at all in the Christian Doctrine 2. The way and manner how it came into the Christian Church and hath obtained so much favour in it 1. That it hath no Foundation at all in the Christian Doctrine It is the great excellency of the Christian Religion that it gives us such incomparable directions in order to the compleat Felicity of our immortal souls That it hath not only discovered more plainly and fully the blessed state of another life but teaches men the most effectual way to prepare their minds for it viz. by sincere repentance by inward purity by subduing our passions and due government of our actions according to the Rules of temperance and justice by dependence on Divine Providence as to the affairs of this world by patience under afflictions by doing good to others although our enemies and perâ—ecutors by deep humility and mean thoughts of our selves by a large charity thinking as well of as doing well to others by valuing the concernments of another life above the advantages of this which is called self-denyal and to that degree that when our Religion calls for it we should willingly part with our lives for the sake of it This as far as I can understand it is the summary comprehension of a Christians Duty in order to his happiness and by patient continuance in Well-doing he may with reason hope for the enjoyment of that Blessed State which is reserved to another life The which being made known to the world by the Doctrine of Christ therefore Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ is made so necessary a part of a Christians Duty and because we want divine supplyes and assistance to enable us to do our duty therefore we are so much commanded to be frequent and â—ervent in prayer and many promises and encouragements are given to the due performance of it from Gods readiness to hear the prayers of the Righteous and to grant the requests they make to him All this is not only excellent in it self and most reasonable to be done but very easie to understand but not a word in all this tending to any immediate Union with God in the pure fund of the Spirit or such a State of Contemplation wherein the operations of the soul are suspended nothing of passive unions and visions and raptures as such things which every Christian who looks for perfection may hope for It is true we are often commanded to love God with all our hearts but withal we are told we must not fancy this love to be a meer languishing passion towards an infinite object which we therefore love because we do not understand but see him only in profound darkness and clasp about him with the closest embraces being united to him in the most immediate manner and being melted in the fruition of him Which are luscious Metaphors brought into the Christian Doctrine from that antient Family of Love I mean the School of Plato as I shall shew afterwards But the love of Christians towards God is no fond amorous passion but a due apprehension and esteem of the divine excellencies a hearty sense of all his Kindness to us and a constant readiness of mind to do his Will for this is the Love of God to keep his Commandments And if any man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a lyar for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen No man hath seen God at any time If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us Thus the beloved Disciple who understood the greatest mysteries of Divine Love hath expressed them to us and thus the beloved Son of God hath declared what he means by the Love he expects from his Disciples If ye love me keep my commandments And ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Here is nothing of an abstracted life or internal and external solitude or self-annihilation in order to an immediate active union with God in the supream point of the Spirit nothing of blind elevations of the Will without the use of Reason and Discourse ingulfing it more and more profoundly in God all these Mystical Notions and expressions had another spring and more impure Fountain than the Christian Doctrine § 5. Not so say O. N. and Mr. Cressy for if they may be believed there is ground in Scripture for all the most lofty mystical expressions If so I must retract what I have said but I never knew any men that needed more an infallible Interpreter of Scripture than they do they make such lamentable expositions of it if they can but hit upon a word or a phrase to their purpose away they run with that and never consider the design or importance of it What work doth O. N. make with his Cor altum and Regnum Dei intra vos whereas the first signifies nothing but due consideration nor the other any thing but that the Kingdom of the Messias was then come among them And what are these to Mystical Divinity And Mr. Cressy 's accedite ad Deum illuminamini is altogether to as much purpose for is there no instruction to be had from God or his Law short of passive unions no enlightning our minds but by immediate inspirations But Mr. Cressy thinks he hath done the business and quite stopped my mouth with S. Paul 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who being in a wonderful Extasie saw and heard God only knows what which although he was willing to communicate yet he had not the power to do it But as the Person of Honour hath already very well told Mr. Cressy What is this to those who go about to express what neither themselves nor any else can understand If they pretend to the same extasies why do they not imitate his Modesty Why do they go about to help S. Paul to words to do it by if himself declared it could not be done by words To which Mr. Cressy answers as much as was to be answered which is just nothing But his Author O. N. brings the same place and not only that but all those which mention the Revelations of the Prophets or Apostles To what purpose Do I deny any Divine Revelations Do I give the least intimation that I questioned whether there were any true inspirations in the Writers of Holy Scriptures God forbid But how doth it follow if God did inspire men to declare his Will to mankind therefore all the pretences to Revelations and Inspirations in the Roman Church are true If S. Paul had once a true Rapture therefore all S. Teresa 's were such and not the effects of a vehement Imagination Let us observe the difference not only in the value and excellency and judgement of the Persons but in the very manner of relating them Her life written by her self to which O. N. appeals in this matter as
