make love the mark of his true Disciples seeing those are onely Christs true Disciples which so learne Christ as they draw that spirit from him which teacheth them love and breatheth it into them And surely if a sonne of God by that spirituall eye which hee receiveth from Christ Jesus with his Sonne-ship do clearly behold another son of the same father how can hee chuse but love him as a brother he cannot chuse but love him for the unity that is betweene them for they are one spirit by being begotten of one Spirit in Christ Jesus and as none hateth his owne flesh but cherisheth and loveth it so none should hate his owne spirit but cherish and love it Secondly hee should love his brother for uniformity aswell as for unity there is a spirituall likenesse and conformity betweene spirituall brethren and commonly likenesse breedeth love they are both created unto one image and how can a sonne of God but love his owne likenesse which hee seeth in his brother As in a glasse face answereth to face so a Saints soule answereth to the soule of a Saint and when one sees his owne shape in the other from this likeness and harmony there must needs arise spirituall love and amity Thirdly if a Saint consider the excellency of a Saint how can he chuse but love him for his excellency God is the chiefest and highest excellence and he that most resembleth God is therefore most excellent Now among visible creatures there is none that resembleth God more then a Saint for he is a sonne of God begotten to the true image of God his father therefore hee that loves God that begat loves also the Sons whom God hath begoâ—ten and the man according to Gods own heart because his goodness the fruits of love extends not unto God therefore he communicates it to the Saints and Sons of God that excell in vertue as if that were the next degree to doing good unto God himself to love cherish and doe good to his sons and Saints And indeed what is a fitter object of love next to the chiefe and soveraigne Good then a Saint who by a derivative goodnesse most representeth him God is light and a Saint is light in the Lord God is goodnesse and righteousnesse and a Saint is created according to God in righteousnesse and true holinesse The heart of a Saint is according to Gods heart yea he is partaker of a divine nature and groweth in it from glory to glory And as this divine nature is glorious and lovely so are the fruits of it atractively amiable Love joy peace long suffering goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance yea all goodnesse righteousnesse and truth The beauty of the body is by no means comparable with the beauty of the soule for the beauty of the soule is the Image of God and the glory of this Image having in it divine light vertue and goodnesse shines in the soul with a farre higher excellence then colour and complexion laid on the clay and earth of a fading and corruptible body and according to this excellence the beauty of the soule is preserved to immortality when the beauty of the body is suffered either to vanish before the body or to lye with it in the dust and there to die a kinde of second death neither shall it ever recover life againe but by a conjunction with the beauty of the soule If corporall beauty have been joyned with spirituall beauty then shall it rise in a farre more excellent beauty but if it had not with it spirituall beauty purity and goodnesse and fairenesse of soule it shall not arise in glory and beauty it shall not see the face of God but it shall be sent away with ougly spirits being it self transformed into the deformed character of a countenance weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth If then a Saint be so lovely and the love of a Saint is so just and reasonable and God doth love this Love and doth give his Saints the Spirit of love of purpose to love one another and so this love is the marke of a Saint a Sonne and a Christian let every Saint make himselfe sure of this love and not onely of the shew and word of it but of the essence and life of it Let him love a Saint whom God loves and love him because God loves this love of a Saint Let him love a Saint as hee loves his owne safety which is annexed to the love of the Saints Let him love a Saint because a Saint loves God Let him love a Saint because hee is like himselfe and because the Saint loves him Dilige Deum tuum dilige in Deo tuo charum tuum Imaginem Dei tui Ille te perinde diligendo Deum in Deo diligat Love thy God and in God love thy brother the image of God and let thy brother in requitall by loving God love thee also in God SECT II. Peace is declared to be the first fruits of love and to make love fruitfull in other graces and is further commended 1. By the beauty and usefulnesse of it 2. By the mischiefs which proceed from dissention 3. By the authority of Scriptures 4. By the example of Christ. TRue Christian love will not bee solitary and fruitlesse but it must bring forth peace and bee attended by it Love is it selfe the fruit of the spirit and peace is the fruit of this love yea love which delights to bee fruitfull loves this peace because by her shee communicates her other fruitfulnesse It is best sowing in a calme and if we will beleeve Saint Iames the fruit of righteousnesse is best sowne in peace So Peace the eldest daughter of Love is a midwife to her mother and delivers her of the rest of her children and without her help the mother doth nothing but make abortions Therefore as thou wouldest have thy love to be fruitfull and by her fruits profitable to the Saints so be thou sure to have her attended by peace that through peace with the Saints thy love may profitably extend it selfe to the Saints The unity of the spirit must be kept in the bond of peace and indeed with whom wilt thou keepe peace if thou wilt not keepe it with those who are one spirit with thee By one spirit are we all baptized into one body and we be members one of another by our unity in this one body How comely yea how necessary is it to the preservation and prosperity of the body that the members of one body bee at peace and unity and how monstrous and destructive is it when one member fights with another That fatall sentence cannot bee avoyded If yee bite one another yee shall bee consumed one of another But contrarily the kingdome of God which is peace flourisheth by the peace of the subjects of that kingdome and therefore St. Paul having taught the former to the Romans adjoyneth the latter
many whatsoever this Authour saith have not deprived themselves voluntarily of marriage but have taken it upon them as a yoke and burden which neither they nor their Predecessors were able to beare many sinking under it unto the very pit of Hell And let them labour with their wits and pennes so much as they can they will never by reason nor by the lives of their Priests disprove Christs truth That all men cannot receive it nor prove their owne untruth That all men can receive it And surely the Fornications Adulteries Murders and pollutions that have issued from this Law of Coelibate I doubt not cry aloud to heaven against Rome as once against Sodome for that sore to which it is condemned Hee adds further In like manner Saint Peter saith That Saint Paul in his Epistles had written certaine things which were hard to bee understood and which the unlearned and unstable did pervert to their destruction Saint Augustine declares upon this place that the places misunderstood concerned the doctrine of Iustification which some misconceived to bee by faith alone by occasion of what Saint Paul had writ to the Romanes and of purpose to countermine that errour hee saith that Saint James wrote his Epistle and proved therein that good