not we who by force and perswasion and by all manner of Artifices endeavour to draw People from the Unity and Obedience of the Holy Catholick Church unto new Congregations Institutions and Rules of their own framing opposite to and destructive of the former Like the Scribes and Pharisees of old they compass Sea and Land to make one Proselyte and when he is made they make him twofold more the Child of Hell than themselves Matth. 23.15 Qu. 13. Whether Persons so acting are better than Rebels and Usurpers or such as Simon Magus and those that deserted the Apostles to follow him and therefore to be avoided as Persons separated from the flock of Christ Ans That they are no better than such as he hath here named and described we willingly grant and upon that very account is it that we now avoid Communion with the present Church of Rome Thus have I given an Answer and I hope a sufficient one to these Enquiries and that short without entring upon discourses of things not demanded or at least not implyed in those demands and so observed the Method propounded by the Enquirer An Explanation of Roman Catholick's Belief concerning these IV. Points Their Church Worship Justification and Civil Government as it was presented to some Persons of Quality for their particular Satisfaction THese are four great Points and if well and truly explained the Explanation of them may be of very great use but if otherwise if he only guild the Pill that the Patient may be more easily perswaded to swallow it it may prove of dangerous Consequence instead of informing it may debauch the minds and understandings of men Let us therefore look before we leap let us consider well whether this Explainer hath been honest and faithfull in his Explanation before we receive all he saith for Gospel And for your assistance herein I shall set down his own words then animadvert thereupon and when that is done present you with both for your better satisfaction The EXPLAINER 1. We believe the Holy Scriptures to be of Divine Inspiration and Infallible Authority and whatsoever is therein contained we firmly assent unto as to the word of God the Author of all truth But since in the Holy Scriptures there are some things hard to be understood which the ignorant and unstable wrest to their own destruction we therefore profess for the ending of all Controversies in our Religion and setling of Peace in our Consciences to submit our private Judgments to the Judgment of the Church in a free general Council The ANIMADVERTER 1. The Explainer tells us that the Roman Catholicks do believe the Holy Scriptures to be of Divine Inspiration and Infallible Authority c. A very fair and good profession wherein we do heartily joyn with them And is it not a great pity there should be a secret reserve to spoil and overthrow it They believe this but is this all they believe Do they not believe also that some things which before the Church's definition of them might have been innocently disbelieved yet after they are once defined and determined by the Church to be matters of Faith and of equal Authority with any other things delivered by Christ and his Apostles Do they not believe also that some Apocryphal Books are of Divine Inspiration also and of as infallible Authority as the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles Do they not believe Traditions to be the unwritten Word of God to be divinely inspired and of Equal infallible Authority with the written Word If they do then the Explainer hath not been so fair and candid so just and faithfull as he ought to have been in his Explication though he hath told us the truth he hath not told us the whole truth And that they do believe all this though I might easily produce a Cloud of Witnesses and those none of the least admired of their own Authours yet because I design brevity I shall content my self at present with the Evidence and Authority of one of their most magnified Councils which they call both free and general though in truth it was neither and that is the Council of Trent Which Sess 4 8. Apr. de Canon Script takes the Books of Toby Judith Ecclesiasticus Wisdom and Maccabees into the Canon of Scripture though they could not but know that they never were in the Jewish Canon nor ever universally received by the Christian Church and anathematized all those who do not upon this Declaration believe them to be Canonical And the same Council in the same Sess professes to receive and reverence Traditions with no less pious Affection than the Books of the Old and New Testament and that not in matter of Rite and History only but of Faith and Manners also Now what is this but to add to the Scriptures and to accuse them of insufficiency and imperfection And if so then what doth this Explainer do but deceive those Persons of Quality to whom he presents this as the Summ of their Belief But the Explainer goes on and saith since in the Holy Scriptures there are some things hard to be understood which the ignorant and unstable wrest to their own destruction And here I shall by the way only remarque these two things 1. The Apostle indeed saith there are some things hard but not impossible to be understood For if men will use the means if they will apply themselves with an humble and teachable temper of mind diligently to reade the Holy Scriptures if they will seriously meditate on what they reade and earnestly and devoutly pray unto God for the assistance and direction of his Holy Spirit therein the difficulty may be removed and they may be enabled rightly to understand those Scriptures at least so far as is necessary for them to know 2. The Apostle tells us to whom those things are hard to be understood viz. the ignorant and unstable So that the difficulty seems to be not in the things themselves but in the incapacities of men For if men will be ignorant still and not use the means to know better or if they will content themselves with some airy Notions which float and fluctuate in the brain without ever endeavouring to bring them to a consistency not only some but all things in Scripture and even the clearest declarations of the Church may be hard to be understood by them and so they will be as much at a loss in the one as in the other But how much this Text is misunderstood and misapplied a Reverend and Learned Divine of our Church in a Treatise intituled Search the Scriptures hath plainly demonstrated to which I refer the Reader But let us see what Inference he draws from hence Therefore saith he we profess for the ending of all Controversies in our Religion and settling of peace in our Consciences to submit our private Judgments to the Judgment of the Church in a free General Council In which Inference I cannot but remarque these things
