to beleeve them though he doth not but he must profess them when he is required Is not this to put a lie upon himself for a man to profess to beleeve what he doth not beleeve Nay is not this to put a lie upon Christianity He adds that he cannot exclude such from heaven who internally do not assent to articles declared by the Church if they do not contradict but being commanded will grant them this last particle of external acknowledgement is more modest then I have yet found in any of our Country-men though it cannot be digested by a resonable man that I may profess what I do not beleeve The texts of Scripture whereby he proves the internal belief of Jesus to be Christ sufficient to salvation are very weak in principles of Christianity For besides whom I have named already who were condemned by the Apostles for beleeving false doctrin There were also the Nicolaitans in the Apocalips Chap. 2. Who following Nicolas one of the first seven Deacons who beleeving in Christ yet taught it lawful to commit fornication and to eat meat offered to Idols were heavily threatned from God by St. John so also those hereticks whom St. John signifieth by Jesabel who taught it lawful to do the same Neither will it help Mr. Hobbs his Tenet That Jesabel is said to teach that is not onely beleeve eternally those errors for those of the Church of Thyatira were threatned because they did beleeve those false doctrins and the Apostle St. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy v. 3. useth this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he giveth to Timothy power to denounce to hereticks not to teach otherwise then they had been taught neither is his discourse of faith in Christ but of superstructures as the course of the text sheweth and in it he forbids any to beleeve them In fine it is clear in all Ecclesiastical monuments as well Historical as Doctrinal that from the Apostles to this day not onely such who denied Jesus to be Christ who were properly Infidels or Apostates but who beleeved not any other article propounded by the Church universal as necessary were esteemed hereticks and in state of damnation All the texts for the sufficiency to beleeve in Christ in order to salvation except in cases afore mentioned are understood of all things which belong to faith in him in which is comprehended his Church instructing in all necessaries or else the faith in Christ nakedly understood by Mr. Hobbs would exclude all those benefits which we beleeve to be obtained by him It is true that in particular cases as I noted an implicite faith of many of them might suffice as in the Thief where he had not time for other instruction or profession yet it is evident he beleeved in the whole when he cryed Memento Mei c. But these extraordinary cases are nothing to the ordinary course of Gods providence which we onely touch And thus the Church of God from and with the Apostles always understood this matter and accordingly in her Councels squared her practise But as I said before of the Thief so of the Eunuch and the two thousand converted by St. Peter it is evident that they beleeved in the substance of the whole Creed for the very children of Hierusalem knew the main doctrins which Christ taught as appeared in the publick process against him cryed up and down the streets and therefore these beleeving in him beleeved in all which he had taught which will come home to the Creed at least Mr. Hobbs will tell you in the upshot that the points now in controversy for the most part concern onely contention for a worldly Kingdom gain or victory in point of wit where he expounds them after his own gust and names onely such which may more plausibly be thought to have such appearance omitting the chiefest in agitation about the Sacraments c. Others which concern the principal end and effect of our redemption as free-will and justification he rejects as Philosophical Thus the high misteries of Christian Faith by a Christian are made subjects of division or rather of delusion or collusion Herod was afraid of Christ because he was jealous that his aim would be to get his Kingdom this jealousie was the cause of much innocent blood-shed I hope Mr. Hobbs hath no such design in stirring up this old false plea against Christianity for Christ hath assured all men that his Kingdom is not of this world That there hath been always subordination in Church judicatures is evident by St. Paul to Timothy and every where in holy Writ which hath hitherto been continued even in external government as all Histories shew and yet not prejudicial but auxilliary to temporal power But for any controversies is point of temporal power challenged by the Church I know none forasmuch as toucheth faith Yet Mr. Hobbs seems to desire though with much violence to draw even hearing confessions and interpreting scriptures to his new Eutopia as belonging to civil Magistracy There is yet another shift wherein as the Holy Ghost saith mentitur iniquitas sibi they frame an imaginary pillar of security saying that though the first openers of this breach were Schismaticks yet they having been born in this Church are not guilty of it As when a Kingdom is unjustly obtained yet it may be justly possessed by future heirs This I have weighed and answered before yet to the similitude I particularly answer that there is no parity at all to plead prescription against God because in some cases there may be among men else all Hereticks and Turks may more forcibly plead this right then they if naked countenance of possession can give title I might here question the supposition it self for even in temporals the civil and Canon law require more time for prescription in order to some persons then to others as for ordinary persons ten yeers in some forty in some an hundred Again there is a difference not onely in persons but the things possessed as Ecclesiastical require more time then civil and there is always required a quiet possession to begin the count of yeers that there may be titulus probabilis The reason is because then the true lords are thought virtually or implicitely to yeeld their right And thence begins the title in the unjust possessors namely when the ancient lord being able ceaseth to chalenge any right But as I say to let all this pass the disparity from man to God is manifestly clear and therefore admits of no consequence CHAP. 8. Protestants have made the Schism without any cause or ground THE often cited Protestant Doctor in the Treatise of Schism writeth that Schism doth not always make the lesser part culpable which recedeth or is driven out from the rest of the common-weale or body of the Church but the compulsive caus is here chiefly to be looked upon and not always the small number of the receding persons therefore the Protestants say it is
