majoribus to determine the points of Catholick truth c. To which there can be nothing more substantially answered for confutation than that the State of the Church must have been very deplorable and desperate if that had been a Catholick verity when Pope Marcellinus sacrificed to Idols or when Pope Liberius turned Arrian and would be much more lamentable in these days when the Church must remain in perpetual wardship and servitude under the Pope since no man can rationally expect a general Council to relieve her and when there is no other definition of Heresie in the Coena Domini than that which contradicts or is contrary to the doctrine or practice of the Church of Rome and when the authority of the Pope is urged as the best expedient for the establishing peace and unity in the world can there be any thing replied more pertinently for the conviction than the mention of those Popes who by the assuming that authority and purely for the vindication of it have caused more Christian blood to have been spilt more horrible Massacres of Kings and Princes and People than all the Heresies in the world and all other politick differences have produced if you cast in the Wars for the Holy Land which may justly be cast upon the Popes account and which is a circumstance very infamous as well as lamentable much the greatest part of this destruction and ruine proceeded from the perjury of Popes themselves after they had promised and sworn to observe such pacts and agreements voluntarily entred into by themselves or from the Dispensations they granted to others to break their Faith and not to perform the contracts they had entred into all which he says being granted nothing will follow whereas certainly it must follow that the persons of such men are not capable or worthy of such trusts or authority which is as much as those arguments are urged for Mr. Cressy would be contented to confess that some Popes for about an Age or two did cause intolerable disorders in the Church and Empire which by the way is argument enough against those personal qualifications upon condition that we would gratifie him with acknowledging that the Government of Popes did for a thousand years produce excellent order in the world which we are so far from granting that as we must confess that they were so modest for half that time as to make no claim to any such authority in Church or State so from the time they did claim it it produced more blood-shed than all other quarrels whatsoever And as Mr. Cressy must have the assistance of very good Antiquaries to name one War of a years continuance that was ever composed by the authority or mediation of any Pope where there can very hardly be named one solemn bloody War upon what Politick pretence soever it was at first entred into but that hath been carried on either upon his immediate advice and interest or fomented under-hand by his Council and assistance of which the Rebellion in Ireland must be one of the latest instances It cannot be denied that some Ages have been so ignorant and barbarous that the Popes authority hath been sufficient to kindle the most cruel and the most unnatural bloody diffentions and he hath never failed in contributing his utmost power to that end and it can be as easily proved that in this last Age many rebellions and ravenous Wars have fallen out which might either have been prevented or quickly composed as the late Rebellions in France and those in Catalonia being both between Catholicks if he as a common Father would have interposed his special authority and excommunicated those who he could not doubt were in Rebellion but he never would be induced to apply his power to that good end The Supremacy and Soveraignty of the Bishop of Rome was never the product of peace it grew very fat and the bulk thereof encreased to that unruly size in and by the most bloody Wars which Christendom hath ever been infested with which makes it discernable enough what diet they chuse to feed upon of which appetite their late savage Bulls against the peace of Munster and that of Osningbrooke when the Empire was even at its last gasp for want of blood is too great a manifestation Nor have they to this day how little noise soever they now make disclaimed any of those principles or the pretence to any of that power by the exercise whereof so many intolerable disorders as Mr. Cressy confesses were caused for about an Age or two in the Church and in the Empire I wonder Mr. Cressy should accuse the Doctor for arguing less reasonably in mentioning the Schismes which have been in the Church of Rome and the more modern disorders by reason of the quarrels between Bishops and Monastick Orders about exemptions and priviledges c. But I wonder more at his unskilfulness in the Ecclesiastical History when he says that all the Schismes were after the Church was above twelve hundred years old for before there were scarce any which is so great a mistake that my old kindness will scarce suffer me to take notice of it The last Schisme as I think before the year twelve hundred was that between Alexander the third and Victor the fifth which was after the year eleven hundred and fifty and is reckoned by all Ecclesiastical Writers to be the twenty fourth or twenty fifth Schisme and it is an unreasonable objection that there can be no such power inherent in the Pope as he assigns to him when it is so frequently uncertain who is Pope and that uncertainty hath continued so long and all the Princes of Christendom divided in the reception of him and the anti-Pope sometimes three or four together act and do all that the true Pope pretends to do and is obeyed as such in the Dominions of several Christian Princes This sure cannot be thought a light argument by any but such who think the pretence too frivolous to require an argument against it and he says the mention of the quarrels between Bishops and Monastick Orders and between the Regulars and the Seculars and much more such stuff implies no more but that Subjects are often times Rebellious to their Superiours therefore it were better there were no Superiours at all when such stuff is an unanswerable argument that the authority with the which he would invest the Pope for peace and unity sake doth not produce either where it is most submitted to He says very true that it is not the Popes infallibility but his authority which ends Controversies which is a good argument that they must remain unended when either party doth not acknowledge his authority and it seems the case is not very different when both sides do confess it for he says that all Catholicks do acknowledge that they are obliged at least to silence when imposed by the Pope yet it cannot be denied but that some have not complied with the obligation but
lewd seditious Books are sold as that none such may be printed And if this kind advertisement of Mr. Cressy hath that operation upon the Magistrates of all sorts both the Printers and Sellers and it may be the Buyers of the multitude of Popish Books which are every day vented with as much freedom as the Book of Common-Prayer they of his own Religion will have new cause to celebrate his prudence and acknowledge the great advantage he hath brought to their cause by his pen as he hath to their persons by his modesty and his manners Mr. Cressy comes at last after very much passion and much more virulence against the poor Protestants than the Doctor hath expressed against the Roman Catholicks to a matter of importance indeed in which he believes which might have kept him from triumphing so soon he is absolute master of the field and that is to peace and unity which he says is more fit to be the subject and argument of writings composed by Ecclesiastical persons that is unity of faith and doctrine pag. 102. and in truth whoever is really an enemy even to that unity of faith and doctrine how hard soever to be attained must be an enemy to mankind but I must tell him too that the writings of Ecclesiastical persons have not hitherto in any age contributed to the production of that unity I mean such who have a pride petulancy of understanding obstinacy of will that will suffer nothing to be called peace and unity but a prostration of all other men to their dictates Mr. Cressy and his Ecclesiastical Friends affect and insolently prescribe a unity that is neither practicable nor desirable and there are other Ecclesiastical persons