Nunquam CHRISTO Charior quam sub Cruce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Dissuasive FROM POPERY TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND Together with II. Additional Letters to Persons changed in their Religion I. The first written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome II. The second to a Person newly converted to the Church of England By JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down LONDON Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCLXXXVI THE PREFACE TO THE READER WHen a Roman Gentleman had to please himself written a Book in Greek and presented it to Cato he desir'd him to pardon the faults of his Expressions since he wrote in Greek which was a Tongue in which he was not perfect Master Cato told him he had better then to have let it alone and written in Latin by how much it is better not to commit a fault than to make apologies For if the thing be good it needs not to be excus'd if it be not good a crude apologie will do nothing but confess the fault but never makes amends I therefore make this Address to all who will concern themselves in reading this Book not to ask their pardon for my 〈◊〉 in doing of it I know of none for if I had known them I would have mended them before the Publication and yet though I know not any I do not question but much fault will be found by too many I wish I have given them no cause for their so doing But I do not only mean it in the particular Periods where every man that is not a Son of the Church of England or Ireland will at least do as Apollonius did to the Apparition that affrighted his company on the Mountain Caucasus he will revile and persecute me with evil words but I mean it in the whole Design and men will reasonably or capriciously ask Why any more Controversies Why this over again Why against the Papists against whom so very many are already exasperated that they cry out 〈◊〉 of Persecution And why can they not be 〈◊〉 to enjoy their share of peace which hath returned in the hands of His Sacred Majesty at his blessed Restauration For as much of this as concerns my self I make no excuse but give my reasons and hope to 〈◊〉 this procedure with that modesty which David us'd to his angry brother saying What have I now done Is there not a cause The cause is this The Reverend Fathers my Lords the Bishops of Ireland in their circumspection and watchfulness over their Flocks having espied grievous Wolves to have entered in some with Sheeps-clothing and some without some secret enemies and some open at first endeavour'd to give check to those enemies which had put fire into the bed-straw and though God hath very much prosper'd their labours yet they have work enough to do and will have till God shall call them home to the land of peace and unity But it was soon remembred that when King James of blessed memory had discerned the spirits of the English Non-conformists and found them peevish and 〈◊〉 unreasonable and imperious not only unable to govern but as inconsistent with the Government as greedy to snatch at it for themselves resolved to take off their disguise and put a difference between Conscience and Faction and to bring them to the measures and rules of Laws and to this the Council and all wise men were consenting because by the King 's great wisdom and the conduct of the whole Conference and Inquiry men saw there was reason on the King's side and 〈◊〉 on all sides But the Gun-powder Treason breaking out a new Zeal was 〈◊〉 against the Papists and it shin'd so greatly that the Non-conformists escap'd by the light of it and quickly grew warm by the heat of that flame to which they added no small increase by their Declamations and other acts of insinuation insomuch that they being neglected multiply'd until they got power enough to do all those mischiefs which we have seen and felt This being remembred and spoken of it was soon observ'd that the Tables only were now turn'd and that now the publick zeal and watchfulness against those men and those persuasions which so lately have afflicted us might give to the Emissaries of the Church of Rome leisure and opportunity to grow into numbers and strength to debauch many Souls and to 〈◊〉 the safety and peace of the Kingdom In Ireland we saw too much of it done and found the mischief growing too fast and the most intolerable inconveniencies but too justly apprehended as near and imminent We had reason at least to cry Fire when it flamed through our very Roofs and to interpose with all care and diligence when Religion and the eternal Interest of Souls was at stake as knowing we should be greatly unfit to appear and account to the great Bishop and Shepherd of Souls if we had suffer'd the enemies to sow tares in our fields we standing and looking on It was therefore consider'd how we might best serve God and rescue our charges from their danger and it was concluded presently to run to arms I mean to the weapons of our warfare to the armour of the Spirit to the works of our calling and to tell the people of their peril to warn them of the enemy and to lead them in the ways of truth and peace and holiness that if they would be admonished they might be safe if they would not they should be without excuse because they could not say but the Prophets have been amongst them But then it was next enquired who should minister in this affair and put in order all those things which they had to give in charge It was easie to chuse many but hard to chuse one there were many fit to succeed in the vacant Apostleship and though Barsabas the Just was by all the Church nam'd as a fit and worthy man yet the lot fell upon Matthias and that was my case it fell to me to be their Amanuensis when persons most worthy were more readily excus'd and in this my Lords the Bishops had reason that according to S. Paul's rule If there be judgments or controversies amongst us they should be imploy'd who are least esteem'd in the Church and upon this account I had nothing left me but Obedience though I confess that I found regret in the nature of the imployment for I love not to be as S. Paul calls it one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disputers of this world For I suppose skill in Controversies as they are now us'd to be the worst part of Learning and time is the worst spent in them and men the least benefited by them that is when the Questions are curious and impertinent intricate and inexplicable not to make men better but to make a Sect. But when the Propositions disputed are of the foundation of Faith or lead to good life or naturally do good to single persons or publick societies then they
common opinion of Divines and Canonists saith Tolet and that in their Cradles they can be made Bishops said the Archdeacon and the Provost and though some say the contrary yet the other is the more true saith the Cardinal Vasquez saith That not only an Image of God but any creature in the world reasonable or unreasonable may without danger be worshipped together with God as his image That we ought to adore the Reliques of Saints though under the form of Worms and that it is no sin to worship a Ray of Light in which the Devil is invested if a man supposes him to be Christ And in the same manner if he supposes it to be a piece of a Saint which is not he shall not want the merit of his Devotion And to conclude Pope Celestine the III. as Alphonsus à Castro reports himself to have seen a Decretal of his to that purpose affirmed That if one of the Married Couple fell into Heresie the Marriage is dissolved and that the other may marry another and the Marriage is nefarious and they are Irritae Nuptiae the Espousals are void if a Catholick and a Heretick marry together said the Fathers of the Synod in Trullo And though all of this be not own'd generally yet if a Roman Catholick marries a Wife that is or shall turn Heretick he may leave her and part bed and board according to the Doctrine taught by the Canon Law it self by the Lawyers and Divines as appears in Covaruvius Matthias Aquarius and Bellarmine THESE Opinions are indeed very strange to us of the Church of England and Ireland but no strangers in the Church of Rome and because they are taught by great Doctors by Popes themselves by Cardinals and the Canon Law respectively do at least become very probable and therefore they may be believ'd and practis'd without danger according to the Doctrine of Probability And thus the most desperate things that ever were said by any though before the Declaration of the Church they cannot become Articles of Faith yet besides that they are Doctrines publickly allowed they can also become Rules of practice and securities to the consciences of their disciples To this we add that which is usual in the Church of Rome the Praxis Ecclesiae the Practice of the Church Thus if an Indulgence be granted upon condition to visit such an Altar in a distant Church the Nuns that are shut up and Prisoners that cannot go abroad if they address themselves to an Altar of their own with that intention they shall obtain the Indulgence Id enim confirmat Ecclesiae praxis says Fabius The practice of the Church in this case gives first a probability in speculation and then a certainty in practice This instance though it be of no concern yet we use it as a particular to shew the Principle upon which they go But it is practicable in many things of greatest danger and concern If the question be Whether it be lawful to worship the Image of the Cross or of Christ with Divine worship First there is a Doctrine of S. Thomas for it and Vasquez and many others therefore it is probable and therefore is safe in practice sic est Ecclesiae praxis the Church also practises so as appears in their own Offices And S. Thomas makes this use of it Illi exhibemus cultum latriae in quo ponimus spem salutis sed in cruce Christi ponimus spem salutis Cantat enim Ecclesia O Crux ave spes unica Hoc passionis tempore Auge piis justitiam Reisque dona veniam Ergo Crux Christi est adoranda adoratione Latriae We give Divine worship says he to that in which we put our hopes of salvation but in the Cross we put our hopes of salvation for so the Church sings it is the practice of the Church Hail O Cross our only hope in this time of suffering increase righteousness to the godly and give pardon to the guilty therefore the Cross of Christ is to be ador'd with Divine Adoration BY this Principle you may embrace any Opinion of their Doctors safely especially if the practice of the Church do intervene and you need not trouble your self with any further inquiry and if an evil custom get amongst men that very custom shall legitimate the action if any of their grave Doctors allow it or Good men use it and Christ is not your Rule but the Examples of them that live with you or are in your eye and observation that 's your Rule We hope we shall not need to say any more in this affair the pointing out this rock may be warning enough to them that would not suffer shipwrack to decline the danger that looks so formidably SECT VIII They teach that Prayers by the opus operatum the work done do prevail It not being essential to Prayer to think particularly of what he says Prevailing like charms even when they are not understood What Attention they require to Prayer Pope Leo ' s strange grant of remission of all negligences in Prayer The command of hearing Mass is not to intend the words but to be present at the Sacrifice though their words are not heard Comparison between Their Prayers and Ours in the Church of England Their absurd manner of numbering prayers by Beads and repetitions of the same words some hundreds of times not to be distinguish'd from that of the Gentiles which our Saviour reproves AS these Evil Doctrines have general influence into Evil Life so there are some others which if they be pursued to their proper and natural issues that is if they be believ'd and practis'd are enemies to the particular and specisick parts of Piety and Religion Thus the very Prayers of the Faithful are or may be spoil'd by Doctrines publickly allowed and prevailing in the Roman Church FOR 1. they teach That prayers themselves ex opere operato or by the natural work it self do prevail For it is not essential to prayer for a man to think particularly of what he says it is not necessary to think of the things signisied by the words So Suarez teaches Nay it is not necessary to the essence of Prayer that he who prays should think de ipsa locutione of the speaking it self And indeed it is necessary that they should all teach so or they cannot tolerably pretend to justifie their prayers in an unknown Tongue But this is indeed their publick Doctrine For prayers in the mouth of the man that says them are like the words of a Charmer they prevail even when they are not understood says Salmeron Or as Antoninus They are like a precious stone of as much value in the hand of an unskilful man as of a Jeweller And therefore Attention to or Devotion in our prayers is not necessary For the understanding of which saith Cardinal Tolet when it is said that you must say your prayers or offices
of the Church of Rome To this we reply 1. It is not the private opinion of a few but their publick Doctrine own'd and offer'd to be justified to all the World as appears in the preceding testimonies 2. It is the 〈◊〉 of all the Jesuit Order which is now the greatest and most glorious in the Church of Rome and the maintenance of it is the subject matter of their new Vow of obedience to the Pope that is to advance his Grandeur 3. Not only the Jesuits but all the Canonists in the Church of Rome contend earnestly for these Doctrines 4. This they do upon the Authority of the Decretals their own Law and the Decrees of Councils 5. Not only the Jesuits and Canonists but others also of great note amongst them earnestly contend sor these Doctrines particularly Cassenaeus Zodericus the Archbishop of Florence Petrus de Monte St. Thomas Aquinas Bozius Baronius and many others 6. Themselves tell us it is a matter of Faith F. Creswell says it is the sentence of all Catholicks and they that do not admit these Doctrines Father Rosweyd calls them half Christians Grinners barking Royalists and a new Sect of Catholicks and Eudaemon Joannes says That without question it is a Heresie in the judgment of all Catholicks Now in such things which are not in their Creeds and publick Confessions from whence should we know the Doctrines of their Church but from their chiefest and most leading Doctors who it is certain would fain have all the World believe it to be the Doctrine of their Church And therefore as it is certain that any Roman Catholick may with allowance be of this opinion so he will be esteemed the better and more zealous Catholick if he be and if it were not for fear of Princes who will not lose their Crowns for their foolish Doctrines there is no peradventure but it would be declared to be de fide a matter of faith as divers of them of late do not stick to say And of this the Pope gives but too much evidence since he will not take away the scandal which is so greatly given to all Christian Kings and Republicks by a publick and a just condemnation of it Nay it is worse than thus for Sixtus Quintus upon the XI of September A. D. 1589. in an Oration in a Conclave of Cardinals did solemnly commend the Monk that kill'd Henry the III. of France The Oration was printed at Paris by them that had rebell'd against that Prince and avouched for Authentick by Boucher Decreil and Ancelein And though some would fain have it thought to be none of his yet Bellarmine dares not deny it but makes for it a crude and a cold Apology NOW concerning this Article it will not be necessary to declare the Sentence of the Church of England and Ireland because it is notorious to all the World and is expresly oppos'd against this Roman Doctrine by Laws Articles Consessions Homilies the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy the Book of Christian Institution and the many excellent Writings of King James of Blessed Memory of our Bishops and other Learned persons against Bellarmine Parsons Eudaemon Johannes Creswel and others And nothing is more notorious than that the Church of England is most 〈◊〉 most zealous for the right of Kings and within these four and twenty years she hath had many Martyrs and very very many Confessors in this cause IT is true that the Church of Rome does recriminate in this point and charges some Calvinists and Presbyterians with Doctrines which indeed they borrowed from Rome 〈◊〉 their Arguments making use of their Expressions and pursuing their Principles But with them in this Article we have nothing to do but to reprove the men and condemn their Doctrine as we have done all along by private Writings and publick Instruments WE conclude these our reproofs with an Exhortation to our respective Charges to all that desire to be sav'd in the day of the Lord Jesus that they decline from these horrid Doctrines which in their birth are new in their growth are scandalous in their proper consequents are insinitely dangerous to their souls and hunt for their precious life But therefore it is highly 〈◊〉 that they also should perceive their own advantages and give God praise that they are immur'd from such infinite dangers by the 〈◊〉 Precepts and holy Faith taught and commanded in the Church of England and Ireland in which the Word of God is set before them as a Lantern to their feet and a light unto their eyes and the Sacraments are fully administred according to Christ's Institution and Repentance is preach'd according to the measures of the Gospel and Faith in Christ is propounded according to the rule of the Apostles and the measures of the Churches Apostolical and obedience to Kings is greatly and sacredly urg'd and the Authority and Order of Bishops is preserv'd against the usurpation of the Pope and the invasion of Schismaticks and Aerians new and old and Truth and Faith to all men is kept and preach'd to be necessary and inviolable and the Commandments are expounded with just severity and without scruples and holiness of life is urg'd upon all men as indispensably necessary to salvation and therefore without any allowances tricks and little artifices of escaping from it by easie and imperfect Doctrines and every thing is practis'd which is useful to the saving of our souls and Christ's Merits and Satisfaction are intirely relied upon for the pardon of our sins and the necessity of good works is universally taught and our prayers are holy unblameable edisying and understood they are according to the measures of the Word of God and the practice of all Saints In this Church the children are duly carefully and rightly baptiz'd and the baptiz'd in their due time are Confirm'd and the Confirm'd are Communicated and Penitents are absolv'd and the Impenitents punished and discouraged and Holy Marriage in all men is preferr'd before unclean Concubinate in any and Nothing is wanting that God and his Christ hath made necessary to salvation Behold we set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing Safety and Danger Choose which you will but remember that the Prophets who are among you have declar'd to you the way of salvation Now the Lord give you understanding in all things and reveal even this also unto you Amen THE END TWO LETTERS TO PERSONS Changed in their RELIGION The I. LETTER A Copy of the first Letter written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome M. B. I WAS desirous of an opportunity in London to have discoursed with you concerning something of nearest concernment to you but the multitude of my little affairs hindred me and have brought upon you this trouble to read a long Letter which yet I hope you will be more willing to do because it comes from one who hath a great respect to your person and
