saved But how dangerous or deadly soever their faults were they fall directly on the Popish faction both in point of heresie schisme for they hold the like heresie to the Donatists That the Church is onely in the Popes party and accordingly by uncharitable schisme they cut off all those from their communion that are not of this party And now hee comes back againe to Irenaeus as if hee had found some new matter in him Nay Irenaeus whom I named before implies not onely that it is necessary for a true Christian Catholick to differ in no one point of the doctrine or faith from other Christians but hee must withall not beleeve any thing after a different manner that is to say upon a different motive from that for which it is beleeved by other Christians But what doth Irenaeus say being thus called back again He saith nothing for our Author only saith that hee implies just as St. Cyprian before was made to comply But what doth he imply That it is necessary for a true Christian Catholick to differ in no one point of the doctrine or faith from other Christians But is there any such sentence or implying in this Chapter Surely I doubt this Cavalier delt too much upon trust and hee whom hee trusted too much upon deceit I have read over the Chapter and can finde no such implying But I finde that which wee often object against Romists Traditions Why should wee leave the doctrine of the Prophets the Lord and his Apostles and hearken to those men when they tell us their errors The other inference from Irenaeus That a Christian must not beleeve by a different motive from that by which it is beleeved of other Christians is a point that is mortall to Popery For they making the Popes word or authority the motive of their faith herein doe differ from the motive of faith received by the Christians in Grecia Armenia and AEthiopia and so transgresse most dangerously and I doubt fundamentally against this rule produced and approved by the Author as from Irenaeus though there I cannot finde it And now after a just examination of these Allegations I cannot but inferre that There appeares a manifest losse of the cause when the places produced for proofe of it prove it not So that the Authors conclusion being no way made good by his allegations it is left still solitary forsaken and unproved And whereas hee saith For the present it may suffice to have proved the necessity of perfect unity in the Church wee must needs reply That hee hath most imperfectly proved the necessity of so perfect an unity And for the other piece of his conclusion That indeed no reason can bee given why if there bee allowed any more true Churches then one there should not be admitted aswell two thousand as two I acknowledge with him that not onely no reason can bee given of this but also of the Cavaliers speaking of no reason in this point For it is not denyed by us that there is but one true Church and if you make two you may make two thousand But wee deny that every little difference makes two Churches of one and this neither the Author hath proved neither doe his citations suffice to prove but let him here looke to himselfe and his fellow Romists whether they bee not in danger of making two thousand Churches who have made a second Church called the Church vertuall the Pope yea a third Church the Pope and his mysticall body for he is a mystery also but of iniquity which two Churches many eminent members of the Catholicke Church deny to bee that one true Church whereof they are members In the meane time Romish uncharitablenesse in damning Protestants remaines still as a proved truth seeing this Authors proofes for an imaginary perfect unity by which he undertooke to prove it an untruth doe not prove this unity and no such unity proved no untruth proved so they are still uncharitable and Protestants doe yet speake truth when they affirme their uncharitablenesse CHAP. VII A consideration of the Cavaliers fifth Chapter wherein to the great danger of the Papacy that is proved by Scriptures and Fathers which wee doe not deny That out of one true Church of Christ no salvation is to be found SECT I. This ground yeelded doth not produce any discharge whereby the Romists may be freed from uncharitablenesse in damning Protestants THe Cavalier fights on our side and against his fellowes wee are yet left in the Church notwithstanding any thing he hath said or alledged and he hath yet left salvation to us and uncharitablenesse to his owne Papacy And now we being left in the Church he goes about to prove that out of this Church there is no salvation So upon the matter hee proves that out of the Protestants Church there is no salvation But then what will become of the Papacy which will not be of one Church with saved Protestants And indeed except it were to speake for us and against the Papacy what need is there of these proofes for a point not denied by us For wee give him this at first onely for the asking That out of the onely true Church the body of Christ there is no salvation Yet will hee needs goe