Memories and a needless Explication of the first but whatever may be said for or against it if the Charge be true why is this called misrepresenting XXVI Of Mental Reservations THE Representer himself grants all that we charge them with not that this Doctrine was ever defined by any general Council or that it was universally received and practised by all of that Communion but that it has been taught and defended by great numbers of their Divines and Casuists not to take notice of any greater Authorities now and practised as occasion served by themselves and their Disciples To charge all Papists in general with this would indeed be a Misrepresentation but I hope it is none to charge those who are really guilty XXVII Of a Death-bed Repentance VVE do not think so ill of any Sect or Profession of Christians but that they will all grant that Men ought to live as well as die in the Faith and Fear and Obedience of God nor did we ever charge the Church of Rome with teaching otherwise but then we say that Men may teach such Doctrines as may give great encouragement to Sinners to take their fill of Sensual Lusts and to put off the thoughts of Repentance to a Death-bed and this indeed we think the Church of Rome has done but do not charge her with teaching her Children to make such an ill use of these Doctrines or with encouraging them to live wickedly in their Health and to repent when they are sick This is no part of the Character which we give of a-Papist but we alleadg it only to convince Men how dangerous the Communion of such a Church is which has found out so many easy ways to keep good Catholicks out of Hell as without her teaching any such Consequence is very apt to incline Men who believe them to take greater liberties than are consistent with the safety of their Souls XXVIII Of Fasting VVE do not blame the Church of Rome for enjoyning Fasting which is a very useful Duty when it serves the true ends and purposes of Religion nor do we deny that a Papist may fast very devoutly and religiously but we say the common Practice of Fasting among Papists is far enough from being religious an Ecclesiastical Fast being very reconcilable with the greatest Excesses and though this be the fault of the Men and we charge none with it but those who are guilty which I suppose is not misrepresenting yet their Church has given occasion to it by making Fasting to signify Eating so they do but abstain from all Meats forbidden by the Church and their Casuists have stated this matter so loosely that no Men who have not an Antipathy to the best Fish and most delicious Wines and Sweet-meats need do any great Penance in Fasting and it is hard we cannot be allowed to complain of these Abuses without being charged as Misrepresenters XXIX Of Divisions and Schisms in the Church IN this Point we are not the Assailants but are only on the defensive part when they make it an Argument against the Reformation that there are so many Divisions and different Opinions among us We desire them to look home and to the eternal shame of a pretended Infallibility consider how many different Opinions there are among themselves We are all agreed in following the same Rule of Faith as he says they are only our Rule indeed differs we take the Scripture to be the safest Rule and we all agree that it is so they the Sense and Judgment and Faith of their Church and I doubt not but we shall as soon agree in the Sense of every Text of Scripture as they will what that Authority in the Church is to which they must yield what these Traditions are they must receive and what is the true Sense and Interpretation of the Definitions and Decrees of their Councils We agree in the Articles of the Apostles Creed which was the ancient Faith of the Church and our Differences as to matters of Faith are as meer School-Disputes as they say theirs are and in most cases the same as about Predestination Election and Reprobation the Efficacy of Grace and Free-will We have some indeed which they have not and they have some that we have not as about the the immaculate Conception the Infallibility of the Pope c. They have a way indeed to confine these Disputes to their Schools which we have not and that is to keep the Common People in Ignorance which will effectually cure their disputing but we think it better that our People should understand their Religion tho they dispute a little about it Now we are so far from misrepresenting in this case that we do not think this a reasonable Objection against either side but if they will needs be talking of our Divisions to perswade People for Peace and Unities sake to take Sanctuary in an Infallible Church they must give us leave to tell our People that Infallibility tho it sounds big does not do such feats in the Church of Rome as is pretended Their Common People indeed do not dispute about Religion because they know little of it and their Divines and Scholars agree just as our Divines do or it may be not so well And this is all the misrepresenting we are guilty of in this matter XXX Of Friers and Nuns VVHerein the Misrepresentation he complains of here consists I cannot guess Is it that Papists are taught to have an high esteem of Friers and Nuns This he himself owns Is it that many who enter into this religious course of Life live very irreligiously this he also confesses and apologizes for and these two things make the Character I suppose he forgot something else which was to be the Misrepresentation XXXI Of Wicked Principles and Practices HEre also I cannot find wherein the Misrepresentation consists There are a great many ill things said to be committed by some Persons of the Roman Communion this the Representer grants and excuses the Church from the scandal of such Examples how well is not my business at present to enquire who am no farther concerned than to see Right done them that they be not misrepresented XXXII Of Miracles HEre the Papist is charged with believing a great many idle Stories and ridiculous Inventions in favour of his Saints which he calls Miracles And if this be a Misrepresentation they themselves are guilty of it for these Popish Miracles were not invented by Protestants but published by themselves who are the only Persons that ever saw them but their believing such Miracles which I hardly think a wise Man among them does tho they are willing the People should is the least thing in it for bare Credulity which does no hurt is very innocent though very silly but to recommend such Miracles as credible which are no better than Impostures is an injury to common Christianity and makes Men suspect the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles to be Cheats too and it is a horrid
