never receive any other Symbol then that which was composd by the Nicene Fathers And however Honorius was condemnd for a Monothelite yet in one of the Epistles which the sixth Synod alledged against him viz. the second he gave them counsell that would have done the Church as much service as the determination of the Article did for he advised them not to be curious in their disputings nor dogmaticall in their determinations about that Question and because the Church was not used to dispute in that Question it were better to preserve the simplicity of Faith then to ensnare mens consciences by a new Article And when the Emperour Constantius was by his Faction engaged in a contrary practise the inconvenience and unreasonablenesse was so great that a prudent Heathen observed and noted it in this character of Constantius Christianam religionem absolutam simplicem N. B. anili superstitione confudit In quâ scrutandâ perplexiùs quam in componendà gratiùs excitavit dissidia quae progressa fusiùs aluit concertatione verborum dum ritum omnem ad suum trahere conatur arbitrium And yet men are more lead by Example then either by Reason or by Precept for in the Councell of Constantinople one Numb 35. Article de novo integro was added viz. I believe one Baptism for the remission of sinnes and then againe they were so confident that that Confession of Faith was so absolutely intire and that no man ever after should neede to adde any thing to the integrity of Faith that the Fathers of the Councell of Ephesus pronounced Anathema to all those that should adde any thing to the Creed of Constantinople And yet for all this the Church of Rome in a Synod at Gentilly added the clause of Filioque to the Article of the procession of the holy Ghost and what they have done since all the world knowes Exempla non consistunt sed quamvis in tenuem recepta tramitem latissimè evagandi sibi faciunt potestatem All men were perswaded that it was most reasonable the limits of Faith should be no more enlarged but yet they enlarged it themselves and bound others from doing it like an intemperate Father who because he knowes he does ill himselfe enjoyns temperance to his Son but continues to be intemperate himselfe But now if I should be questioned concerning the Symbol of Numb 36. Athanasius for we see the Nicene Symbol was the Father of many more some twelve or thirteen Symbols in the space of a hundred years I confesse I cannot see that moderate sentence and gentlenesse of charity in his Preface and Conclusion as there was in the Nicene Creed Nothing there but damnation and perishing everlastingly unlesse the Article of the Trinity be believed as it is there with curiosity and minute particularities explaind Indeed Athanasius had been soundly vexed on one side and much cryed up on the other and therefore it is not so much wonder for him to be so decretory and severe in his censure for nothing could more ascertain his friends to him and dis-repute his enemies then the beliefe of that damnatory Appendix but that does not justifie the thing For the Articles themselves I am most heartily perswaded of the truth of them and yet I dare not say all that are not so are irrevocably damnd because citra hoc Symbolum the Faith of the Apostles Creed is intire and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved that is he that believeth such a beliefe as is sufficient disposition to be baptized that Faith with the Sacrament is sufficient for heaven Now the Apostles Creed does one why therefore doe not both intitle us to the promise Besides if it were considered concerning Athanasius Creed how many people understand it not how contrary to naturall reason it seems how little the * Vide Hosum de author S. Scrip. l. 3. p. 53. Gordon Huntlaeum Tom. 1. controv 1. de verbo Dei cap. 19. Scripture sayes of those curiosities of Explication and how Tradition was not cleare on his side for the Article it selfe much lesse for those formes and minutes how himselfe is put to make an answer and excuse for the †Vide Gretser Tanner in coloq Ratisbon Eusebium fuisse Arrianum ait Perron lib. 3. cap. 2. contre le Roy Iaques Idem ait Originem negasse Divinitatem filii Spir. S. l. 2. c. 7. de Euchar. contra Duplessis idem cap. 5. observ 4. ait Irenaeum talia dixifle quae qui hodiè diceret pro Arriano reputaretur vide etiam Fisher. in resp ad 9. Quaest. Iacobi Reg. Epiphan in haeres 69. Fathers speaking in favour of the Arrians at least so seemingly that the Arrians appeald to them for tryall and the offer was declind and after all this that the Nicene Creed it selfe went not so farre neither in Article nor Anathema nor Explication it had not been amisse if the finall judgement had been left to Jesus Christ for he is appointed Judge of all the World and he shall Judge the people righteously for he knowes every truth the degree of every necessity and all excuses that doe lessen or take away the nature or malice of a crime all which I think Athanasius though a very good man did not know so well as to warrant such a sentence And put case the heresy there condemnd be damnable as it is damnable enough yet a man may maintain an opinion that is in it selfe damnable and yet he not knowing it so and being invincibly lead into it may goe to heaven his opinion shall burn and himselfe be saved But however I finde no opinions in Scripture cald damnable but what are impious in materiâ practicâ or directly destructive of the Faith or the body of Christianity such of which S. Peter speaks bringing in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them these are the false Prophets who out of covetousnesse make 2 Pet. 2. 1. merchandise of you through cozening words Such as these are truly heresies and such as these are certainly damnable But because there are no degrees either of truth or salshood every true proposition being alike true that an errour is more or lesse damnable is not told us in Scripture but is determind by the man and his manners by circumstance and accidents and therefore the censure in the Preface and end are Arguments of his zeal and strength of his perswasion but they are extrinsecall and accidentall to the Articles and might as well have been spared And indeed to me it seems very hard to put uncharitablenesse into the Creed and so to make it become as an Article of Faith though perhaps this very thing was no Faith of Athanasius who if we may believe Aquinas made this manifestation of Faitth non per modum Symboli sed per modum doctrinae D. Tho. 22 ae q. 1. artic 1. ad â—um that is if I understood him right not with a purpose
this often hapned I think S. Austin is the chiefe Argument and Authority we have for the Assumption of the Virgin Mary the Baptism of Infants is called a Tradition by Origen alone at first and from Salmeron disput 51. in Rom. him by others The procession of the holy Ghost from the Sonne which is an Article the Greek Church disavowes derives from the Tradition Apostolicall as it is pretended and yet before S. Austin we heare nothing of it very cleerly or certainly for as much as that whole mystery concerning the blessed Spirit was so little explicated in Scripture and so little derived to them by Tradition that till the Councell of Nice you shall hardly find any form of worship or personall addresse of devotion to the holy Spirit as Erasmus observes and I think the contrary will very hardly be verified And for this particular in which I instance whatsoever is in Scripture concerning it is against that which the Church of Rome calls Tradition which makes the Greeks so confident as they are of the point and is an Argument of the vanity of some things which for no greater reason are called Traditions but because one man hath said so and that they can be proved by no better Argument to be true Now in this case wherein Tradition descends upon us with unequall certainty it would be very unequall to require of us an absolute beliefe of every thing not written for feare we be accounted to slight Tradition Apostolicall And since no thing can require our supreme assent but that which is truly Catholike and Apostolike and to such a Tradition is requir'd as Irenaeus sayes the consent of all those Churches which the Apostles planted and where they did preside this topick will be of so little use in judging heresies that besides what is deposited in Scripture it cannot be proved in any thing but in the Canon of Scripture it selfe and as it is now received even in that there is some variety And therefore there is wholy a mistake in this businesse for when the Fathers appeal to Tradition and with much earnestnesse Numb 8. and some clamour they call upon Hereticks to conform to or to be tryed by Tradition it is such a Tradition as delivers the fundamentall points of Christianity which were also recorded in Scripture But because the Canon was not yet perfectly consign'd they call'd to that testimony they had which was the testimony of the Churches Apostolicall whose Bishops and Priests being the Antistites religionis did believe and preach Christian Religion and conserve all its great mysteries