in all Ages were in order chosen and Authorized as Pastours and Church Magistrates to preserve teach and promulgate those binding Rules to all Nations Ans That the blessed Jesus out of his abundant care and goodness for the carrying on of that great work which he had begun for the promoting of that holy Religion which he had instituted and the well ordering of that Church which he had founded did appoint certain orders of Men and endow them with gifts which might qualifie them for their several employments we do verily believe For St. Paul tells us God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers after that Miracles then gifts of healing helps governments diversities of tongues 1 Cor. 12.28 And in another place he saith He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastours and Teachers Eph. 4.11 But that he ever instituted any Officer in the Church by the name of a Church-Magistrate I never read Yet if by his Church-Magistrate he mean no more than St. Paul doth by Governments we shall not quarrel with him about the word And that it was the work of these Officers to preserve those Laws and Rules which he left and to teach and promulgate them to all Nations we readily grant But then what shall we think of those who either add thereto or diminish therefrom who either alter those binding Laws and Rules or make new ones of their own and impose them upon others as if they were of equal Force and Authority with those delivered by Christ and his Apostles I could easily give instances to shew that the Church of Rome is guilty both ways but I am not willing to transgress the method which the Enquirer hath propounded by entring upon discourses of things not demanded Qu. 7. Were they Clergymen or Laymen by whom immediately they were chosen and authorized in those high Functions Ans We do verily believe being well assured by the Holy Scriptures by the Doctrine and practice of the Apostles and primitive Christians and by the usage and custome of the Church of God in all Ages that it onely appertains to Clergymen by the solemn imposition of hands to set apart others to those Sacred Functions and that they have sufficient Power and Authority to authorize them to perform those Holy Offices I never heard this denied by any of the Reformed Religion and therefore this Enquirer might if he had so pleased have spared this Query Qu. 8. Were all Christians in succeeding Ages bound to believe what those succeeding Pastours or Supreme Church-Magistrates taught them as binding Laws of Christ and his Apostles and that the Writings by them collected preserved and delivered in a different Language from the Original were the true Copies of Original Apostolick Writings and that the sentence interpretation and use thereof delivered by them in Supreme Councils for unity and peace and to prevent Schisms and Errours were Rules which all Christians were bound to follow Ans This Query is a Song of three parts to answer all which directly I shall be obliged to take it in pieces and consider the parts severally And though the Answers thereunto would very well admit and do almost necessarily require a long discourse yet I remember the Enquirer hath confined me to a Method which I have promised to observe and therefore in my answers thereunto I shall be as short as possible without entring upon discourses of things not demanded Qu. 1. Were all Christians in succeeding Ages bound to believe what those succeeding Pastors or Supreme Church-Magistrates taught them as binding Laws of Christ and his Apostles Ans Whatever hath been taught as a binding Law of Christ and his Apostles by all the Pastors and Governours of the Church in all Ages at all times and in all places we have no reason to suspect For Christ hath promised to be with his Church to the end of the World Matt. 28.20 And to build it upon a Rock so that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Matt. 16.18 And by his spirit of truth to guide it into all truth Joh. 16.13 The universal Church therefore being thus secured from errour we have no apprehensions of being deceived thereby But though we owe this deference to the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church and the united Body of the Pastors and Governours thereof yet no particular Church nor any particular Pastor or Governour thereof nor any number of them less than the whole have any reason to claim the same for whilst Men are Men they are and will be fallible and being so they may and oftentimes do err and though the whole Body cannot yet any particular Member may be deceived and therefore we ought not greedily to swallow all that is taught by them but to examine well what they teach before we give our assent thereunto otherwise we may easily be imposed upon Qu. 2. Were all Christians in succeeding Ages bound to believe that the writings collected by those succeeding Pastors or Supreme Church-Magistrates and by them preserved and delivered in a different Language from the Original were the true Copies of Original Apostolick Writings Ans That the Holy Scriptures were faithfully collected and preserved by the Church and that the Copies handed down to us though in a Language different from the Original are true Copies we do not at all doubt For we cannot imagine that the universal Church should conspire together to impose a falshood upon posterity But that these Scriptures are the Word of God we believe not onely upon the Authority of the Church but for several other reasons as this Gent. cannot but know if he have been conversant in our Writings which reasons might here fitly be produced if I were not confined by the Enquirer to a short Method and had promised to observe the same I shall therefore onely add that if by being bound to believe he means that it is a binding Law of Christ and his Apostles that for this reason we should believe those Copies to be true we deny it because we cannot find any such Law delivered by them But if by being bound to believe he onely mean that considering by whom they are handed to us we have no reason to doubt of them we readily comply with him Qu. 3. Were all Christians in succeeding Ages bound to believe that the sentence interpretations and use of those Writings delivered by those Pastors or Supreme Church-Magistrates in Supreme Councils for Unity and Peace and to prevent Schisms and Errours were Rules which all Christians were bound to follow Ans What this Enquirer meaneth by Supreme Church-Magistrates and Supreme Councils is somewhat hard to be understood for to constitute two Supremes in one and the same body will make it look a little monstrous If by the Council being Supreme he mean that is above the Supreme Church-Magistrate i. e. the Pope for I do not doubt but that he intends him all along by that
granted to belong to the Catholick Church yet that can signifie nothing to her till she hath proved her self to be that Catholick Church to which alone those promises confessedly belong Thus you see how candid and faithfull our Explainer hath been in this first Point and now let us examine whether he acquit himself any better in the next The EXPLAINER 2. We humbly believe the Sacred Mystery of the blessed Trinity One Eternal Almighty and Incomprehensible God whom onely we adore and worship as alone having Sovereign Dominion over all things to whom alone 1 Tim. 1.17 we acknowledge as due from Men and Angels all Glory Service and Obedience abhorring from our Hearts as a most detesta bld Sacrilege to give our Creator's Honour to any Creatures whatsoever And therefore we solemnly protest That by the Prayers we address to Angels ane Saints we intend no other than humbly to solicit their assistance before the Throne of God as we desire the Prayers of one another here upon Earth not that we hope any thing from them as Original Authours thereof but from God the Fountain of all Goodness through Jesus Christ our onely Mediator and Redeemer Neither do we believe any divinity or vertue to be in Images for which they ought to be worshipped as the Gentiles did their Idols but we retain them with due and decent respect in our Churches as Instruments which we find by experience do often assist our memories and excite our affections The ANIMADVERTER Our Explainer here in behalf of the Roman Catholicks makes a very good confession of Faith telling us That they humbly believe the sacred mystery of the blessed Trinity One Eternal Almighty