and theirs is the affirmative and since all Negatives especially in matters of Religion prove themselves it falls to their share to prove those Additions which they have made to our Faith and to the Doctrine contained in the Scriptures 3. Though this is a sure Maxime yet our Plea is stronger for there are many things taught by them against the express words of Scripture as their worshipping Images their noâ— drinking all of the Cup their worshipping of Angels their not worshipping God in a tongue which the unlearned understand and to which they can say Amen their setting up more Mediatoâ—â— between God and us than one Whereas S. Paul exhorting us to make Prayerâ— to God tells us there is one Mâ—diâ—tor which shews that he spake there his single Intercession with God on our behalf 4. We do not only build our Doctrine upon some few passages of the Scripture in which perhaps a Critical Writer might easily raise much dust but upon that in which we cannot be so easily mistaken which is the main scope of the whole New Testament and the design of Christianity which we believe is reversed in their Church by the Idolatry and Superstition that is in it 5. As for the particulars which they call on us to prove as they are very few so scarce any of them is of the greatest consequence The first is a speculative point about which we would never have broke Communion with them For the second that we receive Christ only by Faith if the third is true that the Sacrament is still Bread then that must be also true Now S. Paul calls it so four several times as also our Saviour calls the Cup the Fruit of the Vine As for our denying Purgatory it is a Negative and they must prove it Nor should we have broken Communion for their opinion concerning it if they had not added to that the redeeming Souls out of it with Masses by which the Worship is corrupted contrary to the institution of the Sacrament And for the last in the sense in which many of them assert it we do not raise any Controversie about it for we know that God rewards our good works or rather crowns his own Grace in us The fifth Method IS the Peaceable Method and without dispute founded on the Synod of Dort which all the pretended Reformed Churches of France have received and which has defined according to the Holy Scripture that when there is a dispute concerning any Controverted Article between two parties that are both within the true Church it is necessary to refer it to the judgement of the Synod and that he who refuses to submit himself becomes guilty of Heresiâ— and Schism Now if we will run back to the time in which the dispute began concerning any Article for instance that of the Real Presence both the parties in thâ— debate as well the Ancestors of those of the P. R. Religion as ours were in thâ— same Church which was the true Church for there was no other before the Sâ—paration which was not then made Then their Ancestors who would not submit to the Iudgement of the Church and have separated from her on no other account but because she had condemned their sentiments were Schismaticks and Hereticks And those who at this day succeed them are in the same manner guilty since they follow their opinions And to this they can make no other Answer but that which the Hereticks that have been condemned in all Ages might have made This Method is proved in all its parts in the little Treatise that has been made about it Remarks IT is not unwisely done to call this a Method that is to pass without dispute for it will not bear one And 1. There is this difference between the principles of Protestants and those of the Church of Rome that whereas the latter are bound to justifie whatever has been decreed in a General Council as a rule either of Faith or Manners the sormer are not so tied and much less are they bound by the decision of a National Council though never so solemn It is natural for all Judicatories to raise their own authority as high as they can and so if any Synod has made any such Declaration it lies on them to justifie it but the rest of those who have separated from the corruptions of the Church of Rome are not concerned in it 2. The principle of Protestants with relation to the majority even in a General Council is That when any Doctrines are established or condemned upon the Authorities of the Scriptures those who differ from them and do think â—hat the Council misunderstood the Scriptures are bound to suspect themselves a little and to review the matter with greater application and not to adhere to their former opinions out of pride or obstinacy They are also bound to consider well of their opinions though they appear still to be true yet if â—hey are of that importance that the publishing them is necessary to Salvation for unless it is so the Peace of the Church is not to be rent by them Yet if they are required to profess that they believe opinions which they think false if tâ—ey were never so inconsiderable no man ought to go against his Conscience But if a man after his strictest enquiries is still persuaded that a Council has decreed against the true meaning of the Scriptures in a point necessary to Salvation then he must prefer God to Man and follow the sounder though it should prove to be the much lesser party And if any Company or Synod of Protestants have decreed any thing contrary to this in so far they have departed from the Protestant principles 3. Difference is to be made also between Heresie and Schism in a Legal and a Vulgar sense and what is truly such in the sight of God The Sentence of a Supream Court from which there lies no Appeal makes one legally a Criminal But if he is innocent he is not the less innocent because a hard Sentence is past against him So Heresie and â—chism may take their denominations from the Sentence of a National or General Council But in that which is the sense of those words that makes them Criminal Heresie is nothing but an obstinate persisting in errours contrary to Divine Revelation after one has had a sufficient means of Inâ—truction and Schism is an ill grounded Separation from the Body of the Church So it must be the Divine Revelation and not the authority of a Synod that can prove one who holds contrary opinions to be an Heretick and the grounds of the Separation must be likewise examined before one can be concluded a Schismatick 4. Though the Conclusions and Definitions made by the Synod of Dort are perhaps generally received in France yet that does not bind them up to subscribe every thing that was asserted in that Synod Nor do they found their assent to those opinions on the authority of that Synod but upon the
THE LETTER Writ by the last Assembly General OF THE Clergy of France TO THE PROTESTANTS Inviting them to return to their Communion TOGETHER With the Methods proposed by them for their Conviction Translated into English and Examined By GILBERT BURNET D. D. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard M DC LXXXIII THE PREFACE THE fate of most that Answer any particular Book or Treatise is such that one may be justly discouraged from undertaking it For besides the great trouble the Answerer is put to in following his Author in all his Digressions and perhaps Impertinences and the small game he is often engaged in about some ill-sounding expression or some misunderstood period the issue of the whole business in matters of Controversies comes at best to this That it may be confest his Adversary has been too unwary in some assertions or unconcluding in some of his Arguments But still men retain their old perswasions And if one whom they had set up for their Champion should happen to be baffled they will only say that they mistook their man and be being made quit the Stage another is set in his room So that at most their engagement proves to be of the nature of a single Combate in the issue of which only two Individuals and not two Parties are concerned But when a whole Body speaks in one Voice here the undertaking of a single person in opposition to them may be thought indeed too hardy and bold but yet the debate becomes of more consequence at least to the one side because the Credit of those against whom he writes is so well established that a satisfactory Answer to what they offer as the strength of their cause must needs have great effect on these who examine those matters Critically and judge of them Impartially The World hath been filled with the noise of the Conversions lately made in France but it has been generally given out that the violences of Monsieur de Marilliac and the Souldiers and the Payments dispensed by Monsieur Pellisson have been the most prevailing Arguments hitherto made use of That Great King has indeed interposed in this matter with a Zeal that if it were well directed might well become one who reckons these to be his most esteemed Titles that he is the Most Christian King and the Eldest Son of the Church But amidst all this noise of Conversions we have heard more of the Temporal than Spiritual Sword and except in the violences and out-rages of some of the Clergy we have not heard much of any share they have had in this matter It is true the Celebrated Explication of their Faith written some years ago by the then Bishop of Condom now of Meaâ—x has made a great shew and most of the Conversions are esteemed the effects of that Book And the eminent Vertues of the Author joined with that great gentleness by which he insinuates himself much into the Hearts of all those that come near him have perhaps really wrought much on some whose Consciences were by other motives disposed to be very easily perswaded Soft words and good periods have also had some weight with superficial Enquirers But that Explication of his which may be well called a good Plea managed with much Skill and great Eloquence for a bad cause has been so often and so judiciously answered that I am confident such as have considered these Answers are no more in danger of being blinded with that dust which