Evidence of those places of Scripture from which they deduced them 5. Since those of that Communion object a National Synod to the Protestants this may be turned back on them with greater advantage in some points established by Councils which they esteem not only General but Infallible In the Third Council of the Lateran it was decreed That all Princes who favoured Hereticks did forfeit their Rights and a Plenary Indulgence was granted to all that fought against them In the Fourth Council at the same place it was decreed That the Pope might not only declare this forfeiture but absolve the Subjects from their Oaths of Obedience and transfer their Dominions upon others In the First Council at Lions they joyned with the Pope in thundring the Sentence of Deposition against the Emperour Frederick the First which in the preamble is grounded on some places of Scripture of which if they were the Infallible Expositors then this power is an Article of Faith And in the last pâ—ace the Council of Constance decreed That the Faith of a Safe-Conduct was not to be kept to an Heretick that had come to the place of Judgement relying on it even though he would not have come without it When Crueltâ— Rebellion and Treachery were thus decreed in Courts which among them are of so sacred an authority It is visible how much greâ—ter advantages we have of them in this point than any they can pretend against us 6. For the Synod of Dort I will not undertake the Apology neither for their Decrees nor for their Assertions and will not stick to say that how true soever many of their Conclusions may be yet the defining such mysterious matters as the order of the Divine Decrees and the Influences of Gods Grace on the wills of men in so positive a manner and the imposing their Assertions on all the Ministers of their Communion was that which many as sincere Protestants as any are have ever disliked and condemned as a weakening the Union of the Protestant Church and an assuming too much of that authority which we condemn in the Church of Rome For though they supposed that they made their definitions upon the grounds of Scripture so that in this sense the authority of the Synod was meerly Declarative yet the question will still recur Whether they understood the passages which they built on right or not And if they understood them wrong then according to Protestant principles their Decrees had no such binding authority that the receding from them could make one guilty either of Heresie or Schism The Sixth Method IS to shew them that the Roman Church or that Church which acknowledges the Pope or the Bishop of Rome the Successor of S. Peter to be her Head all the World over is the true Church Because there is no other besides her that has that undoubted mark which is a perpetâ—al Visibility without Interruption since Christ's time to this day This is a Method common to all the Catholicks and is very well and briefly set forth in the little Treatise of the true Church joyned to that of the Peaceable Method This is that of which S. Austin makes most frequent use against the Donatists and chiefly in his Book of the Vnity of the Church and in his Epistles of which the most remarkable passages relating to this matter are gathered together by the late Arch-bishop of Rouen in the first Book of his Apology for the Gospel in which he handles this matter excellently well One may add to this Method the Maxims of which Tertullian makes use in his Treatise of Prescriptions against the Hereticks and also Vincentius Lyrinensis in his Advices It is enough to say on this occasion that those two Treatises may satisfie any that will read them without prepossession in order to their forming a just Iudgement of the true Church of Iesus Christ and of all those Societies that would usurp that name Remarks THis Method is so common that there was no reason in any sort to give Mr. Maimbourg the honour of it unless it was that the Assembly intended to do him this publick honour to ballance his disgrace at Rome But let us examine it 1. This asserts that no other Church has a perpetual Succession without interruption but that which derives it from Rome which is so contrary to what every one knows that Mr. Maimbourg was certainly inspired with the Spirit of his Order when he writ it Do not all the Greek Churches and all the Churches that have their Ordination from them all from the Northern Empire of Muscovy to the Southern of the Abassines together with all those in the East derive from the Apostles by an uninterrupted series For till the Authority of the Church of Rome is proved which is the thing in question their being declared Schismaticks or Hereticks by it does not interrupt this Succession 2. The Church of England has the same Succession that the Church of Rome had in Gregory the Great 's time to wave the more ancient pretensions of the Brittish Churches and the Bishops of this Church being bound by one of their Sponsions made at their Consecration according to the Roman Pontifical to instruct their flock in the true Faith according to the Scriptures they were obliged to make good this promise Nor can it be pretended that they have thereupon forfeited their Orders and by consequence their Succession 3. The Succession of the Church of Rome cannot be said to be uninterrupted if either Heresie or Schism can cut it off It is well known that Felix Liberius and Honorius to name no more were Hereticks and if Ordinations by Schismaticks or unlawful Usurpers be to be annulled which was judged in the case of Photius and was often practised at Rome then the many Schisms and unjust usurpations that have been in that See will make the Succession of their Orders the most disputable thing that can be especially during that Schism that lasted almost forty years all the Churches of that Communion having derived their Orders from one or other of the Popes and if the Popes at Avignon were the Usurpers then let the Gallican Churches see how they can justifie the series of their Ordinations To all which may be added the impossibility of proving a true Succession in Orders if the Vertue of the Sacraments depends on the Intention of him who officiates since secret Intentions are only known to God 4. The ground on which the Donatists separated from the Orthodox Churches being at first founded on a matter of Fact which was of the pretended Irregularity of those who ordained Cecilian which they afterwards defended upon this that the Church could be only composed of good men and that the Sacraments were of no Vertue when dispensed by ill hands all that S. Austin says is to be governed by this Hypothesis against which he argues And it being once granted that the Church was not corrupted neither in Doctrine nor Worship we are very ready
