but must be confessed to aim at the present and future happiness of all that we shall address our selves to in this Matter And I shall rejoyce if my pains herein may attain these blessed ends and let you particularly understand how gladly I would encourage your Love to the Church of England and comply with all your Pious desires since I am Sir Your affectionate and faithful Friend Friendly and Seasonable ADVICE TO THE Roman Catholicks OF ENGLAND The Introduction My Friends and Country-men IT is observed by others and complained of by your selves That you lie under many inconveniences by reason of your stiff adherence to those Opinions which Rome calls Religion the charges you are at to maintain a forreign Jurisdiction and your want of the Communion of those Christians among whom you live the uneasie Rites imposed on you here and the great hazard of your Salvation hereafter are reckoned by others to be evils appendant to your professing the Faith of that Church But if you your selves do not feel or not fear these things and so account them no grievance yet you are sensible of other pressures and frequently complain that your Estates are obnoxious to the penalties of the Law and your Persons exposed to the general hatred of the People You tell us you want many Priviledges of other Subjects and lie under many burthens from which others are free You perceive that your actions are observed your designs suspected and your Party accused to be the cause of all Publick evils How far some of your own Perswasion have contributed hereunto I shall not take upon me to judge esteeming it a more charitable employment to offer some expedient to free you from those sad effects which you complain of than either to enquire after the cause of the Nations general Antipathy to your Religion or dispute about the Occasion thereof Wherefore whilst some accuse your practices and others deride your worship I have so much affection for your Persons as my Countrymen and so much charity for your Souls since you bear the name of Christian as to present you with some useful Advice 'T is true the common apprehension concerning you might almost discourage such an Attempt it being generally believed that a Roman Catholicks prejudice is like theirs in St. Augustine who being descended of misbelieving Ancestors preferred their Extraction before the Truth and like the resolution of Cotta in Cicero who says That no discourse of either learned or unlearned men should ever remove him from the Opinion received from his Fore-fathers concerning the worship of the Immortal gods But I know many of you are masters of more reason than to ground your Faith upon so uncertain a Foundation It is not the part of wise men saith a learned Father to be enslaved to a received Opinion nor rashly to give up themselves to their Fathers customes but to endeavour to find out the Truth And it is the advice of the great Apostle to prove all things and hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5. 21. because it is a zeal without knowledge and a foolish obstinacy to be confident of that which we never did examine I can easily believe your Spiritual Guides will esteem no sin more mortal than to enquire into those Principles which you receive from them and they will scarce allow you the liberty to peruse a few lines presented by so charitable a hand But their Prohibitions methinks should make you more suspicious and inquisitive and cause you to resolve to try that Coyn which shuns the Touchstone knowing that Truth seeks no Corners and that which is Real fears no Test The Church of England puts no such Restraints upon her adherents nor is she unwilling to have her Doctrines tried by Scripture and the best Antiquity because she finds those are her best Sons that have enquired most narrowly Evil needs a mask and a disguise said the brave Agesilaus but Light makes true goodness to be more illustrious and more lovely And a greater than he saith Every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doth turth cometh to the light S. John iii. 20. 21. If therefore you have but so much consideration as to suspect and so much courage as to examine I should not be without hope that my Advice might take place since as Plato notes Every soul is unwillingly deprived of Truth which men cannot resist when once it appears unto them I shall ask no more of you than to search impartially whether the Doctrines wherein you differ from the Church of England deserve so firm an assent as you give them and he that dares not do this is not a Disciple but a Slave It may be those Counsellours may please the heady Bigots of your Perswasion better who advise them to ease their mind by reproaching the Laws and the Government or to attempt the shaking off their Grievances by more desperate courses But I do not believe the wiser and more sober Romanists can approve such cursed motions there are many of them too noble to admit such thoughts It is the Stoicks character in Galen That they would rather betray their Country than renounce their Maxims But I take those of your Party to be generally of a better temper and therefore I hope you will account it to be far more Friendly and Seasonable Advice to try these your Principles strictly before you expose your Country or your Selves to suffer all the ill-consequences of your rigid maintaining of them and if you once rightly understand them I hope you will discern they do not deserve to be retained at so dear a rate so that it is possible you may resolve to quit your mistaken Opinions and your real Sufferings together However though your Enquiry shall not have this effect yet this Trial of your Principles ought not to be wholly declined for I would advise you to examine the Roman Doctrines if it were but only to declare that your Religion is not a blind and accidental choice and to vindicate your selves from the charge of the Old Samaritans who worshipped they knew not what SECTION 1. Whether the Roman Opinions which differ from the Church of England be the Old Religion I doubt not but these who have been educated in the Romish Religion as well as those who have inconsiderately turned to it do please themselves in fancying they are of the Old Religion and hence they assume and appropriate to themselves the Name of Catholicks upon this presumption that they do intirely and in all things agree with the Ancient and Universal Church But my Friends if you have the patience to enquire you will find there is no good ground for this perswasion it being evident the Roman is not the Old Religion in any other Articles but only in those which are found in the Apostles Creed or founded upon the plain words of Holy Scripture for that is the
Old Religion which God revealed at first and which Christ and his Apostles taught That is truest which was the first saith Tertullian and that was first which was from the beginning So S. Cyprian We ought not to regard so much what some others before us have thought fit as what Christ himself who was before all hath done Now if that be the Old Religion which is taught in the Holy Scripture and the Creed herein the Religion of Rome cannot pretend to be Older than the Religion of this Church because we hold all these Articles as well as they yea if the case be rightly stated the Church of Englands Faith is the Old Religion and not that of Rome for she professeth To believe nothing as an Article of Faith but what is read in Holy Scripture or may be proved thereby Artic vi But the Roman Church declares They receive Traditions with the same veneration that they do the Scriptures Concil Trident. Sess 4. So that we hold all the Principles of the Old Religion and no other but they under the pretence of Traditions have invented and added many points to the Old Religion which are not mentioned in the Bible and Decreed other Articles contrary to the Old Religion recorded in Scripture and all these are a New Religion and yet these are the Doctrines in which we differ In all the Principles which are truly the Old Religion we and they generally do agree but if you take the Religion of the Roman Church for the Doctrines in which they differ from us it may be justly said they are of the New Religion and we of the Old since our Religion was recorded in Scripture sixteen hundred years ago as our Adversaries seem to confess when they call us Scriptuarii Scripture-men Prateol whereas all that which is properly their Religion is of much later Date And that I may not be thought to invent this Charge or to accuse the Roman Church wrongfully I will instance in the most principal of the Doctrines wherein we differ and bring in your own Doctors as Witnesses of this Truth 1. That Prayers to the Saints are not mentioned by Christ nor his Apostles is confessed by Salmeron Lindan and Bannes Etherianus saith as much of Prayers for the Dead Indulgences are not to be found in Scripture nor in the Ancient Doctors say Durandus Major Cajetan and Antoninus Transubstantiation it self cannot be proved by Scripture if you will take three Cardinals words for it And if our designed brevity would allow it the like might be proved of all the rest But we must proceed to shew there are some New things in the Romish Religion directly contrary to the Scripture The taking the Cup from the Laity is contrary to our Saviours Institution as that very Council of Constance confesseth which first enjoyned it for they say the Sacrament shall be given in one kind only to the people Non obstante c. notwithstanding our Lord did appoint it in both Concil Constant Sess 13. And your own Authentick Vulgar Translation as if this Innovation had been foreseen where the Greek only hath We are all partakers of one bread adds de uno Calice and of one Cup 1 Cor. 10. 