Schism is not properly a seperation for Heresie or Error in point of doctrin or Faith but in point of disobedience which is not a trivial matter as all common-wealths will easily conceive being that nerve upon which all order de pends and therefore the Quarta-decimans being rebellious to the mandatory decree of Nice all Catholicks had reason to decline their communion I know Theodoret in l. 1. c. 13. of his Ecclesiastical History and other learned men with St. Athanasius in his tract of Synods do esteem that the question of Easter was not defined as a point of faith but commanded to be observed as a custome derived from the Apostles and in confirmation of this they observe that the Councel varieth the form of speech in a migitatory way from the accustomary stile in declaring points of faith saying Visum est ut omnes obtemper arent in question of faith they did not write visum est But credit Ecclesia Catholica Thus the Catholick Church beleeved c. And therefore if his undervaluing the cause of this Schism grew from this gross misprison of the state of the controversie he should do well to resume his better diligence in examining it He might with greater appearance have brought that folemn word combat touching person hypostasis betwixt the eastern western Churches which great Athaenasius more clearly opened and closed up again Many contested ignorantly after the manner of those who fight with their eyes shut and beat the air Some held three hypostasis other but one in the diety from whence great contentions arose But as Athanasius relates When we asked out of what reason they speak these things or why all do use three kinde of words They made answer that they beleeved in the Trinity c. Approving therefore this interpretation and excuse we examined those who asserted that there was but one hypostasis c. Who affirmed that they understood Hypostasis that is person to be all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is essence c. To conclude all by the grace of God after this interpretation of the words did approve of the best and exactest rules of faith which the Fathers of Nice had instituted Some indeed for their material errors did deny communion but as yet there was no formal Schism betwixt the Churches but perticular persons perhaps it might have grown to a greater head had not great Athanasius interposed or rather had not Christ Jesus hindred it But among us the altar of division is erected against the altar of union with Christ out of which it is impious to celebrate Christs misteries the difference is not of words but substance not against the letter but the life and sense of the holy Soripture If these things be trifles why do you separate your selves Why do you punish Priests with death who are followers and ministers of our communion Against all meekness and clemency of the ancients To conclude Why have you built a new altar framed the stones of scandal and division At leastwise ye have broken down and demolished all the old ones insomuch that ye abhor the very name of tar as these later times in your dâ—inâ— stick yet fiery contention in pulpits and pamphlets about 12. years past sussiciently testifie to what end is all this if the difference betwixt you and us be nothing else but about a Cock and Bull And that the same Author affirmeth it to be lawful to communicate with the Arians and Eutychians Nestorians Photians Sabessians because it is not certain that these invented their heresies out of malice but it is otherwise concerning the Manichees Valentineans Macedonians and Mahometans because it is manifest to all that they taught these blasphemies against their own judgements I wonder at this assertion from a person of his eminency for abstracting from the intention of the former against whom notwithstanding there was sufficient presumption as among the ancients is clearer then the Sun no less then against the other but to grant I say what is not to be granted what is that to me whether they have vomitted out their heresie to the eternal destruction of souls with a formal or onely interpretive intention to deceive As long as I communicate with them and leave the truth taught from the beginning and delivered by the hands of the Fathers unto posterity We must look here upon the heresie not the minde or intention of the heretick that not this damneth the souls of those that communicate or pertinatiously adhere unto it as St. August often argueth in the the errors of St. Cyprian and the Donatists whom this Author also derideth But to come home to him Who knoweth not but that Luther against his own judgement began this Schism Who knoweth not that Henry the eighth framed it out of a fained and adulterate conscience Who of us doth not know that Queen Elizabeth out of no Religion but politick ends perverted the Schism into Heresie If therefore for this reason Communon with such are not lawfull as he affirmed of the last Apostates neither certainly is it lawful here Neither will it help them what the others are wont to object that England did enjoy a priviledg which they call Cyprium indeed Tomakas Câ—drenas and many were that the Bishop of Cyyprus was declared exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Antioch The consequencâ— most not be drawn to England in respect of the Sea of Rome except an express priviledge can be sheweth which hither to was never dreamed of yea besides other common titles of obedience the case of the Bulgars may and ought to be drawn unto us to wit for the title of conversion as the decision of the cause is in the law Indeed there is extant a decree in Con. Consta c. 2. That Bishops must not confound and intermingle their Churches but stand to the appointed rules and their certain limits are affigned to the Patriarchs In the first Councel of Ephesus also it is decreed that no Bishop invade the province of another which was not first and from the beginning under his or his ancestors jurisdiction Hence it was that the cause of the Church of Cyprus was heard which the Bishop of Antioch would have subject unto him but it was judged that that yoak should be shaken off upon another title The Country was converted unto Christ by St. Barnabe whose relicks being found there with St. Mathew's Gospel upon his brest written by St. Barnabe this gave occasion to commence a sute of exemption that they might enjoy the priviledge of a Metropolitan which was granted so that afterwards they were onely subject to Constantinople The general Councel it self in the eighth Canon speaks home of it and checks the Bishop of Antioch for having transgressed Ecclesiastical and Apostolical rules in this pretence namely because he did ordain in Cyprus which was alwayes an act of jurisdiction to which he had no just title because these Churches were never put under him
rather of Luther the whole Catholick Church consisting of divers Kingdoms in which England is comprised did obey divers Princes were governed by divers civil Lawes and Statutes yet they worshiped God but in one faith and in one sacrifice were sanctified with the same Sacraments did acknowledge the same spiritual Rector the Bishop of Rome Then arose Luther Henry the eighth Queen Elizabeth c. Who brake Communion with the whole world to take away the sacrifice of the whole Church and the greater part of the Sacraments and the holy rites to revolt from the Bishop of Rome all the Church besides persevering in the same unity worship and obedience which before it did profess Who therefore doth not see that they have revolted from the Church and erected altar against altar if they have any and have been the sole Authors of the divided unity of the Church I add that Schism is alwayes a dividing of an united body or a separation of a part from the whole preexistent or fore being now the Catholick Church was an united body existent before Luther from which the Protestants might go out and divide themselves but the Protesants seeing they were no where could make no body from whence the Catholicks could recede therefore the Protestants could onely first make the division and blow up the Rebellion The other often heard phantastick refuge wherewith when these are branded with novelty like men in a desperate naufrage they catch at any broken reed namely that they always were of us and amongst us and so continued till they were cast out of us To the first part I