it cannot be proved that any thing else is to be understood by the word Church in that place A third difficulty may be also raised upon the extent of the word Prevail whether a total overthrow or any single advantage is to be understood by it or whether this prevailing is to be restrained only to the fundamentals of Christianity or is to be extended to all sorts of truth or whether it is to be understood of corrupting the Doctrine or of vitiating the Morals of Christians Thus it is apparent how many difficulties may be started concerning the meaning of those words So that at best the sense of them is doubtful and therefore it will be a strange and rash adventure to determine any thing in matters of great moment upon the authority of such a figurative expression 3. Though the Roman Church had been corrupted that will not infer that the Gates of Hell had prevailed against the Church for that being but the Center of the Union of some of the Western Nations a corruption in it does not prove that the whole Church was corrupted for there were many other Churches in other parts of the World besides those of that Communion The Tenth Method IS that of the Bishop of Meaux lately of Condom in his Book entituled The exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church In which he does in every Article distinguish between that which is precisely of Faith and that which is not so and shews that there is nothing in our belief that may give distast to a reasonable Spirit unless they will look on the abuses of some particular persons which we condemn as our belief or impute Errours to us falsely or charge us with the explications of some Doctors that are neither received nor authorized by the Church This method is taken from S. Hilary in his Book of Synods Let us says he altogether condemn false Interpretations but let us not destroy the certainty of the Faith The Word Consubstantial may be ill understood but let it be established in a sense in which it may be well understood The right state of the Faith may be established among us so as we may neither reverse that which has been well establishedpunc nor cut off those things that have been ill understood Remarks SOmewhat was said in the Preface with relation to this which shall not be here repeated It is not to be denied but in the management of Controversies the heat of Dispute has carried many too far and some have studied to raise many Imaginary Controversies which subsist only upon some misunderstood terms and expressions of the contrary party And things have been on all hands aggravated in many particulars out of measure So that they have deserved well of the Church that have brought matters as near a Reconciliation as may be But after all this it were a strange imposition on this and the preceding age to persuade the World that notwithstanding all the differences of Religion and the unhappy effects that have followed upon them that they really were all the while of the same mind but were not so happy as to find it out till that excellent Prelate helpt them to it by letting them see how near the concessions of both sides are to one another so that a little conversation and dexterity iâ— putting the softest construction that may be on the contrary persuasion might bring them to be of the same mind But if in order to this the sense of both sides is so far stretched that neither party can own it for a true account of their sentiments then this must be concluded to be only the Ingenious Essay of a very witty man who would take advantage of some expressions to perswade people that they have opinions which really they have not I shall not enter into a particular disquisition of those things which have been already so fully examined but refer the Reader to the Answers that have been given to that famous Book 2. The received and authorized Offices of the Church of Rome and the Language in which they do daily make their Addresses to Heaven is that on whiâ—h the most unanswerable and the strongest part of our Plea for our Separation is founded and it is not an ingenuous way of writing to affix some forced senses to those plain expressions because they being so gross as they are all wise or learned men are ashamed to defend them and yet know not how to get them to be reformed or thrown out Therefore it is that they set their Wits on work to put some better construction on them But this is a clear violence to the plain sense of those Offices extorted by the evidence and force of Truth and gives us this advantage that it is plain those that so qualifie them are convinced that their Church is in the wrong and yet for other ends or perhaps from a mistaken notion of Unity and Peace they think fit to continue in it 3. It is to be hoped that those who have cited this passage out of S. Hilary will consider those other passages cited out of him against Persecution though a great Errour made in the Translation of this citation makes me fear that they who rendred it had read him very cursorily The Eleventh Method IS drawn from those General Arguments which Divines call the Motives of Credibility It is that made use of by Tertullian in his Book of Prescriptions and by S. Austin who reckons up the Motives that held him in the Catholick Church Remarks 1. AS for the Case of Tertullian and S. Austin a great deal was said formerly to shew the difference between the Age they lived in and the grounds they went on and the present state of the Western Church 2. When it is considered that a course of many Ages which by the Confession of all were times of Ignorance and Superstition has made a great change in the World that the gross Scandals and wonderful Ignorance of those that have governed the See of Rome that the Dissolution of all the Rules of Ecclesiastical Order and Discipline both among Clergy and Laity that the Interest the Priests particularly the Popes and the begging Orders that depended on them had to promote those was so great and undisputâ—d that it is notorious all the worst methods of forgeries both of Writings to authorize them and of Miracles and Legends to support them were made use of When I say all these things are so plain to every one that has lookt a little into the History of former ages it is no wonder if the Church of Rome is so much changed from what it was formerly That the motives made use of by Tertullian and S. Austin do not at all belong to the present state of the Churches of that Communion But on the contrary instead of motives to perswade one to continue in it there appear upon a general view a great many just and well-grounded prejudices to dispose a