17. The Veneration which you give to Images seems to all impartial eyes directly contrary to the Second Commandement and though your Priests will not directly confess it yet their general leaving out the Second Commandement in your Catechisms and cutting the Tenth in Two to keep up the number and conceal the omission from the Vulgar is a fair Evidence they themselves suspected that this Commandement made against them and feared others would apprehend it so To these you may add Praying in an unknown Tongue which S. Paul condemns in one whole Chapter 1 Corinth xiv as some of your own Commentators on the place confess As also the making Saints and Angels your Mediators to God when the same Apostle positively saith There is but one Mediator viz. Christ Jesus 1 Tim. ii 5. All these therefore cannot rightly be accounted any part of the Old Religion properly so called But if we shall descend lower these and many other Points of your Religion are so far from being the Old Religion that the Writers of the Roman Church do acknowledge they were not known to the Primitive Fathers yea they record the very time when most of them were imposed The Doctrine of Purgatory was first built upon the Credit of those fabulous Dialogues attributed to Gregory the First or if they were his which many doubt this was six hundred years after Christ and it was not generally believed in the Church five hundred years after as we learn from an Old Historian Otto Frising Chronic. An. 1146. And as for the Prayers made to deliver Souls from thence that gainful Article of your Church we are told by your own Authors that the first who caused them to be appointed by your Church was Odilo Abbot of Clugny An. 1000. The worshipping of God by Images was not allowed by the Ancient Fathers say your own Authors Clemangis Polyd. Virgil and Peresius Aiala And all men know this kind of use of Images can be derived no higher as to its being Decreed than that despicable Council in the Eighth Century but both the Doctrine and the Council also was rejected for many years after by the French English and German Churches Indulgences are not Ancient as Bishop Fisher confesses Nor is there any good proof in your own Authors for them before the time of Pope Alexander 3. A. 1160 or the Council of Clermont however An. 1096 And the first who made Mony of them was Boniface 9 th An. 1390. as Platina and Polydore Virgil tell us And the first Jubilee the great Market for them was not an hundred years before The forcing all Priests to vow Single Life and renounce their Wives was first obtruded upon the Church by Pope Hildebrand Without any Precedent saith an Old Historian and as many thought of an indiscreet Zeal contrary to the Holy Fathers Opinion And yet he was not obeyed here in England in this for above a hundred years after for our Ancient Records say All these Decrees availed nothing for the Priests by the Kings consent still had their Wives as formerly Auricular Confession to a Priest was never imposed as necessary until the Lateran Council It being little above fifty years before that we are informed by the famous Master of the Sentences and by Gratian your great compiler of the Decrees that it was in our choice whether we would confess to God only or to the Priest also and T. Aquinas confesseth this was the Opinion then Transubstantiation the discriminating Doctrine of your present Church was not held by the Fathers as your own Doctors acknowledge and one of the Infallible Heads of your Church affirms That the Elements cease not to be of
the substance and nature of Bread and Wine The Schoolmen confess Transubstantiation is not Ancient And two of the most famous of them plainly deny it The Administring the Sacrament in One kind is no older than the Council of Constance as was noted before the practice of the whole Church and of Rome it self being otherwise till then Finally many things were never decreed and imposed as necessary to be believed till the late Council of Trent such as the equalling Apocryphal books and Traditions to the undoubted Canon of Scripture Justification by the merit of Good works c. Which Council of Trent was never fully owned by the Catholicks of France Nor was it ever received as a lawful Council by this English Nation It would be too tedious to run over all the rest of those Points wherein the Roman differs from the English Church or else it might be shewed that the Appeals to Rome and the Pope's Vniversal claim Veneration of Relicks Invocation of the Blessed Virgin Pilgrimages c. were wholly unknown to the three first Centuries as the ingenuous Romanists will confess and our Writers have largely proved By all which it appears that the Old Religion of Rome for the first three hundred years had no formal Invocation of Saints nor Angels no Purgatory nor Prayers to be delivered thence no Images no Transubstantiation no half Communion no Jubilees no Indulgences ' no constrained Coelibate no Prayers in an unknown Tongue no customary Auricular Confession no Apocrypha in her Canon of Scripture nor the rest Now if you strip your Church of these Doctrines she retains scarce any thing but the Protestant Articles of the Church of England But if you take Rome with these Additions her Religion is not so Old by far as the Religion of this Church Perhaps it will be pretended Though these Decrees were made in later Ages yet the Determinations were made by vertue of Apostolical Traditions preserved in the Roman Church from the very beginning and upon this Pretence your Late Writers of Controversie have generally laid aside all Arguments from Scripture and Ancient Fathers and resolve all into Oral Tradition and the Infallibility of the Roman Church But what is this but to confess that the Scriptures the Ancient Fathers and all written Records which are Impartial witnesses do make against them only these unknown Traditions which are only in their own keeping and may be of their own devising these they say bear witness for them which is to make themselves Judges in their own Cause and may justly occasion your enquiry whether the former Popes knew of these Traditions or no if not how then came the later Popes to the knowledge of them If they knew of them of old why did they let them sleep so long and suffer the Church to erre for so many years for want of them Did they discharge their Vniversal Headship well in this Concealment But in very truth it is Evident the first Popes knew of no such Traditions and the later Popes have invented them to support their New designs which appears by the Ancient Popes declaring directly contrary to these pretended Apostolical Traditions of which take a few Examples Pope Gaius writes That the Righteousness of the Saints avails nothing to our Pardon or Justification Pope Gelasius denies Transubstantiation as was noted just now The famous Gregory the Great saith He himself was the Emperors Servant and owed him obedience and declares That God had given the Emperor power over Priests as well as others The same Pope disowns the Title of Vniversal Bishop as unfit for him or any other He also determines that it is lawful for Priests who cannot contain to marry And he allows Images for History and Memory only A later than he also in the Canon Law Decrees that in such Diocess where there be people of Divers Languages The Bishop shall provide fit men to celebrate Divine offices and Minister the Sacraments of the Church according to the diversity of Rites and variety of their Languages Decretal Greg. l. 1. Tit. 31. cap. 14. The aforesaid Pope Gregory the First affirms that the Book of Maccabees is not Canonical And as well the Ordinary Gloss as the Old Editions of the Bibles which were allowed by the Roman Bishops and used in that Church before the Council of Trent do all distinguish between the Canonical Books and those which the Protestant Church now call Apocrypha Yet the contrary to all these hath been afterwards decreed upon pretence of being Apostolical Traditions By which account you may see if your Prejudices hinder not that the present Roman Church as it differs from the Church of England retains neither the Old Religion of the Scriptures nor that of the Primitive Church in general nay nor that of the Ancient Church of Rome for they have omitted some Points added others and altered so many that though Rome keep the Old Name it doth not keep the Old Faith We may now seek Rome in the midst of Rome as Juvencus Vitalis said Nor can it be denied saith Another but the Roman Church is not a little different from its Ancient beauty and splendor There is not the Faith the Manners nor the Worship of the Primitive Roman Church and therefore according to S. Ambrose They that have not Peter ' s Faith cannot succeed to Peter ' s Inheritance and as S. Hierome observes They are not the Sons of the Saints who possess their places but they which follow their Works And That only saith Lactantius is the Catholick Church which retains the true Worship of God You might have seen and heard in Rome of Old a Bishop without a Triple Crown or the Title of Vniversal Churches without Images Priests under no Vows of Single life Litanies without any names of Saints or Ora pro nobis the Mass celebrated in a known Tongue Bibles calling divers books Apocrypha which are now reckoned Canonical Scripture People not enslaved by Auricular Confession not debarred of the Cup not frighted with Purgatory nor impoverished with purchasing Prayers and Indulgences to save them from thence c. To conclude therefore Why may you not justly desert them who have in so many things departed from the Old Religion taught by Christ and his Apostles believed by the Ancient Fathers and received by the first and best Bishops of that same Church If you desire to be really of the Old Religion nay if you would hold the Faith of the Primitive Roman Church you may come much nearer to it by embracing the Religion of your own Country than by retaining the Opinions of the Modern Church of Rome which are most of them meer Innovations And though you have reverenced them while you supposed them Ancient and Apostolical yet we hope you will now renounce them when they are evidently discovered to be Gibeonites disguised on purpose to deceive and
