it and continued in the abuses and proceed in the practice and set their Doctours as well as they can to defend all the new curious and scandalous questions and to uphold the gainfull trade Thus heavily poor man does your Disswader complain of the Councels silence in those philosophical points neither resolving the doubts nor so much as explicating the terms therof that he might understand what is superstitious and what is scandalous and what they mean by Indulgence and what by curious and the like hard words Ith'interim while the Councel sends him to school to learn the meaning of those hard words and the result of those disputes which belonging not to faith make little to edification and from whence no accession to piety can be made nor indeed any useful knowledge all your Disswaders sport is spoiled And he has som reason indeed to complain and weep But I pray you Sir consider If I have a releasement granted me from som temporal penalties due to my misdoings what does it concern me to know whether that releasement be a substance or an accident whether it be in the predicament of quantity or quality whether it be a solution or absolution whether it be from power or bounty whether it issue as out of a treasure or from a tribunal or the like The Schoolmen whence your Doctour picked those curious questions would I am sure have acquainted him with their opinions concerning all such things if he had staid to read their answers But he was in haste and indeed it concerned him not to know their resolution He had enough to pick out their philosophicall prattle in the general heads of it which becaus it is found in the school-books of such as are Catholik beleevers he makes no doubt but the very naming of it will suffice to perswade the Land that it is all popish doctrin and Popery and that Papists cannot agree in it and that it is new Indeed Sir he has great need to go to school to those Doctours not only to hear their resolutions but to understand the very terms of the question For had he known what those very words of solution and absolution mean he had never added that absurd interpretation of his own which he gives p. 20. It is a very strange thing saith he a solution not an absolution that is the sinner is let go free without punishment in this world or world to come a wise interpretation of a pittiful Divine But I cannot stand here to give notice of his special mistakes simple inferences vain insultings and particular falsifications all which are gross and various I do only assure you Sir that if he mean by Popery the Religion and faith of Roman Catholiks concerning this busines of Indulgences in one period above named he approves establishes and ratifies it all And in all the rest he sayes nothing against it and indeed nothing at all to it For the subtile curious theories that are made by wits upon this subject over and above what their faith extends unto as well as in all other things even from the worlds first creation to its final consummation all whatever is contained in the whole Bible about which they have raised many thousands of disputes over and above that which is there plainly delivered by their faith these for such as are at leasure and love them may serve for Academick exercise and discours The disorders and abuses that have been in this as well as other affairs all good men and sacred Councels have laboured to their power to suppress and rectifie And are ther not abuses of all kinds in the Protestant world notwithstanding any endeavors to the contrary But the faith that is in this point and all the whole practice of it Catholiks still hold and Protestants have forsaken it For these have neither confession of sins nor pennance for those sins confest nor indulgence of any such pennances injoyned as Catholiks have Indeed the Prelat Protestant keeps still one ancient custom of commuting as they call it which is but a new word for Indulgence when the pennance of standing in a white sheet for one kind of sin imposed is upon som considerations released For although the Reformation have taught that Matrimony is no Sacrament but a meer secular contract yet Ministers I know not how keep still that Spiritual Court as they call it unto themselves as being it seems the only men that are able to judg in those affairs But there be other sins that require pennance and satisfaction besides that one and other pennance besides a white sheet to be commuted §. 