see that thâ—… Ministers called in the presence of youâ—… Majestie either by their avowing of thâ—… truth or refusal to appear shall havâ—… been themselves the Ministers of youâ—… Conversion every one will â—…nter up on the examination of the causes anâ—… reasons of the Truth which shall havâ—… moved you thither which shall have noâ—… less vertue to make the like impression in their souls by the same means For whether the Ministers do sincerely yield to the Truth which they will not know how to contradict or whether they condemn themselves by their refusal of an ingenuous proceeding the event of their Convocation shall be alike and universal in all places where the same way to call back the People to the Church shall be practised There are no Ministers in France will know what to answer when those of Paris shall be made dumb No others will by any manner of means dispute them concerning their sufficiency But if they are wanting to the duty of a good Conscience you may easily meet many more ingenuous who will no waies refuse to acknowledge the Truth By this way the People who seek nothing but their salvation and who have no interest more pretious will be ravished to see themselves at last by a plain solid and sincere instruction upon the true understanding of matters of the Catholick Faith drawn from this Labyrinth of disputes which are given them for matter of Reformation no less Enemies to Piety than Christian Charity For this effect Sir desiring to be assisting to the design of making the People see by the conviction of their Ministers that being separated from the Church under this pretext of Reformation they are left by that means without Faith and without the Church And then when one perswades them that in the Questions controverted iâ—… Faith the Church teaches contrary to what the Antient Church hath believed those that accuse them cannoâ—… do it but by a formal contradicting botâ—… the holy Fathers and themselves which is a necessary argument of lying and errour I here put forth into the light a little Treatise wherein these two Truthâ—… are rendred evident They have formed no Controversy more important according to their own opinion than that of Transubstantiation in the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist They accuse us for having Introduced by the truth of this change the necessity of adoring Jesus Christ in this Sacrament or the Sacrament it self which we maintain to be Jesus Christ himself They impute unto us that in this we have altered the Faith of the Antient Church to whom they say both this change and the adoration of the Sacrament hath been unknown They make this the principal cause forsooth of their sole necessity of separating themselves from us And being not able to deny that the whole Antient Church did solemnly offer the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ to God his Father according to his institution in the holy Eucharist they also cloak their difference in this subject from the Antient Church and from us with this That the Antient Church did not believe as they presume Transubstantiation with us nor by consequence the Sacrifice as we do saying That to this subject as they reject in our belief Transubstantiation so they have for the same reason likewise abolished the Sacrifice which the Church celebrates at this present I have made it evident Sir that the Faith of the Church at this day is conformable to the Antient upon this change in a Book which I have published against the defences brought by Minister Aubertin upon the passages of the holy Fathers in his Book of the Eucharist I have reduced the demonstration of the Truth to this point viz. That all the holy Fathers have believed that by the change which interposes it self in this Sacrament there is rendred the same Flesh and the same Blood of Jesus Christ received by the mouths of Believers whereof Jesus Christ speaks in St. John where he commands us to eat and drink them that we may have eternal life The Minister hath not been able to contradict this truth but in formally contradicting the sense which the Authors of his opinion before him have attributed to the Fathers as conformable to them and in making the sense of the Fathers formally contrary to that of Jesus Christ and that which he attributes to them formally contrary to the true sense which they have and do declare in clear and express words I have convinced him by the proof of an evident demonstration in this little Treatise And if he be called to answer upon this conviction the Truth will be found to be victorious either by his good or his evil Faith And as their Consciences tell them and bite them for having introduced by their Reformation all Opinions equally contrary to the Faith of the Church of all Ages When they see themselves reduced to this extremity they cast themselves into the retrenchment of their Fundamental Maxims which is to admit of no rule of Faith but that of the Scripture interpreted by every mans reason Upon that I have convinced them by a Demonstration without Reply that by the design of their Reformation founded upon the use of this rule they have lost both the Church and Faith Which they must avouch if they be called to answer there or that the Truth shall conserve its advantage by the refusal they shall make I most humbly intreat your Majestie Sir that you will be pleased to let this little work have the glory to appear to the World under your Royal Name for a prop which will be able to serve your Faith as an Instrument of the Truth the Victory whereof ought happily to gain you to the Church And by gaining you to bring with you her Peace and re-union of all the Parties that are divided from her For assuredly this grace of Heaven is not far from us if we our selves do not draw our selves back And I am certain that if it please the prudence of the Bishops which the Holy Ghost hath established for the conduct of the Church as I hope they will be pleased to serve themselves towards the People that have abandoned their Crosier of the way that I propose and present to your Majestie they shall see without much pain and in a little time the strayed Sheep returning to them by the very hand of those which keep them withdrawn from their Sheepfolds For in effect when the evidence of this demonstrated Truth shall once have taken its place by the sweetness of the amiable conferences where she ought to be treated with all sincerity and liberty in the spirit of all our separated Brethren as well Ministers as People they will consent with joy to re-enter into the Catholick Church So much the more willingly that by the reasons of the truth of her Faith acknowledged conformable to the Tradition of all Ages they shall so acknowledge her in all her parts to be the True Seed from
THE VICTORY OF TRUTH FOR The Peace of the CHURCH To the King of GREAT BRITAIN To invite him to embrace the Roman-Catholick Faith By Monsieur De la Militiere Counsellour in Ordinary to the King of France With an Answer thereunto Written by the Right Reverend John Bramhall D. D. and Lord Bishop of London-Derry Printed at the Hague 1653. To the King of Great Britain to invite his Majestie to embrace the Catholick Faith SIR THE Wisedome of Gods Counsels is far above the prudence of men who are altogether void of the knowledge of his grace One sort who know neither God nor his providence look upon all the events of humane life as if they happened by chance They imagine that that which we call good luck or ill luck hath no other cause than hazard and that which every mans prudence or imprudence brings to the conduct of his life Others who acknowledge a Divine providence but onely after the manner that God hath manifested it to the world by the instructions and judgements of his Law think that all the goods which heap prosperities upon them are the effects and testimonies of the favour where with God cherisheth those that are his And that the Ils that oppress mans life with miseries are arguments of the anger and hatred of God upon those he handles after that manner But Christians to whom God hath revealed by the Gospel the counsel of his mercy in Jesus Christ know that in his Cross on which for satisfying the Justice of of the Law he hath bore the pain of our sinnes he hath changed for those he calls to his Communion the use of Afflictions And that he imployes them first to humble them and acknowledge their sin that they may