unsearchable depth of Wisdom Any one that â—asts an eye upon this kind of Discourse will easily find it to proceed upon very different gâ—ounds in order to the perâ—ection of mens minds from what are delivered in the Christian Religion For there it is said to be eternal life to know God and his Son Iesus Christ here we are told that we cannot come at perfection in the way of knowledge but of Ignorance and not knowing There it is said that God is Light and in him is no darkness at all here that he is the most profound darkness and obscurity Here we meet with no difference at all as to the clearness of our apprehensions concerning the Divine Nature from what men had before the Christian Doctrine whereas it is one of the excellencies of Christianity that by it we come to know the true God much better than mankind had done before and are able to form a very true and distinct conception of him in our minds as of a Being of infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Power Although we cannot attain to a full comprehension of the utmost extent of the Perfections of the Divine Nature yet that doth not hinder our conceptions from being clear and True though not adequate and perfect And if we could have no clearer knowledge and more steady conceptions of the Divine Nature by the doctrine of Christ to what end are we told by it that no man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath revealed him that now the vail of darkness is taken away and we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image not that our transformation is to come by darkness and the cessation of intellectual operations as this Mystical Union implyes But besides this Mystical way pretends to carry men above all external Revâ—â—ation as well as intellectual knowledge for so much is implyed in the raising the mind above all Divine Lights and heavenly Sounds and Words i. e. saith Hersentius above all the manifestations of God what soever which are made to the Mind Which Mystical way of Perfection being supposed possible I see no necessity at all of Christs coming into the World nor of any influence his Death or Sufferings or Doctrine could have upon the bringing men to a State of Happiness For the whole Hypothesis proceeds only upon these principles 1. The obscurity of the Divine Nature and the impossibility of our attaining so clear a perception of God in our minds as for us ever to hope for a state of Perfection with the exercise of our Reason and Understanding 2. That the only possible way of attaining it is by the abstraction of our selves from all sensible and intellectual operations and thereby bringing our souls to an immediate Union with the Divine Essence § 13. Having thus endeavoured to bring these things out of the Clouds of the sublime Nonsense and seeming contradictions which they were wrapt up in we may more easily discern from whence all these notions were taken and slyly conveyed into the Christian doctrine as the highest way of Perfection For which we are to consider that the Christian Religion growing very considerable notwithstanding all the endeavours used by the Roman Emperours and Governours of Provinces to suppress it and very Learned men having taken upon them the profession of it in several parts of the Empire but especially at Alexandria the Heathen Philosophers saw there was an absolute necessity of making the best they could of the Pagan Theology To this end they bestirred themselves to gather together the most considerable parts of the Chaldaick Aegyptian and Platonick Theology and putting them together to form such a method for the Perfection of mens souls as would appear more sublime than the Christian Institution For this end Plotinus Porphyrie Iamblichus Proclus and the rest of them did imploy the utmost of their study and care for they saw now it was to no purpose for them to spend their time in idle curiosities and the vain disputes of the several Sects of Philosophers therefore they endeavour to lay aside these Ammonius of Alexandria having shewed them the way and to bend their studies chiefly about shewing men such a way of Purifying their Souls as might bring them to a State of Perfection without embracing Christianity For they saw that the common people were become Philosophers by the help of the Christian Religion and out-went them in the bearing Torments and all sorts of Miseries only in expectation of that Blessed State which the Christian Religion did give men so great assurance of and gave such excellent directions by the practice of all divine vertues for mens attaining to it We know there was no greater enemy in the world to the Christian Religion than Porphyrius was against whom Eusâ—bius Methodius and many others writ in defence of Christianity Yet it appears by what we have remaining of his writings that he had a very mean esteem of the common customes of sacrificing and of those Daemons which were pleased with the smoke of flesh and he looked upon the Theurgick way as lyable to deceit and not capable of advancing the soul to highest perfection Which Thâ—urgick way lay in the initiating of men in some sacred mysteries by partaking of certain rites and symbols by which they were admitted to the presence of some of their Deities the end whereof as they pretended was reducing the souls of men to that state they were in before they came into the Body So S. Augustin telâ—s us from Porphyrie that they who were purified after this manner did converse with glorious appearances of Angels which