Duke d'Alva did in a short time cut down Thirty six thousand Answ Grotius was an eminent Man for several things but not renowned for his Skill in Arithmetick I have heard from one well acquainted with him that he could not count Ten that he knew not the ordinary currant Mony of his Country that when he escaped out of Prison he had like to have been discovered by a Ferry-man by that ignorance he was so noted for it So I should not wonder that he were mistaken in his Calculation of so many thousands Secondly It is probable he reckons into the number of those butchered such as perished in the Boors War in Germany and Wars of the Low-Countries whose Death must be put to the Account of their Rebellion not to that of Religion Thirdly he writ in favor and defence of the States Cause to whose vindication it was necessary that the Motives of their taking Arms against their Sovereign should be aggravated to the utmost We all remember the infamous Inscription put over the Niche where the Statue of the late King of Happy Memory stood All the World knows that without any disparagement to the rest There never before had been a King who less deserved such a Title yet no doubt had that usurped Government continued Stories would have been invented to prove it and those concerned in the Rebellion would have believed them as you do Grotius Lastly Suppose all Grotius says true it follows only that it was the Misfortune of those great Princes to have many Offenders in that kind in their time provoke the Sword of Justice As if in England a Spirit of Thieving should spread it self amongst the People for which in the time of the best of Kings many suffer yet without reflecting on the Honor of the King or Equity of the Laws These are not Crimes of the Government but Misfortunes for which Princes are to be pitied not reproched with them CHAP. XXVIII Zeal of Souls in our Bishops And concerning Reformers Where of S. Cyran Arnaud and Jansenius G. B. p. 111. WHAT do Popes about Feeding of Souls When do they Preach the Gospel or Dispence the Sacraments Answ They do it daily by all those Persons who by Authority derived from them do it As our Kings Administer Justice by their Judges And did you enquire of those who have been at Rome you would hear that Popes do Administer Sacraments in Person Ibidem Cardinals Bishops and Abbots imitate their Holy Father abandoning wholly the Work of the Gospel Answ You cannot discover better who is your Master and what a Proficient you are in his School than by venting such palpable Untruths Cardinal Barbarin Dean of the Sacred Colledge hath been known to accompany many times Malefactors to the Gallows heard their Confessions moved them to a detestation of the Sins which brought them to that Punishment raised them up to hopes of pardon thrô the Merits of our Blessed Saviour and comfort them with hopes of a happy Life after that tragical end of this I name him in particular because he is known to many of our Nation who have and do acknowledge his Civility to them althô of a different Persuasion In time of the great Plague under Alexander VII he visited in Person Places Infected enquired after the Wants informed of the Diligence of the Officers appointed for the Relief of the Sick and provided according as Occasions required both for Soul and Body S. Charles Borromeus a Cardinal and Archbishop gave so great Examples of Pastoral Vigilancy and Apostolical Zeal that none of our Reformed Prelates ever will imitate them Your Confidence is admirable in relating such evident Untruths which all who have seen France or Flanders can contradict Enquire of the Life of the present Lord Bishop of Gant of several in France and if you have one ounce of good Blood in your Body some of it will appear on your Face G. B. pag. 112. I deny not but even these last Ages have produced great Men amongst the Papists who seem to have designed the reviving of the ancient Discipline both among the Clergy and the People But as these Instances are rare so they were hated and persecuted witness Arnaud 's Book of the frequent Communion Jansenius and S. Cyran Answ There is no Pretence more dangerous or even fatal both to Church and State than that of Reforming Abuses and Reviving antiquated Laws which serves every Pragmatical Head assoon as he hath read the ancient Statutes or Canons thô he understands the Sense of neither to detract from the present Government and if by meeting others as rash as himself he is enabled for such a Work to endeavor the change of it under the specious Pretext of Reformation You must own the truth of this unless you will justifie the late Rebellion in England which was begun carried on and finished under that Colour The Opinions Men are as different as their Faces scarce ever two alike Education Diet Company Friends Business and other extrinsick Occasions alter our Judgment of things many more have influence on our Judgment of Governments but most of all Love and Hatred have an imperceptible