the contrary saying That because there was no King in Israel everyone went severall ways doing what was good in his own eyes So that by the Doctours way of proceeding one would almost believe that his meaning was that our Saviour had no intention that his Church should be one and consequently that Generall Councills which took great paines to procure Vnity transgressed therein our Saviours order 103. But all Protestants are not of the Doctours mind for though they generally make Scripture not only the Rule but judge also of Faith when controverted Yet they do not so neglect Vnity but that they profess a willingnes to submit their judgments for the sence of Scripture to a Lawfull generall Councill This the Doctour cannot doe now that he has sett forth his Principles unless he will confess the foundation of his Protestant Religion to be unsound He might well enough have done it before whilst he was a Defender of Archbishop Lawd but now it appears that the Archbishops Principles and his are not the same nor probably ever were and I doe assure my self that if the Archbishop were alive none could be more ready to condemn them 104. Other Protestants therefore refuse not submission to Councells as may appear by their confident demanding them For Gesner speaking in their name thus writes We with the loudest voice we can cry out again and again and with all our power we humbly and earnestly beg of Christian Kings and Emperours that a free Christian and Lawfull Councill may be convâ—ked in which the Scripture may be permitted to be the Iudge of Controversies And our Countreyman Sutcliff confidently cryes out that Catholicks are afraid of Councills Yet all the world sees that if a Lawfull Generall Councill were called according to the order of all past lawfull Councills even those received by Protestants they must necessarily be condemned 105. This some others more wise then these loud Sollicitours for Councills saw and therefore when a Councill was ready to be called they providing for themselves would not permit any Point to be decided by Catholick Bishops alone but euery Minister yea Lay-men must have votes in them and a plurality of Suffrages was not to prevayle but an equall number on both sides must dispute and Lay Judges decide that is declared Hereticks must enioy greater Priviledges then Catholicks and instead of a Councill there must be an Assembly of wild beasts consulting to establish Unity in Gods Church which it seems was only to be procured by confusion and not by Order Therefore a certain Lutheran said well of Calvinists calling for a Lawfull Councill that they did imitate a well known Buffon calld Marcolphus who was wont to say That after all his search he could never find a fitt tree upon which he could willingly be content to be hanged Such a tree would a Legitimate Councill prove to the Doctours Principled Protestants 106. Yet there is one expedient for producing Unity which the Doctour may doe well to advise upon for if it take it will certainly have that effect even the Quakers themselves and Fifth Monarchists will not refuse to be of the Doctours Church if they be not already Nay which is more the Catholicks will come in too This is no invention of mine but was many years since suggested by one of the Doctours Protestants Robert Robertson an English Anabaptist of Amsterdam This surely well meaning man perceiving how litle success Scripture alone had to vnite Sects agreeing only in opposing Popery in the year sixteen hundred and two printed a Book in Holland in which he proposed to them all this means of Vnity viz. That they should all ioyn in a common Petition to the States to give them leave to assemble themselves in some Town or field and there each Sect severally to pray to God one after another that he would shew some evident Miracle for decision of their Controversies and declaring which among them had the Truth which he supposed vndoubtedly was not among Catholicks And to the end the Devill might not enter in and deceive them with a false Miracle the man told them he had thought of one allowed by Scripture and which he was sure the Devill could not work namely to make the Sun stand still for a certain considerable time not doubting but that God of his great Goodnes would not refuse to condescend to the Petition of such devout servants of his in a matter so iust and necessary 107. I suppose the Doctour will not deny this design if succesfull to be a most powerfull and unfaileable Mean of producing Vnity which his Principles have utterly destroyed and rendred impossible if not unlawfull And let him with all his wit and invention devise any other more probable since the Catholick Churches Authority is reiected by him and them 108. Notwithstanding all this the Doctour according to his custom and nature is confident that he has demonstrated that the Church of Rome can have no advantage in Point of Vnity above his medley Church Now to the end any impartiall Reader may be a competent Judge between us I will briefly set down the Instruments and Means of Vnity left by our Lord to his Church to 〈◊〉 end the Truth of this Article of our Faith I believe one