fifty Years after that Austin the Monk came into England 2dly you say that Austin found only two Customs among the Christians here that he could not tollerate 'T is true indeed upon the second meeting that he had with the Brittish Bishops Bede Lib. 2. c. 2. he told them That though in many things they were contrary to the custom of his Church yet if in those two mentioned they would obey him and joyn with him in preaching the Gospel to the Saxons he would bear with them in the rest But did they therefore acknowledg his Authority in complying with his Desires so you would make us believe They were Obstinate say you TILL God was pleased to testify his Mission and the Authority he came with by the Authentick Seal of Miracles As for his Miracles we have no great Opinion of their Authority since we read in the passage to which I just now referr'd you that Antichrist himself shall come with this Attestation Gal. 1.9 It is the Doctrine that must give credit to the Miracles not these to the Doctrine Should an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel than that which we have received St. Paul has commanded us for all the Wonder to bid him be Anathema But I return to the History in which you so notoriously prevaricate that I cannot imagine how one that pretends in this inquisitive Age to deliver the Antiquities of his own Country durst betray himself so notoriously ignorant of it See Sir Bede Loc. cit the words of your own Author Bede expresly contrary to your Allegation But they answer'd that they would do nothing of all this nor receive him for an Arch-Bishop Insomuch that Austin came to high words with them threatning them with that Destruction which they afterwards to their cost met with from his new Saxon Converts And your illustrious Annalist Card. Baron Annal. Tom. 8. An. 604. Baronius cannot forbear making some severe Reflections upon the State of our Island at that Time as if God had therefore given it into the hands of the Barbarians because of the refractory and schismatical Minds of these Bishops 23. Ibid. Reply Your Adversaries you say acknowledg that when St. Austin came into England he taught most if not all the same Doctrines the Roman Catholick Church now teaches c. 24. Answ If S. Austin as you call him taught the same Doctrine which Pope Gregory the Great taught who sent him hither and whose Disciple we are told he was I must then put you in Mind that a very Learned Man has lately shew'd you and I may reasonably presume you could not but know it that he did not teach most much less all the Doctrines which you now teach No Sir the Mystery of Iniquity was not yet come to Perfection and tho your Church had even then in many things declined from its first Faith yet was it much more pure than now it is Protestants Apology p. 57 c. 2d Edit Had you when you took this Pretence from your Friend Mr. Brerely look'd into the Answer that was at large made to it I am perswaded you would have been asham'd to have again advanced so false and trifling an Objection Look Sir I beseech you into the Protestants Appeal Prot. Appeal lib. 1. cap. 2. or if that be too much for one of your Employments look into the Treatise to which I refer you There you will find 1. Vind. of the Answ of some late Papers p. 72 c. That the Scripture was yet received as a perfect Rule of Faith. 2. The Books of the Maccabees which you now put into your Canon rejected then as Apochryphal 3. That Good Works were not yet esteem'd meritorious Nor 4. Auricular Confession a Sacrament That 5. Solitary Masses were disallow'd by him And 6. Transubstantiation yet unborn That 7. The Sacrament of the Eucharist was hitherto administred in both kinds And 8. Purgatory it self not brought either to certainty or to perfection That by consequence 9. Masses for the Dead were not intended to deliver Souls from those Torments Nor 10. Images allow'd for any other purpose than for Ornament and Instruction 11. That the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction was yet unform'd and even 12. The Pope's Supremacy so far from being then establish'd as it now is that Pope Gregory thought it to be the fore-running of Antichrist for one Bishop to set himself above all the rest These are the Instances in which you have been shewn the vast difference there is between Pope Gregory's Doctrine and that of the Council of Trent and which may serve for a Specimen to satisfie the World with what Truth you pretend that we acknowledg that S. Austin when he came into England taught most if not all the same Doctrines that you now teach And this may also suffice for your next Argument founded upon it viz. 25. Add pag. 7 8. Reply That these Doctrines and Practices were either then taught and exercised by the British Christians also or they were not If they were not taught by them certainly we should not have found them so easily submitting to them If they were taught by the British Bishops also then they were of a longer standing than S. Austin's time and we must either grant they were introduced by the first Preachers of the Gospel here or evidently shew some other time before St. Austin when this Church embraced them 26. Answ A Dilemma is a terrible thing with Sense and Truth but without them 't is a ridiculous one as I take this to be For 1. It is evident from what I have before said that Austin did not teach the same Doctrines nor establish the same Practices that you do now teach and establish but did indeed in most of your Corruptions differ from you So that like the unwise Builder you have erected a stately Fabrick and founded it upon the Sand. 2. Had he been as very a Romish Missionary as your self yet is your Argument still inconclusive For whereas you suppose the Brittish Bishops submitted to him they were on the contrary so far from either obeying his Authority or following his Prescriptions that as I have shewn you they utterly rejected both and I will presently add that for above a hundred Years after his Death they utterly refused so much as to communicate with his Proselytes nor esteem'd them any more than Pagans So that I may now turn your own Argument upon you that seeing they had such an Abhorrence for Austin and his Followers that they look'd upon them no better than Heathens it very probably was because they neither approved what he taught nor saw any cause to submit to that Authority to which he pretended You see Sir what an admirable Argument you here flourish with and how little cause we have to expect any great Sincerity from you in other matters when in the very History of your own Country you so wretchedly prevaricate and against the express Authority
of that very Person whom you quote for your Relation 27. Having thus given us a proof either of your Skill or your Integrity in the account of the first Conversion of our Island under Pope Gregory the Great you next make a very large step as to the progress of your Religion and such as still confirms me more and more how very unfit you are to turn Historian 28. Add pag. 8. Reply This Faith and these Exercises say you taught and practised by St. Austin were propagated down even till King Henry the VIIIth's time Answ In which account whether we are to complain of your Ignorance or your Vnsincerity be it your part to determine this I am sure they cannot both be excused 29. I have already shewn you that that Faith which was found in the Church of England in King Henry the VIIIth's time could not have been propagated down from the time of Austin's coming hither seeing that Monk neither taught nor practised the greatest part of those Corruptions which were afterwards by degrees brought into ours as well as into the other Churches of the Roman Communion But however not to insist upon this Fundamental Mistake Can you Sir with any Conscience affirm that the Doctrine which you now teach was till King Henry the VIIIth's time without interruption received and practised in this Country 30. First For the Brittish Bishops whom you before bring in as submitting themselves to Austin your own Author Bede expresly declares that in his time which was an hundred Years after the Death of Austin they entertain'd no Communion with them Lib. 2. cap. 20. Seeing says he to this very day it is the Custom of the Britains to have no value for the Faith and Religion of the English nor to communicate with them any more than with Pagans Which Henry of Huntingdon thus confirms Lib. 3. Hist That neither the Britains nor Scots i. e. Irish would communicate with the English or with Austin their Bishop any more than with Pagans So that for one Age at least the British Bishops then neither own'd the Authority of your Church nor had any manner of Communion with the Members of it But 31. Secondly Have you never heard of some other Kings of England who with their Parliaments have most stifly opposed the Pretences of the Pope and refused all Messages from Him and made it no less than High-Treason for any one to bring his Orders or Interdicts into the Kingdom What think you of another Henry no less brave than his Successor whom you so revile in his Defence of himself against his Rebellious Subject but your Saint Thomas a Becket I could add many Acts of Parliament made long before King Henry the VIIIth's time to shew you that tho he indeed proved the most successful in his Attempts to shake off the Pope's Authority yet that several other of our Princes had shewn him the way and that the Usurpations of that See were neither quietly own'd nor patiently submitted to by his Royal Predecessors And then 32. Thirdly For the matter of your Doctrine it must certainly be a great piece of Confidence in you to pretend that this came down such as you now believe and practise from the time of Austin the Monk to King Henry the VIIIth's days I speak not now of the great Opposition that was made to it by Wickleffe tho supported by the Duke of Lancaster the Lord Marshall of England and divers others of chiefest note in this Kingdom in the time of Edward the Third and Richard the Second I need not say in how many Points he stood up against the Doctrine of your Church what a mighty Interest he had to support him against the Authority of the Pope and the Rage of the Bishop of London and his other Enemies on that account so as both freely to preach against your Errors and yet die in Peace in a good old Age. The number of his Followers was almost infinite and tho severe Laws were afterwards made against them yet could they hardly ever be utterly rooted out But yet least you should say that Wickleffe was only a Schismatick from your Church which constantly held against him I will rather shew you in a few Instances that even the Church of England it self which you suppose to have been so conformable to your present Tenets was in truth utterly opposite to your Sentiments in many Particulars And because I may not run out into too great a length I will insist only upon two but those very considerable Points 33. The first is the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which as it came but late into the Roman Church so did it by Consequence into ours too Certain it is that in the 10th Century the contrary Faith was publickly taught among us Now not to insist upon the Authority of Bede who in several parts of his Works plainly shews how little