THE PRETENSIONS OF THE Triple Crown EXAMINED IN Thrice Three Familiar Letters Upon so many Controverted Points which require more than a single Consideration Written some years ago By Sir Christopher Wyvill Baronet With certain later Reflections on the same Subjects LONDON Printed by E. T. and R. H. for Matthias Walker under St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1672. To all my near RELATIONS AND Esteemed ACQUAINTANCE OF THE Romish Persvvasion THose that have the Fancie or the Fate to come under the Press have for most part the Wit in their Dedications to cull out such persons whose Inclinations they know are well set towards the subject matter of the Book and who are they hope willing to afford it their Patronage By this Address I have deprived my self of those Advantages Instead of Favour which I cannot antecedently expect I request only that you will not bring Prejudice and in the room of Protection I court you but for fair Perusal I know not whether any of you may be convinc'd or no yet at the least I am desirous as never affecting Fire-side or Table-disputes of this Nature to let you see upon what Grounds my Judgment leads me to stand off from you in those Principles which administer sad occasions of Contention to all the Christian World and wherein only you can at any time be disagreeable unto him who is Yours with sincere and real Love to serve you Christopher Wyvill TO THE READERS In General FInding all those little Sophisms which laid hold on me when I was a Child or thought as a Childe new-vampt for the seduction of the growing Generation I am not unwilling nay methinks I am in a manner obliged to communicate what Antidotes I found most effectual What is offered here is I hope fully consonant to the true Standard of the Reformation and genuine Sence of our English Church If the Antinomian in his impetuous flights from Rome have run quite out from any habitable Zone If the rigid Anabaptists or Quakers have in their heady and heedless Course brought back the Quintessence of Popery by a side-wind into the Body of their Belief If the Socinian or his younger Brother have warpt aside from once establish'd Truths I have not a word to say for them nor will I add more to you save Farewell Part I. YOU have now spent a Lustre and an half or thereabout in that Adventurous Calling which hath let you see the Wonders of the Deep and acquainted you with the Admirably various Dispositions and Customs of several People and Places It has been a Joy to my self with many others of your Friends and Well-wishers to hear that in your Imployments abroad you have gone through much both with Reputation and Success Of late a Rumour for I would not willingly think it any more hath arrived here as if you should have made Shipwrack of your Religion and not past Scylla and Charybdis in safety without drinking in or rather being swallowed up of the Italian Delusions I am no affector of scurrilous or foul Language yet if I should enquire of you with what deceitful tincture that Roman Curtizan had washt over her Deformities so as you could become inamoured on her the nature of her Apostasie would perhaps justifie the Term. I shall endeavour in this Address to wipe off the Varnish whereby I know well she allures a great Part of the Prejudiced or Interessed World and discover to you Blemishes of too large a Size to pass for Beauty-spots And whilst I declare unto you what Considerations they were which by God's blessing removed out of my way all those stumbling Blocks that I found cast in it and whereby I was reduced into the right Paths even when my feet had almost slipt I do humbly supplicate the Father of Mercies That it may please him to inable you and all that desire to seek him in Truth to see through the dark Mist which Popery draws before the eyes of its Proselytes stuffing the Phancies even of her Babes and Sucklings in stead of wholsom food drawn from the sincere Milk of God's Word with I know not what Conceits of Romes Infallibilitie Perspicuity Succession Supremacy Perpetuity and the like till she have brought them under a gross and blind Submission to all her Dictates and before they understand things that differ made them ready to swear to all the words of that most Imperious Mistress Thus it was that a Young Lady within my knowledge being in Discourse brought to such a point of Convincement as compelled her Reason to go over into the Tents of her Antagonist at the last clapt her self down upon her Knees made the Sign of the Cross and rejected all as a Temptation But let us remember we are advised to be able to give a reason of the Faith that is in us and take Courage to Examine how sufficient the Foundation is whereupon the Church of Romè would build so vast a Claim to Perpetual Exemption from Error and fix the Pillars of Truth within her Territories only Yet first I think it necessary to desire you not to despise the Animadversions I offer you because they are transmitted from an hand which you know weak and insufficient for the Undertaking There is here little of mine besides what is indeed the only Culpable part the Composure or lying together the Materials being decerped from many Learned and Pious Authours who now most of them rest from their Labours and enjoy that Crown of Righteousness which they strove for in their several Generations That minatory Admonition to the whole Church of the Gentiles and particularly directed to that of Rome wherein the Apostle bids her beware of High-mindedness as if he had foreseen what would be her ruine makes it clear to me That her standing was not assured to her less-conditionally than that of the Temple of Hierusalem whereof it was said 2 Chron. 33. 4. 7. The Lord would dwell for ever in it as in Psal. 132. 14. This is my Rest for ever here will I dwell When did the great Disposer of all things devest himself of that Prerogative whereby he usually punisheth the sins of any Nation by removing his Candlestick from thence Doth not the very appellation of Catholick given to the Gospel Church in opposition to that Administration whereby it was confined within the Pale of the Jews Synagogue strongly intimate That all the Climates of the World are equally Gods Temple What reason I pray to terminate all the Promises at Rome If you will argue as I know those of that Communion do from the words of our Saviour to St. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock c. This Quaere will arise Whether the Promise relate to Peter's preceding words which had newly poynted out the Chief Corner Stone Or whether the Design of it were to fasten an Infallibility of Judgment not only upon Peter but to convey it even to his Heirs and Successors till the end of time It
has long since been observed that in the Original there is an apparent Distinction betwixt the name and the person interwoven in Christ's answer Tu es Petrus leads up the Van but then not in te Petrum but super hanc Petram marches next and so that Interpretation which would seem to interess the Pope in the Place is left in some disorder But it may be you are apt to think this a new sence put upon the words I will therefore bring you Doctors ancient enough that were satisfied with this Exposition St. Hillary thus This Faith is the one unmoveable Foundation the alone happy Rock confessed by the mouth of Peter Thou art the Son of the living God And again This is the Foundation of the Church by it the Gates of Hell are made weak against her Ambrose in his Epistles is of the same mind so is Hierom in many Places as upon Psal. 40. Math. 18. and Amos 9. So is St. Augustin on John in his 6th Sermon de Verbo Dom. And having in a certain place slipt into the other acception of the meaning he solemnly retracts the same and notes besides the it seems then usual mistake in singing the Verses of St. Ambrose concerning the Cock The Truth is when any of them seem to favour that sence which we oppose they do it in a certain Rhetorical way whereby they were accustomed to give high applauds to the Bishop of Rome sitting in the then Imperial City and therefore accounted Chief rather than seriously and dogmatically Yet will it not at all disadvantage us to grant that St. Peter was a Rock that is a main Pillar and a Master-builder