the Papists Idolaters But that is impossible for you to do You will perhaps to little purpose cite the names of certain Calvinistical Writers that as you hypocritically called themselves English Protestants but withall you will take notice that all very Protestants have laughed at them some have been angry and demonstrated the direct Negative If you were a live member of the English Church you would know that the English Church would be no Church if the Pope were Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters For would you acknowledg that to be a Church that enjoyes her whole Authority and Jurisdiction from Antichrist and Idolaters Is she not rather a member and abortive of Antichrist This is plain reason Mr. Bagshaw and consequently the inference is undeniable That all are schismaticks who upon that score do refuse communion with the Roman Church 17. You proceed against Mr. Thorndike He insinuates say you that we may lawfully pray for the Dead Your proof I told you that this is against Protestancy must be to shew where the English Church has repealed the Antient Canons commanding Prayer for the Dead That will be a hard task On the contrary You your selves object against the Common-Prayer-Book that there is a clause in it that not only insinuates it to be lawful but actually exercises prayer for the dead And you know that within the time of the four first General Counsels received in England above twelve hundred years ago your Progenitors were by the Universal Church declared Hereticks for denying it Yea moreover that there was never extant any Liturgy or Missal in the Church of Christ Eastern or Western wherein there were not prayers for the dead 18. You go on Mr. Thorndike against the Doctrine of the Church of England saies That we may expect some benefit by the prayers of souls departed I suppose holy soules are meant Where does the Church of England contradict this nay more except you will acknowledg your self to be a Socinian and deny that the souls of dead persons have any subsistence at all with perception and use of rational faculties you your self will not be so shameless as to deny what you here lay to Mr. Thorndikes charge For I know none that call themselves Christians except Socinians but acknowledg that the glorified Saints do pray at least in general for the Church Militant Now if they all do pray for us all will you not permit us to expect some benefit by their prayers Must we maintain that all their prayers are to no purpose O but you infer That this in time may easily be improved to our praying unto them As for this inference which is not your defendants but only your own give me leave to tell you That if you believe that the Saints pray for the Church in general it would be no hard matter by one Syllogisme to oblige you to acknowledge that we may pray to God that he would hear and grant their prayers making them beneficial to us And now search all the Solemn Offices and Missals of the Roman Church mark the prayers that occurrs every Saints Feast you will find no other formes but such as that The prayer is alwayes directed to God alone immediately and he is desired to grant us such and such blessings by the intercession of such Saints And if in less solemne Devotions as Litanies Antiphons c. we say Sancte Maria Sancte Michael Sancte Petre ora pro nobis we are by the Church obliged to no other meaning then as before and we imitate express Scripture Laudate Deum omnes Angeli ejus omnes Sancti ejus c. Cardinal Perron will assure you that our prayers to Saints is only prier pour prier a devout wishing that they would pray for us And truly for my part I do heartily wish all the Saints in heaven to intercede in their prayers with God that he would vouchsafe to give you and us all a sincere love both to truth and peace 19. I have reserved your most criminal charge till the last which you thus express If it be not the intent of some to returne into Aegypt I cannot imagine Preface what means the crying up of that great Diana of the Papists the Churches authority and making that the sole interpreter of Scripture What Religion can you possibly be of and talk thus You in your own person standing alone are not a Church If you be but one member of a Church what ever it be as long as you are so you are subject to it it must have Authority over you the Spirit of one Prophet must be subject to an assembly of Prophets are you an Independent much freedom is implyed in that Title yet I believe your Lay Church will think it has authority enough to oblige you not to interpret Scripture for the advantage of that court of Inquisition the Classes of the Presbytery Are you a Presbyterian Your private reason shall be yoaked and chained with bonds strong enough and heavy enough to keep it from stirring to the prejudice of the Holy brethren and Sisters But you will needs call your self an English Protestant and yet will dare to revile all the Authority in your Church boldly protesting that it shall not interpret Scripture for you Your private reason shall over-master it Unless it confesse it self to be no Church that is to have no Authority to oblige its members to receive the sence of scripture from her you will be revenged by bellowing aloud This is the crying up of the great Diana of the Papists Truly I must needs say the Church of England is a very patient Church if she suffer you to speak this Bedlam language and injoy a Benefice too 20. But you do well though you mean very ill when you call this the Diana of the Papists Since you imply that a true obliging Authority if any where can only be found in the Catholick Church As for Sects that have no Succession of Ordination for such to assume Authority and Jurisdiction in matters of Religion is ridiculous even to common sence for it implies that to be men which have an ordinary use of reason is a sufficient qualification to become Ecclesiastical Teachers and Governours The Clergy of England challenging a lawful Ordination have some pretension to a real Authority and if they could justify themselves free from the guilt of Schisme even we Roman Catholicks could not deny but their Authority would oblige in conscience and under the penaltie of damnation because then it would be an Authority participating that of the whole Catholick Church and acting in union with it But of this somewhat more in the last part of this Discourse 21. I do apprehend Mr. Bagshaw that if you make any reply to this you will instead of speaking to the purpose endeavour to aggravate the cause of Doctour Gunning and Mr. Thorndike by saying at adventure that there is a secret intelligence between the Papists and them and that they do
