Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A35885
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The salvation of Protestants asserted and defended in opposition to the rash and uncharitable sentence of their eternal damnation pronounc'd against them by the Romish Church / by J.H. Dalhusius ... ; newly done into English.
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Dalhusius, Johannes H. (Johannes Hermanus)
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1689
(1689)
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Wing D132; ESTC R1473
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51,117
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84
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and Friend YOur Reverend Mr. Prior in the late absence of your Lordship sent me a sharp Letter full of thundrings of Eternal Damnation against me and all those who forsaking your Church embrace ours Truly I trembl'd at so rash a Judgment of a prudent Man. But in regard it is lawful at all times and in all places to repel Force by Force to resist an unjust Aggressor and to Answer modestly to one that proposes a hard Question Nay since it is our Duty to convince Gainsayers Tit. 1. 9. I could not think it a piece of Injustice to oppose the foresaid Mr. Prior with the Treatise annex'd that he may be certainly assur'd that he has judg'd of our Differences as a Blind Man doth of Colours or as the Shoemaker did of the Picture drawn by Apelles All that I beg of your Reverend Worship is this That you will be pleas'd so to order the Matter that this necessary Answer may be deliver'd to his hands by which he may understand that it is the part of a Fool to Triumph before the Victory and of one that is far from a Christian to Judge so prepost'rously of the Salvation of his Neighbor I had Answer'd sooner had I not bin hinder'd by my public Duties and Transcribing a Copy of this Original Writing which I intend shall shortly wear a German Cloak to the end that all People may understand it Farewel and continue your Favour to The most faithful Observer of your Lordship in all good Offices J. H. Dalhusius In the mean time the Lord Abbot having Intelligence of my Design that he might remove the impending Burd'n from his Prior the strength of whose Shoulders he did not well understand was at first unwilling to receive this Answer of mine till tyr'd with the Importunity of the Messenger he took it and retir'd into the next Room Where he did not keep it long but by his Servant sent it me back the same day with these words upon the outside Paper BY reason of Strangers that are with me and other necessary Occasions I have not leisure to Answer the Enclosed as it ought to be be pleased therefore to receive back again what you have thought good to write but what is not convenient for us to read So may the Reverend Inspector live to the years of Nestor Your Brother Charles Abbot of Rommersdorff But the Lord Abbot was not so fearful to keep the Answer as an Abbot of the same Order of the neighbouring Abbey of Seinen Gulichius was daring to accept it with a cheerful Mind and willing Hand after I had address'd him in the following short Oration writing after this manner Most Reverend most Famous and most Learned Lord Abbot my most esteemed Favourer and Friend TOward the beginning of the Year I found my self involv'd in new Contentions of which the Author and Beginning is the Worshipful Prior in Rommersdorff whose Name is John Casper Baldem who in Answer to a Writing which ought to have bin instead of a pleasing New-Years-Gift gave me to understand That my self more especially and all those whom you unjustly call Vncatholic are unavoidably subjected to Eternal Damnation It was but just therefore that I should Answer him according to the Matter which such a rash Judgment requir'd Presently I did that which is just and this day took care that the Original Writing at my urgent Request might be deliver'd to the Prior himself by the Lord Prelate Charles Wirtzius in hopes the Lord Abbot as my singular Friend would have bin so favourable and sincere as to have deliver'd him the Original Copy which I sent But Right Reverend Abbot seeing the Consideration of your most Exquisite Learning and the Justice of your Friendship contracted four years since may seem to demand so much that I should inform you at least by a Copy of your business in some measure importing the Honour of your Order and that you should not remain Ignorant according to the Greek Proverb in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Good or Ill is done within our Houses I thought it necessary to impart to you the Nature of our Quarrel In the mean time by the love of Jesus Christ I conjure you that laying aside inveterate Prejudices you would peruse this present Treatise and afterwards with an Answer first to be communicated to the Brothers in Rommersdorff to oblige the longing Expectations of him who am was and will be to the end of my Life Heddesdorff Jan. 14. 