Catholick Church may remain to the worlds end unalterable 1. Catholicks do ground their Faith on Gods revealed Will in Scripture interpreted by Tradition 2. They believe that God according to his Promise will lead and preserve his Church in all necessary Truth or in the true sense of Scripture 3. That for this purpose he foreseeing that Heresies and Schisms grounded on a false sense of Scripture would in after times come has established in his Church an unfaileable succession of Teachers of his Truth with whom he will continue till the worlds end 4. It is his Will and Command that all Christians should obey these Teachers who are to give an account of their soules 5. These Teachers constitute the Churches Hierarchy 6. The Vniversall Church is represented by these Teachers assembled in a Lawfull Generall Councill 7. Such a Councill therefore is the Supreme Tribunall of the Church from whose Decisions there must be no Appeale 8. But because the difficulties of making such Assemblies are extreamly great therefore it is necessary there should be a standing Authority with power to prevent Heresies and Schisms in the intervalls of Councills arising and disturbing the Church 9. This ordinary Authority is established in the Supreme Pastour the Bishop of Rome 10. His Iurisdiction therefore as to such an end extends it self to the whole Church and is exercised in taking care that the Ordinances of Generall Councills be not by any transgressed and also in case any Heresies arise or that any Controversies in Causis Majoribus can not be otherwise ended either to determine the Points of Catholick Truth opposed or at least to impose Silence upon disputants and Litigants till he can assemble a
which yet does not hinder but that Iudges are reputed fitt and proper to end Law suits 4. That neither the Pope nor the Councill of Trent have decided the fore mentioned Controversies we are to ascribe either to the inconsiderablenes of them or to the want of Sufficient clearness of Scripture or Tradition for either party or to a just and prudent care of preventing Schisms in the Church by such Determinations wherein so considerable parties in the Church are divided in opinion 5. Whereas the Doctour says that the Points in Controversy among Catholicks being many of them the same agitated among Protestants are Points of Faith he is manifestly mistaken For there are among Catholicks no Points controverted but such Doctrins where the sense of Scriptures being variously expounded by the two Parties the Church as yet hath determined nothing which sense of them is de Fide though the Parties themselves would each of them have their own to be so not determined I say so clearly as that both sides are agreed that such is the Churches Decision As for Protestants what Doctrins are esteemed Points of Faith and what School Disputes I think no Oedipus can resolue Doctour Stillingfleet elsewhere saith down right That the Church of England holds no Points to be Articles of her Faith but those wherein the Church of Rome also agrees with her and holds the same to be such His words are There is a great deale of difference between the owning of some Propositions in order to Peace and the believing of them as necessary Articles of Faith The Church of England makes no Articles of Faith but such as have testimony and approbation of the whole Christian world of all ages and are acknowledged to be such by Rome it self and in other things she requires Subscription to them not as Articles of Faith but as inferiour Truths which she expects Submission to in order to her Peace and Tranquillity Thus the Doctour But here I cannot well understand why he saith her Subiects Subscribe them as inferiour Truths and yet maintains the Church of England to require no Subscription to her Articles as Truths for that surely is a requiring of assent to them but a Subscription of non-contradiction or non-opposition of them which consists with the parties holding them Errours Now methinks this the Church of England believing nothing as of Faith but what the Popes and the Roman Churches Faith also secures to them to be so should sound somewhat harsh in the ears of many of his Disciples Again it necessarily follows that the Church of Rome notwithstanding its Idolatry Fanaticism c. yet failes in no necessary Point of Faith 6. Lastly that which makes Disputes among Christians about Dostrinall Points pernicious is not the heynousnes of the Errours themselves on either Party but the refusall to submitt to the Churches Authority when condemning them from whence Schisms are inevitable and such Refusers then truly stiled Hereticks No man will deny but that the Errour of the Photinians or Socinians called anciently Homuncionists for affirming Christ to be meer man is a most grievous Errour incomparably exceeding any among Catholicks Yet if one living in the Commuâ—ion of Gods Church should hold this most pernicious Errour not knowing that the Church had condemned it and being ready to renounce it assoon as he knew this S. Augustin professes he durst not call such a man an Heretick How the Doctour would call such an one I know not But this I will iustify that according to the Doctours Principles he ought to pass for as good and as well grounded a Protestant as himself and therefore especially Orthodox for not submitting his judgment to the Church §. 