as humorous who are such enemies to unity that they think it not necessary to peace especially in Ecclesiastical matters that is in matters of Religion all men may think and speak and do what they please and upon the irrationality of these last the former impute all the folly and all the madness that would introduce the most uncontroulable confusion to those who observe order and discipline with more regularity and obedience than any of the pretenders will do It must not therefore be the Ecclesiastical persons who have given each other too ill words to be of one mind who can procure this unity of faith and doctrine that must constitute this peace but it must be the writings and actions of Magistrates who by the execution of those Laws and rules which the wisdom of the State for which they are made have provided for that purpose can infallibly establish that unity and peace that is necessary for it Magistrates who do not pretend any jurisdiction out of their own limits nor will suffer those who live within it to be disobedient much less to revile the Laws which are provided for the publick peace Where there are no Laws confusion is necessary and natural and where the Laws are not executed it is as unavoidable and in some degree necessary So that where unity is not as much provided for as is necessary for peace it is the Magistrates fault and not the fault of Ecclesiasticks who can only prosecute it by the ways prescribed by the Laws I say where unity is necessary for nothing is more mistaken or more misapplied than this precious word Unity Who doth not know or hath not had it frequently in his observation that men who have the same end affect several ways which lead to that end and he who goes the farthest way about may possibly come sooner to the end than he that believes he goes more directly to it However if he comes thither later he is liable to no other reproach than being laughed at for being longer upon the way than he needed to have been I knew two Gentlemen of good quality and fortunes one of which I think is still living who were very near neighbours in Berkshire and lived in that good correspondence and conversation as persons of quality and authority in their Country use to do they had both very frequent occasions to ride to London and the house of one of them was the confessed way of the other thither but the difference was whether from thence the nearest way was by Windsor or by Maidenhead and in that they were so great Opiniators that they still parted at the door and one took the one way and the other that which he conceived to be nearest and in twenty years they never made the journey together How light soever the instance seems to be it will be found fit enough to be applied to very many differences of opinion which by the excess of fancy on the one side and the defect of judgment of the other are blown up into a magnitude that dazles the eyes of too many spectators and for the determination of the rest there wants not a submission and obedience to authority the difference only is where that authority is placed to which obedience ought to be paid We of the Church of England hold ours to be due to the King the Church and the Law Mr. Cressy would have us pay it to the Pope which we cannot submit to not because he is fallible but because he is not a Magistrate who hath any jurisdiction over us In matters that concern Religion we resort to the Articles of the Church which we are obliged to conform to He would have us observe the Canons of the Council of Trent which we are forbidden to do and he as an English Catholick is not bound to upon which we shall enlarge hereafter and this election to believe that the Church of England which flourishes at least as much in learned and pious men as any Church of the world can better direct English-men in the way to Heaven than the Church of Rome is the greatest use we make of our reason which is not like to deceive What that union is that was intended certainly by our Saviour when he left his Church established under spiritual Governours will best appear by the rules he prescribed and the directions he gave in order thereunto which we may lawfully believe he never intended for such a unity as Mr. Cressy and his friends dream of and that he foresaw the same could never be and depended more upon what was necessary towards it upon the civil Magistrates than upon the Ecclesiastical power He prescribed the essential principles himself of that Religion which he intended should be established and left persons trusted by him who not only knew his mind but knew all things which are necessary to be known for the accomplishment of it And no temporal or spiritual authority under Heaven hath power to alter any thing that was setled by him or his Apostles who were the only Commentators intrusted by him to explain whatsoever might seem doubtful in what himself had said and they performed their parts with that plainness in what is necessary that there remains no difficulty to men
Church from the corruption of Doctrine and contentions and contradictions in the practice of Religion as any exorbitancies in state is so far from being soveraign that he holds upon the matter the little authority he hath in other things but precariò of him who hath the exercise of the other jurisdiction And as this mischief and confusion is very demonstrable to all men who understand the foundation and rules of Policy and Government so the benefits which accrew from this distinction are not discernable by the eyes of reason or of faith Temporal Princes and Kings cannot have authority to change Religion nor are qualified to perform the Offices and functions of Religion that 's true Nor hath any Ecclesiastical and Spiritual power authority to change Religion The Pope whom some Men call the Church nor a General Council which no doubt is the most natural representative of the Universal Church doth not pretend that they can change Religion Our Saviour left our Religion intire and the Apostles left all things so plain which he directed that no power under Heaven can add to or take from that body of Religion which they commended to all Christians nor can it be more reasonably imagined that God will suffer any Christian state to make such an alteration than that the Universal Church shall fall away from being Christian but if Christianity were deposited with one Church-man or any body of Church-men we have too much reason to apprehend what would become of it by the progress Arianisme once and other Heresies too made in the World by possessing many great and learned Men even of the Fathers themselves So that we may say that the purity of Christian Religion hath been in truth preserved by the piety of Princes with the advice and assistance of their National and Ecclesiastical Councils more than by any spiritual authority Religion it self then must not cannot be changed but the advancement of it the information in it the exercise and practice by which it is best to be made manifest cannot be so well provided for as by that supreme soveraign authority to which God hath intrusted the peace and prosperity of a Nation which best knows how to establish such formes and ceremonies and circumstances in what pertains to Religion as are most agreeable to the nature and inclination and disposition of a people A conformity in humours and in manners is a great introduction to conformity in Religion and will not suffer the pride and affectation and singularity of any man to contradict the order established This Soveraign Authority knows best how to preserve Peace in which the being of a Nation consists and how to reform errors which are grown and prevent those which are growing by such ways as may not disturb that peace and such errours as are grown too obstinate are too deep rooted to be pulled up without shaking the whole peace of the Kingdom he will let alone drawing by degrees such nourishment from it as most cherishes it until a fitter season for the intire cure of it No Reformation is worth the charge of a Civil War Nor was it a light reproach which Seneca charged upon Sylla Qui patriam durioribus remediis quam pericula erant sanavit The Remedy was worse than the Disease and God knows Christianity hath paid very dear for the too hasty and passionate application of remedies to very confessed diseases when the disease was not ripe for the remedy nor the remedy