works were absolutely necessary to the Act of Iustification Hereupon wee may observe two things the one That an errour in this point alone is by the judgement of Saint Peter to worke their destruction who imbrace it And the other That the Apostles Creede which speakes no one word thereof is no good Rule to let us know all the fundamentall points of faith To this I answer First That this Authour goes on still upon a false ground as if wee said that all errours in faith that may damne men were fundamentall and expressely against some Article of the Creede Whereas wee have often affirmed That any errour though not fundamentall may damne men that by a lively faith hold not rightly the fundamentals and so are without Christ. And it seemes that these men were not well grounded and founded by fundamentals in Christ Jesus whom Saint Peter calls unlearned and unstable and their errour the errour of the wicked A generation of vipers turne wholesome food into poyson and abuse Scriptures to their owne condemnation But secondly That faith doth not justifie but that good workes are absolutely necessarie to the Act of Iustification is most untrue and against Saint Augustine himselfe Untrue for a man is justified by faith in Christ and not by his owne merits which in your language are good workes as divers of your owne Authours affirme And a man in the instant of his Justification may dye before he hath had time to do good works and yet his Justification may be good And it is against Saint Austin even in the same place whence the former saying of Saint Peter is taken where you may find that commonly knowne sentence of his Opera sequuntur justificatum non praecedunt justificandum Good works follow justification and doe not goe before it So that whiles this Authour observes two things hee gives more then two scandalls to his Reader For first hee chargeth falsly not Saint Austin onely but Saint Iames with holding this errour That good workes were absolutely necessary to the act of justification And then secondly he will make him to say that the not holding of this errour is an errour which may worke their destruction that embrace it Yea thirdly that the Apostles Creed is no good rule to let us know all the fundamentall points of faith because it speakes no one word to teach us that the Cavaliers errour is a fundamentall point of faith Lastly his owne Doctors doe bring into their Explicites our faith in Christs passion resurrection for justification but not this his Article That good workes are absolutely necessary to the act of justification And if they doe not why doth hee require it of us in our fundamentalls SECT II. Wherein his Exceptions against the 39. Articles of Religion established in this Church are answered BUt having quarrelled in vaine with the Creed to prove the insufficiency of it for fundamentalls now hee comes to the Articles where he thus begins Others say that the Booke of the 39. Articles declares all the fundamentall points of Faith according to the Doctrine of the Church of England but this also is most absurdly affirmed For as it is true that they declare in some confused manner which yet indeed is extremely confused what the Church of England in most things beleeves so it is true that they are very carefull that they bee not too clearly understood And therefore in many Controversies whereof that Book speakes it comes not at all to the main difficulty of the question between them and us and especially in those of the Church and Free-will While the Authour speaks of a confused manner and which is extremely confused his words do returne upon himselfe and his owne discourse For that he may make his discourse confused it seemes hee makes use of this doubtfull word Declare For if wee say That the Booke of Articles declares our fundamentalls of faith wee doe not say it declares all the knots of questions which are between us and the Romists For it is well knowne there are divers controversies between us and the Romists which are not of fundamentalls And neither the Fathers in their rules of Faith neither Romists in their Explicites doe declare the knots of questions which may arise even concerning fundamentalls themselves if the fundamentalls be so expressed that their true and saving sense may bee received and beleeved by the working of that Spirit which makes Christs sheep to hear Christs voice They that thus beleeve shall bee saved though they know not all the knots which cunning and erring men doe make They that write rules of Faith Explicites and Fundamentalls doe not in the same undertake to write all knots of controversies which concerne them And the Cavalier doth not find them in his owne Doctors among their Explicites wherefore the answer which he makes for them let him take for us Secondly for his particulars of the Church and Free-will First for the Church Doth our Church hold that the visibility and inerrability of the Church are fundamentalls And if shee doe not how can this Authour accuse her for not shewing fundamentalls because she shewes not those points which she doth not hold to be fundamentall The Church is not the foundation of the Church but she her selfe is built on that onely foundation Christ Jesus And even your owne men are not agreed about making the Article of the Church one of the Explicites or at least agree not in declaring these points of controversies concerning her to be explicitely beleeved And for Free-will I might aske first Doth this Authour find in any of his Doctors this knot of Free-will for an Explicite But secondly Doth the Councell of
CATHOLICK CHARITIE COMPLAINING AND MAINTAINING That Rome is unchaâ—itable to sundry Eminent parts of the Catholick Church and especially to Protestants and is therefore Uncatholick And so A Romish Book called CHARITIE MISTAKEN though undertaken by a Second is it selfe a Mistaking By F. ROUS OPTATUS Lib. 2. Quia noluerunt fratres agnoscere nullam habuerunt charitatem LONDON Printed by R. Young for Iohn Bartlet at the signe of the gilt Cup neer S. Austins gate 1641. REcensui Librum hunc cui Titulus CATHOLICK CHARITY in quo nihil reperio fidei orthodoxae aut bonis moribus contrarium quo minus summâ cum utilitate Typis mandetur JOH HANSLEY R. P. Episc. Lond. Capel Domest Decemb. 2. 1640. The Publisher to the READER IT might well have beene wished that the growth of Romish errours and superstitions the complaint of this time had not made this Worke too seasonable True it is though it doe but now see the light yet it came to the birth before any other Answer of Charity Mistaken was knowne to the Authour it came indeed to the birth but there was no strength to deliver the judgement of those times not giving way to any other besides those whose Answers have beene already made publick But though they have run before like Cushi this like Ahimaaz yet perchance not altogether without tidings may run after and with Ahimaaz it may make the better speede because with him it goes the way of the Plaine it goes a plaine way speaking plainely the Protestant Shiboleth and it useth plainnesse and evidence of speech in which way it is likely to meet with most Readers Neither doth it come altogether without tidings for it brings with it the tidings of Truth and Love and by both a remedy against error and uncharitablenesse And as it is a worke of charity so is it sutably fitted with charitable expressions for it doth not take up those sharpe arrowes which in these Concertations too often are shot at mens persons besides the Marke of the Matter True it is that where the Writer doth put his faults into the matter of his Booke and doth publish them of purpose to have them seene and by the sight of them to make others faulty there it