or S. Paul composing his Epistles nor so much neither seeing these were so assisted as to Compose Holy Scripture when the Church only pretends to Expound the Word of God. How doth such an Assistance of the Divine Spirit derogate from the Infallibility of God from which it is derived But Her Exposition must be admitted say you though contrary to the Sense As if Infallibility did not exclude all possibility of such a wrested Exposition The Infallibility of the Church may slight your Attempts whilst you are armed only with such Straws We have seen your Arguments let us see your Answers to ours G. B. pag. 44. The Gates of Hell not prevailing against the Church Mat. 16.18 proves not the pretence of Infallibility Why not Learned Sir Not a word of that but as if you had forgotten what you were about you fall upon the English Translation of that Text which you say deserves amendment and I will leave you to be taught better Manners by your Fellow Ministers or your Mother the Kirk of Scotland G. B. pag. 45. The Spirit leading into all truth Joan. 16.13 advances not the Cause a whit since that Promise relates to all Believers Here is another Assertion without Proof as if we were bound to take your word Those words are part of the Sermon after the last Supper at which only the Apostles were present and which was directed immediately to them You should then give some Reason why they relate to all Believers althô spoken only to the Apostles G. B. The Church's being built on the Rock Peter proves nothing for a Series of Bishops of Rome seeing the other Apostles were also Foundations Answ If it prove all Bishops together Infallible firm in Faith as a Rock it confounds your Reformation which is condemned by them all G. B. The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 16.19 import no more than that Peter was to open the Gospel When you shall give in a Proof we will consider it till then I will believe not you but Christ who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adds the Office of the Keys to open and shut not the Gospel but Heaven by loosing and binding Sins G. B. pag. 46. It is certain that Vice as well as Error is destructive of Religion If then there be no Authority for suppressing of Vice but that same of the Discipline of the Church it is not incongruous there be no other Authority for suppressing of Error but that same of the Discipline of the Church Answ It is certain that both in the old and new Law several Persons have been secured against Error who were subject to Sin. S. Peter was truly reprehensible (a) Gal. 2.11 for a thing he did not for any thing he writ or preached The same of David of Salomon c. For this reason our Blessed Saviour commanded (b) Mat. 23.23 all to follow the Doctrin of the Scribes and Pharisees because they sat on the Chair of Moyses but not their Example So your Question why God should provide more against Error in Faith than against Vice in Manners can find no place amongst Catholics who are taught to adore God's holy Will even when they understand it not and to (c) 2 Cor. 10.5 Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ To you who think it absurd to deny a Man the use of his Reason in Judging and Diseerning all things and submit even Divinely revealed Truths to its Tribunal to you I say we leave the search of those Depths and discovery of those Mysteries G. B. pag. 48. I could prove from History that General Councils have erred that Popes have been Heretics Answ By what you have done we may guess what you can do Your Learning appears by your Writings as also your Judgment in using it We have seen many Proofs of it and shall see more in this small Tract I will add to them one Instance out of another Work of yours Observations on the First Canon of the Apostles pag. 66. You prove that anciently Priests could Administer the Sacrament of Confirmation out of the First Canon of the First Council of Orange When it is evident that That Canon doth not give Priests power to Administer the Sacrament of Confirmation but commands them to use Chrism in Baptism since when every Divine of the First Year knows that Vertical Chrismation hath been a Ceremony of that First and mysterious Sacrament Such Mistakes as these are incident to such as are bred in a Congregation where Ceremonies are abrogated G. B. pag. 49. We are not the Servants of Men nor bound to their Authority for none can be a Judge but where he hath Power to Try and to Coerce Now none but God can search our Hearts so none but he can be Judge Answ The Independent and Quaker and all who endure with regret Prince and Prelate Canon and Civil Law under pretence of Evangelical Liberty will thank you for this CHAP. XIV Of Merits G. B. p. 50. IF any have derogated from the value of the Satisfaction of that Lamb of God they have offered the utmost Indignity to the highest Love and committed the Crime of the greatest Ingratitude imaginable Answ Transeat totum what then G. B. Who would requite the most unconceivable Love with such a sacrilegious Attempt Answ None that I know of But say you how guilty are they of this who would set the Merits and Works of Men in an equality with the Blood of God Answ I know none such if you do point them out for Punishment no Catholic is concerned in them G. B. pag. 51. It is true this Doctrin of Merit is so explained by some of that Church that there remains no ground of quarrelling it except for the Terms sake which is indeed odious and improper thô early used by the Ancients in an innocent Sense But many of that Church acknowledge there can be no Obligation on God by our Works but that which his own Promise binds upon him Answ Here is one of the malicious Sleights of you and your Brethren when you cannot with any colour accuse the Doctrin of our Church to pretend it is only the Doctrin of some few Persons that you may persuade your Disciples the generality of Catholics hold the contrary The Council of Trent contains what all Catholics Subscribe to and this is the Doctrin of that Council in this Point Concil Trid. Sess 6. cap. 16. Benè operantibus usque in finem in Deo sperantibus proponenda est vita aeterna tanquam gratia filiis Dei per Christum Jesum misericorditer promissa tanquem merces ex ipsius Dei promissione bonis ipsorum operibus meritis fideliter reddenda To those who persevere in good Works even to the end of this Life and who hope in God Life everlasting is proposed both as Grace mercifully promised to the adopted Children of God through Jesus Christ our Lord as also as a Reward due in vertue
Organs by which God spake and their Words were his Words When you received the word of God says S. Paul 1 Thes 2.15 which when you received of us you received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God. Hence those Men frequently use that Phrase Haec dicit Dominus Thus says the Lord. And Faith is no farther a Theological Vertue than it relies solely and only on the Truth Veracity of God as on its Formal Object as with our Divines and out of them Dr. Pearson in his Learned Explication on the Creed teaches And in this even those Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinely Inspired proceeded as we do resolving their Faith into the Veracity of God as well as we for their Faith was univoca of the same nature with ours with this only difference that the Formal Object was applied to them clearly and to us only obscurely The assent to such a Mystery in Christ was Science or Vision not so in any others He might say Quod scimus loquimur quod vidimus testamur Jo. 3.11 We know what we speak and we testifie what we have seen The rest must say Credimus propter quod loquimur 2 Cor. 4.13 We believe and therefore we speak In this manner Faith was first spread in the World. I say the Catholic Faith not your Protestant Faith which as it contains your positive and negative Articles otherwise it is not Protestant was never delivered by any Man Divinely Inspired but invented by your first Reformers who as I have said Chap. 22. Sect. 1. taking the whole Sum of Faith revealed topt and lopt off it as much as they pleased and from them you have not the Christian but the Protestant Faith Fides temporum non Evangeliorum A Faith of the Times not of the Gospels says Tertul. Were these the Men of God Divinely Inspired and assisted by Miracles G. B. ibid. The Doctrins about which we differ can pretend to no such Divine Original Answ You know we hold this not to be true we received all by the same Authority from the same Hand G. B. pag. 117. What Man sent of God was the first Author of the Belief of the Corporeal Presence of the Sacrifice of the Mass of the Pope's Supremacy of Purgatory of Indulgences and of all those innumerable Superstitions of which Scripture is absolutely silent Answ Christ was a Man sent of God and he was the first Author of them G. B. ibid. If these Doctrins were not the Off-spring of Revelations we cannot be obliged to believe them as such Answ Your former Legerdemain comes again another conviction of your disingenuous Proceeding This appears by these Propositions If the Bible were not the Offspring of Revelation we should not be bound to believe it If Christ were not true God we should not be bound to adore him as such Could you with patience hear a Pagan with such a Sleight undermine the Authority of the Bible or the Honor due to Christ Prove what you odiously suggest that the things you wrongfully call Superstitions are not revealed and you will do something to the purpose But you are too cunning to attempt any such Proof which you know surpasses your Strength And therefore you had rather suppose than prove it that being more proportioned to your Capacity and Religion G. B. ibid. They vouch Scriptures for Proof to some of these but these are so far stretched that their sure Retreat is in the Sanctuary of Traditions Answ You speak as Dogmatically as if it were ex Tripode Here is an Assertion without any Proof and so is a convincing Proof that you have none Tradition is indeed our Sanctuary to which you have no Claim By it we received 1. Scriptures 2. The Sense of Scriptures which is their Soul. Now when Scriptures are doubtful in any Point or as you phrase it seem not to reach home without Stretching can we have better assurance of their true meaning than by the Authority of the Church which is clearly commended to us in Scriptures themselves And in following her Sense we are certain we follow Scriptures which is the Discourse of S. Aug. lib. 1. contra Crescon cap. penult Quamvis hujus rei de Scripturis Canonicis non proferatur exemplum Scripturarum etiam in hac re à nobis tenetur veritas cum hoc facimus quod universa jam placuit Ecclesiae quam ipsarum Scripturarum commendat auctoritas ut quoniam Sacra Scriptura fallere non potest quisquis falli metuit hujus obscuritate quaestionis Ecclesiam de illâ consulat quam sine ullâ ambiguitate Sancta Scriptura demonstrat G. B. ibid. Till it be proved that an Error could not creep into the World that way we must be excused from Believing Answ Unless you prove that Errors have crept in that way you are inexcusable You actually rejected those things as Errors which were in possession all over the World unless you prove them to be such your Fact is criminal G. B. ibid. It is not possible to know what Traditions came from the Apostles Answ Habemus hic confitentem reum For if it be impossible to know what Traditions were Apostolical your Reformers Act in rejecting so many was rash and inconsiderate They had been better advised to retain all as they found them in the Church than to cut them off But your Procedure is as different in this as in the rest from S. Austin For was any thing doubted of this Saint's Method was to consult the Church and adhere to what she believed or practised as you see in his Discourse above you consult the Church too but it is only to reject her Practice and condemn her Sentiments The weight of the Authority of the Church may be sufficient to convince which are Apostolical Traditions as it convinces which are Apostolical Writings Yet we have other Signs I will instance in two one taken from S. Aug. l. 4. de Bapt. cont Donat. c. 24. Quod universa tenet Ecclesia neec à Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Apostolicâ traditum auctoritate rectissimè creditur We ought to believe those things to have come from the Apostles which the whole Church holds and were not introduced by Councils but were always in use To prove this it is enough that the first Persons who mention them speak of them not as of things newly begun but which were of ancient Practice The second Rule is taken out of Tertullian l. de Praescript c. 28. Age nunc omnes erraverint deceptus sit Apostolus de testimonio reddendo quibusdam nullam respexerit Spiritus Sanctus uti eam in veritatem induceret ad hoc missus est à Christo ad hoc postulatus de Patre ut esset Doctor veritatis neglexerit officium Dei villicus Christi vicarius sinens Ecclesias aliter in terris intelligere aliter credere quà m ipse per Apostolos praedicabat Ecquid