yet unresistible force over our Understanding so that one and the same Action will to one seem to deserve a Panegyrick which to another shall be the Subject of a Satyr meerly because they are variously affected to the Person who acts Some in fine are so wayward humorsom and peevish as to be displeased with whatever is done by others who can agree with no body not because every body gives but because they take from every body occasions of offences It is a great error to think that every one who blames another hath reason for it No Man ever was so holy so persect so wise as to satisfie every body and find no Momus who blamed him S. Paul was held a Blasphemer and an Enemy not only to the Ephesian Diana Act. 9. but also to the Temple of Jerusalem Act. 24. What less guilty than the Apostles yet some thought to do God good service in killing them Joh. 16.2 What more innocent than Jesus newly born yet he was forced to a Flight to save his Life Mat. 2.13 What less reprehensible than his Doctrin his Manners his Miracles his Person yet his Doctrin hath been accused of Blasphemy Mat. 26.65 his Manners of Gluttony Mat. 11.19 his Miracles of Magick Luc. 11.15 and his Person of being beside himself Mar. 3.31 None ever had a Mission from Heaven with more convincing Proofs of Miracles than Moses and Christ yet both had their Schismaticks Moses not only Core and his Fellows but also Aaron and Mary and Christ had the Capharnaits Scribes and Pharisees and one of his Apostles And if we do not shut our Ears we shall hear God himself by horrid Blasphemies censured for bad Governing the World and even for not Creating it well Man by a presumptuous Folly preferring his own dim Lights before the inaccessible Light of God
word of the love of God which is the main design of it you speak of Purity Ingenuity Patience Generosity and something of the love of our Neighbour but why are you silent of the Love of God which gives Vertue to all the rest which without it avail us nothing (a) 1 Cor. 13. how perfect soever they be in their kind Do you intend to make that fall under the Notion of Antichristianism as being with you no part of the Designs of Christianity I shall expect a satisfactory Answer to these Doubts and proceed to CHAP. IV. G. B. His Explication of the Designs of Christianity G. B. Pag. 4. THe first Design of Christian Religion is to give us right apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God. Pag. The second branch is to hold forth the method of Mans Reconciliation with his Maker You mean that the intent of Christian Religion is to teach us that there is One God and One Mediator which are Objects of our Faith. Pag. 7. The third is to teach the perfectest clearest and most Divine Rules for advancing of the Souls of Men to the highest perfections of their Natures it giving clearer Rules and fuller Directions than either moral Philosophers or the Old Testament The Lessons of Purity Chastity Ingenuity Humility Meekness Patience and Generosity Not one word of Charity but Generosity I know not whence comes in to take its place Pag. 8. The fourth to unite Mankind in the closest Bonds of Peace Friendship and Charity which it doth tempering our Passions forgiving Injuries loving our Enemies teaching Obedience to those in Authority over us and by associating us into one Body call'd the Church Answer This is indeed a Design worthy of Christian Religion but imperfectly explicated by you seeing you omit the love of God the God (a) 2 Cor. 1.24 of Peace who alone can give us perfect Peace Humane Wills are naturally opposite to one another they cannot meet but in their natural center God. And the Love of our Neighbor is never sincere and lasting but when it is grounded on the Love of God. The first effect of Self-love is to separate us from God. The second to divide us among our selves Both are the effects of Sin and nothing can prevent them and link us together in the Bonds of Charity but he who can remit Sins That Peace then which Christian Religion teaches which the Church recommends to her Children which in her Prayers she demands of God is not an effect of humane industry but of Grace It proceeds from the Mercy of God it is a sequel of Purity of Conscience and the Crown of real and true Justice In fine it is the work of the unspotted Lamb (a) 1 Pet. 1.19 at whose Birth (b) Luk. 2.14 Peace was announced in his Name to the World by the Angels who left Peace (c) Jo. 14.27 as a Legacy to his Disciples before his Death and who was sacrificed on the Altar of the Cross to reconcile us to his Heavenly Father and restore Peace betwixt Heaven and Earth which the Sin and Rebellion of Men had banisht You see Sir how insufficient your Explication of Peace is for the end you propose You leave out the chief and most necessary Ingredient for purging our Dissentions and to use a Prophets Comparison (d) Ezech. c. 13.10 you build with untempered Mortar You (e) Jerem. 