to assent to evident Truth Nay if we compare them with supernatural Truths as to their Perspicuity and Verity in order to us the Advantage seems greater on the side of natural Truths 1. For no Man ever doubted of the Truth of these having once understood their terms and many have and do doubt of Faith altho sufficiently propos'd And 2ly no Man ever dissented from those Principles when he had once admitted them and many have Apostatized from their Faith. So that all the Praises you give to Faith belong more to natural Sciences then to it such a stranger are you to its true Prerogatives The reason of this stupendious Blindness in searching the Scriptures is that you read them as a Master not as a Disciple you intend not to learn from them what to believe but to shape them to what you think you have the Word but reject the Sence which is to the Word what the Soul is to the Body it gives it Life and Motion The (a) 1 Cor. 2.14 natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned You see Sir that some may read or have the Word of God and yet not comprehend its meaning nay that it may seem folly unto them The words may be words of (a) John 6.61 life everlasting and yet they cry Durus est hic sermo this word is hard and who can hear him The Divine Scriptures are high and majestical in the Sense simple and without Affectation in Word they are plain yet in them are high Hills which no natural Wit can surmount They are perspicuous yet full of mysterious clouds which baffle the most piercing eye They are all true Yet St. Augustin (b) l. 2. cont Faust c. 2. Piè cogitantes tantae auctoritatis eminentiam latêre ibi aliquid crediderunt quod petentibus daretur oblatrantibus negaretur takes notice of some seeming contradictions which cannot be reconciled without recourse to God the Author of Scriptures Less is learnt by Study than by Prayer if Prayer be accompanied with Humility The (c) Psal 18. or 19. 7. testimony of God is faithfull giving wisdom to little ones or making wise the simple as the English hath it And the Author of our Faith glorifies his Father (d) Matt. 11.25 for concealing his mysteries from the learned and wise and revealing them to little ones St. Gregory furnishes us with a fit comparison (e) Greg. ep ad Leandrum c. 4. Instar fluminis alti plani in quo Agnus ambulet Elephas natet of a shallow and deep river in which a Lamb may wade and an Elephant swim That is in it the simple and humble find ground to stand upon which the Proud loose and by it are lost The words are plain and easie but the sence sublime and hard not to be reach'd by humane Industry but by Divine Inspiration which is denied to those who rely on their own abilities and given to such as recur to God. No Books of the Sybills nor Oracles of the Devils or other humane Writing can equal Divine Scripture in this point Another Character of Divine Scriptures is the force which accompanies them and works upon the heart of those who are well disposed which insinuates it self into the Will and enflames it with the Love of God breaking in pieces the stony heart of Sinners Are (a) Jerem. 23.29 not my words like fire and like a hammer that breaks a rock No Precepts of Pagan Philosophers had this Energy I will not assure you ever perceiv'd either of these two qualities in reading of Scripture in your Works there appears little signs of either or of the Disposition which they suppose CHAP. VI. Scriptures Supprest G. B. P. 13. SCriptures being the Revelation of the whole Councel of God and written by plain and simple men and as first directed to the use of the rude illiterate Vulgar for teaching them the Mystery of Godliness and the Path of Life It is a shrewd Indication that if any study to hide this light under a candlestick and to keep it in an unknown Tongue or forbid the Body of Christians the use of it that those must be conscious to themselves of great deformity to that Rule Answer Here you begin your Charge of Antichristianism against your Mother-Church and as the Charge is false so in your managing it you mingle many Errors with some few Truths A bad Cause is not capable of a better Defence I will take notice of some of your most considerable slips and leave the Reader to judg of the rest That the Scriptures were written by plain and simple men is not true was Moses such who was learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians Was David the sweet singer of Israel a plain and simple man What shall we say of Solomon to whose wonderful knowledge the Scripture it self bears witness Amos it is true was but Esaias was not nor Daniel nor Samuel And whoever was Author of the Book of Job he was certainly far from being plain and simple For in him are found in perfection Philosophy Astrology and Divinity as a Queen governing them and if Caussinus the Jesuit may be believ'd as compleat Rhetorick as in any whosoever And as to the Authors of the new Testament as long as St. Paul St. Luke and St. John are amongst them you will never perswade the learned part of the World that your Speech is not rash and inconsiderate But suppose it true that they were all plain and simple men what then Doth it follow that what they writ is easie to the meanest capacity for that you intend if you intend any thing Do you not know that these Men were only the Scribes of the Holy Ghost and that in a Scribe Capacity of Understanding is not necessary but only Fidelity in writing No great Science is necessary in a Printer who only Prints what is given him by an Author the same of a Scribe who writes what is dictated unto him Now all Authors of Canonical books are the Scribes of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so their Doctrin is to be calculated according to the meridian of that Divine Spirit not of their Qualities Take the most plain and simple of them all (a) Amos. 1.1 the herdman of Thecue read him over and if you say you understand him quite through I will say you have cofidence to say any thing G. B. Pag. 14. The hardest parts of Scripture are the Writings of the Old Testament and yet those were communicated to all Answer Some parts of the New are as hard as any of the Old viz. The Apocalypse and some parts of St. Pauls Epistles are hard to be understood (a) 2 Pet. 3.16 Likewise is it not true that all the Writings of the Old Testament were made common to all the Israelites The King (b) Deut. 17.18 was