they were fitted to see but Porphyrie himself as he did not utterly reject this lower and symbolical way so he said that the highest perfection of the soul was not attainable by it but it was useful for purifying the lower part of the soul but not the intellectual By the lower part he understood the irrational which by the Theurgical Rites might be fitted for conversation with Angels but the intellectual part could not be elevated by it to the Contemplation of God and the Vision of the Things that are True and herein he placed the utmost perfection of the soul in its return to and union with God in this upper part or fund of the soul for the utmost the other attained to was only to live among the Aetherial spirits but the Contemplative Souls returned to the Father as he speaks which as many other of his Notions he borrowed from the Chaldaick Theology To shew what this Intellectual or Contemplative Life was that should bring mens souls to this state of Perfection Porphyrie writ a Book on purpose Of the Return of the Soul as S. Austin tells us who quotes many passages out of it and this particular precept above all the rest that the soul must fly
Abbots to govern as Fathers and not to Tyrannize as Lords But there is yet farther incongruity in it for as the Person of Honour observes S. Benedict brings this in to prove that the Abbot supplies the Room of Christ in the Monastery Christienim agere vices in Monasterio creditur quando ipsius vocatur praenomine whereas there is no such thing in the Text Christ is not called there by the name Abba but God the Father for after they are said by the spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father it is said And if Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ. So that Christ here is not represented under the notion of Abba but rather as a Son and heir to him that is called Abba therefore he that sustains the Person of Christ can only be the eldest Son i. e. the Prior and not the Abbot so that it is impossible to clear S. Bennet from an impertinent allegation of this place of Scripture But this is far from being the only place so impertinently produced by him for in the preface of his Rule we have a whole Cluster of them wherein he puts together many places of Scripture expressing the earnestness and sincerity of Gods calling men to repentance and sincere obedience to the Monastick life and observing the Rules of it As though it were impossible for men to repent and to do Gods will unless they did presently renounce their estates and submit to the Monastick Rules This if he speaks to the purpose he must account awakening out of sleep not hardening our hearts at Gods call hearing what the spirit saith unto the Churches running while we have light entering into Gods Tabernacle and what not As though all Religion were confined within the walls of Monasteries and the strait gate were no other than that which gives men admission into them This indeed was the great and fundamental cheat of the Monastick Orders in the Roman Church they would be called the Religious Orders and would have men believe that all piety and devotion was kept warm only under a Monks Cowle and that if there were any such thing in the world as they called all out of their own precincts it grew very cold by taking too much aire abroad But although they durst not openly defend this for fear of giving too great offence both to Clergy and Laity yet their insinuations tended this way for they only were the Religious and the rest were but the World Which was a horrible abuse of mankind as well as of the Christian Religion which doth never suppose men to be a jot nearer to Heaven for their nastiness and lying in their cloaths for abstaining certain days from flesh for eating and drinking upon a common stock for having their garments of such a shape and colour or whatever other observances were peculiar to the Monastick state The Christian Religion requires sincere humility and not a Monkish affectation of it inward purity and a chastity within the bounds which God hath set us and not binding our selves by perpetual vows to abstain from what he hath allowed us heavenly mindedness and a mighty regard to the rewards of another life and not a needless renouncing what the bounty of Heaven and the care of our Ancestors have provided for us as to the conveniences of this life The Obedience necessary to salvation is that to the commands of Christ and not of an Abbot But this they would fain make people believe that doing only what their Superiours command them is the self-denyal and renouncing their own wills which the Gospel makes so necessary to salvation which is a notorious misapplication of our Saviours commands but these things are common to other Monastick Rules S. Benedict hath other faults of this kind peculiar to his own Rule as when he brings these places for the Monks confessing their sins to the Abbot Revela Domino viam tuam spera in illo It is great pitty the word Abba was not there for Dominus for then it had been a plain case but as it stands it is somewhat hard to conceive how the Abbot comes to be concerned in our making known if that were the meaning of our ways to the Lord and to as little purpose are the other places that follow confitemini Domino and several others that speak of confessing our sins to God but not one word of the Abbot no nor of Priest in them yet this is not all for in the same chapter he brings something for Scripture which was never there as when he makes the Publican to say Domine non sum dignus ego peccator levare oculos meos ad coelum which makes Menardus cry out miror sanè quia nunquam in toto Evangelio repereris haec verba dicta à publicano he justly wond ed at this quotation there being no such words to be found in the whole Gospel as spoken by the Publican but the fairest excuse he hath to bring him off is by saying that he quâ—ted the words without Book by the help of his memory which if it be allowed will be certainly an argument to them that he was