notwithstanding their mouldy Pretences as if they had come from far and were descended from Ancient Times their true Original is much later and nearer to this present Age. And now Secondly it will be easie to determine That as the Roman is not the Old Religion so neither ought the Professors of it to appropriate to themselves the Name of Catholick For whether we take it in the Primary and Grammatical sense for Vniversal or in its common acceptation for True Believers The Romanist hath no peculiar Right to this Venerable Title First because their Faith in those Points wherein it differs from the Church of England is not Universal for as the judicious Mr. Brerewood computes the Christians holding the Faith of Rome are not above a fourth part of those who believe in Christ And the excellent Author of Europae Speculum thus makes out the Account The Greek Church saith he in number exceeds any other and the Protestants in number and circuit of Territory are very near equal to the Papal part these are two fourth parts to which if we add the Oriental Christians which are not of the Roman Communion and those under Prester John or the Abassine Christians we have another fourth part of the Christian people and then the Romanists are but one fourth part of Christians only And it is very odd to say that the fourth part is the whole And surely my Friends you cannot seriously think the Roman Church to be the Vniversal or Catholick Church in this sense when you remember that the Pope's Authority is not acknowledged by the Generality of those Christians living in England Scotland and Ireland with the Plantations thereunto belonging nor by those of Denmark and Sweden nor by those of Transylvania Walachia and Moldavia nor by the large Church of Russia nor by the populous States and Provinces of the Dutch with their many Plantations abroad nor by at least five parts of six of the vast Country of Upper Germany nor by two parts of three of the Switzers nor by those of Geneva and Piedmont nor by very many in France Hungary Poland c. How many Millions of Christians are there in the Eastern World who have no dependance on the Roman Church The Christians of the Greek Church properly so called under the three Patriarchs of Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch those of Armenia who are professed Enemies of Rome and yearly Excommunicate the Pope The Georgian Christians with many other lesser Names in Asia the Abassine Christians in Africa all these are not of the Communion of the Roman Church and therefore how can that Church pretend to the Title of Vniversal or Catholick in this sense But secondly if you say you are Catholicks that is true Believers in all Points I desire you to consider that none say so but your Selves and 't is suspicious their Witness is not true who bear witness to themselves S. John v. 31. And where so many Articles of Faith are New it is probable some are False since the Oldest things in Religion are the truest and the best So that upon the whole Enquiry the Church of England may more justly claim the Title of Catholick because the Principles thereof are few and clearly deduced from Scripture believed in the Primitive Church and universally received by all sorts of Christians who differ in some Ceremonies but for the Points which this Church accounts necessary to Salvation the whole Christian World generally agrees in them And since the Religion of the Church of England is the most Ancient and most Vniversal you will be more truly of the Old Religion and more properly styled Catholicks by embracing the Faith professed in your own Country and disowning those who damn all Christians but them of their own Party although it be Evident there are in the World Christians far more in number than they and among those many equal in Learning and superior in Piety to the best of the Roman Church who are reprobated and sentenced to Eternal Flames by their uncharitable Anathema's SECTION II. Whether the said Opinions were not introduced for evil Ends ALthough all this be matter of Fact and acknowledged by your own Writers yet I must expect the venerable Esteem you have so long had for the Roman Church will make you slow to believe this deserved Charge of Innovation and perhaps you will wonder how so pure so Celebrated and so Orthodox a Church as Rome Primitive was should vary so much from her first Faith yet since the Change is so Evident and so well attested I hope at least your Curiosity will tempt you to Enquire First For what ends she should bring in these New Doctrines Secondly By what means they became so generally believed Thirdly Of what nature the things themselves are Fourthly Whether there be Authority sufficient in the Roman Church to Impose them on the whole Christian World Fifthly Whether the Catholicks of England ought to be swayed by that Authority to embrace them And if in examining these Particulars any thing shall be spoken which sounds harshly to your ears accustomed to hear nothing but Encomiums of Rome I shall desire you to consider that Truth is seldom grateful to Offenders and I must say with one of the Writers of the Popes Lives We relate these things because they were done and if the Popes would not have base or evil things reported of them they must do no such things or if they do them not fancy they can be so concealed as that they shall not be known nor related to Posterity Papyrius Masson de Vit. Pont. For my own part I profess I take no delight in Accusations nor shall I say any thing out of malice to that Church but out of pity to the Souls of those who without reason dote upon it If you enquire What ends the Roman Church could have to bring in these New Doctrines I Reply The first decay of that Church began in her Manners For after there were Christian Magistrates saith S. Hierome the Church became fuller of Riches and emptier of Vertue And for the Roman Bishops they began very early to affect a Dominion beyond the bounds of Priesthood as Socrates notes which made S. Basil say thirteen hundred years ago I hate the Pride of that Church and caused a Heathen Historian of that Age to say The Roman Bishops were richly clad carried in Litters and profuse in their feastings But the faults of that Age were small in respect of After-times for as their wealth and power increased their manners grew still worse and worse as we find by the complaints of Salvian and many others till at length about the ninth Age your own Baronius saith The face of the Roman Church was become most filthy when lewd and potent Curtezans swayed all there At whose pleasure Sees were changed Bishops placed and which is horrid to Pious ears their Paramors were thrust into S. Peter ' s Chair false Popes which
own Liberty and men of an un-inslaved Understanding SECTION VII Advice to the English Catholicks to forsake the Opinions of Rome and embrace the Religion of the Church of England TO Conclude as my pity to see you so miserably imposed on hath moved me to endeavour by these plain and Cogent Arguments to rescue you from that yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear So my desire of your perfect Freedom and my unfeigned wishes for your Temporal Spiritual and Eternal welfare do prompt me to advise you to comply with the Religion of the Church of England and this Advice is not only grounded upon the foregoing considerations but may be further pressed upon these motives 1. If you consider the excellent method of our Reformation which was so necessary at that time that for some Ages before the wisest and best men of the Roman Church had not only confessed there was great need of it but had complained for want thereof and pressed the Pope earnestly thereunto witness the Judicious Epistle of Rob. Grosthead that pious Bish of Lincoln to Pope Innocent the Fourth yet to be seen in our Historians the publick complaint of the English Church in the Council of Lyons the private Writings of John Gerson Nich. Clemangis Aeneas Sylvius afterwards Pope and many others And at least One Hundred Years before Luthers time a Reformation was urged for in the Pisane Council and that so strongly that before the Election of a Pope the Cardinals solemnly promised Who ever of them should be chosen Pope that he would before the dissolution of that Council Reform the Catholick Church as well in the Head as the Members And when Alexander the Fifth was chosen He promised to take Care of a General Reformation and that pious and Learned Men should be chosen in every Nation to treat with the Cardinals about it But after all neither he nor his Successors would ever Reform either their Doctrines or Practices being more intent upon their private advantage than the general good and more moved with Cardinal Scombergs Counsel than by all the former complaints who told the Pope That by the Reformation it would be confessed that the things provided against were deservedly reproved by the Lutherans which would be a great abetting to their whole Doctrine Hist Counc Trent l. 1. p. 83. which is to resolve to Err always rather than to be thought to have once erred and herein the Roman Church is of the same humour with those Gentiles to whom Arnobius speaks What you have once done without reason ye defend lest you should seem formerly to have been ignorant and you account it better not to be overcome than to yield to plain and confessed Truth Wherefore since Rome resolved not to Reform England having first restored her King to his Ancient and just Supremacy resolved to reform it self without the Popes leave or consent knowing full well they had Authority sufficient among themselves to order the Affairs of Religion which had been Regulated many Hundred years in this Land by the King and his own Bishops without any dependence on the Pope at all Thus the Kings of Judah reformed their Kingdoms of Old Thus the King of Spain with Leander Bishop of Sevil reformed that Kingdom from Arianism without the Pope and thus King Edgar intended to proceed in the Reformation of the English Church