answer That till Henry the eighth they were indeed amongst us that is all their progenitors were Catholicks this every man in the testaments and records of each family can witness for the world till then knew no other all publick profession of Religion was that To fly to interiours that is to say that they were in their hearts Protestants were to recur to divination which were more then childish in things of this nature when all exteriour acts contradict any such dreams and yet to this clear non-sense they are put being compelled to assert their Church for above a Thousand yeers to have been invisible as it is understood under the notion of a body separated from the Roman you will see it in Whittaker in his 2. and 3. Controversie p. 479. Field seeing how destructive this Tenent would be in his 10. C. Accounts it foolish to say that a Church should not have always known professors and White in his defence of the way c. 4. p. 790. Saith positively that Religion is false if it cannot shew a continual descent yet p. 520. he is not ashamed to say that their Church hath had indeed always succession but not visible so that being pressed to shew the real svccession he is constrained to recur to this ridiculous divination of mens interiour Protestancie though they professed otherwise Which contradictory shist of their's were enough to destroy their pretended Church Prideaux in his ninth Lesson of the invisibility of the Church after many braggs comes to this poor refuge and beats about like a man desperate to save his case upon a broken reed or distracted sentence in any obsolute or forlorn Author But sa I noted They will say that they divided not the Church neither did they recede from it but were cast out of it by excommunication of the Pope and therefore not they but the Pope was the Author of this division but this helpeth them nothing For to omit that excommunication is a punishment which is inflicted upon such as go out of the Church not so much casting them out of the Church as depriving them of the participation of common benefits thereof to omit this it is notoriously known to all that Henry the eighth Luther and Queen Elizabeth went out of the Church before they were excommunicated as being condemned by their own proper judgments and so they separated themselves and before any excommunication made the Schism in punishment whereof they were excommunicated touching Henry the eighth it is manifest that he was excommunicated for his disobedience and contumacy in grievous crimes and Queen Elizabeth by and by when she had gotten the Crown upon her she seeing the Pope difficult in declaring her lawful title unto it not for her religion for then she had not changed it but for illegitemacy even according to Acts of our Parliaments under her Father broke off all Communion with the Church of God So Camden in Elizabeth The English also compiled a book of Canons wherein they also confess they went out of the Church of Rome therefore it is a frivolous thing that they pretend they went not out but were driven out of the Church They may perchance reply that they were as amongst us so of us before this division and so are yet because it is sufficient to incorporate any body into the true Church of Christ if he beleeveth the Creed of the Apostles as here Protestants do To this I answer First that in some cases this may be enough yes even to beleeve Jesus Christ to be the Son of God is sufficient as in the case of the Eunuch and such like that is an implicite faith may suffice till other necessary truths are sufficiently propounded For the Gospel had and hath a time of growth in every new Christian In these and such like cases it is sufficient not to mis beleeve formerly other truths to constitute a man a member of Chirst's Church I answer Secondly That the same God who trusted his Church with this hath as well entrusted her with all other necessary truths The Holy Ghost hath taught her omnem veritatem all and every necessary truth as our blessed Saviour promised which she pro re nata as heresies pullulate declares to her children that they may be able to avoid the danger of swallowing stones insteed of bread These truths thus by supreme power propounded to the faithful they are obliged to receive by obeying their Prelats who have a charge over their souls according to that of the Apostle obedite praepesitis vestris c. Hence the Nicene Fathers declared as a most fundamental truth Christ Jesus to be Deum de Deo et consubstantialem Patri c. to be God of God consubstantial to the Father c. which is not in the Apostles Creed neither is it there that the Holy Ghost is God nor the Fathers of Nice did declare that great truth because yet heresies touched not that point as St. Basile and St. Gregory Nariane teach yet I beleeve that every true Christian will esteem it necessary to beleeve these truths it is easie to descend to many more particulars which all Christians admit to be necessary though not expressed in the Apostles Creed as concerning the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist c. The Church hath therefore always from the beginning to this day beleeved and practised
this supreme obliging power in matters of faith and manners and upon the same ground hath always esteemed such hereticks in a damnable condition who have not as well beleeved or adhered to her proposals in faith in one subject as in another and as well to the end of the world as in the primitive times But they say that the burden of Christian religion will be greater then of the Jewes and intollerable if all are obliged to every declared truth in the Church which is contrary to Christ who saith Mat. 11. that his yoak is sweet and his burden is light This is easily answered in order to the Community of Christians whose implicite faith in the superstructures is sufficient according to the generally taught and received doctrin of Doctors Pastors indeed and Doctors have higher obligations to be able to give an account of their faith which obligation is much alleviated by the Synopses of Faith which the Church clearly and yet very contractedly propounds to keep them principally from misunderstanding the holy mysteries of our faith This is the weightiest objection which I finde in Mr. Hobb's besides those which I shall presently touch St. Chrysostome in his 10. homily upon St. Mathew in the person of Christ complaines of Mr. Hobbs Nolite de difficultate conqueri quesi qui doctrinam meam molestam esse dicatis we must not say Christ's doctrin is troublesome least with the Capharnaits we be committed abire retro to be put in the back side of Christ's book Surely St. August found Christian religion in another posture then Mr. Hobbs would have it in his 5. Chapter to Volusian Where he saith that Tanta est Christianarum profunditas literarum ut in eis quotidie proficerem si eas solas ab ineunte pueritia usque ad de erepitam senectutem maximo otio summa studio meliori ingenio conarer addiscere c. He experienced the mysteries of Christianity far to transcend the synagogue he esteemed his whole life though it were imployed in nothing else not to suffice for a perfect understanding of Christian profundities surely they were not so vulgar as Mr. Hebbs would have them There was among the Jewes a difference in points of faith some were ut adirces as the foundation of the rest the denying whereof would have destroyed the whole law others as rami branches where the danger was not so considerable These R. Menassieth in the beginning of his Treatise of the creation of the world declareth So in Christian Religion some