howsoever they sounded when they were heard from his Pulpit are now that they come to be seen and felt no such formidable things 1. If I had wholly refus'd to return an Answer to his Question about the Bible I had not departed from Reason When two Iews dispute they do not contend about the Truth of the Writings of Moses When two Mahometans dispute neither of them do call in question the Alcoran And when two Christians Dispute he that questions the Bible does unnecessarily contend about that which he allows 2. If I had persisted in the Suggestion concerning such Discourses as tending to Atheism or rather Unbelief No Man who is tender of the moments of Religion would have blam'd me considering some of the Company that was about us By such Questions such Converts are made as Father Simon has made by his Critical History of the Old Testament S. Paul's Rule is little observed by the Controvertists of this World Him that is weak in the Faith receive but not to doubtful Disputations 3. If I had answer'd his Questions with Questions the way had been justifiable before all equal Judges I mean among others such Questions as these about the Copy to which the Romanists are tied in all Disputes by the Council of Trent Why do you make a Translation your Rule and not the Original Why do you not follow the ancient Italic Translation us'd in the Latin Church Why is St. Hierom for one Translation and your Popes for another What Latin Translation was the Church tied to in St. Austin's time when there were numberless Translations and why did the Church suffer them if one was their Rule Why did the Popes Sixtus Quintus and Clement the 8th differ from one another in many places besides those which might be Errors of the Press Why did not St. Gregory the Great go by this Rule Why did Cardinal Zimenes Pagnin and Mariana correct it Why did Cardinal Cajetan help himself in the Translation by a Jew Why do's the very Learned French Bishop Huetius here and there touch it over again Why do's Father Simon himself who differs so much from it tell us that it serves as a Rule And if it be what Rule is it to the People who understand no Latin And what Translation of it have they by their Church into the Vulgar Tongue Last of all to refresh his Memory about Pope Innocent the Third Why did not HE go by the Rule of the Vulgar if in his Time it was a Rule He varies from it often and particularly in the Text of the Penetential Psalms where he thus pleasantly begins his Elucidation This Psalm according to the Translation which the Roman Church holds contains nine Verses by which the Penitent gradually ascends to the nine Orders of Angels because there is greater joy among the Angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth than over 99 just Persons who need not Repentance although the number of ten Verses which according to another Translation it is known to have agrees well to reason because Man who fell by Sin rises by Repentance that by him the Tenth Order may be restored Deservedly also this Psalm has Three Ternaries because Repentance ought to have Three Parts Confession by the Mouth Contrition in the Heart and Satisfaction by the Work. Now here 's your Pope for observing a Rule and giving an infallible Interpretation 4. The Universal Testimony which I mentioned as separate from Authority and proving the Books of Scripture to be such Writings as they are taken to be depends upon a firm Principle which Mr. Pulton has not shaken to wit that so many Persons of such different Places and Conditions and Interests and Perswasions could not possibly be Confederates in a false Testimony in this Matter no not so easily as in the Testimonies given for the Offices of Cicero the History of Livy and the Existence of the Cities of Ierusalem or Rome The sense of this was thrice repeated in the Conference and now the Answer is a Denial that ever it was said Father Nicole would have yielded what Father Pulton would not for thus he speaks both his own and Monsieur Iurieu's sense When the consent of the Universal Church is general in its several Ages as well as in its several Communions this unanimous consent makes a Demonstration But perhaps Monsieur Nicole is not Father Pulton's Pope 5. But why has he chang'd his Rule of a General Council for a living Judg And for what Reason do's he call the Bible MY RULE of Faith It is the Rule of all the Reformed It was the Rule of the Ancient Church It was St. Austin's Rule and he thus owned it to be so In those things which are plainly contained in the Scriptures all those things are found which contain Faith and Manners of living For the Creed or sum of things to be believed S. Irenaeus called it the Rule of Truth and Tertullian the Rule of Faith. The Scripture is the Rule which God hath given his Church Whom then makes He himself when he goes about to confute it and whom does he