Gâ—neral In which I intend to shew that they have departed from the Tradition of the Church much more evidently than they can pretend that we have done And this is concerning the Popes power oâ— Deposing Kings which they who live under so mighty a Monarch have very prudently renounced But whether they have not more plainly contradicted the Tradition of the Church than the Reformers did shall appear by the sequel of this Discourse In order to which I shall lay down two grounds that seem undeniable in their own principles The one is That the Tradition of any Age or Ages of the Church when it is universal and undisputed is of the same authority with the Tradition of any other Age whatsoever For the promises made to the Church last continually and have the same force at all times And therefore a Tradition for these last six hundred years is of as strong an authority as was that of the first six Ages The second is That a Tradition concerning the measures of mens Obedience and actions is of the same authority with a Tradition concerning the measures of their Belief The one sort are practical and the other are speculative points and as more are concerned in a practical truth than in a speculative point so it has greater effects and more influence on the World therefore it is as necessary that these be certainly handed down as the other And by consequence a Tradition concerning any Rule of Life is as much to be received as that concerning any point of Belief for the Creed and the Ten Commandments being the two Ingredients of the positive part of our Baptismal Vow it is as necessary that we be certainly directed in the one as in the other and if there were any preference to be admitted here certainly it must be for that which is more practical and of greater extent Upon these two grounds I subsume that all the Characters of Oral Tradition by which they can pretend to find it out in any one particular agree to this Doctrine of the Popes power of deposing Princes that are either Hereticks or favourers of them The way sof searching for Tradition are these four First what the Writers and Doctors of the Church have delivered down from one age to another The second is what the Popes have taught and pronounced ex Cathedrâ which to a great part of that Communion is Decisive their authority being held Infallible and to the rest it is at least a great Indication of the Tradition of such an Age. The third is what such Councils as are esteemed and received as Oecumenical Councils have decreed as General Rules The fourth is the late famous Method of Prescription when from the received Doctrine of any one Age we run a back-scent up to the Apostles upon this supposition that the Doctrine of the Church chiefly in a visible and sensible thing could not be changed These are all the ways imaginable to find out the Tradition of past Ages and they do all agree to this Doctrine All the Writers for five or six Ages both Commentators on Scripture the School-men the Casuists and Canonists agreed in it so that Cardinal Perron had reason to challenge those of the contrary persuasion to shew any one Writer before Calvin's time that had been of another mind We do not cite this as a proof because Cardinal Perron said so but because the thing in it self cannot be disproved and in the Contests that fell in between the Popes and those Princes against whom they thundred no Civilian nor Canonist ever denied the Popes power of deposing in the case of Heresie It is true when the Popes pretended to a Temporal Dominion and that all Princes were their Vassals some were found to write against that other Princes contended about the particulars laid to their charge and denied that they were either Hereticks or favourers of Hereticks But none ever disputed this position in general that in a manifest case of Heresie the Pope might not depose Princes and it is too well known what both the Sorbonne determined in the case of Henry the Third and likewise how the body of the Clergy adhered to Cardinal Perron in the opposition he made to the condemnation of that opinion The next mark of Tradition is the Popes pronouncing an opinion ex Cathedrâ that is in a solemn Judiciary way founding it on Scripture and Tradition If Popes had only brutally made War upon some Princes and violently thrust them out of their Dominions this indeed were no mark by which we could judge of a Tradition But when we find Gregory the Seventh and many Popes since his time found this authority on passages of Scripture as that of the Keys being given to S. Peter Jeremiah the Prophet's being set over Kingdomes to root out to pluck up and destroy and that all power in Heaven and Earth was given to Chrâ—st and his bidding his Disciples to buy a Sword we must look on this as the declaring the Tradition of the Church So that it must eitâ—er be confessed that they are not faithful conveyers of it or that this is truly the Tradition of the Church And this has been done so often these last six hundred years that it were a needless imposing on the Readers patience to go about the proving it The Third Indication of Tradition is the Declaration made by Synods but chiefly by General Councils I need not here mention the many Roman Synods that have concurred with the Popes in the Depositions which they thundered out against Kings or Emperours since we have greater authorities confirming it The Third Council of Lateran declared that all Princes that favoured Heresie fell from their Dominions and they granted a Plenary Indulgence to all that fought against them The Fourth