being rationally and Christianly principled and nothing averse to Piety till coming to the later Proposition That it became the wisedom and goodness of Christ to appoint a visible Judge Infallible upon Earth to determine Controversies He replied mildly we had reason to go warily in censuring the wisedom and goodness of God if this or that thing seeming to us expedient were not done in the government of the World for who can pretend to know the depth of the wisedom and knowledg of God Rom. 11.33 to search into his judgments and find out his ways This most rational advertisement took deep root in my heart ever thirsty of reason and open to receive it Neither did the modesty of the Proposer diminish but rather augment the weight of it It was in truth the first shock that touched me to the quick striking upon the very root of that Engine of Infallibility I leaned upon Reflecting upon the matter in my solitudes I perceived the weakness of the ground I built upon I saw that in like manner we may say it belongeth to the goodness wisedom and power of God not to permit that his Holy Law should be transgressed by vile creatures and his supreme dread Majesty offended by despicable vermine Nor that Pastors of Souls especially the Roman Pope deemed a Vice-God upon Earth should fall into errours and scandalize with wicked life the people And alas it is but too well known he permits this Shall we therefore waver in the Opinion of his goodness power and wisedom God forbid Why then should we think it a failure in his providence or goodness if besides Holy Scriptures abounding in all light and Heavenly Doctrine to such as are not wilfully blind he did not appoint some visible Judge universal for our direction St. Paul saying 2 Tim. 3.16.17 that Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works That Foundation alledging the necessity of a Judge visible universal and Infallible being thus weakned I proceeded to examine what right the Pope or Church of Rome could pretend to such infallibility the support of all their Incredible Doctrine And first the very inconstancy of their pretence to this priviledge and great dissention of their Authors in asserting it was to me a main reason of suspecting the truth of all and a concluding argument that they cannot be certain of having it Vide Bel l. 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 2. For some will have the Pope himself alone as Pope or as teaching from his chair to have this Infallibility of Doctrine Others will not allow it him but in conjunction with a Council either general or particular of Cardinals and Divines Others only attribute it to him in a General Council Others neither separately nor conjunctly and will only allow the Church Universal to be Infallible And finally others of the most Learned affirm even the Church Universal S. Tho. Turre â—â—â—mata Alphonâ—us a Cactâ—o apud Candi 4 〈◊〉 c. 4 concl 2. to be capable of a Material Errour by Probable Ignorance though not of a Formal and Heretical one which in substance is to allow the Church no more Infallibility than Origen Tertullian or any other particular true Christian Believer hath though subject to errors which Opinion if extended to make the Universal Church fallible even in Points Essential to saluation is false And upon so great an uncertainty of their Infallibility they will have us to build a certain Infallible Belief of all they please to teach us which is to build a house incapable of falling upon a sandy and ruinous Foundation Now for their grounds for this pretended Infallibility what is their warrant for it Divine Scripture they say for who but God could give such a Priviledge and what warrant have they for believing he Scripture saying so to be Divine and Infallible The Infallible Testimony of the Church say they again their own Roman Church they mean So they believe the Scripture is Infallible because the Roman Church doth testifie it and this Church to be Infallible because the Scriptures Testimony is for it A circle in reasoning which Logicians would hiss out of their Schools Neither may Becan's escape avail him that they deal with Christians who believe the Scripture for no Christian but such as they will make blind can believe that there is any Scripture favouring their case in this particular without clipping or corrupting it to serve their purpose For example Their main pillar for this Infallibility fetcht out of the 24th chapter of St. John John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth Their own Disciples who ordinarily know no more of Scriptures than what they are pleased to shew to them for their several purposes may think that Text to be pertinent for their pretentions But who will take the liberty to read the Context before and after will clearly find out that the very same Text destroyeth their whole design and taketh away all certainty of the Holy Ghost his assistance for rendring their Decrees Infallible The Text restored to its integrity saith thus in their own Bible If ye love me keep my commandments Mundus id est remanens amator mundi cum quo nurquam est amor Dei Gloss interlin Non habent spirituales oculos quibus Spiritum sanctum videant muâ—â—i amaâ—â—res