they can alleadge some speciall priviledge to the contrary but divers generall Councels have erred A generall Councel of Prophets 1 Kings 22.12 erred saying The Lord shall deliver Ramoth Gilead into the Kings hand a generall Councel of Priests Matthew 26.65 erred damnably in condemning Christ for a blasphemer guiltie of death The generall Councel held at Arminum erred denying the Sonnes equalitie with the Father at Ephesus confounding the two natures in Christ at Nice under Irene decreeing that Angels are to be painted because they are of a corporeall nature at Constance denying the Laitie to be bound to receive the communion in both kindes against the expresse precept of Christ Matth. 26.28 and Iohn 6.53 And of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.28 At Florence and after at Trent defining that the effect of the Sacrament depends upon the intention of the Priest or Bishop who administreth it Which if it were true no man in the Roman Church could ever be assured either of his baptisme or of his confirmation or of his absolution or of his ordination or of the validitie of his matrimonie or of his safe adoration of the Host or of the vertue of his extreme unction For how can he certainly know the intention of the Bishop or Priest who administred unto him these rites all which they account sacraments Neither can they evade by saying that these Councels might erre because they were not confirmed by the Pope for the Popes were present at all these later either in person or by their Legates and it is for certain that their second Councel at Nice was confirmed by Pope Adrian at Constance by Pope Martine at Florence by Pope Eugenius at Trent by divers Popes Lastly if Councels had an immunitie from error the prayer which they made at their Councels registred by Gregory the Great l. 7. Epist. were a meere mockerie The prayer was conceived in this forme Quia conscientià remordente tabescimus ne aut ignorattia nos traxerit in errorem aut praeceps forsitan voluntas impulerit a iustitia declinare ob hoc te poscimus te rogamus ut si quid offensionis in hac concilii celebritate attraximus condonare et remissibile facere digneris Because we pine away through remorse of conscience fearing lest either ignorance have drawn us into error or a headie will driven us to swerve from justice for this we pray thee we beseech thee that if we have done any thing amisse in this great and famous assembly thou wouldest vouchsafe to pardon it I conclude therefore with the words of Leo in his Epistle to Anatolius who lightly phillips off the authoritie of the generall Councel held at Ephesus in which there were above 600. Fathers In one word Tanquam refutari nequeat quod illicitè voluerit multitudo as if that could not be refuted which a multitude hath unlawfully determined giving withall most wholesome conusell to all Councels nulla sibi de multiplicitate congregationis concilia blandiantur Let no Councels flatter themselves with the great multitude of persons assembled in them as if that might priviledge them from errour n Here least the Reader should before he be aware be bitten by a snake lying under the grasse I hold it necessary to distinguish between two questions which may seem to be a like but indeed are very different The first whether Papists may goe to Protestant Churches The second whether a Protestant may goe to a Popish Church He that shall give the same solution to both these questions shall give a greater wound to the Protestant cause in the latter then his plaister will salve in the former The Protestants and Papists in this stand not upon even tearmes for there is nothing in the Protestant Liturgie or Service which the Romanists doe or by their own Rules can except at The Confession forme of Absolution Prayers Hymnes Collects Lessons Epistles and Gospels are either such as the Papists themselves use or at least such as they dislike not whereas it is farre otherwise in the Romane Missall For there is sprinkling exorcised water censing books and pictures worshipping images invocation of Saints prayers for the dead intercession by the prayers and merits of souls departed and which is the height of all idolatry adoration of their Host or breaden God and all this service performed in an unknowne tongue contrary to the expresse order of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. all which the Reformed Churches condemne and abhorre and whereas this Author alleadgeth there can be no text of Scripture brought forbidding Papists to come to our Church I beleeve him but on the other side there are many expresse Texts of holy Scripture from whence it may be strongly inferred that no Protestant whose conscience is convinced of the manifold idolatries and superstitions wherewith the Romish Liturgie is polluted can with a safe conscience goe to Masse as namely Psal. 26.4 I have not sate with vaine persons neither will I goe in with dissemblers I have hated the congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked 1 Cor. 10.7 Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them vers 14. Wherefore my dearely beloved flee from idolatrie 1 Ioh. 5.21 Keepe your selves from idols 2. Cor. 6.14 What fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse or what communion hath light with darknesse vers 16 What agreement hath the Temple of God with idols vers 17. