not to discern the danger We who follow their steps and have seen the whole world in a conspiracy for to reduce them with all possible force and artifice from this separation and to reunite us to Rome One must needs think then that both our Ancestours and We were carried on to this motion so apparently contrary to our own good and welfare by some very strong reason that forced us as it were against our wills to sleight what ever is naturally desirable and in stead of enjoying that to suffer what we are wont to dread which certainly can be no lesse then a strange fantasticalnesse and a silly opinionative humour which should make us take a delight in running counter to others as some without any appearance of reason are pleased to imagine I heartily wish it were in our power to accommodate our selves in this particular with a good conscience to the customes and Services of our Countreymen whose friendship We know very well how much we ought to value and how highly to prize the good favour of those Princes whom God hath set over us especially rather then to displease them needlesly in a matter of such high importance and which they affect with so much passion according to the great and singular devotion which they bear towards those things that they esteem divine We behold likewise and grieve to behold the disorders that this diversitie in Christianitie breeds and the extreme scandal that it gives to Infidels and such as are weak in faith And what ever others say We are not thanks be to God such enemies to His glory and the salvation of mankind as not be as sensible of these dolefull emergencies as of ought that most concerns our temporall good and private interests CHAP. V. Reasons of our Separation from Rome founded upon the diversitie of our Beliefs Object BUt you 'l say If it be thus how can you possibly passe over these considerations your selves which you pretend to think so important why do you not follow them whither they would lead you Seeing you desire the favour of Princes the love of your Countreymen a peaceable and settled condition seeing you would gladly promote the glory of God and the edification of men and do really abhorre the scandal of this disunion why are ye not again reconciled to the Romane Church she opens her arms wide unto you and is not so stiff and rigorous as you seem to apprehend her but for to gain you is willing to yield to some Accommodation and in favour of you to mitigate some of those things that offend you most What I pray is there so strange in her doctrine or in her service that should cause you to forsake her communion to avoid the ancient Churches and Religion of our Fathers to renounce the ordinary publick assemblies of Christian people to sever from all the rest of the world and to suffer all sorts of extremities Our Church adores the same JESVS CHRIST whom you professe to be the Prince and Authour of your Religion She confesseth the unity of His person and the veritie of His two natures She believes Him to be God eternal of the same substance with the Father and with the Holy Ghost and likewise man made in time of the flesh of the blessed Virgin like to us in all things sinne onely excepted truly Immanuel as the ancient Prophesies foretold She acknowledges the truth benefit and necessity of his sufferings and preacheth even as you That His bloud expiated the crimes of mankind That the freedome and salvation of the world is the fruit of His death She exalteth His glory and believes That He sits at the right hand of God in heaven and That He shall come in the last day to judge the world and she hopes after the renovation of this world for a blessed immortality through his grace in one to come She gives to her children baptisme which Christ did institute and refreshes them with His Eucharist and recommends to them piety toward Him and charity toward men She reverenceth the Gospels and the Epistles of the Apostles as books divinely inspired And if there be any other Article in the discipline of our Lord she receiveth and embraceth it as well as you and curseth the names and memory of those who have gone about to overthrow or shake them whether in former or latter ages Ans The truth is We neither can nor will denie that the Church of Rome doth at this day believe all these holy truths We thank our gracious Lord that she hath preserved them through so many ages midst so many disorders But we would to God That she had been as carefull of not adding as of not diminishing That she had foisted in nothing of her own but permitted us to content our selves with that which sufficed the Primitive Christians to bring them to salvation For had she kept within those bounds neither our Fathers nor We had ever had any cause of withdrawing from her Communion We had then sworn to her opinions and performed her service without any scruple finding abundantly in this brief but full and admirably complete rule of wisdome enough to replenish our faith and season our manners understandings and wills with all perfections necessary for attaining to that Soveraigne Happinesse which both you and We naturally desire But who knows not That to the aforesaid divine Articles clearly expressed in the Holy Scriptures authentically preach'd and founded by the Apostles uniformly believed and confessed by Christians of all places and ages Rome hath added divers others which she presseth equally with them forcing all those of her communion to receive them with the same faith as they do those aforesaid thundring out horrible anathemaes against all them that doubt of them and using for the ruine of such all the power and credit that she hath whether in the Church or in the world For besides J. Christ whom she acknowledgeth with us to be the Mediatour of mankind the High-Priest and chief Soveraigne of the Church she would have us hold the Saints departed to be our Mediatours and her Priests our Sacrificers and her Pope to be the Head and Husband of the Church Besides the sacrifice of the Crosse she forceth upon us that of the Altar Besides the bloud of Christ she commands us to expect our cleansing from the sufferings of Martyrs and from the vertue of a certain fire which she hath kindled under ground Besides the water of Baptisme and the refection of the Eucharist she presseth us to receive unction with oyles and the mysteries of her private Confessions Besides the Great God whom she adores and prayes to as we do she commandeth us to adore the holy Sacrament to invocate Angels and beatified Spirits Besides that service of the Gospel wherein she agreeth with us she imposeth upon us divers ceremonies abstaining from meats distinction of times veneration of images Besides the H. Scriptures which are divinely inspired which she confesseth with
professe and practise the contrary to Christ's precepts as in mutilating the Communion and severall kinds of superstition idolatry and tyranny We are not in a Schisme for not subscribing and obeying but He for imposing And also it will follow that Mons r. Daillé hath taken a very right method And that the question of schisme ought to follow and not go before that of heresie or errour For if the Bishop of Rome be in schisme we are not then in fault for not remaining under his government although we had been under it ever since the first plantation of Christianitie in England hoc dato non concesso since he now exacteth our assent subscription to a damnable errour as a part of our Communion And therefore I cannot but wonder That the contrary methode being so preposterous and against both reason and the practise and opinions of the Fathers should be so much used among the Romanists For thereby they do not examine but praesuppose the conclusion First they would have us grant That the Church of Rome is the onely true Church on earth and then examine whether she speak truth and whether we did well in separating from her But I wonder at Cardinal Perron more then at any man That he considering his vast understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and large preamble of two leaves concerning the benefit and necessity of a good definition should Repl. lib. 1. c. 8. define the Church to be a societie of those whom God hath called to salvation by the profession of the TRUE FAITH sincere administration of the Sacraments and adherence to lawfull Pastours and yet that he should both use the Romanists method and find fault with them that do not ibid. c. 4. For if the Church be such a Society Either every member of that Church is obliged to know and therefore to examine the true Faith and sincere administration of the Sacraments or he is obliged to make profession of that which he doth not know and hath not examined Which is far beneath a rationall man much more a Christian And in truth this I take to be the first particular that should be considered For unlesse men before they dispute will be perswaded to agree upon the state of the questions and in what order they should be handled they must needs end their discourse where they should have begun it as to instance in the point in hand D r Potter p. 81. proveth that it is lawfull to abstain from communicating with a Church that imposeth the profession of her corruptions as a condition of her communion Because 't is lawfull to separate from any other corrupted Societie in the like case as if a Monastery should reform it self and reduce into practise ancient good discipline when others would not c. or if a societie of men be universally infected with some disease c. M. Knot in answer alters the case very ingenuously to the quite contrary c. 5. § 31. M. Chillingworth moderates it to do him a courtesie c. 5. § 85. In requitall whereof M r. K. first blames him for it and then begs the question saying That in the question between the Church of Rome and us there is a divine command not to depart whatever she impose So that till the questions be stated right in due method that is till it be examined whether the Church of Rome have corruptions and impose them 't will never appeare whether she or we be in the schisme And certes methinks it is not fair to beg the question so oft as he doth tell us that we are no Christians unlesse we are infallibly certain that the Church is infallible and yet never pretend to prove it so by any other motives than those of credibility which at best are but probable and to me they seem not such I protest I have oft wisht heartily they did having found so many discouragements for a scholar in late years that I long since concluded him a wiseman who said He that encreaseth notions encreaseth sorrow Much study is a wearinesse to the flesh Eccles i. 18. xii 12. concluding that the love of learning and truth which is the most that I pretend to would not onely be tedious