desire deliverance to the end they may come by this way to the Faith of his grace which doth deliver them And when they are entred into Communion with him by faith and that the exercise of the same afflictions accomplisheth in them the work of his grace in giving them by his consolation in their patience the hope of the glorious happiness which he hath promis'd them and which carries over all their affections to the loving of him Those therefore that have this faith and this hope are of a judgement far differing from the opinion of men of the world upon the event of Goods and Evils which accompany mans life Considering Sir the present fortune of your serene Majestie far removed from the Majestick condition of your Birth I humble my self with you in the sight of the powerful hand of God who is the onely Judge and onely Master of Monarchs to ascend by the steps whereto the Gospel addresses us even into the counsel of his infinite mercy And I find there that the disaster of this great calamity which environs you is a work of the wisdome of the King of Kings who will shew in you whom he hath honoured with his Unction and his Image an admirable effect of his grace and of his power I say Sir that under the Cloak of so many sad adventures which try you by revolutions so strange that all the Universe doth tremble the King of Heaven and of the Earth who hath humbled himself for you infinitely more low than you are draweth himself near unto you He comes to take you by the hand not onely to reâ—…stablish you in your Throne but to make you sit in his that you may reign with him eternally after you have imployed the Scepter which he shall put again into your hand to re-establish his Kingdome among your people It is very easy for me Sir to give you a reason of this judgement I make of thaâ—… of God upon your sacred Person and to explicate unto you not onely the causes and effects of the ill which is come upon you but also the way the use and the success of the remedy which the hand of God will give you to accomplish in you this work of his mercy If we seek the Cause for which we behold that the hand of God hath made it self so grievously heavy upon the sacred head of the King your Father and which pursues yet after him your Royal Person with so many sinister accidents which hath caused this great desolation to come upon all your Kingdomes this confusion and this subversion of their peace and former prosperity this change into which they are so blindly precipitated to part with the form of Government that God had established amongst them under which they had lived so happily for so many Ages past to become slaves of the yoke which the armed hand of a Tyrant hath put upon their head under the false name of Liberty it will be very easy for us to find the Cause and to acknowledge it by the Effects You are not ignorant Sir and all the world knows it with you that the subject for which this Paricidal Parliament hath so cruelly persecuted the King your Father hath been the Ecclesiastical Government of which they desired to change the form by abolishing Episcopacy and suppressing the Liturgie and the Ceremonies by which the Protestants of your Kingdome had yet retained some image of the Catholick Church Those which they call Puritans and Presbyterians who would live under the form of the Genevian Discipline could not endure the form of that Antient Order which the Royal Authority had retained as instituted by Divine Authority and for this very thing necessary for its conformity to preserve in Christian Estates the form of a Monarchical Government From thence it is come that the Puritan and Presbyterian Faction hath conceiv'd and alwaies kept in its breast an implacable hatred against Monarchical Government by reason of their aversion from the Episcopal That which the prudence of King James your Majesties Grandfather Sir having judiciously taken notice of did as wisely inform his posterity by an express Book to take heed of it And this King knowing Church as well as State matters foreseeing the inconvenience that might arise expressing from his mouth that which touched him at the heart had this familiar speech No Bishop no King which is become a lamentable Prophesie under his Successour But O good God! what Successour Such an one certainly that had neither cause nor pretext capable to stir up the hatred of Subjects against a King so merciful so just and so loyal so amiable to his People so venerable to his Neighbours that upon this onely prejudication wherein the Puritan Faction had instructed them in making them believe that under that Form of Government and Antient Service the King and the Bishops had an intention to re-establish in the Realm the Catholick Religion This is the poyson which the Puritan Faction hath blown into the hearts of the People to fill them with hatred against a King so love-worthy And this Republican Parliament endeavouring to erect it self in a Sovereign Authority by annihilating that of the King hath not thought any occasion more favourable to
beginning to make the Authors of this Reformation agree that the Church remained pure in Faith during the time of the four first general Councils they have afforded us a way by this to disabuse the People they do abuse when they accuse the Church at this day of Errour in the heads of her Faith which they have rejected For they can no longer avoyd falling into a manifest contradiction of the sense which they impute to the antient Fathers in points of Faith which are in controversy between us They cannot brand the Church at this day for having a different opinion in Faith from the Antient Church without cutting their throats with their own proper contradictions upon the opinion they attribute to the Faâ—…hers So that there is nothing more to do for the informing the People separated from the Church of the truth and obliging them to enter again into her than to make them understand the cheat wherewith they have been surprized under the name of Reformation by convincing in their presence their Ministers of an evident contradiction of themselves by the consequences of the Fundamental Maxims of their Reformation From whence results the indubitable Demonstration which proceeds from the spirit of lying and errour If it please your Majestie Sir to imploy this way for your instruction and the satisfaction of your Conscience that your Conversion and return to tâ—… Church may both open the hearts and the way for all the rest to follow your example You cannot do it morâ—… solemnly or commodiously than in thâ—… place wherein you are at the present We have in this place five Ministers of the Communion separated from the Catholick Church who have gotten themselves as much credit and authority through the esteem of their sufficiency and reputation of their zeal as any that are in their whole body Your Majestie Sir may easily obtain of the King your good Brother and Friend that they be called by his Authority to come with all those of their Communion wherewith they would be assisted and appear in presence of Monsieur the Archbishop of Paris and Monsieur his Coadjutor and the Catholick Doctors which he shall please to bring with him And there Sir you Majestie being present to speak and answer with all security and liberty that which their spirit and conscience doth suggest to them upon the evident contradictions of the principles and consequences of their Reformation that in all their different Sects which have for saken the Church under this pretext there is neither Church nor Faith And that upon the Points of Faith where they have accused the Church of Errour and have taken the opportunity to separate themselves from her they are likewise separated from the Communion of the Church of all Ages So that they cannot any waies accuse us of diversity of opinion with the Antient Church but that they again fall into an evident contradiction of themselves as well as of the Antient Fathers and of us These Ministers Sir will deny neither the desire of your Majestie nor the Commandment of the King your good Brother to render the duty both to their charge and to their conscience unless they 'll wirness by their denial the open forsaking which they make oâ—… their cause and the condemnation which they themselves pronounce in their hearts But they 'll love rather as I think ingenuously to present themselves to yield to the truth which they cannot contradict than to