if not articulate complaints and much astonishing us whose attendance in our stations drew us within notice of it there being as it were an absolute desertion of her little Oratory which before whether her H. were there or not us'd to be well frequented by a comfortable Audience that assisted at our Mattins and Even-Song which beside that it pleased God gave countenance to the Chaplain in the performance of his Offices at the houres appointed I calling to mind the strictness of her Commands formerly and the steadiness of her personall example in time of Health found it necessary for her R. H. to have knowledge of it in some seasonable intervall of her griefs assuring my self her Goodness would not take amiss such a dutifull and devout expression of a religious desire she should be daily prayed for by us when in that weak condition she could not present her self before the little Altar she had erected to pray there with us This I did with that caution as became me in the present circumstances and committed the care of it to a discreet Lady of her Chamber who was seldome absent from her Bed-side desiring her in the summe of all to say plainly That the Chaplain was in this streight without her H. suddenly found some expedient either to set open the doores of her Oratory and read Common-prayer to the painted Wain-Scot or keep 'em shut and read none at all whereof what sence the Court and City would have must be left at adventure The very next day when I went into the Privy-Chamber at the wonted hour I saw no cause at all either of complaint or enquiry after her H. pleasure and new Order it being appointed before my coming that the Reading-Desk and Books should be made ready and when the Bed-Chamber door should be opened our Common-Prayer should be read at the very entrance thereinto whither assembled not only a considerable number without the door and within such Ladies as were either in immediate attendance or others priviledged to be there but her H. personally as she lay in bed found I hope some comfort and benefit by our Prayers read in her hearing wherein I doubt not but at that time she joyned in Communion with us or else would have ordered it otherwise This course for ought I remember continued while her infirme condition could comply with it throughout my time After my dismission what Method therein was observed my Reverend Successor in that employment can best report But this on all hands I believe will easily be yielded That her Highnesses Sickness more and more every day prevailing and consequently the strength of Nature as much decaying little abatement in that anxiety she had of mind and little better satisfaction of doubts and scruples or settlement in Religion considering her sad condition can reasonably be supposed Whether in this deplorable state she might send for her Spirituall Physician the Ecclesiastick Person mentioned by her or some other I can with assurance neither affirm nor deny nor will I doubt more if he came of her Highnesses patient attention and submission to all he said at a time when she wanted somewhat to allay or charm the tumult of her Spirits then I do of what a Learned and well Practised Civilian has sometime told me That many Testaments are brought in Court truly Signed by the Testators in a dying condition but upon no other account of will or consent then to be rid of their importunate Kindred Allies or Friends that they may be free to dispose their Soules to a calm and serene departure out of this unquiet World And whether the good Father were sent for or no very well known it is how the Ecclesiastikes of that Communion use not to be over-modest as opportunity may serve in offering their Assistance to exspiring persons of what Church or of what Quality soever where they may have admission Which puts me in mind of what happened many years since at Bruges in Flanders about the Decease of my Noble Patron the Lord Hopton who on his last fatal day being taken speechless somewhat early in the morning and so continuing to the great grief and disappointment of his few Domestiques then about him In the afternoon the Reverend Mother or Lady Prioress of the English Nunnery sent a Message in great haste to me that I must needs attend her immediately at the Grate as if she had praepared some speciall Cordiall for our good Lord whom she and all her Votaries respected highly that would not only recover his Lordships Speech but renew his Age or protract his life some years longer when I went to know her pleasure the good Lady told me somewhat to this purpose That understanding my Lords condition she could not be at rest untill she had finished the great Devotion her whole Monastery had for his Lordship by recommending two grave Franciscan Fryars to do their last religious Office for him in their way i. e. according to the Rituall of the Roman Church Whereat I was so much surprized that I had almost forgot the sedate temper I came to her in being more prone upon that her motion either to smile or be angry then to lament the loss I every