next place it will onely remaine to be considered and resolved whether or no both the Catholickes and the Protestants can bee truly said to bee parts and members of this one and selfe same Church For if they cannot the case in question is already judged and there will be no colour of Reason why either of us should hereafter be charged with want of charity for affirming that the other is not saveable without repentance of his Religion Behold a knot of strange things knit together by an invisible cohaerence or a visible incohaerence For first whereas he saith that in the next place It will onely remaine to be considered whether the Protestants and Romists may bee truly said to be parts and members of this one Church For my part I am utterly of opinion that this doth neither in the next place nor at all remaine to bee considered toward the Authors end which is the saving of Rome from uncharitablenesse in damning Protestants For Protestants may bee members of the true Church wherein is salvation and Romists may be out of it and yet Romists may bee uncharitable for damning Protestants who are in the Church wherein is salvation But since hee is out of the way I will thus shew it to him His way of cleering Rome from this charge of uncharitablenesse hath been hitherto by proving it an untruth and his way of proving it an untruth by proving that Protestants are truely in the way of damnation And to prove this againe hee hath shewed that there is but one Church in which is salvation and from which men are excluded by Heresie and Schisme Now as I thinke in the next place to goe on in his way hee should prove that Protestants are guilty of such Heresie and Schisme as separate them from this one Church and so from salvation For then had hee slaine them out-right with a true damnation and had saved his mother Rome from S. Iohns truly mortall uncharitablenesse But it seemes wee are cleere in these points and therefore the Author would not goe against his conscience in a false accusation wherefore let his silence bee taken for a consent and confession But then it seemes the question is at an end we are absolved and Rome is condemned And indeed so it should bee but hee is resolved still to say on though not to the purpose For to what purpose is this that the Protestants and Romists are not one Church toward proving Protestants to bee in the state of Damnation whereby onely Rome can save her selfe from uncharitablenesse in damning us Surely this is so far from proving Protestants to bee in the state of damnation that it is more likely to prove them to bee in the state of salvation and Romists in damnation For Protestants being parts of the true Church by true faith and love are sure to be saved and Romists not being of this Church wherein Protestants are saved are by his owne Allegations in danger to be damned So Romists are both brought into the danger of damnation and the charge of uncharitablenesse layd on the Romists may still stand true because they falsely damne Protestants for being in the state of salvation A second strange position is this That if the Protestants and Romists bee not of one Church then there will be no colour of reason why either party should be charged with want of charity for affirming that the other is not saveable without repentance of his Religion For there is neither reason verity nor charity in affirming that Protestants who may be saved by their Religion are not saveable without repentance of the same Religion But this vanity if not impiety hath beene blowne away in the answer to his third Chapter But if this unreasonable position bee taken out of the way which is made the ground and reason of the future discourse concerning Protestants and Romists being of two Religions then the discourse built on it falls to the ground for indeede to what purpose is it to prove that Protestants and Romists are of two Religions except the Author may hereby save Romists from uncharitablenesse in falsly condemning the Protestants for being in a good religion different from their owne bad Popery For that is his errand and this errand hath hee lost in losing this last monstrous position which hee made for a bridge to his errands end So for ought I see this Cavalier is at the end of his journey in the midst of his way and the rest of his walke is a wandring and this voyage a sayling up and downe from his harbour CHAP. VIII Wherein the sixth Chapter of the Cavaliers is brought to examination which hath this title that Protestants and Catholickes meaning Papists cannot bee of one Religion Faith and Church in two Sections SECT I. First divers untruths of the Cavaliers are discovered touching the difference of Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline which are betweene Protestants and Papists Secondly an objection taken away that Protestants have made a reformation without ordinary Mission and Miracles Thirdly the censures of Lutherans against other reformed Churches not sufficient to prove either of them out of the Church ROme is left bleeding in her uncharitablenesse the bridge being broken down by which the Authors suppy should have come to her rescue so the businesse seems to be ended and therefore as of the tumult at Ephesus so of the throng of words that follow it may be said There can be no cause given of this concourse For though the Author have his purpose and Protestants and Romists bee not of one religion yet Rome may bee uncharitable for condemning Protestants who are of the true religion Yea Rome by the Author being cast out from the Church if Protestants bee in it may be in the state of damnation for the Authors owne title and ground even because there is but one Church and salvation whereof Protestants and Romists cannot be both partakers And now what would this Cavalier have his Antagonist and Answerer to doe would hee have him to prove for Romists that they are in the Church when himselfe proves that they are not surely I confesse that though there bee some untruthes by which hee would prove that Romists are not of the same saved Church which Protestants yet there are some truthes that I cannot answer but must confesse that they prevaile against me in putting Romists out of this Church I will first take notice of his untruths To make a Religion so intire as may make men to bee of one Church saith the Cavalier they must beleeve the same doctrine partake the same sacraments and be obedient to the same discipline and Prelates Here first I deny that there must bee an entirenesse in all points of doctrine and if hee will looke backe hee may see that hee hath laboured to prove it but hath lost his labour Againe hee hath been told that if all have not just seven sacraments yet they may bee saved Thirdly if they bee not under
that abides not in Christs doctrine and faith But in all this hee doth not say that the Protestants are not in the Church neither that they remaine not in Christs Doctrine and Faith but it may rather concerne the Papacie which hath made a new Church against the Church of Christ and a new Faith by adding twelve Articles more to the former It doth also plainely shew them that they suffering for Treasons of Powder Rebellion c. cannot expect thereby a Crown of faith but a punishment of perfidiousnesse Saint Augustine is next alledged and hee useth the like or very same words and so the like or the same answer might serve But indeed Augustine so punctually speaketh against the Papacie and pierceth it through that no one place can well bee lost because every one is serviceable against the Papacy for which it is produced These are the words first alledged out of Saint Augustine Would you have men so blinde and deafe as not to heare or reade the Gospel where they may know that faith our Lord left to his Apostles concerning his Church Now what the Papists will answer to this I know not who make many men so blinde as not to reade at all and so deafe as not to heare the Gospel but in Latin And secondly hee sayes that Saint Augustine puts himselfe to shew That this is that Church of Christ which is spread over the whole world Who can more plainly say that the Roman Papacie is not this Church whose universall power and extent is denyed by other Patriarchs and is unbeleeved yea and unknowne in a great part of the Christian world The last place out of Augustine seconded with the consent of Cardinall Perron hee turnes to this use That Catholick is not onely a name of beleefe and faith but of charitie and communion which whosoever should want should also want salvation But withall I must say that long before I knew this opinion of Perron I beleeved this truth and I also beleeved that it did make mightily for us and mightily against the Papacie That it makes mightily for us I have shewed in the first Chapter who doe imbrace a catholick love with the whole body of Christ which is his Church That it makes mightily against the Papacie I have shewed in the second Chapter because it excludes from love and communion many eminent parts of the Church even so much of the Church and body of Christ as extends beyond subjection and obedience to the Papacie And indeed this Champions allegations doe so fight for us against his owne Papacie that a suspicious Reader may doubt hee hath been hired by us But by the next allegation perchance hee thinkes his suspicion may be somewhat cleered where thus hee commenteth in the behalfe of his mother Saint Hierome writing to Pope Damasus saith not onely of the catholâ—ck Church indefinitely but denoting that to bee the Roman that that Church is the Arke out of which whosoever liveth shall bee drowned in the deluge and that that Church is the House out of which whosoever should eate the Lambe were a profane person But doth Hierome here denote the catholick Church both for breadth and length to be Roman and no Church to be catholick which was not Roman that is under the Roman subjection this was farre from his meaning Hee meant that at that time the Roman Church was by one faith the same with the catholick Church anâ— in union with it as a member of the body and that out of this one Church wherewith Rome was then one in faith there was no salvation Secondly Hee did not say that that Church shall bee the Arke out of which shall bee no salvation but that Church is the Arkâ— shewing what it then was and not what it shall be Indeed the Papacie even the Man of sinne the Head and his members in the Mystery of iniquity now call themselves the Church of Rome But Rome at the best had never Religion and the Church faster tyed to it then Jerusalem and therefore we may take leave to say of Rome as it was said of Jerusalem How is the faithfull Citie become an Harlot It hath been manifestly proved that this Mysterie of iniquitie or Papacie is farre different from the ancient Church of Rome and Saint Hierome himselfe hath taught us that Rome should bee the seate