according as they had been taught Irenaeus calls this a Tradition Apostolicall Christum accepisse calicem dixisse sanguinem suum esse docuisse novam oblationem novi Testamenti quam Ecclesia per Apostolos accipiens offert per totum mundum And the Fathers in these Ages confute Hereticks by Ecclesiasticall Tradition that is they confront against their impious and blaspemous doctrines that Religion which the Apostles having taught to the Churches where they did preside their Successors did still preach and for a long while together suffered not the enemy to sow tares amongst their wheat And yet these doctrines which they called Traditions were nothing but such fundamentall truths which were in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Irenaeus in Eusebius observes in the instance of Polycarpus and it is manifest by considering Lib. 5. cap. 20. what heresies they fought against the heresies of Ebion Cerinthus Nicolaitans Valentinians Carpocratians persons that Vid. Irenae l. 3 4. cont haeres denyed the Sonne of God the Unity of the God-head that preached impurity that practised Sorcery and Witch-craft And now that they did rather urge Tradition against them then Scripture was because the publike Doctrine of all the Apostolicall Churches was at first more known and famous then many parts of the Scripture and because some Hereticks denyed S. Lukes Gospel some received none but S. Matthews some rejected all S. Pauls Epistles and it was a long time before the whole Canon was consign'd by universall Testimony some Churches having one part some another Rome her selfe had not all so that in this case the Argument from Tradition was the most famous the most certain and the most prudent And now according to this rule they had more Traditions then we have and Traditions did by degrees lessen as they came to be written and their necessity was lesse as the knowledge of them was ascetained to us by a better Keeper of Divine Truths All that great mysteriousnesse of Christs Priest-hood the unity of his Sacrifice Christs Advocation and Intercession for us in Heaven and many other excellent Doctrines might very well be accounted Traditions before S. Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews was publish'd to all the World but now they are written truths and if they had not possibly we might either have lost them quite or doubted of them as we doe of many other Traditions by reason of the insufficiency of the propounder And therefore it was that S. Peter took order that the Gospel 2 Pet. 1. 13. should be Writ for he had promised that he would doe something which after his decease should have these things in remembrance He knew it was not safe trusting the report of men where the fountain might quickly run dry or be corrupted so insensibly that no cure could be found for it nor any just notice taken of it till it were incurable And indeed there is scarce any thing but what is written in Scripture that can with any confidence of Argument pretend to derive from the Apostles except ritualls and manners of ministration but no doctrines or speculative mysteries are so transmitted to us by so cleer a current that we may see a visible channell and trace it to the Primitive fountaines It is said to be a Tradition Apostolicall that no Priest should baptize without chrism and the command of the Bishop Suppose it were yet we cannot be oblig'd to believe it with much confidence because we have but little proofe for it scarce any thing but the single testimony of S. Hierom. And yet if it were this is but a rituall of which in passing by I shall give that account That Dialog adv Lucifer suppose this and many more ritualls did derive clearly from Tradition Apostolicall which yet but very few doe yet it is hard that any Church should be charged with crime for not observing such ritualls because we see some of them which certainly did derive from the Apostles are expir'd and gone out in a desuetude such as are abstinence from blood and from things strangled the coenobitick life of secular persons the colledge of widowes to worship standing upon the Lords day to give milk and honey to the newly baptized and many more of the like nature now there having been no mark to distinguish the necessity of one from the indifferency of the other they are all
of the present distemperatures and necessities by my own thoughts by the Questions and Scruples the Sects and names the interests and animosities which at this day and for some years past have exercised and disquieted Christendome Thus farre I discourst my selfe into imployment and having come thus farre I knew not how to get farther for I had heard of a great experience how difficult it was to make Brick without Straw and here I had even seene my design blasted in the bud and I despaired in the Calends of doing what I purposed in the Ides before For I had no Books of my own here nor any in the voisinage and but that I remembred the result of some of those excellent Discourses I had heard your Lordship make when I was so happy as in private to gather up what your temperance and modesty forbids to be publick I had come in praelia inermis and like enough might have far'd accordingly I had this only advantage besides that I have chosen a Subject in which if my own reason does not abuse me I needed no other books or aides then what a man carries with him on horse-back I meane the common principles of Christianity and those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which men use in the transactions of the ordinary occurrences of civill society and upon the strength of them and some other collaterall assistances I have run through it utcunque and the sum of the following Discourses is nothing but the sense of these words of Scripture That since we know in part and prophesy in part 1 Cor. 13. and that now we see through a glasse darkly wee should not despise or contemn persons not so knowing as our selves but him that is weak in the faith Rom. 14. we should receive but not to doubtfull disputations Therefore certainly to charity and not to vexations not to those which are the idle effects of impertinent wranglings And provided they keep close to the foundation which is Faith and Obedience let them build upon this foundation matter more or lesse precious yet if the foundation be intire they shall be saved with or without losse And since we professe our selves servants of so meek a Master and Disciples of so charitable an Institute Let us walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long suffering forbearing Ephes. 4. 2 3. one another in love for this is the best endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit when it is fast tyed in the bond of peace And although it be a duty of Christianity that we all speak the 1 Cor. 1. 10. same thing that there be no divisions among us but that we be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement yet this unity is to bee estimated according to the unity of faith in things necessary in matters of Creed and Articles fundamentall for as for other things it is more to be wished then to be hoped for there are some doubtfull Disputations and in such the Scribe the Rom. 14. Wise the Disputer of this world are most commonly very farre from certainty and many times from truth There are diversity of perswasions in matters adiaphorous as meats and drinks and holy dayes c. and both parties the affirmative and the negative affirm and deny with innocence enough for the observer and he that observes not intend both to God and God is our common Master we all fellow servants and not the judge of each other in matters of conscience or doubtfull Disputation And every man that hath faith must have it to himselfe before God but no man must either in such matters judge his brother or set him at nought but let us follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another And the way to doe that is not by knowledge but by charity for knowledge puffeth up but 1 Cor. 8. 1. charity edifieth and since there is not in every man the same knowledge but the conscience of some are Vers. 7. weak as my liberty must not be judged of another 1 Cor. 10. 29. mans weak conscience so must not I please my selfe so much in my right opinion but I must also take order that his weak conscience be not offended or despised for no man must seek his own but every man Ibid anothers wealth And although we must contend earnestly for the faith yet above all things we must put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse And therefore this contention must be with arms fit for the Christian warfare the sword of the Spirit and the shield of Faith and preparation of the Gospel of peace instead of shooes and a helmet of salvation but not with Colos. 3. 