Baptisme pardoneth it by way of obsignation and solemne conveyance But what is all this to your error that Original sin is not onely remitted but quite extinct or done away out of our natures by Baptisme so that the new baptized Infant is perfectly without any Radical sin as well as without the Guilt of it 4. He saith They say that works do justifie with faith You not Repl. They say that we are not justified by the Merit of Works but by the alone Merit of Christ and so do we We deny not in every sence that we are Justified by Works and not by faith onely for in James his sence we maintain it else we should deny the Scripture The question is not therefore absolutely whether we are Justified by Works but In what sence we are and in what not We say that Christ is the onely Satisfier of Gods Justice and Meriter of Righteousness and that Faith is the onely Receiving Condition and that the Works of the Law that Paul excludeth have no hand in it and that the Works of Grace which James takes in are but conditions without which our Justification begun without them shall not be continued and of our finall Absolution or Justification in Judgement and so are but a Particular and not an Universall or Legall Righteousnesse Of which I have given a full account in my Confession 5. He saith They maintain Freewill even in the best actions You not Repl. Freewill is either 1. Natural which is but its self-determining power with spontaneity and this we deny not For who denyeth man to be man and to have the Facultatem Volendi Or it is 2. Moral and that is 1. Political when a Governor gives the subject leave to do a thing and so we maintain that God giveth our Wills Freedom to all good and to no evil Or 2. Ethical which is nothing but the right inclination and Habits of the will with the absence of the contrary Habits And so we say that the better men are the Freer that is the better are their Wills And the unconverted have not this Freewill nor the converted in perfection till they come to Glory For the Freedom is the Goodness And seeing the Will so far Free Ethically as it is Good Vertuous or Holy the Question then is Whether every mans Will be Good and Holy which I am conceited you will not dare to affirme A covetous man a drunkard â—â— ungodly man is as much or more denominated such from the habite as from the act he is most vicious that is Habitually so To say therefore that such a mans Will is Free in this Ethical sence is to say that he is habitually no covetous man no drunkard no ungodly man no sinner which being contrary to unquestionable experience me thinks should be easily deserted If you know of any thing else called Freewill besides these three before mentioned we should be glad to know it too The natural Essential Freedom viz. A spontaneous self-determining power we all confess The Political Freedome yea and obligation none denyeth The Ethical Freedome that is Vertuous or holy Inclinations in wicked men you will deny your selves where then is the difference between us and either the Greeks or you Why you 'l say perhaps that it s here That we deny the will to have that Indifferency which you affirme as to opposite objects But we are loath to sight with you in the Dark Do you mean by Indifferency an Indifferency of Natural Power or an indifferency of inclination or Habite The first we do not deny The will is a natural faculty that hath naturally no determination to One where many means are propounded but is undetermined and hath a natural Power to determine it self to either But yet you know the Wills Natural Power is exercised according to inclining Objects and Habits And you cannot expect that men who are Habitually inâ—ined earthwards should Will Heavenly things and â—â—nounce earthly things meerly because they have a â—atural Power of choosing for they want that inâ—â—ination which is called commonly the Moral â—ower And I should suppose that in regard of this â—oral Power you will not affirm your selves that he â—ath indifferentiam ad oppositum To say that a mans â—ill is indifferently inclined to Good and to Evil â— to say that the man is habitually neither good nor â—ad unless as privation of due inclinations denomiâ—ate him bad I say the more of this â—ecause I finde others of your party and â—ome that seem to disown both you and us as a late Treatise of Repentance among others can witness â—o harp so much on this string and confusedly talke â—f Freewill before they tell us what they mean and â—o perswade the world that we teach that God hath â—aid such a natural necessity on man to sin as he hath â—o eat and drink and sleep and that God might as well damne men for being hungry or sleepy as for being sinful in our sence As if there were no more faultiness in a vicious disposition of the Will it selfe then in a necessary natural inclination or Appetite of those faculties which were never made to rule themselves but to be moderated by the Will of Reason It may be these men will either deny the truth of the words of the Holy Ghost that They that are accustomed to do evil cannot learn to do well no more then a Leopard can change his spots or a Blackamore his skin or else they will think such men excusable because they are so strongly enclined to evil and so if a man habituated to Lust shall vitiate their wives or a man habituated to malice shall beat them often or maim them or kill their friends they may think that he deserveth 〈◊〉 punishment but pity because he is so bad that 〈◊〉 could not morally that is he would not 〈◊〉 it But they say we teach that mens Wills have a â—â—cessity of sinning imposed on them But we hâ—â—â— learnt that Habites do not determine the Will natâ—â—â—ally nor alway infallibly but leave it free to a â—â—tural self-determination But yet we know that 〈◊〉 ordinarily determineth it self according to predominant habits And there must be somewhat extraâ—â—dinary to procure the Will to determine it self 〈◊〉 good where it is habitually inclined to evil So much may serve to vindicate our Doctrine about Freewill And as for the cause of its captivity it belongs noâ— to this subject to speak of it but to that of Original sin where the said Doctor so notably playes his part to which we shall not now digress The next instance of the Papist is this They iâ—â— the Greeks maintain seven Sacraments you not Repl. 1. This is another very immodest untruth I wonder that men dare venture their souls upon a Religion that must be thus upheld by falshoods Your own Writers before alledged witness that the Greeks deny the very use of confirmation and extreame Unction and how then can they account them Sacraments Nor
of Transubstantiation they feign him to have a body that can neither be seen nor felt nor circumscribed that is in innumerable places at once which is not made of the substance of the blessed Virgin but of bread as wine of that water Joh. 2.9 and which sustaineth the accidents of bread as their subject For they can devise no other subject after the transubstantiation of the bread Whence it follows that they are no more accidents of bread but of Christs body 6. And as to Christs Office they teach that Christ is Mediator onely according to his humane nature 7. They deny Christ to be the onely Mediator of intercession but joyn with him Angels and Saints 8. They teach that we must pray to Saints to intercede for us 9. That we are heard by the Saints suffrages and Merits 10. They deny Christ to be the onely Prophet whose voice onely must be heard spiritual King and Priest of the New Testament But they make the Pope also the chief Prophet and Pastor King and Monarch and Priest Whence it follows that the Pope is not onely opposied to Christ as his adversary but as his Rival 11. And they make other sacrificing Priests also of the New Testament having an external visible Priesthood and that according to the order of Melchizedeck whose office it is to sacrifice Christ again and offer him to his Father 12. That the unchangeable Priesthood of Christ the eternal Priest is made eternal by the succession of such Priests 13. That an Eternal Priesthood requireth an Eternal Sacrifice but is not Eternal unless it be often sacrificed 14. That this Eternal sacrifice can be nothing else but the sacrifice of the mass 15. That Christ who is God over all blessed for ever did merit for himself 16. That Christs merits are not the onely meritorious cause of salvation But they hope to be saved by their own and other mens merits § 5. Of the outward means LEt us now come to the external means to wit Gods Covenant and the administration of the Covenant in the Ministry of the word and Sacraments The Covenant is twofold 1. Of works or the Law 2. Of Grace or the Gospel 1. These two the Papists do almost confound for they plainly make the Gospel a Covenant of works and call it the new Law which prescribes a more perfect obedience then the Law it self for the obtaining of Justification and Salvation 2. That faith is stirred up and so sins forgiven by the preaching of the word