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the uncleane thing and I will receive you o Although I have no meaning to drive away Papists from our Churches nor purpose to enervate the kindly and right arguments which this Priest bringeth to perswade them thereunto yet I cannot let passe this wherwith true Professours may be very much scandalized For what religious heart doth not tremble to thinke of going in and bowing in the temple of an â—doll in which as the Apostle teacheth the service that is done and the sacrifice that is offered is to devils 1 Cor. 10.20 and no better was this Rimmon the Syrian idoll I answer therefore 1 that the case of conscience Naaman put was not whether he might goe with his Master into the house of Rimmâ—n and offer sacrifice with him unto the idoll but whether he might not waite upon his Master thither and performe a civill for the bowing spoken of was as Câ—iâ—tan well noteth genuflexio obsequii non imitativa a bowing to the King not to the Idoll oâ—â—ice to him or make an obeysance whilest the King leaned on his hand and yet his heart smote him for this and his conscience misgave him that the Lord would be displeased with him for it for so much his prayer importeth The Lord pardon thy servant in this thing Secondly the words of the Prophet Elisha Goe in peace doe not necessarily import an approbation or permission of that which Naaman proâ—ounded but either a meere forme of valediction as if he had said in our
their originall Fountaine sith the most of them if not all might be gathered out of more ancient Liturgies For which See Biblioth Patru to 1. And if it be so then it may be said That the mud of Popery fell into them but they sprang not from Popery but from purer fountains * It hath been I confesse a long custome in the Latine Church ever since Pope Vitalian to celebrate the Church Service in the Latine tongue but it was never the custome of the Catholique or Vniversall so to doe The Greeke and Syrian and African and other Churches had from the beginning and have at this day their Service in their own languages Neither is the reason the Priest alleadgeth here of any force namely That w as the Catholike Religion is universall so it should be exercised in an universall language which he will have to be the Latine For first there is no necessitie that the Catholike Religion which is universall should be exercised in an universall language but rather in all languages Secondly since the division of tongues at the tower of Babell there was no language universall in all the world the Greeke was for a time the furthest spread and after the Romane but neither of them nor any other was spoken or understood by all Christians and at this day if we may beleeve travellers no language is so generally knowne and spoken as the Slavonian Thirdly the unity of language maketh nothing to the unitie of Religion or the Church neither doth the Apostle require that the Divine Service be performed in any one tongue but that it be done in a knowne tongue to the edification of the Church 1 Cor. 14.4.12.14.16 And to that end among others was the gift of tongues given x See page 28. Letterr. y See the lettero. pag. 17. z See the letter R pag. 28. a This definition of an heretique is both defective redundant defective for every obstinate deniall of an article of faith makes not an heretique unlesse his conscience be clearely convinced of his errour out of the word of God it is redundant also for a man may be an heretique by denying any article of faith though that article be not proposed to him by the Catholike Church to be beleeved though but his pastour or any other religious Christian out of Gods word clearely propound it to him and prove it or it be read by himselfe in the Scripture if he obstinately persist in the denyall thereof after his conscience is convinced he becomes an heretique b The Protestants of England know other Churches besides their own and some have learnedly discoursed of all the Churches in the Christian world as Purchas Brierwood Mocket Mr. Paget and others 〈◊〉 true it is they acknowledge no infallibilitie in the Roman or any particular Church nor receive any Church for true and Orthodoxe which consenteth not with them in all points of faith either expresly set downe or by cleare and necessarie consequence deduced from holy Scriptures c The Protestants hold nothing contrary to the Catholique Church though they hold many things contrary to the present Romane Church which is neither the Catholike Church nor a sound member thereof as is proved invincibly by Iohn Reynolds praefat thesium Sect. 12. Thes. ss 27. Apol. 5.23 And