in the Protestant no Fear and consequently no Hope which is accompanied always by Fear but in lieu of Hope that Vice which is called Presumption which is a sin against the H. Ghost Timor fundamentum salutis est says Tertul. lib. de cultu foeminarum c. 2. p. 265. Sperando enim timebimus timendo cavebimus cavendo salvi erimus contra si praesumamus neque timendo neque cavendo difficile salvi erimus Fear is the ground-work and foundation of our Salvation Our Hope is mingled with Fear this makes us take heed whence proceeds our security of Salvation On the contrary when we presume we grow careless and run great hazard of being lost for ever SECTION III. Of Charity or Love. CHarity or the Love of God above all things is much more esteemed and honored amongst us than amongst you You rank it contrary to the Apostle even with Faith or seat it on a lower Bench whereas we with the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.13 believe it to be the Commandment of Christ Joh. 15.12 The fulness of the Law Rom. 13.10 The bond of perfection Col. 3.14 which divides betwixt the Children of the Kingdom and those of Perdition S. Aug. The nuptial Garment with which we must enter into the Wedding Mat. 22.11 12. That is the form of Vertues Concil Trid. That without it all other Vertues gift of tongues power of working miracles knowledge of mysteries nay even Faith and Hope are nothing avail nothing are no more to be regarded than sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal c. 1 Cor. 13. In fine althô with Divines we are persuaded that these two great Vertues may be separated yet we hold their separation to be their ruin that as Charity is but superficial and not real without the light of Faith so Faith is cold without the warmth of Charity He who knows God without loving him is impious and he who loves him without knowing him aright is blind A Believer without Love is ungrateful a Lover without Knowledge is fensless so these two Vertues must assist one another We must aim to have a living Faith which works by Love Gal. 5.6 and Love is the proper work of Faith. Opus fidei dilectio Aug. tr 10. in Epist Jo. Love both gives to and receives strength from Faith. Charitas robur Fidei Fides fortitudo Charitatis S. I eo Serm. 7. in Quadrag In Heaven there is Love without Faith 1 Cor. 13.8.10 In Hell Faith without Love Jac. 2.19 Christians in this Life must have both for Love without Faith is the Love of Pagans and Faith without Love is the Faith of Devils but Faith with Charity is the Faith of the Children of God in this Life Fides quae per dilectionem operatur ipsa est Fides quae fideles Dei separat ab immundis daemonibus Aug. de gratiâ lib. Artib cap. 7. Thus we joyn together those two great Vertues this we believe this we teach of Charity whilst you out of an ill-grounded opinion of your Fac-totum-Faith relying on it for Remission of Sins Justification Perseverance and Salvation exhaust your Rhetorick so much in commendation of that your Darling that you have no room to commend Charity or Good-works Our Practice as much surpasses yours as to nourishing Charity as our Doctrin doth For seeing the Love of God and Love of our selves are opposit and the one withers as the other thrives their practice must be most proper to nourish Charity which aims most at mortifying Self-love and on the contrary those who foster Self-love must annihilate Charity Now what Practice can you shew for the mortification of the Body the quelling our Passions the renouncing of our Will What Documents do you give for these What Examples can you shew since your reformation of them You have never been able to find in the three Kingdoms a dozen Persons of either Sex who for so many years would sequester themselves from the Enjoyments of the World to serve God in voluntary Poverty Chastity and Obedience Whence comes this but from Self-love which abounds in them and the lack of the Love of God which might cement their Hearts together Whence comes that insupportable Pride which makes your Proselytes so refractory to God and his Vicars their Spiritual and Temporal Superiors That they are so tenacious of their extravagant Fancies so stubborn in their uncouth Resolutions so intractable in their Manners so humorsom in all their Actions and Conversations but a latent Pride the proper Offspring of Self-love and the Bane of Charity Look into 1 Cor. 13. you shall there find a description of Charity and its Qualities Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Should I now examin the Life of generally all who deliver themselves to your Direction upon these Heads and shew how little of this appears in your Manners and how much there is quite contrary to it the Picture if sincere would fright you or confound you how great soever your Confidence be In fine the words of our Saviour to the Angel of Laodicea Apoc. 3.17 may be very well applied to you Thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked God open the eyes of your Heart to see this that so you may be moved to seek for Gold tried Spiritual Riches where it is to be found in the true Church SECTION IV. An Answer to what G. B. objects G. B. p. 78. ARE Papists not taught to confide more in the Virgin or their Tutelar Saints than in the Holiest of all Answ No we are taught no such thing G. B. ibid. Doth not the fear of Purgatory damp the hopes of future Blessedness Answ It doth not G. B. pag. 79. What impious Doctrin hath been Printed in that Church of the Degree of Love we owe to God Answ I know of no such Doctrin of the Degrees of Love due to God. I know that all Catholics applaud the Saying of S. Bernard Modus amandi Deum est amare sine modo I know that Divines require as well as S. Thomas a mediocrity in all Vertues except Charity That all Vertues are betwixt two Vices whereof one offends by exceeding the other by not reaching its due measure And this they assure even of Hope which is betwixt Presumption and Despair and of Faith which is betwixt a lightness of Heart believing all things and a hardness to believe any thing Love cannot be too great and so hath only one Vice contrary to it by defect loving too little Is this Doctrin Impious Hence what you say Some mincing it so as if they were afraid of his being too much beloved This