c. 6. Caelestin I. (d) Epist 1. ad Episc Gallia cap. 12. and Augustin (e) Lib. 2. de pec orig cap. 40. l. 6. cont Julian c. 5. ubi ait Ecclesia filios fidelium nec exorcisaret nec exufflaret si non eos de potestate tenebrarum à principo mortis erueret Id tu commemorare timuisti tanquam ipse ab orbe toto exufflandiu esses si huic exufflationi quâ Frinceps mundi a parvulis ejieitur for as contradicere voluisses The Church says S. Augustin to Julian would neither exorcise you call this a Charm the children of the Faithful nor blow upon them did she not free them from the power of the Devil This thou Julian durst not gainsay fearing thy self to be blown out of the Christian World if thou hadst done so So esteemed was this Ceremony then that even Hereticks durst not speak against it which now is reproach'd to us as à Charm a Superstition by our Reformers Not a petty Minister but thinks it a fit Object to be laught at and to shew his wit by playing the Buffoon upon it By natural Generation all are born in sin children of wrath slaves of the Devil and in the power of Darkness By supernatural Regeneration which is Baptism we are purged from Sin freed from the bondage of the Devil adopted the Children of God delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the beloved Son of God. Colos 1.13 This Faith delivered by the Apostles was believed by the primitive Christians and we believe the same They used this Ceremony to signifie this change in the Person baptized we use it for the same intent It was then so venerable that even Heretics durst not express any disesteem of it now you deride it and look upon it as prophane and a Charm. Whence comes this change from the Ceremony no it is the same it was then from the Intention of those who use it no it is employed to signifie the change from Sin to Grace now as it was then The Change is only in your self and your Brethren Reformers your Faith is as different from that of the Primitive as of the present Church and that new Faith enclines you to deride those things which the Church animated by Apostolical Faith did and doth esteem By this you see how Impious this Lucian like spirit is How imprudent it is will appear if you consider how full your Assemblies are of Libertines who deride all things of Devotion even practised by your selves as several tragically complain of in their Sermons You foster in them this Spirit by your Practise you plant that Tree in their Hearts which produces such sour Fruit that sets all your teeth an edge this Serpent is bread in the bowels of your Reformation and serpent like it will eat the bowels of her Parent and kill her if it be not stifled G. B. pag. 35. The Priest at Mass often how 's sometimes he turns to the People and gives them a short barbarian Benediction then goes on Answer In all this I see nothing ridiculous but your relating those sacred Rites How can he express his inward Worship of God more clearly than by kneeling or bowing His Office is to be a Mediator betwixt God and Man Heb. 5.1 and how can that be better represented than by his humble applications to God bowing to him and listing up his hands to the throne of Grace Heb. 4.16 to receive thence Mercy and then turn to the People to pour it upon them Thus on Jacobs Ladder the Angels appeared going up and down up to God down to Jacob a Type of what Priests do when they officiate But he gives them a short Barbarian Benediction That Benediction which you a very civilized person disdain as Barbarous is taken out of Scripture the words of an Angel to Gideon Judges 6.12 Our Lord be with you Dominus vobiscum Scripture it self cannot escape your censure if a Papist use it Your contempt of the language of Angels in this World will scarce make you worthy of their Company in the next G. B. pag. 35. After Adoration the God is to be devoured by the Priest which made the Arahian say Christians were fools who devoured what they adored Answer A worthy Authority for a King's Chaplain in ordinary to build upon Sir Christ said Take and eat this is my Body because he says it is his body we adore it and because he commands us to take and eat it we obey and do so But a Turk says it is foolish Let it be so no Turk's Opinion is the Rule of my Faith. Is it of yours Is not this prodigious that against the express words of Christ and the Practice of the whole Church the Authority of a Turk should be brought nay and preferred before it and this by a Minister G B. pag. 38. Rome enjoyns severer censures on the violation of those Ceremonies than on the greatest transgressions against the moral or positive Laws of God. Answer I know no motive you can have for advancing such notorious untruths but that of Cicero Cum semel limites verecundiae transieris oportet graviter esse impudentem You have past those bounds and there I leave you CHAP. XIII Scripture and the Church where of the Resolution of Faith. G. B. p. 41. c. Papists call the Scriptures a nose of Wax the source of all Heresies Answer If any Roman Catholic compared Scripture to a Nose of Wax it is only because the Letter may be wrested to different senses and made to look not that way which the Holy Ghost designed but that which Mens Passions lead them to The World affords not a more convincing Instance of this flexibility of Scriptures then that of your own Brethren in the late troubles who brought it to countenance Sedition Rebellion Heresie Murther and the horriblest of all Murthers Parricide the killing of the Father of the Country Did Scripture of it self look towards or abet all those crying Sins no sure it condemns them formally It can then be wrested from its own natural sence to another meaning contrary to it which is all that is meant by that Phrase As for its being a source of Heresies it is not true that Scriptures do found Heresies or that Heresies spring out of them but that Men draw Heresies out of the words of Scriptures taken in a Sense quite contrary to that of the Holy Ghost G. B. pag. 41. Papists will have all the Authority of Scriptures to depend on the Church A great difference is to be made betwixt the Testimony of a Witness and the Authority of a Judge The former is not denied to the Church Answer Here you grant to the Church as much as we desire provided you own in this Witness such a Veracity as the nature of its Testimony requires to bring us to a certain and undoubted belief of the Scriptures The Curch never took upon her the Title
Of Judge of Scripture In her Councils she places in the middle of the Assembly a high Throne as for Christ and in it sets the holy Ghospels as his word according to which she judges of the Doctrin tontroverted Conc. Calced Act. 1. So she judges by Scriptures of the Doctrin of men but doth not judg of the Scriptures themselves At the first Admission of a Writing into the Canon of Scriptures the Church proceding is of another nature A Writing is brought to her as written by a Man Divinely assisted of S. Paul for example to the Romans by Phebe or to Philemon by a fugitive Servant Onesimus neither as a Witness give any great credit to the Writing they brought The Pastors of the flock of Christ consider the Writings examin the Messengers recurr to God by Prayer to demand the Assistance of his Holy Spirit to know whether he were truly the Author of the Writing exhibited If after all these means used to discover the Truth they remain convinced the thing was written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost they obey it themselves command Obedience to it as to the Word of God and use it as a Rule of Faith and Manners So when an unknown Person brings into a Corporation a new Patent as of the King's Majesty and presents it to the Mayor He before he allows the Patentee to act in vertue of it with his Brethren considers the Writing the Signet the Seal the Stile c. to know whether it be counterfeit or sincere with a Resolution to obey it himself and make others do the same in case it appear to be truly the King 's The Mayor cannot be said to judge of the Kings Patents to which as a Subject he owes Obedience but only to discern whether an unknown Writing be the King's Patent or no. You say this makes the Authority of the Scriptures depend on the Church Which is as rational as if you should say the Authority of the King's Patent depends on the Mayor of a petty Corporation because the Patent is exhibited to him before it be executed If any Man hath so little common Sense as not to discern the difference betwixt these two Propositions To judge of the Kings Patent and to judge whether an unknown Writing be the Kings Patent I am to seek how to help him This Authority of the Church to recommend the Scriptures as an undeniable Witness occasioned that Saying of S. Augustin l. contra Epist Fundam c. 5. Ego Evangelio non crederem nisi me Ecclesiae Catholicae commoveret authoritas I would not believe the Gospel did not the Authority of the Catholie Church move me to it Which words are cited by all Catholic Controvertists as containing an implicit Decision of all our Controversies they shewing evidently S. Augustins Discourse against the Manichees to be just the same which we use against the modern Protestants that as we are heirs of that Faith which S. Augustin and the Church of his time defended against its Opposers the ancient Heretics so are we of the Titles by which they enjoyed it and the Arms with which they defended it I will put down the whole Discourse of S. Augustin at large that so we may the better understand his meaning and more convincingly shew how much the most understanding of our Adversaries are out of the way in explicating it The thing sought for in that Discourse was whether Manichaeus was an Apostle of Jesus Christ or no The Manichaeans said he was the Catholics denied it for whose cause S. Austin disputes thus in that place Quaero quis sit iste Manichaeus says he Respondebitis Apostolus Christi Non Credo Evangelium sortè mihi lecturus es indè Manichai personam tentabis asserere Si ergò invenires aliquem qui Evangelio nondum credit quid faceres dicenti tibi non credo Ego verò Evangelio non crederem nisi me Catholicae Ecclesiae commoveret authoritas Quibus ergo obtemperavi dicentibus credite Evangelio cur eis non obtemperem dicentibus mihi Noli credere Manichaeo Elige quid velis Si dixeris crede Catholicis ipsi me monent ut nullam fidem accommodem vobis quapropter non possim illis credens nisi tibi non credere Si dixeris noli Catholicis credere non rectè facis per Evangelium me cogere ad Manichaei fidem quia ipsi Evangelio Catholicis praedicantibus credidi Si autem dixeris benè credidisti Catholicis laudantibus Evangelium sed non rectè credidisti illis vituper antibus Manichaeum usque adeò me stultum putas ut nullâ redditâ ratione quod vis credam quod non vis non credam quippè multò justius cautius facio si Catholicis quoniam semel credidi ad te non transeo nisi me non credere jusseris sed manifestissime apertissimè scire aliquid feceris Quocirca si mihi rationem redditurus es dimitte Evangelium Si ad Evangelium te tenes ego ad eos me teneam quibus praecipientibus Evangelio credidi his jubentibus tibi omninò non credam Quod si fortè in Evangelio aliquid manifestissimum de Manichaei Apostolatu invenire potueris infirmabis mihi Catholicorum auctoritatem qui jubent ut tibi non credam Quâ infirmat â nec Evangelio credere potero quia per eos illi credideram ita nihil apud me valebit quicquid inde protuleris Quapropter si nihil manifestum de Manichaei Apostolatu in Evangelio reperitur Catholicis potiùs credam quà m tibi Si autem inde aliquid manifestum pro Manichaeo legeris nec illis nec tibi illis quia de te mihi mentiti sunt tibi quia eam scripturam mihi profers cui per illos credideram qui mihi mentiti sunt Sed absit ut ego Evangelio non credam Illi autem credens non invenio quomodò possim etiam tihi credere Haec Aug. ibid. I demand says this Saint Who is this Manichaeus You answer He is the Apostle of Christ I will not take your word for it What will you say what means will you use to persuade me Perchance you will take the Gospel and thence endeavor to prove unto me the Mission of Manichaus But what if you meet with one who doth not believe the Gospel how would you deal with him For my part I would not believe the Gospel did not the Authority of the Catholic Church move me Whom therefore I obey in saying Believe the Gospel should I not obey in saying Believe not Manichaeus Take your choice whether you will have me rely on the Catholics or no If you say Believe the Catholics they marn me not to believe you wherefore believing them I must reject you If you say Do not believe Catholics you do not well endeavoring to bring me to the Belief in Manichaeus by the Gospel which I received only upon the word of Catholics If you say you do well to believe the
