the contrary saying That because there was no King in Israel everyone went severall ways doing what was good in his own eyes So that by the Doctours way of proceeding one would almost believe that his meaning was that our Saviour had no intention that his Church should be one and consequently that Generall Councills which took great paines to procure Vnity transgressed therein our Saviours order 103. But all Protestants are not of the Doctours mind for though they generally make Scripture not only the Rule but judge also of Faith when controverted Yet they do not so neglect Vnity but that they profess a willingnes to submit their judgments for the sence of Scripture to a Lawfull generall Councill This the Doctour cannot doe now that he has sett forth his Principles unless he will confess the foundation of his Protestant Religion to be unsound He might well enough have done it before whilst he was a Defender of Archbishop Lawd but now it appears that the Archbishops Principles and his are not the same nor probably ever were and I doe assure my self that if the Archbishop were alive none could be more ready to condemn them 104. Other Protestants therefore refuse not submission to Councells as may appear by their confident demanding them For Gesner speaking in their name thus writes We with the loudest voice we can cry out again and again and with all our power we humbly and earnestly beg of Christian Kings and Emperours that a free Christian and Lawfull Councill may be convâ—ked in which the Scripture may be permitted to be the Iudge of Controversies And our Countreyman Sutcliff confidently cryes out that Catholicks are afraid of Councills Yet all the world sees that if a Lawfull Generall Councill were called according to the order of all past lawfull Councills even those received by Protestants they must necessarily be condemned 105. This some others more wise then these loud Sollicitours for Councills saw and therefore when a Councill was ready to be called they providing for themselves would not permit any Point to be decided by Catholick Bishops alone but euery Minister yea Lay-men must have votes in them and a plurality of Suffrages was not to prevayle but an equall number on both sides must dispute and Lay Judges decide that is declared Hereticks must enioy greater Priviledges then Catholicks and instead of a Councill there must be an Assembly of wild beasts consulting to establish Unity in Gods Church which it seems was only to be procured by confusion and not by Order Therefore a certain Lutheran said well of Calvinists calling for a Lawfull Councill that they did imitate a well known Buffon calld Marcolphus who was wont to say That after all his search he could never find a fitt tree upon which he could willingly be content to be hanged Such a tree would a Legitimate Councill prove to the Doctours Principled Protestants 106. Yet there is one expedient for producing Unity which the Doctour may doe well to advise upon for if it take it will certainly have that effect even the Quakers themselves and Fifth Monarchists will not refuse to be of the Doctours Church if they be not already Nay which is more the Catholicks will come in too This is no invention of mine but was many years since suggested by one of the Doctours Protestants Robert Robertson an English Anabaptist of Amsterdam This surely well meaning man perceiving how litle success Scripture alone had to vnite Sects agreeing only in opposing Popery in the year sixteen hundred and two printed a Book in Holland in which he proposed to them all this means of Vnity viz. That they should all ioyn in a common Petition to the States to give them leave to assemble themselves in some Town or field and there each Sect severally to pray to God one after another that he would shew some evident Miracle for decision of their Controversies and declaring which among them had the Truth which he supposed vndoubtedly was not among Catholicks And to the end the Devill might not enter in and deceive them with a false Miracle the man told them he had thought of one allowed by Scripture and which he was sure the Devill could not work namely to make the Sun stand still for a certain considerable time not doubting but that God of his great Goodnes would not refuse to condescend to the Petition of such devout servants of his in a matter so iust and necessary 107. I suppose the Doctour will not deny this design if succesfull to be a most powerfull and unfaileable Mean of producing Vnity which his Principles have utterly destroyed and rendred impossible if not unlawfull And let him with all his wit and invention devise any other more probable since the Catholick Churches Authority is reiected by him and them 108. Notwithstanding all this the Doctour according to his custom and nature is confident that he has demonstrated that the Church of Rome can have no advantage in Point of Vnity above his medley Church Now to the end any impartiall Reader may be a competent Judge between us I will briefly set down the Instruments and Means of Vnity