the ancient â—orm pag. 49. CHAP. VIII How far the Church of England do's agree with the Romish in matter of Ordination and wherein they do differ and how absurd the pretention of the Romanists is that our difference herein with them should annul our orders pag. 57. CHAP. IX That the succession of Bishops and Clergy since the Reformation is much more sure and unquestionable in the English Church then in the Romish pag. 6â— CHAP. X. A further cause of Nullity discovered in the Election of Pope Clement the 8 th pag. 75. CHAP. XI Nullities declared in the Popedom of Paul the 5 th and others following pag. 81. CHAP. XII Of the large extent of Christian Religion professed in the Church of England pag. 89. CHAP. XIII Of the several large and flourishing Christian Churches in the Eastern Countries not subject to the Pope pag. 98. CHAP. XIV Of the Jacobites Armenians Maronites and Indians pag. 110. CHAP. XV. A reflection upon the Contents of the three Chapters precceding and upon the pride and cruelty of the Romanists in despising and condemning all Christian Societies not subject to their Jurisdiction pag. 116. CHAP. XVI Inferences from the Doctrine preceeding of this who'e Treatise against the several objections of N. N. pag. 121. CHAP. XVII The Reformation of the Church of England vindicated from the slanderous aspersions of N. N. and other-Romanists pag. 130. CHAP. XVIII A view of N. N. his discourse upon Transubstantiation and upon the affinity of the Roman Church with the Grecian pag. 132. CHAP. XIX N. N. His Book intitled the bleeding Iphigenia examined his abusive language bestowed therein upon persons of Honor and his censure upon the Kings Majesty reprehended pag. 140. CHAP. XX. That it is not lawful for subjects to raise arms and to go to war with their fellow subjects without the consent of their Prince The Doctrine of killing men and making war by way of prevention and on pretext of Raligion confuted pag. 148. CHAP. XXI A Conclusion of my discourse with N. N. with a Friendly Admonition to him pag. 171. CHAP. XXII A check to I. E. his Scandalous Libel and a vindication of the Church of England from his false and sâ—anderous report of it pag. 178. The SECOND PART CHAP. I. AN Anatomy of Mr. I. S. his Genius and drifts appearing in his Dedicatory Epistle to my Lord Lieutenant of Ireland pag. 1. CHAP. II. A vindication of several Saints and worthy Souls our Ancestors from the sentence of Damnation passed upon them by I. S. pag. 6. CHAP. III. Mr. I. S. His cold defence of the Infallibility of his Church examined pag. 14. CHAP. IV. That Protestants have a greater security for the truth of their Doctrine then Papists have pag. 19. CHAP. V. Mr. I. S. His prolix Excursion about the Popes Authority requisite to know which is the true Scripture declared to be impertinent and the state of the question cleared from the confusion he puts upon it pag. 27. CHAP. VI. Mr. I. S. His defence of the Popes pretended infallibility from the censure of Blasphemy declared to be weak and impertinent his particular opinion censured for heretical by his own party pag. 33. CHAP. VII Our Adversaries corruption of Scripture detected pag. 41. CHAP. VIII Mr. I. S. His horrible Impiety against the Sacred Apostles and malicious impostures upon the Church of England reprehended pag. 46. CHAP. IX Our Adversartes pretention to prescription and Miracles in favour of the infallibility of their Church rejected his impostures upon me and upon the Church of England discovered further pag. 53. CHAP. X. A Check to Mr. I. S. his insolent Thesis prefixed for title to the 8th Chapter of his book that the Protestant Church is not the Church of Christ nor any part of it That they cannot without Blasphemy alledg Scripture for their tenets And his own argument retorted to prove that the Roman Church is not the Church of Christ pag. 59. CHAP. XI A Refutation of several other engagements of Mr. I. S. in that 8 th Chapter pag. 66. CHAP. XII Mr. I. S. His answer to my objections against the Popes in fallibility refuted his defence of Bellarmin of the General Council of Constance and of Costerus declared to be weak and vain pag. 70. CHAP. XIII Our Adversaries foul and greater circle committed pretending to rid his pretention of infallibility from the censure of a circle his many absurdities and great ignorance in the pursuit of that attemt discovered a better resolution of Faith proposed according to Protestant principles pag. 77. CHAP. XIV A Reflection upon the perverse Doctrine contained in the resolution of Faith proposed to us by Mr. I. S. and the pernicious and most dangerous consequence of it pag. 85. CHAP. XV. Mr. I. S. his defence of the Popes Supremacy declared to be vain their pretence to a Monarchical power over all Christians whether in Spiritual or Temporal proved to be unjust and Tyranical pag. 92. CHAP. XVI How falsly Mr. I. S. affirms the Irish did not suffer by the Popes prohibiting them to subscribe to the Remonstrance of fidelity proposed to them pag. 100. CHAP. XVII The complaint of Papists against our King for the Oath of Supremacy he demandeth from his subjects declared to be unjust pag. 103. CHAP. XVIII Our Adversaries essay in favour of Transubstantiation examined his challenge for solving two Syllogisms answered pag. 110. CHAP. XIX Several answers to my arguments against Transubstantiation refuted pag. 118. CHAP. XX. Ancient Schole men declare Transubstantiation cannot be proved out of Scripture and that it was not an Article of Faith before the Lateran Council Mr. I. S. his great boast of finding in my check to their worship of the hoste a prejudice to the Hierarchy of the Church of England declared to be void of sense and ground pag. 126. CHAP. XXI Mr. I. S. His weak defence of their halfe Communion confuted pag. 135. CHAP. XXII The Roman worship of Images declared to be sinfull pag. 142. CHAP. XXIII Mr. I. S. His defence of the Romish Worship of Images from the guilt of Idolatry confuted the miserable condition of the vulgar and unhappy engagement of the learned among Romanists touching the worship of Images discovered pag. 148. CHAP. XXIV Our Adversaries reply to my exceptions against their invocation of Saints declared to be impertinent pag. 159. CHAP. XXV A great stock of Faults and Absurdities discovered in Mr. I. S. his defence of Purgatory pag. 168. CHAP. XXVI The Argument for Purgatory taken from the 12 th of S. Matth. v. 32. solved 173. CHAP. XXVII The attemt of our Adversary to make the Doctrine of Purgatory an Article of the Apostles Creed declared to be vain pag. 185. CHAP. XXVIII How weak is the foundation of the grand Engine of Indulgences in the Roman Church pag. 188. CHAP. XXIX The unhappy success of Mr. I. S. his great boast of skill in History touching the Antiquity of Indulgences discovered pag 195. CHAP. XXX Of