6.14 heal the hurt of the people slightly saying Peace Peace when there is no Peace You hint indeed at a good humane means to Peace Obedience to those in Authority It was to prevent Schism (f) Inter Apostolos unus eligitur ut capite constituto schismatis tolleretur occasio Hieron l. 1. adversus Vigilantium c. 14. that God establish'd one Apostle over the rest But your endless Divisions and Subdivisions amongst your selves shew how inefficacious this means is in your Reformation And how can it be otherwise when all your People have before their Eyes the Example of your first Patriarkes who began your Reformation by rejecting all Authority over them and breaking the Rules of Divine Worship setled all over the World and till that time acknowledged by themselves Cur non licebit Valentiniano quod licuit Valentino de arbitrio suo fidem innovare Tert. l. de praescript c. 40. p. 338. Why may not not a Lutheran do what was lawful to Luther Your first Reformers rejected some Articles of Faith then universally believed because they seemed not to be contain'd in Scripture why may not the same motive authorise their Followers to reject some others which you would retain altho they are as little to be found in Scriptures Why may not a modern Protestant retrench some unnecessary Ceremony used by you at present seeing you have cut off so many others Let others live by that law which you publish think not so highly of your own Authority as to make your Dictamens not only the Rule of Actions but of the Laws themselves It shall be lawful to dissent from this Article of Faith but not from that other to quit this Ceremony and not that when the same rule is applicable to both Is not this properly (a) 2 Cor. 1.24 To lord it over the Faith of the People What wonder you find your Laity refractory to your Ordinances They are in this directed by your Rule and encouraged by your Example Wherefore look no where abroad for the root of these tares Your Reformers planted them they laid the Egg out of which this Cockatrice is hatched They eat the sower Grapes which set all your Teeth an Edge Neither appears there any possibility of a Remedy while your Reformation subsists this Principle of Discord and Schism being laid in its very Foundation and consequently it cannot be removed without the ruine of the whole Structure nor retained without perpetual Danger of renting it in pieces I wish these troublesome Schisms and endless Discords amongst your selves may make you seek a proper Remedy by a Reunion to the Center of Union God and his Church CHAP. V. Of the Characters of Christian Doctrin G. B. P. 8. I Shall add to this the main distinguishing Characters of our Religion which are Four. Pag. 8. First its Verity Pag. 10. The Second its genuine Simplicity and Perspicuity The Third its Reasonableness and the Fourth its easiness Thus you Answer Are these the only or even the chief Characters of Divine Truths whether you take them as they are delivered in holy Writ or as taught in the Church Can you find no other quality peculiar to them not common to others Then human Learning may equal if not surpass Divine Take for Example some Principles naturally known as Two and two make four or The whole Body is greater than any part of it These are true it is impossible they should be false they are perspicuous and easie no Man can doubt of them who understands the terms They are reasonable For what more reasonable than
indeed commanded to write to himself a copy of the Law out of that which was before the Priests the Levits By which it appears that even Copies of the Law were not so ordinary Which may be gathered also out of 4 Kings c. 22. there was such Astonishment at the finding and reading of the Book of the Law newly found in the Temple The Ten Commandments were common the Pharisees Phylacteries prove it As for the rest it was divided into Parashots Sections and read unto the People when they met on the Sabbath as you may see Acts 15.21 And in the Second of Esdras cap. 8. And the same Custome is still in the Catholic Church which in her Service doth dayly read some of the New and Old Testament G. B. Pag. 14. What pains are taken by Papists to detract from the Authority of Scriptures how they quarrel its Darkness its Ambiguousness the Genuineness of its Originals Answer This is a Calumny We all unanimously own Scripture to be the Word of God that no Untruth can be found in it Out of its Darkness and Ambiguity we shew the necessity of receiving its Sense from Tradition and not sticking to the bare Letter of the Scripture without the Sense which is to the Letter what a Soul is to the Body G. B. Pag. 15. We complain of Scripture being two much perused Answer Another Calumny In all our Universities we have Masters of Scriptures who in those I know take place of those even of Divinity Which shews the esteem we make of that study G. B. Pag. 15. Let as little of it be in Vulgar Tongues as can be Answer A Third Calumny It is all in English translated by the Rhemish and Doway