comes that the Socinians call in question if not absolutely deny the diety of the Son and of the Holy Ghost hence with the Pelagians they reduce Christs death to example of our imitation onely not to be the price of our redemption hence generally they profess with Chillingworth and others whom I could name that holy Scriptures are to be understood according to each mans small reach of reason as if nothing were contained in them what is not commensurated to our understanding and therefore needs not any supernatural aide from God which Mr. Hobbs very well confutes Chap. 17. n. 28. Yet he saith it belongs to the City to interpret Scriptures at least in all such things which he will please to call juridical or Philosophical which have far too great latitude in his sense For purely supernatural he speaks more reason then any others of these new ones from whom hath proceeded contempt of Prelates and Doctors because every one of the most inferiour Laytie of these Enthusiasts by their impetuous imaginary instinct and private spirit or what is the same their particular ratiocination though most groundless are supreme and infallible Masters and Doctors to themselves Neither do they beleeve any thing to be Divine which flowes not from the sensless impetuosity of their imaginations without any respect to higher considerations Yes truly those who are esteemed the wiser sort following Socinas stick in the same puddle expounding holy Scriptures and all mysteries of our holy Faith not according to the universal reason of the Church delivered by the hands of the ancients to us as Catholicks do but by their private spirits or by the conduct of their private reason A thing ridiculous to conceive that the profoundness of Christian misteries should not exceed the shallow reach of our reason Which error is the Source of all dissonancies and inconstancies amongst them which even by intrinsecal necessary consequence must needs cause a perpetual flux or issuing out of changes of conclusions of Faith for the effect cannot be more noble then the cause On the other side Catholick tenents must by a great necessity be always constant because they depend not upon our daily changable reasons or ratiocination but upon the unvariable word of God revealed and delivered by the Church The sum of all is that the verity of a Philosophicall conclusion is demonstrated by the verity of human reason the verity of Christian reason is proved by the verity of ancient faith indeed one verity may be diverse but never adverse to another Neither doth Divine contradict human but often surmounteth it and therefore it is comprehended by the sparks of our scanted reason but it is setched from else where Ask thy Father c. This is a safe way in which there is no danger to be dashed upon the rocks of errors according to that of Athanasius in his Epistle to Epicietus teaching how Hereticks Schismaticks are to be treated with There is no better way and indeed it is alone sufficient to answer them Those things not to be orthodoxall which our forefathers have not taught us This is plea enough against all pretences in the judgment of Athanasius let therefore Christians and they that bear the name of Christ be ashamed if leaving the fountain of antiquity from whence all sound doctrin floweth to follow certain small rivolets full of vanity and foolery shadowed under a precious shew of reason which from whence they had their Source and beginning none for certain know We Catholicks therefore adhere to the holy Councels and ancient Fathers in the first place after the holy Scriptures neither dare we accuse them of foolery a Christian minde will hurdly permit them to be rashly and presumptuously defamed But these men and others of the some tribe who make the glimmering of their reasons the rules of Faith and Religion easily reject them It is a wonder rather that they do not with their supercilious spectacles clime up the heavens and there with the Albumazar Aicabatius Massaeius and infinite other Astrologers seek out the verity of all Religions and one while for the conjunction of Saturne with the Sun adhere to Judaismes another while for the conjuction of Mars with Jupiter promote the Chaldaick Sect if with Venus the Mahumetical if with Mercarie the Christian So by some little shew of reason drawn from the heavens they may change their religion as for the most part they are wont to do several times of the year according to the several dominations of the planets or certainly every year according to the annual dominion or if this seems to much aerial they may according to the Successory government of those intelligences which they call Seconds appoint the stations retrogradations and cadences of their divers sects and religions as some not without applause of such lunitick persons have unhappily enough attempted as especially some attribute the innovation of Luthers sect to the new lunary inteligences then 1517. undertaking the worlds government And Ticho Brahe affirms that those sects which indeed are derived from mens brain-sick fancies may be found out in the heavens both in their risings and