of Old when he told his own Clergy I have Constantines Sword in my hands and you have Peters in yours That is we need no further Authority or power to reform Than what we have within our selves The Kings of this Nation with the advice and consent of their Bishops Barons and Commons had been always wont to order Ecclesiastical affairs as they thought meet not heeding whether the Pope were pleased or displeased thereat And accordingly this happy Reformation was made by the Supreme Power of this Kingdom upon mature deliberation in a Regular Orderly and Legal way and it was managed with so much moderation and prudence that the Romanists of England said little against it but Communicated with this Church after the Reformation till the Pope for his own ends forbid them so to do but I hope his Prohibition without any just reason shall not outweigh the Supreme Authority of your own Nation with you who profess your selves to be Loyal Subjects and for the interest of England and since there was such need of Reformation such obstinacy in Rome such Authority here and so orderly proceedings in this Reformation I think all Good Christians and sober men being Natives of this Land ought to submit unto it II. You will be further perswaded hereunto by considering the Doctrine of this Church which agrees with Primitive Christianity in that it obliges you to believe nothing as of necessity to Salvation but what may be plainly proved our of Holy Scripture and for this reason you must still hold the three Creeds of the Apostles of Nice and of Saint Athanasius all which the Church of England intirely believes And he only is a Heretick which follows not this Holy Rule say the Constitutions of Theodosius and Gratian but they are Catholicks that embrace it In this Church we give as much honour to and obey more Canons of the first Four General Councils than they of Rome do we approve of that Exposition of Scripture which hath the consent of the Fathers of the first three or four Centuries yea we hold all that the Church of Rome it self held as necessary to Salvation for Five or Six hundred Years together and it is very remarkable that a Romanist may turn Protestant without adding any one Article to his Faith but a Protestant cannot turn to Rome unless he embrace many new Articles for our Doctrines are generally confessed by both sides to be true but those of the Roman Church are rejected by our Reformers as Novel Additions and such as have no good foundation in Scripture nor Genuine Antiquity And therefore the Protestant Doctrines are the surer and safer as in which both sides agree For Example we and they both hold there are two States after this life Heaven and Hell but they add a third which is Purgatory and this we deny We and they both say that sins are to be remitted by the merits of Christs death but they add the merits of the Saints and their own satisfactions with the merit of their own good works which we deny to be Expiatory or such as can merit Remission for us We hold there be two Sacraments Baptism and the Eucharist these they confess are the Chief but add Five more to which we affirm the name of Sacraments doth not properly belong We say that God alone is to be worshipped they confess he is chiefly to be worshipped but then they say the Blessed Virgin Mary Angels and Saints are to be worshipped also which Additions we deny We say Christ is our only Mediator and Advocate
Imprimatur G. Jane R. P. D. HEN. Episc Lond. Ã Sac. Dom. March 20. 1676 7. Friendly and Seasonable ADVICE TO THE Roman Catholicks OF ENGLAND The Third Edition enlarg'd with an addition of the most convincing Instances and Authorities and the Testimony of their own Authors for the same BY A Charitable Hand LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1677. TO HIS Honoured and Worthy Friend M r. S. B. Concerning the former Edition SIR I Cannot answer your Inquiry till I have not only commended but encouraged your charity to your Country men of the Roman Communion it being an excellent piety to endeavour to reduce them into the right way who are so confident in the wrong The zeal of most men expresseth it self by fury and clamour against Dissenters whilst you shew your esteem for the rational principles of the Church of England by your diligence to propagate them and your desires to reconcile its misinformed Adversaries to them It is one of the great properties of Goodness to be communicative and a copy of S. Paul's most obliging charity Act. 26. 29. to wish that all whom you converse with were as happy in the choice of their Faith as you know your self to be wherefore that I may as well quicken your generous design as invite some others to imitate so good an example I will propound these few considerations 1. The relation in which the English Romanists stand to us should excite our care for they are all Natives of the same Country Subjects of the same Government and are called by the same general name of Christians many of them our kind Neighbours familiar Acquaintance or near Kindred and some of them where their Prejudice doth not blind them persons of great reason and of so good inclinations that they are not made vicious by the evil liberties which their principles do allow and shall we for want of affection or courage suffer them to be kept in ignorance and imposed on at present and to be led blindfold in such a way as will extreamly hazard the Salvation of their precious Souls hereafter If all the relations they bear to us do possess us with any real affection for them we cannot but do our utmost to undeceive them The frauds indeed of the Guides of that Church are daily more and more laid open but for want of such a charity as yours is they who are chiefly concerned seldom come to the knowledge of them I am sure those excellent pens which discover'd them did not design we should make their delusions the subject of our mirth but the means to convert the Souls of those who are linked to us in so many bonds that it is a shame we should suffer them to be so deceived 2. But we usually excuse our remisness under the pretence that it is impossible to convert them Had our Ancestors so esteemed it the World had wanted the blessing of the Reformation I grant 't is difficult because of their rooted prejudice and the policy of their Leaders yet not impossible because many have undertaken it and prevailed So that as Seneca saith in another case it is not because of the difficulty that we do not attempt it but because we do not attempt it therefore it seems difficult Ep. 104. The Philosopher tells us where there is no difficulty there is no opportunity to exercise either art or vertue and if we were once willing to take some pains for so noble an end it would much allay the trouble thereof to consider the advantages which it may bring not only to the party which is the object of our charity but to the Church yea and to our own Souls also for He that converteth a sinner from the errour of his way shall save a Soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins Jam. 5. 20. and they who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. 3. Nay moreover if such Pious endeavours should want success on Earth they shall not fail of a reward in Heaven 3. And finally if we consider the unwearied industry of our Adversaries in seducing methinks it should awaken our diligence in strengthning the weak and reducing such as are out of the way It had been very strange if the Apostles should have been unwilling to travel for the propagation of the right faith and the winning Souls of Heaven when the Pharisees compassed Sea and Land to reconcile a Proselyte to their particular Sect and yet alas 't is too often seen that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light S. Luk. 16. 18. The Hermit Pambo accidentally beholding a theatrick woman dance exquisitely before a loose assembly at Alexandria is said to have wept abundantly to consider how much more pains she took to serve evil ends than he himself did to serve God Had we as much tenderness as that holy man doubtless we have as great occasion for our shame and sorrow when we see others more active to advance the Mystery of iniquity than we are to promote the glory of God and the salvation of your brethrens immortal Souls These Considerations worthy Sir I know have excited your charitable resolutions and I hope will prevail with many others to endeavour the reformation of their deceived friends wherefore that I may answer your desires and contribute my poor assistance to so pious and generous a design I have sent you the following papers wherein the delusions of that party are discovered as plainly yet as modestly as may be that they may see in a little room how much it is their interest and advantage to embrace the true Catholick Religion of the English Church I know all these particulars have been more fully handled by better pens but most of these writings have been by way of dispute and intended rather to convince than perswade So that they may be very proper to give fuller satisfaction in any particulars doubted of when their great Prejudices are first a little removed besides there are many through unavoidable business company or other divertisements who either have no leisure or no inclination to read a larger volume being of Callimachus's mind that A great book is a great evil who yet may be prevailed with to spare one hour for so small an abstract as this The Jewish Talmud tells us of a noble Heathen who came to Rabbi Hillet and offered to become a Proselyte if he could teach him the whole Law at one lesson Tract Sab. fol. 31. and if you meet with any of his mind they may perhaps be gratified with this little Abridgment wherein the mistakes of the Roman Perswasion are put into as narrow a compass as they can well be reduced to so that even those who are yet resolved to be of that Church may perhaps not be unwilling to peruse it that they may at one view see what their Religion is