Council of the Lateran vested the Pope with the power of giving away their Dominions if they continued for a year obstinate in that their merciful disposition of not extirpating Hereticks The first Council of Lions concurred with the Pope in the deposition of the Emperour Frederick the Second which is grounded in the preamble on the power of binding and loosing given to S. Peter After these came the Council of Constance and they reckoning themselves superiour to the Pope lookt on this as a power inherent in the Church and so assumed it to themselves and therefore put this Sanction in many of their Decrees particularly in that for maintaining the Rights of the Church and in the Passports they granted which had been often added in the Bulls that confirmed the foundations of Monasteries that if any whether he were Emperour King or of what Dignity soever he might be opposed their Order he should thereby forfeit his Dignity The Council of Sienna confirmed all Decrees against Hereticks and the favourers of them that had been made in any former Councils and by consequence those of the Third and Fourth Councils in the Lateran The Council of Basil put
are not succeeded by men of their own tempers yet it is to be hoped that these seeds so sown do still grow where they find a soil disposed for them For though such Notions are not very grateful to some whose Interests biass them another way or to others whose ill lives make them look on all Books of a severe Piety and that design a strict Discipline as so many Satyrs writ against themselves yet to such as are not prepossessed nor corrupted nothing does so easily enter and continue so fixed as those Maximes which they infuse particularly those of the necessity of a Vocation of the Holy Ghost before one enters into Holy Orders and a strict application to the care of Souls after one has engaged in them Truth and Goodness are in their Natures so Congenial that there is no way so certain to lead men to the knowledge of the Truth as to form their minds inwardly to such a sense of Piety and Goodness as may make them fit receptacles of Truth Thus did the Heathen Philosophers begin at the purging their Auditors minds by their cleansing Doctrines before they communicated to them their sublimer Precepts Among the Jews the Sons of the Prophets were long prepared in a course of Mortification and Devotion that so they might become capable of Divine illapses and our Saviour began his Instructions with the correcting the ill Morals of his Followers and Hearers and did not communicate the higher Mysteries of his Doctrine to them till they were well prepared for it since as he said himself the way to know his Doctrine whether it was of God or not was to do his will which makes the sense of the Soul become as exact in judging of its object as a sound state of Health makes the Organs of our Bodily Senses fit to represent their objects distinctly to us And therefore that Church that has advanced so far in the reforming the Morals of the People and the Conduct of the Clergy may be very justly esteemed the best as well as the most learned part of the Roman Communion Though it is not to be denied but the Iealousie that those men of better Notions have fallen under what by the Interest the Jesuites have gained both at Court and in the Sorbonne what by the willingness that is in the greatest part of Men particularly of corrupt Ecclesiasticks to love looser Principles and what by the odious names of Innovators of Men enclined to Heresie Schism or Faction is such that as on the one hand they are lookt at with an ill Eye as a sort of men that are neither good Subjects to the King nor to the Pope So they on the other hand to free themselves from these imputations have perhaps departed too much from these sincere principles which they had at first laid down and have betaken themselves to some Arts and Policies that do not become men so enlightned as they are But I will not enlarge more on this because I honour them so much and have learned so much from them that I will rather bewail than insult over their failings But though they themselves are thus suspected yet such is the force of Truth and the Evidence of those Maximes which they hold and the World is so possessed with them that even their greatest Enemies are forced to yield to them rather perhaps because they dare not scandalize the World by keeping up abuses of which all people are convinced than out of any inward affection they bear to a severe or Primitive Discipline By this means it is that there is now nothing more common in all the parts of France than to talk of a Reformation of abuses even in those places where the Prelates Example is perhaps one of the most conspicuous of all the Abuses To what has been said this may be added That their Glorious and Conquering Monarch being now possessed with this Maxime That he will have but one Religion in his Dominions every one there looks on the reducing many of those they call Hereticks as a sure way to obtain his favour and so to attain to great Dignities in the Church It is certain the most refined Wits there are now set on work to bring out the strength of their cause with the greatest advantage that is possible Therefore the Assembly General of their Clergy being called together and being so much the more engaged to shew their Zeal against Heresie that they might cover themselves from the Reproaches of some that are more bigotted for their compliance with the King in the matter of the Regale hath now made an Address to all the Calvinists of France inviting