Attrition which is but an imperfect degree of Sorrow for fear of Hell and can produce only some faint and sudden thoughts of Amendment does qualifie Sinners for Absolution and we say whatever the Doctrine of their Church teaches the constant Practice of absolving all that confess without any apparent signs of Repentance and purposes of a new Life and that after many and repeated Relapses is apt to teach Men to place their Confidence in the Priest's Absolution without any serious intention to forsake their Wickedness VIII Of Indulgences WE charge the Church of Rome with teaching the Pope's Power to grant Indulgences not to commit Sin for the future but for the Pardon of those Sins which are committed that is for the remitting those Temporal Punishments which are due to Sin in Purgatory The Absolution of the Priest remits the Eternal Punishment of Sin and keeps Men out of Hell but still the Temporal Punishment in Purgatory remains due and this must be taken off either by humane Satisfactions and Penances of which presently or by the Pope's Pardon which surely is a differently thing from the Relaxation of Canonical Penances as the Representer states it for I never heard before that Purgatory Fire was a Canonical Penance enjoyned by the Church for sure the Decrees of the Church did not kindle Purgatory and it is strange the Church should grant so many thousand Years Pardon of Canonical Penances if they concern this Life as some Indulgences contain when few Men live an hundred Years in this World and then have no need of all the rest We say the Popes have and do to this day sell these Indulgences at different rates according to the nature of the Crime and Men who have Mony need not fear the Purgatory Fires and Men who have none must be contented to endure them this we grant with the Representer to be a great Abuse but it is an Abuse of their Popes and hardly separable from the Doctrine and Practice of Indulgences IX Of Satisfaction WE charge them with making human Penances necessary to satisfy for the Temporal Punishment which is due to Sin in Purgatory when the Eternal Punishment is pardoned for the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ which we say is injurious to the Satisfaction of Christ for all Men must grant that Christ had been a more perfect Saviour had he by his Death and Passion delivered us from the Temporal Punishment of Sin in Purgatory as well as from the Eternal Pains of Hell Yet we do not say that they believe very injuriously of the Passion of Christ that his Sufferings and Death were not sufficiently satisfactory for our Sins and therefore think it necessary to make Satisfaction for themselves but that they believe as their Church teaches them that they must satisfy themselves for the Temporal Punishment of their Sins and this is injurious to the Satisfaction of Christ. We do not charge them with evacuating Christ's Passion by relying on their own penitential Works but that they rely on Christ to satisfy for the Eternal Punishment of Sin and on their own Satisfactions for the Temporal Punishment which ascribes indeed the better half but not the whole to Christ and all this the Representer owns X. Of reading the Holy Scriptures WE only charge them with denying the People the use of the Bible in the vulgar Tongue as every body knows they do and as the Representer owns and defends it And to justify this Practice we say many of their Divines have charged the Scripture with being a very dark obscure unintelligible Book and that it is of very dangerous consequence to grant a liberty to the People to read it and this we think is not much for the Credit and Reputation of the Holy Scriptures But we do not as the Misrepresenter says charge the Papist with believing it part of his Duty to think meanly of the Word of God and to speak irreverently of the Scripture Whether denying the People the use of the Bible in a Language they understand be an Argument of their Respect or Disrepect to the Scriptures let any Man judg but for whatever reason they do it the Effect is plain that it keeps People in great Ignorance and as we fear occasions the eternal Damnation of many Souls though we do not say as the Misrepresenter does that they do it with this design That Men may be preserved in Ignorance and damned eternally But they know their own Designs best XI Of Apocryphal Books HEre can be no pretence of misrepresenting unless it be in the first clause which he usually takes care shall contain some Misrepresentation That he believes it lawful to make what additions to Scripture his party thinks good For as for their receiving such Apocryphal Books as Tobit Judeth Ecclesiastious Wisdom and the Maccabees into the Canon of Scripture which is all we charge them with the Representer owns and defends it This indeed we think to be making Additions to the Scripture but we don't charge them with believing that they may make what Additions to the Scripture they please for we believe they have so much Wit as to know it safer to do it than to say it may be done XII Of the Vulgar Edition of the Bible ALL that we charge them with here is that they make the Vulgar Latin Edition of the Bible so Authentick as to allow of any Appeals to the Originals for the Interpretation of doubtful places and we know not what Authority can make a Translation more Authentick than the Original That this is truly charged on them the Representer cannot deny though the Misrepresenter makes tragical work with it as any one may see who will divert himself with reading that Character which though in some parts it may have too much Truth in it was never before made the Character of a Papist but we must give them leave to speak some blunt and bold Truths of themselves XIII Of the Scripture as the Rule of Faith XIV Of the Interpretation of Scripture WE do not charge them with denying in express words the authority of the Scripture to be a Rule but with saying that which is equivalent to it That the sense of it is so various and uncertain that no man can be sure of the true meaning of it in the most necessary and fundamental Articles of the Faith but by the Interpretation and Authority of the Church which does effectually divest it of the authority of a Rule for that is my Rule which can and must direct me which it seems is not the Scripture considered in it self but as interpreted by the authority of the Church which makes the Faith and Interpretation of the Church not the Scriptures my immediate Rule But why does he now complain of Misrepresentation When the Representer owns and justifies every particular of it except it be those goodly Introductions That he believes it lawful nay that it is his Obligation to undervalue the Scripture and take from