will bee a duty of obedience as well as of necessary providence for the Readers safety to take notice of them Controversies certainely looke like breaches of love and therefore the Authour hath not been much in love with them But if love will bee lost except it be kept by a Controversie there the Controversie that keepes it is a worke of love To strive against uncharitablenesse that it may be removed and charity put in the roome of it is an act of charity and this charity is the businesse of this work The Reader may also take notice that divers passages not insisted on by the other are here examined because this worke surveyeth the whole Booke which it answers more particularly then the other There hath indeed come forth a Reply in defence of Charity Mistaken But both the one and the other turne mainely on these two hinges That there must be an entire unity of faith in all Truths revealed by God and proposed by the Church And That if unity were to be held by the faith of Fundamentals a perfect and uniforme List should be given of those Fundamentals Now these two hinges being taken off in this Book I hope it may give a fall to the maine matter of them both And whereas the Replyer strives to divide our unity by this Engine That some Protestants directly wittingly and willingly dis-beleeve what others do beleeve to bee testified by the Word of God and herein is no difference between Fundamentall and not Fundamentall It is rejoyned for a defence against this Engine of division That if herein be no difference betweene the one and the other in Fundamentals there is no proofe that they are not united members in the body of Christ For hee that wittingly and willingly dis-beleeves that which the other beleeves to bee testified by the Word of God may know as the terme wittingly seems to import that the point dis-beleeved is not testified by the Word of God and so hee may bee safe and is still one with Christ and his Members Againe the other who beleeves it to bee testified by the Word of God may bee deceived yet the point not being fundamentall his errour may not divide him from the other which is a member of Christ. Indeed if a Protestant should know a point to be testified by the Word of God and then dis-beleeve it that might prove him not to be in the Body of Christ but first This would bring him within the difference of Fundamentals and not Fundamentals contrary to the Replyers Affirmation for it is a maine Fundamentall to beleeve God whom that man beleeves not who wittingly and willingly denyes the Word of God And secondly It is meerly inconsistent and incompossible That hee who beleeves Fundamentals should wittingly and willingly dis-beleeve what hee knows the God of Truth hath spoken And if out of weaknesse errour and ignorance hee doth not beleeve that God hath spoken it this ignorance if it be not in Fundamentals doth not inforce a disunion from other Members of the Body of Christ. Thus the Replyers objected Not-beleeving either falls under Fundamentals and then his case is not rightly put or else it falls not under Fundamentals and then it doth not conclude a disunion betweene Protestants This having received my selfe I impart to the Reader with a Prayer that in reading this Worke hee may bee enlightned with that Spirit of Truth which alone can kindly discover both the Mystery of godliness and the Mystery of iniquity and that the same Spirit may hold him in the one and keep him from the other CATHOLICK CHARITIE CHAP. I. Of Christian Love and Peace SECT I. Concerning the Excellency Necessity and other motives of Christian Love with an exhortation to the imbracing of it THE Spouse of Christ Jesus when shee shines in Love shee is amiable in Beauty precious in the eye of her Husband powerfull with God her Father prosperous in her owne spirituall health and vigour and prepared for her consummate marriage in celestiall glory Her husband is God and God is love and God cannot but love that love which is like himselfe And that hee may love his Spouse for her love when shee becomes one Spirit with him by this unity of Spirit hee gives her an uniformity of love the oyntment of Christ Jesus the Head floweth down into all his members and breatheth love into them and as farre as his life goes so far goeth his love therefore no love no life in Christ Jesus Agreeably the beloved Disciple and an especiall Teacher of love having shewed that the new-birth brings love with life he fitly addeth Hee that loveth not abideth in death No wonder then if the great Master and Lover of this Disciple
and that with a vehemencie for hee injoynes them not barely to follow but as it were to persecute even with a swift and eager prosecution to run after the things of peace yea he adjures the Philippians by all consolation in Christ and by the fellowship of the Spirit and by the bowels of mercy that they be of one accord Finally the Sonne of God our Saviour of whom Melchisedech was a type is the King of peace as well as the King of righteousnesse and his subjects who will partake of his righteousnesse must also partake of his peace Christ hath made peace betweene God and us even peace between heaven and earth not that men being at peace above with God should have discord below among themselves but the peace which is begun in heaven must come downe and dwell among his members on earth wee must be one as he and his Father are one the peace which wee receive from God by Christ wee must impart each to other yea it must rule in our hearts being called to it in one body Accordingly as wee expect peace from God through Christ so let us heare and obey Christ commanding peace amongst our selves Have peace one with another and then let us not doubt but if the Peace of God bee among us the God of peace is also with us Deus semper in pace est Where spirituall and true peace is there ever God is SECT III. That this love and peace are catholick and universall extended to all the members of Christ and that our Church by professing this Catholick love declares her selfe to be a truly Catholick Church THe two excellent and powerfull Graces Love and Peace may not be bounded by us but by God himselfe the Author and Commander of it Him must we follow in the inlarging or straitning of it and not goe from his leading to the right hand or to the left where God commands love and peace we may not forbid them neither whom God by sanctifying hath made fit for our peace must wee accompt common or uncleane and fit for separation Now the extent and bound which God appoints for our love and peace is no lesse then all the Saints even the whole body of Christ the bond of peace is not one jot shorter then the unitie of the spirit If then God have not disdained to bestow on any man his sanctifying Spirit let not man scorne on such a one to bestow his love and peace for hee that denyeth his love and peace to that man in whom is the Spirit hee denyeth his love and peace to the spirit which is in that man Therefore if God have gone before with his saving grace and sanctifying spirit let us not doubt to follow God with our love and peace Now we know that God according to his promise to Abraham hath an holy seed out of all Nations which is the catholick and universall Church if then the Church bee catholick and universall let our love and peace bee also catholick and universall And to this end our affections must be enlarged and made capable of the whole world For hee that will love a catholick Church with a catholick love must not have a narrow love contracted and confined to the measure of one City Kingdome or Nation but extended and enlarged to the measure of all Cities Kingdomes and Nations even of the whole world If that which is to bee loved bee