to Scripture I desire you to take into consideration that the same Roman Church at the same time both proposed the Belief of those Doctrins to your first Reformers and also gave them the Scriptures testifying that they were the infallible Word of God Therefore certainly it was far from being evident to her that her Doctrines did evidently contradict Divine Revelation Now you will not surely deny but that in the Catholic Church there are men as learned and those in a far greater number than among Protestants Men I say who also make the Scriptures their principal study and have published almost innumerable Commentaries on them again Men of whom a great number live sequestred from the world in an assiduous Practice of Spiritual Prayer and therefore not likely to have their judgments perverted by worldly interests Yet not any one of these does see or but suspect that the Faith they profess is contradicted by Gods Word on the contrary they invincibly demonstrate that the Church has been as the only Depository of Scripture so likewise of the true Sence of it How comes then that to be evident to you which is invisible to them Which way went the Spirit of God from the whole Church to inhabite a debauched incestuous Fryer or a stigmatized Pichard upon whose credit doubtless you have taken up your Evidence If they could have shewed you in Scripture such passages as these The Pope is not the Supream Bishop and Visible Head of the Church Bread by Sanctification does not become the Body of Christ We ought not to confess our sins to Priests Purgatory is a meer humane invention It is an injury to Christ to desire Saints but none to desire Sinners to pray for us c. Such sayings indeed as these might have justifyed your charge against the Church that she contradicts Scripture But where are such sayings to be found except it be in the Heretical Writings of your Reformers On the contrary some Points contradictory to those are found litterally contained in Scripture and to elude them you are foced to have recourse to figurative sences and the rest are conveyed to us by the same Authority by which we receive the Scripture it self Yea by the Holy Fathers justified as consonant to Scripture and however I suppose you will not say that silence is equivolent to express contradiction The utmost that you can say is that perhaps you can produce now and then some scattered Texts of Scripture from which you can make a shew of arguing against some Tenets of the Catholic Church But what will that avail you since Probability as hath been said will not excuse you for omitting a necessary duty of Obedience and incurring the horible guilt of Schism Where now do you see an evidence that the Church contradicts Scripture Prot. I shall be better enabled to give a resolution in this Point when according to your promise you shall have given me an account of the necessary Doctrines of your Church in the points controverted between us §. 60. Cath. That Promise I will now with Gods assistance discharge through all the Points mentioned by you in the beginning And first as touching the two first Points viz. 1. The Churches Authority 2. The Popes Universal Iurisdiction c. enough hath been said in our former discourse Yet for your further satisfaction I will enlarge my self a little more Take therefore into your consideration that it is a Fundamental Truth agreed on by all Catholics That the only Objects of Catholic Faith are such Divine Truths as are revealed in Gods Word and also proposed to all by the Catholic Church to be believed by Divine Faith Now this general Ground being presupposed in case any Controversies should arise touching the sence of any Divine Truths revealed it is unquestionably necessary that some Means should be appointed by God to determine such controversies and to prevent a dissipation of his Church by Heresies and Schisms And what other Mean can be imagined efficacious hereto then what hath been taught and practised even from the Apostles time and this declared by the Council of Trent That no man trusting to his own prudence or skill shall presume to interpret Holy Scripture in matters of Faith or Manners pertaining to edification of Christian Doctrine wresting it to his own sences against that sence which our Holy Mother the Church doth or hath held to whom it belongs to judg of the true sence and interpretation of Holy Scriptures or also against the unanimous consent of the Fathers This is that which the Roman Catholic Church teaches concerning her Authority of interpreting controverted Texts of Scripture No more then this is any Catholic obliged to believe Now I leave it to your conscience whether you can think it a sufficient Ground for you to break from her Communion upon this quarrel because she judges more fit that the judgment of the whole Body of Teachers and Governors appointed by God in her should prevail against your single judgment or that of a few Apostat-Ministers Especially considering the Promises made by our Lord to his Apostles and their lawful Successors that his Spirit should remain with them and direct them into all Truth till the end of the world so as that the gates of Hell that is say the Fathers Heresies should never prevail against them Prot. I see it is in vain to contradict this §. 