of Opinions opposite to the Power and Life of Christianity I know none who hath a better Title to it than your Reformation For the Life of Christianity is Faith and Charity and you have destroy'd the first by Heresie and the second by Schism as shall be proved hereafter Children delight in edged Tools which serve only to cut their fingers and you and your Brethren use weapons against us which wound your selves Fatal Experience might have taught you more Discretion than to be still moving that stone which hath once crush'd both your Church and State to pieces And truly the Reproach of Antichristian will fall on your Church if prov'd against ours For say what you please of the ancient Britans the first Apostles of the English who brought us the light of Faith and planted the Gospel amongst us came from Rome The Hierarchy you pretend to came from thence By Authority from the Pope my Lord of Canterbury is Primate and my Lord of London is his Suffragan By the same Authority the Country is divided into Dioceses your Deans and Chapters setl'd your Universities founded and several Degrees instituted in them If the Pope be the Antichrist both Universities and Hierarchy amongst you is Antichristian Moreover the Livings you enjoy were for the most part if not altogether given by the pious Liberality of Persons who profest that Faith we profess and lived and died in the Communion of our Church Gratitude to such Benefactors may teach you to judge less severely to suspend your Judgment till you have more convincing Arguments to ground it on than your own bare and bold Assertion CHAP. III. The true Designs of Christian Religion THe Design of God in establishing Religion was that Men should serve him in this World and enjoy him in the next that they (a) Psal 126.5 here sow with tears there reap with joy now run (b) 2 Tim. 4.7 8. their race and fight their battel then receive their crown Rivers (c) Eccles 1.7 receive their waters from the Sea and return to it again And Religion receives its beginning from God runs through all Ages to return to God again Each Man before his Creation is Creatrix essentia says S. Anselm From which by Creation he is separated and by Regeneration and the good Works which follow it he returns to him again never more to be separated from him The first Action is of God alone the rest are of God and Man For God (d) Aug. Qui te creavit sine te non te salvabit sine te will not compleat the Work of our Salvation with out the Cooperation of Man. God (e) Subest tibi cum volueris posse can do all without Man but will not Man (f) Sine me nihil potestis facere Jo. 15.5 can do nothing without God from whom he must expect prevenient concomitant and subsequent Graces for all and every meritorious Action That Bliss which God prepares for us in the next Life contains God himself and when enjoy'd renders the thrice happy Soul like (a) Similes ei erimus 1 Jo. 3.2 unto God and we must attain to it by means proportionable which partake of the resemblance Wherefore our Understanding must be like that of God believing him and our Will loving him The first is Faith the second Charity to which add Hope to keep our Soul steady amidst the Difficulties of this Life as an Anchor (b) Heb. 6.19 fixes a Ship And you have the three Vertues call'd Theological because they rely immediately on Almighty God Faith on his Veracity or Truth in affirming Hope on his Fidelity in promising and Goodness as he is our Chief Good And Charity on his Goodness in its self Which Three Vertues contain what is required of us in this Life Whatsoever is required to a good life is known as we know what to believe to hope and to love Says (c) Aug. Ench. c. 4. Omnia quae requiris proculdubio scies diligenter sciendo quid credi quid sperari debeat quid amari Haec enim maximè imò verò sola in Religione sequenda sunt S. Austin Which are the only things Religion regards as being designed only for these three Vertues But are we not oblig'd to keep the Commandments Or do not they advance towards Heaven who run (a) Psal 119.32 in the paths which God hath traced out And how come these to be omitted Answer They are not ommitted but are contained in Charity (b) Rom. 13.8 9. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law our whole Duty to our Neighbour and the Commandments relating to him being briefly comprehended in this Saying Love thy Neighbor as thy self As our whole Duty to God is contained in that other Saying Love God above all things (c) Matt. 22.40 On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets These are the two Rootes (d) Matt. 7.17 of the good tree which brings forth good fruit As love of our selves is the root of the bad tree which brings forth bad fruit The (e) Aug. Serm. 44. de Temp. Radix omnium bonorum est Charitas sicut radix omnium malorum est Cupiditas root of all good is Charity as the root of all evil is Concupiscence Again (f) Aug. l. de moribus Eccl. c. 25. Nihil aliud est bene vivere quam toto corde totâ animâ totâ mente Deum deligere To live well is to love God with all our Heart with all our Soul with all our Mind I should as easily write out the whole new Testament as endeavour to cite all the passages which directly or indirectly commend Charity Seeing all tend to extinguish in us self-Love and to kindle Divine Love. In it Divine Love sometimes is preferr'd before (a) 1 Cor. 13. the Tongues of Men and Angels before Faith working Miracles before knowledge of the greatest Mysteries Almsgiving c. It is call'd (b) Col. 3.14 The bond of perfection the end (c) 1 Tim. 5. or intent of the Commandments c. I end with the Words of the beloved and loving Disciple (d) Jo. 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Wherefore with Reason S. Austin (e) Aug l. de laudibus Charitatis said Ille tenet quicquid latet quicquid patet in divinis sermonibus qui servat Charitatem in moribus I should not have been so long upon a Point of which I thought none could be ignorant who reads the Scriptures or knows the Rudiments of Christianity did not I perceive that you either never knew it or have forgotten it And When (f) Heb. 5.12 for the time and your Vocation you should be a teacher you have need that one should teach you which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God. For how happens it that in relating the Designs of Christian Religion there is not one clear
