this supreme obliging power in matters of faith and manners and upon the same ground hath always esteemed such hereticks in a damnable condition who have not as well beleeved or adhered to her proposals in faith in one subject as in another and as well to the end of the world as in the primitive times But they say that the burden of Christian religion will be greater then of the Jewes and intollerable if all are obliged to every declared truth in the Church which is contrary to Christ who saith Mat. 11. that his yoak is sweet and his burden is light This is easily answered in order to the Community of Christians whose implicite faith in the superstructures is sufficient according to the generally taught and received doctrin of Doctors Pastors indeed and Doctors have higher obligations to be able to give an account of their faith which obligation is much alleviated by the Synopses of Faith which the Church clearly and yet very contractedly propounds to keep them principally from misunderstanding the holy mysteries of our faith This is the weightiest objection which I finde in Mr. Hobb's besides those which I shall presently touch St. Chrysostome in his 10. homily upon St. Mathew in the person of Christ complaines of Mr. Hobbs Nolite de difficultate conqueri quesi qui doctrinam meam molestam esse dicatis we must not say Christ's doctrin is troublesome least with the Capharnaits we be committed abire retro to be put in the back side of Christ's book Surely St. August found Christian religion in another posture then Mr. Hobbs would have it in his 5. Chapter to Volusian Where he saith that Tanta est Christianarum profunditas literarum ut in eis quotidie proficerem si eas solas ab ineunte pueritia usque ad de erepitam senectutem maximo otio summa studio meliori ingenio conarer addiscere c. He experienced the mysteries of Christianity far to transcend the synagogue he esteemed his whole life though it were imployed in nothing else not to suffice for a perfect understanding of Christian profundities surely they were not so vulgar as Mr. Hebbs would have them There was among the Jewes a difference in points of faith some were ut adirces as the foundation of the rest the denying whereof would have destroyed the whole law others as rami branches where the danger was not so considerable These R. Menassieth in the beginning of his Treatise of the creation of the world declareth So in Christian Religion some things are simply necessary without which heaven is not to be gotten as the faith of Christ c. which our school-men place sub necessitate medij that is as absolutely necessary of which sort there are not so many Other things are necessary onely ex suppositione that is upon supposition that they are made known to us or sufficiently declared then there is necessitas praecepti a command to imbrace them and surely this is no great burden I will also touch that impertinent objection of the Socinians that the Church of Christ is a congregation of all Christians or of all who beleeve in Christ and not of any select body of them and consequently there are no hereticks to be declared so by any sentence of the Church but onely those are hereticks who by their own judgement are such as the Apostle speaketh That is such who against their own judgment do resist known truths not such who by a councel or body of men are declared such This to beleevers is easily made evident to be impious First That Christ hath a Church he hath said it that he also hath instructed her with a regitive power he hath also said it and said both together in these words Dic Ecclesiae and therefore addeth to such as obey not her decrees si eam non audierit sit tibi tanquam Ethnicus et publicanus we must complain to the Church for emergencies and she hath power to excommunicate if we obey not If this be true as it is in other crimes and causes it will easily conclude in the chiefest crime of heresie else we must blasphemously say that Christ hath made provision for the lesser difficulties and not for greater which is to condemn his omniscience or providence Again this regitive power is confirmed in the acts and attributes to the Holy Ghost Spiritus Sanctus vos constituit Episcopes regere Ecclesiam Dei Of this the new Testament in doctrin and practise is aboundant Further that the Church hath power to declare hereticks is evident besides the immediate consequence of it out of Christs words related out of the doctrin and practise of the Apostles They did teach how or did institute the manner post secundam monitionem to declare and excommunicate for heresie they also did declare de facto hereticks as is evident in almost all their Epistles and the Apocalipss and did forbid all commerce with them which is to excommunicate which they did for their false and seditious tenents or innovations in faith as is clear in the texts whence it followeth first that the Church hath this power as first Simon Magus for teaching it lawful to buy the Holy Ghost Secondly the Jewish Christians who taught it lawful to use Sacramental circumcision under Christ were excommunicated by St. John c. Whence it followes secondly that the Church is not a body of all Christians but of all who do joyn in the unity and integrity of faith else if declared by the Church to be hereticks they are no longer of her because by authority derived by Christ they are cast out of her Their own interior guilt will serve to accuse them in the Court of God in Heaven but it is the judicatory act of the Church upon their pertinacy which condemneth them in Earth and this sentence is confirmed in Heaven Quaecunque alligaveritis c. Mr. Hobbs in his 18. Chapter n. 2. requires two vertues necessary to Salvation Faith and Obedience Faith hath no other latitude in her acts then to beleeve Jesus to be Christ n. 5 6. and so forward Besides internal faith he saith that there is necessarily required a profession of many other articles which summarily are contracted compacted into that we call the Creed As he had touched before Chap. 17. n. 21. and afterward more fully in his Annotations to the number 6. Yet he esteemed not Christians bound to beleeve but to profess these if required This seems a bull in Christianity to be bound to profess in matter of belief what I am not bound to beleeve yet this he asserts Chap. 18. n. 6. necessary to salvation out of title of obedience That is I am bound to profess that I do beleeve what I am not bound to beleeve I propound this to Mr. Hobb's second thoughts he boggles much upon it in his Annotations utters evident contradictions and yet he comes not off Nay he saith ch 18. n. 14. that it is enough if one endeavour
is hurt in their fancies as I have observed some though otherwise able to make unbroken discourses in other matters of less concernment which is easily possible according to Philosophy or else God for other sins blindeth their understandings as he did Pharoah's which obstacle they must labour to remove that they may learn to obey God in his Church else their condition will be every way most miserable if they obey not for want of Christian humility they are in evident danger of hell if they do obey they are in danger because they do against Conscience but the remedy of this is at hand if they relinquish their own judgments not by satisfying which they pretend they cannot do but by captivating to a sure Authority Certainly wicked fury hath made and increased this Schism for granting which is my second answer to the former objection that when unity cannot be kept without detriment of eternal Salvation it may and ought to be broken without sin but when by the conservation of unity no detriment of salvation is incurred and that if this also may be obtained by persevering in unity then at least there shall be no lawful cause to break unity and those who break it do incur certain damnation for sacrilegious Schism But now Protestants remaining in union with the Church of Rome should have suffered no detriment of their eternal Salvation but had been in a certain way to arrive unto it As we have shewed before by their own confession that Catholicks persevering in the same unity may attain unto salvation wherefore it manifestly followeth that they without any cause went out of the Church wherein they might have been saved and cast themselves and their followers into the state of damnation according to that of St. Augustine De unit Eccl. c. 19. None come unto Salvation and life everlasting except he hath Christ for his head and none can have Christ for his head except he he in his body which is the Church Again which is chiefly to be pondered and always to be repeated those damnable doctrins as they call them taught in the Church of Rome ought to have been declared by a general Councel and not by themselves who are the least if any part of the Church Otherwise if it should be lawful for every one to accuse the Church his mother of Heresie and to leave her without any other discussing of the cause a gate should be open to all Heresies the Church of God would be trodden under foot yea all Christianity fall to ruine this hath been the plea of all separatists which they thought sufficiently proved if onely accusing of error be proving as in the cause of England D. Bilson and Covell teach the necessities of Synods in these things the first part p. 374. the other p. 110. And that which another replied first that England might sufficiently judge of heresies newly brought in seeing it is matter of fact to wit whether this or the other doctrin came down from our Fathers Grandfathers c. or whether it were heard of but yesterday or the day before for this even children may perceive The second point also which he not onely by mouth but by pen now frequent in other hands so much urged saying that it is not needful to call a general Councel since by your confessions as Cressy fol. 443. seemeth to insinuate that there is no infallable power in them A doctrin which I was glad to finde amongst you yet I wondred at it being already repugnant to what I had read in your former authors as D. Stapleton and D. Stratford of the Church and of late in a book made by a Country-man of ours in Latine called Systema Fidei Cressie's words are these No man will endeavour to oblige them further then c. to beleeve an obliging authority in the Catholick Church let is be limitted and confined as straitly and with as many provises as any Catholick or indeed any resonable man shall think good I say according to this power of defining and establishing faith it is to no purpose to call a general Councel to declare heresies when every ignorant fellow can do as much in order to the verity of declaring though perhaps not in order to the coercive manner of declaring yea in the very power it self for asmuch as according to this position of Cressy the power of the Church in this particular may be restrained by any silly fellow c. Thus far this Author To these I answer For asmuch as concerneth matter of fact every nation may witness what they have recived but they cannot make infallable discernment of matters of Faith without the supreme judgment of the whole Church in whose onely mouth there can be no errors which is our principal question Many things are conveyed to posterity which are not matters of Faith sometimes not of truth this the Church onely suerly determines To the second objection out of Gressy I answer that his words though very harsh yet in my judgment they may receive a more favourable gloss upon connexion with the other parts of his discourse He doth indeed to much even suspiciously savour of his old friendship with that vertiginous and flashy Apostata Chillingworth a man whom few examples have paralel'd in often turning religion But Cressy wrote this book in Neophitism not being yet fully instructed in the mysteries of our holy faith as St. Hierome noteth of Arnobius which therefore is more excusable in him though he should express his not throughly digested conceits hardly endugh consistent with the verities of the Catholick faith I do not beleeve that his intention was so soon to play the master in teaching what he had not perfectly learned which had been too preposterous 〈◊〉 this whole books 〈◊〉 to give the History or gradation of his conversion how he did reach from one degree to another and how he gathereth the sence of our doctrin and Doctors in his passage wherein as I said it is no wonder if being a Neophite he should boggle in his manner of explication as his expression seemeth to do in this but where he now is he will better and more fully inform himself and I doubt not but wil rectifie those passages which savour of mistakes Neither doth it avail much though many here stumble at these and other of his passages for St. Hier saith ep 76. I think Origen to be read So sometimes for application as Tertullian Novatus Apollinaris Cressy and many more Ecclesiastical writers both Greek and Latin that we may choose what is good in them and avoid the contrary There are some very good things in that book though intermixt with other passages more harsh as he seems to express them which a prudent reader may pick out and discern to his profit It remaineth therefore firm and certain that our Country men are bound under the pain of Schism and rebellion to reunite themselves unto the Church of Rome their mother as