things are simply necessary without which heaven is not to be gotten as the faith of Christ c. which our school-men place sub necessitate medij that is as absolutely necessary of which sort there are not so many Other things are necessary onely ex suppositione that is upon supposition that they are made known to us or sufficiently declared then there is necessitas praecepti a command to imbrace them and surely this is no great burden I will also touch that impertinent objection of the Socinians that the Church of Christ is a congregation of all Christians or of all who beleeve in Christ and not of any select body of them and consequently there are no hereticks to be declared so by any sentence of the Church but onely those are hereticks who by their own judgement are such as the Apostle speaketh That is such who against their own judgment do resist known truths not such who by a councel or body of men are declared such This to beleevers is easily made evident to be impious First That Christ hath a Church he hath said it that he also hath instructed her with a regitive power he hath also said it and said both together in these words Dic Ecclesiae and therefore addeth to such as obey not her decrees si eam non audierit sit tibi tanquam Ethnicus et publicanus we must complain to the Church for emergencies and she hath power to excommunicate if we obey not If this be true as it is in other crimes and causes it will easily conclude in the chiefest crime of heresie else we must blasphemously say that Christ hath made provision for the lesser difficulties and not for greater which is to condemn his omniscience or providence Again this regitive power is confirmed in the acts and attributes to the Holy Ghost Spiritus Sanctus vos constituit Episcopes regere Ecclesiam Dei Of this the new Testament in doctrin and practise is aboundant Further that the Church hath power to declare hereticks is evident besides the immediate consequence of it out of Christs words related out of the doctrin and practise of the Apostles They did teach how or did institute the manner post secundam monitionem to declare and excommunicate for heresie they also did declare de facto hereticks as is evident in almost all their Epistles and the Apocalipss and did forbid all commerce with them which is to excommunicate which they did for their false and seditious tenents or innovations in faith as is clear in the texts whence it followeth first that the Church hath this power as first Simon Magus for teaching it lawful to buy the Holy Ghost Secondly the Jewish Christians who taught it lawful to use Sacramental circumcision under Christ were excommunicated by St. John c. Whence it followes secondly that the Church is not a body of all Christians but of all who do joyn in the unity and integrity of faith else if declared by the Church to be hereticks they are no longer of her because by authority derived by Christ they are cast out of her Their own interior guilt will serve to accuse them in the Court of God in Heaven but it is the judicatory act of the Church upon their pertinacy which condemneth them in Earth and this sentence is confirmed in Heaven Quaecunque alligaveritis c. Mr. Hobbs in his 18. Chapter n. 2. requires two vertues necessary to Salvation Faith and Obedience Faith hath no other latitude in her acts then to beleeve Jesus to be Christ n. 5 6. and so forward Besides internal faith he saith that there is necessarily required a profession of many other articles which summarily are contracted compacted into that we call the Creed As he had touched before Chap. 17. n. 21. and afterward more fully in his Annotations to the number 6. Yet he esteemed not Christians bound to beleeve but to profess these if required This seems a bull in Christianity to be bound to profess in matter of belief what I am not bound to beleeve yet this he asserts Chap. 18. n. 6. necessary to salvation out of title of obedience That is I am bound to profess that I do beleeve what I am not bound to beleeve I propound this to Mr. Hobb's second thoughts he boggles much upon it in his Annotations utters evident contradictions and yet he comes not off Nay he saith ch 18. n. 14. that it is enough if one endeavour
is hurt in their fancies as I have observed some though otherwise able to make unbroken discourses in other matters of less concernment which is easily possible according to Philosophy or else God for other sins blindeth their understandings as he did Pharoah's which obstacle they must labour to remove that they may learn to obey God in his Church else their condition will be every way most miserable if they obey not for want of Christian humility they are in evident danger of hell if they do obey they are in danger because they do against Conscience but the remedy of this is at hand if they relinquish their own judgments not by satisfying which they pretend they cannot do but by captivating to a sure Authority Certainly wicked fury hath made and increased this Schism for granting which is my second answer to the former objection that when unity cannot be kept without detriment of eternal Salvation it may and ought to be broken without sin but when by the conservation of unity no detriment of salvation is incurred and that if this also may be obtained by persevering in unity then at least there shall be no lawful cause to break unity and those who break it do incur certain damnation for sacrilegious Schism But now Protestants remaining in union with the Church of Rome should have suffered no detriment of their eternal Salvation but had been in a certain way to arrive unto it As we have shewed before by their own confession that Catholicks persevering in the same unity may attain unto salvation wherefore it manifestly followeth that they without any cause went out of the Church wherein they might have been saved and cast themselves and their followers into the state of damnation according to that of St. Augustine De unit Eccl. c. 19. None come unto Salvation and life everlasting except he hath Christ for his head and none can have Christ for his head except he he in his body which is the Church Again which is chiefly to be pondered and always to be repeated those damnable doctrins as they call them taught in the Church of Rome ought to have been declared by a general Councel and not by themselves who are the least if any part of the Church Otherwise if it should be lawful for every one to accuse the Church his mother of Heresie and to leave her without any other discussing of the cause a gate should be open to all Heresies the Church of God would be trodden under foot yea all Christianity fall to ruine this hath been the plea of all separatists which they thought sufficiently proved if onely accusing of error be proving as in the cause of England D. Bilson and Covell teach the necessities of Synods in these things the first part p. 374. the other p. 110. And that which another replied first that England might sufficiently judge of heresies newly brought in seeing it is matter of fact to wit whether this or the other doctrin came down from our Fathers Grandfathers c. or whether it were heard of but yesterday or the day before for this even children may perceive The second point also which he not onely by mouth but by pen now frequent in other hands so much urged saying that it is not needful to call a general Councel since by your confessions as Cressy fol. 443. seemeth to insinuate that there is no infallable power in them A doctrin which I was glad to finde amongst you yet I wondred at it being already