universall the affection which loveth must not be partiall For if the love be but to a part when it should bee to the whole this is not that catholick love which belongs to the Catholick Church and whatsoever title such men may take to themselves they are not true but counterfeit Catholicks for they have not that catholick spirit of love which is in the true catholick Church and by which the catholick Church doth love it selfe with a catholick love But such men by likelihood have a private spirit by which they love a private part and faction and are short of that universall spirit which loveth the universall Church with an universall love for there is a private spirit of love aswell as of faith and it is that kind of spirit which Saint Iames mentioneth a spirit that lusteth after envie after sects and divisions But let us never rest untill wee get that catholick spirit by which we may embrace the catholick Church with a catholick love and then we may bee assured we are not titular but true and reall Catholicks Hereby wee know that wee are of the truth saith Saint Iohn and wee shall assure our hearts before God And wee know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren even the brethren without exception and reservation and hee that dwelleth in this generall and unreserved love God who is love dwelleth in him and he in God And we know that we dwell in him and hee in us because he hath given us his spirit even the spirit of this catholick and universall love Let no man therefore say of another He is of such a Nation with which my Nation is at enmity or of such a Church which professeth some differences with the Church in which I live and therefore I will by no meanes have love and peace with him but remember that in every Nation hee that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of God and therefore doe thou enquire whether this spirit of feare and holinesse be in him which those that have are accepted of God if he be accepted of God take heed hee be not rejected of thee It were a madnesse in thee for Gods sake to hate one whom God loves and for Christs sake to hate a member of Christ. Indeed if he be of a Church infected with errors thou must be wary of him that hee infect thee not with those errors but bee also wary of not hating the spirit of Christ in a member of Christ It is an Apostolicall and so an undenyable Inference If yee have put on the New-man in which is neither Greeke nor Jew Circumcision nor Uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all in all Put on therefore there is a binding force in this therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindnesse c. And above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which ye are called in one body Let us then have love and peace with a beleeving Muscovite Grecian AEthiopian Indian if hee be of that one body wherein Christ is all in all and by the unity whereof we are called to love and peace yea from this universall peace and love may not bee excluded any remnant according to the election of grace pertaining to the body of Christ though sojourning in the tents and territories of Rome we may not
and expressing of other Articles so it is said by the Councell of Chalcedon that the Additions in the Creeds of Constantinople concerning the holy Ghost was onely that the Essence and God-head of the holy Ghost might thereby bee more cleared and expounded And Ruffinus speakes to the like effect A second reason of this variety might be the various measure of capacities Some measures of understanding and faith are small and it is not to bee denied but that some Articles which are now necessary to be particularly knowne and beleeved were then knowne onely and beleeved in grosse without danger of salvation And that there is now no toleration of lesse degrees in this kind for weaknesse of faith or shallownesse of capacity I thinke wise men scarce dare to affirme A third reason of this variety may be the various affection and intention of the designers of these heads For one perchance would be sure not to exclude any man from salvation that hath any true though never so little interest in it by the knowledge of never so few fundamentalls and therefore this man contracteth them Another hee feares lest by the lessening of them thereby to include the salvation of some others may bee excluded from salvation by not knowing or not beleeving those points which are lessened and therefore enlargeth them Now these reasons being given to defend this Authour and his fellowes against himselfe I will adde essayes of some certainty upon this variety A first That certainly so much must bee knowne and beleeved of God in Christ Jesus as may unite us to him and so make us partakers of his death and resurrection unto remission of sinnes and regeneration And therefore ordinarily his Incarnation Death and Resurrection are certainly to be knowne and beleeved Secondly That so many Heads and Articles as conduce to this union may be called Fundamentall because they knit and unite us to Christ the foundation Accordingly more of these points being knowne to one then to another and the more points working the union in one and the fewer in the other the more may be called Fundamentall to the one and the fewer to the other so a great house built on a rocke and by more stones knit unto the rocke then a lesser may bee said to have more fundamentalls then the lesser yet both have as true an union with the rocke each as other Thirdly it is good in teaching to enlarge the points as much as may be so to give a full measure of fundamentals for the largest measure of knowledge and capacity that no measure may want his fulnesse But in censuring to damnation it is good to contract the measure as much as truth will possibly give way to charity that the least measure of saving knowledge and faith be not damned Fourthly as the Teacher should enlarge his teaching so let not the Learner voluntarily shut or contract his learning knowing nor beleeving the grounds of Christianity but goe on as farre as his measure will give him leave untill hee have found Christ Jesus dwelling in his soule by his Spirit and by that Spirit witnessing to his soule that he is a Sonne of God even an heire annexed with Christ For then and onely then shalt thou have a comfortable certainty of the sufficiency of thy fundamentalls when thou feelest thy selfe an habitation of God by the Spirit Besides if God intend to lay in thee the foundations of a palace do not thou contract them into the foundations of a cottage CHAP. XI In opposition to the Cavaliers ninth Chapter containing a vaine Challenge of Protestants for not daring to declare their Fundamentalls divided into three Sections SECT I. Wherein are confuted his Cavills against the Apostles Creed as not containing all points Fundamentall THe title of this Chapter and the Chapter it selfe are at some discord For the title saith That the Protestants neither doe nor dare declare what are their fundamentall points of Faith and the Chapter even in the first words saith this It is usuall with many to affirme that the Apostles Creed containes all fundamentall points of Faith So it seemes that Protestants doe declare and doe not declare their fundamentall points and the Title beats them for not declaring and the Chapter beats them for declaring Thus the Protestants must bee beaten howsoever not indeed for declaring or for not declaring but because they are Protestants A right marke of faction which commonly makes an ill construction of all even of the good actions of those against whom it is factious But let us see how hee chastiseth us for our declaring These men when they are pressed grow soone ashamed of that opinion