and Incomprehensible God whom only they adore and worship as alone having Sovereign Dominion over all things to whom alone 1 Tim. 1.17 they acknowledge as due from Men and Angels all glory service and obedience abhorring from their hearts as a most detestable Sacrilege to give their Creator's honour to any Creatures whatsoever This is true Primitive Christianity good Catholick Divinity without any mixture of Popery and is it not great pity that any thing should be added thereto or mixed therewith to spoil so good a Confession Thus far we can readily and heartily joyn with them but when they superadd Articles of their own such as were never delivered by Christ or his Apostles nor owned by the primitive Catholick Church and set them in equal place with those of Divine Revelation and primitive practice then we cannot keep pace with them but are forced to stay behind and sit down contented with primitive Christianity so that in truth it is not we that leave them but they that leave us and consequently are guilty of the Separation And this is the case here between us and our Explainer For after all this glorious profession of adoring and worshipping the One Eternal Almighty and Incomprehensible God and him only and abhorring the giving of his glory to any Creatures as a most detestable Sacrilege he introduceth Prayers to Saints and Angels and the Worship of or beofre images as things equally necessary to be performed by Christians Now if Prayers and Adoration be acts of religious worship and the Objects to which they are offered be Creatures then it must needs follow that either all Religious Worship is not due to God alone or else that they do give part of his honour to something that is not God It is true indeed that he endeavours to palliate these practices with some pretended qualifications thereby to shift off the weight of this charge which lieth so heavy upon them but they are so thin and threedbare so empty and insignificant and have been so miserably baffled of late especially in the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented as also in two other little Treatises the one intituled A Discourse concerning Invocation of Saints printed in the year 1684 and the other intituled A Discourse concerning the Object of Religious Worship c. printed 1685 that I cannot but admire at our Explainer's confidence to produce them at this time These Treatises are or upon easie terms may be in every man's hands and there is therein so much said upon this Subject and so much to the purpose as may very well spare me the labour of enlarging thereupon to them therefore I shall refer the Reader for further satisfaction But by these short Remarques which I have made upon this part of our Explainer's Confession it is plain that he hath been no more candid and ingenuous in this than in the former Let us therefore try him in the next The EXPLAINER 3. We firmly believe that no force of Nature or dignity of our best Works can merit our Justification but we are Justified freely by Grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 And though we should by the grace of God persevere unto the end in a godly life and holy obedience to the Commandments yet our hopes of eternal glory are still built upon the mercy of God and the merits of Christ Jesus All other Merits according to our sense of the word signifie no more than Actions done by the assistance of God's Grace to which it hath pleased his goodness to promise a Reward A Doctrine so far from being unsuitable to the sense of the Holy Scriptures that it is their principal design to invite and provoke us to a diligent observance of the Commandments by promising Heaven as a reward of our obedience 1 Tim. 4.8 Rom. 2.6 Rom. 8.13 Hebr. 6.10 Nothing being so frequently repeated in the word of God as his gracious promises to recompence with everlasting glory the Faith and Obedience of his Servants Nor is the bounty of God barely according to our Works but high and plentifull even beyond our Capacities giving full measure heaped up and pressed down and running over into the bosomes of all that love him Luke 6.38 Thus we believe the merit or rewardableness of holy living both which signifie the same thing with us arise not from the self value even of our best actions as they are curs but from the grace and bounty of God And for our selves we sincerely profess when we have done all those things which are commanded us we are unprofitable Servants Luke 17.10 having done nothing but that which was our Duty so that our boasting is not in our selves but all our Glory is in Christ The ANIMADVERTER If this be really the Faith of Roman Catholicks we shall not stick to acknowledge it is ours too and then we shall have no occasion to differ in this point But I am afraid our so near an Agreement is too good news to be true Our Explainer I doubt hath either mistaken or to gain a Proselyte or for some other end which might be serviceable to Holy Church hath very much misrepresented the Doctrine of his own Church in this point For sure I am the Council of Trent which they so much magnifie and
sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures to others and it were to be wished that none had failed of their duty therein Qu. 12. Whether all that is mentioned in Scripture be not true according to the sense and meaning so delivered Ans All that is mentioned in Scripture is undoubtedly true according to the true sense and meaning thereof Qu. 13. Whether an obstinate Contradiction of any one truth thus delivered in Scripture though there appear no necessity it should have been mentioned in Scripture be not injurious to that divine Authority and veracity and which unrepented of shall bring damnation Ans An obstinate contradiction of any one plain truth delivered in holy Scripture is certainly a very great injury to divine authority and veracity Qu. 14. When difficulties did arise about the sense of Scriptures or matters of Faith whither the dicision of those controversies was carried and whether the present Church of every Age was not to decide it Ans It was undoubtedly the practice and is most rational that the present Church in every Age should decide such controversies For the Priest's Lips should preserve knowledge and they should enquire the Law at his mouth And no question the Church hath Authority to declare matters of Faith but not to make any new Articles of Faith Qu. 15. Whether every particular person was to have an Authoritative power in this decision or whether it was not universally left to the Heads and Governours of the Church Assembled together Ans Every particular person hath undoubtedly a Judgment of discretion allow'd him in matters of that nature but the Authoritative power of deciding and determining was in the Heads and Governours of the Church Assembled together for that end Qu. 16. Whether such a force of Hopes or Fears could possibly happen at once upon all the Heads of the universal Church Assembled together or after consenting to those that were Assembled as should make them declare that to be a truth revealed by Christ which was not so delivered to them to have been the ever esteemed sense of Scripture or perpetual tradition which was not so Ans Whilst men are men they will be liable to hopes and fears and subject to the power and force of them if therefore we consider the Heads and Governours of the Church as such we cannot allow them an Exemption therefrom and consequently there may be no impossibility in the things propounded We grant that in a General Council lawfully assembled we have great