left by our Lord to his Church to 〈◊〉 end the Truth of this Article of our Faith I believe one Catholick Church may remain to the worlds end unalterable 1. Catholicks do ground their Faith on Gods revealed Will in Scripture interpreted by Tradition 2. They believe that God according to his Promise will lead and preserve his Church in all necessary Truth or in the true sense of Scripture 3. That for this purpose he foreseeing that Heresies and Schisms grounded on a false sense of Scripture would in after times come has established in his Church an unfaileable succession of Teachers of his Truth with whom he will continue till the worlds end 4. It is his Will and Command that all Christians should obey these Teachers who are to give an account of their soules 5. These Teachers constitute the Churches Hierarchy 6. The Vniversall Church is represented by these Teachers assembled in a Lawfull Generall Councill 7. Such a Councill therefore is the Supreme Tribunall of the Church from whose Decisions there must be no Appeale 8. But because the difficulties of making such Assemblies are extreamly great therefore it is necessary there should be a standing Authority with power to prevent Heresies and Schisms in the intervalls of Councills arising and disturbing the Church 9. This ordinary Authority is established in the Supreme Pastour the Bishop of Rome 10. His Iurisdiction therefore as to such an end extends it self to the whole Church and is exercised in taking care that the Ordinances of Generall Councills be not by any transgressed and also in case any Heresies arise or that any Controversies in Causis Majoribus can not be otherwise ended either to determine the Points of Catholick Truth opposed or at least to impose Silence upon disputants and Litigants till he can assemble a
But truly we have great obligation to the Doctour though I believe he does not expect wee should thank him for imputing to the Church the frantick Preachings and practises of Mad-men and at the same time telling us that they were excommunicated and other wayes punished by Popes Princes and Bishops Indeed it is a terrible Argument to prove it dangerous to live in a Church because there Heresies false Revelations and impure actions are condemned by it If Holy Institutours of Religious Orders could with their Rules give also power and will to their Subjects not to transgress them the world would be even too happy But this exceeding a Created power to doe it is even necessary that Scandalls should follow such as were given by a Sect of Mendicants the Authours of the horrible Evangelium aeternum the Followers of Petrus Ioannis de Oliva the Beguini Fraticelli Beguardi the Illuminati or Alumbrados of Spain and such other Monsters raised up by the Devill in a cursed imitation of the Graces and Gifts communicated by God to his devout and faithfull servants But the Doctour who can no doubt commend Luther for opposing and dividing Godâ— Church though Luther himself tells him that he did it by the Devills instigation Scornfully derides and reviles any one who shall pretend to defend the Church by Gods Inspiration or Miracles But 〈◊〉 Calvin had not failed in his designed Miracles by raising a man from the dead the quite contrary way the Doctour perhaps would have been reconciled to Miracles and Inspirations 75 Thus we see that nothing that God has done or perhaps can do for the benefit of his Church will please the Doctour If Catholicks live abstracted lives in the Exercise of pure Spirituall Prayer or if God confers on any of them Supernaturall Gifts all this must passe for meer Enthusiasme though the persons with perfect humility submit all to lawfull Authority and though the Doctour alledges nothing to disprove any of these things 76. But least we may in the end hope that he will permitt and encourage us to keep to the Externall Devotions and Publick Liturgy By no meanes there must nothing be thought or done by the Children of the Catholick Church but must be found fault with The Liturgy saith he is a tedious and Ceremonious way of externall Devotion as dull and as cold as the Earth it self Hereto quia de gustibus non est disputandum all that I conceive needfull to say is that the Doctour seems to me not yet cordially reconciled to the Ceremonies and Common Prayer Book of his own lately adopted Church which he knows to have been borrowed from the Catholick Liturgy and for that reason hated by his freinds the Presbyterians and Independents and by them esteemed a tedious and ceremonious way of Externall Devâ—tion as dull and as cold as the Earth it self §. 