Bilsons answer to Cardinall Allen part 4. And Abbot against Bishop in a Treatise intituled The true ancient Romane Catholike to which none answer hath yet beene given nor sufficient can be d With what face can he say that the Protestants are incredulous and beleeve not the truth Who entirely beleeve the whole doctrine of the Scriptures together with the three Creeds that which beares the name of the Apostles the Nicene and that of Athanasius together with the foure first generall Councels in which time the Church most flourished as also the joynt Doctrine and unanimous consent of all the Fathers both of the Greeke and Latine Church for five hundred yeeres after Christ our Lord came into the flesh Let this traducer of the reformed Churches answer punctually whether he beleeveth that the learned Doctors Confessours and Martyrs who lived and died within the first 500. yeeres held the entire Catholique faith necessary to salvation or no If they held it not how were they saved upon what good ground or warrant are so many of them canonized for Saints even by the Roman Church but on the other side if they beleeved all things necessary to salvation how can we be esteemed incredulous or defective in our faith who beleeveth all that can be proved to have beene joyntly beleeved and unanimously professed by them e Is this the holy Romane Religion to make a May-game of Religion and to goe to Sermons as to a play to make themselves merry and dispell a Melancholly dumpe Besides their owne third commandement enjoynes them to keepe Holy-dayes and their owne Casuists allow the Lords day to be a day that is holy And is this a piece of holynesse to goe on such dayes to a play yet neither doe I beleeve that he can readily name the man much lesse many men that spake fustian with gravity in our Pulpits but I am sure he who patched up this Safeguard out of rags of Religion and falshood speaks Linsewoolsey through his whole Discourse and contrary to the law ploweth with an Oxe and an Asse The later of which here brayeth irrationally and unjustly against the generalitie of Protestant Preachers and Sermons Forsooth we are silly weake and ignorant men but they are all profound Gamaliels nay Angelicall and Seraphicall Doctors Whereunto I answer as Saint Paul did to the calumnies of the false Apostles 2 Cor. 10.12 We dare not make our selves of the number to compare our selves with them that commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves understand not The Catholiques he saith are Hounds â—lood Hounds I grant and our Ministers timorous Hares they dare not encounter the weakest Romane Catholique they neither understand the controversies of Religion nor dare meddle with any in their Sermons If this were true which all our hearers know to be most false yet me thinks Iuvâ—nal speaks very good reason Loripedem rectus derideat Aethiopem albus And what great Clarks I pray were those of whom Boniface Bishop of 〈◊〉 â—pâ—ke in his time heretofore we had woodden Chalices and golden Priests â—ut now we have golden Chalices and woodden Priests what great Gamaliels were they of whom Bonaventure complaines Quidam sacerdotum â—lavem habent he speaketh of the Key of knowledge quidam claviculam quidam nullam what was he upon whom Sir Thomas Moore thus playes in his â—pigrâ—m tu bene cavisti ne te ulla occidere possit litera nam nulla est lâ—tera nota tibi Be not frighted at the words of the Apostle the letter killeth thou hast taken good order that it shall not kill thee for thou knowest not a lettâ—â— What was he
much delighteth in tribulation which ariseth by this recusancie that he would not a toleration of Catholike religion in England if he might Although in his answer to the Authour of the said libell he saith as knowing him not able to procure of Queene Elizabeth and the State a toleration for Catholikes that upon certaine conditions of his he would accept of the same but when he speakes from his heart of the thing it selfe he saith in his said Book cap. 9. pag. 216. That it is such as to aske it of God were to aske we know not what for that persecution is better That the said declaration and Popes rescripts were got by the aforesaid suggestions appears by the writings themselves as they are cited and further by one R. P. of the same family who wrote a booke printed Anno 1607. Contra Anonymum against a man without name Doctor Wright that it was not lawfull to frequent Churches of heretikes where promiscuously he relates all the aforesaid suggestions as the ground of his opinion and bringeth Cardinall Bellarmine and Baronius with eight others most of them of the same Schoole for the approbation of his case Which case as he puts it I thinke any man living would likewise have approved That these men above others were so laborious and serious for this recusancie appeares in that whosoever would oppose them were presently blasted for heretikes or at least fallen men insomuch that Azorius who wrote that it was lawfull for a Catholike to goe to the