proportioned to the disease State surgery cannot be used with too much caution nor are the wounds and sores of it cured at once or with one kind of medicine but the lenitives and corrosives must be applied successively and if the first will do it there cannot be too little used of the latter No sore is so ill cured as that which is hastily cured There is no necessity nor convenience that the outward exercise and forms of Religion be the same in all climates and in all Countries Nay it is very necessary that it be different according to the natures and customes of the people It would be very incongruous where genuflexion is neither the posture of reverence or devotion to introduce a command for kneeling and there are many particulars worthy of the same consideration They do equally mistake who believe that the out-works of Religion must be equally with the same passion guarded and preserved as the walks themselves that no form or ceremony or circumstance in Religion may not be altered or parted with more than the faith it self and they who would be always mending and altering and reforming according to every model description they meet with as a thing indifferent and only to please the fancies of men where there is no indifference there may be alterations made by and according to the wisdom of the Government and as the good Order and peace of the Nation requires and with the same gravity and deliberation as all other mutations and provisions are made but there must be out-works still and such as may secure the walls from rude approaches every fanciful Engineer must not demolish the out-works upon pretence they are too high or too irregular nor must the decency of the prospect so much transport others as not to suffer the least alteration in them though thereby the walls would be the better garded No one Classis of men will dispassionately weigh all necessary consideration in this matter but that authority which must provide for the publick peace is the most competent provider for this branch of it It is no irreverence to the purest times to believe that in the first plantation of Christian Religion I speak not of infusion of Christian Religion into the Apostles and the inspiration by the Holy Ghost but of the plantation of it by the Apostles and those who succeeded them by the strength of their reason and the powerful effects of their lives and actions the same method and order and application was used and observed as is in other Plantations The Sun and the Soil are first consulted and husbandry practised accordingly in the sowing of Seeds or setting of Plants and that husbandry altered and improved according to seasons and upon observation and experience what is most like to advance the Plantation If ever the Spaniard loses the West Indies which it is probable enough he will do it will be by his positive and rigorous adhering to the same rules which were most prudently established by Philip the Second upon the first conquest of that Empire and under which the Infant Plantation prospered exceedingly and not admitting any such material alterations since as would produce more benefit and advantage now than the other did then and which time and the people will make if the policy of the Government do not first introduce it and then it is very hazardous that the presumption of doing it will shake off that authority that should have done it It may be observed in the
that he says is not to be imputed to want of authority in the Pope but to the unruliness of mens passions and pride and I say it serves the Doctor 's turn if his authority be not such as can curb and suppress the unruliness of the passions and pride of his own Subjects He will not understand how the Doctor can say that the Church of England makes no Articles of Faith but such as have testimony and approbation of the whole Christian World of all Ages and are acknowledged to be such by Rome it self and in other things she requires subscription to them not as Articles of Faith but as inferiour truths which she expects submission to in order to her peace and tranquillity Mr. Cressy is the only man alive that can find obscurity in this clause and I confess his exception to it is so obscure that I will rather rely upon the Readers understanding of the most exact plainness of it than inlarge my self in any explanation and I wish that he could say as much for the Church of Rome that it makes no Article of Faith but such as have the testimony and approbation of the whole Christian World of all Ages our complaint is that he multiplies articles of faith to that degree that he will not suffer us to be saved for believing all that most Christians believed for a thousand years together without the least doubt of their Salvation nor will he yet let us know the full extent he would have our faith reach to for we are no less obliged to submit to what he or his Successors shall declare hereafter to be matter of faith than to what is at present contained in the whole Canons of the Council of Trent which makes it absolutely necessary for the peace of Conscience as well as the peace of Kingdoms to protest against and as far as in us lies to restrain that exorbitant authority but of all arguments it is a most pleasant one that if the Church of England believes nothing as of faith but what the Popes and Church of Rome do likewise believe Therefore it follows that the Church of Rome notwithstanding its Idolatry Fanaticisme c. failes in no necessary point of faith which would be true if it added nothing to that confessed faith that must destroy it He then involves himself in his old circle of the Churches authority and of that Churches being the Church of Rome and of the residence of that authority being in the Person of the Pope which whosoever refuses to submit to must be an Heretick to all which enough hath been said before nor can I enlarge upon it without saying somewhat that I have said before which I have no mind to do We come now to the Seventh and Eighth Chapters concerning Penance c. upon which I shall enlarge the less because the Church of England is so far from condemning Confession or Penance that it uses and commends both and upon Confession always satisfaction is enjoyned there as much as in the Church of Rome it is true that with us it is not so positively enjoyned that is men are not compelled to it nor are those forms used in ours or those interrogatories administred by which those secrets are extorted from Men and Women which they would willingly conceal and which may lawfully be concealed as in their Church but Penitents are lest to their own liberty and their own method of drawing such information and comfort from their Confessors as they believe most useful to them which was the original end of Confession and from which very many good Catholicks believe there is at present too great a deviation God forbid the integrity and piety of any Church should be suspected much less condemned for the evil livers who remain within the pale of it No Church hath ever yet nor any will ever be but the triumphant without abundance of them yet it being the principal end and the most manifest perfection of Religion to introduce an innocence of life and a sincerity of manners into all those who profess it all Churches cannot too severely affect that Discipline which hath the greatest operation upon the lives and actions of their Children whether there are not some corruptions creeped into the common practice of auricular Confession whether the ordinary customary Confessors are not too remiss or over curious in examining and consequently in informing their Penitents or too easie and perfunctory in their absolutions will not become me to determine but Mr. Cressy well knows that very many learned and pious Catholicks do publickly lament the scandalous corruptions which have been practised and countenanced in that vital part of their Religion Who those Apostates from the Catholick Church are who have left their Monasteries out of carnal liberty and carnal lusts I am not at all informed but if they are so carnally minded I doubt some of them may be instructed by him to ask him how he forgot what he had formerly believed and whether he was in a moment inspired to answer to a new Catechisme full of new Articles of Faith If conscience hath had no influence upon them they have been very weak and not Roman Catholicks enough to be tempted