teaches Doctrines and uses Practices which are in themselves or in their true and immediate Consequences direct Impieties and give warranty to a wicked life 101. CHAP. III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general and of Monarchy in special Both which the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by her Doctrines greatly and Christianly support 207. IMPRIMATUR Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à Sacris A DISSUASIVE FROM POPERY To the PEOPLE of IRELAND The Introduction THE Questions of difference between Our Churches and the Church of Rome have been so often disputed and the evidences on both sides so often produc'd that to those who are strangers to the present constitution of affairs it may seem very unnecessary to say them over again and yet it will seem almost impossible to produce any new matter or if we could it will not be probable that what can be newly alleged can prevail more than all that which already hath been so often urged in these Questions But we are not deterr'd from doing our duty by any such considerations as knowing that the same medicaments are with success applied to a returning or an abiding Ulcer and the Preachers of God's word must for ever be ready to put the People in mind of such things which they already have heard and by the same Scriptures and the same reasons endeavour to destroy their sin or prevent their danger and by the same word of God to extirpate those errors which have had opportunity in the time of our late disorders to spring up and grow stronger not when the Keepers of the field slept but when they were wounded and their hands cut off and their mouths stopp'd lest they should continue or proceed to do the work of God thoroughly A little warm Sun and some indulgent showers of a softer rain have made many weeds of erroneous Doctrine to take root greatly and to spread themselves widely and the Bigots of the Roman Church by their late importune boldness and indiscreet frowardness in making Proselytes have but too manifestly declar'd to all the World that if they were rerum potiti Masters of our affairs they would suffer nothing to grow but their own Colocynths and Gourds And although the Natural remedy for this were to take away that impunity upon the account of which alone they do encrease yet because we shall never be Authors of such Counsels but considently rely upon God the Holy Scriptures right reason and the most venerable and prime Antiquity which are the proper defensatives of truth for its support and maintenance yet we must not conceal from the People committed to our charges the great evils to which they are tempted by the Roman Emissaries that while the King and the Parliament take care to secure all the publick interests by instruments of their own we also may by the word of our proper Ministery endeavour to stop the progression of such errors which we know to be destructive of Christian Religion and consequently dangerous to the interest of souls IN this procedure although we shall say some things which have not been always plac'd before their eyes and others we shall represent with a sittingness to their present necessities and all with Charity too and zeal for their souls yet if we were to say nothing but what hath been often said already we are still doing the work of God and repeating his voice and by the same remedies curing the same diseases and we only wait for the blessing of God prospering that importunity which is our duty according to the advice of Solomon In the Morning sow thy seed and in the Evening with-hold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall be alike good CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles is neither Catholick Apostolick nor Primitive SECT I. Scripture the foundation of our faith which was preserved intire in the first Ages of the Church Roman Doctrines unheard of then being innovations They pretend a power to make new articles of Faith Their expurgatory Indices show that they dare not trust the Fathers till they be purged Instances of their dealing with their writings IT was the challenge of St. Augustine to the Donatists who as the Church of Rome does at this day inclos'd the Catholick Church within their own circuits Ye say that Christ is Heir of no Lands but where Donatus is Co-heir Read this to 〈◊〉 out of the Law and the Prophets out of the Psalms out of the Gospel it self or out of the Letters of the Apostles Read it thence and we believe it Plainly directing us to the Fountains of our Faith the Old and New Testament the words of Christ and the words of the Apostles For nothing else can be the foundation of our Faith whatsoever came in after these foris est it belongs not unto Christ To these we also add not as Authors or Finishers but as helpers of our Faith and Heirs of the Doctrine Apostolical the Sentiments and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God in the Ages next after the Apostles Not that we think them or our selves bound to every private opinion even of a Primitive Bishop and Martyr but that we all acknowledge that the whole Church of God kept the Faith entire and transmitted faithfully to the after-Ages the whole Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the form of Doctrine and sound words which was at first delivered to the Saints and was defective in nothing that belong'd unto salvation and we believe that those Ages sent millions of Saints to the bosom of Christ and seal'd the true faith with their lives and with their deaths and by both gave testimony unto Jesus and had from him the testimony of his Spirit AND this method of procedure we now choose not only because to them that know well how to use it to the Sober and the Moderate the Peaceable and the Wise it is the best the most certain visible and tangible most humble and satisfactory but also because the Church of Rome does with greatest noises pretend her Conformity to Antiquity Indeed the present Roman Doctrines which are in difference were invisible and unheard of in the first and best antiquity and with how ill success their quotations are out of the Fathers of the first three Ages every enquiring Man may easily discern But the noises therefore which they make are from the Writings of the succeeding Ages where secular interest did more prevail and the writings of the Fathers were vast and voluminous full of controversie and ambiguous senses sitted to their own times and questions full of proper opinions and such variety of sayings that both sides eternally and inconfutably shall bring sayings for themselves respectively Now although things being thus it will be impossible for them to conclude from the sayings of
than what Berengarius was commanded to renounce and no interpretation can make it tolerable but such an one as is in another place of the Canon Law statuimus i. e. abrogamus nothing but a plain denying it in the sense of Pope Nicolas But however this may be it is plain they understood it not as it is now decreed But as it hapned to the Pelagians in the beginning of their heresie they spake rudely ignorantly and easily to be reprov'd but being ashamed and disputed into a more sober understanding of their hypothesis spake more warily but yet differently from what they said at first so it was and is in this question at first they understood it not it was too unreasonable in any tolerable sense to make any thing of it but experience and necessity hath brought it to what it is But that this Doctrine was not the doctrine of the first and best ages of the Church these following testimonies do make evident The words of Tertullian are these The bread being taken and distributed to his Disciples Christ made it his body saying This is my body that is the figure of my body The same is affirmed by Justin Martyr The bread of the Eucharist was a figure which Christ the Lord commanded to do in remembrance of his passion Origen calls the bread and the chalice the images of the body and blood of Christ and again That bread which is sanctified by the word of God so far as belongs to the matter or substance of it goes into the belly and is cast away in the secession or separation which to affirm of the natural or glorified body of Christ were greatly blasphemous and therefore the body of Christ which the Communicants receive is not the body in a natural sense but in a spiritual which is not capable of any such accident as the Elements are Eusebius says that Christ gave to his Disciples the Symbols of Divine Occonomy commanding the image and type of his own body to be made and that the Apostle received a command according to the constitution of the New Testament to make a memory of this sacrifice upon the Table by the symbols of his body and healthful blood S. Macarius says that in the Church is offered bread and wine the antitype of his flesh and of his bloud and they that partake of the bread that appears do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ. By which words the sense of the above cited Fathers is explicated For when they affirm that in this Sacrament is offered the figure the image the antitype of Christ's body and bloud although they speak perfectly against Transubstantiation yet they do not deny the real and spiritual presence of Christ's body and bloud which we all believe as certainly as that it is not transubstantiated or present in a natural and carnal manner THE same thing is also fully explicated by the good S. Ephrem The body of Christ received by the faithful departs not from his sensible substance and is undivided from a spiritual grace For even baptism being wholly made spiritual and being that which is the same and proper of the sensible substance I mean of water saves and that which is born doth not perish S. Gregory Nazianzen spake so expresly in this Question as if he had undertaken on purpose to confute the Article of Trent Now we shall be partakers of the Paschal supper but still in figure though more clear than in the old Law For the Legal Passover I will not be afraid to speak it was a more obscure figure of a figure S. Chrysostom affirms dogmatically that before the bread is sanctified we name it bread but the Divine grace sanctifying it by the means of the Priest it is freed from the name of bread but it is esteemed worthy to be called the Lords body although the nature of bread remains in it And again As thou eatest the body of the Lord so they the faithful in the old Testament did eat Manna as thou drinkest bloud so they the water of the rock For though the things which are made be sensible yet they are given spiritually not according to the consequence of Nature but according to the grace of a gift and with the body they also nourish the soul leading unto faith To these very many more might be added but instead of them the words of St. Austin may suffice as being an evident conviction what was the doctrine of the primitive Church in this question This great Doctor brings in Christ thus speaking as to his Disciples You are not to eat this body which you see or to drink that bloud which my crucifiers shall pour forth I have commended to you a sacrament which being spiritually understood shall quicken you And again Christ brought them to a banquet in which he commended to his Disciples the figure of his body and bloud For he did not doubt to say This is my body when he gave the sign of his body and That which by all men is called a sacrifice is the sign of the true sacrifice in which the flesh of Christ after his assumption is celebrated by the sacrament of remembrances BUT in this particular the Canon Law it self and the Master of the Sentences are the best witnesses in both which collections there are divers testimonies brought especially from S. Ambrose and S. Austin which whosoever can reconcile with the doctrine of Transubstantiation may easily put the Hyaena and a Dog a Pigeon and a Kite into couples and make fire and water enter into natural and eternal friendships Theodoret and P. Gelasius speak more emphatically even to the nature of things and the very philosophy of this Question Christ honour'd the symbols and the signs saith Theodoret which are seen with the title of his body and bloud not changing the nature but to nature adding grace For neither do the mystical signs recede from their nature for they abide in their proper substance figure and form and may be seen and touch'd c. And for a testimony that shall be esteem'd infallible we allege the words of Pope Gelasius Truly the sacraments of the body and bloud of Christ which we receive are a Divine thing for that by them we are made partakers of the Divine nature and yet it ceases not to be the substance or nature of bread and wine And truly an image and similitude of the body and bloud of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries NOW from these premises we are not desirous to infer any odious consequences in reproof of the Roman Church but we think it our duty to give our own people caution and admonition 1. That they be not abus'd by the rhetorical words and high expressions alleged out of the Fathers calling the Sacrament The body or the slesh of Christ. For we all believe it is so and rejoyce in it But the
opposition is plain Christs Testament ordains it The Church of Rome forbids it It was the primitive custom to obey Christ in this a later custom is by the Church of Rome introduced to the contrary To say that the first practice and institution is necessary to be followed is called Heretical to refuse the latter subintroduc'd custom incurrs the sentence of Excommunication and this they have pass'd not only into a law but into an Article of Faith and if this be not teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men and worshipping God in vain with mens traditions then there is and there was and there can be no such thing in the world So that now the question is not whether this doctrine and practice be an INNOVATION but whether it be not better it should be so Whether it be not better to drink new wine than old Whether it be not better to obey man than Christ who is God blessed for ever Whether a late custom be not to be preferr'd before the antient a custom dissonant from the institution of Christ before that which is wholly consonant to what Christ did and taught This is such a bold affirmative of the Church of Rome that nothing can suffice to rescue us from an amazement in the consideration of it especially since although the Institution it self being the only warranty and authority for what we do is of it self our rule and precept according to that of the Lawyer Institutiones sunt praeceptiones quibus instituuntur docentur homines yet besides this Christ added preceptive words Drink ye all of this he spake it to all that received who then also represented all them who for ever after were to remember Christs death But concerning the doctrine of Antiquity in this point although the Council of Constance confess the Question yet since that time they have taken on them a new confidence and affirm that the half Communion was always more or less the practice of the most Antient times We therefore think it fit to produce testimonies concurrent with the saying of the Council of Constance such as are irrefragable and of persons beyond exception Cassander affirms That in the Latin Church for above a thousand years the body of Christ and the blood of Christ were separately given the body apart and the blood apart after the consecration of the mysteries So Aquinas also affirms According to the antient custom of the Church all men as they communicated in the body so they communicated in the blood which also to this day is kept in some Churches And therefore Paschasius Ratbertus resolves it dogmatically That neither the flesh without the blood nor the blood without the flesh is rightly communicated because the Apostles all of them did drink of the chalice And Salmeron being forc'd by the evidence of the thing ingenuously and openly confesses That it was a general custom to communicate the Laity under both kinds It was so and it was more There was antiently a Law for it Aut integra Sacrament a percipiant aut ab integris arceantur said Pope Gelasius Either all or none let them receive in both kinds or in neither and he gives this reason Quia divisio unius ejusdem mysterii sine grandi sacrilegio non potest pervenire The mystery is but one and the same and therefore it cannot be divided without great sacrilege The reason concludes as much of the Receiver as the Consecrator and speaks of all indefinitely THUS it is acknowledged to have been in the Latin Church and thus we see it ought to have been And for the Greek Church there is no question for even to this day they communicate the people in the Chalice But this case is so plain and there are such clear testimonies out of the Fathers recorded in their own Canon Law that nothing can obscure it but to use too many words about it We therefore do exhort our people to take care that they suffer not themselves to be robb'd of their portion of Christ as he is pleased sacramentally and graciously to communicate himself unto us SECT VII Publick Prayers in an unknown Tongue the Roman practice As easie to reconcile Adultery to the seventh Commandment as this practice to the fourteenth Chap. of the first to the Corinthians Testimonies of the Fathers against it That such Service does not Edifie A dumb Priest may serve as well for them that understand not as he that speaks aloud for the first can do all the Signs and Ceremonies and the other does no more to them The words both of Civil and Canon Law against it Heathen Priests and Hereticks Turks and Jews agree with the Roman practice AS the Church of Rome does great injury to Christendom in taking from the people what Christ gave them in the matter of the Sacrament so she also deprives them of very much of the benefit which they might receive by their holy prayers if they were suffered to pray in publick in a Language they understand But that 's denyed to the common people to their very great prejudice and injury CONCERNING which although it is as possible to reconcile Adultery with the seventh Commandment as Service in a Language not understood to the fourteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and that therefore if we can suppose that the Apostolical age did follow the Apostolical rule it must be concluded that the practice of the Church of Rome is contrary to the practice of the Primitive Church Yet besides this we have thought fit to declare the plain sense and practice of the succeeding Ages in a few testimonies but so pregnant as not to be avoided Origen affirms that the Grecians in their prayers use Greek and the Romans the Roman language and so every one according to his Tongue prayeth unto God and praiseth him as he is able S. Chrysostom urging the precept of the Apostle for prayers in a Language understood by the hearer affirms that which is but reasonable saying If a man speaks in the Persian Tongue and understands not what himself says to himself he is a Barbarian and therefore so he is to him that understands no more than he does And what profit can he receive who hears a sound and discerns it not It were as good he were absent as present For if he be the better to be there because he sees what is done and guesses at something in general and consents to him that ministers It is true this may be but this therefore is so because he understands something but he is only so far benefited as he understands and therefore all that which is not understood does him no more benefit that is present than to him that is absent and consents to the prayers in general and to what is done for all faithful people But If indeed ye meet for the 〈◊〉 of the Church those things ought to be spoken which the hearers understand
