contrary interpretations to satisfy men of different interests and give them the mutual pleasure of believing their assertions upheld by the autority of the Council And thus the Jesuits and Dominicans were equally contented with the Canons concerning Grace and Justification Each Party drew the autority of the Council to its own side and there has not bin any Writer of these two Orders who in their many Books as opposite one to another as light is to darkness has not alledged these very Canons as invincible proofs against his adversary II. But if any should enquire further and search into that vast multitude of Decrees unknown till then he must needs wonder to find them built upon so sandy Foundations The most general Basis of them is laid in the fourth Session where the Council proposes two objects to our Faith to wit Books which are written and Traditions which are not written And they pretend as a necessary consequence that whatever we oppose against the Church of Rome is of that kind This is the Epitome of all the Council Nevertheless least any one should be offended at the word Tradition and perswade himself that they intend by it to equal mens autority to that of God or humane Ceremonies to the sacred Precepts of the Gospell they give of it a most magnificent character calling it The Word of Christ a Doctrine inspired by the Holy Ghost for the ordering our Faith and manners and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continued succession If that Principle be true there is an end of all Controversies and were the Church of Rome as able to prove it as she is ready to advance it we might hope to see in our daies that blessed Word of Christ accomplish't There shall be one Fold and one Shepherd And indeed there is no Protestant in the World who doth not admit of a Tradition endued with these Qualifications First That it be the Word of Christ 2. Inspired by the Holy Ghost 3. In matter of Faith and Manners 4. Preserved in the Catholic Church by an uninterrupted succession But there is no Protestant in the World that doth not maintain such a Tradition cannot be proved and is nothing else but one of those rich and splendid Idea's as admirable and flattering in their speculation as impossible and deceiving in their practice III. For the perfect evidencing whereof we need but consider the following Proposals First That of all places of the Scriptures whereby the Church of Rome asserts her Tradition there is not so much as one alledged by the Fathers in her sense Secondly That none of the Fathers ever understood Tradition otherwise then for the unanimous consent of the Doctors of the Church grounded upon a word which is written Thirdly That no places in Scripture are express for the authorizing such Tradition but many positive and clear to prove the sufficiency of Scripture Fourthly That among the Traditions of the Church of Rome she proposes many to our belief which do not appertain at all either to Faith or manners IV. The Scripture is most holy most infallible most perfect in it self The Gospel has added what was deficient in the Law And the Apostles Writings supplied the defect of the Gospel There we must stay 'T is no less crime in S. Basil's opinion to add that which is not written then to reject that which is written And 't is a stupendious boldness when God has vouchsafed to reveal his will to men by a certain and infallible word to substitute another neither clear nor undoubtedly received V. That new word which is ascribed to God has properly and by its self relation to those things which cannot be proved by Scripture as one of the Divines present at Trent has taken notice of otherwise it would be a written word But if it be so nothing is more unworthy of Christ and less agreeable to his divine Oracles It is to render his truth suspected or uncertain to expose Christians to infinite errors to give them as many masters as there are persons who will profess themselves the Guardians of that word and to make it the object of all mens scorn since according to the excellent saying of S. Jerome Quod de Scripturis autoritatem non habet eâ—dem facilitate contemnitur qua probatur VI. We find not that Christ in his holy Gospel sends us to Tradition whereby we may come to the knowledg of him Search the Scriptures they are they that testify of me The Apostles speak as their Master We have also a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts Many saies S. Chrysostom pretend to speak from the Holy Ghost but they do it falsly as long as they speak from themselves as Christ testifies he spoke not from himself but from the Law and the Prophets so if they proffer us any other thing then the Gospel under pretence of its being inspired by the Holy Ghost let us be far from believing it Is there any thing worse saies Pope S. Leo then to have impious sentiments and yet not to be willing to assent to the more learned and wise Those are guilty of this folly who when they are hindred from knowing the truth by any obscurity do not recur to the Prophetical Books the Apostolical Writings and Evangelical autority but to themselves and so become Masters and Teachers of error because they refused to be Disciples of Truth It would have bin very easy for S. Austin in that long and tedious Disputation with the Donatists concerning the Catholic Church to have made an end of it by sending them to Tradition But instead of doing so Let us not hear saies he Haec dico haec dicis but let us hear haec dicit Dominus We have the Lords Books Both of us acknowledg their autority both of us believe them ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam ibi discutiamus causam nostram nolo humanis documentis seâ— divinis Oraculis sanctam Ecclesiam demonstrari We seek as he there adds where the Church is what shall we do in verbis nostris eam quaesituri sumus an in verbis Domini I think it is to be sought in his words who is the TRUTH and knows perfectly her who is his Body Habeo manifestissimam vocem Pastoris mei commendantis mihi sine ullis ambagibus exprimentis Ecclesiam If I suffer my self to be reduced and separated from his flock which is the Church by the words of men I will impute it to my self whereas he advertiz'd me saying My Sheep know my voice 'T is the constant Doctrine of that admirable man in all his Works In his Letter to S. Jerome I confess your Charity saies he I give those Books alone which are termed Canonical that honor as to believe none of their Authors did
by heat or violence an extraordinary and unusual prudence appears in all their Canons they busy not themselves in calling the Pope Antichrist and Rome Babylon but render them the same respect they had ever done They judg themselves without judging others and are content to pray for other Societies without pronouncing either their Salvation or condemnation XX. As they do separate themselves only from the errours of the Church of Rome so they do pretiously preserve what doth not bear that name otherwise 't would not have bin the work of a pious zeal but of a wicked madness None can deny that there are many great and holy rites in the Church of Rome They therefore by a judicious distinction have thrown out those practises which were evil and retain'd the good XXI Having therefore two businesses in hand to wit the reformation of Doctrine and ordering of manners they have made use of the shortest and easiest means They compar'd all to the Scriptures and customes of the first Ages There is no point of their Faith which may not be proved by Scripture nothing in their Discipline which is not conformed to the ceremonies of the first 500 years XXII The Church of England therefore hath the comfort of having her Doctrine founded on the Scriptures so believed by the holy Saints as she beleiv'd it her Canons conformable to the antient Canons her Liturgy like the first Liturgies When she goes about to interpret the Scriptures she exacts not of her Children a blind obedience as doth the Church of Rome She thinks not to make any volume Canonical which was never really so but she follows the tracts of the Saints and of the Councils and hath learnt from the primitive Church which books in the Holy Bible are the grounds of our Faith and which only the object of our Piety XXIII We may say the same thing of all those points which raise the difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome The most considerable one is that of the Eucharist She treats that incomprehensible mystery with the respect due to it She neither presumes nor pretends to comprehend more of it then Christ hath bin pleased to reveal to them and the antient Church understood It is manifest first that Christ instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood Secondly that he is really present in it Thirdly that he abundantly communicates his grace and his holy Spirit to those who before they receive it seriously try themselves as the Apostle speaks and who not only forsake Sin but the very appetite of sinning and labour to order their life by his example But the manner of his being present is uncertain Christ saies nothing of it it appears noâ— that the primitive Church hath known how That of England receives with thanksgiving what he hath bin pleased to reveal to her and adores with a submissive silence what he hath not bin pleased to let her know We understand nothing of the Lord's Supper but by the Scriptures and the practice of the primitive times and when we limit our selves to that without going any further the manner of expounding it is not difficult The Infinite love of God towards us in that Sacrament destroies not the order which his wisdom hath put in things We leave to Faith all the latitude of it without contradicting the principles of reason But when men pretend to make Evangelists speak as Scholastics or Scholastics as Evangelists and look for Transubstantiation concomitancy and existence of the accidents without their subject c. all seems obscurity and darkness We sacrifice not our reason to faith but we throw aside both of them in saying that God explains himself after a manner conâ—rary to those principles which he hath established The Church of England is therefore in 〈◊〉 right of supposing as receiv'd what she beleives and the Church of Rome is obâ—â—ged to prove what she advances The former supposes the miracle which Christ â—ath wrought adding nothing new or â—npossible the other proposeth a thousand things to our beleif of which Christ â—ath said nothing and which are in â—hemselves greater miracles then that about which the two parties differ besides that they draw idolatrous practices XXIV The Church of Eng. doth not only think her self bound to beleive what Christ saies of the sacrament but she administers it â—s he hath given it us She orders the Sacrament under both kinds according â—o the command of Christ and to the praâ—tice of the Catholic Church and the whole World know the unchristian grounds upon which an Italian Bishop in the Council of Trent thought it was not to be granted for fear of making an argument against the pretended Infallibility of the Church of Rome XXV It is unreasonable that she do's not permit service to be read in the vulgar tongue and the Bible to be â—ranslated She knows nothing was ever grounded upon a less foundation then that and without looking on the orders of St. Paul which are so exact thereupon is there any thing in the World so contrary to reason as to pray to God in an unknown Tongue which exposeth the Praiers to the scorn and irreverence of those that offer them The Eastern Church did alwaies pray in Greek or in languages used by her divers Nations Whilst the Latin was the language of the West it was fitting that the service should be read in it but by the distraction of the Empire the incursions of Barbarians and the various revolutions we find in history that language having lost its life and given place to the various Idiomes of all Nations it was fitting men should pray in such languages as may be understood but it being more for the interest of the Pope to keep people ignorant he hath opposed so necessary a practice St. Jerome translated the Bible into Dalmatian the language of his own Country there are also to be â—ound manuscripts of the Bible in most languages of the World The more universal and dangerous heresies were the more the holy Saints exhorted the People to look in the Scriptures for those remedies which God hath granted against them XXVI The Church of England hath therefore turn'd the Liturgy into her Mother tongue The Priests and the Congregation there present send the same Praiers to Heaven and to take away all marks of Enthusiasm or novelty she hath composed the admirable Book of common Praier It is nothing but a collection of the most pathetical and instructive places of Scripture That which she hath not from thence are the very words of the Fathers or antient collects which by tradition were receiv'd from the primitive Church All is sound all is holy we address our selves to God in God's own language and we speak to him as he hath spoke to us 'T is a happy obligation for a Christian to pray after such a manner wherein a vain imagination bears no part his mind is enlivened his heart softned by that he can preach to himself and