rather of Luther the whole Catholick Church consisting of divers Kingdoms in which England is comprised did obey divers Princes were governed by divers civil Lawes and Statutes yet they worshiped God but in one faith and in one sacrifice were sanctified with the same Sacraments did acknowledge the same spiritual Rector the Bishop of Rome Then arose Luther Henry the eighth Queen Elizabeth c. Who brake Communion with the whole world to take away the sacrifice of the whole Church and the greater part of the Sacraments and the holy rites to revolt from the Bishop of Rome all the Church besides persevering in the same unity worship and obedience which before it did profess Who therefore doth not see that they have revolted from the Church and erected altar against altar if they have any and have been the sole Authors of the divided unity of the Church I add that Schism is alwayes a dividing of an united body or a separation of a part from the whole preexistent or fore being now the Catholick Church was an united body existent before Luther from which the Protestants might go out and divide themselves but the Protesants seeing they were no where could make no body from whence the Catholicks could recede therefore the Protestants could onely first make the division and blow up the Rebellion The other often heard phantastick refuge wherewith when these are branded with novelty like men in a desperate naufrage they catch at any broken reed namely that they always were of us and amongst us and so continued till they were cast out of us To the first part I answer That till Henry the eighth they were indeed amongst us that is all their progenitors were Catholicks this every man in the testaments and records of each family can witness for the world till then knew no other all publick profession of Religion was that To fly to interiours that is to say that they were in their hearts Protestants were to recur to divination which were more then childish in things of this nature when all exteriour acts contradict any such dreams and yet to this clear non-sense they are put being compelled to assert their Church for above a Thousand yeers to have been invisible as it is understood under the notion of a body separated from the Roman you will see it in Whittaker in his 2. and 3. Controversie p. 479. Field seeing how destructive this Tenent would be in his 10. C. Accounts it foolish to say that a Church should not have always known professors and White in his defence of the way c. 4. p. 790. Saith positively that Religion is false if it cannot shew a continual descent yet p. 520. he is not ashamed to say that their Church hath had indeed always succession but not visible so that being pressed to shew the real svccession he is constrained to recur to this ridiculous divination of mens interiour Protestancie though they professed otherwise Which contradictory shist of their's were enough to destroy their pretended Church Prideaux in his ninth Lesson of the invisibility of the Church after many braggs comes to this poor refuge and beats about like a man desperate to save his case upon a broken reed or distracted sentence in any obsolute or forlorn Author But sa I noted They will say that they divided not the Church neither did they recede from it but were cast out of it by excommunication of the Pope and therefore not they but the Pope was the Author of this division but this helpeth them nothing For to omit that excommunication is a punishment which is inflicted upon such as go out of the Church not so much casting them out of the Church as depriving them of the participation of common benefits thereof to omit this it is notoriously known to all that Henry the eighth Luther and Queen Elizabeth went out of the Church before they were excommunicated as being condemned by their own proper judgments and so they separated themselves and before any excommunication made the Schism in punishment whereof they were excommunicated touching Henry the eighth it is manifest that he was excommunicated for his disobedience and contumacy in grievous crimes and Queen Elizabeth by and by when she had gotten the Crown upon her she seeing the Pope difficult in declaring her lawful title unto it not for her religion for then she had not changed it but for illegitemacy even according to Acts of our Parliaments under her Father broke off all Communion with the Church of God So Camden in Elizabeth The English also compiled a book of Canons wherein they also confess they went out of the Church of Rome therefore it is a frivolous thing that they pretend they went not out but were driven out of the Church They may perchance reply that they were as amongst us so of us before this division and so are yet because it is sufficient to incorporate any body into the true Church of Christ if he beleeveth the Creed of the Apostles as here Protestants do To this I answer First that in some cases this may be enough yes even to beleeve Jesus Christ to be the Son of God is sufficient as in the case of the Eunuch and such like that is an implicite faith may suffice till other necessary truths are sufficiently propounded For the Gospel had and hath a time of growth in every new Christian In these and such like cases it is sufficient not to mis beleeve formerly other truths to constitute a man a member of Chirst's Church I answer Secondly That the same God who trusted his Church with this hath as well entrusted her with all other necessary truths The Holy Ghost hath taught her omnem veritatem all and every necessary truth as our blessed Saviour promised which she pro re nata as heresies pullulate declares to her children that they may be able to avoid the danger of swallowing stones insteed of bread These truths thus by supreme power propounded to the faithful they are obliged to receive by obeying their Prelats who have a charge over their souls according to that of the Apostle obedite praepesitis vestris c. Hence the Nicene Fathers declared as a most fundamental truth Christ Jesus to be Deum de Deo et consubstantialem Patri c. to be God of God consubstantial to the Father c. which is not in the Apostles Creed neither is it there that the Holy Ghost is God nor the Fathers of Nice did declare that great truth because yet heresies touched not that point as St. Basile and St. Gregory Nariane teach yet I beleeve that every true Christian will esteem it necessary to beleeve these truths it is easie to descend to many more particulars which all Christians admit to be necessary though not expressed in the Apostles Creed as concerning the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist c. The Church hath therefore always from the beginning to this day beleeved and practised
to beleeve them though he doth not but he must profess them when he is required Is not this to put a lie upon himself for a man to profess to beleeve what he doth not beleeve Nay is not this to put a lie upon Christianity He adds that he cannot exclude such from heaven who internally do not assent to articles declared by the Church if they do not contradict but being commanded will grant them this last particle of external acknowledgement is more modest then I have yet found in any of our Country-men though it cannot be digested by a resonable man that I may profess what I do not beleeve The texts of Scripture whereby he proves the internal belief of Jesus to be Christ sufficient to salvation are very weak in principles of Christianity For besides whom I have named already who were condemned by the Apostles for beleeving false doctrin There were also the Nicolaitans in the Apocalips Chap. 2. Who following Nicolas one of the first seven Deacons who beleeving in Christ yet taught it lawful to commit fornication and to eat meat offered to Idols were heavily threatned from God by St. John so also those hereticks whom St. John signifieth by Jesabel who taught it lawful to do the same Neither will it help Mr. Hobbs his Tenet That Jesabel is said to teach that is not onely beleeve eternally those errors for those of the Church of Thyatira were threatned because they did beleeve those false doctrins and the Apostle St. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy v. 3. useth this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he giveth to Timothy power to denounce to hereticks not to teach otherwise then they had been taught neither is his discourse of faith in Christ but of superstructures as the course of the text sheweth and in it he forbids any to beleeve them In fine it is clear in all Ecclesiastical monuments as well Historical as Doctrinal that from the Apostles to this day not onely such who denied Jesus to be Christ who were properly Infidels or Apostates but who beleeved not any other article propounded by the Church universal as necessary were esteemed hereticks and in state of damnation All the texts for the sufficiency to beleeve in Christ in order to salvation except in cases afore mentioned are understood of all things which belong to faith in him in which is comprehended his Church instructing in all necessaries or else the faith in Christ nakedly understood by Mr. Hobbs would exclude all those benefits which we beleeve to be obtained by him It is true that in particular cases as I noted an implicite faith of many of them might suffice as in the Thief where he had not time for other instruction or profession yet it is evident he beleeved in the whole when he cryed Memento Mei c. But these extraordinary cases are nothing to the ordinary course of Gods providence which we onely touch And thus the Church of God from and with the Apostles always understood this matter and accordingly in her Councels squared her practise But as I said before of the Thief so of the Eunuch and the two thousand converted by St. Peter it is evident that they beleeved in the substance of the whole Creed for the very children of Hierusalem knew the main doctrins which Christ taught as appeared in the publick process against him cryed up and down the streets and therefore these beleeving in him beleeved in all which he had taught which will come home to the Creed at least Mr. Hobbs will tell you in the upshot that the points now in controversy for the most part concern onely contention for a worldly Kingdom gain or victory in