and immoveable in good (a) 1 Cor. 15.58 abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that our labor is not in vain CHAP. XVI Of Purgatory G.B. pag. 55. begins to treat of Purgatory and doth it so lightly as if he feared to burn his Fingers Yet if he shews less Reading he shews more Cunning than his Brethren E. S. or W. L. who give great advantages to an Adversary by fixing a time for the kindling of that purging Fire which was lighted long before any determinate time they can fix upon Mr. Stillingfl pag. 654. Not one of the Fathers affirmed your Doctrin of Purgatory before Gregory the First Yet W. L. allows it a much greater Antiquity pag. 353. We can find says he a beginning of this Doctrin and a Beginner too namely Origen Thus they differ among themselves and as little agree each with himself for pag. 348. W. L. had said Scarce any Father within the first Three hundred years ever thought of it Which Assertion is contradictory to what he says of Origen's being the Beginner of it and it is moreover very rash for doth he think that all the Fathers of the first three Ages writ down all their thoughts or that all they writ is preserved till our days or that he hath seen all that is so preserved or remembers all that he hath ever seen But let us leave these Men to reconcile together their own thoughts which will be no small nor short labor and examin the thing it self And to come to it I pass over several slips of our Adversaries v.g. W. Laud pag. 348. says that The first Definition of Purgatory to be believed as a Divine Truth was made by the Council of Florence In which he is mistaken for Benedict XII long before that had Defined the same I prove that the Primitive Church believed a Purgatory in the most pure Times out of the Testimony of three Fathers S. Hilary S. Gregory Nyssen and S. Austin S. Hilary (a) Hil. in Ps 118.20 Ille indefessus ignis obeundus est subeunda sunt illa expiandâ à peccatis animae supplicia That restress Fire is to be endured and those Punishments to be born which may purge our Souls from Sins S. Gregory Nyssen (b) Greg. orat de mortuis as cited by W. L. pag. 351. Men must be purged either by Prayers or by the Furnace of Purgatory Fire after this Life Again A Man cannot be partaker of the Divine Nature unless the Purging Fire doth take away the Stains that are in his Soul. Again After this Life a Purgatory Fire takes away the Blots and Propensity to Evil. W. L. considering these words ingenuously confesseth they seem plain Yet he holds out one Buckler against these two Arrows drawn out of the Quivers of those Fathers That they speak of a Purgation of sins and in the Roman Church we are taught to believe only a Purgation of the pain due to sins already forgiven Now this avails little 1. Because the Debt of pain may be and often is taken for sin on which it is grounded metonimicè 2. He seems not to understand our Doctrin for there is no Definition of our Church obliging us to believe that there remain no venial sins in Purgatory Hence Dr. Kellison (c) Kellis in 3 p. tom 2. p. 611. late President of the English Colledge of Doway proves Purgatory to be prepared First for those who die with only venial sins Secondly for those who die without any sin but only without having fully satisfied for the pains due to sins forgiven The same reasons are alledged by Dr. Sylvius (d) Sylvius in 3. p. Suppl q. 100. p. 356. where he treats the same Question And before these Benedictus XII in his Decree Benedictus Deus hath these words Decernimus animas decedentes cum veniali aliquo peccato purgari post mortem post purgationem ante resumptionem suorum corporum judicium generale post Ascensionem Christi Domini fuisse esse futur as esse in coelo We do declare that Souls dying in venial Sin being purged after their Death before the general Resurrection are translated to Heaven Which Decree you may find in Magno Bullario and in Alphons de Castro verbo Beatitudo You see Sir that there is nothing in the Purgatory described by those Saints incosistent with what we are taught to believe of ours So W. L. or his Squire E. S. must study for another Evasion W. L. cites indeed the Council of Florence to confirm his Answer But that place helps only to convince the World how perfunctoriously he read and inconsiderately framed his Judgment upon reading for in the place cited by him the Council speaks of Souls dying in the state of Grace or Charity Si in Charitate decesserint But of their not having any venial sins not one word unless he thinks that all Souls in Grace are free from venial sins which will be another proof of his Abilities in Divinity My next Proof is taken from St. Angustin in Enchir. cap. 110. Neque negandum est defunctorum â—â—imas pietate suorum viventium relevari cùm pro illis sacrificium mediatoris offertur vel Eleemosynae in Ecclesiâ fiunt sed iis haec prosunt qui cùm viverent ut haec sibi postea prodesse possent meruerunt Est enim quidam vivendi modus nec tam bonus ut non requirat ista post mortem nec tam malus ut ei non prosint ista post mortem Est verò talis in bono ut ista non requirat est rursus talis in malo ut nec his valeat cùm ex hac vitâ transierit adjuvari Similia habentur l. 21. de Civ Dei c. 24. It ought not to be denied that Souls departed are cased by the Piety of their surviving Friends when the Sacrifice of our Mediator is offered for them or Alms given in the Church But those are relieved by these helps who lived so as to deserve the benefit of them after their death for there is a kind of Life neither so good as not to need them nor so bad as not to receive ease by them There is another so good as not to want them and a third so bad as to be incapable of help even from them Thus S. Austin Where you see he distinguishes three Places for the Souls departed as clearly as Bellarmin or the Council of Trent One of those so good as not to need help by the Suffrages of the Church such are the Blessed Souls in Heaven Another so bad as to be incapable or unworthy of relief by the Suffrages such are the wretched Souls in Hell. A third needing them and capable of ease from them such are Souls in Purgatory You see Secondly clear mention of the Sacrifice of our Mediator offered by the Church in his days What is this but our Mass which you may find again Lib. 10. de Civitat Dei. cap. 20. You