but sinfull if felicitie could be attained full as well without it which it might if it were infallibly certain that the Romane Church is infallible And so while M r. Knot goes about to prove that reason overthroweth Christian Religion and tells us that it must be built onely upon the Authority of the Church and then builds that Authoritie onely upon reasons and those very weak ones and no way able to support his superstructure he will let all fall unlesse the same faculty be a pillar under his arm and a bulrush under ours And though he make great use of interjections in exclaiming against Chillingworth and other Protestants in England for pulling down he will never deserve any thanks in my opinion of the Christian world for this building Which mindeth me of the second particular I intend to speak of viz. II. The occasion of printing this book I confesse though it were translated several years since at the urgency of some learned friends whose judgement concerning the acutenes of it I had more reason to trust then mine own yet I was very unwilling to publish it till now that I am convinced of the seasonablenesse of it being certified from English Seminaries beyond the seas indè Quòd nuper-veteres cōmigravere coloni and convinced by relations from Newcastle Brecknock and other places on this side the water That they are very busie at such harvest-work here as Parsons the English Jesuite in his Memorial written at Sevil 1596 and Contzen the Moguntine Jes in the second book of his Politicks and 18. chap. and Campanella in his Monarchia Hispan appointed them being told by the London Book-sellers who are the most competent judges quisque in arte sua Beacon fired p. 6. that at least thirty thousand Popish books have been printed there within these three last years and in a book entituled The Petition of the six Counties of South-Wales and the County of Monmouth to the late Parliament of whole Parishes faln off to Popery since the Ministers have been cast out and yet many men ask WHAT NEED OF A CLERGY Alas I cannot but tremble to see how passionately they are in love with ruine and pursue nakednesse vengeance and desolation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. xxix 18. In a word knowing turpius ejicitur c. that men are with more ease kept within the Church of England then reduced to it and seeing many daily who formerly have been the most forward to cry Venient Romani posting out of it and furious for Romane superstition falling as 't is the custome of the giddy vulgar from one extreme to another Especially considering that the zeal of the greatest member of our Pastours most whereof might far better be spent in pressing
cannot possibly be any just foundation of his confident conclusions But let us come to his proofs p. 2. § 2. he goes about to prove Christian faith is infallible and exempt from all possibility of errour or falshood His end is as I said before that he may prove the Romane Faith and Church infallible His medium is this FAITH is the gift of God and the prime veritie cannot inspire a falshood This I confesse is an argument to prove the infallibility of the Church which I never met or heard of before And I doubt it will prove more then he would have it viz. That Protestants since they have faith as Mr. Knot in Cha. Ma. par 1. c. 1. § 3 4. granteth they have unlesse he 'l say a man may be saved without it contrary to Hebr. xi 6. and Dr. Smith Bishop of Calcedon saith expresly in print Protestantibus credentibus c. they neither want FAITH nor a CHVRCH nor SALVATION are infallible as well as Romane-Catholicks And then Romane Catholicks cannot be infallible unlesse infallible men may contradictions another By the word saith in this argument Mr. Knot meaneth either the object of faith or the act of saith If he mean the object of faith the word of God revealed in the Gospel he abuseth himself and us for no Christian ever denied it If he mean the act of faith as he must if he say any thing against his Adversary or to the purpose then by this discourse not onely the Pope but every Bishop every Priest nay Thou and I and every Christian man and woman in the world who hath infused saith and that gift of God are as infallible as the Church of Rome And yet on this sandy argument Mr. Knot at the first entrance layes the foundation of all his Book and chooseth rather to build the infallibility of Christian Religion hereon than with his companions upon the infallibilitie of the Church In reading Mr. Knot 's book I stood amazed to heare him say so oft that he had already proved the infallibilitie of his Church and searching from Chapter to Chapter I found no other argument beside what I mentioned p. 10. concerning the infallibilitie of faith to which I conceive I have said enough but the notes of credibility p. 428. viz. Miracles sanctitie sufferings victory over enemies conversion of Nations wealthy he might have said Concerning which I come now to speak somewhat briefly 1. For Miracles Christ and the Apostles bid us to take heed of them and so we have the evidence of their true miracles then to keep us from all false ones now and we are bid to examine the miracles by the doctrine not the doctrine by the miracles And the Fathers confesse as much That miracles are not now necessary nor profitable nor marks of the true Religion That the Ancient hereticks pretended to miracles as much or more then the Orthodox And we know that the Heathens talked much of theirs and that many Romane Doctors acknowledge all this But it is strange is the Church of Rome have any miracles and be as she pretends desirous of our salvation and not afraid to convert us that she should never shew them among Protestants where they may abide the touch unlesse our presence be a charm and disable her Priests from doing wonders Very strange that most of her miracles should be done in secret when otherwise they are oft so notorious cheats that the Magistrate takes notice of them and punisheth them whereas Christ and the Apostles did theirs in the face of the Sunne and before all Israel before enemies as well as friends before hereticks and infidels as well as Orthodox that they might do good And that where she doth shew them as in France Italy and Spain they should not if they be true convince the Atheists who more abound in those than in any other Countreys Marsennus told us long since comm in Gen. that there were in his dayes fifty thousand Atheists in that one city of Paris Colerus l. de immort anim tells what store there be in Italy And for the Spaniards I need but mind the Reader of their converting the Indies by depopulating them and barbarously slaying millions auferre trucidare Imperium Religionem vocant as Galgac in Tacit. vitâ Agric. c. 20. insomuch that the poor Natives thought Christians the most cruel and wicked people in the world and called them Guacci that is beasts that live upon prey and Viracochie that is the scum of the sea and pointing at a piece of gold were wont to say Behold the Christians God Such were the sanctified lives of those that boasted of converting Nations Concerning which see a book entituled Spanish cruelties written by Barthol de las Cafas a Bishop and Dominican Frier and translated into French Italian c. printed in Latine at Frankfurt with pictures Also Benzo's historia novi orbis and other Relations of the Indies Which mindeth me of the 2 d Note 2. Sanctitie of life This argument varieth with the climate and in most places proveth rather against Romanists than for them 'T is not long since Clemangis Espencaeus Alvarez Petrarch Pelagius Dante 's Baronius and the Cardinals delegated by P. Paul III. and many of the Romane Doctors complained That all the miseries and civil warres in Christendome came from the ill lives of their Monastical and Clergy-men since Bellarmine sent great numbers of Popes to hell together and are they now come to be the onely Saints on earth 'T is confessed That discipline wherein even those Hereticks whom Mr. Knot calls Infidels by the confession of their most dreadfull Adversaries go beyond Romanists dangers and such externals make great alterations on some mens lives And in England there cannot be many monstrous wicked men of that Religion yet some there are because not many men in comparison with Protestants But what kind of people the plurality of them be in other Nations all the world knows And Salmeron in epist Pauli de falsis signis Eccl. disp 3. Costerus Enchirid. controvers c. 2. p. 101. à Costa de tempor noviss l. 2. c. 20. are so ingenuous as to confesse expresly That a life apparently good and honest is not proper to any one Sect but common to JEWS TURKS and HERETICKS And Card. Perron confesseth it tacitely while in his letter to his Vnkle he mentioneth not the good lives of any Catholicks And S. Chrysost in Matth. iii. hom 4. is as plain and large to my purpose as any of them It is too plain that arguing from the pretended holinesse of mens lives to the goodnesse of their cause or opinion is a Paralogisme which hath advanced Arianisme Pelagianisme and other heresies of old Mahumetanisme Familisme and Anabaptisme of late And unlesse God of His infinite Mercy prevent may ruine Christendome now His other Notes are so far from arguments that I am a little ashamed to say any thing to them The 3 d is SUFFERINGS And