61. Cath. Let us next proceed to what the Church has determined touching the Priviledges and Authority of the Prime Pastor the Bishop of Rome Thus then we read in the Confession of Faith collected by the Pope himself out of the Council of Trent I acknowledg the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and I promise true Obedience to the Bishops of Rome Successor of St. Peter Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Iesus Christ. Here the See Apostolic being acknowledged the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and the Pope Vicar of Christ his universal Iurisdiction is therein acknowledged which Jurisdiction or Authority we are not to suppose to be arbitrary and unlimitted but as we read in a Canon of the Council of Florence consented to by the Emperor Patriark and other Bishops of Greece to be exercised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. after the manner as is also contained in the Gests of Oecumenical Councils and Sacred Canons And such a Primacy invested with Authority as this the General Council of Chalcedon admitted by Protestants does acknowledg in him which is also attested by Tradition and practice from the beginning §. 62. Now the necessity of such a standing Authority in Gods Church is thus grounded The absolutely Supream Ecclesiastical Authority against which can lye no Appeal is confessedly residing in a lawful General Council by which all Debates whatsoever may be determined all necessary Laws enacted c. But it being a matter of infinite difficulty especially since the division of
by consequence they are exempted from an Obligation of examining particular Controversies which their Teachers duty is to examine for them §. 19. Neither is it natural Reason alone which directs us to perfer so eminent Authority before our own simple judgments but as hath been said a Divine Light also appearing in Scripture and in constant Ecclesiastical Tradition the best and safest Interpreter of Scripture There we find the Church called The Pillar and Ground of truth a City at one in it self and set upon a Hill which cannot be hid There we read That every Tongue which shall rise against her in Iudgment she shall condemn that Gentiles shall come to her light and Kings to the brightness of her Rising And that the nation and Kingdom which will not serve her shall perish There we shall find that the least Supream Tribunal on earth to determine Controversies amongst Christians is the Church whom whosoever will not hear is to be esteemed as a Heathen and a Publican such an unappealeable Authority has God established in this Church And by vertue of this Authority General Councils representing the whole Body of Church Governors challenge from all Christians a submission not only of Non-contradiction but also of internal Assent under Penalty of Anathema which assent we willingly and joyfully yield by vertue of Christs promises That he will lead his Church into all Truth Jo. 16. 13. and so preserve her in an uniform Profession of Truth that the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail against her Mat. 16. 18. which Gates of Hell are by the interpretations of the Fathers Heresies §. 20. These irrefragable grounds from Prudence and Scripture have we Catholics for directing our Faith On the other side not one single Text of Scripture nay moreover not one quotation can be produced out of any one of the holy Fathers which may rationally incourage a Christian to prefer his own sence of Scripture before that of the Church whereas whole Books have been written by them of the Churches unity authority indefectibility and universality Now Sir who can resist who can hold out against such a Battery Prot. Well Sir how prevalent soever this Discourse may seem to you to be against us whom you style Schismatics it will prove of little advantage to you Roman Catholics for although we grant that there is but one Catholic Church out of which there is no Salvation yet this does not prove the Roman to be this Church the Roman I say which is but a particular Church and she being as we are perswaded guilty of teaching and practising many false Doctrines and manifold Superstitions and Idolatry we cannot with a safe conscience have any communion with her §. 21. Cath. Sir this is the ordinary artifice of your Protestant Writers when they are pressed with the guilt of those unpardonable crimes of Heresie and Schism to impute to the Church many Errors and sinful Practices in which foresooth their tender consciences dare not joyn This they do to the end they may be dispenced withal from clearing themselves from Schism till after a full discussion of all other Controversies touching differences about any particular Errors supposed to be in the Church which discussion cannot be undertaken by one in a thousand considering mens general incapacity and if undertaken by the Learned would scarce ever have an end But this is most unreasonable because though it were true that the Church from which they separated were indeed guilty of teaching Errors yet are Protestants justly and unanswerably charged with Schism in a high degree in as much as they remain divided not from the Roman only but all Patriarchal and all other Churches existent before their Separation So that if there be such a Crime as Schism they are manifestly guilty of it and by consequence it would be damnable in any one to joyn in their Communion To make this charge good against them it will be fully sufficient to alledg the confession of all Christians and of themselves also viz. That there always has been is and shall ever remain a Holy Catholic Church of Christ on Earth from which Separation upon any pretence whatsoever is damnable This Church therefore wheresoever it is was in being when they divided from the Roman and can they pretend that they are Members of this Church There is not a Society in the world older than theirs or other than the Roman Church with which they entertain any communion at all to whose consession of Faith they will subscribe and to whose Laws and Government they will submit but on the contrary condemn its Doctrines Laws and Government The consciousness of this forced the principal Patriarch of Schism Calvin to profess that himself and his followers separated from the whole world Now it being impossible for Protestants to excuse much less to justifie their manifest Schism to what purpose is it to enter into debate with them about particular Points of Doctrine As long as the charge of Schisin subsists uncleared by them and this Schism grounded on pretended dangerous Errors in the Catholic Church being Schismatics they are Heretics too and so condemned by themselves and consequently not to be hearkned to when they would raise particular controversies since this one general controversie determines against them all particular debates §. 