when they are told that in the Creed there is no mention made at all either of the Canon in holy Scripture or of the number or nature yea or so much as the name of Sacraments But let this Authour consider whether hee ought not to be ashamed who thus casting shame on Protestants casts it also on the Fathers For doe the Fathers in their rules of Faith make mention of the Canon of Scripture or the number or of the name of the Sacraments Let him survey them in Irenaeus Tertullian c. and hee shall see that they doe not And yet Tertullian saith of the rule of Faith Nihil ultra scire est omnia scire Againe doe you not thus cast shame on your own fellowes For do not many of your owne Doctors in their Explicites called by your selfe more fundamentall leave out the Canon of Scriptures and the number yea the nature and name of Sacraments If therefore they do say that it is a mortall sinne not to know explicitely these important points which are more fundamentall then may they bee ashamed to leave their Disciples in mortall sinne by not naming the Canon or number of the Sacraments explicitely to be beleeved And if you cleare them you shall cleare us also But withall give me leave to aske even in defence of these your fellowes Doe you thinke that no man can be saved that doth not know the number of Canonical Books if he beleeve the fundamentall points contained in those Books Or doe you thinke that one who was baptized in his infancy not knowing then the vertue and use of the Sacrament of Baptisme and dying before he come to the knowledge of the use of the Eucharist may not bee saved by beleeving in Christ and being regenerate by this faith Your owne Jesuite Becanus may stop your mouth when he saith That Faith is not so stirred up by the Sacraments that it is the effect of them and that otherwise the Sacraments would not profit children So till you answer him doe not require of us to bring in Sacraments as fundamentalls of that faith which is denied by your owne to be an effect of them But you are soone weary and I hope ashamed of this point and therefore wander to another not much more of kinne to
that hee himselfe can by name say that we admit him So it seems wee had no great depth in hiding the name of Saint Iames which our Authour as shallow as his pen runs did so easily find But I confesse I am sorry both for him and my selfe for him that hee is troubled with working such Cob webs and for my selfe that I have the labour of sweeping them away Yet will hee needs goe on in such industrious vanities But abstracting from all these insincerities wherewith that booke of Articles is full fraught they doe not so much as say that the Articles of Doctrine which they deliver are fundamentall either all or halfe or any one thereof or that they are necessarily to be beleeved by them or the contrary damnable if it be beleeved by us But they are glad to walk in a cloud for the reasons which have been already toucht Our Author commends the booke of Articles while he calls the Insincerities of it These Insincerities that is these which before have been shewed to be invisible and no Insincerities Insincerities only in the eye of the Author which did cast the shape of them on the booke when he read it But saith he They shew not which are fundamentall and which are not Neither did they ever promise you that they would do so The fundamentalls are said to be there but no man said for ought I know that there it was shewed which are fundamentalls and which are not Your selves hold points of importance which are more fundamentall and to bee explicitely knowne and doth every Romish Councell tell you which are these points and which are not And if it doth not why doe you demand it of our Church in her Synod more then of your own Or if you can excuse your own why doe you quarrell with ours It was not the intended much lesse promised businesse of our Church there to distinguish fundamentalls from superedifications but to set downe both fundamentalls and superedifications And these being taught to her children the Spirit of Christ the foundation will discover the fundamentalls to his members and thereby settle them on Christ and further build them up by the superedifications according to their appointed measure And I have before shewed how our fundamentalls may bee discerned though I may say somewhat like to that of our Saviour to the Jewes Why of your selves discern ye not that which is right and rightly fundamentall For if you know how to find out these grounds of Christianity which must bee explicitely knowne which your selves acknowledge to be more fundamentall you may easily find out our fundamentalls so that all this is but an empty out-cry to affright the Reader with noise without reason thus to call for a designment of fundamentalls where none was undertaken and where in like case your selves do it not and to quarrell with fundamentalls which your self and yours do acknowledge Yet when Romists have agreed of the set number themselves let them send to us their Catalogue defined by a Synod and it may be we may deale with them upon exchange The Cavalier goes on Master Rogers indeed in the Analysis which hee makes of those nine and thirty Articles speakes loud enough by way of taxing the Doctrine of the Church of Rome as being contrary to that of the Church of England and hee gives it 〈◊〉 many ill names as his impure spirit can devise and affirmes among other things that many Papists and namely the Franciscans blush not to affirme that S. Francis is the holy Ghost and that Christ is the Saviour of men but one mother Jane is the Saviour of women a most execrable aspersion of Postellius the Iesuite with a great deale of such base trash as this And yet his Booke is declared to have beene perused and by the lawfull Authoritie of the Church of England permitted to be publick But yet even Master Rogers himselfe is not so valiant as to tell us in particular which point of their doctrine is fundamentall to salvation and which is not True it is that Master Rogers doth very clearely and audibly speake against and condemn divers errours of the Church of Rome as being not onely contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England but to the Word of God with which commonly he confronts the errours which hee brings forth to judgement And among them hee sheweth some errours of a high nature which make Saviours of Merits and Masses and Popish Pardons yea which carry the faith of the soule from God unto man the Pope and his Councels And for ought I see hee doth not give worse names then the purest and holiest Spirit gives to the Pope who calleth him the Man of sinne and sonne of perdition c. And the impurity which this Authour at his owne costs and upon his owne word layes on him Mr Rogers layes on Rome by proofes and allegations as in divers places so particularly in the nineteenth Article Propos. 7. whereof the Title is this That the Church of Rome most shamefully hath erred in life ceremonies and matters of faith But for that to which this Authours spirit gives the ill name of base trash it is brought in as the filth of his owne Associates and testified by other Writers and therefore the basenesse of it most justly should light on them that are the first Authours of it Neither is it strange amongst Papists to make creatures to share salvation with our Saviour the hymnes concerning the milke of the blessed Virgin the bloud of Thomas the vertue of the woodden Crosse singing it aloud in the ears of the world Filthinesse and basenesse most abominable and that deserves to bee swept out of the Church with detestation and to bee carried out as the Filthinesse out of the holy Place in the Reformation of Hezekiah And why in an equall judgement should not Master Rogers his Books much rather be permitted to bee publick for naming such filthinesse with detestation then Rome allowed to bee Catholick though using such filthinesse with practicall approbation Lastly The want of valour in Master Rogers to tell us which point of our doctrine is fundamentall and which is not I thinke is no just accusation because for ought I know hee did not undertake this as his businesse neither had any Romish Cavalier yet challenged him upon this quarrell SECT III. Wherein is discovered the vanity of his boasting That the Protestant Church is unlikely to define which are the fundamentall differences betwixt them and the Papists since they scarce dare avow any difference at all HEe goes on Much lesse is there any appearance that ever the Church of England should doe it since even now wee have seene that it dares not in divers points so much as declare in publick manner that it professes the expresse contrary of what wee held Nay wee are not likely to see the fundamentall points of faith whereof they talke so loud to bee avowed by so much as either
