of Discourses of Purity and Charity of Repentance and of seeking the Kingdom of God. Published by Dean Tillotson 8 o. His Second Volume of Discourses on several Practical Subjects 8 o. Sir Thomas Mores Vtopia newly made English by Dr. Burnet 8 o. Mr. Sellers Devout Communicant assisted with Rules Meditations Prayers and Anthems 12. Dr. Towerson of the Sacraments in General Of the Sacrament of Baptism in particular 8 o. The History of the COVNCIL OF TRENT in which besides the ordinary Acts of the Council are declared many notable occurrences which hapned in Christendom for 40 Years and particularly the Practices of the COVRT of ROME to hinder the Râ—formation of their Errors and to maintain Their Greatness Written by Father Paul of the Servi To which is added the Life of the Author and the History of the Inquisition Dr. Bâ—rnets History of the Reformation of the Church of Eng. in 2 Vol Fol. A Collection of sixteen several Tracts and Discourses written in the Years from 16â—8 to 1685. inclusive by Gilbert Barnet D. D. To which is added A Letter written to Dr Barnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pools secret Powers The History of the Powder Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Pâ—ot 1679. 4 o. A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church more particularly of the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon other Sees By WILLIAM CAVE D.D. 8 vo An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure Footing in Christianity concerning the Rule of Fâ—ith With some other Discourses By WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. 4 o. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England in Anâ—wer to a Paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the Nullity of our Orders By GILBERT BVRNET D D. An Abridâ—ment of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England By GILB BVRNET D D. 8 vo The APOLOGY of the Church of England and an Epistle to one Signior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin by the Right Reverend Father in God IOHN IEWEL Lord Bishop of Salisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The Life of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand 8 vo The Life of WILLIAM BEDEL D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Together with Certain Letters which passed betwixt him and Iames Waddesworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition of Sevil in Matters of Religion concerning the General Motives to the Roman Obedience 8 vo The Decree made at ROME the Second of March 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Iesiuts and other Casuists 4 o. A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome 4 o. First and Second Parts A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue 9 o. A Papist no Misrepresented by Protestants Being a Reply to the Reflections upon the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented 4 o. An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CONDOM in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church 4 o. Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of the Mons. de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator 4 o. A CATECHISM explaining the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome With an Answer thereunto By a Protestant of the Church of England 8 vo A Papist Represented and not Misrepresented being an Answer to the First Fifth and Sixth Sheets of the Second Part of the Papist Misrepresented and not Represented and for a further Vindication of the CATECHISM truly Representing the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome 4 o. The Lay-Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures 4 o. The Plain man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries 24 o. An Answer to THREE PAPERS lately printed concerning the Authority of the Catholick Church in matters of Faith and the Reformation of the Church of England 4 o A Vindication of the Answer to the said THREE PAPERS 4 o. Mr Chillingworths Book called The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvâ—tion made more generally useful by omitting personal contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some genuine Pieces of Mr. Chillingworths never before Printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an Account of what moved the Author to turn Papist with his confutation of the said motives An Historical Treatise written by an Author of the Communion of the Church of Rome touching Transubstantiation Wherein is made appear That according to the Principles of that Church this Doctrine cannot be an Article of Faith 4 o. The Protestants Companion or an Impartial survey and comparison of the Protestant Religion as by Law established with the main Doctrines of Popery Wherein is shewn that Popery is contrary to Scripture Primitive Fathers and Councils and that proved from Holy Writ the Writings of the Ancient Fathers for several hundred Years and the Confession of the most Learned Papists themselves 4 o. The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be that Church and the Pillar of that Truth mentioned by S. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy chap. 3. ver 15.4 o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scriptures Asserted 4 o. A short summary of the principal Controversies between the Church of Engl. and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a late Pamphlet intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture proofs 4 o. An Answer to a late Pamphlet intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one special Branch of the Kings Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4 o. A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is prefixed a large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4 o. With a Table to the Whole Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died by W. Wake M. A 12 o. The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A Private Prayer to be used in difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29. 1687. between