by the Woman since they might have had the full use of her with much more good husbandry and less guilt without leaving their Monasteries for it is a ruled and a vowed case by most if not all their Casuists that fornication is a less sin than marriage and the reason they give is that the last is living in perpetual adultery Whoever hath lived in those places which are most inhabited by Religious Men is very little conversant with the Catholick same if he doth believe the major part of Religious Men to be enough mortified against that liberty though no doubt very many of them have subdued the temptation and it will not only be charity but common justice to think that those Apostates over whom Mr. Cressy so much infults have been governed by their Conscience since it was hardly possible they could be invited by the Woman having enough of that Sex at their devotion without the obligation and impediment of marriage and till Mr. Cressy informs us why Monasteries are better Schools of Holiness and Devotion than our Colledges are whose Discipline is as severe admitting cleanliness be to be preferred before slovenlines and doctrine much stricter enough hath been already said for their vindication and need not be repeated I think I understand the excuse that Mr. Cressy makes for the notorious transgressions which have been in the matter of confession and absolution in reference to which he says the Doctor is not ignorant that not very long since among several dangerous positions collected out of some modern Casuists such scandalous relaxations in administring the Sacrament of Penance had a principal place all which were not only condemned by the Bishops of France almost in every Diocess but also a Book the Author of which
a short time they vanished and were no more heard of What was urged or insinuated by any Men of discretion and understanding that might make any impression upon sober unwary and misinformed Men was carefully and learnedly answered by Persons assigned to that purpose that the Church or the State might not undergoe any prejudice by want of seasonable advice without mingling any of the others froth or dregs in their compositions which they left to the chastisement of those who could as dexterously manage the same weapons and were fitter for their company And methinks grave and serious men or they who ought to be grave and serious should be afraid of imitating such adversaries in their licence and excesses lest they should get into a scoffing vein which they should not easily shake off or lose their credit with worthy Men for dishonouring the cause they maintain ironically A man will hardly be thought provident enough or solicitous for his own peace and credit who having discovered this unruly frantick disease will expose himself to the malignity thereof by approaching so near the company of those angry Wasps and Hornets who are like to be willing to take any opportunity to be revenged upon a Person who hath presumed to be offended with their manner of writing and in the same instant submitted his own to their censure which is like to be liable to as many exceptions of weakness and impertinence To which I shall only say that whatever other faults they shall discover in this short writing of mine they shall not find the same of which I complain I shall give no body ill words nor provoke them by contemning their Persons and I chuse rather to be at their mercy than not to endeavour the best way I can to divert men from that indecent way of reviling each other and instead of answering Arguments to traduce the Persons who urge them Truth is of so tender and delicate a constitution that it is defiled by rude handling and hath advantage enough to encounter and conquer its adversaries by the vigour of its own beauty without aspersing the deformity of the other farther than unavoidable reason makes it manifest I shall not interpose in those Arguments which are now most agitated in that scurrilous style that I complain of but chuse to take upon me to make Animadversions upon a Book lately published at least lately come to my sight Intituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Church of England by Doctor Stillingfleet and the imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Author whereof professes himself an avowed Enemy to the Church of England and would be thought as much an enemy to the foul custom introduced into the Controversies concerning it and the liberty men assume to deride Religion instead of vindicating it to wound the profession by a petulant and scornful mention of the Professors and by expressions full of pride and vanity and destructive to peace and government and yet how contrary soever this way of writing is to his practice and inclination he hath some jealousie of himself that upon the insupportable provocation he hath received some phrases of bitterness may have scaped his Pen which he doth believe he hath very good authority not to make any excuse for and there being such plenty of that noisom Gall scattered throughout his whole discourse it will be but just to take a view of his provocation and whether his revenge be no more than proportionable to the occasion and then whether the imputation be not rather confidently retorted than reasonably refuted and whether in the endeavoring the one or the other the bounds and limits of all modesty and civility are not so far transgressed that the Author is liable to just censure I do the rather enter into the List upon this occasion because I may infallibly presume that I know the Author of that Discourse for I no sooner read it which was long after it was published but that it was manifest to me by many particulars contained in it in which I cannot be deceived that it is written by Mr. Cressy with whom I have been acquainted very near fifty years and have very long esteemed him for his parts and learning and for his good nature and his good manners all of which were in as great perfection then as they have been ever since or are at present and therefore as I shall treat him with that candor that becomes an old Friend so I do not suspect his reception and interpretation of it will be such as is worthy of that temper of spirit which he professes to be of nor do I despair of presenting some considerations and reflections to him which may so work upon it as to induce him to believe that both in regard of the matter it self and the manner of treating Dr. Stillingfleet he hath swarved very much from those Rules which he prescribes to others and pretends to observe himself and then the tenderness of his own Conscience will instruct him what reparation he ought to make But before I enter into the debate I must first declare that the Religion I profess and defend is the Religion of the Church of England and not the particular opinions much less the expressions of any member of it how worthy soever and Mr. Cressy who professes to be an adversary to it ought to insist only upon what is owned and avowed by her and not hope to wound her through the sides or by the weakness or passions of those who have deserted her or still adhere to her And in the second place that I do not take upon me to write against the Catholick Church of which the Church of England is a vital part or against the Religion professed in any Catholick Country but against the Roman Catholick Subjects of his Majesties Dominions whose Religion I take to be different from that which is professed and established in any Catholick Country in Europe and disavowed by all the Catholick Countries out of Europe And one of the principal reasons that engages me in this Discourse is to endeavour to draw the dispute that is between the Church and the Laws of England and his Majesties Subjects of his own Dominions who profess to be of the Roman Faith into a narrower room and within that compass that properly contains it And I have always thought that they have had too much countenance and too great a latitude allowed them in reducing the contest to what concerns all the members of the Roman Church equally with themselves as if the Roman Catholicks of England withdraw their obedience from the Kings authority and oppose the Laws of the Land so much to the damage of their Estates and the danger of their lives if the Laws were prosecuted against them only for the support and in the defence of the cause common to all other Catholicks Whereas I say the difference between us depends wholly upon the personal authority of the Pope within the Kings