make me when to ME he ascribes the Rule 'T is wonderful surprizing that Mr. P. tho he venerates Creatures should make ME whom he reviles the Object of his Worship But so at the same time they worship'd Mercury and threw Stones at him 6. Against this Rule he has taken exception and it will soon appear whether they are or are not causeless I will first examine his more General Reasonings and Authorities and then descend to his more special Points about the Sabbath Easter Infant-Baptism and the Holy Trinity His more General Reasonings are Six OBIECT 1. Hereticks have from Christ's time appeal'd to the written Word of God which therefore cannot be the Rule of one true Church that is essentially different from an Heretical one Answer 1. This is not true in History for Irenaeus and Tertullian mention Hereticks who refus'd the Scriptures and were as the latter calls them Fleers from the Light. 2. This Argument proves nothing because it proves too much for it is an Argument against all Rules Hereticks have appeal'd to REASON therefore Reason is no Rule Hereticks have appeal'd to the dictate of the Spirit of God therefore that is not a true Spirit Hereticks have pleaded Tradition therefore Tradition is not to be pleaded Heathens have pleaded universal Consent All Asia and all the World worship'd Diana therefore universal Consent is not to be regarded Contentious Men in Civil Kingdoms plead Customs and Presidents and Maxims of Law and Statutes therefore none of these are Rules in Government Many have appeal'd to Popes in Uncanonical Causes therefore the Pope is no Judg. The later Arians pleaded the Councils of Sirmium and Rimini therefore Councils are not to be pleaded Miracles have been pretended to from the beginning by Impostors as signs of Truth therefore true Miracles are no Proofs False Appeals to a
true Judg or Rule do not argue against the Truth of Judges and Rules but against the confident and restless Contentiousness of the Appellants Further if Hereticks from the beginning appeal'd to the Scriptures as their Rule so did single FATHERS and Councils of them too Therefore Mr. P. concludes equally against the written Word of God as an insufficient Rule from Fathers and Councils as from Hereticks And thus with great discretion he has shut out the Witnesses whom he accepts of that he may exclude those to whom he is unwilling to give admission In sum the Church may be one the Society may be one and the Rule one and very sufficient tho ill Men will either pretend to it or reject it Many false Christs have risen up yet one only is true and he did many real Signs and those who saw them would not yet believe in him All this Objection is a transferring the fault from the Men and fixing it upon the faultless Rule Object 2. Ay! but when Hereticks appeal to the Scripture a living Judg will condemn them and secure the Government of the Church as a living Judg do's the Quiet of the State. Answer All Churches rightly constituted have living Iudges and such as are as infallible as the Judg or Judges in the Roman Church That is having a true and plain Rule in Necessaries it is their own wilful failure if they pronounce in necessary Doctrine or Rule of Life a false Sentence But still Mr. P's difficulty remains for Hereticks will no more regard the Judg than the Rule and they will no otherwise have a regard in their Judgment to the living Judg than as they believe he goes by the dead Rule And that which keeps the Peace in Churches and States is such Authority to which their Fears submit when their Reason or Interest do not Therefore where Infallibility is pretended where Men are at the feet of the seven Hills whence the Fountain of it is said to spring it is by thousands no further regarded than as it has Power to enforce it And the Keys of the Inquisition keep such more quiet in that Inclosure than those of St. Peter For the rest some know better and fear by their Separation in necessary things to open a gate to Atheism and utter Disorder and so groan secretly under a Burden which they openly profess to have no weight And others born in that Communion being set by their Teachers against Examination as private Presumption and damnable doubting and a way to endless Uncertainty remain with the multitude in that way of which they have not yet asked the Question whether it be the old and the good one or not Object 3. If a Man uses all Ministerial Helps and cannot be satisfied in himself that he either has sufficient helps or that he has us'd them and be left after this to his own Conscience may not this Man's Conscience be erroneous and actually err in things necessary to Salvation If so then his Religion may be Fancy and not Divine Faith. Answer Here again our Iesuit has taken up a two-edged Weapon For his living Judg is but still a ministerial help not saith St. Paul that we are masters of your Faith