not infallibly assisted by the Hâ—ly Ghost But besides these we have other arguments sufficient of humane weakness in this Rule if I should undertake to rifle and examine the several constitutions of this Rule particularly that when the Abbot requires impossibilities not meerly moral as they would now soften it but things utterly impossible or unlawful to be done as when the Senior in Cassian required Iohn the Egyptian Monk to remove a stone which multitudes of men could not stir and another commanded Mucius to take his Son and throw him into the river which they thought themselves obliged by vertue of Monastick obedience to perform and in the case of such impossibilities S. Bennet bids them if the Abbot persist in them to trust to Gods help and obey But the reason given for this is that they must look on the commands of their Superiours as if they were the commands of God himself which is a most senseless and unreasonable thing but it seems by this they give the Abbot the Title belonging to God not meerly for name sake but in case a man were required as Mucius was to destroy his own Child they must say they are bound as much to obey as Abraham was upon Gods command to sacrifice his Son Nay we read in Cassian that God revealed to the Abbot that Mucius had performâ—d the obedience of Abraham and so they say of another who threw his Child into a fiery furnace upon the Abbots command in imitation of Abraham But to justifie this blind obedience to the commands of Superiours S. Benedict brings other very impertinent places of Scripture such as obauditu auris obedivit mihi â—on veni facere voluntatem meam sed ejus qui misit me c. But I am sick of such idle and impertinent stuff
places Our Saviour and S. Iohn Baptist do express great zeal against the Scribes and Pharisees but let Mr. Cressy consider they were a sort of sowre ill-natured hypocrites that would allow none a good word nor so much as hopes of salvation that were not of their way that were full of malice and envy and all evil passions and at the same time pretended highly to mortification and more devotion than others I find nothing like Invectives in all the writings of the holy Apostles unless it were against the opposers or corrupters of Christianity and when Mr. Cressy proves me to be guilty of either of those I will lay my self open to the darts of the most Venomous Tongue among them But instead of that I know no other cause in any Books I have written that should expose me to the rage of these men beside the zeal I have therein discover'd for the honour and purity of the Christian Religion against the fopperies and corruptions of the Roman Church And for such a Cause as this I am prepared to suffer whatever their fury and malice can raise up against me This this is the Cause which I hope I should not be ashamed nor afraid to own and defend although Mr. Cressy's Power were as great as his Charity The Church of England I do from my heart honour and esteem notwithstanding all the base suggestions of Mr. Cressy to the contrary even in this Epistle Apologetical but I do therefore so much esteem it because in it the Christian Religion is preserved free from the frantick heats of Enthusiasm and the dotages of Superstition If they will undertake to convince me that the things I condemn in the Church of Rome were any parts of the Christian Religion delivered by Christ or his Apostles I shall diligently weigh and consider what ever they have to say but if they only give hard words and betray impotent passions if they shuffle and shew tricks instead of reasoning if all their charity towards me lyes only in bitter invectives they will do but little good upon me and I think not much to their own Cause § 3. But I am mistaken all this while Mr. Cressy doth not write this Apology to give me satisfaction but the Person of Honour and the genuine Learned Protestant Clergy of the English Church and if these he saith after impartial considering the motives and grounds of his invectives shall determine that in his late to him alas unusual manner of treating with me he hath offended against Christian Charity or purposely intended to fix any dishonourable brand on the English Protestant Church or Discipline of it established by Law he will be ready without any reply to suffer whatsoever censure or punishment they shall think fit to inflict upon him What! no offence against Christian Charity to charge me with deriding and blaspheming the Saints in glory with having a hatred horribly poysonous against the Catholick Church militant and that will not spare the Church Triumphant no offence at all to call me Theological Scarron and to say that I act the Theological Zani that all my Book except twenty or thirty pages consists of Scurrilous Buffoonries petulant revilings of Gods Saints and in effect by his Epigram out of Martial to charge me with downright Atheism and twice in the same passage with impiously and profanely employed wit none at all to say That I had a heart brimful of the Gall of bitterness that I writ with Ink full of Gall and poyson that I gave free scope to all unchristian and even inhumane passions That my Book wholly composed of malignant passions and new-invented Calumnies against Gods Church was only the private design of a malicious brain on purpose to feed the exulcerated minds of a malevolent party among us that all the weapons I make use of pierce into the very bowels of the persons fortunes and condition of English Catholicks whose destruction I seem to design What! none at all to charge me so often with prevaricating with the Church of England and designing to destroy her under a pretence of defending her These are some of the flowers of Mr. Cressy ' s Charity towards me which I have picked out of some few pages of his Book and he hath taken abundant care to prevent any unlikeness in the parts of it And doth Mr. Cressy in good earnest think it is no breach of Christian Charity to charge me upon such pittiful grounds with no less than carrying on