they say is a fiction of the Hereticks of our Times 3. That the Sacraments are not seals of the promises or Covenant of God nor instituted to confirm the promise 4. That Circumcision was a seal of the Righteousness of faith onely to Abraham 5. That Sacraments of the new Law do confer grace that makes us acceptable or justifying Grace ex opere operato i. e. upon that very account because the external Sacrament is administred if they put not the Bar of mortal sin 6. That grace is contained in the Sacraments as in a vessel nay that the Sacraments are Physical instrumental causes of Grace and that they do work holiness by a power put into them by God as the heat of the fire is the cause of the burning of the wood 7. That there is necessarily required the intention of the Administrator to the truth of the Sacrament at least of doing what the Church does 8. That there are seven Sacraments of the new Covenant instituted by that neither fewer nor more 9. That in the Sacraments of Baptism Confirmation and Order there is imprinted in the Soul by God a Character or certain spiritual and indeleble sign or marke so that they cannot be reâ—iterated In the other Sacraments there is onely an ornament or dress imprinted instead of a Character or mark 10. That the observation of the Ceremonies which they use in the Administration of Sacraments though invented by themselves through will-worship is mâ—ritorious and part of Divine worship § 6. Of Baptism 1. THat all Infants before are possessed by the Divel 2. They grant a power to women even such as are unbaptized themselves to baptize 3. That Baptism is not only necessary by necessity of precept which we confess but also to be simply necessary to salvation by necessity of means for none can be saved without Baptism 4. That the efficacy of Baptism does not extend it self to the future but onely to that which is past 5. That the laver of Regeneration is not profitable to those that fall after Baptism 6. That there is in Baptism a silent and implicite oath of obedience to the Pope 7. That no sin remaines or is lâ—â—t in the Baptized for sin is wholly taken away by Baptisme not onely so that it is not imputed but â—o as that has no being 8. That Baptisme also does confer grace to the Baptized exopere operato by the work done by which he is truely and formally justified 9. That the Baptism of John was not the same Sacrament nor had it the same force and efficacy with the Baptisme which is instituted by Christ as if Christ were â—ot the Author of Jonh's Baptisme 10. That after the Baptism of John they must needs receive the Baptisme of Christ 11. That the Bells are to be Baptized by the Bishops or Suffragans with a solemn Rite 12. They use and urge some unprofitable and superâ—itious Ceremonies as if they were necessary both before Baptism and after For 1. The Baptized are signed with the sign of the Cross on the forehead on the brest on the eyes on the ears on the nose and on the mouth that all the senses of the body may be guarded with this sign for by vertue of this signe are the Sacraments compleated and the Divels stratagems frustrated 2. They give them hallowed Salt to eat that being seasoned with wisdom they might be free from the stink of sin and may not putrifie again 3. They play the Conjurers about little children as if they were such as were pulled out of the hands of the Divel and they blow the wicked spirit out by their breath That one spirit may be driven out with â—nother 4. They touch their nostrils and ears with spitle saying Ephata be opened 5. They anoint them with consecrated oile in the breast that they may be fortified against the adversary and he may not be able to perswade them unto unclean and hurtful things They anoint them also between the shoulders that they may receive strength to bear the Lords burden After Baptism they anoint the top of the head of him who is newly Baptized with Crisme or Oyle After this sacred Unction they cover his head with a holy veil that he may know himself to enjoy a Kingly and Priestly Diademe They give him a lighted Taper that he may be taught thereby to fulfill
of Scripture but take them and Church customes and constitutions to be onely for matters of order and determination of such circumstances as it belonged not to the perfection of Gods Laws to determine but were to be left to the wisdom of Governors the Scriptures containing sufficient for salvation They believe with the Protestants that Justification is not by the Merit of works And that it is impossible for us properly to Merit ex condigno the least mercy much less the Kingdom of Heaven at the hands of God They have but one order of Monkes viz. of St Basil and those not such as the Papists that live a private unprofitable droanish life but their Monasteries are as Colledges to fit them for the service of God in the Church and thence they oft proceed to be Priests and Prelates They take your Pope to be condemnable for his pride cruelty and presumption his pride for pretending to an universal jurisdiction and usurping a power to depose Princes and dispose of their Crowns his cruelty in persecuting other Christians for their differing judgements and his presumption in granting pardons and deliverances from Purgatory In a word they take the Papists for Schismaticks and aâ—cordingly condemne them with a solemne condemnation The Muscovites and Russians admit not Priests or Deacons to Ordination unless they be marryed and they refuse to communicate with the Romane Church The Egyptian Christians allow not of Baptisme in any necessity whatsoever but onely by the Priest and in the Church and administer the Sacrament of the Eucharist in both kinds they give not the Lords Supper or extream unction to the sick They deny Purgatory and prayer for the dead They marry in the second degree of consanguinity without dispensations They elevate not the host They reject all the general Councels after that of Ephesus They repute the Papists to be Hereticks and avoid their communion no less then of the Jews Most of these â—lso is common to the Abassines who also admit Marriages of Priests and Bishops and eat flesh on Fridayes communicate standing in both kinds Are all these nothing What no one difference with this Popish Veridicus I will not desire him to take my word for all this because I will not take his for the contrary nor will I turn him to any Protestant for satisfaction unless he will better use that one which himself citeth Sands Relation of the West Relig. or Europae Specul p. 234. c. But I may with reason intreat him to believe his own brethren the Papists and the Greeks themselves And in some of them he may see many more differences then I have here named For example in their Possevin de Rebus Moscov at large See also Concil Florent Sess 18. Jerem. Patriarch Const in Resp 1. ad Germ. Zonar Annâ—l Tâ—m 3. in Imper. Leo. Nilus de Primat Papae â—aâ—lam de Primatu Papae figebert in Chron. ad 〈◊〉 1054. Leo Epist ad Episcop Constant Jacob â— Vitriaco histor Orient Sigism de Rebus Muscâ— Guagu descript Muscov Saecram de Errorib â—â—theâ— Boleri Relat. Thom. a Jes Conver. Gent. Gâ—iliel de Rubri Itiner Tartar Oforius de Reb. Emanuel Saligniac Itiner Alphons a Castro contr Haeres Damian a Goes Prateol de Haerefib Alvarez histâ—r Ethiop which yet have much falshood Guiâ— sumâ— de Haerefib Burchardus Descript teâ—â— Sanct. If our confuter cannot have leisure to read all these let him onely read Thom. a Jes Possevin deâ—eb Moscov Apparat. Sacra and see to his shame what his own friends say against his falshoods And that all these Christians are as considerable as all the Papists in the world far over matching them for number is apparent Much more when we adde to the Grecians and Moscovites and Copti's all the Syrians the Georgians the Indians of Saint Thomas the Abassines the Nestorians the Jacobits the Armenians and the Maronites and to them as Protestants where then is the Papists Universality and how few are they comparatively and how plainly do they play the Donatists but that it is on a far worse ground The Patriarch of Constantinople alone hath under him in Asia as Brierwood noteth the Christians of Natolia excepting Armenia the less and Cilicia of Circassia of Mengrelia and of Russia And in Europe also the Christians of Greece Macedon Epirus Thrace Bulgaria Rascia Sextia Bosnia Walachia Moldavia Podolia and Muscovia till lately together with all the Islands of the Aegean Sea and others about Greece as far as Corfu with much more And as is noted in Curopalat de Offic. Palas Constant Offic Mag. Eccl. he hath under him The Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia 2. Ephesus 3. Heraclea 4. Ancyra 5. Cizicum 6. Sardis 7 Nicomedia 8. Nice 9. Calcedon 10. Mitylene 11. Thessalonica 12. Laodicea 13. Synadae 14. Iconium 15. Corinth 16. Athens 17. Patrae 18. Trapezuntium 19. Larissae 20 Naupactus 21. Adrianopolis These are all Archbishops and have many Bishops under them viz. Of Muscovy 17. of Larissae 13. of Athens 11. of