Colleges and in French by the Doctors of Lovain And as for the New Testament it is publish'd in French by Rene Benoit Brulot Villeloin and Amelot Besides other Editions less noted And if there hath been no new Translation in English it is not for any Decrees forbidding it but because that first Translation is liked in gross and if any thing be defective as is unavoidable in all Works of Men it is not considerable and the like or worse may be fear'd in another G. B. Pag. 19. We read it publickly in an unknown Tongue in Latin. Answer If this proves our Dislike of the Scriptures it will likewise prove our Dislike of Councils and Popes Bulls which you say we prefer before Scriptures seeing these were never extant in any Vulgar Language Latin cannot truly absolutely be call'd An unknown Tongue in the Latin Church seeing it is the Language of her Schools of her Public Service of her Laws of her Tribunals of her Councils and in many places as in Polony and higher and lower Germany of almost every particular person where very ordinarily even Carters and Watermen speak it And as for Spaniards and Italians with little application they understand it by reason of the Affinity betwixt their own and the Latin Tongue So English cannot absolutely be said to be an unknown Tongue in Wales and Ireland tho' in both there are several who understand it not If this be not a sufficient Vindication of our Church how will you excuse your own from the same Fault which never translated the Scripture into Irish but uses English in Ireland even where there are many thousands who understand it as little as Latin is understood by any Catholic G. B. Pag. 15. We permit no private person the use of it without Allowance from his Confessor Answer A Fourth Calumny In Latin Greek or Hebrew it is universally permitted to all In France no Body scruples at the reading of it in French provided the Editions be approved Your Brethren there could have informed you better seeing they have had the Confusion to see their Ministers mouths stopt by Cutlers and Shoemakers out of their own Bible which could not be had they not read it If the Opinion of a Confessor be demanded it is to know the Disposition of the person who desires it whether it be such as good may be hoped from that reading All Food is designed by Almighty God for the use of Man yet without any Injury to the Patient a Physitian may forbid him the use of some which would nourish peccant Humors So Scriptures are designed for our Instruction unto Piety to God and Peace to our Neighbors If any mans mind be possest with Opinions contrary to both and these Opinions controul all Instruction given him so as all serve only to confirm him in his impiety and turbulent Humor would you not advise him a Diet from such strong Food as Scripture For Example lately a great part of the Commonalty of our Nation was so posest with a Spirit of Rebellion against Ecclesiastical and Civil Government that altho there be scarce any thing more recommended in holy Writ than Obedience to Prelate and Prince yet they thought the whole Drift of Scripture abetted their Treason not that any such thing was to be found in Scripture but that they fancied it there as Men fancy that the Bells speak articulate Words In that conjuncture what Advice would you give to an Ignorant Man to be satisfied with Books of Devotion and Instructions drawn from Scripture which might keep him humble and peaceable or to continue reading the Scriptures which he thought preached Sedition and from which through his bad Disposition he was confirmed in his Rebellions and Antichristan Courses Another motive why the Confessors Advice is demanded is that he might instruct Men how to Read and reap Benefit from the Reading To Read with the Humility of a Scholer not the Presumption of a Master to make rather a Prayer than a Study of it To resolve to practise what they understand and adore God for what they understand not So that whether they do or do not comprehend what they read they glorifie God in all and grow in Vertue After such Instructions apply'd to the Condition of every one the Benefit will be much greater and the danger of ill using it much diminished CHAP. VII A Digression touching the Idolatry of the Pagans ill represented by E. S. D. D. THis matter is as clear in it self as any antiquated Rights can be all Men are possest with an Opinion that as the word imports the deluded Nations did Adore Idols as their Gods. S. Austin l. 20. contra Faust c. 20. having said that Latria was the Worship given to God alone as he is distinguished from all his Creatures how holy soever he says Ad hunc cultum pertinet oblatio Sacrificii unde Idololatria dicitur eorum qui hoc Sacrificium etiam Idolis offerunt That to offer Sacrifice is an Act of Latria whence those are called Idolaters who offer it to Idols This seems clear yet our modern Protestants to make good the Charge of Idolatry against the present Cath. Church raise a great Mist before their Readers Eyes and misrepresent Idolatry in such colours as may afterwards
