this supreme obliging power in matters of faith and manners and upon the same ground hath always esteemed such hereticks in a damnable condition who have not as well beleeved or adhered to her proposals in faith in one subject as in another and as well to the end of the world as in the primitive times But they say that the burden of Christian religion will be greater then of the Jewes and intollerable if all are obliged to every declared truth in the Church which is contrary to Christ who saith Mat. 11. that his yoak is sweet and his burden is light This is easily answered in order to the Community of Christians whose implicite faith in the superstructures is sufficient according to the generally taught and received doctrin of Doctors Pastors indeed and Doctors have higher obligations to be able to give an account of their faith which obligation is much alleviated by the Synopses of Faith which the Church clearly and yet very contractedly propounds to keep them principally from misunderstanding the holy mysteries of our faith This is the weightiest objection which I finde in Mr. Hobb's besides those which I shall presently touch St. Chrysostome in his 10. homily upon St. Mathew in the person of Christ complaines of Mr. Hobbs Nolite de difficultate conqueri quesi qui doctrinam meam molestam esse dicatis we must not say Christ's doctrin is troublesome least with the Capharnaits we be committed abire retro to be put in the back side of Christ's book Surely St. August found Christian religion in another posture then Mr. Hobbs would have it in his 5. Chapter to Volusian Where he saith that Tanta est Christianarum profunditas literarum ut in eis quotidie proficerem si eas solas ab ineunte pueritia usque ad de erepitam senectutem maximo otio summa studio meliori ingenio conarer addiscere c. He experienced the mysteries of Christianity far to transcend the synagogue he esteemed his whole life though it were imployed in nothing else not to suffice for a perfect understanding of Christian profundities surely they were not so vulgar as Mr. Hebbs would have them There was among the Jewes a difference in points of faith some were ut adirces as the foundation of the rest the denying whereof would have destroyed the whole law others as rami branches where the danger was not so considerable These R. Menassieth in the beginning of his Treatise of the creation of the world declareth So in Christian Religion some things are simply necessary without which heaven is not to be gotten as the faith of Christ c. which our school-men place sub necessitate medij that is as absolutely necessary of which sort there are not so many Other things are necessary onely ex suppositione that is upon supposition that they are made known to us or sufficiently declared then there is necessitas praecepti a command to imbrace them and surely this is no great burden I will also touch that impertinent objection of the Socinians that the Church of Christ is a congregation of all Christians or of all who beleeve in Christ and not of any select body of them and consequently there are no hereticks to be declared so by any sentence of the Church but onely those are hereticks who by their own judgement are such as the Apostle speaketh That is such who against their own judgment do resist known truths not such who by a councel or body of men are declared such This to beleevers is easily made evident to be impious First That Christ hath a Church he hath said it that he also hath instructed her with a regitive power he hath also said it and said both together in these words Dic Ecclesiae and therefore addeth to such as obey not her decrees si eam non audierit sit tibi tanquam Ethnicus et publicanus we must complain to the Church for emergencies and she hath power to excommunicate if we obey not If this be true as it is in other crimes and causes it will easily conclude in the chiefest crime of heresie else we must blasphemously say that Christ hath made provision for the lesser difficulties and not for greater which is to condemn his omniscience or providence Again this regitive power is confirmed in the acts and attributes to the Holy Ghost Spiritus Sanctus vos constituit Episcopes regere Ecclesiam Dei Of this the new Testament in doctrin and practise is aboundant Further that the Church hath power to declare hereticks is evident besides the immediate consequence of it out of Christs words related out of the doctrin and practise of the Apostles They did teach how or did institute the manner post secundam monitionem to declare and excommunicate for heresie they also did declare de facto hereticks as is evident in almost all their Epistles and the Apocalipss and did forbid all commerce with them which is to excommunicate which they did for their false and seditious tenents or innovations in faith as is clear in the texts whence it followeth first that the Church hath this power as first Simon Magus for teaching it lawful to buy the Holy Ghost Secondly the Jewish Christians who taught it