duty that the oaths require because by taking the Oathes we should free our selves oftimes from the loss of our Estates and sometimes of our lives whereas by such Voluntary protestations we cannot challenge any temporal commodity nay perhaps we anger those that take it worse from us that we prove our selves good subjects then they would if we had been ill ones This is all I can at present say to such a scruple If this satisfy not God mend those that are in fault 21. Let us now see Your second reason why only Papists must not be tolerated though they were never so good subjects That You deliver in these words There is another thing practised by Preface them which makes it highly questionable whether a Kingdom professing Christianity ought to tolerate them in that is their Worshipping of Images which is a sin so contrary to the express letter of the Divine Law and so repugnant to the common sence and reason of all men that God punished it severely even in the Heathen Chaldeans as well as in his own people the Jewes 22. You are hard put to it Mr. Bagshaw to find reasons to kill Roman Catholicks The saying is Furor arma but it has put a straw into Your hands to wound us with Yet I am likewise hard put to it too how to defend my self against even such a weapon that is how to discourse upon this point of Images with one that professes he will neither accept Fathers Councels nor the whole Church it self for an Interpreter of Scriptures or Decider of Controversies but only his own private enlightned reason It cannot be helped therefore Reason alone must be judge between us You will needs have it so Let reason then be our judge but upon condition that You will not call that reason which is against common sence 22. You say The worshipping of Images is a sin repugnant to the common sence and Fresâ— reason of all sober men so that your common sence and reason concludes that there is not a Catholick in the world that is a sober man and not devoid of common sence and reason and by consequence all France Spain Italy Germany Savoy Greece c. are but one large Bedlam 24. Well however give one of these Bedlam men leave to propose to such a sober man as you are that is all compounded of Reason some few Questions First then suppose there were represented to you while You were thinking of other matters or talking a picture of our Lord hanging on the Crosse could you possibly avoid the calling to mind who our Lord was and what he had done or suffered for you And if not being able to forbid the entrance of such thoughts into your mind on such an occasion would your reason dictate to you that you had done ill in changing your thoughts from the world to God would you repent of it asking pardon of God and praying that such a tentation might never befal you afterwards Does your enlightned reason suggest this to you Truely if it do I believe you are of a temper of mind almost specifically different from all mankind besides and must change their nature before You make them of your perswasion or Church And yours is not a common sence if it either tell You that by Your beating down Crosses and breaking Church windows our good Countrymen think more of God then they did while those remembrances were standing or if they think less that it is better for them to forget him 25. To make a step further Let it be supposed that at the same time You saw before you several pictures of several persons in quite contrary manner regarded by you as of St. Peter and Judas of our Late Soveraign and Bradshaw you are beholding to me for this example Or put case you had in one hand a Bible and in the other the infamous story of Pantagruel does not your common sence and reason tell you that such pictures or books force upon your mind quite contrary thoughts and affections the which regard those pictures or books not simply considered but as representing such persons and containing such matter The which thoughts being just and not at all harmful to you and withal almost impossible to be avoyded I cannot find any reason why reason should forbid them I am sure common sence will not 26. If then it be according to reason and common sence and likewise unavoydable to admit such different thoughts will not reason also warrant you to expresse outwardly by words or actions whatsoever you may without any fault think inwardly For my part I cannot imagine any scruple in this If then I may and must think reverently or contemptuously of the Objects I may as well speak or behave my self externally after the same manner to them respectively For whatsoever is ill or good in words or actions is so likewise in thoughts 27. Now to shew that such thoughts or affections regard not the persons only but the pictures also as representations of such persons ask Your own heart and You will find that You would not place S. Peters picture or the Kings in an unclean dishonest place If any one should spit upon either of them your heart would rise against him and tempt you to strike him which it would not do if the same contemptuous usage were shewed to the