fallings Of which this present age administreth change enough The truth is Judas the Apostle toucheth these home whatsoever they do not know they blaspheme whatsoever like bruit beasts they know they are corrupted in They are indeed so swoln in their imaginations that breaking they corrupt themselves and others CHAP. 6. A digression against Mr. Hales the supposed Author of the Treatise of Schism And a farther proof of Schism in England Mr. HALES who is said and supposed to be Author of the Treatise of Schism objects that Schirm may be spread over all the parts of the Church and so the whole be infected in which case Schism cannot be imputed to one place more then to another and this may peradventure be affirmed of the sepuration of England from other Churches as it was touching the ancient celebrating of Easter wherein also a how Schism is rison for aching not necessary yea saith he in a matter ridiculous If I should bring the general Councel of Nice condemning and separating from these Quarta-decimans he would deride it he accuseth all the ancients of foolishness in this matter Thus he sporteth and trifleth in mysteries of faith to root out all faith out of the mindes of the faithful I deny first what he averreth that the West and East were at variance that is to say that that Schism did invade the whole Church and cleave her into two parts for the matter of Easter but that some considerable part did raise stirs in the East yea in the West also is manifest amongst historians this cause of division in a late work de consilijs made in latine by a Country man of ours is laid open to the very root But to peruse a little more the grounds of his mistakes in this important point of Schism we must alwayes remember what before we noted that
beleeving and doing what she propounds and prescribes shall attain unto eternal salvation which sufficiently followeth out of what hath been said in the first Chapter if well attended much more also might be produced from Christian discoursing upon principles of holy Scripture and consent of old and modern Doctors But to bring our Doctors here is superfluous labour seeing Protestants with whom I have dealt sincerely acknowledge and ingeniously confess so much and many of them of no small account have delivered in books that the Church of Rome is the Church of God and that the errors in her are not so much as do overthrow the foundation of Salvation and therefore with them many have and may now be saved So Morton Regn. Jer. page 94. the Papists are to be thought of the Church of God because they hold the foundation of the Gospel which is faith in Christ Jesus the Son of God Hooker Eccles Polit. page 140. we willingly acknowledge Papists to be of the family of Christ Covel Apol. ad Archep Cant. we affirm those who are of the Churh of Rome to be part of the Church of Christ and those who live and die in the Church of Rome may notwithstanding be saved and he accuseth the Puritans of ignorance that think the contrary Soame Apol. p. 146. if you think that all Papists that die in the Papistical Church are damned you think absurdly and you dissent from the judgment of learned Protestants D. Burlo in his 3. Sermon ad Clerum saith I dare not deny c. D. Laud late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in his great volume against the Jesuite doubteth not of ordinary Papists salvations and of late Doctor Taylour in his liberty of Prophecying out of his principles necessarily concludes so much in his twentieth Paragraph and number the 3 d. he speaks thus They keep the foundation c. and therefore all the wisest personages of the adverse party allowed to them possibility of Salvation whilest their errors are not faults of their will but weaknesses and deceptions of the understanding c. The foundation of faith stands secure enough for all these vain and unhandsome superstructures c. Chillingworth hath both the same tenents frequently and as you may gather by his maner of expression he grants them yet very plainly though unwillingly somtimes he saith that they are not damnable othertimes that they are damnable in themselves but not to Catholicks except they stick to them out of affection of error It was well he added this else he had in one stroke broken the whole phantastick fabrick of his verbal not rational volume flashy no way substantial as any sober man will judge The whole result of his work is that every man beleeving Scriptures and feriously labouring to deduce a probable sence out of them is sufficiently provided for in order to his salvation which is to exclude a necessity of communion with any in point of Religion as every man seeth against all Scripture and the Creed This is by the way There are indeed some amongst them as Field Usher and others who seem somtimes to speak more rigidly touching Catholiks Salvation But they observe not how repugnant this is to a generally admitted and cried up principle amongst them which is this namely that they differ not from us in fuundamentals or necessaries By this they labour hard to make their breach from from us not to be damnable being they differ not in points of necessary belief Which if it hath force doth it not inevitably and with more strength conclude a security for us We must therefore conclude that whether they will or no they do all conclude a possibility of salvation for us adhereing to our faith delivered from our forefathers and to omit innumerable others King James shall serve for all for he speaks in the name of all in his speech to the Parliament Novemb. 