Christendome and your owne fires which you have kindled to consume a world of Protestants will flash into your faces blast them and make them look red with the shame of this scandall And that which followes is a like empty of Truth but indeed that emptinesse is againe filled up with malice They desire to obey appetite and sense without being ever so much as told if they can chuse that they must lose heaven for their labour You have had Scriptures Fathers and Reasons for our Religion which never yet were nor never can bee answered and with these hath Popery beene battered into pieces Why then talke you of appetite and sense when your owne smart and shame can tell you that wee have had stronger weapons which have beaten you with sound blows Rather speake of sense and appetite when you see a Papist in his â—at dayes before Ashwednesday to make worke for the Priest or speak of sense and appetite when a King is moved to goe to the dames of Paris and then offered to have a Cardinall a man of sense and appetite to be his Confessor as Lewis the eleventh at the enterview told Edward the fourth rather speake of sense and appetite among the stalled Monks the fleshly Cardinals the luxurious Popes that may draw a world of soules into hell both by doctrine and example and who of you durst say to such a one What dost thou or in our Authours words tell them that they must have hell for their labour But indeed wee justly take it ill that Papists should tell us that when wee are going to heaven we should lose heaven for our labour onely because wee give not up our soules to this Man and Head of sinne by schisme and errour leading millions of soules from heaven to hell Hee goes on and sayes The children in this are as like their Mother as they can looke For who perceives not that the Protestant Church doth rather carry a respect to outward conformity then to reall unity in matter of Religion and that indeed they are but as in jest when there is speech of saving soules in any one Church rather then in another A large scandall cast on a whole Church and I doubt once this Authours Mother yet without proofe and against proofe for no proofe doth hee bring that our Church is in jest in matters of Religion or accounts all Religious alike and even his owne words next following might have holpen him to disprove his owne false witnesse It is true that they make both Lawes and Canons whereby they obliged men under a world of penalties to frequent their Churches and to receive their Sacraments For the Lawes and Canons which hee mentions doe expresse a care for the beleeving her doctrine since they command a subscription to it a teaching and preaching of it and preaching Saint Paul saith is the meanes of beleeving and lastly Excommunication against those that affirme the contrary But the Authour having spoken a broad scandall against the whole Church brings in a very narrow tax of some Ministers for a proofe of it For I put the case If a man who were knowne to be wholly affected in his heart of the Catholick faith should yet for the saving of his lands or goods resolve to comply with their Lawes by going to their Churches and by receiving their Communion yea and withall should declare in company the day before that hee was resolved to doe so the day after for the onely saving of his estate and for the shewing of obedience to the Kings Lawes though yet withall hee were perswaded that their Sacraments were unlawfull and their Church impure Would that Minister refuse to let him goe to his Service and for to communicate with the rest Infallibly hee would not and wee see daily that they doe not in like occasions for that Church as I said aspires not to unity but uniformity But here first let the Reader take notice That the Cavalier brings in sons of Rome as like the mother as they can looke and just the same which hee reproved before For hee speakes of a man who is wholly affected in his heart to the Romish faith and yet for saving his goods will come to the Church and receive our Communion Now let me borrow the Cavaliers words and see how his owne words doe fit with his owne Catholicks They professe according to the occasion and comply with the superiour Powers of this world and obey the motions of appetite and sense and are as like their mother Rome as they can looke who for a long time hath fitted Religion to temporall ends if wee may beleeve judicious and truth-telling Guicciardin But now for the admitting of such a one to receive as shall professe his beleeving our Church to bee impure and our Sacraments unlawfull I can hardly thinke that this Authour beleeves that our Church doth allow it For the Canons do excommunicate ipso facto those that say our Church is not true and maintaineth the Apostles doctrine or affirme part of the Articles is erroneous now the doctrine of our Sacraments is a part of the Articles Besides the Rubrick before the Communion doth order That if any have done any wrong to his neighbor by word or deed the Curate having knowledge thereof shall call him and advertise him in any wise not to presume to come to the Lords Table untill hee have openly declared himself to have truly repented Now I think our Church is a very neer and honourable neighbour and that hee who professeth that hee holds her impure doth also professe that hee exceedingly wrongs her and then you may see what doth follow But that I may somewhat speak for Romists Though Rome which is called an Harlot cannot but have a Whores forehead yet I professe that I know no Romist so impudent I never heard of one in charity I can hardly think there is such a one that will openly professe our Sacrament to bee unlawfull and yet receive it presently upon the saying of it for my part if I were a Romist though I indeed knew such Romish Catholicks I should not boast of their shame to the Protestants it shewing an extreme need of scandalous objections when a man must first cast the filth of a scandall at his owne wholly affected for so he termes them Catholicks that it may rebound from their faces and light on Protestants And for our aspiring to unity it is far more reall and solide then such a single and slight objection can dissolve or dissever for we have those mighty bonds of unity One God the Father of all one Lord and one Spirit one Baptisme and one saving Faiht Neither is our faith leâ—t loose to Libertinisme but the doctrine of it is contained in Articles agreed and subscribed to by the Clergy and enacted by the State and as hath been shewed there is Authority and Law for the punishment of those that cast scandals upon it SECT III.
