l. 6. c. 3. 24. Contr. Don. l. 3. c. 18. Orig. in Matt. Hom. 1. not as visible for as the Fathers say it concerns those only which are built upon the Rock and such are only they who hear the words of Christ and do them Now as in the defection of the Church of Israel to Idol Worship 7000 souls remained who had not bowed the knee to Baal so may it be in the defection of the Church visible into the like sin § II Ob. 4 But saith R. H. of the Catholick Chuch Disc p. 75. we say in our Creed I believe one Holy Catholick Church but how is it Holy if it may fall into and teach so gross and so manifold Idolatry Answ Even as the Church of Israel and Judah was Holy notwithstanding their Idolatry and wickedness and the City of Jerusalem was Holy notwithstanding the wickedness of the people that lived in it the Church is therefore always Holy Expos on the Creed p. 343. saith the Reverend and Learned Bishop Pearson 1. In reference to the vocation by which all the members of it are called and separated from the rest of the world to God which separation in the Language of the Scriptures is a sanctification and so the calling being Holy 2 Tim. i. 9. for God hath called as with an holy calling the body which is separated by it may well be called Holy 2. In relation to the Offices appoined and the powers exercised in the Church which by their institution and operation are holy and so that Church for which they were appointed and in which they are exercised may be called Holy 3. Because whosoever is called to profess Faith in Christ is thereby engaged to Holiness of life according to the words of the Apostle let every man that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 4. The Church is stiled Holy because the end of constituting a Church in God was for the purchasing a Holy people and the great design of it was for the begetting and increasing Holyness that as God is originally Holy in himself so he might communicate his sanctity of the Sons of men whom he intended to bring to the fruition of himself to which without a previous Sanctification they cannot approach because without Holiness no man shall see the Lord. But as for real inward Holiness either it is necessary to constitute a member of the visible Church or it is not if it be not then can it not be necessary to constitute any part of the whole Church visible and consequently it is not necessary to constitute the whole and so it is not necessary to believe that the Catholick visible Church is thus Holy if it be said that this inward Holiness is necessary to make a member of the visible Church then are none to be reckoned or approved of as members of the Chuch visible who are not inwardly Holy nor is a wicked Bishop or Church-Governor to be obeyed because such are not members of the Church and are without the Church and therefore have no right to Govern these within 2. Seeing I can have no assurance that any members of a Council are inwardly Sanctified it follows that I can have no assurance of the truth of their definitions because I can have no assurance that they are members of the Church to which the promise of Divine assistance is confined Disc 3. ch 10. §. 115. unless perhaps R. H. will say that the acceptation of their definitions is an evidence of the Sanctification of the Major part of the Council which he may say with as much reason as that it is an evidence that they were truly Ordained and Baptized Ob. 5 § III Moreover it is objected that Protestants confess that Papists may be saved from which confession it will follow that they are not Idolaters because the Scriptures frequently declare that no Idolater can be saved P. 75. Idolatry saith R. H. is an error which excludes from salvation for it must needs be a mortal sin and so unacknowledged and unrepented of it must not only hazard but destroy salvation Answ To this objection we answer 1. By retortion thus it is confessed by Papists that Proestants may be saved from which confession it will follow that they are not guilty either of Heresie or Schism because the Scripture hath declared concerning these offences Gal. v. 21. that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God that Protestants may be saved is confessed implicitely and consequentially 1. By those who do assert that even an Heretick Vide St. Clar. Problem 15. whilst he conceiveth his own Sect more credible is not obliged to believe because the Faith is not sufficiently propounded to him for if he be not obliged to believe he cannot sure be damned for not believing what the Church proposeth 2. That they are to be excused who labor under the want of Teachers 3. That they do many of them labor under that ignorance which is invincible and therefore doth excuse from sin it is confessed more expresly by many sober Papists Exomol p. 546. Ed. Par. 1647. for Mr. Cressy hath declared in behalf of all his Brethren that Catholicks will not doubt to say that to many thousands of our Religion neither their Heresie nor their Schism shall prove de facto damnable but that supposing they die with an intention to renounce whatsoever of their opinions should appear to them to have been erroneous their invincible ignorance N. B. caused by Education misinformation of Catholick Doctrines c. may probably find pardon from our merciful judg The incomparable Chillingworth concludes from the Concessions of Mr. Knot Ch. 1. Part. 1. S. 4. that whatsoever Protestant wanteth capacity or having it wanteth sufficient means of instruction to convince his Conscience of the falshood of his own and the truth of the Roman Religion may be saved notwithstanding any error in his Religion which is indeed the conclusion of Mr. Knots discourse in these words thus we allow Protestants as much Charity as Dr. Potter spares us for whom he makes ignorance the best hopes of salvation 2. That nothing hinders but that a Protestant dying a Protestant may die with contrition for his Schism and Heresie and doing so may be saved for saith Mr. Knot when the man that is esteemed a Protestant dyeth we do not instantly conclude him in Hell because we know not what light might have cleared his errors or what contrition retracted his sins And this is sutable to the determination of many Roman Catholicks that Christians may be absolved who are ignorant of that which under pain of mortal sin they are obliged to know because they may be contrite for their ignorance and be desirous to learn Prob. 15. p. 97. Sancta Clara speaking of our English Protestants saith thus I wholly judg many of them free from all crime and that if after Baptism received they exert acts of
all honour dignity function and power ecclesiastical as was the case of Anthimus the intruder into the See of Constantinople and may be censued as unfit to be accunted Christians which was the censure that Felix the Third and a Roman Synod past upon Acacius but when the Church by proscribing and condemning them hath taken from them all it can it cannot ake away the power of Baptism and Ordination and therefore the Church Catholick hath judged that they who were Baptised and Ordained by Hereticks and Schismaticks have both true Baptism and true Orders and hath rejected those that think otherwise as Hereticks which both innumerable Synods and Orthodox Fathers among whom Austin doth excel have proved against the Luciferians the Donatists the Arians and other Pests of the Church § IX There be some eminent Divines among us who are I hope not without reason more candid in their apprehensions of the Roman Church before the Reformation admitting it to have continued when Luther and his friends began their Reformation to have been a Church in which Salvation might be had not only for the ignorant but also for many others who did not openly renounce Communion with her That we yield no more to our Adversaries now than formerly we did Appendix part 3. p. 880. saith Dr. Field in that we acknowledge the Latine or Western Churches subject to Roman Tyranny before God raised up Luther to have been the true Churches of God in which a saving profession of the truth of Christ was found and wherein Luther himself received his Christianity Ordination and power of Ministry I will first shew that all our best and most renowned Divines did ever acknowledg as much as I have written Now that which doth induce them thus to judg was the consideration of these things 1. That notwithstanding those very many and very grievous errors which then obtained too generally and which were too much countenanced by the most powerful members of the Roman Church there still remained a profession and acknowledgment of so much truth as being joyned with Piety might be sufficient to bring her members to eternal life If at this day saith Bishop Vsher Sermon before his Majesty at Wansled p. 28. we should take a survey of the several professions of Christianity that have any large spread in any part of the world as of the Religion of the Roman and the Resormed Churches in our quarters of the Aegyptians and Aethiopians in the South of the Graecians and other Churches in the Eastern parts and should put by the points wherein they differ one from another and gather into one