but helpers of your Ioy For such a Man before he accepts him for a Judg must be convinc'd that he ought to accept him And what if he be a Man of Pisa or Basel and will bring him to the Canons of the ancient Church And what if he be a Man of weak Capacity and cannot understand the Arguments for such a Judg What if he be a learned Man and understands the Arguments better than the Imposer and what if he has a scrupulous Mind which cannot be satisfied not for want of outward Means but through inward Distraction and Anxiety Why then such a one must be left to his Conscience whatsoever it be in the Roman Communion as well as the Reform'd If that Church can instruct him so can ours If it has cause to excommunicate him we have that Spiritual Power also but would not exercise it where there is demonstration that Men are sincere in their Perswasion and have taken due Pains and are in their dissentings modest and peaceable If they are violent by blind Zeal or by Faction cover'd under the venerable Name of Conscience then when the Common-Wealth is Christian the Civil Powers in their way preserve the Peace of the Church In fine when we speak of very scrupulous and unperswadable Men what effect can Infallibility have upon them For if they cannot be convinc'd that they have taken sufficient pains and that the Ministry under which they are is sufficient how will they be convinc'd merely by hearing it said to them they must not dispute they must submit to an Infallible living Judg For that is the great Thing which so many Thousands scruple even among themselves That was an Expedient among the Pythagoreans who were to be in Quietude and Silence and submit in all things to THE MASTER SAID IT Yet they divided into many Sects as is evident in the History of the Italic Philosophy To say there is a certain Guide and on him you must depend wholly for your way is to spend Breath and Confidence in vain till the Wanderer knows who this Guide is and whether he may absolutely depend upon him If he still questions him he must take his own way and if he takes him 't is still in effect his own way for he takes him upon this last Act of his own Judgment that he is an Infallible Guide But what if his Conscience prove Erroneous and his Faith be Fancy I Answer First as above he has as good security in this Church as in any other for he has as sufficient means and better than in some Secondly A Man of good Capacity using these Means in Christian manner if nothing distracts his Judgment and disables his Capacity shall not be brought to such Scruples as shall end in Fancy instead of Faith. Thirdly If he has natural Incapacity God will not judg him for a Talent he had not Such a Man even under the Gospel may be as much without that Law as the Heathens were without the Law of the Jews For an Ideot or a Man under a distraction is without that as a Rule which he is not capable of using or apprehending Fourthly If a Man has Capacity without Probity of Mind and pretends Scruples he ought not to abuse the Good Word Conscience He should say it is his Lust or his Appetite or his Fear or his Profit or his Vanity And to such a one all Church-Governnours who give best Revenues and most Ease to Flesh and Blood are sufficiently infallible They give him security of Pleasure and Profit and that is as much Assurance as he asks Fifthly If a Man has had a good Capacity and an honest Mind but is shatter'd into variety of doubtful Thoughts by bodily Distemper by suddain wordly Losses by
takes up that which is later and prefers it before that which was earlier in the Church Whereas Tradition descends but does not ascend Now Learned Men of his own Communion allow that the ancient Church did not receive his Additional Canon any more than the Reformed will allow his Additional Creed When both are reduc'd to the ancient Standard the Church of God will enjoy a greater measure both of Truth and Peace I will lay before the Iesuit the Judgment of a Sorbonist who has read as many Ecclesiastical Books and made as great Collections as he pretends to and to better purpose than has yet been manifested by him I mean Mr. Ellies du Pin Who says of Tobit Iudith Wisdom Ecclesiasticus the second Book of Maccabees the History of Susanna and Bell that they are Books left out of the Canon by the Jews and by many ancient Christians and since that received by the Church He says this but in other places he for Church-Reasons is not so constant to himself I might therefore have rather mention'd the great Cardinal Ximenes whose Polyglot Bible was dedicated to Pope Leo the Tenth the Pope in whose time Luther liv'd and in express words by that Pope approv'd That Cardinall in his Preface does thus instruct his Readers That the Pentateuch is set forth in a threefold Tongue Hebrew Chaldee Greek with Latin Interpretations of each That the Hagiographa and Prophetical