my great comfort and no small grief to consider the disingenuity of Romanists in fomenting animosities among Christians by calumniating thus the opposers of their errors CHAP. XIII Of the several large and flourishing Christian Churches in the Eastern Countries not subject to the Pope TO all men truly zealous of the honour of God and of his Son Jesus Christ it cannot but be comfortable to see how happily the blessed Apostles have complied with the command of our Soveraign Lord and Saviour * Math. 28 â—9 Go and teach all Nations baptizing in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and how gloriously the Churches planted by them have persevered in the Faith of our Saviour in spight of the greatest persecutions and under the greatest Enemies of the Christian name such as the Turk is known to be and yet under his Domions is a numberless number of Christians of which the Grecians are for antiquity number and dignity the chief They acknowledg obedience to the Patriarch of Constantinople under whose jurisdiction are in Asia the Christians of Natolia Circassia Mengrelia and Russia as in Europe also the Christians of Grece Macedon Epirus Thrace Bulgaria Servia Bosnia Walachia Moldavia â—odolia Moscovia together with all the Islands of the Aegean Sea and others about Grece as far as Corfu besides a good part of the large Dominion of Polonia and those parts of Dalmatia and Croatia that are subject to the Turkish Dominion all which Congregations of Christians subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople do exceed in number them of the Romish Communion as I find recorded by diligent a Brerewood inquiries cap. 15. Pagit Christianography cap. 2. Writers whereof Pagit saies that Christians make up the two third parts of the Grand Signiors Subjects All these Churches do deny the Popes Supremacy they account the Pope and his Church Schismatical The Patriarch of Constantinople doth yearly upon the Sunday called Dominica invocavit solemnly excommunicate the Pope and his Clergy for Schismatics They deny Transubstantiation touching which point Cyril Patriarch of Constantinople delivereth this excellent confession as agreeable to the Doctrine of the Church of England as opposite to the Romish In the Eucharist saith b Cap. 17. Pag. 60. he we do confess a true and a real presence of Christ but such a one as Faith offereth us not such as devised Transubstantiation teacheth for we believe the Faithful to eat Christ's body in the Lords Supper not sensibly champing it with our teeth but partaking it with the sense of the soul For that is not the Body of Christ which offereth it self to our Eies in the Sacrament but that which Faith spiritually apprehendeth and offereth to us Hence ensueth that if we believe we eat and participate if we believe not we receive no profit by it Hieremy the Patriarch teacheth a change of bread into the Body of Christ which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a transmutation which is not sufficient to infer a Transubstantiation because it may only signify a mystical alteration which the Patriarch in the same place plainly sheweth saying that the mysteries are truly the Body and Blood of Christ not that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he are changed into humane flesh but we into them for the better things have ever the preeminence The words of Cyril and Hieremy in Greek are to be found with Mr. Pagit in his Christianographie Cap. 4. They deny Purgatory fire So Nilus Arch-Bishop of Thessalonica a Nilus p 219. de purg igne we have not received by tradition from our teachers that there is any fire of purgatory nor any temporal punishment by fire neither do we know of any such Doctrine taught in the Eastern Church b Castr adver haeres l. 12. p. 1.8 Alphonsus de Castro It is one of the most known errors of the Grecians and Armenians that they teach there is no place of Purgatory where Souls after this Life are purged from their corruptions which they have contracted in their Bodies before they deserve to be received into the Eternal tabernacles They administer the Eucharist in both kinds of which c Cyr c 17. p. 61. Câ—rill the Patriarch As the institutor speaketh of his Body so also of his blood which commandment ought not to be rent asunder or mangled according to humane arbitrement but the institution delivered to be kept intire a Resp p. 129 distinct 31. aliter They allow married Priests Hier. Patr. We do permit those Priests that cannot contain the use of marriage They deny the worship of Images Concerning which point b Cyr. resp ad inter 4. p. 97. Cyril speaketh we forbid not the historical use of Pictures Painting being a famous and commendable Art we grant to them that will have them the pictures of Christ and Saints but their adoration and worship we detest as forbidden by the Holy Ghost in holy Scripture least we should before we are aware adore colours instead of our Creatour and Maker They acknowledg the sufficiency of Scripture for an entire rule of Faith and of our Salvation Of which c Damasc de Orthodoxa fide lib. 1. c. 1. Damascen giveth this testimony What soever is delivered unto us in the Law and in the Prophets by the Apostles and Evangelists that we receive acknowledg and reverence and beside these we require nothing else They do not forbid the layty the reading of Scriptures As the reading of Scripture is forbidden to no Christian Man saith Cyril the Patriarch so no Man is to be kept from the reading of it for the word is near in their mouth and in their hearts Therefore manifest injury is offered to any Christian Man of what rank or condition soever he be who is deprived or kept from reading or hearing the Holy Scripture They allow no private Masses as Châ—traeus relates No private Masses saies he are celebrated among the Grecks without other communicants as their liturgies and faithfull relations testifâ— They have prayer in a known tongue They use not prayer for Souls to be delivered out of purgatory nor the extreme unction nor elevating and carrying about the Sacrament that it may be adored nor indulgences nor sale of Masses Neither is there in their Canon any mention made of the sacrifice of the Body and blood of Christ for the living and dead as Chytraeus Guagnirus and others quoted by a Pagit c. 4. Pagit do relate Other differences of less account betwixt the Grecian Church and the Roman you may see related by b Brerew c. 15. Possev dereb Muscov pag. 38. Brerewood and Possevin Of the same Religion with the Grecians are the Christians of the vast and mighty Empire of Muscovia and Russia under their Metropolitan the Arch-Bishop of Mosco nominated and appointed by the Prince the Emperour of Russia and upon this nomination consecrated by two or three of his own suffragans To these may