incurr the blame of being acknowledged formal enemies of the peace and re-union of the Church through the perversness of an obstinate Faith I know not what to think that they should rather love to fling themselves headlong with their people into the confusion and disorder of Independency and indifference of all opinion in Religion than to avouch the errour and blindness of those who were the first Egressors from the Church by these Maxims which have cast by their consequenc s their Followers into this abyss of irreligion whereinto we see them at this present fallen And when the Ministers would let themselves be carried away to so unlucky a thought I do no waies believe that in France the People would follow them and adhere to their opinions This is wherefore Sir I dare hope that the Ministers which are in Paris being obliged by the desire of your Majestie and the will of their Sovereign to submit to this Law which their own Conscience imposes on them for the satisfaction of their own People for the People will have no less affection and will be no less desirous to see the success of the appearance of their Ministers and the answer they shall make will yield to it and will rather choose to walk in the way of honour and a good conscience than basely to appear desertors at one and the same time both of their Cause and good Faith Whatsoever comes to pass Sir and whatsoever they do whether they follow the motion of the Spirit of Peace and Truth or whether the Spirit of Pride suggest unto them to avoyd and fly both the one and the other youâ—… Majestie shall alwaies have all full satisfaction for departing from the errour which you shall see forsaken or condemned by its own Ministers and entring into the Church which is the Pillar of Truth and Rock of Ages against which you see all the sail of different Sects running at every wind of Doctrine through the deceit of them that conduct them to break and shipwrack â—…hemselves And then when your Majestie shall be entred into the Church after this manner and when all the world shall see that the desire to glorifie God by the searching for the Truth by the repose of your Conscience and by the love of your Salvation shall have been your whole motive You need not doubt Sir but your example will make the like impression in all the souls that are touched with the fear of God You need not doubt Sir for so much as God hath elevated your Majestie in birth and eminent dignity above the rest â—…hat are in the Communion wherein â—…ou have lived They all seeing these â—…ircumstances of your change and enâ—…rance into the Sanctuary of the Church â—…pon the wings of the victory of Truth â—…hich carries you thither alone will â—…e stirred up to give glory to God for â—…he same causes for which you shall be â—…endred to him It concerns you then Sir to make â—…our entrance by this means and that â—…ou serve your self of this way to adâ—…ress your self thither to the end your â—…onversion and return to the Church â—…ring to her with you by the solemn â—…onviction of the errour which hath â—…ismembred her not onely those which â—…he division of your Fathers hath torn â—…rom her but also all the rest which â—…he same cause hath separated For by â—…he power which Truth hath upon the Conscience of men when it is apparent here is no doubt but it will come to â—…ass after this manner When the People shall
which the Holy Spirit hath caused Piety and Charity to spring flourish and fructifie in Believers From whence it follows by the same reason that the true and lawful Reformation which all good men of the Church desire in the Church doth depend no otherwise than upon the understanding and practice of these same Truths by the duty to which they address all Believers in the different vocations whereto God calls them In all which the end which is proposed them is no other than to live united among them and with Jesus Christ by the grace of the Holy Ghost to serve God under the obedience of the Government which he hath put into the hands of the Bishops which feed the Flock with an unanimous consent under the Authority of the espeâ—…ial Chair of St. Peter established at Rome by two Principals of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul from which whosoever separates himself is a Schismatick and out of the Communion of the Church Upon this Sir I am imboldened to speak for this last time to your Majestie that as you may if you will by the way which I propose to you lay the Foundation of this work by your Conversion and entrance into the Catholick Church You will find also that the success shall be in the hand of God the indubitable way of re-establishing you in your Throne Certainly all will agree with me that this work is upon such conditions that if it had receiv'd its accomplishment in Paris with the Ministers and People separated from the Church there 's no place in all France wherein they would refuse to do the like And if once the love of the Peace and re-union of the Church had thus gained the heart of our separated Brethren which are in this Kingdome acknowledging in this manner that the onely safe and necessary Reformation ought to be this which by the truth of the definitions of the Faith of the Church in her Doctrine in her Service and in her Government shall re-establish a Christian life among Christians the other People and Pastors and the Pastors for the love and by the very motion of the People which are in the same Communion in other parts of Europe will without doubt do the same thing Think you Sir that if your Subjects of Scotland and those which are in England and Ireland faithful and affectionate to your Crown and Person seeing the success of this project hapned in France to which your Conversion shall have given the beginning and motion they will resist the call of the same grace and that they can be able to find in their hearts in their mouths and in their hands either reason or means for to hinder themselves to follow that which all those of their Communion shall have done here And after this will you doubt that the blessing of God who is never wanting to his promises will not accomplish in you fully that which he hath promised to those that believe in him by the mouth of his own Son when he tels them Search the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and all things shall be added unto you Will you doubt that in thus searching of his Kingdome you shall not find also your own And that Heaven will not likewise render unto you upon the Earth this temporal recompence for a token of that you shall have sought and which you shall receive in Heaven for eternity Yes Sir the Word of God deceives no man it is more firm and immovable than the Heaven and the Earth for the one and the other shall vanish away but one sole Iota of the Word uttered from the mouth of the Son of God shall not pass away When I tell you these things founded upon the Truth which he hath spoken unto us believe that this is he himself that addresses them to you by my mouth It is he himself that calls you It is he himself that stretcheth forth his hand towards you It is he himself that by his hand hath conducted you for this end to the place where you are Recollect again your self upon all the thoughts of your heart since the time your Majestie parted from hence to the time your Majestie returned back Think upon all that you have been willing to do and upon all that which it hath pleased God to do with you For he hath done all the things both what you see and what you suffer upon your Person and upon your Estate He hath put you into the Estate you are to make you understand his voyce and for to oblige you to say to him Lord what wilt thou that I do You have thought to be able to reascend upon your Throne by the means of those of your Subjects who appear'd to retain for you and for your Crown that fidelity to which a more antient Bond held them obliged more straitly than all others God would not have it so They had a design to bind your Conscience to the Lawes of their Reformation by an oath to observe the conditions of their Covenant and by abjuring your opinions that drew more near the Catholick Religion They hoped by this means that in conserving upon your head some Form at least apparent of the Royal Government under which they had so happily obeyed your Fathers for so many Ages they should avoyd the falling under the slavage of the Tyrannie which is called