Catholics when they commend the Gospel but you do not well in believing them when they blame Manioheus do you think me such a Fool as without any reason I should believe what pleases you and not believe what you dislike Certainly it is much more reasonable seeing I must believe the Catholics that I abandon your Communion unless you can give me an evident Demonstration for the contrary Wherefore if you will alledge Reason lay by the Gospel If you retain the Gospel I will stick to those upon whose word I have admitted the Gospel and their Authority forces me to renounce you Now if perchance you can shew out of the Gospel any evident proof of Manichaeus his Apostleship you will indeed weaken in me the Authority of Catholics who forbid me to believe you But that Authority being weakned I shall no more be able to believe the Gospel which I received by it and so whatsoever you prove thence will fall to the ground Therefore if no clear proof of Manichaeus his Mission is extant in the Gospel I will rather believe the Catholics than you If a clear proof be found there I will neither believe the Catholics nor you Not them because they were false in the Opinion they delivered of you Not you because you rely on that Scripture which I received on the testimony of those who have deceived me Yet God forbid I should reject the Gospel and believing it I see no possibility of believing you Thus the great Saint which I have cited at large because the whole Discourse holds against all Heresies changing only the Name of Manichaeus or Manichean into that which signifies the Heresie as for Example into that of Protestant or Luther Morcover it contains a clear Confutation of what hath hitherto by the Learnedst of our Adversaries been said in Answer to it The first Interpretation of this Place is delivered by W. L. in his Relation of a Conference pag. 81. Some of your own says he will not endure it should be understood save of the Church in the time of the Apostles only and then cites Ockam Dial. p. 1. l. 1. c. 4. Where he hath not one word of that But says Mr. Still in his Rational Account p. 198. the words are in Durandus l. 3. Insent d. 24. q. 1. n. 9. where he says Intelligitur solùm de Ecclesiâ quae fuit tempore Apostolorum It is understood only of the Church which was in the time of the Apostles The same Author borrows another Explication of Biel Lect. 2. in Can. Missae That the words are to be understood of the Church in general as it contains the first and later Ages A tempore Christi Apostolorum c. And to this he sticks for he adds And so doth S. Augustin take Eccles contra Fund And Dr. Still p. 198 199 approves the same and confirms it out of Gerson and Driedo Neither of these two Explications can stand with the Text as appears out of those words Quibus obtemperavi dicentibus Credite Evangelio cur eis non obtemperem dicentibus mihi noli credere Manichaeo Whom I obeyed in saying Believe the Gospel should I not obey in saying Do not believe Manichaeus Hence I frame this Argument St. Augustin professeth he received the Gospel upon the credit of that Church which condemned Manichaeus But that Church which condemned Manichaeus was that of his time and not that of the Apostles who never mentioned Manichaeus Ergo the Church on whose word he received the Gospel was that of his time and not that of the Apostles When therefore E. S. p. 220. says It is plain St. Austin means not the Judgment of the present Church but of the Catholic Church as taking in all Ages and Places he evidently contradicts the very Text of St. Austin whence I conclude that either he speaks against his Conscience which I am unwilling to believe or else which is more excusable that he had not read the Text which he undertakes to Explicate A Third and yet more improbable Explication is delivered by W. L. p. 82. He speaks it either of Novices or Doubters in the Faith or else of such as were in part Infidels Mr. Fisher the Jesuit at the Conference would needs have it that St. Austin spake it even of the Faithful which I cannot yet think for he speaks to the Manichees and they had a great part of the Infidel in them And the words immediately before these are If thou shouldst find one qui Evangelio non credit which did not believe the Gospel what wouldst thou do to make him believe Thus W. L. This is likewise plainly false for S. Austin was neither a Novice nor a Doubter in the Faith nor in part an Infidel when he writ that Book for he writ it after he was made Bishop as you may see Lib. 2. Retract c. 2. But he speaks of himself and describes the ground of his own Faith Ergo he doth not speak of Novices Doubters or half Infidels nor describes the ground of their Faith but of those who are firm Believers I prove that S. Austin speaks of his own Faith and shews the ground on which it relied For first he says I would not believe the Gospels without the Authority of Catholics commending them Secondly he says If you weaken the Authority of Catholics I will reject the Gospel This I believe Mr. Stillingst saw and therefore said pag. 20. If you extend this beyond Novices and Weaklings I shall not oppose you in it And I cannot think that W. L. had read that place at least with attention when he writ He could not think S. Austin spoke of the Faithful Stilling pag. 220. Neither you nor any Catholic Author is able to prove that S. Austin by these words ever dreamt of any infallible Authority in the present Church Ans Seeing S. Austin expresly says He would renounce the Gospel if the Authority of Catholics were weakned in him by discovering they had delivered any one Lye he must either think them exempt from all possibility of Lying or else he adhered very loosly to the Gospel I hope E. S. will not assert the later part wherefore he must grant that S. Austin thought the Church free from all possibility of Error Let us return to Mr. G. B. G. B. pag. 43. Christ's Prophetic Office is invaded by the pretence of the Churches Infallibility in Expounding Scriptures And why good Sir should the Infallibility in Expounding Scriptures be an Invasion of the Prophetic Office of Christ seeing Infallibility in writing them was no such thing Certainly it is more to compose a Writing than to understand it as many can understand Cicero's Speech pro Milone who cannot compose such an one And your old Women pretend to understand several parts of Scripture which yet I think will scarce undertake to Pen the like By this say you the whole Authority is devolved on the Church No more than it was on S. John when he writ his Gospel
nothing to do Do you not see that you give us Reason to say your Charity is disorderly not beginning at home and that (a) Luke 6.42 as the Hypocrit you labor to shew in or take out of anothers eye a mote while you neglect a beam in your own G. B. Pag. 1. It argues a cruel and inhumane Temper to delight in beholding Scenes of Horror and Misery Answer What temper then doth it argue to delight in representing them and that in the most horrible tragical and dismal colours which Art and Study can invent For what can even the most inventive Imagination fancy more dismal that what you write Pag. 2. Indignities done to God and his Son Christ the Enemy of Mankind triumphing over the World with absolute Authority and enraged Cruelty Satan having a Seat where Christs Throne should be Christendom fallen from its first Love and the greatest part of it made shipwreck of its Faith That Church whose Faith was once spoken of throughout the World become Mother of the Fornications of the Earth In fine Falling away Mystery of Iniquity Antichrist Babilonish Rome Bewitching Sorceries And what not Add but Obstinacy in these horrid Crimes which is a Circumstance aggravating them without altering their Species and the Pains due to Sin which are not horrible if compared with Sin and we here have a Picture of Hell. Your temper is very merciful and humane which prompts you to make such a Map of the far greatest part of Christianity This will appear more clearly when we come to consider your Charge in retail and examin your Proofs when we see you are forced to seek them in the obscure withdrawing-roomes of Mans heart which are inaccessible to all but God of which nevertheless you speak as confidently as if God had led you by the Hand into them and made you Partaker of his Knowledge Purgatory was invented on design to enrich the Clergy Transubstantiation on design to make it more esteemed The Primacy of the Pope on design of Grandeur c. And altho we vouch Scripture for all these Points yet you are pleased to say we do not ground them on Scripture but on Ambition and Avarice Nay you not only fain Proofs for our Doctrins but fix on us Doctrins themselves which we disown as that we teach to break the Commandments So that we may profess that all that is ugly and dismal in the Scene of Horror and Misery which you represent comes from your own Pencil and is an effect of your own Brain See what is your Temper and how much your Reader is obliged to you CHAP. II. Of Antichrist G. B. Pag. 3. BEing warned of so much danger to the Christian Religion it is a necessary Enquiry to see if this Antichrist be yet come or if we must look for another Answer Do you then think it as necessary to know Antichrist as to know Christ That you express your earnestness in enquiring after Antichrist in those Words (a) Luke 7.19 of S. John the Baptist's Inquest after the Messias Nay yours are more pressing and urgent than those of that great Saint For he said only Art thou he that should come or look we for another But you say or must we look for another As if it were a more pressing Duty to enquire after the Antichrist than the Messias We are warn'd indeed of Antichrist and we are also warn'd of the Danger hanging over the Church from (a) Mar. 13.21.22 false Prophets and false Christs Who should say Lo here is Christ Lo he is there All Sectaries pretend to him You will doubtless say he is in your Prelatical Church The Presbyterian says he is in his Assemblies The Independent is for his Conventicles The Quaker claims him also What shall a Roman Catholic do what choice shall he make Our blessed Savior having forewarned us of the Danger arms us against it Ne credideritis Believe none of them but stick to the old Doctrin and the Catholic Church Which I cite as more against you than any thing you can bring against us out of your Contemplations on Antichrist or the Apocalypse to which you would never recur had you any clear grounds against us in Scripture I suspect the cause of any man which to decide a Suit in Law produces obscure dubious and for that reason insignificant deeds I should on that score had others been wanting suspect the Cause of the Sectaries Millenaries Fifth-monarchy-men and the like And that reason is sufficient to make me suspect you who recur to those obscure Prophecies of the Antichrist which at best are extremely obscure as appears by the Errors grounded on it as you acknowledg For you say G. B. Pag. 3. Some have stretched the Notion of Antichristianism so far that things harmless and innocent come within its compass and others have too much contracted it that they might scape free Answer It seems the limits of the notion of Antichristianism are very arbitrary seeing they are extended or contracted according not to Scripture or Tradition but to the Fancy and Caprichio of every pragmatical Head. When you consider more impartially the things harmless and innocent which you blame in us as Antichristian very probably you will find your self to be of the number of those who stretch its Notion beyond its nature and those limits which God hath designed for it G. B. Pag. 3. Antichristianism is not only a bare Contradiction to some branches or parts of the Gospel but a design and entire complex of such Opinions and Practices as are contradictory to and subversive of the Power and Life of Christianity Answer Never did Junior Sophister amongst illiterate Pesants deliver his Sentiments or Apollo amongst his deluded Adorers speak his Oracles more magisterially than you deliver your Opinions in controverted Matters of Faith For such is this Point seeing it is deliver'd in Scripture and there are such variety of Perswasions concerning its true meaning as you your self said even now You give us a new Notion of it and what Scripture what Tradition what Decree of a Council what Father do you allege for it None not so much as any reason offer'd Is not this to Lord it over the Faith of your Reader To beg the thing in Question and to expect the World should be so stupid as to be taken with such a Slight that you should meet with Belief because you boldly assert To your bare Assertion I will oppose my Negation and why should not my Negation be of as much weight as your Affirmation Especially seing I speak with all those whom you blame for enlarging or contracting too much the Notion of Antichristianism and you stand alone I confirm my Negation with Scripture 1 Jo. 4.3 where those are said to be Antichrists who denie Christs coming in the flesh Which is only one article of Christianity howsoever it be of the most fundamental Yet let us grant what you so confidently beg that Antichristianism is a complex