which we have separated from the Church of Rome are not to be found among those Churches Such as the adoring the Consecrated Elements the denying the Wine to the People the saying Masses for Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory the having Images for the Trinity the immediate Invocation of Saints for the pardon of Sin and those blessings which we receive only from God Besides an infinite variety of other things Not to mention their denying the Popes authority And to turn this argument on them Those parts of their Worship in which they differ so much from the Eastern Churches do afford us very good arguments to evince that they are Innovations brought in since these ages in which those Churches held Communion with the Roman Church And do prove that at the time of their Separation they were not introduced in the Western Church For when we find such a keenness of dispute concerning one of the most indifferent things in the World as whether the Sacrament should be of Leavened or Unleavened Bread can we think that if the Latines had then worshipped the Sacrament they had not much rather have objected to the Greeks their Irreverence upon so high an occasion than have insisted on the matter of unleavened Bread As for the conclusion we do acknowledge it is such as becomes an Assembly of Bishops But whether it becomes men of their Characters of their Birth and of their Qualities to pretend to such gentleness and meekness when all the World sees such notorious proofs given to the contrary I shall not determine but will leave it to their own second thoughts to consider better of it We find both the King and the Clergy of France expressing great tenderness towards the persons of those they call Hereticks togetherwith their resolutions of gaining them only by the Methods of Persuasion and Charity and yet the contrary is practisâ—d in so many parts of France that considering the exact Obedience that the Inferiour Officers pay to the Orders that are sent them from the Court we must conclude these Orders are procured from the King without his being rightly informed concerning them And since we must either doubt of the sincerity of the Kings Declarations or of the Assemblies we hope they will not take it ill if we pay that Reverence to a Crowned Head and to so illustrious a Monarch as to prefer him in the competition between his credit and theirs and they must forgive us if we stand in some doubt of the sincerity of this Declaration till we are convinced of it by more Infallible proofs than words or general Protestations The Conclusion THus I have made such Remarks on these Methods as seem both just and solid I have advanced no assertion either of Fact or Right concerning which I am not well assured and which I cannot justifie by a much larger series of proofs than I thought fit to bring into a Discourse which I intended should be as short as was possible But if that be necessary and I am called on to do it I shall not decline it I have with great care avoided the saying any thing meerly for contentions sake or to make up a Muster of many particulars for I look on that way in which many write for a cause as some Advocates plead for their Clients by alledging every thing that may make a shew or biass an unwary hearer as very unbecoming the profession of a Divine and the cause of Truth which we ought to assert And there is scarce any thing that shews a man is persuaded of the truth he maintains more evidently than a sincere way of defending it For great subtilties and deep fetches do naturally incline a Reader to suspect that the Writer was conscious to himself of the weakness of his cause and was therefore resolved to supply those defects by the quickness and nimbleness of his parts But having now said what I think sufficient in the way of Remâ—rks upon the Letter and the Methods published by the late Assembly General of the Clergy of France I now go on to some Methods which seem strong and well grounded for convincing those in Communion with the Church of Rome that they ought to suspect the ground they stand on In which I shall observe this Method First I shall offer such grounds of just suspicion and jealousie as may dispose every considering man to fear and apprehend that their Church is on a wrong bottom from which I shall draw no other Inferences but that they are reasonable grounds to take a man a little off from the engagement of his former Education and Principles and may dispose him to examine matters in dispute among us with more application and less partiality And then I shall shew upon more demonstrative grounds how false the foundations are on which the Church of Rome is established both which I shall examine only in a general view and in bulk without descending by retail unto the pâ—rticulars in Controversie between us 1. And first It is a just ground to suspect any Church or Party of men that pretend to have every thing pass upon their word or authority and that endeavour to keep those who adhere to them in all the Ignorance possible that divert them from making Enquiries into Religion and do with great earnestness infuse in them an Implicite Belief of whatsoever they shâ—ll propose or dictate to them The World has found by experience that there is nothing in which fraud and artifices have been more employed than in matters of Religion And that Priests have been often guilty of the basest impostures And therefore it is a shrewd Indication that any sort of them that make this the first and grand principle which they infuse into their followers that they ought to believe every thing that the majority of themselves decree and do therefore recommend Ignorance and Implicite Obedience to their people and keep the Scriptures out of their hands all they can and wrap up their Worship in a language not understood by the vulgar are not to be too easily believed But that they may be justly suspected of having no sincere designs since Truth is of the nature of Light And Religion was sent into the World to enlighten our minds and to raise our understandings 2. It is a just ground of Jealousie of any Church if she holds many opinions which have a mighty tendenâ—y to raise the Empire and Dominion of the Clergy to a vast height A Reverence to them for their works sake is due by the light of Nature But if Priests advance this further to such a pitch that every one of them is believed qualified by his Character to work the greatest Miracle that ever was The change of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ besides all the other Consecrations by which Divine Vertues are brought down on such things as they bless If it is also believed necessary to enumerate all secret sins to them and
