But wee see their errour was condemned before by Cornelius and Stephen Bishops of Rome even in the time of S. Cyprian And therefore if there bee no other reason the Donatists may escape the note of Heresie with S. Cyprian But indeede there were other reasons that might aggravate the errour of the Donatists beyond S. Cyprian and make it look more like Heresie A first may be a maintaining of their errour after much evidence and conviction by Scriptures A second because they made this errour a ground of an other errour That it was a just cause to divide from the Church because the Church differed from them in their errour This Cyprian never did for though Cyprian yeelded not obedience to the Pope having decided the point yet he held union with the Church even with those who differed from him in this point of re baptization which may be spoken to the shame both of the old Donatists and the new even the Romists that teare the Church into pieces for every little difference Thirdly the Donatists were thought thereupon to raise another errour contrary to an Article of the Creed That the Church was not Catholick and this the Cavalier might have seene in this very Treatise of Saint Austin ad quod vult Deum from whence hee fetched his former objections Lastly if any man will see the reason of Lirinensis whom this Author produceth he may thus receive it and adde it for a Corollary The Masters are absolved the Disciples are condemned c. whose wickednesse I judge to bee worthy of double hatred both because they feare not to deliver unto others the poyson of Heresie and because with profane hands they tosse the memory of holy men as ashes which were quenched and spread abroad a reviv'd opinion which should have beene buried in silence following herein the steps of their Father Cham who not onely neglected to cover the nakednesse of reverend Noe but also shewed it to others to bee derided As for the answer of Cyprian to him that made the question concerning the doctrine of Novitianus it doth not shew that they that obey not the Popish Church are Hereticks but that Hereticks are cast out of the Church for their Hereticall doctrines And such doctrines whose Authors and Abettors are for them worthily cast out of the Church are not worth the enquiry The Cavalier having passed through many untruths now comes to an impertinence fraught also with untruths Hee would faine prove that because there are some quarrells betweene some Calvinists and some Lutherans therefore Protestants are damnable Hereticks for disobeying the Pope in small matters But he knowes not how to tye this together scarcely with the Jesuiticall cart-ropes of vanity and fraud called Equivocation and mentall Reservation For neither of them doe charge the other with Heresie for disobeying the Pope yea not for disobeying the Church but as they would perswade others in their disputing vehemence for not rightly conceiving some passages of Scripture and I dare so much trust the Cavaliers honesty that he will not say that himselfe beleeves some of those slanders which himselfe produceth from Lutherans against Calvinists Such are corrupting the Scriptures concerning the glorious Trinity the Deity of Christ and the Holy Ghost And hee knowes or might know if he have but begunne with Bellarmines coÌ„troversies whom he names what Greâ—zer speakes of Hunnius one of the Cavaliers chiefe Authors that casts scandalls upon Calvinists in his Epistle prefixed to Bellarmines controversies For there he saith That Hunnius began a kind of writing right Lutherane that is Thrasonicall vaine-glorious furious I had almost said drunken yea he goes from the man to the kind and saith The Lutheran Preachers doe set forth their disputations as if it were upon Meade and Beere and so that they may seeme to smell of that which ariseth from both railing-slanders and madnesse Now if this testimony of Gretzer be true and whatsoever it be I thinke this Cavalier will not give this Father of his the lye then I wonder he would produce testimonies of such whose Disputations as saith his Father Gretzer smell of rayling-Slanders and madnesse So that indeed this argument seemes not to be so much a matter of earnest as of mirth even to make himselfe and his Romish Readers infernally merry with the bitternesse and contentions of christians yet it were not hard to shew patternes of such vomits of Gall brought up from Romish stomacks and indeede here they lye in sight but I had rather they should bee covered with ashes then bee stirred to annoy my Reader and my selfe with the savour of them Only I will give this Champion some animadversions one is that this is a stale objection long since dissolved by that reverend and learned prelate the ever honoured Bishop Iewell And this Bishop hath so torne this objection to ragges that I wonder this Cavalier would stoope so low as to take up such ragges which can never bee well sowed together againe and cloath his book with them A second that it were farre more like the spirit of Moses to say Why doe yee strive seeing yee are brethren then to gather this uncharitable and false Inference Because yee strive yee are not brethren I am passing from this Champions Untruths to his Truth but I cannot passe over an abominable fearefull and manifold Untruth not so much bounded in one part of this Chapter as arising from the whole For his maine drift and plot is and his words doe tell it us That let a point of doctrine bee never so fundamentall and necessary to salvation if his Popish Church doe not decide propound and command it to bee beleeved it is not heresie not to beleeve it But bee the point never so small if the Popish Church decide and command it to bee beleeved then must it bee beleeved upon paine of damnation Now what can bee said more to put the Pope above God to make him Antichrist and his followers Antichristians That which God saith may bee unbeleeved without note of heresie though it bee this maine point This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well-pleased But if the Pope decide and command to bee beleeved that Gossips are such kinne that they cannot marry without incest not to beleeve this is certaine damnation fearefull blasphemies and unhappy Christians whose God is lesse then their Pope and whose Pope is above the highest God But as this makes way for the Mystery of iniquity so it leades fitly to the next point which is this Champions Truth wherein this Mysterie will bee more fully revealed SECT II. The Idolatrie of Papists 1. In making the Pope the foundation of Faith 2. In giving Divine worshâ—p to the Sacramentall Elements and to Images 3. In attributing the merit of salvation to their owne works is such as may sinke many of them into a damnable estate though it may bee charitably hoped of others that they are
