were guilty of for they had Baal 3. Reg. 18. and the host of Heaven toward the end of their Kingdom as appears 4 Reg. 17.16 which they learnt probably of the Assyrians After the Transmigration of the Tribe of Juda we find those who remained in their Country much addicted to the Star-worship Hieremy 44. as to a Superstition ancient amongst them which I guess they learnt of their King Achaz and that he receiv'd it from Damascus 4 Reg. 16. where a Copy of an Altar was sent to the High-Priest to have another made like it and placed in the Temple But this being a matter of no moment I do not trouble my self with further examining it Our only Dispute is about the Romans and Greeks whose Idolatry was banish'd the World by Christian Religion which our modern Adversaries pretend that we have renewed again You say then that they by Jupiter adored the true God Creator of Heaven and Earth we say that all the Gods of the Pagans were Men and that Jupiter himself was such and that they were Divels who took upon themselves those persons Names to delude the World I will prove this 1st out of Scripture 2ly out of such Fathers as lived with Pagans and consequently had more occasion to know their Theology than we who must gather it only out of their Writings 3ly out of the Confession of Pagans 4ly out of the Acknowledgment of the Gods themselves who were adored and lastly by the Confession of Protestants My First Proof is taken out of Scripture Psal 95. 96. 5. All the Gods of the nations are divels Omnes Dii Gentium Daemonia So it is in the vulgat Edition and was so from the beginning while Paganism slourish'd and yet Pagans never accused the Christians for imposing upon them Opinions which they did not hold See S. Augustin upon that place The English Translation is somewhat different viz. All the Gods of the Nations are Idols Which notwithstanding confutes sufficiently the contrary Error for if this be true All Gods of Nations are Idols as it must being in Scripture E. S. his Proposition being contradictory to it must be false Jupiter the chief God of Nations is no Idol nor Devil Moreover if the Sacrifice the Idolaters offered which was always held to be the Prime Act of Religion was offered by them to the Devils and not to God then it follows they did not worship the true God but only Divels But they sacrificed to Divels and not to God Ergo they did not adore the true God but Divels I prove the Minor. Denter 32.17 They sacrificed to Divels not to God to gods whom they knew not to new gods who came newly up whom your fathers feared not Psal 105. 106 37. They sacrificed their sons and their Daughters unto Devils And 1 Cor. 10.20 The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God. Hence Aug. l. 20. contra Faust c. 18. ait Nihil in sacrificiis Paganorum Deo displicuisse nisi quod fierent daemoniis Nothing in Sacrifices of the Pagans was displeasing to God but those to whom they were offered viz. the Devils My Second Proof is taken out of those Fathers who living with the Pagans and conversing familiarly
quicquid daemonum colitis victi dolore quod sunt eloquuntur Nec utique in turpitudinem sui nonnullis praesertim vestrum assistentibus mentiuntur Ipsis testibus esse eos daemones de se verum confitentibus credite adjurati enim per Deum verum solum inviti miseri c. Most Men and even many of your own know they are no better then Divels whom you adore Your Gods Saturn and Serapis and Jupiter have been adjur'd by the name of the true and only God and have been forced out of the bodies they possest and confessed themselves to be foul and seducing Devils And their Confession was to be supposed true in point of Reason For they that were adored as Gods would never belie themselves into Devils to their own reproach especially in presence of them that worshipped them were they not forced Thus is that place Englished by W. L. Julius Firmicus pag. 20. Ecce daemon est quem colis cùm Dei Christi ejus nomen audierit contremiscit It is the Devil whom you adore he trembles when he hears the Name of God and of his Christ In my next Section I will cite Prudentius who says the same in his Apotheosi You may find in S. Austin and other Fathers several Reasons proving those Gods to be Divels chiefly for their promoting Vice by encouraging Poets Fables concerning those filthy Acts related to have been committed by them My Fifth Pooof is taken from the Testimony of Protestants themselves The Author of the Whole Duty of Man pag. 138. I need speak little of the Second Commandment as it is a forbidding of that grosser sort of Heathenish Idolatry the worshipping of Idols which though it were once common in the World yet it is now so rare that it is not likely any that shall read this shall be concerned in it Could he have said this had he not known the Practice of Papists to be far different from those of Heathen Idolaters Vossius l. 1. de Idol cap. 18. pag. 139. Omnes Gentium Dii fuerunt homines All the Gods of the Pagans were Men. Godwin l. 4. Antiquit. c. 1. well deserving Men were reputed Gods. Mr. Thomas Prat in his Epistile Dedicatory of the History of the Royal Society having said that Generals of Armies and great Conquerors were by the Pagans esteemed Heroes he adds The Gods Antiquity worship'd with Temples and Altars were those who instructed the World to plow to sow to plant to spin to build houses and to find out new Countrys M. G. B. in this very Book p. 17. The herd the comonalty of the Idolaters did formally worship the Image And p. 23. The Souls of deceased men were honored with divine honor I hope E. S. will not refuse the Testimony of his great Patriarch W. L. who in his Relation p. 77. cites with great esteem of them the words of Minutius Felix and very judiciously observes that it is not credible the true God should be forced out of his Possession much less that he be constrained to utter a lie and own himself to be a foul and seducing Devil Can any man think that God can denie himself to such a degree Credat Judaeus Appella non ego I scarce wonder at the extravagant Opinions of the Pagans seeing E. S. and G. B. can believe that Were there not some other more powerful tye then only imaginary or pretended Incredibility I should hope to see both believe Transubstantiation seeing they can believe that God can deny himself tell a lie and profess himself a Divel O Blasphemy But altho in a bad humor E. S. should refuse to subscribe to his quondam Primate yet I can have recourse to a person very near unto him even his own dear self for he Origines Sacrae l. 1. c. 2. p. 32. speaking of Sanconiathon says That which of all seems clearest in this Theology is the open owning the Original of Idolatry to have been from the Consecration of some eminent Persons after their Death who had found out some useful things for the world whilst they were living which the subtiller Greeks would not admit of viz. That the Persons they worshipped were once men which made them turn all into Allegories and mystical Senses to blind that Idolatry they were guilty of the better amongst the Ignorant And l. 3. c. 5. he says that Saturn Jupiter Mercury Neptune Vulcan Juno Minerva Ceres Bacchus and others had been Men and Women He could not have given a clearer and fuller testimony of the Truth of what we say and the Falshood of what he delivers than is contained in those two places To what can we attribute this Change in E. S. that what was before the certain Position of Idolatry should now be false but to a desire to charge that hainous sin upon the Roman Catholic Church which of it self falls to the ground if Pagan Idolatry be rightly represented Tantae molis erat to make Rome seem Idolater in the eyes of his ignorant Admirers Philo Biblius had reason to blame those Allegories to which the subtiller Greeks had recourse which made a clear new Religion by changing the Object adored as God from some man eminent for Power or Vertue to Elements much inferior to the least of men or any living Creatures for this yielded the cause and condemned the whole Idolatrous World. So Minutius Felix in Octavio pag. 16. Zenon interpretando Junonem Aëra Jovem Coelum Neptunum mare ignem esse Vulcanum caeteros similiter vulgi Deos Elementa esse monstrando publicum arguit graviter revincit errorem SECTION IV. That the Jupiter O. M. of the Greeks and Romans was not the True God. MY first and chief Proof is taken from what is already said out of Holy Scripture Fathers Protestants and Pagans For those universal Propositions contain all and every God of Paganism V. C. What are the Propositions of Scripture All the Gods of the Gentiles are Divels And The Pagans sacrificed to Divels not to God. What are the Propositions of E. S. One God of the Pagans was the true God and no Devil Item The sacrifices of the Pagans were offered to the true God and not to the Divel If the Logic of E. S. can reconcile with Truth two Contradictions it is a rare one Till he teach us how they can stand together we will stick to the common received Axiom of Sophists that both cannot be true So one of those Propositions must be false either that of Scripture or that of E. S. now I desire him to declare whether he takes to be true and whether the lyar God or himself Again Gal. 4.8 the Galatians knowing not God served those who by nature were not Gods. Which are the words of the Apostle and E. S. says The Galatians knew Jupiter and served him who was the true God Wherein he directly contradicts the Scripture The like Arguments might be brought from the Authority cited out of Fathers Protestants and