Gloss ordinaria and I will ask my Father and he shall give you another Paraclete that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive By the first words you may see this to be a conditional promise limited to such as love God and keep his Commandments by the later words you see worldly and sinful men expresly excluded from receiving that gracious assistance of the Spirit of Truth therefore to be sure that the Pope and his Council have the assistance of the Spirit of Truth we must be sure that they love God and keep his Commandments but of this we cannot have security their own Histories relating and the world knowing enormous vices in them What they alledge out of St. Paul writing to Timothy Tim. 3.15 that the Church is the pillar and ground of Truth we freely admit it as due to the Universal Church not to any particular but less to one found guilty of so many and great errours such as the Romish is whose ambition in claiming and appropriating to it self all the commendations delivered of the Church Universal is no less reprehensible than as if the Scribes and Pharisees persecuting our Saviour should appropriate to their Synagogue all the praises given to Moses and Aaron Would not you wonder that their chief Champion Cardinal Bellarmine Bellar de sum Pâ—n l. 4 c 2. should bring for proof of the Pope's Infallibility that in the Old Law
to whom they spake or is it impossible that the malice of the Jews would not or the simplicity of the Disciples could notunderstand the heighth and mysterious sense of the words of our Lord viz. that the Elements of Bread and Wine consecrated and taken in a Sacramental way in remembrance of his Death and Passion should feed to life everlasting the Faithful taking them with due preparation as Protestants do understand in conformity with the Fathers of the Primitive Church before related but that rather they understood them of a corporal and fleshy eating of his Body as Papists do and so represented Difficulties which reason dictated against the like expression such as we did in the beginning of this Discourse You say he did not correct such understanding but he did apparently replying to the Objection of his Disciples so 6.63 It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life Wherewith he draweth them from an apprehension of a corporal eating to that of spiritual feeding conducing to the everlasting life of their souls His reply to the Jews signifies they understood him as we do of a spiritual eating and miraculous operation which they would not believe and so he repeateth the same doctrine to them with the commination annexed that if they did not eat his flesh they should not have life in them Worship of Images As to the third point of worshiping Images it is clearly prohibited by God in the second precept of the Decalogue Exod. 20.4.5 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image thou shalt not bow down thy self to them This Precept they have put out of their Catechism to give place to their own of worshipping of Images with the same honour due to the persons represented by them and consequently the Image of God and Christ with latria of the Virgin Mary with hyperdulia of Saints with dulia according to the graduation they express This to be the general Tenent with them Azor declareth in these words Constans est Theologorum sententia imagines eodem â—â—nore 〈◊〉 honorari câ—li quo colituâ— id cujus est image Azâ—r instit mor. 〈◊〉 1. l 9 c. 6. It is the constant judgment of Divines that the Image is to be honoured and worshipped with the same honour and worship wherewith that is worshipped whereof it is an Image Nay they will have us believe that God did ordain so much in the first commandment and so contradicted himself prohibiting in the second commandment what he commanded in the first Lau Vaux in his Catechism to to this Question Who breaketh the first commandment of God by irreverence of God giveth this Answer they that do not give due reverence to God and his Saints or their reliques and Images What reverence they pretend due to Images Decissione casuum conscientiae p 1. l. 2. c. 2. sect tâ—nult Vet. dâ—gma Theto 5. l 15. c. 3. s 1â— c. 14 s 8. Jacobus de Graffijs declares fully according to what has been said before But Dionysius Petavius one of their most warrantable Antiquaries telleth us that for the four first Centuries and farther there was little or no use of Images in the Temples or Oratories of Christians and such as was Pope Gregory declareth it was only for Historical use for information of the unlearned not to worship them and so writing to Serenus Bishop of Marsile who brake down the Images that were in his Church Gre. regist li 7. Epâ—s 2â—9 ad Serenum seeing the people worshipping them saith thus We commend you that you have that zeal that nothing made with hands should be worshipped but yet we judge that you should not have broken those Images for Painting is therefore used in Churches that they which are unlearned may yet by sight read these things upon the walls which they cannot read in books therefore your brotherhood ought both to preserve the Images and restrain the people from worshipping them This difference betwixt