4. Which is about Purgatory Sayes that Purgatory is another ill novelty both becaus the Greek Fathers never make any mention of Purgatory and also becaus the doctrins on which it is built are either fals or at least dubious as that there is distinction betwixt mortal sins and venial that sin may be taken away the obligation to punishment remaining that God requires of us a full exchange of pennances for the pleasure of sin notwithstanding Christ suffering for us But Papists are deceived in this point upon two mistakes the first wherof is that ancient Fathers used to pray for the dead but they prayed not in relation to Purgatory and so the Church of England allows to pray for the departed namely as the Fathers did The second is that the Fathers speak of a fire of purgation after this life which was but an opinion of such a thing after the day of judgment And this is also refuted by those other Fathers who hold the souls to be kept in secret receptacles untill dooms-day which opinion cannot stand with Purgatory Beside St. Austin in his time doubted whether Purgatory was or no. And though ancient Fathers speak much of intermedial states and purgations and fires and common receptacles and delivery of souls yet they never agreed throughout with the Church of Rome But Papists have been brought into this beleef by frightful relations of apparitions which the wiser sort beleev not And Tertullian denies that the souls of the dead do ever appear How the Greek Church denies this purgatory doctrin appears in the Councel of Florence Moreover S. Cyprian and others teach against it that after death is no place for pennance no purgation and no less holy scripture who saith Blessed are those who dye in the Lord. What a rapsody of stuff is here Papists gathered this doctrin of Purgatory out of fals grounds Papists have been frighted into this doctrin of Purgatory by apparitions The Fathers speak of a fire of purgation after this life but they meant not as Papists do The Fathers held secret receptacles for souls until dooms-day but that cannot stand with Papists Purgatory though they speak much of intermedial states yet that does not agree throughout with the Roman doctrin of Purgatory And blessed are the dead for they rest from their labours Blessed surely had your Disswader been if he had rested from
S. Austin doubts whether those very affections men bear to things in this life which are lawfully had but lost with som grief may not burn and afflict them in that place of expiation as well as other venial offences and be som part of the wood hay and straw the Apostle mentions And truly the doubt is very rational and remains still a doubt But when your Disswader takes hereupon occasion to say that St. Austin doubted Purgatory I cannot doubt but that he wanted either sincerity in his heart or eyes in his head But in the time of Otho in the twelfth age of the Church the doctrin of Purgatory was got no further than a Quidam asserunt Some say so Sir Otho here cited to say quidam asserunt speaks not at all of any expiation after death as your Disswader would have us think but after judgment which som divines in those dayes held over and above that which their faith had delivered which opinion had then but a some say so for it as it hath also now and it was then and is now but a philosophical opinion Can you beleev your Disswader did not seo this It was truly if he did see it a gross and inexcusable insincerity to make Otho say it was only the opinion of som that ther was a purgation after death who expresly treats of that particular opinion concerning a purgation after judgment which their faith and religion did not reach unto But as I told you before I must not insist upon your Disswaders falsifications however they be various and very gross becaus that work is well don already and my design looks another way As he is to blame for making som Fathers think and speak what they did not so is he while he makes all the Fathers in general to acknowledg and practise as much in this point as any Roman Catholik beleevs and yet addes withall that those Fathers notwithstanding agreed not with the Roman doctrin which himself never declares what it is most palpably ridiculous But the doctrin of Purgatory is grounded faith your Disswader upon salse principles as upon a supposed distinction betwixt venial sins and mortal between sin and its obligation to punishment c. Sir if we would speak properly neither is this beleef of future expiations nor any other point of Catholik Religion to be called a doctrin or opinion or judgment of som divines or all divines or any such like thing For it is the faith as well of divines as other Christians unto which they as well as these submit all equally with the same resignation and no doctrin of any mans Upon the pin of this one mistake if it be a mistake and not rather a malicious wilfulness hangs all this your Doctors Disswasive which being removed all his whole book falls to the ground And therfor it were worth the labour to discours more copiously upon this subject which all Anticatholiks either understand not or dissemble that they may have the more ample field of scholastical Divines and som rotten Casuists to ride a hunting in when they chase Popery which the world must beleev to be a doctrin of divines And this doctrin must not be the doctrin of any one of their schools much less of all their schools but of this or that obscure man who followed no school at all nor any good thing that he delivered but som uncouth odd speech unheedfully dropt from his pen nor this candidly delivered neither as he spoke it but wrested and perverted against his meaning And this is the mode of chasing that wild beast of Popery with seven heads and ten horns made by the slight of ministers both terrible