you speak all being the Word of God tho not in the same degree of necessity to be explicitly believed by all men Therefore to say that the doctrine of Points not Fundamental is fallible is to say that the Word of God is fallible which without Controversy is a formal Blasphemy Poor Logician is this your Argument in Ferio for which you thought a solid Answer could not be found For a Syllogism in Feriâ— to be concluding the Premises must be allowed and will you have us allow your Premises when one of them is found to be a formal Blasphemy But it seems this horrible Blasphemy did not fall from him unawares it was with deliberation He goes to prove it and see how The Church can err and is fallible in Points not Fundamental therefore these Points are fallible This is another goodly piece of Logic which proves that Points Fundamental are likewise fallible Men can err and have erred in Points Fundamental therefore these also are fallible in your Dialect This is not to distinguish Subjective fallibility from the Objective to pass the imperfections of the faculty upon the object Mr. I. S. looks upon the Sun with squint or dim eies therefore the Sun is dim or squint The Pope can err and is fallible in declaring the Word of God therefore the Word of God is fallible Your brethren of Clermont Colledg who defended in their Theses mentioned chap. 6. that the Pope hath the same Infallibility which Christ had may think that consequence legal The Pope is fallible about the Word of God therefore the Word of God is fallible because the Pope hath the very same Infallibility which Christ the very Word of God hath But we that a low no such Equality of truth to men cannot take fallibility in the Word of God for a consequence of mans fallibility about it From the foresaid Position you proceed to the second grand Thesis prefixed to your Chapter That Protestants cannot without Blasphemy alledg Scripture for their Tenets This is sure a rare shew of your wit a product of your own invention never heard of before I confess to have never heard the like and thus you go to prove it Protestancy or the points wherein Protestants do differ from Papists is but a parcel of fallible doctrine but no fallible doctrine can without Blasphemy be sought for in Scripture therefore Protestants cannot without Blasphemy alledg Scripture for their Tenets Make of the Major what you please for the present what desperate Proposition is that of the Minor That no fallible doctrine may without Blasphemy be sought for in Scripture By this all the Fathers and Doctors of the Church all Divines that alledg Scripture for their several opinions which they do not pretend to be infallible nor more then probable opinions are guilty of Blasphemy in your esteem But that this so much solemnized Argument may not be altogether useless I will retort it upon your self with more force and less cavil proving by it that your Church is not the Church of Christ And thus I argue for it in your own terms No Church is any further the Church of Christ then as it teacheth the doctrine of Christ but the Roman Church as condistinct from the Reformed Protestant Church or in as much as it differs from it doth not teach the doctrine of Christ therefore the Roman Church as condistinct from the Reformed Protestant Church is not the Church of Christ The Minor Proposition That the Roman Church as condistinct from the Protestant Church doth not teach the doctrine of Christ I prove thus The doctrine which the Roman Church as condistinct from the Protestant and opposite to it doth teach is Popes Infallibility and Supremacy over all the Christian Church Transubstantiation Worship of Images Invocation of Saints Purgatory Indulgences half Communion Liturgy in an unknown tongue prohibiting the people to read holy Scripture c. all which I have declared in my former discourse not to be the doctrine of Christ but all contrary to it and in this present Treatise will more fully declare the same Therefore the Roman Church as condistinct from the Protestant and opposite to it doth not teach the doctrine of Christ and consequently is not the Church of Christ CHAP. XI A Refutation of several other Attemts of Mr. I. S. in that eighth Chapter YOU are prolix in pretending that Protestants have not unity of Faith with Papists God forbid they should agree in all with them spare bragging that they claim kindred with you It is a great piece of courtesy and charity in Protestants to admit kindred with you or allow you to be a part tho infected and corrupted of the Catholic Church a courtesy I say in some thing like that of Bellarmin in admitting even the most scandalously wicked of men Epicures in manners and Atheists in belief to the Communion of his Church provided they do but exteriourly own the Romish Religion and Obedience to the Pope tho but for temporal ends His kindness to his Lord the Pope and zeal for his grandeur makes him extend thus his courtesy Our love to our Lord Christ makes us admit kindred with you and to take you for Members of the Church Universal in as much as you confess with us tho but verbally the chief Articles of his doctrine contained in the Creed You proceed to exhort Protestants to an examen of their Belief whether they be in the right I wish your party did comply so well herein with their duty or were permitted to do it as Protestants do and are allowed Here they inquire dispute and read carefully Books for and against their Tenets They are permitted to do it and encouraged in it by their Instructors You will not allow your people to read dispute or doubt at all of your Tenets You say Protestants are obliged in conscience to doubt of their Religion while you tell your own people they are obliged in conscience not to doubt of theirs How came your Church by this Prerogative because 't is unerring and unerrable as the Title of your Book saies but the Book do's not prove as we are shewing Why are Protestants oblig'd to doubt of their Religion because it is new say you This was the Argument of Pagans to stop the preaching of the Gospel more improperly and with less ground used by you Our Religion is the Ancient and yours the New as we prove Where was our Religion say you before Luther A question which for one too old should be cast away We answer where yours never was in the Word of God and in the true Records of Primitive Christianity You conclude your heterogeneous Chapter and your first part of your Book with mentioning the Treatise or Paper I penned some years ago in favor of the Salvation of Protestants against your vulgar Teachers damning all to hell for Heretics without reserve or distinction You say the doctrine I delivered was true but it was indiscretion to declare it in