any more queries then are necessary what necessity of an infallible Judge at all The Christian world had no such Judge sor CCCXXIV years for the Nicene Councel was the first General and if They vnderstood Scripture and were saved then when they had no such thing why may not We now And if they were not saved the Church of Rome must blot out many hundreds and thousands of Saints Martyrs out of her Martyrology Till these twenty questions be insallibly resolved it seems to me impossible that any man should have any infallible knowledge of the Church of Romes Infallibility And I am the more confirmed in the necessity of a plain resolution to this last querie because though M. Knot be sometimes hot and positive in grounding all Christian Religion upon the infallibility of the Church I find beside what I said p. 22. Christ and the Apostles intimating the contrary Joh. v. 39. Act. iv 19. xviii 11. 2. Thess v. 21. 1. Joh. iv 1. Rev. ii 2. But to passe by such places of Scripture because I know that they who make profession of devising shifts will find euasions for them and to omit the positions of many Romane Doctours of lesse note who are as high for the non-necessity of an infallible guide as any Protestant can wish I shall onely hint at Lactantius his large Chapter to this purpose lib. 2. de orig error c. 7. beginning thus Quare oportet in ea re in qua vitae ratio versatur sibi quemque confidere suóque judicio ac propriis sensibus niti ad investigandam perpendendam veritatem quà m credentem alienis erroribus decipi tanquam ipsum rationis expertem Dedit omnibus Deus pro virili portione sapientiam c. and rather insist upon a couple of most eminent Cardinals Baronius and Lugo Both these give their opinions very plainly on our side and which I value more their reasons and examples The former hath spent to our purpose a whole Appendix which he prefixed before the second tome of his Annals printed at Rome MDLXXXVIII where appealing to every particular Protestant's judgement concerning the truth of his cause and not once mentioning the infallibility of the Church he goes on thus Ingens sanè vis humanae insidet rationi c. Great is the power of humane reason if it be left unsettered and free in all things And therefore our Ancestors placing great confidence in the force of truth where they contended with obstinate hereticks when they declined and despised all judgement of the Church were so indulgent as not to refuse to try the judgement even of Infidels and expect their determination Such men being Judges the Jews Joseph Antiq. l. 13. c. 6. had the victory over the Samaritans And an heathen Philosopher being by consent chosen for an Arbitrator to whose judgement they were to stand Origen dialog overcame five most wicked hereticks And Archelaus Epiphan haeres 66. a Bishop in Mesopotamia did consute Manes a most desperate Arch-heretick before certain Heathens who were by consent chosen Judges c. The latter though a Jesuite a Spaniard plainly asserteth this non-necessity tom de virtut fidei dis 1. § 12. n. 247. c. And making it good by foure instances 1. THE BELIEF OF THE INFALLIBILITY IT SELF which must be received from some other motive than it self or its own testimony and consequently saith he all other doctrines of Christianity may be believed upon the same inducements not meerly upon the infallibility of the Church 2. CHILDREN or OLD PEOPLE who are newly converted to the faith do not believe the Infallibilitie before they embrace other Articles for they believe Articles in order as they are propounded this is commonly one of the last 3. RUSTICKS AND COMMON PEOPLE at this day in Spain Italy and other Catholick Countreys who commonly resolve their faith no further than their Parish-Priest or some other learned or holy man at the most 4. He asserteth num 252. That IN THE LAVV OF NATURE most believed onely upon the Authority of their Parents without any Church-propounding And also after the law was written most believed Moses the Prophets before their prophecies were received and propounded by the Church for the sanctity of their lives c. And this discourse wa◠written by speciall order from the late Pope Urban and dedicated to the present Pope Innocent X. And now my patient Reader to draw to a conclusion as my spare-leaves do for I have unawares detained thee very much longer then I intended when I first set pen to paper for this Preface which was after the following English Apologie was fully printed and that is one reason of its immethodicalness If I have writ any thing impertinent I hope that my brother THE UNIVERSITY-MAN Mr. Knots friend will help to excuse me if any thing that savoureth of passion which I shall be very sorry for as soon as it shall be discovered to me that Mr. Knot will be my Advocate each of them being commonly conceived sufficiently guilty of one or both of these faults and hereafter I may do as much for them And further to encourage M r K. to do somewhat for me I do here assure him That if he shall vouchsase punctually to answer these xx questions which seem to me very necessary to be plainly determined before he can assure any man of the Infallibility of the Romane Church on which foundation he layeth so huge a structure and withall to refute that one argument which I mentioned pag. 18. out of Dr. Jer. Taylors nervous discourse then prove that the Church of Rome is infallible by any one infallible argument for he hath told us that nothing lesse can do it I will be his Proselyte Vntill which time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse which I think far the more probable and therefore shall daily pray for it Mr. Knot will be so ingenuous as S. Augustine was to retract his errours in his later dayes and come over to the good Old Catholick Apostolick Faith leaving Romane superstructures For I begin to despair with that Milevitan Bishop of ever seeing while I am upon earth any infallible living Judge in matters of saith and to believe I must as the Jews speak expect the coming of Elias for that purpose having long observed by Mr. Knot 's seven books in this Controversie that Cause patrocinio non bona pejor erit To the Preface p. 8. l. 29. adde That there were Christians in Britain before Augustine the Monk came over is plain out of Eusebius Theodoret Arnobius Tertullian Gildas Bromton and I suppose no man that is not a meer stranger to Antiquity will deny That those Christians had no dependance upon Rome will appear to any who readeth the ancient Histories of Rome or England Platina saith that Antherus the 20 th Pope sate eleven years and made onely one Bishop In a word from the death of S t Peter till the entrance of
not be bread at all for all this but the very Creatour of the world Blame as much as you please the dulnesse of my spirit that cannot comprehend a whit of these pretended mysteries But once presuppose my belief to be true and then you cannot shew me wherein I do amisse in separating from you At this time 't is sufficient that I have shown that our separation is not contrary to charity which obligeth no man to embrace that in favour or love of his neighbour which he believes disagreeable to Gods will and pernicious to his own soul CHAP. IX That the opinion of the Lutherans which we bear withall doth not bring with it the adoration of the Eucharist either de jure or de facto BUt because this businesse seems to me of very great importance I am well content for the clearing of it to examine yet more particularly all that can be said in favour of this adoration of the Eucharist to render it unto us more tolerable then as yet it doth appeare Object First then some men may object That we should not so grievously abhorre it seeing that the very Lutherans with whom we promised that we would live in communion hold opinions about the Sacrament of the Eucharist that seem to come very neare this For they believe as every one knows that the body of Jesus Christ is really present in the consecrated bread which being once presupposed it seems to follow That we must adore the Sacrament Seeing then we believe this opinion which seems the principle and foundation of adoration of the Sacrament tolerable a man may think that we should not so fiercely reject the conclusion thence ensueing Ans This consideration is but a vain and false colour which doth no way conclude that which it pretendeth For there are very great and evident differences between the doctrine of such of our brethren as are termed Lutherans and that of Romanists about this point At this time I shall onely take notice of so much as concerns our present purpose Truly what ever their opinion be in other things 't is cleare that they do not practise among themselves nor enjoyn any others who joyn with them nor otherwise approve this adoration and this soveraigne latria of the Eucharist whereof we now speak So that my conscience which cannot yield for the reasons above rehearsed to this latria and adoration findeth nothing in their Communion which wracketh it or offendeth it in this regard But for the Church of Rome 't is clean otherwise there Because she practiseth this service very scrupulously and causeth it to be observed by all such as are in her communion with all circumspection imaginable as being in her opinion one of the most principall devotions in Christian Religion and is so rigorous in it that where she doth absolutely beare rule she constraineth all those whose hearts she cannot bend to bow at least their bodies before the Host as oft as they meet it whence it appeareth that it is a very great Paralogisme and abuse to argue from the opinion of Luther to that of the Pope in this point there being a manifest difference between the one and the other The first leaving my conscience at liberty without requiring of it any service towards the Sacrament contrary to my belief and contrarywise the second forcing me extreme violently to adore that which I firmly believe to be but a mere creature And to that which they say concerning the opinion of the Lutherans about the H. Sacrament of the Eucharist That it follows thence necessarily That we must adore it I answer 1. That it is false For because they think that our Lord Jesus is really present in the Sacrament it doth not thence follow that they believe That the Sacrament is really Jesus Christ On the contrary they hold with us That the Sacrament is true bread in the substance the consecration changing nothing in its nature but onely causing that flesh of Christ signified by the bread to be there present and to be exhibited to them who communicate Or suppose that it were as they hold it follows not thence that we must adore the Sacrament For because God is essentially present in all creatures will you conclude That we must therefore adore all creatures Who sees not that if a man should under pretence of this adore any one he would be straight by all Christians held an idolater The Holy Spirit dwels in the bodies of the faithfull which have the honour to be His temple 1 Cor. vi 19. as S. Paul witnesseth Is this to say that a man must or may adore the bodies of Believers The Host of the Church of Rome is in the Pix and in the mouth and then in the stomach of them who receive it in communicating Will they allow that because of this a man should adore the Pix and the mouth and the stomach where it entreth They would certainly hisse at a man that should conclude that we must adore these things because the host is there present Since it appears by these inductions that those things wherein is any subject worthy of adoration ought not thereupon to be adored 't is cleare not onely that a man may hold the reall presence of our Lord's body in the Sacrament without being obliged to adore the Sacrament but also ex abundanti That if a man be precisely of another opinion he is obliged not to adore it whence it follows that the belief of the Lutherans which doth onely affirm the reall presence of our Lords body in the Eucharist is so farre from inferring the adoration that on the quite contrary it inferreth That we must not adore it 2. But then in the second place I say That though according to the laws of discourse it should follow lawfully and necessarily from the opinion of the Lutherans that we must adore the Sacrament yet 't is enough to keep me from abhorring their communion To see that they hold not this adoration to be the consequence of that opinion but on the contrary reject it as well as I. For a man may hold the principle who doth not at all believe the conclusion Possibly he never thinks of it or if he doth think on it he doth not perceive it to be a consequence from those premises 'T is at this day generally received in our scholes for a good consequence That if the soul of man come from the substance of the Father into the body of the Sonne it may die and is mortall for say we if it depend upon the matter in its original it depends likewise on it in its being So that when the matter that is the body comes to die the soul must likewise necessarily be extinguished seeing the subsistence of the one depends upon the subsistence of the other Will you hereupon say that none ever held the principle of this discourse viz. that the soul is traduced and passeth from the substance of the Father to the Sonne