Books are in a twofold Tongue Hebrew and Greek with Latin Versions But as he goes on the Books out of the Canon which the Church receives rather for the Edification of the People than for confirming the Authority of Ecclesiastical Doctrines are only in Greek but with a twofold Latin Translation the one St. Hierom's the other the Interlinary reading word for word This may satisfy Mr. P. if he be a reasonable Man that he was not infallible when he denied there was any Canon like ours at Luther's appearing Mr. P. will perhaps say for something some Men will say when they cannot say that which amounts to an Answer that he has produc'd greater Authorities and that du Pin and the Cardinal are not his Popes I come therefore 2 dly To the Examination of his Authorities after having suggested this general Answer to those or any others which he shall be able to bring forth out of his Magazine of voluminous Collections That is to say that the Apochryphal Books being valuable some Churches received them as a Secondary Canon so his own Sixtus Senensis called them and yet not as a Canon of Faith but Manners And the Fancies of Men after some Apocryphal Books were read in Churches being apt to affect the introducing of more it was thought Prudence to limit that Secondary Canon lest Books should be multiplied to the hinderance of the Scripture and the prejudice of Truth Our Church instructs the People in the Reason of the Reception of the Apocryphal Books and the distinction of them from the Primary Canon out of S. Hierom. Article 6. Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation So that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation In the name of the holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church Of the Names and Numbers of the Canonical Books Genesis Exodus c. And the other Books as Hierom saith the Church doth read for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners but yet doth not apply them to establish any Doctrine Such are these following the three Books of Esdras c. Mr. P's great and leading Authority is the third Council of Carthage in which if you give credit to a Man that witnesses for himself that he has read all Ecclesiastical History the Books we call Apocryphal were found to be of equal Authority with the rest and consequently received into the Canon Here I intreat the Reader to make with me these Observations First Mr. P. notes on his Margin concerning the Council of Laodicea that it was only a National Council of no general Obligation but he points not at his Council of Carthage which was later and but a Provincial Council with any such marginal Finger Secondly Whereas he says that the Council of Carthage was confirm'd in the sixth Council of Constantinople in the Year 680. he forbears to add that there was no Enumeration of Books in that Council and that the National Council of Laodicea was there confirmed as well as the Provincial Council of Carthage And he observes not that the Council of Laodicea was confirm'd by the great Council of Chalcedon not so the Council of Carthage This sure was done to show his Impartiality Thirdly He observes not that the Council of Laodicea was taken into the Code of the Universal Church but not the Council of Carthage The first Collection of that Code ends with the second General Council the first of Constantinople It is true that Council ended about 16 Years before the Synod of Carthage but the Collection was not made so soon tho before the Year 431. Nor is the Council of Carthage added to that Code in the Collection made afterwards It is true it is in the African Addition in Dionysus Exiguus but in the more ancient one it is not to be found Fourthly He omits the Note in the Collection of his dear Friends Labbâ— and Cossart put under this 37 th Canon of Carthage about the Scriptures A certain Ancient Code has it thus Touching the confirming that Canon Let the Transmarine Churches be consulted There was no full Satisfaction among them in these Additional Books and for satisfaction they did not refer meerly to the Roman Church 5ly This Canon could not be a Canon of the third Council of Carthage held as Mr. P. says in the year 397. for Relation is had in it to Boniface who began his Pontificate about the year 419. 6ly It is not true that this Council found these Books to be of equal Authority with the rest 1. Learned and impartial Romans do not say what Mr. P. does and the Presumption of the Fathers of Trent in setting them upon the same Level is very heinous as well as very new Cardinal Cajetan was much of another mind but neither is he Mr. Pulton's Pope 2. The former Books of the Old Testament for about that Canon is the Contest were own'd by Christ himself and St. Paul But these were not could not be so And the Canon of the Israelites in Iosephus is ours 3. The Council of Carthage call'd these Books Canonical upon no other account than as Books allow'd to be read in Churches This is clear'd by the latter part of that supposed Canon for there the Fathers would have it known to