That it was expedient the people should be deceived in their Religion as Scaevola the Pagan Pontifex M. in S. Augustine saith and no doubt your Church agrees with the Heathen Varro in the same Author where he saith There are many Truths in Religion which it is not expedient for the people to know and though divers things therein be false yet the people ought to think them true The instances of some particulars will make this more evident 1. Miracles were the foundation and most authentick proofs for Invocation of Saints Veneration of Images and Relicks Pilgrimages Purgatory Monastical Vows and most of the gainful Articles of the Roman Church and yet S. Chrysostome saith that there were no footsteps of the power of Miracles left in the Church in his time And your S. Gregory thinks them unnecessary among Believers and so do many others Yet in the dark Ages nothing was more frequently pretended than Miracles wrought by Saints living and dead as appears by the stories of their Lives and the Legends of your Church which Relations are so senseless and so ridiculous so impossible and unlikely so little agreeing with Chronology History or Geography that the Modern Writers of the Roman Party are ashamed of them Hence your own Canus complains that these Authors of Saints Lives with false and counterfeit Fables have blemished the Lives of Saints And the same Writer saith there that the Author of your so famed Golden Legend was a man of an Iron forehead and a Leaden soul Harding also affirmeth That there be many vain Fables in it Simeon Metaphrastes is another of these Miracle-Writers and is so eminent that he is read in the Modern Roman Breviaries and yet Cardinal Bellarmine blames him for incredible stories and relations not agreeing to Ancient Writers He adds saith he many things out of his own wit not as they were really done but as they might have been done And is not this notorious forgery Yea the Popes themselves in the latest sort of Breviaries have left many of these fabulous Miracles out since they have done the work now for which they were invented the Doctrines supported by these lies are now generally embraced and when the Arch is compleated the Props on which it was raised may be laid aside yet still you ought to ask If these stories were false how came the Infallible Church to put them into her Offices if they were true why doth she now reject them And it is observable that the Roman Church at present pretends but to very few Miracles and the Doctors thereof in this knowing Age are very shy of believing any at all as one of your own Priests proves at large The Reason of which must needs be because they fear this Inquisitive and learned Generation should discover the fraud of them For since Miracles are especially necessary to convince unbelievers there is far more need of them since the Reformation when so many disbelieve the Religion of your Church than was before when all the Nations of the West were at the Devotion thereof Yet then many Miracles are recorded and now few or none an Argument sufficient to make a wary man believe there were few real Miracles at any time since the settlement of Christianity only the superstitious and ignorant credulity of the former Ages was fit to be abused with such Pretences And now why are you so stiff in maintaining those Opinions which were believed at first upon so slight and false inducements as these Legends and Miracles are confessed to be But this Argument is of late so fully handled by two excellent Pens that I may dismiss it with my hearty wish you would read those Tracts without Prejudice being not written to abuse real Religion as some tell you but to undeceive you and unmask that hypocrisie which hath long walked in the venerable Mantle of Truth Nor ought you to be angry at the Relators but at the Inventors of such falshoods who have got many fair Houses and Lands vast sums of Mony and innumerable costly Oblations by these Fictions to the scandal of Christianity it self My second instance shall be of the Artifice of Forging Records for to attest their Novel Doctrines especially that of the Pope's Supremacy they put out divers spurious Tracts under illustrious names which served to wheadle an illiterate Age into a Reverence for the Roman Church and her Opinions whereas now the cheat is so palpable that your modern Doctors though they keep the Conclusions disown those feigned books that were the Premises from whence they were inferred Of this nature are the Decretal Epistles of all the Popes from Clemens down to Pope Syricius An. 385. formerly cited as good Authorities and transcribed some parts of them into your Canon Law but now the most learned Romanists confess a great part of them to be meer forgeries Baronius styles divers of them Apocryphal And Cardinal Cusanus saith That being applied to the times of those Holy men they do betray themselves And indeed these Epistles were never cited by any good old Author and were first brought into France by one Riculfus Arch. B. of Ments five hundred years after those Popes were dead as Hincmarus Arch. B. of Rhemes a Writer of that Age affirms and Baronius also confesseth Nor did the Roman See blush some Centuries ago to alledge for its Supremacy the most fabulous Donation of Constantine the Great wherein he is pretended to make the Pope head over the whole Church and superiour to all the four Patriarchs of the East naming Constantinople for one which City was not yet built giving him in fee the City of Rome and all Italy with all the Provinces of the Western Empire though he gave all these to one of his Sons afterwards This senseless Edict was pleaded by several of the Popes in former times to countenance their ambitious pretences and of Old was received without suspicion by the gravest and learnedst Doctors saith Binius who yet confesseth there it was a meer forgery devised he thinks by the Greeks and now adaies all Romanists generally disown it and indeed it is as ridiculous a forgery as ever the world saw My Brevity will not allow me to enlarge upon this Subject otherwise I could add innumerable Examples of like dealing The absurd Council of Sinuessa The monstrous Recognitions of Clement The threescore new Canons father'd by Turrian and others upon the famous General Council of Nice The Pontifical ascribed to Pope Damasus with innumerable other Tracts of the same Metal being all apparent Forgeries and yet were long countenanced by Rome to support her unjust Supremacy and other Innovations My third Instance shall be of Suppressing or corrupting true Records of which take a few Examples The Legates of Rome within less than a hundred years after the general Council of Nice did produce two Canons to prove the Popes Right
chuses his own delusion and desperately hazards his own salvation S. Ambrose adviseth us if we choose a Guide to be careful he be endued with two properties Honesty and Prudence for his Honesty will be a security that he will not deceive us and his Prudence will prevent our suspicion of his being deceived himself which wise Counsel if you follow you must no longer adhere to these unfaithful Leaders Nor ought you to fear to forsake them either because your Forefathers fathers relied on them or because the Doctrines that they teach were once so generally received here since your Forefathers lived in an Age wherein there was little means to detect these Forgeries whereas you are by Providence fallen into those times wherein all the Dishonest Arts of that Church are discovered so plainly that if your Forefathers had seen as much as you may see they would have forsaken Rome long since and not have left you this Objection to make Nor are the Doctrines ever the better for being generally received when as they were imposed on the World by such evil means as Force and Fraud which being thus made evident you can no longer wonder how these Innovations came to be so generally beleived being propagated by as wicked means as they were invented for evil ends So that now what the Roman Church thought would secure her Opinions if it could have been kept close must needs make them odious being once laid open and the Impostures which they designed should tye men to their Church will as some of their own Doctors have prophesied be an Occasion to make all Discerning men turn from it for Religion is to be defended saith Lactantius not with wickedness but fidelity for if you attempt to defend Religion by Evil Arts you do not defend but pollute and violate it SECTION IV. Whether the said Opinions tend to advance the Ends of true Religion NOw though it be altogether unlikely those Principles should be either true or good which stand in need of such Arts to propagate and defend them yet because you have been so long accustomed to call these things Religion and it is not easie to lay aside our rooted Prepossessions we will pass to the Third Enquiry viz. Whether the things themselves be good in their own nature and Parts of true Religion Now we may try this by considering what are the ends of True Religion and whether these Principles serve to advance those ends True Religion therefore hath three Principal Ends 1. To advance the honour of God 2. To assist us in the Devout worshipping of him 3. To teach us to imitate him by a holy life and conversation Let us here therefore examine whether the peculiar Articles of the Roman Church do not hinder rather than promote these Ends For if it appear these Principles are dishonourable to God impediments to Devotion and hindrances to a holy life then those Doctrines are also Evil in their own nature and they can be no real parts of a good or True Religion Nor must you retain them because you have once judged them good if upon Tryal they prove to be otherwise We must be firm to our Principles saith Epictetus yet not to all of them but only to those which are right we must begin at the right end and first lay the foundation by considering whether our Principles be good or evil and after build upon that by constancy and firmness of Resolution Wherefore let me desire you patiently and impartially to enquire First If there be not some of your Principles and Practices which tend not to the honour of God if it be a dishonour to the Divine Majesty for a mortal man to contradict his Laws by contrary Constitutions I fear your Church will hardly be found innocent For do they not command things which God hath forbidden in as plain words as can be spoken as in the case of Images Exod. xx 4 and Prayer in an unknown Tongue 1 Con. xiv 28. Do they not forbid things which God hath allowed as in the case of Priests Marriage Heb. xiii 4. 