Dominions which is an argument never used for the support of the Catholick Religion if it were all Catholicks must be of the same opinion It was that and that only that first made the Schism and still continues it and is the ground of all the animosity of the English Catholicks against the Church of England and produced their separation from it and if they will renounce all that personal authority in the Pope and any obedience to it within his Majesties obedience which I say again is not admitted in any other Catholick Kingdom they will purge themselves of all such jealousie or suspicion of their fidelity as may prove dangerous to the Kingdom and against which the Laws are provided their opinions of Purgatory or Transubstantiation would never cause their Allegiance to be suspected more than any other error in Sence Grammar or Philosophy if those opinions were not instances of their dependance upon another Jurisdiction foreign and inconsistent with their duty to the King and destructive to the peace of the Kingdom and in that sence and relation the Politick Government of the Kingdom takes notice of those opinions which yet are not enquired into or punished for themselves let them disclaim that and they will find themselves at great ease This is the only Argument I wish should be insisted on between us and our fellow-subjects of the Roman profession not that I think that the other Doctrinal points between the two Churches are not worthy the insisting upon but that as much hath been said already upon them on both sides and as convincingly as is necessary Nothing new can be added at least no man will be convinced with what shall be added who is not moved with what is already said nor doth the meer difference upon any of those points naturally produce that uncharitableness those animosities of which we complain towards each other No man was ever truly and really angry otherwise than the warmth and multiplication of words in the dispute produced it with a man who believed Transubstantiation more than he would be with another who should come into a room where he was reading by a Candle and swear that the room was so dark that he could not see his hand but when he will for the support of this Paradox introduce an authority for the imperious determination thereof that the Word of God hath not commanded men to submit to and the word of Man the Law of the Land hath positively forbidden them to submit to it is no wonder if passion breaks in at this door and kindles a Fire strong enough to consume the House This is the Hinge upon which all the other controversies between us and the English Catholicks do so intirely hang and depend that if that only were taken off all the rest would quickly fall to the ground and therefore it concerns Mr. Cressy and the rest of his friends to fasten and make that Hinge strong that it may support the rest from falling And I cannot but observe how unwillingly they are brought to touch this point or if they do it is so lightly as if it were too hot for their fingers and upon the necessity of a through examination of this material Argument I shall be obliged to inlarge in the Conclusion of this Discourse There is another reason that hath principally invited me to this unequal undertaking that is my Zeal to the Church of England and a compassion of the very ill condition it is reduced to by an unworthy conspiracy that was never before entred into against it or any other established Church in undervaluing whatsoever is written by any Clergy-man how learned and vertuous soever in defence of it as if he were a party and spoke only in his own interest so that they who would undermine it by all the foul and dishonest arts imaginable have the advantage to be considered as Persons engaged in that accompt meerly and purely by the impulsion of their Consciences and for the discovery of such dangerous errors as are dangerous to the Souls of men whilst they who are most obliged and are best able to refute those vain and malicious pretences and to detect the fraud and the ignorance of those Seditious undertakers are looked upon as men not to be believed at least partial and that all they say is said on their own behalf This is a sad truth and a new Engine to make a Battery at which Atheism may enter without opposition with all its instruments and attendants that would make Christianity it self ridiculous that it may be contemptible God forbid that this Scarcrow should impose silence upon or seal up the mouths of any Learned and worthy Clergy-man who should open them the wider for this combination and contribute the more to the assistance and vindication of the best constituted Church in the world because it is in a distress by mockers and scoffers and neutral or unconcerned persons who make the approaches and sap the ground to open the way and make the access the more easie for more declared Enemies to oppress and destroy it This hath been a motive to me who have neither dependance upon or relation to any Clergy-man nor any temptation to imbark my self in this quarrel but my love of truth and the most abstracted duty to my Country and likewise because I think though the Clergy is best able to judge of any difficulties in matters of Religion the Laity is equally engaged in the consequences which will inevitably attend any prejudices it shall undergo or be exposed to and therefore ought in time to contribute their talent towards the securing it and not stand idle spectators of those stratagems which are no less designed against the State than the Church In the last place the particular esteem I have of the profound Learning and integrity of Dr. Stillingfleet to whom I am very little known and his great merit towards the Church of England whose worthy Champion he will not be thought the less for the untrue aspersions Mr. Cressy hath presumed to cast upon him and which will easily be wiped off hath disposed me to interpose in his Vindication which is so much due to him from other Men that I wish he may not trouble himself with it And having now observed Mr. Cressy's own method in giving first account of the reasons and motives which have prevailed with me for this engagement for which I cannot alledge another that was most powerful with him obedience to certain friends whose commands he ought in no wise to resist since I may honestly declare that no Friend I have is privy to my purpose or knows what I am doing I make hast to wait upon him by his own stages and shall make no excuse for not affixing my name to what I write which I do purposely decline not by the example of S. C. but by the assurance I have that the publishing my name would be so far from bringing any advantage to the cause
that torrent which over-bore them ought not to be imputed since it over whelmed multitudes of all professions who heartily abhorred those that they were compelled to obey It is a great instance of Mr. Cressy's good temper if it be of his sincerity that he is so solicitous to purge the Iesuits from the imputations which are more particularly cast on them I believe they did not expect it from him who is not thought to agree with them in all which they account fundamental Yet truly the excuse he makes for them is such as if he invited men to keep up their prejudice against them That for asmuch as concerns the unsafe Antimonarchical doctrine contained in those books cited by the Doctor it is almost a whole Age since that they have been by their General forbidden under pain of Excommunication and other most grievous censures to justifie them either in writing preaching or disputing c. Mr. Cressy speaks much of retractation and says well That they who by writing or otherwise have published scandalous doctrine which hath corrupted other men do not do their duty in being silent and giving over to do that which will be no longer safe for them to do but that recantation and retractation is necessary that they may be known to be no longer of the samc mind Is there any man of the society that hath written against that Anti-monarchical doctrine who hath endeavoured to confute Cardinal Bellarmine or Mariana or Emanuel Sa or any of the rest Is not Bellarmine's book of the power of the Pope over Kings are not all the other books to be bought at every Stationers shop Who knows any thing of