will but recollect in what condition the Church of Rome was when Princes and People Clergie and Laity did first desire of the Pope a Reformation in faith and manners shall find 1. That they gave and still do to the B. Virgin and other Saints departed the titles of Mediatour Redeemer and Saviour in their publick Liturgies and hymnes 2. That they began their sermons and other solemn duties with Ave-Maries and rendred not to the B. Virgin onely but to reliques pictures Agnus Dei's and severall other creatures animate and inanimate the worship which is due onely to the Creatour Briefly to omit many Doctrines destructive to piety and even civil society which are warranted by other Councels as in the Councel of Constance Sess 19. 3. That it is lawfull to break promise with hereticks and to instance onely in some few positions of the last Councel held at Trent Sess 25. 4. The decree for veneration of images is against Exod. xx 5. Lev. xxvi 1. Esa ii 8 9. xliv 13 c. 1 Cor. x. 7. vi 9 10. Rev. xxi 8. ◠5. How contrary is their invocation of Saints and Angels ibid. Sess 27. unto Rom. x. 14. Luc. xi 1 2. Matth. iv 10. Col. ii 18. Act. x. 25 26. xiv 14 15. Rev. xix 10. xxii 89. 6. Their Communion in one kind decreed in the very words of the Canon Sess 13. and 21. Can. 1. 2. with a non obstante Christi instituto notwithstanding Christs expresse decree how opposite to Matth. xxvi 27. Mark xiv 23. 1 Cor. x. 3 4 16 17 7. Their Transubstantiation Sess 13. chap. 9. Can. 2. how contradictory not onely to the Apostles Creed but also to 1 Cor. x. 16 17 20. xi 23 24 25 26 27 28 Matth. xx vi 29. 8. In a word for such citations may be numerous who ever can reconcile their decree for Service in an unknown tongue ibid. Sess 22. chap. 8. Can. 9. with any part of all the 1 Cor. xiv I will not wonder if he think that fornication is not contrary to any law of God and that forbidding marriage to all the Clergie doth no way oppose Heb. xiii 4. and 1 Tim. iv 3. Some of which positions are touched in the 19 th chap. of this book and the rest excellently confuted in Mons r Daillé's books de poenis de imaginibus but contra Meliterium and other Protestant Authours Who ever I say recollecteth how these and the like Doctrines which overthrow the fundamentals of Christian Religion were then and still are not onely the private opinions of her Doctours but the publick decrees of her Councels And then lastly who ever considereth with what rigour and tyranny she threw them who disbelieved them First out of the Church and then if she could out of the world meerly for being of the young mans mind whom S r Tho. More commendeth and tells a pretty story of pag. 1438. of his works in English whose name was Company because they would not sinne with their neighbours and be damned for good Fellowship So destroying whole Cities and Provinces and with them in Tacitus Solitudinem facientes pacem appellavere Insomuch as none could communicate with her without approving both her tyranny and doctrines which was the indespensable condition of her Communion Who ever I say considereth these things will I conceive never wonder why the Protestants departed from Rome any more than why the Philosophers did of old when they were banished or why he is out of the house who is thrust out of doors But if none of all this could have been truly pleaded yet the Church of England might have been excused from schism by him that duly considereth That the Anglican Church had of old and still may justly challenge many priviledges as well as the Gallican set down by Marc. de Vulson Counsellour to the King of France in his book de la puissance du Pape and by Pythoeus and many others but most largely described in two vast tomes written by the appointment of Cardinal Richilieu when he advised the King of France to set up a Patriarch in opposition to the See of Rome entituled Preuues des libertez de l' Eglise Gallicane Seconde Edition A Paris MDCLI If our secession was schisme what would that have been Both these Churches being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by force of the Ephesme Canon among others in the case of the Arch-Bishop of Cyprus whereby it was Ordered that the Churches should continue as they were and not be subordinated to any forraign Patriarch And again he who considereth That perpetually under the Old Testament and for many ages under the New Kings and Emperours were acknowledged to have a power of reforming the Church under their Dominions That even our Q. Elisabeth who is most railed at by Romanists claimed no other title but what Q. Mary other Romane Catholick Kings and Princes claimed before Her as may be seen in authentick Records and That by our Ancient Laws the Kings of England as the Christian Emperours of old had Supreme jurisdiction in matters Ecclesiasticall as well as Civil and That by these laws it was death for any man to publish the Popes Bull without the Kings license and if any Ecclesiasticall Court did exceed its just limits jurisdictions the Kings prohibition was to be obeyed All which appeareth in Caudries case reported by S r Edward Coke in his fifth book fol. 8. c. Concerning our ancient Ecclesiastical laws see S r. H. Spelmans Councels B p Carltons consensus Ecclesiae Cathol adversus Tridentinos p. 271. 272. D r. Hammonds answer to the six quaeries p. 414. and D. Blondel's Primauté en l' Eglise p. 796. And that the Reformation in England was in this particular as regular as possibl◠the Clergie desiring it in Q. Elisabeths dayes there were not a hundred Incumbents turned out of their livings throughout all England the King Lords and Commons unanimously concurring to it See a book entituled An answer to that groundlesse calumny A Parliamentary Religion by E. Y. printed at Oxford MDCXLV And lastly I request those who are so prone to term us Schismaticks to examine what obligation there lieth upon us to conform any more to Rome then Geneva and why not to the poore Greek Church as well as to either if it have as much truth or indeed why not to the Primitive rather than any Certain I am that they will never be able to prove out of Antiquity that if the Bishop of Rome or any other Bishop require subscription to any errour especially to any that is damnable or dangerous as the condition of their Communion any man was any longer bound to communicate with them because then he were bound to communicate in sinne or by consequence to be obedient to them Whence it will follow That if the Pope make a new Creed and put in some things that contradict the Apostolicall as he did at Trent If he will force us to
and perswading men to pious conversations is altogether laid out in controversies of a lesse nature and importance which by the way may be one cause of the spreading of Popery I thought this book would now at length prove very seasonable And if it may please the Almighty of his goodnesse to let it be as successefull in stopping the increase of the Romane Religion in England at it was in hindring the persecution of the Protestants in France I shall not think one minute of the spare-houres that I employed in translating it lost But if withall it prove instrumentall to the abating of any mans heat for ceremonies and externals or cause him to spend it where it ought in constant devotion to God alone and unfeigned Christian charitie toward all his brethren and reuniting the shattered pieces of groaning Christendome and so induce any one man to live a Holy life which questionlesse is or should be the main end of all our preaching religion and controversies I shall really deem it the happiest time that ever I bestowed The chief book that is now extolled by our Romanists is one lately set forth by M r Edward Knot alias Nich. Smith whose true name is Matthew Wilson born at Pegsworth neare Morpeth in Northumberland who was for severall years Professor of Divinity at the English Colledge in Rome then Vice-Provinciall and that he might finish this his last book the better was made Provinciall of all English Jesuits all which I am informed by some of his own Countrey-men and Society The book is entituled Infidelity unmasked or the Confutation of M r Chillingworth c. Wherewith if any wavering Protestant chance to be shaken in his belief whereof though the Romanists generally boast much I see no danger because I have aster much enquiry not heard of two in England that have had the patience to read it over 'T is so full of monstrous tenents and impertinencies I shall intreat for his satisfaction to read likewise over M r Chillingworth's book against which it was writ and he shall find M r Chillingworth's a sufficient answer to it if he please to compare Section with Section from the beginning to the end of each For he will perceive That the most weighty arguments of M r. Chillingworth as all the Answer to the Directions of N. N. that is M r Knot wherein Master Chill drew up and proved an high charge of Atheisme and Socinianisme against M r Knot and his party and cleared himself and so many places as it would be tedious to specifie are passed by as the sick man in the high way was by the Jew without notice taken And the rest so jejunely handled and so farre from a complete answer though 't is sufficiently known That M r K. being in such high place and dividing part of the task among many of his Inferiours and making use of those three folio's writ by M r G. H. against M r Chill which D r Hammond mentioneth in his unanswerable Defence of the L d Falkland and other the like helps had all the humane advantages that could be had so little touched that methinks he may well unchristen his book a little more and recall that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The