said S. Ambrose And so it was in the primitive Church blessings and all other things in the Church were done in the Vulgar tongue saith Lyra Nay not only the publick Prayers but the whole Bible was anciently by many Translations made fit for the Peoples use S. Hierom 〈◊〉 that himself translated the Bible into the Dalmatian Tongue and Ulphilas a Bishop among the Goths translated it into the Gothick Tongue and that it was translated into all Languages we are told by S. Chrysostom S. Austin and Theodoret. BUT although what twenty Fathers say can make a thing no more certain than if S. Paul had alone said it yet both S. Paul and the Fathers are frequent to tell us That a Service or Prayers in an unknown Tongue do not edisie So S. Basil S. Chrysostom S. Ambrose and S. Austin and this is consented to by Aquinas Lyra and Cassander And besides that these Doctors affirm that in the primitive Church the Priest and People joyn'd in their Prayers and understood each other and prayed in their Mother-tongue We find a story how true it is let them look to it but it is told by Aeneas Sylvius who was afterwards Pope Pius the II. that when Cyrillus Bishop of the Moravians and Methodius had converted the Slavonians Cyril being at Rome desir'd leave to use the Language of that Nation in their Divine Offices Concerning which when they were disputing a voice was heard as if from Heaven Let every spirit praise the Lord and every tongue 〈◊〉 unto him Upon which it was granted according to the Bishops desire But now they are not so kind at Rome and although the Fathers at Trent confess'd in their Decree that the Mass contains in it great matter of erudition and edification of the People yet they did not think it fit that it should be said in the vulgar Tongue So that it is very good food but it must be lock'd up it is an excellent Candle but it must be put under a bushel And now the Question is Whether it be sit that the People pray so as to be edified by it or is it better that they be at the prayers when they shall not be edified Whether it be not as good to have a dumb Priest to do Mass as one that hath a tongue to say it For he that hath no tongue and he that hath none to be understood 〈◊〉 alike insignificant to me Quid prodest locutionum integritas quam non sequitur intellectus 〈◊〉 cum loquendi nulla sit causa si quod loquimur non intelligunt propter quos ut intelligant loquimur said S. Austin What does it avail that man speaks all if the hearers understand none 〈◊〉 there is no cause why a man should speak at all if they for whose understanding you do speak understand it not God understands the Priests thoughts when he speaks not as well as when he speaks he hears the prayer of the heart and sees the word of the mind and a dumb Priest can do all the ceremonies and make the signs and he that speaks aloud to them that understand him not does no more Now since there is no use of vocal prayer in publick but that all together may 〈◊〉 their desires and stir up one another and joyn in the expression of them to God by this device a man who understands not what is said can only pray with his lips for the heart cannot pray but by desiring and it cannot desire what it understands not So that in this case prayer cannot be an act of the soul There is neither 〈◊〉 nor understanding notice or desire The heart says nothing and asks for nothing and therefore receives nothing Solomon calls that the sacrifice of fools when men consider not and they who understand not what is said cannot take it into consideration But there needs no more to be said in so plain a case We end this with the words of the Civil and Canon Law Justinian the Emperour made a Law in these words We will and command that all Bishops and Priests celebrate the sacred Oblation and the Prayers thereunto added in holy Baptism not in a low voice but with a loud and clear voice which may be heard by the faithful people that is be understood for so it follows that thereby the minds of the hearers may be raised up with greater devotion to set forth the praises of the Lord God for so the Apostle teacheth in the first to the Corinthians It is true that this Law was rased out of the Latine versions of Justinian The fraud and design was too palpable but it prevail'd nothing for it is acknowledged by Cassander and Bellarmine and is in the Greek Copies of Holoander THE Canon Law is also most express from an Authority of no less than a Pope and a Genëral Council as themselves esteem Innocent III. in the great Council of 〈◊〉 above MCC years after Christ in these words 〈◊〉 in most parts within the same City and Diocess the people of divers Tongues are mixt together having under one and the same faith divers ceremonies and rites we straitly charge and command That the Bishops of such Cities and Dioceses provide men fit who may celebrate Divine Service according to the diversity of ceremonies and languages and administer the Sacraments of the Church instructing them both by word and by example NOW if the words of the Apostle and the practice of the primitive Church the Sayings of the Fathers and the Confessions of wise men among themselves if the consent of Nations and the piety of our forefathers if right reason and the necessity of the thing if the needs of the ignorant and the very inseparable conditions of holy prayers if the Laws of Princes and the Laws of the Church which do require all our prayers to be said by them that understand what they say if all these cannot prevail with the Church of Rome to do so much good to the Peoples souls as to consent they should understand what in particular they are to ask of God certainly there is a great pertinacy of opinion and but a little charity to those precious souls for whom Christ died and for whom they must give account INDEED the old 〈◊〉 Rites and the Sooth-sayings of the Salian Priests Vix Sacerdotibus suis intellecta sed quae mutari vetat Religio were scarce understood by their Priests themselves but their Religion forbad to change them Thus anciently did the Osseni Hereticks of whom Epiphanius tells and the Heracleonitae of whom S. Austin gives account they taught to pray with obscure words and some others in Clemens Alexandrinus suppos'd that words spoken in a barbarous or unknown tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are more powerful The Jews also in their Synagogues at this day read Hebrew which the people but rarely understand and the Turks in their Mosques
that of the Popes Universal Bishoprick That is not only that he is Bishop of Bishops superiour to all and every one but that his Bishoprick is a Plenitude of Power and as for other Bishops of his fulness they all receive a part of the Ministery and sollicitude and not only so but that he only is a Bishop by immediate Divine Dispensation and others receive from him whatsoever they have For to this height many of them are come at last Which Doctrine although as it is in sins where the carnal are most full of reproach but the spiritual are of greatest malignity so it happens in this Article For though it be not so scandalous as their Idolatry so ridiculous as their Superstitions so unreasonable as their Doctrine of Transubstantiation so easily reprov'd as their Half Communion and Service in an unknown Tongue yet it is of as dangerous and evil effect and as false and as certainly an Innovation as any thing in their whole Conjugation of Errours WHEN Christ founded his Church he left it in the hands of his Apostles without any prerogative given to one or eminency above the rest save only of priority and orderly precedency which of it self was natural necessary and incident The Apostles govern'd all their Authority was the sanction and their Decrees and Writings were the Laws of the Church They exercis'd a common jurisdiction and divided it according to the needs and emergencies and circumstances of the Church In the Council of Jerusalem S. Peter gave not the decisive sentence but S. James who was the Bishop of that See Christ sent all his Apostles as his Father sent him and therefore he gave to every one of them the whole power which he left behind and to the Bishops congregated at Miletum S. Paul gave them caution to take care of the whole flock of God and affirms to them all that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops and in the whole New Testament there is no act or sign of superiority or that one Apostle exercised power over another but to them whom Christ sent he in common intrusted the Church of God according to that excellent saying of S. Cyprian The other Apostles are the same that S. Peter was endowed with an equal fellowship of honour and power and they are all shepherds and the slock is one and therefore it ought to be fed by all the Apostles with unanimous consent THIS unity and identity of power without question and interruption did continue and descend to Bishops in the primitive Church in which it was a known doctrine that the Bishops were successors of the Apostles and what was not in the beginning could not be in the descent unless it were innovated and introduc'd by a new authority Christ gave ordinary power to none but the Apostles and the power being to continue for ever in the Church it was to be succeeded to and by the same authority even of Christ it descended to them who were their successors that is to the Bishops as all antiquity does consent and teach Not S. Peter alone but every Apostle and therefore every one who succeeds them in their ordinary power may and must remember the words of S. Paul We are Embassadors or Legates for Christ Christ's Vicars not the Pope's Delegates and so all the Apostles are called in the Preface of the Mass Quos operis tui Vicarios cidem contulisti praeesse Pastores they are Pastors of the Flock and Vicars of Christ and so also they are in express terms called by S. Ambrose and therefore it is a strange usurpation that the Pope arrogates that to himself by Impropriation which is common to him with all the Bishops of Christendom THE consequent of this is that by the law of Christ one Bishop is not superior to another Christ gave the power to all alike he made no Head of the Bishops he gave to none a supremacy of power or universality of jurisdiction But this the Pope hath long challenged and to bring his purposes to pass hath for these Six hundred years by-gone invaded the rights of Bishops and delegated matters of order and jurisdiction to Monks and Friers insomuch that the power of Bishops was greatly diminished at the erecting of the Cluniac and Cistercian Monks about the year ML but about the year MCC it was almost swallowed up by privileges granted to the Begging Friers and there kept by the power of the Pope which power got one 〈◊〉 step more above the Bishops when they got it declared that the Pope is above a Council of Bishops and at last it was 〈◊〉 into a new doctrine by Cajetane who for his prosperous invention was made a Cardinal that all the whole Apostolick or Episcopal power is radical and inherent in the Pope in whom is the fulness of the Ecclesiastical authority and that Bishops receive their portion of it from him and this was first boldly maintain'd in the Council of Trent by the Jesuits and it is now the opinion of their Order but it is also that which the Pope challenges in practice when he pretends to a power over all Bishops and that this power is deriv'd to him from Christ when he calls himself the Universal Bishop and the Vicarial Head of the Church the Churches Monarch he from whom all Ecclesiastical Authority is derived to whose sentence in things Divine every Christian under pain of damnation is bound to be subject NOW this is it which as it is productive of infinite mischiefs so it is an Innovation and an absolute deflexion from the primitive Catholick Doctrine and yet is the great ground-work and foundation of their Church This we shall represent in these following testimonies Pope Eleutherius in an Epistle to the Bishops of France says that Christ committed the Universal Church to the Bishops and S. Ambrose says that the Bishop holdeth the place of Christ and is his substitute But famous are the words of S. Cyprian The Church of Christ is one through the whole world divided by him into many members and the Bishoprick is but one diffused in the agreeing plurality of many Bishops And again To every Pastor a portion of the flock is given which let every one of them rule and govern By which words it is evident that the primitive Church understood no Prelation of one and Subordination of another commanded by Christ or by virtue of their Ordination but only what was for orders sake introduc'd by Princes and consent of Prelates And it was to this purpose very full which was said by Pope Symmachus As it is in the holy Trinity whose power is one and undivided or to use the expression in the Athanasian Creed none is before or after other none is greater or less than another so there is one Bishoprick amongst divers Bishops and therefore why should the Canons of the ancient Bishops be violated by their Successors Now these words being spoken
against the invasion of the rights of the Church of Arles by Anastasius and the question being in the exercise of Jurisdiction and about the institution of Bishops does fully declare that the Bishops of Rome had no superiority by the laws of Christ over any Bishop in the Catholick Church and that his Bishoprick gave no more power to him than Christ gave to the Bishop of the smallest Diocese AND therefore all the Church of God whenever they reckoned the several orders and degrees of Ministery in the Catholick Church reckon the Bishop as the last and supreme beyond whom there is no spiritual power but in Christ. For as the whole Hierarchy ends in Jesus so does every particular one in its own Bishop Beyond the Bishop there is no step till you rest in the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls Under him every Bishop is supreme in spirituals and in all power which to any Bishop is given by Christ. S. Ignatius therefore exhorts that all should obey their Bishop and the Bishop obey Christ as Christ obeyed his Father There are no other intermedial degrees of Divine institution But as Origen teaches The Apostles and they who after them are ordain'd by God that is the Bishops have the supreme place in the Church and the Prophets have the second place The same also is taught by P. Gelasius by S. Hierom and Fulgentius and indeed by all the Fathers who spake any thing in this matter Insomuch that when Bellarmine is in this question press'd out of the book of Nilus by the Authority of the Fathers standing against him he answers Papam Patres non habere in Ecclesiâ sed Filios omnes The Pope acknowledges no Fathers in the Church for they are all his Sons NOW although we suppose this to be greatly sufficient to declare the Doctrine of the primitive Catholick Church concerning the equality of power in all Bishops by Divine right yet the Fathers have also expresly declared themselves that one Bishop is not superiour to another and ought not to judge another or force another to obedience They are the words of S. Cyprian to a Council of Bishops None of us makes himself a Bishop of Bishops or by tyramical power drives his collegues to a necessity of obedience since every Bishop according to the licence of his own liberty and power hath his own choice and cannot be judged by another nor yet himself judge another but let us all expect the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ who only and alone hath the power of setting us in the Government of his Church and judging of what we do This was spoken and intended against Pope Stephen who did then begin dominari in clero to lord it over God's heritage and to excommunicate his brethren as Demetrius did in the time of the Apostles themselves but they both found their reprovers Demetrius was chastised by Saint John for this usurpation and Stephen by S. Cyprian and this also was approv'd by S. Austin We conclude this particular with the words of S. Gregory Bishop of Rome who because the Patriarch of Constantinople called himself Universal Bishop said It was a proud title prophane sacrilegious and Antichristian and therefore he little thought that his successors in the same See should so fiercely challenge that Antichristian title much less did the then Bishop of Rome in those Ages challenge it as their own peculiar for they had no mind to be or to be esteemed Antichristian Romano pontisici oblatum est sed nullus unquam eorum hoc singularitatis nomen assumpsit His predecessors it seems had been tempted with an offer of that title but none of them ever assumed that name of singularity as being against the law of the Gospel and the Canons of the Church NOW this being a matter of which Christ spake not one word to S. Peter if it be a matter of Faith and Salvation as it is now pretended it is not imaginable he would have been so perfectly silent But though he was silent of any intention to do this yet S. Paul was not silent that Christ did otherwise for he hath set in his Church primùm Apostolos first of all Apostles not first S. Peter and secondarily Apostles but all the Apostles were first It is also evident that S. Peter did not carry himself so as to give the least overture or umbrage to make any one suspect he had any such preheminence but he was as S. Chrysostom truly says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did all things with the common consent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing by special authority or principality and if he had any such it is more than probable that the Apostles who survived him had succeeded him in it rather than the Bishop of Rome and it being certain as the Bishop of Canaries confesses That there is in Scripture no revelation that the Bishop of Rome should succeed Peter in it and we being there told that S. Pet. was at Antioch but never that he was at Rome it being confessed by some of their own parties by Cardinal Cusanus Soto Driedo Canus and Segovius that this succession was not addicted to any particular Church nor that Christs institution of this does any other way appear that it cannot be proved that the Bishop of Rome is Prince of the Church it being also certain that there was no such thing known in the Primitive Church but that the holy Fathers both of Africa and the East did oppose Pope Victor and Pope Stephen when they began to interpose with a presumptive Authority in the affairs of other Churches and that the Bishops of the Church did treat with the Roman Bishop as with a brother not as their superiour and that the General Council held at Chalcedon did give to the Bishops of C. P. equal rights and preeminence with the Bishops of Rome and that the Greek Churches are at this day and have been a long time great opponents of this pretension of the Bishops of Rome and after all this since it is certain that Christ who foreknows all things did also know that there would be great disputes and challenges of this preeminence did indeed suppress it in his Apostles and said not it should be otherwise in succession and did not give any command to his Church to obey the Bishops of Rome as his Vicars more than what he commanded concerning all Bishops it must be certain that it cannot be necessary to salvation to do so but that it is more than probable that he never intended any such thing and that the Bishops of Rome have to the great prejudice of Christendom made a great schism and usurped a title which is not their due and challenged an Authority to which they have no right and have set themselves above others who are their equals and impose an Article of Faith of their own contriving and have made great preparation for
attently reverently and devoutly you must know that Attention or Advertency to your prayers is manifold 1. That you attend to the words so that you speak them not too fast or to begin the next verse of a Psalm before he that recites with you hath done the former verse and this attention is necessary But 2. there is an attention which is by understanding the sense and that is not necessary For if it were very extremely few would do their duty when so very few do at all understand what they say 3. There is an attention relating to the end of prayer that is that he that prays considers that he is present before God and speaks to him and this indeed is very prositable but it is not necessary No not so much So that by this Doctrine no attention is necessary but to attend that the words be all said and said right But even this attention is not necessary that it should be actual but it suffices to be virtual that is that he who says his office intend to do so and do not change his mind although he does not attend And he who does not change his mind that is unless observing himself not to attend he still turn his mind to other things he attends meaning he attends sufficiently and as much as is necessary though indeed speaking naturally and truly he does not attend If any man in the Church of England and Ireland had published such Doctrine as this he should quickly and deservedly have felt the severity of the Ecclesiastical Rod but in Rome it goes for good Catholick Doctrine NOW although upon this account Devotion is it may be good and it is good to attend to the words of our prayer and the sense of them yet that it is not necessary is evidently consequent to this But it is also expresly affirm'd by the same hand There ought to be devotion that our mind be inflam'd with the love of God though if this be wanting without contempt it is no deadly sin Ecclesiae satisfit per opus externum nec aliud jubet saith Reginaldus If ye do the outward work the Church is satisfied neither does she command any thing else Good Doctrine this And it is an excellent Church that commands nothing to him that prays but to say so many words WELL but after all this if Devotion be necessary or not if it be present or not if the mind wander or wander not if you mind what you pray or mind it not there is an easie cure for all this For Pope Leo granted remission of all negligences in their saying their offices and prayers to them who after they have done shall say this prayer To the Holy and Vndivided Trinity To the Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ crucified To the fruitfulness of the most Blessed and most Glorious Virgin Mary and to the Vniversity of all Saints be Eternal praise honour vertue and glory from every Creature and to us remission of sins for ever and ever Amen Blessed are the bowels of the Virgin Mary which bore the Son of the Eternal God and blessed are the paps which suckled Christ our Lord Pater noster Ave Maria. This prayer to this purpose is set down by Navar and Cardinal Tolet. THIS is the summ of the Doctrine concerning the manner of saying the Divine offices in the Church of Rome in which greater care is taken to obey the Precept of the Church than the Commandments of God For the Precept of hearing Mass is not to intend the words but to be present at the Sacrifice though the words be not so much as heard and they that think the contrary think so without any probable reason saith Tolet. It seems there was not so much as the Authority of one grave Doctor to the contrary for if there had the contrary opinion might have been probable but all agree upon this Doctrine all that are considerable So that between the Church of England and the Church of Rome the difference in this Article is plainly this They pray with their lips we with the heart we pray with the understanding they with the voice we pray and they say prayers We suppose that we do not please God if our hearts be absent they say it is enough if their bodies be present at their greatest solemnity of prayer though they hear nothing that is spoken and understand as little And which of these be the better way of serving God may soon be determin'd if we remember the complaint which God made of the Jews This people draweth near me with their lips but their hearts are far from me But we know that we are commanded to ask in faith which is seated in the understanding and requires the concurrence of the will and holy desires which cannot be at all but in the same degree in which we have a knowledge of what we ask The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man prevails But what our prayers want of this they must needs want of blessing and prosperity And if we lose the benefit of our prayers we lose that great instrumentality by which Christians are receptive of pardon and strengthened in faith and confirm'd in hope and increase in charity and are protected by Providence and are comforted in their sorrows and derive help from God Ye ask and have not because ye ask amiss that is Saint James his rule They that pray not as they ought shall never obtain what they fain would HITHER is to be 〈◊〉 their fond manner of prayer consisting in vain repetitions of Names and little forms of words The Psalter of our Lady is an hundred and fifty Ave Maries and at the end of every tenth they drop in the Lord's Prayer and this with the Creed at the end of the fifty makes a perfect Rosary This indeed is the main entertainment of the peoples Devotion for which cause Mantuan called their Religion Relligionem Quae filo insertis numerat sua murmura baccis A Religion that numbers their murmurs by berries fil'd upon a string This makes up so great a part of their Religion that it may well be taken for one half of its desinition But because so few do understand what they say but all repeat and stick to their numbers it is evident they think to be heard for that For that or nothing for besides that they neither do nor understand And all that we shall now say to it is That our Blessed Saviour reprov'd this way of Devotion in the Practice and Doctrines of the Heathens Very like to which is that which they call the Psalter of Jesus in which are fifteen short Ejaculations as Have mercy on me * Strengthen me * Help me * Comfort me c. and with every one of these the name of Jesus is to be said thirty times that is in all four hundred and fifty times Now we are ignorant how to distinguish this from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