as that without which we can never be certain of the Faith But if this is true then into what desperate scruples must all men fall For the resolution of their Faith turns to that which can never be so much as made probable much less certain The efficacy of the Sacraments depending on the intention of the Priest none can know who are truly Baptized or Ordained and who are not And it is not to be much doubted but that many profane Priests may have in a sort of wanton Malice put their Intention on purpose cross to the Sacrament For the Impiety of an Atheistical Church-man is the most extravagant thing in the World Beside this what Evidence can they give of the Canonical Ordination of all the Bishops of Rome The first Links of that Chain are so entangled that it is no small difficulty to find out who first succeeded the Apostles And it is not certainly known who suceeeded them afterwards for some few Catalogues gathered up perhaps from report by Historians is not so much as of the nature of a Violent presumption If we consider Succession only as a matter of Order in which we go on without Scrupulosity I confess there is enough to satisfie a reasonable man But if we think it indispensable both for the conveyance of the Faith and the vertue of the Sacraments then it is impossible to have any certainty of Faith all must be sounded on conjecture or probability at most It is but of late that formal Instruments were made of Ordinations or that those were carefully preserved and transmitted In a word difficulties can be rationally enough proposed concerning Succession that must needs drive one that sets up his Faith on it to endless scruples of which it is impossible he should be ever satisfied There is one thing of great consequence in this matter that deserves to be well considered Under the Mosaical Law God limited the Succession to the High Priesthood so that the first-born was to succeed and the great Annual Expiation for the whole people was to be performed by him Yet when in our Saviours time this was so interrupted that the High Priesthood was become Annual and wassold for money God would not suffer the people to perish for want of such Expiation but the Sacrifice was still accepted though offered up by a Mercenary Intruder And Caiaphas in the year of his High Priesthood prophesied So that how great soever the sin of the High Priest was the people were still safe in him that was actually in that Office And if this was observed in a dispensation that was chiefly made up of positive Precepts and carnal Ordinances it is much more reasonable to expect it in a Religion that is more free from such observances and is more Spiritual and Internal 2. Another ground on which those of the Roman Church build is this That a True Church must hold the truth in all things Which is so Sophistical a thing that it might have been expected wise and ingenious men should have been long ago ashamed of it It is certain the Iewish Church was the true Church of God in our Saviours time for their Sacrifices had then an Expiatory Vertue in them So that they had the certain means of Salvation among them which is the formal notion of a True Church And yet in so great a point as what their Messias and his Kingdome were to be we find they were in a very fatal errour The opinion of his being to be a Temporal Prince had been handed down among them so by Oral Tradition that it had run through them all from the Priests down to the Fisher-men For we find the Apostles so possessed with it that at the very time of Christs Ascension they were still dreaming of it And yet this was a gross Errour and proved of most mischievous consequence to them Of this they were so persuaded that the Supream Judicature or Representative of their Church the Sanhedrim that had much more to shew for its authority than a General Council can shew in the New Testament erred in this fundamental point and condemned Christ as a Blasphemer and declared him guilty of Death So that while they continued to be the True Church of God yet they erred in the point which was of all others the most important upon which it is evident that it is no good Inference to conclude that because a Church is a True Church therefore it cannot be in an Errour 3. Another pretence in that Church on which they build much and which makes great Impression on many weak minds is the Churches Infallibility in deciding Controversies by which all disputes can be soon ended and they conclude that Christ had dealt ill with his Church if he had not provided such a Method for the end of all Disputes But it is certain they have lost this Infallibility if they ever had it unless it be acknowledged that it is lodged in the Pope against which the Gallican Clergy has so lately declared And yet it can be no where else if it is not in him for as they have had no General Council for about one hundred and twenty years so they cannot have one but by the Popes Summons and if the Pope is averse they cannot find this Infallibility so at best it is but a Dormant Priviledge which Popes can suspend at pleasure In the Intervals of Councils where is it Must one go over Europe and poll all the Bishops and Divines to find their Opinions So in a word after all the noise about Infallibility they can only pretend to have it at the Popes Mercy And indeed he that can believe a Pope chosen as he generally is by Intrigues and Court factions to be the Infallible Judge of Controversies or that a Council managed by all the Artifices of crafty men as that at Trent appears to have been even by Cardinal Pallavicini's History was Infallibly directed by the Holy Ghost is well prepared to believe the only thing in the World that is more Incredible which is Transubstantiation There was as good reason for lodging an Infallible Authority among the Iews as among Christians for their Religion consisting of so many External Precepts concerning which Disputes might rise it seemed more necessary that such an authority should have been established among them than under a Dispensation infinitely more plain and simple And the Supream Authority was lodged with the Sanhedrim in much higher expressions under the Old Testament than can be pretended under the New as will appear to any that will read the fore cited place in Deuteronomy There was also a Divine Inspiration lodged in the Pectoral by which the High Priest had immediate Answers from the Cloud of Glory and when that ceased under the Second Temple yet as their Writers tell us that was supplyed by a degree of Prophecy which is also confirmed by what S. Iohn says concerning Caiaphas's Prophecying and yet after all this thâ—t