on to fight for a point which we confesse yea withall to fight for us against himselfe And indeede even where he would seem to fight against us hee doth it so loosely and far-off that it is hard to discerne how his blowes doe concerne us Let us see his first onset Since the Church of Christ our Lord is so truely one and but onely one it followes easily enough that no salvation can be had out of this Church and that every Heresie or Schisme is sufficient to deprive any soule thereof but yet neverthelesse to the end that men may bee wholly left without excuse or rather that they may bee the better warned to take heed in time of those miseries which otherwise they are to feele for all eternity I will strengthen also this truth by the Authoritie of some few Scriptures and Fathers of the Primitive Church for so by degrees it will easily and of it selfe appeare that wee Catholicks are not faulty in that wherewith wee are so much charged I confesse it is hard to finde out this Authors order and way his end or drift we know but the way by which he would come to it is hard to bee seene I am sure hitherto hee hath not made good his first steps in it and yet hee would seeme to proceed as if hee came neerer to his end by degrees when yet hee is still on his threshold for first though the Church of Christ be but one and it doe follow that no salvation can be had out of that one Church this as hath beene noted is no degree to the cleering of Papists uncharitablenesse in damning Protestants Againe it doth not follow that every Heresie in the Popish sense is
sufficient to deprive any soule thereof and so Protestants may still suffer a false charge of Heresie to bee laid on them by Romists and yet bee sure enough of salvation And thus not any degree is yet made good toward the freeing of this charge of uncharitablenesse justly laid on the Romists So that the matter stands still though the Author moving his pen thinkes that the matter moves with it And for the Allegations that follow which seeme to labour for these two points That out of the Church is no salvation And that Heresie and Schisme doe put men out of the Church these being proved no way hurt us or help the Romists but helpe us and hurt the Romists among whom wee have found most fearfull and bloudy Schisme and wee may discover damnable Heresies but they can never prove that Protestant doctrine maintaines either Heresie or Schisme but by that which they call Heresie as relying wholy on Christs merits and not our owne for redemption and worshiping God in spirit and truth and not worshiping Images c. wee serve the God of our Fathers SECT II. The Allegations of Scriptures and Fathers made by the Cavalier are more forcible to exclude the Papists out of the Church then the Protestants against whom they are produced THat being yeelded which this Author indeavours to prove I know not what to doe with his Allegations but onely to turne them against Romists Therefore we very well allow the place alledged out of Esay and say it makes against the Pope who doth not submit himselfe to the Church in a generall Councell and so doth the place of Matthew formerly alledged and answered upon the same Reason And we very well allow those places of Paul to Titus and Timothy as making much against the Pope and his adhaerents and say that they give us just ground of avoiding him being Hereticall and Schismaticall after many admonitions But this Author did wisely in not naming Timothy in his margent but Titus though hee alledge these words out of 1. Tim. 4.1 2. That they attend to doctrines of Divels and spirits of Errour That they are Lyers and Hypocrites lest the Reader looking to the place might finde this which followeth Forbibbing to marry and commanding to abstaine from meats which wee know that Protestancie doth not but if Papistry doe then who are now his Hereticks Hypocrites and Lyers excluded from the Church and so from salvation Hee did also very discreetly in his namelesse alledging some pieces out of 2. Tim. 3. where is mention of Iamnes and Iambres and to make use of the verse fore-going having the form of godlinesse and the verses following That they are ever learning but without attaining to the knowledge of the truth but left out the middle verse which is this Of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly Women laden with sins and led with divers lusts which words being notable markes of seducers for what reason the Author left them out he best knowes but if wee may beleeve their owne Priest it doth rightly hit with some Romish proselite-makers so that the simple Reader if hee had seene this place wholy alledged might perchance have thought hee had seen in these the very Iamnes and Iambres of these times His last Scripture is out of S. Paul to the Galathians where striving to prove that the word Sects in Latin is Heresies in the Greeke he somewhat Heretically I doubt even when he speaks against Heresie leaves the decreed Latin to follow the Greeke But this being taken for a fault in the