having that saving faith the Romists shew want of charity in damning those who are saved Hee was againe out of the way in bringing his owne Romists into schisme and damnation by dividing them from Protestants which have that one saving faith And now he goes further out of the way in removing the reasons that may make for unity though by unity with Protestants Romists may avoid uncharitablenesse schisme and damnation so it seemes hee is so earnest for division and dis-union that to attaine it he will hazzard both charity and salvation to his owne fellow Romists as a high price and farre above the value of that which hee would purchase though it were the richest jewell in the world Yet on hee goes upon this adventure And whereas differences amongst Romists are brought forth to make Romists more equall to differences among Protestants or to some differences betweene Protestants and Romists and likewise to make Romists thinke there may be a spirituall unity notwithstanding some differences because notwithstanding their owne differences they affirme there is an unity among themselves this the Author thinkes too peaceable and therefore strives to take it out of the way Toward this he is willing to deny that there are such differences amongst Romists and he strives to shew that they agree even in those things wherein they differ But differ they doe and strong evidences wee have for it which may hereafter be produced Neither indeede their Poeticall Heade of unity the Pope nor any one man on earth can make the whole Church to bee inwardly of one minde and soule but onely that Lord and maker of Spirits by his owne Spirit his true and onely Vicar For that one Spirit enlightning and guiding the spirits of men with one faith of one word delivered by the ministery directed and enabled by the same one spirit can onely make a true reall internall and spirituall unity And accordingly S. Paul leading us to the unity of faith thus rightly ordereth his words toward unity One Spirit one Lord one Faith And thus hee goes on and sheweth how this one spirit of one Lord which inwardly workes this unity of faith in the Lords body outwardly also concurres to the working of it by the gifts given to the ministery For this working without in the ministery and inabling them to teach one and the same doctrine of saving faith and inwardly working in the hearts and soules of Christs members these members are brought into the unity of faith and so into one body of Christ and as in this body of Christ there are different members of different measures and capacities by the different gifts of the spirit so these different capacities doe not reach or containe one measure of divine truth Christ the Foundation and Head is made knowne to all his members for by this knowledge they become his members and so have they all unity in so much divine truth as knits them to Christ But by reason of their different measures some attaining such holy truths of which others are short there must needs bee a difference in the apprehension of those truths to which some attaine and others doe not come yet in all is a settled desire and purpose to beleeve the whole truth revealed by God if it be also revealed to them that it is the truth of God And so whatsoever force was in the Champions speech That true spirituall faith beleeveth the whole Body of divine doctrine makes not against us but for us and much more for us then for them For we upon the right motive which is God speaking in his word doe beleeve plainly whatsoever we conceive and what we doe not conceive wee beleeve in purpose and intention And thus have wee perfect unity while in the fundamentalls we have an actuall unity of faith and in the lesser points an unity of purpose and will But in this true and kindly unity one Spirit not one Pope doth cause inwardly one faith And againe that one spirit giving gifts to men not to one man outwardly bringeth to the inward unity of faith And indeede that none but the spirit the true vicar of Christ can make this solid spirituall and internall unity it appeares by the confession of the very Romish craft which hath coyned the Pope to be the head of unity For that they might make and prove him to be such they have put him into the place of the holy Ghost and made him the Vicar of Christ accordingly they say that the holy Ghost speaks by him and so the speech of the holy Ghost being infallible verity is a right ground of unity A foule errour and without ground of Scripture which never since the departure of Christ from earth tyed the holy Ghost to one man so that from him the whole Church should fetch Oracles and resolutions But indeed it is a high and blasphemous imposture which puts the Pope in place of the holy Ghost And when this man speakes it pronounceth of him as the people of Herod The voice of God and not of Man And how little this differs from Montanisme I wish Romists would consider who reduced the promise of sending the Comforter Christs Vicar as Tertullian cals him to be performed in Montanus And the very same place doe the Romists apply to the Pope which was applied to Montanus but yet thus it appeares That even they that erre in the application yet hold truth in the position That the holy Ghost is the true root of union though erroneously and blasphemously they put the Pope into his roome and make the voyce of the Pope to bee the voice of the holy Ghost And surely the Pope himselfe plainely shewes that hee doubts his owne spirituall power of making unity and therefore hee flyes to the grosse and materiall instruments of unity the Sword and Faggot And so calling downe fire on those that obey him not if he have any spirit it seems it is not that spirit which Christ said was the Evangelicall spirit of the Apostles but rather of him which is called the Destroyer And indeed this device of man to make unity of faith by one man called the Pope being thus thrust into the place of the Spirit of God as it proceeded from the spirit of errour so hath it made unity in errour as the last best of Popes Gregory the Great did in a manner prophecie but it never will make unity in solide and universall Faith and Truth for the beleevers in this counterfeit head of unity have both gotten from him an unity in many errors and have beene left in many great and weighty differences whereof there is little hope of resolving them into union the sight whereof turnes our eyes from this humane and fictitious Head of unitie to the true roote and meanes of unity set forth by the Apostle And because this Author strives to put away from mens eyes the differences which arise under this false Head of union let us shew him
CATHOLICK CHARITIE COMPLAINING AND MAINTAINING That Rome is unchaâ—itable to sundry Eminent parts of the Catholick Church and especially to Protestants and is therefore Uncatholick And so A Romish Book called CHARITIE MISTAKEN though undertaken by a Second is it selfe a Mistaking By F. ROUS OPTATUS Lib. 2. Quia noluerunt fratres agnoscere nullam habuerunt charitatem LONDON Printed by R. Young for Iohn Bartlet at the signe of the gilt Cup neer S. Austins gate 1641. REcensui Librum hunc cui Titulus CATHOLICK CHARITY in quo nihil reperio fidei orthodoxae aut bonis moribus contrarium quo minus summâ cum utilitate Typis mandetur JOH HANSLEY R. P. Episc. Lond. Capel Domest Decemb. 2. 