meekness and gentleness towards those who differ from them and that they had the same aversion to Cruelty that we find among the Ancients I shall not here alledge what Tertullian and Cyprian have said in general against Cruelty on the account of Religion nor what Lactantius has more copiously enlarged on But since they mention those that first established the Christian Religion in France I shall offer to them what the first of the Gallican Bishops who had an occasion given him to write of such matters Hilary of Poictiers said against the Arians who were persecuting the Orthodox under Constantius though their greatest severities were not equal to those that the Protestants are now made to suffer It will be unreasonable to alledge that what Hilary said against that Persecution cannot quadrate with the present case the one being done by an Heretical Emperour and the other by a Most Christian King I shall avoid the making any odious comparison in this matter but this must be acknowledged that it is to beg the question to say the one persecuted to advance an errour whereas the other does it to suppress errour and it will appear that he wrote not sincerely if he did not condemn that way of proceeding in what cause soever it were employed For he plainly says the Bishops would have opposed such methods even to advance Truth Hilary addressed himself to Constantius that he would slacken his severities and Suffer the people to hear those Preach and celebrate the Holy mysteries and pray for his safety and success whom they liked best and esteemed most and had made choice of then he promises that all things would be quiet and that not only there would be no Sedition but not so much as any murmuring And as a reason for enforcing this he says a little after God has taught but not imposed on us the knowledge of himself and conciliated authority to his Commands by the Miracles that were wrought but he despises that Confession that flows from a compelled mind If such force were used to draw men to the true Faith the Episcopal Doctrine would interpose and say The Earth is the Lords and he needs not an enforced Obedience nor does he require a constrained Confession He is not to be deceived but his favour is to be desired and he is to be worshipped for our causâ— not for his own I could not receive any but such as were willing nor hear such as did not entreat me nor confirm such as did not profess the Faith To this he adds But what is this that Priests are forced by Chains to fear God and commanded by the terrour of punishments That Priests are kept in Prisons and the people are delivered over to the Jaylors And upon this he runs out more largely than is necessary to transcribe But let us also hear how he addresses himself to those Bishops that were the chief Procurers and Instruments of all the sufferings of the Orthodox And indeed what he says to them does serve as so apposite an Answer to a great part of this Letter that I hope it will not be irksome to translate a large quotation out of it The name of Peace saith he is specious and the opinion of Unity is beautiful But it is past all doubt that that Peace only which is the Peace of Christ is the Peace of the Church and the Gospels We have desired to recover that same Peace that is now lost of which he spake to his Apostles after his glorious sufferings and which he being to leave them recommended to them as a pledge of his Eternal Laws And we have desired to compose the disorders now made in it and having again recovered it we have also desired to maintain it But so prevalenâ— have the sins of this age been and the sore-runners and Ministers of Antichrist that is approaching have been so active that we could neither procure this Peace nor partake of it While those who boast of the Unity of their Peace that is of their impiety behave themselves not like the Bishops of Christ but like the Priests of Antichrist But that we may not be blamed for using reproachful words we will not conceal the cause of this common ruine that so none may be ignorant of it We know from what S. Iohn the Apostle has delivered that there are many Antichrists and whosoever denies Christ as he was preached by the Apostles is an Antichrist It is the property of Antichrist marked by the very name to be contrary to Christ. Now by the opinion of a mistaken Piety and under the pretence of preaching the Gospel this is effected or endeavoured that the Lord Jesus Christ while he seems to be Preached is denied In the first place we must pity the labour of this age and lament the foolish opinions of those times in which God is thought to be protected by Men and by Secular ambition the Church of Christ is laboured to be defended I pray you O you Bishops who believe your selves to be such what were the assistances which the Apostles made use of in preaching the Gospel By what Earthly powers were they supported when they preached Christ and converted almost all Nations from Idols to God Did they derive any authority from the Palace when they were singing Hymns to God in Prison in Chains and after they were whipped Did Paul gather a Church to Christ by vertue of Royal Edicts when he himself was exposed as a spectacle on a Theatre Did he secure himself by the protection of a Nero a Vespasian or a Decius by whose hatred of us the Confession of that Divine Preaching did flourish They maintâ—ining themselves by their own handy-work and assembling in upper rooms and secret places went over all Countries both Villages and strong places through Sea and Land notwithstanding the Decrees of Senates and Royal Edicts against them And I suppose it will not be denied that they had the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Did not the Divine power exert it self manifestly against the hatred of men when Christ was preached so much the more as the preaching of him was prohibited But now alas humane aids are employed to recommend our Divine Faith and Christ is accused as having lost his former power while his name is promoted by ambition The Church now terrifies others by banishments and imprisonments She depends on the favour of her Communicants who was consecrated by the terrour of her Persecutors She banishes Priests who was propagated by the banishment of her own Priests and now boasts that she is beloved of the World who yet could never have been Christs if the World had not hated her The present state of affairs which is in all mens Eyes and Discourses gives us this parallel of the condition of the Church as it was anciently conveyed down to us and as it is now ruined in our days There needs no application of these words to the present purpose they express the