point of wit where he expounds them after his own gust and names onely such which may more plausibly be thought to have such appearance omitting the chiefest in agitation about the Sacraments c. Others which concern the principal end and effect of our redemption as free-will and justification he rejects as Philosophical Thus the high misteries of Christian Faith by a Christian are made subjects of division or rather of delusion or collusion Herod was afraid of Christ because he was jealous that his aim would be to get his Kingdom this jealousie was the cause of much innocent blood-shed I hope Mr. Hobbs hath no such design in stirring up this old false plea against Christianity for Christ hath assured all men that his Kingdom is not of this world That there hath been always subordination in Church judicatures is evident by St. Paul to Timothy and every where in holy Writ which hath hitherto been continued even in external government as all Histories shew and yet not prejudicial but auxilliary to temporal power But for any controversies is point of temporal power challenged by the Church I know none forasmuch as toucheth faith Yet Mr. Hobbs seems to desire though with much violence to draw even hearing confessions and interpreting scriptures to his new Eutopia as belonging to civil Magistracy There is yet another shift wherein as the Holy Ghost saith mentitur iniquitas sibi they frame an imaginary pillar of security saying that though the first openers of this breach were Schismaticks yet they having been born in this Church are not guilty of it As when a Kingdom is unjustly obtained yet it may be justly possessed by future heirs This I have weighed and answered before yet to the similitude I particularly answer that there is no parity at all to plead prescription against God because in some cases there may be among men else all Hereticks and Turks may more forcibly plead this right then they if naked countenance of possession can give title I might here question the supposition it self for even in temporals the civil and Canon law require more time for prescription in order to some persons then to others as for ordinary persons ten yeers in some forty in some an hundred Again there is a difference not onely in persons but the things possessed as Ecclesiastical require more time then civil and there is always required a quiet possession to begin the count of yeers that there may be titulus probabilis The reason is because then the true lords are thought virtually or implicitely to yeeld their right And thence begins the title in the unjust possessors namely when the ancient lord being able ceaseth to chalenge any right But as I say to let all this pass the disparity from man to God is manifestly clear and therefore admits of no consequence CHAP. 8. Protestants have made the Schism without any cause or ground THE often cited Protestant Doctor in the Treatise of Schism writeth that Schism doth not always make the lesser part culpable which recedeth or is driven out from the rest of the common-weale or body of the Church but the compulsive caus is here chiefly to be looked upon and not always the small number of the receding persons therefore the Protestants say it is
true that they made the division from the Catholick Church but did it rightly and worthily for the intollerable errors and damnable doctrins which then infected the whole Church and therefore they followed the command of the voice of God Apoc. 18. Go out of her my people that ye be not made partakers of her sins The damnable doctrins are by themselves reduced cheifly to Idolatry the other differences they conceive may be more easily swallowed and indeed this were a capital one if true and it were no less strange that the Church of Rome which reduced this Island and most part of the two worlds from Idolatry should it self knowingly teach or practise it and no less strange that these few men after so many yeers should see these gross abominations which such an infinity of learned men in so long time nor yet can finde or judge to be so Idolatry according to Divines is taken for a religions worship due to God and given to any creature In this all Christians agree The Church of Rome in the holy Sacrament of Eucharist giveth indeed Divine worship out of infallible supposition that under those Elements is the body and blood of Christ accompanied with his Divinity they do not give it to the accidents no not to the body and blood of Christ properly and precisely but to the Divinity so precise they are in the Divine worship whence it is clear that they do not direct their worship to a creature but to God and though they cannot but involve in their adoration his presence under the Accidents of bread and wine yet do not formally terminate their act to this presentiallity of Christ in the Sacrament which is but a relative a very extrinsecal accident and consequently not capable to terminate a divine worship whence we see the proper object is Christ who certainly is existent and therefore in this they are not mistaken even in all sectaries opinions and therefore there can be no Idolatry even though Christ had not that new ubication under the Elements of bread and wine that being the accessory not the principal which they aim at for they adaequately direct their action to Christ present not to the presence it self abstracting from Christ so that their mistake would be in a circumstance not in a substance and therefore even admitting that impossible supposition yet there would be no Idolatry The other particle is their worship of Images which in no wayes can be called Idolatry First because they do not at all teach Divine worship to be due to them as is clear in the Councel of Trent and as all knowing Protestants will confess Secondly many great Schoolmen do not hold any worship at all to be precisely directed to them it is suffient reverently to retain them and by them to be raised up in devotion to the thing represented by them as by a picture of Christ to be called upon to remember Christ c. As they think it is deducible out of the Councel of Trent Out of which it is evident that the Church of Rome is injuriously defamed of Idoltary And here I wonder much at Mr. Hobbs in his book De Cive who otherwise singularly deserving in moral and socratical Philosophy would so easily preoipitate his judgement in points of this nature He saith in his Chapter 15. n. 18. That if the Common-wealth should command to worship God under a picture that the people were-bound to do it In his Annotations upon the same place he calls himself in question for antilogies in this particular for in n. 14. He had taught that to worship God by a picture or any Image were to limit God to a certain terme which were against the law of nature touching Gods worship which surely destroys the first position To the answer of this he saith the offence would be in the commanders not in the obeyers by reason they worship him thus upon compulsion He adds that if God should specially forbid to be worshiped by the use of an image that then such a command could not be obeyed as it is in the decalogue were expresly Idolatry is prohibited Afterwards in the 16. Chapter n. 10. treating of the ten Commandments he saith that to worship God by an Image is against the law of nature as he said in the 15. c. n. 14. These seem to be strangely inconsistent propositions First the power which he saith n. 17. in the 5. Chap. To be transferred to Magistracy from the people in determining Gods worship he confesseth that it ought to be according to reason He confesseth also in his Annotation cited that to worship God under an Image were against reason because Idolatry not onely because now God hath forbidden it as he saith but in it self namely because as he said before it were to prescribe a term to his infinity and consequently to make God to be finite Whence it followes first that though Idolatry is against the light of reason and therefore intrinsecally wicked yet knowingly I might do it if commanded by a Magistrate so that an inferior power namely a power derived from my self can command me that which is absolutely prohibited by the highest power as is that of nature and I am bound to obey it with neglect of the other though supreme yet the Magistrate cannot command it but against reason and therefore such a command cannot be obligatory because in his 5. Chapter and n. 17. reason is the limit of that power Are not these inconsistences Again he saith that moral compulsion for a command is no more would render an act of Idolatry lawful because it would exempt it from Idolatry This is destructive of all religion and truly of reason in all Schools of Philosophy where Aristotle in his Ethicks and all others teach that we must lose our lives for vertue it self Again he saith that if God make a positive law to the contrary as he supposeth he hath that then I may not obey the former command of a Magistrate how this is reconcilable to his former tenet that worshiping God by Images is against the law of nature and yet onely unlawful if commanded by Magistracy because in the Decalogue or positive law it is again forbidden I know not for surely this law is inferior to that of nature according to all men and reason it self being the law of nature is drawn from the very nature of the thing it self That God hath forbidden Idolatry I doubt not in his first Commandment but whether to worship God by the use of Images is there forbidden Or whether it be Idolatry would deserve Mr. Hobbs his greater diligence to prove it For surely to say that it were a confinement of his Infinity would be as far from a proof as it is from truth clear in the light of reason and evidently against Scripture where we are taught to glorifie God in and by his creatures according to the 18. Psalm Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei c. The heavens speak
Gods glory How they do speak it they can declare no more then they are according to Mr. Hobbs and therefore onely things finite which is to confine God against the drift of the Psalms Philosophy and Scriptures teach us to finde God by his creatures as St. Paul 1 Rom. 20. remits us to the creatures Invisibilia à constitutione mundi per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur our understanding of God is from these visible things nay it is the onely natural way we have from the effect to finde the first cause and not from the first cause the effect and all things without his confinement So by pictures we ascend to what is represented not tying our selves to the manner in our worship of God under that representation In the pursuit we relinquish the manner and going forward with our discourse we find and with our devotions follow the Infinity of Gods goodness All representatives are essentially inferior to the Prototypes by many degrees yet safely conduct us to the knowledge of them without abasing their natures to the Images So here and all acts of acknowledgment of God in and by his creatures for we know the effect cannot equalize the first cause especially neither in nature nor in manner of existence and therefore we conclude Gods supreme essence and goodness to transcend all we see in the like manner we easily ascend by the use of pictures neither can we do otherwise if we use our reason so that there is no danger of Gods confinement and therefore no Idolatry I remember that Cassian in his Collations tells us of a poor ignorant Monk who out of error had framed to himself in his narrow imagination a conceipt of Gods being corporal and could very hardly be brought to entertain higher thoughts of Gods spiritual essence being unwillng to relinquish his Phantastically ill framed Image of God We are much beholding to Mr. Hobbs who is so tender of Christians dulness that least by their Images