destroy old ones There being therefore so great a difference between their doctrine and that of their Church I have the justice and honesty not to charge their excesses upon a communion which notwithstanding its many errors cannot cease to be great and venerable but the acts of Trent the Councils of the Catholic Church the writings of the Fathers and the decretal Epistles of the Popes themselves being still extant 't is from thence that the assertors or opposers of that Council must fetch their arguments I make no doubt but that this writing will increase the hatred of my adversaries and I foresee that the blackest colours of calumny will not be dark enough to draw my picture with T is the ordinary way of many Zealots who make it a part of their vertue to slander persons on the account of their Religion and to persecute them to the end either to induce them thereby to turn back to the communion they have left or at least to discredit them in that which they have embraced No Christianly affected man can see such dealings so opposite to God's Spirit without great sentiments of sorrow and compassion nor deplore too much the state of those men who break thro all the laws of charity by a principle of Conscience and certainly a party must needs be strangely weak when its defenders run to Pamphlets and injuries to maintain it The greatest and most signaliz'd revenge I le take of them and of their writings shall be a constant silence As their arguments shall never find me dumb so their reproaches shall for ever make me deaf The living God who understands the language of our hearts shall be the only witness of mine to him alone I will complain and if at any time I pray for the ruine of my persecutors it shall be as St. Austin tells us David did for the destruction of his Enemies He hated them with a perfect hatred he could never be reconcil'd with the sin but nevertheless loved very tenderly the sinner and at the same time he would have suffer'd death to confound the one he would have given his life to save the other REFLEXIONS On the Council of TRENT Discourse I. That the Protestants without any necessity of inquiring into the Decrees of the Council of Trent have sufficient reason to reject it I. THERE are no true Christians whose very being so imprints not in them a profound respect for the Councils of the Church since they consider them as Sacred Conventions wherein that Holy Mother both instructs and reforms her Sons and wherein Bishops speak forth the dictates of that Spirit which proceeds from the supreme Bishop of our souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. thereby preserving as well the faith of their people from being undermin'd by the overgrowing malice of Heresie as their manners from being corrupted by the remissness of her discipline The Catholick Church has alwaies judged them of so absolute a necessity that when ever the Devil attempted to disturb her peace so soon she gather'd her Members from all parts of the Earth to oppose him and to learn from the Divine Scriptures how that dreadful Enemy was to be conquer'd So when Arius endeavor'd to deprive us of our Redeemer by the denyal of his Divinity the whole Church thundred upon him in the Nicent Council Macedonius whose blasphemous Tongue inveighed against the Holy Ghost was no better treated in the Constantinopolitan That of Ephesus prov'd no less Enemy to Nestorius A thousand Anathema's were pronounc'd against Eutiches by the Fathers met at Chalcedon And because the Nestorians even after Nestorius his condemnation were resolv'd to maintain his Errors under the name of Theodorus Bishop of Mopsuestia Theodoret Bishop of Cyr and Ibas Bishop of Edessa and did likewise pretend that the first being dead in the Communion of the Church and the two others having been receiv'd in the Chalcedon Council the said Council had approv'd of the Nestorian Heresie the fifth General Synod gather'd at Constantinople condemn'd the three Chapters their Authors and Defenders amongst whom was poor Pope Vigilius reckon'd notwithstanding all his Infallibility It had been the constant desire of Men that the Council of Trent would have taken these first Assemblies for its rule kept both their form and spirit and shew'd in these last Times where Charity is so cold some foot-steps of those where it was so flaming II. There were no reasons wanting to raise in us the most ardent desires that it should have been so There was scarce any Religion to be found in men Superstition had so blinded their minds and fleshly lusts infected their hearts And at the same time that ambition had put Arms into the hands of Princes to disturb the world the bloodless but more pernicious and obstinate quarrels of Divines wasted the face of the Church The immediate fore-going Ages had brought forth Councils that contradicted each other All Europe stood amaz'd at those of Constance Basil Florence and the Lateran The sacred Persons of Kings were become so despâ—cable â—s to be excommunicated and degraded without the least scruple The Divine Authority of Bishops was brought to nothing and it was hard to judg whether ignorance or corruption was more predominant in the Clergy Nay the Popes themselves if you believe their Bulls seem'd to be sensible of so many Exorbitances Pope Pius the Fourth confessed He could not but be struck with horror when he saw how much both Heresie and Schism had prevail'd and how much Christian manners stood in need to be reformed Paul the Third before him had acknowledg'd That Heresie and Schism had vitiated all things But Adrian the Sixth goes further and in his Letter to the German Princes does not think it enough to say That the whole world groans under inveterate and insufferable abominations that he desires earnestly a Reformation but adds That the Church of Rome the Apostolical See is the off-spring â—f so many disorders We know saies he â—here have been many abominations in this â—oly See abuses in Spiritual affairs excesâ—s in the Laws and that all things are perâ—erted and it is no wonder that the disease â—ath flown from the head to the members â—rom the Popes to the inferior Prelates This is also the Confession of those â—rave and learned Doctors who being â—onsulted by Paul the Third about the â—ntended Reformation answered him poâ—â—tively That such an Enterprize would â—rove impossible and useless to the Church unâ—ess it began at the Head III. 'T was requisite therefore to come to that so much expected Reformation recal the ancient Doctrine and manners of the Church and demonstrate by a sudden and efficacious remedy that the Popes were not deaf to the cries and complaints of so many Nations But 't was necessary also to make the humane Grandeur of the Apostolick See agree with the Spiritual necessities that Souls were in exhibit some kind of help which they should be alwaies masters of and like
prolong his life he would have done great things The reformation of Popes was a wound never searched without making them fall into dreadful fits All Christians desired the primitive times in matters both of Doctrine and discipline should be brought again But they were afraid at that word and the only representation of such a Council as those four which Pope Gregory the Great reverenced as the four Gospels was a phantôme which all the exorcisms in the World could not drive away We need but read Onuphrius their historian to be acquainted with their fears Cardinal Pallavicini could not conceal them Cardinal Bellai represents in his memoires how much Pope Paul the Fourth was frighted And all the World was so far perswaded that this only thing hindred them from proceeding that Monsieur de Ferrieres Embassadour of his most Christian Majesty to the Council told them not only in his Masters name but also of all the Gallican Church that more than an hundred and fifty years since a reformation of the head and members had bin expected in the Church that it had bin required in the Constantian Basilean and Ferrarian Councils but could never be obtained that t was no hard matter to guess at the reason of so many delaies XV. The truth on 't was the Popes wounds were grown altogether incurable There had bin a kind of prescription against all their abuses Many holy men had inveigh'd against them on all occasions but in vain and thus usurpation had lasted so long that they did account it a lawful authority T was so pleasing to them to thunder at all the World upon the smallest occasion that they could not renounce it without thinking themselves undone In a word they were not taken so much with the humble and penitent lives of the Popes Adrian and Marcellus as with the audacious and voluptuous ones of Boniface Leo and Hildebrand Nevertheless this sick and languishing person is allow'd to govern his own Physitians The general complaint of the World is that the Popes swelling ambition has made him break through all laws that the Court of Rome is become a sink of wickedness that the vices of the head infected the members that without the reforming of this head there is no hope left for laying of any solid foundation And yet he presides in his Council He calls directs and transports it by his â—ull and sole authority tho the 400 Preâ—ates met at Basil had made it a point of the Catholic Faith that 't was not in his power his Spirit fits the mouth of his Legats and the fear of him strikes the hearts of the Bishops XVI Paul the third being afraid of nothing so much as of a free Council where Protestants should be heard provided so well against these two inconveniences that the Conventicles of Tyre of Antioch or of Ephesuâ— in comparison of that would have bin thought freedom it self Peace being the source of all freedom in an Ecclesiastical assembly where all the members of it are stil'd by Scripture Evangelists of peace that Pope was extreamly diligent in fomenting War thro all Europe This we are assur'd of by the speech of Cardinal de Monte that of Cardinal de Lorraine the letters of the Lantgrave de Hesse of the