in the Church of God Nay what would it harm our Cause if we should confess that it was promised to Peter he should become the Founder of an eminent Church And that the Faith he was to Preach should surmount the power of Hell Yea let us further suppose what we will not grant That there is some particular Place or Succession of men whereto by vertue of the Promise made to Peter perpetual Truth were to be affixed Why may not Antioch in Syria within the Verge of his peculiar Charge or Babylon in AEgypt the first Place of his residence amongst the Gentiles put in for a right of Succession to that Grand Privilege rather than Rome since whether ever he came there or no at most whether any otherwise than to suffer is a Controversie not yet decided but that he could sit 26. years Bishop as some of them affirm is a thing utterly impossible if we regard the Computation of times and reflect upon those years he must necessarily have spent in other places Vid. Bunting's Itinerarium totius Scripturae pag. 496. As for that other place weakly enough urged by some I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not It 's clear that was spoken only to fortifie St. Peter against the approaching time wherein Satan had desired to winnow him and cannot with any front be transferred beyond his own person in the Application Next you may I suppose put a Question to me which I have not unfrequently put to my self Where was the Truth if not at Rome Have patience but a little and I hope I shall return you an answer more satisfactory and rational than I could ever have from any of those Papists who make the Decision of all Controversies a Priviledge fitted only to the narrow Dimensions of the Pope's Breast when I have demanded of them what Course they would have taken to have found out Truth in a disputable point if they had then lived when there was sometimes two once three and more than once no Pope at all for many years together a thing evident enough in History Now for the solving of your doubt We willingly do acknowledge That at Rome there was a very early and famous Church her Faith was spoken of through the whole World And when it pleased God by the Conversion of the Emperour Constantine to clear a way for the farther Increment of the Gospel she grew in Eminency and Splendour till overset as it were with the Indulgence and Bounty of him and some of his Successors she began to recoyl and study Grandeur more than Grace We do not imagine that all in one day or year or age she became so infected that it was presently necessary to separate from her But we think the manner of her Defection was well foreshewen and perhaps aimed at in that Parable of the Tares injected by night and hardly discerned in their growth yet increasing still as the Negligence Avarice or Ambition of the Priests and People did serve-in an opportunity Thus the Wisdom of the Primitive Church dispensing her Admonitions her Suspensions Excommunications her Pennances Relaxations Absolutions c. in such manner as the Condition of her refractory or penitent Delinquents might require things conducing meerly to the outward Regiment Discipline of those times degenerated at last into such Conceits as kindled the Fire of Purgatory and gave birth to Pardons and Indulgences prodigally extended to whole Families and their Descendants for many Ages yet to come And by this means were the Purses in a manner of the whole World opened and their owners made inclinable to pour out their Treasure into the Popes Lap. For who would not both easily be perswaded to taste the tempting Sweets of Sin here and to part with a good proportion of his worldly Goods at his death under the Notion of bringing so much health to the Estate of his Soul in the next Life Thus the Stile which the Ancient Fathers thought fit to use when they treated of the Lords Supper wherein they often held to the Tropes and Metaphors of the Institution was at length perverted into the opinion of absolute Transubstantiation a Pyx commanded to be made for a Cover to the Bread and a Bell to ring before it Anno 1215. Adoration of it enjoyned Anno 1226. Corpus Christi Day instituted Anno 1264. and further confirmed in the Council of Vienna Anno 1310. All which served well to settle in the people a greater Veneration towards the Workers of such Miracles the Priests And that such a thing was much in the business may surely seem not improbable to any that will impartially Eye the Posture and Inclination of those times when the Bishop of Rome had his great design on foot to Exalt himself above all Civil Magistracy When I find Erasmus making this return to our Tunstall who had provoked him to write against Luther That he ought to take heed lest he had a Zeal not according to knowledge and that there was a sort of men too tenacious of some things unluckily crept into the Church When I over-hear him complaining to his Freind Stephanus Rhodericus That the Vulgar sort of Divines examined all Scripture by the Text of certain School-disputes attributing very little to
their Merits dangerous because ruinous Thomas Waldensis our Compatriot and the others Contemporary professes his utter dislike of that saying That a man may by Merits be worthy of Heaven or this Grace or that Glory however loe here their rise certain Schoolmen had invented the Terms of Condignity and Congruity I do repute him adds he the more faithful Catholick and more sound Christian more consonant to the holy Scripture who doth simply deny such Merit and confesseth That no man Merits Heaven but by the Grace of God or will of the Giver As all the former Saints and whole Church until the late Schoolmen have written Here 's even enough to end withal yet wee 'l have one Instance more of our Truth but Romes falshood and departure from the Faith of her fore-fathers We will bring it thus Our Libraries were ordinarily stored with certain old Instructions and Consolations to be used to departing sick Persons out of which the Spanish Inquisitors thought fit to expunge these dangerous Interrogations Dost thou believe to come to Glory not by thine own Merits but by the Vertue and Merit of the Passion of our Lord Dost thou believe that our Lord Jesus Christ did die for our Salvation and that none can be saved by his own Merits or by any other Means but by the Merit of his Passion Uincentius his Rule now appears prudent when we have to deal with a sort of men that care not how they deal with old Records and endeavour all they can to make the Tongue of An. tiquity to have a Tangue of their Novelties and can frame new Decrees fathering them on old Councils as both hath and may be proved I shall shut up all with the result of two Assemblies and the astipulations of two Eminent Persons The Canons of Colen in a set meeting establish the Imputed Righteousness of Christ as the formal Cause of Justification We are Justified say they two ways The one and first of which is that absolute Righteousness of Christ not as it is clearly without us in him but as when it is whilst apprehended by Faith Imputed to us for Righteousness this very same so imputed is the chief and great Cause of our Justification This was much considering the time they lived in but better explained in that Colloquy of Ratisbon whose words are Though he who is Justified does receive inherent Justice yet a faithful Soul rests not upon that but only upon the Justice of Christ given to us without which there can clearly be no Justice at all I mention these being soon after the Reformation begun not as entirely Reformed but as such unto whom in this great point the light of Truth even to a good Degree could not be hid The next is a remarkable passage concerning Ernestus Arch-Bishop of Magdeburge witnessed by his own Chaplain Clement Schaw who was present at his Death about five years before Luther A Friar Minor offered him Consolation thus Take good heart most worthy Prince We do Communicate to your Excellence all the good works not only of our selves but of our whole Order and therefore doubt not but receiving them you shall appear before the Tribunal of God blessed and righteous He replied I do not desire your Works to any thing The Works of my Lord Christ must wholly do it On these I relie And Bellarmine himself