they should conceive God to be finite or corporal with this poor Monk he would remove all picturs though God himself not so careful as Mr. Hobbs hath been pleased to talk and walk with Adam which are acts of a corporal and finite creature and othertimes to make resemblance as if he had appeared in corporal shape as to Moses perchance to Jacob and others nay even the Son of God appearing in our poor nature all which would draw us into errors if God had not by his Prophets Apostles and daily by his Church and even by reason taught us the right use of such passages and to know that those sensible representatives were onely conductives to God himself as we teach Students by emblems to conceive things more remote from their present capacity All which will warrant our use of Images yet without Gods confinement and consequently without Idolatry Neither would this if true any way excuse them from sacrilegious Schism except all were compelled to Idolatry St. Augustine saith there can be no just necessity to cut off unity l. 2. Cont Ep. Parm. c. 2. and as he elsewhere Ep. 166. Our Heavenly Master hath so much admonished us to take heed of this That he would make the common people secure even of evil superiors that not for them the chair of saving doctrin should be destroyed Therefore the chair ought not to be forsaken much less destroyed for the errors of the Presidents O how St. Cyprian doth purge that poison of theirs to the quick Epist l. 3. Ep 2. If there be seen darnel to be in the Church our faith and charity ought not to be hindred thereby that because we see darnel to be in the Church we therefore leave the Church c. The Apostle in the second Epist to Timothy 2. saith In a great house there are not onely vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth and certain indeed unto honour but certain also unto contumely but it is onely lawful for God who hath a rod of iron to break the earthen vessels c. Let not any one assume to himself what the Father alone hath given to his Son c. It is saith he a proud obstinacy and sacrilegious presumption which wicked fury assumeth to it self Let our Country men think sadly of this It is objected to me that the Church of Rome doth force her Proselites to beleeve falshoods perniciously under Anathema in the Councel of Trent I answer That if we should make an impossible supposition against all the promises of Christ that the Church should in necessary points teach errors yet even in that case every child of the Church must exteriorly carry himself quiet and not make commotions for that were to seek a cure worse then the disease as in the like impossible supposition our Country-man Waldensis l. 2. c. 27. teaches Non perperam insilire debet He must not leap against the Churches face in rebellion Neither is he bound to beleeve an untruth nor yet is one in danger to incur the censure For the Church cannot reach the minde onely God in a just sentence confirming her act reaches home which cannot be in this case for he should confirm an injustice Whence it followeth that no man is or can be compelled to beleeve untruths but onely not to make Schism which by divine law is forbidden And therefore St. Augustines rule is still true There cannot be no necessity of cutting off the Church unity no not in supposition that she should command great errors But you will not object that if the articles commanded by the Church are in themselves true yet if I cannot perceive their truth after all diligence used to that end it were hypocrisie in me and therefore unlawful to adhere to that Church I conceive though falsly teacheth and commandeth false doctrins and extraordinary practises upon those grounds This truly is most seriously objected by some but without all Solidity For surely Christians are obliged by the law of God and reason to depose their own false judgments in obedience to God his Church else this will open a gap to all itching ears of whom we are premonished to introduce each man his fancy and prefer it before the wholesome doctrins of Christ delivered by his Church Neither is it difficult for man though learned to depose his own judgment especially in order to external actions for it is daily done by all sorts of timorate consciences who do mangre their own reason direct themselves by the authority of such whom they know to be more learned then themselves Mr. Hobbbs Chap. 15. and n. 13. saith unusquisque rationem privatam rationi totius civitatis submittere potest Here he labours to lay the grounds of the derivation of power in the Common-wealth to determine what belongs to matters of religion which he faith that the people have transferred to the Magistrate He proves it as he faith evidently I examine it not being pertinent to
A TREATISE OF THE SCHISM OF ENGLAND Wherein particularly Mr. HALES and Mr. HOBBS are modestly accosted By PHILIP SCOT Permissu Superiorum AMSTERDAM Printed Anno Dom. 1650 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY The Author Superviving intended to both the Universities as a Theam to be discussed in their next Scholastick Olimpicks WHen Fabius was asked who was a good Orator he said he would give the same answer which the Stoicks would give if this question were propounded to them concerning Zeno Cleanthes or Chrisippus whom they esteemed great and worthy men but not such as had obtained the height of which human nature is capable The same I confess of you ye have made large progresses in the school of wisdom and many of you have almost reached the topp of human capacity but yet ye have not obtained pure wisdom And truly I fear as the old Platonists confessed of themselves yee will never reach it till your souls final separation when she will to her loss finde where she mist her footing except yee would which were a noble design maugre the injuries of the time and place where ye live life up your eyes and conclude with Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our aim shall be to seek God with a pure Soul This cannot be done unless without any limitation ye submit to these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to those commanding Oracles as the Ancients call them which God by his holy Spouse propoundeth to our obedience to this end it is first necessary to know which is the only Church whence all wisdom as from a pure source flowes to this the ensuing discourse will inable the Reader Witten by your Servant PHILIP SCOT A TREATISE OF THE Schism of England CHAP. I. The Church of Rome taken in the latitude of her Communion is God's onely Church THis titular Thesis will seem a Paradox by reason of the strong prejudice our Country is infected with against an apparent truth but the succeeding discourse will demonstrate by lineary deduction the most assured certainty of it Paucis opus est ad bonam mentem litteris Sen. ep 106. I shall be brief yet I hope sufficiently large because as St. Cyprian tract 3. de simplicitate Prelatorum Tractatu longò atque argumentis non est opus Probatio est ad fidem facilis compendio veritatis Our holy faith needs no tedious proofs but onely compendious declarations That the Church of Rome did hold and openly profess the true faith of Christ in the Apostles time St. Paul Rom. 1.8 is an abundant witness That also the other Churches through the world did in faith communicate with her is there manifest and that she kept the same faith sure and untouched for the first six hundred years from Christ to Gregory the great not onely the learnedst Protestants for the most part confess but by this even to the blind is apparent that all Councels assembled in those times and especially the first four general ones as is most evident in the Acts or actions as they call them of each Councel agreed in the same profession of faith held very strict communication against all heresies as in the condemnation of Arrius in the Nicen of Macedonius in the first Constantinopolitan of Nestorius in the first Ephesian of Eutiches and Diostorus in the Chalcedon Councels So that thus far we are secured of the integrity of the Church of Rome that is till St. Leo the Pope who was contemporary with the Chalcedon whence is concluded also that all Churches then dispersed through the whole world and their Doctors except such as have been branded with some heresie or other did alwayes communicate in faith with the Church of Rome The forenamed general Councels witnessed the faith of all Churches therefore if the erred it is necessary that all the other Churches erred also and consequently that Christ had no true Church upon earth He who desires to look into these things in a most compendious way let him onely read the Epistles of S. Leo and the Register of St. Gregory and there he shall see most evidently as in a mirrour the connexion and agreeing of things together with the former and succeeding ages I speak to those that know the Law therefore to have given but a hint is sufficient Now Gregory the great who is not noted to have innovated any thing in the faith which he received from his Ancestors especially of St. Leo who as we declared was contemporary to Chalcedon and held by all the world intire in his faith this needs no other proof then the confession of the Greeks who alwayes reverenced him and intitled him a Saint and therefore numbred him among the Fathers as appeareth even by the Schismatick Greeks in the dispute of Purgatory in the Councel of Florence St. Damasene who was contemporary to St. Bede and a little above one hundred years after St. Gregory gives so much credit to his writings that he confesseth all the East and West to adhere to them even in some smaller things which are not generally received amongst us whence it is most evident that he was Universally esteemed a follower of his and their forefathers in faith To bring this evidence more home we will stay in the 4 first general Counsels They did before secure us of the integrity of the Roman Church and they will do as much for St. Gregory for no man is ignorant that he taught all the world to reverence their faith next to the four Evangelists whence is concluded that he was of the same faith with them now St. Gregory sent over the same faith to England then involved with the darkness of infidelity by St. Austin the Monk and other holy and learned men who devoutly received it and constantly and faithfully kept it until the revolt of Henry the eighth But that the Christian faith which we received from St. Gregory by St. Austin may to every body appear to be the same which not onely the westerne but the Easterne Church did profess that is what the whole universal Church did profess besides what I have said before it is demonstrable by the Epistles of St. Gregory directed to the East in which he signifieth that England was converted to the faith of Rome as appears more particularly in his thirtieth Epistle which is to Eulogius the Patriarch of Alexandria and by reciprocal congratulatories received from them for so great a gain of souls c. whence it followeth manifestly that the Greeks and the East were of the same communion of faith with the Church of Rome otherwise there had been no mutual entercourse of congratulatory letters in things of this nature this is clearer then can be controverted Moreover that England never erred from the faith first received or left in any thing that faith is manifest even to children if they cannot read in looking upon the pictures in glass-windows graves in seeing the altars still in some places extant in seeing the very