picture of Judas or Bradshaw Now this is so naturally imbibed in the hearts of all mankind that in all Kings Courts a respect and outward mark of reverence is required to the Chamber of presence or Chair of State and a refusal of it much more a contemptuous behaviour would be criminal To apply this to the forementioned Books You could not bring your reason to permit You to tear out a leafe of the Bible for an unclean use as you could without the least remorse do to the story of Pantagruel or Aesops fables 28. Let us now consider what kind of respect this is that we express to such images Comparing the images of Saint Peter and our Soveraigns together we find that a respectful regard is had to both and a contemptuous usage of either would displease us Yet it is not the same kind of respect For St. Peters image we consider as of a man that puts us in mind of heaven and heavenly things one highly favoured by Almighty God a principal Courtier in his Kingdom and one that by his writings and example has been a great instrument of promoting our eternal happiness We do not so esteem of every good King Therefore to shew the difference of our respect to each we would choose to give St. Peters picture a place in our Oratory and the Kings in our Gallery But what names to give to these different respects is not easie to determine It is plain that which is given to the Kings picture is purely a civil respect but what shall we call that which is given to St. Peters If we say it is
Religious you will quarrel as derogating from God Let us therefore call it a sacred veneration or honour For since all things that are appointed on purpose to mind us of God of heaven and the salvation of our souls we call them sacred this name may well be applyed to such a picture But moreover because there are not invented such variety of names as there are things and there are far fewer sorts of outward postures of our Bodies denoting respect then there are Names or Words Hence it comes to pass that when we would express a Civil and a Sacred yea a Religious respect we are forced to use the same outward behaviour of bowing kneeling c. to Fathers and Magistrates that we do to God himself Yea we find in the Scripture Kings adored and a prostration of bodies paid to them Yet for all this no man will suspect that thereby any dishonour was intended to God or the Honour due only to him was paid to creatures 29. In the next place let reason and common sence give judgment of the distinction between the respect that may be paid to the picture of St. Peter and that which ought to be paid to himself in case he appeared to us glorified as he is A Divine respect we pay to neither though sometimes we use such postures as we do when we pray or worship God It is then a sacred veneration only but yet there are some expressions of respect that we would use to the person that would be ridiculous to the picture as reverently to speak to him to beg his prayers to God for us to ask a Question c. 30. Our last Enquiry shall be into the difference of regard if any there be to our Saviours picture and S. Peters the former representing to us him that is both God and man the latter meerly man However we shall find that the regard to both the pictures is of the same species and nature that is only sacred because a picture we never look upon but as an instrument to put us in mind or to call to our memories an object and therefore it being of our own frameing is not capable of any respect beyond that which is due to so material inferiour a thing what ever the object represented by it be True it is that the internal affections and thoughts occasionally raised in our minds will be infinitely different for we shall think upon Christ with Adoration Love Resignation and Obedience due to God only not so of St. Peter but the pictures themselves will be treated by us as sacred pictures only that deserve a respect proportionable And since it is evident they are capable of a sinful disrespect consequently a due respect may be paid to them I say may be not alwaies ought to be for then it would never be fit to put on ones hat c. in a room where there hangs a crucifix 31. To summe up briefly our meaning in this whole matter We find our minds too apt to be distracted from meditating on Divine things therefore we help our selves by such things as will call to our memories and fix our thoughts upon Objects good for our souls to be thought upon Such are holy pictures both in times of prayer and out we find this benefit by them Being such sacred things we must renounce our reason if we deny a respect may be due to them but by honouring with an outward regard a picture we intend only to give a testimony what respect we bear to the person or holy thing represented And though for want of variety of postures we shew some part of the same outward Reverence to the pictures of St. Peter and our Lord yet that signifies we only venerate St. Peter as a glorious Saint yet a creature but that we adore Christ as God And no man that sees or knows us can think otherwise So that unless it be a sin to shew outwardly what we are oblig'd to think inwardly there is not the least fault committed 32. And now Mr. Bagshaw give me leave to acquaint You with Your mistakes First this respect called by the Church Honour and Veneration which We affirme may be paid to sacred Images you call Worshipping of Images meerly to make us odious to your ignorant Proselytes For Worship is commonly taken to be that Honour which is due only to God and which we abhor to give to Images But Secondly you give it another name more abominable calling it Idolatry such as God punished in the worst of Pagans Once at least in your life speak your conscience Do you think or only suspect that we Roman Catholicks do worship false Gods and true Devils Do we consider our Images as they did their Idols to