who spent so much Time and Sweat in oppugning Imputed and propugning Inherent Grace under the Notion of Condign Merit was at last brought to say Propter incertitudinem c. For the uncertainty of our Works it is the safest to put all our Confidence in the sole Mercy and Bounty of God and relie upon Christ. Which totally unravels again the thinn wrought Covering he had before with other Jesuits patch'd up Thus have we followed this pure stream of living water through the Meanders of many Ages of several Constitutions even to the confines of our own Wherein if you look at the present outward face of things we may almost say the Enemy has got the upper hand Yet praise be to God We are not without many Eminent and Faithful Labourers in his Harvest who I hope will leave it upon Record that the Truth is not left without Witnesses And thus too if you take it as we say at the right End I have given you a Testimony that I am c. LETTER III. ARising from depending on and subservient to the Doctrine of Meritorious inherent Justice are all those Opinions of Free-will Satisfactions here and in Purgatory Prayer and Sacrifices for the Dead Indulgences and Vendable Pardons from the Extreme grossness whereof when he saw those goodly Advantages made the Wager in a Game at Dice Luther first took occasion to discountenance them We think they are but as super-structures reared with untempered Mortar which we are sure will all as Wood Hay Stubble perish and be consumed by that Fire the Spirit of Burning mentioned Isa. 4. 4. Matth. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 3. 13. And therefore waving them the next Point wherein I shall endeavour if it may so please God to rectifie your Judgment is that much Controverted business of the Sacraments Which are visible Signs of invisible Grace given and conferred unto us Instituted by Christ himself and ordained to be a means to Receive and a Seal to Confirm the same Let us review this Definition and draw from it some Observations in the words of a Learned Author Many things do here occurr which require a deep and serious Consideration by those who desire throughly to understand the Nature and Essential parts of Sacraments For first there must be a Conferrence of Grace of which the Sacraments are termed Seals yet this Conferrence of Grace is not causatively but instrumentally not Physically but Metaphysically in them Therefore those are not properly Sacraments which relate to any thing but matters of Religion By this Argument is Matrimony excluded from the List as not being in it self considered a Religious Work neither is any Grace at all conferred or exhibited thereby So that though Marriage doth Legitimate many one may say it self is but a Bastard Sacrament 2. Next these Signs of Grace ought to be subject to the Senses For so it seemed good to God by sensible and external things to lead by the hand as it were us who for the most part live by sense towards Intelligible Internal and Spiritual matters They must farther be visible and subject to the Eyes Hence Absolution and Ordination cannot fall within the number of Sacraments not having any visible Element or Material Sign Thirdly They are said to be ordained and instituted by Christ Signs they are by the Institution of him and not of their own nature He only who created the Elements can by his word make of them Sacraments nor is it from the choice of Men that the Signs become Sacraments but by the Ordinance of
Calvin is not New One Allfrick of Malmesburie in an Homily writ 650 years ago and publickly read on Easter Dayes before the Communion fully consents with the Reformed Churches herein And in another Book Dedicated to Woulstan Arch-bishop of York he says The Bread is Christ's Body and the Wine his Blood as Manna and the Water out of the Rock mentioned by Paul 1 Cor. 10. 3 4. were of old to the Israelites By these and some others was the right and true Doctrine contended for and in good measure held-forth though in the midst of those times wherein Knowledge both as to the concernments of Religion and of humane Literature was at a low Ebb till at length that Council at Lateran Anno 1215. Decreed That the Body and Blood of Christ must be believed to be in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation I know they will to this answer This Council did but invent a significant word to express what was before the Tenent of the Church But I am in some hopes what has been said will convince you of the contrary If not I wish I could prevail with you laying aside Prejudice to peruse the never enough honoured Primate and a late well writ piece of Doctor Taylor 's But what need we go farther for the Sence of the words of Institution than that place Joh. 6. ver 35. whereby our Lord himself had prepared his Disciples to receive them plainly attributing the quenching of that Appetite he desired to excite in them unto Faith or Believing LETTER IV. LET us in the next place use what means we can to discover that fitting Esteem and Value we ought to put upon the Heavenly Hoste I mean the blessed Quire of Angels and Saints who now rest from their Labours and reign with God You shall find us ready to afford them as much reverence and respect as the Word of God doth either Commend or Command and to deny them no honor which the purest or Primitive times thought requisite to give them We read in the New Testament of divers who made supplications immediately to Christ Rom. 5. 2. Ephes. 3. 12. Heb. 4. 16. John 2. 1. for he is by the Wisdom of the Father appointed to be our Intercessor and Advocate but not of one that prayed to the blessed Virgin Mary or other Saint and with Hierom we fear not to say Non Credimus quia non Legimus We read farther of some who being forward to prostrate themselves before appearing Angels were prevented by a See you do it not Revel 22. 9. We cannot but take notice of that interdictive Precept which disswades us from voluntarie humilitie c. Col. 2. 18 23. And therefore though we doubt not but those glorious Spirits do rejoyce at any access of happiness that befals the Church Militant or any Member thereof Though we should grant that they are instant with God for the consummation of the felicity of his Elect and that perhaps too they sollicite him for the particular concernments of his Servants here below Yet Invocation being a Prerogative belonging to the great Creator only and Intercession being an Office affixed so clearly to the person of Jesus Christ only We hold it safe for us and no way derogatorie from them to propose them to our selves for our Imitation but not for our Adoration 2 Chron. 6. 30. For thou Lord only knowest the hearts of the children of men If I had an express Precept for it really I would do it with all my heart and I am perswaded I could be a great Zealot in the way but in Religious as well as other affairs Sunt certi fines Quos ultra citráque nequit consistere Rectum and Will-worship is no venial Idolatry The Church of Rome has attributed so much of Merit to the Devotions Vows and Pilgrimages made to Saints and their Shrines that they have almost justled all other Piety out of door and drawn a dark cloud betwixt the eyes of the Vulgar and the Offices and Functions of our Saviour Whatever Artifice is used by the great Ones to usher in this very gainful Tenent unto the well-meaning sort of Papists under the Notion of Dulia a sort of worship which they will have to consist of an under-qualification to their Latria Yet the reverend Davenant hath made it apparent enough That the Orisons Vows Dedication of Churches with Altars as they are by Romanists directed to them are inconsistent with Truth Reason or Practice of Antiquity And here I shall insert what I promised in my first Letter an Ejaculation so strange that methinks it is sufficient to turn the stomachs of any and make them nauseating so absurd a practice not swallow down all that 's offer'd to them as wholesome food Mary of Portugal wife to Prince Alexander Farnezes calls upon her Husband in the Church of Scala to joyn in Prayer to the blessed Virgin supplicating Christ That in Obedience to his Mother he would give them another Son This yet hath more of Modesty in it than those particular Applications to her in terms which