Church of Schismaticks was so troubled by the importunitie of these suggestions that he was constrained through feare that that part of his family should have suffered some great temporall detriment by his judicious writing as they say to recant his opinion and hold it not lawfull in our case of England See the said booke pag. 106. by all which any man may easily perceive that the aforesaid company were the busie-bodies and that for their owne ends as I have said upon the aforesaid grounds otherwise why should they more then others have beene so importune as to perswade yea compel Azorius who not perceiving under the species of piety their rare politicall drift wrote a common opinion to the whole world to denie that common opinion to have place in England That the foresaid Suggestions were and are false it is certaine by experience to any that know the state of the Protestant Church of England and that to the ruine of soules as shall be proved in the question following That it was procured covertly and by indirect meanes appeares in that onely twelve Fathers were chosen and the whole Corps of the Councell left out and amongst the rest the Bishop of Worcester there then present who knowing better the State and affaires of our Countrey then all the rest it seemes to me that he might have beene one of the twelve whose authoritie would have given more satisfaction to this point to our countrey then all the other selected But it should seeme that it was declared without any debate as a matter of no great importance although it seemeth to my weakenesse a matter of as great weight as any that was then agitated in the said Councel and therefore to leave a whole Councel in so weighty a matter that concerned the affaires of a whole Kingdome in point of Religion and where we might have had an infallibilitie and to adhere to twelve men fallible by suggestion without any debate or dispute in my judgement cannot be without great suspition of sinister proceedings Partly therefore supposing and partly intending further to prove the foresaid suggestions to be false and consequently the said Councel and Popes to hâ—ve beene abused he will indevour to examine the truth of the matter it selfe according to the principles of Divinitie within the bounds of the Catholike Church who wisheth all happinesse and prosperitie aswell to the said Church as to all the distressed members of the same with as much brevitie as may be in the insuing question A SAFEGARD FROM Shipwracke to a Prudent Catholique Question Whether it be lawfull for a Catholique to go to the Protestant Church I Answer it to be lawfull for him who doth it without a doubtfull conscience or thought of sin which I say because if a man should do that which in it selfe is lawfull doubting or not being satisfied whether it be lawfull or no he would sin in doing the same because he would put himselfe in hazzard or danger of sin and as the Wise man saith Eccles. 3. Qui amat periculum peribit in eo He that loves danger shall perish in the same So he that thinks a thing which in it selfe is indifferent to be sinne and doth the same sinneth because such a man hath a will to doe the thing although it were sin and by reason of his sinfull will commits sin Otherwise as I have said before it is lawfull Which I prove first The thing in it selfe is not forbidden by any Law either by the Law of God or the Church Not by the Law of God for no place of holy Scripture can be shewed by which it is forbidden Nor by the Law of the Church for no Councell or Canon of the Church can be produced for the prohibition of the same Ergo it is lawfull It is secondly prooved by an example of holy Scripture Lib. 4. Reg. cap. 5. where Naaman the Syrian Prince is permitted to goe to the Idolatrous Temple Rimmon to waite upon the Syrian King there offering sacrifice Ergo a man may be permitted to go to the Protestant Churches where neither Idolatry is committed or any hurt done Againe by the examples of Ioseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus Joh. 19.38 39. who although they went to the Synagogue of Jews and so not apparent disciples of our Saviour yet they were his disciples in secret For it is there said that after the death of our Saviour Ioseph of Arimathea because he was a disciple of Jesus but secret for feare of the Jews desired Pilate c. Nicodemus also came he that at the first came to Iesus by night c. by which appeares that the Jews knew not of their Religion It is manifest likewise that all the Apostles as freely conversed in the Synagogues of Jews as out of the same when thereby they could best exercise their function and mission For the Rhemists in their annotations upon the 20 Chapter of the Acts vers 16. Confesse that notwithstanding the festivitie of Pentecost was established among Christians yet Saint Paul might hasten to the festivitie of the Jews Therefore as these holy men might goe to the Synagoue and reserve their Religion to themselves so may a Catholique to the Protestant Churches And indeed it is an essentiall ingredient to the Mission of all Apostolicall men to treate and converse with all men concerning salvation in all places best for their purpose It is prooved thirdly by Azorius tom 1. lib. 8. institut