1640. The Publisher to the READER IT might well have beene wished that the growth of Romish errours and superstitions the complaint of this time had not made this Worke too seasonable True it is though it doe but now see the light yet it came to the birth before any other Answer of Charity Mistaken was knowne to the Authour it came indeed to the birth but there was no strength to deliver the judgement of those times not giving way to any other besides those whose Answers have beene already made publick But though they have run before like Cushi this like Ahimaaz yet perchance not altogether without tidings may run after and with Ahimaaz it may make the better speede because with him it goes the way of the Plaine it goes a plaine way speaking plainely the Protestant Shiboleth and it useth plainnesse and evidence of speech in which way it is likely to meet with most Readers Neither doth it come altogether without tidings for it brings with it the tidings of Truth and Love and by both a remedy against error and uncharitablenesse And as it is a worke of charity so is it sutably fitted with charitable expressions for it doth not take up those sharpe arrowes which in these Concertations too often are shot at mens persons besides the Marke of the Matter True it is that where the Writer doth put his faults into the matter of his Booke and doth publish them of purpose to have them seene and by the sight of them to make others faulty there it will bee a duty of obedience as well as of necessary providence for the Readers safety to take notice of them Controversies certainely looke like breaches of love and therefore the Authour hath not been much in love with them But if love will bee lost except it be kept by a Controversie there the Controversie that keepes it is a worke of love To strive against uncharitablenesse that it may be removed and charity put in the roome of it is an act of charity and this charity is the businesse of this work The Reader may also take notice that divers passages not insisted on by the other are here examined because this worke surveyeth the whole Booke which it answers more particularly then the other There hath indeed come forth a Reply in defence of Charity Mistaken But both the one and the other turne mainely on these two hinges That there must be an entire unity of faith in all Truths revealed by God and proposed by the Church And That if unity were to be held by the faith of Fundamentals a perfect and uniforme List should be given of those Fundamentals Now these two hinges being taken off in this Book I hope it may give a fall to the maine matter of them both And whereas the Replyer strives to divide our unity by this Engine That some Protestants directly wittingly and willingly dis-beleeve what others do beleeve to bee testified by the Word of God and herein is no difference between Fundamentall and not Fundamentall It is rejoyned for a defence against this Engine of division That if herein be no difference betweene the one and the other in Fundamentals there is no proofe that they are not united members in the body of Christ For hee that wittingly and willingly dis-beleeves that which the other beleeves to bee testified by the Word of God may know as the terme wittingly seems to import that the point dis-beleeved is not testified by the Word of God and so hee may bee safe and is still one with Christ and his Members Againe the other who beleeves it to bee testified by the Word of God may bee deceived yet the point not being fundamentall his errour may not divide him from the other which is a member of Christ. Indeed if a Protestant should know a point to be testified by the Word of God and then dis-beleeve it that might prove him not to be in the Body of Christ but first This would bring him within the difference of Fundamentals and not Fundamentals contrary to the Replyers Affirmation for it is a maine Fundamentall to beleeve God whom that man beleeves not who wittingly and willingly denyes the Word of God And secondly It is meerly inconsistent and incompossible That hee who beleeves Fundamentals should wittingly and willingly dis-beleeve what hee knows the God of Truth hath spoken And if out of weaknesse errour and ignorance hee doth not beleeve that God hath spoken it this ignorance if it be not in Fundamentals doth not inforce a disunion from other Members of the Body of Christ. Thus the Replyers objected Not-beleeving either falls under Fundamentals and then his case is not rightly put or else it falls not under Fundamentals and then it doth not conclude a disunion betweene Protestants This having received my selfe I impart to the Reader with a Prayer that in reading this Worke hee may bee enlightned with that Spirit of Truth which alone can kindly discover both the Mystery of godliness and the Mystery of iniquity and that the same Spirit may hold him in the one and keep him from the other CATHOLICK CHARITIE CHAP. I. Of Christian Love and Peace SECT I. Concerning the Excellency Necessity and other motives of Christian Love with an exhortation to the imbracing of it THE Spouse of Christ Jesus when shee shines in Love shee is amiable in Beauty precious in the eye of her Husband powerfull with God her Father prosperous in her owne spirituall health and vigour and prepared for her consummate marriage in celestiall glory Her husband is God and God is love and God cannot but love that love which is like himselfe And that hee may love his Spouse for her love when shee becomes one Spirit with him by this unity of Spirit hee gives her an uniformity of love the oyntment of Christ Jesus the Head floweth down into all his members and breatheth love into them and as farre as his life goes so far goeth his love therefore no love no life in Christ Jesus Agreeably the beloved Disciple and an especiall Teacher of love having shewed that the new-birth brings love with life he fitly addeth Hee that loveth not abideth in death No wonder then if the great Master and Lover of this Disciple
make love the mark of his true Disciples seeing those are onely Christs true Disciples which so learne Christ as they draw that spirit from him which teacheth them love and breatheth it into them And surely if a sonne of God by that spirituall eye which hee receiveth from Christ Jesus with his Sonne-ship do clearly behold another son of the same father how can hee chuse but love him as a brother he cannot chuse but love him for the unity that is betweene them for they are one spirit by being begotten of one Spirit in Christ Jesus and as none hateth his owne flesh but cherisheth and loveth it so none should hate his owne spirit but cherish and love it Secondly hee should love his brother for uniformity aswell as for unity there is a spirituall likenesse and conformity betweene spirituall brethren and commonly likenesse breedeth love they are both created unto one image and how can a sonne of God but love his owne likenesse which hee seeth in his brother As in a glasse face answereth to face so a Saints soule answereth to the soule of a Saint and when one sees his owne shape in the other from this likeness and harmony there must needs arise spirituall love and amity Thirdly if a Saint consider the excellency of a Saint how can he chuse but love him for his excellency God is the chiefest and highest excellence and he that most resembleth God is therefore most excellent Now among visible creatures there is none that resembleth God more then a Saint for he is a sonne of God begotten to the true image of God his father therefore hee that loves God that begat loves also the Sons whom God hath begoâ—ten and the man according to Gods own heart because his goodness the fruits of love extends not unto God therefore he communicates it to the Saints and Sons of God that excell in vertue as if that were the next degree to doing good unto God himself to love cherish and doe good to his sons and Saints And indeed what is a fitter object of love next to the chiefe and soveraigne Good then a Saint who by a derivative goodnesse most representeth him God is light and a Saint is light in the Lord God is goodnesse and righteousnesse and a Saint is created according to God in righteousnesse and true holinesse The heart of a Saint is according to Gods heart yea he is partaker of a divine nature and groweth in it from glory to glory And as this divine nature is glorious and lovely so are the fruits of it atractively amiable Love