Erasmus a man that stood enough in awe of the Churches Name hath as before is hinted taxed of both vanity and novelty Such as this found in their Psalters Compel him to have Mercy upon us I am resolved before I end this Letter to rake together a huge bundle of such Applications made to and Appellations obtruded upon her out of Authors you will not disown as the wisest Papists will I believe not approve and the learnedst of them never can prove to be rightly used towards her Which may extenuate if not excuse the tartness of some of ours who seem to have mingled a great deal of Vinegar into their Ink when they inveigh not against her Person but the performance of such Devoyrs as are not due unto her Yet first I will give you in a few places out of the Fathers which speak my very thoughts to the full as to this point Epiphanius askes What Scripture hath delivered any thing concerning this Which of the Prophets have permitted a man that I may not say a woman to he worshipped For a choice vessel she is indeed but yet a woman Let Mary be in honour but let the Father Son and holy Ghost be worshipped This Mystery is appointed I do not say for a woman nor for a man but for God The Angels themselves are not capable of such kind of glorifying Although Mary be most excellent and holy and to be honoured yet she is not to be worshipped the Virgin indeed was a Virgin and honourable but not given unto us for Adoration c. Next Origen against Celsus exhorts us to endeavour to please God and to have him propitious unto us and if Celsus will yet have us to procure the good will of any other after him that is God over all Let him consider That as when the body is moved the motion of the shadow follows
it So having God favourable we shall have all his friends both Angels and Spirits so too And in another place thus Away with Celsus his counsel that we must pray to Angels for we must pray to him alone who is God over all and we must pray to the Word of God his only Son We must intreat him that he as high-Priest would present our prayers unto his God and our God Consonant to these besides a number more is St. Ambrose A miserable excuse says he have they that think to go to God by these viz. Angels as men go to a Prince by an Officer Men go to a King by Officers because he is but a man c. But to procure the favour of God from whom is nothing hid we need to no spokesman but a devout soul. Behold here a three-fold Cord so firmly twisted by the hands of three eminent Doctors as the strongest Arm no nor the united forces of the Romish Synagogue can untye or break asunder It 's true that in the times of Persecution some men were so exemplary for their active Zeal and passive Fortitude in the cause of God and their memory was so precious to their surviving Friends Scholars and Auditors as they conceived it heightned their Devotions to pray and perform their religious services near their Monuments which sometimes they did yet addressed them only to God And in their commemoratory Orations such as now we have divers on the Anniversary days of the dissolutions of certain extraordinary persons especially in our Universities recorded their praises in expressions whereby the Martyr was vocatus but not invocatus where the Lord being pleased to give a gratious answer to their prayers and to honour that Christian Profession which those Worthies had maintained unto the death Men began afterwards to conceive that it was at their suit and mediation those things were effected and that therefore they were themselves to be prayed unto The former part of which conjecture we need not much oppose but with Origen We do think That all those Fathers who are departed this life before us do fight with us and assist us with their prayers And yet with the same Origen hold fast the Truth in opposition to the latter part thus All Prayers and Supplications Intercessions and Thanksgivings are to be sent up to God the Lord of all by the high-Priest who is above all being the living Word and God For to call upon Angels we do not comprehend the knowledge of them which is above the reach of man is not agreeable to Reason And if by supposition it were granted that the knowledge of them might be comprehended that very knowledge declaring their Nature and the charge over which every one of them is set would not permit us to pray unto them or any other but God Now for those strange Apparitions and Cures said to be made at the places of their Sepulture or otherwhere whether it was so and so or how it was I am content with St. Augustin knowing the way of God in permitting such Events to be inscrutable and the wisdom of man in making application thereof to be often meer foolishness they should remain the Objects of my Admiration rather than the Subjects of my Scrutinie and I hold them in some sort able especially in the eyes of young Believers to confirm a point which is consonant to the Word of God but no proofs of any thing without or against it Deut. 13. And here it will be no unseasonable enquiry How it can be lawful for any sort or Calling of men to vaunt themselves at all times impowered to command unclean spirits Or by Exorcisms at their own arbitrement to pretend to order them A device whereof the Factors of Rome do at this day make great advantage and insinuate strangely into the minds of unstable people We know the arm of the Lord is not shortned nor infeebled from what it was We acknowledge that he may and sometimes does exert his own Almighty Power in a wondrous manner We are not ignorant That in the Apostles days there were many extraordinary gifts of which that of doing Miracles for the better settling of the infant Church was one nor that their is a certain miraculous Faith which pitching only upon the Power of God as it's Object may be where there is neither truth of Piety nor Principles But withal We have observed that our Saviour has told us how at the last day some should come before him and allege They had cast out devils in his name whom yet he would not own Matth. 7. 22. Revel 13. 14. We cannot forget that we are fairly warned of him whose coming was to be in great deceiveableness of Signs and lying Wonders 2 Thess. 2. 9 10. and therefore think such unfit to be the Over-rulers of our Faith especially where in the things they would perswade us unto they have not a probable at least concurrence of the written Word We cannot understand how those Pretenders by vertue of any calling whereto it is always affixed appropriate to themselves the gift of doing such Miracles in the Truth thereof unless they will lay their claim to All and see if they can perswade the world they have the gift of speaking with strange Tongues too To Enervate all Arguments drawn from their practices in this there needs no other convincement than the frequent Discoveries of most gross Forgeries Of this sort to give in one for instance omitting many that are of unquestionable Record was that accidentally made by Bishop Morton in his journey towards London when he found the Boy of Bilson had been long trained up by the Popish Priests and become a fit subject for those Impostors to shew feats upon But if we should say Satan himself may submissively comply with their Designs that go about to introduce a belief in others suitable to the interests of his own Kingdom Who could either question his forwardness to act in or Gods Justice in permitting such a fraud upon those Revel 13. 14. who neglecting the wells of Salvation whence flows the Water of Life have merited to see strong Delusions That they may believe a lye 2 Thess. 2. 10 11. One known to my self altered his Religion upon no better ground than because going in company with a Papist and a friend of his thought to be possest the suppos'd Demoniack imbraced him and would not come near the Papist Both St. Augustine puts us in mind that men are sometimes led into great errours by deceiptful Dreams and that it is just they should suffer such things And St. Chrysostome giveth a good Admonition that little heed should be given to the Devil's sayings in a Case of the same Nature with this we have been in hand withal These are his words What is it then that the Devils do say I am the Soul of such a Monk Surely for this I will not believe it because the Devil