a very great charity to your soul I must confess I was on your behalf troubled when I heard you were fallen from the Communion of the Church of England and entred into a voluntary unnecessary schism and departure from the Laws of the King and the Communion of those with whom you have always lived in charity going against those Laws in the defence and profession of which your Husband died going from the Religion in which you were Baptized in which for so many years you lived piously and hoped for Heaven and all this without any sufficient reason without necessity or just scandal ministred to you and to aggravate all this you did it in a time when the Church of England was persecuted when she was marked with the Characterisms of her Lord the marks of the Cross of Jesus that is when she suffered for a holy cause and a holy conscience when the Church of England was more glorious than at any time before Even when she could shew more Martyrs and Confessors than any Church this day in Christendom even then when a King died in the profession of her Religion and thousands of Priests learned and pious men suffered the spoiling of their goods rather than they would forsake one Article of so excellent a Religion So that seriously it is not easily to be imagined that any thing should move you unless it be that which troubled the perverse Jews and the Heathen Greek Scandalum crucis the scandal of the Cross You stumbled at that Rock of offence You left us because we were afflicted lessened in outward circumstances and wrapped in a cloud but give me leave only to remind you of that sad saying of the Scripture that you may avoid the consequent of it They that fà ll on this stone shall be broken in pieces but they on whom it shall fall shall be grinded to powder And if we should consider things but prudently it is a great argument that the sons of our Church are very conscientious and just in their perswasions when it is evident that we have no temporal end to serve nothing but the great end of our souls all our hopes of preferment are gone all secular regards only we still have truth on our sides and we are not willing with the loss of truth to change from a persecuted to a prosperous Church from a Reformed to a Church that will not be reformed lest we give scandal to good people that suffer for a holy conscience and weaken the hands of the afflicted of which if you had been more careful you would have remained much more innocent BUT I pray give me leave to consider for you because you in your change considered so little for your self what fault what false doctrine what wicked and dangerous proposition what defect what amiss did you find in the Doctrine and Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England For its doctrine It is certain it professes the belief of all that is written in the Old and New Testament all that which is in the three Creeds the Apostolical the Nicene and that of Athanasius and whatsoever was decreed in the four General Councils or in any other truly such and whatsoever was condemned in these our Church hath legally declared it to be Heresie And upon these accounts above four whole ages of the Church went to Heaven they baptized all their Catechumens into this faith their hopes of heaven was upon this and a good life their Saints and Martyrs lived and died in this alone they denied Communion to none that professed this faith This is the Catholick faith so saith the Creed of Athanasius and unless a company of men have power to alter the faith of God whosoever live and die in this faith are intirely Catholick and Christian. So that the Church of England hath the same faith without dispute that the Church had for 400 or 500 years and therefore there could be nothing wanting here to saving faith if we live according to our belief 2. For the Liturgy of the Church of England I shall not need to say much because the case will be very evident First Because the disputers of the Church of Rome have not been very forward to object any thing against it they cannot charge it with any evil 2. Because for all the time of King Edward VI. and till the eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth your people came to our Churches and prayed with us till the Bull of Pius Quintus came out upon temporal regards and made a Schism by forbidding the Queens Subjects to pray as by Law was here appointed though the prayers were good and holy as themselves did believe That Bull enjoyned Recusancy and made that which was an act of Rebellion and Disobedience and Schism to be the character of your Roman Catholicks And after this what can be supposed wanting in order to salvation We have the Word of God the Faith of the Apostles the Creeds of the Primitive Church the Articles of the four first general Councils a holy Liturgy excellent Prayers perfect Sacraments Faith and Repentance the ten Commandments and the Sermons of Christ and all the precepts and counsels of the Gospel We teach the necessity of good works and require and strictly exact the severity of a holy life We live in obedience to God and are ready to die for him and do so when he requires us so to do We speak honourably of his most holy Name we worship him at the mention of his Name we confess his Attributes we love his Servants we pray for all men we love all Christians even our most erring Brethren we confess our sins to God and to our Brethren whom we have offended and to Gods Ministers in cases of Scandal or of a troubled Conscience We communicate often we are enjoyned to receive the holy Sacrament thrice every year at least Our Priests absolve the penitent our Bishops ordain Priests and confirm baptized persons and bless their people and intercede for them and what could here be wanting to Salvation what necessity forced you from us I dare not suspect it was a temporal regard that drew you away but I am sure it could be no spiritual BUT now that I have told you and made you to consider from whence you went give me leave to represent to you and tell you whither you are gone that you may understand the nature and conditions of your change For do not think your self safe because they tell you that you are come to the Church You are indeed gone from one Church to another from a better to a worse as will appear in the induction the particulars of which before I reckon give me leave to give you this advice if you mean in this affair to understand what you do it were better you enquired what your Religion is than what your Church is for that which is a true Religion to day will be so to morrow and for ever but that which is a holy
their Priest bids them and go to Mass which they understand not and reckon their Beads to tell the number and the tale of their prayers and abstain from Eggs and Flesh in Lent and visit Saint Patrick's Well and leave Pins and Ribbons Yarn or Thred in their holy Wells and pray to God S. Mary and S. Patrick S. Columbanus and S. Bridget and desire to be buried with S. Francis's Cord about them and to fast on Saturdays in honour of our Lady These and so many other things of like nature we see daily that we being conscious of the infinite distance which these things have from the spirit of Christianity know that no charity can be greater than to persuade the people to come to our Churches where they shall be taught all the ways of godly wisdom of peace and safety to their souls whereas now there are many of them that know not how to say their prayers but mutter like Pies and Parrots words which they are taught but they do not pretend to understand But I shall give one particular instance of their miserable superstition and blindness I was lately within a few months very much troubled with Petitions and earnest Requests for the restoring a Bell which a Person of Quality had in his hands in the time of and ever since the late Rebellion I could not guess at the reasons of their so great and violent importunity but told the Petitioners If they could prove that Bell to be theirs the Gentleman was willing to pay the full value of it though he had no obligation to do so that I know of but charity but this was so far from satisfying them that still the importunity increased which made me diligently to inquire into the secret of it The first cause I found was that a dying person in the Parish desired to have it rung before him to Church and pretended he could not die in peace if it were deny'd him and that the keeping of that Bell did anciently belong to that family from father to son but because this seem'd nothing but a fond and an unreasonable superstition I enquired further and at last found that they believ'd this Bell came from Heaven and that it used to be carried from place to place and to end Controversies by Oath which the worst men durst not violate if they swore upon that Bell and the best men amongst them durst not but believe him that if this Bell was rung before the Corps to the grave it would help him out of Purgatory and that therefore when any one died the friends of the deceased did whilest the Bell was in their possession hire it for the behoof of their dead and that by this means that Family was in part maintain'd I was troubled to see under what spirit of delusion those poor souls do lie how infinitely their credulity is abused how certainly they believe in trifles and perfectly rely on vanity and how little they regard the truths of God and how not at all they drink of the waters of Salvation For the numerous companies of Priests and Friars amongst them take care they shall know nothing of Religion but what they design for them they use all means to keep them to the use of the Irish Tongue lest if they learn English they might be supplied with persons fitter to instruct them the people are taught to make that also their excuse for not coming to our Churches to bear our advices or converse with us in religious intercourses because they understand us not and they will not understand us neither will they learn that they may understand and live And this and many other evils are made greater and more irremediable by the affrightment which their Priests put upon them by the issues of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by which they now exercising it too publickly they give them Laws not only for Religion but even for Temporal things and turn their Proselytes from the Mass if they become Farmers of the Tithes from the Minister or Proprietary without their leave I speak that which I know to be true by their own confession and unconstrain'd and uninvited Narratives so that as it is certain that the Roman Religion as it stands in distinction and separation from us is a body of strange Propositions having but little relish of true primitive and pure Christianity as will he 〈◊〉 manifest if the importunity of our 〈◊〉 extort it so it is here amongst us a Faction and a State-party and design to recover their old Laws and barbarous mannèr of living a device to enable them to dwell alone and to be Populus unius labii a people of one language and unmingled with others And if this be Religion it is such a one as ought to be reproved by all the severities of Reason and Religion lest the people perish and their souls be cheaply given away to them that make merchandize of souls who were the purchace and price of Christ's bloud Having given this sad account why it was necessary that my Lords the Bishops should take care to do what they have done in this affair and why I did consent to be engaged in this Controversie otherwise than I love to be and since it is not a love of trouble and contention but charity to the souls of the poor deluded Irish there is nothing remaining but that we humbly desire of God to accept and to bless this well-meant Labour of Love and that by some admirable ways of his Providence he will be pleas'd to convey to them the notices of their danger and their sin and to de-obstruct the passages of necessary truth to them for we know the arts of their Guides and that it will be very hard that the notice of these things shall ever be suffer'd to arrive to the common people but that which hinders will hinder until it be taken away however we believe and hope in God for remedy For although Edom would not let his brother Israel pass into his Countrey and the Philistims would stop the Patriarchs Wells and the wicked Shepherds of Midian would drive their Neighbours Flocks from the watering troughs and the Emissaries of Rome use all arts to keep the people from the use of Scriptures the Wells of salvation and from entertaining the notices of such things which from the Scriptures we teach yet as God found out a remedy for those of old so he will also for the poor misled people of Ireland and will take away the evil minds or the opportunities of the Adversaries hindering the people from Instruction and make way that the Truths we have here taught may approach to their ears and sink into their hearts and make them wise unto salvation Amen THE CONTENTS Of the Three several CHAPTERS THE Introduction Pag. 1. CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles is neither Catholick Apostolick nor Primitive 4. CHAP. II. The Church of Rome as it is at this day disordered
by their own inventions arrogating to themselves a dominion over our faith and prescribing a method of Salvation which Christ and his Apostles never taught corrupting the faith of the Church of God and teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men and lastly having derogated from the Prerogative of Christ who alone is the Author and Finisher of our faith and hath perfected it in the revelations consign'd in the Holy Scriptures therefore it is that we esteem our selves oblig'd to warn the People of their danger and to depart from it and call upon them to stand upon the ways and ask after the old paths and walk in them lest they partake of that curse which is threatned by God to them who remove the Ancient Land-marks which our Fathers in Christ have set for us NOW that the Church of Rome cannot pretend that all which she imposes is Primitive and Apostolick appears in this That in the Church of Rome there is pretence made to a power not only of declaring new articles of faith but of making new Symbols or Creeds and imposing them as of necessity to Salvation Which thing is evident in the Bull of Pope Leo the Tenth against Martin Luther in which amongst other things he is condemn'd for saying It is certain that it is not in the power of the Church or Pope to constitute Articles of Faith We need not add that this power is attributed to the Bishops of Rome by Turrecremata Augustinus Triumphus de Ancona Petrus de Ancorano and the Famous Abbot of Panormo that the Pope cannot only make new Creeds but new Articles of Faith that he can make that of necessity to be believ'd which before never was necessary that he is the measure and rule and the very notice of all credibilities That the Canon Law is the Divine law and whatever law the Pope promulges God whose Vicar he is is understood to be the promulger That the souls of Men are in the hands of the Pope and that in his arbitration Religion does consist which are the very words of Hostiensis and Ferdinandus ab Inciso who were Casuists and Doctors of Law of great authority amongst them and renown The thing it self is not of dubious disputation amongst them but actually practis'd in the greatest instances as is to be seen in the Bull of Pius the Fourth at the end of the Council of Trent by which all Ecclesiasticks are not only bound to swear to all the Articles of the Council of Trent for the present and for the future but they are put into a new Symbol or Creed and they are corroborated by the same decretory clauses that are used in the Creed of Athanasius that this is the true Catholick Faith and that without this no Man can be saved NOW since it cannot be imagined that this power to which they pretend should never have been reduc'd to act and that it is not credible they should publish so inviduous and ill-sounding Doctrine to no purpose and to serve no end it may without further evidence be believed by all discerning persons that they have need of this Doctrine or it would not have been taught and that consequently without more a-doe it may be concluded that some of their Articles are parts of this new Faith and that they can therefore in no sense be Apostolical unless their being Roman makes them so To this may be added another consideration not much less material that besides what Eckius told the Elector of Bavaria that the Doctrines of Luther might be overthrown by the Fathers though not by Scripture they have also many gripes of conscience concerning the Fathers themselves that they are not right on their side and of this they have given but too much demonstration by their Expurgatory Indices The Serpent by being so curious a defender of his head shews where his danger is and by what he can most readily be destroyed But besides their innumerable corruptings of the Fathers writings their thrusting in that which was spurious and like Pharaoh killing the legitimate Sons of Israel though in this they have done very much of their work and made the Testimonies of the Fathers to be a record infinitely worse than of themselves uncorrupted they would have been of which divers Learned Persons have made publick complaint and demonstration they have at last fallen to a new trade which hath caus'd more dis-reputation to them than they have gain'd advantage and they have virtually confess'd that in many things the Fathers are against them FOR first the King of Spain gave a commission to the Inquisitors to purge all Catholick Authors but with this clause iique ipsi privatim nullisque consciis apud se indicem expurgatorium habebunt quem eundem neque aliis communicabunt neque ejus exemplum ulli dabunt that they should keep the expurgatory Index privately neither imparting that Index nor giving a copy of it to any But it happened by the Divine providence so ordering it that about thirteen years after a copy of it was gotten and published by Johannes Pappus and Franciscus Junius and since it came abroad against their wills they find it necessary now to own it and they have Printed it themselves Now by these expurgatory Tables what they have done is known to all Learned Men. In St. Chrysostom's Works printed at Basil these words The Church is not built upon the Man but the Faith are commanded to be blotted out and these There is no merit but what is given us by Christ and yet these words are in his Sermon upon Pentecost and the former words are in his first homily upon that of St. John Ye 〈◊〉 my friends c. The like they have done to him in many other places and to S. Ambrose and to St. Austin and to them all insomuch that Ludovicus Saurius the Corrector of the Press at Lyons shewed and complain'd of it to Junius that he was forc'd to cancellate or blot out many sayings of S. Ambrose in that Edition of his Works which was Printed at Lyons 1559. So that what they say on occasion of Bertram's book In the old Catholick Writers we suffer very many errors and extenuate and excuse them and finding out some commentary we feign some convenient sense when they are oppos'd in disputations they do indeed practise but esteem it not sufficient for the words which make against them they wholly leave out of their Editions Nay they correct the very Tables or Indices made by the Printers or Correctors insomuch that out of one of Froben's indices they have commanded these words to be blotted The use of Images forbidden The Eucharist no sacrifice but the memory of a sacrifice Works although they do not justifie yet are necessary to Salvation Marriage is granted to all that will not contain Venial sins damn The dead Saints after this life cannot help us nay out of the Index of St. Austin's Works