uses to admit Images of the Trinity representing not only the Son Incarnate but also the Father and Holy Ghost To which I add of my knowledg that they use not only a Picture of the Trinity as you describe in the forms of an old Man our Saviour and a Dove but in the form of one Man with three heads or three faces in one head both undecent and horrible to look upon And thus much for the matter of fact of your painting the Holy Trinity Now I will pass to to see how able you are to defend your practice herein from the guilt of Idolatry CHAP. XXIII Mr. I. S. his defence of the Romish Worship of Images from the guilt of Idolatry confuted The miserable condition of the Vulgar and unhappy exgagement of the Learned among Romanists touching the Worship of Images discovered YOU pretend tho it be Idolatry to adore an Image as a God yet not so to adore God in an Image To which I say first that very many of your best Authors such as are Alensis Albert Bonaventure Abulensis Soto and others related and followed by Vascuez in 3. p. disp 104. c. 2. do affirm that God did not only forbid in the second Commandment that which was unlawful by the Law of Nature as the worship of an image for God but the worshiping the true God by any Similitude You will not be engaged in defending the coherence of their doctrine herein with saying that the same Precept of not adoring God by an Image should not oblige Christians neither indeed is it easie to find the coherence of it Certainly you will never find that God did dispense in the foresaid Law with Christians neither can any reason be imagined why such a practice should be lawful in one time and not in another Why Jews should be further from Idolatry then Christians This to have bin the sin of the Jews in the worship of the golden Calf which was so offensive to God I mean that they did adore it as an Image of God and not believing it was a real God is most apparent by the words of the Context These be thy Gods Oh Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt Exod. XXXII 4. Who can believe that men not altogether destitute of common sense would seriously judg that Images made before themselves of their own gold should be a real God In what sense or reason could they say it was he that brought them out of the Land of Egypt which was don long before that Calf was made If you say that Aaron declared that Calf to be a God saying These are thy Gods or this is thy God as you have in the ninth of Nehemiah the plural being taken for the singular in the former place by a Hebraism I answer it was a tropical Expression as you are wont to say where Images are of the Apostles This is St. Peter and this is St. Paul meaning the Images of St. Peter or St. Paul And as you say in your Processions of holy Friday of the Cross you bear in your hand and raise up to be adored by the people bowing upon their knees Ecce lignum crucis in quo salus mundi pependit Behold the timber of the Cross upon which was fixed the Saviour of the world Surely you are not so senseless as to think these words should be verified in a literal sense of the Cross you bear in your hand but rather in a tropical relating to the Cross whereon our Saviour was really fixed In the like sense you are to conceive Aaron did speak of the golden Calf if you will not make him quite senseless when he said This is thy God oh Israel which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt which is to say This is a Type or Image of thy God who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and under that notion the people did adore it And all this while I hope you will not pretend to absolve them from the guilt of Idolatry for which they were so severely punished by God as we read in the 32. ch of Exâ—dus Therefore Idolatry is not only to adore an Image as God but also to adore God in an Image If we will give credit to Pagans touching their belief they will tell us they were never so blind as to think the Statues they adored were Gods Nemo unquam tam fatuus fuit saies Cicero qui saxum lapidem Jovem esse credidit None ever was so void of sense as to say that a stone should be Jupiter Neither could such a belief consist with what is generally supposed by them that their Gods are in heaven So the Inhabitants of Lystra when they saw Paul and Barnabas heal one that was a Creeple from his birth said The Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men Act. XIV 11. And if even Pagans thought it a stupidity unbecoming men of common sense to conceive a stock or stone to be a God less ought we to imagine that the Israelites with so much advantage of instruction should be so brutish Their guilt therefore was not to believe the golden Calf was a God but to attempt the worshiping of God by an Image which is your guilt You conclude that to worship the Image of Christ and his Saints cannot be called Idolatry For an Idol say you is a representation of a Deity that has no being but Christ and his Saints â—ave a being c. If you speak of the subject of Idolatrous worship tending to something created it is true that it looks upon a Deity that hath no being But if you believe S. Paul the real object of their worship was the true God which he preached Whom you ignorantly worship him declare I unto you Acts 17.23 and notwithstanding he rebuked them for Idolaters therefore Idolatry is not only a worship dedicated to false Gods but also a worship of the true God by a way prohibited But how will this your discourse reach to save from Idolatry the worship given to Images of Saints that have in them no Divinity real or apprehended Is it because they have a being opposite to a Chimera or nothing then the adorers of Mars and Apollo in their Statues and so of other Idols were no Idolaters Those Statues or Idols were representations of men whether living or dead is not material not Chimerical but such as had a real being Read the origin of Idolatry described in the 14. Chapter of Wisdom from the 12. verse you shall find it begun by making Images of men absent or dead to honor their memory Besides your supposition is clear contrary to what Gods Commandment against the worship of Images supposes Thâ—u shalt not make unto the any graven Image or any likâ—ness of any thing that is in Heaven above or that is in the Earth beneath c. Exod. 20.4 Images of things are prohibited to be worshipped and of things really being in the Heaven or upon