Raigne when all Catholiques did or might goe to Church going to Church by Catholiques then being in fashion none took scandall thereby because there was then no shew of evill And why should there be now more shew of evill in the act then at that time If ye answer by reason of the aforesaid Declaration I reply that then the species of evill ought to be in the said Declaration as gotten upon false grounds and not in the act of going to Church which any man might easily perceive considering the nature of the act it selfe And the experience of our distressed countrey teacheth us that those indirect proceedings are more apt to generate scandal then the act of going to Church which of its own nature is lawfull and hath been lawfully practised and approved by the common opinion of all Divines of any indifferency in other countreyes and so might have been in ours had it not been for turbulent people who for their owne ends have more troubled the Church in procuring of breves and rescripts then all other nations besides of our condition To Schismaticks I say they sin not in simply going to Church but in going to Church with an ill conscience as thinking that to be sin and doing the same which indeed is not so and the ground of their errour they have had from the misunderstanding of Catholiques To weake ones I answer desiring them to be satisfied because I have and shall prove the thing in it selfe to be lawfull and that I am as I have said in danger and hazard of my life in not doing the same So that by a naturall necessitie I am bound to it Which necessitie if it were not I might peradventure rest in the common Maxime of Philosophers Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora It is in vain done by more that may be done by lesse It may be objected secondly that it is as much scandall to goe to Church as it was to eate of those meats offered to Idols Of which Saint Paul speaks 1 Cor. 8. the eating of which in it selfe considered although the Apostle thought no sin in Wise men or great ones because they did eate the same without any relation at all to the Idoll as he seemeth to intimate verse 4. yet because some ignorant Christians seeing the said Wise men eate did likewise eate the same meats with conscience and devotion as if the said meats had received some vertue or sanctification from the Idol Saint Paul exhorted the Wise men to abstaine from eating the said flesh for that out of mistake and misunderstanding of their eating the aforesaid Christians then newly converted did take offence and sin Whereupon in great zeale he said vers 13. If meate scandalize my brother I will never eate flesh lest I scandalize my brother So that one would thinke that the blessed Apostle would rather have chosen to die as the aforesaid words may import then by eating the said meats or any flesh to have scandalized his brother And St. Augustine in expresse termes lib. de bon conjugali cap. 16. saith It was farre better to have dyed then to have eaten of those meats so offered to Idols conformable to himselfe elsewhere who likewise saith That a man may not commit or occasion so much as a veniall sinne to gaine the whole world Which he that giveth scandall must needs at the least commit Therefore what the said Apostle and St. Augustine said and thought of the eating of the said meats the same ought every Catholique to take as said of the act of going to Church I answer denying the consequence and say that there is a great disparitie betweene the said meats offered to Idols and eaten in the temple with Infidels and the act of going to Church First because in the meats so offered there was not only a shew and appearance of evill but a morall malignitie therein as well to great as to little ones Which although the wise did take away that the said malignitie touched not them yet the weake neither did or had understanding so to doe Whence the Apostle said vers the 7. that there was not knowledge in all For the morall malignitie that was in those meats to all was a prophanation and impuritie in them as being things dedicated to the Idol or the Devill So that as a man receiveth good by holy bread or things sanctified so he receiveth evill by a thing prophaned or maligned Which morall malignitie the Wise taking away as I have said by blessing the said meats to the use of their bodies and conceiving both them and the Idoll as they were in themselves meere creatures both created for the use of man did eate what was usefull to eate without sinne Whereas the weake not so much as considering the prophanenesse of the meats but seeing the Wiser eate with error of judgement conceived vertue and sanctification in the same as being eaten in the temple and offered to the Idol by Infidels and so with conscience