Duke of Saxony and of that Pope himself to the Switzers wherein he acquaints them he has made a league with the Emperor to underminâ— Protestants and intends for that purpose to raise all the forces of the Ecclesiastical state What name shall we give a Council which has such a Pope for its president Do's he deal out of charity or ambition Do's he design to convert Souls by force of Arms What can they think of the Church who are suppos'd to be separated from her How long is it since Councils were taught to War with any other weapon then Scriptures then tears and Praiers Is that Pope to be trusted who at the same time he offers to receive his Children into his bosome can lift up his hand to strike them Julius the Third was of a greater sincerity and scorn'd to deal deceitfully When he call'd the Fathers to Trent he openly agreed with the Emperor to make War against France about the Dukedom of Parma and to speak as Onuphrius who is more his Panegyrist than his Historian set Italy and the rest of Europe in a flame What peace then or freedome could a Council enjoy when all Europe was emâ—roil'd and groan'd under a bloody War and what designs of reunion and charity could a Pope entertain who sought nothing but confusion and trouble Pius the Fourth seem'd to be asham'd of it He was so little convinc'd of the validity of what ever had bin done at Trent that when he recall'd again his Synod the third time he was at a loss how to term it whether it should be considered as a new one or but a continuation of the first French-men claim'd the one Spaniards pretended the other The Pope saies his Panegyrist met with an expedient to make them agree and he did so contrive his Bull that all were equally satisfied that is to say he daub'd up the business he flatter'd each one with a fancy they had bin victorious but he gave occasion at the same time to all clear-sighted men to wonder at a conduct so far distant from the candor and ingenuity of the first Ages and so full of carnal wisdom which the Apostle stiles Death and to beleive that he never intended to heal the wounds of the Church but only to cover them and create her new ones XVII What is the reason the Pope is so earnest for the Council to be held in Italy and stops his ears to the cries of Germany the complaints of Protestants and the entreaties of so many Princes and Bishops Did France where the eldest Son of the Church commands give him any cause to fear Did Germany where Charles 5 th commanded Did Spain where people were grown adorers of his Grandeur Was this Council for being had in any of these Kingdoms under the subjection of most Christian and Catholic Princes in danger of becoming either less free or less Orthodox Had the Pope bin inflam'd with the zeal of that faithful Shepherd of whom it is written do's he not leave the ninety nine go into the Mountains seeks that which is gone astray how great joy should have possessed his Soul for having the place shown him where to find his wandring Sheep where all European Bishops might have met together and England Sweden Denmark Poland and Germany sent their Prelates Should he not have bin ravish'd at the occasion given him of rendring the Protestants inexcusable of reproaching them as Christ did Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thy Children together even as a hen gathereth her chicken and ye would not Matth. 23. 37. of accusing them of Schism and applying to them all Saint Austin's arguments against the Donatists
great Truth in these words which the Church has so much admired as to make a Canon of them Verily verily I say unto you he that beleives in me hath everlasting life He therefore who has not everlasting life believes not in Christ but he believes in Christ that has Charity for to beleive in Christ est tendere in ipsum amando is to be enclined to him by Love It is to this the remissions of sins hath bin promised huic remissio peccatorum promittitur But if Love cannot be separated from Christian Faith how can he that wants Charity have Christian Faith that is believe in Christ Faith is therefore the Spring of our love and love the Source of our Works What is it to love God continues that holy Doctor but to be inwardly adherent to him to conceive an ardent desire of seeing him an hatred of sin a distast to the World a Charity for our Neighbor whom he has commanded us to love and so strictly to observe in our Charity the rules he has prescribed us in his Law as never to pervert its order But let it be far from Christians to think our Faith or Love come from us If any beleives saies the Council of Orange he can do any good action quod ad salutem pertinet vitae aeternae by the strength of nature and without being enlightned and inspired by the Holy Ghost who poures into our hearts a suavity which makes us assent to and believe the truth that man haeretico fallitur spiritu not attending to what Christ pronounces in his Gospel Without me ye can do nothing Nor to the words of the Apostle We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God There are in man saies the same Council many good things which man doth not do but in those he doth there are none but what God doth in him No man saies another Canon has of himself but falshood and sin but if any hath truth and righteousness 't is of him Quem debemus sitire in hac eremo ut ex eo quasi quibusdam guttis irrorati non deficiamus in via Good God! how far are the Canons of Trent from the holiness and humility of these how repugnant to the establisht Doctrine of the Church and the sentiments of the Fathers are the proud and Pelagian principles of the Jesuits XI The Anathema's of the seventh Session being no better grounded are not more to be feared the Council cuts off from the Church which is the Body of Christ those who admit of more or less then seven Sacraments It is evident that such a Principle cannot be proved by the Scripture We must then recur to the unwritten Word Sure so important a truth has bin preserved in the Catholic Church and nothing ought to be more obvious in the writings of the Fathers Nevertheless not a word for twelve whole Ages and that so long uninterrupted silence had never bin broken had not the master of the Sentences and other Scholastics brought it into the World Indeed we find every where in the writings of the Fathers that the Adult must give an account of the Faith they professed at their Baptism and receive the imposition of hands from the Bishop We meet every where with Repentance Penance and Confession of Sins We see every where the power of ordaining Priests so committed to the Bishops by Christ that all Ordinations from other hands were esteemed unlawful and sacrilegious But we find no where all these things to be Sacraments And no man can sufficiently wonder how the Fathers at Trent propose as an Article of Faith grounded upon Tradition a thing they are obliged to confess was never spoken of in the Church for twelve hundred years XII The Vnwritten word doth no more favor the Canon which establishes Transubstantiation then the others and we have from the ancient writings so many places against this Doctrine that we cannot conceive how it came into the World Tertullian writing against Marcion who denied that Christ had a real Body tells him Christ made his Body of the Bread he distributed saying This is my Body that is the figure of my Body Figura Corporis mei but it had never bin a Figure Si veritatis corpus non esset had not the Truth Christ had a real Body Christ saies Theodoret honored the Symbols and signs of the Sacrament with the name of his Body and Blood not changing their nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but adding his Grace to their nature S. Jerome is no less positive then Theodoret The Flesh and Blood of Christ saies he are understood two several waies either of that spiritual and divine Flesh of which he saies himself My Flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed and Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you or my Flesh which was nailed upon the Cross and my Blood which was shed by the Souldiers Spear S. Austin who is justly esteemed the Oracle of the Western Churches adds a pregnant testimony to this Assertion The first heresy saies he in the Disciples of Christ was occasioned by the hardness of his words for when he told them Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you they not apprehending him said one to another This is a hard saying who can bear it In saying this is hard they separated themselves from him But he remained with his twelve Disciples and taught them saying It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life Do you understand them in a spiritual manner they are spirit and life do you understand them in a carnal manner they they are no less spirit but not for thee who understandest them not spiritually Spiritually apprehend what I have said Non hoc corpus quod videtur manducaturi estis bibituri sanguinem quem effusuri sunt qui me crucifigent The Sacrament I recommend to you quickneth when it is understood spiritually but the flesh profiteth nothing They answered him according to their apprehension for they understood this flesh as it is used to be sold in a carcass or torn in the shambles Jesus knowing their error said to them What I told you of giving you my Body to eat and my Blood to drink scandalizeth you but what will you say if you see the Son of Man ascending to the place where he was before He resolves here what he had proposed to them he shews them that which they were scandalized by to the end they might apprehend him In this manner they thought he would have given them his Body Ille dixit se ascensurum in coelum utique integrum When you shall see the Son of Man ascending to
from God Justitiam vero quae ex fide Christi est non esse nisi ex Deo A man may be still sinfull and Gods enemy with such a righteousness Ideo cum in illa quae ex lege est justitia sine querela conversaretur Apostolus fuisse se impium non negat Fourthly they taught That sorrow conceiv'd only out of fear of punishment is a sorrow of Infidels and that if God were satisfied with that there is no man in the World that could chuse but be innocent since no man that has but the least Idea of the life to come but is moved with its apprehension Non enim peccare metuit sed ardere This is a principle the Fathers have with unanimous consent maintained This the Popes in former Ages taught Nay those that sit now in the Apostolical See would do so too if with the modesty and humility of their Predecessors they had not also rejected their doctrine XVI The Council seems in its last Session to gather all its strength against those who reject Purgatory and deprive Saints Images and Reliques of their due honor Yet it appears the Fathers of Trent agreed that all those things Purgatory excepted are not founded upon Scripture but only upon the General Councils and Writings of the Fathers This is collected out of the very words of the Decree the Council there speaking of Ecclesiastical antiquity but not a word of the Scripture A Person of extraordinary merit has undertaken to lay open the mysteries of Purgatory and as he leaves nothing unsaid on that subject so none can take it ill if I refer my Reader to him For those other things Invocation of Saints Images and Reliques 't is easy in a few words to shew how infirm their ground is in the ancient Doctrine of the Church All learned men in the Church of Rome admit of the following Propositions First That nothing in the Scripture authorizes these practices or at least nothing sure fixt cleer and undoubted Secondly That all places taken