lawful to use Sacramental circumcision under Christ were excommunicated by St. John c. Whence it followes secondly that the Church is not a body of all Christians but of all who do joyn in the unity and integrity of faith else if declared by the Church to be hereticks they are no longer of her because by authority derived by Christ they are cast out of her Their own interior guilt will serve to accuse them in the Court of God in Heaven but it is the judicatory act of the Church upon their pertinacy which condemneth them in Earth and this sentence is confirmed in Heaven Quaecunque alligaveritis c. Mr. Hobbs in his 18. Chapter n. 2. requires two vertues necessary to Salvation Faith and Obedience Faith hath no other latitude in her acts then to beleeve Jesus to be Christ n. 5 6. and so forward Besides internal faith he saith that there is necessarily required a profession of many other articles which summarily are contracted compacted into that we call the Creed As he had touched before Chap. 17. n. 21. and afterward more fully in his Annotations to the number 6. Yet he esteemed not Christians bound to beleeve but to profess these if required This seems a bull in Christianity to be bound to profess in matter of belief what I am not bound to beleeve yet this he asserts Chap. 18. n. 6. necessary to salvation out of title of obedience That is I am bound to profess that I do beleeve what I am not bound to beleeve I propound this to Mr. Hobb's second thoughts he boggles much upon it in his Annotations utters evident contradictions and yet he comes not off Nay he saith ch 18. n. 14. that it is enough if one endeavour
my designe His proof is because every man in his private worship before the City was made was to be guided by his private reason which therfore he might submit to the publick reason of the Common-wealth If this be true in point of reason as Mr. Hobbs much contendeth in order to the civil Magistrate how much more will this be concluded in respect of spiritual Magistracy to whom this power is conveyed not from the people but from God as Christianity teacheth Mr. Hobbs goeth far beyond this for he will have each one to be obedient to his Civil Church even in things clearly unlawful as he tells us in his 15. Chap. num 18. and elsewhere frequently Thus they condemn Christian obedience in things most congtuous to Christian reason and yet authorise their own tribunals contrary to faith and reason Mr. Hobbs saith n. 17. That except the power of determining Gods worship were in the law of nature translated to the City or Magistracy that there would be infinite sects divisions and consequently confusions in it and therefore he saith consequently enough that every man must submit to it The antecedent I understand not for the law of nature is a law declared according even to him n. 3. Pertacita rectae rationis dictamina by the secret suggestions of right reason in which he differs not from Cicero Lex naturae est ipsa ratio summa insita in natura quae jubét ea quae faeienda sunt prohibetque contraria c. It is not so much declared by reason as it is reason it self in the highest acception seated in nature and it is therefore called Lex naturae because nature signifieth a certain common vertue which impels all men to a general prosecution of good avoydance of evil whence they cannot will any thing under the pure notion of evil In brief the Law or light of nature radically is a power in the soul universally commanding the pursuit of good and declination of evil answerable to the first principles of reason And therefore speaking rigidly the soul in her creation is not so purely tabula rasa a bare table according to Aristotle and his followers Plato and his whole school she is enriched with universal principles which are called primae Conceptiones unresistable principles which have no other proofs then the true apprehension of the terms or extremes united and therefore are primò verae as Aristotle declares these are the first truths in which men cannot differ in use of reason for otherwise if they should fail in these it were in vain to expect any subsequent discourses in superstructures but as their discourses would enlarge so would their errors out of these nature frames her commands universally which is the Law of nature taken formally Whence it follows that in this matter of greatest concernment to humane nature Namely the worship of God there needs no translation of power from each particular person to the City or whole body of men because it is as intimately connatural to each as to all to know what the law of nature dictates by the constant and secret suggestions of reason what is to be done and what is to be avoided as Cicero tells us whence principally comes that we call Synderesis or check of Conscience else it is not a law of nature but some superstructure improperly called natures law which inseperably is infused into the soul to all who have a soul not hindred in her opperations But herein many erre who confound the hypotheses with the principles