repugnant to what I had read in your former authors as D. Stapleton and D. Stratford of the Church and of late in a book made by a Country-man of ours in Latine called Systema Fidei Cressie's words are these No man will endeavour to oblige them further then c. to beleeve an obliging authority in the Catholick Church let is be limitted and confined as straitly and with as many provises as any Catholick or indeed any resonable man shall think good I say according to this power of defining and establishing faith it is to no purpose to call a general Councel to declare heresies when every ignorant fellow can do as much in order to the verity of declaring though perhaps not in order to the coercive manner of declaring yea in the very power it self for asmuch as according to this position of Cressy the power of the Church in this particular may be restrained by any silly fellow c. Thus far this Author To these I answer For asmuch as concerneth matter of fact every nation may witness what they have recived but they cannot make infallable discernment of matters of Faith without the supreme judgment of the whole Church in whose onely mouth there can be no errors which is our principal question Many things are conveyed to posterity which are not matters of Faith sometimes not of truth this the Church onely suerly determines To the second objection out of Gressy I answer that his words though very harsh yet in my judgment they may receive a more favourable gloss upon connexion with the other parts of his discourse He doth indeed to much even suspiciously savour of his old friendship with that vertiginous and flashy Apostata Chillingworth a man whom few examples have paralel'd in often turning religion But Cressy wrote this book in Neophitism not being yet fully instructed in the mysteries of our holy faith as St. Hierome noteth of Arnobius which therefore is more excusable in him though he should express his not throughly digested conceits hardly endugh consistent with the verities of the Catholick faith I do not beleeve that his intention was so soon to play the master in teaching what he had not perfectly learned which had been too preposterous 〈◊〉 this whole books 〈◊〉 to give the History or gradation of his conversion how he did reach from one degree to another and how he gathereth the sence of our doctrin and Doctors in his passage wherein as I said it is no wonder if being a Neophite he should boggle in his manner of explication as his expression seemeth to do in this but where he now is he will better and more fully inform himself and I doubt not but wil rectifie those passages which savour of mistakes Neither doth it avail much though many here stumble at these and other of his passages for St. Hier saith ep 76. I think Origen to be read So sometimes for application as Tertullian Novatus Apollinaris Cressy and many more Ecclesiastical writers both Greek and Latin that we may choose what is good in them and avoid the contrary There are some very good things in that book though intermixt with other passages more harsh as he seems to express them which a prudent reader may pick out and discern to his profit It remaineth therefore firm and certain that our Country men are bound under the pain of Schism and rebellion to reunite themselves unto the Church of Rome their mother as
A TREATISE OF THE SCHISM OF ENGLAND Wherein particularly Mr. HALES and Mr. HOBBS are modestly accosted By PHILIP SCOT Permissu Superiorum AMSTERDAM Printed Anno Dom. 1650 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY The Author Superviving intended to both the Universities as a Theam to be discussed in their next Scholastick Olimpicks WHen Fabius was asked who was a good Orator he said he would give the same answer which the Stoicks would give if this question were propounded to them concerning Zeno Cleanthes or Chrisippus whom they esteemed great and worthy men but not such as had obtained the height of which human nature is capable The same I confess of you ye have made large progresses in the school of wisdom and many of you have almost reached the topp of human capacity but yet ye have not obtained pure wisdom And truly I fear as the old Platonists confessed of themselves yee will never reach it till your souls final separation when she will to her loss finde where she mist her footing except yee would which were a noble design maugre the injuries of the time and place where ye live life up your eyes and conclude with Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our aim shall be to seek God with a pure Soul This cannot be done unless without any limitation ye submit to these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to those commanding Oracles as the Ancients call them which God by his holy Spouse propoundeth to our obedience to this end it is first necessary to know which is the only Church whence all wisdom as from a pure source flowes to this the ensuing discourse will inable the Reader Witten by your Servant PHILIP SCOT A TREATISE OF THE Schism of England CHAP. I. The Church of Rome taken in the latitude of her Communion is God's onely Church THis titular Thesis will seem a Paradox by reason of the strong prejudice our Country is infected with against an apparent truth but the succeeding discourse will demonstrate by lineary deduction the most assured certainty of it Paucis opus est ad bonam mentem litteris Sen. ep 106. I shall be brief yet I hope sufficiently large because as St. Cyprian tract 3. de simplicitate Prelatorum Tractatu longò atque argumentis non est opus Probatio est ad fidem facilis compendio veritatis Our holy faith needs no tedious proofs but onely compendious declarations That the Church of Rome did hold and openly profess the true faith of Christ in the Apostles time St. Paul Rom. 1.8 is an abundant witness That also the other Churches through the world did in faith communicate with her is there manifest and that she kept the same faith sure and untouched for the first six hundred years from Christ to Gregory the great not onely the learnedst Protestants for the most part confess but by this even to the blind is apparent that all Councels assembled in those times and especially the first four general ones as is most evident in the Acts or actions as they call them of each Councel agreed in the same profession of faith held very strict communication against all heresies as in the condemnation of Arrius in the Nicen of Macedonius in the first Constantinopolitan of Nestorius in the first Ephesian of Eutiches and Diostorus in the Chalcedon Councels So that thus far we are secured of the integrity of the Church of Rome that is till St. Leo the Pope who was contemporary with the Chalcedon whence is concluded also that all Churches then dispersed through the whole world and their Doctors except such as have been branded with some heresie or other did alwayes communicate in faith with the Church of Rome The forenamed general Councels witnessed the faith of all Churches therefore if the erred it is necessary that all the other Churches erred also and consequently that Christ had no true Church upon earth He who desires to look into these things in a most compendious way let him onely read the Epistles of S. Leo and the Register of St. Gregory and there he shall see most evidently as in a mirrour the connexion and agreeing of things together with the former and succeeding ages I speak to those that know the Law therefore to have given but a hint is sufficient Now Gregory the great who is not noted to have innovated any thing in the faith which he