the Pope otherwise to determine But whereas this Authour saith That the guilty consciences of Protestants make them not dare to punish Priests capitally as for a corrupt Religion I leave it to the wisdome of State to consider how farre such an imputation of guilt deserves to bee removed And let his owne fellowes weigh with themselves whether this Authour hath acted the part of a Cavalier both valiant and wise thus to provoke clemencie armed with power by putting the scandall and shame of guiltinesse upon it And whether hee hath not brought a kinde of necessitie of capitall punishments for the removing of his owne objection of guilt especially since they who thus provoke patient clemency to turne into severity have also already made smooth the way for it for they have plentifully proved That Idolatry should bee punished with death And the other halfe have the Protestants mightily and inevitably evicted That right or very Popery is right Idolatry And now what hinders but that this Authour may have his desired conclusion of capitall punishment for an Idolatrous Religion and not onely for Treason But as here his valour was inconsiderate so now his inconsideration is valiant For not weighing the Treasons of Priests nor indeed the reasons by which they have approved the Justice of Lawes made against them this Authour in a blind hardinesse to his owne shame doth accuse Protestants of Impudence and Falsehood For that many Priests have been actuall Traitors our Chronicles too plentifully shew and their owne Pens have witnessed to the world the justice of our Lawes even against those Priests who have not bin taken in actuall Treason And now that this Authour may help us as hee usually doth towards his owne confutation hee giveth us a sentence that is a sword for the slaying of his owne Charity Mistaken His words are these As the Catholick Church is most perfectly charitable so withall shee thinkes shee cannot expresse the vertue better then by clearely distinguishing betweene truth and falshood and by exhorting men to imbrace the one and to avoid the other so far off is she from demeriting by letting Protestants know that if they dye impenitent in that Religion they lose their soules Here is that truth which I told him long since and which hath already served to overthrow a great part of his former discourse That Charity cannot be better expressed then by clearly distinguishing between truth and fashood and by exhorting men to imbrace the one and to avoyd the other For herein doe the Romists exceedingly offend against Charity and can hardly better expresse the contrary Uncharitablenesse then by putting truth into place of falsehood and by exhorting men to imbrace falsehood and to avoyd truth And untill the Authour hath disproved this mistaking our Accusation of Romish uncharitablenesse still stands on foote and his owne plea for Rome lyes still unproved And Rome though very meritorious yet doth much demerit yea sinne against Charity for falsly telling Protestants That they lose their soules if they dye impenitent in a true Religion CHAP. XIII Wherein are discussed divers false inferences from some Protestants doctrine urged by the Cavalier in the Conclusion of his Booke to seduce men to Popery and encountred with some true inferences drawne from Popish doctrines the better to perswade men from that Sect. SECT I. The Protestants denyall of Merit no principle of corrupt living THis Authour having lost or rather given away his cause in the premisses of his discourse the conclusion sutable to such losing premisses should have been a meere surrender and accordingly he should have said That notwithstanding all improbabilities it is very probable that Romists want charity to Protestants when they take them for odious persons fall foule on them blow them up burne them and damne them And secondly That though it be true that there is but one Church and one Faith wherein is salvation yet Protestants being of this one Church and having this Faith and so being in the way of salvation it is not an untruth but a truth that they want charity who hate and damne the Protestants which are saved Yet our Authour goes on like Pharaoh and to him as to Pharaoh may be said Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed Doth he not know the citie which is spiritually Egypt and Sodome is going to destruction and the probabilities and reasons are dead by which as by garisons this Egypt is maintained and defended Wherefore it were good that both he and Rome would let the men goe that they may serve the Lord their God But Rome still goes on in her purpose of holding the Church in bondage yea shee sends forth Souldiers and Cavaliers to fetch back those who are gone out from her yoke whereof this Champion is one And now that the sonnes of Rome may imitate the infirmities of Saint Peter wherein especially their Fathers are his Successors hee comes with a piece of that pitie wherewith Saint Peter would have Christ to have pitied himselfe but so that without pitie hee should have lost the salvation of the whole world so would this Authour have Protestants to pity themselves even to the danger of their salvation and by a deadly Apostacie to turne from the living God to Romish Idolatry But hee doubts his pitie will prove but a sleight and empty perswasion and therefore to a vaine pitie hee addeth some reasons which want nothing more then truth to make them forcible Hee saith That Protestant doctrine under his false Title of heresie is a Nursery of corrupt principles concerning life and when hee hath said it hee brings as hee is wont proofes that do not prove it yet thus hee begins even in his Conclusion When they teach men that there is no merit belonging to good workes though they bee confess'd by us to flow but from the grace and goodnesse of Christ our Lord what courage doe they give men to bee frequent and chearfull in doing of good works But is not this speech unworthy of a noble Cavalier much more of a Christian For were it not ignoble in a Knight when his Father commands him to doe some valiant service for his honour or defence to answer him hee hath no courage to doe him service because thereby he cannot merit any thing from him seeing hee oweth all his service and himselfe unto him Thus because his Father hath deserved all therefore hee will doe nothing Againe If a Father should tell his Sonne Doe what thou canst to please mee or as Isaac Goe kill mee some venison and I will freely give thee a blessing though the venison deserve it not should the Son wisely returne this answer to his Father Sir I have no encouragement by your free promise or gift of this blessing except I can merit it from you by my venison But ingenuous Christians Saints and Sonnes of God whose understandings and wils are truely ennobled by the Divine Spirit are farre of another minde they