body the rest of the Articles wherein they all do generally agree we should find that in those propositions which without all controversie are universally received in the whole Christian world so much truth is conteined as being joyned with holy obedience may be sufficient to bring a man to everlasting Savlation neither have we cause to doubt but that as many as do walk according to this rule neither overthrowing that which they have builded up by super-inducing any damnable Heresies thereupon nor otherwise vitiating their holy Faith with a lewd and wicked conversation peace shall be upon them and mercy Which doctrine he confirms 1. from the constant practice of the Apostles in their first receiving men into the society of the Church For saith he in one of the Apostles ordinary Sermons we see there was so much matter delivered as was sufficient to convert men to the Faith and make them capable of Baptism and yet these Sermons treated only of the first principles of the Doctrine of Christ in these first principles therefore must the foundation be contained and that common unity of Faith Ibid. p. 20. which is required in all the members of the Church Again p. 16. As there is a common Salvation so is there a common Faith which is alike precious in the highest Apostle and the meanest believer for we may not think that Heaven was prepared for deep Clerks only and therefore besides that larger measure of knowledge whereof all are not capable there must be a rule of Faith common to small and great which as it must consist but of few propositions for simple men cannot bear away many so is it also requisite that these Articles should be of so much weight and moment that they may be sufficient to make a man wise unto salvation If then Salvation by believing these common principles may be had and to Salvation none can come who is not first a member of the Catholick Church of Christ it followeth that the unity of Faith generally requisite for the incorporating of Christians into that blessed Society P. 17. is not to be extended beyond these common principles Which may farther be made manifest unto us by the continual practice of the Catholick Church herself in the matriculation of her Children and first admittance of them into her Communion For when she prepared her Catechumeni for Baptism and by that door received them into the cougregation of Christs Flock we may not think her judgment to have been so weak as to omit any thing herein that was essentially necessary for the making of one a member of the Church Now the profession which she required of all that were to receive baptisin was for the Agenda or practical part an abrenuntiation of the Devil the World and the Flesh with all their sinful lusts and works and for the things to be believed an acknowledgment of of the Articles of the Creed which being performed solemnly she then baptized them in this faith intimating thereby sufficiently that this was that one faith commended to her by the Apostles Ibid. p. 17. as the other that one Baptisin which was appointed to be the Sacrament of it And that the creed of the Apostles as it is explained in the latter Creeds of the Catholick Church was esteemed by the general suffrage of the Greek and Latine Fathers and the whole Antient Church See P tters answer to Charity Mistaken § 7. from p. 216. to 233. Mr. Chill c. 4. § 83 8â— Bishop Tayor diss part 2. l. 1. § 4. a sufficient Summary or Catalogue of fundamentals that even by the Trent Council the Trent Catechism and the best learned Romanists it is acknowledged so to be is very largely and convincingly demonstrated by many eminent Writers of our Church 2. They add that those prevailing doctrinâ—s which thwarted the great fundamentals of our faith and made salvation more difficult were indeed docrines strongly then prevailing in but not received and owned as Articles of Faith by all themembers of the Church of Rome Answ to Charity Mistaken § 3. p. 64 65. In the latter Ages before the Reformation saith Dr. Potter though the Court of Rome by cunning and violence had subdued many noble parts of Christendom under her yoke yet the servitude of that Church and her misery was somewhat more supportable
because these base and pernicious adjections were not yet the publick decisions or tenets of any Church but only the private conceits of the domineering Faction Of the Church l. 3. chap. 8. p. 85. We most firmly believe saith Dr. Field all the Churches of the world wherein our Fathers lived and dyed to have been the true Churches of God in which undoutedly Salvation was to be found and that they which taught embraced and believed those damnable errors which the Romanists now defend against us were a faction only in the Church as were they that denyed the Resurrection urged Circumcision and despised the Apostles of Christ in the Churches of Corinth and Galatia So Bishop Brambal frequently Dr. Potter § 3. p. 76. Others do charge these things not on the Church but Court of Rome betwixt which two there might be some considerable distinction then though now there is no difference betwixt them in any of those Doctrines which concern the objects of their worship 3. Dr. Field Append part 3. p. 881. They add that the Roman Church that then was though it had in it all the abuses and superftitious observations it now hath yet it had also others who desired the removal of all those abuses and superstitious observations which we have removed the Roman Church which then was was the whole number of Christians subject to Papal Tyranny whereof a great part desired nothing more than to shake off that yoke which as soon as he began to oppose himself they presently did but the Roman Church that now is is the multitude of such only as do magnifie admire and adore the plenitude of Papal power or at least are contented to be under the yoke of it still The gross corruption of the service of the Church was then complained of by all good men Idem Append. to his third Book of the Church p. 190. and amongst other Articles of Reformation they desired that the Breviaries and Missals might be purged Now in respect of those persons who were the prevailing faction of the Church maintaining these corrupt Doctrines as Articles of Christian Faith and upholding these superstitious abuses and pertinaciously persisting in their errors the Roman Church saith Dr. Field was verè Ecclesia truly a Church Append. 3. part p. 882. that is a multitude of men professing Christ and Baptized but not vera Ecclesia a true Church that is a multitude of men holding a saving profession of the truth in Christ But in respect of those who groaned under the yoke who secretly disliked and disowned her corrupt Doctrines and earnestly desired and wished the Reformation of her superstitious abuses and of those also who submitted to them only for want of better information in those obscure times the Roman Church was vera Ecelesia a true Church that is a multitude of men holding a saving profession of the truth in Christ So the Church of the Jews at the coming of Christ had in it the Scribes Pharisees and Saduces as well as Zachary Elizabeth Simeon and Anna in respect of the former it was truly a Church but not a true Church in respect of the latter it was a true Church Ob. But why then did not these persons if they were of any considerable number more publickly oppose what they so much disliked Answ If you look into Father Pauls History of the Council of Trent you will find them censuring most of their determinations you will find there the German Bishops determining against the adoration of Images in a Provincial Council and delcaring that the Saints departed are to be honored but with the worship of society and love P. 278 279. as also gadly men may be honored in this Life Which Explications saith Father Paul being well considered do shew how much the opinions of the Catholick Prelates of Germany do differ fromt hose of the Court of Rome youwill there also find sthem quarrelling with that saying of the Synod that Divine worship was due to the Sacrament as improper and saying it was well corrected in the sixth Canon which said that the Son of God was to be worshipt in the Sacrament 2. There was no reason to expect more open opposition of these Doctrines and abuses there being no probability of success against the Court of Rome which was then very powerful and had not only worsted mighty Princes but used extreme severity against such dissenters destroying them without all mercy V. Mr. Dodwel Answer to Qu. 2. p. 59 67. which had all the Bishops engaged to them by their oaths and worldly interests which lastly declared all things Heresie in which men differed from them and prosecuted them upon that account with the extremest infamy and highest punishments here then we have a true Western Church not Idolatrous before the Reformation in which Salvation might be had Ob. 7 § X But saith R.H. if the Church of Rome be guilty of that Idolatry with which the Writers of the Church of England charge her Discourse p. 76 77. she must be guilty of Heathenish Idolatry for according to Dr. Stillingfleet and others her Idolatry is the same with that of Heathens