from that which animated the Church in the former and best ages The Reverend Prelates say in their Letter That they hold the same Faith with their Predecessors If this were true in all points it were indeed very hard to write an Apology for those that have separated from them I shall not engage in a long discussion of the sentiments of the Ancient Bishops of the Gallican Church yet that the Reader may not be too much wrought on by the confidence and plausibleness of this expressionâ— I shall only give a taste of the Faith of the first of all the Gallican Clergy whose works are yet preserved and that is Irenaeus I shall instance it in two particulars the one is the hinge upon which all our other Controversies turn that is whether the Scriptures or Oral Tradition is to be appealed to for determining matters of Controversie The other is the most material point in difference among us concerning the presence of Christ in the Sacrament whether in it we really receive the substance of Bread and Wine or only the Accidents As to the first he directly appeals to the Scriptures which he says were the Pillar â—nd ground of Truth and adds that the Valentinians did appeal to Oral Tradition from which he â—urns to that Tradition that was come from the Apostles on which he insists very copiously and puts all the authority of Tradition in this That it was derived from the Apostles And therefore says that if the Apostles had delivered nothing in Writing we must then have followed the Order of Tradition And after he has shewed that the Tradition to which the Valentinians pretended was really against them and that the Orthodox had it derived down from the Apostles on their side he returns to that upon which he had set up the strength of his cause to prove the truth from the Scriptures Now the Scriptures being the foundation on which the Protestants build and Oral Tradition together with the authority of the Church being that on which the Church of Rome builds it will be easie to every one that considers those Chapters referred to in Irenaeus to gather upon which of those he grounded his belief As for the other particular he plainly calls the Sacrament that Bread over which thanks have been given and says our flesh is nourished by the body and blood of Christ and concludes that our flesh by the Sacrament has an assurance of its Resurrection and Incorruptibility More particularly he says Our blood is encreased by the blood of Christ and that he encreases our body by that bread which he has confirmed to be his body and that by these the substance of our body is encreased and from thence he argues that our bodies receive an encrease not by any internal or invisible way but in the natural way of nourishment and so concludes that our bodies being nourished by the Eucharist shall therefore rise again Every one that considers the force of these words must conclude that he believed our bodies received in the Sacrament a real substance which nourished them and not bare Accidents If then upon this essay it appears that the first Writer of all Gallican Bishops does agree with the Protestants both in that which is the foundation upon which they build their whole cause and also in that particular opinion which is believed to be of the greatest importance then the Reader has no reason to believe that the present Bishops of France hold the same Faith which their Predecessors taught who first preached the Christian Religion in that Kingdom But now I come to answer the main Question which is indeed the whole substance of the Letter Why have they made the Schism If such a Letter with such a demand in it had come from the Abassin or Armenian Churches or perhaps from the Greek Churches whose distance from us is such and the oppressions they groan under are so extreme that they have little heart and few opportunities to enquire into the affairs or opinions of others it could not have been thought strange but to hear it from these among whom those live who have so often both in Writings and Discourses answered this question so copiously is really somewhat unaccountable Yet this is not all but it is added That the Protestants upon trial finding they could not shake their Doctrine have charged them only for their ill lives as if that were the ground of the Separation This it must be confessed had better become the affected Eloquence of a Maimbourg than the sincerity of so many eminent men of whom the mildest censure that can be past in this particular is That some aspiring Priest being appointed to pen this Letter that was better accustomed to the figures of a clamorous Rhetorick than the strict measures of Truth gave it this turn hoping to recommend himself by it and that the Bishops signed it in haste without considering it well Who of all the Protestants have made that Experiment and found that the Faith of the Church of Rome was not to be attackt and that she can only be accused for the ill lives of some in her Communion If this were all we had to object we do not deny but that all that the Fathers retorted on the Schismaticks particularly the Donatists did very justly fall on us and that we could neither answer it to God to the World nor our own Consciences if we had separated from their Church on no other account And this is indeed so weak a Plea that the Penner of the Letter shewed his skill at least if he was wanting in his sincerity to set up a pretence which he knew he could easily overthrow though the reasons he brings to overthrow it are not all pertinent nor convincing But this in conclusion is so managed as to draw an occasion from it to complement the present Pope some way to make an amends for their taking part with their King against him All that is to be said on this Head is That Protestants are not so unjust as to deny the Pope that now reigns his due praises of whose vertue and strictness of life they hear such accounts that they heartily wish all the Assembly of the Clergy from the President down to the Secretaries would imitate that excellent Pattern that he sets them A Zeal for converting Hereticks does not very well become those whose course of life has not been so exemplary that this can be imputed to an inward sense of Religion and to the motives of Divine Charity But in this point of the corruption of mens lives we may add two things more material The one is if a Church teaches ill Morals or at least connives at such Casuistical Doctrines as must certainly root out all the principles of moral vertue and common goodness out of the minds of men then their ill Morals may be improved to be a good argument for a Separation from them How much the Casuistical Doctrine of those