he has so ingeniously raised For it must be confessed That his Book deserves all the commendations that can be given it for every thing except the sincerity of it which I am sorry to say it is not of a piece with the other excellent qualities of that great Prelate But now we have before us a work of much more importance in which we may reasonably conclude the strength of the Roman cause is to be found Since it is the unanimous voice of the most learned and soundest part of that Communion For while the Spaniards have chiefly amused themselves mith the Metaphysical subtilties of School-Divinity and when the Italians have added to that the study of the Canon Law as the best way for prefermâ—nt the French have now for above an Age been set on a more solid and generous pursuit of tâ—ue Learning They have laboured in the publishing of the Fathers Works with great diligence and more sincerity than could be expected in any other part of that Church where the watchful Eyes of Inquisitors might have prevented that Fidelity which they have observed in publishing those Records of Antiquity So that the state of the former Ages of the Church is better understood there than in any other Nation of that Communion Nor has the Secular Clergy or Laity only laboured with great faithfulness in those enquiries such as Albaspine De Marca Godeau Launnoy Huetius Rigaltius Valesius and Balusius to name no more but even that Order which is not so much admired over the World for great scrupulosity of Conscience has produced there several great Men that are never to be named but with Honour such as Fronto Ducaeus and Petavius but above all Sirmondus through whose Writings there runs such a tincture of Candour and Probity that in matters of fact Protestants are generally more enclined to acquiesce in his authority than those of his own perswasion are which made them afraid at Rome to give him free access to their Manuscripts Nor is the Learning of the Gallican Church that for which they are chiefly to be esteemed It must also be acknowledged that from the study of the Ancient Fathers many of them seem to have derived a great measure of their Spirit which has engaged diverse among them to set forward as great a Reformation as the Constitution of their Church can admit of They have endeavoured not only to discover the corruptions in Morality and Casuistical Divinity and many other abuses in the Government of the Church but have also infused in their Clergy a greater Reverence for the Scriptures a deeper sense of the Pastoral Care and a higher value for Holy Orders than had appeared among them for divers Ages before Some of their Bishops have set their Clergy great Examples and a disposition of Reforming mens Lives and of restoring the Government of the Church according to the Primitive Rules hath been such that even those who are better Reformed both as to their Doctrine and Worship must yet acknowledge that there are many things among them highly Imitable and by which they are a great reproach to others who have not studied to copy after these patterns they have set them The World will be for ever bound to Honour the Names of Godeau Paschall Arnauld and the Author of the Essays of Morality and those thoughts which they have set on foot are so just and true that though their excellent Bishops are now almost all gone off the Stage and
becomes both to their Characters and Qualities and to whom I know better what is due than to presume to say any thing in contradiction to them if I were not led to it by that which I owe to Truth and to the God of Truth After I have examined both their Letter and the Methods added to it I will venture further and offer on the other hand such Considerations as are just and lawful prejudices against that Communion and are such as ought at least to put all men in doubt that things are not right among them and to dispose them to believe that matters in Controversie between them and us ought to be examined more exactly and impartially and that upon a general view the prejudices lie much stronger in our favours than against us The Letter writ by the Assembly of the Clergy to the Calvinists in France The Arch-Bishops Bishops and the whole Gallican Clergy assembled at Paris by the Kings authority wish to their Brethren of the Calvinist Sect Amendment and a return to the Church and an Agreement with it Brethren THE whole Church of Christ does now of a great while groan and your Mother being filled with holy and sincere tenderness for you does with regret see you rent from her Belly her Breasts and her Bosome by a voluntary Separation and continue still to stray in the Desart For how can a Mother forget the Children of her Womb or the Church be unmindful of her love to you that are still her Children though you have forgot your duty to her The Infection of Errour and the violence of the Calvinistical Separation having drawn you away from the Catholick Truth and the purity of the Ancient Faith and separated you from the head of the Christian Unity From hence is it Brethren that she groans and complains most grievously but yet most lovingly that her bowels are torn She seeks for her Sons that are lost she calls as a Partridge as a Hen she would gather them together as an Eagle she provokes them to fly and being again in the pangs of travel she desires to bear you a second time ye little Children that so Christ may be again formed in you according to Truth in the way of the Catholick Church Therefore we the whole Gallican Clergy whom the Holy Ghost has set to govern that Church in which you were born and who by an uninterrupted Inheritance hold the same Faith as well as the same Chairs which those Holy Bishops held who first brought the Christian Religion into France do now call on you and as the Embassadors of Christ we ask you as if God did beseech you by us Why have you made Separation from us For indeed whether you will or not such are your circumstances that you are our Brethren whom all our Common Father did long ago receive into the adoption of Children and whom our common Mother the Church did likewise receive into the hope of our Eternal Inheritance And even he himself who first bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth of the Gospel the Standard-bearer of your profession did at first live amongst us as a Brother in all things of the same mind with us Were we not all of the same houshold Did we not all eat of the same Spiritual meat And did not he perform among us the mutual Offices of Brotherly Charity See if you can find any excuse either to your Father your Mother or your Brethren to take off the Infamy of so wicked so sudden and so rash a flight of this dividing of Christ the renting the Sacraments of Christ an impious War against the members of Christ the accusing the Spouse of Christ and the denial of the Promises of Christ Excuse and wash off these things if you can But since you cannot do it then confess that you are fallen under that charge of the Prophet An evil Son calls himself righteous but he cannot wash off his departure Wherefore then Brethren have you not continued in the root with the whole World Why did you break the Vows and the Wishes of the Faithful with the Altars on which they were offered Why did you intercept the course of Prayer from the Altars from whence was the ascent to God Why did you then with Sacrilegious hands endeavour to remove the Ladder that came down to those Stones that so Prayers might not be made to God after the customary manner Other Sectaries hitherto have indeed attempted that not that they might overthrow the Altar of Christ but that they might raise up their own Altar such as it was against the Altar of Christ. But you as if you had designed to destroy the Christian Sacrifice have dared to commit a crime unheard of before these times You have destroyed the Altars of the Lord of Hosts in which the Sparrow Christ had chosen to himself an House and the Turtle the Church a Nest where she might lay her young It was this Schismatical fury that brought forth these things and allhat has followed since either of Wars against the Church or of Errours against the Ancient Doctrine Nor would we have those things ascribed so much to your Inclinations as to the nature of Schism But this is that upon which we expostulate with you in particular and which we ask of you without ceasing Why have you made the Schism And unless you answer this how well soever you may speak or write of other things it is all to no purpose We do not doubt but in answer to this you will make use of that old and common defence of all Schismaticks and that you who upon trial know that it is not possible to shake the Doctrines believed by us will begin to inveigh against the Morals of our men as if holier persons who love severer Laws could not hold it creditable for their reputation or safe to their Consciences to live with such men These are the things forsooth Brethren for which the Unity of Christ is rent by you the Inheritance of your Brethren is blasphemed and the Vertue and Truth of the Sacraments of the Church are despised Consider how far you have departed from the Gospel in this These things that you object were less considerable both for number and weight or perhaps unknown and may be not at all true But if they had been true and acknowledged and worse than they were yet those Tares ought to have been spared by Christians for the sake of the Wheat for the vices of the bad are to be endured because of the mixture of the good Moses endured thousands that murmured against God Samuel endured both Eli's Sons and his own that acted perversly Christ himself our Lord endured Iudâ—s that was his Accuser and a Thief and also his Betrayer The Apostles endured false Brethren and false Apostleâ— that opposed them and their Doctrine And S. Paul who did not seek his owâ— things but the things of Jesus Christ conversed with great patience among