them to return to their Communion to which they have added Directions to those that shall labour in these Conversions which they call Methods by which their minds are in general to be wrought upon without entring into the detail of these Arguments by which the Controversies have been hitherto managed I confess when I read these first I was astonished at most things in them and could have almost thought that a Veron or a Maimbourg had published their Visions in the name of that August Body but I know the Press there is so regulated and the Constitution of that Kingdom is such that so gross an abuse could not be put upon the World Besides when I had over and over again laid all these methods together I found that indeed all the strength of their Cause lay divided among them So that if there is no extraordinary force in them it is because the Cause can bear nothing that is more solid or more convincing I doubt not but the Letter and these Methods will be examined in France with that clearness and exactness that may be expected from the many extraordinary Pens that are there But I being earnestly desired to write somewhat concerning it have adventured on it I have first begun at home and since here we have the concurring voice of so great and so learned a Church concerning the methods of converting Protestants I hope it will be no unacceptable thing to this Nation to put these in English together with such Reflections on them as may be more easily apprehended by every Reader that has but a due measure of Application and Iudgement though â—e has not amused himself much with deep studies of Divinity I shall hold in the general and to the Rational part as they do without going further in any particular Enquiry than shall seem in some sort necessary I ought to make great Apologies for so hardy an Enterprize but I cannot do that without giving the Reasons that determined me to it which is not at present convenient Therefore I must only in general beg the Readers Charity and that he will not impute this attempt to any forwardness of mine or to any extravagant opinion I may have of my self as if I were fit to enter the Lists with such great persons to whom I pay all that Reverend esteem which
what is the true sense of those passages that are in dispute but by that same Church which conveys it to you This is S. Austin's method in many places but above all in his Book De utilitate Credendi and in his Book Contra Epistolam fundamenti In which he says I would not believe the Gospel if the authority of the Church did not oblige me to it This Method is handsomely managed in the Treatise of the true Word of God joyned to the Peaceable Method Remarks 1. GReat difference is to be made between the conveyance of Books and an Oral Tradition of Doctrine It is very easie to carry down the one in a way that is Morally Infallible An exact copying being all that is necessary for that Whereas it is morally impossible to prevent frauds and impostures in the other in a course of some Ages especially in times of Ignorance and Corruption in which the Credulity of unthinking people has made an easie game to the Craft and Industry of covetous and aspiring Priests Few were then at the pains to examine any thing but took all upon Trust and became so ready of belief that the more incredible a thing seemed to be they swallowed it down the more willingly 2. If this way of reasoning will hold good it was as strong in the mouths of the Iews in our Saviours time for the High Priest and Sanhedrim might have as reasonably pretended that since they had conveyed down the Books in which the Prophecies of the Messiah were contained they hâ—d likewise the right to expound those Prophecies 3. A Witness that hands a thing down without Additions is very different from a Judge that delivers things on his own Authority We freely own the Church to be such a Witness that there is no colour of reason to disbelieve the Tradition of the Books but we see great cause to question the credit of her decisions 4. In this Tradition of Books we have not barely the Tradition of the Church for it We find in all ages since the Books of the New Testament were written several Authors have cited many and large passages out of them We find they were very quickly translated into many other Languages and diverse of those are conveyed down to us There were also so many Copies of these Books every where that though one had resolved on so Sacrilegious an attempt as the corrupting them had been he could not have succeeded in it to any great degree Some additions might have been made in some Copies and so from those they might have been derived to others but these could not have bâ—en considerable otherwise they had been discovered and complained of and when we find the Church engaged in contests with Hereticks and Schismaticks we see both sides appealed to the Scriptures and neither of them reproached the other for violating that Sacred Trust. And the noise we find of the small change of a Letter in the Aâ—ian Controversie shews us how exact they were in preserving these Records As for the Errours of Transcribers that is incident to the Nature of Man and though some Errours have crept into some Copies yet all these put together do not alter any one point of our Religion so that they are not of great consequence Thus it appears how much reason we have to receive the Scriptures upon the credit of such a Tradition But for Oral Tradition it is visible how it might have been so managed as quickly to change the whole Nature of Religion Natural Religion