out of Scripture by modern Writers to prove these things have never bin made use of by the Ancients for that purpose and so are of no autority the ancients being most holy and assured Interpreters of the Scriptures Thirdly That till the seventh pretended General Council that is for eight hundred years there was not any decision made of them Fourthly That to this pretended General Council we oppose others acknowledged General by the Collector of the Councils but as all learned men confess endued with these Qualities 1. More exact in the Discussion of matters as it appears by their Acts. 2. Called by an holy Emperor and peculiar Benefactor to the Church of Rome 3. Free from all Suspicions of oppression which the seventh is guilty of 4. That the consent of the Fathers upon that Doctrine is neither clear nor unanimous and that if in any of later date there be some places tending that way there are in the same and many others a thousand contrary places to invalidate them 5. That if we speak according to the Principles of the Church of Rome it self there can no more then a simple probability be pleaded in this case and that none of the greatest neither but to both parties favorable But there is not a Divine in the World who dares affirm that an Article of Faith can be built upon a simple probability nor declare them impious and blasphemous who have a contrary probability nor excommunicate them and separate them from the Church that is inflict upon them the most dreadful punishment How could the Fathers of Trent therefore do this why did they not fear that threatning of the wise Man Sicut avis in incertum volans quolibet vadens sic maledictum frustrà prolatum venit super eum qui misit illud Nor that of Origen when a man is unjustly put out of the Church he ceaseth not to be within when he that thinks himself within may be really out XVII Saints pray in general for all Christians For tho they triumph in Heaven yet they are her members who strives and combats upon Earth They are indeed united to their Head which is Christ but yet they still preserve the remembrance of the Body which is the Church They are a part of that Spouse who as S. Bernard saies sighs after the Bridegroome and begs a kiss from his mouth wisheth for the end of the World that Christ would hasten his Judgment and manifest that day wherein he will begin to be all in all 'T is in that very sense the Apostle saies The whole Creation groans and travails in pain till now even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So S. Cyprian assures us That the Saints being secure of their immortality are careful of our Salvation S. Jerome argues against Vigilantius in this manner If the Apostles and Martyrs being yet in their Bodies can pray for others much more when they have conquered are crowned and triumph And S. Austin yet more perfectly The Saints in Heaven saies he offering their prayers for the necessity of those that pray God grants to every one all those comforts he judges most suitable to them in the miseries of the present life But there is a vast difference between the Invocation whereby we direct our Prayers to the Saints and the intercession of the Saints for us And none of these things are to be found in the Tradition 1. That the Saints pray for any particular person 2. That they obtain any favors for us by their own merits 3. That it is lawful to honor them with a religious worship XVIII And to discover with how little sincerity the Council of Trent speaks of this custom that it has bin preserved à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus it is enough to say that their most learned Men confess it was the sentiment of the Primitive Fathers that the Souls of the Saints should not enjoy the sight of God till the day of Judgement and consequently could neither speak in favor of us no offer to him our praiers S. â—ene Justin S. Clement Tertullian Origen Lactantius S. Ambrose S. Chrysostom S. Augustin Eutimius Theodoret Oecumenius Aretas are said to have bin of that opinion Nay S. Bernard preach't it which shews that this Doctrine continued till the twelfth Age of the Church XIX Indeed we cannot too much honor those holy men who preserve with an undaunted resolution the precious Tresures committed to their charge We must admire them in the powerful effects of Christs Grace who in a corruptible flesh and a sinfull World has preserved them pure and undefiled The constancy of Martyrs the austerity of Penitents the inviolated purity of Virgins who despised all other ambition besides that of being near the Lamb deserve all our Praises Nay a true Christian makes his actions
Council of Francfort should object That those Nicene Fathers not being able to prove their Decrees either by the autority of the Scripture or the testimonies and examples of the Saints had recurred to fancies and Dreams A Council which the Assembly at Francfort of 300. Bishops headed by Charles the Great declared to be so annulled and abrogated that it ought not to be put in the order of Councils unless of such as Ariminum Lastly a Council which the learned Defenders of Images were so loath to defend that it had continued buried in a deep oblivion had not the Jesuit Mainbourg three years since raised it from its Grave but alas in what a manner First he affected and this is his confession and glory to write in a Romantick stile upon one of the gravest Controversies in Religion as if matters of Divinity and the Oracles of the living God were of the same metal as those abominable Books Secondly in writing against Iconoclasts he never directed his arrows against them but designed to fix them in the hearts of the Jansenists Preposterous and irrational fancy being put to it how to recover the lost honor of his Society so trampled on in the sight of all Christendom he resolved to attack once more his Conquerors not out of any hopes of Victory but out of impatience the natural product of Pride He durst not therefore come into the open Field and renew that Quarrel his Society had so shamefully begun and so unhappily prosecuted but betook himself to by waies and thought it more secure and glorious to represent the Jansenists under the notion of Iconoclasts and the imputed rebellion of the one against the Apostolical See under the history of the other Thirdly He so ill contrived his design that he lost the Character of both and only betrayed himself to be of a spirit bold and temerarious who with more then a Jesuitical impudence delivers lies as confidently as others do truth His History of the Arians and this of the Iconoclasts both daughters of the same brain both written with the same design had also the same fate Neither was answered those whom they were chiefly levelled against being there so unskilfully delineated as not to know themselves nor indeed would they ever have done so had not that Author doating upon his so well resembling Babe and the Jesuits who like the Spaniards triumph as well when beaten as when Conquerors spread it through the World But I have spent too many words upon so inconsiderable a Writer XXV To return then to our purpose who of any sense or reason hearing the Fathers of Trent say that they permit the worship of Images juxta Catholicae Ecclesiae usum à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus receptum Sanctorumque Patrâ—m consensionem Sacrorum Conciliorum Decreta and then seeking all these great things finds 1. That for 800. years the Catholick and Apostolick Church has determined nothing of it 2. That all the Fathers are contrary to it 3. That those sacred Councils so magnificently alledged are nothing but a miserable Conventicle at the end of the eighth Age. 4. That England Germany the Low-Countries Sweden Denmark part of France and Poland declare against it What man of any sense I say considering all this will not conclude 1. That we ought to distrust all the Decrees of Trent and some being evidently false give little credit to the most true 2. That the Fathers of Trent had not the Charity of the Apostles whose Successors they were since they excluded from their Communion so many considerable Churches for a point which themselves acknowledg not to be grounded on Scripture Not necessary to Salvation Not related to Faith Manners Sacraments and Discipline And Protestants not requiring Images to be pulled down as did S. Epiphanius and S. Serenus but only their use to be ordered as it was in S. Austin and S. Gregory's time 3. That the Church of Rome being immoveable upon the Controverted points she must give us leave to address to her Council the same words the Fathers of Francfort did to the Nicene Out of what fury or rather madness doth unius partis Ecclesia attempt to establish that which has never bin establisht by the Apostles or their immediate Successors and oblige them either to undergo the Anathema so vainly pronounced against them or disobey the Apostolical Constitutions Were they not promted by her who is called in Scripture the ancient poison the guide of Death the root of all evil they would never strive to fix the name of General Council to their Assembly had without the consent of many Catholick Churches They would never take upon them to anathematize with such boldness so many and so considerable Churches which are no less then they the Body of Christ REFLEXIONS On the Council of TRENT Discourse III. That the Council of Trent was so far from reforming the disorders which had crept into the Church that it really made the breaches in its discipline wider and cut off all hopes of correcting the antient abuses I. WHatever Ecclesiastical disorders are recorded in the Writings of the Antients they seem in no respect equal to those which infested the Church about the time of the Council of Trent In the first Ages indeed the zeal and severity of Christians rendred every fault conspicuous but in the last the most pious could hardly suffice to express her real and constant evils This produc'd the desires of a general Reformation especially that he who pretends to be upon Earth the supreme Judg of all men would judg himself take some pity of his own Soul and since the distempers of the Church ow'd their original to the Apostolical See begin at that part from whence the cure of all the rest was hoped for II. Whereas then the Worlds recovery depended on that of the Popes they ought willingly to have embraced the occasion of doing so great a good Nor could less be hoped then that considering the promotion of Piety as their proper Interest they would sacrifice all others to it and the Council of Trent which lasted eighteen years rais'd the expectations of all good Christians that the tears of so many Nations would not be shed in vain But by the dreadful judgment of God it miserably baffled the Churches cries and instead of closing her wounds opened and created new ones For to evince the truth of which so great reproach we need only consider two particulars 1. The distempers of the Church 2. The remedies applied to them And from the consideration of these there will none I hope but confess that the Fathers of this Council acted the part of an unfaithful Chirurgion who to cure a less noble part inflicts a deadly wound to the heart of his Patient III. We intend not here to treat of any personal defects which shew'd themselves in the Popes private life but shall confine them only to those which were public when they dealt