word of the love of God which is the main design of it you speak of Purity Ingenuity Patience Generosity and something of the love of our Neighbour but why are you silent of the Love of God which gives Vertue to all the rest which without it avail us nothing (a) 1 Cor. 13. how perfect soever they be in their kind Do you intend to make that fall under the Notion of Antichristianism as being with you no part of the Designs of Christianity I shall expect a satisfactory Answer to these Doubts and proceed to CHAP. IV. G. B. His Explication of the Designs of Christianity G. B. Pag. 4. THe first Design of Christian Religion is to give us right apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God. Pag. The second branch is to hold forth the method of Mans Reconciliation with his Maker You mean that the intent of Christian Religion is to teach us that there is One God and One Mediator which are Objects of our Faith. Pag. 7. The third is to teach the perfectest clearest and most Divine Rules for advancing of the Souls of Men to the highest perfections of their Natures it giving clearer Rules and fuller Directions than either moral Philosophers or the Old Testament The Lessons of Purity Chastity Ingenuity Humility Meekness Patience and Generosity Not one word of Charity but Generosity I know not whence comes in to take its place Pag. 8. The fourth to unite Mankind in the closest Bonds of Peace Friendship and Charity which it doth tempering our Passions forgiving Injuries loving our Enemies teaching Obedience to those in Authority over us and by associating us into one Body call'd the Church Answer This is indeed a Design worthy of Christian Religion but imperfectly explicated by you seeing you omit the love of God the God (a) 2 Cor. 1.24 of Peace who alone can give us perfect Peace Humane Wills are naturally opposite to one another they cannot meet but in their natural center God. And the Love of our Neighbor is never sincere and lasting but when it is grounded on the Love of God. The first effect of Self-love is to separate us from God. The second to divide us among our selves Both are the effects of Sin and nothing can prevent them and link us together in the Bonds of Charity but he who can remit Sins That Peace then which Christian Religion teaches which the Church recommends to her Children which in her Prayers she demands of God is not an effect of humane industry but of Grace It proceeds from the Mercy of God it is a sequel of Purity of Conscience and the Crown of real and true Justice In fine it is the work of the unspotted Lamb (a) 1 Pet. 1.19 at whose Birth (b) Luk. 2.14 Peace was announced in his Name to the World by the Angels who left Peace (c) Jo. 14.27 as a Legacy to his Disciples before his Death and who was sacrificed on the Altar of the Cross to reconcile us to his Heavenly Father and restore Peace betwixt Heaven and Earth which the Sin and Rebellion of Men had banisht You see Sir how insufficient your Explication of Peace is for the end you propose You leave out the chief and most necessary Ingredient for purging our Dissentions and to use a Prophets Comparison (d) Ezech. c. 13.10 you build with untempered Mortar You (e) Jerem. 6.14 heal the hurt of the people slightly saying Peace Peace when there is no Peace You hint indeed at a good humane means to Peace Obedience to those in Authority It was to prevent Schism (f) Inter Apostolos unus eligitur ut capite constituto schismatis tolleretur occasio Hieron l. 1. adversus Vigilantium c. 14. that God establish'd one Apostle over the rest But your endless Divisions and Subdivisions amongst your selves shew how inefficacious this means is in your Reformation And how can it be otherwise when all your People have before their Eyes the Example of your first Patriarkes who began your Reformation by rejecting all Authority over them and breaking the Rules of Divine Worship setled all over the World and till that time acknowledged by themselves Cur non licebit Valentiniano quod licuit Valentino de arbitrio suo fidem innovare Tert. l. de praescript c. 40. p. 338. Why may not not a Lutheran do what was lawful to Luther Your first Reformers rejected some Articles of Faith then universally believed because they seemed not to be contain'd in Scripture why may not the same motive authorise their Followers to reject some others which you would retain altho they are as little to be found in Scriptures Why may not a modern Protestant retrench some unnecessary Ceremony used by you at present seeing you have cut off so many others Let others live by that law which you publish think not so highly of your own Authority as to make your Dictamens not only the Rule of Actions but of the Laws themselves It shall be lawful to dissent from this Article of Faith but not from that other to quit this Ceremony and not that when the same rule is applicable to both Is not this properly (a) 2 Cor. 1.24 To lord it over the Faith of the People What wonder you find your Laity refractory to your Ordinances They are in this directed by your Rule and encouraged by your Example Wherefore look no where abroad for the root of these tares Your Reformers planted them they laid the Egg out of which this Cockatrice is hatched They eat the sower Grapes which set all your Teeth an Edge Neither appears there any possibility of a Remedy while your Reformation subsists this Principle of Discord and Schism being laid in its very Foundation and consequently it cannot be removed without the ruine of the whole Structure nor retained without perpetual Danger of renting it in pieces I wish these troublesome Schisms and endless Discords amongst your selves may make you seek a proper Remedy by a Reunion to the Center of Union God and his Church CHAP. V. Of the Characters of Christian Doctrin G. B. P. 8. I Shall add to this the main distinguishing Characters of our Religion which are Four. Pag. 8. First its Verity Pag. 10. The Second its genuine Simplicity and Perspicuity The Third its Reasonableness and the Fourth its easiness Thus you Answer Are these the only or even the chief Characters of Divine Truths whether you take them as they are delivered in holy Writ or as taught in the Church Can you find no other quality peculiar to them not common to others Then human Learning may equal if not surpass Divine Take for Example some Principles naturally known as Two and two make four or The whole Body is greater than any part of it These are true it is impossible they should be false they are perspicuous and easie no Man can doubt of them who understands the terms They are reasonable For what more reasonable than
for other Nations Answer I desire to learn of you where when and by what Authority this Appointment was made Appointing is an Act of Jurisdiction and so universal a decree so religiously obeyed must be a very solemn Act and proceed from the supream Authority acknowledged on Earth Which could not be so hush'd up as that no memory of it should appear Again the whole Church on Earth never pretended any Jurisdiction over Saints in Heaven nor even over those in Purgatory whom she endeavours to ease or release not by judgment but by Prayer non absolutione sed solutione say Divines So none but God hath Jurisdiction over those blessed Souls and by him alone that appointment could be made Now by what Revelation have you learnt that Act of God what Catholic Author authentically recorded it G. B. pag. 27. In the eleventh Century numbring Prayers by Beads began Answer They began only in the thirteenth Century G. B. pag. 28. Ten Prayers on the Beads to the Virgin one to God. Answer Beads are used several ways some say Creeds on the great ones and either Pater nosters or Gloria Patris on the little ones Against these your Objection hath no place And it hath no force against others who by their Prayers to the Virgin only pray her to pray to God for them G. B. pag. 28. How many more worship her then do her Son Answer Not one for no body worships her but for her Sons sake and for the Vertue she received from God by the merits of her Son. So that her Worship ends in her Son or in God. This you have been often told of by others but are resolv'd never to take notice of it fearing to want this precious Argument which is as frivolous as it is common among your Brethren To shew you the Opinion and Practice of the ancient Christians three Authorities will suffice one of the Latin the rest of the Greek Church The first is out of S. Austin l. 7. de Baptismo c. 1. Adjuvet nos B. Cyprianus orationibus suis in istius carnis mortalitate tanquam in caliginosa nube laborantes May blessed S. Cyprian with his Prayers assist us who labour in this corruptible body as in a dark cloud And S. Gregory Nissen Orat. de laudibus Theodori Martyris He says If thy own Prayers be not efficacious enough If greater and more powerful Intercessions be necessary call together the Quire of thy brethren the Martyrs and with them all pray for us Admonish Peter stir up Paul as also John the beloved Disciple that they may be careful of the Churches they founded S. Chrisost hom 1. in Thess ante fin teaches us to pray and how we should do it to Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us neither despise the Prayers of Saints nor quite rely upon them least we either become slothful and careless or lose their helps But let us pray them to pray for us and let us live vertuously that we may attain to that bliss which is promised to those who love God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ No Roman Catholic can explicate our doctrin more significantly seeing he explicates the object Saints the manner not to rely upon them solely The design to obtain their Prayers for us The final end of all Life everlasting through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ There is also another intent in honoring Saints to stir up men to imitate their Vertues Aug. Serm. 47. de Sanctis Solemnitates Martyrum exhortationes sunt martyriorum ut imitari non pigeat quod celebrare delectat The feasts celebrated in the honor of Martyrs are exhortations to Martyrdom for we ought willingly to imitate what we celebrate with joy G. B. pag. 29. A black Roll of the plagues which God pours out on those ungodly worshippers is Rom. 1. Answer There is not a word against the worshippers of Saints but of Idols and Divels whose wicked example was a great incentive to vice Terentius in Eunucho as the good example of Saints is to Vertue Aug. supra I have not Faith enough to believe all are Saints where the worship of Saints is rejected If none but the guiltless may throw a stone the Adulteress may escape in London as well as in Rome G. B. pag. 30. All Prostration for Worship is declared unlawful by the Angel who warned S. John not to do it Apoc. 19.10 Answer Would you have all the world turn Quakers and never worship any body Will you condemn the Custom of England in kneelling to our Parents or to the Parent of our Country the King's Majesty And can you seriously think that Apostle an Idolater even when the Holy Ghost so evidently wrought in his mind and so fully possest it or that being once warned of so foul a Crime Apoc. 19.10 He should so soon fall again into the same Apoc 22.8 That the Angel should shew no great displeasure seeing himself adored as God as Paul and Barnabas did on a like Occasion at Lystra Act 14.13 But should as it were compliment with an Idolater That the Apostle should never repent himself of so hainous a fault and do Penance for it or if he did he should not record it that he might as much edifie by Repentance as he had scandalized by his fall all those things surpass my Faith altho God be thanked it contains Transubstantiation Wherefore for the singular respect I bear the Apostle I cannot surmise him guitly of Idolatry being confirmed in Grace especially at the time of that Vision Nay I see no ground to say he absolutely sinned in it but that he acted out of a Principle of Humility thinking that Respect due from him to the Angel as being better in Nature and greater in Grace and Glory than himself And the Angel corrected that innocent Judgment by minding him that they were fellow servants which was a telling him his own Dignity of an Apostle which in some considerations is even superiour to that of Angels G. B. pag. 31. Speculative people may have distinct Notions of Latria and Dulia yet the vulgar in their practice make no difference at all Answer All who have common Sense have distinct Notions of those Worships altho they understand not those terms All know they are to obey the King and their Governors yet that their Obedience to both is not alike seeing it is due to the King (a) 1 Pet. 2.13 as supreme to Governours as being sent from him or receiving Authority from him An Heir knows he must obey his Father and his Tutor yet differently his Tutor only to comply with his Father (b) Gal. 4.4 And why should men be so stupid only in matter of Religion as not to be able to discern betwixt the honor due to God as the fountain of all good and that due to Saints as partaking of his Perfections The very Prayers which we make in our Lyturgies import that distinction for they are addressed to God beseeching