a vulgar Language do you think the Church obliged presently to change her Service If you do shew me the ground of that Obligation If you can shew no Command for such a perpetual Change in the Liturgy Condemn our Church no more for not doing what you cannot shew she is bound to do G. B. pag. 30. Shall I here tell of the charming of Water of Salt of Waxcandles of Roses Agnus Dei's Medals and the like Answer It is not easie to conjecture what you blame in these things nor for what reason unless it be that Papists use them and that is enough to draw your Censure Do the things themselves displease you They are the Creatures of God and all creatures of God are good 1 Tim. 4.4 and nothing ought to be rejected which is received with thanksgiving as I assure you Papists use those things Or are you offended that they are bless'd That is unreasonable seeing that gives a kind of Sanctity to them They are sanctified by the word of God and by Prayer says S. Paul in the place above cited So that I think the practice of blessing several things comes from Apostolical Tradition and that it is grounded on that Text of S. Paul. And I desire you to fix the time when you think they began and I am perswaded I can shew them to be ancienter then any time since the Two first Ages determinable if not all yet some of them so as by those which can be shewed from the beginning the rest by lawful consequence may be deduc'd as not unlawful or Enchantments See Baronius ad an D. 57 58. and 132. in which places he shews the use of them to be so ancient that if you pretend those Blessings to be Popery you must own the purest Antiquity to be Papist And as for Water blest by holy men it is so far from being a diabolical Charm that it is an efficacious Remedy against Charms of the Devil You will find the vertue of it confirmed by miracles in Epiph. haer 30. When it was used by Josephus a Count under Constantine the great In S. Hierome in vita Hilarionis that this Saint by the use of it destroyed the Charms of Marnas or Jupiter adored at Gaza In Theodoret. l. 5. Hist c. 21. that S. Marcellus Bishop of Apamea with it chaced away Jupiter Apamenus who hindred the burning of his Temple And in Bede l. 1. Hist Angl. c. 17. that S. Jerman Bishop of Auxerre with it allayed a Tempest Which you may see in Baron ad an D. 132. what will you say to those things As the Pharisees that all this was done in the Divels name That you cannot for then you must own that one Divel cast out another and his kingdom is divided which is by our Saviour press'd against the Pharisees as absurd and incredible and consequently cannot be said by a Christian Nay altho you deny all credit to these holy and learned Men which in a matter of fact is in a manner impudent yet will you not be quit of this Argument for at least these Fathers thought Water so blest a fit instrument to work those stupendious works otherwise they would never have believed those stories neither would they have related them without believing them Hence you may see how different your Faith is from theirs who think that a Charm which they judged a Divine Blessing CHAP. XII Of Ceremonies G. B. p. 34. THE Sacramental Actions are polluted by the superfetation of so many new Rites whereby they are wholly changed from their original Simplicity Answer You can alledge nothing against our Rites or Ceremonies but will serve as well against your own and what you can say in defence of yours against Presbyterians will fully satisfie your Argument against ours It is a great folly to look on Ceremonies as an essential part of our Worship and it is as great to deny that when they are decent and significant they are great helps to it Men are composed of Body and Soul with both we must serve God and each is an help to the other when they concur to worship him The Body can do nothing without the Soul and all its Worship is meer hypocrisie and not worthy of acceptation and dead unless it be quickened by interiour Faith and Charity which flow from the Soul. And this Devotion soon grows cold if it be not entertain'd with exterior Objects and revived by sensible Actions which fix the Imaginative faculty on the Acts of Religion in hand and move the Will both of him who Officiates and of the Assistants to dispositions proportionable to the Rite by a certain Sympathy betwixt our Soul and Body the Soul feeling an inward veneration for God to express it inclines the Body to Kneeling Prostrations or the like and these increase the interiour Veneration when duly and devoutly made This is the sence of mankind for there never was any People who met to honour either God or Prince but had some settled Ceremonies with which they express'd exteriourly their Submission to them The French Hugonots pared off those they found in the Roman Church as superstitious and the most Learned and Religious of that Communion wish their worship were