says it for they do deceive their hearers and therefore Paul silenced them though they spake truth Acts 16. 18. lest taking occasion from thence they might mingle false things again with those truths and get credit And in another place If this once were setled in mens minds that many of those that are departed did come again to us for this cause God has shut up the doors and doth not suffer any of the deceased to return lest he taking occasion from thence should bring in all his own Devices Who can digest such Relations as are made of St. Theclae that she may be yearly seen driving a Fiery Chariot c Such was the pleasantness of Dalisandus Scituation as both she in that and other Saints deceased rejoyced much in the like solitary places That she was after her Death much delighted with Oratory and Poetry rewarding Alipius a Grammarian for aptly answering her in a Verse of Homer which seemed to ascribe to her an all-discerning and universal knowledge with the present cure of his desperate sickness Can these be lookt at any otherwise than as the froth of an idle brain writ on purpose to help forward those superstitions whereof the Pope has since made very advantagious uses The Primate of Ireland hath evidenced how clear the first Ages of the Church were herein by what steps the errors received growth and how much and how long the difference was betwixt the former even when declining times and the stupendious height the Romanists now have flown to in these later days When Bonaventure in his Psalter amongst his works printed at Rome Anno 1588. could think it reasonable where David advances the honour of our Lord to turn all by a simple conversion indeed unto the honour of our Lady Out of which I thought to have given you a long bead-rowel but this Letter having out-grown my first purposes I 'l only call out some of the most notorious expressions We will begin with the first Blessed is the man that loveth thy Name O Virgin Mary thy Grace shall comfort his Soul Judge me Lady for I have not departed from mine innocencie but because I will trust in thee I shall not be weakned Blessed are they whose hearts do love thee O Virgin Mary their sins by thee shall be mercifully washed away Have mercy upon me O Lady who art called the Mother of Mercie and according to the Bowels of thy mercie cleanse me from all mine iniquity Lady the Gentiles are come into the Inheritance of God whom thou by thy Merits hast confederated unto Christ. God is the Lord of revenges but thou the Mother of mercie dost bow him to take pitty And what will you say to him that quotes the places in your own Authors which affirm that the blessed Virgin appear'd twice in the place of two Nuns the fruit of whose wantonness would not suffer them to endure the probation 'T is Dr. Du Moulin in his Accomplishment of Prophecies Till you disprove him suffer me to stand amazed at so prodigious a relation If here be not enough to fright away your affection I shall think that Religious love is blinder than we use to term Carnal LETTER V. WHat hath been said as to the Invocation of Saints will necessarily lead us on to make some Enquiries into the lawfulness of the Adoration of Images a Practice which seeing it is every where spoken against in the Old Testament and has not so much as one syllable to countenance it in the New we may justly wonder how it could gain so much ground even as to set a foot on in the Christian Church especially since the ancient Champions and Defenders of the Faith did so strenuously oppose it When Adrian the Emperour had commanded that Temples should be made in all Cities without Images it was presently conceived he did prepare those Temples for Christ as the Primate of Ireland noteth out of AElius Lamprid. in the life of Severus which is an Evidence That it was not the use of Christians in those days to have Images in their Churches And soon after in the time of the great Constantine the voice of a whole Council that of Illiberis in Spain decries them which hath so troubled the Minds of our late Romanists that Melchior Canus sticks not to charge them not only with Imprudence but also with Impiety for making such a Law as this Ambrose in his Epistles to Valentinian tells him and us That God would not have himself worshipped in Stones In another place That the Church knoweth no vain Idaeas nor divers figures of Images but the true Substance of the Trinity What Amphilochius said to this purpose is memorable We have no care to figure by Colours the Visages of the Saints in tables because we have no need of such things c. What Epiphanius did more remarkable take it in his own words I found there viz. in the Church of Anablatha a Veil hanging in the door dyed and painted having the Image as it were of Christ or some Saints for I do not well remember whose Image it was When therefore I saw this that contrary to the authority of the Scriptures the Image of a Man was hanged up in the Church of Christ I cut it and gave counsel to the Keeper of the Place that they should rather wrap or bury some dead man in it And afterwards he entreats the Bishop under whose government that Church was that no such Veils might be suffered That we may not leave Epiphanius alone let us joyn to him Serenus Bishop of Marseiles who brake down the Images in his Church because he found they drew the People to Idolatry and then view the fierce Contentions that arose about this matter Three hundred thirty and eight Prelates at Constantinople solemnly condemning all Image Worship anno 754. And about Thirty three years after something more in Number that advanced it at Nice though to the dissatisfaction of the best part of the Christian World as was demonstrated by the Resolutions of the Council at Franck ford An. 794. In France the Doctors declared as much An. 824. as our English had before done We cannot here sufficiently wonder at the frontless impudence of that double Renegado Mar. Anton. de Dominis aliàs the Bishop of Spalato who would bear the World in hand that the Christian Church even the most ancient the whole and the universal without any opposition or contradiction did with wonderful Consent worship Images By many passages as well as this you may if you please or to speak better and more near the Truth of the Case for it 's a strange slavish Credulity under which the Church of Rome would yoke up her Disciples if you dare easily see they care not with how many Untruths they temper the Lime wherein they mean to catch their deceived Proselytes If yet you will plead for the use of Images as not Worshiping them but God or the
any clearer certain Enumeration of them in holy Writ though the last little Chapter of Malachi pointing so directly to the Sun of Righteousness who was the Expectation of all Nations and to his Fore-runner the Baptist may seem to have been designed for the period of those that were to be before his coming Our Saviour himself divides all Scripture into the Law and the Prophets Luke 16. 29. but none of the Apocryphal Books were writ by either We retein the same Canon of Scripture which the Christian Church received from the Jews unto whom were committed the Oracles of God being therein as St. Augustin terms them our Library-keepers They never had deposited to them those Books which are called Aprocryphal whereof Epiphanius saith They are profitable but yet not reckoned amongst those that are by the Church held Canonical and were not laid up with Aaron's Rod nor in the Ark of the New Testament Isidore flies as high as I would desire any man to do where he tells us Although there is some Truth to be found in them yet propter multa falsa for many things that are not so they are not of Divine Authority Melito Bishop of Sardis having drawn at the instance of Onesimus a Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament makes no mention of Judith Tobit Ecclesiasticus or the Maccabees though he professeth to have made a very diligent search as witnesseth Eusebius who affirms too that Origen as he received the Canon of the Jews viz. 22 Books so he rejected those that we admit not of So St. Hierom who was a great Linguist and was not without the best helps to further his Quest after he had laboured much nominates all those