him to hear the Prayers which doubtless the Saints make for us or else when we pray to Saints we desire them to joyn with ours their Prayers to God and when we have obtained our Request we desire them to joyn with us in Thanksgiving to the Divine Goodness (c) 2. Cor. 1.10.11 Our trust is in God that he will deliver us from temporal and eternal Misery The Saints also helping by Prayer for us and for the gift bestowed on us by means of many interceding persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf But were Truth sought for an end would easily be made of this contentious Dispute betwixt Faith and Calumny by only stating aright the Controversie we do all unanimously profess that God alone doth deserve all the Adoration and worship any Creature is capable of for his own intrinsick and essential perfection Yet we think it is his Pleasure that we should honor not only those Perfections in himself but that we should for his sake reverence those Creatures whom he makes partakers of his infinit fulness of Perfection according to the manner of their elevations to partake of those Perfections So that God is honored in them all and all they in him We honor Kings and Prelates lawfully established as being partakers of his Authority to govern us the word of God as being an explication of his Will The Sacraments as Channels to convey his Grace into our Souls Churches as places designed for Prayer to him Saints on Earth as living Temples of the Holy Ghost Saints in Heaven as Partakers of his glory So that we may be said to honor God in all and by consequence the worship given to them cannot be said to draw from God. We likewise profess that as God is the sole Crearor of all things so is he the Fountain of all Good and that every good perfect Gift comes from him the Father of Lights Jac. 1.13 That nothing in order to eternal Life can be obtained but of him through our Lord Jesus Christ That his Providence reaches to every thing that not a hair can either fall of its self or be pulled out of our head by Men or by bad or good Angels without the permission of God that all we suffer and all we enjoy all good and all bad flow from his omnipotent hand as effects either of his mercy or of his justice or of both So that we fear nothing but from him nor hope for any thing but from him To him all our Prayers are directed even those made to Saints which stop not in them but in their and our God and Father This we believe this we practise this we teach this we defend speak what you can against this and you will speak to the purpose but if you pass this unregarded you beat the air Another thing I desire of you is not to build upon every little fancy altho contrary to reason which is childish always but deserves a more severe censure in matters of consequence Now what can be more phantastical than what Mr. Brevint writes in his Saul and Samuel that it is Idolatry to pray to Saints unless they be within compass to hear us And who can determin how far they can hear Or what Mr. Whitby says in his Discourse concerning Idolatry pag. 154. Prayer offered to an invisible being and not corporeally present is due only to God. So that a blind Man may not desire his Neighbor to pray for him because all are invisible to him And Prayers offered to the Dragon Dan. 14.23 or any Idols would be no Idolatry seeing they could see or be seen and were corporeally present And certainly S. Paul was an Idolater when at a distance he desired the Roman to pray for his good Journey who were neither visible to him nor corporeally present He follows the custom of our Reformers he throws stones without ever regarding where they fall But what Proof doth he bring for his Novelty The Authority of Dio and Martial both Pagans and one of them the most filthy or beastly Author of all Poets And can Mr. Whitby judge their Authority competent to decide a Controversy betwixt Christians and condemn the public practise of the Catholic Church Have we not reason to except against their being Vmpiers in this dispute Yet to do Mr. Whitby a pleasure we will admit them as Judges Arbitrators What say they Dio says Caligula was a God when prayed to And Martial says those who pray to Idols make them Gods. Suppose all this true what is it to Visibility or Corporeal presence of which they make no mention and yet were brought to prove them How wretchedly doth he pleade against us who first appeals to incompetent Judges and secondly to such as pronounce nothing in his favour In malacausa non possunt aliter Aug. CHAP. XI Pretended Charms where of Holy-Water Wax-candles Agnus Dei's c. G B. p. 32. ALl the Enchantments used in Heathenism are nothing if compared to those of the Roman Church Answer Were your Proofs as strong as your Assertions are bold you would be the most formidable enemy that ever we had But that strength of Proofs is wanting Those Creatures which bark loud seldom bite hard In bold affirmations none more positive than women and children and the Ignorantest of Scholers Wise and Learned Men are more wary and reserved who never are very positive altho they seem sometimes to have reason on their side because they are conscious of the uncertainty of their Discourses whose fallacies they discover in others and in themselves too In this place you would easily have discovered your error had you looked over your Proofs For what more weak than those G. B. p. 32. Can any thing look liker a charm than the worshipping of God in an unknown Tongue Answer What say you to reading your English service to such Irish as understand it not Is that a Charm For whatever you say in vindication of your Common-Prayer will serve to answer you in this Reproach To whom can I compare the men of this generation (a) Luke 7.31 to whom are they like They are like unto children pettish children whom neither laughing nor weeping will please So you are resolved never to be content with what Papists do Is their Service kept in Latin It resembles a Charm. Doth it appear in English as it lately did at London And Hanibal ad portas of such a fearful nature are your Brethren that whatever dress our Service appears in it frightens them as the sign of the Cross and the name of Jesus did the Devils in Julian's time But are you so much a stranger to the World as not to know that no living language continues long the same That Mens phancies of words change as well as those of fashions That sometimes they lay aside some words and take in others and sometimes retain the word but alter its sence by use If all this be true suppose a change be made in