him to hear the Prayers which doubtless the Saints make for us or else when we pray to Saints we desire them to joyn with ours their Prayers to God and when we have obtained our Request we desire them to joyn with us in Thanksgiving to the Divine Goodness (c) 2. Cor. 1.10.11 Our trust is in God that he will deliver us from temporal and eternal Misery The Saints also helping by Prayer for us and for the gift bestowed on us by means of many interceding persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf But were Truth sought for an end would easily be made of this contentious Dispute betwixt Faith and Calumny by only stating aright the Controversie we do all unanimously profess that God alone doth deserve all the Adoration and worship any Creature is capable of for his own intrinsick and essential perfection Yet we think it is his Pleasure that we should honor not only those Perfections in himself but that we should for his sake reverence those Creatures whom he makes partakers of his infinit fulness of Perfection according to the manner of their elevations to partake of those Perfections So that God is honored in them all and all they in him We honor Kings and Prelates lawfully established as being partakers of his Authority to govern us the word of God as being an explication of his Will The Sacraments as Channels to convey his Grace into our Souls Churches as places designed for Prayer to him Saints on Earth as living Temples of the Holy Ghost Saints in Heaven as Partakers of his glory So that we may be said to honor God in all and by consequence the worship given to them cannot be said to draw from God. We likewise profess that as God is the sole Crearor of all things so is he the Fountain of all Good and that every good perfect Gift comes from him the Father of Lights Jac. 1.13 That nothing in order to eternal Life can be obtained but of him through our Lord Jesus Christ That his Providence reaches to every thing that not a hair can either fall of its self or be pulled out of our head by Men or by bad or good Angels without the permission of God that all we suffer and all we enjoy all good and all bad flow from his omnipotent hand as effects either of his mercy or of his justice or of both So that we fear nothing but from him nor hope for any thing but from him To him all our Prayers are directed even those made to Saints which stop not in them but in their and our God and Father This we believe this we practise this we teach this we defend speak what you can against this and you will speak to the purpose but if you pass this unregarded you beat the air Another thing I desire of you is not to build upon every little fancy altho contrary to reason which is childish always but deserves a more severe censure in matters of consequence Now what can be more phantastical than what Mr. Brevint writes in his Saul and Samuel that it is Idolatry to pray to Saints unless they be within compass to hear us And who can determin how far they can hear Or what Mr. Whitby says in his Discourse concerning Idolatry pag. 154. Prayer offered to an invisible being and not corporeally present is due only to God. So that a blind Man may not desire his Neighbor to pray for him because all are invisible to him And Prayers offered to the Dragon Dan. 14.23 or any Idols would be no Idolatry seeing they could see or be seen and were corporeally present And certainly S. Paul was an Idolater when at a distance he desired the Roman to pray for his good Journey who were neither visible to him nor corporeally present He follows the custom of our Reformers he throws stones without ever regarding where they fall But what Proof doth he bring for his Novelty The Authority of Dio and Martial both Pagans and one of them the most filthy or beastly Author of all Poets And can Mr. Whitby judge their Authority competent to decide a Controversy betwixt Christians and condemn the public practise of the Catholic Church Have we not reason to except against their being Vmpiers in this dispute Yet to do Mr. Whitby a pleasure we will admit them as Judges Arbitrators What say they Dio says Caligula was a God when prayed to And Martial says those who pray to Idols make them Gods. Suppose all this true what is it to Visibility or Corporeal presence of which they make no mention and yet were brought to prove them How wretchedly doth he pleade against us who first appeals to incompetent Judges and secondly to such as pronounce nothing in his favour In malacausa non possunt aliter Aug. CHAP. XI Pretended Charms where of Holy-Water Wax-candles Agnus Dei's c. G B. p. 32. ALl the Enchantments used in Heathenism are nothing if compared to those of the Roman Church Answer Were your Proofs as strong as your Assertions are bold you would be the most formidable enemy that ever we had But that strength of Proofs is wanting Those Creatures which bark loud seldom bite hard In bold affirmations none more positive than women and children and the Ignorantest of Scholers Wise and Learned Men are more wary and reserved who never are very positive altho they seem sometimes to have reason on their side because they are conscious of the uncertainty of their Discourses whose fallacies they discover in others and in themselves too In this place you would easily have discovered your error had you looked over your Proofs For what more weak than those G. B. p. 32. Can any thing look liker a charm than the worshipping of God in an unknown Tongue Answer What say you to reading your English service to such Irish as understand it not Is that a Charm For whatever you say in vindication of your Common-Prayer will serve to answer you in this Reproach To whom can I compare the men of this generation (a) Luke 7.31 to whom are they like They are like unto children pettish children whom neither laughing nor weeping will please So you are resolved never to be content with what Papists do Is their Service kept in Latin It resembles a Charm. Doth it appear in English as it lately did at London And Hanibal ad portas of such a fearful nature are your Brethren that whatever dress our Service appears in it frightens them as the sign of the Cross and the name of Jesus did the Devils in Julian's time But are you so much a stranger to the World as not to know that no living language continues long the same That Mens phancies of words change as well as those of fashions That sometimes they lay aside some words and take in others and sometimes retain the word but alter its sence by use If all this be true suppose a change be made in
the Cross Do this in memory of me As for the joint Communion it can only be a secondary Intention of the Institution the first and chief being our union with Christ out of which flows the second our union amongst our selves As Lines in a Circle meet in the Center and so knit together CHAP. XX. Regal Office of Christ where of Transubstantiation Dispensing in Vows e. G. B. p. 66. I Advance to the opposition made to the Regal Office of Christ And first How far is it from his Glory in Heaven to believe that five words muttered by a Priest should put him under the Elements This is a new kind of Humiliation Answ You are very much mistaken if you think Humiliations inconsistent with the Regal Office of Christ (a) Heb. 1.7 When God brought his first-begotten into the world he said And let all the Angels of God worship him Yet he was then humbled to the condition of a Man a private obscure Man and even below it Psal 21.7 Opprobrium hominum abjectio plebis Certainly there is more shew of Majesty as he is placed on our Altars enrironed with Lights adored by the People Prelates and Princes the greatest Monarchs laying their Crowns and the greatest Bishops their Crosiers and Miters at his Feet than as he was in the little Cottage of his reputed Father a Carpenter picking Chips at his Mothers command or following his Father's Trade to get a Subsistence known to none regarded by none slighted by all as is ordinary to Men of that humble Calling And what shall I say of the Death of the Cross when his very Disciples disowned him G. B. pag. 67. What low thoughts of his Person must it breed in such Minds as are capable of believing this Contrivance Answ You speak like a Pagan to whom the Cross of Christ is folly 1 Cor. 1.23 rather than like a Christian to whom Christ crucified that is under the greatest Humiliation is the vertue and wisdom of God. We who have learnt to look on him as God blessed for evermore even when on the Cross and dying we can take out of all his Humiliations occasion to admire his Love and adore his Goodness to us but not to disesteem his Person or diminish our thoughts of his Majesty And let me tell you you are the first Christian I know of who ever made such Unchristian Reflections on the Humiliations of the Son of God. G. B. pag. 67 68 69 70. In these you charge us with three Crimes 1. With adding to the Laws of Christ 2. Dispensing with the Laws of God. And 3. Commanding things indifferent contrary to Christian Liberty I answer to the First and Third the Apostles did the same Acts 15.29 forbidding strangled Meat and Blood which were things indifferent and not forbidden by the Law of Christ And as to your Objection that this intrenches upon Christian Liberty I Answer out of a Person very dear to you even your self in your Vindication Confer 2. p. 172. Christian Liberty is stated in an Exemption from the Laws of Moses Shew that we impose the Law of Moses and you will say something to the purpose to our entrenching upon Christian Liberty As for Dispensing in Divine Laws when you prove what you object I will consider what to answer Your Instances are not sufficient For first as for Dispensing of Vows there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them as in Laws which is an Interpretation of some Circumstances in which they do not oblige For Example a Man vows to fast next Lent with Bread and Water and before that time falls sick and continues so why may not the Church declare his Vow not to oblige or change it into something else Item he vows a Pilgrimage and his Wife Family and Affairs require his presence at home If this doth not satisfie you call to mind the Proceedings of your first Reformers who opened all Cloisters and dispensed with so many Vows at one time Is it not strange that you should charge us with Dispensing with some Vows when you annul all Secondly Dissolving Wedlock Bond. I know none who practise dissolving consummated Marriages If you do accuse them if you do not ask pardon for this false Accusation Thirdly Allowing Marriages in forbidden Degrees The Degrees hindring Marriage were contained in the Ceremonial Law which expired with Christ the end of that Law. Those which now bind are established by Canon Law which was made and doth depend on the Church Fourthly The Communion under one Kind or The Chalice taken from the People contrary to the Command of Christ You can never prove that Command to all to drink of the Cup. G. B. pag. 71. Another Invasion of the Regal Power is the Pope's pretence to be universal Bishop which is termed by S. Gregory the Great to be Antichristian Answ I know no Pope who pretends to it I know none who give it them If there be any such let them answer for themselves The Popes are so far from pretending to that Title that to this day in our Canon Law it is expresly condemned C. Nullus C. Ecce D. 99. And I challenge you or any Man else to shew me any one Pope who ever required it of others or took it to himself Du-Val a Learned Doctor of Sorbon censures that Title as severely as any Protestant can do who yet is esteemed as great a Favorer of the Papal Grandeur as any of the Faculty of Paris Now I desire you to make good Sense of something you say First pag. 67. Christ hath delivered us from the bondage of corruption How is this done already when the Apostle whose words those are Rom. 8.21 promises it only after the Resurrection Secondly pag. 68. Anathema is the mildest of the Spiritual Censures we thunder against such as comply not with our tyranny What Spiritual Censure is more severe I think that the severest of all as we believe after Tertul. Apolog. cap. 39. pag. 68. Thirdly p. 69. No Authority besides Christ can reach the Conscience S. Paul was of a different opinion when he enjoins Obedience to the Commands of Princes not only for wrath but for Conscience CHAP. XXI Of Love and its two Species Repentance Mortal and Venial Sins Attrition and Contrition G. B. p. 75. I Proceed to the Third Part of my Enquiry which is the opposition made to the great Design of Christian Religion for elevating the Souls of Men into a participation of the Divine Nature Answ I never knew a Man promise more and perform less than you Your Words and Phrases are great and high your Reason and Sense low and little yet that delivered with so much Confidence as may persuade your ignorant and credulous Reader you have Reason on your side when you are to seek in the first Principles of the Matter you Discourse on You may with a homely yet a very proper Metaphor be compared to a Flying Ox whose Wings stretcht out promise a Flight