blasphemous Atheistical treacherous and cruel designs But if this be his Christian charity what would the effects of his malice be Let now any indifferent person judge whether the Person of Honour had not reason to say That he never observed so many personal reflections and invectives fuller of causless passions and of bitterness and virulence in so little room in any Book But whatever the Person of Honour thinks Mr. Cressy makes his appeal to the genuine Learned Protestant English Clergy If he had been a Clergy-man who had done me that great kindness then Mr. Cressy would have appealed to Persons of Honour and surely such are the most competent Judges in cases of affronts and injuries but herein lyes Mr. Cressy's art which runs throughout his Epistle that he would fain separate me from the Church of England and make my cause distinct from hers I do not wonder that they would part me from my company and deprive me of my shelter when they have such a mind to run me down But these arts are easily understood and the design is too fine to hold and too apparent not to be seen through Mr. Cressy knows very well the Use that was made at Athens of the Fable of the Dogs and the Sheep and what good words and fair promises the Wolf made to the Sheep if they would but consent that the Dogs might be given up to be destroyed And no doubt the crafty Wolf would have made a very fine speech to the Sheep to have perswaded them that he had no manner of ill will to them for he had known them long and loved them well and alwayes looked upon them as a company of very innocent and harmless creatures but for those Dogs that were set to watch them he knew how different their principles were and how destructive to them if occasion served and for all that he knew these Dogs might have Covenanted together to worry them upon a fair opportunity and therefore for his part he could not but wonder at their patience that some of the stoutest Rams among them did not set upon those pestilent Currs or at least he hoped they would not be so regardless of their own safety as not to suffer some well-wishers to the flock to take them quietly and destroy them For alas at the best they do but make a noise and disturb the repose of the Sheep and if they were gone there would be nothing but unity and
prevent any farther suspicion of my meaning I do declare I am for no other Church than that Church of England which is established by Law among us But it must be allowed to those who plead for seeing Visions that sometimes they may dream Dreams Having therefore cut off so much impertinency I shall reduce the matter yet to a narrower compass by casting by the large account he gives of the several Books written by himself in all which tedious Discourse the wisest thing he saith is That Books relating to personal things are scarce ever so long-lived as a yearly â—lmanack and serve only to increase the uncharitableness and injustice of the present Age in which men will be sure to censure all Books and Persons and are indifferent whether they condemn the Plaintiff or Defendant or both I shall not therefore feed so bad a humour by medling with any personal Disputes but come now to the main things which deserve any farther discussion in the passages between the Person of Honour and Mr. Cressy CHAP. II. Of the Charge of Fanaticism and Mystical Divinity § 1. ANd the first thing is about the Charge of Fanaticism which gave the Title to that Book of Mr. Cressy ' s upon which the Person of Honour bestows his Animadversions This Mr. Cressy said he would begin with and particularly that part of my Book which concerns the life and prayer of Contemplation commended and practised only in the Catholick Church it being a State he saith which from the Infancy of the Church hath been esteemed the nearest approaching to that of Glorified Saints and this is that from whence I took an occasion to vilifie him but adds that he is very well content to receive his proportion of scorn with such companions as Thaulerus Suso Rusbrochius Blosius c. But to the end I may not boast he saith of the Novelty of my invention and profanely employed wit he doth assure me that he heard the same way much better acted a long time since but the Actor was obliged to make a Recantation Sermon for it I thank Mr. Cressy for more of his Charity still in that he parallels the representing the Fanaticism of their Church with the histrionical representing the life of our Saviour and his Attâ—ndants it seems there is no great difference to be made between the Reverence due to the Founders of their Monastick Orders and to the Son of God himself I do assure him if I had no better opinion of our Blessed Saviour as to his Wisdom and all manner of Excellencies than as yet I see ground to have of the Founders of their Orders I should be far from that esteem I now have of the Christian Religion but however the Person of Honour hath better informed Mr. Cressy ' s memory viz. That the Recantation Sermon was made upon the account of State-matters and therefore Mr. Cressy very wisely passeth it over in his Epistle Apologetical To this the Person of Honour adds That Mr. Cressy had no such reason to be enraged at me for this Charge since the provocation was given me by my Adversary by whom the beginning of so many Sects Fanaticisms was laid to the charge of the Church of England which unseasonable and untrue reproach made it necessary for me to answer and refell that calumny and as reasonable to let them know that their own Church is much more lyable to that accusation than the other and why this provocation should be so innocent an assault for the one and the defence by the other should prove so heinous an offence will require an impartial Judge to determine To this Mr. Cressy thus answers That my Adversary chanced unhappily though innocently to let drop out of his pen one line or two which has undone us all I know no design of undoing them that any of us have had unless it be as some men think they are undone when they