Poor watched c. When I say you have tried these for some Months if you continue in your Opinion that our way of expiating Sins is Easier then yours I shall think your common Sense equal to your Piety and admire both alike G. B. ibid. The Papists endeavor to give a pleasant taste to their Penances wherefore to the Grave and Melancholy we give of one sort to the Fiery and Sullen of another to the Jovial a third c. Answ Here you deliver a Dream as a certain Truth Cite the Council name the Author of such a Practice If you can name none as I am sure you cannot own your self the Inventer of this which is to say a Calumniator CHAP. XIX Sacrifice of the Mass G. B. p. 64. ANother opposition made to the Priestly Office of Christ is their conceit of the Sacrifice of the Mass which they believe is a Formal Expiation of Sins both for the Living and Dead who are in Purgatory Answ You fall so often that it would tire any Man to take you up always It is not true that Catholics hold Mass to be a Formal Expiation of Sins Vnica causa formalis The only Formal Cause of our Justification says the Council of Trent Sess 6. cap. 7. is the Justice of God by which he makes us just That is it is habitual Grace or Charity But let that pass We say with the Fathers that Mass is an Expiatory Sacrifice S. Austin Enchir. cap. 110. following his Distinction of Souls deceased into three Classes those in Heaven those in Purgatory and those in Hell he says that Masses for the first are Thanksgivings for the second Expiations Propitiationes sunt for the third not ease to the Dead but some comfort to their living Friends Pro valdè bonis gratiarum actiones sunt pro non valdè malis propitiatione sunt pro valdè malis etsi nulla adjumenta mortuorum qualescunque vivorum consolationes sunt Enchir. cap. 110. To clear yet more this Point of the Sacrifice of the Mass and of Christ offered and offering himself in it hear S. Austin lib. 10. de Civit. Dei cap. 20. Verus ille Mediator in quantum formam servi accipiens mediator effectus est Dei hominum homo Christus Jesus cùm in formâ Dei sacrificium cum Patre sumat cum quo unus Deus est tamen in formâ servi sacrificium maluit esse quà m sumere ne vel hac occasione quisquam existimaret cuilibet sacrificandum esse creaturae Per hoc Sacerdos est ipse offerens ipse oblatio Cujus rei Sacramentum quotidianum esse voluit Ecclesiae sacrificium The true Mediator by taking upon himself the shape of a Servant being made Mediator betwixt God and Man the Man Christ Jesus who together with his Father with whom he is one God as God receives Sacrifice but as a Man will have no Sacrifice offered to himself to cut off all pretence of Sacrificing to any but God. In this Sacrifice he is the Priest he is the Sacrificer and he is himself the Sacrifice Or he is the Person who offers and he is the Oblation And he hath ordered the Sacrifice of the Church as a daily Commemoration or Sacrament of that Sacrifice of the Cross Thus he Where you see a Sacrifice of the Church as a daily Commemoration of that of the Cross That Christ offers it That he himself is offerd in it and all this to God no Sacrifice being offered to any else If you are so hard to please as to be satisfied with none but those of your Communion see W. L. pag. 305. where he owns a Commemorative Sacrifice to be instituted by Christ And Montague in his Appeal 2. p. c. 29. acknowledges a Representative Commemorative and Spiritual Sacrifice And your Bishop of Ely Resp ad Apolog Bellar. p. 184. admits likewise a Commemorative Sacrifice G. B. pag. d. 6. 65. To imagine that the Priests going through the Office of the Mass and his receiving the Consecrated Elements can have a vertue to expiate the Sins of others especially of the Dead is a thing so contrary to most common Impressions that it will puzzle a Mans Belief to think any can credit it Answ Your common Impressions differ very much from those of other Men so you have much reason to suspect that they are only common in name but in reality they are only private Conceits of your own Head. The Catholic Church believes what you think none believes S. Austin believed it all Catholics profess it our Councils define it our Catechisms teach it our Pulpits preach it and our Pastors proclaim it Yet you would fain persuade the World no body believes it that the thing is incredible As if you knew better what passes in our Hearts than we our selves But if this be not an honest way it is at least cunning to take for granted what you cannot prove and it is easier to find a Sleight to steal into your weak Readers Opinions than to gain it by any substantial Reason G. B. ibid. The Priests receiving the Consecrated Elements cannot avail another Answ We do not believe the Passion of Christ to be applied by the Priests taking the Host but by the essential part of the Sacrifice which consists in another Action G. B. pag. 65. It is absurd to think one Man's Action can be derived to another Answ An Article of our Faith must then be absurd viz. The Communion of Saints which imports a mutual communication of good works amongst the Members of the Church the mystical Body of Christ See Pearson in Exposit Symboli p. 714. where he proves it out of 1 Jo. l. 7. If we walk in the light we have fellowship with one another The Greek say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communication with one another And out of Col. 2.19 Holding the head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishmeut ministred and knit together encreaseth with the encrease of God. So that as in a natural Body all parts do communicate to one another their nourishment in the Philosophy of the Apostle so in his Divinity all parts of the mystical Body the Church communicate their good works What say you Sir how like you your Censure which involves an Article of the Apostles Creed and two Apostles Have I not reason to admonish you to regard where you shoot your Bolts and throw your Stones for that they can scarce light on any place of our Doctrin or on us without hitting the Apostles and the Holy Ghost and many times those Points of Faith which you your self admit G. B. pag. 65. It clearly appears from the Institution of the Lord's Supper that its End was the joynt Communicating of Believers Answ It clearly appears that you little regard what you say The Primary End of its Institution and indeed that which only is specified by our Saviour is to be a Commemoration of his Passion and the Sacrifice of
a faithful Witness gives hitherto and will give to the end of the World Testimony to that Revelation And we cannot be Hereticks because (b) Tertul. supra Nobis nihil ex arbitrio nostro inducere licet sed nec eligere quod aliquis ex arbitrio suo induxerit we never take the liberty to choose our selves or to admit what others choose but we take bona fide what is delivered as revealed by the greatest Authority imaginable on Earth which is that of the Catholic Church Let an Angel teach us any thing contrary to what is delivered and we will pronounce Anathema to him in imitation of the Apostle Gal. 1.18 Here is then the Tenure of our Faith. The Father sent his only begotten Son consubstantial to himself into the World And what he heard of his Father that he made known to us Joan. 15.15 The Father and Son sent the Holy Ghost And he did not speak of himself but what he heard that he spoke Joan. 16.13 The Holy Ghost sent the Apostles And they declared unto us what they had seen and heard 1 Joan. 1.3 The Apostles sent the Highest and lower Prelates in the Church and the Rule by which they framed their Decrees was Let nothing be altered in the Depositum let no Innovation be admitted in what is delivered Quod traditum est non innovetur Steph. PP apud Cypr. Epist 74. ad Pompeium By this we are assured that our Faith is that which the Councils received from the Apostles the Apostles from the Holy Ghost and so by the Son to God the Father where it rests Now to Protestants Their Proceeding is far different they hear the whole System of Faith commended by the Church as revealed by God and take it into Examination And some things displeasing them in it they fall to reforming it and cut off at one Blow all things not expressy contained in Scripture Here is one Choice Then Scripture is called to the Bar and near a third part of it condemned and lopt off which is a second Choice Thirdly there being still several things in the remnant which displease them as understood by the Church they reject that Interpretation and fix on it such a one as pleases them most So that even what Sense they retain they do it upon this their Haeresis or Choice What Evidence can convince a Man to be a Chooser in Faith that is a Heretic if these Men be not by this Proceeding sufficiently proved such For a farther confirmation of this consider the several ways of Catholics and Protestants in entertaining Propositions of Faith. A Catholic hearing from the Church our Saviour's Words with the Sense that is the compleat Scripture for the bare Word without the Sense is no more Scripture than a Body without a Soul or Life is a Man presently believes them and what Reason soever may appear to the contrary he silences it and submits his Vnderstanding to Faith and let the Words seem harsh and the Sense unconceivable yet the Truth of God triumphs over all those petty Oppositions A Protestant hears the same and presently consults his Reason and till he hath its Verdict suspends his Judgment If that say with the Pharisce Joh. 3.9 How can these things be or with the Capharnaits Joh. 4. This is a hard saying who can hear it the