Cromwel's Commonwealth And that they should defend by this way the factiousness of their Religion from giving place to his Independency What is it come to God hath destroyed all their Counsels He hath routed all their Armies by the Arm of this False-prophet by whose mouth he convinces and confounds in the face of their Ministers by mouth and by writing the rules of their Covenant by the proper Maxims of their Reformation God hath delivered them into his hands and imposed upon them the yoke of his absolute domination They must now submit to the Lawes of his Independency and of his Common-wealth the name whereof serves for a Masque to his Tyrannie But God hath delivered you Sir and by a conduct of his Providence full of trembling and admiration he hath withdrawn your Sacred Person from a thousand dangers which threatned it from the fury and cruelty of this Monster who spared neither the force of Iron nor the value of Gold to find the means of violently taking away your life You have seen Sir the anger of God to descend upon your head who according to the terms of the Scripture hath loosned the Belts of Kings and bound their Reins with Cords You have seen his Arm armed with his rage to defeat your Armies Combating at their head you have done bravely with your hand and with your courage all that the generosity of a valiant and magnanimous Prince could do to associate Victory to the justice of your Arms. You have there shed your Blood and seen that of your faithful Subjects to stream through the fields covered with their bodies
or in the Host also And if in the Host whether by Consubstantiation or Transubstantiation whether by Production or Aduction or Conservation or Assumption or by whatsoever other way bold and blind men dare conjecture we determine not Motum sentimus modum nescimus praesentiam credimus This was the belief of the Primitive Church this was the Faith of the antient Fathers who were never acquainted with these modern questions de modo which edifie not but expose Christian Religion to contempt We know what to think and what to say with probability modesty and submission in the Schools But we dare neither scrue up the Question to such a height not dâ—…ctate our Opinions to others so Magisterially as Articles of Faith Nescire velle quae Magister maximus Docere non vult erudâ—…ta est inscitia O! how happy had the Christian world been if Scholars could have sate down contented with a latitude of general sufficient saving Truth which when all is done must be the Olive branch of Peace to shew that the deluge of Ecclesiasticall division is abated without â—…ading too far into particular subtilties or doting about Questions and Logomachies wherof cometh envy strife raylings evil surmisings perverse disputings Old Conâ—…roverersies evermore raise up new Controversies and yet more Controversies as Circles in the â—…ater do produce other Circles Now especially these Scâ—…olasticall quarrels seem to be unseasonable when Zenos School is newly opened in the World who sometimes wanted Opinions but never wanted Arguments Now when Atheism and Sacrilege are become the Mode of the Times Now when all the Fundamentalls of Theology Morality and Policy are undermined and ready to be blown up Now when the unhappy contentions of great Princes or their Ministers have hazarded the very being of Monarchy and Christianity Now when Bellona shakes her bloody whip over this Kingdome it becometh well all good Christians and Subjects to leave their litigious Qâ—…estions and to bring water to quench the fire of Civil dissention already kindled rather than to blow the Coles of discord and to render themselves censurable by all discreet persons like that half-witted fellow personated in theOrator Qui cum capitis mederi debuisset reduviem curavit when his head was extremely distempered he busied himself about a small push on his fingers end But that which createth this troâ—…ble to you and me at this time is your Preface and Epistle Dedicatory wherein to adorn your vainly imagined Victory in an unseasonable Controversie you rest not contented that your Adversary grace your Triumph unless the King of great Britain and all his subjects yea and all Protestants besides attend your Chariot Neither do you only desire this but augurate it or rather you relate it as a thing already as good as done for you tell him that his â—…ies and hiâ—… ears do hear and see those Truths which make him to know the Faulâ—…s of that new Religion which he had suckâ—… with his milk you set forth the causes of his Conversion The tears of his Mother and the Blood of his Father whom you suppose against evident truth â—…o have died an invisible Member of your Roman Chatholique Church And you prescribe the means to perfect his conversion which must be a Conference of your Theologians with the Ministers of Charenton If your Charity be not to be blamed to wish no worse to another than you do to your self yet prudent men desire more Discretion in you than to have presented such a Treatise to the view of the World under his Majesties protection without his licence and against his Conscience Had you not heard that such groundles insinnations as these and other private whisperings concerning his Fathers Apostatising to the Roman Religion did lose him the hearts of many Subjects If you did why would you insist in the same steps to deprive the son of all possibility of recovering them If your intention be only to invite his Majesty to imbrace the Chatholick Faith you might have spared both your oyl and labor The Chatholick Faith florished 1 200. years in the World before Transubstantiation was defined among your selves Persons better accquainted with the Primitive times than your self unles you wrong one another do acknowledge that the Fathers did not touch either the Word or the Matter of Transubstantiation Mark it well neiâ—…her Name nor thing His Majesty doth â—…rmly believe all supernatural Truth revealed in sacred Writ He embraâ—…eth chearfully whatsoever the holy Aâ—…ostles or the Nicene Fathers or blessed Athanasius in their respective Creeds or Summaries of Chatholick Faith did set down as necessary to be believed He is ready to receive whatsoever the Chatholick Church of this Age doth unanimously believe to be a Particle of saving Truth But if you seek to obtrude upon him the Roman Church with its adherents for the Catholick Church excluding three parts of four of the Christian world from the Communion of Christ or the opinions thereof for Articles and Fundamentals of Catholick Faith neither his Reason nor his Religion nor his Charity will suffer him to listen unto you The Truths received by our Church are sufficient in point of â—…aith to make him a good Caâ—…holick More than this your Romane Bishops your Roman Church your Tridentine Concill may not cannot obtrude upon him Listen to the third general Councill that of Ephesus which deâ—…eed that it should be lawfull for no man to publish or compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defined by the Nicene Councill And that whosâ—…ever should dare to eompose or offer any such to any persons willing to be converted from Paganism Judaism or Heresie if they were Bishops or Clerks should be deposed if Lay-men anaâ—… hematised Suffer us to enjoy the same Creed the Primitive Fatâ—…ers did which nons will say to have been insufficient except they be mad as was alleged by the Greeks in the Councill of Florence You have violated this Canon you have obtruded a New Creed upon Christendom New I say not in words only but in sense also Some things are de Symbolo some things are contra Symbolum and some things are onely praeter Symbolum Some things are contained in the Creed either expressly or virtually either in the Letter or in the Sense and may be deduced by evident Consequence from the Creed as the Deity of Christ his two Natures the Procession of the Holy Ghost The Addition of these was properly no no addition but an explication Yet such an explication no person no Assembly under an Occumenical Council can impose upon the Catholick Church And such an one your Tridentine Synod was not Secondly some things are contra symbolum contrary to the Symbolical Faith and either expresly or virtually overthrow some Article of it These additions are not onely unlawful but heretical also in themselves and after conviction render a man a formal Heretick whether some of your additions be not