Trent that they are not here oppugn'd unless by Hereticks desirous to retain the name of Catholicks The name Catholick is sometimes with them a mark of the Church and now Hereticks covet and use it 'T is a mark and no mark Now for the Synod of Nice he commits a mistake for I cited Hoveden for the opposition of it to the Worship of Images and not as he forgets to the Corporal presence And because he is just now in good humour and promises a fair and candid Answer when my proofs out of Beda and Hoveden are produced I will produce a place or two He will do well for varieties sake to say something that is fair and candid For Hoveden in relation to the Decree of Nice about Image-Worship his Testimony is this In the year 795. Charles King of the Franks sent that Synodical Book to Britain which had been directed to him from Constantinople in which Book alas and wail the day many inconvenient things and CONTRARY TO THE TRVE FAITH were found but the greatest grief was that it was confirmed by almost all the Oriental Doctors no less than Three hundred if not more Bishops with unanimous suffrage THAT IMAGES OVGHT TO BE WORSHIPPED WHICH THE CHVRCH OF GOD VTTERLY ACCVRSETH Against which Decree Albinus wrote a Letter wonderfully strengthened by the Authority of the Divine Scriptures and brought it together with the said Synodical Book to the King of the Francs in the name of our Bishops and Princes As to Beda in relation to the Corporal presence one place may suffice tho' in him there are many Now in his Commentary on St. Luke he teaches that Instead of the Flesh and Blood of the Paschal Lamb he did substitute the Sacrament of his own Flesh and Blood in the FIGURE of Bread and Wine And the words following show that he meant it of such Bread and Wine as Melchisedeck gave to Abraham who certainly was not presented with mere shows and Accidents From Knyghton I had asserted That even in the latter time of Wickliff there was no such Doctrine then in England as Transubstantiation publickly imposed as an Article of Faith. I cited not then the Recantation of Wickliff nor the Book in which that Author is and Mr. P. not finding it as I conjecture in his Volumes of Collections he passed it over in silence I will oblige him with it at length tho it is hard Language for a man that has been Eighteen Years out of England I knowleche that the Sacrament of the autar is verry Goddus Body in fourme of Brede but it is in another manner Goddus Body then it is in hevene For in heven it is sene fote in fourme and figure of Fleshe and Blode But in the Sacrament Goddus Body is be myracle of God in fourme of Brede and is he nouther of sene fote Ne in mannes figure but as a Man leeves for to thenk the kynde of an Image whether it be of Dke or of Ashe and settys his thoouzt in him of whome is the Image so myche more schuld a Man leve to thenk on the kynd of Brede But thenk upon Christ for his Body is the same Brede that is the Sacrament of Autere and with alle clennes alle devocion and alle charite that God would gif him worschippe he Crist and then he receyves God gostly more medefully than the Prist that syngus the Masse in lesse Charite For the Bodely etyng ne profytes nouth to Soule but in al 's mykul as the Soule is fedde with Charite This sentence is provyde be Crist that may nouzt lye For as the Gospel says Crist that Night that he was betraied of Iudas Scarioth he toke Brede in hise Handes and blesside it brak it and gaf it to hise Disciplus to ete For he says and may not lye This is my Body CHAP. VII Mr. P. Considered in his Accusations ACCUSAT I. HE cannot step over two Pages before he is gotten into his Innuendo's and his This reflects upon the King He accuseth me for want of Respect in charging the Religion of which the sworn Head of his own Church is a Principal Member which as themselves the Protestants confess flourished in this Kingdom near a Thousand Years before Protestancy was ever heard of to be such whence a moping lying and uneasie temper naturally flows All this I believe he might write himself it is original For want of respect or rather the humblest duty where it is so just a tribute I shall never fail to pay it And here in this instance the fault with which he taxeth me he himself committeth He wears the Sacred name of a King by using it upon every unnecessary occasion Whereas they who understand the profound civil veneration which Crowned Heads may challenge are at the same time frugal in the mentioning of their Names and free and abounding in their Allegiance Add to this that they less honour a Prince than they ought who create any uneasiness to his Subjects and that is an uneasiness which is not pleasing when in