of Trent gave it two mortal wounds 1. To declare Bishops in many cases the Popes Delegates 2. To leave the question of their residence and jurisdiction undecided 1. The first of these two things brings Episcopacy unto a strange abatement renders the Pope master of all Bishops Jurisdictions breaks all ancient Canons runs down the interests of all Princes encroaches upon the Rights and Liberties of Churches gives the Bishops a quality unworthy the successors of the Apostles and forces them to receive that as a borrowed and begg'd privilege which belongs naturally to them The second causes Episcopacy to be look'd upon as a meer humane emploiment or Civil Magistracy Such a Bishop could never have the confidence to say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 13. 3. Do you seek a proof of Christs speaking in me Nay he would no more value his sacred character then one of the Kings officers do his and regard the duties of his Divine calling rather as rules instituted for decency then as unchangeable obligations so strictly requir'd from him that without them he has no hope of salvation XXVI Jurisdiction is no less essential to Episcopacy then the power of ordaining Ministers a proposition we could easily demonstrate to be unanswerable would it not render this Discourse too big and had it not bin already done by a learned hand against the infamous Doctrine of â—oth English and French Jesuits For Jesuits are every where the same Ordination and Jurisdiction are so twisted together that they cannot be divided without their â—â—utual destruction Bishops receive both from the same hand and are no less instituted by Christ in the Church to govern 〈◊〉 then to continue the succession of the Governors XXVII Nay may it not be affirm'd that Jurisdiction is both as essential to Episcopacy 〈◊〉 necessary to the Church as Ordination â—or the Church being as St. Paul saies a 〈◊〉 i. e. a society consisting of Rulers and others submitted to them without Jurisdiction it can no more be such a society then without Ordination those rulers can be continued Therefore as noâ— Bishop ordains in the Catholic Church aâ— the Popes or any other Patriarchs delegate but by the fulness of power he receives from Christ so no Bishop exerciseâ— any act of Jurisdiction by any delegation but by that power he is invested with aâ— Bishop successor of the Apostles and Vicar of Christ A Bishop that acts or believes otherwise betraies that dignity intrusted to hiâ— by Christ which he ought to maintain 〈◊〉 the last drop of his blood XXVIII Nor pretend we thereby to say thâ— such a Jurisdiction may be exercis'd in â—â—very place and over all persons the patition of Dioceses shews the extraordâ—â—nary wisdom of Councils and Princeâ— Nor may any one transgress the limiâ— they have put among Bishops without dâ—â—claring himself an enemy to all disciplinâ— Now all the following Propositions aâ— certainly true at least to all admirers 〈◊〉 former times whom I take to be in Eâ—England in a greater number then elsewhere 1. That no man or no part of a Diocess can be substracted from a Bishops Jurisdiction but by the autority of a Prince or Council 2. That no man can be substracted from the Jurisdiction of his Bishop without being put at the same time under another 3. That however a Bishop deals with any man either substracted from his Jurisdiction or added to it 't is alwaies of himself and by the power he receiv'd from Christ 4. That the exemtions of Friars and Monks are a Schism rais'd by the Popes 5. That the name of the Popes Delegates in its most favorable sense given to the Bishops in things which belong to them is plenojure and by all Laws a most shameful injury to the Episcopal order 6. That nemo est qui non perhorrescat to use the words of a Learned Doctor of Sorbon at the speech of the Jesuit Lainez in the Council of Trent That all the power of Jurisdiction hath bin by Christ conferr'd on the Bishop of Rome so that the Jurisdiction of Bishops is not fundamental but deriv'd XXIX Now concerning the divine right of Episcopacy the Fathers of Trent committed two great faults the one to bring it into question and the other to leave it undecided As for the first it had bin receiv'd in the Church for fourteen ages taught by the Fathers embraced by their Disciples and only impugn'd by the Italian Canonists For the second such an indecision is a ground for any man in the Church of Rome to deny doubt of and contradict the institution of Bishops these three things being the nature of all undecided points So a man may maintain there is no government at all in the Church and consequently no Church since it does not appear that Christ hath instituted any other then Episcopacy and certainly to find any other the Scripture must be strain'd in many places the constant universal and never oppos'd practice of fourteen hundred years be impudently contradicted XXX But what is most pleasant in this Indecision is that the Pope has verifi'd the word of the Prophet Psal 35. 8. Let the net that he hath hid catch himself for all these following consequences flow from it 1. That the Holy Father is no Pope by divine right Jure divino for the Popedom being nothing else but an extension of Episcopacy he is no Pope but because he is Bishop No Divine durst yet advance any other opinion But the Episcopacy of the Holy Father is not different from that of other Bishops being in all respects of the same kind Episcopatus unus est And the Italians who are so abundant in novelties when they undertake to raise up the credit of their Master have bin dumb in this matter Therefore if the Popes Episcopacy is not Jure divino his Papacy is not so neither since one is engrafted upon the other and if the Holy Father is not Pope Jure divino what ground can be laid for the ambition and usurpation of the Apostolical See What shall we do with the fine and rare Doctrine of Infallibility 2. The Council has impos'd the belief of its new Decree upon all Christians under pain of eternal damnation but if they are only Ministers from the Church and not from Christ with what eies shall we consider so stupendious a boldness Who hath impowr'd a company of men to make Decrees of divine Faith And how without being authoriz'd by God did they exact an obedience only due to Ministers sent from Heaven 3. 'T is a crime in a Roman Catholic to believe the Council of Trent did not lawfully what it did otherwise such a meeting is a dream and a chimera But who is that Roman Catholic of any sense who can be perswaded of it seeing 't is allow'd in the Church of Rome to deny any of those Bishops had the least autority from God to do what they did XXXI And indeed who will not wonder the Fathers of
Trent so peremtorily give their verdict of things they confess not grounded upon Scripture and which were converted for many Ages as Images Praiers to the Saints Indulgencies c. and leave undecided a point so evident in Scripture and so constant in Tradition XXXII It highly therefore concerns the truth to find out the mystery why they were so obstinate at Rome in an undecision so extremely pernicious to the whole Catholic Church to that of Rome in particular and to the Pope himself The truest cause is the pride of the Eminentissimi Cardinali They were used long since to trample on the necks of Bishops and to keep them in quality of their Secretaries or Stewards An enormity proceeding from the poverty weakness and sad condition of the Italian Prelates A Bishop to gain respect needed to be privy to the pleasures or designs of the Cardinal At Pope Pius the Fourths Counsel Bishops stood bare-headed whilst gli Eminentissimi sat and were covered And by a disorder no where to be found but at Rome a gray hair'd Bishop or Arch-bishop exhausted with austerities and considerable for services done the Churâ—h was seen at the feet of a young powdered perfumed Cardinal puft up with pride softned by wantonness and in a word whose Eminency had usually nothing more eminent then most eminent vices XXXIII 'T was then impossible to speak in the Council of the Bishops Institution without putting Cardinals in mind of theirs one is so ancient and divine the other so new and humane that the very thoughts of them could not chuse but make Cardinals asham'd For if they consider their dignity as Spiritual they are only Priests or Deacons submitted for that very reason to their Bishops and without power of voting in Councils Or if they consider it as a temporal honor they have nothing to do with the affairs of the Church They are in the order of the sheep not of the Shepherd and instead of being so proud as to ambition speaking and ruling in Councils must beg with a profound humility to hear and be ruled Or at last if they are in a middle state as a Jesuit a man of a middle state also as fit as the rest of his company to unite great extremes describes them they ought to fear the condemnation Christ has interminated to those who serve two masters And thus it was of a very high concernment for Cardinals to leave a question undecided which would have restored them to their ancient condition and done justice to the sacred character of Bishops How dangerous soever seemed the consequences of such undecision they followed the Italian maxim To keep the present usurpations at the price of the most equitable Laws XXXIV Nor were they less interess'd at the question of Residency For if the decision of the divine institution of Bishops destroied their honors that of residency finished their pleasures sent them to their Diocess and cut off the sweet and luxurious life of Rome Nevertheless it was required by the Spanish and French Bishops that Residency should be declared Jure divino Of all Christian Truths none is so powerfully expressed in the Scripture so conformable to good sense so inculcated to us by the Writings and Examples of the Fathers Nay without gathering a thousand testimonies from all parts of the Scripture let us only say to the Bishops what Saint Jerome saies to Nepotian Interrogent nomen suum and no doubt 't is enough to perswade them There is none of these Bishops absent from their Dioceses who dares read without fear that parable of the Gospel wherein Christ calls himself the good Shepherd expresses in a stile full of love that 〈◊〉 takes all imaginable care for hindering them from going astray that he has a voice whereby his sheep know him and discern him from foreigners or mercenâ—â—ries and what is more that he has 〈◊〉 life to spend for saving them from death XXXV Now Bishops are in the Church to reâ—present Christ to the life either because he has committed to their care the goâ—vernment of his people or because they succeed the Apostles who are his witâ—nesses A Bishop that wants a watchfuâ— care to look after his sheep a voice to caâ— them and above all a life to lose for their sakes is a thief that comes not but to steal to kill and to destroy This great duty gave occasion to the Fathers to call Bishops Sponsos Ecclesiarum suarum the Bride-grooms of their Churches Thence they drew these important conclusions 1. That the polygamy of Dioceses is no more lawful to a Bishop then polygamy of Wives to a Christian 2. That as in a Christian Marriage a husband must be entirely to his wife concenter in her all his desires and love her after God above all the world so a Bishop that is tyed to the Church must banish all other thoughts then to live and die in her bosom 3. That as we learn from the sublime Divinity of the Apostle that Christ loved entirely his Church never abandoned her died for her and remains with her till the end of the world so a Bishop must be jealous of the Church Christ has entrusted him with watch continually for her and because she lies in the midst of a thousand enemies persevere in her defence till his last breath XXXVI We need but read St. Pauls Epistles to Timothy and Titus to see the Disciple Preaching as he had bin taught by his Master All those great qualities he requires in a Bishop that irreprehensible life that exact watchfulness that sound doctrine that incredible patience in exhorting that prudent behavior amongst so many different sorts of people old men youths widows and virgins have no other foundation but residency And the Fathers were so throughly convinc'd of this duty that when they speak of Episcopacy they stile it a burden dreadful to the shoulders of angels themselves along and tedious death a source of infinite cares and solicitudes all which expressions are meer mockeries if they did not suppose residency Jure divino Their examples are more pressing then their precepts And St. Athanasius St. Austin and Pope St. Gregory did actions answering to and surpassing their words Nay God has not permitted the Church of Rome it self in the darkness of its incredulity to be destituted of such precedents St. Charles nephew to Pope Pius the Fourth retir'd to his See maugre all the intreaties of his uncle Cardinal Bellarmin the Popes great adorer would never accept of a dispensation profer'd to him for non residing and he has left us an excellent Letter to a nephew of his wherein we may see that tho Jesuit and Cardinal he could never be induced by the Pope himself to betray his conscience XXXVII But the Cardinals presiding at Trent and the Italian Bishops did not care very much to shake the very principles of Religion and so recur to the softest interpretations of Casuists The first foresaw that if residency be declared of Divine Right