received from his Ancestors especially of St. Leo who as we declared was contemporary to Chalcedon and held by all the world intire in his faith this needs no other proof then the confession of the Greeks who alwayes reverenced him and intitled him a Saint and therefore numbred him among the Fathers as appeareth even by the Schismatick Greeks in the dispute of Purgatory in the Councel of Florence St. Damasene who was contemporary to St. Bede and a little above one hundred years after St. Gregory gives so much credit to his writings that he confesseth all the East and West to adhere to them even in some smaller things which are not generally received amongst us whence it is most evident that he was Universally esteemed a follower of his and their forefathers in faith To bring this evidence more home we will stay in the 4 first general Counsels They did before secure us of the integrity of the Roman Church and they will do as much for St. Gregory for no man is ignorant that he taught all the world to reverence their faith next to the four Evangelists whence is concluded that he was of the same faith with them now St. Gregory sent over the same faith to England then involved with the darkness of infidelity by St. Austin the Monk and other holy and learned men who devoutly received it and constantly and faithfully kept it until the revolt of Henry the eighth But that the Christian faith which we received from St. Gregory by St. Austin may to every body appear to be the same which not onely the westerne but the Easterne Church did profess that is what the whole universal Church did profess besides what I have said before it is demonstrable by the Epistles of St. Gregory directed to the East in which he signifieth that England was converted to the faith of Rome as appears more particularly in his thirtieth Epistle which is to Eulogius the Patriarch of Alexandria and by reciprocal congratulatories received from them for so great a gain of souls c. whence it followeth manifestly that the Greeks and the East were of the same communion of faith with the Church of Rome otherwise there had been no mutual entercourse of congratulatory letters in things of this nature this is clearer then can be controverted Moreover that England never erred from the faith first received or left in any thing that faith is manifest even to children if they cannot read in looking upon the pictures in glass-windows graves in seeing the altars still in some places extant in seeing the very
beleeving and doing what she propounds and prescribes shall attain unto eternal salvation which sufficiently followeth out of what hath been said in the first Chapter if well attended much more also might be produced from Christian discoursing upon principles of holy Scripture and consent of old and modern Doctors But to bring our Doctors here is superfluous labour seeing Protestants with whom I have dealt sincerely acknowledge and ingeniously confess so much and many of them of no small account have delivered in books that the Church of Rome is the Church of God and that the errors in her are not so much as do overthrow the foundation of Salvation and therefore with them many have and may now be saved So Morton Regn. Jer. page 94. the Papists are to be thought of the Church of God because they hold the foundation of the Gospel which is faith in Christ Jesus the Son of God Hooker Eccles Polit. page 140. we willingly acknowledge Papists to be of the family of Christ Covel Apol. ad Archep Cant. we affirm those who are of the Churh of Rome to be part of the Church of Christ and those who live and die in the Church of Rome may notwithstanding be saved and he accuseth the Puritans of ignorance that think the contrary Soame Apol. p. 146. if you think that all Papists that die in the Papistical Church are damned you think absurdly and you dissent from the judgment of learned Protestants D. Burlo in his 3. Sermon ad Clerum saith I dare not deny c. D. Laud late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in his great volume against the Jesuite doubteth not of ordinary Papists salvations and of late Doctor Taylour in his liberty of Prophecying out of his principles necessarily concludes so much in his twentieth Paragraph and number the 3 d. he speaks thus They keep the foundation c. and therefore all the wisest personages of the adverse party allowed to them possibility of Salvation whilest their errors are not faults of their will but weaknesses and deceptions of the understanding c. The foundation of faith stands secure enough for all these vain and unhandsome superstructures c. Chillingworth hath both the same tenents frequently and as you may gather by his maner of expression he grants them yet very plainly though unwillingly somtimes he saith that they are not damnable othertimes that they are damnable in themselves but not to Catholicks except they stick to them out of affection of error It was well he added this else he had in one stroke broken the whole phantastick fabrick of his verbal not rational volume flashy no way substantial as any sober man will judge The whole result of his work is that every man beleeving Scriptures and feriously labouring to deduce a probable sence out of them is sufficiently provided for in order to his salvation which is to exclude a necessity of communion with any in point of Religion as every man seeth against all Scripture and the Creed This is by the way There are indeed some amongst them as Field Usher and others who seem somtimes to speak more rigidly touching Catholiks Salvation But they observe not how repugnant this is to a generally admitted and cried up principle amongst them which is this namely that they differ not from us in fuundamentals or necessaries By this they labour hard to make their breach from from us not to be damnable being they differ not in points of necessary belief Which if it hath force doth it not inevitably and with more strength conclude a security for us We must therefore conclude that whether they will or no they do all conclude a possibility of salvation for us adhereing to our faith delivered from our forefathers and to omit innumerable others King James shall serve for all for he speaks in the name of all in his speech to the Parliament Novemb. 9. 1605. we rightly saith he confess that many Papists especially our progenitors putting their onely trust in Jesus Christ and his merits may and are frequently saved detesting according to that and judging the cruelty of the Puritans worthy of fire who will grant no salvation to any Papists Yea D. Potter in his book set forth by the command of King Charles pag. 76. 