which by Magical conjurations they annexed an evil Spirit to do wonders and to extort Divine worship from the seduced people Take heed Sir how you persist in so unjust a blasphemy against Gods Church A time will come that You will be called to a strict account for it it concerns you therefore to make some reparation 33. But after all this take notice that the Catholick Church though it declare that such a veneration may fitly be given to Holy Images as common Reason and Humane nature cannot choose but allow Yet it commands none to afford them but even so much You may be a Roman Catholick all your life and yet never be obliged to performe any external respect to an Image There is not in Catholick countries a Groom or Kitchin-maid so ignorant but would rather burn an Image then afford it any honour due to God only And shall those that think thus and do only what humane reason generally approves and cannot hinder be esteemed and published by you the only Christians in the World fit to be thrust out of all Christian Kingdomes and executed as traytours though otherwise they be acknowledged most faithful peaceable men and obedient Subjects Are you not afraid of In quo judicio judicaveritis judicabimini 34. You see Sir how since you will not admit of Authorities to justify the Beliefe and Practice of Roman Catholicks but only common sence and reason I have complyed with you And now in one word tell you that You must never hope to make any sober man believe that Roman Catholicks are Idolaters or even faulty in the matter of Images till You can demonstrate 1. That it is unlawful to make use of our Seeing faculty to put us in mind of God 2. That he dishonours the King that shall with reverence bareheaded and in a kneeling posture receive a Letter or Mandate that comes from him 3. That it is a contempt of God to go through a Church with ones head uncovered 4. And that it is unlawful and irreligious to make a scruple of using a leaf of the Bible in the house of Office 35. For a farewel I will conclude this point with a Story the truth whereof several Gentlemen Protestants too in this Town are able
set pen to Paper to answer you since if you be never so evidently confuted you are excused from yielding by saying you have said a very little but could have said more and Catholicks are forbidden to yield since they have a world of proofs to demonstrat the Infallibility of the Church far more efficacious then these one or two Texts of Scripture called out by you for your best advantage And even these Texts as they are produced and made use of by Catholicks are unanswerable especially to those that think it reasonable to admit that to be the sence of Scripture which all antiquity has given which all protestants and all reasonable men do They could not foresee that there could arise a Disputant so void of reason as Mr. Bagshaw to whom the whole consent of all Ages of the Church all Councils and Fathers appeared light and inconsiderable if compared with his single reason Therefore till you have proved that Ground demonstratively that is turned sand into a Rock you are not in a capacity either to object or answer 6. And to the end you may set upon such a work to some purpose I pray please to enquire out a Book called Exomologesis or Motives of the Conversion c. where your great Lanista Mr. Chillingworths reasons for such a position are pretended to be answered and in an Appendix to that Book You will find an Examination of the Fundamental Grounds of my Lord Faulklands Discourse on that Subject These are the men you brag of in Your Preface as your great Patrons that is indeed such Protestants as you are that lay such grounds as utterly demolish the whole structure of the English church denying that any Authority upon Earth can oblige any man And this very thing I mean the destruction of the Church of England you Preface your self confesse in your Preface to have Preface been the Design of your small Treatise though written against Papists adding that Nothing can be more unreasonable ib. then this that those Churches or Church-Rulers should Lord it over the Faith or conscientious perswasion of other men who are not certain but they may err and be deceived themselves For that would be to take the Pope's Chair and succeed into his room 7. This therefore having been by your self acknowledged your Design I must repeat what I have already said That the English Bishops and Clergy are far more interessed in your Book for all the Title be only against Catholicks then Catholicks are But as to this horrible position of Yours which utterly destroys all Order and peace Let me tell You that to particular Churches and Church-Rulers if they be members of the Catholick Church infallibility is not at all necessary to make their Doctrines or Orders obliging even in conscience Because all their subjects whilest they remain so are bound I do not say to believe internally but not to contradict their declared Doctrines and to submit to their Orders the refusing of either perhaps not damning but certainly excluding the refusers from an outward communion with that Church So that here you plainly exerto Capite tell the World you are no English protestant though perhaps you would fain have an English Benefice and preach against order in English pulpits 8. Now as for that Great Question of the Infallibility of the Church which You consider only as the conceit of some few Catholicks if You have a mind to write any thing to the purpose to prevent Your mistaking if that be a possible thing give a well-wishing friend leave to informe you in general That there is extant no formal Decision of the Church touching her own infallibility Notwithstanding all Catholicks are bound to acknowledge her to be infallible by a necessary consequence of an essential Article of the Creed Which consequence You may conceive to be thus