gifts of Enemies are no gifts If such as these are all your courtesies you may be pleased to take them again Our first Reformers might safely swear upon any Gospel old or new that they meant no such thing And we may as securely swear upon all the books of God old or new that there is no such thing But why our Gospel should be younger or newer than Sixtus Quintus his Gospel or Clemens Octavus his Gospel passeth my understanding and yours also Comparisons are odious therefore I will not say that the true English Protestant standing to his own grounds is the best subject in the world But I do say that he is as good a subject as any in the wortd and our principles as Innocent and as auxiliary to civil Government as the maxims of any Church under Heaven And more than yours where the clashing of two Supreme Authorities and the exemption of your numerous Clergy from the Coercive power of the Prince and some other novelties which I forbear to mention do alway threaten a storm Tell me Sir if you can what Church in Europe hath declared more fully or more favourably for Monarchy than the poor Church of England That the most high and sacred Order of Kings is of Divine Right being the Ordinance of God himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by express Texts both of the old and new Testament Moreover that this power is extended over all their Subjects Ecclesiastical and Civil That to sâ—…t up any Independent coactive power above them either Papal or popular either directly or indirectly is to undermine their great royal Office and cunningly to overthrow that most Sacred Ordinance which god himself hath established That for their subjects to bear Arms against them Offensive or defensive upon any pretence whatsoever is to resist the powers which are ordained of God And why do you call our Reformation Calvinistical contrary to your own Conscience contrary to your own confession That in our Reformation we reteined the antient Order of Episcopacy as Instituted by divinâ—… authority and a Liturgy and Ceremonies whereby we preserved the face or Image of the Catholick Church And that for this very causâ—… the disciplinarians of Geneva and the Presbyterians did conceive an implacable hatred against the King for the Churches sake and out of their aversion to it Did they hate their own Reformation so implacably If these things be to be reconciled reddat mihi minam Diogenes He that looks more in disputation to the Advantage of his party than to the Truth of his grounds had need of a strong memory We reteined not onely Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies but all things else that were conformable to the Discipline and publick service of the Primitive Church rightly understood No Sir we cannot pin our faith upon the sleeve of any particular man as one used to say We love no nismes neither Calvinism nor Lutheranism nor Jonsenianism but onely one that we derive from Antioch that is Christianism We honour Learning and Piety in our fellow servants but we desire to wear no other badge or Cognizance than that we received from our own Master at our Baptism Bucer was as fit to be Calvins Master as his Scholar So long as Calvin continued with him in Germany he was for Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies and for assurance thereof subscribed the Augustane Confession and his late learned Successor and assertor in Geneva Monsieur Deodate with sundry others of that Communion were not averse from them Or why do you call Reformation blind It was not blindness but too much affectation of knowledge and too much peeping into controverted and new fangled Questions that hath endamaged our Religion It is you that teach the Colliers Creed not we Howsoever you pretend to prove that our Reformation was the ruin of the Church and Common-wealth wee expect you should endeavour to prove it You cannot so far mistake your self as to conceive your authority to be the same with us that Pythagoras had among his Scholars to have his Dictates received for Oracles without proof what did I say that you pretend to prove it That 's too low an expression you promiâ—…e us a demonstration of it so lively and evident that no reason shall be able to contradict it Are you not afraid that too much expectation should prejudice your discourse by diminishing our applause Quid tanto dignum feret hiâ—… proneissor hiaâ—…u Do you think of nothing now but Triumphs Lively and evident demonstration not to be contradicted by reason is like the Phenix much talked of but seldom seen Most men when they see a man strip up his sleeves and make too large promises of fair dealing do suspect jugling No man proclameth in the Market that he hath rotten wares to sell And therefore we must be careful notwithstanding your great promises to keep well Epicharmus his Jewel Remember to distrust By your permission your glistering demonstration is a very counterfeit not so valuable as a Bristol Diamond when it comes to be examined by the wheel Sometimes nothing is more necessary than Reformation Never was house so well builded that now and then needed not reparation Never Garden so well planted but must sometimes be weeded Never any order so well instituted but in long tract of time there will be a bending and declining from its Primitive perfection and a necessiâ—…y of reducing it to its first principles Are your Houses of Religion which are Reformed therefore the less Religious Why then did all the Princes and Common-wealths in Europe Yea the Fathers themselves in the Council of Trent cry out so often so earnestly for a Reformation yet were forced to content themselves with a vain shadow for the substance as Ixion embraced a Cloud for Juno or Children are often stilled with an empty bottle But Reformation is not agreable to all persons Judas loved not an Audit because he kept the Bag. Dull Lethargick people had rather sleep to death than to be awaked and mad phrenetick Bigots are apt to beat the Chirurgion that would bind up their wounds but none are so a verse from Reformation as the Court of Rome where the very name is more formidable than Hannibal at the Gates yea than all the five terrible things No mervail they are afraid to have their Oranges squeesed to their hands if they were infallible as they pretend there was no need of a Reformation we wish they were but we see they are not On the other side it cannot be denyed that Reformation when it is unseasonable or inordinate or excessive may do more hurt than good when Reformers want just Authority or due information or have sinister ends or where the remedy may be of worse consequence than the abuse or where men run out of one extreme into another therefore it is a rule in prudence Not to remove an ill custom when it is well setled unless it
world know to have been none of yours VVhat Faith he professed living he confirmed dying In the Communion of the Church of England he lived and in that Communion at his death he commended his soul into the hands of God his Saviour That which you have confessed here concerning King Charls will spoil your former demonstration that the Protestants have neither Church nor Faith But you confess no more in particular here than I have heard some of your famous Roman Doctors in this City acknowledge to be true in general And no more than that which the Bishop of Chalcedon a man that cannot be suspected of partiality on our side hath affirmed and published in two of his Books to the world in Print That Protestantibus credentibus c. persons living in the Communion of the Protestant Church if they endeavour to lâ—…arn the truth and are not able to attain unto it but hold it implicitely in the preparation of their minds and are ready to receive it when God shall be pleased to reveal it which all good Protestants and all good Christians are they neither want Church nor Faith nor Salvation Mark these words well They have neither Church nor Faith say you If they be thus qualified as they all are they want neither Church nor Faith nor Salvation saith he Lastly Sir to let us see that your intelligence is as good in Heaven as it is upon Earth and that you know both who are there and what they do you tell us That the Crown and Conquest which his late Majestie gained by his sufferings was proâ—…ured by the intercession of his Grandmother Queen Mary We should be the apter to believe this if you were able to make it appear that all the Saints in Heaven do