making an Image and worshipping of it is confirmed by the example of the brazen Serpent Num. 21.9 2 Kin. 18.4 which God himself ordered to be made which when onely made and looked upon was a Medicine but when worshipped it became Poison and was destroyed Learned Vasques acknowledgeth that the worship of God by an Image is clearly prohibited in the second Commandment and not only the worship of an Idol saying that it is plain in Scripture Vasq in 3. p. dis 94. c. 3 that God did not only forbid that in the second Commandment which was unlawful by the Law of Nature as the worship of an Image for God but the worshipping of the true God by any similitude Nic. ph l. 8. c 53 Nicephorus Calixtus relating the Heresie of the Armenians and Jacobits says they made Images of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which he censures as a most absurd thing quod perquam absurdum est yet they do it in the Roman Church But S. Clement of Alexandria of Images in general declareth thus Li. 7. Hom. in paraen We have no Images in the world it is apparently forbidden to us to exercise that deceitful art for it is written thou shalt not make any similitude of any thing in Heaven above c. They confess it is sinful to worship an Image terminativè or in it self but pretend it lawful to worship it relative or for God or the Saints sake who is represented A strange way of serving God! to transgress his Commandment to please him Saul was reprehended and severely punished for this kind of officiousness when being commanded to destroy all that Amalek had he spared sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord. But that fair pretext could not excuse his disobedience and what he thought religious devotion was declared to be no better than Idolatry Samuel intimating to him this fearful Verdict 1 Sam. 15.22 23. Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams for Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubborness is as iniquity and Idolatry This being so when God is so clear and absolute in commanding not to bow down to Images adding to this Precept beyond others special expressions of jealousie and commination of severity against infringers of it how can bowing down to them be justified with colours of devotion or excused from rebellion or stubborness which is censured to be Idolatry Besides the worship of an Image terminativè and not relativè includes a contradiction the very essence of an Image including relation to another whereas nothing can be an Image of it self Wherefore the same precept that prohibits a terminative worship excludes a relative But whatsoever may be intended by these expressions how many of the commonalty take notice of that
and in the same breath they disclaim greater Antiquity and more warrantable Authority of the Church acknowledging that Christ did institute and the Primitive Church did practise the giving of the Sacrament under both kinds to all the people How inconsequent is errour This onely instance may assure us that the Romish Religion as it stands now did not proceed intirely from Christ and his Apostles If we object that the detracting of the Cup is the bereaving the faithful people of their spiritual food to life everlasting by not permitting them to partake of the bloud of Christ he affirming Jo 6.5 3. that except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud ye have no life in you The Council tells us We must firmly believe and no way doubt that the entire body and bloud of our Saviour is contained as well under the Form of bread as under the Form of wine But we have shewed before how little ground we have for a firm belief of their doctrine in this point How great reason to doubt it nay to be assured of the contrary and that Christ is present and taken in the Eucharist onely in a spiritual and Sacramental way that being so in bereaving the Faithful of the Cup they bereave them of the whole Sacrament For their own Divines do agree in affirming that the consecrated Forms of Bread and Wine are essential Constitutes of this Sacrament Suar. in 3 p disp 42 sec 1 conc 3 any they alone are the Sacrament properly as Suarez declares relating a great number of other Divines for the same doctrine Therefore taking no Wine they take no Sacrament taking no Sacrament they have no life in them as our Saviour declared and so bereaving them of the Sacramental wine they bereave them of the life of their souls and is not this to use cruelty to souls Purgatory and Indul. gences As for the sixth Article concerning Purgatory I do not find their Learned men so confident as the Vulgar in fixing a determinate place for it in the bowels of the Earth with those frightful qualities their Legends do specifie Being contented to conclude from some places of Scripture and by conjecture that after this Life there must be some place to expiate or purge souls from Venial fins or satisfie for the Temporal penalty due to Great ones without determining whether that place be over or under or in the Earth or whether the pain be heat or cold or darkness or tempest c. And as the Conclusion is obscure so is the inference of it from the premisses laid The chief place out of the Old Testament is the