a faithful Witness gives hitherto and will give to the end of the World Testimony to that Revelation And we cannot be Hereticks because (b) Tertul. supra Nobis nihil ex arbitrio nostro inducere licet sed nec eligere quod aliquis ex arbitrio suo induxerit we never take the liberty to choose our selves or to admit what others choose but we take bona fide what is delivered as revealed by the greatest Authority imaginable on Earth which is that of the Catholic Church Let an Angel teach us any thing contrary to what is delivered and we will pronounce Anathema to him in imitation of the Apostle Gal. 1.18 Here is then the Tenure of our Faith. The Father sent his only begotten Son consubstantial to himself into the World And what he heard of his Father that he made known to us Joan. 15.15 The Father and Son sent the Holy Ghost And he did not speak of himself but what he heard that he spoke Joan. 16.13 The Holy Ghost sent the Apostles And they declared unto us what they had seen and heard 1 Joan. 1.3 The Apostles sent the Highest and lower Prelates in the Church and the Rule by which they framed their Decrees was Let nothing be altered in the Depositum let no Innovation be admitted in what is delivered Quod traditum est non innovetur Steph. PP apud Cypr. Epist 74. ad Pompeium By this we are assured that our Faith is that which the Councils received from the Apostles the Apostles from the Holy Ghost and so by the Son to God the Father where it rests Now to Protestants Their Proceeding is far different they hear the whole System of Faith commended by the Church as revealed by God and take it into Examination And some things displeasing them in it they fall to reforming it and cut off at one Blow all things not expressy contained in Scripture Here is one Choice Then Scripture is called to the Bar and near a third part of it condemned and lopt off which is a second Choice Thirdly there being still several things in the remnant which displease them as understood by the Church they reject that Interpretation and fix on it such a one as pleases them most So that even what Sense they retain they do it upon this their Haeresis or Choice What Evidence can convince a Man to be a Chooser in Faith that is a Heretic if these Men be not by this Proceeding sufficiently proved such For a farther confirmation of this consider the several ways of Catholics and Protestants in entertaining Propositions of Faith. A Catholic hearing from the Church our Saviour's Words with the Sense that is the compleat Scripture for the bare Word without the Sense is no more Scripture than a Body without a Soul or Life is a Man presently believes them and what Reason soever may appear to the contrary he silences it and submits his Vnderstanding to Faith and let the Words seem harsh and the Sense unconceivable yet the Truth of God triumphs over all those petty Oppositions A Protestant hears the same and presently consults his Reason and till he hath its Verdict suspends his Judgment If that say with the Pharisce Joh. 3.9 How can these things be or with the Capharnaits Joh. 4. This is a hard saying who can hear it the Protestant immediately renounces it So we submit our Reason to Faith you set yours above it We frame our Reason according to the Dictamens of Revelation you shape Revelation by your Reason In fine you set your Reason on a Throne to Judge of that Word by which one day you are to be Judged You may as easily prove the Pharisees and Capharnaits to be better Christians than the Apostles as that your Procedure in receiving Faith is better than that of the Catholic Church SECTION II. Of Hope HOPE is an expectation of future Bliss promised by our Blessed Saviour to those who love him and keep his Commandments It is built on a Promise of God which cannot fail And had that Promise been absolute we might have been more assuredly certain of our future Happiness than we can be of the truth of any Mathematical Demonstration but it is only Conditional requiring on our parts a concurrence with his Divine Grace and this is always uncertain by reason of the mutability of our Will to Evil notwithstanding our strongest Resolutions to Good. Hence our Hope is mixt with Fear Sperando timemus Tertul. l. de cultu faeminarum c. 2. p. 265. We have a full assurance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on God's side Who to shew unto the Heirs of promise the immatability of his Counsel confirmed it by an Oath that by two things immutable in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before us which Hope we have as an Anchor of the Souls both sure and stedfast Heb. 6.17 18 19. On our side we have always reason to apprehend the mutability of our own Will notwithstanding all present Grace from God and the strength of his Counsel Hence the Apostle admonishes us 2 Cor. 6.1 not to receive in vain the Grace of God. He sets before our Eyes his own Example 1 Cor. 9.27 keeping under his Body chastising it and bringing it into subjection lest having preached to others he might become himself a reprobate a cast-away And consequently warns us Phil. 2.12 to work out our salvation with fear and trembling When this Apostle fears who can presume We may resolve well pray hard and act well to day but what assurance have we that to morrow will find us so well disposed or even not doing the quite contrary and that being so ill prepared Death will not surprize us S. Paul the Vessel of Election who had been taken up to the Third Heaven feared lest he should become a reprobate and S. Peter bred up in our Blessed Saviour's School resolved to die with him yet shortly after denied him If these great Pillars of the Church shake and bend and fear breaking or actually break what may not such Reeds as G. B. and I. W. fear You see what Grounds we have to fear from Reason from the Example of the Apostles and from their Doctrin This is comfortless Doctrin to G. B. p. 54. and therefore he had rather throw all on Christ and persuade himself that Christ's Prayer was sufficient his Satisfaction sufficient his Merits sufficient We need neither Pray nor Suffer nor Merit Believe in him and he will do all Crede firmiter pecca fortiter Compare now this Disposition of modern Catholics which is the same with that of the Apostles with that of a Protestant their Fear with his Confidence their Trembling with his Assurance their Apprehensions with his Boldness and you shall find in Catholics true Hope mingled with Fear as you may see in Divines and I have shewed out of the Apostles and