are kept from doing mischief but I hope we may have leave to take care of our own preservation and of that Religion we ought to value above our lives but suppose it were so whom may they thank for it him that gave the provocation or him that did but his duty in Defence of his Church and Religion But come come Mr. Cressy let us not flatter our selves it is not the Fly upon the Wheel that raises the Dust we Writers of Controversies are no great Doers or Undoers of publick business But Mr. Cressy denyes that my Adversary did lay the imputation on the Church of England and craves leave with all due respect to tell the Person of Honour that it was a great mistake in him to say so Of that we may judge by the very words produced by Mr. Cressy viz. Whether the judgement of King Henry viz. in forbidding the Bible to be read in English ought not to have been followed in after-times let the dire effects of so many new Sects and Fanaticisms as have risen in England from the reading of the Scripture bear witness In which words the rise of Sects and Fanaticisms is plainly imputed to the reading the Scripture the reading of the Scripture in English is an effect of the Reformation of the Church of England for it is the Church of England as reformed that is only the subject of the dispute And therefore I appeal to any indifferent person whether the Reformed Church of England doth not in their Opinion bear the blame of all the Sects and Fanaticisms But this is too plain a thing to be insisted upon No saith Mr. Cressy the very naming of Fanaticism and England in the same line was provocation enough for me who seemed with an impatient longing to have watched for such an advantageous opportunity to empty my voluminous store of Collections How strangely may some be deceived by an overweening imagination I was so far from having a Voluminous store of Collections that I never thought of the Subject till it came in my way to answer it and then I remembred some things I had read to that purpose which put me upon a farther search into the history of those things And since Mr. Cressy will have it out this is the true account of the birth of that terrible Mormo that hath brought so many reproaches and execrations upon me § 2. There are two parts of this Charge of Fanaticism which Mr. Cressy thinks himself particularly concerned in and which I shall therefore handle distinctly the one concerns Mystical Divinity and the other the honour of S. Benedict and his Rule and Order these two Mr. Cressy sets himself with all his force to defend and I hope before I have done to make Mr. Cressy repent the heat he hath shewed about them I begin with that concerning Mystical Divinity of which Mr. Cressy still speaks with the greatest Veneration imaginable he had before called it The practice of Christian Vertues and Piety in the greatest perfection this life
is capable of the nearest approach to the state of glorified Saints the most divine exercise of contemplative Souls more perfectly practised only in Heaven and now he makes a prayer for me that it would please God to give me and all my friends a holy ambition to aspire to the practice of contemplative prayer though by me so much despised But of the good effects he saith it would have upon me I do the most wonder at that which he adds viz. that it would exceedingly better my style I have hitherto thought the choice of clear and proper expressions such as most easily and naturally convey my thoughts to the mind of another to be one of the greatest excellencies of Style but all before Mr. Cressy that have been the greatest Friends to Mystical Divinity have endeavoured to excuse the hard words of it Surely never any Masters of Style before Mr. Cressy thought obscure strained affected unintelligible phrases were any Graces and Ornaments of speaking Would it not add much beauty to ones style to bring in the state of Deiformity the superessential life the union with God in the pure fund of the Spirit and abundance of such phrases which are so very many that Maximilian Sandaeus the Iesuit hath written a large Book only in explication of them and this is the account he gives of the Mystical Style that it is obscure involved lofty abstracted and flatulent that it hath frequent hyperbole's excesses and improprieties And he tells us there were some who not unhappily compared them to Paracelsian Chymists who think to make amends for the meanness of their notions by the obscurity of their terms Carolus Hersentius hath nothing to answer to this but only that the matter cannot be plainer expressed in Mystical Divinity which is so far from being an argument to me that it can improve ones style that it gives me very much ground to suspect the very thing it self For God would never require from men the practice of that as certainly he doth the duty of Prayer and the greatest Love of himself which it is impossible for men to understand when it is proposed to them What obligation can there be to practise no man knows what The Christian Religion is a very plain and intelligible thing and if it had not been so I do not know how men could be obliged to believe it I do not say that men could form a distinct conception in their minds of the manner of some of those things which are revealed in it as how an infinite being could be united to humane nature but this I say that the terms are very intelligible and the putting of those terms into a proposition depends upon Divine Revelation viz. that the Son of God was incarnate so that all the difficulty in this case lyes in the conception of the manner which by reason of the shortness of our conceptions as to what relates to an infinite being ought to be no prejudice to the giving our assent to this Revelation since we acknowledge the union of a spiritual and material being in the frame of mankind and are as well puzzled in the conception of the manner of it But in Mystical Divinity I say the very terms are unintelligible for it is impossible for any man to make sense of that