know all the particular necessities of all their posterity upon Earth St. Austin makes the matter much more doubtfull than you that 's the least of his Assertion or rather to be plainly false faâ—…endum est nescire quidem â—…ortuos quid hic agatur But with presumptions you did begin your Dedication and with presumptions you end it In the mean time till you can make that appear we observe that neither Queen Maries constancy in the Roman Catholick Faith nor Henry the Fourths change to the Roman Catholick Faith could save them from a bloody end Then by what warrant do you impute King Charles his sufferings to his errour in Religion Be your own Judge Heu quanta de spe decidimus Alas from what hopes are we fall'n Pardon our errour that we have mistaken you so long You have heretofore pretended your self to be a moderate person and one that seriously endeavoured the reuniting of Christendome by a fair Accommodation The widest wounds are closed up in time and strange Plants by Inoculation are incorporated together and made one And is there no way to close up the wounds of the Church and to unite the disagreeing members of the same mystical body Why were Caleb and Joshua onely admitted into the Land of promise whilst the carkasses of the rest perished in the VVilderness but onely because they had been Peace-makers in a time of Schism VVell fare our learned and ingenuous Country-man St. Clara who is altogether as perspicacious as your self but much more charitable You tell us to our grief that there is no accommodation to be expected that Cardinal Richelieu was too good a Christian and too good a Catholique to have any such thought that the one Religion is true the other false and that there is no society between light and darkness This is plain dealing to tell us what we must trust to No Peace is to be expected from you unless we will come unto you upon our knees with the words of the Prodigal Child in our mouths Father forgive us we have sinned against Heaven and against thee Is not this rare Courtesie If we will submit to your will in all things you will have no longer difference with us So we might come to shake a worse Church by the hand than that which we were separated from If you could be contented to wave your last four hundred years determinations or if you liked them for your selves yet not to obtrude them upon other Churches If you could rest satisfied with your old Patriarchal power and your Principium unit at is or Primacy of Order much good might be expected from free Councils and Conferences from moderate persons And we might yet live in Hope to see an Union if not in all Opinions yet in Charity and all necessary points of saving truth between all Christians to see the Eastern and Western Churâ—…hes joyn hand in hand and sing Ecce quà m bonum quam jucundum est habitare fratres in unum Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity But whilst you impose upon us daily new Articles of Faith and urge rigidly what you have unadvisedly determined we dare not sacrifice Truth to Peace nor be separated from the Gospel to be joyned to the Roman Church Yet in the point of our separation and in all things which concern either doctrine or discipline we profess all due obedience and submission to the judgement and definitions of the truly Catholique Church Lamenting with all our hearts the present condition of Christendome which renders an Oecumenical Council if not impossible mens judgements may be had where their persons cannot yet very difficult wishing one as general as might be and untill God send such an Opportunity endeavouring to conform our selves in all things both in Credendis Agendis to whatsoever is uniform in the belief or practice in the doctrine or discipline of the Universal Church And lastly holding an Actual Communion with all the divided parts of the Christian world in most things in voto according to our desires in all things FINIS Plut. Sir Henry wotton No differences in the Church directly about the Sacrament for the first 800 years 1 Cor. 11. Theod. ex Ignatio Leo. Ser. 4. de Quad. Epiph. hâ—…r 30. 46. Aug. l. de Hâ—…re c. 64. â—…el l. 1. de Sac. Euch. 〈◊〉 1. Bel. ibid. Syn. Nic. 2 Act 6. Disp. 179. c. 1 Yet different Observations And different expressions The first difference about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament Exact Syn. Rom. sub Nich. 2. Dâ—… Cons. dist 2 cap. Egâ—…â—…er Alex. Gab. Bonâ—…v c. Scot. in 4. sent dist 11. q. 3. T. 3. q. 75. d. 81. c. 1. The determination of the manner of the presence opened a flood-gate to a Deluge of Controversies Lib. de câ—…r Theol. Schol. Gloss. de Con. d. 2. cap. Timâ—…rem Guidmâ—…nd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de ver Vasq. disâ—… 184. 6. 8. Uasq T. 3. q. 75. d. 181 c. 4. Bel. l. 3. de Euc. c. 3. in fine In 4 d. 44 q. 7. art 〈◊〉 q. 3. I. ib. 4. de Euch. c. 25 Chap. 27. Conc. Uien Bâ—…ll 4. de
Sacrament as appeareth by that ignorant and Capernaiticall Retractation and Abjuration which they imposed upon Berengarius Peâ—…ned by Vmbertus a Cardinal approved by Pope Nicholas and a Councill Ego Berengarius c. I Berengarius do consent to the Holy Roman Apostolick See and professe with my Mouth and my Heart to hold the same Faith of the Sacrament of the Lords supper with Pope Nicholas and this holy Synod c. And what the Faith of Pope Nicholas and this Synod was follows in the next words That the Bread and Wine which are set upon the Altar after Consecration are not only the Sacrament but the very Body and Blood of Christ. This seems to favour Consubstantiation rather than Transubstantiation If the Bread and Wine be the Body Blood of Christ then they remain bread and wine stiâ—…l If the bread be not only the Sacrament but also the thing of the Sacrament if it be both the signe and the thing signified how is it now to be made nothing It follows in the Retractation That the body and blood of Christ is sensibly not only in the sacrament but in truth handled and brokâ—…n by the hand of the Priest and bruised by the teeth of the Faithfull If it be even so there needs no more but feel and be satisfied To this they made Berengarius swear by the consubstantiall Trinity and the holy Gospels and accurse and anathematize all those who held the contrary yet these words did so much scandalize and offend the Glosser upon Gratian that he could not forbear to admonish the Reader that unless he understood those words in a sound sense he would fall into a greater Heresie than that of Berengarius Not without reason for the most favorable of the School-men do confess that these words are not properly and literaly true but figuratively and metanimically understanding the thing containing by the thing contained as to say the Body of Christ is broken or bruised because the quantity or Species of Bread are broken or bruised they might as well say that the Body and Blood of Christ becoms fusty and sowr as often as the Species of Bread and Wine before their corruption become fusty and sowr But the retractation of Berengarius can admit no such figurative sense that the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament are divided and bruised sensibly not only in the Sacrament that is the Species but also in truth A most ignorant Capernaitical assertion For the Body of Christ being not in the Sacrament modo quant itativo according to their own Tenet but indivisibly after a spiritual manner without extrinficall extension of Parts cannot in it self or in Truth be either divided or bruised Therefore others of the Schoolmen go more roundly and ingenuously to work and confess that it is an abusive and excessive expression not to be held or defended and that it happened to Berengarius they should have said to Pope Nicholas and Cardinal Umbertus as it doth with those who out of a detestation of one error encline to another Neither wil it avail them any thing at all that the Fathers have sometimes used such expressions of seeing Christ of touching Christ in the Sacrament of fastening our teeth in his Flesh and making our toungsred in his Blood There is a great difference between a Sermon to the people and a solemn Retractation before a Judge The Fathers do not say that such expressions are true not only Sacramentally or figuratively as they made Berengarius both say and accurse all others that held otherwise but also properly and in the things themselves The Fathers never meant by these forms of speech