22. Schism therefore in its lowest qualification considered only as disobedience to lawful Ecclesiastical Authority being even in the judgment of learned Protestants a most horrible Sin a tearing in pieces the Mystical Body of Christ There are one or two special Aggravations which extreamly heighten the heinousness of it in Protestants I mean those Reformers abroad and antiently in Scotland Calvinists Presbyterians Lutherans Anabaptists c. They were once Members of the Roman-Catholic-Church which they then esteemed to be that Church which they believed in the Creed It hapned that their Prime Patriarchs Luther Calvin Zwinglius c. having conceived some discontent either against the Governors or some prevailing party in that Church which obstructed their profits or against the Laws of it which restrained their lusts after Women grew angry and began to quarrel with the Church her self and to study to disgrace her for which purpose the readiest way was to find fault with her Doctrines Then Pride and revenge inspiring them against these they made objections yet not so oft against the Churche's own Doctrines as the Tenents of particular Catholick Writers and most oft they directed their most bitter Invectives against personal miscarriages for all which the Church must be answerable And after all this publishing Liberty from Laws which restrained Concupiscence they quickly found Favorites and Followers thus Sects were first composed But if there had been in any of them either Humility or Love of Peace in case they had been perswaded there had been Errors in the Church her self to which they could not subscribe they would not thereupon separate
require Belief of them we cannot assent to them without rendring our selves guilty of apparent contradicting Scripture generally in them all and no less than the heynous Crimes of Superstition and Idolatry in several of them Cath. I do not much wonder to hear from you so a cruel a Censure of our Catholic Belief Yea perhaps I should my self joyn with you in the like if I should take a prospect of the Church by the same false Light that I perceive you have done Prot. Why Sir from whence should I receive Light to discover what you teach but from our Controvertists §. 52. Cath. I did not at all doubt from whence that which you call Light came And therefore permit me to tell you that if you frame your judgment touching the Faith of Catholics by what you find commonly in Controvertists you will condemn you know not what nor whom Prot. This is strange Do none of our Controvertists understand what your Church teaches §. 53. Cath. What and how much they understand I cannot define But this I may with confidence say that generally judging of your Controvertists not a twentieth part of one of their Volumes contains an examination of the necessary Faith of the Church which Faith notwithstanding is pretended to be confuted in every Page Prot. Notwithstanding what you say yet your Controvertists also in answering our Books do take on them to defend whatsoever ours oppose as the Doctrines of your Church Cath. It is too true indeed of some of them who deserve much to be blamed for giving thereby occasion to our Adversaries to multiply unnecessary Debates by a partial esteem of their own private adopted Opinions of their peculiar Interpretations of the Churches Doctrines their probable Additions to them and Inferences from them all which they are desirous should pass for Points of Catholic Faith Besides this several Schoolmen there are whose end of Writing being to boast their Wit and Subtilty who will penetrate into all things no Mysteries shall be incomprehensible to their Philosophy and who think it a great Mastery to advance Positions bordering on the very brink of Heresie Speculative or Moral and then by some nice Distinction to prove them if not Orthodox at least not deserving the utmost Censures And of these mens rashness Protestants oft-times take advantage and zealously oppose them as if the Church were obliged to make good their aery Speculations §. 54. Prot. What Expedient then do you propose to me by which I may be certainly informed of your Churches Doctrines Cath. The way is plain easie and short if you will look before you and not wilfully go out of it Prot. I pray you put me into that way Cath. The way is to examine candidly and seriously the Churches own Decisions only which if you do you will find how little she is concern'd in the accusations you lay against her Prot. If this prove true surely our Modern Controvertists have a dreadful Account to make to God who seem studiously to design the widening of the breaches amongst Christians Cath. That what I say is true I dare take the confidence to make your self the Iudge And this I undertake to demonstrate through all the controverted Points before mentioned by you not by disputing alledging Proofs or answering Objections but only by representing to you in a simple manner the pure naked Doctrine of the Church in relation to all these Points Prot. I am likewise sufficiently averse from clamorous Disputes which commonly are only Prizes of a quick Fancie or voluble tongue and fomentors of unruly Passions Therefore I expect what you intend to say §. 