1 Cor. vii 2 Chap. ix 5. 1 Tim. iii. 2. 12 and taking the Cup from the People which they have decreed with a Non obstante that is notwithstanding our Lord Jesus appointed the contrary Do they not presume to dispense with the very Laws of God in many cases of Matrimony and Divorce of Vows Oaths Leagues and Contracts So that laying aside the Commandment of God ye hold the Tradition of men as our Saviour speaks Mark vii 8. Your Holy Father who doth all this may think himself the greatest upon Earth but if our Lord Jesus tell us the Truth He shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven Matth. v. 19. Secondly Is it not a great derogation to an Infinite and Invisible Being to be represented by an Image and worshipped under such Representations Agreeable to the worship which Heathens gave to their false gods and some Hereticks to our Saviour but contrary to the Decrees and Practice of the Primitive Christians and to the great scandal of Modern Jews who call your Churches Houses of Idols upon this account Thirdly Doth not the Doctrine of Merits cast a palpable dishonour upon the glorious Redemption wrought by Jesus Christ Sure I am divers of the Ancients as well as of your later Writers think so Nor can we think it to be less than Blasphemy which Bellarmine affirmeth viz. That a man may be said to be his own Redeemer without any injury to Christ Doubtless those who fancy they can redeem themselves and satisfie for their own sins cannot but have a mean esteem of Christ's Merits and Satisfaction Fourthly Your praying to Angels and Saints especially the blessed Virgin making them your Mediators and Patrons and asking the greatest things of them hath made Prayers to God by Jesus Christ to be generally neglected by the vulgar people who say ten times as many Ave Mary's as Pater Noster's and wickedly fancy the Blessed Virgin and Holy Saints are more compassionate than our Lord Jesus This Doctrine saith a very wise man hath wrought that general effect in all Countreys subject to the Papacy that men have more affiance and assume to themselves a greater conceit of comfort in the Patronage of the creatures and servants of God than of God himself the Prince and the Creator A fault which St. Paul lays to the Heathens charge Rom. i. 25. How dishonourable must it needs be to leave Jesus that one Mediator 1 Tim. ii 5. who always doth certainly hear us and is most apt to pity us and best able to help us to pray to God by those concerning whom your own Doctors doubt whether they know any thing done here and the Scripture plainly saith they do not Reason shews it is impossible they should hear many Prayers in divers places at once To have the worship paid to the
Master and the Servants the same in all outward expressions only differing in a nice School-distinction must needs be an affront to the King of Saints If you have any tenderness or zeal for the honour of Jesus it cannot but be offensive to you to observe how your Legends tell of greater miracles wrought by some of their fabulous Saints than ever Jesus wrought To hear one of your Church say That Christ did nothing which S. Francis did not do yea that he did more than Christ himself What is more injurious to the honour of the Divine Majesty than your S. Bonaventure's putting in the name of the Virgin Mary into Davids Psalms instead of the name of God To have her adored by the Heathenish Title of the Queen of Heaven and invocated by the impious name of Mother of the whole Trinity These things are rather Blasphemy than Devotion and as dishonourable to God as they are Dissonant from Antiquity Let none saith Epiphanius adore Mary but why do I mention a Woman nay not any Man this Reverence is due only to God nor are the Angels capable of such glorification Fifthly The supposing a necessity of superadding the Saints Merits and the daily Sacrifice of the Mass to the Merit of that one Offering for sin which Jesus made on the Cross Heb. ix 28. is an evident lessening the value and sufficiency of the Death of Christ Sixthly The calling of the Holy Scripture a Nose of Wax a Leaden Rule and an Inky Gospel The putting in the Apocryphal books wherein are some things wicked and others notoriously false into an equal rank with the Word of God indited by the Spirit own Traditions to be equal in value to it are palpable dishonours to God who writ the Holy Scripture These things my Friends can hardly be reckoned matters tending to the honour of God unless you can suppose the cancelling his Laws disparaging his Nature undervaluing the Merits the Mercies and the Miracles of Jesus by cheap and odious Comparisons the diminution of his worship and making him sharer with his Servants therein and the vilifying of his Divine word be no dishonour to him you pretend to serve Secondly Let us examine whether these Doctrines do assist you in the Devout worshipping of God It is very suspicious that Church doth not teach a right way of serving God which deceives you in the first Principle of Religion viz. That God alone is to be worshipped a Sentence so odious to the Roman Doctors that the Index Expurgatorius blots it out of the indices of S. Athanasius and S. Augustines Works and if they could do it undiscovered they would blot it out of the Bible also Matth. iv 10. But there it shall stand for ever to reprove those who divide Religious worship between God and his Creatures thereby diminishing that Devotion which intirely belongs to the Divine Majesty since affections are most vigorous when placed upon one Object and if they be dispersed among many grow weak and trifling whence we may conclude the Protestant who worships none but God is the greater lover of him and worships with a more united and servent Devotion As for your Publick worship it is attended with so many Ceremonies as must needs disturb the Devotion as well of the Priests as the People there is such frequent bowing crossing prostration sprinkling with Holy water beating the breast smoaking with Incense c. that the mind is taken off from a steady intention upon the inward and main part of the Duty while it is entertained with such variety of outward Rites For our mind saith Quintilian cannot sincerely intend its whole self upon many things at once whatever new object it looks upon it gives over the thoughts of that which it first propounded to it self And this is most evident where the Objects are so different as sensible and intellectual things are For where the Senses and their perceptions are vigorously employed there the Intellectual Powers cease to act as a great Philosopher observes So that it is your Passions and your Fancies that are wrought upon not your Mind nor the higher faculties of your Soul by these numerous Ceremonies and therefore that which you think Devotion I doubt is but a fantastical and false fire not kindled by the love of God nor warming your nobler Powers at all and those steady rational and spiritual desires which flow from an undisturbed contemplation of the Divine Goodness and are the very life of Prayer I fear you are strangers to being so often taken off and diverted by variety of sensible Representations Again the making all your Publick prayers in an Vnknown Tongue destroys all true Devotion in the People S. Clemens of Alex. tells us of some Heathens who thought those Prayers most effectual which were uttered in a barbarous Language But Christians know that Prayer is the desiring something of God and if the Mind be not exercised in this desire it avails nothing but where the words are not understood the mind cannot desire the things mentioned so that none can properly pray in an Vnknown Tongue nor so much as rationally say Amen 1 Cor. xiv 16. By this absurd Practice therefore you who are unlearned spend the time of the Publick offices in admiring and gazing not in joyning with the Priest or Praying And because the people have no employment while the Mass lasteth they spend the whole time usually in talking and laughing privately as those who Travel in Catholick Countries do inform us And it may occasion your wonder why the Roman Church should so obstinately refuse to reform so irrational a Custom which S. Paul hath written a whole Chapter to condemn 1 Cor. xiv The force of whose Arguments and Authority hath made your wisest Doctors declare against it By S. Paul ' s Doctrine saith Card. Cajetan it is better for the edifying of the Church that Publick prayers were made in the Vulgar Tongue than in Latin To the same purpose Lyra And your Rhemish Annotators say When a man prayeth in a strange Tongue which himself understandeth not it is not so fruitful for Instruction to him as if he knew particularly what he prayed Gabriel Biel also gives several Reasons why Prayers should be in a known Tongue saying It is better 1. For stirring up Devotion 2. for enlightning the Mind 3. for retaining the things in memory 4. for keeping the thoughts from wandring Yet your admired Church will oppose Reason and Scripture and deprive all the Common people that are of her Communion of the exercise of their Devotion in her Offices rather than so far seem to confess a fault as to amend it chusing rather to let you lose the benefit of worshipping God than to reform the most unjust Customes which she hath once espoused but if you be wise if that Church will not pray in such a Language as you can