hour apprehended might befall me and my fellow-servants in a Forreign Countrey by our Lord's Decease At length being somewhat recomposed I minded her Reverence of what she knew very well the free converse my Lord had often in time of Health with their Fathers and Fryars of any Order declining no discourse on any points in controversy they could mention to him in a Calm and Christian way how acceptable it had been on both sides though neither Party could convince the other and how incongruous it would be after all the aforesaid frankness and plain-dealing now to give his Lordship the trouble of a faint dispute if he could have us'd his Tongue but now he could not how false I must needs prove to him and to my trust in permitting such religious Offices to be practised upon him at the point of Death which he approved not of toward any other person when in perfect health and vigour of understanding Whereupon the over-courteous Lady whether satisfied or no acquiesced and retired as I returned to my languishing good Lord to perform my last duty at his Bed-side as his Chaplain according to the Form or Permission of our Britannike Church Whereas had I taken other measures it most certainly would have been reported That the Lord Hopton if but by reason of that very ancient Ceremony their extream Unction without a word spoken had died so good a Roman Catholique as the best and his surviving Chaplain or Director in Mr. Iones's sense had been no other than a Papist in Masquerade and for his treachery to so noble and so good a Protestant had deserved no less then present death by his Martial Sentence But I proceed To make good my word and produce my second particular upon better credit then
without errour that 's no quaestion and as little there is That a Councel hath it This in the abstract is as home as need to be in the point but this afterward is somewhat moderated by distinguishing the infallibility of the after-Councels from that of the Apostles themselves Acts 15. where they say of themselves and the Councel held by them It seemes good to the Holy Ghost and to us who might indeed well say it but he does not find that any General Councel since though they did implore as they ought the assistance of that Blessed Spirit did ever take upon them to say in-terminis in express terms of their Definitions Visum est Spiritui Sancto Nobis It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Acknowledging thereby as I conceive a great deal of difference in the Certainty of those things which a Generall Councel had after determined in the Church and those which were settled by the Apostles when they sate in Councel But then again though he did not find That they used this speech punctually in terms yet the Fathers when they met in Councel were Confident and spake it out That They had assistance from the Holy Ghost yet so as that They neither took Themselves nor the Councels They sate in as Infallibly Guided by the Holy Ghost as the Apostles were And he saies Valentia is very right in concluding That though the Councel say they are gathered together in the Holy Ghost yet the Fathers are neither arrogant in using the speech nor yet Infallible for all that If other their Writers had used the like moderation perhaps her R. H. had not been so much concerned about it I expect nothing more will be obtained from other our Controvertists towards the satisfaction of any in like condition yet because Mr. Chillingworth had a more peircing eye of reason then most of the rest I will summe up his method so short as I can and see what we can make good out of it This he layes as the groundwork of his Discourse with F. Knott That the distinction of Points Fundamental and not Fundamental is in this Controversie good and pertinent And that the Catholique Church may erre in the latter kind of the said Points 2. That it is not so prodigiously strange as his adversary thinkes That we will never be induced to give in a particular Catalogue what points be Fundamental Pag. 119. 3. That may be Fundamental and necessary to one which to another is not so Which variety of Circumstances makes it imposible to set down an exact Catalogue of Fundamentals and therefore we must content our selves by a general description to tell what is Fundamental 4. It is sufficient for any mans salvation to believe that the Scripture is true and containes all things necessary for salvation and to do his best endeavour to find and believe the true sense of it without delivering any particular Catalogue of Fundamentals Pag. 120. 