common conversation men are under Terror when they have a suspicion that their words shall be watcht and each innocent phrase which the Hearer likes not shall be called a Reflection upon the King. But to come to the strength of his Accusation what a false and invidious consequence is here I. S. grew worse upon Mr. Pulton's tampering with him and so it appear'd to D. H. and Mr. V. and divers others therefore the Roman Religion is such whence a Mopish lying and uneasie temper NATURALLY flows I suppose this consequence was not drawn by him by the Art of Thinking which the ingenious Iansenists have published Must that be Natural to a Religion which may be the effect of dissettlement and the fault of the method of the Tamperer There are many made worse by Empyrical practicers though the Physick it self might not Naturally do it Mr. P. talkt so much of Luther and the DEVIL and of DAMNATION out of his Church that I. S. might for some time be under an affrightment If I may say it in his own light way he ought to have forborn his stories of Goblins when he was putting his Child to rest in his Mothers bosom From his Premises then the Conclusion is not my want of duty if he draws it not with Jesuitical but Logical Art. I wish him a greater share of Loyal duty himself He will he says REFER himself to the JUDGMENT OF HIS MAJESTY which seems a familiarity bordering on irreverence His Half-sheet-Friend has written a FULL ANSWER to the SIX CONFERENCES concerning the Eucharist a Full ANSWER in the same sense that Mr. Pulton's Book is a FULL ACCOUNT And he likes me not the worse I hope because he finds in me a little of the Aequivocator For I openly call my self the PUBLISHER but in his opinion I am secretly the AUTHOR Now he THREATENS me with a smarting Discipline when the Church of
me of Roman Miracles again This was certainly the happiest stroke of a Launce we shall ever find mentioned in History if his Hand was not that of a Lady his Eyes at least those of an Eagle and his Heart of a Lyon. I wonder this Chirurgion is not Canonized by the pretended Reformers for thus totally routing the Romish Church What need then of tumbling over Concordances and beating mens Brains to search out misapplied Texts of Scripture and bring them in by the Head and Shoulders against Popery an instance whereof we have in that Learned Catechism lately cry'd about the Streets and to give it the greater Credit father'd on our Doctor when this one story of the Chirurgion with the help of Doctor T 's Application would every whit as well do the feat and be as much to the purpose As you may see by this Specimen Master Were there ever any Miracles wrought in the Roman Church these Twelve hundred years Scholar No for there was a Chirurgion c. Master Must we then believe that all those recounted by St. Austin St. Gregory St. Bernard Venerable Beda and Infinite others were so many Impostures Scholar Yes for there was a Chirurgion c. Can any man be so unreasonable as to desire a more irrefragable Proof of the Roman Churches Errors Our Accuser is very smart upon me and I must mind him when he says smart things or else he will take it for a Neglect He is here as grave as he was in his Pulpit when he talked of an Arian Cobler capping of Texts with a Protestant Doctor Here 's smartness again Capping of Texts and capping of Shoes he is mightily improv'd in the space of a Month for a man that has been Eighteen years out of England for I suppose they never quibble nor speak nor write nor read any English in the English Seminaries abroad But to return to the story if he by mis-telling it and making it a Tale and I by telling it as it is in the Book do not justify my self and shew his Talent in Repetition I am in Tale-telling a most fallible man. The story is neither more nor less than this in the Book from whence I repeat it These Gentlemen are so imprudent as to bring to light such scandalous Histories as rejoice Hereticks For example can any thing be more terrible than what they have caused to be printed against Indulgences and Relicks with that Bull of Innocent the XI which condemns some supposed Relicks without design of injuring those that are real Amongst others this is one of the Stories they have published in the year 1668 Pope Alexander the VII sent into France three Chests of Relicks to be put into the Hospital Church these Three Chests were bound up with Red silk Cords and sealed with the Seal of Cardinal Ginetti Commissary for the Relicks and with the Seal of the Popes Sacristain These Relicks were accompanied with a Bull which said they might with all surety be exposed to the Veneration of the people they had already caused Magnificent Bills to be fixed in every Quarter of the City to draw the people to this Devotion The Bishops of Bayeux and Cahors Father Don Cosme Father Crasset and the Abbot Fromentieres were to Preach