he believed your Doctrine of Transubstantiation this is undeniably evident from the Saxon Homily translated by Aelfrick and appointed in the Saxons time to be read to the People at Easter before they received the Holy Communion and which is from one end to the other directly opposite to the Doctrine of the Real Presence as establish'd by your Council of Trent And the same Aelfrick in his Letters to Wulfine Bishop of Scyrburne and to Wulfstane Archbishop of York shews his own Notions to have been exactly correspondent to what that Homily taught The Housell says he is Christes Bodye not bodelye but ghostlye Not the Bodye which he suffred in but the Bodye of which he spake when he blessed Bread and Wyne to Housell a night before his suffring and said by the blessed Bread Thys is my Bodye and agayne by the holy Wyne This is my Bloud which is shedd for manye in forgiveness of Sins Vnderstand nowe that the Lord who could turn that Bread before his suffering to his Bodye and that Wyne to his Bloude ghostlye that the self-same Lorde blesseth dayly through the Priestes handes Bread and Wyne to his ghostlye Bodye and to his ghostlye Bloud All which he more fully explains in his other Letter H. de Knyghton de Event Anglice l. 5. p. 2647 2648. Nay it appears by a Recantation of Wickleffe mention'd by Knyghton that even in the latter time of that Man's Life there was no such Doctrine then in England as Transubstantiation publickly imposed as an Article of Faith. By all which it is evident that your great Doctrine of the Real Presence with all its necessary Appendages was not as you pretend propagated down from Austin's to King Henry the Eight's time but brought in to the Church some hundreds of Years after that Monk died 34. The other Instance I shall offer to overthrow your Pretences is no less considerable viz. the Worship of Images It is well known what Opposition was made not only by the Emperor Charles the Great and the Fathers of the Synod of Franckfort but by the French
neither universally nor necessarily received Answ And this Book tho it produced not any manner of Authority for its Representations and was contrary in most Points to the Opinions of the chiefest Writers of your Church soon received an Answer in every particular There your Doctrine was truly stated from your own Authors his false Colours detected and to your shame never replied to For I suppose no one will be so far mistaken as to think that Triflle that came out against it deserves the Name of an Answer 57. Ad pag. 13. And whilst this Book yet subsists in its full force and that we have so effectually shewn you the Opinions of the most Eminent Divines of your Church the Practice of the Generality amongst you and the very words of your Councils and Liturgies to be utterly inconsistent with your new Representations that you are not able to make any reasonable Defence of the one and are forced utterly to reject after all the other What a Forehead must that Man have that can tell the World as you do That we CANNOT DENY what yet you complain of Me in this very Book for denying that all Catholicks do believe according to that Doctrine which the Representer expresses and which you in vain endeavour as I shall hereafter shew you to defend 58. Ad pag. 14. Reply During this Dispute two Books you say were publish'd with the same Intention The first The Acts of the Clergy of France in their General Assembly 1685. in which was shewn in one Column the Doctrine of your Church from the words of the Council of Trent in the other the Calumnies of Protestants against you from the very words of their Authors And this you think to have been so clear a Proof of what the Representer had said that you suppose his Adversaries would not think fit to contest it longer against such plain and ample Testimonies Answ And here you think you have found out somewhat to boast of A Wonder indeed not every day to be seen a Book never yet answered by us 'T is true I do not know of any one here at home that has taken the pains to examine the Clergy's Quotations as the Answer to Papists protesting against Protestant Popery has done for the Instances there offer'd by their Humble Imitator the Representer But then the discovery that was made by that worthy Author of the whole Cheat by distinguishing Matters of Dispute from Matters of Representation has abundantly confuted all their Pretences We charge you for Instance with Idolatry for worshipping of Images Praying to Saints and for adoring the Host. If you do not worship Images nor pray to Saints nor adore the Host then indeed we Misrepresent you But now for the other Point that therefore you commit Idolatry this is our Consequence which we draw from those Practices and must be put to the Trial betwixt us If our Reasons be good our Conclusion will be so too If they are not we are then mistaken in our Opinion and you may say we are in an Error but we do not therefore misrepresent you We never yet pretended that you thought Idolatry to be lawful or that you confess'd that you committed it We accuse you of it only as a thing which upon the Premises before mention'd we conclude you to be guilty of and in that certainly if we misrepresent any Body it must be our selves not you Now this one thing being observed the Book you mention is utterly overthrown and both the Artifice and the Evidence fall together 59. Ibid. The other Book you tell us you publish'd was the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition and what has been done on this occasion is very well known and I shall not need to give any account of it 60. Ad pag. 17. And thus have we done with the two Points to which I reduced the Sum of your Preface What farther remains is your Advice to the Readers of our Books what they are to take notice of and what to pass over in them You tell them that you will lay down the true State of the difference betwixt us and that whatever they find written by us that does not immediately oppose some of those Tenets they should pass it over tho never so plausible or pleasing 61. Now how Politick such an Advice as this may be to hinder the good effect of our Writing I will not dispute but sure I am it is highly unreasonable For what if the very Subject of the Controversie should be as indeed at this time it is whether those things which you here lay down be your Churches Doctrine or only your private Exposition of it Ought not the judicious Reader in this case to consider our Allegations and see whether we have not reason to say that you do endeavour to delude them by pretending that to be your Belief which in truth is not received by the Generality of your Church as such As for instance You positively deny that the Holy Cross is upon ANY ACCOVNT WHATSOEVER to be worshipped with DIVINE WORSHIP Now this we deny too and therefore as to this Point there can be no Dispute betwixt us But now what if I should undertake to shew that you here impose upon your Reader and that whatsoever you pretend yet your Church does teach that the Holy Cross IS TO BE WORSHIPPED with DIVINE WORSHIP and Practises accordingly Is not this think you fit to be considered by him Or is the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition become so far the Guide in Controversie in France and England that all other Expositions are to be look'd upon as superannuated and this only to contain the true Interpretation of your pretended Catholick Faith. 62. But indeed I do not wonder that you would perswade your Proselytes not to read our Books since you easily guess that those things may well stagger them which were not your Obstinacy or your Prejudices too strong for your Reason and Conscience to grapple with must long e're this have convinced as they have sufficiently confuted your own selves 63. Ad pag. 27. And because you are not willing to prolong Disputes you do here declare that if the Defender do meddle hereafter with such Points as those which are not of necessary Faith you shall not think your self obliged to answer him tho after that he may perhaps boast how he had the last Word Answ That is to say the great business of the Defender has been to discover your true Doctrine and yours to dissemble it Now if the Defender makes any Answer at all to your Reply it must be to maintain those Doctrines to be yours which he had laid to your Charge and which you deny And this if he does you here declare you will have done with him Which I think is plainly to confess that you have had enough of this Argument 64. But Sir the Defender has such a kindness for his Subject and such a respect for You that he is resolved not to part either
9 10. T. G. That several eminent Divines of our Church do not allow that Book to contain in every part of it the publick dogmatical Doctrine of the Church of England and three of whose Names from * T. G 's first Answer to Dr. Still Pref. pag. 9 10. T.G. still you adorn your Margin with He answers †Dr. Still ibid. Be it so Surely there is a great deal of difference between some particular Passages and Expressions in these Homilies and that which is the main Design and Foundation of one of them But in this case we are to observe that they who deny the Church of Rome to be guilty of Idolatry do not only look on the Charge as false but as of dangerous consequence and therefore altho Men may subscribe to a Book in general as containing wholsome and Godly Doctrine tho they be not so certain of the Truth of every Passage in it yet they can never do it with a good Conscience if they believe any great and considerable part of the Doctrine therein contained to be false and dangerous 15. Thus did this Reverend Person confute your Oracle If you had offer'd any thing to prevent the same Answer from being return'd to you I should have been far from complaining against you for advancing of an old Argument with new Strength But when you saw how unable ‖ See Dr. Still Conferences against T. G. p. 22 c. T. G. was to defend these Cavils nevertheless still to produce them and tho you could not but be conscious to your self at the same time that they were not to be maintain'd I shall only say that it serves to convince me of the Truth of what an ancient Greek Poet once observed and the meaning of whose words you may enquire among the Learned at your leisure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 16. Ad pag. ◠Reply Your next Paragraph consists of a Story of Q. Elizabeth T. G 's Dialogues against Dr. Still p. 17. and that too eccho'd form T. G's Inspiration But to this I have already return'd my Answer and when you shall think sit to speak out what you mean by it you shall not fail of a farther Consideration from me if I be not prevented by your receiving it from a more proper hand 17. And thus have we done with what concerns the general Cause in this Introduction and the Sum of all is this That of four Paragraphs of which it consists the first is Calumny the second false and I am reasonably perswaded known by you to be so the third impertinent and long since answered as was also the foregoing by the Reverend Dr. St. the last seditious I go on to the following part of this first Article to examine what relates to my self in it 18. Where first you except against my quoting your particular Authors to find out your Churches meaning and call it Calumny