55. Cath. Before I begin I have a few Requests in my judgment not unreasonable to make to you The first is 1. That having supposed that upon a true or false Belief Eternity of Happiness or Misery depends you would force your Imagination to put your self in that state in which your first Reformers really were immediately before they broke from the Churches Obedience and Communion and supposing that you were earnestly tempted by them also to forsake it by adhering to a New-begun Society never heard of in the world before upon a pretence that the Church in which you live and which you as yet esteem to be the true Catholic Church teaches most pernicious Errours Superstitions and Idolatrous practices Of the Justice of which pretence your Tempters now declared Enemies will needs be the Iudges Prot. This I will endeavour to perform §. 56. 2. Cath. My Second Request is That you will acknowledge that the Doctrines of Catholic Faith once decided by the Church are to be understood in the plain literal Sence and in the latitude of the Churches expression And by consequence that when they are severally restrained to different particular Senses by interpretation of Catholic writers such Interpretations are not necessarily to be admitted by you And much less are other Doctrins by inference drawn from them to be esteemed Points of Catholic Faith but only Opinions of particular Divines which do not oblige to Assent Prot. This ought in reason to be acknowleged §. 57. 3. Cath. My third and last Request is That when your Tempters shall tell you that the Catholic Church teaches Dostrins contrary to Scripture you would acknowledge that unless such a pretended Contrariety can be evidently demonstrated to you you ought not for that cause to forsake the Churches Communion For undoubtedly where her Doctrines seem only probably contrary to some Text of Scripture her Authority is such as to oblige you to belive that her Sence ought to be preferred before that of her Enemies who are desstitute of all Authority And it would be madness to transgress the necessary Duty of peaceful Obedience and of avoiding Schism upon a probable hope of finding some Truths elsewhere Prot. Reason requires that this also be granted §. 58. Cath. These concessions therefore being presupposed give me leave to put you in mind of what you said at the entrance into this our Discourse viz. That this may be with full assurance asserted that you cannot assent to any of those Doctrines taught by the Roman Church and rejected by your Party without rendering your self guilty of apparent contradicting Scripture Prot. I remember this well but how will you disprove me Cath. If this Perswasion of yours were well grounded it would be not only in vain but unlawful for me to seek to withdraw you from it But being on the other side assured that what you say is apparent is only so in a false appearance to your mind prepossessed I hope I may without vanity promise to demonstrate to you that you only think an this without Ground that you are assured Prot. You make large Promises to your self which I believe will have small effect upon me Cath. Sir Truth and a Good intention make me confident that Divine Grace which is Omnipotent will accompany them Whereas therefore you say That Roman Doctrines are apparently or evidently contrary
be admitted in France the Pope not only knowing but expresly allowing such refusal as appears by the Bull of Pope Clement the eight sent to King Henry the fourth at his reception into the Church and recited by Cardinal Perron in his Epistles in which Bull we find this Clause His Majesty shall effectually take order that the Council of Trent he published and admitted in all things Excepting only at your must earnest Supplication and Petition those things if there be any such which cannot be put in execution without a real disturbance of public tranquility The King of Spain likewise though believed to be more complyant with the Court of Rome being sollicited by the Pope to publish and admit the same Council in his Belgick Provinces though he willingly yielded thereto yet he did it not without this additional Clause adjoyned Touching the Regalities Rights Prerogatives and Preeminences of his Majesty his Vassals Estates and Subjects the Laycal Iurisdiction hitherto used the Right of Lay-Patronage the Right of Nomination Hearing of causes in the possessory matter of Benefices Tithes possessed or pretended to by Seculars c. in regard of all such things his Majesties Intention is that proceedings shall go on as hitherto they have done without changing any thing at all c. So necessarily scrupulous are Christian Princes to prevent the least diminution of their Temporal Rights and Priviledges More lately likewise when certain Authors of one Order published several Treatises in which they endeavoured to exalt to the height the Popes Iurisdiction Universal in Temporal affairs those Books were censured and condemned by many Catholic Universities and committed to the fire by Public Authority the Pope not being ignorant hereof And moreover which perhaps is yet more considerable the Superior General of the said Religious Order even in Rome it self published an Edict known to all Christendom by which he strictly forbad his Subjects under most heavy Censures to maintain such a Temporal Iurisdiction of the Pope either in Books Sermons or Disputations Now that which makes this so solemn a Prohibition of more weight is this that whereas the foresaid Authors earnestly contended to prove that all Christians were obliged to