were never necessary they have other devices to perswade you into a belief of coming off well at the end of your life howsoever ill you have spent it The Hereticks in Tertullians time said It was a meritorious thing to be of their Party And you are told it is a ready way of Salvation to die in the Communion of the Roman Church and if you can but receive the Sacraments of that Church and be Absolved by one of their Priests you scarce doubt of obtaining Heaven at last and if you have no good works of your own they perswade you the Church can sell you the Merits of the Saints or if you should drop into Purgatory by the way the pains of that they say are not endless and if you give liberally on your Death-beds or if any others afterwards give for you to purchase so many Masses and other Prayers for your Soul you will ere long be delivered from thence All which notorious delusions do miserably deceive poor men and most mischievously encourage them to put off their Repentance and to resolve not to be troubled with holiness in the way since they fancy they shall come off so easily in the end and alas they are as false as they are mischievous for the Ancient Fathers unanimously affirm no mans estate can be altered after this life But as the last day of a mans life finds him so the last day of the World finds him Nor will any thing help thee saith S. Augustine but what is done while thou art here Out of innumerable such Testimonies that of S. Salvian may serve Although a man should have so pious a Son who for alleviating his Fathers punishment would desire to give all the goods he left behind him it would do him no good for the Piety of the Son can do nothing to procure that Rest to a man after Death which his own Impiety and Infidelity hath denied him Finally these and the like Principles make so many infamous men and women so many Thieves and Murtherers debauched and prophane persons to take Sanctuary in the Roman Church because the Tenets thereof seem not to oblige them to forsake their evil ways but reconcile wickedness and Salvation together so that this Religion tends not to perswade men to Holiness of life and therefore is no good Religion I grant there are some Persons in that Church who live better than these Opinions engage them to do and do not draw those Conclusions into their practice which naturally follow from these Principles but that is only an evidence of the excellent vertue of such Persons but no proof of the goodness of these Doctrines and if these men be Holy in a Religion which gives such encouragement to evil doubtless they would be more holy by far if they were taught better things I shall only add that as the Roman Church is too loose in matters pertaining to Gods Laws so she is too strict in matters pertaining to her own Constitutions like the Old Pharisees who Tithed Mint and Annise and neglected the weightier matters of the Law Matth. xxiii which is a great obstruction to real Holiness when men place Religion in Ceremonies and slight things for while they are curious in these matters they neglect greater and think by observing the Rules of the Church they compensate for passing by the Laws of God your own Ordinary Gloss saith That is Superstition when Religion is placed in observing the Ordinances of men And if so then your wonderful strictness in Crossing Bowing using Holy Water Abstinence on certain days wearing Crosses c. in which you have placed so much Religion are no better than Superstition It cannot be denied that most Roman Catholicks are more afraid to eat flesh on a Fasting-day than to curse or swear they will be drunk on a Holy-day which God forbids but not work on it because the Church forbids it many of them dare fornicate and debauch who dare not neglect Confession nor read a book written by a supposed Heretick And generally they are punctual in crossing sprinkling bowing and observing all Orders of the Church even such as live in the open breach of Gods Commandements and yet fancy themselves more sure of Heaven than the most pious and holy Protestant Thus this Religion is too strict where God gives us more liberty and too remiss where his Holy Law hath bound us with Eternal and Indispensable bonds and it is designed to promote Obedience to the Roman Church rather than Inward holiness towards God The effect of all which Considerations is this That whosoever sincerely desires to glorifie God and worship him with a rational Devotion and whoever would imitate him by a Holy Life ought not to chuse or retain such a Religion whose Principles tend so evidently to the dishonour of Gods Name the hindrance of true Devotion and to the rendring a Holy life unnecessary And as it was proved before that the appropriated Articles of the Roman Faith were not Ancient nor induced for pious ends nor propagated by honest means so now it is evidenced the Articles are not good in their own nature and therefore there is no reason why you should not renounce them unless you retain them in meer Reverence to the Authority of the Pope who doth impose them which Matter is the Subject of our last Enquiries SECTION V. Whether the Roman Bishop have sufficient Authority to impose the said Opinions upon all Christian Churches THe Last and almost the only shelter that your Doctors flie to at this day for the defence of your Principles is That the Bishop of Rome is the sole Vicar of Christ the Infallible and only Judge of Controversies and the Supream Head of the Vniversal Church and hereby their Adherents are awed into the retaining all his Decrees of what nature soever they be But let me beg leave to advise you not to lay so much stress upon these Titles and Authority till you have seriously examined by what Right the Pope laies claim to them for his Power had need be very great and his Proofs very good upon the Credit whereof you receive so many new and suspicious Articles of Religion some of which we ought not to receive though preached by an Angel Gal. 1. 8 9. And first though we stand not much upon Titles you may note that the name of Vicar of Christ is never given to the Pope in the first Ages and when this Title came into use it was not appropriated to the Bishop of Rome but other Bishops and Priests are styled Vicars of Christ also even by a Pope of Rome as also by the Old French Emperours and by our own Saxon Law So that there is no reason for the Roman Bishop to challenge any propriety in this Title or any special Priviledge by virtue thereof Secondly As to his being an Infallible Judge and the Supream Head of the Catholick Church throughout the World you may remember
they confess he is principally so but add that Saints and Angels are so in an inferiour manner which we utterly deny We say Christ is really present in the Sacrament of the Altar this they confess but add he is corporally there by the Transsubstantiation of the Bread c. and this we deny We say the Scriptures are the Rule of Faith and they will not absolutely deny it but add their own Traditions which we reject We say there are XXII Books of the Old Testament Canonical and they confess these all to be so but they add divers and call them Canonical which we affirm to be Apocryphal I could give more instances but these may suffice to shew that the Protestant Doctrines look most like the Ancientest as being received by both Parties but the Roman Opinions are Novel Enlargements of Old Catholick Truths so that a Protestant becoming a Romanist must take up many Articles barely upon the credit of that Church and begin to believe many things anew questioned by the bigger part of Christendom but a Romanist turning Protestant retains all the Old Essentials of his former Faith and doth only become a Primitive Roman Catholick III. The Discipline and Government of the Church of England are more agreeable to Primitive patterns than those of the present Roman Church are Our King hath the same Power that the Religious Kings of Judah had the same which the great Constantine and the succeeding Emperors for many years enjoyed the same power which the Ancient Kings of this Nation exercised viz. A power to convene his Clergy and advise with them about affairs of the Church A power to ratifie that which the Bishops and Clergy agree upon and give it the force of a Law A power to chuse fit persons to Govern the Church A power to correct all Offenders against Faith or Manners be they Clergy or Lay-men And finally A power to determine all Causes and Controversies Ecclesiastical and Civil among his own Subjects by the advice of fit Counsellors so as there lies no Appeal from his Determination and this is that we mean when we call him Supreme Governour of this Church which our King must needs be or else he cannot keep his Kingdoms in peace Besides for Spiritual Jurisdiction and sacred Administrations we have a Patriarch of our own The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England whom Vrban the Second call'd the Pope of the other World And his See was usually styled The Chair of the English Patriarch and is reckoned among the Patriarchates by a Forreign Writer And now his Priviledges and Liberties are restored by Law and his Title and Authority confirmed so that there lies no Appeal from him but to the King we have also Right Reverend Bishops together with other inferiour Priests and Deacons the only Primitive and proper Orders of the Clergy who can prove their Ordination to be as goodas any of the Romish Priests can do And are now Consecrated and Ordained by a more excellent Form and more agreeing to the eldest times than Rome it self can shew and if you will Judge impartially it must be confessed that the Clergy of England are altogether as Learned and generally more painful and pious than in any Catholick Country whatsoever Our Canons for Ecclesiastical Government are all founded on the Canons of Ancient Councils as I could shew by particular induction if time would permit and for the Exercise of our Discipline it is managed with more moderation and ease to the People than that of the Roman Church is IIII. You may