tho what Calumny it is to say that those Authors whom you cannot deny but that I truly cite have expounded your Churches Sense otherwise than you and some others do I cannot imagine But however you tell us Ad p. 3 4. Reply That you have nothing to do with the Doctrine of the Schools That I must take your Doctrine from your Councils the publick authentick and universally recieved Definitions and Decisions of the Church Answ And in this you still follow your old Guide * T. G. Dial. against Dr. Still p. 56 57. T. G. But I have †First Part Preface already shewn you the weakness of this Pretence and for your next supposal that even those Authors do not say what I affirm they do if your Proofs are as convincing as your Assertion is confident I have already promised you all you can desire Repl. p. 4. That I will not fail to confess that you deserve not so ill a Character as I thought Ad pag. 4. Reply Your next Paragraph charges me with VNSINCERITY in stating the Question betwixt Catholicks as you call them and Protestants for that I represented you as allowing us to hold the ancient and undoubted Foundation of the Christian Faith. Answ And is it not the ancient and undoubted Foundation of the Christian Faith which we hold and which has been deliver'd down to us in those very Creeds which your selves profess and into the Faith of which you still baptize your Children Nay do not you your self confess this to be true in the very place where you cavil against me for this Assertion ‖ Vindic. Art. 1. p. 24. Vindic. p. 24. where you grant that what we hold is the ancient and undoubted Foundation and only deny that it is intirely so And again in this very Reply in which you repeat your Accusation * Reply Art. 1. pag. 4. P. 4. I told him say you that we do not allow that Proposition ESPECIALLY IF HE MEAN all Fundamentals So that then the Vnsincerity lies not in my saying that what we hold is fundamental for this you tell me Vindicat. p. 24. NO BODY EVER DENY'D but for pretending that you allow'd that we held ALL which you esteem'd to be fundamental Now for this I must observe 1st That you dare not say positively that I affirm'd any such thing †Reply See before I told him say you that we do not allow that Proposition IF he mean ALL Fundamentals So that you positively charge me with Vnsincerity for pretending that you granted what you do not upon supposition that I MEANT any such thing 2dly That to make something of this charge you are forced to go back from your own Concession Vindic. p. 24. For whereas in your Vindication you had said plainly that tho you do not allow us to hold all Fundamentals yet no body ever deny'd that we held some of them here you clap in an Insinuation even against this too Reply p. 2. I told him that we do not allow that they hold the ancient and undoubted Foundation ESPECIALLY if he meant ALL Fundamentals So that tho you do deny it ESPECIALLY if we mean ALL Fundamentals yet you do not altogether allow even that what we hold is fundamental But 3dly Where at last do you find that I ever said that you granted that we held ALL which you esteem to be fundamental In my Exposition I tell you in the very next words to those you cavil at that this was the thing to be put upon the issue Expos C. E. p. ◠Whether those Articles which you had added to this ancient and undoubted Foundation as Superstructures to it were not so far from being NECESSARY Articles of Religion as YOV PRETEND that they indeed overthrow that Faith which is on both sides allow'd to be Divine And when in your Vindication you first made this little Exception I again repeated it in these very words which you take no notice of in your Reply But the Vindicator Defen of the Expos p. ◠jealous for the
unconclusive In short you cannot deny the matter of Fact tho you would be thought to suppose rather than allow it to be true And all you have to say is That whatever they believed besides sure you are they did pray to the Saints 75. Answ That the Fathers about the latter end of the IV. Century began to Invocate the Saints we do not deny tho' it were rather in the way of a Rhetorical Compellation than of a formal Address And if herein they contradicted any other of their Principles we know they were but Men and as such might possibly in their Religious heats do some things not entirely consonant to themselves in their Cooler hours Now then taking it for granted that those Fathers I heretofore mentioned did teach that the Saints departed do not yet enjoy the Beatifick Vision I say with those great Men of your Church whom you here forsake that they could not reasonably pray to them Since it is upon this Vision especially that you found your Opinion of that particular knowledge you suppose they Ordinarily and Constantly have of those things that are done here below and without which it would be Vain and Absurd to call upon them And therefore tho you have no regard to Bellarmine's or Suarez's Authority yet for the sake of Sense and Reason answer their Arguments and tell us a little upon your own Principles how those Fathers could think the Saints were fit to be pray'd to if by denying them to be yet in Heaven they by consequence must have deny'd them to have any ordinary and certain knowledge of what is done here upon Earth Reply p. 16. 76. Reply But Sixtus Senensis you say after all concludes That those Fathers do not intend to exclude the Saints departed from the Beatifick Vision but only from that Perfect Happiness which we shall enjoy after the Resurrection And it would have been much more Christian-like in Me to have imitated his Example than to argue as I do against their Praying to Saints from this Principle 77. Answ Had I been crampt as he was with a Defininimus of my Church I might possibly have been tempted to make Excuses for those Fathers as he did But a Man need only look upon their Words as they are cited by him to see how little such shuffling will avail to reduce their Doctrine to your Pretences And the truth is this Sixtus Senensis was so Honest as to confess tho you were not so Honest as to take notice of it For having offer'd that Exposition of their Words which you mention he immediately subjoins Thus says he have I interpreted the Expressions of S. Ambrose Austin and Chrysostome But if there be some Sayings of the Holy Authors which CANNOT suffer such an Interpretation yet we should at least remember that this ERROUR ought not to prejudice the Learning and Piety of such Illustrious Fathers seeing the Church in their time had not yet determined any thing Certain to be believed in this Matter Thus Sixtus Senensis ingenuously confessing how the Case stood And this you cannot be presumed not to have seen in him seeing they are in the very same place with what you transcribed from him And what then must I think of such a One as values not how he reports things so he may but by any means seem to say somewhat tho he knows at the same time that he cannot expect long to triumph in his Unsincerity 78. And now there is but one thing more remaining to get over this unlucky Period of the First 300 Years Reply p. 18. sect 14. Reply For what if the few Writings of the Ancients of the First 300 Years which remain be silent in this Particular does it follow that they approved not the Practice Answ No Sir this in not the Case We do not pretend to a bare Silence of those Holy Fathers but we produce their express Authorities against you And that I hope is a good Argument that our Possession is at least 300 Years better than yours and that you not we have been Innovators in this Particular 79. Reply Ibid. Had this Custom of Praying to Saints been only introduc'd in the Fourth Age and been so dangerous as Moderns would persuade the World that it is certainly the succeeding General Councils would have taken notice of it or some One of the Fathers would have written against it But on the contrary we find the Fourth General Council allowing this Invocation in the Third Person Let Flavian the Martyr Pray for us 80. Answ To your Instance from the Fourth General Council I reply That besides that you your self confess that it is nothing to the purpose there being a mighty difference between wishing that the Saints would pray for us and praying to the Saints for their Aid and Succour you should have known that this Council was held in the middle of the Fâ—â—th Age and so is without the compass of what I am here to consider 81. But I will go yet farther with you as to this Instance and to that end I must tell you that your Authors have very much deceived you in their Accounts of it For first It was not the Synod but only a Party in that Synod that cry'd out Let Flavian the Martyr pray for us And secondly Even they that did cry out thus were as far from designing to pray to Flavian at all as you were from understanding the meaning of their Exclamation Labbé Conc. Tom. iv Act. xi p. 697. B. The Occasion of those Words in short was this In the Eleventh and Twelfth Actions of that Council there arose a difficult Debate concerning Bassianus and Stephanus whether of the two was lawful Bishop of Ephesus Bassian had this Plea That he had held it quietly Four years that Proclus and his Successors Bishops of Constantinople had communicated with him as lawful Bishop of that See among whom was Flavianus but lately deceased Upon this the Fathers that were of Bassianus Party urged to the Synod that Flavian by communicating with him had acknowledged him to be lawful Bishop of Ephesus And thereupon press the Holy Bishops to have this respect to Flavian a Catholick and Martyr as to acknowledge Bassianus to be the true Bishop seeing he had Communicated with him as such And here comes in among other Expressions this that is the Subject of our present Debate The Bishops and Clergy of Constantinople cry out in Honour of their late Martyr This is the truth this we all say Let the Memory of Flavian be eternal let the Memory of the Orthodox Flavian be eternal Flavian lives after his Death Let the Martyr pray or entreat for us Flavian judges with us This was the Occasion of those words and it plainly shews that all they meant by them was That the Judgment of Flavian a Holy Bishop and Martyr should prevail with the Synod to judge of Bassianus side with whom He had Communicated 82. As for your Argument That had