and yet at the self-same time ridiculous to people not to all for God be thanked there be very many grave and wise men in the land but only to the inferior and more numerous sort of people such as will stand to hear Jack Pudding talk in Bartholomew Fair. But I have not now time to enlarge my self upon this subject as it may deserv I say then that no Catholik faith which ministers express by the odions name of Popery is properly speaking any mans doctrin much less is it a doctrin grounded upon this or that principle as indeed all school doctrin is but it is a Catholik faith and beleef grounded immediately upon the veracity and truth of the Revealer our Lord and his Apostles But your Disswader speaks still of doctrin and Roman doctrin and grounds of doctrin as if he were utterly unacquainted with faith Christian faith and of all he is to speak imagining Religion to be som school conclusion of Philosophers wherein he is either notoriously mistaken or would in his heart have others most notoriously to mistake Wherfor although I could easily defend those scholastical grounds wheron he sayes the doctrin of Purgatory is built yet I must first tell him that which is of more concern both for himself and others to know namely that those are not be they true or fals any grounds of Purgatory at all nor is Purgatory a doctrin built upon those grounds What then are those assertions that som sins are mortal som not that the pardon of sin may stand with an obligation to temporal punishment c. They are Sir rational congruities invented by Catholik Divines the more fully to clear unto weak beleevers the rationality and truth of that old Christian Tradition concerning our expiatory sufferings after this life before entrance into glory But if we will look for more ancient and Christian-like grounds for this expiation so far as one busines of faith may be said to be grounded on another even as Gods attributes are said by school-divines one to flow from the other namely in order to our understanding which cannot otherwise think or speak of that most simple and infinit being the great depositum fidei affords other grounds far better more intelligible simple and easie grounds of Purgatory than those your Disswader catches at although even they be solid and good ones too As for example these Christians are culled and called out of darknes by the mercy of their gracious Redeemer unto purity light and holines which they are to practice and act all their whole life after and if they do otherwise they shall suffer accordingly so much of pain as they have had of unlawful pleasures to the despight of that precious blood that redeemed and brought them out of sin and darknes and of that holy Spirit of his wherwith they have been anointed every one as he hath acted in his body whether good or evil being to receiv accordingly after this life So that he who shall at all times cooperating faithfully with Gods holy grace keep his hands pure and heart clean from such enormities as may violate friendship with his Redeemer shall be in another condition at his departure then he who hath in his life time polluted himself and don injury to the sanctifying blood of Christ by
die tempore per omnem orbem observetur juxta consuetudinem literas ad omnes Papa Sylvester tu dirigas Conc. 1. Arelatense can 1. Thus the Century writers Constantinus diem festum admodum solennem ad celebrandam dedicationem templi indixit Cent. 4. coll 452. Templorum recens extâ—â—ctorum consecrationes exornationes superbas aliaque superstitiosa quorum maximam partem Constantinus excegitavit in multas ecclesias propagavit coll 497. Chrisâ—â—anos in templis nondam consecratis non convenisse clarè indâ—â—at Athanasius coll 408. Accensiones candelarum interdiu in templis Constantinus instituit coll 497. Plane simili superstitione Constantinus reliquias quasdam de cruce ab Helenâ repert â Consantinopoliâ—â—â— dicitur transtulisse ut esset ejus urbis conservatrix coll 1529. Caeperunt hoc â—oeculo primùm sub Constantino loca terrae sanctae c. in pretio haberi c. Helena mater imperatoris multer superstitiosa illuc profecta est adorandi causà coll 457. Secunda Synodus celebrata est Constantini imperatoris Sylvestri tempore c. ubi can 2. dicitur Assumi aliquem ad sacerdotium in vinculo conjugii constitutum nisi fuerit promissa conversio non oportet coll 704. Fuisse etiam ante Constantinum virgines seu mulieres continentes â—astitatem perpetuam professas ex libro quarto Fusebii de vita Constantini apparet ubi magnopere approbasse disciplinam ejusmodi imperatorem Constantinum affirmat adeo ut frequenter corum contubernium adierit Helenam vero Constantini matrem Hierosolymis virgines Deo sacras reperisse Socrates testatur quarum professionem usque adeo probarit ut ministram illis sese praebuerit coll 467. Monachi per Syriam Palestinam Bythiniam reliqua Asiae loca sub Constantino magno coll 1294. Notum est quam reverentiam observantiam episcopis habuerit Constantinus in Synodo Nicaena ubi nec consedere prius quam episcopi annuissent voluit coll 460. Ad poenitentiam admoneri homines spem verò remissionis