joy peace long suffering goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance yea all goodnesse righteousnesse and truth The beauty of the body is by no means comparable with the beauty of the soule for the beauty of the soule is the Image of God and the glory of this Image having in it divine light vertue and goodnesse shines in the soul with a farre higher excellence then colour and complexion laid on the clay and earth of a fading and corruptible body and according to this excellence the beauty of the soule is preserved to immortality when the beauty of the body is suffered either to vanish before the body or to lye with it in the dust and there to die a kinde of second death neither shall it ever recover life againe but by a conjunction with the beauty of the soule If corporall beauty have been joyned with spirituall beauty then shall it rise in a farre more excellent beauty but if it had not with it spirituall beauty purity and goodnesse and fairenesse of soule it shall not arise in glory and beauty it shall not see the face of God but it shall be sent away with ougly spirits being it self transformed into the deformed character of a countenance weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth If then a Saint be so lovely and the love of a Saint is so just and reasonable and God doth love this Love and doth give his Saints the Spirit of love of purpose to love one another and so this love is the marke of a Saint a Sonne and a Christian let every Saint make himselfe sure of this love and not onely of the shew and word of it but of the essence and life of it Let him love a Saint whom God loves and love him because God loves this love of a Saint Let him love a Saint as hee loves his owne safety which is annexed to the love of the Saints Let him love a Saint because a Saint loves God Let him love a Saint because hee is like himselfe and because the Saint loves him Dilige Deum tuum dilige in Deo tuo charum tuum Imaginem Dei tui Ille te perinde diligendo Deum in Deo diligat Love thy God and in God love thy brother the image of God and let thy brother in requitall by loving God love thee also in God SECT II. Peace is declared to be the first fruits of love and to make love fruitfull in other graces and is further commended 1. By the beauty and usefulnesse of it 2. By the mischiefs which proceed from dissention 3. By the authority of Scriptures 4. By the example of Christ. TRue Christian love will not bee solitary and fruitlesse but it must bring forth peace and bee attended by it Love is it selfe the fruit of the spirit and peace is the fruit of this love yea love which delights to bee fruitfull loves this peace because by her shee communicates her other fruitfulnesse It is best sowing in a calme and if we will beleeve Saint Iames the fruit of righteousnesse is best sowne in peace So Peace the eldest daughter of Love is a midwife to her mother and delivers her of the rest of her children and without her help the mother doth nothing but make abortions Therefore as thou wouldest have thy love to be fruitfull and by her fruits profitable to the Saints so be thou sure to have her attended by peace that through peace with the Saints thy love may profitably extend it selfe to the Saints The unity of the spirit must be kept in the bond of peace and indeed with whom wilt thou keepe peace if thou wilt not keepe it with those who are one spirit with thee By one spirit are we all baptized into one body and we be members one of another by our unity in this one body How comely yea how necessary is it to the preservation and prosperity of the body that the members of one body bee at peace and unity and how monstrous and destructive is it when one member fights with another That fatall sentence cannot bee avoyded If yee bite one another yee shall bee consumed one of another But contrarily the kingdome of God which is peace flourisheth by the peace of the subjects of that kingdome and therefore St. Paul having taught the former to the Romans adjoyneth the latter
doth cause the contrary assertion to bee hereticall And accordingly Vasques saith not onely such a Position is called hereticall which is contrary to the definition of the Church but that which is contrary to Scripture And that wee may come to Saint Augustine wee shall finde that this contrariety to Scripture was that which Saint Augustine accounted heresie and not contrariety to the Pope and his Decrees For thus hee saith in the small matter produced by the Cavalier called by him Putting off shooes in prayer There is an heresie of those that ever goe bare foot because God said to Moses or Josua Put off thy shooes from thy feet and because the Prophet Esay was commandâ—d to goe bare foote But this is an heresie not because they goe thus for the humbling of the body but because they thus understand the Testimony of Scripture So we see that the Author is plainly told by S. Augustine that it was the falsifying of divine Testimonies even the alledged places of Scripture that gave their error the name of an heresie And it were pitie to put the Cavalier to prove that at this time the Pope had decreed and decided That men should not put off their shooes in prayer But the truth is the Fathers take this word heresie sometimes in a large sense accounting that an heresie which was an erring against any truth of Scripture but heresie in the most proper full and killing sense hath been taken to bee an error against the Rule of Faith even such an error as puts men off from the foundation for a soule being put off from the foundation which is God in Christ Iesus cannot possibly bee saved Yet it cannot be denyed but that if lesser errors be so plainly discovered to bee contrary to the Scriptures that this contrariety is made manifest to him that erreth this error being afterwards maintained may be a damnable heresie and the reason only be this Because such an heretick erreth in the foundation of Faith for hee doth not beleeve that God is true and not beleeving Gods Truth hee cannot beleeve the truth of his promises in Christ Jesus And because such lesser errors were sometimes plainly at least as some holy men thought convinced to bee contrary to Scriptures therefore these errors by them might perchance bee called heresies But yet it cannot bee certainely affirmed by any man that what himselfe seeth to bee manifestly against Scriptures and hath delivered this which seemes manifest unto himselfe to another that the other to whom hee hath delivered it doth see it also to bee manifest therefore no man meerely upon such a manifestation can say directly and positively That such an one doth wilfully not beleeve the Truth of God in the Scriptures Wherefore these smaller errors though they might be called heresies at large in regard that they were errors shewed to be contrary to the Scriptures and so there was a possibility that they might bee held wilfully against the known truth yet because there is also a possibility that it might not bee knowne to those that erred that their error was contrary to the Scriptures the sentence of killing and damning on such cannot certainly be pronounced For indeed no Father nor Divine can affirme That one erring not wilfully but by weakenesse or ignorance in such a point as praying bare foote cannot beleeve in Christ Jesus or so beleeving cannot bee saved But howsoever in all this which hee hath allâ—dged there is nothing that makes for the Cavalier but rather all against him For it is still an errour contrary to the Scriptures