and divert the Inquisitive from the examination of particular Controversies Prejudices have been published against the Reformed Religion and pompous Arguments of external Convenience daily urged in favour of the Church of Rome The principal of these is the pretended excellence of the Constitution of that Church tending to preserve an intire unity of Faith and universal decency of Discipline in the Church and free all private Persons from the danger of entertaining any pernicious Error or at least infusing it into others continuing in the Communion of the Church while every one submits his private Reason to the Iudgment of the Church and with a blind obedience receives directions from the Living Rule of Faith whether Pope or Council This supposed Advantage hath been often and with great ostentation produced in behalf of the Church of Rome and a natural tendency to Disorder Heresie and Schism with great vehemence charged upon the Church of England It is objected that she allows to every man an unlimited power of using his own Reason in deciding matters of Faith that she constitutes every Person a supreme Iudge of the most momentous Controversies from whom lyeth no Appeal to any Visible Iudge on Earth That she subjects the Faith of all private Christians to infinite uncertainty and fluctuation since the Infallible Direction of the Holy Ghost is promised only to the Representative Church and the Iudgments of men may be as various as are their Humours and Vnderstandings That hereby a door is opened to infinite Heresies and Errors and the Christian Religion exposed to the danger of being divided into as many several Systems as it contains Proselytes That by this disorder all Rules of Faith are rendred useless since whatsoever they may propose in their genuine sense men will adapt them to their own pre-conceived Notions and frame to themselves a belief from the Dictates and Inclinations of their private Spirit whereby unity of Faith will be totally destroyed and Religion will degenerate into downright Enthusiasm Indeed the danger of Enthusiasm when rightly understood is so fatal to Christianity and destructive to the Reason of Mankind that we cannot but conclude any Church which is guilty of it to be grosly corrupted and degenerate and shall willingly put the whole Controversy upon this issue But then Enthusiasm consists not in allowing to every private Person the power of judging for himself in matters of Religion For this the Nature as well as Interest of Mankind requireth which received the use of Reason chiefly for this end and even our Adversaries themselves must at last recur to this principle but it consists in pretending to receive the Articles of Faith by extraordinary Illumination and in irrational and extravagant actions of Devotion and Piety which a fond Imagination mistaketh for the Impulses and Dictates of the Divine Spirit Such Pretences and Actions as they are most remote from the Genius and Constitution of the Church of England so they naturally flow from the Principles of the Church of Rome and are fomented and promoted by her This appears upon many accounts but chiefly from the consideration of her most Illustrious Saints whom she admired when living and reverenceth when dead consulted them then as Oracles and proposeth them now to her Followers as Patterns of the most consummate Perfection and by canonization of them and solemnizing their Memories hath set a publick stamp of authority and approbation upon their Life and Conduct The most eminent of these were extravagant Enthusiasts who distinguished themselves from the rest of Mankind by nothing else but the continued exercise of a blind Fanaticism The proof of this Charge is the design of this present Treatise which hath therefore assumed for the Subject of it the Actions of Ignatius Loyola as the greatest and most illustrious of all the latter Romish Saints If our Arguments shall be convictive and the most admired Saints of the Church of Rome shall be found to be in the highest degree guilty of Enthusiasm many considerable Conclusions may be drawn from thence in relation to other Controversies which I shall not here insist to prove The so much boasted Order and Discipline of the Church of Rome will be intirely ruined For if the pretence of a private Impulse be once publickly admitted and countenanced in any Church all Impulses whatsoever must be allowed without distinction whether agreeable or contrary to decency and the established Discipline of the Church which will open a wide door to all licentious Disorders since it is the nature of Enthusiasm ever to affect somewhat extravagant and irregular The certainty of Oral Tradition will be overthrown since if Persons of so great authority and repute as Saints are supposed to be received not the Catholick Faith from any precedent Tradition but from extraordinary Inspiration that is in truth the whimsies of their own Brains and so delivered it to vast multitudes of credulous Hearers Oral Tradition will be interrupted and the grossest Heresie might be easily introduced in the Church But to omit other Consequences prejudicial to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Invocation of Saints will hence receive a fatal blow For it would be highly irrational to address our Prayers to any Saint to desire his intercession in Heaven unless we were probably assured that the Saint hath already obtained a place in Heaven But if the Church can so far err in the Canonization of Saints as to bestow that sacred Character upon publickly address Prayers to and exhort the People in their private Devotions to desire the intercession of such foolish Enthusiasts as are utterly unworthy the lowest seat in Heaven and perhaps never got so far as Purgatory then Invocation of Saints altho we should grant it to be lawful in the Theory cannot but be infinitely unsafe in the practice of it If the imputation of Enthusiasm renders the Invocation of these Saints unsafe and dangerous much more will the evidence of some notorious Crime unrepented of incapacitate other Romish Saints from receiving our Addresses That there have been such the Examples of St. Thomas Becket and St. Dominick put past all dispute the first of which violently opposed the lawful power of his Prince over the Clergy the last employed his whole life in inciting Armies of holy Pilgrims to the slaughter of the innocent Albigenses But what if after all great numbers of Saints placed in the Roman Calendar and invoked in the publick Offices of the Church had never any existence and are the meer Inventions of Romantick Legends A Learned Person hath lately instanced in some few of them as St. George St. Sebastian St. Longinus St. Viarius c. to which perhaps some hundreds might be added I will instance but in one but him most remarkable and not yet observed by any as being such a Monster of a Saint as Pagan Superstition would have never thought of and which may perhaps at the first sight seem incredible The Church of Rome hath