non à sacerdotibus sed ab ipso Deo expectare c. Cùm haec dixisset Acesius subjunxit imperator Pâ—ne scalam ô Acesi solus ascende in coelum coll 653. Turba frequens preces cum fictu pro anima imperatoris fudit coll 454. Thus Frigivillaeus Gauvius Constantinus tâ—â—buit Romano episcopo primatum aâ—te omnes And again Ex eo apparet satale suisse ut Constantinus daret potestatem bestiae quam statim â—ulius exercuit Nam etiam Constantinus magnus ferebat arma draconis in insignis suis c. ita ut ipse sit draco qui dedit potestatem bestiae typus draconis serpentis antiqui Apoc. 13. qui bestiae poâ—estatem dedit These words are in his Palma p. 34. And the same Centurists learned and indastrious Protestants do manifesty acknowledg although they also dislike it even in that fourth age above thirteen hundred years ago when the Christian Church first lift up her head in the world all in a manner practices beleef and rites yet held in the Roman Church and utterly now abolisht by the Protestant reformation as then in vogue amongst the prelates and people of those times for example the Primacy of the byshop of Rome deduced by divine right from that of S. Peter coll 515. 551. 556. 458. the single life of Priests 616. 486. the sumptuousnes of consecrating Churches and celebrating Masses in hallowed places 497. the rites used in ordination of deacons subdeacons acolytes exorcists readers door-keepers and in the unction and consecration of Priests 873 874. 435. ecclesiastical vestments the alb the stole Dalmatick cope mytre 504. 876. 835. saying of prayers upon little stones or beads coll 1329. worshipping and estimation of the Cross 302. praying towards the East 432. canonical hours 433. mattins in the night 459. solemn funeral rites and prayer for the souls of the deceased 453 454 455. Priests blessing of the bride and bridegroom after marriage 453. prohibition of marriage as well as eating of flesh in Lent 453. 441. consecration of monks and monastertes 466. vowed chastity poverty and abstinence anchorets hermits their cells and austerity of life 470. 488. 300 301. 471. 474. Images in the Church and candles there burning in the day time 409 410. solemn translation of Saints relicks and placing them under the altar with pilgrimages to them wherat sick persons were miraculously cured 456 457. 602. consecration of baptismal water and confirmation by a byslop with chrysme 415. 420. 865. sign of the cross in baptisme and exorcismes 421. 417. Free-will interiour justification and merit of good works 291 292 293. confesston of sins to a priest pennance and absolution with imposition of hands 425. 834. unwritten traditions 299. invocation of Saints 295. Purgatory 304. altars consecrated with the sign of the cross and chrisme called the seat of Christs body and blood 409. real presence and transubstantiation 209. 985. the reservation of that sacrament and offering it up a sacrifice to God propitiatory both for the living and dead 427. 430. 985. challice coverings and holy vessels which lay people might not touch 490. 835. mixtur of water with wine in the chalice in time of consecration 480. In a word all things which the Roman Catholik Church now beleevs and practises contrary to themselves are acknowledged by those learned Protestants in that fourth age to be so spread over the face of Christianity that many others of the same beleef with them have not feared to say that the Church in those dayes when she first lift up her head in the world was Antichristian and Papistical Popery then is no such novelty as Dr. Taylor imagines or would have us at least imagin it to be The Disswasives second Chapter That the Church of Rome uses doctrins and practices that are directly or by consequent impions and give warranty to a wicked life IS declared in 12. Sections For the Roman doctrin teaches saith he that a sinner is not bound presently to repent and that contrition is of it self of no value Sect. 1. Teaches also a confession that is frivolous and either of ill or no consequence sect 2. Teaches a pennance that is ineffective sect 3. Teaches Indulgences of no use sect 4. Teaches other afsertions attending hereon both fals and wicked as that a habit of sin is no sin and that one sin is venial another mortal sect 5. Teaches that a probable opinion may safely be followed sect 6. Teaches fond battologies and prayers without attention sect 7. Teaches prayer to dead men sect 8. Teaches fond and wicked exorisations and incantations sect 9. Teaches new Sacraments without warrant sect 10. Teaches image-worship against good life and vertue sect 11. Lastly teaches the abuse of faith hope and charity And so is demonstrated your Disswaders second plea against Papists But to answer all this in a word The Roman Church or Catholik faith teaches none of this His third Chapter That the Roman Church teaches doctrins destructive of Christian society and monarchy IS shown in three sections First she teaches it is lawful to lye and speak falsities Secondly she does intollerable prejudice to government by exemption of Clergy Thirdly subjects Princes to the Pope and separateth