that makes the Heresie and not pride and disobedience against the Pope and his decisions And indeed this truth was so strong and so prevailed against the Cavalier that it forced him to speake some part of it even against his own proposition For he saith thus The Pride wherewith they presumed to abuse Scripture and to impose such a fond law upon mens consciences and a resolution not to leave it when they were commanded by the Church was that which made it Heresie in them Where the abusing of Scripture is indeed the chiefe if not onely cause of giving it the likenesse of Heresie For imposing it as a law upon mens consciences I hope this Author will not take for Heresie but rather for a vertue seeing he hath ofteÌ„ told us that those who suppose their religion to be true are not to blame if that they tel others that they are in danger by holding the contrary Howsoever I am sure this is not the life of Heresie as the Cavalier presently tels us in the next page But maintaining a doctrine discipline contrary to the judgment commandements of the Church But how he could know by the art of divination that these his barefoot Hereticks had a resolution not to leave their errours when they were commanded by the Church the Church being taken for the Pope and his adhaerents I cannot divine for it is very possible that they seeing the Popes glorious Pantofle adorned with the Crosse might perhaps thinke it more holy by the example of him whom they call his Holinesse to weare shooes of that fashion The Cavaliers misâ—haps still increase and the more comfortlesse because they are drawne by himselfe upon himselfe For this next proofe is from the Quarto Decimani the life of whose Heresie hee would make to be the holding of Easter at another time then was ordained by the Church But if the Pope bee as hee is said to bee the Church vertuall let the Cavalier remember that this Church vertuall was chidden by S. Irenaeus for excommunicating the Easterne Churches because they differed from him in observation of Easter So at that time neither the different observation of Easter nor disobeying the Popes command was accounted an Heresie Hee is also alike unhappy in his Heresie of Rebaptization where hee saith In Saint Cyprian it was but errour because the Church of his time had not absolutely condemned it but growing after to be condemned in the Donatists time it was Heresie in them not to forsake it which drew Vincentius Lirinensis to make this exclamation O admirable change of things The Authors of an opinion are held Catholicks and the followers of the selfe same are judged Hereticks For the Cavaliers matter is hereby overthrowne For the Bishop of Rome and his councell having condemned the errour of rebaptization Cyprian must be an Heretick who disobeyed the Bishop of Rome and his councell thus having condemned it yea having condemned the maintainers of it But if S. Cyprian was hereby no Heretick then the life of Heresie doth not consist in disobeying the Church speaking by the Pope Againe if S. Cyprian escape at this doore I do not see but that for ought the Cavalier saith the same doore stands open for the Donatists For his reason by which he would keepe in the Donatists is Because their errour grew after to bee condemned
others doe and therefore doe exact a more explicite beliefe and consequently may bee accounted in some respects more fundamentall This I desire the Reader to observe because this confirmeth that which hath beene formerly spoken concerning the agreement between Fundamentals and Explicites and must serve hereafter for a Confutation of his owne objections against Fundamentals In the meane time that which paines him for the present is this That wee doe not beleeve every Decree or Errour of the Pope as well as these important grounds of Christianitie for thus hee presently subjoyneth There is no doctrine at all concerning Religion the beliefe whereof is not fundamentall to my salvation if the catholick Church propound and command mee to beleeve it So the Cavaliers quarrell against us is this That wee doe not make the worship of Images kindred of Gossips and such popish vanities fundamentall to our salvation as the Articles of the Trinity and Christs Incarnation A fearfull blasphemy and which should make his heart hate his hand for writing it but they well deserve to bee given up to the beliefe of such impious errours who receive not the love of the truth revealed in the word with duâ— estimation For such will easily equall the word of Man to the word of God and will not suffer the word of God to stand for a sufficient saving verity nor a sufficient ground of unity except man give his word for the word of God and Man add his word to the word of God For if the Pope give his word for a doctrine contained in Gods word then his Popish disciples must receive it and untill that they may without heresie not beleeve it and if the Pope adde his word to the word of God Gods word is not a sufficient ground of unity but the unity made by that word is to be torne in pieces if withall we do not joyne the word of the Pope in one beliefe with it Thus is the Pope made Christs Rivall and takes the faith of the spouse from her husband to himselfe And so whereas he would accuse us of an high craft our craft is no other then that simplicity of S. Paul by which hee did labour to espouse the Church as a chaste Virgin to one Husband which was Christ But this Romish doctrine is the very craft of the old Serpent and Dragon which goes about to seduce Eve the patterne of the Church from her Husband and to marry her to the Pope or rather to make her his Adulteresse But let him remember Whoremongers and Adulterers especially such great ones God will judge Yet this would hee approve by that which followes For there is no errour in faith which may not bee made damnable by the manner of holding it when it is done so obstinately as that in defence thereof a man denyes the authority of the Catholick Church But briefly I answer First that the Church cannot make a point of faith of that which is none Secondly Stapleton tells us that the Church hath no promise to bee infallibly directed in the decision and resolution of small or light points and so the Church not having this infallible direction cannot have authority to make such points fundamentall nor to command faith to them where she hath no infallible direction in them Thirdly the Church in these lesser points not having this authority hee doth not disobey the authority of the Church who beleeveth not these points which she hath no authority to command as points of faith Fourthly if the Church were this foundation and could make a point fundamentall yet the Pope and his confederacy for whom this Author fights is not the Church Fifthly the same Popish Church hath taught and propounded many grosse errours and untruths for points of doctrine which are so farre from being fundamentall to salvation that they shake the very foundation and so are rather fundamentall to damnation But here I cannot but complaine of this Author in that hee useth craft which himselfe accuseth for while he goes about to lay the Pope the Chimera of Rome for a foundation of faith hee names him not in his whole booke but still tells us of the catholick Church let him come forth plainly out of his Covert and shew us his catholick Church even the Pope and his adherents if he be not ashamed of them and not thus draw disciples to a fancy and a piece of Poetry under the reall and reverend name of the catholick Church But this