those Fathers that there is any necessity at all of communicating Children before they come to Years of discretion I need not say what Heats arose between One of your own Popes and St. Cyprian about rebaptizing of Hereticks and both of them in the wrong The Ancient Fathers generally believed that the Souls of the Blessed do not yet enjoy the Vision of God But from the time of Pope John the XXII the contrary is become the Catholick Doctrine among you De Consecr Dist 2. Sess 13. The necessity of communicating in both kinds was believed in the Time of Pope Gelasius and the Council of Constance in that very Canon in which it took away the Cup from the Laity Conc. Trid. Sess 21. Can. 1. yet confess'd that Christ had establish'd it in both kinds and the Church constantly administred and received in both kinds in obedience to his Institution but 't is now no less than damnation to say that one kind alone is not sufficient In the primitive Church it was generally received that the Souls of the Faithful after they are deliver'd from the burden of the Flesh are in Joy and Felicity Now you teach that they go first to Purgatory a place of Pain and Sorrow inferior in nothing but the duration to Hell it self Other Instances I might add to shew that you your selves do no otherwise follow the Fathers than as you esteem them to have follow'd the Truth and therefore have thought fit to forsake them in the several Points I before mentioned And therefore certainly you ought not to condemn us if we pay no other deference to them nor appeal to them but only as Witnesses of the Doctrine of the Church in those Times not as Judges and Masters of our Faith. 9. Ad Pag. IV. Reply And in all these several ways you say you have shewn us to be Mistaken insomuch that there has not been any thing like an Argument produced aginst your Faith or to justify your Schism but what has been abundantly Answer'd and Refuted 10. Answ This Sir is a Boast which I believe the World will think you might very well have spared at this time I need not send you back as you have done us to our Ancient Authors and desire you once more to consider what has been offer'd both from Scripture and Antiquity by Monsieur de Mornay Aubertine Chamiere Blondell Daillé Larrogue and Others abroad by Bishop Jewel Bishop Morton A. B. Vsher Dr. J. Forbes Dr. White Dr. Barrow and many more of our own Country and whose Names among the wisest even of your own Church are much more valued than for a Coccius or a Brerely to be able to obscure them I appeal only to the present Times to witness against you and would intreat you before you tell us any more of your Performances to give some good Reply to that Catalogue I have sent you of above fourty Treatises lately published in all these kinds of Arguments that you speak of and your declining of which do's not very well suit with such vain Pretences 11. Ibid. You add That you have so far complied with the Infirmities of your Adversaries that you have left no Stone unturn'd to reduce them to the Vnity of the Faith and that by meekness as well as powerful Reasoning 12. Answ It must be confess'd indeed that you have not been wanting in your Endeavours to convert us Your Zeal has even equall'd that which our Saviour Christ once remark'd or rather reproved in your Predecessors the Scribes and Pharisees and I would to God it had not too often produced the same Effect also As for the Means that you have made use of for the carrying on of this Work I have already in part recounted them to you And shall only now add that if your Meekness has been no greater than your Arguments have been powerful we shall have as little cause to applaud the One as we have hitherto had to be convinced by the Other And indeed whosoever shall consider your behaviour towards those you call Hereticks will find that some Other word would better have suited your Character than that of Meekness If there be any who deluded by your present pretences of Moderation doubt this let them look only upon the Actions of a neighbour Kingdom and whose Clergy has ever been esteemed the most moderate of your Church For if such a deportment as theirs towards our Brethren be the Meekness you boast of I shall only beg leave to say with Solomon Prov. 12.10 that then the tender Mercies of some Men are Cruel But you go on to shew us wherein you have made a testimony of this Meekness You say 13. Ibid. You have not only condescended to satisfy the curiousity of them that have more leisure by writing large Volumes upon every particular Controversy but you have gone a shorter way to work and to some have manifested the unerrable Authority of the Church of Christ against which he had promised that the Gates of Hell should not prevail Others you have shew'd it from the nature of Truth and Error and the Impossibility that a Universal Tradition could fail especially when God had promised that the Words He would put into their Mouths should not depart out of their mouths nor out of the Mouths of their Seed nor out of the Mouth of their Seeds seed from hence forth and for Ever To others you have proved the Innocence and Antiquity of your Doctrine from the testimony of learned Protestants themselves 14. Answ This indeed was a great Condescension that being so well satisfied on all these accounts that you had the Truth your selves you should so far vouchsafe as for our sakes to prove that you had so But truly unless you can produce some better proof that your Church cannot Error than this that our Saviour once said of his Church That the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it you will never satisfy any reasonable Man of it How often Sir have you been told that here is something indeed to establish the Perpetuity of the Church but nothing of its Infallibility Unless you will suppose what you know we utterly deny that the Church cannot subsist except it be infallible in every Point The Church may fall into many Errors and yet continue a Church still A Man is never the less a Man because he has an Ague or some other Distemper upon Him. And whilst the Church thus subsists Christ's Promise is made good that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it Though now 2dly Were the Infallibility of the Church in this Text clear to a Demonstration yet still the main Thing would be wanting how to prove your Church to be the Catholick Church and to have alone the right to this Promise which for ought appears from this Passage any Other may pretend to upon as good grounds as She. 15. Again As to the Point of Tradition With what confidence can you say it is
somewhat severe yet I believe there are but few Expressions in them that you have not very well deserved But this first Dream gives you occasion in the next Paragraph to run into a contrary Extravagance and that as groundless as the foregoing For you add 44. Ad pag. 9 10. Reply That things growing calmer in King James and King Charles the first Time such Calumnies and Accusations as had before been used were looked upon by the more Learned Party as the Effects of Passion and Moderation taught them to acknowledg the Church of Rome to be a Mother-Church and that Salvation was to be had in Her. That many of those Accusations which were brought against Her were but the Dreams of distracted Brains and the more moderate Persons begun to look upon Her with a more favourable Eye 45. Answ I wish you had here given us some Proofs of what you say that so we might have known who these Learned Men were and what those Charges that they begun to leave off against you It is well known how earnestly King James wrote against your Church King Charles the first was your avow'd Enemy even to his Death The most Learned Men of those Times have left such Volumes against you as you never were nor ever will be able to Answer and I shall hereafter shew you that even those whom you alledge as excusing you from Idolatry which is I believe in your own Estimation our severest charge against you are for all your Pretences far from thinking that there is either Falshood or Calumnie in such an Accusation 46. It is therefore great Confidence in you without the least shadow of Authority for what you do to represent such Eminent Persons as Favourers of your Doctrine But this has been ever your way and we ought not to wonder at it seeing we can remember the time that we our selves were reported to be Popishly affected and it is but a few Months since that some of you put out a book to shew an Agreement at this day between the Church of England and the Church of Rome though I suppose he may by this time begin to repent of an undertaking which has brought nothing but infamy to the Author of so false and scandalous an Attempt 47. What you mean by our acknowledging your Church to be a Mother-Church I do not very well comprehend We confess indeed it was a Roman Missionary that especially contributed to the Conversion of the Saxons and this I believe no Man ever denied but let me tell you that if your own Historian Bede be to be Judg our Country was much more beholden to the Labours and Prudence of the Scots French Answer to Reason Authority pag. 83 c. than to the Romans Look into the Account that has lately been given by a Learned Person of our Church in His Answer to One of your New Converts There you will find that they were Columba Aidan Ced Ceadda Finan Colman Trumhere Agilbertus and Felix that restored Christianity and propagated it among the Saxons when the planting of it by Austin was almost lost Insomuch that at the Death of Deus-dedit Arch-bishop of Canterbury there was in all Brittain but one Bishop of Roman Ordination remaining viz. Wini who called in two Brittish Bishops to his Assistance for the Ordaining of Ceadda to be Arch-bishop of York And to shew what great Obligations we have to own the Church of Rome as a Mother-Church when things are now in peace and the Paschal Controversy laid aside and great Hopes that all things would come to a right understanding Wilfrid returning from Rome revived again the Old Quarrells and forced Colman and his followers to retire into Ireland St. Chad to leave his bishoprick of York and so deprived our Country of the benefit of so many excellent Pastors as Bede himself no Friend to them could not chuse but give an extraordinary Character of them See Masoâ— de Minist Angl. l. 2. cap. 4. Bede l. 3. c. 6. But that you may see what little reason we have to acknowledge your Church above all Others to be our Mother-Church I will lay this whole Affair in short before you Our whole Island heretofore was divided into four Languages of Britains Ibid. l. 2. c. 2. Scots Picts and English As for the Britains they were so far from being Converted by Austin that at his coming he found an Establish'd Church amongst them and that utterly refused to have any thing to do with Him. For the Scots Ibid. l. 1. c. 13. they were establish'd Christians before Austin's Time under Palladius their Bishop Baron ad Ann. 429. and your own Annalist carries their Conversion yet higher The Picts embraced our Faith at the preaching of Columbanus who came hither out of Ireland 32 Years before Austin's arrival And lastly for the English Bede l. 3. c. 4. tho we are far from detracting any thing from the Labours of S. Austin yet neither may we forget that the Glory even of their Conversion is not his alone but must be ascribed to those other Holy Men who were His Fellow-workers in the Gospel Felix Aidan Ceadda Lethardus c. and some of which had begun before Him and prepared the way for that success which afterwards attended his Preaching 48. As to what you add that they began to confess then too that Salvation was to be had amongst you it is what we do not any more deny at this day We do hope that some Men amongst you may be saved because we hope there may be some in your Church who live in a more excusable Ignorance of the Truth and that these holding still the Foundation and being ready to submit to any Conviction that should be offer'd may by God's Grace and a general Repentance even for their very Errors among the rest of their unknown Sins be saved through Faith in Christ Jesus But yet that you may not mistake our Charity give me leave to tell you 1. That we think it much more difficult for any one to be saved in your Church now than it was before the Reformation because that then your Errors were neither so well known nor so fully refuted as they have been since and therefore Ignorance was in those Days much more invincible and by consequence more fit to excuse than it is now 2. That for those who live as you do in a Country where you might would you sincerely apply your selves to it find sufficient means of Instruction it is yet more dangerous than in those Parts where these Helps are wanting But especially 3. will this hold good against you whom God has call'd to be the Pastors of his Church and whose Character engages them to be in an especial manner sedulous and inquisitive Earnest in their Prayers and unprejudiced in their Desires to know the Truth more than against the Lay-members of your Church So that however we will not judg you yet neither can we with