for that reason you ought to suspect you would be forced to own that S. Ignatius de Loyola hath reformed the Clergy establishing a Congregation of Clergy-men who live more conformably to the most ancient Canons and the Ecclesiastics of the Primitive Church than any your whole Reformation hath or shall be ever able to shew Which you would perceive did you reflect that the numerous and bitter Enemies which they have had never do alledge any thing against their Lives or Rules which is a convincing Proof they are irreprochable Now a word to those whom you commend for endeavoring a Reformation of the R. C. Jean du Verger Abbot of S. Cyran was only a private Priest not a Doctor of Divinity nor recommended by any other Degree which might distinguish him from the meanest having no Jurisdiction even over the Abby of which he bore the Title But his Personal Endowments either to good or evil were exceeding great A Large and comprehensive Fancy a tenacious Memory and a Judgment to use all his Learning seasonably Deep Melancholy abounding with adust Choler was his Temper The first fitted him for the Labor of hard Studies the second emboldned him to write whatsoever he fancied without any regard to Persons how great soever Those who particularly knew him say that no History shews a Man of a more intriguing Wit and fitter to Head a Faction For using too much this Faculty he was by the King's Authority cast into Prison being accused by a Bishop whom he had before inveigled who discovered his Designs thrô horror of them Cardinal de Richelieu being solicited to release him by R. S. late Bishop of Chalcedon answered Your Lordship doth not know the Man you speak for Had our Fathers dealt so with Calvin France had enjoyed Peace Now I would know of Mr. B. whether it be tolerable for a private Man to Cabal in his own Church to frame a Party in it besides and contrary to the Orders of its lawful Superiors oppose all established Order to unsettle old Customs and introduce new ones to make way for a new Government If you approve this in S. Cyran how can you blame it in your Phanatics Antony Arnaud was once a Doctor of the Faculty of Paris but was cast out of it and Degraded by the other Doctors for his odd Sentiments in matters of Grace which he obstinately defended even after they were Censured by Rome France and his own Faculty And why might not that Faculty retrench from its Body Members who refuse to submit to the major part as by the Law of Nature all are bound to do where there appears no Sin I know of no other Persecution he ever endured As to his Book of the Frequent Communion it tended not to the reforming but to the destroying the Sacrament of Penance as is seen by its effects where it prevails I will not say he designed so much I leave Intentions to God the Searcher of Hearts Jerem. 17.10 Many times a Buck is shot at and a Man is killed However it was inexcusable in him to endeavor to change the Customs and Laws established by the Church and in force His Title of Doctor could entitle him only to explicate the Laws received and conform to them not to abrogate and reform them for a Doctor as such hath no Jurisdiction without which no Laws can be made or unmade The least Bishop nay the meanest Curate of a Parish hath greater Power as to Laws than the greatest Doctor as such seeing those have some Jurisdiction and this hath none at all Cornelius Jansenius was a Bishop so his Case is different from the rest for he had Jurisdiction Yet why he should be cited amongst the Reformers I know not He hath written several Works Mars Gallicus Annotations on the Pentateuch and the Gospels Alexipharmacum and his Augustinus His Mars Gallicus is an Invective against the French Designs His Annotations and Augustinus do not touch the Discipline of the Church He contradicts in them some Points of the Doctrin of the Church Defined in the Council of Trent which drew the Censure of Rome on the later Work of his yet without touching his Person who by his Will submitted his Augustinus to the Censure of Rome in whose Communion he always lived and did then die as an obedient Son of it To know the opinion he had of your Faction read his Alexipharmacum which he writ against your Brethren at Boysleduc and you will see it What reason have you to complain of Severity used towards him I know of none his Person was never touched by any Censure As for the Disciples of S. Cyran and Jansenius I grant there is amongst them a Spirit of Independantism and what Assembly of Men is entirely free from such Yet you cannot glory in them if what Mr. Brevint says in his Preface to Saul and Samuel at Endor be true that they are more dangerous to a Protestant than even Missionaries and Jesuits and therefore warns all to avoid their Company So that even those who dislike something in us condemn you CHAP. XXIX Other small Objections G. B. p. 112. PApists make Children Bishops allow of Pluralities Non-residences Commendams c which are every day granted at Rome Answ Here are a company of hard words to fright your Reader from Rome as Birds are frighted from Corn with a Rattle and there is likewise more noise than substance in both I have lived in the greatest Catholic Princes Dominions and never saw nor heard of what you say is daily done Our Canons require Thirty years for a Bishop few are made so young most are promoted to that Dignity very ancient Yet this Age being determined only by Ecclesiastical Law I will not deny but that on some extraordinary Motive some have been dispensed with If you blame this see how you will excuse S. Paul who made S. Timothy Bishop of Ephesus in his Youth 1. Tim. 4.12 If you condemn Pluralities in our Church how will you excuse your own in which they are practised Must the Canon Law be a Cable-rope to us and a Cobweb to you If you dislike Pluralities begin with reforming your own Brethren his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary who can find a Conscience to keep two Benefices if they meet with a Prince who will bestow them As for Non-residences (a) Vide Aug. Epist 138. I dedemand Whether it be not lawful for a Bishop to be absent from his Diocese in the Circumstances following 1. For the good of the Church as in General or Particular Councils 2. For the good of the Nation as in our Parliaments 3. For the good of their Dioceses as when Flavianus Patriarch of Antioch went to Constantinople to preserve his Episcopal Seat from being ruined by appeasing Theodosius the Great offended for the throwing down of his Statues 4. For any other Reason so weighty that evidently it may be equivalent to the good which his Residence might bring No Papist thinks them lawful