Protestant immediately renounces it So we submit our Reason to Faith you set yours above it We frame our Reason according to the Dictamens of Revelation you shape Revelation by your Reason In fine you set your Reason on a Throne to Judge of that Word by which one day you are to be Judged You may as easily prove the Pharisees and Capharnaits to be better Christians than the Apostles as that your Procedure in receiving Faith is better than that of the Catholic Church SECTION II. Of Hope HOPE is an expectation of future Bliss promised by our Blessed Saviour to those who love him and keep his Commandments It is built on a Promise of God which cannot fail And had that Promise been absolute we might have been more assuredly certain of our future Happiness than we can be of the truth of any Mathematical Demonstration but it is only Conditional requiring on our parts a concurrence with his Divine Grace and this is always uncertain by reason of the mutability of our Will to Evil notwithstanding our strongest Resolutions to Good. Hence our Hope is mixt with Fear Sperando timemus Tertul. l. de cultu faeminarum c. 2. p. 265. We have a full assurance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on God's side Who to shew unto the Heirs of promise the immatability of his Counsel confirmed it by an Oath that by two things immutable in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before us which Hope we have as an Anchor of the Souls both sure and stedfast Heb. 6.17 18 19. On our side we have always reason to apprehend the mutability of our own Will notwithstanding all present Grace from God and the strength of his Counsel Hence the Apostle admonishes us 2 Cor. 6.1 not to receive in vain the Grace of God. He sets before our Eyes his own Example 1 Cor. 9.27 keeping under his Body chastising it and bringing it into subjection lest having preached to others he might become himself a reprobate a cast-away And consequently warns us Phil. 2.12 to work out our salvation with fear and trembling When this Apostle fears who can presume We may resolve well pray hard and act well to day but what assurance have we that to morrow will find us so well disposed or even not doing the quite contrary and that being so ill prepared Death will not surprize us S. Paul the Vessel of Election who had been taken up to the Third Heaven feared lest he should become a reprobate and S. Peter bred up in our Blessed Saviour's School resolved to die with him yet shortly after denied him If these great Pillars of the Church shake and bend and fear breaking or actually break what may not such Reeds as G. B. and I. W. fear You see what Grounds we have to fear from Reason from the Example of the Apostles and from their Doctrin This is comfortless Doctrin to G. B. p. 54. and therefore he had rather throw all on Christ and persuade himself that Christ's Prayer was sufficient his Satisfaction sufficient his Merits sufficient We need neither Pray nor Suffer nor Merit Believe in him and he will do all Crede firmiter pecca fortiter Compare now this Disposition of modern Catholics which is the same with that of the Apostles with that of a Protestant their Fear with his Confidence their Trembling with his Assurance their Apprehensions with his Boldness and you shall find in Catholics true Hope mingled with Fear as you may see in Divines and I have shewed out of the Apostles and
depuis deux ans il s'en etoit retiré parce qu'il avoit remarqué qu'ils alloyent trop avant dans les matieres de la Grace qu'ils paroissoyent avoir moins de soumission qu'ils ne devoyent par N. S. P. le Pape Et que depuis deux ans il s'étoit tout à fait attaché aux affaires de son salut a un dessein qu'il avoit contre les Athées les Politiques de ce temps en matiere de Religion F. P. BEVRRIER You see here in his Declaration Signed by the Curate who assisted the Author of the Provincial Letters at his Death that he had been engaged or entangled in the Party of the Jansenists that he found their Sentiments were not tolerable or Orthodox in those two capital Points of Grace and Submission to the See Apostolick That upon that score he had withdrawn from them and abandoned them yet you will have us go to him Well I will comply with you and from him I learn two things One that he blames some Cases of private Men Another that those cannot be charged on the Roman Catholick Church Thus if I stand to his Verdict your Accusation will be cast out of the Court as lying against the whole not against a part only If you say Believe him when he accuses some but not when he absolves others do you think us so weak as to give credit to him when you please and when you please to recall it What is this but to give and a◠the same time take away his Judicial Authority to name him Judge Arbiter and tie him to speak only what you please But I will leave him and speak to the thing That you may conceive what are probable Opinions you are to take notice that Moral Actions may be reduced to four Classes To such as are evidently good evidently bad uncertain and indifferent according as they are related to the Law whether Divine Ecclefiastical or Civil which is their proper Rule Those are evidently good which are conformable to the Law As to Love God or Deal with others as we would be dealt by Those are evidently bad which are contrary to the Law As to Blaspheme God or to Wrong our Neighbor Those are indifferent which are neither commanded nor forbidden As to wash our Hands before Eating used by the Pharisees Matt. 15. Those are uncertain when a Law is known but it is unknown whether it obliges in some Circumstances For Example The resisting an Enemy that attacks you on the Sabbath-day and repairing the Breaches which he makes 1 Macch. 2.38 As to the first Class Actions evidently good Probability doth not look on them as its Object The same for those which are evidently bad They can never be committed without offending God. If any hold the contrary stone him the Stones will not hit me nor any Jesuit unless by such an Accident as befel Jupiter in Lucian when directing his Thunderbolt at a Blasphemer he mist him and hit and fired Pallas her Temple And what you say of committing any Sin with directing Intention is so great a Calumny that no good Intention of opposing Popery will excuse it The third Class of Actions uncertain in themselves are properly the Object of probable Opinions whilst it is not certain whether the Law oblige hic nunc or no in these Circumstances which are not specified in the Law yet alter very much the nature of the Action There being no evident Principle to shew it to be lawful or unlawful the Judgment we frame of it must be an Opinion only and if the Reason be strong it is called a probable Opinion For Example the Jews 1 Macch. 2.40 41. hearing that their Brethren had been assaulted on a Sabbath and not resisting for fear of breaking the Sabbath by working on it were all killed resolved notwithstanding that Command to make what resistance they could on that Day Which Resolution was grounded on a probable Opinion for on the one side was the Letter of the Law prohibiting all Labor on that Day then they might think God would protect them whilst they kept his Law as he conserved their Goods whilst they went thrice a year to the Temple Exod. 34.24 and if he did not please to defend them miraculously they might think it was his will that they should glorifie him by giving their Lives rather than break his Commandment which Persuasion possessed the greatest part of Christians near the Apostles Times as may be seen in Tertull. Apologetick On the other side they considered the Law of Nature obliging to seek Self-preservation and that to expect a Miracle was to tempt God c. Hence they concluded that it was lawful to labor for Self-defence even on the Sabboth To make an Opinion probable Suarez Dis 12. de bonit malit requires that it be neither contrary to the Sense of the Church nor to any Opinions commonly received and that it be grounded on Authority and Reason great above exception All Divines even the largest require a weighty Motive a strong Reason and that even comparing it with the contrary Motives otherwise they agree that the Opinion will not be probable but dangerous rash and improbable See two large Treatises composed by R. F. Antony Teril a great Ornament of the Society and an Honor to our Nation in defence of this Rule of Conscience You will find in him a solid Discourse well grounded and gravely handled as Truth should be delivered without any of that Buffoonry which accompanies some Authors of