Books which we make use of and afterwards denies that any but they are impowered to prove or confirm a point of Doctrine That Council of Carthage where Augustin was present commanding that none should be read in the Church as Canonical but such as were indeed so leaves out the Maccabees and as for Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Judith c. that Father gives us to understand they were reputed no part of the Jews Canon which he determines to be most Authentick Peruse I pray and believe if you cannot confute what Doctor Cosin has lately held forth unto us that the Council of Trent first drest up a new additional Canon whereon to build their Religion equalling the Apocryphal Writings and Traditions of Men to the sovereign Dictates of God and allowing them the same power in Fideal Contests With how much reason we deny to the Bishop of Rome the sole Superintendency and in what sort we decline all humane Writings and Councils whilst yet we willingly subscribe to this that they are of singular use for the absolute decision of such like Controversies you may best learn out of the right Reverend Davenant his Tractate De Judice Norma Fidei And I forbear to quote any thing from thence here because I would put you upon the perusal of the whole which you may do at a small and wise Expence both of money and time I will take lieve at present of you when I have told you in the words of that Golden mouth'd Father That whatever is necessary is in the holy Scriptures manifest and they are the most exact Ballance Rule and Square of Divine Verity In them the Lamb may with no less safety wade than the Elephant swim Though it may seem to stand like an Independent to this place I shall here lie before the Reader a Collect which came to my Eye in a Missal or at least an authorized Prayer-Book so gross as I could not have imagined Thus it runs Per Thomae sanguinem quem pro te impendit Fac nos ascendere quò Thomas ascendit And all this of our Becket who surely does not merit either to be concluded a fit Saviour or a good Subject however odious their part was who slew him with that aggravating circumstance in his own Church LETTER VI. MY Task in this is not so much to make good our Doctrine which so soon as understood aright stands clear upon its own Basis as to wipe off the Calumnies which our Adversaries do very disingenuously endeavour to load us withal whilest they frame themselves and would obtrude upon us such Positions as have indeed no being at all but in the apprehensions and mouths of those bitter Antagonists and if one of their great Accusations could be justly fastened upon us it would certainly stop our mouths for ever and spread our faces all over with Confusion But if there be any in these worst and giddy Times that dare flatly say God is the Author of Sin 't is a poyson they have like enough suck'd even out of the Popish Volumes for they were the first though only with design to make Protestants odious that brought the World acquainted and that in Print with such Conceits Their own hands have both put on and scrued up even to a Note beyond Ela those strings which are of harsh Sound and make a jarring Discord in our Ears If you turn over our publish'd Authors weighing their greatest Latitude of Expression in an equal ballance you may I believe observe the Word of God himself running parallel with them For which of them has gone about to interess our ever holy Creator in the sinfulness of any Action otherwise than as they cannot be perswaded that the most remote Event doth escape the all-discerning Eye of his Prescience or outreach the Arm of his Almighty Power Compare 2 Sam. 24. 1. with 1 Chron. 21. 1. You may then discover how God is said to move and Satan to provoke David unto that Act of numbring the People in a forbidden and therefore sinful way The first did it only permissively forasmuch as he did foreknow it and if it had stood with his Will could have prevented it the other so as he really had an hand in its pravity and a partnership in the Guilt It 's here I confess that we ought to put on abundance of fear and trembling that we must cloath all our words and our very thoughts in a profound and cautious reverence But since the Protestant Doctrine of Predestination rightly understood makes very much for the consolation and establishment of a Christian Let us not refuse to make such modest enquiries thereinto as may repel those invenomed Arrows even bitter words wherewith some who will needs pervert our Order in handling this point do incessantly molest us and strive to fasten a sad Reproach upon an innocent Cause We are far even as far as any Papist or Arminian can be from thinking that the Motions of Sin invade the Soul by the Impulse of our holy merciful and good God yet we do so much adore his Wisdom and Power Attributes no less Essential in him than the other as we know all Events are within the Verge of his Cognisance and do not fall out
once-enjoyed comforts thou wilt soon confess thy best pleasing or most gainful sin to have been full dear bought and that sweet condition of peace and joy in believing far to fetch So that thy self shall ever after be a witness That the Doctrine of Perseverance rightly understood brings along with it what is as proper to the repelling of sin as it is to the establishing of Consolation Since the fear of losing Gods favourable Aspect hath something more of terrible in it than the unconverted who never had any feeling of such matter can apprehend I will fold up this sheet with the words of St. John Whosoever is born of God sinneth not for his seed remaineth in him 1 Joh. 3. 9. And leave it to you to find out his meaning if it import any thing less than the being sealed unto the Day of Redemption Ephes. 1. 13. 4. 30. LETTER VIII HAving made some reflections upon those words of yours when in our last discourse we rambled over many things very immethodically you named a great and pious Doctor of the Protestant Church who from the Pulpit had long since told you that the difference betwixt the Papists and us lay principally in this That we believed not so much as they So great an inadvertencie was then upon me that I made but little reply not indeed reaching so far as to deduce any objection which might concern us from the Doctors words nor I dare answer for him did he dream of such an acception of them as might represent the choice betwixt the Religions any way indifferent But by the manner of your speech I have since conjectured you perhaps thought there might be some weight in a surmise which would flow from the assertion as if they went beyond us in credible things or that our belief consisting more in Negatives were not sure but it might come short of what it ought to be whilst theirs taking in all might be look'd upon as safe I hope the former Letters if you please to re-view them will give you some satisfaction and may serve to demonstrate that we who dare not go beyond the Pillars set up by God himself in the holy Scriptures to bound our Faith are in a far safer way and posture than they who leap over or trample them down at their pleasures And that if we leave not them till they forsake the guidance of Gods Word and primitive practice of his Church we run no hazard at all nor ought to find less esteem upon that score but do indeed shun and avoid the danger of Will-worship than which there is nothing more prejudicial to man nor more displeasing to God because of ill consequence to his Truth 1. We do know That no man is made a Believer without a freeness of Will that is he is not drawn up to Heaven whether he will or no and all along by meer compulsion or without acting in the Duty as the Papists with other adversaries of the Protestant Doctrine seem to mistake us But he is made a Believer by Gods Grace that frees the Will and inables it to act according to the motions of the Spirit and to follow him in the way of his Precepts Promises Threats and Exhortations But we acknowledge not That the will of man on which in its natural capacity the Apostle James hath fixt the Appellations of Sensual and Devilish can of it self chuse the better part being only help'd forward by some perswasions or probable inclinations such as the outward Preaching of the Word may effect till God by an act of Renovation without any compulsion other than such as wherewith the Soul cannot chuse but willingly go along so sweetly are his operations tempered and suitable to the disposition of the Will hath brought to pass a work which never would be effected but by his exceeding great and mighty power Ephes. 