and surely that excludeth from Salvation and must be inconsistent with a true Church Answ When we say the Idolatry of the Church of Rome is the same with that of Heathens we do not mean that it is so either in reference to the object viz. those evil spirits which the Heathens worshiped or in respect of the rites with which they worshipped their Deacons viz. human sacrifices and unclean performances but only in this respect that both of them do worship the creature for the Creator or give that worship to the creature which belongs to God alone 2. Although the Papists be in some single actions guilty of Idolatry yet do they in the general service of their lives give God the honor due to him they pray to God trust in him they praise and love him and perform to him all the positive duties of the first Table though they do not perform them all to him alone whereas the Heathens paid their whole worship to their Demons and gave no worship to the God of Israel they were without God in the world Ephes ii 12. saith B. Paul and God was without service from them Rom. i. 21. and even they that knew God yet did not glorifie him as God Now that Idolatry which robs God of his whole service performing it intirely to evil spirits or in an undue manner may very well be damnable and inconsistent with the being of a Church whilst that which is consistent with the performance of all those positive duties which we ow to God and doth not wholly rob him of any part of our Religious worship may not deserve so hard a censure This is apparent 1. From the instance of St. Leo Sermon 7. in Nativ Dom. who speaks of some foolish persons who from some eminent places did
because they seemed to be pleased with the blood and fat of beasts he very honestly confesseth that Heathens might plausibly object the like against the God of Israel Contra Julian l. 4. p. 125. D. because he also did require such Sacrifices to be offered to him The very same objection is taken notice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril contra Jul. l. 1. p. 9. A. and answered by Cyril of Alexandria Again the Fathers frequently object unto the Heathens that diversity of Sects and of opinions which was to be found among their Philosophers but then they spare not to acknowledge that this objection may be retorted against them and then proceed to give what answer they think fit unto it And when Tertullian had argued that the Heathen Gods must be unjust Hot utique in Deum vestrum repercutere est Apol. c. 41. if they by reason of the faults of Christians were induced to hurt their own Votaries he adds that Heathens might retort this argument upon the Christians God and then proceeds to vindicate his God from that objection And yet if in his days the Romish Sacramental God had by all Christians been acknowledged and adored not only this particular but almost all that he and the forementioned Fathers had offered against the Heathen Deities might have been evidently retorted as we have seen already on the Christians God Why therefore did they not confess ingenuously in all those cases hoc in Deum nostrum repercutere est that they might be retorted on the Christians God and spend some time in vindication of their Sacramental God from these retorts § XIV 3. From what hath been discoursed Gorol II. we have as great assurance as sense and reason and the concurrent judgment of mankind can tender that the Host cannot be truly God and consequently that the Trent Council doth oblige all Christians as much as in them lyes to worship that as God which is not truly so and that the Members of the Roman Church are guilty of Idolatry by giving to it that worship which is due to God alone This charge I know doth very much afflict the Romanists because they clearly see that if it be made good against them our Church is justified in her refusal of communion with them seeing without consenting to and frequent practice of Idolatry we cannot be admitted to communion with them whence it will naturally follow that their Church must be as truly guilty of a wretched Schism as Jeroboam and his ten tribes were and consequently that the Major part of the Western Church may be Schismaticks by virtue of these impositions and that no persons separating on the account of the Idolatry required by the Church of Rome from the external communion of that Church can incur the guilt of Schism that the Roman and other Western Churches united with it and the supposed head thereof St. Peter's imaginary Successor is not that true Church-guide to which we are obliged to submit that a reformation may be lawful against the definitions of that Church that abuses in Doctrine and practice may be reformed by a National Church against and then much more without that Authority that National Churches and Councils are not absolutely subject to Patriarchal Hence doth it plainly follow that the doctrine of Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass the half Communion must be false hence also it is evident that we cannot safely acquiesce in the judgment of the Major part of our Church Governours concerning either the sense of Scripture the Doctrine of the ancient Church or the consent of Fathers or any article of faith defined by them nor safely practise all they do impose and consequently we may rest assured they are not infallible and therefore that there is no necessity for preservation of the Church from Sects and Heresies that they should be infallible nor is there any promise of an infallible assistance in their definitions in the Holy Scripture nor can it possibly be necessary to Salvation to believe the determinations of those Councils which by the Romanists are styled general Hence also it is evident that there can lye upon us no obligation to believe or yield assent to any Doctrines defined by them and consequently that this submission is not the only means of suppressing Heresies and Sects that to dissent from any Doctrine received or defined by them can be no mark of Heresie that there may be great hazard to the vulgar in adhering to the decisions of that Church that a right judgment may be assured that these Church Governours have erred in making this decision that Christians without this infallibility may be sufficiently secure in points of faith that certainty from sense and reason may rationally be pleaded for some Doctrines against the definitions of that Church and her supposed General Councils that all that R. H. hath said for confirmation of any of these propositions must be false And lastly that if a Church committing and teaching Idolatry is no true member of the Catholick Church the Church of Rome must cease to be so CHAP. III. The Contents The objections of the Romanists against the charge of Idolatry are considered and answered as 1. The Objection that the Prophets have foretold that all Idolatry should be extirpated by the preaching of Christ and his Apostles is answered § I. Obj. 2. That if the Church of Rome be guilty o Idolatry then the whole Church of Christ for many Ages before Luther must be charged with the same guilt answered first in general § II. In particular by shewing 1. That Image Worship was not then received in the greatest part of the Western and in some part of the Eastern Church § III. 2. That the worship of Saints departed with mental prayer or upon supposition of their acquaintance with the secret desires of the supplicant was then no article of faith in the Western Church nor is it yet received in the Eastern Church as such § IV. 3. That many in the Western Churches did not then and that the Eastern Churches do not yet give Latria to the Host § V. That this practice is no necessary consequent of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation nor is it necessary that they who do maintain a Doctrine must practise every thing which follows from it ibid. A large account of the Greek Mass § VI. A full answer to all that R. H. offers from that Mass to prove the Host is worshipped with Latria by the Greeks § VII In the times of Arianism Idolatry prevailed over the major part of the Church Catholick and both the Fathers and the Romish Doctors teach that in the time of Antichrist it will prevail much more § VIII § I THESE being therefore unavoidably the consequences of this crime of which they are accused not only by the Church of England but all other Protestants they do with all their wit and subtilty endeavour to demonstrate the falseness of this accusation and muster