to determine the manner of the presence which was not dreamt of in their daies but to raise the Devotion of their Hearers and Readers to advertise the people of God that they should not rest in the externall symbols or signes but principally be intent upon the invisible Grace which was both lawfull and commendable for them to do Leave us their primitive liberty and we will not refrain from the like expressions I urge this to shew that the new doctrine of Transubstantiation is so farre from being an old Article of Faith that it was not well digested nor rightly understood in any tollerable measure by the greatest Clerks and most concerned above a thousand years after Christ. The first definition or determination of this manner of the presence was yet later in the Councill of Lateran in the daies of Innocent the Third after the year 1200. Ante Lateranense Concilium Transubstantiatio non fuit dogma fidei And what the fruit of it was let Vasques beare witnes Audito nomine Transubstantiationis c. The very name of Transubstantiation being but heard so great a Controversie did arise among the later Schoolmen concerning the Nature thereof that the more they endeavoured to wind themselves out the more they wrapped themselves in greater difficulties whereby the Mystery of Faith became more difficult both to be explaned and to be understood and more exposed to the Cavils of its Adversaries He adds that the name of Conversion and Transubstantiation gave occasion to these controversies No sooner was this Bell rung out no sooner was this fatal Sentence given but as if Pandora's Box had been newly set wide open whole Swarms of noysom Questions and Debates did fill the Schools Thâ—…n it began to be disputed by what means this Change comes whether by the Benediction of the Elements or by the repetition of these words of Christ This is my Body The common current of your Schools is for the later But your judicious Arch-Bishop of Caesaria since the Councill of Trent in a book dedicated to Sixtus the Fifth produceth great reason to the contrary Then was the Question started what the demonstrative Pronoun Hoc signifies in these words This is my Body whether this Thing or this Substance or this Bread or this Body or this Meat or these Accidents or that which is contained under these Species or this individum vagum or lastly which seemes stranger than all the rest this Nothing Then it began to be argued whether the Elements were annihilated whether the matter and form of them being destroyed their Essence did yet remain or the essence being converted the existence remained whether the sacramental existence of the Body and Blood of Christ do depend upon its natural Existence whether the whole Host were Transubstantiated or only some parts of it that is such parts as should be distributed to worthy Communicants or whether in those parts of the Host which were distributed unto unworthy Communicants the matter of bread and wine did not return Whether the Deity did assume the Bread or the Species thereof by a new Hypostaticall Union called Impanation either absolutely or respectively Mediante Corpore Whether the Body and Blood of Christ might be present in the Sacrament without Transubstantiation with the Bread or without
proper value But a friend or child will more esteem the Picture of a Benefactor or Ancestor for its relation The respect of the one is terminated in the Picture that of the other is radicated in the exemplar Yet still an Image is but an Image and the kinds of respect must not be confounded The respect given to an Image must be respect proper for an Imâ—…ge not Courtship not Worship not Adoration More respect is due to the person of the meanest beggar than to all the Images of Christ and his Apostles and a 1000. Primitive Saints or Progenitors Hitherto there is either no difference nor peril either of Idolatry or Superstition Wherein then did consist this guilt of Idolatry contracted by the Roman Church I am willing for the present to pass by the private abuses of particular persons which seem to me no otherwise chargeable upon the whole Church than for Connivence As the making Images to counterfeit tears and words and gestures and complements for advantage to induce silly people to believe that there was something of divinity in them and the multitude of fictitious Relicks and supposititious Saints which credulity first introduced and since covetousness hath nourished I take no notice now of those remote suspitions or suppositions of the possibility of want of intention either in the Priest that consecrates the Sacrament or in him that Baptized or in the Bishop that ordained him or in any one through the whole line of succession in all which cases according to your own principles you give divine worship to corporeal Elements which is at least material Idolatry I will not stand now to examine the truth of your distinctions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet you know well enough that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no religious worship and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is coin lately minted that will not pass for current in the Catholick Church Whilst your common people understand not these distinctions of degrees of honour what holds them from falling downright into Idolatry Neither do I urge how you have distributed the Patronage of particular Countries the Cure of several Diseases the protection of all distinct professions of men and all kinds of Creatures among the Saints just as the Heathen did among their Tutelary Gods nor how little warrant you have for this practice from experience nor lastly how you build more Churches erect more Altars offer more presents pour out more prayers make more vows perform more offices to the Mother than to the Son Yet though we should hold our peace methinks you should ponder these things seriously and either for your own satisfaction or ours take away such unnecessary occasions of scandal and dis-union But I cannot omit that the Council of Trent is not contented to enjoyn the Adoration of Christ in the Sacrament which we never deny but of the Sacrament it self that is according to the common current of your Schoolmen the Aâ—…cidents or Species of Bread and Wine because it contains Christ. Why do they not adde upon the same grounds that the pix is to be adored with divine worship because it contains the Sacrament Divine honour is not due to the very Humanity of Christ as it is abstracted from the Deity but to the whole person Deity and Humanity hypostatically united Neither the Grace of Union nor the Grace of Unction can conferr more upon the Humanity than the Humanity is capable of There is no such Union between the Deity and the Sacrament neither immediately nor yet mediately mediante corpor Neither do you ordinarily ascribe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or divine worship to a Crucifix or to the Image of Christ indeed not Terminatively but transâ—…untly so as not to rest in the Image or Crucifix but to pass to the exemplar or person crucified But why a piece of Wood should be made partaker of divine honours even in 〈◊〉 or in be passage passeâ—…h my undeâ—…nding Thâ—… Heathens â—…ted not the same 〈◊〉 for all their gross Idolatry Let them plead for themselves Non ego c. I do not worship that stone which I see but I serve him whom I do not see Lastly whilst you are pleased to use them I may not forget those strange insolent forms of prayer contained in your books even ultimate prayers if we take the words as they sound directed to the Creatures that they would protect you at the hour of death and deliver you from the Devil and confer spiritual graces upon you and admit you into Heaven precibus meritisque by their prayers and merits You know what Merit signifies in your language a Condignity or at least a Congruity of desert The exposition of your Doctors is that they should do all this for you by their praâ—…ers as improper a form of speech as if a Suppliant intending onely to move an ordinary Courtier to mediate for him unto the King should fall down upon his knees before the Courtier and beseech him to make him an Earl or a Knight or to bestow such an Office or such a Pardon upon him or to do some other Grace for him properly belonging to the Prerogative Royal. How agrees this with the words Precibus meriâ—…que A beggar doth not deserve an Alms by asking it This is