and devotion they received the same and were as the Apostle saith in the said seventh vers polluted thereby Now in going to Church their is no morall malignitie at all in so much that scarce the weakest man can invent how to sin by any thing that is there done It being of its owne nature so indifferent and to a good intention good that a parte rei their is no appearance of evill therein If any one say that there is appearance of evill and scandall by reason of disobedience in that the act is done contrary to the declaration of the said twelve Fathers and certain Popes I answer that the declaration is as if it were not because gotten upon most false suggestions as I have and shall say and consequently the minds of the said Fathers and wils of the said Popes is to us in this matter as yet unknowne and the species or shew of evill from thence proceeding rather to be lamented then regarded If the reply be made as before that the suggestions are not examined but the will of the aforesaid Superiors hath alwaies beene held as declaring that which hath been best for the soule and dehorting from going to Church and that so by reason and vertue hereof there results a certaine shew of evill in doing the same which maketh it appeare to most men unlawfull and consequently scandalous I rejoyce as before that the instruction and admonition of the indifferencie and necessitie of the act ought to take away all scandall howsoever apprehended and that such as apprehend it unlawfull and will not be satisfied cannot doe it And lastly such as will not be satisfied but scandalized are not to be regarded as I have said before Adde out of Navar Man c. 23. n. 38. That it is not a sinne in a man not to obey his superiour when he hath probable reasons to thinke that his superiour was deceived in so commanding or that he would not have given
being sufficiently proposed at leastwise to most of them I much doubt For as Diana saith 5a. parte pag. 240. col 1a. A man speaking heresie that is a proposition condemned by the Church without an hereticall consent is no heretique neither in curreth excommunication denounced against heretiques so that although they be incredulous and beleeve not the truth yet they are not properly and in rigor formall heritiques Adde that there is no more sin to goe to the Protestant Church then to goe to them to dinner or to goe with them to a play or other sports And I for my part had rather give twelue pence to heare a Sermon then take five shillings to see a play For there is no such sport as to heare a weake fellow speake fustian with gravitie or tell a fable of the whore of Babylon or Babylonians for so now they terme Catholiques with erected eyes in earnest Or why should it be more lawfull to see a play where most commonly intercedes scurrilitie and obscene gestures and the end of which is nothing but vanitie then to heare a Sermon where perhaps in some places or by some simple men their may be some untruth told of the Pope to please their Auditory although most commonly nothing but moralitie which is the end and intention of the same I pray resolve me § 2. It is not unlawfull to goe to Church because Recusancie is a distinctive signe Which is the second branch of the Minor THat Recusancy is a distinctive sign of a Catholique from a Protestant is most false Which is thus proved If Recusancie be a distinctive signe it is a signe naturall or by institution but neither can be said Ergo it is no signe The Minor is proved Not naturall for as Hurtado above cited well observeth Actions and things are not of their own nature significant but have naturall and politicall uses independent of any signification For a bush hung out at a Taverne doore doth naturally signifie no more wine to be sold then any other creature whatsoever Nor doth the habit of a Bishop naturally signifie a Bishop more then a Judge and so of other things No more doe naturally the actions of men But admit that Recusancy were improperly said a naturall signe yet it would naturally signifie no more a Catholique then a Brownist for he refuseth likewise to goe to Church or any other Sectary Although a posteriori it might be thought by discourse to signifie some one displeased with the Protestant Church but why or wherefore it would never signifie Not by institution for if so who instituted the same God or man Not man for it is out of his power to signe the people of God from not his people It is only the owner of the flocke that must signe the sheepe and none other unlesse it be by speciall order from him Hence when God would signe his people in the old Testament from the people of other Nations he himselfe instituted Circumcision Gen 17. as a distinctive signe betweene them and others that whosoever had that signe should be of his people and who so had it not was to be rejected Neither was it sufficient that any man had accidentally and by the institution of Abraham any other signe by which he might be knowne from others because he was not thought sufficiently