5. Though the Church may erre in some points not Fundamental yet may she have certainty enough in proposing others 6. He that grants the Church infallible in Fundamentals and ascribes to the Apostles the infallible guidance of the Spirit in a more high and absolute manner than to any since them limits not the Apostles infallibility to Fundamentals 7. The Apostles were led into all Truths by the Spirit efficaciter The Church is led into all Truths by the Apostle writings sufficienter Pag. 131. led so as that she may follow but not so that she must These assertions of his influence the most part of his long Discourse with the learned Iesuite If ought more there be to strengthen e'm it may fall in with what I have yet to add relating to the invaledity of her R. Highnesses motive for deserting our Church upon account of any assurance she could have of being more firmely and finally settled in this point upon the grounds and principles thereof in the Church of Rome For yeilding pro dato not concesso what the greatest Doctors there would have more particularly those of ours that went over to them before this good Lady I demand what found they there beyond what they had here at home I will fix upon one or two of them in whose conversion they so good as tell us they are most triumphant Let the first be Dr. Vane Chaplain to his late Majesty who in the very entrance to his sixth Chapter of The Infallibility of the Church begins thus Now that the Catholique Church which Society of Christians soever it be is the onely faithful and true witness of the matter of God's word to tell us what it is and what is not it the only true interpreter of the meaning of God's word and the last and finall judge of all controversies that may arise in matters of Religion and that she is not onely true but that she can not be otherwise seeing she is infallible Our Church which is Catholique too in concurrence with that he went to is he knew extended to the first four Generall Councels to the Fathers of the first five or six hundred yeares from whom we receive the Canon we have of the H. Bible and to whose writings we go for the interpretation of any Texts that any way seem doubtfull if necessary to be resolved In others not so considerable for ought I know we leave every man to his own diligence in comparing Text with Text for mutuall illustration and to his own reason for inference of the best truth from the premises he makes himself or if so ignorant he can make none we send him to the lips of his Parochiall Priest or some other at his choyce which certainly should preserve at least so much knowledge as to determine the little difficulties brought to him according to the sense of our Nationall Church if such as whereof she hath taken any notice For Catholique Tradition we go to the Catholique Writers so truely called For what is unwritten we have no infallible living Oracle to consult no more have they for ought I see whereof any use can be made to present satisfaction and therein we may cry quitts as afterward I shall briefly shew The Conclusion herein lay'd down by D. Cressy is as followeth That it belongs alone to the Catholique Church which is the onely Depositary of Divine Revelations authoritatively and with obligation to propose those Revelations to all Christians c. to interpret the Holy Scriptures and to determine all emergent Controversies and this to the end of the world in as much as the Church by vertue of Christ's promises and assistance is not onely indefectible but continually preserved in all truth Of what Divine Revelations the Catholique Church is Depositary I have already owned viz. of the H. Scriptures and the Primitive Fathers in their Writings as being the best and surest Interpreters The difficulty yet sticks at the determining emergent Controversies which may be multiplied in infinitum by too dubious and
spirit no less disconsolate and diffident upon one account then her own upon another But in this unsteady state of doubts and fears and an unsettled faith being Christmas day her H. goes to the King's Chappell to participate of the Holy Sacrament which contrary to her hopes brought new troubles upon her soul and I wonder not a whitt at it want of the Reall presence or Corporeall in the Roman sense being that which did most afflict her whereof she might be well assured little supply or comfort was to be had from the King's Chappell and so her labour she thought was lost Her next essay was by address to a Catholique for counsell and if possible for cure which now at last was as her H. fancied in some sort effected by a good Priest he sent for me fit venir un bon Prestre with whom conferring about her interiour condition and souls salvation the more she parlied the more she felt her self intrinsecally carried off and fortified by grace of the holy Spirit toward the change of Religion A Gentleman of quick dispatch was this good Priest but I hear nothing yet of his infallibility her H. lately lookt for unless the other Catholick who e're he was that call'd him to her passed his word for it in private which security taken all could not but be oracular that came from his mouth Of the H. EUCHARIST in one or both kindes As I find in the very first place was his decision of receiving the H. Sacrament in one kind in which one element if were not administred both the flesh and bloud of our Saviour Christ would never have suffered the other to be substracted and his Church deprived of half himself who promised to abide with her whole and entire no doubt to the end of