there would be no pretence or excuse at all to live at Rome The loss of Rome for a Cardinal is no small sacrifice and there is a great difference between these two to lie conceal'd in his Diocess and to shine in a Court known to be the most proud rich and voluptuous in the World The second should have hazarded too much in striving against the Cardinals They lived in their families eat the crumbs which fall from their tables and made a part of their retinue Those of them who were less despis'd had also more ambition they aim'd at Cardinalship and Residency was the nearest way to be depriv'd of it They forgat therefore that they were Bishops and chose rather to betray their character then leave their pretences and pleasures XXXVIII What then has the Council done in its so much boasted of Reformation Great things indeed Those two hundred Bishops that had bin five and twenty years before they could meet and eighteen after they had met answer'd perfectly the expectation of all Christendom 1. They have forbidden Praiers in a known Tongue 2. Ruled the Church-wardens 3. Ordained that Friars could not vow but being sixteen years old 4. Approv'd the Jesuits's order that is strengthn'd the enemies of Christ 5. Shaped an Index expurgatory as barbarous in its form as in its name 6. Establish'd Inquisition a new tribunal which may be properly call'd the eleventh persecution of the Church XXXIX But to speak seriously we must say with Mr. D'Espences and the most considerable men of the Roman Communion 1. They have encroached upon the liberties of all Churches 2. Rais'd the Popes power and brought Episcopacy to nothing 3. Cut off all hopes of Reformation and canoniz'd all the vices of Rome 4. Made breaches in the Discipline which shall never be made up and induc'd those who have some knowledge of the ancient Canons to ask them in Saint Austin's words Curare est hoc an occidere Levare de terra an praecipitare de coelo A CONCLUSION Of the foregoing Discourses Concerning the State of the Church of England and how she hath bin more successful in the reformation of her Faith and manners then the Church of Rome I. THE Anglican Church is not any private Society but a part of that body which as the Scriptures tell us is spread over the face of the whole Earth Her intent is only to be a member of the Catholic Church from whose Spirit she receives life and governs her self by her laws She do's no less abhor Heresie and Schism then the Roman seems to do only she do's not attribute that name to all persons and things but knowing truth and charity to be the most precious gifts the holy Jesus purchas'd by his death she is the less easily mov'd to accuse any of forsaking them II. Her extent greatness and prudence with the moderation of her conduct hath alwaies made her seem the main and most considerable body of the Protestants and hence arises that ardent zeal of the See of Rome either to recover or to destroy her hence proceed so many artifices to tempt and draw away the Children of this holy mother that for these hundred years its emissaries have labour'd to raise new Churches within her But he who commands the winds and imposes silence to the Seas will suffer no tempest to arise within her breast unless it be to render her the more glorious She hath alwaies liv'd in unity catholicism and which is the spring of them both in that holiness which God requires III. Neither Calvin nor Luther were the authors or reformers of her Faith nor do's she look upon them any otherwise then the Church of Rome do's upon Baronius or Bellarmine She indeed considers them as great writers but yet as men on whose words she founds no part of her Creed The word of the Prophets the Gospel and writings of the Apostles are her laws God having spoken so clearly and plainly she looks for no other instructions then his word and according to that she being a national and independent Church and consequently having just authority did reform her self IV. The reverence she hath for the Scriptures carries her neither to Enthusiasm nor a private Spirit She explains not the word of God by any humane exposition She knows there is nothing so difficult in one part of the Scripture which is not plainly illustrated by another more easy She therefore compares the one with the other as did the Fathers in former Ages She seeks the will of God by the light God himself hath given and knowing that he cannot and will not deceive her she relies upon and wholly delivers her self up to his care and conduct She acknowledgeth no other Infallibility then his She knows all men are subject to error and falshood and the greatest Saints themselves may truly say If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us V. The Church of Rome flatters her self with an Infallibility which she can reduce to no certain principal The Pope assumes it to himself as if he were the only source of it and the Italians call all other opinions Heresie The rest of her communion attribute it to a General Council and anathematize all those who think the contrary So that this Infallibility is reduc'd to that as to prove either the Pope or Council to be in Heresy The Church of England cuts off such an abominable division She acknowledgeth the power of God and the infirmity of man the eternal and essential truth of the one and the falsehood the other is subject to She hears with trembling the word of the Apostle Let him that glories glory in the Lord she therefore gives the glory to God and in this life she looks upon Gods word as the pillar of Fire which led the Children of Israel thro the desert and never forsaked them in so many intricate marches VI. If the Catholic Church hath not err'd at least in fundamentals t is not by reason of any promise of Infallibility which God hath accorded to men but because that he being a God of mercy has had in all times some faithful servants whom he made acquainted with his waies and who have walked according to his word The gates of Hell have not prevail'd against them because they were fill'd with that charity which triumphs over both visible and invisible Enemies And God having resolved in the decrees of charity which the Scripture teacheth us he hath lov'd the Church by to be served in spirit and truth to the end of the World he hath not permitted his word to be taken away from her how bloody soever the persecution of Martyrs has bin how blind soever the ignorance was in which many ages had bin involved how terrible soever the corruption appear'd in which we see the World every day plunge it self VII The holy Church of England stops not that Fountain out of which
waters flow to life Eternal The Word of God being the foundation of our happiness and the key of the World to come she permits all People perswades exhorts and commands all ages all conditions and qualities to peruse it St. Chrysostome was of opinion that all Merchants and men of affairs who had not zeal enough to read the Old Testament should at least read the new St. Jerome prescrib'd to many Ladies of quality the manner of teaching it their Daughters St. Austine in his Sermons declares to his People that the multitude of their sins proceeded from their neglect of the Scriptures God having resolv'd in process of time to accomplish the great work of Predestination in his Elect by his word to neglect the reading of it would be to reckon himself excluded of that blessed tribe The Church of England follows that opinion Her Bishops are not contented with instituting it in their Synods and the Preists preaching it in their Churches but the Holy Ghost being of all Nations and languages it has bin their business so justly to translate it as the most ignorant can make use of it and so all the World may equally have this great treasure for it is folly for any one to perswade themselves that it is only open to the learned There needs no science but much humility and Faith towards God for the knowing this truth of Salvation Let a Man have learning without humility the most ignorant person understands better then he do's Men teach the mind and corrupt it but God instructs the heart and it is converted VIII But because it is easy for our reason to be seduc'd and nothing is worse for any Man then to abandon himself to his own sense the Bishops order their Curats to look back on the former ages to get the explication of the Scriptures from the holy Fathers to hearken to the Church in her Councils and never to fall from her interpretations and ordinances The Church of Rome runs into one extremity and some authors to another the former so look on the Fathers as to equal their authority with that of God the others under pretence of hearing God hear no body and treat those holy Saints and August Councils with such contempt as merits a thousand Hells The holy Church of England keeps her self in an exact mean She rejects condemns and trembles at the folly pride and ignorance of those unhappy wretches before whose eies the Devil has cast so great a mist and who think it better blindly to cry Scripture then to hear those who are the most faithful interpreters of it She with great respect and reverence looks upon those former ages where truth was not disguis'd nor charity cool'd but she rises not to such an excess as the Church of Rome and whatsoever grace God has given to his servants she alwaies acknowledges that they are but rivulets which can never be equall'd with the Ocean from whence they proceed IX They therefore are mistaken who confound this holy Church with such unreasonable persons as refuse to be instructed by the examples and writings of so many holy servants of God She receives â—ot tradition in any other sense then is â—ccording to Scripture She will hold â—ll that as holy which can be alledged â—onformable to that excellent rule of St. Vincent of Lerins quod semper quod ubiâ—ue quod ab omnibus servatur She will alâ—aies receive with a profound reverence â—he unanimous consent of the Saints and â—ever appeal from the decrees of the Church assembled in general legitime Councils For tho the Church has no power