Churches Monasteries old Hospitals and Colledges with the old forms of government and Statutes which without book are conveyed from hand to hand as in fasting keeping such and such holy daies in memory of certain miracles obtained by invocation of particular Saints Annual obsequies and solemn prayers for the dead benefactors institution of certain Masses to that and such other ends if they can read in running over the Chronicles and Histories of our country where you shall observe a constant memory of all these old truths but not any innovation or change of faith was ever noted by any Historiographer for so many ages together insomuch that our countryman Gulielmus Neubrigensis in his History l. 3. c. 3. witnesseth that neither Puritanisme nor any other heresy could fasten upon England though in alijs mundi partibus tot plluluaverint haereses all other parts of the world had been infected with them A great testimony written by so knowing a man in point especially of our Histories And Wicklef's case confirms all for he got grounds a thousand miles hence as in Bohemia but here was decayed before he was well born or what is more brief that the Church of England retained her primitive communion as well with the Roman as with all other Churches dispersed throughout the world except those which for heresie or schism were noted by the Councels besides our own Histories no Councel no Ecclesiastical History ever imposed the contrary upon our nation yea it appears by all monuments holy and profane that England did positively and clearly communicate with all other or what is all one that England conserved her primitive faith untouched and that was as is shewed before the Catholick faith or the faith of the Catholick Church therefore England till Henry the eighth was a member of the true Church of Christ from which he revolting made her Schismatical All this is witnessed by Ball in his Catalogue and Dr. Humfries Jesuitismes p. 2. and B. Usher in his tract of Succession whereunto an infinity of Protestant writers agree Some will say as of late a Protestant Doctor did that England was not therefore noted in this because there was none to note her besides her own in the West but it appears that invocation of Saints and many other doctrines were brought in as a matter of faith against the ancients that is to say that the Church of Rome did bring in those innovations in the Councel of Trent To this I answer First that the Doctor did not well observe into what a precipice this would cast him for if there were no known professions of Christ but such who were ours it 's evident that then the Roman Communion was the onely Church of God even then when it was in his judgment at the worst or else there was no Church This many of their greatest men have acknowledged as Perkins saith that for many hundred years this Communion had possessed the whole world Napier upon the Revelations that for a thousand years Popery had over-swayed the world to the same tenure many more of them speak All which concludes what I said I answer secondly That the first and purest times of the Church taught the same Truths as almost every one of them is confessed by those of Magdeburge in the fourth Century dedicated to Q. Elizabeth where they give us a list of Justification by works merits Sacramental confession Tradition Invocation of Saints Purgatory Transubstantiation the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass miracles obtained at the reliques of Saints c. This testimony had from Protestants that is from a body of the most learned Protestants who joyntly had studied and examined ex professo the differences betwixt us were enough alone Daneus in his tract of the Church a very fierce Protestant dividing the whole time since Christ into ages giving to the Apostles the first age specifies that even then virginity was introduced as more worthy then marriage The Sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ and there was reverence used to the very symbols Parum importune a great deal to soon Traditionum indigesta moles whole heaps of Traditions were unwisely brought in ordination of Church ministers with anointing them which was also used in baptism extream unction and the like Bishops Primatus ecclesiae Romanae nescio qua credulitate in coelum sublatus est The Roman seats Supremacy I know not by what easie belief was even then cryed up to the very heavens and so began mysterium iniquitatis the great mystery of iniquity A fair confession and in the next age he is more prodigal but here is enough for any ingenious man if you would also read him upon St. Augustine his tract of heresies how he inverts the judgement of the old Church and will have those doctrines which then were esteemed heresies to be true doctrines and in this he shews how Protestants are constrained to turn the Church upside down which is indeed true Protestancy to make all old and first Christians heretiques with us To whom our country-man Perkins in his Problems agreeth bewayling that Gods Church above thirteen hundred years ago was polluted and overspread with these errors Usher in his latine book of Succession of Protestant Religion which in the frontispiece promiseth a deduction from the Apostles downward in the book it self he doth not once make any reall pretence to it as if he had wholly forgotten what was promised in the title he turns himself to discover where there is the least shadow the imperfections of our forefathers as if he gloried to see their nakedness which Christian Charity and modesty would cover but to shew the existence of any Protestantisme he doth not once touch it till the Albigenses began 1170. years after Christ wherein it is also most evident that he gaineth little to his purpose though after much strugling All this must needs convince what before in gross was declared from consent of Councels and the constant sense of the whole Church I answer thirdly As Christians have in all ages upon the same pretences replied to sectaries that some of these points were more explicitly declared in the councel of Trent against these new hereticks but they were generally preached every where even by the Greeks beleev'd before as all writers even our adversaries confess Nay Luther's own writings free the councel of Trent from this calumny because he accused the Church of all these things before the Councel of Trent was dreamed of it being convocated to repress his innovations or new condemnations of these general received truths otherwise not Luther but those Catholicks which first opposed him had been noted and accused of novelty by the rest of the body of the Church And further no man is ignorant that before the Councel of Trent England by Henry the eighth by B. Fisher by Sir Thomas Moore in his works as also in his Tindal c. Germany by Eckins Daventrius Vervesius Hofmesterus and others yes the universal Church
Hobbs acknowledgeth indeed in Pastours a power to execute a spiritual sentence in case the Church that is the city judgeth of the offence and in like manner Priests may absolve if the city judgeth it fit else not St. Athan. in the place cited Quando ab avo condito auditum est Mark M. Hobbs Quando judicium Ecclesiae authoritatem suam ab Imperatore accepit It was never heard from the beginning of the world that the Church hath her power from temporal power In earnest I wish he had taken the sence of Christians along with him in his expounding holy Scriptures he should have read the old Councels in making Ecclesiastical lawes which power Christian Emperors submitted unto as from God Constantine in the Nicen Martian Leo and all others whom the Christian world esteemed not Antichristian as they did Constantius for intrenching St. Nazianzen in his oration concerning moderation in disputations tells us that Praelates have power to make lawes c. in order to the soul St. Damascen in his second oration of Images saith Kings have no power to prescribe lawes unto the Church and proves it out of St. Paul and therefore he shews that in framing the Church of God that is in declaring Christs model of his Church St. Paul never at all mentioneth Kings In fine I finde all Christianity from the infancy to these daies growth to have conveyed to us this sence as delivered from Christ without contradiction Which Topicks I insist upon by reason Mr. Hobbs will not be thought to reject them neither doth he use any other considerable principles though sometimes he glanceth at heavie inconveniences to a civil common-wealth if this be granted But I am not willing to take too much notice of it least any might fear his aim to be to destroy Christian Religion for surely the Romans insisted most upon that as the Roman Histories shew and it is clear in Julian the Apostate All which the very great Turk admits as a truth namely a spiritual power of governing among Praelats most consistent with his supreme rights over Christians and therefore stumbleth not at the spiritual power of the Patriarch of Constantinople which he exerciseth over Christians and corresponds with them in this kinde though not subject to the Turk and therefore Mr. Hobbs needs not fear in Christians what the Turk doubteth not Out of all this it followeth that there may be Schism in defect of obedience in order to the Church without breach of duty to the Prince Sacriledge of Schisms saith St. August l. 1. cont ep Far. c. 4. exceedeth all other crimes and St. Jerom gives the reason because they cut and divide the great and glorious body of Christ and as much as in them lieth kill it and therefore as he who should tear in peices the body or members of a man should be thought to do the greatest injury and damage So he who divideth the Church which is the body of Christ which he so loved that he gave himself for it doth commit a grievious fin against him Therefore we finde in holy scripture no crime more grievously punished or revenged with a more dreadful torment then Schism For when Core Dathan and Abiron by whom what other things is signified saith St. Ambrose l. de 42. mansi mans 15. then those who bring Schism Heresie into the Church had separated themselves by wicked Schism from Moses and Aaron not onely they but their wives and children with all their substance were swallowed up into the earth and descended alive into hell Numb 16. this truly happened to them visibly to be an argument to future ages how enormous the crime of Schism is before God to deter men from plotting or following the same Neither are present Schismaticks punish'd with lesser paines though they appear not to our eyes By the aforesaid example St. Augustine ep 164. writing to Emiritus the Schismatick gathereth how much this crime of Schism is esteemed in the divine judgment Read which I make no doubt you have read you shall finde Dathan and Abiron devoured by opening of the earth the rest who consented to them consumed with fire being in the midst of them Therefore our Lord God brandeth that sin with present punishment as an example to be avoided that whom he patiently spareth such he sheweth to reserve to the last punishment For as the same St. Augustine elsewhere saith whosoever is separated from the Gatholick Church although he thinketh he liveth laudably for this onely fin that he is disjoynted from the unity of Christ he shall not have life but the anger of God remains upon him and after him St. Fulgentius de fide ad Pet. c. 39. Hold certainly doubt not that what Schismatick or Heretick soever is baptised in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost if he be not joyned to the Catholick Church what alms soever he shall do though also he shall spill his blood for Christ can never be saved In fine we need not go further then to blessed St. Paul to learn the horror of Schism who in the 1 Cor. 13. If I should speak with the tongues of men and Angels and not have Charity I am but as brass sounding or a Cymbal gingling and if I have the gift of prophesie and shall know all misteries and all sciences and if I have so great faith as to remove mountains yet if I have not Charity I am nothing If I shall distribute all I have amongst the poor if I deliver my body up to the fire if I have not Charity that is if I shall adhere to Schism all is worth nothing A heavy sentence if deeply considered Alas what will follow out of this St. Pauls doctrin touching all those whom we have known and of others whom yet we do know who have been of untouched lives liberal to the poor of pious inclinations or what you will all is lost according to St. Paul being they were members of this Scismatical body Contrariwise who do not onely in themselves avoid Schism and keep inviolated the Church union but where they perceive any danger of breach each man in his rank and degree indeavouring with all his possible diligence to preserve it they piously and laudably bestow themselves and their endeavours and truly merit much of God and man Of such it may be truly said that the Charity of their neighbour doth urge them and the love of God as St. Augustine saith l. 15. de Trinit doth divide betwixt the children of the eternal kingdom and the children of eternal perdition thinking and worthily that they have not the charity of God who do not love his Church as much as in them do not procure her unity It is all one from what head insolent disobedience springeth from whence floweth Schism or I would say the reason of Schism is not altered in it self for the diverse motive of rebellion for whether from the ambition of Bishops as too often it happneth