of Antichrist and hee did not meane that when Rome is the seate of Antichrist shee should bee taken for the Arke out of which no man should bee saved Therefore this place that made for Rome then while shee was a pure part of the catholick Church makes against her now when she is the seate of the Man of sin or Antichrist and they that might be invited to come to her then as an eminent part of the Arke and catholick Church may now bee driven out from her by a voice from heaven Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues There follow two places out of Lactantius whereof the first indeed saith for us and against these Romists that are divided from us and our Church That they that enter not into the Temple of God or depart out of it shall bee deprived of the hope of salvation But the second place I know not how it may serve for the point in hand but it otherwise is an wholesome exhortation for Romists and I wish it may doe good to the Author No man must flatter himselfe with an obstinate kinde of contention for the questions here about salvation and life which if it bee not watchfully and diligently provided for it will be extinct and lost The Cavalier ends in a tempest which he puls downe on his own head S. Fulgentius hath this dreadfull saying wherewith I will conclude this point c. where he brings in Fulgentius saying That neither Baptisme nor Almes nor Martyrdome can be of any benefit towards his salvation that holds not unity with the Church A place indeed that ought to be dreadfull to the Romists for their Schism described in the second Chapter but no way dreadfull to us for our catholick Charity expressed in the first SECT III. The Cavaliers indeavour to prove that the Protestants and Papists cannot bee both members of this one Church doth not absolve the Papists from uncharitablenesse ANd having thus concluded the Allegations hee thus gives a reason of his conclusion Nor will I so much distrust either the attention or the discretion of my Reader as to thinke that I need presse this point any further A saying good at last but much better at first for if there had bin at first no distrust of the Readers discretion there had beene no neede of any one of those Allegations which have beene brought forth to prove a point not denyed There is but one Church out of which there is no salvation But let us see what immediatly followes So that now in the
him a right Citizen of Sodom And now call him a Monk if you will hee shall bee but a Monk of the Order of Sodome his function farre from sacred farre from the Spirit but even a hellish trade of fleshly abominations And so I think we have drawn up these conclusions First That it should not bee true Christian charity which by excessivenesse gives that provision which makes such a childe of hell Secondly It may bee no charity because it may bee an erroneous opinion of merit and satisfaction And it is too well knowne that the supposed expiation of crying sins hath laid the foundation of too many Monasteries Thirdly This Provision may be a fruit not of Romish Charity but of Romish Policy for Rome may cherish this provision and enriching of Monasteries that they may serve as so many Garrisons for Rome against Princes for by them they may diminish Kingdoms and as much as they take from these so much they adde to the Kingdome of Rome The Champion passeth on and having wrought a glittering curtaine bespangled with the seeming good works of Visiting the condemned Redeeming captives Instructing the ignorant hee spreads this curtaine before the eyes of his Readers at once to dazle them with this glorious shew and to cover from them the horrid spectacle of Romes bloudy uncharitablenesse That there are no good works in the limits of Rome I will no more say then I will say there are no knees there â—hat doe not bow to Baal And these as I said before serve well the turne of the Beast to make his hornes shew like those of the Lambe as they doe at this time serve our Author to make a shew that Rome is charitable But take out of his Inventory those works that are done for satisfaction to pay God the debt of sins and so to make them Saviours or for merit and supererogation to bring God in debt unto man I doubt not the remaining works like Gideons Army will abate from thousands to hundreds And indeed the greater multitude there is of erroneous works the more Arguments not of Romish charity but of Romish error and superstition But when among these works of Romish charity I see the Instructing of the ignorant I wonder at the Cavaliers blinde partiality that could not see this which hee brings forth as a proofe of Romish charity to bee an high proofe and accusation of Romish uncharitablenesse and this uncharitablenesse is the greater for his owne reason because soules are more precious then bodies So that the great deluge of this transcendent uncharitablenesse to soules seemes to drowne all the former wâ—rks of charity to the body And indeed what instruction can a Latin Pater noâ—ter a Latin Creed a Latin Ave Maria a Latin Masse give to an ignorant soule It hath been to mee a spectacle of compassion when beyond the Seas in some principall City I have met with a poore Popish soule that spake some of these her devotions in that which was thought to be Latin but could not bee understood to bee Latin by those who knew that language much lesse by the party that knew it not what instruction can these words give to the ignorant which the ignorant know not This is not to take away ignorance but to add new ignorance to the old And surely they need not to send men to compasse sea and land to convert Infidels abroad untill they have converted their ignorant unbeleevers at home for if they make no better Christians abroad then they leave thousands at home it is but to pollute that glorious Name wherewith wee are called and to put the name of Christians on those that know not Christ. Now that Rome is this cruell Stepmother whose children thus lye swowning dying in the streets for hunger though our eies have seen it let Romish words speak it Let us hear their great Jesuit Navarre setting forth the ignorance of the Romish Church as her shame whereas the Cavalier sets forth the Instruction of the ignorant as her glory Hee sins mortally saith he who being come to the judgement of reason neglects explicitely and particularly to know the second Person of the Trinity that is That the Sonne of God the Father was made man was born and dyed c. And he that is ignorant of other Articles of the Creed at least those which the Church doth solemnize by Festivall dayes c. Wherefore we desire all Curates Godfathers Parents Confessors especially of the common people and all Preachers of Gods Word that they will not cease to inculcate this particular and explicite faith of these Articles and of those other which are contained in the Apostles Creed which the holy Church of Rome doth use For in the whole Church of Christ there is so great negligence about these that every where you shall finde many that beleeve no more explicitely and in particular of these then an heathen Philosopher endued onely with the naturall knowledge of one true God And now if the Reader withdraw this painted and deceitfull curtaine that seemes to represent a Heaven sprinkled with the Starres of seeming good works and looke into the Hell of Romish uncharitablenesse whereof a small but true modell was represented in the former Chapter Or if he see it not there he will look into the Inquisition House and there behold it set forth to life or rather to death in severall torments I doubt not but this pleasant image will soon be frighted out of his Imagination by the terrible shape of Rome appearing all bloudy and drunken with the bloud of the saints And so the improbability of Romish uncharitablenesse to Protestants will vanish away like a fantasie and a Poeticall fable And indeed if the Pharisee notwithstanding his tyth-paying and fasting went away condemned because proudly and uncharitably hee despised and damned the Publicane though hee did neither imprison noâ— burne him how shall Rome escape this condemnation which both despiseth and damneth and imprisoneth and tortureth and burneth Protestants whom shee accounteth worse then Publicans and Heathens And thus though the Cavaliers words may bee true that At the first sight it is wholly improbable that Rome is uncharitable yet at the second sight it is more then probale because it is proved This Chapter is almost ended but before the end of it the Champion shoots an arrow like a Parthian flying even then to hurt us when hee seemes to looke from hurting us Hee would seeme to spare Protestants in not recriminating yet in naming this not recriminating hee did not spare us but indeed hee did spare himselfe most in not urging it more for wee have such proofs of Protestant charity as may shame his Recrimination For they are ready to bee brought forth against a Recriminator and may binde his Recrimination as a crown to the head of the Protestants And when a catalogue of them is brought forth wee may boldly say and that not without Recrimination to Romists that
whereof this wretched man discoursed amply learnedly and too subtly against himselfe Hee said that hee did acknowledge the severity of Gods judgement who had chosen him to make him a spectacle rather then any other and to admonish all by one mans mouth to abstaine from all impiety confessing that there was no reproach nor punishment which hee had not deserved by reason of his foule offence After hee had discoursed gravely of the Divine Justice hee said That they should not account strange this his speech for that oftentimes God doth wrest out of the mouth of Reprobates most assured testimonies of his Majestie his Justice and his fearefull Vengeance as wee see in Iudas confessing his owne sin and justifying his Master Many testimonies of Scripture being alledged to divert him from this fearfull apprehension and being exhorted to receive into his heart a hope and a trust of salvation by Iesus Christ hee said even in that whereby you doe exhort mee to gather some hope I see all meanes of health and pardon taken from mee For if the Testimonies of the holy Scripture have any authority as they have doe you thinke that Iesus Christ said in vaine that he which renounceth him before men hee will renounce him before his heavenly Father Doe you not see that this concerns mee and that it is as it were particularly verified in my person What shall become of him whom the Sonne hath disavowed before his Father when as you say wee must hope for no salvation but in Iesus Christ It cannot bee beleeved with what gravity and vehemency his words were delivered neither was there ever man heard pleading better for himselfe then Spira against himselfe Hee said That God did set the precious bloud of Iesus Christ and the dignity of his obedience as