marked nor accounted any one of Gods people by any other sign then Circumcision Which was the sole marke of God saying All the male kinde of you shall be Circumcised And this is consonant to reason For one man may get a distinctive signe of another mans institution shall God therefore own him Brownists as I have said have Recusancie doth it therefore follow that they are likewise Catholiques If a sheepe in my neighbours flocke should teare an eare in a bramble or bush or accidentally breake an horne this sheepe is hereby distinct from the rest yet the owner doth not own it by that marke but by a marke of his own institution and ruddle So it is in the present That God did not institute the same it is so evident that it needs no proofe For where may we finde his institution Vnlesse we should run to the all-knowing spirit of hereticks Hence it follows that Recusancie is no distinctive signe If you aske me what is then the signe to know a Catholique from any other Sectary I answer His beleefe of the Creed of the Catholique Church and his lâ—fe at all times in communion with the See Apostolique So Stratford lib. 2. de Eccles. cap. 6. pag. 188. It may be here objected first the common opinion of Divines as the said R. P. saith 2a. 2ae q. 3. To use a distinctive signe of a false religion that properly is such is a deniall of faith and evill in it selfe But the Service said in a Protestant Church is such Ergo. I grant the Major For if the signe be proper of a people rejected of God as since the promulgation of the Gospel Circumcision is to a Jew the Major must needs be true But if the signe be garments or the like used to the worship and ceremonies of a false law which some fondly call a proper signe then the Major meaning the use of such a signe to be a denyall of faith is false according to Diana resol 34. pag. 191. above cited Azorius Sanches and many others there Because such signes being naturall things may be lawfully used as I have said before independent of any such signification and so not properly signes whatsoever R. P. saith to the contrary upon his own bare word The Minor proposition I deny For who instituted that service to be such a signe not God as all Catholiques will confesse but rather the contrary it being Catholique Not themselves for it would savor too much weakenesse to thinke that they would institute to themselves a signe of a false religion And if it be taken for a signe naturally although improperly signifying then I say of its own nature it signifies no more a false Religion in a Protestant then a pious ceremony in a Catholique For Catholiques say the same service Catholiques preach moralitie and each may if hee please receive bread and wine once in a day in a weeke or a moneth in remembrance that Christ dyed for him and this shall be better done then to eate bread and wine without such remembrance For receiving bread and wine See that deduced out of Azorius tom 1. lib. 8. instit moral c. 11. Navar. consil 15. de haeret num 2. Which were but to renew in an urgent point of necessitie the old custome in the Apostles time as appears by the Corinthian Christians in Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11. who did eate and drinke in the Church besides what they received of Christs institution as his true and reall body and blood For after the Sacrifice and Eucharist was ended there were kept Church feasts for the reliefe of the poore upon
after their manner that which is indeed the maine question between us namely whether Papists are Catholikes For if he take Catholikes in that sense in which the word is used by the ancient Fathers for a right beleever or Orthodox Christian in opposition to all heretikes and schismatikes neither are Romanists such Catholikes and such Catholikes living within his Majesties Dominions not only may but ought to come to our Protestant Churches and take the Oathes both of Allegiance and Supremacie when they are legally tendered unto them d If the author had not here rubd his forehead hee would never have set this text in the frontispice of his book for whether we translate the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 innocent or simple in neither sense it befitteth either the person of the Author and his Associates or the argument of his book How innocent Papists are it is sufficiently known to all the world by the Massacre at Paris Powder plot in England and the present Rebellion in Ireland As for their simplicitie let the Iesuits manifold Apologies of Equivocation speak and this Priests Treatise in hand wherein he endeavoureth through the whole to proove it to be lawfull to double in point of Gods worship and juggle in matter of most sacred and solemne oathes e Rubet auditor eui frigida mens est criminibus tacitâ suÌ„dant praecordia culpâ It seemes the Authors heart smote him and his coÌ„science misgave him and his inke turned red when he set his pen to paper to apologize for hollow hearted newtralitie and halting betweene two religions