Corinth 10. of Tessalonica 9. c. And if these be under the Patriarch of Constantinople alone how great a number are all the rest in the great Empire of the Abassines and elsewhere through the rest of the Christian world I do not mention all these to intimate either that multitudes prove them or any to have the best cause if we were in all things of their mindes or as if I preferred them for Arts and Civil Policy to the Romanes but to shew both the haniousness of the Popish Schisme that would unchurch so many and the cruelty of their censures that would damne so many and the Impudency of their pretence of Universality and their vaine boasting of All the Church when they are so small a part of the Church and more bad then small But we have been too long on this let us come to the confuters next untruth and that is That the Grecians c. do in no one point agree with Protestants as such what hath been said doth sufficiently shame that fiction But he instanceth in our differences And 1. he saith The Grecians hold one supreme head of the whole Church under Christ Repl. An immodest fiction to uphold a cause that 's like it 2. He saith The Grecians hold the Real presence of our Saviours body and blood in the Eucharist Repl. not Transubstantiation which they deny The But Protestants do hold some kind of Reall presence 3. He saith The Grecians defend the necessity of Baptisme to salvation and that Original sin is remitted thereby Repl. And the Protestants hold it necessary necessitate praecepti and as an ordinary means where it can be had And neither the Greeks nor all your own dare damne all Infants that dye before Baptisme when it could not be had but you say that the Votum may serve turne And also Protestants hold that if the Infants be within the Covenant as it pardoneth their Original sin primarily so
and so to eat of this Bread and Drink of this Cup Alas they know all this they cannot but know it and yet they will contradict the express word of God God saith Drink ye all of it and Let a man examine himself and so drink The Pope saith Let none of the people drink of it but the Clergy only What is this but to abrogate Gods Laws and set up the Popes above and against it Yea unless it were to shew the world their Power to contradict Christ and destroy his word who can imagine what should move them to this attempt If there were any temptation of profit or honor in the business as there is in the maintaing of the Popes supremacy Purgatory Indulgences Pardons c. we should not wonder at it But what profit or honor or pleasure is it thus to contradict Christ and for them that adde such a multitude of their own Ceremonies to affect so to cut off one half of the Sacramental Rite and matter which Christ ordained Nay thirdly Do not these men know that the Bread and Cup were both given to the people by the Primitive Church and that it so continued for many hundred years and that their alteration is a meer novelty Yes they know all this For the matter is so far past doubt that they cannot but know it And yet these deceivers would make the people believe that they are of the old Religion and our Region is new These are they that cry out against our casting off Apostolical Traditions and the Churches constitutions and customs and going in new wayes which our forefathers knew not These are they that make it a mark of an Apostolical Tradition that the whole Church hath received it and that as from the Apostles And yet these men dare cast off not onely that which they know the whole primitive Church received and practised as from the Apostles as Justin Martyr Tertullian and all antiquity profess but also is expresly contained in the Scripture With what face can these that exclaim against novelty introduce such a palpable novelty into the Church with what face can they that so cry up antiquity gainsay all antiqiuty and they that cry up the whole Churches consent so go against the consent of the whole Church for so many Ages after the Apostles They dare not deny but this part of Popery is utterly New against the constant practice and Canons of all Churches The third point which I shall instance in is Their performing Gods publike service in Latine and forbidding the people to read the Scriptures in their known vulgar Tongue when as the Apostle Paul hath written the greatest part of a whole Chapter 1 Cor. 14. expresly against this opinion and practice and for using of a known tongue that others may understand and be edified The evasions by which they would elude that part of Scripture are so senceless that I think it not necessary to recite them but rather suppose that they need no other confutation than the bare considerate reading of the Text and therefore I shall venture the Reader if he have common capacity and impartiality and be but willing to know the truth upon any thing that the Papists shall be able to say for their Latine Service and locking up the Scriptures so be it he will but read that Chapter considerately And are not these good Teachers in Christs School that will lock up the Grammar from their Schollars when it is the very office of the Presbyters to teach it the people And to hide from them that word of the living God which he hath given the world to be their Directory to salvation The Prophets and Christ and the Apostles did speak and write this word in a knowâ— tongue to the people to whom they did immediately direct it And must All hear and read it then and onely the Learned now Are not these the men that take away the Key of knowledge and will neither enter in themselves nor suffer others to enter They do expresly contradict the Commands of God and bid the people not read the Scripture when God hath charged them to write it on the very posts of their houses and on their doors and that it be as a frontlet between their eyes and that they teach it their children speaking of it lying down and rising up at home and abroad Deut. 6 11. God makes it the mark of the Blessed man Psal 1.2 3. To meditate day and night in his Law as making it his delight and the Papists commonly maintain in their writings that to have the Scripture in the vulgar tongue is the root of all heresies God maketh the study of his word the duty and mark of all his Disciples and the Papists make it the mark of a Heretick and have burned many a one for it here in Queen Maries dayes and tormented and burnt many by their bloody inquisition for it abroad The very Pharisees thought that their vulgar were cursed that knew not the Law and the Papists will not let it be made known to them lest it make them accursed God saith To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isa 8.20 The Papists cry out precul hinc away let it alone meddle not with it it will make you Hereticks And indeed they have had large experience that the way which they call heresie and contradicteth their impieties is most effectually promoted by the word of God and therefore they think they have some reason to speak against it Saint John saith These things are written that ye might believe and that believing yee might have life throagh his name Joh. 20.31 The Papists say Read not these holy writings lest they destroy your faith and bring you to damnation When the man Luk. 10.26 asketh Christ What shall I do to inherit eternal life Christ answereth him thus What is written in the Law how readest thou directing to the course which the Papists do forbid The Apostle saith that Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our Learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scripture might have hope Rom. 15.4 But the Papists will not have men learn that which was written for their Learning Comfort and Hope Johâ— wrote to fathers young men and children 1 John 2.12 13 14. Gods anger against the Jews was that He had written to them the great or wonderful things of his Law and they had accounted them as strange things Hos 8.12 And the Papists will force people to be strange to these writings Yet how familiar comparatively they were to the vulgar Jews and their very children â—s known and acknowledged Is it not a high advancement of the Gospel Church above the legal Jewish Church which the Papists do vouchsafe it That we may not have the same liberty or means of knowledge as the very children of the Jews had Their children must be taught