may serve as a caveat to the Reader that the Cavalier tells us of the Church when the Pope is his errand Another point whereof he seemes to be ashamed is the worship of Images which he never reckons among the doctrines of difference but if it please him he may now fitly conjoyne them together and then his discourse may runne thus If the Pope decree the worship of Images it may be fundamentall to salvation if with the deniall of Idolatrie the Popes authority bee denyed Yet our Author having spoken that which is proved to be fearfully untrue in his sense that what the Pope and his conspiracy under the name of the catholick Church doe propound and command to be beleeved is fundamentall he is bold to say This untruth is unanswerably proved by the meere catalogues of heresies which have beene made by severall Fathers of the Primitive Church and especially by S. Austin in his Treatise ad quod vult Deum which I have toucht before and which I earnestly exhort my Reader to peruse at large This is so farre from being unanswerable that it hath beene answered and our Author can never make it good that those points which hee acknowledgeth to be of little importance in themselves were there declared to bee fundamentall for being obstinately maintained against the decision command of the Pope and his Councell eâ—ther private or publick so that the Author onely makes up with boldnesse and undertaking what hee wants in evidence and proofe And as in the following piece hee preferres his Reader to the sixth and fifth Chapters so I also referre him to the answer of those Chapters and there besides other solutions hee may see that the example of Saint Cyprian makes mightily against the Popes authority since it plainly appeares that Saint Cyprian did hold the Popes fallibilitie when he plainly held the contrary to that which the Pope had decided And thus being put besides his premisses hee is also deprived of his conclusion The distinction of points of faith into fundamentall and not fundamentall doth stand still in such full truth and power that the unbeliefe of points not fundamentall doth not presently forfeit salvation though the same points bee decided by the Pope and his conspiracy much lesse doe worship of Images Prayer in an unknowne tongue salvation by merits the Popes supremacy especially taken for a foundation of faith though decided and commanded by the Pope cause damnation by being unbelieved but rather by being believed
to the acting of the most unnaturall of Treasons A foule Religion that doth blacke even the white of nature yet the Cavalier desiring Romishly to dye white into black hee prescribes Antidotes and Remedies of Love and Charity and thus adviseth his Readers to hatred and opposition against Protestants See how Saint John carryed himselfe towards Cerinthus and Policarpe to Marsyon and Saint Anthony to the Arrians and a thousand others And lest it should bee thought that Saints fall not foule but onely upon such Hereticks that deny even the very prime Articles of Christian Religion which concerne either God the Father or the immediate person of Christ our Lord himselfe Cast but an eye upon Saint Bernard that milde and mercifull man of God and see how hee treats the Hereticks of his time who had too much affinity with those of ours See yee Dogges see yee Detractors Behold how hee gives his Romists patternes and presidents to make them fall foule with us but indeed his first Presidents are impertinent for they shew a falling foule with such as wee are not wherefore because his first patternes were incongruous and would not serve the turne those heresies of Cerinthus not belonging to us hee leapes over many hundred yeeres of the purer times of the Church where it seemes hee could not finde grounds for his better falling foule with us and at length comes unto the times of Popish errours and superstitions there hee findes a good old man one I thinke of the seven thousand which belonged to Gods Election though not altogether without a glasse on his eyes party-coloured by the prejudice of his birth and education in those times of superstition This good man hee seeth angry with some of his time that derided the Baptisme of infants Prayers for the dead and the Suffrages of Saints the former of which did justly deserve a sharpe reproofe and indeede upon that hee chiefely insists in his confutation But the later wee impute to the superstitious darknesse of the times and would have covered these sores of this holy man but that this Authour will needes discover the nakednesse of his father Yet if he will but looke into that very Sermon of Bernard hee shall see more just and weighty reasons to accuse his owne Romists for crimes which draw Almighty God himselfe to fall foule with some of their chiefe limbs and members For here hee disputes against that forbidding of marriage which defiles the Church with adulterous incestuous and unnaturall sinners whom hee calls The monsters of men yet by Romes forbidding marriage such monsters have been too often found among those who yet are called Priests Abbots Monkes and Friars But yet that this Champion may still nourish his root of wormwood and division and that the Romish palates may be still kept in distaste and loathing of us he saith of Protestants That they are cruell enough to such as they see not and withall their civility and curtesie and suavity in ordinary conversation they can find in their Hereticall hearts at a clap to rob all dead men of the help and comfort of the prayers of the living and all living men of the prayers of the Saints who are in heaven and the same Saints of all the honour which Catholickes pay to them here on earth to omit in this place their infinite and innumerable detractions and slanders and reproaches of the whole Church of God But here is as little verity as charity for the three All 's are all three untruths For it is not true that Protestants rob all the dead of the prayers of the living For first those dead which are in heaven are not robbed of prayers by denying prayers to those that are not in heaven but supposed to be in Purgatory Secondly those prayers that belong to the dead wee give for them and that is to joyne with them in their own prayers even the prayers of the soules of Saints under the Altar We pray that God would hasten the comming of Christ and so their resurrection and their consummation in glory And to this end that God will hasten the judgement of the great Whore which hath shed their bloud and avenge it on her A second untruth is this That wee rob all living men of the prayers of the Saints in heaven I might indeed say that this building is of another stuffe and different from the foundation That wee are cruell to those that wee see not for wee see those that are living But howsoever it is also untrue for wee allow and imbrace the prayers of the Saints in heaven for the living yea wee doubt not but that those soules who are in the triumphant part of the Church and perfect in charity doe love that part of the Church which is here militant and pray for her victory and that it may bee joyned with her in triumphant glory True it is that we find not in the Scripture that the Saints departed have such knowledge of the particular affaires of the Saints living that wee can beleeve by a supernaturall faith that they know our necessities our thoughts and desires And what is without faith being sinne we dare not offer prayers without faith lest they should bee turned into sinne Thirdly it is no lesse untrue That wee rob