If we divide his Pamphlet into two parts we shall finde the first part spent in proofe and justification of simulation the second of dissimulation in the former part he perswades the Papists of England to make shew of what they are not by frequently resorting to our Church and Communion Table in the second to deny what they are by taking the two Oathes wherein both the temporall and the spirituall power and jurisdiction of the Pope within these kingdomes are renounced f How the ensuing Treatise tendeth to the Safeguard of the bodies and estates of Papists by declining the penalties of the laws every intelligent Reader may perceive but how this way of dissimulation tends to the safeguard of souls I cannot understand sith the Saviour of our souls who is the Way the Truth Truth and the Life teacheth us in expresse words Marke 8.35 Whosoever will save his life shall loose it but whosoever shall loose his life for my sake and the Gospel shall finde it vers 38. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the Sonne of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels and Matth. 10.32 33. Whosoever shall confesse me before men him will I confesse also before my Father which is in heaven but whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven But I subsume to make profession of communion with misbeleevers or schismaticks is not to confesse Christ and to deny any part of our Christian Faith with what art of words or pretence of good intention soever is upon the matter to deny Christ and to be ashamed of him and his Doctrine g You may thanke Pope Pius his seditious Bull against Q. Elizabeth wherein he not only excommunicateth her but exposeth her life and kingdome for a prey and the treasonable practises of Iesuits and Iesuited Papists for the severitie of our laws not indeed against your Religion but rather irreligion and disloyaltie medicum severum intemperans aeger faâ—it h Hoc veruÌ„ est priusquam Theognis nasceretur This is an extreame veritie as the French speake that it is not necessary to confesse a mans Religion without necessitie as if he should say it is not profitable for a man to drive a a Trade without profit or not pleasant to recreate himselfe without pleasure or not wholsome to take Physicke which conduceth not to his health But if this were in him lâ—psus linguae or calami I am sure his inference hereupon is deliquium mentis and argues a defect in his rationall facultie for at this issue he drives because it is not necessary at all times and in all places to confesse Religion no more then to goe out into the Market place and cry I am a Romane Catholike or to write upon the frontispice of his house here lyeth a Papist that therefore a man may sometimes make an outward profession of a contrary Religion by joyning with them publikely in their Service and Sacraments If he had staid longer at schoole he would have perfectly learned which he fumbleth at this lesson from the Schoole Divines which looseneth the sinews of this his argument that affirmative preceptes obligant semper sed non ad semper but negative semper ad semper A man is not bound alwayes to exhibit cultum latriae to God by adoration or prayer but he is bound never to exhibite Divine worship to a creature he is not bound alwayes to offer unto God or to give to the Church but he is bound never sacrilegiously to take away from God or his Church in like manner he is not bound at all times and in all places to professe his faith but he is alwayes bound not to denie his Faith and Religion either by word or deed A man is not bound alwayes to speake a truth but he is bound never to lie feigne or play the hypocrite i See the Advertisement to the Reader The Apostle saith Godlinesse is great gain if a man be contented with what he hath but by the confession of this Priest gaine is the Iesuits godlinesse the zeale of Gods house eats not them up but their zeale devoureth the houses of the welthiest Recusants in England What care they though Recusants sinke in England so long as they swim in abundance beyond the Sea what thought take they for the parents mulcts and taxes by the state so long as their Pupils scores are paid in their Colleges k If seven Popes one after another swallowed the same State gudgeons and after the swallowing of them sub annulo piscatoris sent rescripts into England forbidding all Catholikes under paine of mortall sinne to repaire to Protestant Churches which this Authour acknowledgeth to be an errour in those Popes what becomes of the infallible assistance of the holy Spirit annexed to Peters chaire if so many Popes might be deceived by false suggestions why not by false arguments and objections if they may be deceived in matter of fact why not in matter of faith which often dependeth upon matter of fact and there being more need of inerrabilitie in a visible head for matter of fact then matter of faith the later so far as it is necessary to salvation being plainely set downe in Scripture If they may be deceived as