deduced viz. 9. First it is an Article of our Creed Credo unam Sanctam Catholicam Apostolicam Ecclesiam that is I believe one and but One holy Catholick and Apostolick Church By which Article sincerely professed the person declaring himself a Christian signifies a necessity of his being truly a member in Communion with that One Church and consequently renounces all other Congregations and all Ecclesiastical Communion with persons divided from that One Church 10. In the Second Place Your only Guide common sence and reason tells us that a multitude cannot be called One Society except they be joyned and linked together by a Government and Lawes common to all And therefore the whole Catholick Church being indeed one Body as St. Paul sayes and one General Congregation it must necessarily have both general Rulers and Common lawes universally obliging which does not at all hinder but that under and within that general Congregation there may be many distinct Societies enjoying particular Lawes Priviledges and Rulers upon condition they do not contradict nor refuse to submit to the said general Laws Tribunals and Governours 11. Thirdly our Lord having expressly promised to preserve and continue this Church as one Society to the end of the World so as that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it it followes undeniably that he has provided sufficient and efficacious means to preserve this unity for otherwise one Article of the Creed might happen to fail 12. In the fourth place since universal Experience both in Humane and Divine matters testifies that never any Writing Law or Science could yet be so expressed but that being left to the wits enlightned Reason and interests of particular men to descant upon them there would follow differences of sences and interpretations and consequently Divisions and separated interests destructive to unity to provide against which the only possible remedy hath alwaies been acknowledged to be the constituting of an External lasting Authority of Judges and Magistrates Hence it is that the Supreme Tribunal of a General Council has evermore hitherto been confessed by all Christians to be the only preservative against a breach in the universal Church and because it cannot alwaies be possible to summon such an Assembly therefore by way of provision the supreme Pastour of the Church hath alwaies exercised in matters that concern the common Faith and Discipline an Authority if not to decide at least to compose and silence all differences in Opinions c. and to put in Execution the Ordinances of precedent Councils 13. Now if You will discourse to any purpose in opposition to this as I know You have a great Tooth against it You must either demonstrate that there is no need at all that controversies should be composed and Schismes healed Or if You cannot do this You must contradict the Experience of all mankind by shewing that Judges are not necessary to end Law-suites that writings alone with enlightned reason will do the business and especially that above all Lawes and Sciences the Holy Scriptures that are in some places infinitely obscure and in plain places compiled in
a popular stile far from that studied exactness of Lawes and Sciences are most proper to have their sence agreed in This must be your task and to make it good it will be expected that You should do one miracle more which is to produce but one Example during sixteen hundred years and upwards taking in the Apostles times if You please to shew that differences in Religion have been prevented or composed and separations of divided Churches re-united by disputing out of Scriptures alone without submission to a common Tribunal On the contrary side we Catholicks will be obliged to shew you that all Heresies hitherto appearing have been so far destroyed by General Councils that the Church has been preserved in Unity and we are confident will be so for ever notwithstanding even so formidable an Adversaries opposition as you are 14. In the fifth place This great Tribunal of a General Council is of an Authority so authentick that no Appeal from it must be admitted Yea moreover it has influence not on the outward actions or professions only but even the judgments and hearts of all particular Catholick persons and Churches This appears not only by the universal agreement of all Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers past and present but by the solemn stile of the Decrees made by all such Councils in which Anathema's have been denounced against all Hereticks and Schismaticks and they separated from the Mystical Body of Christ to which alone Salvation is promised 15. In the last place therefore the Church being one and to keep it so Authority having been communicated to it by our Lord which Authority for that purpose must needs under penalty of an Eternal separation from Christ oblige all Christians to submit even their minds to it it seems to us that it followes necessarily and inevitably that the Church is infallible Unless we would say that our Lord has commanded us to hear such a Church and Guide as might lead us to Hell To prevent all suspicion of which he has expresly promised to lead not the Apostles only as you fancy but his Church into all Truth with whom he said he would be present to the end of the world thousands of years after the Apostles were dead 16. These you may suppose Mr. Bag. to be the true grounds of the Churches Infallibility It is Infallible because it is One but it is such an One from which as Separation is damnable So that if you a Presbyterian or Independent c. have a minde to assault these grounds then 1. You must first destroy that Article of our Creed I believe one Catholick Church 2. Next you must prove out of express Scripture not only that Scripture is our only Rule but that we have no other Guide to find out the sence of it but only