Evidence of those places of Scripture from which they deduced them 5. Since those of that Communion object a National Synod to the Protestants this may be turned back on them with greater advantage in some points established by Councils which they esteem not only General but Infallible In the Third Council of the Lateran it was decreed That all Princes who favoured Hereticks did forfeit their Rights and a Plenary Indulgence was granted to all that fought against them In the Fourth Council at the same place it was decreed That the Pope might not only declare this forfeiture but absolve the Subjects from their Oaths of Obedience and transfer their Dominions upon others In the First Council at Lions they joyned with the Pope in thundring the Sentence of Deposition against the Emperour Frederick the First which in the preamble is grounded on some places of Scripture of which if they were the Infallible Expositors then this power is an Article of Faith And in the last pâ—ace the Council of Constance decreed That the Faith of a Safe-Conduct was not to be kept to an Heretick that had come to the place of Judgement relying on it even though he would not have come without it When Crueltâ— Rebellion and Treachery were thus decreed in Courts which among them are of so sacred an authority It is visible how much greâ—ter advantages we have of them in this point than any they can pretend against us 6. For the Synod of Dort I will not undertake the Apology neither for their Decrees nor for their Assertions and will not stick to say that how true soever many of their Conclusions may be yet the defining such mysterious matters as the order of the Divine Decrees and the Influences of Gods Grace on the wills of men in so positive a manner and the imposing their Assertions on all the Ministers of their Communion was that which many as sincere Protestants as any are have ever disliked and condemned as a weakening the Union of the Protestant Church and an assuming too much of that authority which we condemn in the Church of Rome For though they supposed that they made their definitions upon the grounds of Scripture so that in this sense the authority of the Synod was meerly Declarative yet the question will still recur Whether they understood the passages which they built on right or not And if they understood them wrong then according to Protestant principles their Decrees had no such binding authority that the receding from them could make one guilty either of Heresie or Schism The Sixth Method IS to shew them that the Roman Church or that Church which acknowledges the Pope or the Bishop of Rome the Successor of S. Peter to be her Head all the World over is the true Church Because there is no other besides her that has that undoubted mark which is a perpetâ—al Visibility without Interruption since Christ's time to this day This is a Method common to all the Catholicks and is very well and briefly set forth in the little Treatise of the true Church joyned to that of the Peaceable Method This is that of which S. Austin makes most frequent use against the Donatists and chiefly in his Book of the Vnity of the Church and in his Epistles of which the most remarkable passages relating to this matter are gathered together by the late Arch-bishop of Rouen in the first Book of his Apology for the Gospel in which he handles this matter excellently well One may add to this Method the Maxims of which Tertullian makes use in his Treatise of Prescriptions against the Hereticks and also Vincentius Lyrinensis in his Advices It is enough to say on this occasion that those two Treatises may satisfie any that will read them without prepossession in order to their forming a just Iudgement of the true Church of Iesus Christ and of all those Societies that would usurp that name Remarks THis Method is so common that there was no reason in any sort to give Mr. Maimbourg the honour of it unless it was that the Assembly intended to do him this publick honour to ballance his disgrace at Rome But let us examine it 1. This asserts that no other Church has a perpetual Succession without interruption but that which derives it from Rome which is so contrary to what every one knows that Mr. Maimbourg was certainly inspired with the Spirit of his Order when he writ it Do not all the Greek Churches and all the Churches that have their Ordination from them all from the Northern Empire of Muscovy to the Southern of the Abassines together with all those in the East derive from the Apostles by an uninterrupted series For till the Authority of the Church of Rome is proved which is the thing in question their being declared Schismaticks or Hereticks by it does not interrupt this Succession 2. The Church of England has the same Succession that the Church of Rome had in Gregory the Great 's time to wave the more ancient pretensions of the Brittish Churches and the Bishops of this Church being bound by one of their Sponsions made at their Consecration according to the Roman Pontifical to instruct their flock in the true Faith according to the Scriptures they were obliged to make good this promise Nor can it be pretended that they have thereupon forfeited their Orders and by consequence their Succession 3. The Succession of the Church of Rome cannot be said to be uninterrupted if either Heresie or Schism can cut it off It is well known that Felix Liberius and Honorius to name no more were Hereticks and if Ordinations by Schismaticks or unlawful Usurpers be to be annulled which was judged in the case of Photius and was often practised at Rome then the many Schisms and unjust usurpations that have been in that See will make the Succession of their Orders the most disputable thing that can be especially during that Schism that lasted almost forty years all the Churches of that Communion having derived their Orders from one or other of the Popes and if the Popes at Avignon were the Usurpers then let the Gallican Churches see how they can justifie the series of their Ordinations To all which may be added the impossibility of proving a true Succession in Orders if the Vertue of the Sacraments depends on the Intention of him who officiates since secret Intentions are only known to God 4. The ground on which the Donatists separated from the Orthodox Churches being at first founded on a matter of Fact which was of the pretended Irregularity of those who ordained Cecilian which they afterwards defended upon this that the Church could be only composed of good men and that the Sacraments were of no Vertue when dispensed by ill hands all that S. Austin says is to be governed by this Hypothesis against which he argues And it being once granted that the Church was not corrupted neither in Doctrine nor Worship we are very ready
what is the true sense of those passages that are in dispute but by that same Church which conveys it to you This is S. Austin's method in many places but above all in his Book De utilitate Credendi and in his Book Contra Epistolam fundamenti In which he says I would not believe the Gospel if the authority of the Church did not oblige me to it This Method is handsomely managed in the Treatise of the true Word of God joyned to the Peaceable Method Remarks 1. GReat difference is to be made between the conveyance of Books and an Oral Tradition of Doctrine It is very easie to carry down the one in a way that is Morally Infallible An exact copying being all that is necessary for that Whereas it is morally impossible to prevent frauds and impostures in the other in a course of some Ages especially in times of Ignorance and Corruption in which the Credulity of unthinking people has made an easie game to the Craft and Industry of covetous and aspiring Priests Few were then at the pains to examine any thing but took all upon Trust and became so ready of belief that the more incredible a thing seemed to be they swallowed it down the more willingly 2. If this way of reasoning will hold good it was as strong in the mouths of the Iews in our Saviours time for the High Priest and Sanhedrim might have as reasonably pretended that since they had conveyed down the Books in which the Prophecies of the Messiah were contained they hâ—d likewise the right to expound those Prophecies 3. A Witness that hands a thing down without Additions is very different from a Judge that delivers things on his own Authority We freely own the Church to be such a Witness that there is no colour of reason to disbelieve the Tradition of the Books but we see great cause to question the credit of her decisions 4. In this Tradition of Books we have not barely the Tradition of the Church for it We find in all ages since the Books of the New Testament were written several Authors have cited many and large passages out of them We find they were very quickly translated into many other Languages and diverse of those are conveyed down to us There were also so many Copies of these Books every where that though one had resolved on so Sacrilegious an attempt as the corrupting them had been he could not have succeeded in it to any great degree Some additions might have been made in some Copies and so from those they might have been derived to others but these could not have bâ—en considerable otherwise they had been discovered and complained of and when we find the Church engaged in contests with Hereticks and Schismaticks we see both sides appealed to the Scriptures and neither of them reproached the other for violating that Sacred Trust. And the noise we find of the small change of a Letter in the Aâ—ian Controversie shews us how exact they were in preserving these Records As for the Errours of Transcribers that is incident to the Nature of Man and though some Errours have crept into some Copies yet all these put together do not alter any one point of our Religion so that they are not of great consequence Thus it appears how much reason we have to receive the Scriptures upon the credit of such a Tradition But for Oral Tradition it is visible how it might