confutation of M r Chillingworths book reserving onely the rest Infidelity unmasked And that in relation to himself I shall give M r K. a large catalogue of his omissions when he shall think fit to answer M r Chillingworths Preface to the Authour of charity maintained or because that would perhaps be too long a trouble when he shall answer onely the last page of M r Chillingworths book which in justice should have been done 19 years since containing 〈◊〉 eleven discourses of D r Potter which were never yet â—â—â—ched although M r Chill concludeth his first part in these words Now at last when you are admonished of it that my Reply may be perfect I would entreat you to take them into your consideration promising the second part of his Reply when M r K. should desire it but it seems he had enough of the first which made him desire to smother the second In the interim I cannot but mind M r Knot of one § containing two pages 't is the 96 th of the 5 th c. of M. Chill which he passeth over as ordinary Commentatours do over hard places saying not a word to it Which I am minded of by Mons r Milletiere's Rhetorick concerning the inconsistency of Protestant Religion with civil government And I do the more earnestly beseech him to answer it because I see he salls sometimes into the same strain and because I bear a great love to the persons of some in the Romane Communion and have been many years troubled with an argument which the learned D r Jer. Taylor brings p. 50 51. of his sermon on the Gunpowder-Treason having in my small perusall of Popish writers met with many confirmations both of major and minor proposition which I shall produce when need requires but I think it doth not now because I must be short and the D r hath said enough in that excellent sermon Which seemeth to me to contain a very sufficient answer to a book lately written by a Romanist entituled The Christian Moderatour Besides that I am most credibly informed by a Person of great quality and integrity who saw both the subscriptions and excommunication That those many English Recusants whom he mentioneth p. 17 and 37. were all excommunicated for subscribing those three moderate negative propositions which are there set down as the Doctrine of the English Rom. Catholiques concerning the Popes power over the Supreme Magistrate I was ever a great enemy to rancour in dispute and am of that Viscounts mind who thought That there ought to be no more bitternesse in a treatise of Controversie then in a Love-letter And therefore though I never saw M r Chillingworth whom I find commended by M r Baxter and other eminent Divines and commended by his Adversaries for a devout and rationall man yet I cannot but be moved with pitty and grief to see how M r Knot who bespattereth Casaubon and severall other very learned men insulteth over M r Chillingworth now being dead who would not come near him to dispute while he was alive though M r Chillingworth at sundry times and by severall wayes entreated and solicited nay pressed and importuned him to it before the printing of this solio See The Answer to the direction to N. N. § 4. and afterwards as I am told by them that knew him which he survived seven years How after seventeen years studying to lay this Hector in the dust M r Knot sets sorth a book wherein to speak first of the manner of his discourse the chief thing be doth is to scare his Reader with morm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s fortiter calumniando Antagonistam ut aliquid haereat as his policy was in Tacitus chiefly bespattering him and
that almost in every page with odious imputations of such opinions whereof he cannot point us out one in all his volumne concerning which he who best knew his own belief and is long since gone to answer for it good or bad said more than once as in his Answer to the directions to N. N. § 28. Whosoever teacheth or holdeth them LET HIM BE ANATHEMA In which volumne though M r Knot declaim oft against reason and say That to it the mysteries of Christian Religion seem impossible c. xiii § 27. p. 808. pro 812. yet he thinks it fitting to charge his Adversary with the sayings not onely of S t Augustine B â— Andrews Hooker Grotius Calvin Beza and the like learned men who yet confessed themselves men but also of Luther Socinus Crellius Volkelius Bonaventure Halensis Dionys Areopagita and I know not what other rabble as if poor Chillingworth were bound to defend all whosoever that wrote before him Whereas all the world knows That he who would not believe the Romane Church whereof he had been a member upon her own bare word would as little believe any particular member of that or any other Society upon theirs and that he disclaimed not her pretended Infallibility which was her worst fault as making all the rest how damnable soever incurable that he might affix it upon another or the next man he met though never so learned or pious And if M r. K. will think it unjust That he should be put to maintain the writings of all Papists or even of those few of his own late Order his citing so much the opinions of Protestants out of our Adversary Brerely is no argument but of his own unreasonablenesse I shall not take notice of half his impertinencies not how he grants what M r Chill affirmed concerning some mens believing contradictions p. 803. lin 5. There is no doubt saith he but that men may believe things which in themselves are contradictions p. 810. l. 18. 'T is needlesse to be proved it being a thing which no man denyeth And yet how in attempting to shew that Master Chillingworth's reasons do not prove it he spends from p. 802. to 815. To take notice of all such peccadilloes would be very tedious to Thee and me Onely because I have mentioned his citing Brerely so oft and not onely M r K. but most of the other English Advocates for the Church of Rome are very faulty therein give me leave to adde a little in that particular M r Chill c. 5. § 91. answering M r Knots alledging the confession of Protestants concerning the Antiquity of some Doctrines in the Church of Rome sets down twenty Doctrines of that Church and entreateh M r K. to inform him what confession of Protestants he hath for them viz. Communion in one kind Latiâ—e Service Indulgences the Popes power in temporalities over Princes picturing the Trinity worshipping of pictures and of the B. Virgin her immaculate conception infallibility of the Pope or Church auricular Confession c. And that as some Protestants confesse the Antiquity but alwayes postnate to Apostolick of some Romane points so there want not Papists who acknowledge as freely the novelty of many of them and the Antiquity of ours To which all that M r K. answereth is p. 867. as followeth 1. Some of these things are not matters of faith and some other points are even ridiculous 2. We deny that any Cath. approved Authour acknowledgeth the novelty of any of our Doctrines or the antiquity of yours except such were ancient heresies How truly spoken the first is the Reader may judge if he have read the Canons of the Councel of Trent Luc. Wadding's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or History of the Immaculate conception printed at Lovain 1624. or any few Romane authours How true the second if he 'l vouchsafe to examine the places I have cited p. 6. or these which follow Though there are some Protestants who confesse the Antiquity though not Primitive which is the onely Antiquity they hold obliging of some few Romane Doctrines so there are not a few Doctours Writers of their own Communion who acknowledge as liberally the novelty of very many others as 1 that Transubstantiation was not named much lesse made an Article of faith before the Laterane Councel Bellarm. de Sacram. l. 2. c. 25. 2 That for the first MCC years the Holy Cup was administred to the Laity Lindan Panopl l. 4. part 2. c. 56. § Hunc igitur Cassander saepe Albaspinaeus Observ Sacr. l. 1. c. 4. And your friend Petavius in his Treatise against Arnault de la frequent Communion saith None but an extreme ignorant or impudent fellow can deny it 3. That they beleeved the sacrifice of the Eucharist to be but the IMAGE or COMMEMORATION of our Saviours sacrifice on the Crosse Lombard Sent. l. 4. c. 12. Aqu. 3. p. qu. 83. art 1. incorp 4. That the Primitive Christians celebrated not the Eucharist as the Romane Church doth now Durand ration div offic lib. 4. c. 1. Rupertus Abbas Tuit Divin Offic. l. 2. c. 21. he that readeth Justin Martyr in his Apology largely describing the custome of the Primitives in his dayes may think he speaks of the Protestants now 5. That Divine Service was celebrated for many ages in a tongue understood by the people Nic. de Lyr. in 1. ad Cor. 14. Cassander in Liturg c. 28. Alphons à Castro de justa pun haeret l. 3. c. 6. where desending this differing from the Primitive Church he saith That he who should now conform to THEM would be accounted not onely an impious man but an Infidel 6. That the Fathers exhorted the people to read the Scriptures Azor. mor. l. 8. c. 26. part 1. § respondeo 7. That they generally condemned the worship of Images for fear of Idolatry Polyd. Virg. de invent rerum l. 6. c. 13. In which treatise that learned Italian oft ingemiously acknowledgeth the novelty of most of their customes in the Church of Rome except such as came from Jews or Pagans As lib. 5. c. 4. where he saith 8 God and the Primitive Church permitted marriage to Priests and Pope Siricius who lived at the end of the fourth century was the first that forbad it whose laws to that purpose though they came out very thick were little heeded till the eleventh Age. See Gloss decret dist 84. c. 3. and P. Pius II. in his 130. Epist against the Bohemians and Taborites where he opposeth the Modern Church to the Primitive 9. That MCCCC years after Christ many learned Romanists denied the Popes judgement to be infallible Gerson Almain Alphonsus Adrian PP apud Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 2. § Secunda opinio 10. Or his authority to be above that of a generall Councel Camaracensis Gerson Almain Cusan Panormitan Abulensis apud Bell. de Conc. l. 2. c. 14. initio 11. That the Masse was not instituted by Christ and the Apostles who at the consecration used