the Generals warrants but themselves It was known to and permitted by the Pope that is the Pope was willing when their books were out that they should be quiet and write no more which would excuse them for not answering those books which Catholicks as well as Protestants should write against them and that they might not enter into dispute with the Colledge of Sorbon which detested their Principles He says It is well known that in this point Princes and States are generally become more clear-sighted and more wise than formerly they have been and by consequence the Court of Rome also It is indeed well known that the Court of Rome adheres still to its own principles though they do not think fit to put Princes in mind what they are well knowing that all their Bulls and Interdictions and Absolutions how long soever since published are still in the same force and vigour as they were the first hour of their publication and it is very few years since that upon an occasion of some consultation between the secular and regular Clergy of Ireland to present an address to the King in testimony of their obedience in which they disclaimed any temporal authority to be in the Pope the Court of Rome was so alarm'd by it that Cardinal Barberine writ to them to desist from any such Declaration and put them in mind that the Kingdom of England was still under Excommunication and since that time the Pope hath made many Bishops in Ireland which his predecessors had forborn to do from the death of Queen Elizabeth to the year One thousand Six hundred and Forty and this is the clear-sightedness and wisdom that the Court of Rome is lately improved in But he doth assure you that if an oath were framed free from ambiguity and without odious phrases inserted in it wholly unnecessary to the substance of it the Iesuits would not make any scruple of joyning with their Catholick brethren in it Alas what authority hath he to assure us this He knows very well that the Society will not trust him to frame such Oath and that they and he differ very much in their judgments in that point and of all men Mr. Cressy is the most unfit for such an undertaking He cannot forget that shortly after he deserted the Church of England and published his Exomologesis which in comparison of all that he hath writ since may be looked upon as a modest Book he did in that Book publish a protestation or subscription which all the Roman Catholicks in England would be willing to take and in truth it did not differ much in substance or sence from the Oaths which are enjoyned by the Law and no doubt he would have taken it himself and did then believe that all other Catholicks might have taken it likewise But within a short time all that impression of that Book was bought up or otherwise procured and a second Edition of it published wherein there were very many substantial alterations and additions from what was in the former the protestation of duty and obedience which was in the first was totally left out in the second impression it being not thought a fit obligation for the Catholicks to enter into The discourse he had made of Purgatory was likewise left out for he had mistaken the tenent of his new Church in that particular Many other alterations were made as must be confessed by any man who will take the pains to examine both Editions There were also many additions especially of reproaches against the Church of England and many bitter and virulent expressions against the Clergy of that Church And I know a person who meeting with Mr. Cressy expostulated with him upon all those particulars and asked him how it came to pass that those were left out when his Book had been first licensed by Dr. Holden and another Doctor of the Sorbon and why the other calumnies were added which so much reflected upon the Clergy contrary to what in his own Conscience he knew was true to all which he answered with passionate protestations that he never knew of one or the other till he saw the second impression that his Superiours were offended with the first in which there were some mistakes and that he had intirely left it to their discretions to do what they should think fit upon it whereupon they had caused it to be reprinted as it now stood without at all communicating with him which it seems being a custom amongst them gives me yet some hope that the very unusual passion and incivility that runs through this discourse may be added by the appointment and direction of some Superiour Since he is not so much altered in his face or habit from what he was when he was thirty years of Age as he is from that modesty and gentleness of nature and smoothness and civility of stile if all the expressions in his Book are his own from the time I knew him and had conversation with him But he finds it much easier to revile than answer any Books the Doctor hath writ in any time Nor can his opinion be doubted of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy both which he hath often taken and as often declared his detestation of the Covenant which Mr. Cressy will never be able to prove he ever
took And if he had it could not be wondered at since by the age he was of when he published his Book in defence of Archbishop Laud which some who knew it well assured me to be but twenty eight years I cannot suppose him to be when the Covenant was first appointed to be administred to all Scholars in the Universities above the age of thirteen years if so much and cannot be conceived to be at all instructed in the principles of the Church of England which had been long before that discountenanced and suppressed And no body doubts but that there are very many reverend and learned persons who have now great and unquestionable affection and zeal for that Church who did in their minority and under that accursed and tyrannical Government take that lewd Covenant and whose affection and zeal is not the less for having taken it But of all men it least becomes Mr. Cressy to put them in mind of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy when himself broke from the obligations of them and his own subscription though he was near if not full forty years of age when he last repeated those obligations and himself acknowledges that the Doctor had the courage even in those ill times to write against all the Religions which were then professed and countenanced in his Ironicon that he is so angry with And I do profess that I am not of the Doctor 's mind in all things which he says in that Book yet as Mr. Cressy will never undertake to confute it so I am not sorry that no body else hath gone about to answer it I will not accompany Mr. Cressy in his uncharitable passion which every expression how lawful soever that he dislikes kindles in him by treating others as he doth Archbishop Cranmer whose memory will be preserved as of a most worthy Prelate and glorious Martyr notwithstanding the foul imputations he is pleased to cast upon him Yet I must tell him that if that unhappy and ill advised Queen who had just reason to be offended highly with that Archbishop could have found that the Law would have condemned him for Treason she rather desired to have had him hanged for a Traitor than to have him burned for his Religion since she wanted not other instances enough of her severity in that kind But the Law would not extend to serve her turn that way if it would no body would have blamed her for having prosecuted him with the utmost rigour whereas many good men then did and since have for proceeding the other way with him It is not new to find those who have been adjudged Traitors by the Law of the Land looked upon in his Church as Martyrs which he well knows is the case of some who were executed for the Gunpowder Treason But he will answer that is no act of the Church which hath never declared them Martyrs it may be so and it is as true that the Church hath in some times Canonized those who were by Law known to be guilty of High Treason though not executed for it as Saints for whoever understands the Law as it was in those days cannot doubt but that Thomas Becket was guilty of High Treason and might legally have been proceeded against for it as he was condemned afterwards for it though the assassination of him was in no degree warrantable or to be excused Many other examples of the same kind may be given however it is a very sorry exception that Mr. Cressy takes to Cranmer's