have been so managed as quickly to change the whole Nature of Religion Natural Religion was soon corrupted when it passed down in this Conveyance even during the long lives of the Ancient Patriarchs who had thereby an advantage to keep this pure that after ages in which the life of Man is so shortned cannot pretend to We also see to what a degree the Iewish Tradition became corrupted in our Saviours time particularly in one point which may be called the most essential part of their Religion to wit concerning their Messias what the nature of his Person and Kingdome were to be So that they all expected a Great Conquerour a second Moses or a David so ineffectual a mean is Oral Tradition for conveying down any Doctrine pure or uncorrupted The Ninth Method IS to tell them the Church in which they were before they made the Separation was the true Church because it was the only Church so that they could not Reform the Doctrine without making another Church For then she must have fallen into Errour and by consequence the Gates of Hell must have prevailed against her which is directly contrary to the Promise of Iesus Christ that cannot fail The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Remarks 1. A Church may be a True Church and yet be corrupted by many Errours for a â—rue Church is a Society of men among whom are the certain means of Salvation and such was the Iewish Church in our Saviours time For their Sacrifices had still an Expiatory Vertue and the Covenant made with that people stood still and yet they were over-run with many Errours chiefly in their notions of the Messias And thus as long as the Church of Rome acknowledges the Expiation made by the Death of Christ and applied to all that truly believe and amend their lives so long she is a True Church So that those of that Communion who adhere truly to that which is the great fundamental of the Christian Religion may be saved But when so many things were added to this that it was very hard to preserve this fundamental truth pure and entire then it was necessary for those who were better enlightned to call on others to correct the abuses that had crept in 2. It is hard to build a great super-structure on a figurative expression of which it is not easie to find out the true and full sense And in this that is cited there are but three terms and about every one of them great and just grounds of doubting do appear 1. It is not certain what is meant by the Gates of Hell which is an odd figure for an assailant If by Gates we mean Councils because the Magistrates and Courts among the Iews sate in the Gates then the meaning will be that the Craft of Hell shall not prevail against the Church that is shall not root out Christianity or if by Gates of Hell or the Grave according to a common Greek Phrase Death be to be understood it being the Gate through which we pass to the Grave then the meaning is this that the Church shall never die or be extinguished Nor is there less difficulty to be made about the signification of the word Church Whether it is to be meant in general of the body of Christians or of the Pastors of the Church and of the majority of them The Context seems to carry it for the Body of Christians and then the meaning will be only this That there shall still be a Body of Christians in the World And
who are the Chief Confessors in that Communion has been corrupted of late we may learn from what has been published by many among themselves particularly by their late Address to the present Pope and by the Articles condemned both by Pope Alexander the Seventh and by the Pope that now reigns But yet how faint those censures are every one that has read them must needs observe This is not all The dissolving of Oaths and Vows the dispensing with many of the Laws of God the authorizing Subjects to shake off their Princes yoke if he does not extirpate Heresie and Hereticks the butcheries of those they call Hereticks and that after Faith given to the contrary having been for some Ages the publick practices of the Court of Rome in which several General Councils have also concurred with them are things both of such a nature and have been so openly avowed as well as practised in that Church that this argument from the corruption of their Morals may be well fastened on their whole Church If likewise many opinions are received among them which do naturally tend to slacken the strictness of holiness and give the World more mild Ideas of sin and make the way to the favour of God accessible even without a real Reformation then there will be more weight in this argument than may at first view appear The belief of the Sacraments conferring Grace ex opere operato the Vertue of Indulgences the Priestly Absolution the Communication of Merits the Vertue supposed to be in some Pilgrimages in Images and Priviledged Altars in Fraternities and many consecrated things together with the after-game of Purgatory and of Redemption out of it by Masses these with many more devices are such contrivances for enervating the true force of Religion and have such effects on the lives of men who generally are too easie to hearken to any thing that may make them hope well while they live ill that when we complain of a great dissolution of mens Morals that live under the influences of that Religion this charge is not personal but falls on their Church in common In the next place that vast corruption of Ecclesiastical Discipline and of all the Primitive Rules occasioned chiefly by the exorbitant power the Popes have assumed of dispensing with all Laws the gross sale of such Graces at Rome the Intrigues in the Creation of the Popes themselves the universal neglect of the Pastoral care among the superiour Orders of the Clergy do give men just and deep prejudices against a Church so corrupt in her ruling Members and do raise great dislike of that extent of Authority which the Bishops of Rome have assumed that have cut all the Banks and let in such an inundation of ill practices on the World And if once in an Age or two a Pope of another temper of better Morals and greater strictness arises we are notwithstanding that to judge of things not upon rare and single instances but upon their more ordinary and natural effects Thus laying all these things together it will appear that our exceptions to that Church upon the account of their Morals is not so slight as the Penner of that Letter has represented it and that his Instances for living among ill men have no relation to this matter But this is the weakest Plea we have for our Separation and as strong soever as it may be in it self we build upon solider foundations In order to the opening this I shall premise a little of the true end and design of Religion which is to beget in us so deep a sense of the Divine nature and perfections aâ— may most effectually engage us to become truly Holy There are two Inclinations in the nature of men that dispose him to corrupt the Ideas of God the one is an Inclination to cloath him in some outward figure and present him to our senses in such a manner that we may hope by flatteries or submissions by pompous or cruel services to appease him And the other is a desire to reconcile our notions of Religion to our vicious habits and appetites that so we may some way pacifie our Consciences in the midst of our lusts and passions And thus the true notion of Idolatry is the representing of God to us so as that we may hope to gain his favour by other methods than our being inwardly pure and holy And the immorality of this consists not only in the indecency of such representations and their unsuitableness to the Divine nature but likewise in this that our notions of God which ought to be the seeds of Vertue and true Godliness by which our natures are to be reformed are no more effectual that way but turn only to a Pageantry and spend themselves in dressing up our worship so as we think will better agree with one that is like our selves Now we find the chief design of the Gospel was to root this out of the World and to give us the highest and perfectest Ideas of the purity and goodness of the Divine nature that might raise in us that inward probity of Soul compâ—ehended in the general name of Charity or Love which is the proper Character of the Christian Spirit We have also the Divine Holiness so presented to us that we can never hope to attain the favour of God here or Eternal happiness hereafter but by becoming inwardly and universally holy Now our main charge against the Church of Rome is That this which is the great design of the Christian Religion is reversed among them and that chiefly in four things 1. In proposing visible objects to the adorations of the people against not only the current of the whole Scriptures but the true Idea and right notion of God and this not only by Precept in the Images of our Saviour and the Saints but by a general tolerance in the Images of the blessed Trinity it self Thus the senses having somewhat set before them on which they may work do naturally corrupt the mind and convert Religion which is an inward and spiritual work into an outward gross homage to these objects 2. In setting up the Intercession of Saints as if either God had not a capacity of attending to the whole Government of the World or were not so merciful or good but that as Princes are wrought on by the interposition of their Courtiers so he needed to have such importunities to induce him to be favourable to us The very Plea commonly used for this from the resemblance of Earthly Courts is the greatest debasing of the Divine Nature that is possible And when the Addresses made to these Saints in the publick Offices of the Church are the very same that we make to God or our Saviour That they would pardon our sins give uâ—â—race assist us at all times and open the Kingdome of Heaven to us and when after those things have been complained of for above an Age and that upon a general review of their Offices