of which we have sad examples in Histories or whether from emulation of equals or to conclude for what cause soever of the pride of subjects it ariseth if it maketh separation it is Schism and divorceth the souls of all those that formally knowingly adhere unto it as from the union of the Church so from the love of Christ I am not ignorant what the school men teach in a speculative sense touching the extent and effects of invincible ignorance in order not onely to Schism but Heresie but we abstract now from speculations or from cases which are accidental or onely immaginary and therefore considering Schism as it is understood in the common and practical notion which the word gives in the sence of Christians I have universally concluded that it separateth us from the love of Christ and consequently from heaven CHAP. 4. Catholicks and Protestants divided by Schism VVE said before that Schism was sometime taken for Separation from the Catholick faith sometimes taken for separation from communion onely although faith be kept entire Now whatsoever may be said of Schism of the first kind of which for the present I do not treat we say that Protestants are divided and separated from Catholicks whom they terme Papists at least by Schism of the latter kinde and that appears so manifestly that it needeth no proof for not onely Catholicks and Protestants do so abhor mutual communion in divine worship Sacraments prayer and holy rites that no Protestant will frequent Catholick service especially the holy sacrifice of Mass and every Catholick will avoid whatsoever is esteemed religious among Protestants as the bread of sorrow and esteem all that shall but touch them contaminate and defiled Moreover Catholicks excommunicate Protestants every year and Protestants Catholicks frequently in England yea they exhaust such as in law shall be convicted with pecuniary mulcts and by the publick statutes and lawes of the Land any one who shall convert a a Protestant to the Catholick faith is guilty of death but a Priest who shall celebrate Mass is made guilty of high treason How therefore can one Church grow up together of such different members Or who will deny that here is manifest Schism and division if ever any Schism was or can be made O how far is this from the spirit of old Christians they gloried in that which the ancient called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet humane or neighbourly tenderness to delinquents of this kinde Spiritual sins the old Christian Church cured by spiritual Cataplasms at most proportioned to them when they contained not themselves within the compass of spirituallity but made eruptions into sedition and disturbance of the publick peace then their Authors justly lost the benefit of Ecclesiastical mildness and tasted sometimes the imperial severity but without death for many ages If our persecutors would limit their cruelties within this verge it would be less execrable they complain of the severity of Q. Maries daies and yet far exceed what they condemn in her Mr. Hobb's will put a difference in these cases for Chap. 13. n. 5. he tels us that Princes do against conscience who permit their subjects to practice a religion which they judge to be damnable to them This was Q. Maries case as all know but the case is far otherwise with us for it is evident that our Princes have professed with their Doctors that Salvation may be had in our Church and therefore according to Mr. Hobbs they should not disquiet their subjects in using their liberty in their Religion But to let Mr. Hobbs pass and come a little neerer to the business I will say one thing though not taking upon me to discuss or excuse her proceedings in every particular that the state of the question is wholy changed She punished for innovation in religion which even amongst Jewes Turks and the very Romans was reckoned a most enormous crime These punish us because we will not innovate but stick close to the religion of our and their forefathers a crime unheard of amongst all who have had any taste of God but most especially among true Christians Many indeed have for some years cryed out for immunitie in order to tender consciences and yet they themselves who were the heads of those Tenderlings did not endure to have Recusants accounted such who have title to it above all all things considered as being best able to manifest to the world their reluctancie in matter of conformity to all Changeable religions Indeed to be grounded upon true tenderness of conscience that is upon religious fear of offence of God and yet for this they are most strictly treated Is it not an unparalel'd exorbitancy with such high cruelties as quartering hanging and setting up the disserted quarters upon gates and cittadels for fouls to tear and devour of persons most innocent in their lives towards God and mens lawes most quiet in order to the weal publick onely for imbracing or teaching that religion of Christ which our and their forefathers in this nation followed for almost a thousand years a crime most horridly opposite to the first principles of nature Is it not parricide thus to profane the urnes of their forefathers Is it not to the uttermost of their power to exercise the forenamed cruelties upon them their own progenitors in doing them upon those who are guilty of no other crime then what they knowingly professed and endeavoured to transfuse to their posterity Their sanguinary proceedings against these clearly maketh known to the world their hearts venemous and bloudy rancor even against their Parents They commonly say that they do not punish us for religion but for acts of treason or fellony c. but it is not so common as impertinent Thus all persecutors of Christians did palliate their cruelties The Roman Historiographers will tell us it was for sedition that those cruel persecutions were against us the Jewes thus laboured to baptise their false accusations against our blessed Saviour and after against St. Paul Minutius Felix and other antient writers as Eusebius Theodoret c. will tell you of Christians accused of confederate conventicles against all their lawes when they had their religious solemnities Thus Julian to take the glory of Martyrdom from our constant religious progenitors laboured to deceive the vulgar The Roman Emperors made many edicts and some capital against all Christian conventions Julian against Christians children frequenting their Schooles against Bishops residing in their Seas c. For this point of debarring Chistians from their schools he had a specious prenence which he shrewdly urged that is because the Authors who taught in Schools Christians being not yet so commonly masters of Sciences were Ethnicks and therefore we had no title to them but this is far otherwise with you for all your learning is ours examine all your Schools fee the prefection of your studies of Philosophy Theolgie Can on or civil law Phisick are they not all ours Nay are not the founders
offended with the Popes Tertullian though persecuted for Montanism by that sea yet acknowledges the power 1. de pudicitia Audio edictum esse propositum et quidem peremptorium Pontifer scilicet maximus c. I understand that the Pope hath made a peremptory decree c. where he is angry at it because against his heresie but doubteth not of his power St. Cyprian as Erasmus in his notes confesseth everywhere acknowledgeth it even St. Stephen and Cornelius his adversaries Usher who boggles at all things because St. Cyprian calls Cornclius brother would seem to doubt but Erasmus less squintsighted will teach him that it is in respect of his conjunction in faith not equality of person St. Ireneus is so vulgarly known that all confess it Nay even Usher who seems to have sworn to corrupt the clearest passages of antiquity yet confesseth in the business of Easter that St. Victor Pope did then pretend his supremacy over the rest of the Churches as appears in his Catologue as he calls it in the second Century So that it is no new title of the Popes even according to Usher The full sway of this great Bugbear in every age according to the enlargment of Christian bounds appears still more gloriously in the Oeconomy of the Church before in after the four Councels to St. Gregory Therefore I touch this no more every Abodary controvertist forceth them to confess it to be truth Mr. Hobbs indeed c. 17. in the end of n. 26. denieth that there is or can be a Rector of the universal Church by whose authority the whole Church may be convocated He ventures also to prove it thus because to be a rector in that sense over the Church is to be rector and lord of all Christians in the whole world which is not granted to any but God If he had been a stranger in Christian principles it had been no wonder to have misunderstood so solemn and publick a Tenet The Supreme Pastor of the Church hath an acknowledged power for preservation of the Church in integrity of faith to convocate Bishops to a general deliberation and determination of things necessary to salvation and to this end he hath coactive power in the exercise of his spititual sword and no otherwise What connexion this hath with a Dominion over the world I know not which by God himself is denied him in holy Scripture and in this his power is distinguished from temporal principality His power is spiritual his weapons are spiritual the objects to which he tends are spiritual in this confinement he commands without prejudice to temporal rights wherein Princes are simply supreme and onely have the coactive sword of justice independently in respect of him and this onely is dominion He thinks this too much and therefore will not acknowledge that there is any subordination in Christianity out of each city or county but every city is supreme to it self in Spiritual and Ecclesastical matters and therefore no Prince or city or particular Church can be excommunicated or interdicted Supposing the antecedent the consequence would without much difficulty be proved for if the Prince is supreme in all things he cannot be excommunicated which is an act of superiority neither the common-wealth by it self for it were to dissolve it self into no city if it should deprive it self of mutual commerce which he acknowledgeth to be an effect of excommunication But he leapes over the proof of the Antecedent which had been indeed worth his doing by Topicks fit for him taken out of Scripture antiquity or reason subordinate to