reason to hope for the presence direction and assistance of the Holy Ghost â—…t how far the passions and humours of men may frustrate our Hopes we know not This we certainly know that the Acts of one Council have been made void by another and therefore it is more than probable that one of them did declare something to be a truth revealed by Christ which was not so delivered unto them Qu. 17. Whether the Decisions of such Assemblies or general Councils were not always esteemed obligatory in the Church and whether particular Persons or Churches obstinately gainsaying such Decisions received by a much Major part of the Church diffused were not always esteemed to have incurred those Anathema's pronounced by such Councils Ans If those Assemblies or Councils be truly general we do very much reverence their Authority and think their decisions to be obligatory But we do not think all to be such that are called so As for instance The Council of Trent is by some sort of men looked upon as a general Council and all their Religion almost built upon the Authority thereof and yet the Church of England never received the decisions of that Council nor did the Galican Church for many years and yet neither the one nor the other did for all that esteem themselves to have incurred the Anathema's pronounced by that Council Qu. 18. Whether the universal Church did not in all Ages practice this way of deciding controversies and whether these be not as universal a tradition of this as the practice was universal without interruption Ans Universal practice will amount to an universal Tradition and that this hath been the practice of the Church in all Ages especially in matters of great weight we deny not nor should we oppose the same course now provided the Council were free and general But the Enquirer goes on Some will perhaps say that such Councils cannot Err in fundamentals but may in not fundamentals I ask these Qu. What are fundamentals and what not Ans Those things which are essentially necessary to the being of Religion may properly be called fundamental but those things which only respect order and decency therein and vary according to time and place and are alterable by the Governours of the Church when they see cause these are not fundamental Qu. Whether there be not some things fundamentals to the Church which are not to every particular Ans There may be some things fundamental to the Being of a Church which are not so to every particular member of that Church but whatsoever things are â—…ndamental to the Being of Religion are equally so to the whole Church and every member thereof Qu. Whether an obstinate denyal of what is fundamental or necessary to the universal Church or granting as I may say upon what is fundamental by a particular person be not in time a fundamental Errour especially after an universal declaration of it as truth delivered by Christ and his Apostles Ans This Query as it is here worded is hardly reconcileable to sense but I suppose his meaning is Whether for any particular person obstinately to deny what is fundamental or necessary to the universal Church and declared to be a truth delivered by Christ and his Apostles be not a fundamental Errour To which I answer That every particular Christian ought with all deference to submit his own private Judgment to the publick Judgment of the Church and though it do not appear so plain to him yet he ought rather to suspect his own than that of the Church But if in some things he cannot be satisfied and therein happen to differ from the Church provided he do not thereby break the peace and unity of the Church it will hardly amount to a fundamental Errour But what if it be declared by the Church to be a truth delivered by Christ and his Apostles will not that make it so To this I answer That no declaration of the Church how universal soever it be can make that to be a truth delivered by Christ and his Apostles which really is not so And therefore in that case we must have recourse to their Writings and if it be not either in express words contained therein or by sound consequence drawn therefrom we ought not to comply with it nor is it a fundamental Errour to differ therein Qu. Whether the universal Church assembled in a General Council ought not to be justly esteemed the decider of what is fundamental and what
Communion so sinful and dangerous that no man with safety to his Soul can continue in it it will be high time to come out of it Qu. Whether he or Protestants at present do pretend to such Demonstration for those Tenets they hold contrary to the Roman Church the then onely visible Church in the West that no understanding to which it is sufficiently proposed can in the least doubt of it Ans We have such evidence for the Doctrines which we hold and teach in opposition to the Church of Rome as being sufficiently proposed no man can reasonably doubt of And as for those who will scruple without reason notwithstanding the clearest evidence that the nature of the thing will bear we can only pity and pray for them Qu. Or whether they do not rather say that being fallible they may err even in what they think a Demonstration and if they may err perhaps they have erred even in their Reformation Ans We do not pretend to infallibility nor do we think that the claim which the Bishop of Rome makes to it is any more than a groundless pretence only But à posse ad esse non valet consequentia from a bare possibility of erring to argue a certainty that we have erred in every thing we have done is an argument fitter to be offered to Children than Men. Qu. Whether therefore denying these Doctrines thus delivered by the Church in all Ages as Doctrines delivered by Christ and his Apostles upon no better grounds than these perhaps they may be true and perhaps not be not a putting ones self into the danger of erring even in fundamentals Ans We deny no Doctrines delivered by the Church in all Ages as Doctrines delivered by Christ and his Apostles nor do we own any Doctrine upon such weak grounds as perhaps they may be true and perhaps not But we say that the present Church of Rome doth teach such Doctrines as the Doctrines of Christ and his Apostles which were never taught by the Church in all Ages nor delivered by Christ and his Apostles And in these things we oppose our selves against them and think we have great reason so to do having the holy Scriptures and the Primitive Church on our side And whilst we are thus supported we have no fear of erring in fundamentals Queries of Religion or Liberty WHo this Enquirer is as I am at present ignorant so am I not much concern'd to know but I take him to be one who hath conceived a mighty opinion of himself and his performances He thinks that by these Queries he hath struck at the root of Protestancy as he and those of his Perswasion call it i. e. Reformed Christianity that he hath given it a fatal blow a mortal wound and left it groveling in the dust without the least hopes of recovery Like that overgrown uncircumcised Philistine he defieth the Armies of the Living God and calls for a Man to fight with him For in the close of his Queries he maketh this proud and confident challenge If any give answer As if he should have said if any be so bold and daring so over confident and fool-hardy as to undertake an Answer to these Queries It is desired to be Categorical and short without any discourses of things not demanded Now whether this man do not triumph before the Victory or whether those Queries be so unanswerable as he believes them to be is the thing under consideration And