believe the Popes Right to such Authority as an Article of our Christian Faith the said General by publishing his Prohibitory Edict clearly shewed that he renounced the Belief of such a Doctrine For otherwise Who but a◠Antichrist would so severely under a penalty of Excommunication forbid the teaching or defending an Article of Faith And moreover in a General Chapter not long after assembled the said Prohibition was ratified by all Superiors of the same Order as their own Writers testifie Prot. I must needs confess that Christian Princes and Subjects too are much beholding to that Worthy General for his prudence and zeal to prevent occasions of tumults and Seditions Notwithstanding it seems to me that Princes are not yet secure for though the said Doctrine should cease to be esteemed an Article of Faith why may it not be defended as an Opinion at least Speculatively probable and if so a slender Probability will have force but too great to raise and foment Rebellions when discontents are multiplied among the people §. 66. Cath. You are much deceived Sir For besides that you may be sure that Princes will never permit their Authority to be rendred questionable the very pretending such a Doctrine to be only Probable is equivalently to grant that it is no Authority at all Since every one knows that a meer probable Title against a long established possession such as is that of Princes for their Temporal Soveraignty is in Law and Reason accounted no Title and consequently none who have any sence of Christianity will ever seek with the horrible Scandal of Religion to instill such a manifestly unjust incentive to Rebellion into the minds of Christians And now Sir I beseech you to consider things seriously and then judg with what injustice and cruelty our whole Religion and Church is condemned as teaching Treason and Rebellion and this only for a few private mens Writings so generally abhorred by our selves Prot. All I can say hereto is that for as much as concerns my self I will be no longer an accuser of your Church in this matter Proceed therefore if you please to the other following Points 4. Of the Real Presence and Transubstantiation §. 67. Cath. The next Point of Catholic Doctrine opposed by all Sectaries regards the Holy Eucharist Their rage against the former is indeed greater because interest is more concerned in it but a greater advantage for seducing the ignorant people they make of this because they permit them to judg of this most dreadful Mystery by their outward Senses which Catholics instructed by Holy Fathers tell them are not to be believed here In the Eucharist the first matter of Dispute and ground of the rest is the Catholic Doctrine touching the Real Presence of our Lords Body on the Altar after Consecration of the Symbole thus declared in the Council of Trent I prosess that in the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is present truly and substantially the Body and the Blood together with the Soul and Divinity of our Lord Iesus Christ And that there is made a Conversion of the whole Substance of the Bread into his Body and of the whole substance of the Wine into his Blood Which Conversion the Catholic Church calls Transubstantiation This Article of our Belief is to us solidly established on the Words of Institution THIS IS MY BODY which Words without any figurative explication are repeated alike by three Evangelists and the Apostle Saint Paul therefore we believe following universal Tradition that our Lord sincerely meant as he spake and because we believe so we are hated Prot. But how can you expect that we should assent hereto since our Senses contradict it §. 68. Cath. You cannot say however that our Senses are deceived for in this great Mystery they have a right perception of their proper Objects to wit Colour Extention Figure c. Neither I suppose will you say that the judgment which Reason from the Senses collects is always infallible For if so then for example our Saviour whilst living on earth should have been judged a meer Man And the Angels appearing to Lot and his daughters no Angels but meer men for so would Reason relying on the outward Senses have judged Prot. in these examples Divine Revelation expresly teaches the contrary Cath. Then if in the present case you were assured by Divine Revelation that God by a supernatural Power did on the Priests consecrating the Symbols produce a real Change of the Outward Elements into the Body and Blood of Christ you would believe God against your Senses Prot. I should no doubt §. 69. Cath. Can you have a greater assurance hereof then the express Words of Christ literally understood by the Constant Tradition of all Churches in all ages Prot. Such an assurance
thoughts to justify his Church by the Marks of Unity Antiquity Succession Universality c. nor does he pretend that his Church has any Authority from Christ to oblige him to believe her rather then any Fanatic Congregations for she her self will not suffer him to say so What does he then Truly he leaves his Church in a desperately forlorn condition he never thinks of her though she be the only subject of the Question but diverts his fancy to spy out faults and errors elsewhere comforting himself with a perswasion that he has found them though perhaps he be not able to penetrate into or truly state one Point of Controversie And this illogical Method Sir you have observed in this Discourse and as illogical as it is I am confident you cannot mend it for doubtless if you could have furnished your self out of your Anti-catholick Writers or if your self could invent any specious Arguments to recommend to any mans liking or esteem the Church of which you profess your self a Member you would not have neglected the doing it you would not have been quite silent in the only matter which you were concerned to prove Now Sir I am not desirous to take advantage against you from your past Method of proceeding Take your own time to think better of it and if it be your pleasure that we may have a third Meeting I shall willingly expect a direct Answer to my Question Why are you still a Protestant Prot. I will through Gods Grace seriously think on this and I will either provide a satisfactory Answer as you require or give you leave to conclude that my eyes are opened to see the true Catholic Church of which I will live and dye a faithful Member §. 