AS ALL PAPISTS DO is by the proper Sense of their words DOWN-RIGHT IDOLATRY If they say their meaning is by a Figure only to desire them to procure their Requests of God how dare any Christian trust his Soul with that Church which teaches that which must needs be IDOLATRY in all that understand not the Figure 8. Such was the last Judgment of this Learned and Pious Man in this matter If after this it be necessary to say any thing to his former Opinion I will only observe that the ground of it was this Mistake viz. †Just Weights and Measures p. 6. Edit Lond. 1662. cap. 1. That a Christian Church without renouncing the Profession of the true God cannot be guilty of IDOLATRY Now this ‖ De Imag. lib. 2. cap. 24. pag. 2153. Card. Bellarmine himself and others of your Church do utterly deny For says he it is Idolatry not only when one adores an Idol leaving God but also when an Idol is adored together with God. 9. The last of your Divines whom you cite as excusing you from Idolatry is the Reverend * Dr. HAMMOND Pract. Disc Lond. 1674. § 44. p. 351. Sect. 50. p. 353 354. Dr. Hammond but your falseness is as notorious in him as in all the rest For in a particular Discourse of Idolatry § 44. He approves and explains the design of our Homilies against the peril of Idolatry § 50. He says That your worshipping of Images in the most moderate way that can be is for ought he knows a kind of Idol-Worship but to be sure a prohibited Act § 54. That to put up those Petitions to the Blessed Virgin which are terminated in her self Sect. 54. p. 354. as many Forms if not her whole Office may appear to be are Acts parallel to the Old Idolatry Sect. 56. p. 355. § 56. That your worshipping of Images notwithstanding all your distinctions of worshipping God mediante Imagine Sect. 64. p. 357. or relative c. is Idolatry § 64. That the Worship of the Bread in the Sacrament must certainly be Idolatry That your Error about Transubstantiation and your good design of worshipping Christ there may he hopes be some excuse for you but that your Opinion will not hinder it from being at least material Idolatry and the worshipping of something that is not God. 10. So that now upon the whole it remains that there is not so much as a shadow of Truth in your Assertion that the true and genuine Sons of the Church of England have excused your Church of the odious Imputation of Idolatry My next business is to shew that you did or ought to have known that there was not one word of Truth in what you said 11. Now this will depend upon the Answer which I shall leave any honest Man to give to these two plain Questions 1. Whether when you stole all this out of T. G. you either did not or ought not to have known that Dr. St. had answered all these Cavils many Years since and shewn that there was no Truth nor Sincerity in them 2. Whether a Man that quotes but six Authors for an Assertion derogatory to the Establishment of their Church and contrary to the publick Doctrine of the Homilies and Injunctions and to the private Opinions of the Generality of the Divines of it ought not to have been sure that those Authors at least did affirm that which he pretends they did The latter of these will conclude against you that you ought to have known that what you here say is false because you ought to have examined these Authors and then you would have known it to be so And for the former were not your Conscience unfit to be appeal'd to in a matter of Truth against your self I durst appeal to your own Soul whether you did not know that the Learned Man I have so often mentioned had shewn T. G. how false these Pretences were But I go on with you to your next Paragraph where you tell Me 12. Ad pag. 2. Reply You would gladly know wherefore at this time I charge you with the odious Imputation of adoring Men and Women Crosses and Images c. Answ To satisfie you in which Demand I reply 1. That I charge you with this because it is true and I have both shewn it already and will yet farther shew it to be so 2. I do it at this time because at this time you have the Confidence to deny it nay to charge us with Calumny and Misrepresentation for having ever accused you of it So that your wise Question is in effect but this We the Vindicators and Representers of New Popery have publickly exposed you to the World as a pack of Knaves that have misrepresented our Doctrine and wherefore do you go about to vindicate your selves and not suffer us to make silly People believe in quiet that what we say is true 13. Ibid. Reply Where say you do I find any thing of this in the 39 Articles and for the Book of Homilies I must be little versed in our own Doctrine not to know that several eminent Divines of our own Church do not allow that Book to contain in every part of it the dogmatical Doctrine of the Church of England Thus T. G. speaks into your Mouth and you as his Engine eccho them to us T. G's first Answer to Dr. St. Pref. p. 8 9. Answ Now to this you should have known that Dr St. gave this Answer Answer to several late Treatises by Dr. Still Lond. 1673. The general Preface That the Articles of our Church have confirm'd those Homilies That these Articles were not only allow'd and approved by the Queen but subscribed by the whole Clergy in Convocation Anno. 1571. Now says the Dean I desire T. G. to resolve me whether Men of any common understanding would have subscribed to this Book of Homilies in this manner if they had believed the main Doctrine and design of one of them had been false and pernicious as they must have done if they had thought the Practice of the Roman Church to be free from Idolatry I will put the Case that any of the Bishops then had thought that the Charge of Idolatry had been unjust and that it had subverted the Foundation of Ecclesiastical Authority that there could have been no Church or Right of Ordination if the Roman Church had been guilty of Idolatry would they have inserted this into the Articles when it was in their power to have left it out And that the Homilies contain'd a wholsome and Godly Doctrine which in their Consciences they believed to be false and pernicious I might as well think that the Council of Trent would have allow'd Calvin's Institutions as containing a wholsome and Godly Doctrine as that Men so perswaded would have allow'd it the Homily against the Peril of Idolatry 14. For your Objection from * T. G 's first Answer to Dr. Still Pref. pag.
Authority of his Church and to have whatsoever she proposes pass for fundamental confesses that we do indeed hold a PART but not ALL those Articles that are fundamental THIS therefore must be put upon the issue So that whereas you accuse me of perverting the Bishop of Meaux's Sense it is indeed you that have I fear wilfully perverted mine What I said both of you acknowledg viz. that what we hold is the ancient and undoubted Truth and you cannot deny the State of the Question to be just as I have said Whether what you farther advance and what we-reject be not so far from being Fundamental Truth that it is indeed no Truth at all but rather contrary to and destructive of that Truth which is on both sides allow'd to be Divine 20. Ad p. 5. Reply But you go yet farther in this Point against me and accuse me in the next place of perverting your own Sense too by saying that you confess that those Articles which you hold and we contradict do by evident and undoubted Consequence destroy those Truths that are on both sides agreed to be fundamental And you wonder with what Spectacles I read this Answ The Spectacles I use are plain Honesty and plain Reason if you have better I envy you not In stating the Question between us I said * Expos C. E. p. 5. Def. p. 5. the thing to be put upon the issue was Whether those Additions which the Church of Rome has made to the ancient and undoubted Faith were not so far from being Fundamental Truths that they do even by your own Confession overthrow those Truths that are on both sides allow'd to be Fundamental This you deny you ever said and yet in the very next words you confess the contrary †Reply p. 5. Vindicat. p. 23. 'T is true say you I tell him that were the Doctrines and Practices which HE ALLEDGES the plain and confess'd Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome he would have reason to say that they contradict our Principles But I tell him also that we renounce these Doctrines and Practices But this is not now the Question whether you renounce these Doctrines and Practices or no Did not you confess that those Doctrines which I charge you with do overthrow the Truths that are on both sides allow'd to be Divine This you cannot nay you do not deny And this was what I asserted and for which you most injuriously accuse me of perverting your Sense As to your denial of these things that I have already shewn to be a groundless Pretence and shall yet farther prove you to be as guilty of prevaricating in your Evasion as it is evident you have been in your accusing of me 21. Ibid. For the Parallel you add between our charging you as guilty of Idolatry upon the account of your Worship and the Fanatick's Clamours against us for our Ceremonies and against the Justice of which you think we have little to say it still more confirms me that the ancient Poet I before mention'd was a wise Man For after so full a Confutation as has been given to this Parallel by * Answer to the Amicable Accommodation The View of the whole Controversy c. two several Hands for you to presume still to say that we have little to reply to it this would certainly have made any other Creature in the World blush but a Man that has taken his leave of Modesty 22. Ad pag. 6. For your last little Reflection which you have dubb'd with the Title of Protestant Charity and Moderation I shall only tell you that to charge you with adoring Men and Women Crosses Images and Relicks is no more a breach of Charity than it would be to charge a Man with Murder or Theft whom I actually saw killing his Neighbour or stealing away his Goods If you are indeed guilty of doing this 't is Charity to admonish those of their danger whom you might otherwise ensnare by your confident denying of it But the truth is it is the Justice of this Reflection that so much troubles you and you could be well enough content we should accuse you of doing this if you could but find out any means to prevent our proving of it The ANSWER to the SECOND ARTICLE That Religious Worship terminates ultimately in God alone 