adorned with some Rites whose want they lament as being an undecent nakedness and an occasion of much Irreligion and disrespectfulness in giving and receiving the Sacraments themselves I believe did you pursue the Prophaneness so common in England to its head you will find your want and neglect of Religious Ceremonies to be the fountain of it In your Vindication of the Laws pag. 170. you say the Church hath power to determin of things that may be done in a variety of ways into one particular Form such as prescribing a set Form of Worship the ordering the posture in Sacraments the Habits in Worship c. Which will hedg in what you reject as well as what you retain G. B. pag. 34. In Baptism instead of washing with Water in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost they have added many adulterated Rites Answer These words signifie an Abrogation of Washing with Water and a substitution of other Rites in lien of it which is so far from Truth and so black a Calumny that I wonder you could advance it or your Church permit it especially seeing the guilt falls on her for not baptizing those who fall from us to you as she ought to do if we omit washing in the Name which is the essential part of the Sacrament But you speak against Popery and that is enough to justifie all untruths and get a licence for any Calumny as appears by this very Passage G. B. pag. 34. The Child must be blown upon then a Charm used for turning the Devil out of him Answer Blowing upon the Child and exorcising it were practised in the purest times You will find them in Cyril of Hierus (a) Catech. 1. Ambrose (b) l. 1. de Sac. c. 5. Leo (c) Epist 4.
the Cross Do this in memory of me As for the joint Communion it can only be a secondary Intention of the Institution the first and chief being our union with Christ out of which flows the second our union amongst our selves As Lines in a Circle meet in the Center and so knit together CHAP. XX. Regal Office of Christ where of Transubstantiation Dispensing in Vows e. G. B. p. 66. I Advance to the opposition made to the Regal Office of Christ And first How far is it from his Glory in Heaven to believe that five words muttered by a Priest should put him under the Elements This is a new kind of Humiliation Answ You are very much mistaken if you think Humiliations inconsistent with the Regal Office of Christ (a) Heb. 1.7 When God brought his first-begotten into the world he said And let all the Angels of God worship him Yet he was then humbled to the condition of a Man a private obscure Man and even below it Psal 21.7 Opprobrium hominum abjectio plebis Certainly there is more shew of Majesty as he is placed on our Altars enrironed with Lights adored by the People Prelates and Princes the greatest Monarchs laying their Crowns and the greatest Bishops their Crosiers and Miters at his Feet than as he was in the little Cottage of his reputed Father a Carpenter picking Chips at his Mothers command or following his Father's Trade to get a Subsistence known to none regarded by none slighted by all as is ordinary to Men of that humble Calling And what shall I say of the Death of the Cross when his very Disciples disowned him G. B. pag. 67. What low thoughts of his Person must it breed in such Minds as are capable of believing this Contrivance Answ You speak like a Pagan to whom the Cross of Christ is folly 1 Cor. 1.23 rather than like a Christian to whom Christ crucified that is under the greatest Humiliation is the vertue and wisdom of God. We who have learnt to look on him as God blessed for evermore even when on the Cross and dying we can take out of all his Humiliations occasion to admire his Love and adore his Goodness to us but not to disesteem his Person or diminish our thoughts of his Majesty And let me tell you you are the first Christian I know of who ever made such Unchristian Reflections on the Humiliations of the Son of God. G. B. pag. 67 68 69 70. In these you charge us with three Crimes 1. With adding to the Laws of Christ 2. Dispensing with the Laws of God. And 3. Commanding things indifferent contrary to Christian Liberty I answer to the First and Third the Apostles did the same Acts 15.29 forbidding strangled Meat and Blood which were things indifferent and not forbidden by the Law of Christ And as to your Objection that this intrenches upon Christian Liberty I Answer out of a Person very dear to you even your self in your Vindication Confer 2. p. 172. Christian Liberty is stated in an Exemption from the Laws of Moses Shew that we impose the Law of Moses and you will say something to the purpose to our entrenching upon Christian Liberty As for Dispensing in Divine Laws when you prove what you object I will consider what to answer Your Instances are not sufficient For first as for Dispensing of Vows there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them as in Laws which is an Interpretation of some Circumstances in which they do not oblige For Example a