these Times which may be tolerable in a Comedy but not in a Treatise of Divinity This I think cannot be doubted of in Thesi or in general I will not deny but in Hypothesi in particular Doubts or Questions some Men have not stuck so close to the Letter of the Law as they should as Fr. Teril doth deplore But those Mens Assertions do not take away what we have said for their private Sentiments not well grounded deserve not the name of probable Opinions The last Class of Actions are those called indifferent as not being mentioned in any Law. These must draw all the Morality they have Ex intentione sive voluntate operantis In those a good intention of the Man who produces them or his will to do them for the love of God gives them a good Morality which of themselves they have not as on the contrary a bad Intention gives them the nature of Sin. Hence what you say that our Doctrin is Any Sin may be committed innocently by directing our Intention is a great Vntruth and as great a Calumny No Intention can justifie a bad Action but a bad Intention may vitiate the best Action As to give an Alms for vanity Mat. 6.2 Bonum ex integrâ causâ malum ex quocunque defectu is a Maxim never more true than in Moral Actions We are taught in the Catholic Church not only to do good things but to do them well not
but only on such Occasions for as for such who do absent themselves either for Ambition or Envy or Pleasure or Friendship or any other unlawful Design or for some good but so little as not to countervail that of their Duty to their Flock we no less blame them than you our Canons for Residence are as severs as can be and those often executed with the utmost rigor What do you more Commendams offend you that is the recommending the Means of Abbeys to those who are not Monks Yet we give them only to Clergy you to meer Laymen Secondly we give them only for their Lives you give them to their Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns Thirdly we leave the Abby and its legal Superiors a competent Subsistence for the Monks you turn them a begging out of God's Blessing into the warm Sun. When you have proved that it is more lawful for your Church to steal a Goose than for ours to pluck a Quill I shall believe your Procedure legal and ours illegal G. B. ibid. They strugled hard against the honest Attempt of those who labored to have had Residence declared to be of Divine Right in the Council of Trent Answ What might the Catholic Church do to please you Had she pass'd that Declaration you would have clamored at your ordinary rate against new Definitions of Faith now she rejected that Definition she opposed the honest Attempt to promote it and she must be in the wrong and those who oppose her in the right whatever she or they do because she is the Church and they a discontented Party in her In fine as the Jews proceeded with our Saviour the Bridegroom so do you with the Bride the Catholic Church her Actions whatever they are are blamed To what are the men of this genertion like They are like unto children sitting in the market-place and saying We have piped unto you and ye have not danced we have mourned unto you and you have not wept Luc. 7.32 For doth the Church make a Decree you blame her for it doth she not make it you blame her for that too But Wisdom is justified by all her children A Conclusion of the First and Beginning of the Second Part. G. B. p. 116. I Have run around the great Circle I proposed to my self and have examined the Designs of Christian Religion and have found great contradiction given to them by the Doctrins of that Church Answ You have indeed run a Round and that so long that you are giddy with it as appears by your frequent and great Falls so evidently against common Sense as I have all along observed and yet I have not observed all for that would have been too tedious to the Reader and have taken up more time than I can bestow upon Trifles You have shewn no Contradiction betwixt the Doctrin of the Catholic Church and the Designs of Christianity I have shewn their Conformity But your Book discovers a Design against Charity which is the Heart of Religion it being a heap of rash Judgments evident Calumnies or uncharitable Surmises I say nothing of your Faults against Reason your incoherent Notions groundless Judgments and perpetual Sophisms because althô these are great Faults in themselves yet not considerable in presence of those others against Charity And these Faults are the greater for being brought to uphold a Schism a Design contrary to Christianity it being a most certain Truth that No Man can have the Love of God who withstands the Vnion of all Men in one Church Non habet Dei Charitatem qui Ecclesiae non diligit unitatem Aug. l. 3. de Baptis cont Donat. c. 16. And all your Pretences of Causes given of your Separation are but frivolous this tearing in pieces the my stical Body of Christ is so great a Sacrilege that no Pretext can excuse it Apparet saith S. Austin l. 2. contra Epist Parmen c. 11. non esse quicquam gravius sacrilegio schismatis quia praecidendae unitatis nulla est justa necessitas When I saw you reflect on your running so long round in a Circle I hoped you would come out of it and was in hopes that either I might have been a Spectator of your following Course or else that you would have led me a more pleasing Walk The Design of S. Austin Lib. 1. Retract cap. 7. came to my Mind who represented the Piety of Catholics and the vicious Lives of the Manichees in his two Books De moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae and De moribus Manichaeorum and I imagined you might design the like in the two Parts of this Book I expected you would have given us a Panegyric of your own Church after you had spent your Satyrical Vein in your Invective against ours I thought we should have seen described the Beauty of the Protestant Church the Advantages of Communion with it the Perfection of its Faith the Decency of its Ceremonies the Majesty of its Hierarchy the Reasonableness of its Canons the Fulness of its Conducency to Piety in this Life and Bliss in the next and all these confirmed with Examples of the vertuous Lives of its Devotes But how much have I been mistaken for casting an Eye a little farther after some few words in commendation of your Faith I find you throwing Dirt again as fast as before or rather faster as if in the First Part you had only essayed what in the Second you act in earnest Doth your Garden the Church Cant. 4.12 is compared to one afford only that one Flower Is the Soil so barren or so ill cultivated as none else should be found in it Or if there be any other do they thrive so ill as not to be worth being pointed to Or doth it come from a morosity of Nature which inclines you to blame and reprehend Or from a propensity to entertain thoughts only of Faults and Imperfections as Flies pitch upon Ulcers and some other Creatures wallow in Mire Or from another Quality worse than that which turns all to bad as a foul Stomach turns all Food into peccant Humors and a Spider draws Poyson from that Flower whence a Bee draws Hony Something of this must be for I will neither say there is nothing reprehensible in the Lives of Catholics it is a Propriety of the Triumphant Church to be free from any Spot or Wrinkle nor that all is bad in Protestants besides their Faith that being the Condition of the Damned Spirits in Hell. But I supersede these Personal Reflections and follow thô with little comfort you in the new Maze you lead me into CHAP. XXX Catholic Faith delivered by Men Divinely Inspired Rules to know true Tradition Faith never changed G. B. p. 116. THE first Character of our Faith is that it was delivered to the World by Men sent of God and Divinely Inspired who proved their Mission by Miracles Answ All Divine Faith is built on the Veracity of God the Men who delivered it at first were but the