subscription of his opinion that he remits the judgment thereof wholly to the King So says he a final judgment both touching Government and Doctrine is by the prime Bishop referred to a King of about nine years old a great glory surely to the English Which is a suggestion below the wisdom and experience of Mr. Cressy who cannot but know that in all Kingdoms hereditary that the King is not less King for being but nine years of age and that all sentences and judgments are as much referred to him then as when he is at full age and the transactions are concluded in the same method and formality as they would be then As that opinion of the Archbishop was considered by the Privy Council and whatsoever was done afterwards which was not in all particulars agreeable to that opinion was concluded by the Parliament Nor is he much graver in his Comical discourse of the Kings Title of being Supreme Governour of the Church of England for he knows that head is not in the title though if it were it would be of no other signification that the King may thereby ordain Bishops and Priests himself which he well knows the Crown always disclaims and the Church never admitted but knows very well that the King hath as much authority to appoint and authorize those who shall do both within his own dominions as the Pope who doth neither with his own hands hath in his own Territories or others where by the consent of the Princes he hath that jurisdiction I shall say nothing in defence of the Hugonots of France of whose communion I do not profess my self to be they are of age let them speak for themselves yet I may say that I do not comprehend how their Confession of faith obliges them to be Traitors and Rebels whensoever the honour of God which he says is the defence of their execrable Religion is concerned and it cannot be denied that there have been many rebellions in France by the Catholicks since there have been any in which the Hugonots joyned who for these many years have given great testimony of their signal affection and fidelity to the King and when they were known to have temptations which many Catholicks did not resist And Mr. Cressy knows that there are many very learned men amongst them whose lives are not reproachable and whose writings for the learning contained in them and the modesty with which they are represented are thought worthy to be answered by the reverend Bishops themselves and other eminent and learned Catholicks who are contented to answer their Arguments and their Allegations with all possible candor and condescension and without any bitterness of language and therefore I cannot but lament on the behalf of our Nation and our manners and of the English tongue that the good spirit of France and the urbanity that is there used in handling Controversies in Religion hath not made greater impression upon Mr. Cressy who hath lived so many years amongst them as might well have disposed him to have followed their example and might have convinced him that rudeness of stile and impetuosity of words in contradictions of the highest importance which can relate to Religion are not essential to the being a good Catholick and since he urges the great liberty the Hugonots enjoy joy in France as an argument against the severity he will call it by a worse name of the Laws of his Country which forbid any exercise of the
Plantation of Christianity that where the age and the people were most inclined to superstition which in the first conversion and growth of Religion they were not disposed to at least to that worship and reverence which shortly after degenerated into superstition there was least care taken to introduce Forms and Ceremonies into the Church but when prophaneness broke in as a torrent and the lives of Christians discredited the doctrine of Christ and the power of Princes was found necessary to reform the manners of the Church such Forms and Ceremonies were brought into the exercise of Religion as were judged most like to produce a reverence into the professors towards it and to manifest that reverence in providing whereof General Councils medled very little knowing very well that they could not be the same in all places and that every State and Kingdom knew best what ways and means were most like to contribute to the general end the reverence for Religion and sure there cannot be too intent a care in Kings and Princes to preserve and maintain all decent Forms and Ceremonies both in Church and State which keeps up the veneration and reverence due to Religion and the Church of Christ and the duty and dignity due to Government and to the Majesty of Kings in an age when the dissoluteness of manners and the prophaneness and pride of the people too much inclines them to a contempt of Religion to a neglect of order and to an undervaluing and contending with the most Soveraign authority That the Secular power cannot provide for Ecclesiastical Reformations because Kings and Princes are not qualified to perform the offices and functions of Religion because they do not pretend to consecrate Bishops to ordain Priests or to administer the Sacraments is an argument to exclude them as well from the temporal as spiritual jurisdiction in the determination of matters of right between private men in the punishment of the most enormous crimes and offences Justice must be administred according to the established rules of the Law and not the will and inclination of the Iudge and it cannot be presumed that Kings can be so well versed in the Laws and customs which must regulate the proceedings of Justice and therefore may be excluded from the authority and power of judging the people and they are wonderful careful that you may not believe that they would bereave them of that inherent power and authority which they confess is committed to them alone but why the one and not the other since they can as well provide for the one as for the other is not so easie to be comprehended by any rules of right reason Kings provide for the good administration of justice by making learned men Iudges whose province it is to execute the Law in all cases and they provide for the advancement and preservation of Religion by making pious and learned men Bishops and use their advice and assistance in matters relating to the Church as he doth that of the Judges in cases pertaining to the Law and as he doth other Counsellors in such things as have an immediate dependance upon the Wisdom of State and both Bishops and Iudges are bound to render an account of their actions to Kings who have intrusted them and if they have been corrupt in the discharge of their several Offices they are equally liable to the Kings displeasure and to such punishments as the Laws have provided for such enormities which are inflicted upon them by the Kings authority And as no foreign power can be so competent as the King 's to administer this Justice since it must either controul it or be controuled by it so it is no easie matter for the Pope to prove himself a more spiritual Person than Kings are who have been in all Ages thought to have somewhat of the Priest and the Prophet by their very Office whereas some Popes have been pure Lay-men when they have been chosen to that Supreme office which is all the qualification they have to be more Ecclesiastical after and very many have been chosen Popes who never were Bishops which is not a necessary qualification for that dignity every Deacon-Cardinal being as capable to be elected Pope as the Priest and Bishop Cardinal and he that was a Bishop before consecrates no Bishops himself after he is Pope but that function is performed by other Bishops by vertue of his Commission or Bull and the same may as regularly be done by Bishops by vertue of Kings Commissions in their several Kingdoms otherwise it would be in the power of Popes to extinguish the function of Bishops in any Princes Dominions and therefore the French Ambassador declared in his Masters name to Innocent the Tenth that if he persisted in the refusal to make Bishops in Portugal upon that King's nomination they should chuse a Patriarch of their own who should supply that defect But God be thanked that senseless usurpation and exemption of the Clergie from the common justice of Nations is pretty well out of countenance and since the Republick of Venice so notoriously baffled Paul the Fifth upon that very point other Kings and Princes