5. Resisting Authority falsely imputed to Catholick Religion 77. WE have hitherto seen the Doctors charge of Fanaticism on the Catholick Church and his proofs also such as they are But he concludes this his accusation with an Epiphonema truly of great importance if rightly applied which is The Fanaticism of Catholicks in resisting Authority under a pretence of Religion 78. To make this good he very ingenuously absolves the Catholick Church her self and layes this fault only on the Principles and Practises of the Iesuiticall party a party saith he most countenanced and encouraged by the Court of Rome And for proof of this he produces severall Books written and actions done by them in the last age 79. Hereto our Answer must be that Scandalls in Gods Church are unavoydable as our Saviour tells vs. But where will he find any Catholick who will be answerable for all the actions of the Court of Rome or all the Writings of a single party The Popes are absolute Princes as well as Prelats and if some of them have been tainted with ambitiâ—n and a desire to invade the rights of other Princes For what Courts have ever been entirely free Such can never want Ministers zealous diligent and inventive to justify all their pretentions and designs whatever they are Vice will never want Instruments and supporters till the Devill himself be converted and become a good Christian and it will be long before this happen 80. But it is well known that in this Point Princes and States are generally become more clear sighted and more wise then formerly they have been and by consequence the Court of Rome also 81. But to be more particular If the Doctour will think good to consult the Iesuits I believe they will tell him That if they find speciall favour in the Court of Rome it is not with regard to any such Books or Actions imputed by him to their fore fathers and which they are far from defending That they have other Merits and endowments to recommend them to the Popes Favour And particularly that this is not reckoned among their Merits their equally free access and more then ordinary interest of favour in the Court of France where the Doctour knows such Doctrins are far from being admitted will more then sufficiently testify They will further tell him that for as much as concerns the unsafe Antimonarchicall Doctrins contained in the foresaid Books cited by him it is almost a whole Age since that they have been by their Generall forbidden under paine of Excommunication and other most greivous Censures to iustify them either in Writing preaching or disputing and more over which is very considerable this Prohibition was not only made before the condemnation of these Books in France but also was known to the Pope and permitted by him I am moreover confident that he cannot with any tolerable proofs make good his accusation of their being wanting in their fidelity to his Majesty or his Glorious Father during the late rebellious warr which was raised and prosecuted by the Doctours best quondam freinds And more over I may assure the Doctour that if an Oath were framed free from ambiguity and without odious phrases inserted in it wholly unnecessary to the substance of it they would not make any Scruple of ioyning with all their Catholick Brethren in taking it But then what thinks the Doctour of these two Propositions to be sett in the scale against his 1. That it is absolutely unlawfull to Subiects by arms to propagate or defend Religion against their Lawfull Prince 2. That I say not by the Pope to this he and his brethren are as forward as any but by no Assembly Civill or Ecclesiasticall Subiects can be authorized by arms to oppose their Prince upon any pretence what soever Are he and his quondam party ready to declare these Will he or they damne the execrable Covenant Surely the Kings safety and the publick Peace are far more concernd in these then in the former This therefore would be a task in which his Learning and Eloquence would be worthily employed And more over in case himself either by Preaching
doubt though J humbly conceive J may Now his fault in case he be guilty having been publick and notorious and no Repentance no retractation appearing unless perhaps he thinks that the accepting a thousand pounds yearly in Preferments is vertually a Retractation and much less any Solemn Absolution having been given him unless perhaps also he thinks that the Act of Oblivion reaches to Heaven discharging the conscience and dispensing in foro interno from an obligation of demanding Absolution either from Bishops or from the Civill Magistrat who according to his Teaching has received the Power of the Keyes and can Excommunicate and Absolve as well as any Bishop matters J say standing thus J must needs tell him that all Prelaticall Protestants can no otherwise look upon him but as one J doe not say traditum Satanae but excommunicated and separated from Christs Mysticall Body And therefore J coniure him that he would take care of his Soule which must needs be in great danger even though in his heart he believes such Excommunications to be bruta fulmina For in that case also he will conclude himself at least guilty of most damnable Hypocrisy 175. It will now be seasonable with this Act of Charity to him to take my leave of him and putt a period to this my Answer which truly I think sufficient though perhaps he will impute my telling him so to an ungrounded confidence or presumption 176. I have onely one thing more to say to him which is this that I with reason