a snare to ignorant persons who take the words to signifie as they sound And it is to be feared do commit downright Idolatry by their Pastors faults who prescribe such improper forms unto them Concerning Tyrannie which makes up the arrear of the first supposed Maxim We do not accuse the Roman Church of Tyrannie but the Roman Court If either the unjust usurpation oâ—… Sovereign power or the extending thereof to the destruction of the Laws and Canons of the Church yea even to give a Non obstante either to the Institution of Christ or at least to the uniform practice of the Primitive Ages or to them both If the swallowing up of all Ecclesiastical Jurisdâ—…ction and the arrogating of a supercivil power paramount If the causing of poor people to trot to Rome from all the Quarters of Europe to wast their livelyhoods there If the trampling upon Emperours and the disciplining of Monarchs be Tyrannical either the Court of Rome hath been Tyrannical or there never was Tyrannie in the world I doubt not but some great persons when they have had bloody Tragedies to act for their own particular ends have sometimes made the Roman Church a stalking horse and the pretence of Catholick Religion a blind to keep their Policies undiscerned But if we consider seriously what cruelties have been really acted throughout Europe either by the Inquisitors General or by persons specially delegated for that purpose against the Waldenses of old and against the Protestants of later daies against poor ignorant persons against women and children against mad men against dead carkasses as Bueâ—…r c. upon pretence of Religion not onely by ordinary forms of punishment and of death
make it an easy worke to effect which there needs no Disputation but only to behold the Hereticall Genius of our Reformation which is sufficiently condemned by it self if men will onely take the pains to compare the Fundamentall Principles thereof with the Consequences Great Houses and Forts are builded at an easy charge in Paper When you have consulted with your Aâ—…chitects and Enginiers you will find it to be a work of more difficuâ—…ty And your Adversaâ—…ies Resolution may teach you to your cost what it is to promise to your self suâ—…h an easy Conquest before the Fight and let you see that those golden Mountains which you phantasied have no subsistance but in your Brain and send you home to seek that selfConviction there which you sought to fasten upon others When you are able to prove your Universal Monarchy your new Cannon of Faith your new Treasury of the Church your new Roman Purgatory whereof the Pope keeps the Keyes your Image worship your Common-Praiers in 〈◊〉 toung unknown your deteining of the Cup from the Laity in the publike Administration of the Sacrament and the rest os your new Câ—…eed out of the four first General Councils or the Universal Tradition of the Church in those daies either as principles or Fundamental Truths which you affirm or so much as ordinary points of Faith which we deny we will yield our selves to be guilty both of Contradiction and Schism Untill you are able to make these Innovations good it were best for you to be silent and leave your vaporing Desparate undertakings do easily forseit a mans Reputation Now are we come to the most specious piece of your whole Epistle that is the Motion or proposition of a Conference by Authority of the King of France at the instance of the King of great Britain before the Arch-Bishop of Paris and his Coadjutor between some of your Roman Catholike Doctors and the Ministers of the Reformed Church at Paris whom you do deservedly commend â—…or their sufficiency and Zeal You further suppose that the Ministers of the Reformed Church will accept of such a Disputation or by their Tergiversation betray the weakness of their Cause And you conclude confidently beyond â—…upposition that they will be conâ—…uted and convicted and that their conversion or conviction will afford sufficient ground to the King of Great Britain to embrace the Communion of the Roman Catholike Church And that his conversion will reduce all conscientious Protestants to Unity and due obedience I will contract your larger Palm to a Fist. If the King of Great Britain desire a solemn Conference the King of France will enjoyn it If he enjoyn it the Ministers will accept it It they do accept they are sure to be convicted If they be convicted the King of Great Britain will change his Religion If he 〈◊〉 his Religion all conscientious Pâ—…nts will be reduced And all this 〈◊〉 be done not by the old way of Dâ—…ting No take heed of that the burnt Child dreads the fire But by a proper new way of refuting old Protestant Principles by new Independent Practises Why was this Remedy found out no sooner This might have eased the Cardinals in their Consultations about propagating the Faith This might have saved Cardinal Allen all his Machiavillian Instructions to his English Emissaries This may in a short time â—…vrne the Inquisitors out of their employment for want of an Object and not leave such a thing as Hereticall pravity in the World How must men praise your Fortune and applaud your Invention But stay the second thoughts are wiser what is this Chain supposed to be of Adamant should prove a rope of Sand And so it is I have seen a Sorites disgraced and hissed out of the Schools for drawing but one lame leg after it this is foundred of all four from the begining to the end there is nothing in it but future Contingents which are known only to God noâ—… one Grain of necessary Truth First Sir be not angry if a man take away the subject of your whole discourse It is but your officiousness the King desires no such Conâ—…erence Let them desire Conferences who waver in their Faith All these blustering Stormes have radicated him deeper in his Religion And chiefly that which you make the chiefest motive to his Apostating the Martirdom of his Royall Father and an hereditary love to that Church which he hath 〈◊〉 with his Blood Secondly if his Majesty should incline to such a Conference do you think he would desert the English Clergy who have forsaken their Country their Friends their Estates out of their Conscience out of their dâ—…ty to God and their Soveraign who understand the constitution oâ—… the English Church much better than your self or any Forrainers how susficent soever and cast himselâ—… wholy upon Strangers whose Reformation you say is different from that of England in the points of Episcopacy Liturgy and the Ceremonies of the Church Say what was the Reason of this gross Omission were you afraid of that Image of the Church as you call it in a sleighting manner which they retained Oâ—… did you not think any of the English Nation worthy to bear your Books at a Conference It hath been otherwise heretofore and you will find it otherwise now when you come to prove it I know not whether England hath been more fortunate or unfortunate since the Reformation in breeding as many able Pâ—…lemique Writers on both sides as any Nation in Europe Stapleton Harding Parsons Sanders Reynolds Bishop c. for the Roman Church Jewell Andrews Abbot Lawd White Field Montague Reynolds Whitaker c. for the English Church I forbear to name those that are living and many mo e who come not short of these if they had pleased to communicate their Talents to the World This is such a câ—…ntumely that 〈◊〉 upon the Nation and you must be contented to be told of it Thirdly how are you sure that the King of France and his Counsell would give way to such a publike Conference Private Insinuations use to prevail much when a man may Lavere tack to and again to compass his Ends. Auâ—…hority or the Sword may put an end â—…o Controversies But publike Conferences for the most part do but start new Qâ—…estions and revive old forgotten Animosities What were the Donatists the better for the Collation at Carthage The Mind of a man is generous and where it looks for Opposition it fortifies it self against it Urban the Eighth was the wisest Pope you have had of late who by his Moderation and Curtesie cooled much of that Heat which the violence of his Predecessors had raised against the Court of Rome The mild beaâ—…es of the Sun were more prevalent than the blustring Blasts of the North Wind. Multiplying of Words more commonly engenders strite than peace Fourthly upon what Grounds are you so confident that the Ministers of the Reformed Church would admit of such a publike