case of Judas Macchabeus sending money to Jerusalem that sacrifices should be made for his souldiers defunct and the gloss annexed that therefore it is a holy consideration to pray for the dead c. But though the Book relating thiscase were canonical and of certain authority which is not allowed yet the conclusion pretended from it for the doctrine of Purgatory is not of force For Prayers for the dead may be made and were made to different purposes 2 Mach. 12.43 than that of drawing them out of Purgatory First Suar to 1. in 3. P. disp 10. Sec. 4. because many learned Writers of the Romish party do teach that God as a good Paymaster doth oftentimes give before-hand the reward of services to be done in the future and therefore being long-sighted and always present to all the spaces of Eternity may see now and listen to prayers that will be made in any Age after And fore-seeing that godly persons shall pray in the future for the assistance of his Grace to one dying now may yield it accordingly This doctrine I have seen practised in a Letter written to my self by one of the learnedest men in Spain wherein speaking of the death of his Mother he prayed to God that he might have assisted her in the later hour for dying penitent If this go well Prayers may be commendable for the Dead to different purposes from that of drawing them out of Purgatory And if the case related of the Macchabees be true it is more likely the prayers made for the slain should have proceeded in the manner fore-said than for bringing them out of Purgatory Whereas in the same place is related that those men were found to have committed a mortal sin which is not pretended to be pardoned in Purgatory under the coats of every one that was slain 2 Mac. 12 V. 40 they found things consecrated to the Idols of the Jamnites which is forbidden to the Jews by the Law And though Bellarmine pretends the sin of those men should be venial through ignorance it is but a bare conjecture and not agreeable to the context shewing that deed to have drawn upon them God's vengeance then every man saw that this was the cause wherefore they were slain Their death might have been their temporal punishment and final penitence might have freed them from the eternal as Bellarmine confesseth relating for it the Psalm 78. Ps 78.34 Cùm occideret eos quaerebant eum revertebantur when he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God But not to rely upon the fore-mentioned consideration of some particular Writers if we find in some of the Ancients prayers to be made for the dead it was to other ends than to draw them out of this supposed Purgatory First to praise God for giving them a happy end in his holy Faith and rest from their labours as appeareth by those words of the Revelations used by the Ancient Church in the Office of the dead Rev 14 13. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours Secondly that we should comfort each other in the death of our Friends reflecting upon the hope of meeting them in Heavenly glory according to those comfortable words of St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians 1 Thss 4.13 accustomed to be read in the same Office of the dead I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which areasleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope c. third ly for our spiritual instruction whether considering the good example of our faithful Brethren preceding whether reflecting upon our mortality at the sight of death All this may be seen by the practice of the primitive Christians as it is declared by the Authour of the Commentaries upon Job inserted among the Works of Origen li. 3 comment in Job by these words We observe the memorials of the Saints and devoutly keep the remembrance of our parents or friends which dye in the Faith as well rejoycing for their refreshing as requesting also for our selves a godly consummation of the Faith Thus therefore do we celebrate the death not the day of the birth because they which dye shall
his time the Divine Office was performed among the Scythians in the German Tongue Origen cont Cess li. 8. p. 402. which was common to them and the Germans Nay Origen affirmeth that in the primitive Churches all publick Offices of Religion were performed in the proper Language of every Countrey Scripture prohibited And lest they should learn in their Houses what they cannot in their Churches they are prohibited to read Scripture in their own Tongues without licence under the hand of the Bishop or Inquisitor by the advice of the Priest or Confessor touching the person's fitness for it and who presumes to do otherwise is to be denied absolution This is commanded in the Fourth Rule of the Index Index li. prohib Alex 7. Rom. An. 665. published by Order of the Council of Trent and set forth by the Authority of Pius the Fourth and since by Clement the Eighth and lately enlarged by Alexander the Seventh Mat. 4.4 This is cruelty to souls Christ declaring the Word of God to be their food And Scripture it self so often inviting us to the reading of it St. Peter thus exhorteth to it 2 Pet. 1.19 We have also a more sure Word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place till the day dawn St. Paul commendeth to us the reading of Scripture as written for our instruction and comfort Ro. 15 4. 