the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth's time when no Persecutions provoked them to them and no Laws gave them any colour for them are a much stronger prejudice against their Church chiefly since these were set on by the Authority and Agents of Rome so that they may well give over the pursuing this matter any further As for the argument set before them from the Greatness and Glory of their King and his Zeal to have all again re-united into one Body how powerful soever it may be to work upon their fears and to touch them in their Secular concerns it cannot be considered as an argument to work on their reasons They expressed their Zeal for their King in his greatest extremity while he was under age and after all the heavy returns that they have met with since that time they have continued in an Invincible Loyalty and submission in all things except in the matters of their God If the Heroick greatness Glorious success and the more inherent qualities of a Princely mind are good Arguments to work on Subjects they were as strong in the times of a Trajan a Decius or a Dioclesian to perswade the Christians to turn Heathens But it is very probable this is the strongest of all those motives that have produced so many Conversions of late while men either to make their Court or to live easie are induced to make shipwrack of the Faith and of a good Conscience And I shall not add that it seems those who are so often making use of this Argument feel the mighty force it has on themselves and so imagine it should prevail as much on others as they find it does on their own Consciences or rather on their Ambition and Covetousness I will prosecute the matter of this Letter no further and therefore shall not shew in how many places the Secretary that penned it has discovered how much he is a Novice in such matters and what great advantages he gives to those who would sift all the expressions the figures and the periods in it But the Respect I pay to those that subscribe it as well as the importance and gravity of the subject stop me So from the reviewing this Letter I go next to consider the Methods laid down by the Assembly for carrying on those Conversions A MEMORIAL Containing diverse Methods of which very great use may be made for the Conversion of those who profess the pretended Reformed Religion The first Method Is that which Cardinal Richelieu used for reducing either in the way of Disputâ— or Conference those of the P. R. R. and to perswade them in an amicable manner to re-unite themselves to the Church THis Method is to attack them by â— Decree of a Synod of theirs thaâ— met at Charenton 1631. by which theâ— received to their Communion those of thâ— Ausbourg Confession who hold the Reaâ— Presence of the Body of Iesus Christ in the Eucharist together with diverse other Articles that are very different from the Confession of Faith of those that are the P. Reformed Vpon which the Minister Dailee in his Apology says That if the Church of Rome had no other errour besides that they had not had a sufficient reason for their separating from her It is certain that none of all the other points of our Belief that are controverted are either of greater importance or harder to be believed than this which has been ever esteemed even by themselves one of the chief grounds of their Separation and is that by which the people are most amused As for that which the Minister Dailee says for eluding the force of this Objection That the Lutherans do not adore Iesus Christ in the Sacrament It is altogether unreasonable since Calvin himself reproves the Lutherans for that and is forced to acknowledge that adoration is a necessary consequence of the real Presence What is more strange says he than to put Jesus Christ in the Bread and not to adore him and if he is in the Bread then he ought to be adored under the Bread Thus since according to the Calvinists in the same Synod one does not overthrow the grounds of Salvation by the belief of the Real Presence and the other points of their Confession concerning which they dispute that Cardinal thought he could convince them of their errour in separating faom the Communion of the Church of Rome in which according to their own Maximes one could be saved It was by the like reasoning that the African Fathers convinced the Donatists called the Primianists that they had unjustly separated themselves from the Catholick Church because it received Cecilian iâ—to its Communion since they had made a decree of Vnion with the Maximianists whom they had formerly condemned It was in the Council of Carthage held under Anastasius that the Fathers used this against those Hereticks and in the Fourth Canon they set this before them That they might see if they would but open their eyes a little to the Divine Light that they had as unjustly â—ut themselves off from the unity of the Church as the Maximianists according to what they said had separated themselves from their Communion Remarks IF Cardinal Richelieu had not â—een an abler States-man than as it appears by this argument he was a Divine the Princes of Europe would not have such cause as they have at present to dread the growth of the French Monarchy of which he laid the best and strongest foundations It is a common Maxime That no man can excel but in one thing so since his strength lay in the Politicks no wonder he had no great Talent for Divinity But if this at first view seemed to him to have somewhat in it to amuse weak minds especially when it surprized them with its novelty yet it is a little unexpected to find it taken up by so great a Body and set in the front of their Methods for making Proselytes after the weakness of it has been so evidently discovered 1. Great difference is to be made between a speculation that lies in the mind and is a mans particular opinion and that which discovers it self in the most solemn acts of Worship for the former unless it is such as subverts the foundations of Religion we can well bear with it These are errours in which the person that holds them is only concerned whereas the other errors become more fruitful they corrupt the Worship they give scandal and infect others Therefore we will without scruple own that whether a man believe Consubstantiation or Transubstantiation so long as that lies in his brain as a notion we may conclude him a very ill Philosopher and a worse Divine for holding it but still we will receive him to our Communion that being a solemn stipulation of the New Covenant made with God through Christ And therefore since such a person acts nothing contrary to that Covenant we ought to admit him to it But Idolatry being contrary to the Laws upon which that
Covenant is grounded we cannot receive an Idolater though we do admit such as are in errours that produce no other effect but mistaken apprehensions and judgements It is unreasonable to say that if the Presence is acknowledged Adoration ought to follow for we will excommunicate none for a consequence were it never so well deduced so long as they hold not that consequence And if Calvin argued as he did from that absurdity it was not that he thought they ought to adore because they believed Consubstantiation but rather to let them see how unreasonable it was to believe it since they did not adore it and yet it must be confessed the argument is not unanswerable For it may be said that as Princes when â—â—ey are in any place Incognito even though they are known yet their being Incognito shews that they will not have that respect paid them which is otherwise due to them So that Christ being present in an invisible manner is not to be adored I shall not determine whether the Argument or the Answer is stronger yet this must be confessed that upon so dubious a consequence it were a very unreasonable Cruelty to deny the holding Communion with those that believed such a presence though we refuse to communicate with those that joyn Adoration to it 2. There is a great difference to be made between the receiving men that hold erroneous Tenets to our â—ommunion that we believe is pure and undefiled and the joyning our selves to a Communion in which we must profess those very errours which we condemn and by solemn acts of Worship must testifie before God and the World that we believe that which inwardly and in our Consciences we think false The former is only a tolerating or conniving at the errours of others without any sort of approbation of them whereas the other is the fullest and most publick contradiction to our Consciences that is possible 3. As long as any Errours do not strike against the foundations of the Christian Religion we own that we will bear with them at least not oblige others especially the Laity in whom there is not that danger of spreading them to renounce them before we admit them to the Sacraments But the case of the Church of Rome is very different among whom this opinion is but one of very many opinions that we think reverse the whole nature and design of Christianity of which some short hints were given in the Remarks upon the Letter of the Assembly General 4. It is a very ill Inference to conclude because that we think a man can be saved that believes the Corporal Presence therefore we have done amiss to separate from their Communion We may think men may be saved though they are in some errours that in us were damnable after the illumination we have had especially if we should profess that we believe them when we do not believe them and therefore if we cannot continue in their Communion without professing that we believe those Errours they were to blame for imposing them on us and not we for separating from them when they had imposed them 5. That which the African Fathers objected to the Donatists was very pertinently urged against them who grounded their Separation only upon this That there were some corrupt members in the Communion of the Church And this was very justly cast back on them upon their receiving the Maximianists