77. confesseth that those things which Protestants think erroneous in the Roman Church are not in themselves damnable to those who beleeve as they profess and that all may be saved with them who bona fide beleeve and profess the Roman Religion as long as they finde no motives sufficient whereby their judgment is convinced that they be in error To conclude all Protestants of any moderation who are not poysoned with the tincture of rigid Calvinisme freely confess that Catholicks in their religion may be faved and do accuse them of want of Charity that they do not think so of them So our adversaries are our judges as appears by their own confession that we may attain unto salvation in the Church of Rome I could give you a longer list but it were superfluous in a confessed doctrine CHAP. 3. Schism is an enormous Crime SChism if we look upon the force of the word it signifieth division if it be in the civil common wealth it is called Sedition if in the Church Schism or the same word may be used for both and be distinguished by Epithites in the one case it is civil Sedition in the other Ecclesiastical Division The Church may be divided two wayes first by revolting from faith which doth not only make Schism but heresie hence it is that they who fall from the faith and doctrin of the Church setting up their contrary opinions as Arrians Macedonians and the like are not onely termed Scismaticks but Hereticks Secondly the Church is divided by revolting from the chief Pastor or general Councels by disobedience or from communion with the other members although faith be conserved intire and this makes pure Schism as it is distinguished from heresie So the Donatists and Meletians at first keeping the faith of the Church but abstaining from communion with the other members in divine worship prayer and other holy rites or when they erected altar against altar then and not before they were properly accounted Schismaticks from whence it is gathered that although Schism continuing is wont to degenerate into heresie because as St. Hierom saith in Tit. 3. There is no Schim which doth not frame to it self some heresie that they may seem to have just cause to revolt from the Church Hence St. Augustine l. 2. contra Cresconium c. 7. Schism is a new revolt Heresie is an inveterate Schism yet speaking in rigour heresie violating the faith of the Church Schism breaking her charity they are both grevious sins seeing they seperate from the Church and consequently from the head which is Christ But now we will onely treat of the greviousness of Schism There are a sort of people who cannot conceive that a Christian Common-wealth
offended with the Popes Tertullian though persecuted for Montanism by that sea yet acknowledges the power 1. de pudicitia Audio edictum esse propositum et quidem peremptorium Pontifer scilicet maximus c. I understand that the Pope hath made a peremptory decree c. where he is angry at it because against his heresie but doubteth not of his power St. Cyprian as Erasmus in his notes confesseth everywhere acknowledgeth it even St. Stephen and Cornelius his adversaries Usher who boggles at all things because St. Cyprian calls Cornclius brother would seem to doubt but Erasmus less squintsighted will teach him that it is in respect of his conjunction in faith not equality of person St. Ireneus is so vulgarly known that all confess it Nay even Usher who seems to have sworn to corrupt the clearest passages of antiquity yet confesseth in the business of Easter that St. Victor Pope did then pretend his supremacy over the rest of the Churches as appears in his Catologue as he calls it in the second Century So that it is no new title of the Popes even according to Usher The full sway of this great Bugbear in every age according to the enlargment of Christian bounds appears still more gloriously in the Oeconomy of the Church before in after the four Councels to St. Gregory Therefore I touch this no more every Abodary controvertist forceth them to confess it to be truth Mr. Hobbs indeed c. 17. in the end of n. 26. denieth that there is or can be a Rector of the universal Church by whose authority the whole Church may be convocated He ventures also to prove it thus because to be a rector in that sense over the Church is to be rector and lord of all Christians in the whole world which is not granted to any but God If he had been a stranger in Christian principles it had been no wonder to have misunderstood so solemn and publick a Tenet The Supreme Pastor of the Church hath an acknowledged power for preservation of the Church in integrity of faith to convocate Bishops to a general deliberation and determination of things necessary to salvation and to this end he hath coactive power in the exercise of his spititual sword and no otherwise What connexion this hath with a Dominion over the world I know not which by God himself is denied him in holy Scripture and in this his power is distinguished from temporal principality His power is spiritual his weapons are spiritual the objects to which he tends are spiritual in this confinement he commands without prejudice to temporal rights wherein Princes are simply supreme and onely have the coactive sword of justice independently in respect of him and this onely is dominion He thinks this too much and therefore will not acknowledge that there is any subordination in Christianity out of each city or county but every city is supreme to it self in Spiritual and Ecclesastical matters and therefore no Prince or city or particular Church can be excommunicated or interdicted Supposing the antecedent the consequence would without much difficulty be proved for if the Prince is supreme in all things he cannot be excommunicated which is an act of superiority neither the common-wealth by it self for it were to dissolve it self into no city if it should deprive it self of mutual commerce which he acknowledgeth to be an effect of excommunication But he leapes over the proof of the Antecedent which had been indeed worth his doing by Topicks fit for him taken out of Scripture antiquity or reason subordinate to these principles At least he should have shewed an inconsistency of the publick welfare of a common-wealth with the spiritual subordination of particular Churches to a supreame seated out of the temporal confines Surely if there were not a most ordinate subordination all religion would turn to a Hidraes confusion which were to destroy Christs acquired spiritual kingdom on earth and is evidenlty against the light of reason and one main article of the Creed which he accepteth of communion of Saints The excellency of Christs kingdom is that though universal yet it troubleth not but much conserveth each kingdom in their particular Oeconomy though much different betwixt themselves St. Augustine in his city of God Orostus in his History and many others against the Gentiles demonstratively shew the benefits all places receive by this spiritual subjection to Christian principles Amongst which this was alwayes judged one of the most capital as St. Denise St. Ignatius and the rest shew of this Hierarchy instituted by God He would tell us not perswade us c. 17. n. 22. that all power which anciently the Church of Rome exercised over particular Churches or Cities was derived from the Soveraignty of the Emperors and was shaken off when their Empire was abdicated and in pursuit of this he saith that the Roman Church was indeed very large anciently but always confined within the limits of the Empire How false this is no man can be ignorant that hath perused antiquity Prosper assures us that Rome is made greater by the faith of Christ then by the civil Empire and so the rest of the Fathers but especially he de vacatione Gentium l. 2. c. 16. Roma per Apostolici Sacerdotij Principatum amplior facta est arce religionis quam solen Potestatis St. Ireneus indeed tells us that the reason why Rome was chosen for the head was because it had been the head of the Empire but none will say that it was confined by it or measured her spiritual territories by it Who knows not that even in the Apostles time and ever since vast Empires were reduced to this spiritual Empire of Rome which never had to do with the Romane Empire Our own countries ever acknowledged subjection to the Church of Rome under this title Scotland also and Ireland were most oxthodoxly subject to the mitre though not to the Scepter This is onely by the by to Mr. Hobbs But besides this the Patriarchal right which he hath over this our nation cannot be deposited by them for by the same causes authority should be destroyed by which it was set up as the Jurists agree seeing therefore that the Bishop of Rome hath had his Patriarchal power granted unto him by general Councels to wit by those four first which St. Gregory received as four Gospels and especially here by the Parlimentary lawes are esteemed sacred it followeth manifestly that by less power then a general Councel it cannot be abolished for our Britany is one of the seven provinces of the western Church which are the ancient bounds of the Roman Patriarchate as all know In times past I grant that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was called Patriarch by Pope Urbane the second with Anselme and Malmes and the Glosse c. Clero d. 21. as also the Bishop of Algar in the districts of Venice but this was for honors sake not for exemption as the thing it self speaketh and the