an high and strong Rampart that sinners repenting them might not bee drowned with the overflowing of their sinnes and offences As for himselfe seeing hee had renounced our Saviour Iesus Christ hee had as one should say overthrown this strong Rampart with his owne hands so as the deluge of the waters of vengeance had covered and swallowed up his soule One of his most familiars said unto him that his great torment proceeded from abundance of Melancholy which troubled his braine Spira remembring that hee had many times refuted this opinion said You may thinke what you please but God in truth hath troubled my spirit seeing it is impossible for me to have any hope of salvation Thus hee continued and withall refused to eate any more meate and so being carried from Padua to his owne house in this despaire hee died CHAP. V. Against the Cavaliers third Chapter First it is proved That although unitie bee necessary in the true Church yet doth not this discharge the Papists from uncharitablenesse in damning Protestants SECT I. Wherein is declared first the weakenesse of his Grounds and Deductions Secondly what kinde of unity is required in the Church WEe are past the Champions unproved and indeede disproved improbability of this assertion That Rome wants charity in casting damnation upon Protestants Now we are com to his untruth It is untrue saith hee that Romists want charity in thus damning Protestants And by what reason doth hee prove it to bee untrue Because there is but one Church a strange kinde of reasoning that this should bee an untruth that Rome is uncharitable in damning Protestants because there is but one Church when even hence appeares the truth of her uncharitablenesse For if there be but one Church and Protestants be members of this one Church how is it not most true that it is uncharitable to damne the true members of this one Church Now that Protestants are members of this one Church is a truth already proved which nothing that this Author saith in this booke or can say will ever disprove but much rather his grounds or rules by which hee would oppugne our truth doe prove it and make against himselfe and his untruth His grounds are these There is but one Church and one Religion out of which there is no salvation Secondly the unity of the members of this Church is broken betweene Papists and Protestants Thirdly that both Papists and Protestants are not saveable in their severall Religions But what doth all this prove but that Protestants first may bee members of the true Church with whom secondly Papists doe breake unity therefore thirdly Papists are not saveable His owne proofes make not against us but make against him and his owne fellowes But the inference sowed hereunto is most miserable That no one is to be blamed if conceiving his owne to bee the onely true Religion hee declares the dangerous estate wherein hee takes any other man to bee who communicates and agrees not with him but rather that hee is obliged to let him know it An inconsequent untruth except consequent because deduced from untruths and so it must either accuse the premisses or it selfe Doth the Author himselfe beleeve what hee saith or can it come into his judgement that if two hold two contrary opinions whereof one is true and the other false that he which holds the false is not to be blamed if he declare to the other that the truth is falsehood and thereupon tell him that hee is in danger to be damned by beleeving the truth so to terrifie him out of the truth into his owne falsehood If there be no fault in this then how can any man blame a Turk for telling a Christian that hee cannot well bee saved except he turne Turke Surely whatsoever this Cavalier may thinke of this kinde of doctrine I beleeve that if the same were maintained in false titles to a Crown the Law would call it treason For if a Subject conceiving his false title to bee good should tell his Prince that he were an Usurper were not such a Subject to be blamed Surely whatsoever a Romist may thinke of such a one I doubt not but the Law would thinke him worthy of a capitall Sentence And it is likely the abbetters of him by such doctrines would not bee freed from blame and danger But if this Champion had sought advice his own Doctors could have holpen him out of his error For they can tell him that an erroneous conscience doth not binde to the doing of that which it erroneously thinkes should be done the proper Guide of our Actions should be Light and Knowledge not darknesse and error Neither is the Will bound to obey other then the rectified Understanding And therefore if the conscience being deceived do prescribe that to be done which is unlawfull the true and onely remedy is to cleere the conscience from the errors not to follow it in errors For this were to double the fault which before was single for the errour in the conscience was one and now the following of that errour is another And if the Cavalier know it not there is also a Romish Doctor that can tell him a cause
maintenance of foure Popish grounds First The perpetuall visibility of the Church of Rome Secondly The absolute authority of this Church in judging controversies Thirdly The Inerrability of this judgement Fourthly a Necessity of submission thereunto whereby their imaginary unity is produced I Might here bee at rest for this Chapter but that this Champion besides two impertinent places one of which speaks of unity of Affection and a second of the unity of Spirit in the bond of Peace brings forth a third even the often answered place of S. Matth. which hee perverts to divers ill uses whereof this imaginary Popish unity is one For hee assayes hereby to prove the Church to be the judge of controversies to prove her visibility to prove her inerrability and thereupon he thinkes presently should follow an unity First to remove the stumbling blocke of visibility for which the Author went out of his owne way that hee might lay it in ours I answer That this Text may teach what is to bee done where there is a Church as commonly there is where there is a Brother and a Brother but it doth not teach that there shall be a Church visible in all places and at all times But notwithstanding this text a Church may be visible sometimes in one Nation and somtimes in another according to the fruitfulnesse of the people and the just pleasure of God who sometimes removeth the Gospell and the Candlesticke from a Nation that bears no fruit to another that shall beare it And so wee see that there are no Churches now to be seene where there have beene famous Churches in times past Accordingly the Church may be visible in Greece in AEthiopia in Armenia yea in England though it be not visible in Rome and so the visibility thereof may bee true though there were no Rome and no Pope So that neither this nor any other text though they say the Church is visible yet they doe not say that Rome or the Pope shall still be the visible Church but contrarily the Scripture giveth us good hope that Rome shall be invisible yea it gives us great proofe that shee is now the Scarlet Lady that persecutes the Church and is now the Mother of abominations Secondly no Scripture doth say that in time of persecution or prevailing Heresie the Church shall there bee visible where this persecution drives it into corners that it may escape the fury of it by a kinde of invisibility And when the Arian heresie had covered the face of the Earth and the Roman Bishops or Pope had subscribed to it this Scripture doth not say that then the Pope or his Adhaerents were the visible Church nor that they shall be so when the Pope turnes Antichrist For the second point that the Church is the judge of controversies I could perchance say that there appeares very probable reasons why this text doth not speak of the Churches authority in judging of controversies of faith but of her authority in admonishing her children and requiring reconciliation satisfaction from one brother to another in evident wrongs even faults without controversie For the text saith If thy Brother sinne or trespasse against thee go and tell him his fault So that there is a sinne and a fault without controversie and such a fault that the offended Brother himselfe may first judge and tell him of it that hath offended And according to this beginning may bee the proceeding that is that the two witnesses and so the Church may be not to judge of the fault whether it bee a fault or no but to witnesse and condemne the contumacy of the party in denying satisfaction and reconciliation after an evident fault And when the offending Brother will not heare the Church thus admonishing perswading and injoyning him satisfaction and reconciliation then hee is to bee cast out of that Church which hee hath thus contumaciously disobeyed Agreeable to that of S. Paul If any man obey not our word have no company with him But be it that the Church be the judge of controversies this also may bee true in Russian AEthiopian and Protestant Churches And so the Church may judge controversies though there were no Pope and where the Pope hath no power Besides the Romists themselves differ concerning the meaning of the word Church So that while wee labour in this text to finde a Judge of controversies for reconciling them wee are left unreconciled by being at controversie about the Judge of controversies mentioned in this text For some say the multitude is this Church and they have for them the most usuall acception of the word Church in that sense through the new Testament And the current of the place seems to him that way according to proportion For first the offended Brother alone was to admonish his Brother and next with one or two witnesses and lastly hee was to be admonished by the congregation So it is a doctrine of degrees from one to two and from two to many And if it be thus then the Popes power of judging controversies hath no footing here But thirdly and so withall to include and resolve the question of inerrability If the Prelates be meant by the Church which Lorca saith is the most usuall opinion amongst Romists yet doth not this place say that Romish Prelates shall have still an unerring judgement in controversies especially any single Prelate as the Pope Againe it can hardly bee thought that when a Brother hath offended a Brother this text would have him presently to call a Councell or Synod of Prelates and so complaine to many Prelates at once and so to the Church But if it be his owne Prelate of whom hee must aske doth this place promise that no Prelate shall erre in judgeing of controversies it is well known that in the Jewish Church which was undeniably the true Church before Christ Priests did not judge controversies without errour Yea God Himselfe complaineth of the contrary when he saith The Priests lippes should preserve knowledge and they should seeke the Law out of his mouth for hee is the messenger of the Lord of Hostes But Ye are departed out of the way Yee have caused many to stumble at the law Yee have corrupted the Covenant of Levi. Accordingly wee finde in the Prophets a continuall out-cry upon the Priests for mis-leading the people yea the Priests are chiefe in false judgements and injuries of the true Prophets Accordingly Pashar both prophecied lies and did cast Ieremy into the stockes for prophecying truth yea the High Priest himselfe falsly judgeth Christ to have spoken blasphemy And S. Peter tells the High Priest and his associates that they were the builders that despised the Corner stone and crucified Christ. And thus wee see it plaine in the Scripture that the Priests and Prelates did erre even when our Author ascribes that inerrability to them by which hee would prove the inerrability of Rome yea we see farther that