110. Cath. Gods Holy Spirit direct you And be pleased to take this Admonition with you That unless you can find out a way to demonstrate the Protestant Church in whose Communion you have hitherto lived to be a true Member incorporated into that Catholic Church which unless the Creed be false had a being before Protestancy was heard of and so continues the same your Soul is in evident danger unless you forsake her It will necessarily follow also except such a Demonstration can be produced that without further examination all those special Doctrines which you have hitherto triumphed in as Christian Verities are certainly illusions and errours because not professed in the same Catholic Church which alone is the Pillar and Ground of Truth and whose Teaching whosoever will not hear and believe is by our Saviours sentence to be esteemed as a Heathen and Publican §. 111. And indeed to deal plainly with you it was more then you could justly challenge in the present occasion that I should have the compliance so far as to attend unto the charges and accusations laid by you against the special Doctrins of the Catholic Church for such accusations could have no place in an Answer to be made to the Question proposed in the beginning Indeed if I had now as may be done another time precisely imputed Heresie to you it might have been proper for you to justifie your particular Tenents and also to recrimimnate But it was only the Crime of Schism that I laid to the Charge of Protestant Churches and therefore asked you the Question Why are you a Protestant Now to this Question thus intended no Answer can be proper but such an one by which you shall endeavour to demonstrate that the Protestant Church in whose Communion you live is not Schismatical that it is not divided from the Catholic Church which never did nor ever shall fail and that it has all the Marks which declare a Church to be Catholic This you have not done and no wonder Since you can find no help for such a purpose from any of your Writers And yet till that can be done all other Disputes are to no purpose neither can Catholics be obliged to engage themselves in them or if they do so it is only to shew you that being evidently and confessedly Schismatics you are also Heretics §. 112. Now Sir Since I am assured you will find it utterly impossible for you this way to excuse any of your lately erected Churches from the guilt of Schism if still notwithstanding you will resolve to persist divided from that Catholic Church which has been deserted by them all my fear is that for the stupifying of your Conscience you will think it necessary to make use of that lately so cryed up Socinian Opiat I mean that desperate Principle That Schism is one of those Theological Scar-crows with which those who hold a party in Religion use to fright away such as making onquiry into it are ready to relinquish and oppose it if it either appear erroneous or suspicious Whereas whosoever shall with a true and unpretended Conscience perswade himself or but suspect that the Church requires a Profession of false Doctrins or conformity to unlawful Practises and of this each particular person must be the Iudge in sâ—ch a case he not only may but is obliged to separate from the Church and by such Separation not he but the Church is guilty of Schism Now Sir is not this Prinoiple a Preservative of soveraign virtue against all remorse of Conscience for Schism or Heresie Prot. But what would you have a man so perswaded or so suspecting Errours and Misdemeanors to be in the Church to do Cath. I readily enough grant that in such a Case the man must neither profess nor do any thing against his present conscience And consequently I do not say he must separate but if the Church for his obstinate disobedience shall cast him out he must be patient But the truth is his case is deplorable for every way he is exposed to extreamest danger If he conforms against Conscience he sins mortally by damnable Hypocrisie If he refuses to conform that is to submit his private perswasion or Suspicion to the Teaching of the Church I mean the Catholic Church his sin is yet more heynous being a rebellious Disobedience to the highest and most Divinely established Authority upon Earth from the guilt of which Disobedience no dictates of consoience how unpretended soever can acquit him Otherwise none but false Hypocrites and subtle pretenders of conscience can be guilty either of Schism or Heresie yea the prouder menace the more self-conceited of their own judgments and more addicted to entertain suspition and contempt of their Superiors the more innocent they shall be So that a full perswasion or it seems but suspition that any Heretical Doctrines are Orthodox will excuse all Heretics even the most blasphemous from all guilt and danger and moreover at the end of the account the Governours and lawful Teachers appointed by God in his Church in case the excommunicate such Orthodox Hereticks must alone be esteemed Heretics and Schismatics only for teaching Truth and doing their Duty §. 114. Indeed if he who called Schism a