because he hath not only given the Challenge but appointed the Weapon I shall neither decline the one nor the other but according to his own method shall undertake his Queries in the same order as he hath propounded them Qu. 1. Whether the Flock and Church of Christ to whom was promised grace and eternal happiness be that company and society of People christened in his Name who by order of Government Rules and Decrees from him and his Apostles were united in Faith Worship Discipline and manner of Life called Religion Ans The Church of Christ is either Militant or Triumphant the one on Earth the other in Heaven of the former of which we are now to speak The Church Militant is either Universal or Particular the former comprehending all and every Member of Christ's Mystical Body wheresoever dispersed upon the face of the whole Earth the latter comprizing only a certain Number of Christians formed into a select Body or Society under certain Laws and Rules not differing from those of the Universal Church Such are all Provincial and National Churches and though none of them may arrogate to themselves the Title of the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church yet none will deny but that they are true Members thereof This I have premised to prevent confusion and misunderstanding for the confounding of these two as it often happens in discourses of this kind hath been the occasion of great mistakes Those of the Romish Perswasion by the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church do usually understand the Church of Rome which though it be a manifest Contradiction being the same with a Particular Universal yet do they run away with it and by that specious and gorgeous Title think to bear down all before them aloud proclaiming that to be the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches This thus premised I shall now be as Categorical and short in my Answer to his Query as he can desire Viz. That the Flock and Church of Christ is a Company or Society of People Christned in his Name who by Order of Government rules and decrees from him and his Apostles are united in Faith Worship Discipline and Manner of Life called Religion Qu. 2. Whether by Separation or Excommunication from that Society and Unity are lost those promises Ans Separation and Excommunication are two things for though every one that is excommunicated be thereby separated from that body of which before he was a member yet a man may be in a state of Separation without being under the doom of Excommunication For Separation may be a voluntary Act whereas Excommunication is a formal and Judicial Sentence delivered by a lawful Judge authorized and appointed by the Church to pronounce the same by virtue whereof the sentenced person is divided from the Body separated from the Society and shut out of the Communion of God's Church The case thus stated my answer to this Query will be as followeth viz. 1. Whosoever upon any pretence whatsoever doth separate himself from the Society and Unity of the One Holy Catholick and Aposstolical Church doth in so doing cast himself out of the paternal care and protection of God For it is a certain and undoubted truth He that hath not the Church for his Mother cannot have God for his Father And consequently can have no pretence to the promises of grace here or eternal happiness hereafter 2. Whosoever without just cause doth separate himself from the Society and Unity of that particular Church of which he is a
member is guilty of a sinful and dangerous Schism and whilst he continues therein can have no roason to expect the blessing of those promises 3. That there may be sometimes a just cause of Separation as when a Church makes the conditions of her Communion such as a man cannot communicate with her without sin and danger But in this case particular members ought to be mighty wary and cautious for it is not every dissatisfaction of their own or every irregularity of that Church that will be a sufficient cause of Separation unless the terms of her Communion be manifestly and apparently sinful 4. That the great end and design of Excommunication is the repentance and amendment of the person excommunicated It doth not therefore make void the promises of God nor utterly deprive the sentenced person of the benefits thereof but onely by a temporary correction shews him his folly and danger and calls upon him by a timely repentance and amendment to recover himself out of the one and prevent the other But it must be acknowledged that if a man obstinately continue in that condition and live and die under that sentence his condition will be very dangerous These may serve as general Answers to this Query but if by the Separation or Excommunication here mentioned be meant as no question it is a Separation of Excommunication from the Society and Unity of the Church of Rome Then we have this further to say 1. That the present Church of Rome hath separated her self from the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church by setting up such Doctrines and practices as were never taught practised nor allowed either by Christ or his Apostles or their Successors in the Primitive Church 2. That the present Church of Rome hath made the conditions of her Communion such as none without sin and danger can Communicate with her and by that means hath justified a Separation from her 3. That the Church of Rome hath not nor ever had any lawful Power or Authority over the Church of England nor are we Subject to the Jurisdiction of that See whether we consider it as Episcopal or as Metropolitan or as Patriarchal and therefore we cannot be justly charged with a Separation therefrom It is true indeed that for some time she had Tyrannically usurped an unjust power over us and kept us in Bondage and Slavery to her but God be thanked we at last found an opportunity to shake off those Chains and deliver our selves from the servitude under which we had so long groaned And this we have done and are still ready to justifie to the whole world to be no sinful Separation 4. That an Excommunication thundered out by the Church of Rome against us of the Church of England is but only Brutum fulmen an insignicant Scare-Crow which upon mature consideration we have no cause to be afraid of for she having no power over us we are not accountable to her nor subject to any sentence pronounced by her And therefore notwithstanding that pretended Separation or Excommunication from the Society and Unity of that Church which they make so much noise with we are in no apprehension of losing the benefits of those promises which God hath made to his One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church of Grace here and Eternal Happiness hereafter Qu. 3. Doth Christian Religion consist in matters of Morality or Ceremony of indifferency to be accepted or rejected and altered at the Choice Judgment and well liking of private Persons Corporations or States Ans Religion in general may be considered either in its Essentials or as it is cloathed with Circumstantials The former of which are unalterable but the latter may be subject to change The Christian Religion in particular falls under the same consideration the Being whereof consists indeed in matters of Morality which being innituted and ordained by Christ are not alterable by Men. But the order and decency which are things necessary to the well being of that Religion consists in Ceremonies and things indifferent which are in their own nature alterable and being the institutions of Men may be altered by Men but not by any