14. other armes for a Church-man must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a striker for the weapons of our warfare are not carnall but spirituall and the persons that use them ought to be gentle and easy to be intreated and we must give an account of our faith to them that ask us with meeknesse and humility for so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men These and thousands more to the same purpose are the Doctrines of Christianity whose sense and intendment I have prosecuted in the following Discourse being very much displeased that so many opinions and new doctrines are commenc'd among us but more troubled that every man that hath an opinion thinks his own and other mens salvation is concern'd in its maintenance but most of all that men should be persecuted and afflicted for disagreeing in such opinions which they cannot with sufficient grounds obtrude upon others necessarily because they cannot propound them infallibly and because they have no warrant from Scripture so to doe For if I shall tie other men to believe my opinion because I think I have place of Scripture which seems to warrant it to my understanding why may he not serve up another dish to me in the same dresse and exact the same task of me to believe the contradictory And then since all the Hereticks in the world have offered to prove their Articles by the same meanes by which true believers propound theirs it is necessary that some separation either of Doctrine or of persons be clearly made that all pretences may not be admitted nor any just Allegations be rejected and yet that in some other Questions whether they be truly or falsly pretended if not evidently or demonstratively there may be considerations had to the persons of men and to the Laws of charity more then to the triumphing in any opinion or doctrine not simply necessary Now because some doctrines are clearly not necessary and some are absolutely necessary why may not the first separation be made upon this difference and Articles necessary be only urg'd as necessary and the rest left to men indifferently as they
Polamo Alexandrinus sic primus philosophatus est ut ait Laërtius in Proëmio unde cognominatus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what truths we can and a charitable and mutuall permission to others that disagree from us and our opinions I am sure this may satisfie us for it will secure us but I know not any thing else that will and no man can be reasonably perswaded or satisfied in any thing else unlesse he throwes himselfe upon chance or absolute predestination or his own confidence in every one of which it is two to one at least but he may miscarry Thus farre I thought I had reason on my side and I suppose I have made it good upon its proper grounds in the pages following But then if the result be that men must be permitted in their opinions and that Christians must not Persecute Christians I have also as much reason to reprove all those oblique Arts which are not direct Persecutions of mens persons but they are indirect proceedings ungentle and unchristian servants of faction and interest provocations to zeal and animosities and destructive of learning and ingenuity And these are suppressing all the monuments of their Adversaries forcing them to recant and burning their Books For it is a strange industry and an importune diligence that was used by our fore-fathers of all those Heresies which gave them battle and imployment we have absolutely no Record or Monument but what themselves who were Adversaries have transmitted to us and we know that Adversaries especially such who observ'd all opportunities to discredit both the persons and doctrines of the Enemy are not alwayes the best records or witnesses of such transactions We see it now in this very Age in the present distemperatures that parties are no good Registers of the actions of the adverse side And if we cannot be confident of the truth of a story now now I say that it is possible for any man and likely that the interessed adversary will discover the imposture it is farre more unlikely that after Ages should know any other truth but such as serves the ends of the representers I am sure such things were never taught us by Christ and his Apostles and if we were sure that our selves spoke truth or that truth were able to justifie her selfe it were better if to preserve a Doctrine wee did not destroy a Commandement and out of zeale pretending to Christian Religion loose the glories and rewards of ingenuity and Christian simplicity Of the same consideration is mending of Authors not to their own mind but to ours that is to mend them so as to spoile them forbidding the publication of Books in which there is nothing impious or against the publick interest leaving out clauses in Translations disgracing mens persons charging disavowed Doctrins upon men and the persons of the men with the consequents of their Doctrine which they deny either to be true or to be consequent false reporting of Disputations and Conferences burning Books by the hand of the hang-man and all such Arts which shew that we either distrust God for the maintenance of his truth or that we distrust the cause or distrust our selves and our abilities I will say no more of these but only concerning the last I shall transcribe a passage out of Tacitus in the life of Iulius Agricola who gives this account of it Veniam non petissem nisi incursaturus tam saeva infesta virtutibus tempora Legimus cum Aruleno Ruslico Paetus Thrasea Herennio Senecioni Priscus Helvidius laudatt essent capitale fuisse neque in ipsos modo authores sed in libros quoque eorum saevitum delegato Triumviris ministerio ut monumenta clarissimorum ingeniorum in comitio ac foro urerentur scil illo igne vocem populi Rom. libertatem Senatus conscientiam generis humani aboleri arbitrabantur expulsis insuper sapientiae professoribus at que omni bonâ arte in exilium actâ ne quid usquam honestum occurreret It is but an illiterate Policy to think that such indirect and uningenuous proceedings can amongst wise and free-men disgrace the Authors and disrepute their Discourses And I have seen that the price hath been trebled upon a forbidden or a condemn'd Book and some men in policy have got a prohibition that their impression might be the more certainly vendible and the Author himselfe thought considerable The best way is to leave tricks and devices and to fall upon that way which the best Ages of the Church did use With the strength of Argument and Allegations of Scripture and modesty of deportment and meeknesse and charity to the persons of men they converted misbelievers stopped the mouthes of Adversaries asserted truth and discountenanced errour and those other stratagems and Arts of support and maintenance to Doctrines were the issues of hereticall braines the old Catholicks had nothing to secure themselves but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of truth and plaine dealing Eidem minutis dissecant ambagibus Ut quisque linguâ est ne quior Solvunt ligantque quaestionum vincula Per syllogismos plectiles Prudent apotheos hym in infidel Vae captiosis Sycophantarum strophis Vae versipelli astutiae Nodos tenaces recta rumpit regula Infesta discertantibus Idcirco mundi slulta deligit Deus Ut concidant Sophistica And to my understanding it is a plain Art and design of the Devill to make us so in love with our own opinions as to call them Faith and Religion that we may be proud in our understanding and besides that by our zeale in our opinions we grow coole in our piety and practicall duties he also by this earnest contention does directly destroy good life by engagement of Zealots to do any thing rather then be overcome and loose their beloved propositions But I would faine know why is not any vitious habit as bad or worse then a false opinion Why are we so zealous against those we call Hereticks and yet great friends with drunkards and fornicators swearers and intemperate and idle persons Is it because we are commanded by the Apostle to reject a Heretick after two admonitions and not to bid such a one God speed It is a good reason why we should be zealous against such persons provided we mistake them not For those of whom these Apostles speak are such as deny Christ to be come in the flesh such as deny an Article of Creed and in such odious things it is not safe nor charitable to extend the gravamen and punishment beyond the instances the Apostles make or their exact parallels But then also it would be remembred that the Apostles speak as fiercely against communion with fornicators and all disorders practicall as against communion with Hereticks If any man that is called a brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one no not to eat I am certain that a Drunkard is as contrary to