affirmeth That the Protestant Religion is no safe way to salvation I answer I confide to use Mr. Knots words that every indifferent Reader will find this to be clearly false For first he speaketh no more of Protestants than Papists but equally of both Secondly he saith not categorically they do erre but it is to be feared they both Protestants and Papists do Thirdly he saith not absolutely neither but on supposition IF any Protestant or Papist be held in any errour by any sinne of their will then such errour is as the cause of it sinfull and damnable And this none that I know unlesse himself will or can deny It being a truth sufficiently manifest and asserted by his great Masters P. Lombard and T. Aquinas and the greatest stream of Schole-men and Casuists And to tell Mr. Knot my mind freely I am clearly of Mr. Chill's opinion viz. That Protestant Religion is a safe way to salvation and yet that many Protestants go to hell That there are millions of Protestants who think not to be a Papist is enough not to be damned and millions of Papists who think not to be a Protestant is enough to oblige Almighty God and merit heaven And I take both parties to be extreme blame-worthy for deeming so and Mr. Knot must give me leave to wonder if any rationall man shall blame me for saying so without giving his reasons Now we come to M r Knots very large Introduction where § 2. p. 38. he layeth down this proposition to be proved Christian Religion is absolutely and infallibly true And so he spends you above fifteen sheets in pretending to prove it and the Necessity of Grace and the first of these by the last And if M r Chill neither denied the necessity of Grace nor the infallibility of Christian Religion I desire the Reader to consider whether he have not fifteen sheets together of impertinencies And that M r Chill denyed neither of these will clearly enough appear to any that are not willing to be deceived if they can spare leisure to read over M r Chillingworth's pamphlet as M r Knots friend calls it or but consult those very passages from which M r K. taketh the occasion of these long discourses and which he citeth out of Master Chillingworths sixth Chapter where his 3 d § begins thus I do HEARTILY acknowledge and believe the Articles of our Faith to be in themselves Truths as certain and INFALLIBLE as the very common principles of GEOMETRY and MATHEMATICKS But as if M r K. notwithstanding the Metaphysicks he boasteth so much of knew not the difference between certitudo objecti subjecti he seeketh advantage from what followeth immediately viz. But That there is required of us a knowledge of them and an adherence to them of SENSE or SCIENCE That such a certainty is required of us UNDER PAIN OF DAMNATION So that NO man CAN HOPE to be in a state of salvation but he that finds in himself such a degree of faith such a strength of adherence This I have already demonstrated to be a great errour and of dangerous and pernicious consequence And because I am more and more confirmed in my perswasion I will here confirm it with reasons c. p. 311. From which passage whether any just advantage can be taken especially for a digression of so many sheets let every unpassionate Reader judge Chap. 1. § 2. p. 38. He layes down this proposition to be proved Christian faith is absolutely and infallibly true by Christian faith he explains two lines after his proposition himself to mean the true Religion Now 1. This is the same vein of Sophistry which I noted even now and runnes through the whole book when he speaks of infallibility The question being not at all de certitudine objecti but subjecti not whether divine truths be absolutely infallible this none doubteth who admits a God in the true notion but whether we are infallibly certain That these or those positions are Divine truths 2. Master Chill tells us in the ninth § of his Conclusion that the end of his book was to confirm the truth of the divine infallible Religion of Jesus Christ 3. M r K. takes notice of it and citeth that very passage and such others c. 1. § 39. p. 66. So that to make a great noise against M r Chill and to endeavour to prove against him what he believeth and granteth nay what he knoweth and confesseth he grants as M r K. doth here and oft elsewhere is such a piece of Jesuitical industry and civility as Protestants never learnt 4. He tells us that in the proof of this proposition he maintaineth the cause of All Christians and of all men and mankind 'T is a comfort to meet with such a charitable person But if he have all Christians nay all men all mankind of his perswasion and saith so himself who are his adversaries If all men all mankind be for the infallibility of all faith then sure M r Chill is so too for though I never saw or knew him otherwise then by his printed book I ever took him for a man and I believe M r K. who hath reason to know him better then I hath found him so And if all be not of Master Knots mind then nothing can be concluded hence but that he was in a passion when he wrote this book so may be the better excused for declaming against reason But 5. Had M r K. read Sextus Empericus and been acquainted with the Pyrrhonians he might have found many and they no fools but famous Philosophers who were not for his absolute infallibility And I wish Mr. Knot may never be one of them I hope be is and will continue a Christian Onely give me leave to tell him That if nothing else could be said for the truth of our Christian Religion but what is in his Infidelitie unmasked and Vanninus his Amphitheatrum heu actum esset de Palladio Since not to trouble you with transcribing his positions which I cited pag. 14. having told us That it is necessary that supernaturall knowledge should be most certain and infallible and That a man is as happy without any belief of Christian Religion as without one that is infallible he saith p. 52. That 't is impossible Christian Religion can retain the highest degree of probability if it have no greater perfection then it receiveth from the sole probable arguments of credibility And then throughout the whole book he hath not one argument which pretends to reach higher than to a probability I wish any of them would reach so high for the infallibility of the Church or living Judge upon which he endeavours to build all the rest unlesse you will grant which indeed he contendeth hard for Conclusionem non semper sequi deteriorem partem That the conclusion may sometimes be stronger than the premises And indeed it concerns him to desire it should be granted for the premises which he bringeth
Marcellus which was CCC and old yeares there were not two hundred Bishops made in all by all the Popes of Rome One in a yeare was a rare matter He saith not a syllable of the erecting any Arch-Bishoprick or Patriarchate all that time Not a word of forreign Bishops travelling or sending to Rome to beg Priviledges and Confirmations or to take an oath of fidelity and obedience But to come closer home and to the purpose The story of the seaven British Bishops and many other very learned men but especially the Monks of Bangor is very remarkable and may be read at large in the history of Bede set forth by our learned M r Whelock from p. 110. to 119. whâ—re it is said that these Monks of Bangor were divided into seven parts see also Bromton's Chronicle p. 780. the least whereof consisted of three hundred and That they told Augustine plainly that they would not relinquish their ancient customes without the consent and leave of their Countrymen And when Augustine had made a long speech to perswade them to be subject to the Pope of Rome Dinooth their Abbot answered him briefly in these words Bid ispis c. S r H. Spelmans Councels p. 108. Be it known unto you and without doubt that we are all and every one of us obedient and subjects to the Church of God and Pope of Rome and to every godly Christian to love every one in his degree with perfect charity and to help every one of them by word and deed to be the children of God And other obedience then this I do not know due to him whom you call the Pope or that he hath right to challenge or to require to be the Father of Fathers This obedience we are ready to give and to pay to him and to every Christian continually Besides we are under the government of the Bishop of Kaerleon upon Vske who is to oversee us under God to make us keep the spirituall way Would you know what became of these Monks hereupon Episcopi Abbates Doctores contra morem Ecclesiae Romanae viventes à Rege Ethelfrido vastante gentem Britonum ad nihilum redacti sunt cum tribus millibus Monachorum monasterii de Bangor qui in campum bellatorum adducti sunt ut Regi adversa imprecarent Hi omnes ut fertur de labore manuum suarum vivebant c. Thus far Gervasius printed by M r Bee p. 1632. See the sixteen immunities p. 1386. And S r H. Spelman citeth out of the ancient Annals of Gisburn these words p. 26. Till the time of K. Hen. 1. the Bishops of S. Davids were there consecrated by their own Welsh Suffragans VVITHOUT MAKING ANY PROFESSION OF SUBJECTION TO ANY OTHER CHURCH Not to insist upon the translating the Pall into little Britain he that would reade more to this purpose may peruse RR. Armach his discourses of the Religion anciently professed by the Irish and Brittish chap. 8 9 10. de primordiis Eccles Britan. the eight first chapters ERRATA In the Preface p. 6. l. 3. which by consequence over p. 7. l. 17. indispensable p. 9. l. 14. be in schisme or heresie p. 10. l. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 14. l. 34. intreat him for p. 16. l. 35. Cellot de Hierarchia p. 17. l. 9. the Christian Moderatour mentioneth p. 18. l. 15. Beza Luther ibid. l. 17. dele Luther p. 31. l. 30. dele John of Leiden p. 32. l. 30. chymes In the Apologie p. 22. l. 27. not to S. Paul p. 26. l. 11. unbeseeming at the least p. 62. l. 23. dele not p. 40. l. 13. nature among unintellectual beings p. 73. l. 13. Rimmon In. p. 83. l. 5 7 ate p 87. l. 3. in a slight ibid. l. 24. alone p. 88. l. 28. his conscience To the most vertuous Lady MARY de LANOU wife to the Marshall of THEMINIS MADAM HAving a designe to justifie in this Book That it is not permitted to a conscience which is satisfied in the knowledge of our Religion to continue in the profession of the Romane and desiring to confirm that by example which I think I have proved by reason I have not found any more illustrious than that which you have been pleased to give in the sight of heaven and earth in quitting the Romane Communion which is so sweet so pompous and advantageous in worldly respects to cast your self into the lap of the true Church as low and desolate as it appeareth in carnal eyes This brave and gallant action highly befitting your Name and Bloud hath demonstrated more evidently than any words of mine are able That the souls of those who believe as we do cannot enjoy the peace of God nor assurance of his grace nor hope of his glory in the communion which You have quitted For these things are all that you find among us worth speaking of all other advantages do far more abound among them nothing but these can you look or hope for ' midst us who are destitute of all the rest But You have judged that this rich pearl of the Gospel is alone worth far more then all other commodities