saved But how dangerous or deadly soever their faults were they fall directly on the Popish faction both in point of heresie schisme for they hold the like heresie to the Donatists That the Church is onely in the Popes party and accordingly by uncharitable schisme they cut off all those from their communion that are not of this party And now hee comes back againe to Irenaeus as if hee had found some new matter in him Nay Irenaeus whom I named before implies not onely that it is necessary for a true Christian Catholick to differ in no one point of the doctrine or faith from other Christians but hee must withall not beleeve any thing after a different manner that is to say upon a different motive from that for which it is beleeved by other Christians But what doth Irenaeus say being thus called back again He saith nothing for our Author only saith that hee implies just as St. Cyprian before was made to comply But what doth he imply That it is necessary for a true Christian Catholick to differ in no one point of the doctrine or faith from other Christians But is there any such sentence or implying in this Chapter Surely I doubt this Cavalier delt too much upon trust and hee whom hee trusted too much upon deceit I have read over the Chapter and can finde no such implying But I finde that which wee often object against Romists Traditions Why should wee leave the doctrine of the Prophets the Lord and his Apostles and hearken to those men when they tell us their errors The other inference from Irenaeus That a Christian must not beleeve by a different motive from that by which it is beleeved of other Christians is a point that is mortall to Popery For they making the Popes word or authority the motive of their faith herein doe differ from the motive of faith received by the Christians in Grecia Armenia and AEthiopia and so transgresse most dangerously and I doubt fundamentally against this rule produced and approved by the Author as from Irenaeus though there I cannot finde it And now after a just examination of these Allegations I cannot but inferre that There appeares a manifest losse of the cause when the places produced for proofe of it prove it not So that the Authors conclusion being no way made good by his allegations it is left still solitary forsaken and unproved And whereas hee saith For the present it may suffice to have proved the necessity of perfect unity in the Church wee must needs reply That hee hath most imperfectly proved the necessity of so perfect an unity And for the other piece of his conclusion That indeed no reason can bee given why if there bee allowed any more true Churches then one there should not be admitted aswell two thousand as two I acknowledge with him that not onely no reason can bee given of this but also of the Cavaliers speaking of no reason in this point For it is not denyed by us that there is but one true Church and if you make two you may make two thousand But wee deny that every little difference makes two Churches of one and this neither the Author hath proved neither doe his citations suffice to prove but let him here looke to himselfe and his fellow Romists whether they bee not in danger of making two thousand Churches who have made a second Church called the Church vertuall the Pope yea a third Church the Pope and his mysticall body for he is a mystery also but of iniquity which two Churches many eminent members of the Catholicke Church deny to bee that one true Church whereof they are members In the meane time Romish uncharitablenesse in damning Protestants remaines still as a proved truth seeing this Authors proofes for an imaginary perfect unity by which he undertooke to prove it an untruth doe not prove this unity and no such unity proved no untruth proved so they are still uncharitable and Protestants doe yet speake truth when they affirme their uncharitablenesse CHAP. VII A consideration of the Cavaliers fifth Chapter wherein to the great danger of the Papacy that is proved by Scriptures and Fathers which wee doe not deny That out of one true Church of Christ no salvation is to be found SECT I. This ground yeelded doth not produce any discharge whereby the Romists may be freed from uncharitablenesse in damning Protestants THe Cavalier fights on our side and against his fellowes wee are yet left in the Church notwithstanding any thing he hath said or alledged and he hath yet left salvation to us and uncharitablenesse to his owne Papacy And now we being left in the Church he goes about to prove that out of this Church there is no salvation So upon the matter hee proves that out of the Protestants Church there is no salvation But then what will become of the Papacy which will not be of one Church with saved Protestants And indeed except it were to speake for us and against the Papacy what need is there of these proofes for a point not denied by us For wee give him this at first onely for the asking That out of the onely true Church the body of Christ there is no salvation Yet will hee needs goe on to fight for a point which we confesse yea withall to fight for us against himselfe And indeede even where he would seem to fight against us hee doth it so loosely and far-off that it is hard to discerne how his blowes doe concerne us Let us see his first onset Since the Church of Christ our Lord is so truely one and but onely one it followes easily enough that no salvation can be had out of this Church and that every Heresie or Schisme is sufficient to deprive any soule thereof but yet neverthelesse to the end that men may bee wholly left without excuse or rather that they may bee the better warned to take heed in time of those miseries which otherwise they are to feele for all eternity I will strengthen also this truth by the Authoritie of some few Scriptures and Fathers of the Primitive Church for so by degrees it will easily and of it selfe appeare that wee Catholicks are not faulty in that wherewith wee are so much charged I confesse it is hard to finde out this Authors order and way his end or drift we know but the way by which he would come to it is hard to bee seene I am sure hitherto hee hath not made good his first steps in it and yet hee would seeme to proceed as if hee came neerer to his end by degrees when yet hee is still on his threshold for first though the Church of Christ be but one and it doe follow that no salvation can be had out of that one Church this as hath beene noted is no degree to the cleering of Papists uncharitablenesse in damning Protestants Againe it doth not follow that every Heresie in the Popish sense is
sufficient to deprive any soule thereof and so Protestants may still suffer a false charge of Heresie to bee laid on them by Romists and yet bee sure enough of salvation And thus not any degree is yet made good toward the freeing of this charge of uncharitablenesse justly laid on the Romists So that the matter stands still though the Author moving his pen thinkes that the matter moves with it And for the Allegations that follow which seeme to labour for these two points That out of the Church is no salvation And that Heresie and Schisme doe put men out of the Church these being proved no way hurt us or help the Romists but helpe us and hurt the Romists among whom wee have found most fearfull and bloudy Schisme and wee may discover damnable Heresies but they can never prove that Protestant doctrine maintaines either Heresie or Schisme but by that which they call Heresie as relying wholy on Christs merits and not our owne for redemption and worshiping God in spirit and truth and not worshiping Images c. wee serve the God of our Fathers SECT II. The Allegations of Scriptures and Fathers made by the Cavalier are more forcible to exclude the Papists out of the Church then the Protestants against whom they are produced THat being yeelded which this Author indeavours to prove I know not what to doe with his Allegations but onely to turne them against Romists Therefore we very well allow the place alledged out of Esay and say it makes against the Pope who doth not submit himselfe to the Church in a generall Councell and so doth the place of Matthew formerly alledged and answered upon the same Reason And we very well allow those places of Paul to Titus and Timothy as making much against the Pope and his adhaerents and say that they give us just ground of avoiding him being Hereticall and Schismaticall after many admonitions But this Author did wisely in not naming Timothy in his margent but Titus though hee alledge these words out of 1. Tim. 4.1 2. That they attend to doctrines of Divels and spirits of Errour That they are Lyers and Hypocrites lest the Reader looking to the place might finde this which followeth Forbibbing to marry and commanding to abstaine from meats which wee know that Protestancie doth not but if Papistry doe then who are now his Hereticks Hypocrites and Lyers excluded from the Church and so from salvation Hee did also very discreetly in his namelesse alledging some pieces out of 2. Tim. 3. where is mention of Iamnes and Iambres and to make use of the verse fore-going having the form of godlinesse and the verses following That they are ever learning but without attaining to the knowledge of the truth but left out the middle verse which is this Of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly Women laden with sins and led with divers lusts which words being notable markes of seducers for what reason the Author left them out he best knowes but if wee may beleeve their owne Priest it doth rightly hit with some Romish proselite-makers so that the simple Reader if hee had seene this place wholy alledged might perchance have thought hee had seen in these the very Iamnes and Iambres of these times His last Scripture is out of S. Paul to the Galathians where striving to prove that the word Sects in Latin is Heresies in the Greeke he somewhat Heretically I doubt even when he speaks against Heresie leaves the decreed Latin to follow the Greeke But this being taken for