by 〈◊〉 Chevallonius at Paris 1531. there is a very strange deleatur Dele Solus Deus adorandus that God alone is to be worshipped is commanded to be blotted out as being a dangerous Doctrine These instances may serve instead of multitudes which might be brought of their corrupting the witnesses and razing the records of antiquity that the errors and Novelties of the Church of Rome might not be so easily reprov'd Now if the Fathers were not against them what need these arts Why should they use them thus Their own expurgatory indices are infinite testimony against them both that they do so and that they need it But besides these things we have thought it fit to represent in one aspect some of their chief Doctrines of difference from the Church of England and make it evident that they are indeed new and brought into the Church first by way of opinion and afterwards by power and at last by their own authority decreed into Laws and Articles SECT II. The Church has no power to make new Articles The Roman Church has many ready for the stamp Council of Trents new Article against the necessity of Communicating Infants against the Sense of divers Fathers FIRST we allege that this very power of making new Articles is a Novelty and expresly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and we prove it first by the words of the Apostle saying If we or an Angel from Heaven shall preach unto you any other Gospel viz. in whole or in part for there is the same reason of them both than that which we have preached let him be Anathema and secondly by the sentence of the Fathers in the third General Council that at Ephesus That it should not be lawful for any Man to publish or compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defin'd by the Nicene Council and that whosoever shall dare to compose or offer any such to any Persons willing to be converted from Paganism Judaism or Heresie if they were Bishops or Clerks they should be depos'd if Lay-men they should be accursed And yet in the Church of Rome Faith and Christianity increase like the Moon Bromyard complain'd of it long since and the mischief encreases daily They have now a new Article of Faith ready for the stamp which may very shortly become necessary to salvation we mean that of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Whether the Pope be above a Council or no we are not sure whether it be an article of faith amongst them or not It is very near one if it be not Bellarmine would 〈◊〉 have us believe that the Council of Constance approving the Bull of Pope Martin the fifth declar'd for the Pope's Supremacy But John Gerson who was at the Council says that the Council did abate those heights to which flattery had advanc'd the Pope and that before that Council they spoke such great things of the Pope which afterwards moderate Men durst not speak but yet some others spoke them so confidently before it that he that should then have spoken to the contrary would hardly have escap'd the note of Heresie and that these Men continued the same pretensions even after the Council But the Council of Basil decreed for the Council against the Pope and the Council of Lateran under Leo the tenth decreed for the Pope against the Council So that it is cross and pile and whether for a peny when it can be done it is now a known case it shall become an Article of Faith But ofr the present it is a probationary Article and according to Bellarmine's expression is ferè de fide it is almost an Article of Faith they want a little age and then they may go alone But the Council of Trent hath produc'd a strange new Article but it is sine controversiâ credendum it must be believ'd and must not be controverted that although the Ancient Fathers did give the Communion 〈◊〉 Infants yet they did not believe it necessary to Salvation Now this being a matter of fact whether they did or did not believe it every man that reads their writings can be able to inform himself and besides that it is strange that this should be determin'd by a Council and determin'd against evident truth it being notorious that divers of the Fathers did say it is necessary to salvation the decree it self is beyond all bounds of modesty and a strange pretension of Empire over the Christian belief But we proceed to other instances SECT III. The Roman doctrine of Indulgences an Innovation No mention of them in the Canon-Law of Gratian or in P. Lombard What Indulgences the Old Church gave to Penitents What they signifie in the New Roman the value of them disputed but the Merchandise and abuses continue THE Roman Doctrine of Indulgences was the first occasion of the great change and Reformation of the Western Churches begun by the Preachings of Martin Luther and others and besides that it grew to that intolerable abuse that it became a shame to it self and a reproach to Christendom it was also so very an Innovation that their great Antoninus confesses that concerning them we have nothing expresly either in the Scriptures or in the sayings of the Antient Doctors and the same is affirmed by Sylvester Prierias Bishop Fisher of Rochester says that in the beginning of the Church there was no use of Indulgences and that they began after the people were a-while affrighted with the torments of Purgatory and many of the School-men confess that the use of Indulgences began in the time of Pope Alexander the third towards the end of the 12 th Century but Agrippa imputes the beginning of them to Boniface the VIII who liv'd in the Reign of King Edward the first of England 1300 years after Christ. But that in his time the first Jubilee was kept we are assur'd by Crantzius This Pope lived and died with very great infamy and therefore was not likely from himself to transfer much honour and reputation to the new institution But that about this time indulgences began is more than probable much before it is certain they were not For in the whole Canon-Law written by Gratian and in the sentences of Peter Lombard there is nothing spoken of Indulgences Now because they liv'd in the time of Pope Alexander III. if he had introduc'd them and much rather if they had been as antient as S. Gregory as some vainly and weakly pretend from no greater authority than their own Legends it is probable that these great Men writing Bodies of Divinity and Law would have made mention of so considerable a point and so great a part of the Roman Religion as things are now order'd If they had been Doctrines of the Church then as they are now it is certain they must have come under their cognisance and discourses Now lest the Roman Emissaries should deceive any of the good Sons of
the Church we think it fit to acquaint them that in the Primitive Church when the Bishops impos'd severe penances and that they were almost quite perform'd and a great cause of pity intervened or danger of death or an excellent repentance or that the Martyrs interceded the Bishop did sometimes indulge the Penitent and relax some of the remaining parts of his penance and according to the example of S. Paul in the case of the incestuous Corinthian gave them ease lest they should be swallowed up with too much sorrow But the Roman Doctrine of Indulgences is wholly another thing nothing of it but the abused name remains For in the Church of Rome they now pretend that there is an infinite of degrees of Christs merits and satisfaction beyond what is necessary for the salvation of his servants and for fear Christ should not have enough the Saints have a surplusage of merits or at least of satisfactions more than they can spend or themselves do need and out of these the Church hath made her a treasure a kind of poor-mans box and out of this a power to take as much as they list to apply to the poor Souls in Purgatory who because they did not satisfie for their venial sins or perform all their penances which were imposed or which might have been imposed and which were due to be paid to God for the temporal pains reserved upon them after he had forgiven them the guilt of their 〈◊〉 sins are forc'd sadly to roar in pains not inferiour to the pains of hell excepting only that they are not eternal That this is the true state of their Article of Indulgences we appeal to Bellarmine Now concerning their new foundation of Indulgences the first stone of it was laid by Pope 〈◊〉 VI. in his extravagant Vnigenitus de poenitentiis remissionibus A. D. 1350. This constitution was published Fifty years after the first Jubilee and was a new device to bring in customers to Rome at the second Jubilee which was kept in Rome in this Popes time What ends of profit and interest it serv'd we are not much concern'd to enquire but this we know that it had not yet passed into a Catholick Doctrine for it was disputed against by Franciscus de Mayronis and Durandus not long before this extravagant and that it was not rightly form'd to their purposes till the stirs in Germany rais'd upon the occasion of Indulgences made Leo the Tenth set his Clerks on work to study the point and make something of it BUT as to the thing it self it is so wholly new so merely devis'd and forged by themselves so newly created out of nothing from great mistakes of Scripture and dreams of shadows from antiquity that we are to admonish our charges that they cannot reasonably expect many sayings of the Primitive Doctors against them any more than against the new fancies of the Quakers which were born but yesterday That which is not cannot be numbred and that which was not could not be confuted But the perfect silence of antiquity in this whole matter is an abundant demonstration that this new nothing was made in the later laboratories of Rome For as Durandus said the Holy Fathers Ambrose Hilary Hierom Augustine speak nothing of Indulgences And whereas it is said that S. Gregory DC years after Christ gave Indulgences at Rome in the stations Magister Angularis who lived about 200. years since says he never read of any such any where and it is certain there is no such thing in the writings of S. Gregory nor in any history of that age or any other that is Authentick and we could never see any History pretended for it by the Roman writers but a Legend of Ledgerus brought to us the other day by Surius which is so ridiculous and weak that even their own parties dare not avow it as true story and therefore they are fain to make use of Thomas Aquinas upon the Sentences and Altisiodorensis for story and record And it were strange that if this power of giving Indulgences to take off the punishment reserv'd by God after the sin is pardoned were given by Christ to his Church that no one of the antient Doctors should tell any thing of it insomuch that there is no one Writer of Authority and credit not the more antient Doctors we have named nor those who were much later Rupertus Tuitiensis Anselm or S. Bernard ever took notice of it but it was a Doctrine wholly unknown to the Church for about MCC years after Christ and Cardinal Cajetan told Pope Adrian VI. that to him that readeth the Decretals it plainly appears that an indulgence is nothing 〈◊〉 but an absolution from that penance which the Confessor hath imposed and therefore can be nothing of that which is now adays pretended TRUE it is that the Canonical 〈◊〉 were about the time of Burchard lessen'd and alter'd by commutations and the ancient Discipline of the Church in imposing penances was made so loose that the Indulgence was more than the Imposition and began not to be an act of mercy but remisness an absolution without amends It became a trumpet and a levy for the Holy War in Pope Urban the Second's time for he gave a plenary Indulgence and remission of all sins to them that should go and fight against the Saracens and yet no man could tell how much they were the better for these Indulgences for concerning the value of indulgences the complaint is both old and doubtful said Pope Adrian and he cites a famous gloss which tells of four Opinions all Catholick and yet vastly differing in this particular but the Summa Angelica reckons seven Opinions concerning what that penalty is which is taken off by Indulgences No man could then tell and the point was but in the infancy and since that they have made it what they please but it is at last turn'd into a Doctrine and they have devised new propositions as well as they can to make sense of it and yet it is a very strange thing a solution not an absolution it is the distinction of Bellarmine that is the sinner is let to go free without punishment in this world or in the world to come and in the end it grew to be that which Christendom could not suffer a 〈◊〉 of Doctrines without Grounds of Scripture or Catholick Tradition and not only so but they have introduc'd a way of remitting sins that Christ and his Apostles taught not a way destructive of the repentance and remission of sins which was preached in the Name of Jesus it brought into the Church false and fantastick hopes a hope that will make men asham'd a 〈◊〉 that does not glorisie the merits and perfect satisfaction of Christ a doctrine expresly dishonourable to the full and free pardon given us by God through Jesus Christ a practice that supposes a new bunch of Keys given to the Church besides that
question is after what manner it is so whether after the manner of the slesh or after the manner of spiritual grace and sacramental consequence We with the Holy Scriptures and the primitive Fathers affirm the latter The Church of Rome against the words of Scripture and the explication of Christ and the doctrine of the primitive Church affirm the former 2. That they be careful not to admit such Doctrines under a pretence of being Ancient since although the Roman errour hath been too long admitted and is ancient in respect of our days yet it is an innovation in Christianity and brought in by ignorance power and superstition very many Ages after Christ. 3. We exhort them that they remember the words of Christ when he explicates the doctrine of giving us his flesh for meat and his bloud for drink that he tells us The flesh profiteth nothing but the words which be speaks are spirit and they are life 4. THAT if those ancient and primitive Doctors above cited say true and that the symbols still remain the same in their natural substance and properties even after they are blessed and when they are receiv'd and that Christ's body and bloud are only present to faith and to the spirit that then whoever tempts them to give Divine honour to these symbols or elements as the Church of Rome does tempts them to give to a creature the due and incommunicable propriety of God and that then this evil passes further than an errour in the understanding for it carries them to a dangerous practice which cannot reasonably be excus'd from the crime of Idolatry To conclude THIS matter of it self is an error so prodigiously great and dangerous that we need not tell of the horrid and blasphemous questions which are sometimes handled by them concerning this Divine Mystery As if a Priest going by a Baker's shop and saying with intention Hoc est corpus meum whether all the Bakers bread be turned into the body of Christ Whether a Church mouse does eat her Maker Whether a man by eating the consecrated symbols does break his fast For if it be not bread and wine he does not and if it be Christ's body and bloud naturally and properly it is not bread and wine Whether it may be said the Priest is in some sense the Creator of God himself Whether his power be greater than the power of Angels and Archangels For that it is so is expresly affirmed by Cassenaeus Whether as a Bohemian Priest said that a Priest before he say his first Mass be the Son of God but afterward he is the Father of God and the Creator of his body But against this blasphemy a book was written by John Huss about the time of the Council of Constance But these things are too bad and therefore we love not to rake in so filthy chanels but give only a general warning to all our Charges to take heed of such persons who from the proper consequences of their Articles grow too bold and extravagant and of such doctrines from whence these and many other evil Propositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequently do issue As the tree is such must be the fruit But we hope it may be sufficient * to say That what the Church of Rome teaches of Transubstantiation is absolutely impossible and implies contradictions very many to the belief of which no faith can oblige us and no reason can endure For Christ's body being in heaven glorious spiritual and impassible cannot be broken And since by the Roman doctrine nothing is broken but that which cannot be broken that is the colour the taste and other accidents of the elements yet if they could be broken since the accidents of bread and wine are not the substance of Christ's body and bloud it is certain that on the Altar Christ's body naturally and properly cannot be broken * And since they say that every consecrated Wafer is Christ's whole body and yet this Wafer is not that Wafer therefore either this or that is not Christ's body or else Christ hath two bodies for there are two Wafers * But when Christ instituted the Sacrament and said This is my body which is broken because at that time Christ's body was not broken naturally and properly the very words of Institution do force us to understand the Sacrament in a sense not natural but spiritual that is truly sacramental * And all this is besides the plain demonstrations of sense which tells us it is bread and it is wine naturally as much after as before consecration * And after all the natural sense is such as our blessed Saviour reprov'd in the men of Capernaum and called them to a spiritual understanding the natural sense being not only unreasonable and impossible but also to no purpose of the spirit or any ways perfective of the soul as hath been clearly demonstrated by many learned men against the fond hypothesis of the Church of Rome in this Article SECT VI. Half Communion tho' confessed to be otherwise in Christs institution and primitive practice required upon pain of Excommunication The Question now is not so much whether it be a new as a better practice than what Christ instituted Council of Constance Cassander Aquinas c. acknowledge the Novelty Pope Gelasius calls it sacrilege Greek Church communicates the people in the Chalice OUR next instance of the novelty of the Roman Religion in their Articles of division from us is that of the half Communion For they deprive the people of the Chalice and dismember the institution of Christ and praevaricate his 〈◊〉 law in this particular and recede from the practice of the Apostles and though they confess it was the practice of the primitive Church yet they lay it aside and cur so all them that say they do amiss in it that is they curse them who follow Christ and his Apostles and his Church while themselves deny to follow them Now for this we need no other testimony but their own words in the Council of Constance Whereas in certain parts of the word some temerariously presume to affirm that the Christian people ought to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist under both kinds of bread and wine and do every where communicate the Laity not only in bread but in wine also ---- Hence it is that the Council decrees and defines against this error that although Christ instituted after supper and administred this venerable Sacrament under both kinds of bread and wine yet this notwithstanding ---- And although in the primitive Church this Sacrament was receiv'd of the faithful under both kinds Here is the acknowledgment both of Christs institution in both kinds and Christs ministring it in both kinds and the practice of the primitive Church to give it in both kinds yet the conclusion from these premisses is We command under the pain of Excommunication that no Priest communicate the people under both kinds of bread and wine The