whom they had formerly condemned as Schismaticks to their Communion But it has no relation to us who have not separated from their Church upon any such personal account Therefore since the chief grounds of our Separation are the corruptions in their Worship and our being obliged to bear a share in those corruptions it is clear that our receiving to our Communion those who have not corrupted their Worship and come to joyn with us has no relation to that dispute bâ—tween the African Fathers and the Donatists 6. There is one thing in the Method which we freely confess to be true That there is none of the controverted points that are harder to be believed than this of the Real Presence It is no wonder it should be so since it has the strongest Evidences both of Sense and Reason against it But if it is so hard to be believed it is very severe to prosecute those who cannot bring themselves to believe it in so extreme a manner as that Church has done and still does Upon the whole matter this Method is so weak in all the parts of it that its being set first gives no great hopes of any thing extraordinary to follow The Second Method IS to lay this before them that according to the light of Nature and their own Confession in the matters of our Salvation which is the one thing that is needful we ought always to chuse the surer side Now it is certain that according to that Decree of the Synod of Charenton it is indifferent to them whether one believes the Real Presence or whether they believe it not and we hold it necessary to believe it therefore it is the surer side to believe it and if they could but disengage themselves a little from their prejudices they would follow this way The same may be said of all the other points in dispute Mestresat the Minister in his Treatise of the Church says that things necessary to Salvation are only those that are so expressly set down in the Scriptures that no doubt can be made of them Such as are the Articles of the Apostles Creed If there is any thing that is obscure says he then I assert it is not necessary and therefore one may be a very good Christian without it and may have both Faith Hope and Charity It is evident that the points in dispute which they maintain against us are not so clearly expressed in the Scripture that one cannot doubt concerning them Since we maintain on good grounds that they are not there So that according to their own Doctrine one can disbelieve them without endangering his Salvation But we say that it is necessary under the pain of damnation to believe the contrary opinion and therefore if they will take the surest side they ought to submit to us Remarks 1. IT is something odd to see so great a Body use this Logick That because we think an errour is not damnable and such as obliges us to excommunicate all that hold it therefore we think it indifferent to believe it or not We judge it an errour and while we think it so it were a lie for us to say that we did believe it and this especially in such publick Acts of Worship of God which are grossly Idolatrous by their own Confession while we hold this persuasion is so far from being a thing indifferent that we know nothing more damnable For this were to lie every day to God and the World and to commit Idolatry in a manner more absurd than the most barbarous Nations have been
to subscribe to every expression of his and do freely acknowledge that the making a rent in a Church that is pure both in Doctrine and Worship upon any particular or personal account is a sin that cannot be sufficiently detested and condemned I shall not enter into a particular discussion of every passage of S. Austin's but if in some he seems to go too far for the authority of the Church I shall only offer two general considerations concerning these The first is That it is a Maxime with Lawyers That general words in Laws are to be restricted to the preambles and chief design of these Laws And if this is true of Laws that are commonly penned with more coldness and upon greater deliberation it is much more applicable to warm discourses where the heat of Contradiction and the Zeal of a Writer makes that things are ofâ—en aggravated and carried too far but still all those expressions are to â—e molliâ—ied and restricted to that which was the subject matter of the debate therefore those expressions of S. Austin's supposing that the Church was still sound in her Doctrine and Worship are to be governed by that Hypothesis The second is That many of those who urge these passages on us do not deny but S. Aâ—stin in the disputes about Grace and Original Sin was carried too far though those were the subjects on which he employed his latest years with the greatest application If then it is confessed that he wrote too warmly against the Pelagians and in that heat advanced some propositions that need a fair construction is it unreasonable for us to say that he might have done the same writing against the Donatists 5. As for Tertullian he that might have conversed with many that could have known S. Polâ—carp who was both instructed and ordained by the Apostles so that he might have been the third person in the conveyance of the sense of what the Apostles had left in Writing could reasonably argue as he did against the Hereticks but certainly no man that considers the distance we live at from those ages and the many accidents that have so often changed the face of the Church can think it reasonable to argue upon that ground now And yet it were easie to bring many citatious out of that very Book of Tertullians to shew that he grounded his Faith only on the Doctrine of Christ delivered in the Scriptures how much soever he might argue from other Topicks against the Hereticks of his time who indeed were bringing in a New Gospel into the World We willingly receive the Characters that Vincentius Lyrinensis gives of Tradition that what the Church has at all times and in all places received is to be believed and are ready to joyn issue upon this and when they can prove that the Church at all times and in all places has taught the Worshipping of Images the Invocation of Saints and Angels the adoring the Sacrament and the dividing of it with many more particulars we will yield the whole cause and confess that we have made a Schism in the Church The Seventh Method IS to let them see that those who at first pretended to Reform the Church in which they were amongst us neither had nor could have any Mission either Ordinary or Extraordinary to bring us any other Doctrine but that which was then taught and that by Consequence none ought to believe them since they had no authority to Preach as they did How can they Preach if they are not sent This is the ordinary Method that puts the Ministers to the necessity of proving their Mission which is a thing that they can never do This cuts off all disputes and is one of the Methods of Cardinal Richelieu Remarks 1. IF the first Reformers had delivered a new Doctrine which was never formerly taught it had been necessary for them to have had a very extraordinary Mission and to have confirmed it by very extraordinary signs but when they grounded all â—hey said upon that very Book which was and is still received as the unalterable Law of all Christians then if every man is bound to take care of his own Salvation and is in Charity obliged to let others see that same light that guides himself then I say an extraordinary Mission was not necessary when the thing in dispute was not a new Doctrine but the true meaning of those Writings which were on all hands acknowledged to be Divine 2. If notwithstanding the necessity of not raising War in Civil Government without an express Commission from the Prince or Supream Authority yet in a General Rebellion when the ways of intercourse with the Prince are cut off if it be not only a lawful but a commendable action for any subject even without a Commission to raise what force he can for the service of the Prince Then if it be true that the Western Churches had generally revolted from the rules of the Gospel that was a sufficient warrant for any person to endeavour a Reformation 3. The nature of the Christian Religion is to be well considered in which all Christians are a Royal Priesthood And though it be highly necessary for all the ends of Religion to maintain peace and Order and to convey down an authority for sacred administrations in such a way as tends most to advance those ends yet this cannot be lookt on as indispensable and absolutely necessary Among the Iews as there were many services in which none but Priests and Levites could officiate so the Succession went in the natural course of Descent But in the Christian Church there are no positive Laws so appropriated and therefore in cases of extream and unavoidable necessity every Christian may make use of that dormant priviledge of being a Royal Priest and so this difficulty must be resolved by examining the merits of the whole cause for if the necessity was not extream and unavoidable we acknowledge it had been a Sacrilegious presumption for any that was not called in the ordinary manner to meddle in Holy things 4. It is but a small part of the Reformed Churches that is concerned in this Here in England our Reformers had the ordinary Mission and in most places beyond Sea the first Preachers had been ordained Priests And it will not be easie to prove that Lay-men yea and Women may baptize in cases of necessity when that is often but an imaginary necessity and that yet Priests in a case of real necessity may not ordain other Priests For all the Rules of Order are superseded by extraordinary cases and in Moral as well as in Natural things every Individual has a Right to propagate its kind and though it may be reasonable to regulate that yet it can never be wholly cut off The Eighth Method IS to tell them You do not know that such or such a Book of the Scripture is the Word of God but by the Church in which you were before your Schism So that you cannot know