received p. 9. ed. 1. To this the Reflecter answers That the Council of Trent is received here and all the Catholick World over as to all its definitions of Faith p. 5. By which I suppose he means that all English Catholicks do own the Authority of the Council of Trent and take their Rule of Faith from it but this is not what the Answerer means by that Question Whether English Catholicks singly for themselves and in their private Capacities own the Doctrine of the Council of Trent but by what publick Act of Church or State it has been received in England as it has been in other Catholick Countries The Church of England had no Representatives in that Council nor did by any after Act own it's Authority and therefore it is no authentick and obligatory Rule here But allowing the Authority of this rule to determine what is Popery and what not which the Answerer allows reasonable enough considering that its definitions of Faith are received all the Catholick World over as the Reflecter saith the greater difficulty is about the Interpretation of this rule For not only we Hereticks interpret this Council a little differently from our Author but Catholick Doctors themselves cannot agree about it Now when other good Catholicks differ from him in explaining the definitions and Decrees of this Council why must his sense and not theirs pass for the character of a Papist Pope Pius IV. did strictly forbid any private Man to interpret the Council according to his own private sense and opinion but if any dispute happened about the true meaning of their definitions and Decrees he reserved the decision of it to the Apostolick See and a very wise Decree it was considering that many of their definitions were penned in loose and ambiguous words on purpose to compose the disputes and differences of their Divines who were many times very troublesome to the Council that each party might think their own sense favoured but then considering what ill consequence this might be of to suffer them to dispute the sense of the Council and wrest it to countenance their private opinions which would rather inflame than compose these disputes a fresh example of which they had in the dispute between Catharinus and Soto while the Council was sitting the Pope very prudently forbids this that if they would still wrangle among themselves yet the authority of the Council might not be concerned in it But now if their Doctors do differ still about the sense of the Council and affix their private opinions on it and Popes think fit rather to connive at these differences than to undertake to determine them why must any one of these different opinions be so made the character of a Papist as to exclude the other If some and those of greatest note and authority in the Church and not inferiour in number to say no more are for the deposing Doctrine and others against it why must those only be thought Papists who deny this deposing power and not those also who assert it Whether it be the Faith of the Church or not is a dispute between them and though our Author denies that it is the Faith of the Church and therefore that a Papist is not bound to believe it yet those who are for the deposing Power assert that it is the Faith of the Church and that with much greater reason than he denies it and what authority has he to decide this dispute and who gave him this authority Does not his representation of a Papist in this point depend upon his own private sense and opinion No he says He is so far from being guilty of this fault of interpreting the Council of Trent in his own sense that he has only delivered it as it is interpreted to him and to all their Church in the Catechism ad Parochos composed and set forth by the order of the Council and Pius V. for the instruction of the faithful in their Christian duty touching Faith and good Manners in conformity to the sense of the Council And is he sure that all his representations are conformable to the sense of this Catechism May he not play tricks with the Catechism and expound that by a private spirit as well as the Council Well but he appealed in his conclusion to Veron ' s rule of Faith And what of that How comes Veron's rule to be so Authentick as to justifie any interpretation which agrees with it Why did not our Author appeal to his own character which may have as much authority for ought I know as Veron's rule But besides Veron he appeals to the Bishop of Condom who drew up a like character in Paris of the belief of a Papist And what is the authority of this Bishops character For Bishops have no more authority to expound the Council of Trent which is intirely reserved to the Apostolick See than private Doctors Yes the Bishop of Condom's Book has all requisite authority because the second Edition was published with several distinct attestations of many Bishops and Cardinals and of the present Pope himself wherein they at large approve the Doctrine contained in that Treatise for the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of Rome and conform to the Council of Trent I shall take it for granted that it is as the Reflecter says but what then Had not Cardinal Bellarmin's controversies as great an attestation as the Bishop of Condom's Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church Did he not dedicate them to Pope Sixtus V. and that with the Popes leave and good liking Te annuente as he himself says and how much inferiour is this to a Testimonial under the Popes hand And why then are not Bellarmin's Controversies as authentick a rule for the exposition of the Catholick Faith as the Bishop of Condom's But Melchior Canus to whom the Reflecter refers us would have taught him that the Popes private approbation is as little worth as any other Bishops That the name of the Apostolick See does not signifie the Pope in his personal capacity but acting as it becomes the Chair that is not giving his own private sense but proceeding in Council with the advice of good and learned Men. And therefore that is not to be accounted the judgment of the Apostolick See which is given only by the Bishop of Rome privately and inconsiderately or with the advâ—ce only of some few of his own mind but what he determines upon a due examination of the thing by the adviâ—e and counsel of many wise Men. And therefore I doubt notwithstanding the present Popes approbation he is a little out when he calls this the Authority of the Apostolick See But the Answerer did not only charge him in general with interpreting the Council of Trent by his own private sense and opinions but gave some particular instances of it and I must now consider how the Reflecter takes off this charge 1. As to Invocation of Saints