1. AD p. 6. Reply In the beginning of this Article you seem a little concern'd that I took no more notice of what you had said in your Vindication concerning your Distinctions of Religious Worship You pretend that I did not do it because if I had all my Quotations out of your Liturgies would have signified just nothing neither could I have made so plausible an Excuse for my Calumnies and Falsifications And you conjure me not to obstruct the Hopes of a Christian Unity by a future Misapplication of these Terms 2. Answ It is perhaps none of the least Instances of that Perplexity into which Sin and Error commonly lead those who have been involved in them to consider what a multiplicity of obscure and barbarous Terms the Iniquity of these latter Ages has invented to confound those things which are otherwise in themselves of the greatest Clearness and Evidence Whilst Men kept to that Primitive Rule of the Gospel * Mat. iv 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him ONLY shalt thou serve the Law was simple and easie and there was no need of any Distinctions either to excuse or to condemn the Worship of any other besides him The Command was so plain that the Devil himself had nothing to say to it As for the Sophistry we are now to encounter and by which you would have been able to have taken that offer which our Saviour refused and yet have salved your Conscience of any breach of the Precept too he was either yet to learn it or else it appeared to him so thin and contemptible that however he has since inspired others with it yet he was ashamed himself to insist upon it But however seeing Mens words are their own and let them express their Conceptions after what manner they please it is enough for us that we understand their meaning I shall content my self to draw up a short Summary of what you here offer and which indeed is all that your Party has to insist upon on this occasion and we shall hereafter see when you come to the Application of these Distinctions whether there be any thing in them to excuse you of that Guilt we here charge you with 3. But before I enter upon this Enquiry I cannot but observe the Change you make in the Title of this Article Hitherto we have had it in these words †Monsieur de M. Expos Art. 3. Vindic. Art. 2. Religious Worship is terminated only in God Now you add another Restriction ‖ Reply Art. 2. That Religious Worship terminates ultimately in God alone By which you would seem to imply that Religious
Ghost and of the Glorious Virgin Mary and of all the Saints And again Let this Church be Sanc ✚ tified and Con ✚ secrated Ibid. p. 127. in the Name of Fa ✚ ther and of the S ✚ on and of the Holy ✚ Ghost to the Honour of God and of the Glorious Virgin Mary and of all the Saints Now in all these several instances there is no room for any such interpretation as you pretend in the Case of your Prayers but here either your hearts join in what your lips utter and then it is plain you give as Proper Divine Worship to the Saints as you do to God which you confess to be unlawful Or if they do not what is this but to speak words of Vanity in your most Solemn Service and in which you ought especially to take heed not to offend 40. Thus do the very Words of your Liturgies utterly refuse such an Exposition as you pretend to be your only meaning in all your Prayers to the Saints I will add yet one Consideration more to shew the insincerity of it Fifthly from the concurrent Practice of the most eminent Persons of your Church and whose Authority you cannot with any justice except against 41. Now of this the famous Psalter of S. Bonaventure may alone serve for a sufficient Evidence which as it has been publickly set forth and authorized amongst you so I need not tell you that the design of it was to apply all the Addresses that are made to God in the Psalms and Hymns of the Church nay and even the very Creeds to the Blessed Virgin. Psalterium S. Bonavent Psalm 2. Come unto Mary all ye that labour and are heavy laden and she shall refresh your Souls Come unto Her in your temptations and the Serenity of Her Countenance shall establish you Psal iv When I called upon thee thou heardest me O Lady and from thy high Throne didst vouchsafe to remember me Blessed art thou O Lady for ever and let thy Majesty be exalted for evermore Psal vii cvii. O Lady in thee do I put my trust deliver my Soul from mine Enemies O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good O give thanks unto His Mother for her Mercy endureth for ever 42. I might pass at this rare through all the other Psalms and to these add the Te Deum Speculum B. Virginis c. Benedicite Athanasian Creed c. all burlesqued to Her Honour But there has been so many large Collections of these already publish'd that I shall subjoin only one Prayer at the close of all O my Holy Lady Mary I commend to thy blessed Trust and especial Custody and into the Bosom of thy Mercy this day and every day and in the hour of my Death both my Soul and Body I commit all my Hope and Consolation all my Troubles and my Miseries my Life and the End of my Life to thee that by thy most Holy Intercession and Merits all my Works may be directed and disposed according to THINE and THY SONS Will. Amen 43. I will not now insist upon this that this Book has been often Printed among you with Licence and Commendation and particularly my Editions of it the one Italian and Latin Printed at Genoa 1606. with the Licence of the Superiors and submitted by the Translator Giovan Battista Pinello to the Censure of the Church the other at Leige in the same Year by le Sage But this last had the Honour of being particularly commended by the Vicar of that Church Permiss Jo. Chapeaville Leodii 17. Nov. 1606. and Censor of Books as a Piece that was profitable to be Printed and very piously and commendably to be recited by all Men in their private Prayers to the Honour of the B. Virgin. The Author of it is at this time a Canonized Saint in your Church and is now in his turn Worshipped by you If therefore you approve these Addresses as I presume you must be pleased to try 't will be a pretty expounding Task how you can reduce all these Hymns and Prayers to this One Sense of your Church PRAY FOR US But if you disallow these Addresses as what in truth they are Scandalous and Idolatrous what then shall we say if you pray to those as in Heaven now who whilst they lived were guilty of such desperate Superstitions 44. And now I am instancing in your Saints I cannot forbear presenting you with a Strain or two of your Pious but very Superstitious and Indiscreet St. Bernard and this too to try your Faculty of Expounding To thee O Holy Virgin Mary as to the Ark of God Vid. in Psal S. Bonav Leodii 1606. p. 238. as to the Cause of Things as to the Business of Ages do all look that are both in Heaven and Hell both they that have gone before us and we who now live and they who shall hereafter be born All Generations shall call thee Blessed O Mother of God! In thee the Angels have found Joy the Righteous Grace and Sinners Pardon for Ever Worthily do the Eyes of the whole Creation look upon thee because in thee and by thee and of thee the kind Hand of the Almighty hath re-created whatever he had created We embrace thy Footsteps O Mary and with most devout Supplication we fall down before thy blessed Feet We will hold thee and not let thee go till thou shalt bless us For thou art able c. Defence Append 2. Def. part 1. p. 89. 45. But I insist too long upon these Matters and therefore in stead of multiplying new Instances shall refer you to those I have already offer'd And from your Saints descend to the Heads of your Church Greg. VII Baron Ann. ad an 1080. T. xi p. 532. See Platina in his Life One of which thus piously call'd upon S. Peter and S. Paul at the Head of a Synod in Excommunicating the Emperour Henry IV. Anno 1080. in these Words Blessed Peter Prince of the Apostles and thou O Blessed Paul Doctor of the Gentiles Vouchsafe I beseech you mercifully to incline your Ears unto me and hear me And then after some Particulars too large to be transcribed He thus goes on Go to now I beseech you O Fathers and Holy Princes that all the World may know and understand that as you have in Heaven the Power of Binding and Loosing you have also on Earth Power over Empires Kingdoms Principalities c. For you have often taken away Patriarchates c. from the Wicked and Unworthy and have given them to Religious Men. Let the Kings and all the Princes of the World now learn how great you are and how much you can do and fear to undervalue the Command of your Church And execute Judgment on the aforesaid Henry so suddenly that all Men may know that he shall fall not by Chance but by your Power This is a blessed Prayer for a Pope to make and I doubt will be found to signifie
what great diversity of Opinions there has been in stating of that Worship which is paid by you to Images and what difficulty you have found to defend your practice against that Charge of Idolatry we have so justly brought against you upon the account of it How the Caution of some and the distinctions of others amongst you have been branded by the rest as Scandalous and Erroneous and one forced to abjure as Heretical what others have set up as the only true Exposition and Representation of the Churches sense And this you will give me leave the rather to remark because you are so often pleased to reflect upon our divisions which yet are neither so frequent nor dangerous as among you who pretend not only to Truth but Infallibility in all you believe And if the consequence you are wont from thence to draw against us That because we differ in some things therefore we have no certainty in any be good as you say it is you may now see that it will equally fall upon your selves too and by so much the more heavily by how much your pretences in this matter are greater than ours But 29. Secondly Tho there be then such a diversity of Opinions amongst you as to this Worship yet it is to be remarked that they who have allow'd the least Honour to Images Capisucchi Ib. pag. 605. have yet still confest that some Honour was due to them In this says Capisucchi all Catholicks do agree that Images are to be worshipped and are rightly worshipped by the faithful Even Durandus himself who disapproves the Images of the Holy Trinity yet allowing both the use and Worship of other Holy Images From whence therefore I conclude That those in this Cardinal's opinion are no Catholicks who tell us that All the Honour they have for them Reply Pref. p. 17 18. is only such a respect as they pay to any other Sacred Vtensils That if they seem to act in their presence some external signs of Veneration this is meant ONLY to the persons whom they represent but NOT to the Images themselves which can claim NOTHING of that KIND from us In short as Monsieur de Meaux expounds it That they do NOT WORSHIP the Images No GOD FORBID but ONLY make use of them to call to mind the Originals The Council of Trent teaches NO OTHER USE of them 30. Thirdly It may from hence farther appear that the Worship which this Cardinal thought due to Images was not an improper accidental abusive Worship but a true proper and real Adoration the Image being to be adored in the very same act with which the Exemplar was So that