Man vows to fast next Lent with Bread and Water and before that time falls sick and continues so why may not the Church declare his Vow not to oblige or change it into something else Item he vows a Pilgrimage and his Wife Family and Affairs require his presence at home If this doth not satisfie you call to mind the Proceedings of your first Reformers who opened all Cloisters and dispensed with so many Vows at one time Is it not strange that you should charge us with Dispensing with some Vows when you annul all Secondly Dissolving Wedlock Bond. I know none who practise dissolving consummated Marriages If you do accuse them if you do not ask pardon for this false Accusation Thirdly Allowing Marriages in forbidden Degrees The Degrees hindring Marriage were contained in the Ceremonial Law which expired with Christ the end of that Law. Those which now bind are established by Canon Law which was made and doth depend on the Church Fourthly The Communion under one Kind or The Chalice taken from the People contrary to the Command of Christ You can never prove that Command to all to drink of the Cup. G. B. pag. 71. Another Invasion of the Regal Power is the Pope's pretence to be universal Bishop which is termed by S. Gregory the Great to be Antichristian Answ I know no Pope who pretends to it I know none who give it them If there be any such let them answer for themselves The Popes are so far from pretending to that Title that to this day in our Canon Law it is expresly condemned C. Nullus C. Ecce D. 99. And I challenge you or any Man else to shew me any one Pope who ever required it of others or took it to himself Du-Val a Learned Doctor of Sorbon censures that Title as severely as any Protestant can do who yet is esteemed as great a Favorer of the Papal Grandeur as any of the Faculty of Paris Now I desire you to make good Sense of something you say First pag. 67. Christ hath delivered us from the bondage of corruption How is this done already when the Apostle whose words those are Rom. 8.21 promises it only after the Resurrection Secondly pag. 68. Anathema is the mildest of the Spiritual Censures we thunder against such as comply not with our tyranny What Spiritual Censure is more severe I think that the severest of all as we believe after Tertul. Apolog. cap. 39. pag. 68. Thirdly p. 69. No Authority besides Christ can reach the Conscience S. Paul was of a different opinion when he enjoins Obedience to the Commands of Princes not only for wrath but for Conscience CHAP. XXI Of Love and its two Species Repentance Mortal and Venial Sins Attrition and Contrition G. B. p. 75. I Proceed to the Third Part of my Enquiry which is the opposition made to the great Design of Christian Religion for elevating the Souls of Men into a participation of the Divine Nature Answ I never knew a Man promise more and perform less than you Your Words and Phrases are great and high your Reason and Sense low and little yet that delivered with so much Confidence as may persuade your ignorant and credulous Reader you have Reason on your side when you are to seek in the first Principles of the Matter you Discourse on You may with a homely yet a very proper Metaphor be compared to a Flying Ox whose Wings stretcht out promise a Flight
his Superior Christ Jesus I never heard S. Ambrose suspected of Pride for refusing to admit Theodosius the Great into the Church before his Penance for the Slaughter at Thessalonica or for excluding him the Cancels after it It was a Zeal of the Glory of God and the good of the Church which moved him the Emperor himself understood it so As for precious Ornaments of the Church I will own ours to be too costly when you shall have proved that any thing is too good for God's Service not till then The infinit Majesty of God is ground sufficient to oblige us to bear him the greatest Respect interiorly and express our Duty to our Creator and our Gratitude to so great a Benefactor by returning to him in the best manner we can an Acknowledgment of his most bountiful Gifts This serves also to stir up in the Auditory Submission Respect and Adoration which otherwise would fail CHAP. XXVII Vnity of the Church in Faith and Sacraments G. B. owns that Protestants are Schismatics Of Severity against Dissenters And of Hugo Grotius G. B. p. 100. A Fourth Design of Christian Religion was to unite Mankind under one Head into one Body not by Love and pardoning Injuries only but also by associating the Faithful into one Body the Church which was to be united by Bonds of Love governed by Pastors and Teachers and cemented with the Ligaments of the Sacraments Answ You say something thô disorderly but not all For 1. You omit Faith by which we are inserted into the Body of Christ 2. You put Charity which doth not make us parts but living parts of that Body whose parts we are by Faith. 