7. The Doctrin of Pennance Vindicated from the Doctours mistakes 115. NOw notwithstanding what hath hitherto been said I do nothing doubt but those popular Readers for whom only I conceive the Doctour wrote his Book will still resolutely judge every line of it unanswerable The like they will say concerning the other Points of accusation charged by him on the Roman Church as 1. many obstructions of a Holy Life 2. Endless Divisions How happy are we will they think who have escaped out of such a Babel were Frantick Subiects are governed by more Frantick Superiours where mens ears are deafned with endless quarrels and where Lawes are made against Piety In the former regards Papists may deserve our pitty or contempt but in the last our hatred For what cruelty is not too Mercyfull against the Professours of a Religion which teaches so many Doctrins hindring a good life necessary to Salvation that it is scarce possible any of them should be an honest man The Doctour has told them that these wicked men make the Sacrament of Pennance ioynd with Contrition that is as he interprets a remoâ—se of mind for sin sufficient for Salvation But his Adversary in effect bids him with Contrition to ioyne Confession and Absolution He is contented but he will needs have one condition more added which is forsaking of sin which they of the Church of the Rome not requiring notwithstanding all their Confessions and Absolutions a thousand times repeated they destroy the necessity of a good life 116. Here if the Doctour were asked Does the Catholick Church held the Doctrin here by him reproved He could not say she did because then the express Decision of the Councill of Trent disproves him Where three parts of the Sacrament of Pennance are declared Contrition Confession and Satisfaction Now in two of these the forsaking of sin are contained For Contrition implies a sorrow for sin proceeding from a love of God victorious over sin and consequently a detestation of sin And Satisfaction signifies yet more viz A holy revenge taken by the Penitent upon himself for offending God by denying to himself even Lawfull pleasures because unlawfull ones have tempted him to sin which is a great deale more then Protestants require 117. A disposition one may say inferiour to this required by the Councill served Davids turne who says I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord and thou forgivest the iniquity of my sin I cannot now believe the Doctour will acknowledge that a Sinner repentant of his sins out of a love of God Victorious over the Devill the world and the flesh and weho tstifies that sorrow and that Love by submitting to severe Pennances and Mortifications willing also to declare to his own Confusion his most secret sins with a serious purpose of amendment will thereby be put in a state of pardâ—n and Salvation Especially having received from Gods Authorised Ministers Absolution from his sins Absolution I say pronounced by Commission and Iurisdiction from Christ himself and not such an aery Phantosme of an Absolution as the Doctour interprets to be the applying the Promises of pardon in Scripture to the particular case of dying persons for this saith he is that we mean by Absolution and which say I the Silliest
at the best a few Sensuall incestuous Fryars abroad and Popular Preachers at home yea as we have lately seen even Mechanicks Souldiers or any other ignorant persons actuated by the Spirit of Pride and Licentiousness to begin a Sect fitt for the palats and complexions of Seekers after Novelties 162. Matters therefore standing thus in these later times can any rationall man be perswaded that if any of those Holy Fathers cited by the Doctour had lived among us or if such Heresies had been spred among their Disciples and pretended to have been evidently deduced from Gods Word they would have been so zealous in their Exhortations to a promiscuous reading of Scriptures But how much think we would such their zeale have been cooled in case such an Architect of Principles as the Doctour is had been in Vogue in their times For Principles they are which evidently contain the most pernicious Soule-destroying Heresy that ever assaulted Gods Church Principles which banish Peace Charity Humility and Obedience vtterly from the Church and State Principles which if through Gods judgment they should generally prevaile what think you would become of our Saviours Promise for there would not be left in the world one Church at all true or false Since where every one is acknowledged the only inventer and Iudge of his own Faith there may meet a Multitude but it is no Church none having right over another errour and truth vertue and vice being equally Iustifiable Lastly these are Principles the admirable vanity of which I think was never paralleld by any Heresiarch but a certain Rhetorius mentioned by Philastrius who taught That all Heresies were in their precepts of life innocent and in their Doctrins