1. 18 19. 2. We do know That in the Lords-supper all Christ with all the benefits of his Life and Passion are not barely represented but really and truly yet spiritually exhibited to every Faithful Penitent Humble Charitable Communicant But we acknowledge not That all Receivers do in a corporal and carnal manner John 7. 37 38. tear their Redeemer with their teeth since the Sacramental way of locution in the Old Testament leads us to the true understanding of This is my body in the New Compare Gen. 17. 10 11. Exod. 12. 11. with John 6. 47 48. 63. We do know That the act of Justification passeth not upon the Soul without a work of Sanctification in the Soul That good works are of such necessity in the business of Justification that there can be no Justification where the practice of them is contemned That the good works of the Regenerate so far as they are good and the product of Gods own Spirit are not displeasing to him nor of their own nature sin yet that in regard of much imperfection which the best of men will confess is adherent to their works in this life we take a safe course not to place confidence or set any value upon them but on him who is the Lord our Righteousness and our Advocate with the Father Jer. 23. 6. 1 John 2. 1. But we acknowledge not That the good works of just persons do truly merit and deserve Grace in this world and glory in the next Nor that such good works are of themselves without any Covenant or acceptation on God's part worthy of Eternal Life and have an equal value of condignity to the obtaining of everlasting Glory Nor that that is the just stipend crown or recompence answering to the weight and time of our labours rather than a free gift Nor that no accession of Dignity comes to the works of the Just by the Merit or Person of Christ which they should not have if they were done by the same Grace bestowed liberally by God alone without Christ Nor that it 's vain after Grace received or infused to expect a continued imputation of Christs Righteousness According to the best Definitions of that Grace which the Romanist allow to be procured for us by Christ their plea for Heaven must run after this manner Lord by the strength of that Grace which because thou didst foresee I would use it well thou hast extended to me I have so performed my duty in doing or suffering for thee as thou canst not in justice deny me for that the Kingdom of Heaven See the Rhemish Annotations upon 2 Tim. 4. 8. 1 Cor. 3. 8. But let them consider what Reply they could make if God should enter the lists with them and say I have a Law that requires perfect unerring universal constant perpetual obedience a Law that exacts Truth in the inward parts that is a discerner of the thoughts and spirit that is not satisfied without the whole heart I have said not one jot or tittle of it shall pass away till all be fulfilled Matth. 5. 17 18. 22. 37 38. These
be led away by the prevalencie of certain stupendious works done by such as were nevertheless great Impostors Revel 13. 13 14 15. We read again of some that were casters out of Devils yet followed not Christ Mark 9. 38 39. And if we should follow them into Doctrines which are without the concurrence of his Word whether this be the case or no betwixt Rome and us may be decided elsewhere we might easily go astray St. Augustine tell us cap 8. de Civit. Dei He that yet requires wonders in order to his believing is himself a great wonder And this leads us on to enquire after Historical discoveries 2. Whence it will not be hard to learn what the Church in times ancient enough held as to this question It was evidently the opinion of old that the ordinarie working of Miracles ceased when the Apostles deceased That they were of use to allure Heathens and Unbelievers then but not to be expected or singly relyed on for the determination of a controverted Point where Christianty has already been setled That they have been done by some persons in justification of their Tenents when Truth was not on that side That they may indeed soberly be eyed as a concurrent Testimony where it pleases God they happen for establishment of a Truth contained in the Scriptures but not for the Introduction of any belief or practice without or against it As to the former of these Gregory commonly called the Great Bishop of Rome about an 600 hath affirmed That as watering to young Plants is necessary but not to rooted Oakes so Miracles to the infant Church but not when grown up Hom. in Evang. 43. And St. Augustine about two Ages before makes a wonder not only at but of those that pinn'd their faith on wonders That reverend African has taught me to say after him Against the Miracle-mungers he meant the Donatists the Lord hath made me cautious by saying In the last times false Prophets shall arise and shall shew signs and wonders but take heed behold I have told you Tom. 29. Tract 13. in Jo. Mark 13. 22 23 24. The false Prophets there said to do signs and wonders were not to be Ethnicks without Christ but only to obtrude false Christs or a fallacious way to him What need we say more than what we have full and clear authority for 1 Cor. 14. 22. signs are not to them that do believe but to them that believe not That great wonders have been done or at least undeniably urged by some that had not right on their side may visibly be made good from the Testimony of Bede who informs us that the argument from Miracle-working was very rife on both parts in that grand contest about the time of celebrating Easter lib. 2. cap. 15. 16 29. This may serve as to the two first enquiries and so let us pass to the third Disquisition viz. by Reason 3. I would know since sundry other miraculous operations as well as casting out Devils are enumerated in Mark 16. and said to accompany those that were sent why do not our Romish Priests appropriate and take to themselves all the rest as well as that domination over unclean Spirits Let us hear them having never been taught speak with strange Tongues let us see them unhurt touch all sorts of venomous Creatures c. let them shew us that immediately and infallibly they can cure all manner of Diseases For I see not any differences in the Grant in the intentional end or in the time of continuance Again the Promise may seem made to all true Believers not restrain'd to Priests only and it 's more than probable that those Exorcists Mark 9. 38. were not in Orders Why then do they monopolize it and think themselves as sure of it as the Coats on their backs We acknowledge there was in the infant-Churches a sort of Faith sometimes found even amongst miss-believers which was productive of admirable events not of Satan's operation neither This Faith having for its object only that essential Attribute of God his Power and relying thereon by a strenuous Act of Credence particular to that business impetrated frequently then and may peradventure do so yet sometimes wonderful things at his hands though neither the Person nor the Cause stood upon a right foot St. Augustine not denying but the Hereticks of his time might do true Miracles I mean things strange beyond understanding forbore not though to dehort his people from listening to them upon that accompt as may be seen Tract de Unit. Eccles. cap. 9. Tom. 7. Why may not we also though we should see wonders done even such as are mentioned Revel 13. bring them to the Test of Gods Word and require proof from thence that those Doctrines designed for establishment thereby are true 4. But let us in the last place do what we can to see through the darkness of their practice And seriously we can hardly be brought to think that to out the Devil of his hold is the common usual effect of their Sprinklings Fumings Crossings of their Beatings with the Priestly stole repetitions of Latin Words c. since we find not any of all these used by Christ nor instituted to any such end Again we must not nor can forget what palpable collusions