private Persons For whatsoever hath been established by the whole Body cannot be altered by any particular member or any number of Men who are members of that Body nor by any Authority less than that by which at first it was established And here the Church of Rome may do well to consider by what power and authority she hath made so bold with the very Essentials of the Christian Religion altering some and adding others making new Articles of Faith which were never taught by Christ nor his Apostles and imposing them as necessary to be believed by all those of her Communion Qu. 4. Or doth it consist in the Laws and Rules of Faith and life of Christians so important and binding as that by the contempt thereof one must lose Eternal Happiness Ans This Query is very little different from the former and hath I think received a sufficient answer in the solution of that For by matters of Morality there wherein I say the Being of the Christian Religion doth consist I mean Moral and unchangeable truths which are to be received and believed by all Christians and Moral actions which are to be done by them and for our belief and performance of these things we have such laws and rules delivered by Christ and his Apostles as are binding unto all the contempt wherof may very much endanger and without a serious and seasonable repentance and amendment will certainly forfeit eternal happiness And therefore it will highly concern the Church of Rome to consider whether she be not guilty of such contempt whether in some of her publick Orders and Decrees she have not apparently contradicted some of these important Laws and Rules Qu. 5. Whether those Laws and Rules taught by Christ and his Apostles bind as well the Christians of succeeding Ages who could not be present to see and hear them as they bound those who were present heard them taught and saw their Original Writings Ans That these Laws and Rules are as binding to me now as they were to any of the Disciples in our Saviour's or his Apostles time I willingly grant And if this concession will do this Enquirer any service much good may do him with it For if the seeing of the Original Writings of Christ and his Apostles or being present to hear them deliver those Laws and Rules were necessary to make them obligatory then ought we to have Christ and his Apostles come down from Heaven and write and preach the same things over again not only in every Age but in every year every day of that year and in all places of the world too But let us proceed and see what mighty use this Enquirer will make of this wire drawing this Query Qu. 6. Whether after the death of Christ and his Apostles and Disciples by his institution other persons successively
Expression I am afraid his Holy Father will give him but small thanks for that opinion But if by his Supreme Church-Magistrate he mean that the Pope is above tha Council then what signifieth the sentence or interpretation of a Council if not confirmed by him So that till this case be rightly stated and agreed upon amongst them both they and we shall be at a loss whose declaration is to be the Rule which we are bound to follow We do highly reverence the Authority of Councils truly general and for any thing in disserence between us and the Church of Rome we dare appeal and stand to the determination of the four first general Councils But to be Hood winkt and bound up by an implicit Faith to receive and embrace every thing that is offered to us by those who call themselves Pastors or Supreme Church-Magistrates or by every Convention which calls it self a Supreme Council is more than we can consent to and more indeed than either Christ or his Aposdes required of their hearers When neither the Doctrine preached by Christ nor the Miracles done by him for the confirmation of that Doctrine could convince the stubborn and unbelieving Jews that he was the Messiah whither doth he send them he bids them search the Scriptures Joh. 5.39 And St. Paul highly commends the Bereans saying They were more noble than those of Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Act. 17.10,11 Our Saviour and his Apostle St. Paul did not trouble their hearers with puzling questions Whether those Writings were the Word of God How they were assured that they were so What was the sense and meaning of them How they came to know it c. Nor did they send them to the Sanhedrim or any other Council to be instructed therein but they send them directly and immediately to the Scriptures themselves It was taken for granted then and ought to be so now that the Writings transmitted to them and us did really and indeed contain the Word of God and both our Saviour and St. Paul well knew that God had delivered his mind in words so intelligible that there was no fear of sending any one thereunto And indeed it were an unreasonable thing that every private Christian should be obliged to consult what sense and meaning is put upon the Holy Scriptures by a general Council before he receive and embrace them Nor will it suffice to say that they may learn it from their Pastors and Teachers for how shall they know that their Pastors and Teachers understand it any better than they do or if they do that they give them the true and genuine sense and interpretation for they may with as much reason suspect them as they can those Copies of the Sacred Writings which they have though in a Language different from the Original So that at this rate Christians will be involved in such Intricacies and Meanders that they will never know what they should believe and what not And therefore though we have a great veneration for what is delivered by Councils truly General yet can we not consent that that is the onely rule which all Christians ought to follow Qu. 9. If not then What other order was there left by Christ and his Apostles for the Christians of succeeding Ages to be truly and undoubtedly informed what Christ and his Apostles taught or wrought so many Ages before as binding Laws to them that should come after who never heard them speak nor saw any of their Original Writings Ans Even the same which our blessed Saviour recommended to the Jews and St. Paul so highly commended in the Bereans i. e. to search the Scriptures which whosoever doth and that with an humble and teachable temper of mind may therein easily discover such evident footsteps of Divinity as will plainly speak their Original and sufficiently inform us whence they are and by what manner of Persons they were written Therein may we find all things necessary to our Salvation writ in Characters so legible that he that runs may reade them so plain and easie that the meanest capacity may understand them So that to fortifie our perswasion that these are the Laws and Rules delivered by Christ and his Apostles if we had no other way left us this alone might suffice But if any private Christian meet with any thing therein which requires some help for satisfaction he hath Pastors and Teachers at hand to apply himself unto who are an Order of men instituted by Christ for that very end and purpose and in whom if he hath not some apparent reason to the contrary he ought to repose great confidence Qu. 10. Whether to the Testimonies and Decrees of those succeeding Pastors and Supreme Church-Magistrates and to their sentence given upon the Controversies of Religion risen in divers Ages is due at least as much Credit and Obedience although perhaps some of them might be vicious in Life as in temporal matters is due to the Laws Interpretations and Sentences of Supreme Civil Magistrates Ans That as