our private reason or spirit and what these joyn'd together conclude upon will infallibly serve our turn whether it be true or false 3. That all the Antient Church and all Protestants too are mistaken when they say that Schism to you the most innocent thing in the World is a Sin a great exterminating sin for which there cannot possibly be a just cause or sufficient excuse 4. Lastly you must have the confidence befitting a Presbyterian to say that all Christians before you have been poor spirited sheepish deceived people that knew not what the Liberty of a Subject was and that all General Councils that presumed to denounce Anathema's against the private spirit or enlightned reason have been most abhorred conspiracies of Tyrants over Mens souls 17. Whereas if you were an English Protestant truly so called but the very supposition is unsufferable and therefore must be changed therefore I say whereas a true English Protestant would protest his readiness to submit both his tongue and soul to a lawful General Council and consequently would have no quarrel against the Infallibility of the Universal Church He would admit Tradition to be the best Interpreter of Scripture Only his Controversiehumour would spend it self against the Roman Churches pretention to the Title of Catholick and would maintain that the English State and Clergy had authority enough to reform themselves without consulting the Roman or any other Churches Indeed if the Eastern Church had still been in Union with the Roman the case then would be altered The English Church on such a supposition would have had a scruple to oppose both 18. Therefore since it is not in our power to oblige the Turk to permit the Eastern Bishops to meet in a General Council with the West for English Protestants sake not yours good Mr. Bagshaw I will take upon me a little more then your Book can require from me and that is to propose in the mean time a convenient mean and expedient towards the removing this scruple and that is as followeth 19. Since we cannot have speaking Judges that will please them they may I suppose do well to help themselves with Books and for that purpose pitch upon some well known time in which the Eastern and Western Churches were united and out of the Books and Monuments of that Age impartially collect the Doctrines then taught and the Church-government then in use through the whole Church For thereby it will evidently appear whether of the Churches Eastern or Western that now differ in both have deserted that which was anciently in both 20. Now I conceive a more proper time for this purpose cannot be imagined then the Age of the Church in St. Gregory the great 's time when England was converted from Paganisme by St. Augustin the Monk sent by him For it is evident that the whole Church was then in perfect Union the same Doctrines were taught and the same Government and Common laws in use all the Christian World over Besides there are extant more better and clearer Monuments both of the Doctrines and Discipline of that Age then in any other and especially in St. Gregories Epistles sent into all quarters of the World and in other of his works translated into the Greek tongue and freely embraced yea admired by the Greek Church we may find what Authority so learned and Holy a Pope exercised over other Churches according to the then received Ecclesiastical Canons Moreover besides S. Gregories Works our own Country both by wtitings of learned men Councils of Bishops and visible Marks in the foundation of Churches and Monasteries will most abundantly furnish us 21. Now when we have found what in that age was the Belief and practise of the whole Church uniformly Then we are to confront thereto the Doctrines and Discipline of the present Eastern and Western Churches Being assured that both of them have not deserted the Antient Belief and practise because if it were so there would not now be extant any Orthodox Church at all and consequently our Saviours promise of leading his Church into all Truth would have failed 21. Now when it shall appear unto us whether of these two great Churches hath
do him a mischief have all the means and opportunities imaginable The King of France esteems it a great priviledge granted him in a Concordate by the Pope that no particular Bishop should have power in any case to excommunicate him this power being reserved by the Pope alone 11. Thefore you do very well when for an escape to your selves You add but very ill when most calumniously to us You add That Catholicks depend upon and own such a power which according to the opinion of their teachers Preface can when he pleases dispense with them for and release them from their most sacred engagements So that a State can have no security but that when ever they have opportunity they will endeavour a change And their present peaceableness may justly be attributed merely to their want of strength which Bellarmine is not ashamed to say was the sole cause why the primitive Christians were content to suffer without resistance From which position what can follow but that it concerns the wisdome and policy of every State to keep those under whom as to Temporal Subjection it cannot confide in 12. Imperet tibi Dominus Here the world sees the charity of a Presbyterian c. in its natural colours The Christian charity so divinely commended by St. Paul has these qualities Non cogitat malum c. It thinks no ill It does not rejoyce in iniquitie but rejoyces 1 Cor. 13. with the truth It suffers all things it believes all things it hopes all things But this mans new fashioned charity thinks nothing but ill of all divided from his interests It rejoyces only when any of them fall into any defects and never rejoyces at their well doing It suffers nothing whatsoever good they promise it believes nothing it hopes nothing 13. But truly Mr. Bagshaw You have made