a fault in the Latin let the word be as it is in the Greeke and then to the shame of the Papacy wee read indeed that Heresies are works of the flesh which certainly those are most likely to fall into that strive to set up a fleshly monarchy and to abound in the glory and wealth of the world For such men will sell heaven and truth and the Gospell for a messe of Pottage even for base and transitory vanity It is the sentence of Gods spirit that where is the love of the World there is not the love of God and where is not the love of God there cannot bee the love of the truth and where is not the love of truth there is a giving up to strong delusions to beleeve lyes that they all may bee damned who beleeved not the truth Now among innumerable examples of the Papacies love of the world and preferring temporall greatnesse and wealth above the truth let the lamentable conference betweene Adrian the sixth and the Cardinall be a lively proofe and spectacle where the poore Pope and herein not a Pope and therefore hee did well soone to bee gone speaking of the necessity of reformation There was no consideration of the truth of this necessity but a plaine confutation of whatsoever truth there was in it by the Popes Audit and Exchequer even by worldly profit But the Scriptures thus being lost except onely in making against their owne Papacy hee comes to Fathers not so much to hurt with them as to bee hurt by them Tertullian saith hee affirmeth That Hereticks cannot bee accounted Christians But of what heresies doth hee speake there Of any Protestant opinions He doth not say that any Protestants are hereticks He repeats there a rule of faith as it were the body of a Creed consisting of divers Articles Doe the Protestants deny any of these Articles True it is that of this rule of faith hee saith Nullus habet apud nos quaestiones c. There are no questions among us of this rule but those which Heresies make and doe make Hereticks But wee doe not make question of this rule and so are not made hereticks by it But they doe rather question this rule that bring in another faith the Popes Oracles and new Articles For whereas Tertullian here saith Fides in regula posita est The faith is set downe in that rule which before hee rehearsed the Romists faith is not in that rule For there was not one word of the Pope nor of Christs being under the forme of bread by Transubstantiation but In Coelos ereptum sedere ad dextram Patris misisse vicariam vim Spiritus Sancti qui credentes agat Being taken away into heaven hee doth sit at the right hand of his Father and hee hath sent his Vicar not the Pope but the power of the Holy Ghost which should leade those that beleeve And in the 33. Chapter making an Inventory of certaine Heresies amongst others hee names this which I doubt is some kinne to the Papacie Timotheum instruens Nuptiarum quoque interdictores suggillat He saith That S. Paul instructing Timothy doth condemne the forbidders of marriage Saint Cyprian is next brought in to say that thousand times produced sentence that Out of the Church there is no salvation Hereunto is added that There is no reward of any suffering whatsoever neither is hee a Christian
doth cause the contrary assertion to bee hereticall And accordingly Vasques saith not onely such a Position is called hereticall which is contrary to the definition of the Church but that which is contrary to Scripture And that wee may come to Saint Augustine wee shall finde that this contrariety to Scripture was that which Saint Augustine accounted heresie and not contrariety to the Pope and his Decrees For thus hee saith in the small matter produced by the Cavalier called by him Putting off shooes in prayer There is an heresie of those that ever goe bare foot because God said to Moses or Josua Put off thy shooes from thy feet and because the Prophet Esay was commandâ—d to goe bare foote But this is an heresie not because they goe thus for the humbling of the body but because they thus understand the Testimony of Scripture So we see that the Author is plainly told by S. Augustine that it was the falsifying of divine Testimonies even the alledged places of Scripture that gave their error the name of an heresie And it were pitie to put the Cavalier to prove that at this time the Pope had decreed and decided That men should not put off their shooes in prayer But the truth is the Fathers take this word heresie sometimes in a large sense accounting that an heresie which was an erring against any truth of Scripture but heresie in the most proper full and killing sense hath been taken to bee an error against the Rule of Faith even such an error as puts men off from the foundation for a soule being put off from the foundation which is God in Christ Iesus cannot possibly bee saved Yet it cannot be denyed but that if lesser errors be so plainly discovered to bee contrary to the Scriptures that this contrariety is made manifest to him that erreth this error being afterwards maintained may be a damnable heresie and the reason only be this Because such an heretick erreth in the foundation of Faith for hee doth not beleeve that God is true and not beleeving Gods Truth hee cannot beleeve the truth of his promises in Christ Jesus And because such lesser errors were sometimes plainly at least as some holy men thought convinced to bee contrary to Scriptures therefore these errors by them might perchance bee called heresies But yet it cannot bee certainely affirmed by any man that what himselfe seeth to bee manifestly against Scriptures and hath delivered this which seemes manifest unto himselfe to another that the other to whom hee hath delivered it doth see it also to bee manifest therefore no man meerely upon such a manifestation can say directly and positively That such an one doth wilfully not beleeve the Truth of God in the Scriptures Wherefore these smaller errors though they might be called heresies at large in regard that they were errors shewed to be contrary to the Scriptures and so there was a possibility that they might bee held wilfully against the known truth yet because there is also a possibility that it might not bee knowne to those that erred that their error was contrary to the Scriptures the sentence of killing and damning on such cannot certainly be pronounced For indeed no Father nor Divine can affirme That one erring not wilfully but by weakenesse or ignorance in such a point as praying bare foote cannot beleeve in Christ Jesus or so beleeving cannot bee saved But howsoever in all this which hee hath allâ—dged there is nothing that makes for the Cavalier but rather all against him For it is still an errour contrary to the Scriptures that makes the Heresie and not pride and disobedience against the Pope and his decisions And indeed this truth was so strong and so prevailed against the Cavalier that it forced him to speake some part of it even against his own proposition For he saith thus The Pride wherewith they presumed to abuse Scripture and to impose such a fond law upon mens consciences and a resolution not to leave it when they were commanded by the Church was that which made it Heresie in them Where the abusing of Scripture is indeed the chiefe if not onely cause of giving it the likenesse of Heresie For imposing it as a law upon mens consciences I hope this Author will not take for Heresie but rather for a vertue seeing he hath ofteÌ„ told us that those who suppose their religion to be true are not to blame if that they tel others that they are in danger by holding the contrary Howsoever I am sure this is not the life of Heresie as the Cavalier presently tels us in the next page But maintaining a doctrine discipline contrary to the judgment commandements of the Church But how he could know by the art of divination that these his barefoot Hereticks had a resolution not to leave their errours when they were commanded by the Church the Church being taken for the Pope and his adhaerents I cannot divine for it is very possible that they seeing the Popes glorious Pantofle adorned with the Crosse might perhaps thinke it more holy by the example of him whom they call his Holinesse to weare shooes of that fashion The Cavaliers misâ—haps still increase and the more comfortlesse because they are drawne by himselfe upon himselfe For this next proofe is from the Quarto Decimani the life of whose Heresie hee would make to be the holding of Easter at another time then was ordained by the Church But if the Pope bee as hee is said to bee the Church vertuall let the Cavalier remember that this Church vertuall was chidden by S. Irenaeus for excommunicating the Easterne Churches because they differed from him in observation of Easter So at that time neither the different observation of Easter nor disobeying the Popes command was accounted an Heresie Hee is also alike unhappy in his Heresie of Rebaptization where hee saith In Saint Cyprian it was but errour because the Church of his time had not absolutely condemned it but growing after to be condemned in the Donatists time it was Heresie in them not to forsake it which drew Vincentius Lirinensis to make this exclamation O admirable change of things The Authors of an opinion are held Catholicks and the followers of the selfe same are judged Hereticks For the Cavaliers matter is hereby overthrowne For the Bishop of Rome and his councell having condemned the errour of rebaptization Cyprian must be an Heretick who disobeyed the Bishop of Rome and his councell thus having condemned it yea having condemned the maintainers of it But if S. Cyprian was hereby no Heretick then the life of Heresie doth not consist in disobeying the Church speaking by the Pope Againe if S. Cyprian escape at this doore I do not see but that for ought the Cavalier saith the same doore stands open for the Donatists For his reason by which he would keepe in the Donatists is Because their errour grew after to bee condemned