up whatsoever they are able to produce and plead for their excuse And therefore whatsoever of this nature I have met with in their writings I will impartially consider and then shall leave it to the judgment of the discerning Reader to determine whether that which they offer in their own defence doth carry in it any weight proportionable to what we have discoursed here and other treatises have offered to justifie this accusation of the Church of England Object 1 And 1. It is objected that the Scripture doth inform us and the Prophets have foretold us that all Idolatry should be extirpated by the preaching of Christ and his Apostles and that his Kingdom was always to continue and therefore that the Church of Christ could not apostatize so far as to enjoyn and allow the belief and practice of Idolatry If Doctor Stilling fleet will not deny saith T. G. what God hath promised by the Prophet Zachary Behold P. 125. the days come and I will destroy the names of Idols from off the earth and the memory of them shall be no more and this not for four or five hundred years but to the end of the world for the Kingdom of Christ is to continue always let him give glory to God and acknowledge his charge of Idolatry to be false and that Christ hath done what he promised to do that is to deliver us from all Idolatry Answer 1 Now to this slender Argument I answer that the same Prophets have informed us that God did promise to put his laws into the hearts of Christians Jer. xxxi 33. Esa xi 9. Esa lx 21. that they should never depart from him that the knowledge of the Lord should cover the earth as the waters cover the Sea that the people of Zion should be all righteous Let then T. G. give glory to God acknowledge that the Church of Rome which by their own confessions and upon evident proof from all the writers of these Ages was over-run by ignorance and barbarity and overwhelmed with wickedness during the 10 11 12 13. Centuries was not the Church of Christ or else confess the vanity of his own inference Moreover the same Prophets have informed us that the preaching of the Gospel should have this influence upon the world that they should beat their swords into plow-shares Mich. iv 3. Hos xi 18. Esa xi 9. and their spears into pruning books that Nation shall not lift up a sword against Nation neither shall they learn war any more that he would remove the bow the sword and the battle out of the earth and would make them to lye down in safety and that they should not hurt or destroy in all his holy mountain Let then T. G. give glory to God and acknowledg that Rome Christian which hath been the cause of more wars and shed more blood than even Rome Heathen did is very unlike to be Christs holy mountain or else confess the weakness of what he thus infers from this passage of the Prophet Zachary Let him charge God with the failure of his promise or confess that all these places do only shew that the Doctrine of the Gospel doth naturally tend to work these blessed effects in all that cordially embrace it though through the perverseness lusts the superstition and corrupt interests of men it be far otherwise and then he hath an answer to this slender scruple viz. that what he cites from Zachary doth not affirm that after the coming of our Saviour there should be no Idolatry amongst professors of Christianity but only that his Doctrine had a signal tendence to the extirpation of it did not the wickedness and superstition of men deserted by God and given up to the delusions of the Devil incline them to the practice of it 3. The words of Zachary do only say that God would cot off Idols out of the Land of Judah not out of the whole earth he doth not say that God would cut off all Idols but only the names of those Idols which they formerly had worshipped in which sense in was admirably true for after their return from Babylon they superstitiously abstained from that Idolatry which they had formerly committed And 4. This objection may be as speciously urged by the Arian Idolaters and the whole Heathen world as by the Roman Church for since the words of Zachary as they are rendred by T. G. contain a promise that God would cut off the names of Idols from the earth it doth as much assure us that after the coming of our Saviour and after the promulgation of his Gospel through the world there should remain no Idols nor any worship of Idols in the whole surface of the earth as that there should remain no Idols amongst those who do profess the Christian Faith § II If the Church of of Rom. R. H. disc p. 75. say they be guilty of Idolatry in worshipping the Host or Images or praying to departed Saints then the whole Church of Christ for many Ages before Luther must have been guilty of Idolatry for the same practices say they for which we do affirm the Church of Rome to be Idolatrous are and for many Ages were used in the Eastern Church Answ That the same practices on the account of which we do affirm the Church of Rome is guilty of Idolatry are and for many Ages before Luther were used in the whole Church of Christ can never be made good by Roman Catholicks in answer therefore to this whole Argument it is sufficient barely to deny what they precariously do assert in this particular and call upon them to prove that which they do with so much confidence affirm by some more cogent and effectual medium than the pretended silence of Historians touching such persons as did not comply with this Idolatry For 1. There is no necessity that all who did not inwardly believe these Doctrines should outwardly declare so much when they considered that they were likely to do themselves the greatest mischief by a free declaration of their minds and the Church but little good by reason of the prevalency of these errors Multa hujusmodi propter nonnullarum vel sanctarum vel turbulentarum personarumscandala liberius improbare non audeo Epist ad Januar. p. 372. Dementie est tibi pernitiem accersere si nulli prosis Apud Hotting Hist Eccl. Sect. 16. Part. 2. p. 29. Vid. etiam p. 24 25. and the blind Zeal of many for them For if St. Austin in his days found reason to complain that some corruptions had so generally obtained that though he judged they ought to be redressed yet as he tells us he durst not freely disapprove them it is no wonder that in these latter times of wretched ignorance and looseness men should be more shy of reprehending those corruptions which in their judgments they disliked concluding with Erasmus that it was madness though they were convinced as he saith he was that it was very good that some
things should be changed that had obtained in the Church to hazard their own lives by speaking their minds freely when they could do but little good and being more desirous it should be done by others than themselves Who knows not that when the reformation was begun by Zuinglius and Luther they were encouraged and approved of by the best and the most learned of that Age And that innumerable persons did presently embrace and testifie their approbation of their Doctrine which is an evidence beyond exception of their good inclinations to it Doth not Elias complain that all besides himself in Israel had shamefully revolted to Idolatry and yet we are assured by God himself that the was certainly deceived And if such a great Prophet erred in his judgment touching his own time and his own Country why may not you mistakein thinking that in the former Ages of the Church all the professed members of it did bow the knee to your Baal 2. There is no necessity there should be Histories or Records of all those persons who disliked any of the practices which commonly obtained in the Church Apud Hott Hist Ecc. Sec. 16. Part. 2. p. or were possessed with that hatred of the false worship generally received Cat. test ver l. 19. p. 867. as Wesselus was or said as did Domitius Calderinus when by his friends constrained to go to Mass Eamus sanè ad communes errores Nor 3. Is it necessary that all the Histories and Records of this kind which have been written should remain and much less that they should continue perfect and uncorrupted especially considering your Church which had lately all the power in her hand hath been so wickedly industrious by her Indices expurgatorii to corrupt all Histories Records and Monuments of Antiquity which make against her But to omit all these advantages I shall ex abundanti shew the falshood of this suggestion in all those three particulars out of those Records which yet remain and have escaped her destructive hands And § III 1. Idolatry as it imports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The worship or religious service of an Idol or the similitude of any thing in heaven or earth made to be worshipped in the service of Religion I say Idolatry in this which is the prime and natural import of the word was not the practice of the whole Church of Christ for many Ages before Luther For 1. The German and the French Churches saith Cassander Consult Cap. de Imag. p. 201. after the Council held at Frankfort most constantly continued for some Ages in that sentence which they first received from the Church of Rome viz. That Images were neither to be broken nor yet to be worshipped If then the German and French Churches continued firm in this opinion for some Ages after the Council held at Frankford A. D. 794. they must have constantly maintained it in the VIII and the IX Centuries And that they held the same opinion in the IX Century is evident from Agobardus Bishop of Lyons who was make Bishop by consent of the whole Clergy of that Nation For he wrote a Book against this Image-Worship Sect. 30. wherein he hath declared that it is contrary both to Scripture and Tradition and the Doctrine of the Old Roman Church Sect. 35. and also that whosoever worships any molten or graven Image doth not honor God Quod omnes tum