Latin let the word be as it is in the Greeke and then to the shame of the Papacy wee read indeed that Heresies are works of the flesh which certainly those are most likely to fall into that strive to set up a fleshly monarchy and to abound in the glory and wealth of the world For such men will sell heaven and truth and the Gospell for a messe of Pottage even for base and transitory vanity It is the sentence of Gods spirit that where is the love of the World there is not the love of God and where is not the love of God there cannot bee the love of the truth and where is not the love of truth there is a giving up to strong delusions to beleeve lyes that they all may bee damned who beleeved not the truth Now among innumerable examples of the Papacies love of the world and preferring temporall greatnesse and wealth above the truth let the lamentable conference betweene Adrian the sixth and the Cardinall be a lively proofe and spectacle where the poore Pope and herein not a Pope and therefore hee did well soone to bee gone speaking of the necessity of reformation There was no consideration of the truth of this necessity but a plaine confutation of whatsoever truth there was in it by the Popes Audit and Exchequer even by worldly profit But the Scriptures thus being lost except onely in making against their owne Papacy hee comes to Fathers not so much to hurt with them as to bee hurt by them Tertullian saith hee affirmeth That Hereticks cannot bee accounted Christians But of what heresies doth hee speake there Of any Protestant opinions He doth not say that any Protestants are hereticks He repeats there a rule of faith as it were the body of a Creed consisting of divers Articles Doe the Protestants deny any of these Articles True it is that of this rule of faith hee saith Nullus habet apud nos quaestiones c. There are no questions among us of this rule but those which Heresies make and doe make Hereticks But wee doe not make question of this rule and so are not made hereticks by it But they doe rather question this rule that bring in another faith the Popes Oracles and new Articles For whereas Tertullian here saith Fides in regula posita est The faith is set downe in that rule which before hee rehearsed the Romists faith is not in that rule For there was not one word of the Pope nor of Christs being under the forme of bread by Transubstantiation but In Coelos ereptum sedere ad dextram Patris misisse vicariam vim Spiritus Sancti qui credentes agat Being taken away into heaven hee doth sit at the right hand of his Father and hee hath sent his Vicar not the Pope but the power of the Holy Ghost which should leade those that beleeve And in the 33. Chapter making an Inventory of certaine Heresies amongst others hee names this which I doubt is some kinne to the Papacie Timotheum instruens Nuptiarum quoque interdictores suggillat He saith That S. Paul instructing Timothy doth condemne the forbidders of marriage Saint Cyprian is next brought in to say that thousand times produced sentence that Out of the Church there is no salvation Hereunto is added that There is no reward of any suffering whatsoever neither is hee a Christian
maintenance of foure Popish grounds First The perpetuall visibility of the Church of Rome Secondly The absolute authority of this Church in judging controversies Thirdly The Inerrability of this judgement Fourthly a Necessity of submission thereunto whereby their imaginary unity is produced I Might here bee at rest for this Chapter but that this Champion besides two impertinent places one of which speaks of unity of Affection and a second of the unity of Spirit in the bond of Peace brings forth a third even the often answered place of S. Matth. which hee perverts to divers ill uses whereof this imaginary Popish unity is one For hee assayes hereby to prove the Church to be the judge of controversies to prove her visibility to prove her inerrability and thereupon he thinkes presently should follow an unity First to remove the stumbling blocke of visibility for which the Author went out of his owne way that hee might lay it in ours I answer That this Text may teach what is to bee done where there is a Church as commonly there is where there is a Brother and a Brother but it doth not teach that there shall be a Church visible in all places and at all times But notwithstanding this text a Church may be visible sometimes in one Nation and somtimes in another according to the fruitfulnesse of the people and the just pleasure of God who sometimes removeth the Gospell and the Candlesticke from a Nation that bears no fruit to another that shall beare it And so wee see that there are no Churches now to be seene where there have beene famous Churches in times past Accordingly the Church may be visible in Greece in AEthiopia in Armenia yea in England though it be not visible in Rome and so the visibility thereof may bee true though there were no Rome and no Pope So that neither this nor any other text though they say the Church is visible yet