But wee see their errour was condemned before by Cornelius and Stephen Bishops of Rome even in the time of S. Cyprian And therefore if there bee no other reason the Donatists may escape the note of Heresie with S. Cyprian But indeede there were other reasons that might aggravate the errour of the Donatists beyond S. Cyprian and make it look more like Heresie A first may be a maintaining of their errour after much evidence and conviction by Scriptures A second because they made this errour a ground of an other errour That it was a just cause to divide from the Church because the Church differed from them in their errour This Cyprian never did for though Cyprian yeelded not obedience to the Pope having decided the point yet he held union with the Church even with those who differed from him in this point of re baptization which may be spoken to the shame both of the old Donatists and the new even the Romists that teare the Church into pieces for every little difference Thirdly the Donatists were thought thereupon to raise another errour contrary to an Article of the Creed That the Church was not Catholick and this the Cavalier might have seene in this very Treatise of Saint Austin ad quod vult Deum from whence hee fetched his former objections Lastly if any man will see the reason of Lirinensis whom this Author produceth he may thus receive it and adde it for a Corollary The Masters are absolved the Disciples are condemned c. whose wickednesse I judge to bee worthy of double hatred both because they feare not to deliver unto others the poyson of Heresie and because with profane hands they tosse the memory of holy men as ashes which were quenched and spread abroad a reviv'd opinion which should have beene buried in silence following herein the steps of their Father Cham who not onely neglected to cover the nakednesse of reverend Noe but also shewed it to others to bee derided As for the answer of Cyprian to him that made the question concerning the doctrine of Novitianus it doth not shew that they that obey not the Popish Church are Hereticks but that Hereticks are cast out of the Church for their Hereticall doctrines And such doctrines whose Authors and Abettors are for them worthily cast out of the Church are not worth the enquiry The Cavalier having passed through many untruths now comes to an impertinence fraught also with untruths Hee would faine prove that because there are some quarrells betweene some Calvinists and some Lutherans therefore Protestants are damnable Hereticks for disobeying the Pope in small matters But he knowes not how to tye this together scarcely with the Jesuiticall cart-ropes of vanity and fraud called Equivocation and mentall Reservation For neither of them doe charge the other with Heresie for disobeying the Pope yea not for disobeying the Church but as they would perswade others in their disputing vehemence for not rightly conceiving some passages of Scripture and I dare so much trust the Cavaliers honesty that he will not say that himselfe beleeves some of those slanders which himselfe produceth from Lutherans against Calvinists Such are corrupting the Scriptures concerning the glorious Trinity the Deity of Christ and the Holy Ghost And hee knowes or might know if he have but begunne with Bellarmines coÌ„troversies whom he names what Greâ—zer speakes of Hunnius one of the Cavaliers chiefe Authors that casts scandalls upon Calvinists in his Epistle prefixed to Bellarmines controversies For there he saith That Hunnius began a kind of writing right Lutherane that is Thrasonicall vaine-glorious furious I had almost said drunken yea he goes from the man to the kind and saith The Lutheran Preachers doe set forth their disputations as if it were upon Meade and Beere and so that they may seeme to smell of that which ariseth from both railing-slanders and madnesse Now if this testimony of Gretzer be true and whatsoever it be I thinke this Cavalier will not give this Father of his the lye then I wonder he would produce testimonies of such whose Disputations as saith his Father Gretzer smell of rayling-Slanders and madnesse So that indeed this argument seemes not to be so much a matter of earnest as of mirth even to make himselfe and his Romish Readers infernally merry with the bitternesse and contentions of christians yet it were not hard to shew patternes of such vomits of Gall brought up from Romish stomacks and indeede here they lye in sight but I had rather they should bee covered with ashes then bee stirred to annoy my Reader and my selfe with the savour of them Only I will give this Champion some animadversions one is that this is a stale objection long since dissolved by that reverend and learned prelate the ever honoured Bishop Iewell And this Bishop hath so torne this objection to ragges that I wonder this Cavalier would stoope so low as to take up such ragges which can never bee well sowed together againe and cloath his book with them A second that it were farre more like the spirit of Moses to say Why doe yee strive seeing yee are brethren then to gather this uncharitable and false Inference Because yee strive yee are not brethren I am passing from this Champions Untruths to his Truth but I cannot passe over an abominable fearefull and manifold Untruth not so much bounded in one part of this Chapter as arising from the whole For his maine drift and plot is and his words doe tell it us That let a point of doctrine bee never so fundamentall and necessary to salvation if his Popish Church doe not decide propound and command it to bee beleeved it is not heresie not to beleeve it But bee the point never so small if the Popish Church decide and command it to bee beleeved then must it bee beleeved upon paine of damnation Now what can bee said more to put the Pope above God to make him Antichrist and his followers Antichristians That which God saith may bee unbeleeved without note of heresie though it bee this maine point This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well-pleased But if the Pope decide and command to bee beleeved that Gossips are such kinne that they cannot marry without incest not to beleeve this is certaine damnation fearefull blasphemies and unhappy Christians whose God is lesse then their Pope and whose Pope is above the highest God But as this makes way for the Mystery of iniquity so it leades fitly to the next point which is this Champions Truth wherein this Mysterie will bee more fully revealed SECT II. The Idolatrie of Papists 1. In making the Pope the foundation of Faith 2. In giving Divine worshâ—p to the Sacramentall Elements and to Images 3. In attributing the merit of salvation to their owne works is such as may sinke many of them into a damnable estate though it may bee charitably hoped of others that they are
saved who avoyd the mortall infection of these points and what caution must be used to preserve this Charity from crossing with Truth HAving discovered many Untruths in at least foure maine points of this Chapter wee are come to a fifth point whose truth is so powerfull that it overcomes mee and makes mee to acknowledge with the Author That it divides Protestants and right Romists so farre as salvation and damnation And I must cleere either side from uncharitablenesse in saying that these who faile in this point are in a state of damnation And it is very true that hee promiseth That this Reason strikes at the roote which is taken from the nature and propertie of Faith The point is this That whosoever doth give his faith and assent to all the Articles of Christian doctrine yet if hee doe it not upon the right and infallible motive hee hath no saving Faith Now hereunto wee subjoyne That true and right Papists or Romists doe not beleeve upon the true and infallible motive Therefore they can have no saving Faith And indeed though they have many and pernitious errors yet this is the great and generall error that makes up the Mystery of iniquity which wee call the Papacie and the Papists call the Church For the ordinary motive of faith in those who are the right and naturall members of the Head of that Mysterie is to beleeve the Articles of Faith because the Church whose mouth head and spirit is the Pope propounds and commands them to bee beleeved And this Author saith that the onely true and infallible ground is The Revelation of Almighty God and the proposition and direction of the Church Wherein first hee joyneth the Church with God in this ground of Faith and so gives as it were halfe of the ground of Faith to the Church from God and makes it halfe unsafe and damnable But even this halfe hee seemes elsewhere wholly to take away and so to leave men wholly to bee damned by a Faith wholly grounded on a motive which cannot raise a saving and supernaturall Faith for hee saith That if the Church hath not decided propounded and commanded a doctrine to bee beleeved by her children a man may thinke and doe as hee sees cause without incurring the crime of heresie Thus wee see that the Revelation of God is not a motive of Faith of it selfe but the Church is the motive of beleeving Gods Revelation so first wee see the Church to put God aside and to take place of him and knowing who is the Head Heart if not the Whole of this Church wee finde him just in his owne place and that is lifting himselfe up above all that is called God And secondly wee see the deadly motive and ground of Faith proposed by Papists to Popish soules even the word of a man and a Man of sinne on whom whatsoever Faith is finally grounded it can give nothing but damnation Neither are wee put by other Papists to lay pieces together to prove this their damning motive of Faith for besides the common voice of the people that they beleeve as the Church beleeves wee have before heard that the Rhemists acknowledge the Popes to bee an Order of Governors to whom wee are bound to cleave in Religion and to obey in all things And thereupon they infer that A Papist is a Christian man a childe of the Church and subject to Christs Vicar So the Christianity of a Papist and his being a child of the Church depends on his cleaving to the Pope and obeying him in all things But yet againe we may see it more acknowledged in their Writers Lorca brings forth Medina affirming that The Testimonie of the Church doth so farre partake of being the formall object or motive of faith that the utmost resolution of faith is into the authoritie of the Church and the proofes produced for it are to bee heard in the common language of Romists If it bee asked why thou beleevest the Trinity in Unity and thou answer Because God saith it It will then bee demanded of thee how thou knowest that God saith it thou hast no other Answer left but this Because the Church saith it and so are they taught in the Catechisme and so answer both the learned and unlearned Behold the common answer and common faith of Romists Now this object of faith being man and not God it cannot raise that supernaturall and saving faith whose object is the prime Veritie even God speaking to the soules of his servants And seeing this humane faith hath so possessed Romists that their Prophets doe make the obeying and cleaving to the Pope in his doctrine the very Character of a Christian and childe of the Church this Church consisting of these children thus adhering to the Pope is against such truely affirmed not to bee the Church and so may the Homily of our Church clearely bee interpreted which denyeth the Church of Rome that is the Pope and his Adherents to bee the true Church for thus to adhere unto the Pope and to lay beliefe on him is so farre from making a true childe and member of the Church that it makes a member of the Papacie and so of Antichrist it makes a Synagogue for Sathan and Hell and not a Church for Christ and salvation And whereas this Author both in this Chapter and the beginning of the eighth objects it to us that wee condemne their doctrines and account the Church of Rome to bee the Seate of Antichrist and the Synagogue of Sathan Hee hath here seene one reason of it and it is a reason of his owne and his fellowes even because the Romish Doctors and Champions tell us that the Church of Rome is made of those children which beleeve in the Pope And this faith being humane cannot make a Church to Christ but to the Pope and thus the Pope stands in the place of Antichrist for putting Christ out of his place and stepping into it whiles thus hee makes his sheepe to heare his voice before Christs yea both herein and often otherwise against Christ. But a second Reason may bee given of their calling the Church of Rome the Synagogue of Sathan the Church of Rome being taken in a larger sense even for all those parts of mankinde that have reference to Rome For they finde this Church of Rome overspred not onely with this false and Antichristian faith but with other mortall errours and abhominations such are grosse and almost universall Idolatry in the worship of Images and especially of the Sacrament confidence in workes for justification and merit and a grosse ignorance even a not knowing of Christ which before hath beene touched Now many seeing a field overcome with these deadly and killing weeds and so overcome that they seemed to cover the face of the field they tooke it to bee a field of Weeds and not of Corne And because the usuall manner of speaking is to say that a horse is blacke and