the Scripture lying down and rising up and our eldest people even to the lest breath must not read them unless they can learn the tongues which they were first written in The Jewes had the Septuagints Translation or that so called when the Hebrew grew strange to them which the Apostles used in their ordinary citations and they heard the Gospel preached in the Syriack which was then their vulgar tongue But we may not read the same in our Vulgar tongue by the Papists consent Moses Joshua Josiah Nehemiah Read the Scriptures to all the people Exod 24.7 Josh 8.34 35. 2 King 23.1 2 3. Neh. 8.3.8.18 9 3 13.1 And it was their custome to read Moses and the Prophets to the people every Sabbath day Act. 13.27 15.21 2 Cor. 3.15 Luk 4.16 And Christ useth to reprehend their strangeness to Scripture passages as if they had not read them with such words as these Have ye not read c and Have ye never read c Mat 12.3.5 19.4 21.26 22.21 Mark 12.10.26 Luk 6.3 Luk. 10.26 And Moses commandeth Israel the Priests Levites and all the Elders thus Deut. 31.11 12 13. When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose thou shalt read this Law before all Israel in their hearing Gather the people together men and women and children and the stranger that is within thy gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of this Law and thaâ— their children which have not known any thing may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long aâ— ye live in the Land c. It was therefore in a known tongue that it must be read And when the people understood not the old Hebrew tongue in which the Law was written by reason of the change of their speech in the captivity Nehemiah caused them to understand the Reading Neh. 8.8 No doubt by expressing it in the language which they understood And yet the Papists forbâ—d the unlearned that have most need of teachings the use of the holy Scriptures in a known tongue and make it the mother of all Heresies How impiously against God and how cruelly against men is this committed Must the God of heaven send down his Spirit to dictate an illuminating Doctrine to his Prophets and Apostles for the world must he give them a perfect Law by which Truth and Heresie must be discerned Must he send his own Son to preach the Gospel and cause his instruments to write it in a language best known to those that they conversed with or to the world that was to be converted by it And must this Doctrine now be made the mother of Heresies and kept from the eyes of the people that should learn it What must the onely rule that condemneth Heresies be made the cause of them Must the light which God hath given the world be blamed for all the Darkness of mens errors Or must men be kept from the light for fear least it lead them into Darkness This is the Popish Piety and Charity In stead of helping to Illuminate the dark world as all preachers of the Gospel should do Act. 26.17 10. they â—ust have all the unlearned to put out their eyes â—d be led by their guides and trust their souls with them for fear lest if they have any eyes in their heads and any light to walk by they should stumble or erre through the imperfection of their sight And yet the Papists who so much pretend to unity are various and changeable in this high point of their abomination as well as in other things For when they once see that they cannot keep the Scriptures from the people because the Protestants Translations are among them then they will permit them to read their own Translations And upon this account the Rhemists translated the New Testament into English when they saw they could not wholly suppress and hide that light And on this account it is that our Papists in England and some other parts where the Protestants abound among them are permitted by their Priests with some warnings of the needlessness and the danger of it to read the Scripture in their Country tongue When as to a Papist in Spaine or Italy it is no less a crime then to merit the Rack or Strappado of the Inquisition and its strange if they be not burnt for it at a stake So that I have met with some seduced Papists in England so ignorant of their course abroad and so gulled by the lies of their companions or Priests that they would not believe that they do any where forbid the vulgar to read the Scripture in their own tongue but were confidently perswaded that it was our slander of them so that these poor people believe that the Sun is not set in Spaine at midnight because it shines at noon in England Let them read but Joh. Arboreus Theosoph l. 8. c. 9. Andradius Defens Concil Trident. l. 4. Petrus Lizetus Dialog de sacris libris in vulg Floq non evertendis Hosius Dialog de Communion c. Petrus sutor de Translatione Bibliae Bellarm. de verbo Dei l. 2. c. 15. 16. Salmeron in 1 Cor. Disp 30. Bellarmine himself mentioneth the Index librorum prohibit of Pope Pius 4. Reg. 4. which forbiddeth the reading of the Scripture in the vulgar tongue except only to those that the ordinary shall think will receive good and not harm by it and so shall have a licence from him in writing and they pronounce that the common permission of the Scriptures thus doth more harm then good The same Index was after encreased and approved by Pope Sixtus 5. and Clemens 8. And how few they are that their Ordinaries will grant Licences to for the reading of Scripture is too well known by common experience The Kings of Spaine forbid all Translations of the Bible into the vulgar tongues and Alphonsus a Castro commendeth them for it and many a one hath been burnt to ashes for selling keeping or reading such Bibles in Spaine Italy and Savoy And Bellarmine mentioneth the Sess 22. cap. 8 and Can. 9. of the Council of Trent forbidding both the Common reading of such Bibles and also the publike use of them in the Churches in both which we must have them onely in Hebrew Greek and Latine Bellarm. ubi supr If these be not notorious enemies of the Light who are David faith Psal 119. That the word was a Lanterne to his feet and a Light to his Paths Isaiah sends us to the Law and to the testimony saying that if they speak not according to these it is because there is no light in them Isa 8.20 And the Phpists say as Arboreus ubi supra that the reading the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue is the Rise or Root of all Heresies And so the Sun must be taken out of the firmament as
the ancient Church do any such thing As other Bishops condemned Heresies as well as the Pope so many a Heresie was judged such by the faithful without any more interposition of the Pope then another Bishop Having seen thus how little their great Champion hath to say for the Popes infallibility I could willingly have look't about me into some of the rest of them to see if they can say any more but that it s known that most of them tread the same path Only I may not over pass the new way that some of them have taken up of late to prove their infallibility and to avoid their common Circle And this you may see in the Jesuites late superficial answer to Chilling worth Forsooth they tell us that when they prove the infallibility of their Church from Scripture it is but for our sakes because we confess the Authority of Scripture but not of their Church But when they go according to the true nature and order of the matter then they set the Church before the Scripture and independantly of it The reason of this Jesuite supposed to be Knot is this Because the Church is before the Scripture and because the Miracles wrought by the Apostles did first prove their own infallibility and from thence secondarily the infallibility of their Doctrine And when we are in high expectations of the proofs of the Romane infallibility by his Arguments which are Independent of Scripture and before the belief of it he tells â—s that it is by the like Aaguments as the Apostles proved their infallibility which he thus enumerateth So the Church of God by the like still continued Arguments and Notes of many great and manifest Miracles Sanctity Sufferings Victory over all sorts of enemies conversion of Infidels all which Notes are daily more and more conspicuous and convincing and shall be encreasing the longer the world shall last And withall he tells us that These Miracles c. prove them to be infallible in All things and not onely in some or else we cannot know which those some be and what to believe and what not Thus you have the sum of the new Fundamentals of the Romish faith and of the famous confutation of Chillingworth But all these Knots are easily losed without cutting yea shake them onely and they fall loose like Juglers Knots 1. We easily grant that Christ the head of the Church was before the Doctrine by himself delivered in the flesh as it containeth many things superadded to the old Testament and the doctrine of John Baptist 2. It s evident that Christ himself gathered his first Gospel-Church by preaching his Doctrine that is he drew them to be his Disciples by convincing them that he was the Messiah the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world so that this his Doctrine was before this his Church 3. We grant that the Apostles were Apostles before themselves did preach the Gospel as Apostles But it was the Gospel and preacht by Christ before they preach't it 4. We easily grant that both Apostles and Gospel were long before the writing of this Gospel which we call the holy Scriptures 5. We grant that the Apostles Miraculous works did sufficiently prove not some onely but all the Doctrine which they delivered to the Church or any part of it in the name of Christ and as his For though they confirmed onely those Doctrines which were delivered in execution of their Commission yet seeing God would not have set to this seal if they had gone beyond and against their Commission therefore it also assureth us that they kept close to it But this proved them not infallible before they received that Commission nor afterward in any point which they should deliver as their private opinion which they fathered not on the Inspiration of the Spirit The Apostles were not infallible about Christs Death Resurrection and Ascension when they understood them not The Disciples were not infallible about the Acceptableness of Infants to Christ when they forbad them to be brought Thomas was not infallible about Christs Resurrection when he believed it not Peter was not infallible when he gave Christ that Satanical councel for which he was â—antum non almost excommunicated Mat 16.22 23. Even presently after the great promise to him Nor when he denyed that he knew Christ with curses and oathes nor when he dissembled and Barnabas with him Gal. 2. 