they doe not say that Rome or the Pope shall still be the visible Church but contrarily the Scripture giveth us good hope that Rome shall be invisible yea it gives us great proofe that shee is now the Scarlet Lady that persecutes the Church and is now the Mother of abominations Secondly no Scripture doth say that in time of persecution or prevailing Heresie the Church shall there bee visible where this persecution drives it into corners that it may escape the fury of it by a kinde of invisibility And when the Arian heresie had covered the face of the Earth and the Roman Bishops or Pope had subscribed to it this Scripture doth not say that then the Pope or his Adhaerents were the visible Church nor that they shall be so when the Pope turnes Antichrist For the second point that the Church is the judge of controversies I could perchance say that there appeares very probable reasons why this text doth not speak of the Churches authority in judging of controversies of faith but of her authority in admonishing her children and requiring reconciliation satisfaction from one brother to another in evident wrongs even faults without controversie For the text saith If thy Brother sinne or trespasse against thee go and tell him his fault So that there is a sinne and a fault without controversie and such a fault that the offended Brother himselfe may first judge and tell him of it that hath offended And according to this beginning may bee the proceeding that is that the two witnesses and so the Church may be not to judge of the fault whether it bee a fault or no but to witnesse and condemne the contumacy of the party in denying satisfaction and reconciliation after an evident fault And when the offending Brother will not heare the Church thus admonishing perswading and injoyning him satisfaction and reconciliation then hee is to bee cast out of that Church which hee hath thus contumaciously disobeyed Agreeable to that of S. Paul If any man obey not our word have no company with him But be it that the Church be the judge of controversies this also may bee true in Russian AEthiopian and Protestant Churches And so the Church may judge controversies though there were no Pope and where the Pope hath no power Besides the Romists themselves differ concerning the meaning of the word Church So that while wee labour in this text to finde a Judge of controversies for reconciling them wee are left unreconciled by being at controversie about the Judge of controversies mentioned in this text For some say the multitude is this Church and they have for them the most usuall acception of the word Church in that sense through the new Testament And the current of the place seems to him that way according to proportion For first the offended Brother alone was to admonish his Brother and next with one or two witnesses and lastly hee was to be admonished by the congregation So it is a doctrine of degrees from one to two and from two to many And if it be thus then the Popes power of judging controversies hath no footing here But thirdly and so withall to include and resolve the question of inerrability If the Prelates be meant by the Church which Lorca saith is the most usuall opinion amongst Romists yet doth not this place say that Romish Prelates shall have still an unerring judgement in controversies especially any single Prelate as the Pope Againe it can hardly bee thought that when a Brother hath offended a Brother this text would have him presently to call a Councell or Synod of Prelates and so complaine to many Prelates at once and so to the Church But if it be his owne Prelate of whom hee must aske doth this place promise that no Prelate shall erre in judgeing of controversies it is well known that in the Jewish Church which was undeniably the true Church before Christ Priests did not judge controversies without errour Yea God Himselfe complaineth of the contrary when he saith The Priests lippes should preserve knowledge and they should seeke the Law out of his mouth for hee is the messenger of the Lord of Hostes But Ye are departed out of the way Yee have caused many to stumble at the law Yee have corrupted the Covenant of Levi. Accordingly wee finde in the Prophets a continuall out-cry upon the Priests for mis-leading the people yea the Priests are chiefe in false judgements and injuries of the true Prophets Accordingly Pashar both prophecied lies and did cast Ieremy into the stockes for prophecying truth yea the High Priest himselfe falsly judgeth Christ to have spoken blasphemy And S. Peter tells the High Priest and his associates that they were the builders that despised the Corner stone and crucified Christ. And thus wee see it plaine in the Scripture that the Priests and Prelates did erre even when our Author ascribes that inerrability to them by which hee would prove the inerrability of Rome yea we see farther that