many other crimes doe not accordingly God often calls Idolatry by the name of Adultery and thereupon threatens a divorce to his people And in that commandement alone which forbids this Spirituall Adultery doth God onely mention his Jealousie Againe if a man be jealous let a stranger be never so like him his jealousie will not suffer his wife to love that stranger as himselfe yea he will not indure it though shee say it is for his sake and for likenesse to to her Husband How much more should the jealousie of God arise when his worship is given to things infinitely inferior to himselfe and so farre below that it is a kinde of blasphemy to name them in a comparison Accordingly God casts it off with a scornefull indignation To whom will yee liken God If this jealousie of God could not indure that Dagon should stand in one place with the Arke shall we thinke that the same jealousie will indure an Idol to dwell quietly with him in the soule of that man which is truly the Temple of God What agreement saith S. Paul hath the Temple of God with Idols For yee are the Temple of the living God And if Saint Paul aske this question as if it could not receive an answer How dare men to answer this question at least with such facility to dissolve it how dare they say Yes S. Paul It hath beene seene very generally that the Temple of God even ignorant Christians have had agreement with Idols for if Christians knew not but that the Idols ought to bee worshipped with divine worship they beleeving this might give divine worship to idols and this Idolatry is not damnable Surely if such an answer may thus get safe passage through this Text by some narrow way to make Idolatry to agree with God and salvation doubtlesse it seemes by Saint Pauls question the common and ordinary relation between them is disagreement and there is some great difficulty or some great rarity in this agreement And this great danger and difficulty should bee greatly pressed at least not lesse then the narrow way of escaping And indeed to expresse this danger and difficulty is my businesse at this time and for a further expression of it let the words of Iosua bee considered Yee cannot serve the Lord for hee is an holy and a jealous God Hee will not forgive your transgressions and sinnes except yee put away the strange gods which are among you I might add from many places of Scriptures That they who feared the Lord and served their own gods did not feare the Lord. And in the daies of good Iosiah God would Cut off those that worship and sweare by the Lord and sweare by Malcam And that Idolatry is generally clothed in Scripture with the title of Abomination and it is not easie nor usuall with God to dwell with Abomination But referring the Reader to his owne reading I conclude with that piercing and affrighting speech of Saint Paul There is a brother and it is a weake brother and this brother out of his weaknesse eates things sacrificed unto Idols with conscience of religious honour of the Idols the same weake brother seeing a strong brother eating in the Temple of Idols is strengthened in his making conscience and giving honour and worship to the Idoll and yet of this weake brother Saint Paul saith that Hee perisheth No doubt this weake brother making conscience of the Idoll beleeved this honour which his conscience gave to the Idoll was due and lawfull yea he beleeved it the more as Saint Paul saith by seeing a strong brother in the Idols Temple whom hee thought to have made the same conscience of the Idoll yet this brother for whom Christ dyed thus weake thus beleeving and upon such a tentation if wee beleeve Saint Paul perisheth by this Idolatry There is yet a third dangerous yea deadly infection of Rome in the Idolatry of Merits of which soules should bee wary for generally those merits are by by them made Saviours while they think that they are able to justifie or stand in judgement before Gods Justice and that they deserve life eternall yet Christ Jesus who is God blessed for ever could onely performe such merits for mankinde As for us when wee speake most of our good works Let us say with that holy man Remember me O Lord concerning this and spare mee according to the multitude of thy mercy and then put this clause to it from our Saviour When wee have done all wee are unprofitable servants Let not this Idolatry seeme small to us which the chiefe of them dare not maintaine when they dye though the Papall profit makes it pleasant whilest they live But let it bee as one of the botches of Egypt which kill the soules of thousands with death eternall Thus have wee seene errors deadly and damnable to many that professed them in the Church of Rome and beleeved what they professed wherefore the safest way by which charity joyned to verity may more clearly save some in this Church is to finde some that are cleare from these errors And these being produced may serve for patternes to others to drive them from these errors And accordingly it is possible to find some within the Romish territories that have been cleer from these Idolatries yea some that have beene Teachers and Writers and no doubt they have begotten some Auditors and Readers like to themselves And first for the killing error of making the Pope or his Church the god and utmost foundation of faith there are not a few of the late Writers as Lorca tels us that wholly deny it The authority and testimony of the Church doth nothing pertain to the assent of faith neither as part of the object nor as a condition without which faith cannot bee which opinion of Canus not a few of the later men doe imbrace to this hee adds which was the opinion of Calvin And to make this yet more cleer that often objected place of S. Augustine I would not beleeve the Gospel except the authority of the Church did move mee Lorca saith Canus Calvin answer with the very same words That Augustine meant nothing in this sentence but that the Church is an apt beginning and as it were an introduction by which a man wholly ignorant of the faith is fitly led unto it but not that the Church should bee the reason of beleeving for that is Because God speaks in the Scripture and it is an infallible instrument of the divine Testimony And Lorca afterwards affirmes That the resolution of this question Why you beleeve is lastly and directly resolved into the testimony of God and this is the adaequate reason of beleeving Because God saith it Thus are there some and not a few of the Church of Rome as Lorca tels us that avoid the shipwrack of soules which is visually suffered by faith in the Pope or testimony of man even
another way Here leaving to the Authour his owne terme of railing wherein I wonder hee should delight but that I see elsewhere hee takes pleasure in the mentioning of scurrill and blasphemous Invectives I say that some errors bee not fundamentall which are found in the Fathers and now maintained by Romists yet wee are not disabled by this distinction to reprove Romists for them for wee doe not say in this distinction that no errours should bee reproved but those which are fundamentall for even lesser errours are to bee reprehended but wee say that these errours in lesser points doe not breake the unity which by greater and more fundamentall points is made betweene Christ and his members and betweene the members themselves And secondly wee say that Romists are much more to bee reproved if they hold any errours of the Fathers now in controversie betweene us for these controverted errours have beene now by the Scriptures more evidently discovered to bee errours and it is a thing farre more worthy of blame if a man should runne into a ditch by day then if he should stumble into it by night But whatsoever exactnesse this Authour may require or imagine in this distinction this exactnesse being granted it will never make it to appeare that wee differ from the unanimous beliefe of the Fathers in the maine points mentioned in their rules of faith now called Fundamentals And for his Argument concerning the Lutherans it doth not endanger us for if the Lutherans should bee found by this distinction to differ from us in these fundamentall points which should unite them to Christ it is no hurt to us to renounce the communion of those who renounce communion with Christ. And on the other side if by it they bee found to differ from us in points not fundamentall it would bee no danger nor just disreputation to us to avow those points wherein wee differ not to bee fundamentall but wee will much rather disavow the quarrels which are made where there is no fundamentall difference The period which followes as farre as it is a true Narration of our way of making peace by this distinction with the Fathers and the Lutherans is a commendation both of the distinction and our peace-making by it But by the way I deny That Romists have brought us from denying via facti That the Fathers taught the doctrine of Praying to the Saints or for the dead in the sense and manner of Rome for the Fathers did not unanimously teach praying to Saints I am sure Saint Augustine who was above 400. yeers after Christ doth deny Saints to know ordinarily the affaires of the living which happen after their decease And for prayers for the dead in Purgatorie the Cavalier cannot shew a good patterne for more yeares then the former As for the