Antichrist if he ever get into that Seat or be in already and made it necessary for all of the Roman Communion to believe and obey him in all things SECT XI Other instances of new Doctrines and practices in the Roman Church It is easier to shew where our Religion was before Luther than where theirs was before the Council of Trent Great and Excellent persons have complained heavily of the corrupt State of that Church but without redress The Reformation preferred a New cure before an Old sore THERE are very many more things in which the Church of Rome hath greatly turn'd aside from the Doctrines of Scripture and the practice of the Catholick Apostolick and primitive Church SUCH are these The Invocation of Saints the Insufficiency of Scriptures without Traditions of Faith unto Salvation their absolving sinners before they have by Canonical penances and the fruits of a good life testified their repentance their giving leave to simple Presbyters by Papal dispensation to give Confirmation or chrism selling Masses for Nine-pences Circumgestation of the Eucharist to be ador'd The dangerous Doctrine of the necessity of the Priests intention in collating Sacraments by which device they have put it into the power of the Priest to damn whom he pleases of his own Parish their affirming that the Mass is a proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead private Masses or the Lord's Supper without Communion which is against the doctrine and practice of the Antient Church of Rome it self and contrary to the Tradition of the Apostles if we may believe Pope Calixtus and is also forbidden under pain of Excommunication Peractâ consecratione omnes communicent qui noluerint ecclesiasticis carere liminibus sic autem etiam Apostoli statuerunt sancta Romana tenet Ecclesia When the Consecration is finished let all Communicate that will not be thrust from the bounds of the Church for so the Apostles appointed and so the holy Church of Rome does hold The same also was 〈◊〉 by Pope Soter and Pope Martin in a Council of Bishops and most severely enjoyn'd by the Canons of the Apostles as they are cited in the Canon Law THERE are divers others but we suppose that those Innovations which we have already noted may be 〈◊〉 to verifie this charge of Novelty But we have done this the rather because the Roman Emissaries endeavour to prevail amongst the ignorant and prejudicate by boasting of Antiquity and calling their Religion the Old Religion and the Catholick so insnaring others by ignorant words in which is no truth their Religion as it distinguishes from the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland being neither the Old nor the Catholick Religion but New and superinduc'd by arts known to all who with sincerity and diligence have look'd into their pretences BUT they have taught every Priest that can scarce understand his Breviary of which in Ireland there are but too many and very many of the people to ask where our Religion was before Luther Whereas it appears by the premises that it is much more easie for us to shew our Religion before Luther than for them to shew theirs before Trent And although they can shew too much practice of their Religion in the degenerate ages of the Church yet we can and do clearly shew ours in the purest and first ages and can and do draw lines pointing to the times and places where the several rooms and stories of their Babel was builded and where polished and where furnished BUT when the Keepers of the 〈◊〉 slept and the 〈◊〉 had sown tares and they had choak'd the wheat and almost destroyed it when the world complain'd of the 〈◊〉 errors in the Church and being oppressed by a violent power durst not complain so much as they had cause and when they who had cause to complain were yet themselves very much abused and did not complain in all they might when divers excellent persons S. Bernard Clemangis Grosthead Marsilius Ocham Alvarus Abbat Joachim Petrarch Savanarola Valla Erasmus Mantuan Gerson Ferus Cassander Andreas Fricius Modrevius Hermannus Coloniensis Wasseburgius Archdeacon of Verdun Paulus Langius Staphilus Telesphorus de Cusentiâ Doctor Talheymius Francis Zabarel the Cardinal and Pope Adrian himself with many others not to reckon Wiclef Hus Jerom of Prague the Bohemians and the poor men of Lions whom they call'd 〈◊〉 and confuted with fire and sword when almost all Christian Princes did complain heavily of the corrupt state of the Church and of Religion and no remedy could be had but the very intended remedy made things much worse then it was that divers Christian Kingdoms and particularly the Church of England Tum primùm senio docilis tua saecula Roma Erubuit pudet exacti 〈◊〉 temporis odit Praeteritos foedis cum religionibus annos Being asham'd of the errors superstitions heresies and impieties which had deturpated the face of the Church look'd into the glass of Scripture and pure Antiquity and wash'd away those stains with which time and inadvertency and tyranny had besmear'd her and being thus cleans'd and wash'd is accus'd by the Roman parties of Novelty and condemn'd because she refuses to run into the same excess of riot and de-ordination But we cannot deserve blame who return to our antient and first health by preferring a New cure before an Old sore CHAP. II. The Church of Rome as it is at this day disordered teaches Doctrines and uses Practices which are in themselves or in their true and immediate Consequences direct Impieties and give warranty to a wicked Life SECT 1. Repentance according to the Romish Doctors not of obligation as soon as we sin by Gods Law but only before we die The Church requiring it once a Year at Easter is satisfied with a ritual repentance The Objection answered that this is not the Doctrine of the Church but the Opinion of some private Doctors Contrition with them not available without confession to a Priest but Attrition with it is And one act of Contrition will make all sure OUR First instance is in their Doctrines of Repentance For the Roman Doctors teach that unless it be by accident or in respect of some other obligation a sinner is not bound presently to repent of his sin as soon as he hath committed it Some time or other he must do it and if he take care so to order his affairs that it be not wholly omitted but so that it be done one time or other he is not by the precept or grace of Repentance bound to do more Scotus and his Scholars say that a sinner is bound viz. by the precept of the Church to repent on Holy days especially the great ones But this is thought too severe by Soto and Medina who teach that a sinner is bound to repent but once a year that is against Easter These Doctors indeed do differ concerning the Churches sense which according to the best of them is bad enough
full as bad as it is stated in the charge but they agree in the worst part of it viz. that though the Church calls upon sinners to repent on Holy days or at Easter yet that by the Law of God they are not tied to so much but only to repent in the danger or article of death This is the express Doctrine taught in the Church of Rome by their famous Navar and for this he quotes Pope Adrian and Cardinal Cajetan and finally affirms it to be the sense of all men The same also is taught by Reginaldus saying It is true and the opinion of all men that the time in which a sinner is bound by the commandment of God to be contrite for his sins is the imminent article of natural or violent death WE shall not need to aggravate this sad story by the addition of other words to the same purpose in a worse degree such as those words are of the same Reginaldus There is no precept that a sinner should not persevere in enmity against God There is no negative precept forbidding such a perseverance These are the words of this man but the proper and necessary consequent of that which they all teach and to which they must consent For since it is certain that he who hath sinn'd against God and his Conscience is in a state of enmity we say he therefore ought to repent presently because until he hath repented he is an enemy to God This they confess but they suppose it concludes nothing for though they consider and confess this yet they still saying a man is not bound by God's Law to repent till the article of death do consequently say the same thing that Reginaldus does and that a man is not bound to come out of that state of enmity till he be in those circumstances that it is very probable if he does not then come out he must stay in it for ever It is something worse than this yet that Sotus says even to resolve to defer our repentance and to refuse to repent for a certain time is but a venial sin But Medina says it is none at all IF it be replied to this that though God hath left it to a sinners liberty to repent when he please yet the Church hath been more severe than God hath been and ties a sinner to repent by collateral positive laws for having bound every one to confess at Easter consequently she hath tied every one to repent at Easter and so by her laws can lie in the sin without interruption but twelve Months or thereabouts yet there is a secret in this which nevertheless themselves have been pleased to discover for the ease of tender consciences viz. that the Church ordains but the means the exteriour solemnity of it and is satisfied if you obey her laws by a Ritual repentance but the holiness and the inward repentance which in charity we should have supposed to have been design'd by the law of Festivals Non est id quod per proeceptum de observatione Festorum injungitur is not that which is enjoyned by the Church in her law of Holy-days So that still sinners are left to the liberty which they say God gave even to satisfie our selves with all the remaining pleasures of that sin for a little while even during our short mortal life only we must be sure to repent at last WE shall not trouble our selves or our charges with confuting this impious Doctrine For it is evident that this gives countenance and too much warranty to a wicked life and that of it self is confutation enough and is that which we intended to represent IF it be answered that this is not the doctrine of their Church but of some private Doctors we must tell you that if by the Doctrine of their Church they mean such things only as are decreed in their Councils it is to be considered that but few things are determined in their Councils nothing but articles of belief and the practice of Sacraments relating to publick order and if they will not be reproved for any thing but what we prove to be false in the articles of their simple belief they take a liberty to say and to do what they list and to corrupt all the World by their rules of conscience But that this is also the Doctrie of their Church their own men tell us Communis omnium It is the Doctrine of all their men so they affirm as we have cited their own words above who also undertake to tell us in what sense their Church intends to tye sinners to actual repentance not as soon as the sin is committed but at certain seasons and then also to no more of it than the external and ritual part So that if their Church be injuriously charg'd themselves have done it not we And besides all this it is hard to suppose or expect that the innumerable cases of conscience which a whole Trade of Lawyers and Divines amongst them have made can be entred into the records of Councils and publick decrees In these cases we are to consider who teaches them Their Gravest Doctors in the face of the Sun under the intuition of Authority in the publick conduct of souls in their allowed Sermons in their books licens'd by a curious and inquisitive authority not passing from them but by warranty from several hands intrusted to examine them ne fides Ecclesioe aliquid detrimenti patioetur that nothing be publish'd but what is consonant to the Catholick faith And therefore these things cannot be esteem'd private opinions especially since if they be yet they are the private opinions of them all and that we understand to be publick enough and are so their Doctrine as what the Scribes and Pharisees taught their Disciples though the whole Church of the Jews had not pass'd it into a law So this is the Roman Doctrine though not the Roman law Which difference we desire may be observed in many of the following instances that this objection may no more interpose for an escape or an excuse But we shall have occasion again to speak to it upon new particulars BUT this though it be infinitely intolerable yet it is but the beginning of sorrows For the guides of Souls in the Roman Church have prevaricated in all the parts of Repentance most sadly and dangerously THE next things therefore that we shall remark are their Doctrines concerning Contrition which when it is genuine and true that is a true cordial sorrow for having sin'd against God a sorrow proceeding from the love of God and conversion to him and ending in a dereliction of all our sins and a walking in all righteousness both the Psalms and the Prophets the Old Testament and the New the Greek Fathers and the Latin have allowed as sufficient for the pardon of our sins through faith in Jesus Christ as our Writers have often prov'd in their Sermons and books of Conscience yet first
the Church of Rome does not allow it to be of any value unless it be joyn'd with a desire to confess their sins to a Priest saying that a man by contrition is not reconcil'd to God without their Sacramental or Ritual penance actual or votive and this is decreed by the Council of Trent which thing besides that it is against Scripture and the promises of the Gospel and not only teaches for Doctrine the Commandments of Men but evacuates the goodness of God by their Traditions and weakens and discourages the best repentance and prefers repentance towards men before that which the Scripture calls Repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. BUT the malignity of this Doctrine and its influence it hath on an evil life appears in the other corresponding part of this Docrine For as Contrition without their ritual and sacramental confession will not reconcile us to God so Attrition as they call it or contrition imperfect proceeding from fear of damnation together with their Sacrament will reconcile the sinner Contrition without it will not attrition with it will reconcile us and therefore by this doctrine which is expresly decreed at Trent there is no necessity of Contrition at all and attrition is as good to all intents and purposes of pardon and a little repentance will prevail as well as the greatest the imperfect as well as the perfect So Gulielmus de Rubeo explains this doctrine He that confesses his sins grieving but a little obtains remission of his sins by the Sacrament of Penance ministred to him by the Priest absolving him So that although God working Contrition in a penitent hath not done his work for him without the Priests absolution in desire at least yet if the Priest do his part he hath done the work for the penitent though God had not wrought that excellent grace of contrition in the penitent BUT for the contrition it self it is a good word but of no severity or affrightment by the Roman Doctrine One contrition one act of it though but little and remiss can blot out any even the greatest sin always understanding it in the sense of the Church that is in the Sacrament of Penance saith Cardinal Tolet. A certain little inward grief of mind is requir'd to the perfection of Repentance said Maldonat And to 〈◊〉 a grief in general for all our sins is sufficient but it is not necessary to grieve for any one sin more than another said Franciscus de Victoriâ The greatest sin and the smallest as to this are all alike and as for the Contrition it self any intention or degree whatsoever in any instant whatsoever is sufficient to obtain mercy and remission said the same Author NOW let this be added to the former and the sequel is this That if a man live a wicked life for threescore or fourscore years together yet if in the article of his death sooner than which God hath not commanded him to repent he be a little sorrowful for his sins then resolving for the present that he will do so no more and though this sorrow hath in it no love of God but only a fear of Hell and a hope that God will pardon him this if the Priest absolves him does instantly pass him into a state of salvation The Priest with two fingers and a thumb can do his work for him only he must be greatly dispos'd and prepar'd to receive it Greatly we say according to the sense of the Roman Church for he must be attrite or it were better if he were contrite one act of grief a little one and that not for one sin more than another and this at the end of a long wicked life at the time of our death will make all sure UPON these terms it is a wonder that all wicked men in the world are not Papists where they may live so merrily and die so securely and are out of all danger unless peradventure they die very suddenly which because so very few do the venture is esteem'd nothing and it is a thousand to one on the sinners side SECT II. Confession as used in the Roman Church a trifling business whereby few are frighted from sinning but more made confident and go on in sinning Confessing and sinning going in a round Their Rules and Doctrines of Confession enjoyn some things that are dangerous and lead into temptation WE know it will be said That the Roman Church enjoyns Confession and imposes Penances and these are a great restraint to sinners and gather up what was scattered before The reply is easie but it is very sad For 1. FOR Confession It is true to them who are not us'd to it as it is at the 〈◊〉 time and for that once it is as troublesom as for a bashful man to speak Orations in publick But where it is so perpetual and universal and done by companies and crouds at a solemn set time and when it may be done to any one besides the Parish-Priest to a Friar that begs or to a Monk in his Dorter done in the ear it may be to a person that hath done worse and therefore hath no awe upon me but what his Order imprints and his Vitiousness takes off when we see Women and Boys Princes and Prelates do the same every 〈◊〉 And as oftentimes they are never the better so they are not at all asham'd but men look upon it as a certain cure like pulling 〈◊〉 a mans clothes to go and wash in a river and make it by use and habit by considence and custom to be no certain pain and the women blush or smile weep or are unmov'd as it happens under their veil and the men under the boldness of their Sex When we see that men and women confess to day and sin to morrow and are not 〈◊〉 from their sin the more for it because they know the worst of it and have felt it often and believe to be eas'd by it certain it is that a little reason and a little observation will suffice to conclude that this practice of Confession hath in it no affrightment not so much as the horrour of the sin it self hath to the Conscience For they who commit sins confidently will with less regret it may be confess it in this manner where it is the fashion for every one to do it And when all the world observes how loosly the Italians Spaniards and French do live in their Carnivals giving to themselves all liberty and licence to do the vilest things at that time not only because they are for a while to take their leave of them but because they are as they suppose to be so soon eas'd of their crimes by Confession and the circular and never-failing hand of the Priest they will have no reason to admire the severity of Confession which as it 〈◊〉 most certainly intended as a deletory of sin and might do its first intention if it were equally manag'd so now