immediate Union with God in the pure fund of the Spirit wherein the Mystical Writers do place the perfection of the Contemplative Life § 3. But because Mr. Cressy referrs the Person of Honour for the understanding those Mystical phrases which I had quarrelled with to the Author of the Roman Churches Devotions vindicated which was purposely writ in answer to me upon this subject I shall therefore consider what light he gives us in this matter for I am very willing to be better informed In the beginning he saith that Prayer is the most Fundamental part of a Christians Duty if this relates to the matter in hand viz. of contemplative prayer it must be implyed that this is a part at least of that fundamental Duty and if it be so I think my self obliged to understand it and it must be a very culpable ignorance not to understand so fundamental a part of a Christians Duty Therefore I shall pass by all his excursions and hold him close to the matter in debate I confess he prepares his way with some artifice which makes me a little jealous for things plain and easie need none He insinuates 1. That those who have not these things cannot well know what they mean and then adds 2. That the means for obtaining them are in his own words much frequent and continued vocal or mental prayer much solitude and mortifications of our flesh and abstraction of our thoughts and affections from any creature much recollection much meditation on selected subjects and the endeavouring a quiescence as much as we can from former discourse these actions of the brain and intellect now hindring the heart and will and the bringing our selves rather to a simple contemplation without any action of the brain or intellect or at least as little as may be to exercise acts of love adhere to sigh after and entertain the object thereof and after this come passive unions which are rather Gods acts in us than our own and are particular Favours to some and those not constant By this explication I am fallen into utter despair of understanding these things for if the acts of the brain and intellect prove such hindrances to the desired union and the quiescence in order to it be that of Discourse viz. of all ratiocination I am utterly at a loss how this should ever be understood by the persons themselves and much more how it should be explained to others And I extreamly wonder at those who go about to explain things which themselves confess are so far from being understood that the acts of the understanding are hindrances to the enjoyment of them But F. Baker speaks more plainly in this matter when he describes this Mystick contemplation by which saith he a soul without discoursings and curious speculations without any perceptible use of the internal senses or sensible Images by a pure simple and reposeful operation of the mind in the obscurity of faith simply regards God as Infinite and Incoâ—prehensible Verity and with the whole bent of the Will rests in him as her Infinite Universal and Incomprehensible Good This is true Contemplation indeed And afterwards he adds that as for the proper exercise of active contemplation it consists not at all in speculation but in blind elevations of the will and ingulâ—ing it more and more profoundly in God with no other sight or knowledge of him but of an obscure Faith only And towards the conclusion of his Book he hath these words We mortifie our passions to the end we may loose them we exercise Discoursive prayer by sensible Images to the end we may loose all use of
Images and Discourse and we actuate immediately by operations of the Will to the end we may arrive to a state of stability in prayer above all direct exercises of any of the souls faculties A state wherein the soul being oft brought to the utmost of her workings is forced to cease all workings to the end that God may operate in her So that till the soul be reduced to a perfect denudation of Spirit a deprivation of all things God doth not enjoy a secure and perfect possession of it Nay he saith elsewhere that all use of meditation must be for a long space passed and relinquished before the soul will be brought to this good state of having a continual flux of holy desires I might produce much more to the same purpose out of him but this is enough to shew that they leave no use of ratiocination or memory in that which they call the perfect state of the Contemplative life and how is it then possible that it should be either understood or explained Nay F. Baker saith that there is a cessation of all Workings of the soul which is a little harder yet But this is that otium mysticum or divine state of quiescency which the Mystical Divines magnifie so much and which it is impossible to give any account of either how the soul being of so active a nature can subsist with a cessation of all her workings or supposing that possible how it can ever give an account of that state wherein there was a cessation of all her workings It is altogether as possible to give an account of the state of Not-being as of such a state wherein there were no operations of the soul or at least no use of ratiocination and memory And of all things methinks it is most improper to call that the State of Contemplation the State of Nothingness is much more agreeable to it But O. N. defends this to be a State of Contemplation for although saith he it be applyed to the will yet its act is not single but accompanied with a simple intelligence or sight of the object performed by the Intellect without any or at least much Discourse thereof but this is not fair dealing for F. Baker expresly excludes all Discourse he saith not any or at least not much but if there be any Baker makes it not the state of pure contemplation however doth O. N. think that which he calls simple intelligence or the understanding things without ratiocination is a thing we are capable of during the conjunction of Soul and Body But O. N. acknowledges That these supernatural communications of the Divine Majesty to some of his