true Omnes Hereses rectê ambulare vera docere 163. Non sum ambitiosus in malis I may with a good conscience protest that it is only Truth and a Charitable compassion to soules miserably seduced by so Comprehensive a Heresy as is contained in the Dostours Principles which hath moved mee to fix such a brand upon them Not that I suspect that he would approve such consequences but I am confident with all his skill he cannot avoyd them 164. Now I must acquaint the Doctour that my iust indignation against these Principles is heightned from my own unhappines if not guilt in being the first who gave occasion that they should be known and received into the Church of England This I am sure neither he nor perhaps any one now alive does know and therefore I will acquaint him with the true Story concerning them 165. As I remember it was in the year 1638. that I had occasion to accompany a Noble freind in a iourney from Dublin to London When we were ready to return I went to a Booksellers shop to search out some bâ—oks to be carried back into Ireland and among others I bought Daillé du vray usage des Peres a Book at that time not at all taken notice of That Book the same night I shewd to my Noble dear Lord Lucius Lord Falkland who perusing and liking the Contents of it desired me to give it him which I willingly did About a month after my return into Ireland he sent me a most civill letter full of thanks both in his own but especially in M. Chillingworths name for that small present telling me that that litle Book had saved him a most tedious labour of reading almost twenty great Volumes 166. This Mysterious speech I easily understood For M. Chillingworth a litle before was returned out of Flanders where he had professed himself a Catholick and being sent for by Archbishop Laud was strictly examined by him touching his Religion And whether he went to Masse or Common Prayer to whom he gaue this account That he had entertained such scruples touching Catholick Religion and withall was as yet so vnsatisfyed with the grounds of the English Protestant Religion that at the present his conscience would not permitt him to goe either to Masse or to Common Prayer And therefore with his Graces leaue he was resolued to spend a year or two in a solitude and the Study of Greek and Latin Fathers fully purposing to embrace that Religion which appeared to him most consonant to what the Fathers generally taught The Archbishop much commended his design and dismissed him with his blessing and a promise also that he should enioy entire liberty to prosecute so laudable a Study Very busy in this Study I found and left him in England But it was presently after interrupted by that vnlucky Book of Daillé which perswaded him to a light esteem of the Holy Fathers vpon whose authority he would no longer rely But yet this did not bring him into the Church of England so as to think himself obliged to belieue her Doctrins and whose authority he saw was much inferiour to the other and from all subordinate but diuided English Sects he had a horrible aversion and contempt Therefore without any long demurr he fixed his mind vpon Socinian grounds which he afterwards shewed in a litle Book of one of them which was an Answer to certaine Theses Posnanienses which Theses as J remember asserted the Authority of the Catholick Church in opposition whereto the Socinian reiecting all Externall Authority layd these very grounds of his Religion That in all necessary Doctrins the Scripture was clear Therefore euery sober Enquirer might with ease find them in it without any help of a Teacher or at least any obligation to believe him Vpon these grounds M. Chillingworth dilated his Discourses with much art and gracefullness of Stile in his Book against a learned Catholick writer And the same grounds so discoursed on Doctour Stillingfleet has contracted Methodically into his Principles And both these Books though manifestly destroying all Authority in the English or any other Church haue been patiently and quietly suffred yea commended by Superiours here to their infinit dammage as is seene at this day which dammage is J belieue more sensible to them since they see no considerable prejudice to Catholicks by them for J doe not remember to haue heard of any one Established Catholick Shaken in his Faith by such grounds Though I confess they obctructed a good while my entrance into the Catholick Church 167. Now it being certain that these Princi ples came originally into England from the Socinians a Sect maintaining a Fundamentall Heresy it is of small edification and less glory to the English Church in case as the Doctour pretends his Faith and hers are built on the same Principles that she should consequently acknowledge herself forced to desert the grounds vpon which she proceeded since the Reformation as being grounds by M. Chillingworths discovery found to be Sandy and ruinous and consequently acknowledge all her Articles of belief all her Laws Constitutions Canons c. misgrounded The consideration of this besides disreputation cannot but raise great Scruples in the minds of her Disciples and Subiects till she not only disavow