Saints of all the honour which true Catholickes pay unto them The name of the Saints is to us as a precious ointment and it is kept by us in everlasting remembrance We delight to make mention of their heavenly vertues of their valiant actions and constant passions of their wise counsells powerfull exhortations excellent expositions of divine truths in their sayings sermons and writings We desire to follow their examples to bee instructed by their knowledge to bee inflamed with their zeale and enlived with their heats who quicken being dead as the dead Prophet enlived the dead souldier These honours we doe them and thus should it bee done to those whom God doth honour And if thus we doe honour them then far from truth is it that wee rob them of all that honour which true Catholickes pay them And lastly where hee speakes of infinite detractions slanders and reproaches of the whole Church of God this is a most unjust and unjustifiable slander We reverence the whole Church of God as our Mother we love her peace and to this end is that which is written in the first Chapter and to this end are these lines which write against this slander Wee reproach not the whole Church but a botch a wen a disease and burthen in the Church A faction that disturbs and distracts the Church and which to set up a counterfeit head teares the true body of Christ into pieces And this seemes also to bee the businesse of this Champion in this worke and even at this time when by unjust accusations hee both perswades to uncharitable divisions and strives by his clamours to terrifie soules into the net of the Papacie
divided Jesus from Christ and so themselves from Christians though as it hath been told them and as it is said by a Pope from S. Paul all Christians are called ad societatem Iesu Christi to the society both of Jesus and of Christ 1 Cor. 1.9 But surely if this be the Authors place in Calvin it is likely hee hath either forgotten Calvin or was not trusted with the reading of Calvin and some one that was trusted but not trusty told him it would serve his turne and deceived him As for the wonderfull wisdome which this Author speciously sets forth in the differences of those Order That wisdome is here come to passe which Solomon condemneth when he saith Be not wise over much for humane wisdome hath so far wrought herein that Orders have been multiplied far beyond the gifts of continency yea above the good both of Church and Common wealth And so far were they as this Author saith from stripping themselves from earthly incumberances to fly fast into heaven that too much they stripped both Laiâ—y and Clergy of earthly maintenances and therewith have made to themselves fleshly incumberances But of this wisdome before hath been given to the Reader such a representation that I think it appeared to him not to be spirituall but carnall earthly and divelish if not in the invention yet in the execution and therefore for brevity thither I remit the Reader Only I wish the Author would prove what hee saith by some place of Scripture That God inspired the Founders of Orders with severall spirits and that there is a speciall spirit with which an Order was first endued especially if that Scripture were rightly applyed by Abbot Whitgift That Monkery was a plant which the heavenly Father planted not and therefore should bee pulled up by the rootes Which Prophecie was soon after fulfilled in this Land The Cavalier comes now to dismount a third objection of Protestants concerning Romish difference which ariseth as hee saith in regard of the differences betweene learned and unlearned men which hee assayeth to take away by a distinction of explicite and implicite faith in this manner A man is said to have explicite faith of any article or doctrine when he hath heard it particularly propounded to him and hath some particular knowledge thereof and gives particular assent thereunto But as for implicite faith of any article or doctrine a man is then said to have it when hee beleeves that concerning it which the Church teacheth them explicitely who are capable thereof although for his owne part he have not perhaps so much as heard of it in particular or if he did hee hath forgot it or if he did remember it he hath not capacity enough to apprehend or understand it And when he hath shewed this distinction he labours with great vehemency to prove it and affirmes That without this it would be wholly impossible to maintaine any Church in any unity of faith at all and finally concludes That this sword of ours is turned into a buckler wherewith to defend them First for the pains he takes to make good this distinction hee takes it to make good our objection and so labours for us and against himselfe for upon this distinction being grounded we ground our objection and say that this distinction leaves even the like differences amongst Romists for which they accuse and damne us and leaves no better unity among them then it leaves among us And if thus then it is both a sword in our hand to hurt them and a buckler also to defend us against them neither have they any buckler to defend themselves against this sword much lesse will this sword that wounds them become a buckler to defend the wounds which it selfe gives But the onely safe way is with that King who comes with the weake side to send Ambassadors for peace to the stronger Now to shew that this distinction being strengthened doth strengthen our objection and so is a true sword against Romists I say That in those points of faith which are beyond the explicites or fundamentals are called implicites there are differences among Romists as well as among us and these differences are not onely such as are discovered by the ell by which the faith of the unlearned is found shorter then that of the learned but the Cloth it selfe within the measure of the learned is torne into pieces and the learned themselves doe differ in the beliefe of the said points among themselves as well as from the unlearned And this hath bin shewed before and is indeed a part of D. Whites undertaking formerly mentioned I may instance in a point or two Transubstantiation is an Article of their new faith and not usually reckoned among their explicites the one part of the learned hath beleeved that the substance of Bread being abolished the Body of Christ is brought to the place of it another part beleeves that the substance of Bread is changed into the substance of Christs Body which I nothing doubt was the first meaning of this new doctrine each confutes either And an unlearned man that stands by may easily being over-weighed with the reasons of both either beleeve neither or somewhat else of his owne And indeede I my selfe have asked one of their Proselites whether he would chew or teare the body of Christ with his teeth and he told me that he did not think that their Doctors would say it so also in the point of Image-worship a matter of deepe consequence and much concerning life and death yet by them left among Implicites One side of the Doctors holds a plaine worship of the Image of Christ with Latria or divine honour and others hold this honour given properly to Images to be Idolatrie and either give it improperly or give an inferiour reverence or no religious reverence at all But the unlearned man when he sees the Image set in Churches covered with gold turning his head and eyes weeping working miracls saith with the Lycaonians Gods are common to us in the shape of men and thinkes hee cannot worship God too much and therefore doth it with all his soule and all his might even with a perfect Idolatrie Now are not these differences of momeÌ„t among them in their Explicites many more such there are which it were too tedious to repeat indeed their differences must needs bee much more then ours because many of their learned Explicites are errours and in errours there can never bee a full agreement for if any one hath that good spirit which maks discovery of them he commonly is opposed and contradicted by the others errour as here the not worshippers of the Image with divine worship is opposed by the worshipper Besides he that is in the darke and sees not what to beleeve if he beleeve any thing he can but beleeve an imagination of his owne and not a reall ttuth and so must needs differ from him who seeth