in Gallia ut etiam Sirmondo observatum est consentiebant Balhuz Not. in Agobar p. 88. or Angles or holy men but Idols and in which he doth fully Answer the exceptions and evasions of the Roman party And yet Balbuzius and Sirmondus do ingenuously confess that Agobardus hath writ only that which the whole Church of France did then acknowledge Moreover in this IX Century the Second Nicene Synod was declared to be a Pseudo Synod or falsly to retain the name of Synod L. Contra Hincmar Laudun Cap. 20. Ad. A. D. 792. A. D. 794. Chrot A. D. 794. because it Decreed for Image-worship by Hincmarus Rhemensis and Ado Viennesis In the X. Century it is so stiled by Regino Abbas Prumiensis In the XI by Hermannus Contractus an Author of great Credit and Reputation in the world And that the Germans continued of the same mind in the XII Century Lib. 2. de Imp. Isaachi Angel F. 199. is evident from the plain words of Nicetas Choniates who saith that then among the Germans and Armenians the worship of Holy Images was equally forbidden And that the French Church then believed the Doctrine of the Second Nicene Council to be against the definition of the Orthodox and Antient Fathers is evident from the Continuator of Aimoinas De Gestis Francorum l. 5. c. 28. who plainly tells us that the Fathers of the Nicene Synod otherwise decreed concerning Image = worship than the Orthodox Doctors had before defined And Ivo Bishop of Chartres then declared this to be the judgment of the Council of Eliberis Nos illas non adoramus l. 1. c. 3. Num. 1. that Pictures ought not to be worshipped but that they only should be memorials of what is worshipped Was it then received by the French Church in the XIII Century No Durandus a French Bishop in his Rationale doth expresly say we do not worship Images and he moreover gives this admonition to them that do so L. 4. C. 39. N. 3. If neither men nor Angels are to be worshipped let them consider what they do who under pretence of Piety do worship divers Images for it is not Lawful to worship that which is made with hands Was it then received in the XV. Comp. Theol. in explic praecepti primi Ed. Paris 1606. Century No Gerson Chancellor of Paris who flourished Anno Domini 1420. saith we do not worship Images and that they are forbidden to be worshipped and that the words of the commandment Thou shall not bow down to them nor worship them must be thus interpreted Thou shall not bow thy body or thy knees unto them thou shall not worship them with the affection of thy mind When therefore was it that this Image-worship obtained in the Gallican Church Answ Pithoeus doth ingenuously confess that it is but of yesterday If we be willing saith he Praes in Hist P. Diaconi seriously to confess the truth it is but very lately that our people began to be in love with Images Moreover in the VII Century it was condemned by a Karolus Rex Franciae misit Synodalem librum ad Britaniam sibi à Constantinopoli directum in quo proh dolor multa inmconvenientia verae fidei contraria reperichantur maximè quod poene omnium Orientalium doctorum unanimi assartione confirmatum fuerit Imagines adorari debere quod omnino Ecclesia Dei execratur contra quod scripsit Albinus Epistolam ex authoritate divinarum Scripturarum mirabiliter dictatam illamque cum eodem Synodali libro in
the Sacrament when Christ invisibly is present but also when it is placed upon the Altar and there a Sacramentum Eucharistiae non servatur apud nos in templis ut fit hic apud Europaeos Christoph Licanatus Aethiopum legatus apud Hotting Hist Eccl. Sac. 16. p. 44. vide Damian à Goes de Moribus Aethiop p. 506. reserved in the Pyx and when it is carryed in Procession The Eastern Churches have no such custom of placing it upon the Altar in a little Box or carrying it in b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Metroph Critopulus Pomp to be adored by the people now in these adorations performed to the reserved Hosts consisteth more especially and plainly the Idolatry of Roman Votaries § VIII But 2. If by the Christian world R. H. and others do understand all Christians without exception declaring for and practising those things which we esteem Idolatrous we say that no such Idolatry hath been admitted by the whole Church of Christ but if they understand only the greater part of Prelates or the most numerous part of Christians and say as R. H. doth Cuid di c. 2. c. 5. §. 63. n. 2. that they must be reputed as the whole I Answer that Idolatry may in this sense prevail over the Christian Church as formerly it did over the Church of Israel and Judah For as in the days of Elias there was so great Apostacy as that the Prophet said I only am left alone and yet God had his Church preserved in those 7000 who bewed not their knees to Baal so may it also be in the Church of Christ there may be an Apostacy so great as to prevail on the most numerous party in each Christian Church and yet there may remain besides those numerous Churches and Persons we have reckoned up even many thousands of the Roman Church who did not in their hearts believe or in their practices submit to their Idolatry The Roman Doctors as well as Antient Fathers do acknowledg that this hath been the state of Christians and that it shall be so again they do acknowledg that when Arianism prevailed thus it was Act. 6. p. 409. the second Nicene Council informs us that Arius Aetius Eunomius Eudoxius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others were the men by whom the Devil brought again into the Christian world that Idol-worship which had been rooted out and that through the as2istance of the Emperors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. the disease grew strong and prevalent so that all principalities contended for it saith the Latine were over-powered by it saith the Greek and when almost all the world had joyned themselves to the prevailing part God raised up St. Basil as an Elias under Ahab to support the Priesthood which dfter a manner was now fallen This is the relation of that great Apostacy made by Gregory Nyssen who lived in these times and approved by the Second Nicene Council and more particularly by the Author of the answer to the Constantinopolitan Synod v. Whitbies Ans to Cressie ch 9. §. 21. p. 118. and the truth of this assertion hath been proved already from the clear testimonies of Nazianzen Basil Vincentius Lyrinensis and divers others to whom add that of Athanasius who compares the Pious and Orthodox in his time to Elias and the Prophets Ep ad Solit. vitam agentes hid by Obadiah in a Cave and who tells us that where there were any Orthodox persons they did either thrust themselves into the Dens and Caverns of the Earth or solitarily wander in the Deserts Gaide disc 2. ch 2. §. 26. n. 2. Ibid. §. 27. n. 3. Now let the indifferent Reader judg whether from such sayings we find no ground to affirm that Arianism at any time had infected or pessessed a major part of Christianity as R. H. confidently saith and whether when these things were spoken no question could be made but that the major part of the Prelates of the Vniversal Church professed the Catholick Faith I am sure the words of the forementioned Fathers by no means will admit of such a sense and therefore R. H. thought fit not to produce them but to spend a long Harangue full of intolerable faults in confutation of their testimonies under the Covert of confuting Protestants Moreover it is the judgment both of the Fathers and of Roman Catholicks that when the reign of Antichrist prevails Ep. 71. p. 864. the Church will be reduced to the like Estate St. Basil considering the wonderful prevalency of Arianism crys out hath the Lord quite deserted his Church is it the last hour and doth the defection now take place by which the Son of perdition is to be revealed In Sophon c. 2. St. Jerom saith however it may seem at the first view absurd he that considereth that of the Apostle in the latter days there shall be perillous times c. and that of Christ when the Son of man cometh shall he find Faith upon the earth will not wonder at the extreme desolations of the Church Chap. xviii 18. which by the reign of Antichrist will be brought to solitude Theophylact on that of Luke shall he find Faith on the earth speaks thus the Lord asketh the question because then there shall hardly be found any Faithful Op. imperf in Matt. Hom. 49. for so greatly will the Son of perdition prevail as to seduce if it were possible the very Elect And St. Chrysostom adds that the sacrifice of Christians will be destroyed by Antichrist Christians will fly to the Deserts none being left either to enter into the Church or offer an Oblation to God Ep. 80. ad Hesyc p. 236. P. 219. Edit Colon. A. P. 1603. Add to this that Prophetick testimony of St. Austin that in the time of Antichrist the Church shall not appear being eclipsed by the persecutions of ungodly men and that of Ephraim Syrus or whosoever is the Author of that Tract which bears his name that men should ask whether the Gospel be continued upon earth and answer should be returned in the negative v. Hieron in locum And thus that place in Daniel Ch. ix 27. He shall cause the Sacrifice and the Oblations to cease is expounded by Hilary and by Hippolytus and by Apollmarius of the time of Antichrist And in this the Fathers are followed by whole Troops of Papists in the times of Antichrist saith Pererius there shall be no sacrifice in publick places In Dan. p. 888. Non quod omnes sunta fide catholicâ sicut exponunt aliqui recessuri sed quam major pars credentium discedel à fide De Pontifi Rom. l. 3. c. 7. neither shall any publick honor be given to it the Holy Fathers tell us saith the same Pererius that then all Christians shall be either Martyes or Apostates or shall lie concealed like wild beasts in Dens and Solitudes Lyra upon the Thessal ii