Corinth of eating Idoll Sacrifices expresly against the Decree at Jerusalem so it were without scandall And yet for all this care and curious discretion a little of the leaven still remain'd All this they thought did so concern the Gentiles that it was totally impertinent to the Iewes still they had a distinction to satisfie the letter of the Apostles Decree and yet to persist in their old opinion and this so continued that fifteene Christian Bishops in succession Euseb. l. 4. Eccles. hist. c. 5. were circumcised even untill the destruction of Jerusalem under Adrian as Eusebius reports First By the way let me observe that never any matter of Numb 4. Question in the Christian Church was determin'd with greater solennity or more full authority of the Church then this Question concerning Circumcision No lesse than the whole Colledge of the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem and that with a Decree of the highest sanction Visum est spiritui sancto nobis Secondly Either the case of the Hebrewes in particular was omitted and no determination concerning them 2. whether it were necessary or lawfull for them to be circumcised or else it was involv'd in the Decree and intended to oblige the Jewes If it was omitted since the Question was de re necessaria for dico vobis I Paul say unto you If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing it is very remarkable how the Apostles to gaine the Iewes and to comply with their violent projudice in behalfe of Moses Law did for a time Tolerate their dissent etiam in re aliôquin necessariâ which I doubt not but was intended as a precedent for the Church to imitate for ever after But if it was not omitted either all the multitude of the Iewes which S. James then Act. 21. 20. their Bishop expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou seest how many myriads of Jewes that believe and yet are zelots for the Law and Eusebius speaking of Justus sayes he was one ex infinit â multitudine L. 3. 32. Eccles. Hist. eorum qui ex circumcisione in Jesum credebant I say all these did perish and their believing in Christ serv'd them to no other ends but in the infinity of their torments to upbraid them with hypocrisie and heresie or if they were sav'd it is apparent how mercifull God was and pitifull to humane infirmities that in a point of so great concernment did pity their weaknesse and pardon their errors and love their good minde since their prejudice was little lesse than insuperable and had faire probabilities at least it was such as might abuse a wise and good man and so it did many they did bono aâ—imâ— carrare And if I mistake not this consideration S. Paul urg'd as a reason why God forgave him who was a Persecutor 1. Tim. 1. of the Saints because he did it ignorantly in unbelief that is he was not convinc'd in his understanding of the truth of the way which he persecuted he in the meane while remaining in that incredulity not out of malice or ill ends but the mistakes of humanity and a pious zeale therefore God had mercy on him And so it was in this great Question of circumcision here only was the difference the invincibility of S. Paul's error and the honesty of his heart caused God so to pardon him as to bring him to the knowledge of Christ which God therefore did because it was necessary necessitate medii no salvation was consistent with the actuall remanency of that error but in the Question of Circumcision although they by consequence did overthrow the end of Christ's comming yet because it was such a consequence which they being hindred by a prejudice not impious did not perceive God tolerated them in their error till time and a continuall dropping of the lessons and dictates Apostolicall did weare it out and then the doctrine put on it's apparell and became cloathed with nenessity they in the meane time so kept to the foundation that is Iesus Christ crucified and risen againe that although this did make a violent concussion of it yet they held fast with their heart what they ignorantly destroyed with their tongue which Saul before his conversion did not that God upon other Titles then an actuall dereliction of their error did bring them to salvation And in the descent of so many years I finde not any one Anathema past by the Apostles or their Successors upon any Numb 5. of the Bishops of Jerusalem or the Believers of the Circumcision and yet it was a point as clearly determined and of as great necessity as any of those Questions that at this day vex and crucifie Christendome Besides this Question and that of the Resurrection commenc'd in the Church of Corinth and promoted with some variety Numb 6. of sense by Hymenaeus and Philetus in Asia who said that the Resurrection was past already I doe not remember any other heresy nam'd in Scripture but such as were errours of impiety seductiones in materiâ practicâ such as was particularly forbidding to marry and the heresy of the Nicolaitans a doctrine that taught the necessity of lust and frequent fornication But in all the Animadversions against errours made by the Apostles in the New Testament no pious person was condemn'd Numb 7. no man that did invincibly erre or bona mente but something that was amisse in genere morum was that which the Apostles did redargue And it is very considerable that even they of the Circumcision who in so great numbers did heartily believe in Christ and yet most violently retaine Circumcision and without Question went to Heaven in great numbers yet of the number of these very men they came deeply under censure when to their errour they added impiety So long as it stood with charity and without humane ends and secular interests so long it was either innocent or conniv'd at but when they grew covetous and for filthy lucres sake taught the same doctrine which others did in the simplicity of their hearts then they turn'd Hereticks then they were term'd Seducers and Titus was commanded to look to them and to silence them For there are many that are intractable and vaine bablers Seducers of minds especially they of the Circumcision who seduce whole houses teaching things that they ought not for filthy lucres sake These indeed were not to be indur'd but to be silenced by the conviction of sound doctrine and to be rebuked sharply and avoided For heresy is not an errour of the understanding but an errour Numb 8. of the will And this is clearly insinuated in Scripture in the stile whereof Faith and a good life are made one duty and vice is called opposite to Faith and heresy opposed to holinesse and sanctity So in S. Paul For saith he the end of 1 Tim. 1. the Commandement is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfained à quibus
cannot doe this when they list but when they are mov'd to it by the Spirit then we are never the nearer for so may the Bishop of Angolesme write infallible Commentaries when the holy Ghost moves him to it for I suppose his motions are not ineffectuall but hee will sufficiently assist us in performing of what he actually moves us to But among so many hundred Decrees which the Popes of Rome have made or confirmed and attested which is all one I would faine know in how many of them did the holy Ghost assist them If they know it let them declare it that it may be certain which of their Decretals are de fide for as yet none of his own Church knowes If they doe not know then neither can we know it from them and then we are as uncertaine as ever and besides the holy Ghost may possibly move him and he by his ignorance of it may neglect so profitable a motion and then his promise of infallible assistance will be to very little purpose because it is with very much fallibility applicable to practise And therefore it is absolutely uselesse to any man or any Church because suppose it settled in Thesi that the Pope is infallible yet whether he will doe his duty and perform those conditions of being assisted which are required of him or whether he be a secret Simoniack for if he be he is ipso facto no Pope or whether he be a Bishop or Priest or a Christian being all uncertain every one of these depending upon the intention and power of the Baptizer or Ordainer which also are fallible because they depend upon the honesty and power of other men we cannot be infallibly certain of any Pope that he is infallible and therefore when our Questions are dermin'd we are never the nearer but may hugge our selves in an imaginary truth the certainty of finding truth out depending upon so many fallible and contingent circumstances And therefore the thing if it were true being so to no purpose it is to be presum'd that God never gave a power so impertinently and from whence no benefit can accrue to the Christian Church for whose use and benefit if at all it must needs have been appointed But I am too long in this impertinency If I were bound Numb 18. to call any man Master upon earth and to believe him upon his own affirmative and authority I would of all men least follow him that pretends he is infallible and cannot prove it For that he cannot prove it makes me as uncertaine as ever and that he pretends to infallibility makes him carelesse of using such meanes which will morally secure those wise persons who knowing their own aptnesse to be deceiv'd use what endeavours they can to secure themselves from errour and so become the better and more probable guides Well! Thus farre we are come Although we are secured in fundamentall points from involuntary errour by the plaine Numb 19. expresse and dogmaticall places of Scripture yet in other things we are not but may be invincibly mistaken because of the obscurity and difficulty in the controverted parts of Scripture by reason of the incertainty of the