to ordain any new article of Faith either to add or cast out any part of it nevertheless she has sufficient Authority to declare her opinion in any point of Faith and seeing that she do's it all Christians are bound to submit themselves to her judgment what seeming truth soever there appears on the contrary and it is much more probable for one particular person to be deceiv'd to whom God has promis'd no other assistance but that which is common to all Christians then the Catholic Church to which Christ is present till the end of the World and has promis'd to send his Spirit there where they are gathered together in his name Christ in speaking to inferiours said not he who hears you hears me they therefore have no right to be heard nor consequently to speak He said to his Apostles and Bishops whom he has order'd to govern the Church in their place t is therefore their business to speak and right to be heard and those who teach without or against their order do break the ranks in which God has placed them X. But to attempt the reducing the Catholic Church to one part of Europe and to force the name of Roman upon those who ought not to receive it and to exclude them from Salvation who are both Christians and Catholics without being Romans is the greatest absurdity in the world But to confine that part of Europe to the Pope to make him the center of unity which belongs alone to Christ is the greatest impiety and most insufferable extravagancy that can be imagin'd But that any man should call himself the High Priest the Universal Bishop of the Church that is take those titles w ch his Predecessors look'd on as an execration and which he hath not gotten but by an immensurable ambition is beyond all imagination But that the same person under pretence of a Pasce oves meas which he hath expounded as he pleased contrary to the opinion of the Fathers and Councils should march in the head of all his Brethren and raise Clergy men of the meanest order such as are Cardinals above the holy order of Bishops should excommunicate Kings and depose them give their Kingdoms to a depredation dispence Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance which they have sworn to their Prince and colour all these attemts as done by the autority which Christ hath given him the Church of England will never admit of such Principles as the most forlorn sinners cannot look upon without horror XI If the Pope would do all for the truth and nothing contrary to it if he would limit himself to the word of Christ and the practice which the Church hath prescrib'd him and go no further then St. Leo or St. Gregory she will communicate with him She will rob him neither of the dignity of Bishop nor Patriarch Christ gave him the one and the Church granted him the other She acknowledges that the ancient See of Rome is one of the most considerable in the world that hath bin formerly ennobled with as many Martyrs as Bishops that he hath bin mightily respected in Councils and that the Emperors have dignified him with great privileges But when he pretends to draw thence an occasion of exalting himself above others and that according to the remark of a famous Emperor at the Council of Florence He
understand the most important truths of Salvation This is not contrary to the exercise of the inward praier which St. Austin callâ— the voice of the heart by which we beâ— and are supplicants to God for his mercyâ— and the Church of England is so far from forbidding Christians to prepare themselves for the life to come by a seriouâ— consideration of the miseries and inconstancy of the present and to learn how to love Christ that by her they are commanded to do all this and the Bishop say to each of them in giving them thâ— Gospel as the Angel did to the Prophetâ— comede volumen istud Eat this Book and convert it into your own substance XXVII This makes it appear with how much less sincerity our adversaries who have but a blind zeal think to offer a great sacrifice to God in calumniating their Brethren and accusing all the Protestants of renouncing all the exercises of Christian Piety and of retaining nothing but a meer morality which is to be met with in any honest Heathen And indeed if going in Procession carrying Images about one counting Beads and a hundred such like nothings are counted Piety she acknowledges none of them But if the renouncing of our selves the mortifying our senses the humility of our hearts the love of our neighbor forgiving our enemies the meditation of the Gospel be stiled holiness she teacheth and practiseth them faithfully XXVIII The holy Church of England proceeds farther and the Church of Rome hath no really holy practices which she doth not follow Confession so ancient in the Church is in use here also but the liberty thereof is left to movements which God himself inspires into the hearts of sinners The Church had so done for twelve Ages and until the pretended general Lateran Council there was no Statute made about it She desires it should be wrought by the Holy Ghost that the Spirit of God should throw a sinner at the feet of the Priest and not the fear of Excommunication XXIX She doth as they believe the usefulness and necessity of fasting All Scriptures and Traditions are full of the praises which God and his holy Saints have attributed to it Lent and the abstaining from certain meats on certain daies are practices so ancient in the Church that none can blame them without an insupportable ignorance and temerity She observes all these things with a great deal of edification Her Bishops and many of her Clergy-men fast after the manner of the Primitive Christians that is eat but once and that at night Abstinence from flesh is alwaies injoined with their Fasts They abhor the shameful subtilties of the Casuists of the Church of Rome who retain nothing of it save the name but in effect destroy it Their fasting and abstinence have nothing superstitious He that eateth not is not scandaliz'd by him that eateth Rom. 14. 1. The strong do patiently bear with the weak and pray God that he strengthen them XXX Nor doth the Church of England condemn Monastical life She praiseth them that retire into solitude therein to bewail their crimes who forsake all to find all in Jesus Christ It cannot be denied but whatever irregularities the greater part of the Church of Rome be in there are amongst them a very great number of good people whom God will recompence rather according to their heart then actions Had they when Henry the Eighth suppressed them in England walked in the duties of their Calling they had bin still in being The Popes anger was not because they had bin suppress'd for Popes themselves shew by their examples that these sort of suppressions are somtimes necessary but 't was because it was done without his autority which then becomes a nice point in Law pernicious to all states and contrary to the respect due to Kings This Prince found them in ignorance and corruption They were a burden to the State a scandal to the Church a subject of grief to all good people Their zeal for asserting the temporal autority of the Pope was inconceivable and they treated their Bishops with extreme scorn When so many evils gathered together are incurable who doubts but that the root thereof should be pull'd up and the hazard be run of losing a blessing which cannot be preserved but by greater evils XXXI Good Monks are certainly of great example The conferences of the Priest of Marseilles shew that the East was filled with the fame of their virtue In the West the Order of St. Bennet had during many ages furnish'd all the Sees in the Church and bred up more Saints and Bishops then all the other Orders together had of Religious persons But those were neither insolent Monks who from the bottom of their Cells would condemn all the World besides nor vagabonds who made a trade of their poverty nor people who having renounced the World had yet more intrigues and restless desires then those who had not They that got their livelihood by the sweat of their brows were no less separated from Ecclesiastical emploiments then secular and â—ived in a continual humility and peâ—â—ance XXXII The Orders in the Church of Rome which continue still in the same state are worthy of Veneration It is a most false argument for looking upon them as people of no use to the Church They serve her in their way and truly it is a very great service they do her of praying and groaning continually for her We must not judg the usefulness of men by their actions but by the station God hath placed them in A person that does â—ut little in his calling is often more useful to the Church then another that does much out of his calling the will of God and not that which appears to men being the rule of the utility or inutility of those that serve him XXXIII It is clear following this principle that though there are yet many good men in the present corruption of Friers Orders nevertheless the Church of England hath done well in not suffering any She rejects them not because they are Friers or Monks but because the greateâ— part of them is not in that condition they ought to be in It is good to shew clearly and to make the devout of the Church of Rome see that they are injurious in reproching that of England for having banished Friers XXXIV Is there in the World any more effeminate and idle life then that of the Clervaux and the Cisterciens Is not the ignorance idleness and sloth of these Friers beyond all imagination Does there appear the least trace of that laborious and penitent life of their holy Founder Will not a man that hath read St. Bernard's Epistles or Sermons when he sees these Monasteries think himself in another World finding people that call themselves his sons who have nothing either of his spirit or manners For the Mendicants we need but hear the Bishops to be acquainted with their nature They are as great a charge