day the power of the Keys so largely imploy'd would in a short time have emptied Purgatory of all her sad inhabitants or it may be very few would go thither and they that unfortunately do cannot stay long and consequently besides that this great softness and easiness of procedure would give confidence to the greatest sinners and the hopes of Purgatory would destroy the fears of Hell and the certainty of doing well enough in an imperfect life would make men careless of the more excellent besides these things there will need no continuation of Pensions to pray for persons dead many years ago To them I say who talk to them at this rate they have enough to answer DECEIVE not your selves there are more things to be reckon'd for than so For when you have deserved great punishments for great sins and the Guilt is taken off by Absolution and you suppose the Punishment by Indulgences or the Satisfaction of others it may be so and it may be not so FOR 1. it is according as your Indulgence is Suppose it for forty years or it may be an hundred or a thousand and that is a great matter yet peradventure according to the old penitential rate you have deserved the Penance of forty thousand years or at least you may have done so by the more severe account of God If the Penance of forty years be taken off by your Indulgence it does as much of the work as was promised or intended but you can feel little ease if still there remains due the Penance of threescore thousand years No man can tell the difference when what remains shall be so great as to surmount all the evils of this life and the abatement may be accounted by pen and ink but will signifie little in the perception it is like the casting out of a Devil out of a miserable Demoniack when there still remains fifty more as bad as he that went away the man will hardly find how much he is advanced in his cure BUT 2. you have with much labour and some charge purchased to your self so many Quadragenes or Lents of pardon that is you have bought off the Penances of so many times forty days It is well but were you well advis'd it may be your Quadragenes are not Carenes that is are not a quitting the severest Penances of fasting so long in bread and water for there is great difference in the manner of keeping a penitential Lent and it may be you have purchased but some lighter thing and then if your demerit arise to so many Carenes and you purchased but mere Quadragenes without a minute and table of particulars you may stay longer in Purgatory than you expected 3. BUT therefore your best way is to get a plenary Indulgence and that may be had on reasonable terms but take heed you do not think your self secure for a plenary Indulgence does not do all that it may be you require for there is an Indulgence more full and another most full and it is not agreed upon among the Doctors whether a plenary Indulgence is to be extended beyond the taking off those Penances which were actually enjoyned by the Confessor or how far they go further And they that read Turrecremata Navar Cordubensis Fabius Incarnatus Petrus de Soto Armilla aurea Aquinas Tolet Cajetan in their several accounts of Indulgences will soon perceive that all this is but a handful of Smoke when you hold it you hold it not 4. BUT further yet all Indulgences are granted upon some inducement and are not ex mero motu or acts of mere grace without cause and if the cause be not reasonable they are invalid and whether the cause be sufficient will be very hard to judge And if there be for the Indulgence yet if there be not a reasonable cause for the quantity of the Indulgence you cannot tell how much you get and the Preachers of Indulgences ought not to declare how valid they are assertivè that is by any confidence but opinativè or recitativè they can only tell what is said or what is their own opinion 5. WHEN this difficulty is passed over yet it may be the person is not capable of them for if he be not in the state of Grace all is nothing and if he be yet if he does not perform the condition of the Indulgence actually his mere endeavour or good desire is nothing And when the conditions are actually done it must be enquired whether in the time of doing them you were in charity whether you be so at least in the last day of finishing them it is good to be certain in this lest all evaporate and come to nothing But yet suppose this too though the work you are to do as the condition of the Indulgence be done so well that you lose not all the Indulgence yet for every degree of Imperfection in that work you will lose a part of the Indulgence and then it will be hard to tell whether you get half so much as you propounded to your self But here Pope Adrian troubles the whole affair again for if the Indulgence be only given according to the worthiness of the work done then that will avail of it self without any Grant from the Church and then it is hugely questionable whether the Popes Authority be of any use in this whole matter 6. BUT there is yet a greater heap of dangers and uncertainties for you must be sure of the Authority of him that gives the Indulgence and in this there are many doubtful Questions but when they are over yet it is worth enquiry for some Doctors are fearful in this point whether the intromission of Venial sins without which no man lives does hinder the fruit of the Indulgence for if it does all the cost is lost 7. WHEN an Indulgence is given put case to abide forty days on certain conditions whether these forty days are to be taken collectively or distributively for because it is confessed that the matter of Indulgences is res odibilis an hateful and an odious matter it is not to be understood in the sense of favour but of greatest severity and therefore it is good to know beforehand what to trust to to inquire how the Bull is penn'd and what sense of Law every word does bear for it may be any good mans case If an Indulgence be granted to a place for so many days in every year it were sit you inquire for how many years that will last for some Doctors say That if a definite number of years be not set down it is intended to last but twenty years And therefore it is good to be wise early 8. BUT it is yet of greater consideration If you take out a Bull of Indulgence relating to the Article of death in case you recover that sickness in which you thought you should use it you must consider whether you must not take out a new one for the next fit of sickness
Church which is but the private opinion of one or more yet because we are now speaking of the infinite danger of souls in that communion and the horrid Propositions by which their Disciples are conducted to the disparagement of good life it is sufficient to allege the publick and allowed sayings of their Doctors because these sayings are their Rule of living and because the particular Rules of Conscience use not to be decreed in Councils we must derive them from the places where they grow and where they are to be found BUT besides you will say That this is but the private opinion of some Doctors and what then Therefore it is not to be called the Doctrine of the Roman Church True we do not say It is an Article of their Faith but a rule of manners This is not indeed in any publick Decree but we say that although it be not yet neither is the contrary And if it be but a private opinion yet is it safe to follow it or is it not safe For that 's the question and therein is the danger If it be safe then this is their rule A private opinion of any one grave Doctor may be safely followed in the questions of Vertue and Vice But if it be not safe to follow it and that this does not make an opinion probable or the practice safe Who says so Does the Church No Does Dr. Cajus or Dr. Sempronius say so Yes But these are not safe to follow for they are but private Doctors Or if it be safe to follow them though they be no more and the opinion no more but probable then I may take the other side and choose which I will and do what I list in most cases and yet be safe by the Doctrine of the Roman Casuists which is the great line and general measure of most mens lives and that is it which we complain of And we have reason for they suffer their Casuists to determine all cases severely and gently strictly and loosly that so they may entertain all spirits and please all dispositions and govern them by their own inclinations and as they list to be governed by what may please them not by that which profits them that none may go away scandaliz'd or 〈◊〉 from their penitential chairs BUT upon this account it is a sad reckoning which can be made concerning souls in the Church of Rome Suppose one great Doctor amongst them as many of them do shall say it is lawful to kill a King whom the Pope declares Heretick By the Doctrine of probability here is his warranty And though the Church do not declare that Doctrine that is the Church doth not make it certain in Speculation yet it may be safely done in practice Here is enough to give peace of conscience to him that does it Nay if the contrary be more safe yet if the other be but probable by reason or Authority you may do the less safe and refuse what is more For that also is the opinion of some grave Doctors If one Doctor says it is safe to swear a thing as of our knowledge which we do not know but believe it is so it is therefore probable that it is lawful to swear it because a grave Doctor says it and then it is safe enough to do so AND upon this account who could find fault with Pope Constantine the IV. who when he was accus'd in the Lateran Council for holding the See Apostolick when he was not in Orders justified himself by the example of Sergius Bishop of Ravenna and Stephen Bishop of Naples Here was exemplum bonorum honest men had done so before him and therefore he was innocent When it is observ'd by Cardinal Campegius and Albertus Pighius did teach That a Priest lives more holily and chastely that keeps a Concubine than he that hath a married Wife and then shall find in the Pope's Law That a Priest is not to be removed for fornication who will not or may not practically conclude that since by the Law of God marriage is holy and yet to some men fornication is more lawful and does not make a Priest irregular that therefore to keep a Concubine is very lawful especially since abstracting from the consideration of a man's being in Orders or not fornication it self is probably no sin at all For so says Durandus Simple fornication of it self is not a deadly sin according to the Natural Law and excluding all positive Law and Martinus de Magistris says to believe simple fornication to be no deadly sin is not heretical because the testimonies of Scripture are not express These are grave Doctors and therefore the opinion is probable and the practice safe When the good people of the Church of Rome hear it read That P. Clement 8. in the Index of Prohibited books says That the Bible publish'd in vulgar Tongues ought not to be read and retain'd no not so much as a compend of the History of the Bible and Bellarmine says that it is not necessary to salvation to believe that there are any Scriptures at all written and that Cardinal Hosius saith Perhaps it had been better for the Church if no Scriptures had been written They cannot but say that this Doctrine is probable and think themselves safe when they walk without the light of Gods Word and rely wholly upon the Pope or their Priest in what he is pleas'd to tell them and that they are no way oblig'd to keep that Commandment of Christ Search the Scriptures Cardinal Tolet says That if a Nobleman be set upon and may escape by going away he is not tied to it but may kill him that intends to strike him with a stick That if a man be in a great passion and so transported that he considers not what be says if in that case he does blaspheme he does not always sin That if a man be beastly drunk and then commit fornication that fornication is no sin That if a man desires carnal pollution that he may be eas'd of his carnal temptations or for his health it were no sin That it is lawful for a man to expose his bastards to the Hospital to conceal his own shame He says it out of Soto and he from Thomas Aquinas That if the times be hard or the Judge unequal a man that cannot sell his wine at a due price may lawfully make his Measures less than is appointed or mingle water with his wine and sell it for pure so he do not lie and yet if he does it is no mortal sin nor obliges him to restitution Emanuel Sà affirms That if a man lie with his intended wife before Marriage it is no sin or a light one nay quinetiam expedit si multum illa differatur it is good to do so if the benediction or publication of Marriage be much deferr'd That Infants in their cradles may be made Priests is the
or vain repetition of the Gentiles for they did just so and Christ said they did not do well and that is all that we pretend to know of it They thought to be heard the rather for so doing and if the people of the Roman Church do not think so there is no reason why they should do so But without any further arguing about the business they are not asham'd to own it For the Author of the Preface to the Jesus Psalter printed by Fouler at Antwerp promises to the repetition of that sweet Name Great aid against temptations and a wonderful increase of grace SECT IX They pray to dead Men and Women whom they suppose beatified and invoke them as helpers preservers Guardians Deliverers contrary to the Scriptures An answer to that pretence that they only desire the Saints to pray for them which by many instances is showed to be false What their Divines teach concerning the Blessed Virgin to engage all to have recourse to her An account of the publick prayers to her The Council of Constance invoked her as other Councils did use to invocate the Holy Ghost Of the Lady's Psalter by Bonaventure How derogatory to Christ to rely in praying to God upon the Merits Satisfaction and Intercession of Saints St. Austin's excellent saying Tutius jucundius c. How their devotion is prostituted to new upstart Saints which are of late Canonization BUT this mischief is gone further yet For as Cajetan affirms Prayers ought to be well done Saltem non malè at least not ill But besides that what we have now remark'd is so not well that it is very ill that which follows is directly bad and most intolerable For the Church of Rome in her publick and allowed offices prays to dead men and women who are or whom they suppose to be beatified and these they invocate as Preservers Helpers Guardians Deliverers in their necessity and they expresly call them their Refuge their Guard and Defence their Life and Health Which is so formidable a Devotion that we for them and for our selves too if we should imitate them are to dread the words of Scripture Cursed is the man that trusteth in man We are commanded to call upon God in the time of trouble and it is promised that he will deliver us and we shall glorifie him We find no such command to call upon Saints neither do we know who are Saints excepting a very few and in what present state they are we cannot know nor how our prayers can come to their knowledge and yet if we did know all this it cannot be endured at all that Christians who are commanded to call upon God and upon none else and to make all our prayers through Jesus Christ and never so much as warranted to make our prayers through Saints departed should yet choose Saints for their particular Patrons or at all relie upon them and make prayers 〈◊〉 them in such forms of words which are only sit to be spoken to God prayers which have no testimony command or promise in the Word of God and therefore which cannot be made in faith or prudent hope NEITHER will it be enough to say that they only desire the Saints to pray for them for though that be of it self a matter indifferent if we were sure they do hear us when we pray and that we should not by that means secretly destroy our considence in God or lessen the honour of Christ our Advocate of which because we cannot be sure but much rather the contrary it is not a matter indifferent Yet besides this in the publick Offices of the Church of Rome there are prayers to Saints made with confidence in them with derogation to God's glory and prerogative with diminution to the honour of Christ with words in sound and in all appearance the same with the highest that are usually express'd in our prayers to God and his Christ And this is it we insist upon and reprove as being a direct destruction of our sole confidence in God and too near to blasphemy to be endured in the Devotions of Christians We make our words good by these Allegations 1. WE shall not need here to describe out of their didactical writings what kind of prayers and what causes of confidence they teach towards the Blessed Virgin Mary and all Saints Only we shall recite a few words of Antoninus their great Divine and 〈◊〉 of Florence It is necessary that they to whom she converts her eyes being an Advocate for them shall be justified and saved And whereas it may be objected out of John that the Apostle says If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous He answers That Christ is not our Advocate alone but a Judge and since the just is scarce secure how shall a sinner go to him as to an Advocate Therefore God hath provided us of an Advocatess who is gentle and sweet in whom nothing that is sharp is to be found And to those words of St. Paul Come boldly to the Throne of Grace He says That Mary is the Throne of Christ in whom he rested to her therefore let us come with boldness that we may obtain mercy and find grace in time of need and adds that Mary is called full of grace because she is the means and cause of Grace by transfusing grace to mankind and many other such dangerous Propositions Of which who please to be further satisfied if he can endure the horror of reading blasphemous sayings he may sind too great abundance in the Mariale of Bernardine which is confirm'd by publick Authority Jacobus Perez de Valentia and in Ferdinand Quirinus de Salazar who affirms That the Virgin Mary by offering up Christ to God the Father was worthy to have after a certain manner that the whole salvation and redemption of mankind should be ascrib'd to her and that this was common to Christ and the blessed Virgin his Mother that she did offer and give the price of our Redemption truly and properly and that she is deservedly call'd the Redeemer the Repairer the Mediator the Author and cause of our salvation Many more horrid blasphemies are in his notes upon that Chapter in his Defence of the Immaculate Conception published with the Privilege of Philip the III. of Spain and by the Authority of his Order But we insist not upon their Doctrines deliver'd by their great Writers though every wise man knows that the Doctrines of their Church are delivered in large and indefinite terms and descend not to minute senses but are left to be explicated by their Writers and are so practis'd and understood by the people and at the worst the former Doctrine of Probability will make it safe enough But we shall produce the publick practice of their Church AND 〈◊〉 it cannot be suppos'd that they intend nothing but to desire their prayers for they rely also on their merits and
turn'd him over and given them leave to proceed This was verified in the Synod of Dalmatia held by the Legates of Pope Innocent the III. and is now in the Church of Rome pretended to be by Divine Right For it cannot be proved that Secular Princes are the Lawful Superiours and Judges of Clergy men unless it can be prov'd that the Sheep are better than the Shepherd or Sons than the Fathers or Temporals than Spirituals said Bellarmine And therefore it is a shame says he to see Princes contending with Bishops for precedency or for Lands For the truth is this whatever the custom be the Prince is the Bishops Subject not the Bishop the Princes For no man can serve two Masters the Pope is their own Superiour and therefore the Secular Prince cannot be So both Bellarmine and 〈◊〉 conclude this Doctrine out of Scripture AND although in this as in all things else when he finds it for the advantage of the Church the Pope can dispense and diverse Popes of Rome did give power to the Common-wealth of Venice to judge Clergy men and punish them for great offences yet how ill this was taken by Paulus V. at their hands and what stirs he made in Christendom concerning it the World was witness and it is to be read in the History of the Venetian Interdict and not without great difficulty defended by Marcus Antonius Perogrinus M. Antonius Othelius and Joachim Scaynus of Padua beside the Doctors of Venice NOW if it be considered how great a part of mankind in the Roman Communion are Clergy men and how great a portion of the Lands and Revenues in each Kingdom they have to pretend a Divine Right of Exemption of their Persons from Secular Judicatories and their Lands from Secular burthens and charges of the Common-wealth is to make Religion a very little friend to the Publick and causes that by how much there is more of Religion by so much there is the less of Piety and Publick Duty Princes have many times felt the evil and are always subject to it when so many thousand persons are in their Kingdoms and yet Subjects to a Foreign Power But we need not trouble our selves to reckon the evils consequent to this procedure themselves have own'd them even the very worst of things The Rebellion of a Clergy man against his Prince is not Treason because he is not his Princes Subject It is expresly taught by Emanuel Sà and because the French-men in zeal to their own King could not endure this Doctrine these words were left out of the Edition of Paris but still remain in the Editions of Antwerp and Collen But the thing is a general Rule That all Ecclesiastical persons are free from Secular Jurisdiction in causes Criminal whether Civil or Ecclesiastical and this Rule is so general that it admits no exception and so certain that it cannot be denied unless you will contradict the principles of Faith So Father Suarez And this is pretended to be allowed by Councils Sacred Canons and all the Doctors of Laws Humane and Divine for so Bellarmine affirms Against which since it is a matter of Faith and Doctrine which we now charge upon the Church of Rome as an Enemy to publick Government we shall think it sufficient to oppose against their Pretension the plain and easie words of S. Paul Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers Every Soul That is saith S. Chrysostom whether he be a Monk or an Evangelist a Prophet or an Apostle 〈◊〉 the like iniquity when it is extended to its utmost Commentary which the Commenters of the Church of Rome put upon it is the Divine Right of the Seal of Confession which they make so Sacred to serve such ends as they have chosen that it may not be broken up to save the lives of Princes or of the whole Republick saith Tolet No not to save all the World said Henriquez Not to save an Innocent not to keep the World from burning or Religion from perversion or all the Sacraments from demolition Indeed it is lawful saith Bellarmine if a Treason be known to a Priest in Confession and he may in general words give notice to a pious and Catholick Prince but not to a Heretick and that was acutely and prudently said by him said Father 〈◊〉 Father Binet is not so kind even to the Catholick Princes for he says that it is better that all the Kings of the World should perish than that the Seal of Confession should be so much as once broken and this is the Catholick Doctrine said Eudaemon Joannes in his Apology for Garnet and for it he also quotes Suarez But it is enough to have nam'd this How little care these men take of the lives of Princes and the Publick Interest which they so greatly undervalue to every 〈◊〉 fancy of their own is but too evident by these Doctrines SECT III. Their Doctrines enemies to the 〈◊〉 Powers and Lives of Princes The whole Order of Jesuits subject Princes to the Pope Whose power extends to Temporal punishments and depriving them of their Kingdoms The method of doing it and how they answer the precepts of obeying Kings Instances of putting the deposing power in execution Answer to the Objection that this is but the private opinion of some Doctors not the Doctrine of the Church A Conclusion exhorting all that desire to be saved to decline these horrid Doctrines THE last thing we shall remark for the instruction and caution of our Charges is not the least The Doctrines of the Church of Rome are great enemies to the Dignity and Security to the Powers and Lives of Princes And this we shall briefly prove by setting down the Doctrines themselves and their consequent practices AND here we observe That not only the whole Order of Jesuits is a great enemy to Monarchy by subjecting the Dignity of Princes to the Pope by making the Pope the Supreme Monarch of Christians but they also teach That it is a Catholick Doctrine the Doctrine of the Church THE Pope hath a Supreme power of disposing the Temporal things of all Christians in order to a Spiritual good saith Bellarmine And Becanus discourses of this very largely in his book of the English Controversie printed by Albin at Mentz 1612. But because this book was ordered to be purged Vna litura potest we shall not insist upon it but there is as bad which was never censur'd Bellarmine says that the Ecclesiastical Republick can command and compel the Temporal which is indeed its Subject to change the Administration and to depose Princes and to appoint others when it cannot otherwise defend the Spiritual good And Father Suarez says the same The power of the Pope extends it self to the coercion of Kings with Temporal punishments and depriving them of their Kingdoms when necessity requires nay this power is more necessary over Princes than