and deceipts they have been found to use in almost every place where they met with any body that durst but peep under the veil they at such times do hang before the eyes of the vulgar Let the boy of Bilson as yet I think living a Shooemaker in Northhampton speak And it is not so very long ago about a dozen years since a most gross cheat of this sort was re-acted and fully discover'd at New-Castle upon Tine But whoever shall peruse the twenty fourth Chapter of Dr. Du Moulin's Answer to Cardinal Perron as it 's publisht Anno 1662. cannot certainly but discover what he ought to think and how to demean himself upon such Rancounters What shall we conceive of their giving a solemn Oath to Satan and then questioning him about controverted Points as they did in the case of the Boy of Bilson Oh! he would tear he told them or made signs thereof a dying Protestant but a good that is in their sence a Roman Catholick departing he would be as quiet as a Lamb. Does not this smell rank of design Spectatum admissi A Conjecture how it is come to pass that the Church of Rome hath partly been plundered and partly has cheated her self of so much Primitive Truth THe bitter Contests which had arose and for some Ages continued betwixt the Orthodox and Manacheean Pelagian but especially the Arrian Hereticks had now alienated the minds of men one from another interrupted the correspondences they used formerly to hold and so shaken the Foundations laid by the first Master-Builders when the sudden rise of the Sarazen in the East and the violent rushings of other Barbarians upon the Western Empire had either induced or
Rome who neither know the Truth nor can endure to be taught it If this be the case and I were to chuse a Religion I do seriously think I might close in with any now upon the face of the earth that does not in plain Terms deny the Lord who bought us less timorously than with Rome I am somewhat confident and do hold it for a great Truth which I speak neither timorously nor temerariously That the Arrian Heresie and the Turkish Arms which pull'd all other things where they came down lifted up the Pope by accident and Divine Permission into his Chair For the Eastern Prelates and men of Eminency being under persecutions at home had a safe retreit into the West And therefore made that Patriarch their Asylum In order to which or by way of gratitude for benefits received they often made the frame of their addressive Epistles to consist of complemental Elogies these being no more than what the kindness and hospitality wherewith they had been entertained did seem to deserve were yet due only to the Persons then sitting at the Stern nor farther intended But afterwards cunningly made use of and represented to the Credulous World for the Popes Advantage One Observation more and I have done The Church of Rome or at least her darling Sons the Jesuites will have the Pomise of Christ That the holy Spirit shall lead his People into all Truth to be suspended unto that very Moment wherein their Bishop shall assent to the Results of a Council and the performance to depend on this Contingency amongst a many more whether he will at all confirm them or no Then at last they judge them infallible when the Pope either present or absent signifies his pleasure so to declare them Well! But Liberius as above hinted himself confirmed the Arrian Conclusions of the Council at Sermium And the Pope had his Deputies at Basil and Constance those Decrees were confirmed by the Apostolick Letters of Eugenius Yet I suppose few Romanists will grant these were infallible And I think we may continue our Opinion upon good ground That the Roman Bishop's Vote is but a sandy Foundation to build our Faith upon I shall last of all request you not to refuse your joyning with me in those Words of our and I think too of your Liturgy That Almighty God will Grant All who Confess his holy Name may agree in the Truth of his holy Word and Zion become a quiet Habitation FINIS To the most Reverend the right Reverend Prelates and all the Learned Clergie in this Kingdom THat I have without a word of command presum'd to engage in this war-fare requires I confess a submiss Apologie but since I go upon that general Precept which bids us be ready to give a reason of our faith and it is as importunately demanded now as if never any thing had been done by your worthy Predecessors for the Protestant Cause I will not despair of Pardon There may be need I fear not onely of the Chariots and Horse-men but of the Infantry too amongst whom he desires but to trail a Pike who is Your just Adorer and humble servant Christopher Wyvill FINIS Rom. 11. 20. Mr. Reynolds upon the 110. Psal. Morney Lord du Plessys The saine du Plessys Lib. 2. de Trinitate Lib. sexto Gregory on the 5. Penitent Psal. Vid. the Primate of Ireland's Answer to a Jesuit's Challenge In Sacriloquio quando in singulari numero fundamentum dicitur Nullus alius nisi Christus designatur Greg. lib. 28. in Cap. Josuae 6. Gal. 2. 7. The Jews and such as were Circumcised Vide Bunting his Itinerarie in the Travels of St. Peter Jesuites and their followers * Europe for more than 40. years was almost equally divided in their judgments as well as in cruel hatred one part against the other about the Right of Clement and Urbane 6. to the Infallible Chair The Authors of France painted to the life pag. 16. * For if ordinary Priests could do such things what submissions could be thought enough towards the supreme Bishop as Men were then learning to call him Ep. fol. 885. Fol. 859. A further strange Instance of this I shall hereafter give you Doctor Chalanours Unde Zir. in a The Primate of Ireland lib. citato has their names Chalanours Credo Eccles. pag. 215. Primate of Ireland as before Strongly disputed every way as may be seen in Bellarmine de Concil Eccles Milit. Yet he boldly resolves all by the Determinations of Trent Eugenius was deposed by a General Council and it was declared impossible for those to be saved that held him Pope Yet he continued in by force and from him is the so much vaunted of Succession Baxter's Winding sheet pag. 10. Sundry General Councils obtruded Arianism upon the World and Liberius Bishop of Rome confirmed it Davenant de Judice Normâ Fidei cap. 21. fol. 125. The calling of Councils formerly was the right of the Emperour undeniably now usurped by the Pope That he had no such universal Dominion may strongly be proved out of Sir Roger Twisden's Vindication of the Church of England cap. 2. By the Abbot of Bangor's Reply to Augustin the Monk who demanded their obedience Gelasius the Pope said The Sacrament without the Cup is a grand Sacrilege but half Communion What means the present bussle in France betwixt the Jansenists and Jesuits about Efficacious grace and the next power Bernard of Clareval de Grat. liber Arbitr Theodoret in Sophon cap. 3. Say not this means Natural works only for the contrary is evident Hom. Paschal 4. Annot. upon 2 Tim. 4 8. Upon 1 Cor. 3. 8. * With them it is nothing else but an Ability to perform in our own persons after we have received to believe the Word of God such obedience to the Law as for that we become righteous and deserve by equal Compensation the Kingdom of Heaven Mr. Allen. Justifying Faith is When a man does practically believe the two great Doctrines of Justification and Sanctification Paul the Apostle in the terms of toward God Repentance and Faith toward Christ clearly points out this Office of Faith Acts 20. 21. It 's strange how those that hold a Treasury of Saints Merits can term our Doctrine of Imputation an empty Speculation For Is there a Communion of the Members one with another and not with the Head Bearing by Imputation and no otherwise the Iniquities of us all Finis Legis Christus omni Credenti Bernard ad Innoc. 190. Davenant de Justitia habituali fol. 373. Davenant ut supra cap. 28. How insincerely the the Rhemists do render this place see in Dr. Fulk De Justifie lib. 5. cap. 17. The Arguments are good against all Works Upon Ezech. 18. 20. Progeny of Cathol c. lib. 2. cap. 21. pag. 86. Lib. 2. de Monach. cap. 13. Rom. 8. 4. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Bernard de Verb. Esa. Serm. 4. In his Com. Disp. 214. cited by the Primate of Ireland ut