1681. The sincere Observer of Your Worship in all good Offices Here we stopt most Worthy Reader proceeding no farther for the Reverend Abbot of Seinen Gulichius has hitherto left me nothing but the desire of a future Answer But to the end the Church of the Protestants so often nay daily after the manner of Baldem in the Desks and Pulpits of the Monks abandon'd to the Infernal Devils may be furnish'd with farther Arms against such a Customary Damnation and that the Innocence and Eternal Salvation of it may be more and more asserted and established with Triumphant Arguments and Reasons we thought it worth our while to publish this Orthodox Answer wrested and extorted from us by the Force of a Fire-breathing Quill and drawn out of the dark shades of my Study I will not here meddle with any Man besides the Prior my Antagonist who because he has spoken what he pleas'd shall hear perhaps what he will not like so well I shall only speak of Errors I shall spare Persons and which is the chiefest thing of all I shall examin and correct all things by the Rule of Christian Charity and Invincible Truth In the mean time Reader make use of this necessary Answer to the Advancement of God's Glory the Establishment of thy own Faih and the Encrease of the true Catholic Church May it please the God of Peace to heal these Divisions that so Christians being recal'd to Truth and Charity may once more constitute one Sheepfold under one Shepherd Christ Not Antichrist Amen To the Right Reverend the BISHOPS The Reverend and Learned PASTORS And To All and Singular the MEMBERS Of the Reformed English Church The AUTHOR wishes The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ The Love of God the Father And the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost Most Honoured Lords and Dearly Beloved Brethren in Christ IN like manner as the Jews of old when they past their little Children through the Fire in Honour of Moloch that they might not be mov'd with their pitiful Outcries and Lamentations endeavour'd to deafen and silence those doleful and ruthful Moans and Shrieks of the distressed Infants with variety of Sounds and Noises loud and shrill such are the labours of the Followers of the Church of Rome to leave no Stone unturn'd to stop the Mouths of the Detectors of their False Doctrins And in regard they are not able to compass their Ends by the way of Truth they not only rage with Fire and Sword against the Orthodox but persecute
the Excommunication which is thunder'd over our Heads For it is long ago that the Bishops of Rome through their Simonies have according to the Canons incurr'd the Penalty of most dreadful Excommunications so that they are uncapable of all Jurisdiction For an Excommunicate cannot exercise an act of Jurisdiction without sinning nay if it be a public Excommunication all his Sentences are void says Toletus lib. 1. Inst Sacerd. cap. 13. § 4. And who can question since the first Punishment of a Simoniac is ipso facto Papal Excommunication as Toletus asserts lib. 5. cap. 93. but that he is notoriously and publicly Excommunicated who is notoriously and publicly Simoniacal as I have particularly made it appear of Sixtus V who was nevertheless the Author of that Bull entitled de Coena Domini in the Form in which it is now Extant whereby the Protestants are solemnly Excommunicated every year by the Pope To this I add That they two can have no Jurisdiction over Us who Curse us to the Pit of Hell and so their Excommunications tho' they two were lawful Bishops are void For if a Bishop cannot Excommunicate one that is out of his Diocese or in a Priviledg'd Place as Emanuel Sa affirms as above Sect. 12. By what Right does the Bishop of Rome pretend to Excommunicate us who never belong'd to a Diocese Or to arrogate a general Jurisdiction and Authority over the whole Church of God which he had never any thing to do with In a word we value not their inconsiderate unjust and void Excommunications They are dull and silly Thunders that hurt no body Such sort of Curses God for the benefit of his true Adorers turns into Blessings according to that of David Psal 109. ver 23. From such Tempests the Damnation of the Protestants is no more to be inferr'd then of theirs who formerly profess'd Christ because the Scribes and Pharisees Excommunicated them after their Solemn manner No less ridioulous are they who alledge that the Protestants are therefore damn'd because they profess a