Answ From the beginning there hath always been observed an inequality of Sins I will omit modern Divines which you do not understand and Councils which you regard not Bede in cap. 5. Jac. distinguishes them and the manner to expiate them which in the Greek Church is still in use That same is observed by S. Austin Enchir. cap. 71. cited above Chap. 18. Sect. 2. The beloved Disciple 1 Joh. 5.16 17. speaks of sin unto death and others not such S. Paul 1 Cor. 6.9 10. gives a Catalogue of several Sins which exclude from Heaven Did all these concur to devise a way to enervate Repentance and that none till (a) Lib. 2. Inst c. 8. n. 59. John Calvin should discover the Plot What was Christ concerned in this Device who distinguishes Sins against the Holy Ghost from others Whither will these Men lead us or go themselves or what can be secure from those Tongues which spare no more the Doctrin delivered by Christ by the Apostles or the Primitive Fathers than that of Modern Divines I know all Sins are Offences against God yet I do not with the Stoicks think all Sins equal or him as great a Sinner who speaks an idle Word as him who kills his own Father The contrary Paradoxes may find place and be admired in Calvin by his deluded Followers but certainly no sober Man can approve them G. B. pag. 77. Their asserting that simple Attrition qualifies Men for the Sacrament Answ You do more for you think Attrition sufficient to Justifie without the Sacrament Pag. 76. having said that Repentance and Remission were always united you explicate Repentance to be a horror of sin upon the sense of its native deformity and contrariety to the Law of God which makes the Soul apprehend the hazard it hath incurred by it so as to study by all means possible to avoid it in all time coming This is all you say which any Divine knows to be only Attrition as not expressing clearly the only Motive of true Contrition Love of God above all things for his only Goodness Give glory to God Is it not true that you had heard of a Dispute beyond Seas between the Jansenists and their Enemies about the sufficiency of Attrition to Justifie with out the Sacrament And you never would take the pains to examine the Sentiments of either part or their Motives but relied upon the first apprehension which occurred to you Your Writings give a probable ground for this Conjecture G. B. pag. 76. All the Severities enjoyned by Papists for Penances do but tend to nourish the Life of Sin. Answ You may as well say the severity of the Laws against Robbers and Murtherers the Ax and Halter tend only to nourish Inclinatinations to rob and kill Sure your common Sense is far different from that of others else you would never advance these Paradoxes Neither will it serve your turn if you recur to the pecuniary Mulcts enjoyned to some For first you cannot blame those without blaming Scripture which recommends Alms-giving Dan. 4.24 as a means to redeem Sins Secondly Because worldly Men are not so willing to part with their Mony and how generous soever you are were you to give a Crown for every Vntruth you Print you would by that pecuniary Mulct not be encouraged to write as you do CHAP. XXII Theological Vertues G. B. p. 78. THAT which is next pressed in the Gospel for uniting the Souls of Mankind to God is that noble Ternary of Graces Faith Hope and Love. Answ You can never speak so much in commendation of the Theological Vertues as they deserve for their Merits surpass all we can say And if you compare the least of them with those called Moral Vertues it will out-shine Velut inter stellas Luna minores Yet Faith and Hope must do Homage to Charity or Love as to their Sovereign as to the End to which they are designed to the Fountain of their Life and Cause of their Value This I have said above yet I again repeat it for their sakes who so set up the Merits of Faith as to neglect Good-works without which Faith is dead Jac. 2.17 and place it before Charity without which Faith avails nothing 1 Cor. 13. I could wish our Adversaries would vouchsafe to read with attention that Chapter last cited in it they would see the Seat due to Charity the Queen of Vertues which seems at present hidden from the Eyes of those wise and prudent Men yet is revealed to little ones It is with great difficulty that I undertake a Comparison betwixt the Practice of these Vertues amongst Catholics and amongst Protestants because all Comparisons seem to be grounded at least on an appearance of equality in the Objects which in this Matter cannot be yet something must be said to make these presumptuous Men know their wants and weakness that they may seek to have them supplied and that I may proceed more clearly I will begin with the Definition of Faith and Heresie SECTION I. Of Faith. DIvine Faith is a firm assent to an obscure Truth revealed by Almighty God because it is revealed by him I say an obscure Truth because S. Paul Heb. 11.1 says the same Argumentum non apparentium A declaration of things not seen or known by natural Reason This is the Material Object as Divines speak the only Formal Object is the Veracity of God quia Deus est verax that is can neither be deceived or mistaken as being Omniscient nor deceive us as being all Good. To this the Testimony of the Church concurs as a Witness assuring that God delivered such a System of Truths So that is a Condition necessary to apply the Revelation to us who have not heard God speak or reveal S. Athanasius in his Symbol delivers as a Condition of Faith that it be retained Entire and Vndefiled Integra Inviolataque For seeing all is delivered by the same Authority those who believe not all (a) S. Thom. 2.2 q. 5. art 3. oppose that Authority delivering it and by consequence even what they believe they receive not purely upon their submission to that Authority speaking but for their own Caprichio or Reason or Pleasure That is properly called Heresie which word is deduced from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to choose And it signifies a choice of any thing whatsoever but by common use it is appropriated to that Choice * Tertul. l. de Praescript c. 6. Haereses dictae Graec◠voce ex Electionis interpretatione quâ quis sivè ad instituendas sivè ad suscipiendas eas utitur Hier. in Tit. 3. Haeresis Graecè ab Electione dicitur quod scilicet unusquisque id sibi eligat quod ei melius esse videatur Vide c. Haeresis 24. q. 4. Vide etiam August Epist 162. which is made of Points delivered as of Faith. We Catholics have Faith because we believe firmly those Truths that God hath revealed because he revealed them to the Church which as
a faithful Witness gives hitherto and will give to the end of the World Testimony to that Revelation And we cannot be Hereticks because (b) Tertul. supra Nobis nihil ex arbitrio nostro inducere licet sed nec eligere quod aliquis ex arbitrio suo induxerit we never take the liberty to choose our selves or to admit what others choose but we take bona fide what is delivered as revealed by the greatest Authority imaginable on Earth which is that of the Catholic Church Let an Angel teach us any thing contrary to what is delivered and we will pronounce Anathema to him in imitation of the Apostle Gal. 1.18 Here is then the Tenure of our Faith. The Father sent his only begotten Son consubstantial to himself into the World And what he heard of his Father that he made known to us Joan. 15.15 The Father and Son sent the Holy Ghost And he did not speak of himself but what he heard that he spoke Joan. 16.13 The Holy Ghost sent the Apostles And they declared unto us what they had seen and heard 1 Joan. 1.3 The Apostles sent the Highest and lower Prelates in the Church and the Rule by which they framed their Decrees was Let nothing be altered in the Depositum let no Innovation be admitted in what is delivered Quod traditum est non innovetur Steph. PP apud Cypr. Epist 74. ad Pompeium By this we are assured that our Faith is that which the Councils received from the Apostles the Apostles from the Holy Ghost and so by the Son to God the Father where it rests Now to Protestants Their Proceeding is far different they hear the whole System of Faith commended by the Church as revealed by God and take it into Examination And some things displeasing them in it they fall to reforming it and cut off at one Blow all things not expressy contained in Scripture Here is one Choice Then Scripture is called to the Bar and near a third part of it condemned and lopt off which is a second Choice Thirdly there being still several things in the remnant which displease them as understood by the Church they reject that Interpretation and fix on it such a one as pleases them most So that even what Sense they retain they do it upon this their Haeresis or Choice What Evidence can convince a Man to be a Chooser in Faith that is a Heretic if these Men be not by this Proceeding sufficiently proved such For a farther confirmation of this consider the several ways of Catholics and Protestants in entertaining Propositions of Faith. A Catholic hearing from the Church our Saviour's Words with the Sense that is the compleat Scripture for the bare Word without the Sense is no more Scripture than a Body without a Soul or Life is a Man presently believes them and what Reason soever may appear to the contrary he silences it and submits his Vnderstanding to Faith and let the Words seem harsh and the Sense unconceivable yet the Truth of God triumphs over all those petty Oppositions A Protestant hears the same and presently consults his Reason and till he hath its Verdict suspends his Judgment If that say with the Pharisce Joh. 3.9 How can these things be or with the Capharnaits Joh. 4. This is a hard saying who can hear it the Protestant immediately renounces it So we submit our Reason to Faith you set yours above it We frame our Reason according to the Dictamens of Revelation you shape Revelation by your Reason In fine you set your Reason on a Throne to Judge of that Word by which one day you are to be Judged You may as easily prove the Pharisees and Capharnaits to be better Christians than the Apostles as that your Procedure in receiving Faith is better than that of the Catholic Church SECTION II. Of Hope HOPE is an expectation of future Bliss promised by our Blessed Saviour to those who love him and keep his Commandments It is built on a Promise of God which cannot fail And had that Promise been absolute we might have been more assuredly certain of our future Happiness than we can be of the truth of any Mathematical Demonstration but it is only Conditional requiring on our parts a concurrence with his Divine Grace and this is always uncertain by reason of the mutability of our Will to Evil notwithstanding our strongest Resolutions to Good. Hence our Hope is mixt with Fear Sperando timemus Tertul. l. de cultu faeminarum c. 2. p. 265. We have a full assurance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on God's side Who to shew unto the Heirs of promise the immatability of his Counsel confirmed it by an Oath that by two things immutable in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before us which Hope we have as an Anchor of the Souls both sure and stedfast Heb. 6.17 18 19. On our side we have always reason to apprehend the mutability of our own Will notwithstanding all present Grace from God and the strength of his Counsel Hence the Apostle admonishes us 2 Cor. 6.1 not to receive in vain the Grace of God. He sets before our Eyes his own Example 1 Cor. 9.27 keeping under his Body chastising it and bringing it into subjection lest having preached to others he might become himself a reprobate a cast-away And consequently warns us Phil. 2.12 to work out our salvation with fear and trembling When this Apostle fears who can presume We may resolve well pray hard and act well to day but what assurance have we that to morrow will find us so well disposed or even not doing the quite contrary and that being so ill prepared Death will not surprize us S. Paul the Vessel of Election who had been taken up to the Third Heaven feared lest he should become a reprobate and S. Peter bred up in our Blessed Saviour's School resolved to die with him yet shortly after denied him If these great Pillars of the Church shake and bend and fear breaking or actually break what may not such Reeds as G. B. and I. W. fear You see what Grounds we have to fear from Reason from the Example of the Apostles and from their Doctrin This is comfortless Doctrin to G. B. p. 54. and therefore he had rather throw all on Christ and persuade himself that Christ's Prayer was sufficient his Satisfaction sufficient his Merits sufficient We need neither Pray nor Suffer nor Merit Believe in him and he will do all Crede firmiter pecca fortiter Compare now this Disposition of modern Catholics which is the same with that of the Apostles with that of a Protestant their Fear with his Confidence their Trembling with his Assurance their Apprehensions with his Boldness and you shall find in Catholics true Hope mingled with Fear as you may see in Divines and I have shewed out of the Apostles and