meanes of its Interpretation since Tradition is of an uncertain reputation and sometimes evidently false Councels are contradictory to each other and therefore certainly are equally deceiv'd many of them and therefore all may and then the Popes of Rome are very likely to mislead us but cannot ascertain us of truth in matter of Question and in this world we believe in part and prophecy in part and this imperfection shall never be done away till we be translated to a more glorious state either we must throw our chances and get truth by accident or predestination or else we must lie safe in a mutuall toleration and private liberty of perswasion unlesse some other Anchor can bee thought upon where wee may fasten our floating Vessels and ride safely SECT VIII Of the disability of Fathers or Writers Ecclesiasticall to determine our Questions with certainty and Truth THere are some that think they can determine all Questions Numb 1. in the world by two or three sayings of the Fathers or by the consent of so many as they will please to call a concurrent Testimony But this consideration will soon be at an end for if the Fathers when they are witnesses of Tradition doe not alwayes speak truth as it hapned in the case of Papias and his numerous Followers for almost three Ages together then is their Testimony more improbable when they dispute or write Commentaries 2. The Fathers of the first Ages spake unitedly concerning Numb 2. divers Questions of secret Theology and yet were afterwards contradicted by one personage of great repution whose credit had so much influence upon the world as to make the contrary opinion become popular why then may not we have the same liberty when so plain an uncertainty is in their perswasions and so great contrariety in their Doctrines But this is evident in the case of absolute predestination which till S. Austine's time no man preached but all taught the contrary and yet the reputation of this one excellent man altered the scene But if he might dissent from so Generall a Doctrine why may not we doe so too it being pretended that he is so excellent a precedent to be followed if we have the same reason he had no more Authority nor dispensation to dissent then any Bishop hath now And therefore S. Austin hath dealt ingeniously and as he took this liberty to himself so he denies it not to others but indeed forces them to preserve their own liberty And Sess. ult therefore when S. Hierom had a great mind to follow the Fathers in a point that he fancyed and the best security he had was Patiaris me cum talibus errare S. Austin would not endure it but answered his reason and neglected the Authority And therefore it had been most unreasonable that we should doe that now though in his behalfe which he towards greater personages for so they were then at that time judg'd to be unreasonable It is a plaine recession from Antiquity which was determin'd by the Councell of Florence piorum animas purgatas c. mox in Caelum recipi intueri clarè ipsum Deum trinum unum sicuti est As who please to try may see it dogmatically resolved to the contrary by a Q. 60. ad Christian. Justin Martyr b Lib. 5. Irenaeus by c Hom. 7. in Levit. Origen d Hom. 39 in 1 Cor. S. Chrysostome e In c. 11. ad Heb. Theodoret f In c. 6. ad Apoc. Arethas Caesariensis g In 16. c. Luc. Euthymius who may answer for the Greek Church and it is plaine that it was the opinion of the Greek Church by that great difficulty the Romans had of bringing the Greeks to subscribe to the Florentine Councell where the
digressions against the custome of that excellent man by some passages contradictory to others of S. Basil by citing Meletius as dead before him who yet lived three * Vid. Baron in Annal. years after him and by the very frame and manner of the discourse and yet it was so handsomly carried and so well serv'd the purposes of men that it was quoted under the title of S. Basil by many but without naming the number of chapters and by S. John Damascen in these words Basilius in opere triginta capitum de Spiritu S. ad Amphilochium and to the same purpose and in the number Lâ— de imagin orat 1. of 27 29. chapters he is is cited by * Nomocan tit 1. cap. 3. Photius by Euthymius by Burchard by Zonaras Balsamon and Nicephorus but for this see more in Erasmu's his Preface upon this book of S. Basil. There is an Epistle goes still under the name of S. Hierom ad Demetriadem viâ—ginem and is of great use in the Question of Predestination with its appendices and yet a very †V. Beda de gratiâ Christi adv Iulianum learned man 800 yeares agone did believe it to be written by a Pelagian and undertakes to confute divers parts of it as being high and confident Pelagianisme and written by Julianus Episc. Eclanensis but Gregorius Ariminensis from S. Austin affirmes it to have been written by Pelagius himselfe I might instance in too many Greg. Arim. in 2. sent dist 26. q. 1. a. 3. There is not any one of the Fathers who is esteemed Author of any considerable number of books that hath escaped untouched But the abuse in this kinde hath been so evident that now if any interessed person of any side be pressed with an Authority very pregnant against him he thinks to escape by accusing the Edition or the Author or the hands it passed through or at last he therefore suspects it because it makes against him both sides being resolv'd that they are in the right the Authorities that they admit they will believe not to be against them and they which are too plainly against them shall be no Authorities And indeed the whole world hath been so much abused that every man thinks he hath reason to suspect whatsoever is against him that is what he please which prooceeding only produces this truth that there neither is nor can be any certainty nor very much probability in such Allegations But there is a worse mischiefe then this besides those very many which are not yet discovered which like the pestilence Numb 6. destroyes in the dark and growes into inconvenience more insensibly and more irremediably and that is corruption of particular places by inserting words and altering them to contrary senses A thing which the Fathers of the sixth Generall Synod complain'd of concerning the constitutions of S. Clement quibus jam olim ab iis qui à sidè aliena sent iunt adulterina quaedam etiam pietate aliena introducta sunt quae divinorum nobis Decretorum Can. 2. elegantem venustam speciem obscurarunt And so also have his Recognitions so have his Epistles been used if at least they were his at all particularly the fifth Decretall Epistle that goes under the name of S. Clement in which community of Wives is taught upon the Authority of S. Luke saying the first Christians had all things common if all things then Wives also sayes the Epistle a forgery like to have been done by some Nicolaitan or other impure person There is an Epistle of Cyrill extant to Successus Bishop of Diocaesarea in which he relates that hee was ask'd by Budus Bishop of Emessa whether he did approve of the Epistle of Athanasius to Epictetus Bishop of Corinth and that his answer was Si haec apud vos scripta non sint adultera Nam plura ex his ab hostibus Ecclesiae Euseb. l. 4. c. 23. deprehenduntur esse depravata And this was done even while the Authors themselves were alive for so Dionysius of Corinth complan'd that his writings were corrupted by Hereticks and Pope Leo that his Epistle to Flavianus was perverted by the Greeks And in the Synod of Constantinople before quoted the Act. 8. vid. etiam Synod 7. act 4. sixth Synod Macarius and his Disciples were convicted quod Sanctorum testimonia aut truncârint aut depravârint Thus the third Chapter of S. Cyprians book de unitate Ecclesiae in the Edition of Pamelius suffered great alteration These words Primatus Petro datur wholly inserted and these super Cathedram Petri fundata est Ecclesia and whereas it was before super unum aedificat Ecclesiam Christus that not being enough they have made it super illum unum Now these Additions are against the faith of all old Copies before Minutius and Pamelius and against Gratian even after himselfe had been chastiz'd by the Roman Correctors the Commissaries of Gregory XIII as is to be seen where these words are alledged Decret c. 24. Q. 1. can loquitur Dominus ad Petrum So that we may say of Cyprians works as Pamelius himself said concerning his writings and the writings of other of the Fathers unde colligimus saith he Cypriani scripta ut aliorum Veterum à librariis variè fuisse Annot. Cyprian super Concil Carthage n. 1. interpolata But Gratian himselfe could doe as fine a feat when he listed or else some body did it for him and it was in this very Question their beloved Article of the Popes Supremacy for de paenit dist 1. c. potest fieri he quotes these words out of S. Ambrose Non habent Petri haereditatem qui non habent Petri sedem sidem not sedem it is in S. Ambrose but this errour was made authentick by being inserted into the Code of the Law of the Catholick Church and considering how little notice the Clergy had of Antiquity but what was transmitted to them by Gratian it will be no great wonder that all this part of the world swallowed such a bole and the opinion that was wrapped in it But I need not instance in Gratian any further but referre any one that desires to be satisfied concerning this Collection of his to Augustinus Archbishop of Tarracon in emendatione Gratiani where he shall find fopperies and corruptions good store noted by that learned man But that the Indices Expurgatorii Vid. Ind. Expurg Belg. in Bertram Flandr Hispan Portugal Neopolitan Romanum lunium in praefat ad Ind. Expurg Belg. Hasen muslerum pag. 275. Withrington Apolog. num 449. commanded by Authority and practised with publike license professe to alter and correct the sayings of the Fathers and to reconcile them to the Catholike sense by putting in and leaving out is so great an Imposture so unchristian a proceeding that it hath made the faith of all books and all Authors justly to be suspected For considering their infinite diligence and great opportunity as