wherewith Christ himself is to be worshipped And so respectively of the Images of other Saints that they are to be worshipped with the same kind of worship that is due to the Prototype Neither indeed do they say herein more then the Council of Trent doth teach them to say For in the Decree above mentioned touching the worship of Images it gives such a reason of it as declares the said worship to be measured by the quality of the Prototype Quoniam honos qui iis exhibetur refertur ad prototypa quae illae repraesentant ità ut per Imagines quas osculamur coram quibus caput aperimus procumbimus Christum adoremus sanctos quorum illae similitudinem gerunt veneremur The honor which we give to Images says the Council is related to the Prototypes which they do represent so as that by the Images which we kiss and before which we uncover our head and bow down we adore Christ and worship the Saints whose likeness they bear Whence follows what the forementioned Divines said That the worship of Images being to be measured by the Quality of their Prototypes the worship of Latria is due to the Image of Christ that being the worship which is due to himself And by your denial of this to be the doctrine of your Church Mr. I. S. you will more easily perswade us that you begin to grow asham'd of your doctrine as well you may then that you understand the Tenets of the Roman Church better then Azorius did or those other Divines of greatest eminency among you by him quoted This being so consider the miserable condition of your doctrine how well you can desend it from the infamous note of Idolatry If you believe the best Interpreters touching the proper signification of the word Idolum you shall find them say it signifies no more then Imago So that an Image adored or worshipped is in propriety of speech an Idol worshipped and consequently a worship of Latria given to an Image or Idâ—l for they are the same is in all propriety of speech Idololatria Therefore according to the doctrine of the Council of Trent and your Divines forementioned by the worship of Latria given by you to the Image of Christ you commit formal Idolatry I wish with all my heart you did not and that no Argument of mine nor of any other could prove you guilty of this horrid crime By this you see how the Council of Trent and the most eminent of your Schole-men do countenance the stupid error of the vulgar among â—ou even exceed it It is plain they deliver in formal terms what I am certain would be a horror to the meaner Capacities if these did apprehend the sinful absurdity of it And your pretensiâ—n to more prudence in not terming your worship Latria doth not heal the wound nor so much as cover it from any clear sighted-eies The real guilt consists in worshipping Images against the Ordinance of God give that worship what name you please If I do say your people do pray to Images of wood or stone and therein do practice that great folly of which the Wise man accuses the Idolater that he is not ashamed to speak to that which hath no life For health he calls upon that which is weak for life prays to that which is dead Wisdom 13.17 if I do say moreover that your Church teacheth them to do so certainly you will say it is a great calumny But then tell me I pray whose words are these you speak to the Cross in the procession of good Friday O Crux ave spes unica Hoc Passionis tempore Auge piis justitiam Reisque dona veniam Hail ô Cross our only hope in this time of Passion give increase of grace to the godly and pardon to sinners If you tell me these are the words of the Church which you will not deny but spoken to Christ not to the Cross Azorius gainsays you for he declares that by those words the Church speaks to the Cross Ecclesia cum Crucem veneratur colit eam salutat alloquitur cum ait O Crux ave c. The Church says he adoring the Cross salutes it and speaks to it saying Hail ô Cross c. And is not this to speak to that which hath no life c. Thus your people do and which is worse thus your Church teaches them to do And thus we see your Church and People do what all Idolaters do to their Idols CHAP. XXIV Our Adversaries reply to my exceptions against their Invocation of Saints declared to be impertinent Mr. I.S. is so exact a Disputant that he takes it for a sufficient answer to my Arguments if he do's but mention the subject of them and say somthing of what his notes or stock of knowledg do's afford him without taking the trouble of examining whether what he saies be to the purpose of my Arguments or no. This is usual with him but very conspicuous in the present case of their Invocation of Saints I begun accusing their excesses in calling the Virgin Mary their life and hope their Redeemeress and Saviouress This I said to be contrary to St. Peters declaration That there is no salvation in any other besides Jesus Christ and that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Act. IV. 12. To this Mr. I. S. saies it proves we must not ask the Saints on earth to pray for us which is to prove too much I hope Mr. I. S. himself will not be so desperate as to call his Colleague whose praiers he desires his Life and Hope his Saviour and Redeemer But how comes it to prove we must not desire at all the praiers of Saints upon earth Two excesses of Papists in their Invocation of Saints I took in hand to reprehend To speak of all the brevity which my business then did confine me to would not permit The one is to call the Virgin Mary Saviouress c. the other to dedicate more Churches and address more praiers to Saints then to Christ Both which excesses I convinc'd of error by those passages of Scripture which declare Christ our Lord to be our only Saviour and that he is more willing and able to help us then any other Saint and that he invites us to come to himself for remedy of all our needs Your way to answer this were either to purge your Church of those excesses or to prove that the Scriptures which I alledged did not evince those practices of yours to be excesses You do neither but in lieu thereof you speak only of desiring the praiers of Saints who live yet upon earth whereby you alter the state and terms of the question I spoke of praying to Saints who are no more on earth and fitted my Texts to the Confutation of that practice You speak of desiring those who are not yet departed this life to pray for us which are far different