6. We maintain that the Apostles Doctrine thus sealed by Miracles and Delivered in Writing to the Churches doth carry with it an Attestation from God of its infallibility if there be never more Miracle wrought in the world For the proof of this I refer the Reader to my Determination in a Book Intitled The Vnreasonableness of Infidelity 7. It is this sealed Doctrine contained in Scripture and preached by Ministers which converteth men to Christ and maketh them Christians and therefore it is in order before the present Church and the cause of it 8. We deny and confidently deny that God hath Commissioned the Pope to do the work which he Commissioned the Apostles to do and gave them the power of Miracles to confirme that is to Attest the Works Sufferings Resurrection and words of Christ as eye or ear witnesses of them from himself and to be the first promulgators of some of his Laws to the universal Church and to deliver down an infallible sealed Scripture to all succeeding Ages and by the ordinary working of Miracles to convince the unbelieving world Let him shew his Commission for this Apostleship if he would be believed 9. We as confidently deny that the Pope is a Prophet or is inspired by the Holy Ghost as the Prophets and Apostles were that so they might infallibly deliver us Christs doctrine 10. And they cannot expect that we should believe till we have some proof of it that the Pope or the Church of Rome hath the Power of working Miracles or are endowed with a spirit of Miracles or that they can convince those that deny the Scriptures by their own Miracles that they are the true Church or that ever they confirmed those points by Miracles which is now called Popery Thus much to let the Jesuite know where we differ from him And now to the point We call for his proofs which he here mentioneth to us in general names Non esse non apparere are to us all one Give us sufficient proof of your sealing the Doctrine of Popery by Miracles or the Popes Infallibility by Miracles as the Apostles did the Scriptures and their preaching and then you shall carry the cause and we profess that we will rejoycingly pass into your Tents and proclaim you Prophets or Apostles of Christ But when we live among you and so did our Fathers before us and hear you prate and boast of Miracles when we cannot see that ever you did so much as make a dead flea alive again nor cannot see the least Miracle from you if we would
the creation to this day and we must now begin to feign a Necessity of their infallibility Let it be sufficient that God and the extraordinarily inspired Prophets and Apostles are infallible and that we have Teachers that can infallibly prove to us what he requireth of us in his words in points of Necessity to our everlasting happiness And for themselves pretending to infallibility makes them not nor procureth them infallible whereas their voluminous errors and the wicked practices grounded thereupon and their frequent self-contradictions and mutations do proclaim aloud to the world that they are both deceivable deceived and deceivers while the holy Scriptures whose sufficiency they deny is by themselves confessed to be of infallible verity We are resolved therefore by the grace of God in a business of such moment as the everlasting saving or losing of our souls to venture and bottom all our Hopes on that word of God whose infallibility they confess then on the wordâ— of men who pretend to infallibility and notoriously declare the vainty of those pretences Some more of the Sence of Antiquity in the main Controversie between us and the Papists to declare further who it is that is of the New Religion CYrill Hierosol Cateches 4. Sect. de spiritu sancto pag. Edit Paris 1631. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. For concerning Divine things and the holy mysteries of faith nothing no not the smallest thing ought to be delivered without the Divine Scriptures nor to be brought forth by simple probability nor by a train of words Nay do not simply believe me my self when I speak of these things to thee unless thou receive a demonstration of the things which I speak from the Divine Scriptures For the very safety of our faith resteth not on the elegancy of speech but on the proof of Divine Scriptures And pag. 36. Sect de Sacra Script he telleth you what Scriptures he meaneth earnestly disswading from the Apocryphal books and numbering the same onely which we own as Canonical save that he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and omitteth the Epist to Hebrews and the Apocalypse And Cateches 17. pag. 192. he saith And we now also ingeniously confess that we will not use humane reasonings but will only commemorate those things which are in the holy Scriptures for this is most safe as Saint Paul 1. Cor. 2.4 And Cateches 18. pag. 220 221 222. See how he describeth the Catholike Church without the least intimation of the Romane description August Cont. literas Petiliani li. 3. cap. 6. pag. Edit Paris 127. col 1. Proinde sive de Christo sive de ejus Ecclesia sive de quacunque alia re quae pertinet ad fidem utramque nostram non dicam nos nequaquam comparandi ei qui dixit Licet si nos sed omnino quod secutus adjecit Si Angelus de caelo vobis annunciaverit preterquam quod in Scripturis legalibus Evangelicis accepistis anathema sit Hac vobiscum cum omnibus quos Christo lucrati cupimus actitantes atque inter caetera sanctam Ecclesiam quam in Dei lieris promissam legimus sicut promissa est in omnibus gâ—ntibus reddi cernimus praedicantes ab iis quos ad ejus pacificum gremium attrahi cupimus pro actione gratiarum flammas meruinnus odiorum That is Moreover whether it be of Christ or of his Church or of any other thing which pertaineth to our faith and life I say not if we who are not to be compared to him who said Though we but that which he next added If an Angel from heaven shall preach to you any other thing then that which you have received in the Scriptures of the Law and the Gospel let him be accursed While we deal thus with you and with all men whom we desire to win to Christ and among other things do preach the holy Church which we find promised in Gods Scriptures and which we see to be placed in all Nations as was promised we have deserved or procured the flames of hatred from those whom we desire to draw into its pacifike bosome in stead of thanks And he proceedeth as if it were we that so long before had bid the Prophets and Apostles that they should not put in their books any Testimonies by which the faction or party of Donatus is proved to be the Church of Christ The Epistle ad Demetriadem commonly reckoned the 142. among Augustines cap. 9. saith Scito itaque in Scripturis divinis per quas solas potes plenam Dei intelligere voluntatem c. By the Divine Scriptures alone thou maist understand the full will of God I know the Lovaine Doctors put this Epistle in the Appendix and conjecture it to be of Pelagius but 1. it shews the doctrine of that age 2. Never did Austin contradict it but oft say the like August de peccat Merit Remiss li. 2. cap. 36. pag. mihi 304. saith Talis populus ut praedixi eruditus in Regno caelorum per duo testamenta vetus novum non declinans in dextram superba presumtione justitiae neque in sinistram secuva delectatione peccati in terram illius promissionis intrabit postea Vbi enim de re obscurissima disputatur non adjuvantibus Divinarum Scripturarum certis clarisque documentis cohibere se debâ—t humana presumptio nihil faciens in partem alteram declinando So that in Austius judgement the old and new Testament teach us enough to salvation and in the difficult points we must not so much as incline to either side without the Scriptures it being presumption to speak when they are silent And in his 49. Tract on John he saith Evangelista testatur multa Dominum Christum dixisse fecisse quae non scripta sunt electa sunt autem quae scriberentur quae saluti credentium sufficere videbantur i. e. The Evangelist testifieth that the Lord Christ spoke and did many things that are not written but those were chosen to be written which seemed sufficient for the salvation of Believers And li. de Nat. Grat c. 26. he saith to the Pelagians Solis Canonicis debeo sine â—ulla recusatione consensum That is I owe a consent without any refusal to the Canonical Scriptures alone An hundred more such sayings might be cited out of Augustine Hierom on the first Ch. of Hag. fol mihi 102. speaking of the use of Hereticks saith Sed alia quae absque authoritate testimoniis Scripturarum quasi traditione Apostolica sponte reperiunt atque confingunt percutit gladius Dei i. e. But other things which without the Authority and Testimonies of Scripture they do of their own accord find out and feign as of Apostolical tradition the sword of God will cut down And he instanceth in the fastings and other austerities of the Tatiani which he saith they suffer causlesly The same Hierom against Helvidius saith Vt haec quae