man to forsake that Communion The Twelfth Method IS both very short and very easie It is to catch them in this Dilemma Before Wickliff Luther and Calvin and one may say as much of the Waldenses that lived in the Twelâ—â—h Century the Church of those of the P R. Religion was either made up of a little number of the Faithful or was not at all in being If it was not at all in being then theirs is a False Church since it is not perpetual as the True Church ought to be according to the promise of Iesus Christ The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her and I am with you even to the end of the World If their Church was in being it must have been according to their own principles Corrupted and Impious Because they cannot shew that little number of the pretended Faithful who before the Reformation did condemn as they now do all the Assemblies of the Popish Churches as over-run with Idolatry and Superstition They behaved themselves at least as to outward appearance as others did And thus their Church which was composed of that small unknown flock was not Holy and by consequence was not the True Church Remarks 1. TO the greatest part of this answer has been already given We acknowledge the Church of Rome was a True Church and had in it the means of Salvation though it was over-run with Errours and Christ is truly with his Church as long as those means of Salvation do remain in it So was the Iewish Church a True Church after she was in many points corrupted in her Doctrine 2. In those dark Ages many might have kept themselves free from the defilements of their Worship though no account is given of them in story So seven thousand had not bowed their knees to Baal in Elijah's time who were not so much as known to that Prophet though it might have been expected that they would all have willingly discovered themselves to him And since he knew nothing of them it is very probable they concealed themselves with great care from all others 3. All good men have not all the degrees of Illumination for there might have been great numbers that saw the corruptions of their Church but were so restrained by other opinions concerning the Unity of the Church that they thought it enough to infuse their notions into some few Disciples in whom they confided and on some perhaps that which Elisha said to Naaman the Syrian being wrong understood by them had great influence Others observing that the Apostles continued to worship at the Temple and offer Sacrifices which S. Paul and those with him that purified themselves must have done might have from that inferred that one might comply in a Worship though they disliked many things in it which if I am not much misinformed is a Maxime that governs many in the Roman Communion to this day I do not excuse this compliance but it is not so criminal as at first view it may appear to be If it is truly founded on a mistake of the mind and not on a baseness in the will or a rejecting of the Cross of Christ especially in men that had so faint a twilight as that was which they were guided by in those blind times 4. But to make the worst of this that can be and should we grant that through fear they had complied against their Consciences this only must make the conclusion terrible to them if they did not repent of it But God might have ordered the conveyance of truth to be handed down by such defiled hands and their not being personally holy must not be urged too far to prove that they could not be the true Church This will come too near the Doctrines of the Donatists and many of S. Austin's sayings which they unreasonably object to us may be turned upon them And it will very ill become a Church that acknowledges the Succession of the Bishop of Rome to have been the chief conveyance of Tradition which is a much greater matter in their principles than it is in ours to urge the Holiness of the Members to be essential to the being of a Church when it is acknowledged what a sort of men the Heads of their Church have been for diverse Ages The Thirteenth Method IS taken from the nature of Schism which one ought never to make what reasons soever may be pretended for it for according to the Minister â—hemselves no other reason can be given for their Separation but the Errours which they pretend had crept into the Church But those who were in it as well as thâ—y were did strongly assert as we do to this day that these were no Errours at all but Truths And it is certain that of opinions which are so different the one must be the true Doctrine and the other must be Errour and falshood and by consequence the one must be the good grain and the other must be the Tares Now it does not belong to particular persons by their private authority to pluck up that which they pretend to be Tares There is none but God who is the true Father of the Family that has this authority and can communicate it to others It is he who appoints the Reapers that is the Pope and the Bishops who are represented by the Angels to separate the Cockle from the Wheat and to pluck out the one without touching the other till the time of Harvest that is in a Council or by the common consent of the whole Church and in that case a Council is not necessary Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up But he said Nay lest while ye gather up the Tares ye root up also the Wheat with them let both grow together until the Harvest Therefore one ought never to sâ—parate upon what pretence soever it be but he must bear with that which he thinks is an abuse and errour and stay till the Church plucks up the Cockle This is one of the Methods of S. Austin in his Treatises against the Donatists in which he shews from the Examples of Moses Aaron Samuel David Isaiah Jeremy S. Paul who tolerated even the false Apostles that we ought never to separate from our Brethren before the solemn condemnation of the Church He says pursâ—ant to this that the Donatists were intolerably wicked for having made a Schism for having erected an Altaâ— against an Altar and for having separated themselves from the Inheritance of Jesus Christ which is stretched ouâ— over all the Earth according to the promise that was made to it He addâ— that if they thought that was but a smâ—â— matter they had nothing to do but to sâ— what the Scripture teaches us by the examples we find in it of the punishment of sâ— great a crime for says he Those that made an Idol of the Golden Calf were only punished by the Sword whereas those who made the Schism were swallowed
when the power of the Church is used not to Edification but to Destruction then the obligation to obedience is not to be too far extended And as in Laws that oblige Subjects to obey Inferiour Magistrates a tacite exception is to be supposed in case they should become guilty of Treason so there must be supposed likewise in this case the like exception in case a Synod deposes a Bishop or a Bishop censures his Clergy for asserting the true Faith And as a Separation from an uncorrupted Church is a very great wickedness so the separating from a corrupted Church in whose Communion we cannot continue without being polluted in it is but a part of that care which we ought to have of our own Salvation The Fifteenth Method TO all the former Methods a Fifteenth may be added by letting our P. Reformed see that many Articles are to be found in their Confession of Faith in their Catechisms in the Articles of their Discipline in the Decisions of their Synods and in the Books of their Chief Ministers who have writ upon the Controversies from which Arguments may be drawn against them to prove the truth of our belief even by their own Confession For Example Their Discipline allows the Communion in one kind only to such as cannot drink Wine From which one may infer that the Communion under both kinds is not an Article of necessity and that they are in the wrong to alledge that as they do to be a lawful ground for their Separation The Minister Dailée and many others confess that in the time of S. Gregory Nazianzene S. Chrysostome and S. Jerome the Invocation of Saints was received in the Church John Forbes adds to this That the Tradition of the Church was uniform concerning Prayer for the Dead And since he denies that the Books of the Maccabees are Canonical he says the Scripture speaks nothing of it But without engaging into the difficulty concerning the Books of the Maccabees in which they have no more reason on their side than in the rest It is easie to conclude from their own principles that it was no ways to be allowed to separate themselves for matters that according to themselves were established by so great an authority and so constant an union of all Ages Remarks 1. IT is not an equal way of proceeding to object to the Protestants what some particular Writers have said or to strain Inferences too far at a time when the Celebrated Book of the Bishop of Meaux is in such high esteem The chief design oâ— which is to set aside all the Indiscretions of particular Writers and to put the best colours on things that is possible Now Tradition being of such authority among them whatsoever passes down through many of their approved Writers has a much greater strength against them than it can be pretended to have against us And therefore though particular Writers or whole Synods should have written or decreed any thing against the common Doctrines of the Reformed they ought not to object that to us If they will allow us the same Liberties that they assume to themselves 2. It is not a consequence becoming so great an Assembly to infer that because in some few extraordinary cases the general rule of Gods desiring Mercy and not Sacrifice is carried so far as to give weak persons so much of the Sacrament as they can receive and not to deny that to them because a natural aversion mâ—kes them incapable of receiving the Wine That therefore a Church may in opposition to Christs express command Drink you all of it