3. You add Sacraments which are only exterior Signs of interior Communication 4. You confound Charity and Sacraments as equally concurring to the Vnity of the Church yet there is a vast difference betwixt them the one formally quickning the Members of the Church interiorly the other only effecting it interiorly and testifying it exteriorly 5. Betwixt the Sacraments there is a vast difference as to this and you confound them for Baptism being our Regeneration in Christ is an esficient Cause of our Union with him and makes us his Members the others are designed only to nourish those who are already united to and in him When you speak of being Governed by Pastors I hope the Pope may find place amongst them he being the prime Pastor G. B. pag. 101. The Gospel pronounceth us free and no more Servants of Men but of God. Answ Free from the Ceremonial Law of Moses not from that of the Gospel and Obedience to the Governors of the Church How changeable are your Sentiments In the foregoing Page 100 the Church was to be Governed by Pastors and Teachers now she is to obey none but God and if any Man pretend to Command he changeth the Authority of the Church into a tyranical Yoke So we must have Governors without Authority to Command and Subjects without any Duty to Obey A new Model of Government G. B. ibid. Those things for which we withdrew from the Church are Additions to our Faith. She added to Scriptures Tradition to God Images to Christ Saints to Heaven and Hell Purgatory to two Sacraments five more to the Spiritual Presence of Christ his Corporal Presence Ans Never Man spake more and proved less than you who offer not one word in proof of these disputed Points which we declare to be evident untruths Is not this a poor begging of the thing in question But they are say you Additions to your Faith. Did we add to your Faith or you cut off from ours and that of the whole Christian World before your Deformation How could we add those things to your Faith when they were in peaceable possession all over the Christian World as you own your selves many Ages before Protestancy was thought on You have here only one Truth viz. That you withdrew from the Church Which convincingly proves the Guilt of Schism to lie at your Door G. B. pag. 105. If a Society of Christians visibly swerve from Christ so that Communion cannot be retained with it without departing from Christ then the departing from the Corruptions brought in can be no departing from the Church If then it appear that the Roman Church hath departed from the Truth of the Gospel those who separated from her cannot be said to separate from the true Church Answ Here we have a Paralogism which might better become a Junior Sophister than a Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty You will see it in these Instances The Communion of that Church ought to be renounced which obligeth her Children to Mahometism If then the English Protestant Church oblige hers to that her Communion ought to be renounced Another That Man deserves the greatest Contempt who writes Controversie and hath nothing to write but Calumnies and Sophisms If then Mr. G. B. hath nothing else but such stuff to fill his Books with he knows his Deserts What think you Sir of such Arguments which serve only to delude an unwary Reader into an assent of what you would but cannot prove There is no Logician but knows that Conditional Propositions signifie only the Connexion betwixt two things under such a Condition but they assert nothing absolutely unless the Condition be proved For Example If a Man flies he hath Wings If the Heavens fall we shall catch Larks These I say are granted to be true althô the Condition be impossible Yet those who grant them do not expect those Wings to go a Journey nor rely on those Larks for a Supper In like manner suppose we should grant your Conditional Illation yet the Guilt of Schism would lie on your Consciences because you neither do nor can prove the Condition upon which your Excuse relies G. B. pag. 106. The Cruelty of Papists extendeth to as much bloudy and barbarous Rage as ever sprung from Hell. Answ You mean the Laws made against Heretics which being made by the Secular Power and not by Churchmen I think my self not obliged to vindicate them Yet seeing the most severe of them all the Faggot was till of late as I am informed in force in England and hath been actually executed upon some since the Reformation I leave you to answer to our Honorable Judges for your pragmatical Boldness in censuring them so severely Another would take notice of the Laws in force against Papists but I let that pass it is enough to vindicate our Churchmen that they never made those Laws they never condemned any Man by them all they do is to judge of the matter of Fact whether a Person be guilty of Heresie and if they find him so to leave him to the Secular Power This is the most that ever the Inquisition did as far as ever I heard G. B. pag. 108. Grotius says that in Charles the Fifth's time more than One hundred thousand were butchered on the accout of Religion And in his Son Philip 's time the