the truth and beleeves it being seene As for their unlearned who walke most in the darke though sometimes it may happen two blinde men may stumble upon one path yet it is impossible but that mostly they must differ in their opinions concerning that which they know not And whereas our Author would faine make these differences to be an agreement by a resolution to beleeve what the Church teaches we have already shewed that this resolution doth no way make thē actually to agree that actually do disagree And the Canon of Sivill I think would scarcely have beleeved the Inquisitors if they had told him Wee agree with you about Image-worship because we both resolve to beleeve as the Church teacheth though we condemne you for an Heretick because wee doe not agree And indeede there is no possibility of making an actuall agreement in those lesser points because of the different capacities and degrees of faith And God in the Scripture hath not promised such an actuall agreement to all the members of the Church in all lesser points of doctrine for he hath not promised a full and uniforme discovery of them to all Yea it hath been shewed out of your owne great Doctor Stapleton by a Roman Catholick that in the discovery of small points the Church is not infallibly directed And even therefore I conceive that this distinction was first framed to give leave for that difference which necessarily followeth humane ignorance and which even by the Cavaliers confession cannot be avoided in different capacities and measures of faith And yet having acknowledged such a necessity of this distinction he both labours to deny the differences on his owne side for which this distinction was necessarily made and which the very making of it doth acknowledge and hee labours to accuse our differences which this distinction would excuse as well as his owne So it is still a sword against Romists to confound them whilest they deny their owne differences neither can the forge of Rome ever turne it to a Buckler to defend them in this deniall But it is a Buckler to us to defend us from their objecting of differences against us seeing this distinction doth both acknowledge a necessity of some lesser differences and so excuseth us And thus may wee come to a sight of the unity of faith in the Church For in the explicites that is in fundamentalls of absolute necessitie which knit unto Christ the foundation there is and ought to be an unity and this substantiall unity may cover the incurable differences in the lesser implicite points being held by Infirmity and not with Contention Scandall and Schisme For unity in fundamentalls doth take away the damning censure of differences in lesser points when there is a will of beleeving right in these points but a want of power to attaine this beliefe And so these differences in lesser points not being put upon account for the will of unity in them and for the reall unity in fundamentalls this reall unity in fundamentalls is accounted an entire or at least a solid and saving unity So that the unity is not to be reckoned from this that all doe actually agree in this beliefe of all lesser points for in divers of these points divers doe necessarily differ but because their unity in fundamentalls and a will of unity in these lesser points wherein they differ the imputation of smaller differences being thus taken away are accounted to them for an entire or at least for a sufficient unity And this truth is in not much unlike Tearmes to bee seene in Tertullian Regula quidem fidei una omninò est sola immobilis irreformabilis credendi scilicet in unicum Deum omnipotentem mundi conditorem Filium ejus Iesum Christum c. But hereof more must bee said in the following Chapters wherin the Author brings us to fundamentalls being himselfe indeed necessarily brought to them by this former distinction of Explicites and Implicites yet hee goes about to fight against that unity which is established by this distinction and against the distinction which himselfe hath established and so will bee accounted a Trespasser by destroying what hee hath built but indeede this distinction being resisted by him will resist and overthrow him In the meane time this stands still firme and unremoved That the Romists have great sharp and weighty differences among them as weighty if not farre weightier then Protestants and therefore they want charity to Protestants in damning Protestants for such differences while for the like or greater differences even de fide they are bountifull to give salvation each to other and this they doe because they are servants of one Master the Pope whose service wee wanting should indeed be no more hated for this freedome then Israel for being delivered out of the bondage of Egypt Yet both then and now wee see the Egyptians make after us with violence and malice hating us for no other fault but for our freedome from Egypt But God that then beganne and after made good his worke of deliverance I hope will do it also for us and he will be above them even in that wherein they were proud above us and cover the Sea of Rome the mother of uncharitablenesse with a Sea of confusion CHAP. X. Containing an answer to the Cavaliers eighth Chapter wherein he quarrells at the distinction of Fundamentall and not Fundamentall and is divided into three Sections SECT I. First Sheweth the Protestants separation from Rome to bee reasonable though it bee true that some in the Church of Rome may bee saved Secondly That the Papists are the faulty causes of that separation A City generally infected with the plague and a few persons onely being free will it bee thought a reasonable question to bee proposed to some that flye from this City Why doe yee flye since you know and acknowledge that all are not infected to death but some live in this City But if the King of that Citie should banish all that should say that the Plague were in the Citie yea would put them to death were it not yet a farre more unreasonable question to aske those who had given out such a report Why doe you flye that are banished and Why doe you flye that must die if you flye not Yet such are the questions of this Author in the head of this Chapter of which it seemes that the repetition might serve for a confutation It is the acknowledgement and complaint of a sonne of the Church of Rome The chiefe cause of the calamitie of the Church is to bee ascribed unto them who being puff'd up with the vaine pride of Ecclesiasticall power have proudly and contemptuously despised and driven away those who rightly and modestly admonished them c. And againe Those who speake to them of amendment that exhort them to bee healed yea that offer their helpe to effect it they not only cast out and drive from the fellowship