during the Octave It was however order'd they should be search'd In the third Chest was found a Head which at first appear'd to be a real one It had this Inscription The Head of St. Fortunatus In searching it there was perceived above the ear a piece of Painted Cloth. The Physician whose name was M. de S. Germain took an Iron Instrument and scraped it and thrust it in and found it was a Paist-board Head. They put a lighted Candle into the Head but the light did not appear through at last they cast the Head into hot water which defaced the Paint and the Paist-board fell in pieces M. de St. Germain made his Verbal Process thereupon But by a Letter of Cachet he was forbidden to show it upon pain of being sent the same moment to the Bastille Is not it insupportable that Hereticks must learn such like Stories from Catholicks Now I appeal to men of common sense whether this was represented as it ought to be either by a Woman of so raw a Conscience as to doubt her Salvation in our Church or by a Iesuit who speaks so frequently of the day of Iudgment and has cited me to appear at that day for denying the modern Real Presence Here let the Misrepresenter call for his Chirurgion for the healing this breach he has made in his sincerity But A. P. goes on and with great Condescension grants that the Doctor added another Story to fix this wavering mind of the Querist in an Aversion to the Roman Church and it was of a person of his own Acquaintance who had been at Rome where he had known those who for six-pence a Month obtained a dispensation to live at discretion and violate the Commands of God and the Church at pleasure He is again a very Fidentinus in repeating Instead of this it was said that Pope Leo in Luther's time set out a Book of Rules in which the greatest Villanies even Incest with nearest Relations was rated at a few pence and that I had this Book of Rates of the Edition of Rome I do believe I added that I had had an acquaintance there who if the Priest was but sure of his Six-pence was never importun'd by him to see Mass. Now if a Iulio be Six-pence farthing then I am quite lost with him for a Computer For this in his very charitable opinion I am commenc'd Doctor at Salamanca and become a very Titus in Narrative Now tho mine is the History and his ' the Fable yet upon it he gives me this friendly advice that I addict not my self much for the future to this way of Tale-telling For once however I will decline his advice and the rather because he does not use it himself And I will tell him a Tale out of a Jesuit's School and it shall be about his beloved Article of Transubstantiation Bellarmin the fam'd Cardinal and Learned Jesuit wrote a Catechism for Youth He pretends in it to lay the Grounds of Religion You will perceive by the Story that his Grounds and mine do very much differ if I be the Author as I never said I was of the Catechism cry'd about in my Name in the Streets He means if a man can guess at his meaning the Catechism of the Church of England with Scripture Proofs Scripture Proofs are good Grounds whomsoever they offend but they will not always serve the Jesuits turn Therefore he has found out an easier way and a pleasanter way for Children for Story-telling shall settle them in the Faith. Thus then we find it in the Edition of Cologn tho in the English Editions they are as sparing of putting it in as they are of
Iohn said There are three that bear record in Heaven he should have told us there are but three 5. He charges me with three Calumnies upon my telling the story of Abbot Theodore tho it be told by me out of the Acts of his Council of Nice as published by his Brethren Labbe and Cossart whose very Pages are cited 6. He has found in one of his Store-houses i.e. in the Guide in Controversie that the Rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek is in the Syriack Kypha which is of the Masculine Gender as if the Primitive Translator if Saint Matthew's Gospel was Translated out of Hebrew could have better render'd his sense by a word of the Masculine than of the Feminine Gender If that had been his opinion he would have done it 7. He formerly reflected on the Greeks as Lyars and Hereticks Now he professes †that he said it not in his own but in my opinion This is for the sweetning of the Greeks in the Morea He is very politick in nicking of Junctures 8. He says I mistake when I assert That the Roman Church proves her being and Authority out of the Scriptures To say that they can or do prove it out of the Scriptures is a mistake I am not apt to be guilty of but to say that they attempt to do it is none for to this purpose they alledg so very often Hear the Church and Thou art Peter c. 9. He calls for our Catalogue of Witnesses against their Errors Yet he had heard of the Works of Illyricus and others of this nature And I am not ashamed to own that I published