now according to this Exposition the Cross of Christ is to be worshipped truly and properly with a Supreme Divine Adoration And that not only as to the outward acts but by the inward sense of the Soul too all which are so to be paid to Christ as to terminate at once both upon him and upon the Crucifix by which he is to be adored And this 31. Fourthly We are to look upon not as a private opinion or a meer Scholastick Nicety but as the true and proper sense of the Church and to be held of all So the Cardinal expresly declares as being the Doctrine of the Councils both of Nice and Trent and for denying of which Aegidius Magistralis was by the Inquisition forced to recant and renounce his Doctrine contrary thereunto as Heretical 32. This is an Instance which with Card. Capisucchi I will take the liberty to recommend to your consideration For certainly if what he says be true you who deny that the Cross is upon any account whatsoever to be worshipped with Divine Worship Reply Pref. can be no otherwise than a downright Heretick And tho you are at present secure in a happy Expounding Country where you may safely make what representation of your Doctrine you please or rather that the necessity of your present circumstances moves you to do without any other danger than that of losing your credit with honest and inquisitive men which you do not seem much to value yet should time and other circumstances invite you hereafter into a hotter Climate you might run some worser hazards among those who have not given themselves up to follow your Innovations Relation del ' Inquisition de Goa pag. 14 15. cap. 2 21. cap. 3. It happened not many years since that a French Gentleman being travelling in the East-Indies fell into some company at Goa and there discoursing about matters of Religion according to your Principles maintain'd That the Crucifix was no otherwise to be adored than by reporting all the Honour to our Saviour Christ represented by that Image And another time he fortuned to say of an Ivory Crucifix which hung up at his Beds-head that it was onely a piece of Ivory For this he was clapt into the Inquisition and after some years imprisonment for his Heretical Sayings hardly escaped the fire with this Sentence that He was declared Excommunicate Ibid. cap. 27. pag. 151 152. Edit Leyd 1687. that for reparation of his fault all his Goods should he confiscated Himself banish'd the Indies and condemn'd to serve in the Galleys or publick Prisons of Portugal five years and further accomplish those Other Penances which should more particularly be enjoin'd Him by the Inquisitors As for his Crime it is thus set forth in the Preamble to his Sentence That he had said that we ought NOT to ADORE IMAGES and had BLASPHEMED against that of a certain Crucifix by saying of a Crucifix of Ivory that it was a piece of Ivory 33. This was plain dealing and a sensible conviction that it is not meerly a Scholastick Nicety with the Fathers of the Inquisition ' that the CROSS is to be worshipped with DIVINE WORSHIP The truth is the contrary Opinion of Durandus Holcot Mirandula and some others and who allow'd all the Acts of external Honour to be paid to them only they deni'd them that inward Veneration which makes it properly a religious Worship has been always esteemed as false and scandalous and savouring of Heresie and is expresly censured as such by those great Men Suarez Medina Victoria Catherine Arriaga Cabrera Raphael de Turre Vellosillus and many others at large collected by Cardinal Capisucchi on this occasion as Abettors with himself of a true Divine Adoration to be paid to the Holy Cross and other Images of God and the Blessed Trinity I go on finally from these Principles 34. Thirdly To vindicate the Account I have heretofore given of your Practices in consequence to this Doctrine And first I observed that in the solemn Procession made at the reception of the Emperor the Legat's Cross is appointed by the Pontifical to take place of the Emperor's Sword because LATRIA or DIVINE WORSHIP is due to it 35. This you cannot deny to be faithfully quoted out of your Pontifical Reply p. 31. but you say there is
the other probably much later But now the use of Incense in the Greek Church especially was of a much earlier date The Apostolical Canons speak expresly of it And if that Oration of Hyppolitus about the End of the World be truly his as from St. Jerome's mentioning of it in his Catalogue it seems to be we have then two considerable instances to assure us that it was in use in the Greek Church even in the Third Century You see how far I am from detracting any thing from the force of your Argument But yet now after all without fear of censuring Primitive Antiquity in this matter whose Innocence I as freely acknowledg as I heartily honour its piety I shall not doubt to say that the present usage of it in your Church is so far from being innocent that it is in truth Superstitious and Idolatrous 52. First it is Superstitious For indeed what else can we make of your praying to God Pontifical Rom de Benedict Nov. Cruc as in this very Ceremony of Consecrating a Cross you do that He would Bless ✚ and Sanctifie ✚ this Creature of Incense that all weaknesses and infirmities and all the snares of the Enemy perceiving its smell may flie and be separated from his Creatures that they may never be hurt by the biting of the Old Serpent who have been redeemed with the precious blood of his Son. 53. Now if you make this prayer in faith that it is pleasing to God and have a confidence that it shall be accepted by him you must then shew us some grounds some security in the Word of God for it But if you cannot do this what is it but Superstition that is a vain and fond service to intreat the favour of God in the usage of a thing to which he has neither annexed any promise nor for the doing whereof has he any where given us the least encouragement But 54. Secondly The Vse you make of this Incense is yet worse than the Consecration of it You offer it up to Creatures nay to the very Images which you worship and in doing of which I do not see how you will excuse your selves of being guilty of Idolatry That the burning of Incense was part of that Religious Worship under the Law which God was pleased to appropriate to Himself only is not to be denied It was indeed a more peculiar act of Divine Worship than that of bloody Sacrifices themselves And therefore both the Altar on which it was offer'd was covered with Gold and it stood in a more Holy place than that of the Burnt-offerings and is in a more singular manner said to be ' Most Holy unto the LORD Exod. XX 8 10. 2 King. XVIII 4. Bellarm. de SS Beatit l. 1. p. 2026. c. 13. D. Vasquez in 3. Vol. 1. q. 25. Disp 104. Art. 3. c. 5. p. 735. Exod. XX. 8 10. Hence it was that King Hezekiah immediately brake to pieces the Brazen Serpent as soon as he consider'd that the children of Israel burnt Incense before it And yet if we enquire into the use that is made of it in your Church we shall find it offer'd not only to the Saints but even to their very Images and Reliques Vasquez ingenuously confesses that the Israelites gave no other Worship to the Brazen Serpent than what you give to your Images at this day and that Hezekias therefore commanded it to be broken in pieces not that he thought the people adored it as a God but because he saw such a Divine Worship paid to it It is one of the chief things remarked by your own Writers in the Life of a great Saint of your Order St. Gerard Bishop of Chanade in Hungary Vie des Sts. Calend. Ben. ad Sept. 24. whom you Commemorate Septemb. 24. That he caused a Church to be built in Chanade His Episcopal See and in it dedicated a Chappel to the Honour of the Blessed Virgn where having set up her Statue He every day offer'd Incense to the Figure and took care by an Ordinance which He made that Her Altar should never be without fine Odours upon it which should continually smoke to Her Honour 55. Now this being the undoubted Practice of your Church and such as you cannot deny to be contrary to the express Command of God under the Law Bellarm. de Imag. SS l. 2. ◠17. p. 2144. insomuch that Cardinal Bellarmine freely confesses it would have been Criminal in a Jew to have offer'd Incense to any besides God only either you must evidently prove to us That those Acts which were then appropriate Acts of Divine Worship are not so now but remain indifferent to be paid to the Creature as well as the Creator or you must give us leave to conclude that you do in this attribute that Honour to an Image which God has reserved as peculiar to Himself and are by so doing guilty of Idolatry 56. And thus have I dispatch'd the two Things you called me without any Provocation of mine to examine and which it may be you will now begin to think you might as well have let alone I return to my Defence in which I am next to consider what you have to except against my third Argument which I brought to shew that you do truly and properly Adore the Cross and that was from your Good-Friday Service Reply To this you Answer Reply p. 35. That you had here also shown my UNSINCERE TRICKS in adding and diminishing Words to make your Church speak as I would have it And you pronounce me once more a CALUMNIATOR for saying that this proves that your Church do's Adore the Cross in the utmost propriety of the Phrase 57. Answ These are hard Words but I have always observed that men are most uneasy when Truth touches them to the quick If you are not yet sensible that it was indeed a pitiful Cavil to pretend I had false translated your Service by what I have offer'd in my former part from Mons Imbert's Case and who for opposing that Interpretation of those Words which I deliver'd was used after the manner that I have declared I am confident you are the only Person even of your own Church that needs to be convinced of it In all the French Translations of your Missal I have ever seen it is render'd in the very words that I gave it Behold the Wood of the Cross come let us Adore I T And particularly in that of Mons Voisin approved by those of your Church even to excess you will find it in these express terms Voila le Bois de la Croix R. venez Adorons L E. 58. In the Missal of Salisbury the Determination of that Address to the Cross is undeniably evident The Priests uncover the Cross and sing the whole Antiphone Behold the Wood of the Cross come let us Adore to which the Quire kneeling down answer We adore thy CROSS O Lord. And I cannot but observe that when Jo. Aegidius Canon