Gospel who withheld nothing of the Counsel of God from the People Answ Those words are taken out of that Speech of S. Paul to the Elders of the Church of lesser Asia Act. 20.27 which you by a gross Mistake say were the People as if the Holy Ghost had made the People Bishops to Govern the Church of God. Now if the People Govern who are Governed You are hard put to it to find Reasons against us when you are forced to such wretched Shifts Know then which I wonder any one who reads with attention that place can be ignorant of that those to whom S. Paul spake there were Bishops to whom by reason of their Office a larger measure of Faith was due to them the whole counsel of God was made known to be communicated to others not promiscuously to all but to faithful men who might be able to teach others 2 Tim. 2.2 Now thô according to the Practice of the Apostles the People amongst us are not made Teachers Pastors Prophets and Apostles yet all even to the meanest Artisan have Instructions necessary to Salvation What they are bound to believe what they are to hope for and what to doe And what need of more If any amongst us will undergo the labor of Studies the greatest Mysteries of our Faith are obvious to him Our Scriptures our Councils our Decretals our Fathers our Ecclesiastical and Prophane Histories our Divines and our Philosophers are extant in our Stationers Shops as well for the use of the meanest Christian as of the Pope Cardinals or Bishops What is then concealed from them which may ground your Accusation Our Procedure in this is so connatural that I am persuaded it cannot but be your own Practice The English Church hath drawn to some few Heads those Points of Faith which she thinks necessary to Salvation and delivers them to all in her Catechism As for the others contained either in the Bible or in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds or in the four first General Councils she leaves it to her Children to seek them out themselves if they have will and convenience or to receive them from their Ministers and I do not see how any Governors of a Church can proceed otherwise Dare you blame this in your Mother Church Why then should you condemn us for it G. B. pag. 133. Matters of Interest are the constant Subject of their Studies and Sermons whereas others of the greatest Laws of God are seldom minded Answ If you could write this Untruth without blushing you have no Blood in your Body To confute you it will be enough to open any one Book of Devotion and hear or read a Sermon In malâ causâ non possunt aliter August Your Cause must be very bad which requires such Untruths to uphold it and ours very good seeing you have no Truth to alledge against it CHAP. XXXIII Faith not dependant on Senses G. B. p. 133. GOD hath fitted Faith and framed our Souls so harmoniously that they are congenial one to another Answ I find you in this Point very much to seek how to own a great Truth and yet to establish a contrary Falshood which is very dear to your whole Party That Faith is above Natural Reason and much more above Sense is unquestionable This you own and so place Faith on a Throne Yet something must be had against Transubstantiation and nothing occurs but from Sense Then you pull down Faith and set up Sense in her place Tantae molis erat sanctum subvertere dogma The Mysteries about God and Christ say you are exalted above the reach of our Faculties But Reason it self teacheth that it must be so Here Faith is above Reason But afterwards pag. 134. Our Faith rests on the Evidences our Senses give Here Faith does Homage to Sense Faith is an argument of things which appear not Heb. 11.1 So that it relies not on Senses for its Object doth not appear nor on Reason otherwise it would be Science if the Reason be evident or Opinion if it be uncertain So it relies only on God's Veracity which consists of two Qualities One that He cannot be deceived being Omniscient The other that he cannot deceive being Good. Neither is possible to God for to be deceived is an Error in the Understanding and to deceive argues Malice in the Will. So the Assurance we have by Faith is greater than that of our Senses which may be baffled greater than that of Reason which sometimes is mistaken in its Principles oftner deceived in its Deductions from them Thus God is true Rom. 3.4 and every man a lyar which later part imports a possibility of Error in our clearest Operations whether of Sense or of Reason To say that Faith rests on the Evidence of Senses as you do p. 134. is so contrary to the nature of Faith that both Divines and Philosophers doubt whether the same Object can * S. Thom. 2.2 q. 1. art 4. 5. be seen and believed and generally speaking deny the possibility of it And to what our Blessed Saviour said Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed Joh. 20.29 They answer with S. Gregory Aliud vidit aliud credidit He saw a Man and believed him to be God. To what purpose then are Miracles if Faith doth not rely on them Ans To dispose our Understanding to receive with attention and submission the Word of God by shewing it was God who spoke And when Christ appeals to his Works If I do not the Works of my Father do not believe me but if I do them if you will not believe me believe the Works Joh. 10.38 he assigns only the outward Motive of Belief by which his Hearers were either drawn to Believe or made inexcusable if they persisted in their Incredulity Now it is the grossest Error imaginable to think that Faith rests on all those things which dispose to it otherwise it would rest on the skill in Tongues which is necessary to understand the original Scriptures Item on the Masters who Teach them on the Stationer who Prints them c. But what if the Man who confirms his Mission by evident Miracles teach things contrary to Sense or Reason Ans Our Duty is to silence both these and hearken to him The Arms of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought 2 Cor. 10. Who says every thought comprehended both those grounded on Sense and others more Speculative But to say as you do that Reason must be subject to Faith but not Senses is very preposterously to put Reason the Mistress under Faith and Sense the Servant above it You declaim against Catholics for acknowledging in the whole Church an Authority in order to the Word of God much less than that which you give to the Senses of every particular Man. What an occasion
any thing hath been taken as some English in France have experienced In fine a newness of Life Of all this what is in use among Protestants Nothing Are they judged fit to approach the Divine Table they do it with a lively Faith believing it is the true real and substantial Body of Christ with his Blood and Divinity per concomitantiam Concil Trid. Sess 13. cap. 13. by reason of the inseparable Vnion betwixt them With a profound Humility professing with the Centurion Luc. 7.6 their unworthiness to receive their Lord and desiring him to make them worthy And with a Love proportionable to that Christ shewed by instituting this Sacrament What do Protestants Sometimes something for their Ministers distribute a Morsel of Bread and a Sup of Wine and they may expect to meet only with Dispositions proportionable to those Beggerly Elements Amongst us Is any sick He calls for the the Priests of the Church they pray over him anointing him with oyl in the Name of the Lord that the Prayer of Faith may save the Sick and God may raise him up in case it be for the Glory of God and the good of the Patient and if he have committed Sins they may be forgiven him Jac. 5.14 15. Thus in an Apostles words I have delivered our Practice in Administring the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction Of which Protestants nothing Besides Mass which all hear every Day commonly three times a day a Bell rings to mind us of the Incarnation of the Son of God and move all with an Act of Faith to acknowledge it and return God thanks for it Of which amongst Protestants nothing I may conclude this Comparison betwixt you and us as to the Practice of Piety with S. Austin's words Lib. de moribus Eccles c. 34. very pat to our purpose Istis Manichaei Protestantes si potestis obsistite istos intuemini isto's sine mendacio si audetis cum contumeliâ nominate Istorum jejuniis vestra jejunia castitati castitatem vestitum vestitui epulas epulis modestiam modestiae charitatem charitati quod res maximè postulat praeceptis praecepta conferte Jam videbitis quid inter ostentationem sinceritatem inter viam rectam errorem intersit Nunc vos illud admoneo ut aliquando Ecclesiae Catholicae maledicere desinatis vituperando mores hominum quos ipsa condemnat quos quotidie tanquam malos filios corrigere studet Sed quisquis illorum bonâ voluntate Deique auxilio corriguntur quod amiserunt peccando poenitendo recuperant Qui autem voluntate mala in pristinis vitiis perseverant aut addunt graviora prioribus in agro quidem Domini sinuntur esse cum bonis seminibus crescere sed veniet tempus quo zizania separentur Considering them well see whether without offending against Truth you can reproach any thing Compare your Fasts with ours your Chastity your Modesty and chiefly your Doctrin with ours you will presently perceive what difference there is betwixt