and theirs is the affirmative and since all Negatives especially in matters of Religion prove themselves it falls to their share to prove those Additions which they have made to our Faith and to the Doctrine contained in the Scriptures 3. Though this is a sure Maxime yet our Plea is stronger for there are many things taught by them against the express words of Scripture as their worshipping Images their noâ— drinking all of the Cup their worshipping of Angels their not worshipping God in a tongue which the unlearned understand and to which they can say Amen their setting up more Mediatoâ—â— between God and us than one Whereas S. Paul exhorting us to make Prayerâ— to God tells us there is one Mâ—diâ—tor which shews that he spake there his single Intercession with God on our behalf 4. We do not only build our Doctrine upon some few passages of the Scripture in which perhaps a Critical Writer might easily raise much dust but upon that in which we cannot be so easily mistaken which is the main scope of the whole New Testament and the design of Christianity which we believe is reversed in their Church by the Idolatry and Superstition that is in it 5. As for the particulars which they call on us to prove as they are very few so scarce any of them is of the greatest consequence The first is a speculative point about which we would never have broke Communion with them For the second that we receive Christ only by Faith if the third is true that the Sacrament is still Bread then that must be also true Now S. Paul calls it so four several times as also our Saviour calls the Cup the Fruit of the Vine As for our denying Purgatory it is a Negative and they must prove it Nor should we have broken Communion for their opinion concerning it if they had not added to that the redeeming Souls out of it with Masses by which the Worship is corrupted contrary to the institution of the Sacrament And for the last in the sense in which many of them assert it we do not raise any Controversie about it for we know that God rewards our good works or rather crowns his own Grace in us The fifth Method IS the Peaceable Method and without dispute founded on the Synod of Dort which all the pretended Reformed Churches of France have received and which has defined according to the Holy Scripture that when there is a dispute concerning any Controverted Article between two parties that are both within the true Church it is necessary to refer it to the judgement of the Synod and that he who refuses to submit himself becomes guilty of Heresiâ— and Schism Now if we will run back to the time in which the dispute began concerning any Article for instance that of the Real Presence both the parties in thâ— debate as well the Ancestors of those of the P. R. Religion as ours were in thâ— same Church which was the true Church for there was no other before the Sâ—paration which was not then made Then their Ancestors who would not submit to the Iudgement of the Church and have separated from her on no other account but because she had condemned their sentiments were Schismaticks and Hereticks And those who at this day succeed them are in the same manner guilty since they follow their opinions And to this they can make no other Answer but that which the Hereticks that have been condemned in all Ages might have made This Method is proved in all its parts in the little Treatise that has been made about it Remarks IT is not unwisely done to call this a Method that is to pass without dispute for it will not bear one And 1. There is this difference between the principles of Protestants and those of the Church of Rome that whereas the latter are bound to justifie whatever has been decreed in a General Council as a rule either of Faith or Manners the sormer are not so tied and much less are they bound by the decision of a National Council though never so solemn It is natural for all Judicatories to raise their own authority as high as they can and so if any Synod has made any such Declaration it lies on them to justifie it but the rest of those who have separated from the corruptions of the Church of Rome are not concerned in it 2. The principle of Protestants with relation to the majority even in a General Council is That when any Doctrines are established or condemned upon the Authorities of the Scriptures those who differ from them and do think â—hat the Council misunderstood the Scriptures are bound to suspect themselves a little and to review the matter with greater application and not to adhere to their former opinions out of pride or obstinacy They are also bound to consider well of their opinions though they appear still to be true yet if â—hey are of that importance that the publishing them is necessary to Salvation for unless it is so the Peace of the Church is not to be rent by them Yet if they are required to profess that they believe opinions which they think false if tâ—ey were never so inconsiderable no man ought to go against his Conscience But if a man after his strictest enquiries is still persuaded that a Council has decreed against the true meaning of the Scriptures in a point necessary to Salvation then he must prefer God to Man and follow the sounder though it should prove to be the much lesser party And if any Company or Synod of Protestants have decreed any thing contrary to this in so far they have departed from the Protestant principles 3. Difference is to be made also between Heresie and Schism in a Legal and a Vulgar sense and what is truly such in the sight of God The Sentence of a Supream Court from which there lies no Appeal makes one legally a Criminal But if he is innocent he is not the less innocent because a hard Sentence is past against him So Heresie and â—chism may take their denominations from the Sentence of a National or General Council But in that which is the sense of those words that makes them Criminal Heresie is nothing but an obstinate persisting in errours contrary to Divine Revelation after one has had a sufficient means of Inâ—truction and Schism is an ill grounded Separation from the Body of the Church So it must be the Divine Revelation and not the authority of a Synod that can prove one who holds contrary opinions to be an Heretick and the grounds of the Separation must be likewise examined before one can be concluded a Schismatick 4. Though the Conclusions and Definitions made by the Synod of Dort are perhaps generally received in France yet that does not bind them up to subscribe every thing that was asserted in that Synod Nor do they found their assent to those opinions on the authority of that Synod but upon the