was soon corrupted when it passed down in this Conveyance even during the long lives of the Ancient Patriarchs who had thereby an advantage to keep this pure that after ages in which the life of Man is so shortned cannot pretend to We also see to what a degree the Iewish Tradition became corrupted in our Saviours time particularly in one point which may be called the most essential part of their Religion to wit concerning their Messias what the nature of his Person and Kingdome were to be So that they all expected a Great Conquerour a second Moses or a David so ineffectual a mean is Oral Tradition for conveying down any Doctrine pure or uncorrupted The Ninth Method IS to tell them the Church in which they were before they made the Separation was the true Church because it was the only Church so that they could not Reform the Doctrine without making another Church For then she must have fallen into Errour and by consequence the Gates of Hell must have prevailed against her which is directly contrary to the Promise of Iesus Christ that cannot fail The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Remarks 1. A Church may be a True Church and yet be corrupted by many Errours for a â—rue Church is a Society of men among whom are the certain means of Salvation and such was the Iewish Church in our Saviours time For their Sacrifices had still an Expiatory Vertue and the Covenant made with that people stood still and yet they were over-run with many Errours chiefly in their notions of the Messias And thus as long as the Church of Rome acknowledges the Expiation made by the Death of Christ and applied to all that truly believe and amend their lives so long she is a True Church So that those of that Communion who adhere truly to that which is the great fundamental of the Christian Religion may be saved But when so many things were added to this that it was very hard to preserve this fundamental truth pure and entire then it was necessary for those who were better enlightned to call on others to correct the abuses that had crept in 2. It is hard to build a great super-structure on a figurative expression of which it is not easie to find out the true and full sense And in this that is cited there are but three terms and about every one of them great and just grounds of doubting do appear 1. It is not certain what is meant by the Gates of Hell which is an odd figure for an assailant If by Gates we mean Councils because the Magistrates and Courts among the Iews sate in the Gates then the meaning will be that the Craft of Hell shall not prevail against the Church that is shall not root out Christianity or if by Gates of Hell or the Grave according to a common Greek Phrase Death be to be understood it being the Gate through which we pass to the Grave then the meaning is this that the Church shall never die or be extinguished Nor is there less difficulty to be made about the signification of the word Church Whether it is to be meant in general of the body of Christians or of the Pastors of the Church and of the majority of them The Context seems to carry it for the Body of Christians and then the meaning will be only this That there shall still be a Body of Christians in the World And
of him that had so left it by his Will Certainly if that Commemoration was believed to be of any advantage to the Dead this had been an unreasonable piece of Cruelty in him to deny a Presbyter that comfort for so small a fault And therefore we may well infer from hence that by this Remembrance and the Thanksgivings they offered to God for such as had died in the Faith they intended only so far to celebrate their Memories as to encourage others to imitate those Patterns they had set them 6. I shall not engage in any Dispute concerning the Canonicalness of the Books of the Maccabees only as this general prejudice lies against all the Books called Apocryphal that the Council at Laodicea which was the first that reckoned up the Câ—non of the Scripture does not name them So as to the Book of the Maccabees it is hard to imagine that one who professes that he was but an Abridger of Iason's Five Books and gives us a large account of the difference between a Copious History and an Abridgement could be an Inspired Writer The Sixteenth Method TO Conclude one may solidly confute our Innovators by the Contradiction that is in their Articles of Faith shewing â—hem the Changes that they have made in the Ausburg Confession as also in all the different Expositions of their Faith which they have received and authorized since that time which shews that their Faith being uncertain and wavering cannot have the Character of Divine Revelation which is certain and constant There is nothing but the Faith that admits of no Reformation Tertullian made use of this Argument in many of his Books and Hilary handles it excellently well against the Emperour Constantius upon the occasion of the new Symbols which the Arians published every day changing their Faith continually while the Catholick Church continued firm to that of Nice One may likewise use another Method which is to make it appear that there is a Conformity between the Roman and Greek Churches in the chief Articles of Faith that are in dispute between us and the P. Reformed and that in these the Roman Church does likewise agree with those Sociâ—ties which separated themselves from the Church for Errours which the P. Reformed condemn with her such as the Nestorians and Eutychians To these Methods it will be necessary to add particular Conferences solid Writings Sermons