things And so we find the latter practiced in the Gospel but not the former But you must say somthing and tho not to the purpose it must be called an Answer I related some desperate expressions of your Preachers over-valuing Saints And you confessing they were mad in so much fall into exclamations against me for leaving the Roman Church because I saw some mad men in it And thence you fall to your wonted immodest railleries without regarding how far you go from truth and the purpose Where did you find me say that for the madness of those Friers only I forsook the Roman Church Did not I alledg many other very grave causes of my resolution therein Did I say this was a cause at all for me to leave that Church I only reflected upon it as on very bad Fruit that declares the corruption of the Tree And in case it should be in some measure a cause how come you to imagine or think to perswade others it should be the only cause A thief that was hanged for stealing a purse wherein were twenty pounds and six pence because you heard in the process of his cause mention made of six pence were it ingenuous or just to exclaim at the Judges as if they did condemn a man to be hanged for stealing six pence I confess your disingenuity herein is hateful to me but if you think it should not be so pray then answer me to these two Questions If a Villain did come by night and cut down a score or two of those fair Trees that grace the Walks of the Roial Park of St. James in Westminster would you think it too much severity that such a Villain should be whipt about the streets for so great an Insolence But if after this check he should run about the City and Country with a little branch of one of those Trees in his hand exclaiming against the cruelty of the Judges as if they had order'd him to be whipt about the streets of London for cutting that little branch only would not you think him worthy to be whipt again for his notorious calumny Behold your case I express'd many grievous faults of the Roman Church which occasioned my withdrawing from her Idolatry Superstition cruelty in the conduct of Souls impiety in preferring her own laws to those of God rashness and even madness in her worship and Invocation of Saints and among others related the frantic expressions of a Friar in extolling his Saint as one of the Branches proceeding from that vitiated Tree Of this Branch you lay hold and cry that I have left the Communion of the Roman Church only because I saw in it a mad Friar Give me leave to tell you that this kind of arguing deserves no better than whipping in the Scholes And having answered my Arguments upon this Subject say you and having given no Answer to them say I as now I have shewn you provoke me to a trial of your Scholastic skill touching the knowledg that Saints in heaven have of our affairs here and how far they are concerned for them a thing whereof even your ablest Schole-men could never yet give a clear account Whoever shall please to read their Writings on this Subject will see a Theater of confusion The most that ever could be cleared of what they alledg and you can pick out of them is that God can and somtimes did reveal unto Saints in heaven some earthly concerns but that all the Saints in heaven should know all our thoughts and all our particular concerns could never be said upon any probable ground much less with certainâ— And yet a certain knowledg of it were requisite to save your practice from the note of blindness and solly in having such frequent recourse to them by mental and vocal praiers for all your particular concerns I say moreover that tho you were certain they did see all our peculiar concerns and were willing to be concerned for us yet you fall very short of giving a formal answer to my exception taken against your more frequent recourse to them then to Christ for Intercession and dedicating more Temples to their names then to the name of God and Christ How can this consist with our Christian acknowledgment of Christ to be our only Mediator and Advocate And if you deny so much to him I hope you will not doubt he is at least our chief Mediator and Advocate being so how come you to have less recourse unto him then to inferior Saints which was that I charg'd upon your practice To which you gave no answer because you saw no rational or Christian answer could be given and so finding it an easier work to fall upon your accustomed scurrilous Sarcasms you returned them for answer Only to that of building more Churches and offering praiers and devotions to your supposed Saints then unto Christ because you would seem to say somthing tho nothing indeed to the purpose You say at last that the honor you give to the Saints you give it to God in them or to them for God But who can understand this to be a good way to please God If an earthly King would have the Prince his Son and Heir to be Solicitor General to him in favor of his Subjects and that all Roial graces and favors should pass unto them by the hands of his Son Can any man rationally imagine it would be pleasing to such a King that his Subjects neglecting their Applications to the Prince should make all or the most frequent to inferior Servants of the Court Apply this example and if you do not see by it the unreasonableness of that practice of yours I think we may conclude that passion and prejudice has blinded you so far as not to see the light of noon-day Add to all this that many of your supposed Saints possibly may not be Saints indeed but wretched Souls damned in Hell Whereof your own Histories do afford no few instances and the possibility of the Case is evident for most of your Saints were Canonized or called Saints by Vulgar opinion not by that more exact scrutiny which in latter Ages was ordained to prevent the Invocation of Impostors and Cheats for Saints through Vulgar error It is manifest that such wicked men are solicitous and not seldom successful in getting the credit of Saints with the Vulgar That 's the business of hypocrites when true Saints make it theirs to hide their virtues and please only the eies of God And even now after so many solemnities and scrutinies ordained to proceed to a Canonization the matter still remains uncertain Many of your learned Schole-men deny the Pope to be infallible therein He may be mis-informed and why not May not Cheats intervene and Bribes work in such Informations as in others A Town or Society that will be engaged to get one of their Members Canonized for Saint and thereby obtain considerable Emoluments of credit and interest to their body may possibly use