beside so have rather chosen to hazard the rest to assure your self of this than to endure for assuring the rest to run any the least danger in the world of missing this jewell MADAM It is the Almighty who hath inspired into You so holy and so wise a resolution and hath given You strength to put it in execution at so unfavourable a time Whereat the Angels in heaven rejoyce whereat the Church on earth praiseth Him Amidst so many evils which she suffereth and more which she foreseeth 't is matter to Her of great comfort that in an age so full of ill examples she can find some souls of your quality and merit that have courage to disdain reproach and can rank themselves under the Crosse of their Saviour Even they who approve not your change admire your vertue and cannot deny but that 't is a rare and singular generositie which causeth you to preferre the contentment of your conscience before all other considerations But besides the joy that your conversion hath brought to those of the Church and the admiration that it affects them with who are out of it I hope that your example will be to the great edification of all strengthening the one in the Communion wherein they live and drawing in the other Which MADAM is the cause of my mentioning this to you in my entrance most humbly beseeching you to take it in good part and to suffer your name to shine in the front of this small book to give weight and light to its discourse and to invite all such as shall read it to imitate You in preferring the grace of Heaven before the interests of earth and the solid hopes of Eternity before the petty joyes of these few moments which we passe here below Which favour if I may as I hope I shall obtain from your
foundation of faith and obliging men to separate and the other not That the opinions of the Church of Rome which we reject are of the first sort and those of the Lutherans of the second Object BUt you 'l say Is it lawfull then to separate from a Church because it preacheth publickly and generally some Doctrine which is contrary to our belief Is it possible that our Soveraign Lord who would have us to beare with the ill manners and actions of men for the good that peace unity brings to a Community should permit us to separate from them for false opinions Suppose that Rome have added somewhat to those things which Christ and his Apostles laid down Yet what need had your Fathers to depart from her so farre This Spirit of concord you speak of which obliged them as you grant to suffer the faults in their neighbours lives how chance it did not make them beare with some in their faith Ans Because there is in this respect an extreme difference between faults in doctrine and in life the first drawing after them a consequence farre differing from that of the latter because that the Church propounds unto us not Her life but Her doctrine to be the rule of our faith and manners Yet which we Protestants confesse all errours in doctrine do not give a man a just and sufficient cause to make a division from those that hold them For the Apostle commands us to receive him that is weak in the faith Rom. xiv 1. and not to trouble him with disputes and to afford him our selves for an example in bearing gently with those who are not of our mind in every thing Let us all who are perfect saith he be of the same mind and if any of you think otherwise God shall reveal even this unto him Phil. iii. 15. 'T is evident that this weaknesse in faith and this diversitie in opinon whereof S. Paul speaketh are errours but such as he would have us beare with Yet since he elsewhere pronounceth anathema against those that preach any other Gospel then that which he preached we must of necessitie conclude that there are two sorts of errours in religion the one such as a man may beare with without dividing from them who hold them and the other such for which he is bound to avoid their communion and this difference dependeth upon the nature of errours themselves For as the truths which we are to believe are not all of equall importance some being esteemed fundamentall and so absolutely requisite that a man cannot come to the kingdome of heaven if he be ignorant of them others being profitable yet not so necessary but that a man may without the knowledge of them serve God and enjoy salvation so it is with errours Some are pernicious and no way consistent with a true piety others are lesse hurtfull and do not necessarily draw in men to perdition S. Paul doth clearly enough discover to us this distinction 1 Cor. iii. 13 15. where after he had said That none could lay any other foundation but that which he had laid to wit Jesus Christ he addeth That they who builded upon this foundation wood hay stubble should have losse in their work when it comes to be tried neverthelesse they should be saved yet so as by fire that is to say with difficulty their person onely or that wherein their chief good consisted escaping a burning An evident signe that there be errours which do not deprive the Authours thereof of salvation much lesse exclude such from happinesse as believe them after Them and take them up when they are dead or gone meerly upon their trust and credit And to conclude who doth not see plainly That there be errours which utterly overthrow the foundations of Christianity ingaging us unavoidably in such things as are inconsistent with salvation and that there be others which do not so As for example if one should think that he were bound to worship the Sunne For seeing the Sunne is a creature and those who worship creatures have no portion in the kingdome of heaven 'T is evident that he who hath such an opinion cannot attain eternal happinesse And 't is so with all other errours which overthrow any of the first necessary and fundamentall articles of Christian religion But the errour of those who believed of old That the Church shall continue a thousand yeares or some long time with J. Christ upon earth after the resurrection is no way repugnant to piety towards God or charity towards our Neighbour nor doth it directly overthrow any of the foundations of the Gospel Though it be in my opinion contrary to divers passages of S. Paul and scarce consonant to the nature of Christs Kingdome A man would scarce believe how necessary it is to mark this difference among the errours of men in matters of religion for preventing that vain scrupulositie and importunate pensivenesse which many melancholy spirits are troubled with who condemne all errours alike and thunder out one and the same anathema against what ever differs though never so little from their apprehensions yet for keeping them from falling on the other side into the indifferencie of profane persons who conform to any thing and swallow a camel as well as a gnat Indeed the true pious person will endeavour to keep himself from all errour and will purge his neighbour too as well as himself so farre as he is able For any deviation from truth though it may be a light and small errour yet 't is an errour that is to say an ignorance and contradiction to the truth and by consequence an evil But a man must be very diligent and circumspect in observing this distinction among errours and acknowledge that one is much more dangerous then another and he should more or lesse abhorre them all according as he shall judge them to be more or lesse dangerous If they be of the first rank viz. those which overthrow the foundations of Christianitie he will bestirre himself with all possible prudence and dexteritie according to his vocation and gifts to free his neighbour from them and if he cannot gain upon him he will yet be sure to save and deliver his own soul from the communion of such as hold them This was the practise of the Faithfull in reference to Paulus Samosatensis Bishop of Antioch and Arius a Priest of Alexandria who held that Jesus Christ was a meer creature throwing down Christianitie from top to bottome by this abominable doctrine But if the errour be of a second sort not pernicious nor inconsistent with the principles of our faith we should do well if we could handsomely to free our brethren from it for it were to be wisht that we might be entirely exempt from errour but if we cannot get out we must not therefore straight sever from them but gently and quietly beare with what we cannot alter yet so that we prejudice not any mans salvation much lesse
who did not likewise hold the conclusion viz. that the soul is mortall With what face dare you venture to assert it since Tertullian and many other Authors of very great esteem were of that opinion and S. Augustine did rather approve it then condemn it since I say they did openly believe the first of these positions and expresly deny the second So S. Hilary according to the true consequences of that opinion which he held concerning the impassible nature of Christs body seems to me to have been obliged to denie the truth and realitie of our redemption And yet who dare impute so grievous an impietie to such a Saint I should never have done should I resolve to set down here all the examples that may be alledged to this purpose These two suffice to shew that whoever maintains an ill opinion is not therefore to be held guilty of the consequences of it Sâ—ppose then it were true as it is not That from the belief of the Lutherans concerning the Eucharist it would follow That we must adore the Sacrament Since they own not this consequence nay on the contrary strongly reject it It would be an extreme injustice to ascribe it to them And as it would have been a want of charity in the primitive Christians to have avoided the Communion of Tertullian or S. Hilary upon protence that from their opinions touching the originall of the soul of man and the nature of the body of Christ there followed many propositions which are impious and contrary to our faith since they rejected and abhorred them so would it be in my mind a great oversight now to separate from the Lutherans upon this pretended consequence from their opinion concerning the holy Sacrament if it could be deduced thence as it cannot Since they themselves protest that they will not acknowledge it But as for them of Rome 't is quite otherwise For the adoration of the Eucharist is a consequence of their doctrine concerning this point both de jure and de facto that is it plainly follows from it and they expresly professe and practise it 1. De jure it follows from it For if the subject which we call the Sacrament of the Eucharist be in its substance not bread as we believe but the body of Christ as they hold 't is evident that men both may and ought to adore it seeing that the body of Christ is a subject adorable And then it follows from it 2. De facto they practise it For who knows not that