may change any thing that God appointeth about Sacraments except the substance And it were well if they would have left that unchanged The Council of Constance took the cup from the Laity Licet in primitiva Ecclesia hujusmodi sacramentum reciperetur a fidelibus sub utraque specie Though in the primitive Church this Sacrament was received of the faithful under both kinds So that they confess they contradict the Primitive Church Bellarmine plainly saith li. 4. de Pontif. c. 5. Si Papa erraret in praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare That is If the Pope should erre in commanding vices and forbidding virtues the Church were bound to believe that vices are good and vertues bad unless they would sin against conscience And against Barelay cap. 31. he saith In bono sensu dedit Christus Petro Potestatem faciendi de peccato non peccatum de non peccato peccatum That is In a good sense Christ hath given power to Peter to make sin no sin and no sin to be sin compare this doctrine with the Fathers The Glasse in Can. Lector Dist 34. saith Papa dispensat contra Apostolum The Pope dispenseth against the Apostle Innocent 3. Decret de conces prebend tit 8. c. proposuit saith Secundum plenitudinem potestatis de jure supra jus possumus dispensare According to the fullness of our power we can dispense with the Law above Law And the Glosse addeth For the Pope dispenseth against the Apostle and against the old Testament as also in vows and oaths And another Gloss saith The Pope dispenseth with the Gospel in interpreting it More such Glosses you may find if not yet more gross and impious which I 'le not stand to recite Gregory de Valentia Tom. 4. disp 6. qu. 8. p. 5. § 10. saith Et certe quaedam posterioribus tempâ—ribus rectius constituta esse in Ecclesia quam initio se haberent That is And certainly some things are more rightly constituted in the Church in the latter times then they were in the beginning Andradius Defens Concil Trident. lib. 2. pag. mihi 236. saith Vnde etiam liquet minime eos errasse qui dicunt Romanos Pontifices posse nonnunquam in legibus dispensare a Paulo primisque quatuor Conciliis ad Ecclesiam exornandam moresque componendos pro temporum necessitate edictis qualis est illa quae interdicit ut digamos creari ne liceat Episcopos i. e. Whence it appeareth that they did not erre who say that the Pope of Rome may sometime dispense with Lawes made by Paul and the four first Councils for the necessity of the times to the adoring of the Church and the composing of manners such as is that which forbiddeth those to be made Bishops who are the husbands of two wives Cardinal Perron against King James li. 2. Obser 3. â— 3. p. 674. hath a Chapter purposely Of the Authority of the Church to alter matters contained in the Scriptures And pag. 1109. 1115. he saith that When in the form of the Sacraments some great inconvenicies are met withal the Church may therein dispense and alter And that the Lords words Drink yee all of it were a precept not immutable nor in dispensable for the Church hath judged that there may be a dispensation for â—t Bâ—ovius Observ on C. 24. constit Apost saith Ecclesia Romana quae Apostolica utens potestate singula pro conditione temporum in melius mutat i.e. The Church of Rome using Apostolical power doth according to the condition of times change all things for the better Cardinal Tolet saith Cum certum sit non omnia qâ—ae Apostoli instituerunt jure Divino esse instituta i. e. It is certain that all things which the Apostles instituted were not instituted by Divine right And the Council of Trent hath shewed its usurpation of power above Scripture in dispensing with the degrees of Marriage in Lev. 18. 20. adding to what God hath prohibited and relaxing what God hath restrained and that To Great Princes and for a publike cause When they make it sin to other men These and many more of their gross sayings and usurpations against Scripture and above it they have been long ago told of by Jewell Reignolds Whittakers Molinaeus and others and how sleight their evasions are the considerate and impartial may discern I have therefore recited thus much of their words here that you may compare them with the Ancients and then see who are the Changlings and Novelists and who they be that keep to the old Church and Religion And among other ancient Writers I would desire you besides all the forecited to compare the Popish frame with the Directions of Vicentius Lirinensis which he giveth us for the discovery of Truth and avoiding heresie in his book Contr. Haeres Which I the rather mention because I admire that the Papists should be so immodest as to boast so much of him as if he were on their side The sum of his advice to avoid heresie is this 10 Fidem munire Divinae legis authoritate 20 Ecclesiae Catholicae traditione To fortifie our faith 1. By the Authority of Gods Law 2. By the Tradition of the Catholike Church This way he saith he was himself directed to by all the holy Learned men that he enquired of Saepa magno studio summa attentioae perquirens a quamplurimis sanctitate doctrina praestantibus viris quonam modo possem certa quadam quasi generali ac regulari via Catholicae fidei veritatem ab haereticae pravitatis falsitate discernere hujusmodi semper responsum ab omnibus fere retuli cap. 1. Edit Colon. a. 1613 pag. 617. Edit Perionii Lugd. 1572. So that we are given to understand by this passage 1. That this was no private opinion of Vincentius but the common way that was then taken by Holy learned men to discern Truth from Heresie 2. And note well that he doth not once in all the book direct us to the Determination much less to the Inâ—allible determination of the Pope or the Romane Church as the way to discern Truth from Heresie And can any man of common reason that is willing to know the truth imagine that there is the least probability that Vincentius should silence this Romish decision in a Treatise written purposely and onely on that subject and wherein he undertaketh to give us the full and certain direction to avoid Heresies if the Church had then been of the Romanists opinion O intolerably forgetful negligent delusory man that would not give us one word of that which is now the foundation of all and into which our faith must be ultimately resolved What never a word to tell us that whatsoever the Pope or Clergy of Rome are for or against may be known accordingly to be true or false because he is the infallible Head
faith which the Apostle calls the substance evidence and full assurance they will have to be doubtful and uncertain 36. Also hope which yet the Apostle commends as an Anchor sure and stedfast and that maketh not him that hopes ashamed § 13. Of Sanctification and good Works 1. THat concupiscence in the regenerate is no sin 2. That the regenerate or baptized may perfectly fulfill the Law 3. That the works of the righteous are simply and absolutely righteous 4. That sins are expiated by good works according to the proverb forsooth he that steals much and gives a little shall escape 5. That good Works do concur by way of efficiency to salvation or are necessary not onely for their presence but for their efficiency 6. And that good works are not onely such as are commanded by God but such as are voluntarily undertaken by men with a good intention 7. That the good works of the righteous not onely justifie but also by way of condignity deserve eternal life both for the Covenants sake and also the works themselves 8. And that that is merit of condignity by which a man indued with grace and the holy Spirit after he hath deserved the habit of love by former merit doth by his good works and their condignity deserve eternal life 9. To the merit of condignity there is required an equality of proportion in the merit to the reward 10. To the good works of the righteous eternal happiness is as well due as eternal sufferings to the sins of the wicked 11. That in every Christian work proceeding from grace the merit of Christs blood is applyed 12. That Christ by his death merited that our works might be satisfactory