depuis deux ans il s'en etoit retiré parce qu'il avoit remarqué qu'ils alloyent trop avant dans les matieres de la Grace qu'ils paroissoyent avoir moins de soumission qu'ils ne devoyent par N. S. P. le Pape Et que depuis deux ans il s'étoit tout à fait attaché aux affaires de son salut a un dessein qu'il avoit contre les Athées les Politiques de ce temps en matiere de Religion F. P. BEVRRIER You see here in his Declaration Signed by the Curate who assisted the Author of the Provincial Letters at his Death that he had been engaged or entangled in the Party of the Jansenists that he found their Sentiments were not tolerable or Orthodox in those two capital Points of Grace and Submission to the See Apostolick That upon that score he had withdrawn from them and abandoned them yet you will have us go to him Well I will comply with you and from him I learn two things One that he blames some Cases of private Men Another that those cannot be charged on the Roman Catholick Church Thus if I stand to his Verdict your Accusation will be cast out of the Court as lying against the whole not against a part only If you say Believe him when he accuses some but not when he absolves others do you think us so weak as to give credit to him when you please and when you please to recall it What is this but to give and a◠the same time take away his Judicial Authority to name him Judge Arbiter and tie him to speak only what you please But I will leave him and speak to the thing That you may conceive what are probable Opinions you are to take notice that Moral Actions may be reduced to four Classes To such as are evidently good evidently bad uncertain and indifferent according as they are related to the Law whether Divine Ecclefiastical or Civil which is their proper Rule Those are evidently good which are conformable to the Law As to Love God or Deal with others as we would be dealt by Those are evidently bad which are contrary to the Law As to Blaspheme God or to Wrong our Neighbor Those are indifferent which are neither commanded nor forbidden As to wash our Hands before Eating used by the Pharisees Matt. 15. Those are uncertain when a Law is known but it is unknown whether it obliges in some Circumstances For Example The resisting an Enemy that attacks you on the Sabbath-day and repairing the Breaches which he makes 1 Macch. 2.38 As to the first Class Actions evidently good Probability doth not look on them as its Object The same for those which are evidently bad They can never be committed without offending God. If any hold the contrary stone him the Stones will not hit me nor any Jesuit unless by such an Accident as befel Jupiter in Lucian when directing his Thunderbolt at a Blasphemer he mist him and hit and fired Pallas her Temple And what you say of committing any Sin with directing Intention is so great a Calumny that no good Intention of opposing Popery will excuse it The third Class of Actions uncertain in themselves are properly the Object of probable Opinions whilst it is not certain whether the Law oblige hic nunc or no in these Circumstances which are not specified in the Law yet alter very much the nature of the Action There being no evident Principle to shew it to be lawful or unlawful the Judgment we frame of it must be an Opinion only and if the Reason be strong it is called a probable Opinion For Example the Jews 1 Macch. 2.40 41. hearing that their Brethren had been assaulted on a Sabbath and not resisting for fear of breaking the Sabbath by working on it were all killed resolved notwithstanding that Command to make what resistance they could on that Day Which Resolution was grounded on a probable Opinion for on the one side was the Letter of the Law prohibiting all Labor on that Day then they might think God would protect them whilst they kept his Law as he conserved their Goods whilst they went thrice a year to the Temple Exod. 34.24 and if he did not please to defend them miraculously they might think it was his will that they should glorifie him by giving their Lives rather than break his Commandment which Persuasion possessed the greatest part of Christians near the Apostles Times as may be seen in Tertull. Apologetick On the other side they considered the Law of Nature obliging to seek Self-preservation and that to expect a Miracle was to tempt God c. Hence they concluded that it was lawful to labor for Self-defence even on the Sabboth To make an Opinion probable Suarez Dis 12. de bonit malit requires that it be neither contrary to the Sense of the Church nor to any Opinions commonly received and that it be grounded on Authority and Reason great above exception All Divines even the largest require a weighty Motive a strong Reason and that even comparing it with the contrary Motives otherwise they agree that the Opinion will not be probable but dangerous rash and improbable See two large Treatises composed by R. F. Antony Teril a great Ornament of the Society and an Honor to our Nation in defence of this Rule of Conscience You will find in him a solid Discourse well grounded and gravely handled as Truth should be delivered without any of that Buffoonry which accompanies some Authors of these Times which may be tolerable in a Comedy but not in a Treatise of Divinity This I think cannot be doubted of in Thesi or in general I will not deny but in Hypothesi in particular Doubts or Questions some Men have not stuck so close to the Letter of the Law as they should as Fr. Teril doth deplore But those Mens Assertions do not take away what we have said for their private Sentiments not well grounded deserve not the name of probable Opinions The last Class of Actions are those called indifferent as not being mentioned in any Law. These must draw all the Morality they have Ex intentione sive voluntate operantis In those a good intention of the Man who produces them or his will to do them for the love of God gives them a good Morality which of themselves they have not as on the contrary a bad Intention gives them the nature of Sin. Hence what you say that our Doctrin is Any Sin may be committed innocently by directing our Intention is a great Vntruth and as great a Calumny No Intention can justifie a bad Action but a bad Intention may vitiate the best Action As to give an Alms for vanity Mat. 6.2 Bonum ex integrâ causâ malum ex quocunque defectu is a Maxim never more true than in Moral Actions We are taught in the Catholic Church not only to do good things but to do them well not
his Superior Christ Jesus I never heard S. Ambrose suspected of Pride for refusing to admit Theodosius the Great into the Church before his Penance for the Slaughter at Thessalonica or for excluding him the Cancels after it It was a Zeal of the Glory of God and the good of the Church which moved him the Emperor himself understood it so As for precious Ornaments of the Church I will own ours to be too costly when you shall have proved that any thing is too good for God's Service not till then The infinit Majesty of God is ground sufficient to oblige us to bear him the greatest Respect interiorly and express our Duty to our Creator and our Gratitude to so great a Benefactor by returning to him in the best manner we can an Acknowledgment of his most bountiful Gifts This serves also to stir up in the Auditory Submission Respect and Adoration which otherwise would fail CHAP. XXVII Vnity of the Church in Faith and Sacraments G. B. owns that Protestants are Schismatics Of Severity against Dissenters And of Hugo Grotius G. B. p. 100. A Fourth Design of Christian Religion was to unite Mankind under one Head into one Body not by Love and pardoning Injuries only but also by associating the Faithful into one Body the Church which was to be united by Bonds of Love governed by Pastors and Teachers and cemented with the Ligaments of the Sacraments Answ You say something thô disorderly but not all For 1. You omit Faith by which we are inserted into the Body of Christ 2. You put Charity which doth not make us parts but living parts of that Body whose parts we are by Faith. 3. You add Sacraments which are only exterior Signs of interior Communication 4. You confound Charity and Sacraments as equally concurring to the Vnity of the Church yet there is a vast difference betwixt them the one formally quickning the Members of the Church interiorly the other only effecting it interiorly and testifying it exteriorly 5. Betwixt the Sacraments there is a vast difference as to this and you confound them for Baptism being our Regeneration in Christ is an esficient Cause of our Union with him and makes us his Members the others are designed only to nourish those who are already united to and in him When you speak of being Governed by Pastors I hope the Pope may find place amongst them he being the prime Pastor G. B. pag. 101. The Gospel pronounceth us free and no more Servants of Men but of God. Answ Free from the Ceremonial Law of Moses not from that of the Gospel and Obedience to the Governors of the Church How changeable are your Sentiments In the foregoing Page 100 the Church was to be Governed by Pastors and Teachers now she is to obey none but God and if any Man pretend to Command he changeth the Authority of the Church into a tyranical Yoke So we must have Governors without Authority to Command and Subjects without any Duty to Obey A new Model of Government G. B. ibid. Those things for which we withdrew from the Church are Additions to our Faith. She added to Scriptures Tradition to God Images to Christ Saints to Heaven and Hell Purgatory to two Sacraments five more to the Spiritual Presence of Christ his Corporal Presence Ans Never Man spake more and proved less than you who offer not one word in proof of these disputed Points which we declare to be evident untruths Is not this a poor begging of the thing in question But they are say you Additions to your Faith. Did we add to your Faith or you cut off from ours and that of the whole Christian World before your Deformation How could we add those things to your Faith when they were in peaceable possession all over the Christian World as you own your selves many Ages before Protestancy was thought on You have here only one Truth viz. That you withdrew from the Church Which convincingly proves the Guilt of Schism to lie at your Door G. B. pag. 105. If a Society of Christians visibly swerve from Christ so that Communion cannot be retained with it without departing from Christ then the departing from the Corruptions brought in can be no departing from the Church If then it appear that the Roman Church hath departed from the Truth of the Gospel those who separated from her cannot be said to separate from the true Church Answ Here we have a Paralogism which might better become a Junior Sophister than a Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty You will see it in these Instances The Communion of that Church ought to be renounced which obligeth her Children to Mahometism If then the English Protestant Church oblige hers to that her Communion ought to be renounced Another That Man deserves the greatest Contempt who writes Controversie and hath nothing to write but Calumnies and Sophisms If then Mr. G. B. hath nothing else but such stuff to fill his Books with he knows his Deserts What think you Sir of such Arguments which serve only to delude an unwary Reader into an assent of what you would but cannot prove There is no Logician but knows that Conditional Propositions signifie only the Connexion betwixt two things under such a Condition but they assert nothing absolutely unless the Condition be proved For Example If a Man flies he hath Wings If the Heavens fall we shall catch Larks These I say are granted to be true althô the Condition be impossible Yet those who grant them do not expect those Wings to go a Journey nor rely on those Larks for a Supper In like manner suppose we should grant your Conditional Illation yet the Guilt of Schism would lie on your Consciences because you neither do nor can prove the Condition upon which your Excuse relies G. B. pag. 106. The Cruelty of Papists extendeth to as much bloudy and barbarous Rage as ever sprung from Hell. Answ You mean the Laws made against Heretics which being made by the Secular Power and not by Churchmen I think my self not obliged to vindicate them Yet seeing the most severe of them all the Faggot was till of late as I am informed in force in England and hath been actually executed upon some since the Reformation I leave you to answer to our Honorable Judges for your pragmatical Boldness in censuring them so severely Another would take notice of the Laws in force against Papists but I let that pass it is enough to vindicate our Churchmen that they never made those Laws they never condemned any Man by them all they do is to judge of the matter of Fact whether a Person be guilty of Heresie and if they find him so to leave him to the Secular Power This is the most that ever the Inquisition did as far as ever I heard G. B. pag. 108. Grotius says that in Charles the Fifth's time more than One hundred thousand were butchered on the accout of Religion And in his Son Philip 's time the