these principles At least he should have shewed an inconsistency of the publick welfare of a common-wealth with the spiritual subordination of particular Churches to a supreame seated out of the temporal confines Surely if there were not a most ordinate subordination all religion would turn to a Hidraes confusion which were to destroy Christs acquired spiritual kingdom on earth and is evidenlty against the light of reason and one main article of the Creed which he accepteth of communion of Saints The excellency of Christs kingdom is that though universal yet it troubleth not but much conserveth each kingdom in their particular Oeconomy though much different betwixt themselves St. Augustine in his city of God Orostus in his History and many others against the Gentiles demonstratively shew the benefits all places receive by this spiritual subjection to Christian principles Amongst which this was alwayes judged one of the most capital as St. Denise St. Ignatius and the rest shew of this Hierarchy instituted by God He would tell us not perswade us c. 17. n. 22. that all power which anciently the Church of Rome exercised over particular Churches or Cities was derived from the Soveraignty of the Emperors and was shaken off when their Empire was abdicated and in pursuit of this he saith that the Roman Church was indeed very large anciently but always confined within the limits of the Empire How false this is no man can be ignorant that hath perused antiquity Prosper assures us that Rome is made greater by the faith of Christ then by the civil Empire and so the rest of the Fathers but especially he de vacatione Gentium l. 2. c. 16. Roma per Apostolici Sacerdotij Principatum amplior facta est arce religionis quam solen Potestatis St. Ireneus indeed tells us that the reason why Rome was chosen for the head was because it had been the head of the Empire but none will say that it was confined by it or measured her spiritual territories by it Who knows not that even in the Apostles time and ever since vast Empires were reduced to this spiritual Empire of Rome which never had to do with the Romane Empire Our own countries ever acknowledged subjection to the Church of Rome under this title Scotland also and Ireland were most oxthodoxly subject to the mitre though not to the Scepter This is onely by the by to Mr. Hobbs But besides this the Patriarchal right which he hath over this our nation cannot be deposited by them for by the same causes authority should be destroyed by which it was set up as the Jurists agree seeing therefore that the Bishop of Rome hath had his Patriarchal power granted unto him by general Councels to wit by those four first which St. Gregory received as four Gospels and especially here by the Parlimentary lawes are esteemed sacred it followeth manifestly that by less power then a general Councel it cannot be abolished for our Britany is one of the seven provinces of the western Church which are the ancient bounds of the Roman Patriarchate as all know In times past I grant that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was called Patriarch by Pope Urbane the second with Anselme and Malmes and the Glosse c. Clero d. 21. as also the Bishop of Algar in the districts of Venice but this was for honors sake not for exemption as the thing it self speaketh and the
perpetual stile of the Church yea the very Councel of England convince in Spelman 'T is true those Churches which were out of the Roman Empire were subject to no Patriarch as much as can be gathered out of the Canon of the Councel of Ephesus except they put themselves under any one or I think rather that by law they ought to be subject to that Patriarch from whom by his Apostolical Missionaries they first received the feith of Christ ob similitudinem casus Bulgarorum Nam secundum Juristas similium similis est ratio As we argue of the Indies and others lately converted Japonians and those of China It is true de facto some Provinces against all Law have revolted from the Patriarch of Rome to the Patriarch of Constantinople after the division of the Empire and others from him to others as Russia to the Bishop of Moscovia but these are done against all lawes and government of the Church The shift which our Country-men fly to saying they were compelled unto it for the too much cruelty of the Pope with the same facility it is rejected for it ought to have been examined by a general Councel and parts on both sides be heard as in the Councel of Trent an excellent occasion was given but ours appeared not because if it be lawfull for subjects to withdraw themselves from the obedience of their superiours as often as they pretend tyranny or what oppression soever so that themselves be actors and judges in their own causes it is to be feared that subjects of Princes or whatsoever soeveraignties by this occasion will lay hold on easie pretences of Rebellion for if the reason be good it is every-where in force and so any province out of apprehension of tyranny c. may justly and lawfully withdraw it self from their Prince or the Soveraign Magistracy Therefore it remains firm that seeing England by the most antient and strong right was subordinate to the Bishop of Rome neither hath that subordination been hitherto abrogated by any lawful and sufficient Councel yea neither the cause heard therefore they ought to remain under obedience of the same sea until a full discussion of the matter otherwise she can be no wayes free from the crime of Schism and rebellion according to that of St Nazianzen ep 1. We desire to know what this great lust of bringing novations about the Church is that every one that will c. For if they who now make the stir had any thing that they might disprove or condemn in us about faith not so truly we not being admonished was it meet to commit such a wickedness For you ought to be willing either to perswade or be perswaded if so be also we are in any place or number that who fear God and for the defence of the faith have undergone great labours and have well deserved of the Church and then if also then we machinate new things but notwithstanding by this reason these petulant and contumelious men might peradventure have some sufficient excuse Behold how this great Saint and Doctor of the Church maketh any recess from the Church impossible and unlawful The pestilent poyson of Schism covered over with an ill plaister may be judged sound by impudent men but truly except it be purged and wiped to the very bottome of the soar with the plaister of Christian peace it will be Schism still and consequently bring death to those that are infected with it Some labour to cloak their Schism and pretence of reformation under the fact of Ezechias Reg. 4.18 The business is this The Jewes had fallen into an inveterate custome of erecting altars and offering incense upon the mountains to the brazen Serpent c. contrary to Gods command The kings his predecessors were often reprehended for their neglect herein and Ezechiah much commended for his zeal and fortitude in breaking this ill custom Hence they argue it lawful for kings to reform abuses in the Church as in England All which is nothing to the purpose For first he did it with consent of the high priest as Josias also did in compleating the work begun by Ezekias as appears c. 23. Secondly there is no doubt but Princes are obliged by their office as being nurses of Gods Church to labour especially with the Prelates of the Church to suppress all emergent insolencies or innovations Thirdly Which is the main point Ezechias did not erect any new altar of division against the mother Church Jerusalem but took away the breach or division which be found made by others In the case of England it is just contrary King Henry the eighth began the rest have increased the Schism and erected new altars of division against Gods ordinances in the old and new law as Jeroboam did Reg. 11.29 which God so severely punished So that I cannot see at all with what modestie this fact of Ezechias or Josias could be alledged to warrant the dissection of our Country from the Church since it plainly inferreth the contrary namely that abuses though never so much authorized by wicked Princes or long customs are to be abolished by succeeding Princes to redintegrate the primary union and conformity with the mother Church which is the case of England A main Objection which they use for their Schism is because as they say we forbid a discussion of our tenents by the light of reason which they esteem to be against reason which should be our guide in all things and especially in matters of religion CHAP. 5. Of what use Reason is in disoussing of Faith PHilosophy and Faith go upon contrary principles and hence peradventure they lay hold of occasion of error the antiquity of opinion in Philosophy if it be any thing it must be fortified with new reasons otherwise in process of time it vanisheth but in Christian faith reason it self that it may be efficatious springeth from antiquity otherwise in that it is new it vanisheth away according to that of St. Augustine against two Epistles of the Pelagiuns c. 6. The antiquity of our doctrine declares the truth of it as the novelty of the other shews it to be Heresie In Philosophy reason raigneth here it serveth and consequently is captivated according to the Apostle It is not quite rejected neither is it admitted out of the bounds of a servant for as Roger Bacon excellently speaketh in his fourth part of his greater work We do not seek reason before faith but after it Here was Chillingworth's error in objecting that Catholicks as well as they recur to reason in faith we do indeed use reason as a servant not as a mistris We put it as Frier Bacon notes after faith not before it but these new pretenders to divinity prefer their reason before faith Turn the cat in the pan and make faith subservient to their reason as Teriullian against Hermogenes They descend from the Church to the School of Aristotle they appeal as to the supremest court to the seat of common
comes that the Socinians call in question if not absolutely deny the diety of the Son and of the Holy Ghost hence with the Pelagians they reduce Christs death to example of our imitation onely not to be the price of our redemption hence generally they profess with Chillingworth and others whom I could name that holy Scriptures are to be understood according to each mans small reach of reason as if nothing were contained in them what is not commensurated to our understanding and therefore needs not any supernatural aide from God which Mr. Hobbs very well confutes Chap. 17. n. 28. Yet he saith it belongs to the City to interpret Scriptures at least in all such things which he will please to call juridical or Philosophical which have far too great latitude in his sense For purely supernatural he speaks more reason then any others of these new ones from whom hath proceeded contempt of Prelates and Doctors because every one of the most inferiour Laytie of these Enthusiasts by their impetuous imaginary instinct and private spirit or what is the same their particular ratiocination though most groundless are supreme and infallible Masters and Doctors to themselves Neither do they beleeve any thing to be Divine which flowes not from the sensless impetuosity of their imaginations without any respect to higher considerations Yes truly those who are esteemed the wiser sort following Socinas stick in the same puddle expounding holy Scriptures and all mysteries of our holy Faith not according to the universal reason of the Church delivered by the hands of the ancients to us as Catholicks do but by their private spirits or by the conduct of their private reason A thing ridiculous to conceive that the profoundness of Christian misteries should not exceed the shallow reach