difference in the number of Canonicall Bookes which it seemes this Author is sorrie that it is not avowed to bee fundamentall it is not altogether new but ancient and wee see it at this day in the Syriack and it were pitie to cut off from salvation all the Churches and Fathers which ever differed in this number yea he must damne many Romists if hee will make this difference fundamentall They that beleeve all necessary saving truths though they bee not fully perswaded that just so many Books were wholly indited by some one of the Apostles or Evangelists I know now how this Author may damne them if these saving truths being beleeved doe save them sure I am that in their owne Explicites or points of importance which wee call fundamentall and they say must bee knowne and beleeved under paine of damnation they doe not mention any names much lesse the number of Canonicall Bookes So it seemes by their owne doctrines the names and full number of the bookes of Scripture are none of their owne Explicites and Fundamentals but other points beleeved may serve to save such beleevers And if such may bee saved though they know not the set number of Books why would you have us to breake unitie for a point the not explicite knowing and beleeving whereof in your owne doctrine doth not exclude salvation Hee goes on and objects a second good use that wee make of points fundamentall which is a proofe of the visibility of our Church And true it is That if there have beene still a visible Roman Church which hath held points fundamental until the Reformation begun by the Protestants then is that visibility since that time still continued by us The former we leave to the Romists to prove for their owne sakes and the later we can very easily prove for our selves And whereas hee repeats but confutes not that some of ours have said that there is no necessity that the Church must have been continually visible I tell him that if this were an absurd Doctrine as he terms it they were led to this absurdity with a great shew of reason For not to run out at large into the common place of visibility when Lirinensis saith at the deluge of Arianisme The whole Romane Empire was fundamentally overthrowne and removed And we reade elsewhere the Pope himselfe was turned Hereticke where was the visibility of the Cavaliers Romish Church it selfe But I need not to dwell much on the defence of this doctrine because he only confutes it by the Epithite Absurd and because that which followes next most concernes the present businesse though this also is a rehearsall and not a confutation Some few of them affirme when they are urged by us to shew that visible Church of theirs that theirs and ours doe make but one true Church and so in shewing the visibilitie of ours they doe withall as they say shew their owne to have beene visible And these men tread in this way because they well know that no other Church but ours can indeed be shewed to have beene visible through all ages since Christ our Lord. But I must here deny his repetition if by the word Church he meane the Pope and those that have made him the foundation of their faith for these and ours wee say not to be one Church with us because they have changed the foundation But if you meane those that by beleeving fundamentalls have fastned their faith on Christ the true foundation wee allow That our Church hath beene one with them and hath been visible in their visibilitie yet avoyding this That hee can ever prove that other Churches have not beene as truly and continually visible as Rome for it will still trouble the Author to shew that the Churches of Greece and Africk have bin lesse truly visible then Rome since the Primitive times of their first conversion And now this Authoâ— being past our use of fundamentalls for visibility yet walkes on though beyond his right businesse but hee that is out of the way in his maine matter of making division to excuse Romish uncharitablenesse may well walke into by-wayes in his prosecution
the point then the Chapter hath been hitherto to the Title You say there are great differences between the Protestants and you about the understanding of the Article of the descent of Christ into Hell and the other of the holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints c. But what doe you here talk of differences in understanding fundamentals where the present question is Whether the Protestants doe acknowledge their fundamentalls to bee contained in the Creed For if Protestants declare that their fundamentals are contained in the Creed then your Title is gone which saith That they do not nor dare not declare them And surely it will aske a greater strength and a farre bigger volume then Charity mistaken to prove that Protestants doe not rightly understand the Articles of the Creed But secondly the Authours objection is grounded not onely upon a new but upon a false supposition if his fellow Romists may bee Judges For his supposed proposition is this That all the Articles in the Creed are Fundamentall Now this is different from the first proposall of our opinion That all fundamentall Articles are in the Creed It is also denied by his owne fellowes For though all fundamentall Articles be there yet they say that some Articles that are there may not bee fundamentall or explicitely to be known upon losse of salvation as before hath been shewed out of Vasquez and Azorius Therefore to stand upon a different understanding of those Articles which are denied by your owne men to bee Explicites or doubted is besides the matter But thirdly Do we differ from you in understanding those points What is that to the point undertaken in the end of the last Chapter and promised to be shewed in this That wee differ among our selves in the number of Fundamentalls You are now gone â—â—om our ridiculousnesse by differing in the number of fundamentalls and are come to a ridiculousnesse of your owne by your differing from us in the false understanding of some Articles of the Creed which all your owne Prophets doe not account Fundamentals But you add It is to little purpose to know or confesse that the Creede containes all Fundamentals unlesse there were some certaine way to understand them right This is againe a ranging from shewing our differences among our selves or that wee have not these Fundamentals Yet I answer Wee have a certaine and the best way of understanding them right wee have a learned Ministery endued with gifts from on high which teacheth and preacheth these Fundamentals and the right meaning of them And the right meaning thus taught the Spirit in the hearers doth so discover and certifie the truth of them that the hearers see the Articles to bee Gods truth and not mans And accordingly their faith thus beleeving them resteth on God as the sole Foundation of their faith and this teaching of the Catholick Church wee use commend and allow But that The single Article of the holy Catholick Church should containe the reason of all our faith fundamentally seemes to mee an high kinde of Blasphemie And this blasphemous doctrine as wee have before shewed is the very spirit of Popery or Antichrist which sets up the Pope in Gods place and makes his beleevers truely Papists or Antichristians And this great offence and mysterie of iniquitie carryeth Papists by throngs into the Land of darknesse and into this secret of theirs the soules of the saved may not enter True it is that God useth the service of the Ministers or if you will of the Church in publishing the Articles of faith but no other Foundation of supernaturall faith there is but God himselfe though speaking by man unto man the Fundamentality of our faith passeth through man that is the instrument and resteth wholly upon God But saith hee If wee understand it otherwise the Scripture it selfe speakes of particular errours which are damnable in them by whom they are imbraced and yet they are not at all against any expresse Doctrine of the Creed As namely where Saint Paul calls it a Doctrine of Divels to forbid marriage and meates c. I answer first That the Authour hereby proves that which wee deny not and disproves not that which hee saith wee affirme For the point is not Whether there bee any damnable errours besides those that are against some expresse doctrine of the Creede But Whether there bee in the Creede those fundamentall points which being truely beleeved will cause unity with Christ the Head and unity with his Body the Church Other errours against other Truths in Scripture not fundamentall wee acknowledge there are many and proceeding from the Divell the Father of Lyes and in themselves damnable to such as hold not the true Foundation Christ Jesus by beleeving Fundamentals And it is to bee feared that such are many of those true Papists whose foundation is the Pope But otherwise they may bee rather damnable in themselves then actually damning to those who by infirmities hold them and by beleeving fundamentals are in Christ Jesus to whom there is no condemnation Secondly not onely Fathers in their Rules of faith but the Romists themselves doe not place the lawfulnesse of meates and marriage among their chiefe Heads of Christianitie or Explicites and Fundamentals and therefore this Authour doth ill require of us that which hee cannot obtaine of his fellowes Wherefore let him first make this objection against them and when hee hath their Answer then let him take it for us But being unhappily as well as impertinently fallen into the mention of these damnable errours hee saw that as soone as they were brought in they looked at least asquint on the Church of Rome and claymed kindred of her And therefore hee thought that there was need of an Apologie to put off this kindred and acquaintance Which by the way is not to bee understood of the chastity and fasts of the Catholick Church as Protestants doe most perversely affirme which knowes that those things are lawfull but that yet it is most gratefull to God when his servants for his love deprive themselves of those delâ—ghts But of the Heresies of the Manichâ—es as Saint Augustine doth expressely declare who forbad both marriage and meates as being abominable and impure through the institution thereof which they said was derived from a certaine second ill conditioned god of their owne making But this nor all the water in the Sea will wash away all the kindred betweene Romists and these errours For though Saint Augustine may apply this Prophecie to the Manichees yet may hee not also apply them to the Montanists Tertullian himselfe acknowledging that they have beene taxed out of this very place And if to the Montanists why not to those Romists who with Durandus maintaine a curse and so an impurity of flesh and cleannesse of fish who also forbid marriage to Priests which this place plainly condemneth And whereas this Authour talkes of voluntary deprivation it is certaine that