much Credit and Obedience is due to the Testimonies and Decrees of the Pastors and Governours of the Church in matters of Religion as to the Laws Interpretations and Sentences of Civil Magistrates in temporal matters I readily grant But then we may do well to consider how far that Credit and Obedience ought to extend both in the one and other Case For as in temporal matters if the Commands of the Civil Magistrate do concern matters of Faith i. e. things which I am required to believe in that Case his Laws ought to be so clear and evident as may convince my reason and judgment otherwise I am not bound by a blind resignation to surrender up my faith and belief for it is not in the power of man to make me think otherwise than I do without such convincing reasons as may satisfie me that I think amiss But if I cannot believe as he would have me to believe yet ought I not by publickly opposing his Sentiments to raise a Faction and thereby disturb the Peace of that State in which I live Or if the Commands of the Civil Magistrate concern matters of Fact wherein my obedience is required in that case if I can with a safe conscience and without disobeying God do it I ought actively to obey the Civil Magistrate but if I cannot do it without displeasing God and wounding my own Conscience in that case I ought not to resist but passively to obey For here the Apostles Rule will hold good Whether it be better to obey God or Man judge ye So in matters of Religion If the Testimonies and Decrees of the Pastours and Governours of the Church do concern matters of Faith I do acknowledge that there is a great deference due to their sentence and opinion and unless there be very clear evidence to the contrary I ought rather to
suspect my own than theirs yet whatsoever Testimonies and Decrees are propounded by the Church they are propounded to rational men and it must necessarily be supposed that men ought to exercise that reason which God hath endowed them withall in judging of the evidence upon which those Testimonies and Decrees are built which evidences if they do not prove convincing and satisfactory they cannot command their own belief much less can any Power or Authority do it For to act by an implicit faith in that case were to act more like Brutes than Men. And therefore though we willingly own that there is as much credit due to them as to Civil Magistrates in the like case yet can we not grant any more Or if their Testimonies and Decrees concern matters of Fact wherein our Obedience is required i. e. matters of Discipline which respect the order and decency of Religion we grant that obedience is due to them and as much obedience as is due to Civil Magistrates in the like case yet still a Judgment of discretion is to be allowed to the Subject how far he can with a safe Conscience actively obey and when and where he is to exercise his passive obedience But this caution ought to be observed by every private Christian that by an imprudent management of his different Sentiments he do not disturb the Peace nor break the Order and Unity of the Church Qu. 11. Or hath Christ left such liberty to all succeeding Christians that they need not believe credit or obey any the Testimonies Laws Interpretations or Sentences given by any supreme Legal Governours Civil or Ecclesiastical in their respective Councils further than every particular person in his private Judgment shall like chuse and accept of Ans This Query I take to be fully answered in the Answer to that immediately preceding wherein the case is plainly stated How far the Credit and Obedience of Inferiours is due to the Sentences and Determinations of their Superiours whether Civil or Ecclesiastical And therefore without saying the same things over again or enlarging thereupon I shall refer you thereunto Qu. 12. Whether a few particular persons or some few of the Magistrates Civil or Ecclesiastical for discontent or differing in Judgment from the united body of the rest may under pretence of Conscience or Reformation separate themselves from the United body and society and make new translations and interpretations of written Laws different from the former and by force and perswasion draw People from their old Society Unity and Obedience to new Congregations Institutions and Rules of their framing opposite and destructive to the former Ans This Query consists of several parts and therefore to give a direct and apposite Answer thereunto I shall endeavour to obviate the several parts thereof by these Propositions following Viz. 1. That no person or number of men whether they be private Persons or Magistrates Civil or Ecclesiastical ought to separate themselves on any pretence whatsoever from the body of the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church 2. That discontent or differing in Judgment only are no sufficient grounds of separation from any particular Church whereof we are Members 3. That a bare pretence of Conscience and Reformation will not justifie a Schism nor excuse those who are guilty of a Schismatical separation either in Church or State For the peace of the whole Community is far more valuable than any private man's satisfaction and ought not to be laid open to the attempts of any Schismatical pretenders whatsoever 4. That the written and established Laws of God or his Vicegerents upon Earth are not reversible nor alterable by any man or number of men Because they cannot pretend to that Authority by which at first they were established and without that they cannot be altered For if we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed saith St. Paul Gal. 1.8 5. That it is not lawfull for any person or persons who are Members of an established Church either by force or perswasion to draw People from the Communion of that Church and so break the Unity and disturb the Peace thereof or by any Artifices whatsoever either to undermine or batter down the Ramparts i. e. the established Laws and Constitutions of that Church These Propositions put together may suffice as a general Answer to this Query but now to apply them to the matter in hand i. e. the difference between us and the Church of Rome for on that account was the Query propounded And this I shall now do in these following particulars 1. That the Church of Rome though she mightily pretend to it is not that One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church That she is a Member of the Catholick Church we grant though we can scarce allow her to be a sound Member thereof but that she should pretend to be the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church either diffusive or representative we cannot consent nor hath she ever yet or ever will be able to make goad her claim thereunto 2. That the present Church of Rome is guilty of a sinfull and schismatical Separation from the United Body of the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church we affirm And that for these reasons 1. Because she usurps an higher place and power in the Body Ecclesiastical than of right is due unto her thereby breaking the Union and disturbing the Peace of the Church 2. Because she hath voluntarily divided the Catholick Church both in Faith Worship and Government by her innovations 3. By separating both by her Doctrines and Censures three parts of the Christian World from her Communion and as much as in her lyes from the Communion of Christ 4. By rebelling against general Councils and usurping an Authority over them 5. By breaking or taking away all the lines of Apostolical Succession except their own and appropriating all Original Jurisdiction to themselves 6. By challenging a temporal power over Princes either directly or indirectly which hath been a great occasion not only of Schism in the Church but of Sedition and Rebellion in the State All which instances have been charged upon and made good against the Church of Rome by our Writers and may be so again whenever we are called to it 3. It is not therefore we that have separated from them but they from us whilst we adhere to the united Body of the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church which they have forsaken 4. Nor is it we but they who have altered the written and established Laws of God and his Church by adding new Articles of Faith such as were never delivered by Christ or his Apostles nor taught by the primitive Church nor comprised in any of those Creeds received by the Church and making them necessary Conditions of their Communion As the Doctrines of Supremacy and Infallibility of Indulgences and Purgatory of Transubstantiation c. 5. It is they therefore and