to subscribe to every expression of his and do freely acknowledge that the making a rent in a Church that is pure both in Doctrine and Worship upon any particular or personal account is a sin that cannot be sufficiently detested and condemned I shall not enter into a particular discussion of every passage of S. Austin's but if in some he seems to go too far for the authority of the Church I shall only offer two general considerations concerning these The first is That it is a Maxime with Lawyers That general words in Laws are to be restricted to the preambles and chief design of these Laws And if this is true of Laws that are commonly penned with more coldness and upon greater deliberation it is much more applicable to warm discourses where the heat of Contradiction and the Zeal of a Writer makes that things are ofâ—en aggravated and carried too far but still all those expressions are to â—e molliâ—ied and restricted to that which was the subject matter of the debate therefore those expressions of S. Austin's supposing that the Church was still sound in her Doctrine and Worship are to be governed by that Hypothesis The second is That many of those who urge these passages on us do not deny but S. Aâ—stin in the disputes about Grace and Original Sin was carried too far though those were the subjects on which he employed his latest years with the greatest application If then it is confessed that he wrote too warmly against the Pelagians and in that heat advanced some propositions that need a fair construction is it unreasonable for us to say that he might have done the same writing against the Donatists 5. As for Tertullian he that might have conversed with many that could have known S. Polâ—carp who was both instructed and ordained by the Apostles so that he might have been the third person in the conveyance of the sense of what the Apostles had left in Writing could reasonably argue as he did against the Hereticks but certainly no man that considers the distance we live at from those ages and the many accidents that have so often changed the face of the Church can think it reasonable to argue upon that ground now And yet it were easie to bring many citatious out of that very Book of Tertullians to shew that he grounded his Faith only on the Doctrine of Christ delivered in the Scriptures how much soever he might argue from other Topicks against the Hereticks of his time who indeed were bringing in a New Gospel into the World We willingly receive the Characters that Vincentius Lyrinensis gives of Tradition that what the Church has at all times and in all places received is to be believed and are ready to joyn issue upon this and when they can prove that the Church at all times and in all places has taught the Worshipping of Images the Invocation of Saints and Angels the adoring the Sacrament and the dividing of it with many more particulars we will yield the whole cause and confess that we have made a Schism in the Church The Seventh Method IS to let them see that those who at first pretended to Reform the Church in which they were amongst us neither had nor could have any Mission either Ordinary or Extraordinary to bring us any other Doctrine but that which was then taught and that by Consequence none ought to believe them since they had no authority to Preach as they did How can they Preach if they are not sent This is the ordinary Method that puts the Ministers to the necessity of proving their Mission which is a thing that they can never do This cuts off all disputes and is one of the Methods of Cardinal Richelieu Remarks 1. IF the first Reformers had delivered a new Doctrine which was never formerly taught it had been necessary for them to have had a very extraordinary Mission and to have confirmed it by very extraordinary signs but when they grounded all â—hey said upon that very Book which was and is still received as the unalterable Law of all Christians then if every man is bound to take care of his own Salvation and is in Charity obliged to let others see that same light that guides himself then I say an extraordinary Mission was not necessary when the thing in dispute was not a new Doctrine but the true meaning of those Writings which were on all hands acknowledged to be Divine 2. If notwithstanding the necessity of not raising War in Civil Government without an express Commission from the Prince or Supream Authority yet in a General Rebellion when the ways of intercourse with the Prince are cut off if it be not only a lawful but a commendable action for any subject even without a Commission to raise what force he can for the service of the Prince Then if it be true that the Western Churches had generally revolted from the rules of the Gospel that was a sufficient warrant for any person to endeavour a Reformation 3. The nature of the Christian Religion is to be well considered in which all Christians are a Royal Priesthood And though it be highly necessary for all the ends of Religion to maintain peace and Order and to convey down an authority for sacred administrations in such a way as tends most to advance those ends yet this cannot be lookt on as indispensable and absolutely necessary Among the Iews as there were many services in which none but Priests and Levites could officiate so the Succession went in the natural course of Descent But in the Christian Church there are no positive Laws so appropriated and therefore in cases of extream and unavoidable necessity every Christian may make use of that dormant priviledge of being a Royal Priest and so this difficulty must be resolved by examining the merits of the whole cause for if the necessity was not extream and unavoidable we acknowledge it had been a Sacrilegious presumption for any that was not called in the ordinary manner to meddle in Holy things 4. It is but a small part of the Reformed Churches that is concerned in this Here in England our Reformers had the ordinary Mission and in most places beyond Sea the first Preachers had been ordained Priests And it will not be easie to prove that Lay-men yea and Women may baptize in cases of necessity when that is often but an imaginary necessity and that yet Priests in a case of real necessity may not ordain other Priests For all the Rules of Order are superseded by extraordinary cases and in Moral as well as in Natural things every Individual has a Right to propagate its kind and though it may be reasonable to regulate that yet it can never be wholly cut off The Eighth Method IS to tell them You do not know that such or such a Book of the Scripture is the Word of God but by the Church in which you were before your Schism So that you cannot know