there is not any one Article in all the Romane religion which is professed more publickly pressed more severely exercised more devoutly then this of adoring the Host Since then they hold this article both de jure according to the plain consequences of their belief in the point of the Eucharist and de facto in their confessions and practises and That the Lutherans on the contrary hold them not neither in one manner nor the other neither in thesi nor hypothesi 'T is cleare That our bearing with the latter without separating from them for the diversitie that is between them and us about the point of the Eucharist doth no way inferre that we should do as much with the former CHAP. X. That the dignitie and excellency of the Eucharist doth not hinder it from being a grievous and deadly offense to adore it if it be bread in substance as we believe Object BUt you 'l say That you esteem it a rude comparison to liken the adoration which the Church of Rome gives the Eucharist to the services that the profane Pagans or debauched Israelites gave to mere creatures For they adored idols whereas the Eucharist is a divine Sacrament So that it seems an abuse of the Scripture to scare us with those threats and curses that it denounceth against such kind of people seeing the object which they served was so different from that which Rome will have us to adore We confesse we perform this action but 't is to one of the Institutions of our Master and for you to equall that and compare it with an idol 'T is very unbeseeming Answ Thanks be to God we have a clean other opinion of the Eucharist We hold it as it is indeed a very holy Sacrament of the body and bloud of our Lord to be one of the most precious instruments of his grace which being lawfully and rightly celebrated communicateth to us all the treasures of heaven the flesh and bloud of Christ the pardon of our sinnes the peace of our consciences the sanctification of our souls and the right to a blessed immortalitie Farre be it from us to give it the profane and infamous name of an idol We will not say that it is simply and onely bread and if any of us do chance to speak so in saying that 't is bread he means in regard of the substance of the thing not in regard of its vertue or dignity in regard of which we believe that it is quite another thing from bread We should take the word in the same sense that Gregory Nyssen doth on the like subject who speaking of the water in Baptisme Orat. in Bapt. Christ p. 803. tom 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith That it is nothing else but water he means in its nature For in the grace 't is another thing beside water and both the Scriptures teach it to be so and all Christians believe it and this holy Doctour particularly witnesseth it in divers places Id. ibid. p. 801. c. 4. orat Catech. c. 33. We therefore do willingly give to the Sacrament all those advantages and respects that justly belong to it and not to any idol But if this be a creature as we believe it to be the excellence and dignitie thereof as great as you set it forth will not at all excuse their crime who adore it For the Lord forbids us to adore not base or vain things onely as onions and the Cats of the Egyptians and the idols of the Pagans which have not any subsistence in nature or any where else except in their false imaginations but he forbids us generally and absolutely to adore any creature what ever it be whether it creep upon the ground or shine in heaven whether it swim in the water or flie in the aire animate or inanimate visible or invisible corporeall or spiritual profane or sacred comprehending under the same condemnation all those who worship any creature what ever it be as guilty of the same crime and subject to the same punishment And de facto the thing is very evident for this adoration which we give to God being an acknowledgement of his Soveraignty a duty like to the love which a woman oweth to her lawfull husband Who doth not perceive that it is a manifest crime to give it to any other but to him that the differences of the subjects to which men give it are no way considerable in this particular seeing though they
us God forbid they should We believe and preach That our Ministers are men and mere creatures so that no man can take the kneeling which is before them who give imposition of hands for an adoration addressed to them all the profession of our Churches and nature of the things themselves directly contradicting it In like manner the Church of England believeth and teacheth publickly That the Eucharist is bread in substance and that to adore it were grievously to offend God So that the kneeling which is in their communion cannot be taken for an adoration of ought else but Jesus Christ who is in heaven and not of bread which is upon the earth Did the Church of Rome believe and likewise teach that the Eucharist were bread in substance and not a subject fit to be adored we think that then we might bow the knee in her Communion without wounding our consciences But while she teacheth that which she now believeth while she exacteth of us this kneeling as a true adoration of the Sacrament who is so blind as not to see that we cannot obey her without making our selves according to the judgement of our own consciences guilty of adoreing a meer creature since we believe the Sacrament so to be CHAP. XIII That he who believeth the Eucharist to be bread in substance cannot give it the reverence which is practised in the Church of Rome withoul evident falshood hypocrisie and perfidiousnesse Object FOr to say Though the intention of the Church of Rome be that we should addresse this kneeling and adoration whereof that is the mark to the Sacrament there present That we may neverthelesse use it otherwise and addresse it to J. Christ sitting in heaven at the right hand of His Father lifting up our hearts raising our affections and thoughts to Him and by this means kneel with our Adversaries without adoring as they do that which we believe to be but a creature Answ This is a false and dangerous excuse of the flesh which might it take place would open a large and dangerous gate to impietie and hypocrisie and ruine the foundations of all religion And for the better understanding of it I must begin with it a little higher God being the Creatour and Redeemer of whole man that is to say both of his soul and of his bodie would have him which is but reasonable serve Him entirely using both the one and the other of these two parts to that end Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit both which are Gods saith the Apostle 1 Cor. vi 20. And as in offices which concern our neighbours he commandeth us sincerity willing us to love them inwardly and to edifie and help them outwardly so doth He command that in piety which regardeth Himself we should joyntly make use of our hearts and bodies And as He abominates that man who loving his neighbour in his heart should abuse him with his tongue or hurt him with his hand or contrariwise should give him an almes with his hand and hate him in his heart So will He not approve of that man who pretends to reverence Him in the secret of his soul and yet with his tongue blasphemeth His name nor him who blessing Him with his mouth shall curse Him with his heart 'T will stand one man in no stead to plead for himself That his soul did his duty but the bodie failed of his nor another to excuse the defaults of the soul by the service of the body So that in effect these excuses will be but a meer mockery The union of the mind and the body being so neare that when the mind is disposed as it should the body cannot but perform its devoir and he that abusing God or his neighbour with his tongue would have us believe that notwithstanding all that he loveth them sincerely in his heart is a bold lyar deserving to be punished not onely for his blasphemy or wrong but likewise for his impudence According to these undoubted Maximes we are bound not onely to receive in our hearts the truths which God hath revealed in Religion but likewise outwardly to professe them And we are all bound not onely not to disbelieve with our hearts the errours and impieties which are contrary to the truth of God but likewise not to confesse them outwardly in any kind For if it be enough to retain in the heart the knowledge and love of truth and it be permitted to deny it outwardly sometimes S. Peter had not fell in denying his Master for no man can doubt but that his heart within knew well enough what his tongue disavowed without And so to denie our Lord before men would be no sinne and confession with the mouth would be of no use which all are things evidently false For that action of S. Peter is grievously blamed in the Gospel and his tears if we had no other proof shew us sufficiently that he thought he did extremely offend God And our Lord Matth. x. 33. protesteth expressely that He will denie him before His Father in heaven that is to say that at the great day of judgement He will not own him for His nor put him in the number of His blessed children who will deny him before men And lastly S. Paul Rom. x. 9 10. teacheth us That with the heart men believe unto righteousnesse and with the tongue they make confession unto salvation and to be saved he doth not onely require That you should believe the Lord in your heart but likewise that you should confesse him with your mouth The same reasons do necessarily induce us to believe That it is not enough to banish from our hearts the belief of impietie and such errours as are contrary to the foundations of true Religion unlesse we also banish the confession of them from our mouthes For to confesse an errour which overthroweth the fundamentalls of Religion is clearly to deny our Râ—ligion Since then we are forbidden under pain of an eternall curse to confesse with our mouth the errours which we detest with our hearts T is cleare that if we believe the adoration of the Host of the Church of Rome to be an errour contrary to the foundations of piety as we do indeed That we cannot confesse it without violating the commandment of J. Christ and pulling upon our souls eternall ruine and damnation For where is the Christian who firmly believing that the Sacrament is a creature and being asked if he should give it the adoration of latria will not dread to answer Yes and whose conscience will not feel a thousand remorses if any passion cause his tongue to say so And how can we say that the Sacrament is to be adored or confesse it more clearly then by prostrating our selves before the Host of the Church of Rome and giving it in the presence of men the same outward veneration which is the mark and substance of that which we give to Him Object But you 'l perhaps deny That with