1. This Inference doth plainly imply a necessity of a visible Judge of Controversies to whom in all matters in difference there should be an Appeal and whose decision should be final Now if this be really so Then 1. It is mighty strange that Christ and his Apostles who pretended faithfully to deliver the whole mind and will of God to mankind should never once mention such an Officer in the Church Or 2. If they should omit to mention so necessary a thing in their writings and only deliver it by word of mouth to their immediate Successors it is no less strange that they should either not know or never make use of such an Expedient for the ending of those Controversies that arose in their days 3. We must conclude that either the Church hath been mighty careless of her own peace or that this Judge hath been very negligent in his business to suffer so great and so fatal Controversies to continue so long in the Church of God when there was so ready a way to put an end to them 2. Our Explainer in this Inference acquaints us with the great ends for the sake of which such a Judge is necessary viz. The ending of all controversies in our Religion and settling of peace in our Consciences These indeed are great things and greatly to be desired But whether there be any such Expedient or if there be whether it be sufficient for these ends are the things in question Now that from the first foundation of the Christian Church to this very day these great ends have not been universally attained is very plain and evident which to me is a very great Argument that either God never instituted any such expedient or if he did that it was not sufficient for these ends which would be a mighty reflection upon the power and wisedom of God But because some things in Scripture are hard to be understood doth it therefore necessarily follow that there must be a visible Judge of Controversies to deliver the sense of those places to us without whom we can never attain thereunto and from whose decision there lies no appeal I confess I cannot see the necessity of this consequence For if it be granted as it is on all hands that the Scriptures which we now have are the Word of God revealed by him and of infallible Authority we must believe that either God would not or could not explain his mind to the sons of men in words as plain and intelligible as any such Judge will or can do or else there can be no such necessity of any such Judge upon that account If there be no other way to attain the sense of Scripture but only the decision of such a Judge then what way or means is left us to understand the sense of the declaration of that Judge will there not want another Judge to determine that and another to explain his and so in infinitum But let us for once suppose though we do not grant it that there ought to be a Judge of Controversies in order to the attaining of these great ends let us see how he ought to be qualified and where we shall find him This Judge must be a person or number of people who must have a superiority not only of order but influence over all others to whose decisions and determinations all Christian people ought to conform their judgments and practices Nor must that influence be precarious but authoritative for nothing can warrant their Impositions but the Authority by which they are imposed Nor can any Authority suffice to oblige mankind to believe that which is neither necessary as to its matter nor evident as to its proof antecedently to the definition of such an Authority but only such an one as is infallible Now where shall we und such an one seeing there are so many pretenders to it If we believe the Popes themselves the Jesuits and the rest of the high Papalins then his holiness will carry away the Bell but if we believe General Councils and those who defend their Supremacy then they will carry it from the Pope and if we believe others of equal credit then the Catholick Church diffusive will carry it from both So that if there ought to be such a Judge you see it is not agreed upon among themselves who he is But 3. Our Explainer determines this Controversie telling us that it is the Judgment of the Church in a free General Council that we ought to submit to And in this we heartily joyn with him for we profess to have as great a deference for the Judgment of the Church in a free General Council as they have or can have and to have as great a regard to the sense of the whole Christian Church in all Ages since the Apostles as they nay it may be greater than they will pretend to have for we are so far from declining it that as to the matters in difference between them and us we appeal thereunto and are willing to be concluded thereby being as well assured as the Records of those Ages still remaining can assure us that it is on our side But if by Church here he mean the present Church of Rome as it stands divided from other Communions we deny that she hath any more authority to impose a sense of Scripture upon us than we upon her or any other particular Church upon either of us Or if by Councils he mean those Western Councils which have been held in these parts of the World in latter Ages we cannot allow them either to be free or general and consequently cannot grant nor have they any reason to claim any such authority over us But if by Councils he mean those primitive Councils which indeed were the most free and general and best deserved to be styled the Church Representative we have so great a veneration for their Opinion and Judgment that we shall not decline to submit the Umpirage of our Cause to them But what is all this to the present Church of Rome which at this day so arrogantly claims a right and authority to interpret Scripture and impose her sense upon us For unless she can prove her self infallible all her pretended authority in this case will fall to the ground If she be indeed infallible she would do well to let the world know whence she had her Infallibility She must have it either immediately from God or by delegation from the Catholick Church diffusive If from God let her produce her Charter If from the Catholick Church diffusive then it depends upon her authority and by the same authority she may recall it again when she pleaseth So that upon this ground it will prove but a very Fallible Infallibility We know she challenges it by virtue of those promises of the Spirit in the Scriptures which promises they themselves do confess to have been made only to the Catholick Church and therefore though an Infallibility even in Judgment were