doth cause the contrary assertion to bee hereticall And accordingly Vasques saith not onely such a Position is called hereticall which is contrary to the definition of the Church but that which is contrary to Scripture And that wee may come to Saint Augustine wee shall finde that this contrariety to Scripture was that which Saint Augustine accounted heresie and not contrariety to the Pope and his Decrees For thus hee saith in the small matter produced by the Cavalier called by him Putting off shooes in prayer There is an heresie of those that ever goe bare foot because God said to Moses or Josua Put off thy shooes from thy feet and because the Prophet Esay was commandâ—d to goe bare foote But this is an heresie not because they goe thus for the humbling of the body but because they thus understand the Testimony of Scripture So we see that the Author is plainly told by S. Augustine that it was the falsifying of divine Testimonies even the alledged places of Scripture that gave their error the name of an heresie And it were pitie to put the Cavalier to prove that at this time the Pope had decreed and decided That men should not put off their shooes in prayer But the truth is the Fathers take this word heresie sometimes in a large sense accounting that an heresie which was an erring against any truth of Scripture but heresie in the most proper full and killing sense hath been taken to bee an error against the Rule of Faith even such an error as puts men off from the foundation for a soule being put off from the foundation which is God in Christ Iesus cannot possibly bee saved Yet it cannot be denyed but that if lesser errors be so plainly discovered to bee contrary to the Scriptures that this contrariety is made manifest to him that erreth this error being afterwards maintained may be a damnable heresie and the reason only be this Because such an heretick erreth in the foundation of Faith for hee doth not beleeve that God is true and not beleeving Gods Truth hee cannot beleeve the truth of his promises in Christ Jesus And because such lesser errors were sometimes plainly at least as some holy men thought convinced to bee contrary to Scriptures therefore these errors by them might perchance bee called heresies But yet it cannot bee certainely affirmed by any man that what himselfe seeth to bee manifestly against Scriptures and hath delivered this which seemes manifest unto himselfe to another that the other to whom hee hath delivered it doth see it also to bee manifest therefore no man meerely upon such a manifestation can say directly and positively That such an one doth wilfully not beleeve the Truth of God in the Scriptures Wherefore these smaller errors though they might be called heresies at large in regard that they were errors shewed to be contrary to the Scriptures and so there was a possibility that they might bee held wilfully against the known truth yet because there is also a possibility that it might not bee knowne to those that erred that their error was contrary to the Scriptures the sentence of killing and damning on such cannot certainly be pronounced For indeed no Father nor Divine can affirme That one erring not wilfully but by weakenesse or ignorance in such a point as praying bare foote cannot beleeve in Christ Jesus or so beleeving cannot bee saved But howsoever in all this which hee hath allâ—dged there is nothing that makes for the Cavalier but rather all against him For it is still an errour contrary to the Scriptures that makes the Heresie and not pride and disobedience against the Pope and his decisions And indeed this truth was so strong and so prevailed against the Cavalier that it forced him to speake some part of it even against his own proposition For he saith thus The Pride wherewith they presumed to abuse Scripture and to impose such a fond law upon mens consciences and a resolution not to leave it when they were commanded by the Church was that which made it Heresie in them Where the abusing of Scripture is indeed the chiefe if not onely cause of giving it the likenesse of Heresie For imposing it as a law upon mens consciences I hope this Author will not take for Heresie but rather for a vertue seeing he hath ofteÌ„ told us that those who suppose their religion to be true are not to blame if that they tel others that they are in danger by holding the contrary Howsoever I am sure this is not the life of Heresie as the Cavalier presently tels us in the next page But maintaining a doctrine discipline contrary to the judgment commandements of the Church But how he could know by the art of divination that these his barefoot Hereticks had a resolution not to leave their errours when they were commanded by the Church the Church being taken for the Pope and his adhaerents I cannot divine for it is very possible that they seeing the Popes glorious Pantofle adorned with the Crosse might perhaps thinke it more holy by the example of him whom they call his Holinesse to weare shooes of that fashion The Cavaliers misâ—haps still increase and the more comfortlesse because they are drawne by himselfe upon himselfe For this next proofe is from the Quarto Decimani