for sins and meritorious of eternal life or thus Christ merited that by our own merits we might attain salvation 13. That every act of charity or every good work proceeding from Charity doth absolutely deserve eternal life 14. That good works are meritorious of three things viz. of remitting the punishment of increase of grace and of eternal Life 15. That a righteous man may deserve for himself an increase of righteousness by way of condignity 16. Neither do they think they must trust to their own but to other mens merits also 17. That one believer may merit grace for another by way of congruity 1. That a justified and sanctified man may fall from the grace of God both totally and finally and perish for ever 2. That the grace of justification received is lost by every mortal sin 3. The grace of justification being lost by sin yet faith is not lost 4. That faith is lost by every act of unbeliefe 14. Of good works particularly of fasting 1. OF Fasting I have spoken already that the Papists place Fasting in the choice of meats 2. That their fasts are hypocritical 3. And superstitious 4. That fasting even as it is observed by them which indeed is the meer mockery of a true fast is a work satisfactory for sin and meritorious of eternal life they impiously and blasphemously teach 5. Their prayers they pour out not onely to God but to Angels and Saints 6. That we may lawfully and meritoriously beseech and pray the Saints both to intercede for us with God and to give assistance to us 7. They teach men to confess their sins to the Saints that are dead 8. That God reveals our prayers to the Saints which we put up to them and yet that we must go to them as Mediators betwixt God and us 9. They call upon God represented under some figure or shape 10. They mutter their prayers before images saying sometimes the Lords prayer before a picture of the Virgin Mary or of some other Saint and Ave Maries before a crucifix 11 They pray not onely in the name of Christ but also they believe they shall be heard for the prayers and intercession of the Saints 12. Neither do they pray for the living onely but also for the dead 13. That a general intention of worshipping God is sufficient when they pray though they neither understand nor mark what they say 14. They teach their Disciples to pray in an unknown tongue and so without faith without understanding without feeling like Parrots 15. They teach them to number their prayers upon certain Beads and to pay God as it were a task of numbred prayers 16. In which also they teach them mightily to tautologize and to hope they shall be heard for their much speaking 17. They not onely reckon the Salutation of the blessed Virgin and the Apostles Creed amongst their prayers but also teach them to say a hundred and fifty Ave Maries and after every ten Ave Maries one Pater Noster and after fifty one Creed 18. And that prayer even such as they are wont to bable before pictures in an unknown tongue either for the dead or to the dead without faith witâ—out understanding without feeling is a satisfactory work for sin and meritorious of eternal Life 19. Also Almes-deeds to be meritorious and satisfactory § 15. Of Glorification 1. AS to the state of Believers after this life they teach that Heaven was shut till Christs passion 2. That the thief converted on the Cross was the first of all believers that entred into the heavenly Paradice 3. They make three receptacles of Souls after death besides heaven and the place of the damned viz. limbus patrum limbus infantum and Purgatory to which they also adde a certain kind of flourishing light sweet and pleasant Meadow in which they place certain souls who suffer nothing but remaine there for a while because they are not yet fit for the beatifical vision 4. That the souls of the faithful before Christs resurrection were in a subterraneous pit which they call limbus Patrum 5. That the fathers dead before Christs ascension were not happy 6. All little ones dying before Baptism they thrust into limbus infantum to be punished with eternal punishment of loss not of sence 7. The faithful which depart either with venial sins upon them or with the guilt of punishment the sin being before remitted they cast into Purgatory to be burnt there with corporeal fire till they be fully purged 8. That the suffrages of the Church such as the â—â—crifice of the Mass and prayer penal and satisfactory works as Almes-Deeds Fasting Pilgrimages and the like do profit the dead in Purgatory and especially indulgences by which the satisfactory works of others are applyed to them 9. For the Pâ—pe can communicate the prayers and good works of believers to them whence it follows as Albertus said the condition of the rich in this case is better then the poor because he hath wherewithal to get suffrages for him 10. That the Saints in Heaven do not onely pray for the living on earth in particular but also for the dead in Purgatory 11. That the Saints are our mediators and advocates with God understanding our prayers and necessities
any internal virtue but a profession of faith is sufficient The Members of the Church considered severally are The Clergy The Laity 2. That Clergy men are not held under civil Laws by any coactive but onely directive bond 3. That Clergy men breaking the Civil Law cannot yet be punished by any civil Judge nor be brought before the Tribunal of Secular Magistrates 4. That the goods of the Clergy both Ecclesiastical and Secular are free from the Tribute and Taxe of Secular Princes 5. That men are to be prepared for receiving Orders by the first shaving 6. By how much the higher degree of Order any one is in by so much the larger shaving is he to be crowned with 7. That single life is alwayes joyned to holy Orders by Divine right The Popish Clergy aâ—â— either Seculars and those either Regulars Of the lowest Order Of the higher Order which they call Priests and are both The less as Presbyters The greater as Bishops 8. That the Clergy men of the highest Order are Priests properly so called which they say are instituted to offer an external and real sacrifice 9. The choice of Bishops does belong to the Pope by Divine right That all the Bishops receive jurisdiction from the Pope 11. The Romane Church hath Cardinals for sides-men to the Pope upon whom the universal Church is turned as upon hinges 12. These are to be joyned with the Pope in the Government of the universal Church 13. That those whether they be Bishops or Presbyters or Deacons are not only to be preferred before other Bishops Archbishops Primates Patriarchs but to be equalled even with Kings § 20. Of Councils and Monastical vows 1. THey teach that there are Evangelical Councils distinct from commands which no man is bound to perform but they who profess perfection and would deserve more and greater things than eternal life 2. That the study of perfection is not of command but Councils 3. Such Councils are those of not seeking revenge of loving our adversaries of not swearing c. 4. Not to obey a Council is no fin 5. That some perfection is necessary to salvation and that consists in the full observation of the commands 6. That some other perfection is greater and is necessary not simply for salvation but for a more excellent degree of glory and that consists in the observation of Councils 7. By obedience to Councils men do supererogate 8. That vowed Virginity and single life are most acceptable worship to God 9. Yea and the greatest satisfaction for sin and merit of eternal life 10. A Monastick life is a state of Perfection 11. All that 's done by vow is a worship of God 12. Monastical vows do satisfie for sin and deserve eternal life 13. Our entrance into Religion is a second Baptism or in stead of a new Baptism by which satisfaction is made for all former sins 14. That perfection is to be placed in true Monastick vows as the vow of voluntary poverty the vow of perpetual chastity the vow of Monastical obedience 15. That voluntary poverty is rightly vowed to God 16. That its lawful Lawful yea a meritorious work a work of perfection and supererogation in Monks to live on begging 17. It is lawful yea meritorious for the younger men to vow single life for ever 18. The vow of single life is to he kept by them who have the gift of continency 19. There is none but may alwayes contain if he will 20. That 't is lawful for children to enter into a vow against their parents consent 21. They allow of great variety of vows which have various rules of life invented by men beside the holy Scripture And as if there were greater perfection in those rules then in the doctrine of the Gospel and a more compendious way to perfection and salvation they teach by the observation of them eternal life and a more excellent degree of glory is obtained 22. They give the obedience which is due onely to God unto the men that live after the Rules of the Franciscan Domincan order c. 23. That the Apostles were the first Christian Monks 24 To them who are buried in the Cowls of the Monkes especially of the Franciscans they promise remission of sin in some part 25. That Princes are not the supream Governors of their subjects on earth in all causes spiritual and temporal 26. They make Princes subject to the people as well as to the Pope §. 