vain boasting and sincerity going the straight way and wandring At present I advise you to cease from detracting from the Catholic Church blaming the Lives of Men whom she condemns and whom she daily endeavors to correct as naughty Children If any of them with the help of God's Grace are converted they recover in the Catholic Church by Repentance what they lost by Sin. If any notwithstanding all these helps to Piety continue obstinate in their Wickedness or add more grievous Sins to those they have committed they are indeed tolerated in the Field of God the Church until the time come designed for the separation of the Cockle from the good Corn. Thus S. Austin Glory then as much as you please with the lukewarm Laodicean Angel That you are rich and encreased in Goods and want nothing yet assure your self that as he so you are poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked Your boasting of the Advantages of your Instructions and Discipline amongst your deluded Admirers is like those Nurses who wanting Milk entertain their Children with Rattles and Bibs and some insignificant Nourriture In reality there seems to be as much difference betwixt the Spiritual Food Souls receive in the Catholic Church and that of Protestants as there is betwixt the Nourriture a Child receives sucking a Breast stretched with Milk. and that he gets by sucking a moistned Finger Which shall be further shewn in the CHAP. XXXVII No Houses of Devotion nor Spiritual Books amongst Protestants G. B. p. 145. A Temptation to become Papists is the solitary and retired Houses among them for leading a devout and strict Life and the many excellent Books of Devotion have been published by many of that Communion And pag. 147. I deny not that is the greatest defect of the Reformation that there are not in it such Encouragements to a devout Life And pag. 148. It is not to be denied to be a great Defect that we want Recluse Houses But it fixeth no Imputation on our Church her Doctrin or Worship that she is so poor as not to be able to maintain such Seminaries Answ This is as pretty a Sophism of non causa pro causâ as I have seen As if the small number of English Catholics were richer than the whole Body of Protestants for we have founded many great Families of Religious and you with all your Industry could never settle one There are Reasons for your Church's being so unsuccessful in these Attempts without doubt as real and true as that which you give is false and it shall be my work to lay them out before you The First and chiefest Reason is a Judgment of God Almighty upon you for breaking up and dispersing so many Houses of Piety God was served in those Houses he was offended with that Sacrilege and therefore denies you that Blessing of which you are unworthy A Second Each one had rather keep his Means to himself than see them pass against his will to another Lay-Family for whom he hath no kindness If any give it to God and Religion they design it should continue there which cannot be expected in England as long as the Memory is fresh of Henry VIII and Elizabeth A Third The Foundation of your Reformation is inconsistent with a Superstructure of Religion or living in Community together Men cannot live together without a setled Rule or Order established peculiar to that manner of Life and proper for it Your Reformation is inconsistent with this it teaching to reject all Human Injunctions as contrary to Christian Liberty When out of that Principle you have taught Men to despise all Decrees even of General Councils received by the whole Church and confirmed by the Practice of many Ages how can you hope they should esteem Rules given by modern new Men A Fourth Your Doctrin denying all Merits or Reward due to our Actions Hopes of Advantage encourages us to Labor our Industry is dull'd as soon as those vanish S. Ambr. thinks
to Star-Worship Primum omnium Stellas admirationi fuisse propter pulchritudinem venerationi propter utilitatem Hinc Sap. XIII primo refertur refutatur Astrorum Adoratio deinde Idolorum Althô it be hard to foresee when these contentious Disputes will end Passion and Interest fighting against Truth yet I do not despair that some alive may be so happy as to see it For many Objections against us are grounded on Mistakes others are not against Faith which alone we are bound to defend but Discipline Such is the Free use of Scripture in the Vulgar Language prohibited by the Council of Trent says Dr. E. S. in his Council of Trent Examin'd and Disprov'd by Catholic Tradition And then in a long elaborate Discourse with many Examples of ancient Translations of the Scripture he endeavors to prove there is no Catholic Tradition for that Prohibition Against whom is this I acknowledge I am to seek For 1. We pretend Catholic Tradition for Points of Faith not for each Point of Discipline of which this is one 2. This Point is not universally received in the Church as may be seen pag. 26. of this Edition 3. I find no such Prohibition in the Council of Trent This Council did order Sess 18. an Index to be made of Suspected or Pernicious Books by a Committee of some of the Fathers who Sess 25. reported what Progress was made in it But the Council left the Consideration of what was by them done to the Pope without any other Decree and immediately determined Whence I gather 1. The Scripture in no Vulgar Language was consider'd in that Congregation or Committee it never having been looked on either as Pernicious or Suspected by the Catholic Church or any General Council 2. Scripture in a Vulgar Language was not prohibited by the Council for the Council left all that Matter to the Pope's Determination 3. The Index finished in Rome was never proposed to the Council an end being put to it immediately after that Reference of the Index to the Pope so the Index is no Act of the Council By which it appears that the Learned Doctor in all that Discourse disputes against no Catholic Doctrin nor against the Council of Trent Now this framing Phantôms and then combating them may amuse the People for a time but it will soon be insignificant and therefore laid aside It is time we hearken to Dr. Burnet's Lamentation which if it be real it is a work of Charity to comfort him CHAP. I. G. B. His Design and Disposition when he writ this Book Of the Wickedness of the World. MR G. B. Pag. 1. He that increaseth Knowlege increaseth Sorrow is an observation which holdeth true of no part of Knowledge so much as of the Knowlege of Mankind it is some relief to him who knows nothing of foreign Wickedness to hope there are other Nations wherein Vertue is honored and Religion is in esteem which allays his regrets when he sees Vice and Impiety abound in his Country but if by travelling or reading he enlarge his Horizon and know Mankind better his regrets will grow when he finds the whole World lies in Wickedness Answer We need not travel or read much to know that the whole World lies in Wickedness Seeing those are the Words of the beloved Disciple 1 Jo. 5.19 This is indeed an occasion of Sorrow But in the same place the B. Apostle comforts us by saying We know that we are of God. So that the World there is understood of Vnbelievers who are in Wickedness by original and actual Sin for which they have no lawful and efficacious Expiation no Sacrament instituted by Almighty God lawfully administred But we who are in the true Church are of God unto whom we are regenerated by Baptism and if by humane frailty we die to God falling into any grievous Sin we have the holy Sacrament of Penance to raise us again to the Life of Grace Yet it is not the Apostles meaning that in the true Members of the Catholic Church there is nothing reprehensible or that in those who are not in it there is nothing Good. In Heaven there is nothing but Vertue those Blessed Souls having their will so united to that of God that they cannot offend him In Hell there is nothing but Sin the Wills of those wretched Spirits being so obstinate in the Love of themselves that they cannot do any thing which should please God. This present Life is a mean betwixt those Extreams and in it there is a mixture of Perfections atd Imperfections of Vice and Vertue Those who are most wicked have something good and in those who are most vertuous there are some remainders of Human Frailty for their Humiliation which we ought neither to esteem nor imitate (a) 1 Kings 21.25 There was none like unto Achab which did sell himself to work Wickedness in the sight of the Lord. Yet he humbled himself and put on sackcloth and fasted S. Paul (a) Act. 