in the English Tongue divers Months ago the Testimonies of Writers in the several Ages of Christianity against Transubstantiation 10. He pull'd a Book of written Collections together with his Breviary out of his Pocket as sure as he put my Paper into it and there were eyes enough to discern it and now he denies he ever produced it perhaps he never read out of it or according to his Evasion about shewing Luther's works he never produc'd it in the Pulpit 11. He mentions a place in St. Ambrose which in his Opinion is evidently against me and which he says I refused to hear It was not worth either my Attention or my Answer for I had before told him the true Meaning of all such Places viz. That Consecration altered Sacramental Elements from common to Sacred things in use and benefit and that the Fathers used the same Expressions about the Water in Baptism as about Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper whilst no body imagines the Substance of the Water is by the most powerful benediction remov'd In that very Chapter a fragment of which is cited by Mr. P. St. Ambrose compares the Change in the Lords Supper upon Consecration with that in Baptism and proves the Change of Baptismal Regeneration by that with which he had just before illustrated the Change in the Eucharist the Miraculous Conception of Christ in the Blessed Virgins Body Disputants who like unsatisfied Beggars will still ask on extort a Reproof instead of a Grant. 12. He Charges me with a Reflection upon the Apostles who preached in rich and warm Countries because I took notice tho from Balzac a Papist that Missionaries chose such places rather than Nova Zembla But he takes no notice of the Argument it self That the talk of Conversions and of Places and Numbers and Qualities is insignificant unless it be first prov'd that men are not made Proselytes as the Scribes and Pharisees made them but converted to True Religion But enough if not too much has been said in Answer to Objections which are not real Difficulties Perhaps my Readers have already taken Compassion on themselves and left off some Pages before they have come at this And I think it is time to relieve my self after having been concern'd in a Controversial matter which in the nature of it I do not much relish and which by the length of it has created in me a most ungrateful Satiety FINIS ERRATA PAge 20. l. 15. for Homouslon read Homousion Marg. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 21. Marg. l. 9. f. At r Aut p. 26. l. 30. f. it must be r. they would have it be p. 29. l. 39. f. design r. designs p. 33. and often elsewhere Objection f. Objections p. 52. l. 27. f. Churches r. Church There are other mistakes which are left to the Correction of the Judicious Reader ADVERTISEMENT WHereas there has been a Paper cry'd by some Hawkers as a Sermon preached by D. T. at the Funeral of M. E. Gwynn this may Certify that that Paper is the Forgery of some Mercinary people (a) Mr. Pulton's Remarks p. 38. (b) Concl. of Pax Vobis (c) Reason and Antiquity p. 45. (d) A Reply to the Def. of the Expos. of the Church of England (a) Mr. P's Rem p. 32. (a) Advice to the Pulpits p. 26 27 28 29. (b) See his Rem p. 36. (a) 2 Mr. P's Rem p. 35. (a) M. P's True and full Account Ep. to the Reader (b) M. P's Full Account p. 11. (b) See his Letter here published chap. 7. (a) D. T 's Ac. p. 82. Parag. 17 18. (a) Dr. H. H. Works Vol. 2. at the end of his Dispatcher dispatch'd or Third Defence of his Book of Schism against S. W. p. 253 415. NOTE This S. W. has been generally supposed to be the same Person with I. S. who at this present writes the Pamphlets call'd the Catholick Letters (a) I. B's Life of Luther S. Omers 1624. p. 17 29 39 44 52 c. (b) Mr. P's Full Account p. 11. (a) Fioreti de la Bibia Vulgari Historiati c. Novamente stampati in Milano C. 170. An. 1524. (a) Mr. P's Rem p. 8. (b) Luth. contra Latom Homousion quod Hieronymus optavit aboleri (c) Luth. cont Latom. Etsi Ariani malè senserunt in fide hoc tamen optimè sive malo sive bono animo exegerunt ne vocem profanam Novam in Regulis fidei usurpare liceret * Bell. Pref. ad l. de Chr. p. 227. M. L. contra Jac. Latomum Scribens Anima mea inquit odit hoc verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (a) Mr. P's Rem p. 8. * L. Op. Tom. 3. fol. 231. Liber multis nominibus dignus qui omnium manibus tereretur fol. 232. Relig. causâ sordidissimè victitârunt Neque enim contemnit faelicitèr mundum qui vivit solitarius at qui abstinet à pecuniis ut Franciscani sed qui in mediis rebus versatur neabque tamen earum affectibus rapitur (b) Mr. P's Rem p. 9 10. (c) Conc. Decr. Synod S. Rotomag Eccles. Const. Gall. Capitul 1. p. 209. Moneantur quoque ne MATRES vel Uxores aliasque conjunctas personas secum habeant cum quibus etsi nihil saevi criminis faedus naturale existimari permittat tamen frequenter suggerente