consider our Divine Service and Sacred Administrations which as far as ever God made necessary to Salvation may be had in this Church We have the Holy Scriptures plainly translated Learnedly interpreted and practically Preached We have daily Prayers by a Form so Grave and so Agreable to the undoubted parts of Ancient Liturgies that it may challenge all Christendom to produce any thing so consonant to the purest Primitive Devotions A Form which hath all those parts of the Roman Offices which were known and used in the first three Centuries but wants all the Innovations and Corruptions of the present Mass And is used in English for the benefit of the meanest Christian in our Assemblies We have also those two Sacraments which Christ ordained and many of the Elder and Later Doctors own no more As for the other five Rites falsly called Sacraments viz. Confirmation Matrimony Holy Orders visiting of the Sick Repentance and Satisfaction for wrongs done we retain these but not by the name of Sacraments keeping the Primitive and main part of them only attended with fewer Ceremonies We press and practice also Charity and good works as much as the Roman Church doth and it may be demonstrated that more and greater gifts have been given in England to pious uses by private persons since the Reformation than in two Centuries before And though we dare not say we shall merit Eternal life by them because that is the gift of God yet we believe none can come to Heaven without good works In a word the Church of England worships God as he hath prescribed in Holy Scripture She commands all that he enjoyns and forbids all that he prohibits and therefore wanteth nothing that is necessary to Salvation V. You may look upon our Ceremonies which are few and easie Ancient and Significant and though we do not place so much Religion in Externals as the Church of Rome doth yet here is prescribed all that is needful for decency and order viz. That the Clergy always wear Grave and distinct habits and have peculiar Garments in Divine Administrations that Churches be adorned and neat that the People be Reverent in Gods House that the memory of our Saviours chief Acts and the Festivals of the Holy Apostles be religiously observed That Lent with the Vigils of great Feasts the Ember weeks and all the Fridays in the Year be kept as days of Fasting or Abstinence and if some Protestants do not observe them yet others do and are commended for it and you may follow the best not the most you will have more liberty by turning to the English Church as to Circumstantials and greater helps as to the Essentials of Religion So that it is upon all accounts your wisest and safest course to embrace this so true so Primitive so Pious and so rational a Religion Let me therefore shut up my Charitable and Friendly Advice by Requesting you to consider all these things without prejudice or passion and then I hope you will perceive how much the Religion of this Church excells that of Rome in Antiquity Integrity and Usefulness and no longer suffer your selves to be so sadly imposed on and so miserably made to serve the ends of Avarice and Ambition And if you have taken such prudent and pious Resolutions you shall not only be freed from the inconveniences you complain of here but also have
better assurances of your Salvation hereafter than the Roman Church can give you For there you have only the words of their Priests for it whose interest and whose practice it hath been to deceive you But here you shall have all the assurances which the word of God can give you provided you become reformed in your lives as well as in your Religion and will leave off your old Vices as well as your old Opinions For unless we can perswade you to become Proselytes of Righteousness we shall not much value the gaining you over to our Profession because we know it is neither the being Papist nor Protestant will save those that live in their sins But this Religion is the better chiefly in this that it is most likely to bring you to unfeigned Repentance and the practice of real Holiness And if you desire further information in these particulars let me advise you to consult the late Eminent Protestant Writers together with some of the most able and ingenuous of the English Clergy whom you will find very willing and ready to give you more full satisfaction and to be men that have no designs upon you but to direct you in the best way to Heaven And doubtless if you would but try the difference a while a little experience would teach you how happy and advantagious a change he makes who forsakes the Religion of Rome and embraces the Communion of the Church of England FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and sold by H. Brome since the dreadful Fire of London 1666. to 1677. Divinity DR Hammond on the New Testament fol. his Practical Tracts fol. Mr. Farindons 130 Sermons fol. Newman's Concordance fol. Bishop Sanderson's Sermons fol. Dr. Heylin on the Creed fol. Bishop Taylor 's Cases of Conscience fol. His Polemical Discourses fol. Mr. Cumber's Companion to the Temple being a Paraphrase on the Common Prayer Bishop Wilkins Principles and Duties of Natural Religion Bishop Cosen's Devotions Bishop Taylor 's Holy Living and Dying Mr. Fowler 's Design of Christianity Dr. Patrick's Witnesses to Christianity His Advice to a Friend in Two Vol. His Christian Sacrifice His Devout Christian Holy Anthems of the Church The Saints Legacies The Reformed Monastery or the Love of Jesus Bona's Guide to Eternity Sermons Dean Lloyd's Two Sermons at Court Dr. Sprat's Sermon at Court Bishop Lany's Sermon at Court Mr. Sayer's Assize Sermon Mr. Naylor's Con. Sermon for Col. Cavendish Mr. Standish's Sermon at Court Dr. Duporâ—'s Three Sermons on May 29th Novemb 5th Jan. 30th Dr. Du Monlin's Two Sermons on Novemb. 5 th His Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Turner Histories The Life of the great Duke of Espernon being the History of the Civil Wars of France beginning 1598. where D'Avila leaves off and ending in 1642. by Charles Cotton Esq The Commentary of M. Elaiz de Monâ—â—uc the great Favourite of France in which are contained all the Sieges Battails Skirmishes in Three King's Reigns by Charles Cotton Esq Mr. Rycants History of Turky The History of the Three last Grand Seigniors their Sultana's and Chief Favourites Englisht by John Evelin Esq The History of Don Quixot fol. Bishop Wilkin's Real Character fol. Bishop Cosens against Transubstantiation Dr. Guidots History of Bathe and of the Hot Waters there The Fair one of Tunis or a New piece of Gallantry by Charles Cotton Esq Domus Carthusiana â—or the History of the most Noble Foundation of the Coarter House in London with the Life and Death of Thomas Su ton Esq The History of the Sevarites a Nation inhabiting part of the third Continent Physick Dr. Glissonde Ventriculo Intestinis De Vita Naturae Dr. Barber's Practice with Dr. Decker's Notes Sir Ken. Digby's Excellent Receipts in Physick Chirurgery and Cockery The Anatomy of the Elder Tree with its approved Vertue Miscellanies Dr. Skinner's Lexicon History of the Irish Remonstrance Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning The Planters Manual Treatise of Human Reason The Compleat Gamester Toleration discuss'd by R. L' Estrange Esq England ' s Improvement by R. Coke Esq Leyburn's Arith. Recreations Geographical Cards describing all parts of the World School Books Sâ—revelius Lexicon in Quarto Centum Fabulae in Octavo Nolens Volens or you shall make Latine Radyns Rudimenta Artis Oratoriae Pools Parnassus The Schollars Guide from the Accedence to the University Erasmus Coll. English Lipsius of Constancy English Controversies Considerations touching the true way to suppress Popery to which is added an Historical account of the Reformation here in England Lex Talionis being an Answer to Naked Truth The Papists Apology answered A Seasonable Discourse against Popery The Defence of it The difference between the Church and Court of Rome Take heed of both extreams Popery and Presbytery by Mr. Bolein Dr. Du Moulin against the Lord Castlemain Against Papal Tyranny Fourteen Controversial Letters against Popery Papists no Catholicks Popery no Christianity Mr. Gataker against the Papists A Calm Answer to a Violent Discourse of M. N. for the Invocation of Saints Origo Protestantiâ—m Or an Answer to a Popish Manuscript of N. N's by John Shaw Rector of Whalton Law Books Lord Cokes Reports in Four Vol. Sir James Dyer's Reports The Clerks Guide The Exact Constable with large Additions FINIS a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Athenaeum a Tertul. Apol. cap. 32. b Arrian in Epict. l. 2. c. 14. c Diog. Laert in Vit. Solon a Cicer. de natur Deor. lib. 2. b Theodoret. de Curand Graec. affect Serm. 1. c Tertul. in Marcioâ— lib. 4. d Cyprian ad Caecilian Ep. 63. e Salmeron in 1 Tim. cap. 2. Lindan Panop l. 3. c. 5. Bannes 2. 2 ae qu. 1. Art 10. conclus 2. f Hugo Etherian de regressu animae g Durand 4. Sent. dist 20. qu. 3. Major 4. d. 2. qu. 2. Cajetan Opusc 15. cap. 1. Antonin part 1. sum tit 10. cap. 3. h Fisher de Captiv Babyl c. 10. De Alliaco in 4. Sent. qu. 6. art 1. Cajetan ap Suarez Tom. 3. disp 46. * Ranul Higden Polychron l. 6. c. 15. Petrus Damian Vit. Odilon i Clemangis de nov Celebr II. Polydor. Virgil de Invent. rer l. 6. Aiala de Tradit p. 2. c. de Imag. k Concil secundum Nicaen An. 787. l Hoveden Annal Par. 1 p. 405. Matth. Westmon Anno. 793. m Fish in 18. Artic. Luther n Scioppius de Indulg cap. 12. o Platin. in Vit. Polyd. Virgil. de Invent. l. 8. cap. 1. p Temp. Bonifac 8. An. 1300. Polyd. Virg. ut supra l. 8. c. 1. q An. 1074. Matth. Westmon eod An. Vincent Spec. hist l. 24. c. 45. Antonin lib. 16. cap. 1. §. 21. r Sigebert Chron. ad A. 1074. s Histor. Petroburg Anno 1127. ap Spelm. T. 2. p. 36. t Concil Later Can. 21. An. 1215. u Peter Lomb. l. 4. sentent dist 77. Gratian. de Poenit. dist 1. c. 89. circ An. 1150 w Tho. Aqu. in 4. Sent. dist 17. x Gregor de Valent. de Transub lib.