and Missions and to use all these means with a Spirit of Charity without bitterness and above all without injuries Remembring that excellent saying of S. Austin's I do not endeavour to reproach those against whom I dispute that I may seem to have the better of them but that I may become sounder by convincing them of their Errour And following the Canon of the Council of Africk that appointed that though the Donatists were cut off from the Church of God by their Schism yet they should be gently dealt with that so correcting them with meekness as the Apostle says God may give them the grace of Repentance to know the truth and to retire themselves out of the snare of the Devil in which they are taken Captives Remarks 1. IF we did pretend that the first Reformers or those who drew the Ausburg confession were inspired of God in compiling what they writ there were some force in this Discourse But since we build upon this principle that the Scripture is the only ground on which we found our Faith then if any person how much soever we may honour his memory on all other accounts has misunderstood that we do not depart from our principle when we forsake him and follow that which appears to be plainly delivered in the Scriptures 2. We freely acknowledge that the Faith admits of no Reformation and that we can make neither more nor less of it than we find in the Scriptures but if any Church has brought in many Errours we do not think it a Reforming the Faith to throw these out The Faith is still the same that it was when the Apostles first delivered it to the Church nor was it the Faith but the Church that was pretended to be Reformed And if after a long night of Darkness and Corruption those that began to see better did not at first discover every thing or if some of the prejudices of their Education and their former opinions did still hang about them so that others who came after them saw further and more clearly This only proves that they were subject to the Infirmities of the Humane Nature and that they were not immediately inspired of God which was never pretended 3. Great difference is to be made between Articles of Faith and Theological Truths The former consists of those things that are the Ingredients of our Bâ—ptismal Vows and are indeed parts of the New Covenant which may be reduced to the Creed and the Ten Commandments The other are opinions relating to these which though they are founded on Scripture yet have not that Influence either on our Hearts or Lives that they make us either much better or much worse Among these we reckon the Explanation of the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament and the Influence of the Divine Grace upon our Wills If some of the Confessions of Faith among the Protestants differ much in these matters that is not concerning Articles of Faith but Theological Truths In which great allowances are to be made for difference of opinion And as particular Churches ought not to proceed too hastily to decisions in matters that are justly disputable so the rigorous imposing of those severe definitions on the Consciences of others by Oaths and Subscriptions and more particularly all rigour in the prosecution of those that differ in opinion is both disagreeing to the mildness of the Christian Religion and to the Character of Church-men and in particular to the principles upon which the Reformation was founded 4. As for the Greek Churches together with the other Societies in the East we do not deny that many of those corruptions for which we condemn the Church of Rome are among them which only proves that the beginning of these is elder than the Ninth or Tenth Century In which those Churches began to divide such is the worshipping of Images the praying to Saints and some other abuses 5. To this it must be added that for diverse Ages the oppression under which those Churches have fallen and the great Ignorance that has overspread them have beâ—n such that no wonder if those Greeks that have been bred up in the States of the Roman Communion and so were leavened with their opinions have found it no hard task to impose upon their weak and corrupt Countrey-men whatsoever opinions they had in charge to infuse into them So that we may rather wonder to find that all those abuses for which we complain of the Church of Rome are not among them than that some have got footing there 6. But after all this the main things upon
which we have separated from the Church of Rome are not to be found among those Churches Such as the adoring the Consecrated Elements the denying the Wine to the People the saying Masses for Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory the having Images for the Trinity the immediate Invocation of Saints for the pardon of Sin and those blessings which we receive only from God Besides an infinite variety of other things Not to mention their denying the Popes authority And to turn this argument on them Those parts of their Worship in which they differ so much from the Eastern Churches do afford us very good arguments to evince that they are Innovations brought in since these ages in which those Churches held Communion with the Roman Church And do prove that at the time of their Separation they were not introduced in the Western Church For when we find such a keenness of dispute concerning one of the most indifferent things in the World as whether the Sacrament should be of Leavened or Unleavened Bread can we think that if the Latines had then worshipped the Sacrament they had not much rather have objected to the Greeks