soever her members be By this she gives glory to the grace of Christ who hath workt in them all these things By this she brings Christians to follow the examples she proposeth them and to beleive that nothing is impossible to Christians who in the flesh walk not after the flesh She takes care then that the People read their lives and the preachers make their Elogies and that both the one and the other endeavour to imitate them By this also may be seen her moderation She runs not into the excess of those furious and unreasonable men that will not hear the very naming of a Saint nor yet degenerates to the invoking of them as in the Church of Rome but equally avoids impiety as superstition XLI The like moderation appears in respect of Images She judgeth it a crime to adore them to bend the knee before them and sticks not to call this Idolatry But she beleives not Idolaters those that only retain them XLII She hath with no less wisdom retain'd Ecclesiastical habits and ceremonies necessary to Divine worship Her Canons are extream severe for the first of these She knows a Priest hath nothing to do with the World and that he must understand he is even outwardly separated from it For the second she hath retrenched all the profane pomp of the Church of Rome but hath avoided the frightful nakedness which appears on the other side Her ceremonies have neither the appearance of Grandeur nor affected baseness In the Cathedrals Collegiate Churches may be seen whatever can excite the Piety of People to praise God But nothing which occasions to say that the luxury and vaniety of the World is brought into the sanctuary XLIII There remains but one thing at which the Church of Rome is offended altogether as unjustly as in many others that is the marriage of Priests Sure Celibacy is a most holy exemplary and upon many occasions a necessary thing T were to be wish'd that those who are call'd to the ministry of Angels had their purity and that it might be said of them neque nubunt neque nubuntur but being made of flesh as well as spirit of flesh subject to the infirmities of other men the remedy God has ordain'd and so highly recommended in the Scripture must not be denied them The Church of Rome hath never lookt upon Celibacy but as an Ecclesiastical law This opinion is maintain'd taught publickly every day in Sorbon The obligation thereunto is imposed as a point of Discipline that hath no relation to Faith Now the Church is absolutely mistress of whatever is of Ecclesiastical right She may introduce continue change what and as she judgeth expedient The holy Church of England hath thought fit to alter this point in her Discipline She hath weighed all the circumstances seen all the inconveniences considered the good and evil that may accrue thereby It hath not appear'd that she ought to lay a yoke on the necks of such as have not grace enough to bear it And she hath promis'd her self that those to whom hath bin granted a sufficient measure would endeavor to increase and multiply it Nor hath she bin deceiv'd in so judicious a conduct she hath the glory to see the greater part of her Bishops and Clergy like to the great Apostle and at the same time the consolation to know that the others live in their houses in such sort as to be the examples of all Christian Families I cannot see what answer a moderate person can give to this reasoning For to return to the Pope and to say that this cannot be done without his consent because he is master of the whole discipline is a miserable reason and no Church of the Roman Communion but that of Italy will ever assent unto it XLIV The Clergy of England is generally the most Learned in the World and if the common people retain somthing of the natural dulness of the vulgar it hath nothing of the ignorance This must be ascrib'd to the care and capacity of their Teachers and above all to the famous Universities of Oxford and Cambridge These are two Seminaries of Virtue and Science There may be found whatever can be desired for greatness of Revenues magnificence of Buildings and infinite number of Books collected with incredible expences and care during several Ages Clergy-men are there for many years before they are entrusted with the care of souls They pass from the studies of humane Arts and Sciences to that of Divinity and the Oriental Languages Their Professors are endow'd with all the abilities that can be expected from men who besides vast natural parts have born the burden and heat of the day The Bishops are not such as those whom Monsieur D'Espences calls Barbatulos Juvenes who in so sacred and high dignity as Episcopacy are not yet free from the passions of the World Their zeal for the salvation of souls their punctual visiting their Dioceses their charity to the poor their hospitality their fidelity to the King and their love for their Country are qualities they are so much owners of as their greatest enemies cannot but admire them We do not hereby pretend that all those whom they govern are saints It is to be acknowledg'd with a sensible grief that in the Church of England are too too many who tresure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and live after such a manner as is little conformable to that which they have promised in their Baptism But we must not conceive from thence an ill opinion of a Church which hath nothing in her but what is most holy If we should judg of the Romish Church by those disorders which have crept into the very Sanctuary what conclusion might there be drawn This cannot be done without opposition to the Judgment of God who hath left the wicked in the midst of the good and hath permitted the number of the latter to be less then that of the former for reasons best known to himself It is a secret of his Justice and Mercy which shall not be manifested till the last day The dross is in the same fornace with the gold that is consumed and this purified and embellish'd by the fire There is much more dross then gold but it sufficeth that the work-man know them In a word there is not one that considers the Church of England without prejudice but does at the same time admire the sanctity moderation and wisdom of her conduct A Christian will find there that the veneration which is given the Scripture excludes not the esteem which is due to the Church nor the esteem paid to the Church any way extenuate the soveraign obedience due to the Scriptures He will see that she practiceth nothing but what the Primitive Times have done and that she leaves nothing unpractised but what those happy ones ne'r knew He will compassionate a vast number of people so miserably abused in the Church of Rome and when
conformable to his Praises imitates what he extolls and considers those excellent Patterns as so many reproches to the disorders and remisness of his life But he is not induced thereby to invocate them to ascribe to them what is due to God alone and offer them Prayers which being commanded neither by the Precepts of Christ nor his Apostles spring rather from a blind Superstition then a well ordered Piety Non Religioni sed Superstitioni deputantur XX. But supposing the Church of Rome had some small ground in Antiquity for the Invocation of Saints she has not the least shadow of reason for the worshipping their Images Nor is it difficult to prove that Images are a remnant of heathenish Ceremonies which a blind zeal for the memory of the Apostles brought into the Church Hence the Fathers of the Primitive times became extremly zealous to interdict not only their worship but their very sight in the Churches So Origen Eusebius Justin Martyr c. inveigh on all occasions against Images The Eliberitan Council where the great Osius was present he whom the Councils stile their Father and Master condemns by an express Canon the placing any sort of Images in Churches S. Epiphanius forbids the having Images in Churches or in the Crypts of the Martyrs And to shew that his practice did not contradict his Precepts he gives an account to John Patriarch of Jerusalem how having found at the entrance of the Church at Anablatta an Image of our Savior painted upon a Curtain he tore it and wished the Priests to make use of it for the burial of some poor person XXI But it is clearer then the light that by the word Adoration the holy Fathers meant all manner of Worship Those famous men had a Divinity of sense not of terms they were not acquainted with those Distinctions which became the whole business of Scholastics in succeeding Ages They no less included external worship then internal and thought not the one less dangerous then the other S. Augustin was not perswaded that a man could so purify his intentions in adoring an Image but that the Wood and Stone must needs bear some part in it Who is the man saies that holy Doctor who looking upon an Image either worships or praiseth qui non sic officitur ut ab eo se exaudiri putet hoc enim facit quodammodo extorquet figura membrorum I know saies the same Saint in his admirable Book De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae That there are many worshippers of the Sepulchres and Pictures of Martyrs Multos Sepulchrorum Picturarum adoratores But I advise you not to take occasion thence of slandering the Catholic Church in aggravating the faults of those People whom she her self condemns quos ipsa condemnat corrigere studet This excellent place shews that there are many disorders in the Church the Church is not at all guilty of and that those are in the wrong who charge a whole Society with the faults of some of its particular members So that when we speak against worshipping of Images we exclaim not against that shameful traffick exercised in the Churches of the Mendicants neither against those Chappels set round with pieces of wax and silver nor against those false Miracles which are only so many baits whereby covetous Monks delude the ignorant and simple and enrich themselves All these things Ecclesia Romana condemnat corigere studet It is well known the pious men of these Monasteries are troubled at such abuses and Bishops wish they were able to apply a remedy to them But we combat the Decrees and Canons of the Roman Church things to which the contrary sentiments are by her stiled Impiety We give them no other sense then she her self would put upon them and we maintain in their most favorable interpretation that she has made Laws of some points quas ipsa Ecclesia Catholica condemnat corrigere studet XXII There is not a learned person in the Church of Rome who doth not consent that to paint God Almighty has bin accounted a crime for twelve hundred years 'T is not lawfull for a Christian saies S. Austin to put in any Church the Image of God in a humane shape Nevertheless the Council of Trent makes it a Virtue to admit of them There is not a Church in which you may not see the unworthy Pictures of an immense and incomprehensible God whose most perfect delineation consists in the impossibility both Men and Angels lie under of conceiving any The Popes Chappell is filled with them and his holiness is pleased to forget that one of the cheif Patrons of Images calls it a folly and an extreme Impiety XXIII Neither is there any understanding person who doth not acknowledge that â—he most obstinate Defenders of Images never went so far as to maintain that â—his soveraign Worship should be renâ—red to them which is due to God alone â—Tis by this only reason they pretend to free themselves of that Idolatry which was laid to their charge So that it is a meer evasion of those who answer to all the authorities of the fifth sixth and seventh Ages against Images that they were levelled only against Divine and supreme worship being a ridiculous dealing no way chargeable upon grave Men. But the Church of Rome to perswade the receiving of these things calls them with an incredible insincerity Ancient practices strives to amuze people by swelling and high flown words and because he miserably abandons himself to his own reason and sinks under the most horrid Impiety who respects not true Councils and Fathers that of Trent speaks of nothing but Apostolical Traditions Consent of Fathers and authority of Councils XXIV All these magnificent promises are reduced to a miserable Conventicle held in the eighth Age to which no Western Bishops nor any of the two parts of the East not one of the three Patriarchs of Jerusalem Antioch and Alexandria came which Pope Nicholas I. and Adrian II. durst never call General A Council called by a cruel and disordered Prince wherein Irene his mother sate President so ambitious and unnatural a woman that she commanded the eies of her own Son to be plucked out A Council at which the most considerable person present was Thalossius Patriarch of Constantinople a man who as Pope Adrian describes him from a Lay-man became Bishop from an illiterate Courtier Patriarch of Constantinople whom the same Pope saies he abhorred as a Monster ut monstrum exhorruit made Bishop against all Ordinances and Canons A Council that founded its Decrees upon Visions and meer Fables such as one of the meanest spirit must needs be offended at The Image of our Saviour given to King Abgarus the Leprosy Baptism and miraculous recovery of Constantine are things of that nature as the learned in the Church of Rome do now account supposititious not to alledge many others which deserve that the