the life of whose Heresie hee would make to be the holding of Easter at another time then was ordained by the Church But if the Pope bee as hee is said to bee the Church vertuall let the Cavalier remember that this Church vertuall was chidden by S. Irenaeus for excommunicating the Easterne Churches because they differed from him in observation of Easter So at that time neither the different observation of Easter nor disobeying the Popes command was accounted an Heresie Hee is also alike unhappy in his Heresie of Rebaptization where hee saith In Saint Cyprian it was but errour because the Church of his time had not absolutely condemned it but growing after to be condemned in the Donatists time it was Heresie in them not to forsake it which drew Vincentius Lirinensis to make this exclamation O admirable change of things The Authors of an opinion are held Catholicks and the followers of the selfe same are judged Hereticks For the Cavaliers matter is hereby overthrowne For the Bishop of Rome and his councell having condemned the errour of rebaptization Cyprian must be an Heretick who disobeyed the Bishop of Rome and his councell thus having condemned it yea having condemned the maintainers of it But if S. Cyprian was hereby no Heretick then the life of Heresie doth not consist in disobeying the Church speaking by the Pope Againe if S. Cyprian escape at this doore I do not see but that for ought the Cavalier saith the same doore stands open for the Donatists For his reason by which he would keepe in the Donatists is Because their errour grew after to bee condemned
the point then the Chapter hath been hitherto to the Title You say there are great differences between the Protestants and you about the understanding of the Article of the descent of Christ into Hell and the other of the holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints c. But what doe you here talk of differences in understanding fundamentals where the present question is Whether the Protestants doe acknowledge their fundamentalls to bee contained in the Creed For if Protestants declare that their fundamentals are contained in the Creed then your Title is gone which saith That they do not nor dare not declare them And surely it will aske a greater strength and a farre bigger volume then Charity mistaken to prove that Protestants doe not rightly understand the Articles of the Creed But secondly the Authours objection is grounded not onely upon a new but upon a false supposition if his fellow Romists may bee Judges For his supposed proposition is this That all the Articles in the Creed are Fundamentall Now this is different from the first proposall of our opinion That all fundamentall Articles are in the Creed It is also denied by his owne fellowes For though all fundamentall Articles be there yet they say that some Articles that are there may not bee fundamentall or explicitely to be known upon losse of salvation as before hath been shewed out of Vasquez and Azorius Therefore to stand upon a different understanding of those Articles which are denied by your owne men to bee Explicites or doubted is besides the matter But thirdly Do we differ from you in understanding those points What is that to the point undertaken in the end of the last Chapter and promised to be shewed in this That wee differ among our selves in the number of Fundamentalls You are now gone â—â—om our ridiculousnesse by differing in the number of fundamentalls and are come to a ridiculousnesse of your owne by your differing from us in the false understanding of some Articles of the Creed which all your owne Prophets doe not account Fundamentals But you add It is to little purpose to know or confesse that the Creede containes all Fundamentals unlesse there were some certaine way to understand them right This is againe a ranging from shewing our differences among our selves or that wee have not these Fundamentals Yet I answer Wee have a certaine and the best way of understanding them right wee have a learned Ministery endued with gifts from on high which teacheth and preacheth these Fundamentals and the right meaning of them And the right meaning thus taught the Spirit in the hearers doth so discover and certifie the truth of them that the hearers see the Articles to bee Gods truth and not mans And accordingly their faith thus beleeving them resteth on God as the sole Foundation of their faith and this teaching of the Catholick Church wee use commend and allow But that The single Article of the holy Catholick Church should containe the reason of all our faith fundamentally seemes to mee an high kinde of Blasphemie And this blasphemous doctrine as wee have before shewed is the very spirit of Popery or Antichrist which sets up the Pope in Gods place and makes his beleevers truely Papists or Antichristians And this great offence and mysterie of iniquitie carryeth Papists by throngs into the Land of darknesse and into this secret of theirs the soules of the saved may not enter True it is that God useth the