choice of a most unseasonable time to vomit forth these most spightful untruthes against Catholicks with any hope they should be believed In the last age indeed when the criminous Writings and practises of four or five Catholicks of one peculiar Order had justly incensed the State and no way was afforded to all the rest publickly to defend themselves from an imputation of concurring with and holding the wicked principles of a few Traytours such a bloody accusation as this might perhaps find entrance into the minds of some few unwary persons But now when such practises and principles have been he artily disavowed by all sorts of Catholicks When the honourable Catholick Lords have in the name of the whole body of the Catholicks before a most glorious Tribunal made most confident protestations of an Eternal fidelity to the King and of renouncing all dependance on a forreign Authority that can any way be prejudicial to him When so many professions have been printed by several sorts of Catholicks declaring That no power upon earth can absolve them from their most necessary natural Allegiance nor so much as free them from the Obligation of any Promise or Engagement made to any private person When his Majesty himself has honoured his Catholick subjects with such a confidence in their Loyalty and sincerity as to trust his life into their hands when some Mr. Bagshaw knows who sought and hunted after that most pretious life Lastly when for the space of twenty years a fiery tryall has passed upon the fidelity of Catholicks and never could diminish it Now I say after all this to hear this accusation against them out of such a mouth as Mr. Bagshaws that they depend on a Power that can release them from their most sacred engagements is beyond all sufferance What name can be found out worthily to express such a shamelessness in a Presbyterian or Independent none of whose party ever assisted but rather used all their power and skill to ruine the King and after their Indemnity not one has appeared to make a publick promise of dealing better with him for the future Who can with patience hear such an one tell the State that it is concerned in wisdom and policy to keep Roman Catholicks under whom as to temporal subjection it cannot confide in when as not any one of them disserved the state but many thousands have lost their lives and far more almost all are ruined in their estates for their fidelity only and moreover to shew that this Fidelity was a Duty of their Religion have and ever will be ready to give all security of peaceable obedience and sincere integrity that Words or Actions can confirme What can You expect Mr. Bagshaw should be the fruit of such a passage as this in a Book of Yours but a guilty blushing in Your own party indignation in loyal Protestants to hear such as You become accusers in such a cause as this and joy in Roman Catholicks to see that none have of late taxed them as persons not to be confided in but such old confiding men as after oathes of Fidelity have taken the Covenant and Engagements worse then that and but for an Act of Oblivion c. would in Westminster-Hall hear and not be able to answer a far heavier accusation then this 14. There are but two Oaths by the State accounted tryals of an English subjects fidelity that of Supremacy and of Allegiance If the former were but so expressed as to require an acknowledgement of a Civil Supremacy in his Majesty only exclusively to the Pope And if the unfortunate word Heretical were left out of the other no honest Catholick would desire to be allowed the priviledge of a subject if he refused either And more then this not any one Protestant Presbyterian or whosoever he be that freely takes them can intend by them For not any of these will say that the Catholick Church of any Age has defind this Assertion to be Heretical That Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murdered by their Subjects It being an assertion they never dream'd of Neither will any of those that make no scruples at either of the Oathes allow a spirituall power much less a Supremacy in that power to the King So that it is evident that Catholicks are exposed to the extremity of sufferings for not taking oaths in the full importance of whose sence they agree with all those by whom they are persecuted 15. But truly now fince the State has most graciously been pleased to give a publick hearing to the Catholicks speaking by the Tongues of the Catholick Lords c. who have against all possible objections maintained the innocence of our Religion in the point of Fidelity And since it has been a general asseveration of Magistrates and the State that they never had any intention to take away any mans life merely for his Religion and conscience as long as he was free from practising sedition Me thinks hereafter our Justitiae Sacerdotes the Reverend Judges should find a great difficulty to perswade their consciences to permit their tongues to pronounce a condemnation
preserved the Antient faith and Discipline we shall necessarily be obliged to a Communion with that Church because a separation from it will be a manifest Apostacy and Schism from the most certainly one true Catholick Church and consequently from Christ himself 22. Now that the present Roman Church does at this day profess the very same Doctrines and is governed by the same Laws that were in force in St. Gregories dayes will as seems to us evidently appear both from his Writings the Ecelesiastical Writers since and the Antient English Councils as likewise by the acknowledgment of several learned Protestants To this purpose Doctor Humphreys Humphr Jesuitis in par 2. rat 5. p. 5. 