their Irreverence upon so high an occasion than have insisted on the matter of unleavened Bread As for the conclusion we do acknowledge it is such as becomes an Assembly of Bishops But whether it becomes men of their Characters of their Birth and of their Qualities to pretend to such gentleness and meekness when all the World sees such notorious proofs given to the contrary I shall not determine but will leave it to their own second thoughts to consider better of it We find both the King and the Clergy of France expressing great tenderness towards the persons of those they call Hereticks togetherwith their resolutions of gaining them only by the Methods of Persuasion and Charity and yet the contrary is practisâ—d in so many parts of France that considering the exact Obedience that the Inferiour Officers pay to the Orders that are sent them from the Court we must conclude these Orders are procured from the King without his being rightly informed concerning them And since we must either doubt of the sincerity of the Kings Declarations or of the Assemblies we hope they will not take it ill if we pay that Reverence to a Crowned Head and to so illustrious a Monarch as to prefer him in the competition between his credit and theirs and they must forgive us if we stand in some doubt of the sincerity of this Declaration till we are convinced of it by more Infallible proofs than words or general Protestations The Conclusion THus I have made such Remarks on these Methods as seem both just and solid I have advanced no assertion either of Fact or Right concerning which I am not well assured and which I cannot justifie by a much larger series of proofs than I thought fit to bring into a Discourse which I intended should be as short as was possible But if that be necessary and I am called on to do it I shall not decline it I have with great care avoided the saying any thing meerly for contentions sake or to make up a Muster of many particulars for I look on that way in which many write for a cause as some Advocates plead for their Clients by alledging every thing that may make a shew or biass an unwary hearer as very unbecoming the profession of a Divine and the cause of Truth which we ought to assert And there is scarce any thing that shews a man is persuaded of the truth he maintains more evidently than a sincere way of defending it For great subtilties and deep fetches do naturally incline a Reader to suspect that the Writer was conscious to himself of the weakness of his cause and was therefore resolved to supply those defects by the quickness and nimbleness of his parts But having now said what I think sufficient in the way of Remâ—rks upon the Letter and the Methods published by the late Assembly General of the Clergy of France I now go on to some Methods which seem strong and well grounded for convincing those in Communion with the Church of Rome that they ought to suspect the ground they stand on In which I shall observe this Method First I shall offer such grounds of just suspicion and jealousie as may dispose every considering man to fear and apprehend that their Church is on a wrong bottom from which I shall draw no other Inferences but that they are reasonable grounds to take a man a little off from the engagement of his former Education and Principles and may dispose him to examine matters in dispute among us with more application and less partiality And then I shall shew upon more demonstrative grounds how false the foundations are on which the Church of Rome is established both which I shall examine only in a general view and in bulk without descending by retail unto the pâ—rticulars in Controversie between us 1. And first It is a just ground to suspect any Church or Party of men that pretend to have every thing pass upon their word or authority and that endeavour to keep those who adhere to them in all the Ignorance possible that divert them from making Enquiries into Religion and do with great earnestness infuse in them an Implicite Belief of whatsoever they shâ—ll propose or dictate to them The World has found by experience that there is nothing in which fraud and artifices have been more employed than in matters of Religion And that Priests have been often guilty of the basest impostures And therefore it is a shrewd Indication that any sort of them that make this the first and grand principle which they infuse into their followers that they ought to believe every thing that the majority of themselves decree and do therefore recommend Ignorance and Implicite Obedience to their people and keep the Scriptures out of their hands all they can and wrap up their Worship in a language not understood by the vulgar are not to be too easily believed But that they may be justly suspected of having no sincere designs since Truth is of the nature of Light And Religion was sent into the World to enlighten our minds and to raise our understandings 2. It is a just ground of Jealousie of any Church if she holds many opinions which have a mighty tendenâ—y to raise the Empire and Dominion of the Clergy to a vast height A Reverence to them for their works sake is due by the light of Nature But if Priests advance this further to such a pitch that every one of them is believed qualified by his Character to work the greatest Miracle that ever was The change of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ besides all the other Consecrations by which Divine Vertues are brought down on such things as they bless If it is also believed necessary to enumerate all secret sins to them and