service of the Ministers or if you will of the Church in publishing the Articles of faith but no other Foundation of supernaturall faith there is but God himselfe though speaking by man unto man the Fundamentality of our faith passeth through man that is the instrument and resteth wholly upon God But saith hee If wee understand it otherwise the Scripture it selfe speakes of particular errours which are damnable in them by whom they are imbraced and yet they are not at all against any expresse Doctrine of the Creed As namely where Saint Paul calls it a Doctrine of Divels to forbid marriage and meates c. I answer first That the Authour hereby proves that which wee deny not and disproves not that which hee saith wee affirme For the point is not Whether there bee any damnable errours besides those that are against some expresse doctrine of the Creede But Whether there bee in the Creede those fundamentall points which being truely beleeved will cause unity with Christ the Head and unity with his Body the Church Other errours against other Truths in Scripture not fundamentall wee acknowledge there are many and proceeding from the Divell the Father of Lyes and in themselves damnable to such as hold not the true Foundation Christ Jesus by beleeving Fundamentals And it is to bee feared that such are many of those true Papists whose foundation is the Pope But otherwise they may bee rather damnable in themselves then actually damning to those who by infirmities hold them and by beleeving fundamentals are in Christ Jesus to whom there is no condemnation Secondly not onely Fathers in their Rules of faith but the Romists themselves doe not place the lawfulnesse of meates and marriage among their chiefe Heads of Christianitie or Explicites and Fundamentals and therefore this Authour doth ill require of us that which hee cannot obtaine of his fellowes Wherefore let him first make this objection against them and when hee hath their Answer then let him take it for us But being unhappily as well as impertinently fallen into the mention of these damnable errours hee saw that as soone as they were brought in they looked at least asquint on the Church of Rome and claymed kindred of her And therefore hee thought that there was need of an Apologie to put off this kindred and acquaintance Which by the way is not to bee understood of the chastity and fasts of the Catholick Church as Protestants doe most perversely affirme which knowes that those things are lawfull but that yet it is most gratefull to God when his servants for his love deprive themselves of those delâ—ghts But of the Heresies of the Manichâ—es as Saint Augustine doth expressely declare who forbad both marriage and meates as being abominable and impure through the institution thereof which they said was derived from a certaine second ill conditioned god of their owne making But this nor all the water in the Sea will wash away all the kindred betweene Romists and these errours For though Saint Augustine may apply this Prophecie to the Manichees yet may hee not also apply them to the Montanists Tertullian himselfe acknowledging that they have beene taxed out of this very place And if to the Montanists why not to those Romists who with Durandus maintaine a curse and so an impurity of flesh and cleannesse of fish who also forbid marriage to Priests which this place plainly condemneth And whereas this Authour talkes of voluntary deprivation it is certaine that
Christendome and your owne fires which you have kindled to consume a world of Protestants will flash into your faces blast them and make them look red with the shame of this scandall And that which followes is a like empty of Truth but indeed that emptinesse is againe filled up with malice They desire to obey appetite and sense without being ever so much as told if they can chuse that they must lose heaven for their labour You have had Scriptures Fathers and Reasons for our Religion which never yet were nor never can bee answered and with these hath Popery beene battered into pieces Why then talke you of appetite and sense when your owne smart and shame can tell you that wee have had stronger weapons which have beaten you with sound blows Rather speake of sense and appetite when you see a Papist in his â—at dayes before Ashwednesday to make worke for the Priest or speak of sense and appetite when a King is moved to goe to the dames of Paris and then offered to have a Cardinall a man of sense and appetite to be his Confessor as Lewis the eleventh at the enterview told Edward the fourth rather speake of sense and appetite among the stalled Monks the fleshly Cardinals the luxurious Popes that may draw a world of soules into hell both by doctrine and example and who of you durst say to such a one What dost thou or in our Authours words tell them that they must have hell for their labour But indeed wee justly take it ill that Papists should tell us that when wee are going to heaven we should lose heaven for our labour onely because wee give not up our