for the obtaining the Help of their Reliques this is what will need no proof to those who are but never so little acquainted with your Superstition And have seen with what Zeal you touch your Beads and Psalters at the very Shrines in which they are contain'd to sanctify them thereby How upon all occasions they are brought forth by you To cure your Sickness to preserve you from Tempests at Land and in Storms at Sea but especially to drive away Evil Spirits for which they are the most beneficial The Messieurs du Port Royal Reponse à un Ecrit publié sur les Miracles de la St. Espine p. 15. Pag. 18 22. have given us a whole Volume of the Miracles wrought by the Holy Thorn. There you may see how Sister Margaret one of the Nuns being ill of the Palsy was carried to ADORE the Holy Thorn. How another being sick recurr'd to it for its help and found it too having no sooner ADORED the Holy Thorn and kissed it but she was well of her Infirmity Infinite Examples of the like kind might be produced but I shall content my self to shew what Opinion you have of the Power of your Reliques Pontific Rom. pag. 164 165. from the very Prayer that you make at the blessing of those little Vessels in which they are put We most humbly beseech thee Almighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that thou wouldst vouchsafe to bless these Vessels that are prepared for the Honour of thy Saints through the Intercession of the same Saints That all those who shall venerate their Merits and humbly embrace their Reliques may be defended against the Devil and his Angels against Thunder Lightning and Tempest against the Corruption of the Air and the Plagues of Men and of Beasts against Thieves and Robbers and Invasions of Men against evil Beasts and against all the several kinds of Serpents and creeping things and against the wicked Devices of evil Men. Here I hope are benefits enough to invite a Man to seek to them and if they can help in all these Cases we need not doubt but they shall have Votaries enough to recur to them for it 131. But that which is most admirable is that in all these Cases false Reliques are every jot as good as true ones and which makes somewhat for the Opinion of Vasquez that provided a Man do's but think 't is the Relique of a Saint he may securely worship it tho it may be 't is no such thing We have before heard what mighty Cures were wrought at the Monument of the famous Bishop and Martyr VIARVM CVRANDARVM See above Art. 3. And whether the Council of Trent prescribed it or no Ressendius assures us all the Country round about did come to the Monument of this pretended Saint for the obtaining Help and Assistance and fancied at least that they found it too Tho it afterwards appear'd that 't was an old Heathen Inscription and those words far enough from signifying either the Name of a Man or the Character of a Bishop Many have been the Cheats of the like kind and which ought very much to lessen the Credit of those Miracles that you pretend are wrought in your Church But I shall finish all with one so much the more to be considered in that it was the happy occasion of undeceiving a very great Person and disposed him to receive that Truth he afterwards embraced And may it please God that the recital I shall here make of it may move those who are yet in Captivity to these Superstitions to deliver themselves from the like Impositions 132. Prince Christopher of the Family of the Dukes of Radzecil a Prince much addicted to the Superstitions of your Church Drelincourt Response à M. le Landgrave Ernest p. 348. §. lx having been in great Piety at Rome to kiss his Holiness's Feet the Pope at his departure presented him with a Box of Reliques which at his return soon became very famous in all that Country Some Months had hardly pass'd when certain Monks came to him to acquaint him that there was a D. Man possess'd of the Devil upon whom they had in vain try'd all their Conjurations and therefore they humbly intreated his Highness that for his relief he would be pleased to lend them his Reliques which he had brought from Rome The Prince readily complied with their desires and the Box was with great Solemnity carried to the Church and being applied to the Body of him that was possess'd the Devil presently went out with the Grimaces and Gestures usual on such occasions All the beholders cry'd out A Miracle and the Prince himself lifted up his Hands and Eyes to Heaven and blessed God who had favour'd him with such a Holy and powerful Treasure It happen'd not long after that the Prince relating what he had seen and magnifying very much the Virtue of his Reliques One of his Gentlemen began to smile and show by his Actions how little Credit he gave to it At which the Prince being moved his Servant after many promises of Forgiveness ingenuously told him that in their return from Rome he had unhappily lost the Box of Reliques but for fear of being exposed to his Anger had caused another to be made as like as might be to the true one which he had filled with all the little Bones and other Trinkets that he could meet with and that this was the Box that his Monks made him believe did work such Miracles The Prince the next Morning sent for the Fathers and enquired of them if they knew of any Demoniaque that had need of his Reliques They soon found one to act his part in this Farce and the Prince caused him to be exorcised in his presence But when all they could do would not prevail the Devil kept his Possession he commanded the Monks to withdraw and delivered over the Man to another kind of Exorcists some Tartars that belonged to his Stable to be well lash'd till he should confess the Cheat. The Demoniaque thought to have carried it off by horrible Gestures and Grimaces but the Tartars understood none of those Tricks but by laying on their Blows in good earnest quickly moved the Devil without the help of either Hard Names Holy Water or Reliques to confess the truth and beg Pardon of the Prince As soon as Morning was come the Prince sent again for the Monks who suspected nothing of what had pass'd and brings their Man before them who threw himself at the Princes Feet and confess'd that he was not possess'd with the Devil nor ever had been in his Life The Monks at first made light of it and told the Prince it was an Artifice of the Devil who spoke through the Mouth of that Man. But the Prince calling for his Tartars to exorcise another Devil the Father of LIES out of them too they began presently to relent and confess'd the Cheat but told him they did it with a
good Intention to stop the Course of Heresy in that Country Upon this he dismiss'd them but from that time began seriously to apply himself to read the Holy Scriptures telling them that he would no longer trust his Salvation to Men who defended their Religion by such pious Frauds so they called them but which were indeed Diabolical Inventions And in a short time after both himself and his whole House made open Profession of the Reformed Religion Anno 1564. And thus much be said in Answer to your IVth Article FINIS Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue Quarto A Papist not Misrepresented by Protestants Being a Reply to the Reflections upon the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented Quarto An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CONDOM in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church Quarto A Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator 4o. A CATECHISM explaining the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome With an Answer thereunto By a Protestant of the Church of England 8o. A Papist Represented and not Misrepresented being an Answer to the First Second Fifth and Sixth Sheets of the Second Part of the Papist Misrepresented and Represented and for a further Vindication of the CATECHISM Quarto The Lay-Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures Quarto The Plain Man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries 24o. An Answer to THREE PAPERS lately printed concerning the Authority of the Catholick Church in Matters of Faith and the Reformation of the Church of England Quarto A Vindication of the Answer to THREE PAPERS concerning the Unity and Authority of the Catholick Church and the Reformation of the Church of England 4o. Mr. Chillingworth's Book called The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation made more generally useful by omitting Personal Contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common Cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some genuine Pieces of Mr. Chillingworth's never before Printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an Account of what moved the Author to turn Papist with his Confutation of the said Motives An Historical Treatise written by an AUTHOR of the Communion of the CHVRCH of ROME touching Transubstantiation Wherein is made appear That according to the Principles of THAT CHVRCH This Doctrine cannot be an Article of Faith. 4o. The Protestant's Companion Or an Impartial Survey and Comparison of the Protestant Religion as by Law established with the main Doctrines of Popery Wherein is shewed that Popery is contrary to Scripture Primitive Fathers and Councils and that proved from Holy Writ the Writings of the Ancient Fathers for several hundred Years and the Confession of the most Learned Papists themselves 4o. A Sermon preached upon St. Peter's day By a Divine of the Church of England Printed with some Enlargements The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by S. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15. 4o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4o. A Short Summary of the principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. An Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is perfixed a Large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4o. With a Table of the Contents Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By W. W. M. A. 12o. The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29 1687 between A. Pulton Jesuit and Tho. Tenison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 4o. The Vindication of A. Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of their Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4o. Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religions A Discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction with an account of the Occasions and Beginnings of it in the Western Church In Three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom The Pamphlet entituled Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass considered in its False Reasonings and Quotations There are added by way of Preface two further Answers the First to the Defender of the Speculum the Second to the Half-sheet against the Six 〈◊〉 A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exceptions of Mons de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART In which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully Vindicated the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in Point of Image-worship more particularly considered 4o. The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 4o. Mr. Pulton Considered in his Sincerity Reasonings Authorities Or a Just Answer to what he hath hitherto Published in his True Account his True and full Account of a Conference c. His Remarks and in them his pretended Confutation of what he calls Dr. T 's Rule of Faith. By Tho. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Antient Church relating to the Eucharist wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church and inconsistent with the belief of Transubstantiation Being a sufficient Confutation of CONSENSVS VETERVM NVBES TESTIVM and other Late Collections of the Fathers pretending to the Contrary 4o. An Answer to the Representer's Reflections upon the State and View of the Controversy With a Reply to the Vindicator's Full Answer shewing that the Vindicator has utterly ruin'd the New Design of Expounding and Representing Popery