Pelagian businesse of the possibilitie of keeping the Law which S. Hierome long since told them was but to speak of a power which was never brought to effect For it is affirmed by the Fathers and too much experience confirmeth it that how possible soever the keeping of the Law is yet no man ever brought this possibility to an actuall keeping of the Law To what end then doth hee talk of this possibility which gives such small encouragement by being ineffectuall that his owne words may neer bee retorted against him For what encouragement doe Romists give to the keeping of the Commandements when they speake of such a possibility of keeping them by which no man yet did ever keepe them So that a man may thus only encourage himselfe by this possibility that except he do that by it which never man did before him hee shall never keepe the Commandements by it Besides S. Paul saith That the flesh so lusteth against the spirit that Christians cannot do what they would which is as much as if he had said They cannot be perfect if they would for even Paul saith of himself That the good which he would do he had not power to effect neither had he yet attained a full resurrection from the dead and yet no doubt he improved the power which he had beyond any Romist For hee saith he did reach forth a terme of straining and mighty indeavour yea hee did presse towards the marke yet notwithstanding all this he confesseth that hee had not attained he was not already perfect And now let Romists encourage their disciples by proposing a perfection of righteousnesse to which S. Paul attained not And the question lies not in this what the grace of God can do but what man can do having grace only in measure and withall a great measure and remainder of concupiscence and law of the members For though the foot of grace would go upright yet the other foot of corruption addeth a lamenesse and so the best Christian like Iacob goes halting Neither therefore is it a just reason for a son that goes halting yet with halting is able to perform some messages of his father not to performe what hee may being commanded by his father yea he may be hereby encouraged to indeavour the more to do his fathers commands because he hath a father that knowes his infirmity and his striving against it and the more he strives the more hee will reward him A learner that cannot write so well as his coppy yet is to bee encouraged to write so well and so like it as he can And surely if it were otherwise the Cavaliers reason might discourage most Schollers from the study of Philosophy because they cannot bee so good Philosophers as Aristotle And it might have discouraged the Cavalier from writing Controversies because there was no possibility for him to do it so well as Bellarmine But to give this point a more serious conclusion This state of imperfection wherein with the new man begotten by grace there is left a remnant of the old man begotten by nature doth not lessen the power of Gods grace but sets forth the wisdome of Gods dispensation God whose Spirit bloweth where and how hee listeth for many wise ends and especially for his owne glory dispenseth his grace in this manner and measure and mixture For first the corruption remaining with grace doth humble man before God and cause him to have a low conceipt of himselfe and an high estimation of Gods grace of which hee hath continuall need the sufficiency whereof alone can forgive his falls and raise him from falling and enable him to stand and walke in the pathes of holinesse in such a manner as the same grace will accept Secondly This life being appointed to the Church militant for a warfare and the warfare for a way to the Crowne this contrariety of the flesh to the spirit is not the least part of this warre and to those that fight the good fight of faith it serves for a way of advancement to the Crowne For the more combates of the flesh the more conquests of the spirit and so the greater enjoyings of the celestiall Crowne And thirdly God is mightily glorified who by a little grace even a graine of mustard-seed opposed by a strong concupiscence and that backed by a world of tentations and by those Tempters which are Principalities and Powers though through many foyles faintings and failings the little graine becomes a tree the smoking flaxe becomes a fire and judgement is brought to victory Though wee lose in some single combats yet wee are gainers in the whole warre and wee become more then Conquerours through him that loveth us And indeed this growing nature of the seed of grace and especially the victorious successe which Gods grace giveth to it is a most strong encouragement to good works even such as all objected imperfection of righteousnesse can never overthrow for though it bee so little either at first in the beginning of it or perchance after in some spirituall desertions for there are ebbs and flouds of grace yet wee are mightily encouraged to good workes because that seed is not onely a remaining but a growing seed the house of Saul growes weaker and the house of David stronger wee come still neerer to perfection though wee doe not fully attaine it wee grow from babes to young men from young men to that measure of stature which is appointed to us in Christ Jesus Lastly our state of imperfection doth serve for an incentive to spur up our desires towards the state of perfection For when wee draw up hardly and painfully towards Gods holy mountaine with a weight of flesh pressing downe and a body of sinne cleaving fast wee pant towards heaven and send up grones of the Spirit which speake in their language when shall wee come and appeare before God Wee desire to bee delivered from the body of sinne unto the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God our soules being wearied and parched and dryed up with the flames and vexations of tentations and sinnes thirst for the living God and desire to satisfie their thirst in the River of pleasures which floweth from his presence whose streames are perfect holinesse and perfect happinesse SECT III. That the doctrine of denying free will doth not abridge the doing of good and justice of punishment for evill doing THere is yet one question more which must have an answer rather for some weakenesse which it may meet then for any strength which is in it When they profess that men have not so much as free will to doe any good work at all when they are first moved and assisted to it by the good grace of God with what sense can they encourage men to do any thing which is good or with what justice can they punish them for omitting the same The Cavalier is deceived himselfe as it seems and goes about to deliver