have chastised their own Clergie for transcendent crimes without asking leave of his Holiness or treating them in any other manner than they do their ordinary Malefactors For the unity proposed and professed by us in the Creed I believe one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church if it be well considered in what time that Creed was made which is not yet defined or determined by any Church and if it had been made by the Apostles themselves according to the fancy of some men that every one of the Apostles should contribute his Article it would then be Canonical Scripture which it is not pretended to be yet I think it is agreed by most learned men that it was framed in the infancy of Christianity and in or very soon after the time of the Apostles themselves and then it can have no other signification than Credo Sanctam Apostolicam Ecclesiam esse Catholicam which was a necessary Article at that time when the believing that the Church was to be universal and to consist equally of Gentiles as well as Iews was one of the most difficult points of Christianity and most opposed and for the Confirmation whereof the Apostles took most pains after they were all reconciled to it themselves and as it could have no other sence then so the restraining it to any one Church now or to make it serve for a distinction between Churches and Nations and to produce a separation between them must be very unnatural if any sence at all To conclude then this discourse of unity I know not how Mr. Cressy can refuse to submit to that good rule and determination that S. Gregory long since gave upon the third Interrogation administred to him by Austin the Monk Cum una sit fides cur sunt Ecclesiarum diversae consuetudines altera consuetudo Missarum
in sancta Romana Ecclesia atque altera in Galliarum tenetur Respondet Gregorius Papa Novit fraternitas tua Romanae Ecclesiae consuetudinem in qua se nutritam meminit sed mihi placet ut sive in Romana five in Galliarum seu in qualibet Ecclesia aliquid invenisti quod plus omnipotenti Deo posset placere sollicitè eligas in Anglorum Ecclesia quae adhuc ad fidem nova est institutione praecipuâ quae de multis Ecclesiis colligere potuisti infundas non enim pro locis res sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt Ex singulis ergo quibusque Ecclesiis quae pia quae religiosa quae recta sunt elige haec quasi in fasciculum collect a apud Anglorum mentes in consuetudinem depone If Austin had conformed himself to these Instructions it is very probable that he might have had as good success in reconciling the Eritish Church who principally insisted against any deference to the Roman not comprehending any possible reason for such a superiority or if the successors of Gregory had been of his temper and Christian prudence Christendom had been much better united at this day or more innocently separated and unanswerable reasons for the reformation of some errors which had unwarily creeped in or removing some scandals which could not otherwise be kept out would not have been so often rejected upon no other reason than that the Bishop of Rome was not of that opinion nor would whole National Churches because they have with the consent of the Soveraign power removed some error which the other chuses to retain be reviled with the names of Hereticks and Schismaticks and the universal be contracted within the Province of Rome and not be allowed to be members of the Catholick Church because they will not be subject to that of the Roman which would usurp the authority of condemning many more Christians than are contained within the community thereof To make any profession of a willingness to submit mens judgments for the sence of Scripture to a lawful General Council besides that I do not know that there is any difference upon any Text of Scripture that concerns Salvation I confess I take it to be very impertinent and in that respect not very ingenious since it is manifestly impossible for any such Council ever to meet whilst that of Rome challenges the sole power of calling it and pretends to such a Soveraignty in it that nothing must be debated by it but what is proposed by the Pope or his Legats and all Kingdoms or Provinces as well as private persons who will not submit to his Soveraignty shall be excluded from thence under the notion of being Hereticks so that all Protestants must appear as Delinquents to be censured and condemned which would be a strange condition to submit to when no body can compel them to appear but their own Soveraigns Nor can it be called a free Council where all who ought to be looked upon as members of it are not equally free When General Councils were first called all the Christians of the world were one mans subjects who could both compel as many of them as he thought necessary to be present and to obey and submit to whatsoever was determined whereas now there being so many Kings and Princes who have much larger Dominions than the Emperor and are equally Soveraigns in those their Dominions and none of their subjects can appear there without their Soveraigns consent And lastly it being a Catholick Tenent that how numerous soever the convention in Council is and how universal soever the consent is in what is determined the Canons made there are not obligatory to any Kingdom before it be received and submitted to in that Kingdom upon which the Council of Trent is not yet received in France and in many other Catholick Countries and therefore it will be very hard for Mr. Cressy to justifie the defending or urging the authority of that Council in England where it was never received and hath been always rejected And for these reasons it may reasonably be thought morally impossible for any general free Council ever to meet which must grow every day more impossible as the Christian Faith is farther spread and when the whole world is converted as we do not only pray it may but believe it will be it will be very hard for the greatest Geographer to assign a place for the meeting where the Bishops from all parts may reasonably hope to live to be present there and to return from thence with the resolutions of the Councils into his own Country For the Instruments and means of unity which Mr. Cressy says were left by our Lord to his Church for the preservation of unity besides that most of those means are as applicable to the Church of England as to the Church of Rome though none of them in the terms he uses appear to be enjoyned or left by our Saviour let him but prove the Ninth and Tenth That the ordinary authority is established in the Supreme Pastor the Bishop of Rome and that his jurisdiction extends it self to the whole Church c. and in case any Heresies arise or that any Controversies cannot be any otherwise ended he hath authority to determine the points of Catholick truth opposed c. I say let him prove this and he hath no need of any of the other means and I will give him farther this advantage over me that if he can prove that I am obliged to conform my judgment in any thing to the determination of the Pope more than to the determination of the Bishop of S. Iago I will go to Mass with him to morrow and Mr. Cressy himself might be a good Catholick if he had not unwarrantably to say no worse of it subscribed to the Bull of Pius the Fourth which is no obligation by the Council when he submitted to his new Ordination though he were of the same opinion And if that Tenth proposition of his be the doctrine of the Catholick Church the Colledge of Sorbon hath been often to blame in not consenting to it and I know not how the Iansenists in France can be excused for paying not more reverence to the judgment and determination of two Popes upon the five Propositions for Alexander the Seventh confirmed what Innocent the Tenth had first defined nor was the silence that is since submitted to in those particulars an effect of the Popes authority but of the Kings which amounts to little less than a revocation at least a suspension of the Popes Decree The Argument that the Doctor uses from the Tragical miscarriages of Popes is very apposite and convincing to those Propositions which Mr. Cressy would perswade men to believe do establish his personal Supremacy He says that our Saviour hath committed a Supreme jurisdiction to the person of the Bishop of Rome over the whole Church that in case any Heresies arise or any Controversies in causis