gains a Plenary Indulgence Whosoever being truly penitent will propose firmly to forsake his sins committed and in the same day will visit any seven Churches or where so many Churches are not to be found shall visit those that be and if there be but one Church in the place shall visit all the Altars of it and pray to God for the extirpation of Heresies once a year shall enjoy the Indulgences allowed to such as visit the seven Churches at Rome Whosoever shall think devoutly of any Mystery of the Passion of our Saviour and in honor of the said Passion shall kiss seven times the ground will in that day obtain the Indulgences allowed to such as go up the holy Stairs in Rome but this once in every year Whosoever in imitation of the foresaid five Saints either shall truly detest his sins with a firm purpose of sinning no more or shall exercise some act of Virtue shall so many times obtain an Indulgence of seven years and so many quadragena's or forty daies Indulgence Whosoever shall read any Chapter of the life of the said Saints or shall visit their Altar or worship their Image and pray for the happy state of our holy Mother the Church and for the Conversion of sinners shall at every time obtain Indulgence of 100. daies The same Indulgence shall any obtain who will give anâ— Alms to the Poor or shall instruct them by himself or by another in things belonging to Faith and good manners Whosoever shall exercise himself in the worship of the holy Eucharist or of the blessed Virgin meditating upon the dignity of that mystery and the benefits redounding from it to us or commiserating the griefs of the said blessed Virgin wherewith she was possessed at the Passion and Death of her Son or in any other manner shall reverence the blessed Sacrament and pray for the necessity of the Church shall obtain Indulgence of 100 daies as often as he doth it Any dwelling in Rome or not distant from it above twenty miles if he hath a lawful impediment not to be present at the solemn blessing which the Roman Pope is wont to give in the Festivity of Easter and Ascension but shall confess and receive and pray for the extirpation of Heresies c. shall enjoy the Indulgences which the people present will enjoy but such as are further distant from Rome shall enjoy the same Indulgences performing the said duties tho they have no lawful impediment for absence All the Indulgences aforesaid may be applied to the faithful deceased by way of Suffrages For to gain the said Indulgences it is enough to have privately with you any Crown or Cross c. blessed by his Holliness with the foresaid Indulgences and to fulfill the duties before mentioned even tho happily you may be obliged to perform them upon another account Whosoever in the point of death commending himself to God shall invoke the foresaid Saints or any of them with his mouth if he can having confessed and received the Communion if he may otherwise having at least contrition shall obtain a plenary Indulgence of all his sins In the distribution of the said Crowns Crosses c. and in the use of them his Holiness commands to observe the Decree of Alexander VII issued the 6. day of February 1657. viz. that Crowns Crosses Rosaries Medals and sacred Images blessed with the foresaid Indulgences may not pass the persons of those to whom his Holiness gave them or such as from them received those things the first time and that they may not be lent or be bestowed otherwise to lose the Indulgences and any of them being lost no other may be subrogated for it by any means notwithstanding any allowance or priviledg to the contrary His Holiness prohibits this form of Indulgences to be printed out of Rome MICHAEL ANGELUS RICCIUS Secret Rome out of the Print of the Reverend Apostolical Chamber 1671. I leave the judicious Reader to gloss upon this grant and the profuseness of it whether it be a rare or difficult thing to gain a plenary Indulgence where grants of this kind are frequent They will tell us it will promote Piety to have such encouragement to Penitence praiers and deeds of Charity But let them consider whether it may not rather be an occasion of continuing in vices and a wicked life if by a verbal Confession and an imperfect kind of contrition or displeasure with sins for penalties following them apt to be conceived by the most wicked livers a security is given of remission of all sins tho never so grievous and repeated and of the eternal pains due to them and likewise all the temporal penalties following them are remitted by a plenary Indulgence so easy to be obtained as we have seen Who will not perceive that encouragement is given hereby to persevere in vices whatsoever other purposes they may have who grant them And if this be well considered Mr. I. S. will cease to admire that Protestant Doctors should accuse the Roman Church of facilitating by these means the way to sinning CHAP. XXXI The dismal unhappiness of the Romish people in having their Liturgy in a Tongue unknown to them EX ore tuo te judico serve nequam thus begins Mr. I. S. his answer to my discourse upon this subject wherein I lamented the misery of the Romish People in having their Liturgy in a tongue unknown to them and thus also shall my reply to him begin which certainly will be to put the Saddle on the right Horse What is it Sr that I have said which may be a judgment against my self in this case That the purpose of nature by speaking is to communicate the sense of him that speaks to the hearer which cannot be obtained if the hearer perceives not the meaning of the words he speaks This say you proves against my self for in the Liturgy or public Service of the Church we speak to God and not to the Congregation and God can understand us tho we do not our selves But stay Sr is not the Liturgy or public Service of the Church as well with you as with us composed of an exchange of speech betwixt God and his People they speaking to him in Praiers and Thanksgivings he speaking to them by the Lessons of sacred Scripture by the Epistles Gospels and Psalms Is it not necessary for both these purposes that the People should understand what they say to God by Prayer and what he says to them by Exhortation And for the first wherein you think your pretension to be obtained for praying I say is not Praier a rational and voluntary Elevation of the mind helped by the expressions and sense of the Praier read or said Is not this elevation of the mind mainly advanced by understanding the word of the Praier read or said whoever heard a Psalm sung with solemn Music may well tell how different a feeling and elevation of mind he hath when he sees or knows the words sung