whence they are deducted that is remoter conclusions with the first which are immediate and serve as principles to all others The Law or light of natures therefore immediately dictates that God is to be worshiped and none can be ignorant of it that know the signification of the terms neither can they be ignorant that Gods worship must be performed in the best manner Thus far Cicero his Summa ratio pure reason convinceth men cannot disagree in this for as Cicoro notes non opinione sed natura constitutum est jus This depends not on opinion which is always ambiguous but is a law as constant and evident as the law of nature But because our natural knowledge of God is deducted only from his creatures for the objects of our understanding in this present condition of conjunction of the soul with the body are onely material or sensible natures deduced from our senses hence our reason cannot reach to know the manner of Gods worship because that onely is best which is pleasing to him note converse that is pleasing to him which we judge to be the best though out of this mistake each nation proceeding or rather standing as we say in their own light differed from each other and every one from truth in determining Gods worship To say therefore as Mr. Hobbs often inculcateth that every particular man must submit to the whole body for determination of this seems to be as impertinent a doctrin as to oblige every blind man to have an inquest of blind men to determine what colour any things were of to whose blind judgment every man should submit though as Aristotle tells us Caeaus non judicat de coloribus The thing were wholy out of their Sphere The determination therefore of the manner of divine worship can onely be had from God because none can know his will but himself For as Mr. Hobbs rightly teacheth n. 14. c. 15. Gods will is not to be thought similis nostrae like to ours but it is to be supposed to have onely some Analogy with ours quod condipere non possumus which our understand can not reach to Which is also Aristotle's Averroes and the best Philosophers doctrin Whence it follows that none can know what man nor of worship inmost agreeable conse quently what is best These wholy transcend our sphere and therefore Christian Divivines most reasonably hold it necessary to have supernaturally revealed truthes communicated to man-kinde to direct them in Gods worship and surely it were as high and pecoaminous presumption in any to offer to determinate this as the building of Babels Tower of which nothing could be expected but eternal confusion Whence it follows that never any worship pleased God which was not inspired by himself no not in the state of nature Mr. Hobbs must therefore retract his injuriously traslated power to his Common-wealth and teach his Disciples to seek this knowledge from God even under the law of nature As now Catholicks observe in all worship exhibited to the Divinity especially directed in all these supernaturals by the Church from which they receive Gods orders Aristotle indeed acknowledgeth the force of an argument drawn from authority to be very estimable even in schools and therefore we may adhere to so great authority as the Church even in reason But those who cannot overcome their own tenuous reasons by overpoising them with so great authority as the Church certainly must either be mad that
is hurt in their fancies as I have observed some though otherwise able to make unbroken discourses in other matters of less concernment which is easily possible according to Philosophy or else God for other sins blindeth their understandings as he did Pharoah's which obstacle they must labour to remove that they may learn to obey God in his Church else their condition will be every way most miserable if they obey not for want of Christian humility they are in evident danger of hell if they do obey they are in danger because they do against Conscience but the remedy of this is at hand if they relinquish their own judgments not by satisfying which they pretend they cannot do but by captivating to a sure Authority Certainly wicked fury hath made and increased this Schism for granting which is my second answer to the former objection that when unity cannot be kept without detriment of eternal Salvation it may and ought to be broken without sin but when by the conservation of unity no detriment of salvation is incurred and that if this also may be obtained by persevering in unity then at least there shall be no lawful cause to break unity and those who break it do incur certain damnation for sacrilegious Schism But now Protestants remaining in union with the Church of Rome should have suffered no detriment of their eternal Salvation but had been in a certain way to arrive unto it As we have shewed before by their own confession that Catholicks persevering in the same unity may attain unto salvation wherefore it manifestly followeth that they without any cause went out of the Church wherein they might have been saved and cast themselves and