2 Tim. 3.15 Act. 17.11 and as able to make us wise unto salvation St. Luke praiseth the Inhabitants of Berea in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily The Holy Fathers of the Primitive Church were of the same spirit of exhorting the Faithful to the reading of Scripture for their comfort and direction St. Clement Clement Epist ad Corin. p 58. for remedying a dissention happened among the Corinthians writes thus to them p 61. Look diligently unto the Scriptures which are the true Oracles of the Holy Ghost He addeth after Take St. Paul 's Epistles into your hands p. 68. and consider what he saith and praises them for being skilled in the Scriptures Beloved says he ye have known and very well known the Holy Scriptures and ye have throughly looked into the Oracles of God Ignatius epist ad Philad Policar Epist ad Philip. Clem. Alexand. Strom. 7. p 72. therefore call them to mind Of the same mind was Policarp Ignatius and the other Ancient Fathers Clemens of Alexandria mentioneth the reading of Scriptures among Christians before their Meals and Psalms and Hymns at them What makes the present Church of Rome so vigilant to the contrary in keeping their Flock from reading Scripture One reason they give and another they keep to themselves the reason they give is that Heresies did arise from the abuse of Scriptures Be it so but who were the abusers certainly Priests Monks and Fryars more frequently and of them the most Learned Turn to Records and you shall find it to be so Then if this Argument proves any thing it will obtain the banishing of Scripture from among the Learned and out of all the world Proving so much which is too much it proveth nothing Meat and drink is the ruine of many shall they be banished therefore out of the World No let the creatures of God serve his servants and let the abusers of them have their punishment in the very abuse they commit Let this Heavenly Lanthorn which God set up in his House the Holy Church to guide us in the dark ways of this life shine to all Christians And that weak eyes may not be dazled by the brightness of it let this be the general rule for all to read Scripture Where they find it clear let them embrace it devoutly and frame their lives accordingly where it appears obscure let them humbly pray the Lord he may help them with light to understand it and wait patiently upon his pleasure for doing so In the mean time they may be assured that all necessary knowledge for Faith in God to serve and praise him is fully contained in what is clear of Scripture So St. Augustine affirmeth Aug. de Doctrin Christ. l. 2. c. 9. In iis quae apertè in Scripturâ posita sunt inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem moresque vivendi Whereof St. Paul giveth an ample testimony saying 2 Tim. 3.15 The holy Scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus and are profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works The Holy Fathers do agree with St. Paul in this his Opinion of the profit of Scripture for our spiritua◠instruction St. Basil commends them as the best remedy for all the passions of the mind Basil in Psal 1. St. Chrysostome reflecting upon that great meekness of David in letting Saul go free when he had him at his will in the Den commends to all the memory of that example Chrysost Homil. 1. de Davide Saule saying It is impossible that a mind conversant with this kind of Histories should be overcome with passions St. Jerome saith that infinite evils do arise from ignorance of Scriptures From hence most part of Heresies have come from hence a negligent and careless life and unfruitful labours The reason given by Papists against reading of Scripture being thus confuted would you know what reason it is that they have and keep to themselves Very many say it is for keeping the people blind-folded that they may not see the Ignorance of their Ministers nor the Corruption of their Mysteries It seems they have declared so much themselves in a Council of Bishops met at Bononia for restoring the dignity of the Roman See Conc. de stabilien Rom. fid p. 6 apud Stilling-fleet opere de Idololatria Rom. ecc pag. 201. by Order of Pope Julius the Third the chief advice they gave was that by all means as little of the Gospel as might be especially in the vulgar Tongue should be read in the Cities under his jurisdiction Adding that Book to have been the cause of that great decay of their former lustre and concluding thus And in truth if any one diligently consider it and compare it with what is done in our Churches will find them very contrary to each other and our very doctrine not onely to be different from it but repugnant to it Thus God was pleased they should discover their intention that it should be published for undeceiving the misled by them as written by several grave Authors who I suppose would not publish it but upon sufficient ground And is not this to use Tyranny over souls Third Point Now I will come to the third and last Point proposed of my Discourse which is to conclude from what is said hitherto that the resolution I took