but only on such Occasions for as for such who do absent themselves either for Ambition or Envy or Pleasure or Friendship or any other unlawful Design or for some good but so little as not to countervail that of their Duty to their Flock we no less blame them than you our Canons for Residence are as severs as can be and those often executed with the utmost rigor What do you more Commendams offend you that is the recommending the Means of Abbeys to those who are not Monks Yet we give them only to Clergy you to meer Laymen Secondly we give them only for their Lives you give them to their Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns Thirdly we leave the Abby and its legal Superiors a competent Subsistence for the Monks you turn them a begging out of God's Blessing into the warm Sun. When you have proved that it is more lawful for your Church to steal a Goose than for ours to pluck a Quill I shall believe your Procedure legal and ours illegal G. B. ibid. They strugled hard against the honest Attempt of those who labored to have had Residence declared to be of Divine Right in the Council of Trent Answ What might the Catholic Church do to please you Had she pass'd that Declaration you would have clamored at your ordinary rate against new Definitions of Faith now she rejected that Definition she opposed the honest Attempt to promote it and she must be in the wrong and those who oppose her in the right whatever she or they do because she is the Church and they a discontented Party in her In fine as the Jews proceeded with our Saviour the Bridegroom so do you with the Bride the Catholic Church her Actions whatever they are are blamed To what are the men of this genertion like They are like unto children sitting in the market-place and saying We have piped unto you and ye have not danced we have mourned unto you and you have not wept Luc. 7.32 For doth the Church make a Decree you blame her for it doth she not make it you blame her for that too But Wisdom is justified by all her children A Conclusion of the First and Beginning of the Second Part. G. B. p. 116. I Have run around the great Circle I proposed to my self and have examined the Designs of Christian Religion and have found great contradiction given to them by the Doctrins of that Church Answ You have indeed run a Round and that so long that you are giddy with it as appears by your frequent and great Falls so evidently against common Sense as I have all along observed and yet I have not observed all for that would have been too tedious to the Reader and have taken up more time than I can bestow upon Trifles You have shewn no Contradiction betwixt the Doctrin of the Catholic Church and the Designs of Christianity I have shewn their Conformity But your Book discovers a Design against Charity which is the Heart of Religion it being a heap of rash Judgments evident Calumnies or uncharitable Surmises I say nothing of your Faults against Reason your incoherent Notions groundless Judgments and perpetual Sophisms because althô these are great Faults in themselves yet not considerable in presence of those others against Charity And these Faults are the greater for being brought to uphold a Schism a Design contrary to Christianity it being a most certain Truth that No Man can have the Love of God who withstands the Vnion of all Men in one Church Non habet Dei Charitatem qui Ecclesiae non diligit unitatem Aug. l. 3. de Baptis cont Donat. c. 16. And all your Pretences of Causes given of your Separation are but frivolous this tearing in pieces the my stical Body of Christ is so great a Sacrilege that no Pretext can excuse it Apparet saith S. Austin l. 2. contra Epist Parmen c. 11. non esse quicquam gravius sacrilegio schismatis quia praecidendae unitatis nulla est justa necessitas When I saw you reflect on your running so long round in a Circle I hoped you would come out of it and was in hopes that either I might have been a Spectator of your following Course or else that you would have led me a more pleasing Walk The Design of S. Austin Lib. 1. Retract cap. 7. came to my Mind who represented the Piety of Catholics and the vicious Lives of the Manichees in his two Books De moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae and De moribus Manichaeorum and I imagined you might design the like in the two Parts of this Book I expected you would have given us a Panegyric of your own Church after you had spent your Satyrical Vein in your Invective against ours I thought we should have seen described the Beauty of the Protestant Church the Advantages of Communion with it the Perfection of its Faith the Decency of its Ceremonies the Majesty of its Hierarchy the Reasonableness of its Canons the Fulness of its Conducency to Piety in this Life and Bliss in the next and all these confirmed with Examples of the vertuous Lives of its Devotes But how much have I been mistaken for casting an Eye a little farther after some few words in commendation of your Faith I find you throwing Dirt again as fast as before or rather faster as if in the First Part you had only essayed what in the Second you act in earnest Doth your Garden the Church Cant. 4.12 is compared to one afford only that one Flower Is the Soil so barren or so ill cultivated as none else should be found in it Or if there be any other do they thrive so ill as not to be worth being pointed to Or doth it come from a morosity of Nature which inclines you to blame and reprehend Or from a propensity to entertain thoughts only of Faults and Imperfections as Flies pitch upon Ulcers and some other Creatures wallow in Mire Or from another Quality worse than that which turns all to bad as a foul Stomach turns all Food into peccant Humors and a Spider draws Poyson from that Flower whence a Bee draws Hony Something of this must be for I will neither say there is nothing reprehensible in the Lives of Catholics it is a Propriety of the Triumphant Church to be free from any Spot or Wrinkle nor that all is bad in Protestants besides their Faith that being the Condition of the Damned Spirits in Hell. But I supersede these Personal Reflections and follow thô with little comfort you in the new Maze you lead me into CHAP. XXX Catholic Faith delivered by Men Divinely Inspired Rules to know true Tradition Faith never changed G. B. p. 116. THE first Character of our Faith is that it was delivered to the World by Men sent of God and Divinely Inspired who proved their Mission by Miracles Answ All Divine Faith is built on the Veracity of God the Men who delivered it at first were but the