21. Of the Law Of Charity or things to be done the sum of which are in the Decalogue 1. THat regenerate and baptized persons may perfectly fulfill the Law so far as they are bound to fulfill it in this life 2. The fulfilling of the Law in this life is not onely possible but easie 3. That every degree of Grace is sufficient to fulfill the commandments and expel all sins 4. That we are not bound in this life to love God with all our hearts 5. And all our souls and all our strength Neither are we bound not to have evil concupiscence 6. That venial sins as they call them do not hinder that perfect obedience which is required in this life 7. That the regenerate can do more then the Law requires 8. They teach their Disciples to worship God under a humane shape or figure 9. That Angels are to be worshiped and called upon 10. Also Saints that are dead are to be worshiped and called upon 11. That a more than ordinary worship is due to the blessed Virgin such as they teach Christs humanity waâ— to be worshiped with but to the rest of the Saints ordinary worship 12. That the members of the Blessed Virgin are to be adored for so they touch them I worship and Bless thy feet with which thou didst tread down the Old Serpents head I worship and bless thy comely eyes c. 23. That according to the five letters of her name Maria she is the Mediatrix of God and men the Auxiliatrix or helper of God and men the repairer of the weak the illuminater of the blind the Advocate for all sin 14. They name her the Queen of heaven our Lady and Goddess the Lady of Angels the fountain of all graces Orat. Steph. Patracen in Concil Later Sess 10.666.6 f. 15. For her honor and worship they have composed Duties Letanies Rosaries and a Psaltery all full of Idolatry 16. In the Psaltery of Mary whatsoever almost David had spoken of God and Christ they blasphemously give to her as for example O Lady in thee have I put my trust deliver my soul from mine enemies In Psal 7. And I will praise thee O Lady with my whole heart Psal 9. I put my trust in thee O Lady Ps 10. Save me O Lady Psal 11. Keep me O Lady because I have hoped in thee Psal 15. The heavens declare thy Glory O Virgin Mary Psal 19. To thee O Lady have I lifted up my soul Psal 25. Have mercy on me O Lady who
That it is Ecclesia vel quacunque re alia that Austin speaks 2. That its cum omnibus and therefore not an Argument onely for such as deny the Church and right grounds 3. So do we procure the flames of Popish hatred ☞ 4. So may wâ— say As if we had bid the Apostles put nothing in the Bible to prove the Romane Catholike Church Andradius Defen l. 2. Vainly replyeth that this is spoken onely to those Hereticks that plead only Tradition and reject Scriptures 1. That 's plainly false for Tatianus did not so 2. He speaks of all such traditions therefore of the Popish * That is Savingly Constantinus Magnus See Andrad Tâ—ef l. 2. fol. 110 c Where are the rest of his cavils Salvianus Massil de Provid li. 3. pag. mihi 62. The sum of Vincentius Lirinensis adv Heres * That is before they corrupt antient Writers or grow so old as to pretend to antiquity themselves Because many of these Errors are delivered onely by particular Doctors and all be not of a mind as to the sence and some of the words may admit a tolerable and Orthodox meaning I thought meet to adde these Animadversions to acquaint you in what sence we reject them What I pass by without Animadversion I leave upon them as it is here charged and also suppose the difference to lie plain a 1. That is as the Authenticke sign of Gods will For we all confess that Christ and his Apostles are the foundation of faith as the Authorized chief revealers and God himself onely as the principal efficient and Christ the Mediator as the first corner stone of the matter revealed and the Catholike Church as the keeper or subject in quo of true Belief for the Law is written 〈◊〉 the hearts of its members and it is the Pillar and ground or foundation of truth 3. This erorr is one of the fundamentals of the Romish Fabrike 6. When yet it is most clearly proved by many especially Blondel in a just volume that abundance of them are forgeries and Dalaeus proves it particularly of the Clementines 7. At least quoad nos So that they never know when their faith is at its full stature 8. By this you may conjecture from whence the Quakeâ—s have their doctrine of the light within us 9. It is the voice of the Law giver and the Law is the Rule of life and of judgement 10. We confess as Peter saith of Pauls Epistles that there are somethings in them hard to be understood which the ignorant pervert as they do the other Scriptures to their own destruction But we maintaine that they have so much light as sufficeth to their ends that is to be the Rule of our faith and life 11. This is one of their greatest errors 15. The last clause that the Popes authority is greater then the Churches the French do not hold And so they are divided in their foundation 16. They yield that the Doctrine is elder then the Church and we yield that the Church is elder then â—â—â—ings But we affirme that the doctrine as fetcht from these writings is now before the present Church in order of nature as the cause of it at least as to the generality of members 17. The Negative is their master error but the Affirmative Proposition is not denyed of us as to every kind of dependance but of some special sorts of which I have spoken in the Pref. to the Saints Rest Part. 2. Edit 2. c. 18. The height of Romish arrogancy 20. And yet I would that vulgar Translation might but be allowed to be the deciding â—â—le for there is eâ—â—ugh in it against them 21. This error is an accusation of the Wisdom of God and contrary to express Scripture and destructive to the progress of knowledge and godliness and such as the experience of gracious souls should provoke them to detest and had they but this â—ne they could never expect that the Catholike Church should unite upon their principles 1. As concupiscence is taken improperly for the corrupted sensitive appetite so it was of God But as it signifieth the appetite distempered or corrupted or the corruption of the will inclining it to evil it is not of God 2. See Rada's first controversie 3. A posse mori and a posse non mori were not then Natural But a non posse mori or an actual non mori were to be the reward of obedience and is now given by Christ And a non posse non mori or an actual death are the fruits of sin 4 5. I would they would prove this Tradition to be Apostolical 1. In this they no more agree among themselves then with us 2. Saith Davenant the point of Predetermination is a controversie between the Dominicans and Jesuites which Protestants have no mind to trouble themselves with But they that do are not of a mind in it no more then they 4. God doth not cause sin even when it is a punishment but onely permitteth it But by such a permission as proceedeth from a punishing intention And so he justly withholdeth his grace and giveth men over to the power of the devil their own lusts 2. The body is not to be mortified by self-murder but the corrupt inclinations and actions of the sensitive appetite are to be mortifyed and all its motions subjected to holy Reason And this is called in Scripture the mortifying of the flesh and our corruption would never be called in Scripture so often The flesh and the body if it were not that the fleshly appetite is much of the seat of it and the pleasing of that appetite and imagination much of the end that I say not the whole 4. Sins are called voluntary either because they are in the Will or from the will In the first sence the vicious habits of the will are voluntary in the second the ellicite and imperate acts Also they are voluntary directly and formally as are the wills owne acts and habits or participative as are the acts and habites of all the imperate faculties And there is nothing sin but what is voluntary in one of these senses nor any further then voluntary 5. Neither they nor we are agreed about the quiddity of original sin 8. Metaphors are not usually the fittest terms to state controversies in We have vicious habits and the abscence of Rectifying habits call this what you will Free will is either Physical and that all men have as they are men or moral which is 1. To be free from a legal restraint from good and this all have or to be free from vicious Habits and this onely the sanctified have and that but in part 9. It is the most noble controversie among the Schoolemen and Thomists and the greatest part seem rather to erre on the other extream and the Scotists that hold this to rectifie them do giâ— such explications of their doctrine as are well worth our study as you may see in Rada's first controversie