contrition they may be saved and I piously hope many of them are thus actually saved and this I judg to be the more common sentence of the Doctors because it is commonly so Preached in their Churches Moreover R. H. himself cannot be ignorant that it doth pass for current Doctrine in their Schools that ignorant persons may innocently be Hereticks 1. S. Clar. Prob. 15. p. 99. when they are by their Priests misled into the grossest Heresies that Lay-men erring with their Teachers are by the common doctrine of the Schools and Doctors wholly excused from all fault Idem Ibid. Estius in Sent. I. 2. dist 42. §. 7. That all the seven Capital sins by reason of the imperfection of the act or other circumstances may become only venial that ignorance invincible excuses from sin and that there may be ignorance invincible even of the things commanded or forbidden by the law of nature or the Decalog and therefore of the Idolatry forbidden in that Decalog how can he then pronounce so decretorily against the Church of Rome that no Salvation could be had by any of her members provided they were guilty of Idolatry without a contradiction to these avowed Tenets of the most famous Doctors of the Church of Rome And whereas the Bishop of Chalcedon saith that Protestants do allow Salvation to the Roman Church and to formal Papists but Roman Catholicks do deny saving Faith and Salvation to the Protestant Church and to formal Protestants and grant it only to such Protestants as are invincibly ignorant of their errors who are not formal Protestants but rather Protestantibus credentes persons deceived by giving two much trust to Protestants Bishop Brambal answers Reply Chap. 6. §. p. 224. Ed. Dublin 1677. that we say the very same viz. that we allow not saving Faith or Salvation to formal Papists but to such as err invincibly and are prepared in their minds to receive the truth when God shall reveal it Such are not formal Papists but Papistis credentes such as give too much trust to Papists § IV 2. To this enquiry Serm. 6. ad Pop. Part 1. p. 335 336 337. how can Idolaters living and dying so without repentance as the Papists do be saved It is excellently answered by the Reverend and learned Bishop Sanderson in these words I do not so excuse the Idolatry of our Forefathers as if it were not in it self a sin and that without repentance damnable but yet their ignorance being such as it was nourished by education custom tradition the tyranny of their leaders the fashion of the times not without some shew also of piety and devotion and themselves withall having such slender means of better knowledge though this cannot excuse them from sin without repentance damnable yet it much lesseneth and qualifies the sinfulness of their Idolatry arguing that their continuance in it was more from other prejudices than from a wilful contempt of Gods Holy Word and will and as for their repentance it is as certain that as many of them as are saved do repent of their Idolatries as it is certain no Idolater nor other sinner can be saved without repentance But then there is a double difference to be observed between repentance for ignorances and for known sins the one is that known sins must be confessed and repented of and pardon asked for them in particular that is where God alloweth time and capacity every kind of them must be particularly confessed whereas for ignorances it is sufficient to wrap them up all together in a general and implicit confession and crave pardon for them in the lump as David doth in Psalm xix saying Lord cleanse me from my secret sins The other difference is this that known sins are not truly repented of but where they are forsaken But ignorances may be carefully repented of and yet still continued in The reason is because they may be repented of in the General without special knowledge that they are sins whereas without such special knowledge they cannot be reformed Some of our Forefathers then might not only live in Popish Idolatry but even die in an Idolatrous act and yet have truly repented though but in the General and in the croud of their unknown sins even of those very sins and have at the same instant true Faith in Jesus Christ and other Graces accompanying Salvation Now from these answers it is evident 1. That we only grant that Papists may be saved in such circumstances in which we do believe Idolaters may be saved also For as the Roman Casuists conclude that albeit the Scripture saith no fornicator shall be saved yet doth not this conclude against those persons who are deceived with a Leah instead of Rachel as good Jacob was and albeit the drunkard be excluded by the same Scripture from Salvation yet will not this condemn a holy Noah who knew not that the wine he drank would have such ill effect upon him and albeit the Scriptures say no Murtherer shall have eternal life yet will not that conclude against thoe persons who in simplicity of heart do serve their Prince in an unlawful war so neither will those Scriptures which say no Idolater shal have eternal life exclude the person who through like ignorance of fact or right commits Idolatry And thus a Quae omnia non nisi secundum quandam peccati perfectionem accipi debent cum alloqui constet etiam ex ipsâ Scriptura in his peccatorum Generibus delinqui posse venialiter Estius in Sent. l. 2. dist 42. §. 4. in all these passages of Scripture saith Estius which in the general make the effect of sin exclusion from Christs Kingdom destruction and eternal death or in particular do reckon certain kinds of sins amongst those works of the flesh which exclude from Heaven in all these passages saith he we are to understand the Scriptures only to speak of sins in general or of those kinds of sins secundum quandam peccati perfectionem i.e. when they are knowingly committed and persisted in and when they are not any way retracted by Repentance for otherwise it is clear even from Scripture that in committing of these kind of sins men may be only guilty of a venial fault 2. Hence it appears that the Charity we exercise towards the Church of Rome in this particular is only that Charity which they themselves have taught us and which they exercise to others in like circumstances when they pronounce them guilty of sins in their own nature damnable and that it is not any necessity which lies upon us so to do as R. H. wrongfully suggests Disc p. 78 but it is only love of truth and evidence of reason which is the ground of this our Charity We being fully satisfied that the God of mercy will not condemn the person who sincerely doth Repent of all his unknown trespasses by reason of those errors of his understanding which he was not able to correct or which in his
are told by Zanchy De Nat. dei Praefat. p. that in spight of Satan the Church of Rome retained still the chief foundations of the Faith though weakned with the Doctrines of men it retained the publick Preaching of the word of God though in many places misunderstood and misconstrued the Invocation of the name of Christ though joyned also with the Invocation of dead men the administration of Baptism instituted by Christ himself howsoever defiled with the addition of many superstitions so as together with the Symbol of the Covenant the Covenant it self remained still in her the Church of Rome therefore is yet the Church of Christ Apud Bishop Hall To. 2. p. 94. In the Roman Church saith Dr. Primrose God doth still keep his word in the Old and New Tetament as the contract of his Marriage with her in her is the true Creed the true Decalog the true Lords Prayer in her Christ is Preached though corruptly in her the Trinity and Incarnation of Christ are believed in her the Father Son and Holy Ghost are prayed to though in an unknown tongue to the most part in her the little Children are Baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and no man will deny that their Baptism is a true Sacrament whereby their children are born to God seeing we do not rebaptise them when leaving them they join to us Who then can deny that she is a true Church seeing out of the true Chuch there is no Baptism and the Church alone beareth Children to God Now the belief of all these things here mentioned by Dr. Primrose and Mr. Zanchy are well consistent with the practice and allowance of Idolatry and therefore in their judgments the truth of the visible Church may be consistent with it also 2. They also add that a true visible Church may still continue so to be even when she most deserves