of our reason Which error is the Source of all dissonancies and inconstancies amongst them which even by intrinsecal necessary consequence must needs cause a perpetual flux or issuing out of changes of conclusions of Faith for the effect cannot be more noble then the cause On the other side Catholick tenents must by a great necessity be always constant because they depend not upon our daily changable reasons or ratiocination but upon the unvariable word of God revealed and delivered by the Church The sum of all is that the verity of a Philosophicall conclusion is demonstrated by the verity of human reason the verity of Christian reason is proved by the verity of ancient faith indeed one verity may be diverse but never adverse to another Neither doth Divine contradict human but often surmounteth it and therefore it is comprehended by the sparks of our scanted reason but it is setched from else where Ask thy Father c. This is a safe way in which there is no danger to be dashed upon the rocks of errors according to that of Athanasius in his Epistle to Epicietus teaching how Hereticks Schismaticks are to be treated with There is no better way and indeed it is alone sufficient to answer them Those things not to be orthodoxall which our forefathers have not taught us This is plea enough against all pretences in the judgment of Athanasius let therefore Christians and they that bear the name of Christ be ashamed if leaving the fountain of antiquity from whence all sound doctrin floweth to follow certain small rivolets full of vanity and foolery shadowed under a precious shew of reason which from whence they had their Source and beginning none for certain know We Catholicks therefore adhere to the holy Councels and ancient Fathers in the first place after the holy Scriptures neither dare we accuse them of foolery a Christian minde will hurdly permit them to be rashly and presumptuously defamed But these men and others of the some tribe who make the glimmering of their reasons the rules of Faith and Religion easily reject them It is a wonder rather that they do not with their supercilious spectacles clime up the heavens and there with the Albumazar Aicabatius Massaeius and infinite other Astrologers seek out the verity of all Religions and one while for the conjunction of Saturne with the Sun adhere to Judaismes another while for the conjuction of Mars with Jupiter promote the Chaldaick Sect if with Venus the Mahumetical if with Mercarie the Christian So by some little shew of reason drawn from the heavens they may change their religion as for the most part they are wont to do several times of the year according to the several dominations of the planets or certainly every year according to the annual dominion or if this seems to much aerial they may according to the Successory government of those intelligences which they call Seconds appoint the stations retrogradations and cadences of their divers sects and religions as some not without applause of such lunitick persons have unhappily enough attempted as especially some attribute the innovation of Luthers sect to the new lunary inteligences then 1517. undertaking the worlds government And Ticho Brahe affirms that those sects which indeed are derived from mens brain-sick fancies may be found out in the heavens both in their risings and fallings Of which this present age administreth change enough The truth is Judas the Apostle toucheth these home whatsoever they do not know they blaspheme whatsoever like bruit beasts they know they are corrupted in They are indeed so swoln in their imaginations that breaking they corrupt themselves and others CHAP. 6. A digression against Mr. Hales the supposed Author of the Treatise of Schism And a farther proof of Schism in England Mr. HALES who is said and supposed to be Author of the Treatise of Schism objects that Schirm may be spread over all the parts of the Church and so the whole be infected in which case Schism cannot be imputed to one place more then to another and this may peradventure be affirmed of the sepuration of England from other Churches as it was touching the ancient celebrating of Easter wherein also a how Schism is rison for aching not necessary yea saith he in a matter ridiculous If I should bring the general Councel of Nice condemning and separating from these Quarta-decimans he would deride it he accuseth all the ancients of foolishness in this matter Thus he sporteth and trifleth in mysteries of faith to root out all faith out of the mindes of the faithful I deny first what he averreth that the West and East were at variance that is to say that that Schism did invade the whole Church and cleave her into two parts for the matter of Easter but that some considerable part did raise stirs in the East yea in the West also is manifest amongst historians this cause of division in a late work de consilijs made in latine by a Country man of ours is laid open to the very root But to peruse a little more the grounds of his mistakes in this important point of Schism we must alwayes remember what before we noted that
as appears in the Councel What similitude hath this case with the known subjection of England to Rome known I say and acknowledged even by our lawes ever from the conversion of the Country under St. Gregory All lawful mutations of Provinces which were ever made as long as the Church was in her full power had to this effect the especial authority of some general Councel So in the Councel of Constantinople many dioceses and some whole Provinces were made subject to that Patriarch which before were subject to Ephesus and the Primate of Trace So in the Councel of Calcedon exchange of Provinces was decreed between the Patriarch of Antioch and Hierusalem and in the first general Councel the sea of Hierusalem was created a Patriarchate and the refore the Fathers took some Provinces from the Patriarchate of Antioch others from Alexandria And in the foresaid example the Cyprians could not shake off the authority of Antioch till the decree was produced of the Councel of Ephesus Much loss this Iland ought to separate from the Sea of Rome by reason of the titile of conversion and only under Gregory the first but long before the entrance of St. Austin under Pope Elutherius by Elvanus and Meduinus Priests being requested thereunto by King Lucius Anno Dom. 179. Whilest it was possest by the Brittans in which primitive faith it remained immaculate and uncorrupted except the question of Pascha in which it was corrupted by Picts and Scots indeed they resisted St. Austin because they thought he sided with the Saxons who had expelled them by force out of the kingdom and because they had an Arch-Bishop of their own of Legancestriae Those other things which the Author so often cited of the Treatise of Schism mentioned for he proves nothing concerning the nullity of power or of all superiority of Christians as they are such so that no obedience but simple reverence is due to our betters except that which may arise by certain convention amongst men not by right This Tenet indeed if made good would make all Schism impossible all superiority ridiculous and arbitrary but it is far from Christian verity being against Scripture it self and all common sense of Christians And truly whatsoever the same Author saith in and for the cause of the Donatists if it hath any favour he doth not onely accuse St. Augustine but the whole Church of foolishness and malice and all the Prophecies of the fignes of the Church upon which St. Augustine before him Optatus Hierom and all Bishops and Doctors rely out of the old and new law the Prophets and the Acts of the Apostles all which in them this man derideth what he speaketh of the use of Images he simply affirmeth as the rest but is so far from proving any thing that he doth not so much as attempt it neither is it a thing worthy my insisting upon since every Abodary Controvertist makes it obvious to children Yet Mr. Hobbs will force me afterward to joyn issue with him in it In fine The Treatise of Schism speaketh many things which seem distructive to Christian faith which he barely proposeth or rather supposeth out of which false supposition he doth falsly conclude that there is no Schism in the Church but as Aristotle Pol. l. 2. c. 4 rightly admonisheth Suppositions indeed may be made as every one pleaseth but not impossible ones Neither is it of more moment what Antonius de Dominis l. 4. and others contend that it was not lawful for the Africans to appeal to Rome according to the 22. Canon Concil Melevit And in like manner England was not bound to recur thither or elsewhere but justly provided for its own right whilest it withdrew it self from the Roman yoak as the African Church living in the district of the Patriarchate procured to it self the same ease First I say that Africa did in no wise withdraw it self from the obedience of the Sea of Rome I add moreover neither did it deny the right of appeals but in certain cases certain persons to wit simple Clearks which did appeal thither without observing any order of law which the Bishop of Rome did doth at this day condemn otherwise read St. Augustine ep 162. Omitting others who expresly affirms the right of appeals to the Sea of Rome So the pretended Canon made by the consent of the Bishop of Rome sheweth no other thing but in no wise as I said did it withdraw it self from the obedience of the Sea of Rome Neither is there the least shew of it but of the clean contrary in the reciprocal letters of that Councel to the Pope and of him to them as may be seen in the body of the Epistle of St. Augustine it would be tedious to learned Readers if I should write them out they will more easily recur to the place cited I add further worthy to be noted If the right of appeals had been there abrogated yet it concludes not that the jurisdiction of the Sea of Rome over them was anulled except any should be so senceless as to imagine that the prefects of the Pretorian Court were not subject to the Roman Emperors because their authority deserved to be advanced to such a height that it was not lawful to appeal from them l. 1. F. de offic Pref. Praet I am not ignorant that some Grecians as Nilus contend that the right of appeals which the Seat of Rome hath for he acknowledgeth that in respect of the other Patriarchs doth not convince that Seat to have jurisdiction over them Because by the same reason the constant Inopolitan having by the Councel of Calcedon Can. 9. the same power over their Metropolitans doth not exexcise jurisdiction over them I answer That be denieth only the Bishop of Rome to have the same power over the general Patriarchs which he hath over other Bishops who are ordained by authority derived from him and therefore concludes that the Pope cannot trouble their ordinary government which is true This therefore confirmeth what hitherto hath been said and maketh good that England by all law remains subject to the Sea of Rome under pain of Rebellion CHAP. 7. Protestants have made this Schism IT is clearer then noon day that not Catholicks but Protestants have made this Schism and divided the Church because when in any Common-wealth governed under the same Prince or Soveraignty and by the same lawes a few men withdraw themselves from the obedience of authority and increasing in number they begin to set up their conventicles make lawes and the rest of the body remaining in the ancient manner of government under their own Soveraign power proclaim a war It is manifest not the Body of the Common wealth which still persevereth in the same state but these few men receding from the Body with their adherents have made the division and blown up the rebellion In the same manner have Protestants behaved themselves towards Catholicks before the scandal of Henry the 8th or