over Subjects The same also is taught by Santarel in his book of Heresie and Schism printed at Rome 1626. BUT the mischief of this Doctrine proceeds a little further CARDINAL Tolet affirms and our Countryman Father Bridgewater commends the saying That when a Prince is Excommunicate before the Denunciation the Subjects are not absolved from their Oath of Allegiance as Cajet an says well yet when it is denounced they are not only absolved from their Obedience but are bound not to obey unless the fear of death or loss of goods excuse them which was the case of the English Catholicks in the time of Henry the VIII And F. Creswel says it is the sentence of all Catholicks that Subjects are bound to expel Heretical Princes if they have strength enough and that to this they are tied by the Commandment of God the most strict tie of Conscience and the extreme danger of their souls Nay even before the sentence is declared though the Subjects are not bound to it yet lawfully they may deny obedience to an Heretical Prince said Gregory de Valentia IT were an endless labour to transcribe the horrible Doctrines which are preached in the Jesuits School to the shaking off the Regal Power of such Princes which are not of the Roman Communion The whole oeconomy of it is well describ'd by Bellarmine who affirms That it does not belong to Monks or other Ecclesiasticks to commit Murthers neither do the Popes use to proceed that way But their manner is first Fatherly to correct Princes then by Ecclesiastical Censures to deprive them of the Communion then to absolve their Subjects from the Oath of Allegeance and to deprive them of their Kingly Dignity And what then The Execution belongs to others This is the way of the Popes thus wisely and moderately to break Kings in pieces WE delight not to aggravate evil things We therefore forbear to set down those horrid things spoken by Sà Mariana Santarèl Carolus Scribanius and some others It is enough that Suarez says An Excommunicate King may with impunity be depos'd or kill'd by any one This is the case of Kings and Princes by the Sentence of the chiefest Roman Doctors And if it be objected that we are commanded to obey Kings not to speak evil of them not to curse them no not in our heart There is a way found out to answer these little things For though the Apostle commands that we should be subject to higher powers and obey Kings and all that are in Authority It is true you must and so you may well enough for all this for the Pope can make that he who is a King shall be no King and then you are disoblig'd so Bellarmine And if after all this there remains any 〈◊〉 of Conscience it ought to be remembred that though even after a Prince is excommunicated it should be of it self a sin to depose or kill the Prince yet if the Pope commands you it is no sin For if the Pope should err by commanding sin or forbidding vertues yet the Church were bound to believe that the vices were good and the vertues evil unless she would sin against her Conscience They are the very words of Bellarmine BUT they add more particulars of the same Bran. The Sons of an Heretical Father are made sui juris that is free from their Fathers power A Catholick Wife is not tied to pay her duty to an Heretical Husband and the Servants are not bound to do service to such Masters These are the Doctrines of their great Azorius and as for Kings he affirms they may be depos'd for Heresie But all this is only in the case of Heretical Princes But what for others EVEN the Roman Catholick Princes are not free from this danger All the World knows what the Pope did to King Chilperick of France He depos'd him and put Pipin in his place and did what he could to have put Albert King of the Romans in the Throne of Philip sirnamed the Fair. They were the Popes of Rome who arm'd the Son against the Father the Emperour Henry IV. and the Son fought against him took him prisoner shav'd him and thrust him into a Monastery where he died with grief and hunger We will not speak of the Emperour Frederick Henry the sixth Emperour the Duke of Savoy against whom he caused Charles the V. and Francis the I. of France to take Arms nor of Francis Dandalus Duke of Venice whom he bound with chains and fed him as Dogs are fed with bones and scraps under his Table Our own Henry the II. and King John were great Instances of what Princes in their case may expect from that Religion These were the piety of the Father of Christendom But these were the product of the Doctrine which Clement the V. vented in the Council of Vienna Omne jus Regum à se pendere The rights of all Kings depend upon the Pope And therefore 〈◊〉 their Catholick Princes are at their 〈◊〉 and they would if they durst use them 〈◊〉 If they do but favour Hereticks or Schismaticks receive them or defend them if the 〈◊〉 be perjur'd if he rashly break a League made with the See Apostolick 〈◊〉 he do not keep the peace promis'd to the Church if he be sacrilegious if he dissipate the goods of the Church the Pope may depose him said Azorius And 〈◊〉 says he may do it in case the Prince or Emperour be insufficient 〈◊〉 he be wicked if he be unprofitable if he does not defend the Church This is very much but yet there is something more this may be done if he impose new Gabels or Imposts upon his Subjects without the Pope's leave for if they do not pretend to this also why does the Pope in Bulla Coenae Dominici excommunicate all Princes that do it NOW if it be inquired by what Authority the Pope does these things It is answered That the Pope hath a Supreme and Absolute Authority both the Spiritual and the Temporal Power is in the Pope as Christ's Vicar said Azorius and Santarel The Church hath the right of a superiour Lord over the rights of Princes and their Temporalties and that by her Jurisdiction she disposes of Temporals ut de suo peculio as of her own proper goods said our Countreyman Weston Rector of the College at Doway Nay the Pope hath power in omnia per omnia super omnia in all things thorough all things and over all things and the sublimity and immensity of the Supreme Bishop is so great that no mortal man can comprehend it said Cassenaeus no man can express it no man can think it So that it is no wonder what Papirius Massonus said of Pope Boniface the VIII that he owned himself not only as the Lord of France but of all the World NOW we are sure it will be said That this is but the private opinion of some Doctors not the Doctrine
Church to day may be heretical at the next change or may betray her trust or obtrude new Articles in contradiction to the old or by new interpretations may clude antient truths or may change your Creed or may pretend to be the Spouse of Christ when she is idolatrous that is adulterous to God Your Religion is that which you must and therefore may competently understand You must live in it and grow in it and govern all the actions of your life by it and in all questions concerning the Church you are to chuse your Church by the Religion and therefore this ought first and last to be enquired after Whether the Roman Church be the Catholick Church must depend upon so many uncertain enquires is offered to be proved by so long so tedious a method hath in it so many intrigues and Labyrinths of Question and is like a long line so impossible to be perfectly strait and to have no declination in it when it is held by such a hand as yours that unless it be by material enquiries into the Articles of the Religion you can never hope to have just grounds of confidence In the mean time you can consider this if the Roman Church were the Catholick that is so as to exclude all that are not of her communion then the Greek Churches had as good turn Turks as remain damned Christians and all that are in the communion of all the other Patriarchal Churches in Christendom must also perish like Heathens which thing before any man can believe he must have put off all reason and all modesty and all charity And who can with any probability think that the Communion of Saints in the Creed is nothing but the Communion of Roman Subjects and the Article of the Catholick Church was made up to dispark the inclosures of Jerusalem but to turn them into the pale of Rome and the Church is as limited as ever it was save only that the Synagogue is translated to Rome which I think you will easily believe was a Proposition the Apostles understood not But though it be hard to trust to it it is also so hard to prove it that you shall never be able to understand the measures of that question and therefore your salvation can never depend upon it For no good or wise person can believe that God hath tied our Salvation to impossible measures or bound us to an Article that is not by us cognoscible or intends to have us conducted by that which we cannot understand and when you shall know that Learned men even of the Roman party are not agreed concerning the Catholick Church that is infallibly to guide you some saying that it is the virtual Church that is the Pope some that it is the representative Church that is a Council Some that it is the Pope and the Council the virtual Church and the representative Church together Some that neither of these nor both together are infallible but only the essential Church or the diffusive Church is the Catholick from whom we must at no hand dissent you will quickly find your self in a wood and uncertain whether you have more than a word in exchange for your soul when you are told you are in the Catholick Church But I will tell you what you may understand and see and feel something that your self can tell whether I say true or no concerning it You are now gone to a Church that protects it self by arts of subtilty and arms by violence and persecuting all that are not of their minds to a Church in which you are to be a Subject of the King so long as it pleases the Pope In which you may be absolved from your Vows made to God your Oaths to the King your Promises to Men your duty to your Parents in some cases A Church in which men pray to God and to Saints in the same Form of words in which they pray to God as you may see in the Offices of Saints and particularly of our Lady a Church in which men are taught by most of the principal Leaders to worship Images with the same worship with which they worship God and Christ or him or her whose Image it is and in which they usually picture God the Father and the holy Trinity to the great dishonour of that sacred mystery against the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church against the express doctrine of Scripture against the honour of a Divine Attribute I mean the immensity and spirituality of the Divine Nature You are gone to a Church that pretends to be Infallible and yet is infinitely deceived in many particulars and yet endures no contradiction and is impatient her children should enquire into any thing the Priests obtrude You are gone from receiving the whole Sacrament to receive it but half from Christs Institution to a humane invention from Scripture to uncertain Traditions and from antient Traditions to new pretences from prayers which ye understood to prayers which ye understand not from confidence in God to rely upon creatures from intire dependence upon inward acts to a dangerous temptation of resting too much in outward ministeries in the external work of Sacraments and of Sacramentals you are gone from a Church whose worshipping is simple Christian and Apostolical to a Church where mens consciences are loaden with a burden of Ceremonies greater than that in the days of the Jewish Religion for the Ceremonial of the Church of Rome is a great Book in Folio greater I say than all the Ceremonies of the Jews contained in Leviticus c. You are gone from a Church where you were exhorted to read the Word of God the holy Scriptures from whence you found instruction institution comfort reproof a treasure of all excellencies to a Church that seals up that fountain from you and gives you drink by drops out of such Cisterns as they first make and then stain and then reach out and if it be told you that some men abuse Scripture it is true for if your Priests had not abused Scripture they could not thus have abused you but there is no necessity they should and you need not unless you list any more than you need to abuse the Sacraments or Decrees of the Church or the messages of your friend or the Letters you receive or the Laws of the Land all which are liable to be abused by evil persons but not by good people and modest understandings It is now become a part of your Religion to be ignorant to walk in blindness to believe the man that hears your Confessions to hear none but him not to hear God speaking but by him and so you are liable to be abused by him as he please without remedy You are gone from us where you were only taught to worship God through Jesus Christ and now you are taught to worship Saints and Angels with a worship at least dangerous and in some things proper to God for your Church worships the Virgin
our selves and our infinite distances from God but if love makes you speak speak on so shall your prayers be full of charity and devotion Nullus est amore superior ille te coget ad veniam qui me ad multiloquium Love makes God to be our friend and our approches more united and acceptable and therefore you may say to God the same love which made me speak will also move me to hear and pardon Love and devotion may enlarge your Letanies but nothing else can unless Authority does interpose 6. BE curious not to communicate but with the true Sons of the Church of England lest if you follow them that were amongst us but are gone out from us because they were not of us you be offended and tempted to impute their follies to the Church of England 7. TROUELE your self with no controversies willingly but how you may best please God by a strict and severe conversation 8. IF any Protestant live loosely remember that he dishonours an excellent Religion and that it may be no more laid upon the charge of our Church than the ill lives of most Christians may upon the whole Religion 9. LET no man or woman affright you with declamations and scaring words of Heretick and Damnation and Changeable for these words may be spoken against them that return to light as well as to those that go to darkness and that which men of all sides can say it can be of effect to no side upon its own strength or pretension THE END BOOKS written by J. Taylor D. D. Lord Bishop of Down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Course of Sermons for all the Sundays of the year together with a discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministerial in fol. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ in fol. the 7. Edit The Rule and Exercises of holy living and dying oct The Golden Grove or a Manual of daily Prayers sitted to the days of the week together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness to which is added a Guide to the Penitent in 12. A Collection of Polemical and Moral discourses in fol. A Discourse of the Nature Offices and Measure of Friendship in 12. Ductor Dubitantium or the Rule of Conscience fol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Supplement to the ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or course of Sermons for the whole year All that have been Preached and Published since the Restauration to which is adjoyned his Advice to the Clergy of his Diocese A Discourse of Confirmation in oct Several Chirurgical Treatises by Richard Wiseman Serjeant-Chirurgeon the Second Edition in fol. The Catholick doctrine of the Eucharist in all Ages in Answer to what Mr. Arnaud Doctor of the Sorborn alledges touching the Belief of the Greek Moscovite Armenian Jacobite Nestorian Coptic Maronite and other Eastern Churches in fol. XXII Sermons preached before His MAJESTY King CHARLES II. at Whitehal by H. Killigrew D. D. and published by the Reverend Dr. Patrick Quarto Winter-Evening Conserence in three parts between Neighbours The third part being newly printed in octavo Animadversions upon a book Intituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stilling fleet in Vindication of the Church of England by a person of Honour ALL Sold by R. Royston Book seller at the Angel in Amen-Corner 1 〈◊〉 6. 4. Phil. 2. 14. Contra 〈◊〉 De verae fide Moral reg 72. c. 1 reg 80. c. 22. Epist. Pasch. 2. De incarn Christi 〈◊〉 2. cap. de Origen error Lib. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. comperimus de consecr dist 2. in 1 Cor. 11. Eccl. 11. 6. De unit Eccles. c. 6. * Ecclesia ex sacris canonicis Scripturis 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 ex illis ostendi non potest Ecclesia non est S. Aug. de uni Eccles. c. 4. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiam ibi decernamus causam nostram * Lib. Candiscip Eccl. Angl. injunct Regin Elis. A. D. 1571 Can. de 〈◊〉 Dat. 3. Calen Mart. 〈◊〉 * Quod sit metrum regula ac scientia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Ecclesia l. 2. c. 〈◊〉 ‖ Novum Symbolum condere solum ad Papam spectat quia est caput sidei Christiane cujus authoritate omnia quae ad fidem spectant 〈◊〉 roborantur q. 59. a. 1. art 2. sicut potest novum symbolum condere ita potest novos articulos supra alios multiplicare * Papa potest facere novos articulos fidei id est quod modo credi oporteat cum sic 〈◊〉 non oporteret In cap. cum Christus de 〈◊〉 n. 2. ‖ Papa potest inducere novum articulum 〈◊〉 In idem * Super 2. Decret de jurejur c. nimis n. 1. ‖ Apud Petrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. instit per. ca. 69. * Jobannes Clemens aliquot folia Theodoretilaceravit abjecit in focum in quibus contra transubstantiationem praeclare disseruit Et cum non it a pridem Originem excuderent totum illud caput sextum Jobannis quod commentabatur Origines omiserunt mutilum ediderunt librum propter candem causam * Sixtus Senensis epist. dedicat ad Pium Quin. laudat 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 verba Expurgari emaculari curasti omnium Catholicorum Scriptorum ac praecipuè veterum 〈◊〉 scripta Index expurgator Madr. 1612. in Indice libror expurgatorum pag. 39. Gal. 1. 8. Part. 2. act 6. c. 7. De potest Eccles. Concil 〈◊〉 De Concil author l 2. c. 17. S. 1. Sess. 21. c. 4. Part. 1. Sum. tit 10. c. 3. In art 18. 〈◊〉 * Intravit ut vulpes regnavit ut leo 〈◊〉 ut canis de eo 〈◊〉 dictum Tertul. 1. ad Martyr c. 1. S. Cyprian lib. 3. Ep. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. Concil Nicen. 1. can 12. Conc. 〈◊〉 c. 5. Concil Laodicen c. 2. S. Basil. in Ep. canonicis habentur in Nomocanone Photii can 73. * Communis opinio D. D. tan Theologorum quam Canonicorum quod sunt ex abundantia meritorum quae ultra mensuram demeritorum suorum sancti sustinuerunt Christi Sum. Angel v. Indulg 9. * Lib. 1. de indulgent c. 2. 3. * In 4. l sen. dist 19 q. 2. ‖ Ib dist 20 q. 3. Vbi supra In lib. 4. sent Verb. Indulgentia Vt quid non praevides tibi in die judicii quando nemo 〈◊〉 per alium excusari vel defendi sed unusquisque sufficiens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sibi ipsi Tho. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. de imit c. 24. * Homil. 1. in ep ad Philom ‖ Serm. de Martyrib Serm. 1. de Advent 〈◊〉 18. 22. * Neque ab iis quos sanas lente languor abscedit sed illico quem restituis ex integro convalescit quia consummatum est quod facis perfectum quod largiris S. Cyprian de coena Domini vel potius Arnoldus P. Gelasius de vincul anathem negat 〈◊〉 deberi 〈◊〉 si culpa corrigatur * 〈◊〉 gratiae finalis peccatum veniale in