to be Divorced provided God doth not give her a Bil of Divorce remove her Candlestick or take away the Kingdom of God from her Two things are requisite Lect. in Apoc. p. 430 431. saith Episcopius to Vnchurch a people 1. That she merit a Divorce by reason of some deadly or fundamental error 2. That God doth deal with her accordng to her merit by sending her a Bill of Divorce both these are necessary to cause a Church to be so for as a wife by being an Adulteress doth not yet cease to be a wife whilst her own husband will acknowledg her and not Divorce her from him so is it with the Church of God The Church of Sardis is by Christ owned as a Church though as himself pronounceth Ibid. p. 521. V. Hall To. 2. Tr. of the Old Religion p. 76. she only had a name to live but really was dead The being of a Church saith Bishop Davenant doth principally stand upon the action of God calling men out of darkness and death to the participation of light and life in Christ Jesus so long as God continues this calling to a people though they as much as in them lies darken this light and corrupt the means which should bring them to Life and Salvation in Christ yet where God calls men to the participation of life in Christ by the Word and by the Sacraments there is the true being of a Church let men be never so false in the exposition of Gods word or never so untrusty in mingling their own Traditions with Gods Ordinances Thus the Church of the Jews lost not the being of a Church when she became an Idolatrous Church Thus to gran that the Roman was and is a true visible Church though in Doctrine a false and in practice an Idolatrous Church is a true assertion and of greater use and necessity in our Controversie with Papists about the perpetuity of the Christian Church than is understood by those that gainsay it 3. They say that a true visible Church ceaseth not to be so though she doth add to the profession of those essentials which constitute her a true visible Church such tenets as by unseen consequence do overthrow some of them The Church of Rome saith Bishop Hall Advertis p. 51. professing to hold those things diectly which by inferences she closely overthrows she is a truly visible Church but an unsound one Again the Church of Rome saith he under a Christian face hath an Unchristian heart overturning that foundation by necessary inferences which by open profession it avows that face that profession those avowed principles are enough to give it claim to the true outward visibility of a Christian Church nor can those inferences Dischurch it whilest those main principles are kept alive in that crazy and corrupted body And again p. 63. if we measure the true being of a visible Church by the direct maintaining of Fundamental Principles though by consequences indirectly overturned and by the possession of the word of God and his Sacraments though not without foul adulteration what judicious Christian can deny that the Church of Rome hath yet the true visibility of a Church of Christ In respect of the common truths yet professed among the Papists they may Apud Bishop Hall To. 2. Part 2. p. 82. saith Dr. Prideaux and ought to be termed a true visible Church in opposition to Jews Turks and Pagans who directly deny the foundation howsoever their Antichristian additions make them no better than the Synagogue of Satan 4. They whilst they do allow her to be a true visible Church do also say she is Heretical and do allow Heretical Churches to be true visible Churches Advertisement p. 51. also that which Rome holds with us makes it a Church saith Bishop Hall that which it obtrudes upon us makes it Heretical and elsewhere to this question is the Church of Rome still a part of the truly existent visible Church of Christ Reconciler p. 61. He answers Surely no otherwise than an Heretical and Apostatical Church is or may be Their Roman Church saith Dr. Crakenthorp is Heretical yet must she be accounted both to be in the Church and be a Church not simply not according to the integrity of Faith not according to any inward virtue Defens Eccl. Angl. adv Spalat c. 16. not so effectually that it should avail to Salvation for a man to be in it but yet a Church it is in some respects according to the external profession of Faith and of the word of God accordin gto the Administration of the Sacraments according to some Doctrines of true belief by which as by so many outward ligaments she is yet knit to the Orthodox and Catholick Church And to this Question Is the Roman Church at this day no part of the Church of God Appen part 3. p. 883. our learned Dr. Field thus answers Surely as Austin noteth that the societies of Hereticks in that they retain the profession of many parts of heavenly truth and the ministration of the Sacrament
of Baptism are so far joined with the Catholick Church and the Catholick Church in and by them bringeth forth children to God so the present Roman Church is still in some sort a part of the visible Church of God but no otherwise than other societies of Hereticks are in that it retaineth the profession of some parts of heavenly truth and ministreth the true Sacrament of Baptism to the Salvation of the Souls of many thousand Infants We must acknowledg even Hereticks themselves to be though a maimed part yet a part of the Church visible saith the judicious Hooker Eccl. Pol. l. 3. §. 1. if the Fathers do any where saith he as oftentimes they do make the true Church of Christ and her companies opposite they are to be construed as separating Hereticks not altogether from the company of Believers but from the fellowship of sound Believers Lastly They also do assert that an Idolatrous Church may yet continue to be a true Church visible Lo say the Romanists Reconcil p. 64 65. we are of the true visible Church why then forsaken Ans Alass poor souls saith Bishop Hall do they not know that Hypocrites leud persons Reprobates are no less members of the visible Church what gain they by this but a deeper damnation to what purpose did the Jews cry the temple of the Lord whilst they despighted the Lord of that Temple They are of the viâ—â—â—le Church but shamefully Idolatrous in practice Our Saviour saith Mr. Hooker ubi Supra compareth the Kingdom of Heaven to a Net which gathereth together good Fish and bad and to a Field where Tares manifestly known and seen of all men do grow intermingled with good Corn and even so shall continue to the consummation of the world When the people of God worshipped the Calf in the Wilderness when they adored the Brazen Serpent when they bowed the knee to Baal and served the Gods of the Nations when they burnt Incense and offered Sacrifice to Idols true it is the wrath of God was most fiercely inflamed against them and they were forsaken of God in respect of that singular mercy wherewith he kindly embraceth his faithful children howbeit retaining the Law of God and the holy Seal of his Covenant the sheep of his visible flock they continued even in the depth of their disobedience and rebellion wherefore among them od always had a Church not only because be had thousands who never bowed the knee to baal but even they whose knees were bowed to Baal were also of the visible Church of God Of the same judgment are Bishop Davenant Dr. Primrose Zanchy and Episcopius in the fore-cited places § VII Now to admit the Church of Rome to be in the large sense a true visible Church of Christ serves no designs of Popery and is sufficient to justifie the Ordinations and succession of the Clergy of the Church of England For I. admit the first Reformers of our Church received their Ordination from those Bishops which were themselves guilty of Heresie or Schism or both and therefore no true living Members of Christs body nor any other ways to be reputed Members of the Church visible than Schismaticks and Hereticks may be This is abundantly sufficient to justifie our Ordination and Succession and our entrance into the visible Church by Baptism conferred by them For of the Baptism of Hereticks without exception and therefore of those Hereticks who by the judgment of the Universal Church have been esteemed Idolaters Sess 7. cap. de Bapt. Can. 4. the Church of Rome in her Trent Council hath determined that it is valid and hath pronounced an Anathema on those who say the contrary Jews Hereticks Part 2. Cap. II. Sect. 24. and Infidels may confer true Baptism saith the Roman Catechism as many Antient Fathers and Decrees of Council teach particularly the General Council of Constantinople and the sixth General Council held in Trullo the Council held at Florence and the Lateran Council Moreover that the Ordination of Hereticks is valid Preface to his Answer to several Treat Sess 7. Can. 9.23 Can. 4. Cap. 68. Act. 1. the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet hath largely proved from the definition of the Trent Council from the Code of Canons of the African Church from the judgment of the second Nicene Council from the General reception of this Doctrine in the Roman Church for as Morinus witnesseth De Sacris Ord. Part 3. Exercit 5. c. 1. n. 12. the opinion of the validity of Orders conferred by Hereticks hath only obtained in the Roman Church during the last four Centuries to which I add the definition of the first Nicene Council in the Case of the Cathari Can. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Nicen. 2. Act. 1. p. 68. or the Novatian Hereticks that they returning to the Catholick and Apostolick Church should remain in that Order of Clergy in which they were only receiving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the imposition of hands for benediction and reconciliation and that if any of them were found either in Villages or Cities to be the only Bishops that were there Ordained they should continue in that same rank Whereas concerning the Pauliani who as St. Austin thinks De Haeres Cap. 44. did not observe the essentials of true Baptism the Council doth determine that if any of them should be found among the Clergy they should be Rebaptized and then receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ordination by some Bishop of the Catholick Church Can. 19. so that the Ordination of the Novatian Hereticks who were very numerous and whose Bishops had continued in a long Succession at Constantinople Ephesus Socrat. Hist Eccles l. 2. cap. 38. p. 114. l. 7. cap. 11. at Cyzicum and in most other places is by this great and holy Synod here pronounced valid and they who were Ordained by their Bishops were not received into the Church as Greeks or degraded into the rank of Lay-men whereas by reason of some fundamentla error in the case of Baptism it is determined that the Pauliani who were of their Clergy should be by Baptism admitted first into the Church and then by Ordination of the Bishop into the number of the Clergy The judgment of St. Austin is so clear in this point that we need nothing more to evidence the Faith and practice which then obtained in the Church For that the Ordination of Hereticks is valid he both asserts against the Donatists and proves by these two mediums 1. That their Baptism being valid according to the determination of the Church their Ordination must be deemed so there is no reason Lib 2. Contra Epist Parm. c. 13. saith he that they who cannot lose their Baptism should lose the power of giving Baptism to others for they both of them are Sacraments both of them are given by Consecration one when the person is Baptized the other when he is Ordained and therefore in the Catholick Church it is not lawful
to reiterate either of them 2. Because saith he a person who after his Ordination in the Church Catholick Non sunt rursus ordinandi sed sicut Baptismus in eis ita Ordinatio mansit integra qua in praecisione erat vitium non in Sacramentis quae ubicunque sunt ipsa vera sunt Ibid. becomes an Heretick must not at his return to the Church be Re-ordained and therefore neither must he be Re-ordained who hath received Ordination out of the Church Catholick and hence it is saith he that if any Bishops of the Donatists are won over to the Church and it doth seem convenient that they should bear the same Offices which formerly they did they are not by the Church Ordained but as their Baptism so their Ordination remains intire By this determination the Doctors of the Roman Church are generally swaied so that there is saith Bellarmine Bell. 1.4 de Rom. Pâ—ntif C. 10. § at emtra scarce any Catholick who knows not that they who are Baptized by Hereticks are Baptized truly and they that are Ordained by Hereticks are Ordained truly when the Heretick that Ordains is truly a Bishop at least as to his Character § VIII 2. That the Ordination made by those Hereticks who really were or by the Church have been condemned as Idolaters or persons guilty of more hainous crimes when these Ordainers were true Bishops was esteemed valid by the Church the same Learned Person hath demonstrated Desence of his Discourse part 2. Chap. 4. p. 795 798. 1. From the judgment of the second Nicene Council in the Case of Meletius who was ordained by Arian Bishops and whose Ordinations were accounted valid by an Alexandrian Synod in their Synodal Epistle Eccles Hier. l. 2. cap. 10. § 9 which saith Petavius contains the faith received in the whole Church Catholick and in the Synodal Epistle of the first Nicene Synod which saith Petavius Idem App. To. 3. Eccl. Hier. l. 2. c. 3 § 4. determined that they who were constituted and confirmed by mystical imposition of hands should be received into the Communion of the Church and enjoy their functions with these provisions that they should be in every Church and Parish after those Bishops and Presbyters which were ordained by Alexander Bishop of Alexandria that they should have no power of electing whom they pleased nor of propounding of the names of those whom they thought fit to be chosen into the body of the Clergy 2. This he doth prove from a fuller testimony of the general sense of the Church of that age Hist Eccles l. 1. c. 28. recorded by Ruffinus concerning the admission of those who had received orders from the Arian Bishops to the exercise of their Priestly Office with which decree of the Alexandrian Council about the receiving the Arian Bishiops and Priests upon disowning their Heresie Adv. Lucifer init though Lucifer did quarrel yet Jerom saith that it was universally received by the Church This will be farther evident from the 7. Canon of the second General Council of Constantinople and from the 95. Canon of the Synod held at Trullo in both which Canons it is determined that the Arian Baptism should be esteemed valid Contra Epist Parmen lib. 2. c. 13. Sess 23. c. 4. Synod Ephes Epist ad Theod. Vale t Imperat Act. Synod cap. 7. Audemus Anathematizare Nestorii Idololatriam in homine 2 Nic. Concil Act. 7. Epist ad Constantinum Iren. Act. 1. p. 68. E. Haer. 80. n. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10 Act. 1. p. 72. E. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 1. p. 77. E. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 4. p. 236. A Act 6. p. 357. B. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 1. p. 77. C. Act. 3. p. 160. D.E. and not to be reiterated and therefore as S. Austin doth infer they must esteem their Ordination also valid and not to be reiterated Because in the Sacrament of Orders as well as Baptism saith the Tret Council an indelible Character is impressed Moreover That the Nestorians were Idolaters hath been declared by the Church and yet their Ordination by the same Church hath been accounted valid saith the second Nicene Council That the Massaliani or Euchytae were worshippers of the Devil Epiphanius doth inform us and yet their Ordinations were allowed by the third General Council of Ephesus and it was there decreed saith the Second Nicene Council that as many of their Clergy as would renounce their Heresie and return to the Church should remain in the number of the Clergy Concerning the Heresie of the Iconoclasts it is determined by the members of the Second Nicene Council that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the worst of evils and of vHeresies What shall we esteem them saith Tarusius who sitbvert Sacred Images They must be counted saith the Synod as Atheists Jews and enemies of the truth They who reject them are like to Jews and Samaritans faith the same Synod and again if the making of Images be likened to Idols the mystery of our redemption is made void saith the same Council and yet this very Council doth determine that even these very persons who confessed that they were born and bred up in this worst of Heresies should be admitted into the Order of Priesthood which they had formerly received and doth accordingly admit them Moreover from the Trent Council I thus argue that power which is not Temporary and therefore never can be taken away continues with Idolatrous Priests and Bishops as well as with other Hereticks but according to the definition of the Trent Council that power which is given in the Sacrament of Orders impressing on the receiver an indelible Character never can be taken away For so they do expresly testifie in these words Because in the Sacrament of Order as well as Confirmation and Baptism a Character is impressed In Sacramento ordinis Character imprimitur nec delert auferri po Sess 23. 4. which neitehr can be blotted out nor taken away N.B. This holy Syned justly condemneth their opinion who hold that Priests of the New Testament have only a temporary power Lastly agreeable to this determination of the Trent Council is the determination of the Schools for that every Bishop is a Minister of Scred Orders is so true saith Estius In Sent. l. 4. dist 25. § 3. that no Crime how enormous soever as Heresie Schism Apostacy nor any censure how weighty soever as V.G. that of Excommunication can hinder the validity of any Ordination made by such a person even out of his own Jurisdiction provided he observe the due rites of Ordination in things essential to that Sacrament This doctrine saith he is sufficiently confirmed by the continual practice of the Church which never reordained any who returned from any Heresie or Schisin whatsoever in which they were ordained Men saith Petavius De Eccl. Hier. l. 2. Cap. 9. § â— may be deprived of the Communion of the Church of