quicquid daemonum colitis victi dolore quod sunt eloquuntur Nec utique in turpitudinem sui nonnullis praesertim vestrum assistentibus mentiuntur Ipsis testibus esse eos daemones de se verum confitentibus credite adjurati enim per Deum verum solum inviti miseri c. Most Men and even many of your own know they are no better then Divels whom you adore Your Gods Saturn and Serapis and Jupiter have been adjur'd by the name of the true and only God and have been forced out of the bodies they possest and confessed themselves to be foul and seducing Devils And their Confession was to be supposed true in point of Reason For they that were adored as Gods would never belie themselves into Devils to their own reproach especially in presence of them that worshipped them were they not forced Thus is that place Englished by W. L. Julius Firmicus pag. 20. Ecce daemon est quem colis cùm Dei Christi ejus nomen audierit contremiscit It is the Devil whom you adore he trembles when he hears the Name of God and of his Christ In my next Section I will cite Prudentius who says the same in his Apotheosi You may find in S. Austin and other Fathers several Reasons proving those Gods to be Divels chiefly for their promoting Vice by encouraging Poets Fables concerning those filthy Acts related to have been committed by them My Fifth Pooof is taken from the Testimony of Protestants themselves The Author of the Whole Duty of Man pag. 138. I need speak little of the Second Commandment as it is a forbidding of that grosser sort of Heathenish Idolatry the worshipping of Idols which though it were once common in the World yet it is now so rare that it is not likely any that shall read this shall be concerned in it Could he have said this had he not known the Practice of Papists to be far different from those of Heathen Idolaters Vossius l. 1. de Idol cap. 18. pag. 139. Omnes Gentium Dii fuerunt homines All the Gods of the Pagans were Men. Godwin l. 4. Antiquit. c. 1. well deserving Men were reputed Gods. Mr. Thomas Prat in his Epistile Dedicatory of the History of the Royal Society having said that Generals of Armies and great Conquerors were by the Pagans esteemed Heroes he adds The Gods Antiquity worship'd with Temples and Altars were those who instructed the World to plow to sow to plant to spin to build houses and to find out new Countrys M. G. B. in this very Book p. 17. The herd the comonalty of the Idolaters did formally worship the Image And p. 23. The Souls of deceased men were honored with divine honor I hope E. S. will not refuse the Testimony of his great Patriarch W. L. who in his Relation p. 77. cites with great esteem of them the words of Minutius Felix and very judiciously observes that it is not credible the true God should be forced out of his Possession much less that he be constrained to utter a lie and own himself to be a foul and seducing Devil Can any man think that God can denie himself to such a degree Credat Judaeus Appella non ego I scarce wonder at the extravagant Opinions of the Pagans seeing E. S. and G. B. can believe that Were there not some other more powerful tye then only imaginary or pretended Incredibility I should hope to see both believe Transubstantiation seeing they can believe that God can deny himself tell a lie and profess himself a Divel O Blasphemy But altho in a bad humor E. S. should refuse to subscribe to his quondam Primate yet I can have recourse to a person very near unto him even his own dear self for he Origines Sacrae l. 1. c. 2. p. 32. speaking of Sanconiathon says That which of all seems clearest in this Theology is the open owning the Original of Idolatry to have been from the Consecration of some eminent Persons after their Death who had found out some useful things for the world whilst they were living which the subtiller Greeks would not admit of viz. That the Persons they worshipped were once men which made them turn all into Allegories and mystical Senses to blind that Idolatry they were guilty of the better amongst the Ignorant And l. 3. c. 5. he says that Saturn Jupiter Mercury Neptune Vulcan Juno Minerva Ceres Bacchus and others had been Men and Women He could not have given a clearer and fuller testimony of the Truth of what we say and the Falshood of what he delivers than is contained in those two places To what can we attribute this Change in E. S. that what was before the certain Position of Idolatry should now be false but to a desire to charge that hainous sin upon the Roman Catholic Church which of it self falls to the ground if Pagan Idolatry be rightly represented Tantae molis erat to make Rome seem Idolater in the eyes of his ignorant Admirers Philo Biblius had reason to blame those Allegories to which the subtiller Greeks had recourse which made a clear new Religion by changing the Object adored as God from some man eminent for Power or Vertue to Elements much inferior to the least of men or any living Creatures for this yielded the cause and condemned the whole Idolatrous World. So Minutius Felix in Octavio pag. 16. Zenon interpretando Junonem Aëra Jovem Coelum Neptunum mare ignem esse Vulcanum caeteros similiter vulgi Deos Elementa esse monstrando publicum arguit graviter revincit errorem SECTION IV. That the Jupiter O. M. of the Greeks and Romans was not the True God. MY first and chief Proof is taken from what is already said out of Holy Scripture Fathers Protestants and Pagans For those universal Propositions contain all and every God of Paganism V. C. What are the Propositions of Scripture All the Gods of the Gentiles are Divels And The Pagans sacrificed to Divels not to God. What are the Propositions of E. S. One God of the Pagans was the true God and no Devil Item The sacrifices of the Pagans were offered to the true God and not to the Divel If the Logic of E. S. can reconcile with Truth two Contradictions it is a rare one Till he teach us how they can stand together we will stick to the common received Axiom of Sophists that both cannot be true So one of those Propositions must be false either that of Scripture or that of E. S. now I desire him to declare whether he takes to be true and whether the lyar God or himself Again Gal. 4.8 the Galatians knowing not God served those who by nature were not Gods. Which are the words of the Apostle and E. S. says The Galatians knew Jupiter and served him who was the true God Wherein he directly contradicts the Scripture The like Arguments might be brought from the Authority cited out of Fathers Protestants and
Pagans who assuring universally that all the Pagan Deities were raised from men exclude all possibility of Jupiters being otherwise he being one of them Indeed no body ever reproached the Catholic Roman Church that it did not adore the true God altho many pretended the Adoration of the Saints to be like to that of the Pagan Idolaters adoring of their secundary Gods why then should the Pagans be absolutely said not to adore the true God if they did adore him altho they joyned others in alike degree of worship with him But seeing E. S. and G. B. pretend Jupiter to be the name of the true God blessed for evermore amongst the Pagans I will shew that Jupiter according to Fathers Poets and Protestants was a man as well as the rest and I will confirm all with E. S. his own Testimony My next Proof is taken from those who confound Jupiter with the rest of the Gods Saturn Neptune Pluto c. as well as of the other Gods. We have heard Tertullian assure that Saturn was the ancientest of their Gods and that the rest ought their being to him and thence inferred that he being a man all the rest must have been so too See also Lactan. Firm. who says l. 1. c. 15. It is evident all the Gods were men See Tertul. c. 10. p. 39. His words are cited above Sect. 3. note that Vossius l. 1 Idol c. 18. p. 139. thinks this an invincible Argument to prove that by Saturn the Pagans understood Adam Now if Saturn was the ancientest of all the Pagan Gods Jupiter who is one of them is not ab aeterno eternal and consequently not the true God. See Minutius Felix p. 23. where Jupiter is said to be cast out of a possest body as well as Saturn and Serapis as having nothing peculiar above the rest W. L. indeed put an Emphasis upon his name Jupiter himself when he translates those words which is not in the Author at least as we have him which shews only that the Pagans had a greater veneration for Jupiter then for the rest yet without taking him out of the number of those Heathen Gods who were subject to Christian Exorcisms My Third Proof is from such Fathers who relate his Country Birth and Death Minutius Felix pag. 17. The Birth Countreys and Sepulchres of the Gods are shewn Dictaei Jovis Of Jupiter on the mountain Dicte S. Cyp. l. de Idol vanit p. 204. Antrum Jovis in Creta visitur sepulchrum ejus ostenditur ab eo Saturnum fugatum esse manifestum est You may see Jupiters cave in Candy his Sepulcher is there shewn and it is undeniable that he chased thence Saturn his Father Lactantius Firmianus l. 1. div instit cap. 11. p. 39. says this Epitaph was written on his Tombe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter Saturni S. Cyril of Alex. l. 10. contra Julianum p. 342. speaks of Jupiter's Tomb and says that Pythagoras visited it and writ upon it this Epitaph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here lies Jupiter And Porphyrius boggling about the Truth of this story which ruins the Divinity of his great God. S. Cyril adds That Pythagoras had written the plain truth that the greatest of the Pagan Gods was dead and that his Countrymen the Cretans had built him a Tomb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Julius Firmicus p. 4. says that Jupiter was King of Candy or Crete that Bacchus or Dyonisus was his unlawful Son whom in her husband's absence Juno caused to be killed by the Guards who devoured his Body but Minerva preserved his heart and presented it to his Father at his return c. Commodianus cap. 4. Saturnus rex erat in terris in monte natus Olympo Non Divinus erat sed Deum sese dicebat Venit inops animi lapidem pro filio sorpsit sic Deus evasit dicitur modo Jupiter ille Saturn was a king who out of fear of his own children devoured them but one of them was saved a stone in lieu of him being given to the Father which he swallowed so this infant grew up to be a God and is called Jupiter My fourth Proof is from those Fathers who absolutely refuse to acknowledge the Divinity of Jupiter Origen l. 1. contra Celsum p. 19. Assoon as we hear the name of Jupiter we understand the son of Saturn and Ops Juno's husband Neptunes brother And l. 5. p. 262. We will rather endure any torments than acknowledge Jupiter to be God. Lactantius Firmianus called commonly by the Fathers The Christian Cicero whom Photius judges to be the most learned and eloquent of his Age and who for his capacity was chosen by the Emperour Constantine the great to be Tutor to his Son Crispus He I say l. 1. Instit Divin cap. 11. p. 38. says Jovem illum esse qui ex Ope Saturnoque natus sit negari non potest vana igitur est persuasio eorum qui nomen Jovis summo Deo tribuunt solent enim quidam errores suos hac excusatione defendere qui convicti de uno Deo cùm id negare non possunt ipsum se colere affirmant verum hoc sibi placere ut Jupiter nominetur Quo quid absurdius Jupiter enim sine contubernio conjugis filiaeque coli non solet unde quid sit apparet nec fas est id nomen transferri ubi nec Minerva est ulla nec Juno It cannot be denied that Jupiter was born of Ops and Saturn wherefore it is a vain or foolish persuasion of those who would give the name of Jupiter to the supreme God. Observe this Mr. E. S. For some are wont in that manner to excuse their errors when they had been convinced of one God so as they could not contradict it by saying that themselves adored him and called him Jupiter Than which what can be more absurd Seing Jupiter is not worship'd without the partnership of his wife and daughter whence it plainly appears what this Jupiter is and that the name ought not to be transferred thither where there is no Minerva nor Juno Thus this learned Man whose words are so clear that if he were now alive and intended to reject E. S. his new error he could not do it more convincingly My Fifth Proof is taken from the Confessions of the Jupiter himself as you may see in Tertul. S. Cyprian Julius Firmicus and Minutius Fclix above cited add to these Prudentius in Apotheosi Torquetur Apollo Nomine percussus Christi nec fulmina verbi Ferre potest agitant miserum tot verbera linguae Quod laudata Dei resonant miracula Christi Intonat Antistes Domini fuge callide serpens Exue te membris spiras solve latentes Mancipium Christi fur corruptissime vexas Desine Christus adest humani corporis ultor Non licet ut spolium rapias cui Christus inhaesit Pulsus abi ventose liquor Christus jubet exi Has inter voces medias Cyllenius ardens Ejulat notos suspirat Jupiter