Religion which wants the Seal of Miracles Truly you Romanists do very well to put us in mind of your Miracles For most Learned Men of your Communion complain that the Golden Legends of the Saints are stust with Fables and Couterfeit Miracles as you may read particularly in Melchior Canus producing the Testimonie of Ludovicus Vives lib. 2. Locor cap. 6. Their Frauds and Impostures are everywhere obvious by which the saying of Lyranus upon Dan. 2. before the Reformation Sometimes there was in the Church a notorious Delusion of the People by Miracles counterfeited by the Priests and their Adherents for Temporal Gain Those Imaginary Miracles with which the Protestants were to be convinced in regard they are Signs for Unbelievers are not only very seldom wrought before us but are many times said to be hindred by our presence The Mexican and Japanic Prodigies of which the Jesuites so loudly boast are but Imaginations since Acosta Victoria and Canus expresly acknowledge that no Miracles are wrought in India to promote Conversion And Acosta denies that there is any use of Miracles there lib. 6. proc Ind. Salut cap. 17. In those places says he there is no need of any more then good Works and of shining so before Men which the Natives beholding may glorifie the Father which is in Heaven This is the most potent Miracle to persuade But Francis Victoria Relect. 5. Prop. 5. is of Opinion That the Christian Faith is not so sufficiently preach'd to the Barbarians that they should be bound to believe under New Sin For I hear of no Miracles and Signs no Examples of a Life so Religious but of many Scandals and many Impieties Insomuch that Canus applies those idle Relations to the common Spanish Proverb Long Ways long Lies as if they might lie by authority who tell Stories done or counterfeited in remote and distant Regions So that if Xaverius the New Apostle of Japan had had the Gift of Miracles which is so easily believ'd of him he ought chiefly then to have exercis'd his Gift in the Ship which carry'd him from Malaca to Japan where he was forc'd nolens volens To behold the Mariners sacrificing to an Image of the Devil after the manner of their Country and imploring the Answers of the Image touching the Success of their Voyage which as the Barbarians said and believ'd were sometimes favourable sometimes terrible Nor would he have needed had he receiv'd the Gift of working Miracles from Heaven to have spent so much time in learning the Japan Language The words of Xaverius are these So soon as we have obtain'd the assistance of Language we hope that by the assistance of God the business will proceed much better for now we only converse among them like a sort of Images as not long ago in the Tract of the Rhine the Capuchin Marco de Aviano to put off his Miracles ran about like a Barbarian among the Germans for no body understood what he said they talk much concerning us and turn and look one upon another while we are mute and are constraind as it were to go to School again till we have learnt the Elements of the Language Is here I beseech you any Apostolic Character to be found Yet all these are Extant Epist lib. 1. Epist Japan Adject Com. Eman. Acosta of the Transactions of the Jesuites in the East and by Maffaeus the Jesuite set forth at Delingtren Anno Dom. 1571. The Epistle is written by Xaverius to the Society from Congoxima on the First of November 1549. Afterwards the same Maffaeus for what reason I know not left out this Epistle from whence I faithfully transcrib'd the Quotations above-mention'd unless it were that he was asham'd of the Truth in his select Epistles written from India which he added to his Indian History Printed at Cologn Anno Dom. 1589. Moreover not to say any thing of the Work of Reformation begun and propagated then which a greater Miracle can hardly be imagin'd I would fain oppose the two following Observations to those that reproach us with want of Miracles I. Miracles are not always among them with whom they are wrought as a mark of Truth when Heathens and Heretics formerly could boast of Miracles and many shall say to Christ in that day Lord have we not cast forth Devils and wrought many Wonders in thy Name To whom he shall answer Depart from me for I know ye not Mat. 7. 21 23. And there shall come false Christs and false Prophets arm'd with Signs and Wonders by which the Elect themselves if it were possible shall be seduc'd Mat. 24. 24. Thus Allius Naevius the Augur cut a Whetstone with a Razor in the view of all the People of Rome And one of the Vestal Virgins as a confirmation of her untainted Chastity took up Water in a Sieve and carry'd it away And Claudia another of the same Order alone without any help with her Girdle drew along the