that ever the Pharisees said or did And was it not a plain stifling of the just and reasonable demands made by the Emperour by the Kings of France and Spaine and by the ablest Divines among them which was used in the Councell of Trent when they demanded the restitution of Priests to their liberty of marriage the use of the Chalice the Service in the vulgar Tongue and these things not onely in pursuance of Truth but for other great and good ends even to take away an infinite scandall and a great schisme And yet when they themselves did profess it and all the world knew these reasonable demands were denyed meerly upon a politick consideration yet that these things should be fram'd into articles and decrees of faith and they for ever after bound not onely not to desire the same things but to think the contrary to be divine truths never was Reason made more a slave or more useless Must not all the world say either they must be great hypocrites or doe great violence to their understanding when they not onely cease from their claim but must also beleeve it to be unjust If the use of their reason had not been restrained by the tyrannie imperiousness of their guide what the Emperour and the Kings and their Theologues would have done they can best judge who consider the reasonableness of the demand and the unreasonableness of the denyall But we see many wise men who with their Optandum esset ut Ecclesia licentiam daret c. proclaime to all the world that in some things they consent and doe not consent and doe not heartily beleeve what they are bound publickly to profess and they themselves would cleerly see a difference if a contrary decree should be fram'd by the Church they would with an infinite greater confidence rest themselves in other propositions then what they must beleeve as the case now stands and they would find that the authority of a Church is a prejudice as often as a free and modest use of reason is a temptation 3. God will have no man pressed with anothers inconveniences in matters spirituall and intellectuall no mans salvation to depend Numb 3. upon another and every tooth that eats sowre grapes shall be set on edge for it selfe and for none else and this is remarkable in that saying of God by the Prophet If the Prophet ceases to Ezek. 33. tell my people of their sins and leads them into error the people shall die in their sins and the blood of them I will require at the hands of that Prophet Meaning that God hath so set the Prophets to guide us that we also are to follow them by a voluntary assent by an act of choice and election For although accidentally and occasionally the sheep may perish by the shepherds fault yet that which hath the chiefest influence upon their finall condition is their owne act and election and therefore God hath so appointed guides to us that if we perish it may be accounted upon both our scores upon our own and the guides too which sayes plainly that although we are intrusted to our guides yet we are intrusted to our selves too Our guides must direct us and yet if they faile God hath not so left us to them but he hath given us enough to our selves to discover their failings and our own duties in all things necessary And for other things we must doe as well as we can But it is best to follow our guides if we know nothing better but if we doe it is better to follow the pillar of fire than a pillar of cloud though both possibly may lead to Canaan But then also it is possible that it may be otherwise But I am sure if I doe my own best then if it be best to follow a Guide and if it be also necessary I shall be sure by Gods grace and my own endeavour to get to it But if I without the particular ingagement of my own understanding follow a guide possibly I may be guilty of extream negligence or I may extinguish Gods Spirit or doe violence to my own reason And whether intrusting my self wholly with another be not a laying up my talent in a napkin I am not so well assured I am certain the other is not And since another mans answering for me will not hinder but that I also shall answer for my self as it concerns him to see he does not wilfully misguide me so it concerns me to see that he shall not if I can help it if I cannot it will not be required at my hands whether it be his fault or his invincible error I shall be charg'd with neither 4. This is no other then what is enjoyned as a duty For since Numb 4. God will be justified with a free obedience and there is an obedience of understanding as well as of will and affection it is of great concernment as to be willing to beleeve what ever God sayes so also to enquire diligently whether the will of God be so as is pretended Even our acts of understanding are acts of choice Mat. 15. 10. Joh. 5. 40. 1 Joh. 4. 1. Ephes. 5. 17. Luk. 24. 25. Rom. 3. 11. 1. 28. Apoc. 2. 2. Act. 17. 11. and therefore it is commanded as a duty to search the Scriptures to try the spirits whether they be of God or no of our selves to be able to judge what is right to try all things and to retaine that which is best For he that resolves not to consider resolves not to be carefull whether he have truth or no and therefore hath an affection indifferent to truth or falshood which is all one as if he did choose amiss and since when things are truly propounded and made reasonable and intelligible we cannot but assent and then it is no thanks to us we have no way to give our wills to God in matters of beliefe but by our industry in searching it and examining the grounds upon which the propounders build their dictates And the not doing it is oftentimes a cause that God gives a man over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a reprobate and undiscerning mind and understanding 5. And this very thing though men will not understand it is Numb 5. the perpetuall practice of all men in the world that can give a reasonable account of their faith The very Catholike Church it selfe is rationabilis ubique diffusa saith Optatus reasonable as Lib. 3. well as diffused every where For take the Proselites of the Church of Rome even in their greatest submission of understanding they seem to themselves to follow their reason most of all For if you tell them Scripture and Tradition are their rules to follow they will beleeve you when they know a reason for it and if they take you upon your word they have a reason for that too either they beleeve you a learned man or a good man or that you can have
Saint Gregory The lot was throwne and God made to be Judge so as he was tempted to a miracle to answer a question which themselves might have ended without much trouble The two Missals were laid upon the Altar the Church door shut and sealed By the morrow Mattins they found S. Gregories Missall torne in pieces saith the story and thrown about the Church but S. Ambrose's open'd and laid upon the Altar in a posture of being read If I had been to judge of the meaning of this Miracle I should have made no scruple to have said it had been the will of God that the Missall of S. Ambrose which had been anciently used and publickly tryed and approved of should still be read in the Church and that of Gregory let alone it being torn by an Angelicall hand as an argument of its imperfection or of the inconvenience of innovation But yet they judg'd it otherwise for by the tearing and scattering about they thought it was meant it should be used over all the world and that of S. Ambrose read onely in the Church of Millaine I am more satisfied that the former was the true meaning then I am of the truth of the story But we must suppose that And now there might have been eternal disputings about the meaning of the miracle and nothing left to determine when two fancies are the litigants and the contestations about probabilities hinc inde And I doubt not this was one cause of so great variety of opinions in the Primitive Church when they proved their severall opinions which were mysterious questions of Christian Theologie by testimonies out of the obscurer Prophets out of the Psalmes and Canticles as who please to observe their arguments of discourse and