soules to this Man and Head of sinne by schisme and errour leading millions of soules from heaven to hell Hee goes on and sayes The children in this are as like their Mother as they can looke For who perceives not that the Protestant Church doth rather carry a respect to outward conformity then to reall unity in matter of Religion and that indeed they are but as in jest when there is speech of saving soules in any one Church rather then in another A large scandall cast on a whole Church and I doubt once this Authours Mother yet without proofe and against proofe for no proofe doth hee bring that our Church is in jest in matters of Religion or accounts all Religious alike and even his owne words next following might have holpen him to disprove his owne false witnesse It is true that they make both Lawes and Canons whereby they obliged men under a world of penalties to frequent their Churches and to receive their Sacraments For the Lawes and Canons which hee mentions doe expresse a care for the beleeving her doctrine since they command a subscription to it a teaching and preaching of it and preaching Saint Paul saith is the meanes of beleeving and lastly Excommunication against those that affirme the contrary But the Authour having spoken a broad scandall against the whole Church brings in a very narrow tax of some Ministers for a proofe of it For I put the case If a man who were knowne to be wholly affected in his heart of the Catholick faith should yet for the saving of his lands or goods resolve to comply with their Lawes by going to their Churches and by receiving their Communion yea and withall should declare in company the day before that hee was resolved to doe so the day after for the onely saving of his estate and for the shewing of obedience to the Kings Lawes though yet withall hee were perswaded that their Sacraments were unlawfull and their Church impure Would that Minister refuse to let him goe to his Service and for to communicate with the rest Infallibly hee would not and wee see daily that they doe not in like occasions for that Church as I said aspires not to unity but uniformity But here first let the Reader take notice That the Cavalier brings in sons of Rome as like the mother as they can looke and just the same which hee reproved before For hee speakes of a man who is wholly affected in his heart to the Romish faith and yet for saving his goods will come to the Church and receive our Communion Now let me borrow the Cavaliers words and see how his owne words doe fit with his owne Catholicks They professe according to the occasion and comply with the superiour Powers of this world and obey the motions of appetite and sense and are as like their mother Rome as they can looke who for a long time hath fitted Religion to temporall ends if wee may beleeve judicious and truth-telling Guicciardin But now for the admitting of such a one to receive as shall professe his beleeving our Church to bee impure and our Sacraments unlawfull I can hardly thinke that this Authour beleeves that our Church doth allow it For the Canons do excommunicate ipso facto those that say our Church is not true and maintaineth the Apostles doctrine or affirme part of the Articles is erroneous now the doctrine of our Sacraments is a part of the Articles Besides the Rubrick before the Communion doth order That if any have done any wrong to his neighbor by word or deed the Curate having knowledge thereof shall call him and advertise him in any wise not to presume to come to the Lords Table untill hee have openly declared himself to have truly repented Now I think our Church is a very neer and honourable neighbour and that hee who professeth that hee holds her impure doth also professe that hee exceedingly wrongs her and then you may see what doth follow But that I may somewhat speak for Romists Though Rome which is called an Harlot cannot but have a Whores forehead yet I professe that I know no Romist so impudent I never heard of one in charity I can hardly think there is such a one that will openly professe our Sacrament to bee unlawfull and yet receive it presently upon the saying of it for my part if I were a Romist though I indeed knew such Romish Catholicks I should not boast of their shame to the Protestants it shewing an extreme need of scandalous objections when a man must first cast the filth of a scandall at his owne wholly affected for so he termes them Catholicks that it may rebound from their faces and light on Protestants And for our aspiring to unity it is far more reall and solide then such a single and slight objection can dissolve or dissever for we have those mighty bonds of unity One God the Father of all one Lord and one Spirit one Baptisme and one saving Faiht Neither is our faith leâ—t loose to Libertinisme but the doctrine of it is contained in Articles agreed and subscribed to by the Clergy and enacted by the State and as hath been shewed there is Authority and Law for the punishment of those that cast scandals upon it SECT III.