9. 1605. we rightly saith he confess that many Papists especially our progenitors putting their onely trust in Jesus Christ and his merits may and are frequently saved detesting according to that and judging the cruelty of the Puritans worthy of fire who will grant no salvation to any Papists Yea D. Potter in his book set forth by the command of King Charles pag. 76. 77. confesseth that those things which Protestants think erroneous in the Roman Church are not in themselves damnable to those who beleeve as they profess and that all may be saved with them who bona fide beleeve and profess the Roman Religion as long as they finde no motives sufficient whereby their judgment is convinced that they be in error To conclude all Protestants of any moderation who are not poysoned with the tincture of rigid Calvinisme freely confess that Catholicks in their religion may be faved and do accuse them of want of Charity that they do not think so of them So our adversaries are our judges as appears by their own confession that we may attain unto salvation in the Church of Rome I could give you a longer list but it were superfluous in a confessed doctrine CHAP. 3. Schism is an enormous Crime SChism if we look upon the force of the word it signifieth division if it be in the civil common wealth it is called Sedition if in the Church Schism or the same word may be used for both and be distinguished by Epithites in the one case it is civil Sedition in the other Ecclesiastical Division The Church may be divided two wayes first by revolting from faith which doth not only make Schism but heresie hence it is that they who fall from the faith and doctrin of the Church setting up their contrary opinions as Arrians Macedonians and the like are not onely termed Scismaticks but Hereticks Secondly the Church is divided by revolting from the chief Pastor or general Councels by disobedience or from communion with the other members although faith be conserved intire and this makes pure Schism as it is distinguished from heresie So the Donatists and Meletians at first keeping the faith of the Church but abstaining from communion with the other members in divine worship prayer and other holy rites or when they erected altar against altar then and not before they were properly accounted Schismaticks from whence it is gathered that although Schism continuing is wont to degenerate into heresie because as St. Hierom saith in Tit. 3. There is no Schim which doth not frame to it self some heresie that they may seem to have just cause to revolt from the Church Hence St. Augustine l. 2. contra Cresconium c. 7. Schism is a new revolt Heresie is an inveterate Schism yet speaking in rigour heresie violating the faith of the Church Schism breaking her charity they are both grevious sins seeing they seperate from the Church and consequently from the head which is Christ But now we will onely treat of the greviousness of Schism There are a sort of people who cannot conceive that a Christian Common-wealth
to beleeve them though he doth not but he must profess them when he is required Is not this to put a lie upon himself for a man to profess to beleeve what he doth not beleeve Nay is not this to put a lie upon Christianity He adds that he cannot exclude such from heaven who internally do not assent to articles declared by the Church if they do not contradict but being commanded will grant them this last particle of external acknowledgement is more modest then I have yet found in any of our Country-men though it cannot be digested by a resonable man that I may profess what I do not beleeve The texts of Scripture whereby he proves the internal belief of Jesus to be Christ sufficient to salvation are very weak in principles of Christianity For besides whom I have named already who were condemned by the Apostles for beleeving false doctrin There were also the Nicolaitans in the Apocalips Chap. 2. Who following Nicolas one of the first seven Deacons who beleeving in Christ yet taught it lawful to commit fornication and to eat meat offered to Idols were heavily threatned from God by St. John so also those hereticks whom St. John signifieth by Jesabel who taught it lawful to do the same Neither will it help Mr. Hobbs his Tenet That Jesabel is said to teach that is not onely beleeve eternally those errors for those of the Church of Thyatira were threatned because they did beleeve those false doctrins and the Apostle St. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy v. 3. useth this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he giveth to Timothy power to denounce to hereticks not to teach otherwise then they had been taught neither is his discourse of faith in Christ but of superstructures as the course of the text sheweth and in it he forbids any to beleeve them In fine it is clear in all Ecclesiastical monuments as well Historical as Doctrinal that from the Apostles to this day not onely such who denied Jesus to be Christ who were properly Infidels or Apostates but who beleeved not any other article propounded by the Church universal as necessary were esteemed hereticks and in state of damnation All the texts for the sufficiency to beleeve in Christ in order to salvation except in cases afore mentioned are understood of all things which belong to faith in him in which is comprehended his Church instructing in all necessaries or else the faith in Christ nakedly understood by Mr. Hobbs would exclude all those benefits which we beleeve to be obtained by him It is true that in particular cases as I noted an implicite faith of many of them might suffice as in the Thief where he had not time for other instruction or profession yet it is evident he beleeved in the whole when he cryed Memento Mei c. But these extraordinary cases are nothing to the ordinary course of Gods providence which we onely touch And thus the Church of God from and with the Apostles always understood this matter and accordingly in her Councels squared her practise But as I said before of the Thief so of the Eunuch and the two thousand converted by St. Peter it is evident that they beleeved in the substance of the whole Creed for the very children of Hierusalem knew the main doctrins which Christ taught as appeared in the publick process against him cryed up and down the streets and therefore these beleeving in him beleeved in all which he had taught which will come home to the Creed at least Mr. Hobbs will tell you in the upshot that the points now in controversy for the most part concern onely contention for a worldly Kingdom gain or victory in point of wit where he expounds them after his own gust and names onely such which may more plausibly be thought to have such appearance omitting the chiefest in agitation about the Sacraments c. Others which concern the principal end and effect of our redemption as free-will and justification he rejects as Philosophical Thus the high misteries of Christian Faith by a Christian are made subjects of division or rather of delusion or collusion Herod was afraid of Christ because he was jealous that his aim would be to get his Kingdom this jealousie was the cause of much innocent blood-shed I hope Mr. Hobbs hath no such design in stirring up this old false plea against Christianity for Christ hath assured all men that his Kingdom is not of this world That there hath been always subordination in Church judicatures is evident by St. Paul to Timothy and every where in holy Writ which hath hitherto been continued even in external government as all Histories shew and yet not prejudicial but auxilliary to temporal power But for any controversies is point of temporal power challenged by the Church I know none forasmuch as toucheth faith Yet Mr. Hobbs seems to desire though with much violence to draw even hearing confessions and interpreting scriptures to his new Eutopia as belonging to civil Magistracy There is yet another shift wherein as the Holy Ghost saith mentitur iniquitas sibi they frame an imaginary pillar of security saying that though the first openers of this breach were Schismaticks yet they having been born in this Church are not guilty of it As when a Kingdom is unjustly obtained yet it may be justly possessed by future heirs This I have weighed and answered before yet to the similitude I particularly answer that there is no parity at all to plead prescription against God because in some cases there may be among men else all Hereticks and Turks may more forcibly plead this right then they if naked countenance of possession can give title I might here question the supposition it self for even in temporals the civil and Canon law require more time for prescription in order to some persons then to others as for ordinary persons ten yeers in some forty in some an hundred Again there is a difference not onely in persons but the things possessed as Ecclesiastical require more time then civil and there is always required a quiet possession to begin the count of yeers that there may be titulus probabilis The reason is because then the true lords are thought virtually or implicitely to yeeld their right And thence begins the title in the unjust possessors namely when the ancient lord being able ceaseth to chalenge any right But as I say to let all this pass the disparity from man to God is manifestly clear and therefore admits of no consequence CHAP. 8. Protestants have made the Schism without any cause or ground THE often cited Protestant Doctor in the Treatise of Schism writeth that Schism doth not always make the lesser part culpable which recedeth or is driven out from the rest of the common-weale or body of the Church but the compulsive caus is here chiefly to be looked upon and not always the small number of the receding persons therefore the Protestants say it is