the Novatians unreasonable who preached Penance and denied the Fruit of it lib. 1. de Poenit. c. 16. Frustra dicitis vos praedicare Poenitentiam qui tollitis c. And lib. 2. cap. 3. Merendi gratia Sacramenti ad precandum impellimur hoc auferre vultis propter quod agitur Poenitentia Tolle gubernatori perveniendi spem in mediis fluctibus incertus errabit Tolle luctatori coronam lentus jacebit in stadio Tolle piscatori capiendi efficaciam desinet jactare retia In hopes of arriving at his Haven the Pilot steers his Ship The Wrestler strives in hope to throw his Adversary The Fisher casts his Nets in hope of catching some Fish All these would relent were they persuaded the thing they aimed at were impossible How then do you expect that Men should practise good Works when you teach them to hope for no good from them It were indeed to be wished that Men would serve God for God without regarding any Reward But that is a Perfection all do not arrive to and even the best are fain to use some other Motives A Fifth Your Clergy is utterly unfit to Direct and Instruct such Houses our Works have a greater influence on our Neighbors than our Words S. Jerom thought it incongruous that a Man with a full Belly should Preach Fasting And how can a Man Preach Chastity to others who comes himself from the Embraces of his Wife if he hath one or hath his Head full of Amourettes and Designs to get one if he be a Batchelor It is in vain therefore that you seek the advantage of those withdrawing Places from the noise and trouble of the World to those devout Solitudes your Lives are not fit for them your Doctrin is inconsistent with them and your past Actions have shut that Door of Mercy unto you As for Books of Devotion the Author of the Fiat Lux says you have Printed several such composed by ours under your own Names So you hang us and cherish our Writings as the Jews stoned the Prophets and canonized their Books You own we have many excellent Books all the World sees you have scarce any nor can rationally hope for any For he who writes a Spiritual Book ought to aim at two things The First to instruct the Understanding with Divine and Eternal Truths The Second to move the Will to a Hatred of Sin a Contempt of the World and to the Love of God above all things The first may be an Effect of Study but the second cannot be attained unto unless the Author be such himself He must as S. John be A burning and shining Light Joh. 5.35 Burn to God by a true and unfeigned Love of him Shine to Men by the clear Truths which he delivers He must feel within himself those Motions which he endeavors to communicate to his Reader Si vīs me flere dolendum est primum ipsi tibi A Soul possessed with Hope with Fear with Joy with Grief with Love with Hatred in fine with any Passion doth express not only the Thoughts but the Passion it self with Tropes proper by which means it not only informs the Understanding but also stirs the Will of the Hearer or Reader to like Inclinations Read Seneca's Epistles or other Moral Works or Cicero's you shall find a great many excellent Truths yet I never knew any Man the better in his Morality for them As they themselves notwithstanding those Lights were far from being Good Men as you may see in Lactantius lib. 3. Divin Instit from Chap. 13. On the contrary the reading of Saints Works hath a great force to move us to Good. S. Austin l. 8. Confess c. 6. says some were Converted by reading the Life of S. Antony Several have taken serious Resolutions of leading a Christian Life by reading those Confessions And I have known several moved to love Mental Prayer by reading S. Teresa's Works and to the Love of God by using those of S. Francis de Sales This is a great defect in all our Protestant Writers I will instance in two who seem each in his kind to overtop his Confreres quantum lenta solent inter viburna Cupressi The one Bishop Andrews who by Divisions and Subdivisions instructs well only sometimes verborum minutiis rerum pondera frangit The other is the Author of The whole Duty of Man who hath many excellent Truths and very practical as well as the first yet seem not to move the Will because of their cold way of treating their Doctrins They shine but they do not Burn. This Heat is not to be attained unto but by Prayer Which enflames our Heart with the Love of God In meditatione meâ exardescet ignis Psal 38.4 It is this Love which unites us to God and this Union makes us capable of doing great things For an Instrument must be in the Hand of the Workman to do compleatly what is intended if it be distant from him and not held but by a small Thred the Work will be difficult and imperfect if there can be any We are all the Instruments of God in order to all good Works especially in writing Spiritual Books in which if there be any thing good it must come from God the Fountain of all Good. The Apostles after the Ascension expecting the coming of the Holy Ghost Act. 1.14 continued with one accord in Prayer S. John Baptist althô sanctified in his Mothers Womb and designed for the Office of Praecursor and by consequence fitted from above for that Office yet he was in the Desert till the days of his shewing unto Israel Luc. 1.80 sequestring himself from the company of Men and conversing only with God and his Angels the far greatest part of his Life And the Word Incarnate not for any need of his own but to give us Example passed Forty days in Fasting and Prayer in a Desert before he began to Preach Mat. 4.2 And when he had begun he passed the Days with Men and the Nights in Prayer with his Heavenly Father Luc. 6.12 Erat pernoctans in oratione Dei. Species tibi datur forma tibi praescribitur quam debeas amulari says S. Ambr. l. 6. in Luc. This was the Practice of S. Greg. Naz. S. Basil S. Chrysostom And in later Times Ignatius de Loyola before he began the Society past a Retreat in a Cave at Manresa God alone is in peculiar manner the Father of Lights all is darkness but what is received from him The greatest Spiritualists that ever held a Pen even the Writers of Scripture at the same time they taught us received their Lesson from the Holy Ghost And first the Ears of their Heart were open to hear what God spoke to them Psal 84.9 Then they opened their Mouth to speak out of the abundance of their Heart to us Mat. 12.34 Now what Years what Months what Weeks or at least Days do you of the Ministry pass in Solitude in Prayer I find little footsteps of it in any