their followers into the state of damnation according to that of St. Augustine De unit Eccl. c. 19. None come unto Salvation and life everlasting except he hath Christ for his head and none can have Christ for his head except he he in his body which is the Church Again which is chiefly to be pondered and always to be repeated those damnable doctrins as they call them taught in the Church of Rome ought to have been declared by a general Councel and not by themselves who are the least if any part of the Church Otherwise if it should be lawful for every one to accuse the Church his mother of Heresie and to leave her without any other discussing of the cause a gate should be open to all Heresies the Church of God would be trodden under foot yea all Christianity fall to ruine this hath been the plea of all separatists which they thought sufficiently proved if onely accusing of error be proving as in the cause of England D. Bilson and Covell teach the necessities of Synods in these things the first part p. 374. the other p. 110. And that which another replied first that England might sufficiently judge of heresies newly brought in seeing it is matter of fact to wit whether this or the other doctrin came down from our Fathers Grandfathers c. or whether it were heard of but yesterday or the day before for this even children may perceive The second point also which he not onely by mouth but by pen now frequent in other hands so much urged saying that it is not needful to call a general Councel since by your confessions as Cressy fol. 443. seemeth to insinuate that there is no infallable power in them A doctrin which I was glad to finde amongst you yet I wondred at it being already repugnant to what I had read in your former authors as D. Stapleton and D. Stratford of the Church and of late in a book made by a Country-man of ours in Latine called Systema Fidei Cressie's words are these No man will endeavour to oblige them further then c. to beleeve an obliging authority in the Catholick Church let is be limitted and confined as straitly and with as many provises as any Catholick or indeed any resonable man shall think good I say according to this power of defining and establishing faith it is to no purpose to call a general Councel to declare heresies when every ignorant fellow can do as much in order to the verity of declaring though perhaps not in order to the coercive manner of declaring yea in the very power it self for asmuch as according to this position of Cressy the power of the Church in this particular may be restrained by any silly fellow c. Thus far this Author To these I answer For asmuch as concerneth matter of fact every nation may witness what they have recived but they cannot make infallable discernment of matters of Faith without the supreme judgment of the whole Church in whose onely mouth there can be no errors which is our principal question Many things are conveyed to posterity which are not matters of Faith sometimes not of truth this the Church onely suerly determines To the second objection out of Gressy I answer that his words though very harsh yet in my judgment they may receive a more favourable gloss upon connexion with the other parts of his discourse He doth indeed to much even suspiciously savour of his old friendship with that vertiginous and flashy Apostata Chillingworth a man whom few examples have paralel'd in often turning religion But Cressy wrote this book in Neophitism not being yet fully instructed in the mysteries of our holy faith as St. Hierome noteth of Arnobius which therefore is more excusable in him though he should express his not throughly digested conceits hardly endugh consistent with the verities of the Catholick faith I do not beleeve that his intention was so soon to play the master in teaching what he had not perfectly learned which had been too preposterous 〈◊〉 this whole books 〈◊〉 to give the History or gradation of his conversion how he did reach from one degree to another and how he gathereth the sence of our doctrin and Doctors in his passage wherein as I said it is no wonder if being a Neophite he should boggle in his manner of explication as his expression seemeth to do in this but where he now is he will better and more fully inform himself and I doubt not but wil rectifie those passages which savour of mistakes Neither doth it avail much though many here stumble at these and other of his passages for St. Hier saith ep 76. I think Origen to be read So sometimes for application as Tertullian Novatus Apollinaris Cressy and many more Ecclesiastical writers both Greek and Latin that we may choose what is good in them and avoid the contrary There are some very good things in that book though intermixt with other passages more harsh as he seems to express them which a prudent reader may pick out and discern to his profit It remaineth therefore firm and certain that our Country men are bound under the pain of Schism and rebellion to reunite themselves unto the Church of Rome their mother as