Earth But as you hope to be saved will you lay aside prejudices and subtilties a while and speak once sincerely what it it that makes you so eager for the worship of Images is it any divine precept that moves or forces to it we never heard you talk of any such precept and there is at least a very probable assurance of a precept of God extant prohibiting under terrible penalty such a worship There is moreover a certain danger of occasioning in the ruder sort a downright gross Idolatry by an absolute direct worship of the Images you set up to be worshipped without those distinctions and precisions wherewith you pretend to justify your practice Of which Ludovicus Vives gives this testimony * Vives in Comm. ad August de Civitate Dei I. 8. c. ultimo Divos divasque non alitèr venerantur quam Deum ipsum nec video in multis quod discrimen sit inter eorum opinionem de Sanctis id quod Gentiles pu tabant de Diis suis They worship holy Men and Women no otherwise then God himself neither do I see in many things wherein their opinion touching Saints differs from that of Pagans concerning their Gods Polydor Virgil speaks to the same purpose in these words Multi suâ—t saltem rudiores qui ligneas saxeas marmoreas aeneas item in parietibus pictas Imagines colunt non ut figuras sed perinde quasi ipsae sensum aliquem habeant quique eis magis fidunt quam Christo ipsi aut aliis Divis quibus dicati fuerunt In the Church of Rome there are many who worship Images of stocks stones brass or painted on Walls not as figures but even as if they had some sense in them and who put more trust in them then in Christ himself or in the Saints to whom they are dedicated This being so what prudence can it be to expose your own Salvation and the Salvation of others unto a certain danger by practicing a worship at least very probably prohibited by God under pain of damnation This is the unhappy condition you are in and our great advantage of you in our debates that if you are in an error as very probably you seem to be you are liable to damnation not so we tho you should be in the right for on our part there is no transgression of any divine precept consequently no fear of damnation in not worshipping an Image In the same case you are in your worship of the Eucharist If Christ be not there after the manner you pretend you are damnable Idolaters as many of your own Authors do and any that is rational must needs confess But on whatsoever side the truth be in that controversy our practice is free from danger of sinning by not paying the worship of Latria to the Eucharist whereas no precept of God forces us to give it such worship This with the like advantages which we have of you in all other points controverted made me chuse the way of the Church of England as surer to salvation then yours What profit do you expect by the worship of Images I understand what profit may be in the use of devout Images if separated from the worship that they may be a Book to the ruder sort for raising their minds unto heavenly things But this benefit is not so great nor the hope of getting Heaven this way so warrantable as the danger of losing it by unlawful worship as imminent While the use of Images was harmless and beneficial it was justly retained It were insolence in a member of any Church or Congregation to oppose a custom or use introduced in it while indifferent and not opposite to a higher Law But if that use did run to an abuse and transgression of Gods Commandments then it is to be reformed or rejected This is what happen'd in the case of the brazen Serpent as before related And this is the case of the Reformed Churches with Images While and where pious and innocent use was made of them they permitted them and so they do yet But when they saw the abuse of unlawful worship given to them they removed them from the eies of the Vulgar apt to commit those abuses in places of worship Now we have seen how far this kind of abuse hath grown with your people both Learned and Vulgar As for the latter reflect upon what we have related out of Vives and Polydor. Add to it the testimony of George Cassander a man renowned for his calm and even temper as well as for his learning and who by both might have contributed to the peace and unity of Christian Churches if the unflexible pride of the Court of Rome would suffer any limit to be put to its Ambition Of the worship of Images he speaks thus Manifestius est quam ut multis verbis explicari dâ—beâ—t Imaginum Simulachrorum cultum multum invaluisse affectioni seu potius superstitioni populi plus satis indultum esse ita ut ad summam adorationem quae vel à Paganis suis Simulachris exhiberi consuevit c. It is more clear then needs * Cassander consult art 21. cap. de Imagine many words to declare it that the worship of Images and Statues is gon too far and too much liberty given to the devotion or rather superstition of the people so as it came to the very height of worship which even Pagans do give to their Idols And truly it is a deplorable thing what Hierom L Lamas a Hierom. I. Lam. Sum. p. 3. c. 3. Et adeo gens affecta est truneis 〈…〉 desa 〈◊〉 Imaginibuâ— ut me teste quoties Episcopi decenti res ponâ—â—â— jubent vereres saas petent â—â—rantes c. as an eye-witness of it relates to have happened among the people of Asturias Cantabria and Gallicia no small Provinces of Spain viz. that they were so addicted to their worm eaâ—en and deformed Images that when the Bishops commanded new and handsomer Images to be set up in their rooms the poor people cried for their old would not look up to their new as if they did not represent the same thing or really as we may probably guess of their blindness that they did conceive some peculiar numen or divine virtue to dwell in those old stumps of their former acquaintance which the do not expect to find in those new and neater Images And thus goes the matter with the vulgar sort of the people But in my opinion it goes even far worse with the more learned of you And certainly such were Aquinas Alexander Alensis Bonaventure Albertus â—â—agaus Câ—jetan Capreolus and others quoted by b Azor. tom 1. inst moral c. 6. Sect. 2. Hac sententia est communi Theologorum censensu recepta Aâ—orius where he says it to be the opinion received by the common consent of Divines Thaâ— the Imaâ—e of Christ is to be adored with the worship of Latria even the very same