actions of Councel shall perceive they very much used to doe Now although mens understandings be not equall and that it is fit the best understandings should prevaile yet that will not satisfie the weaker understandings because all men will not think that another understanding is better then his own at least not in such a particular in which with fancy he hath pleased himself But commonly they that are least able are most bold and the more ignorant is the more confident therefore it is but reason if he would have another beare with him he also should beare with another and if he will not be prescribed to neither let him prescribe to others And there is the more reason in this because such modesty is commonly to be desired of the more imperfect for wise men know the ground of their perswasion and have their confidence proportionable to their evidence others have not but over-act their trifles and therefore I said it is but a reasonable demand that they that have the least reason should not be most imperious and for others it being reasonable enough for all their great advantages upon other men they will be soone perswaded to it for although wise men might be bolder in respect of the persons of others less discerning yet they know there are but few things so certaine as to create much boldness and confidence of assertion If they doe not they are not the men I take them for 2. When an action or opinion is commenc'd with zeale and piety against a knowne vice or a vitious person commonly all the Numb 2. mistakes of it's proceeding are made sacred by the holiness of the principle and so abuses the perswasions of good people that they make it as a Characteristick note to distinguish good persons from bad and then whatever error is consecrated by this means is therefore made the more lasting because it is accounted holy and the persons are not easily accounted hereticks because they erred upon a pious principle There is a memorable instance in one of the greatest questions of Christendome viz. concerning Images For when Philippicus had espyed the images of the six first Synods upon the front of a Church he caused them to be pulled down now he did it in hatred of the sixth Synod for he being a Monothelite stood condemn'd by that Synod The Catholiques that were zealous for the sixth Synod caused the images and representments to be put up againe and then sprung the question concerning the lawfullness of images in Churches Philippicus and his party strived by suppressing images to do disparagement to the sixth Synod the Catholiques to preserve the honour Vid. Paulum Diaconum of the sixth Synod would uphold images And then the question came to be changed and they who were easie enough to be perswaded to pull downe images were over-awed by a prejudice against the Monothelites and the Monothelites striv'd to maintain the advantage they had got by a just and pious pretence against images The Monothelites would have secur'd their error by the advantage and consociation of a truth the other would rather defend a dubious and disputable error than lose and let goe a certain truth And thus the case stood and the successors of both parts were led invincibly For when the Heresie of the Monothelites disbanded which it did in a while after yet the opinion of the Iconoclasts the question of Images grew stronger Yet since the Iconoclasts at the first were Heretiques not for their breaking Images but for denying the two wils of Christ his Divine and his Humane that they were called Iconoclasts was to distinguish their opinion in the question concerning the Images but that then Iconoclasts so easily had the reputation of Hereticks was because of the other opinion which was conjunct in their persons which opinion men afterwards did not easily distinguish in them but took them for Hereticks in gross and whatsoever they held to be hereticall And thus upon this prejudice grew great advantages to the veneration of Images and the persons at first were much to be excused because they were misguided by that which might have abused the best men And if Epiphanius who was as zealous against Images in Churches as Philippicus or Leo Isaurus had but begun a publike contestation and engaged Emperours to have made Decrees against them Christendom would have had other apprehensions of it then they had when the Monothelites began it For few men will endure a truth from the mouth of the Devill and if the person be suspected so are his wayes too And it is a great subtlety of the Devill so to temper truth and falshood in the same person that truth may lose much of its reputation by its mixture with error and the error may become more plausible by reason of its conjunction with truth And this we see by too much experience for we see many truths are blasted in their reputation because persons whom we think we hate upon just grounds of Religion have taught them And it was plain enough in the case of Maldonat that said of an explication of a place of Scripture that it was In cap 6. Iohan most agreeable to Antiquity but because Calvin
the greatest vanity in the world For when God hath made a Promise pertaining also to our Children for so our Adversaries contend and we also acknowledge in its true sense shall not this Promise this word of God be of sufficient truth certainty and efficacy to cause comfort unlesse we tempt God and require a sign of him May not Christ say to these men as sometime to the Jewes a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign but no sign shall be given unto it But the truth on 't is this Argument is nothing but a direct quarrelling with God Almighty Now since there is no strength in the Doctrinall part the Numb 23. practise and precedents Apostolicall and Ecclesiasticall will be of lesse concernment if they were true as is pretended because actions Apostolicall are not alwayes Rules for ever it might be fit for them to doe it pro loco tempore as divers others of their Institutions but yet no engagement past thence upon following Ages for it might be convenient at that time in the new spring of Christianity and till they had engag'd a considerable party by that meanes to make them parties against the Gentiles Superstition and by way of pre-occupation to ascertain them to their own sect when they came to be men or for some other reason not trasmitted to us because the Question of fact it selfe is not sufficiently determin'd For the insinuation of that precept of baptizing all Nations of which Children certainly are a part does as little advantage as any of the rest because other parallel expressions of Scripture doe determine and expound themselves to a sence that includes not all persons absolutely but of a capable condition as adorate eum omnes gentes psallite Deo omnes nationes terrae and divers more As for the conjecture concerning the Family of Stephanus Numb 24. at the best it is but a conjecture and besides that it is not prov'd that there were Children in the Family yet if that were granted it followes not that they were baptized because by whole Families in Scripture is meant all persons of reason and age within the Family for it is said of the Ruler at Capernaum Ioh. 4. that he believed and all his house Now you may also suppose that in his house were little Babes that is likely enough and you may suppose that they did believe too before they could understand but that 's not so likely and then the Argument from baptizing of Stephen's houshold may bee allowed just as probable But this is unman-like to build upon such slight aery conjectures But Tradition by all meanes must supply the place of Scripture Numb 25. and there is pretended a Tradition Apostolicall that Infants were baptized But at this we are not much moved For we who rely upon the written Word of God as sufficient to establish all true Religion doe not value the Allegation of Tradions And however the world goes none of the Reformed Churches can pretend this Argument against this opinion because they who reject Tradition when t is against them must not pretend it at all for them But if wee should allow the Topick to be good yet how will it be verified for so farre as it can yet appeare it relies wholly upon the Testimony of Origen for from him Austin had it Now a Tradition Apostolicall if it be not consign'd with a fuller Testimony then of one person whom all after-Ages have condemn'd of many errors will obtain so little reputation amongst those who know that things have upon greater Authority pretended to derive from the Apostles and yet falsly that it will be a great Argument that he is credulons and weak that shall be determin'd by so weak probation in matters of so great concernment And the truth of the businesse is as there was no command of Scripture to oblige Children to the susception of it so the necessity of Paedobaptism was not determin'd in the Church till in the eighth Age after Christ but in the yeare 418 in the Milevitan Councell a Provinciall of Africa there was a Canon made for Paedo-baptism never till then I grant it was practiz'd in Africa before that time and they or