enough may accuse him that in writing his Book he has prevaricated with his Superiours For whereas in his Preface he tells his Readers that He was by command publickly engaged in the Defence of so excellent a cause as that of the Church of England against the Church of Rome even of that Church of England which vpon the greatest enquiry he could make he esteems the best Church of the Christian world I desire no other Iudges but the Prelats of his own Church whether by examining his Principles J have not demonstrated how that contrary to Command and his publick engagement he has been so far from defending her that he has betrayed the cause of his Church to all the Fanatick Sects which have separated from her and with most horrible cruelty sought her destruction and with her the ruine of Monarchy Whereby he has left her in a most forlorn condition tottring upon foundations and Principles which to my certain knowledge were not extant at least not known in England thirty years since In so much as if those who commanded him to defend her will still avow him her Champion there will not be nor ever was a Prelaticall Church so miserably devested of all Authority And therefore let any indifferent Reader judge between us two Whether with better Success He has defended the cause of the Church of England against the Church of Rome or I the cause of his own Church against himself 177. To conclude nothing can be more irrationall then for the Doctour holding to his Principles to profess himself a Controvertist till he can demonstrate that he has the Gift of seeing into mens hearts For since he allowes all Sober Enqâ—irers to be for themselues Iudges of the Sence of Scripture in necessaries and Iudges likewise what Points are necessary till he can disprove the allegations of any Adversary Catholick Protestant or Fanatick by demonstrating that they have either not enquired at all or enquired unsoberly and that none besides himself enquires Soberly it will be most unreasonable in him to condemn or but trouble any Dissenters from him 178. But alas the misery is None are more eager in usurping a Magisteriall and Tyrannicall Power over other mens consciences then such as renounce all Authority internally obliging in the Church Because having no tye upon mens consciences or security in their Subiects Obedience they find externall violence the only Mean to support them Which surely argues a horrible deprâ—vation in the minds especially of Ecclesiasticks which depravation can now only be cured by the Wisedom and Power of the Civil Magistrate Da pacem Domine in diebus nostris Amen FINIS The CONTENTS § I. THe Authours Motive of writing this Treatise D. Stillingfleets three Heads of Accusation against the Catholick Church c. pag. I. § II. A Vindication of the Honour and Sanctity of S. Benedict c. from the Doctours contumelious imputations II § III. Of the life and Prayer of Contemplation derided by the Doctour 28 § IV. Visions c. no Grounds of believing Doctrines among Catholicks 71 § V. Resisting Authority falsely imputed to Catholick Religion 76 § VI. Fanaticism returned upon the Doctour and his whole Religion 88 § VII The Doctrine of Penance Vindicated from the Doctours mistakes 121 § VIII Of Conferring Absolution and Extreme Vnction in Articulo mortis 132 § IX Of Prayer for the Dead 137 § X. Of Indulgences 144 § XI Of the Churches Liturgy in a tongue not generally understood 148 § XII Of the Churches denying the Reading of the Bible indifferently to all 152 § XIII The Conclusion with Advicâ—s to the Doctour 171 ERRATA PAge 3. line 6. read inhuman p. 4. l. 2. read about ib. l. 4. read or Obedience p. 5. l. 16. read to the. p. 7. l. 15. r. upon p. 8. l. 4. read their p. 13. l. 3. r. Preacher p. 17. l. 25. r. sayes p. 47. l. 25. 26. r. severall p. 48. l. 14. r. but be p. 52. l. 22. r. rake out p. 59. l. 20. r. helps for p. 60. l. 7. read therefore p. 67. l. penult r. them ib. l. ult r. both p. 75. l. 12. r. permit p. 76. l. 19. r. herself p. 85. l. 5. r. Apostat p. 87. l. penult r. also p. 88. l. 17. r. returned ib. l. ult r. Fanaticks ib. r. Farce p. 90. l. 8. r. flesh p. 91. l. 17. r. nutshell p. 92. l. 18. r. demonstrate p. 93. in the margent r. 15. Principle p. 95. l. 6. r. Points ib. l. 16. in some of the Copies dele not ib. l. 24. r. receives p. 97. l. 4. r. soever p. 100. l. 9. r. government p. 101. l. 2. r. government ib. l. 10. r. such an one p. 104. l. 10. r. p. 105. l. 11. r. because p. 110. l. 1. at the lines â—nd read the. p. 117. l. 4. r. Catholicks p. 123. l. ult read vvho testifies p. 136. l. 4. read by the exercise p. 142. l. 5. r. their p. 145. l. 5. r. eneruating p. 148. l. 8. r. understood p. 151. l. 10. r. Service ib. l. penult r. desire that p. 152. in the margent â—ead p. 215. A Post-script to the Doctor IF this short Treatise shall after more then half a years strugling haue the fortune to break through all hazards and arriue safe to the Doctors hands the Authour of it will presume in concluding it to offer to him a few Requests The First is That unless he do indeed think