the world Nor could her H. think her self free to believe otherwise or that Christ's own words could be frustrate Before I can well apply my self to reflect on this Article of half-half-communion as our Writers often call it I think it not alltogether impertinent to declare my dissatisfaction at the sodain change I observe of a disconsolate dejected Spirit to an argumentative and active Soul in search so superficiall and so definitive before full discovery as if intent upon contradiction of her own practice so many yeares and not startled at so quick a transition from the unquestionable security of both elements in the H. Eucharist to the hazard of enjoying the intire end and effect of neither when reduced to one I am very prone to suspect something like a chasme or hiatus here a defect in transcript of the Declaration published in her Highnesses name which Mounsieur Maimburg best knowes wherewith it should be and in fidelity to the trust reposed in him ought if so to be made compleat Howsoever to let it pass from hand to hand as delivered to us and to wait upon her R. H. so immediately as she leads the way from her Closet to the publike Schooles I can not but much commend the early exercise of her skill and prudence in selecting that part of the question which best will bear discussion and arresting her upon assurance of his word who never did nor being Truth it self can ever break his promise For no notice at all is taken how many yeares the Church persisted in submission to the express words of our Saviours institution without substracting or altering ought in the celebration of this H. Sacrament Whence Bishop Iewell sayes the Question that standeth between us is moved thus Whether the Holy Communion at any time within the space of six hundred years after Christ were ever Ministred openly in the Church unto the People under one kind Repl. to Mr. Hard. Ans. pag. 96. Which extent of time he might have drawn out much further by the concession among others of Cassander a man professing himself a Roman Catholique though of wonderfull modesty moderation and learning sayes Bishop Mountagu whose words are these as by his Lordship cited It is manifest that in administration of the sacred Sacrament of the Eucharist the Universall Church of Christ untill this day and the Western or Roman Church for more then 1000 yeares after Christ especially in their solemn and ordinary dispensation of this Sacrament did exhibit and give unto all faithfull Christians not one only but both the kinds of Bread and Wine as it is most clear and evident out of innumerable testimonies of the old Writers both Greek and Latine which I can make good c. This he did in part and the rest we may safely take upon his honest word and credit and 300 yeares more then he voucheth upon Bishop Mountagu's who saith after him too This is every where the custome in all the World unto this day but in the Roman exhorbitant Church and was not quite abolished in that Church till about 1300 yeares after Christ and by much art colluding and fine forgery was retained from being cast out of that Church in the late Conventicle of Trent onely kept in for a faction but mightily oppos'd by learned honest and conscionable Catholiques Whereupon this resolute and worthy Prelate joynes issue with all Papists living That it never was otherwise used in all the Church of God for above 1000 yeares after Christ And that if all the Papists living prove the contrary he will subscribe to all Popery Ans. to the Gagger ch 36. which is fair enough So that I shall need call in no more help upon this account except I may that observation of Bishop Taylor and others That the Primitive Church did excommunicate them that did not receive the holy Sacrament in both kinds Pref. to Diss. Pag. 5. I return therefore to her Highnessess argument drawn from the promise and veracity or fidelity of Christ to make it good Which promise being not particular not restrained to his Sacramental presence upon which we differ much less limitted to the Patriarchate of Rome and that under the name or notion of his Universal Church exclusive of all other Christians not taken into her communion he left her free at her own hazard to commit sacriledge in this kind as in divers other and to withdraw her self from him before ever he withdrew from her and to afford his fuller presence by both representatives elsewhere among a greater number of Christians by computation then those within her pale or Communion in both kinds of this H. Sacrament united altho' in some other doctrines ceremonies and customes or national or Provincial civical or rural or in other dissonancy whatsoever more or less divided But her H. had already changed her measures with her Religion and was already principled a new by her good Priest and not permitted to look back upon us unto whom for ever she had bid adieu By this time no doubt she was taught to say That Christ assured us The Holy Sacrament though but a Wafer containeth his flesh and blood because the Church hath at length declared