trifling Actions of their most illustrious Saints and fond Superstitions practiced in their several Monastick Orders Processions Worship of Images Saints and Relicks and indeed in every individual Office of the Church of Rome cannot but conclude without descending into the merits of the Cause That the complex Religion of the Church of Rome is not of Divine Institution and deserves not either to have been revealed by God or to be believed by Men and if he believeth these opinions and practices to be inseparable from Christianity he may justly reject it and rationally conclude it to be a Cheat and the Author of it to have been an Egregious Impostor That these Reasons have really tended to the Prejudice of Christianity and made innumerable Apostates from it the sad Experience of Italy and other Romish Countries beyond the Seas demonstrates where if the Relations of modern Travellers do not deceive us few real Christians can be found out of the credulous Multitude whose Ignorance disableth them from perceiving the Follies and discovering the Falseness of their Religion It is therefore the peculiar Glory of the Christian Religion that it was revealed and proposed to the World in the most Learned of all the precedent Ages That it did not take shelter in the Ignorance of Mankind nor confine its Mysteries to the more remote and ignorant Part of the World. The Learning and Philosophy of the Heathens was then raised to the highest Perfection and the Knowledg of all Arts and Sciences had gained equal extent with the Roman Empire so that we may truly affirm the World to have been then more universally Learned than in any Age either before or since At this time especially God chose to publish his Revelations to the World and made the more Learned part of it the Stage of his Promulgation that so in future Ages Christianity might not be subjected to any just Suspicions of Fraud and Imposture nor the precedent Reception of it be ascribed to the foolish Credulity of ignorant and illiterate Proselytes The Doctrines of it were proposed and Miracles in testimony of it wrought in all the more famous Cities of the Empire in their publick Schools and Synagogues in their Theaters and Universities in Rome and Athens the great Centers of Learning and which deserveth to be observed more especially in Greece and Asia Minor the most Learned part of that then Learned Empire This secured the Christian Religion from all possibility of Error and Illusion since if either the Doctrines of it had been ridiculous and irrational or the Miracles fictitious and pretended the Learned Auditors and Spectators of those times who were not in the least prepossest in favour of it would soon have discovered the Cheat and vehemently decried the Error This consideration also tendeth no less to the Advantage and Reputation of the Reformation that it was advanced and undertaken in a most learned and knowing Age That all the Authors and Promoters of it were Persons of extraordinary Knowledg and that purity of Religion and success of Learning as they decreased proportionably in all Ages so they returned into the World at the same time Whereas Popery oweth all its Triumphs and Success to the Ignorance of Mankind began with the decrease of Learning and was well nigh ruined with the Restauration of it All the peculiar Articles of Popery were founded in the dark and ignorant Ages of the Church their most illustrious and admired Saints were rude and illiterate Idiots devoid of all Learning and oft-times of common Sense their Miracles are ever acted either in barbarous and credulous Ages or in remote Corners of the World we poor Hereticks who have the greatest need of them for their Arguments being so often baffled nothing but Miracles can now convert us can never be blessed with the sight of them and at this day it flourisheth proportionably to the Knowledg or Ignorance of all Countries In France the most Learned of all the Popish Countries it is forced to put on a new Masque and by many subtil and nice Expositions Qualifications and Interpretations is almost lost and refined into nothing In Italy if we may believe the Reports of modern Travellers it hath few Proselytes besides the ignorant and unlearned Multitude the more intelligent sort being become either Atheists Scepticks or Molinists In Spain alone and the Indies doth it flourish in its full Vigour where so gross an Ignorance hath possessed the minds of Papists that they believe their Inquisitors no less Infallible than the Apostles and imagine that their Images can both hear and see them So necessary and useful is Learning to Mankind which may fix Rules to distinguish true from pretended Revelations discern real from feigned Miracles and discover the Illusions of Impostors that the decay of it hath in all Ages and Countries been accompanied with a deluge of Error and Superstition But in nothing is the use and necessity of Learning and its subservience to the interest and purity of Religion more conspicuous and apparent than in preventing the Dangers and Follies of Enthusiasm to which in the present Constitution of mankind all revealed Religions cannot but be obnoxious I do not hereby imply the necessity of any extraordinary Learning or accurate Knowledg of all Sciences in all Ranks and Orders of Christians but an ordinary Prudence and right understanding of the nature and genius of Christianity which if assisted by the Direction of more learned Guides and Pastors as God in the first Institution of Christianity intended it should be will abundantly secure all Persons from the delusions of designing or ignorant Enthusiasts However a great part of Mankind will continue to want this Prudence and neglect this Direction especially when the means of Knowledg are studiously kept from them and no Instruction to be obtained but from external Ceremonies or the Dictates of a Confessor as it is in all Popish Countries Such Persons profess Christianity not out of any Conviction of the Truth or Divinity of it but induced by the Prejudices of Education and Authority of Example understand not the true Principles of their Religion and instead of a rational Faith possess only a blind Credulity This affords a fair opportunity of success to the Frauds and Artifices of Impostors who will never want Proselytes in an ignorant and credulous Auditory and if upheld and favoured by the publick Applause of the Church may draw Multitudes of Admirers after them The great Engines of these Religious Juglers were ever Enthusiasm and the pretence of Miracles The latter have long since ceased and could never really be performed by Impostors It remains therefore that they betake themselves to Enthusiasm possess the People with a belief of extraordinary Revelations communicated to them of an inward Familiarity with God of continual Divine Inspirations of acting solely by the impulse of the Spirit and following the infallible Dictates of an inward Light. This Opinion must be raised and continued by bold