Gods glory How they do speak it they can declare no more then they are according to Mr. Hobbs and therefore onely things finite which is to confine God against the drift of the Psalms Philosophy and Scriptures teach us to finde God by his creatures as St. Paul 1 Rom. 20. remits us to the creatures Invisibilia à constitutione mundi per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur our understanding of God is from these visible things nay it is the onely natural way we have from the effect to finde the first cause and not from the first cause the effect and all things without his confinement So by pictures we ascend to what is represented not tying our selves to the manner in our worship of God under that representation In the pursuit we relinquish the manner and going forward with our discourse we find and with our devotions follow the Infinity of Gods goodness All representatives are essentially inferior to the Prototypes by many degrees yet safely conduct us to the knowledge of them without abasing their natures to the Images So here and all acts of acknowledgment of God in and by his creatures for we know the effect cannot equalize the first cause especially neither in nature nor in manner of existence and therefore we conclude Gods supreme essence and goodness to transcend all we see in the like manner we easily ascend by the use of pictures neither can we do otherwise if we use our reason so that there is no danger of Gods confinement and therefore no Idolatry I remember that Cassian in his Collations tells us of a poor ignorant Monk who out of error had framed to himself in his narrow imagination a conceipt of Gods being corporal and could very hardly be brought to entertain higher thoughts of Gods spiritual essence being unwillng to relinquish his Phantastically ill framed Image of God We are much beholding to Mr. Hobbs who is so tender of Christians dulness that least by their Images they should conceive God to be finite or corporal with this poor Monk he would remove all picturs though God himself not so careful as Mr. Hobbs hath been pleased to talk and walk with Adam which are acts of a corporal and finite creature and othertimes to make resemblance as if he had appeared in corporal shape as to Moses perchance to Jacob and others nay even the Son of God appearing in our poor nature all which would draw us into errors if God had not by his Prophets Apostles and daily by his Church and even by reason taught us the right use of such passages and to know that those sensible representatives were onely conductives to God himself as we teach Students by emblems to conceive things more remote from their present capacity All which will warrant our use of Images yet without Gods confinement and consequently without Idolatry Neither would this if true any way excuse them from sacrilegious Schism except all were compelled to Idolatry St. Augustine saith there can be no just necessity to cut off unity l. 2. Cont Ep. Parm. c. 2. and as he elsewhere Ep. 166. Our Heavenly Master hath so much admonished us to take heed of this That he would make the common people secure even of evil superiors that not for them the chair of saving doctrin should be destroyed Therefore the chair ought not to be forsaken much less destroyed for the errors of the Presidents O how St. Cyprian doth purge that poison of theirs to the quick Epist l. 3. Ep 2. If there be seen darnel to be in the Church our faith and charity ought not to be hindred thereby that because we see darnel to be in the Church we therefore leave the Church c. The Apostle in the second Epist to Timothy 2. saith In a great house there are not onely vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth and certain indeed unto honour but certain also unto contumely but it is onely lawful for God who hath a rod of iron to break the earthen vessels c. Let not any one assume to himself what the Father alone hath given to his Son c. It is saith he a proud obstinacy and sacrilegious presumption which wicked fury assumeth to it self Let our Country men think sadly of this It is objected to me that the Church of Rome doth force her Proselites to beleeve falshoods perniciously under Anathema in the Councel of Trent I answer That if we should make an impossible supposition against all the promises of Christ that the Church should in necessary points teach errors yet even in that case every child of the Church must exteriorly carry himself quiet and not make commotions for that were to seek a cure worse then the disease as in the like impossible supposition our Country-man Waldensis l. 2. c. 27. teaches Non perperam insilire debet He must not leap against the Churches face in rebellion Neither is he bound to beleeve an untruth nor yet is one in danger to incur the censure For the Church cannot reach the minde onely God in a just sentence confirming her act reaches home which cannot be in this case for he should confirm an injustice Whence it followeth that no man is or can be compelled to beleeve untruths but onely not to make Schism which by divine law is forbidden And therefore St. Augustines rule is still true There cannot be no necessity of cutting off the Church unity no not in supposition that she should command great errors But you will not object that if the articles commanded by the Church are in themselves true yet if I cannot perceive their truth after all diligence used to that end it were hypocrisie in me and therefore unlawful to adhere to that Church I conceive though falsly teacheth and commandeth false doctrins and extraordinary practises upon those grounds This truly is most seriously objected by some but without all Solidity For surely Christians are obliged by the law of God and reason to depose their own false judgments in obedience to God his Church else this will open a gap to all itching ears of whom we are premonished to introduce each man his fancy and prefer it before the wholesome doctrins of Christ delivered by his Church Neither is it difficult for man though learned to depose his own judgment especially in order to external actions for it is daily done by all sorts of timorate consciences who do mangre their own reason direct themselves by the authority of such whom they know to be more learned then themselves Mr. Hobbbs Chap. 15. and n. 13. saith unusquisque rationem privatam rationi totius civitatis submittere potest Here he labours to lay the grounds of the derivation of power in the Common-wealth to determine what belongs to matters of religion which he faith that the people have transferred to the Magistrate He proves it as he faith evidently I examine it not being pertinent to