some of them thought well of it and though that be no Argument for us to think so yet none of them did ever before pretend it to be necessary none to have been a precept of the Gospel S. Austin was the first that ever preach'd it to be absolutely necessary and it was in his heat and anger against Pelagius who had warm'd and chafed him so in that Question that it made him innovate in other doctrines possibly of more concernment then this And that although this was practised anciently in Africa yet that it was without an opinion of necessity and not often there nor at all in other places we have the Testimony of a learned Paedo-baptist Ludovicus Vives who in his Annotations upon S. Austin De Civit. Dei l. 1. c. 27. affirms Neminem nisi adultum antiquitùs solere baptizari But besides that the Tradition cannot be proved to be Apostolicall we have very good evidence from Antiquity that it Numb 26. was the opinion of the Primitive Church that Infants ought not to be baptiz'd and this is clear in the sixth Canon of the Councell of Neocaesarea The words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sence is this A woman with child may be baptized when she please For her Baptism concernes not the child The reason of the connexion of the parts of that Canon is in the following words because every one in that Confession is to give a demonstration of his own choyce and election Meaning plainly that if the Baptism of the Mother did also passe upon the child it were not fit for a pregnant woman to receive Baptism because in that Sacrament there being a Confession of Faith which Confession supposes understanding and free choyce it is not reasonable the child should be consign'd with such a mystery since it cannot doe any act of choyce or understanding The Canon speaks reason and it intimates a practise which was absolutely universall in the Church of interrogating the Catechumens concerning the Articles of Creed Which is one Argument that either they did not admit Infants to Baptism or that they did prevaricate egregiously in asking Questions of them who themselves knew were not capable of giving answer And to supply their incapacity by the Answer of a Godfather Numb 27. Quid ni necesse est sie legit Franc. Iunius in notis ad Tertul. sponsores eti am periculo ingeri qui ipsi per mortalitatem destituere promissiones suas possint proventu malae indolis falli Tertul lib. de baptis cap. 18. is but the same unreasonablenesse acted with a worse circumstance And there is no sensible account can be given of it for that which some imperfectly murmure concerning stipulations civill perform'd by Tutors in
digna sepulchri yet is nothing if compared with Mariana For 1. he affirms the same Doctrine in substance 2. Then he descends to the very manner of it ordering how De Rege R. instituit lib. 1. c. 6. it may be done with the best convenience He thinks poyson to be the best way but yet that for the more secrecy it be cast upon the chayres saddles and garments of his Prince It was the old laudable custome of the Moores of Spaine 3. Hee addes examples of Qui est l' artifice dont ie trouue que le Roys Mores ont souuent usè Cap. 7. the businesse telling us that this was the device to wit by poyson'd boots that old Henry of Castile was cur'd of his sicknesse 4. Lastly this may be done not only if the Pope judge the King a Tyrant which was the utmost Emanuel Sà affitm'd but it is sufficient proofe of his being a Tyrant if learned men though but few and those seditious too doe but murmure it or beginne to call him so I Postquam ae paucis seditiosis sed doctis caeperit Tyrannus appellari hope this Doctrine was long since disclaim'd by the whole Society and condemned ad umbras Acherunticas Perhaps so but yet these men who use to object to us an infinity of divisions among our selves who boast so much of their owne Vnion and consonancy in judgment with whom nothing is more ordinary then to maintaine some opinions quite throughout their Order as if they were informed by some common Intellectus agens should not be divided in a matter of so great moment so much concerning the Monarchy of the See Apostolike to which they are vowed leigemen But I have greater reason to believe them Vnited in this Doctrine then is the greatnesse of this probability For 1. There was an Apology printed in Italy permissu superiorum in the yeare 1610. that sayes They were all enemies of that holy Name of Iesus that condemned Mariana for any such Doctrine I understand not why but sure I am that the Iesuits doe or did thinke his Doctrine innocent for in their Apology put forth in the name of the whole Society against the accusations of Anticoton they deny that the Assasine of Henry 4. I meane Ravaillac was mov'd to kill the King by reading of Mariana and are not ashamed to wish that he had read him Perhaps they meane it might have Quodamodo optandum esse ut ille Alastor Marianam legisset wrought the same effect upon him which the sight of a drunkard did upon the youth of Lacedaemon else I am sure it is not very likely he should have beene disswaded from his purpose by reading in Mariana that it was lawfull to doe what he intended 3. I adde they not only thought it innocent and without positive Cap. 6. Cum cognito à Theologis quos erat sciscitatus Tyrannum jure interimi posse hurt but good and commendable so that it is apparent that it was not the opinion of Mariana alone but that the Moores of Spaine had more disciples then Mariana 1. Hee sayes it himselfe for commending the young Monke that killed Henry 3. he sayes he did it having beene informed by severall Divines that a Tyrant might lawfully be killed 2. The thing it selfe speaks it for his book was highly commended by a Chauuesauris polit Gretser b Amphith honoris lib. 1. cap. 12. Bonarscius both for stile matter higher yet by Petrus de Onna provinciall of Toledo who was so highly pleased with it hee was sorry hee wanted c Iterum tertio facturus siper otium tempus licuisset leisure to read it the second and third time over and with this censure prefixed was liceus'd to the Presse Further yet for Steven Hoyedae Visitor of the Iesuits for the same Province approved it not only from his own judgment but as being Vt approbatos priùs a viris Doctis gravihus ex eodem nostro Ordine before approved by grave and learned men of the Iesuits Order and so with a speciall commission from Claudius Aquaviva their generall with these approbations and other solemne Priviledges it was Printed at a By Petras Rhodriques 1599. Toledo and b By Balth. Lippius 1605 Mentz and lastly inserted into the Catalogues of the Books of their Order by Petrus Ribadineira What negligence is sufficient that such a Doctrine as this should passe so great supravisors if in their hearts they disavow it The children of this world are not such fooles in their generations The Fathers of the Society cannot but know how apt these things of themselves are to publike mischiefe how invidious to the Christian world how scandalous to their Order and yet they rather excuse then condemne Mariana speaking of him at the hardest but very gently as if his only fault had beene his speaking a truth in tempore non opportuno something out of season or as if they were forc'd to yeelde to the current of the times and durst not professe openly of what in their hearts they were perswaded I speak of some of them for others you see are of the same opinion But I would faine learne why they are so sedulous and carefull to procure the decrees of the Rector Deputies of Paris Rescripts of the Bishop Revocation of Arrest of the Parliament which had been against them and all to acquit the Fathers of the Society from these scandalous opinions as if these laborious devices could make what they have said and done to be unspoken and undone or could change their opinions from what indeed they are whereas they never went ex animo to refute these Theorems never spake against them in the reall and serious dialect of an adversary never condemned them as hereticall but what they have done they have been sham'd to or forc'd upon as Pere Coton by the King of France and Servin to a confutation of Mariana from which he desir'd to be excused and after the Kings death writ his declaratory letter to no purpose the Apologists of Paris by the outcryes of Christendome against them and when it is done done so coldly in their reprehensions with a greater readinesse to excuse all then condemne any I say these things to a considering man doe increase the suspicion if at least that may be called suspicion for which we have had so plain testimonies of their own I adde this more to put the businesse past all question that when some things of this nature were objected to them by Arnald the French Kings Advocate they were so farre from denying them or excusing them that they maintained them in spite of opposition putting forth a Book intitled Veritas defensa contra actionem Antonii Arnaldi What the things were for which they stood up patrons heare themselves speaking Tum enim id non solum potest Pag. 7. 1. edit Papa sed etiam debet se ostendere