and the constant practice of Thirteen Centuries take this away It is not of necessity for Salvation that every one drinks the Cup but it is of necessity to the purity of a Church that she should observe our Saviour's Precepts 3. It is confessed that some Fathers used the Invocation of Saints yet that being but a matter of fact it is of no consequence for the Decision of any point of Doctrine For we found our Doctrine only on the Word of God and â—ot on the practices of Men how eminent soever they might otherwise be But in relation to these Fathers these things are to be observed 1. They lived in the end of the Fourth Century So this is no competent proof for an Oral Tradition or conveyance of this Doctrine down from the Apostles days 2. Figures and bold Discourses in Panegyricks are rather to be considered as raptures and flights of warm affections than as composed and serious devotions Therefore such Addresses as occur in their Funeral Orations are rather high strains of a daring Rhetorick than Instructions for others since in their expositions on Scripture or other Treatises of Devotion they do not handle these things by way of Direction or Advice Iohn Forbes is mis-cited for William Forbes Bishop of Edenburgh Iohn was not of such yielding Principles It is true William though he was a man Eminently Learned and of a most Exemplary Life yet he was possessed with that same weakness under which Grotius and some other great men have laboured of thinking that a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome might be obtained by an accommodation on both sides and this flowing in him from an excellent temper of Soul he is to be excused if that carried him in many things too far But he is a Writer that has been taxed by all men as one that had particular Notions And we may object Erasmus to those of the Church of Rome as well as they may argue against us from Bishop Forbes 5. If the Church of Rome used only a General Commemoration of the Dead with wishes for the compleating their happiness by a speedy resurrection and went no further we might perhaps differ in opinion with them about the fitness of this but we would not break Communion with them for it But when they have set up such a Merchandize in the House of God for Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory and saying Masses for them this is that we except to as a disgracing of the Christian Religion and as a high profanation of the Holy Sacrament And it is plain that the Fathers considered the Commemoration of the Dead rather as a respect done to their Memory and an honourable remembrance of them than as a thing that was any way useful to them in the other state which may appear by this single Instance S. Cyprian was so much offended at a Presbyter when it appeared after his death that he had left another Presbyter Guardian of his Children that he gave order that no mention should be made of him in the Commemoration of the Dead that was used in the Holy Eucharist because by the Roman Law such as were left Guardians were under some obligations to undertake the trust And that Saint thought such a trust might prove so great a distraction to a man that was dedicated to the Holy Ministry that no Honour ought to be done to the Memory
Gâ—neral In which I intend to shew that they have departed from the Tradition of the Church much more evidently than they can pretend that we have done And this is concerning the Popes power oâ— Deposing Kings which they who live under so mighty a Monarch have very prudently renounced But whether they have not more plainly contradicted the Tradition of the Church than the Reformers did shall appear by the sequel of this Discourse In order to which I shall lay down two grounds that seem undeniable in their own principles The one is That the Tradition of any Age or Ages of the Church when it is universal and undisputed is of the same authority with the Tradition of any other Age whatsoever For the promises made to the Church last continually and have the same force at all times And therefore a Tradition for these last six hundred years is of as strong an authority as was that of the first six Ages The second is That a Tradition concerning the measures of mens Obedience and actions is of the same authority with a Tradition concerning the measures of their Belief The one sort are practical and the other are speculative points and as more are concerned in a practical truth than in a speculative point so it has greater effects and more influence on the World therefore it is as necessary that these be certainly handed down as the other And by consequence a Tradition concerning any Rule of Life is as much to be received as that concerning any point of Belief for the Creed and the Ten Commandments being the two Ingredients of the positive part of our Baptismal Vow it is as necessary that we be certainly directed in the one as in the other and if there were any preference to be admitted here certainly it must be for that which is more practical and of greater extent Upon these two grounds I subsume that all the Characters of Oral Tradition by which they can pretend to find it out in any one particular agree to this Doctrine of the Popes power of deposing Princes that are either Hereticks or favourers of them The way sof searching for Tradition are these four First what the Writers and Doctors of the Church have delivered down from one age to another The second is what the Popes have taught and pronounced ex Cathedrâ which to a great part of that Communion is Decisive their authority being held Infallible and to the rest it is at least a great Indication of the Tradition of such an Age. The third is what such Councils as are esteemed and received as Oecumenical Councils have decreed as General Rules The fourth is the late famous Method of Prescription when from the received Doctrine of any one Age we run a back-scent up to the Apostles upon this supposition that the Doctrine of the Church chiefly in a visible and sensible thing could not be changed These are all the ways imaginable to find out the Tradition of past Ages and they do all agree to this Doctrine All the Writers for five or six Ages both Commentators on Scripture the School-men the Casuists and Canonists agreed in it so that Cardinal Perron had reason to challenge those of the contrary persuasion to shew any one Writer before Calvin's time that had been of another mind We do not cite this as a proof because Cardinal Perron said so but because the thing in it self cannot be disproved and in the Contests that fell in between the Popes and those Princes against whom they thundred no Civilian nor Canonist ever denied the Popes power of deposing in the case of Heresie It is true when the Popes pretended to a Temporal Dominion and that all Princes were their Vassals some were found to write against that other Princes contended about the particulars laid to their charge and denied that they were either Hereticks or favourers of Hereticks But none ever disputed this position in general that in a manifest case of Heresie the Pope might not depose Princes and it is too well known what both the Sorbonne determined in the case of Henry the Third and likewise how the body of the Clergy adhered to Cardinal Perron in the opposition he made to the condemnation of that opinion The next mark of Tradition is the Popes pronouncing an opinion ex Cathedrâ that is in a solemn Judiciary way founding it on Scripture and Tradition If Popes had only brutally made War upon some Princes and violently thrust them out of their Dominions this indeed were no mark by which we could judge of a Tradition But when we find Gregory the Seventh and many Popes since his time found this authority on passages of Scripture as that of the Keys being given to S. Peter Jeremiah the Prophet's being set over Kingdomes to root out to pluck up and destroy and that all power in Heaven and Earth was given to Chrâ—st and his bidding his Disciples to buy a Sword we must look on this as the declaring the Tradition of the Church So that it must eitâ—er be confessed that they are not faithful conveyers of it or that this is truly the Tradition of the Church And this has been done so often these last six hundred years that it were a needless imposing on the Readers patience to go about the proving it The Third Indication of Tradition is the Declaration made by Synods but chiefly by General Councils I need not here mention the many Roman Synods that have concurred with the Popes in the Depositions which they thundered out against Kings or Emperours since we have greater authorities confirming it The Third Council of Lateran declared that all Princes that favoured Heresie fell from their Dominions and they granted a Plenary Indulgence to all that fought against them The Fourth Council of the Lateran vested the Pope with the power of giving away their Dominions if they continued for a year obstinate in that their merciful disposition of not extirpating Hereticks The first Council of Lions concurred with the Pope in the deposition of the Emperour Frederick the Second which is grounded in the preamble on the power of binding and loosing given to S. Peter After these came the Council of Constance and they reckoning themselves superiour to the Pope lookt on this as a power inherent in the Church and so assumed it to themselves and therefore put this Sanction in many of their Decrees particularly in that for maintaining the Rights of the Church and in the Passports they granted which had been often added in the Bulls that confirmed the foundations of Monasteries that if any whether he were Emperour King or of what Dignity soever he might be opposed their Order he should thereby forfeit his Dignity The Council of Sienna confirmed all Decrees against Hereticks and the favourers of them that had been made in any former Councils and by consequence those of the Third and Fourth Councils in the Lateran The Council of Basil put