9.15 The chosen vessel unto God to bear his Name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel yet (b) 2 Cor. 12.7 there was given to him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him And who can without Compassion read his Seventh Chapter to the Romans in which he describes the conflict he felt interiourly betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh Which he concludes with these pathetick Words O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Which renew the memory of that torment to which Mezentius the Tyrant (c) Virgilius Aeneid 8. condemn'd his innonocent Subjects And the Hetruscans (d) Aug. l. 4. contra Jul. c. ult exercised upon their Captives binding living Bodies to rotten putrified Carkases and leaving them so But the Apostle who describes his Pain relates his Ease and having explicated his Sickness acquaints us with its Remedy The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that if the Combat affrights us by this Assistance we may be encourag'd and comforted Yet tho I grant that there is occasion enough to lament on what side soever we cast our eyes on Mankind in this State of corrupt nature if we consider how little Men use the means designed for their Improvement in Vertue and resisting their bad Inclinations Yet there is little appearance of Grief in your Book which hath more of a Satyr than of a Lamentation your Stile being rather bitingly invective than mourningly compassionate you discover more of Diogenes or of Democritus than of Heraclitus Were there no Objects of regret nearer home Doth your own Church afford you no occasion to shew your Zeal in blaming the Faults of her Children in order to get them corrected Sure it doth or the World is very much misinformed How comes it then that you neglect her Cure of whom your Character obliges you to have a Care and search the Sores of the Roman Church with which you have
nothing to do Do you not see that you give us Reason to say your Charity is disorderly not beginning at home and that (a) Luke 6.42 as the Hypocrit you labor to shew in or take out of anothers eye a mote while you neglect a beam in your own G. B. Pag. 1. It argues a cruel and inhumane Temper to delight in beholding Scenes of Horror and Misery Answer What temper then doth it argue to delight in representing them and that in the most horrible tragical and dismal colours which Art and Study can invent For what can even the most inventive Imagination fancy more dismal that what you write Pag. 2. Indignities done to God and his Son Christ the Enemy of Mankind triumphing over the World with absolute Authority and enraged Cruelty Satan having a Seat where Christs Throne should be Christendom fallen from its first Love and the greatest part of it made shipwreck of its Faith That Church whose Faith was once spoken of throughout the World become Mother of the Fornications of the Earth In fine Falling away Mystery of Iniquity Antichrist Babilonish Rome Bewitching Sorceries And what not Add but Obstinacy in these horrid Crimes which is a Circumstance aggravating them without altering their Species and the Pains due to Sin which are not horrible if compared with Sin and we here have a Picture of Hell. Your temper is very merciful and humane which prompts you to make such a Map of the far greatest part of Christianity This will appear more clearly when we come to consider your Charge in retail and examin your Proofs when we see you are forced to seek them in the obscure withdrawing-roomes of Mans heart which are inaccessible to all but God of which nevertheless you speak as confidently as if God had led you by the Hand into them and made you Partaker of his Knowledge Purgatory was invented on design to enrich the Clergy Transubstantiation on design to make it more esteemed The Primacy of the Pope on design of Grandeur c. And altho we vouch Scripture for all these Points yet you are pleased to say we do not ground them on Scripture but on Ambition and Avarice Nay you not only fain Proofs for our Doctrins but fix on us Doctrins themselves which we disown as that we teach to break the Commandments So that we may profess that all that is ugly and dismal in the Scene of Horror and Misery which you represent comes from your own Pencil and is an effect of your own Brain See what is your Temper and how much your Reader is obliged to you CHAP. II. Of Antichrist G. B. Pag. 3. BEing warned of so much danger to the Christian Religion it is a necessary Enquiry to see if this Antichrist be yet come or if we must look for another Answer Do you then think it as necessary to know Antichrist as to know Christ That you express your earnestness in enquiring after Antichrist in those Words (a) Luke 7.19 of S. John the Baptist's Inquest after the Messias Nay yours are more pressing and urgent than those of that great Saint For he said only Art thou he that should come or look we for another But you say or must we look for another As if it were a more pressing Duty to enquire after the Antichrist than the Messias We are warn'd indeed of Antichrist and we are also warn'd of the Danger hanging over the Church from (a) Mar. 13.21.22 false Prophets and false Christs Who should say Lo here is Christ Lo he is there All Sectaries pretend to him You will doubtless say he is in your Prelatical Church The Presbyterian says he is in his Assemblies The Independent is for his Conventicles The Quaker claims him also What shall a Roman Catholic do what choice shall he make Our blessed Savior having forewarned us of the Danger arms us against it Ne credideritis Believe none of them but stick to the old Doctrin and the Catholic Church Which I cite as more against you than any thing you can bring against us out of your Contemplations on Antichrist or the Apocalypse to which you would never recur had you any clear grounds against us in Scripture I suspect the cause of any man which to decide a Suit in Law produces obscure dubious and for that reason insignificant deeds I should on that score had others been wanting suspect the Cause of the Sectaries Millenaries Fifth-monarchy-men and the like And that reason is sufficient to make me suspect you who recur to those obscure Prophecies of the Antichrist which at best are extremely obscure as appears by the Errors grounded on it as you acknowledg For you say G. B. Pag. 3. Some have stretched the Notion of Antichristianism so far that things harmless and innocent come within its compass and others have too much contracted it that they might scape free Answer It seems the limits of the notion of Antichristianism are very arbitrary seeing they are extended or contracted according not to Scripture or Tradition but to the Fancy and Caprichio of every pragmatical Head. When you consider more impartially the things harmless and innocent which you blame in us as Antichristian very probably you will find your self to be of the number of those who stretch its Notion beyond its nature and those limits which God hath designed for it G. B. Pag. 3. Antichristianism is not only a bare Contradiction to some branches or parts of the Gospel but a design and entire complex of such Opinions and Practices as are contradictory to and subversive of the Power and Life of Christianity Answer Never did Junior Sophister amongst illiterate Pesants deliver his Sentiments or Apollo amongst his deluded Adorers speak his Oracles more magisterially than you deliver your Opinions in controverted Matters of Faith For such is this Point seeing it is deliver'd in Scripture and there are such variety of Perswasions concerning its true meaning as you your self said even now You give us a new Notion of it and what Scripture what Tradition what Decree of a Council what Father do you allege for it None not so much as any reason offer'd Is not this to Lord it over the Faith of your Reader To beg the thing in Question and to expect the World should be so stupid as to be taken with such a Slight that you should meet with Belief because you boldly assert To your bare Assertion I will oppose my Negation and why should not my Negation be of as much weight as your Affirmation Especially seing I speak with all those whom you blame for enlarging or contracting too much the Notion of Antichristianism and you stand alone I confirm my Negation with Scripture 1 Jo. 4.3 where those are said to be Antichrists who denie Christs coming in the flesh Which is only one article of Christianity howsoever it be of the most fundamental Yet let us grant what you so confidently beg that Antichristianism is a complex