627. writes thus In Ecclesiam verò quid invexerunt Gregorius Augustinus Onus ceraemoniarum c. that is But now what have Gregory and Austin brought into the Church A burden of Ceremonies c. the Archiepiscopal Pall to be used at Solemn Mass Purgatory c. the Oblation of the Holy Host and prayers for the Dead c. Relicks c. Transubstantiation c. new Consecrations of Churches c. To these particulars Carion a Chronologist Carion Chron. l. 4. p. 567. adds the publick Rite of Invocation of Saints a false perswasion concerning a Monastical profession works devised without any precept of God satisfactions vowes c. And whereas saith he Gregory himself did tragically declaim and profess his abhorring the Title of Universal Bishop yet in reality he declared that himself did vehemently desire the thing signified by that Title since he took upon him a commanding power over other Churches To these may be added the Centuriators of Magdeburg Bale c. who mention these and other particular Doctrines as Novelties introduced by St. Gregory 23. Hence if our Adversaries speak truth it will evidently follow that since there are now differences between the Eastern and Western Churches all the alterations and innovations have been made by the Greek Church only 24. Do you not now see Mr Bagshaw what Religion that is the professours whereof you as far as your vote extends expose to the Butchery whence is apparent that if you had been a leader of a party able to execute your cruel intentions in S. Gregories dayes you would like a very Antichrist have laid wast the whole Church of Christ and murdred all that were called by his name There wants only this to crown your zeal that you should cry out Their blood be upon us and upon our children Thus would you have treated S. Augustin and his fellow Monks you I say that the less Charity you have esteem your selves the more perfect Christians and Saints you would have condemn'd to Gallowses quartering of members and burning of bowels those innocent persons that exposed themselves to all incommodities for the salvation of our Country when as our Pagan Ancestors though Slaves of Devils yet treated them with all humanity Take heed they do not rise in judgment against you I am sure in that great Judgment you shall not rise to condemn them for this sin 1. THus Sir I have performed as much as I promised in the beginning and truly I promised more then your Book deserved In which I found so very small a proportion of Reason employed that I may perhaps incur censure for mispending time about a Discourse that would not indanger the misleading of any I must therefore plainly tell the Reader that it was only your passion Your cruelly malicious suggestions that I intended to oppose That is your proper Engin to do mischief with to prevent which a Christian compassion to thousands of innocent peaceable souls whose destruction your passion designes does require all honest mens endeavours and care You acknowledge enlightned reason for your only Principle but I find that which You call by such a name to be nothing else but a restless fancy swelling with self opinion and inflamed with almost all sorts of inordinate passions sharpned against all moderate persons both Protestants and Catholicks that is against all that have any sence of Duty to the King or love of peace among Christians 2. Now as among Protestants You thought fit to single out only two Doctour Gunning and Mr. Thorndike through whose sides You would wound all that are not as furious against peace as your self So among Catholicks likewise there are two my Lord the Earle of Earle of Bristow Fiat Lux Bristow and the Authour of Fiat Lux against whom you have thrust forth a forked sting armed with poyson enough but wanting strength to make that poyson enter I hope his Lordship will pardon a stranger yet an admirer of his most eminent abilities and vertues for taking notice without order from him of your malicious reflexions upon him which might be prejudicial to his Honour were it not that it comes from a person that I am assured he will never dignify with answering 3. You reckon his Lordship in the Catalogue of those who have shewed the vanity and uselessness of Allegations Preface of Authorities of Fathers and Councils c. And because say you it is possible that the example of that Honourable Person may be urged against me since his present practise doth contradict his former principles I will only add this that since his book is not yet answered by himself I hope he thinks it unanswerable and will not long continue in communion with that Church whose foundations he hath so well overthrown An Admirable passage this is fit for no pen but Mr. Bagshaws 4. That his Lordship has not yet publish'd an Answer to a Writing of his own sufficiently confuted by his practise I should rather think you might have imputed to such as your self These are not times for any of his Lordships present perswasion in matters of Religion to multiply unnecessary controversies of that Nature And however your self and your party afford such as his Lordship is business enough to exercise all their abilities prudence and skill in opposing your secret workings and open calumnies by demonstrating that a change in his perswasion about points of faith doth make no change at all in his Fidelity And thus much his Lordship in the name of all Catholicks to your great grief has performed with that sincerity candour and energy that I am confident there is not a Protestant that shall read your infamous aspersions cast upon Catholick Religion touching the matter of Loyalty but will look upon them as the last effects of the desperate rage of one that takes pleasure in mere calumniating without any expectation to be believ'd 5. And truly Sir if you had taken to task the making the World believe that in your Sect Christian Charity is esteemed a mortal sin you could not have better effected your design then by saying as you have done I hope his Lordship thinks his Book unanswerable c. For shame change this phrase I hope c. It would have been an impudence not to