choicest servants in prayer are so sublime and high as that they are described by them not without great difficulty and unusual expressions which are not so well understood but by such as have experienced such favours which also happen to very few Why then do they undertake to explain them Why do they write of them and publish them to the World But commend me to Mr. Cressy himself who gives me a very plain reason why I do not understand these things viz. in the words of S. Paul that The sensual man neither does nor can possibly understand them because they are spiritually discerned and therefore no wonder if they be esteemed foolishness by him who has never experienced them What yet more of your Charity Mr. Cressy I pretend to no Mystical Unions and should think it no perfection much less a state of pure contemplation to have all operations of my mind suspended but what then must I be a sensual man for this and uncapable of understanding the things of the Spirit of God This answer I should have expected from a Quaker and it is the common place they run to when any tell them that they talk Non-sense or unintelligible Canting and I dare say they speak nothing more unintelligible than this Mystical Divinity I might have expected this Answer from a follower of Iacob Behmen who talks very sublime things too in his way and very much like Mystical Divinity I might have expected it from a Rosycrucian for I find that he who writ the Epistle Apologetical for the Brethren of that Order produces the very same places of Scriptur◠to justifie them that O. N. and Mr. Cressy do for Mystical Divinity and saith that theirs was a gift of perfection which God did not communicate to all but only to his elect and therefore no wonder if others did not understand it But what it Mr. Cressy doth not after all this understand S. Paul and it is most evident he doth not For S. Paul doth not there speak of any that had embraced the Christian Doctrine and rejected any sublime pretence of devotion as a thing not intelligible or consonant to the Christian Religion which are the reasons of my rejecting Mystical Divinity but he speaks of such who rejected the Doctrine of Christianity it self because it depended upon Divine Revelation And so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the sensual man as Mr. Cressy out of meer charity to me renders it but the man that supposes such a natural sufficiency in the humane soul in order to its own perfection and happiness as the Philosophers did that there was no necessity either of divine revelation to discover any new doctrine or of divine Grace to conduct us to our happiness This I could easily make appear to be S. Pauls meaning from the consideration of the design of his discourse as well as the importance of the words and the consent of the best Interpreters of S. Paul I mean S. Chrysostome and his Disciples viz. Isidore Pelusiot and the Greek Scholiasts but I forbear for fear Mr. Cressy should think I take another opportunity to empty my voluminous store of Collections But notwithstanding all the endeavours of Mr. Cressy and his Friend N. O. to make the State of Contemplation as described by F. Baker more intelligible it hath yet so much of darkness and shadow in it that the more they pursue it the farther it flyes from them § 4. But that is not all the quarrel I have to this Mystical Divinity that it is unintelligible but that it leads persons into strange illusions of fancy and when they think themselves freest from Images they do then labour most under the power of a strong imagination embracing only the Clouds of their own Fancies instead of such an immediate Union with the Divine Essence in the pure fund of the Spirit And this I take to be a great injury not only to those melancholy souls that are led through this Valley of Shades and Darkness but to the Christian Religion it self as though the way of perfection taught by it were a low mean contemptible thing in comparison of the Mystical flights of this Contemplative way There are these two things therefore I shall endeavour to shew 1. That this Mystical way hath no foundation
Now in this Kingdom of the Cambri Iohn of Tinmouth or Capgrave out of him saith that S. Kentigern came to preach Christianity and particularly he shewed that Woden the chief God of the Saxons was a mortal man and a King of the Saxons from whom several Nations were derived Now I desire to know whether this were not preaching Christianity among the Saxons and that long before she coming of Augustin â—or Alford places it in A. D. 566. and the landing of Augustin A. D. 597. No saith Mr. Cressy he preâ—ched only to the Picts who were revolted to the Saxon Idolatry and to prove that makes use of an excellent way by corrupting his Author for the words in Caâ—grave are these Woden verò quem principalem Deum crediderunt Angli de quo originem duxerant cui quartam feriam consecraverant hominem fuisse mortalem asseruit Regem Saxonum à quo plures nationes genus duxerant which he thus renders And as for Woden whom by the seduction of the Saxons they esteemed their principal God and to whose hâ—nour they consecrated the fourth day of the week c. What pretence is there to understand these words of the Picts and not of the Saxons themselves I know Alford brings that clause in by way of Parenthesis and reads it thus praecipuè Angli de quo originem duxerant c. but I have set the words down exactly as they are published by Bollandus the Iesuit who mentions his own care in the publishing of it but saith Mr. Cressy it is plain he meant the Picts because it is said that by his doctrine he freed the Nation of the Picts from Idolatry and heresie Here again Mr. Cressy discovers his admirable ingenuity for the words in Capgrave are several things being interposed Pictorum patriam quae modo Galwedia dicitur ab Idololatriâ haereticâ pravitate doctrinâ— suâ purgavit which he mentions as a distinct thing from his former preaching in the Regnum Cambrense of which the former words are expresly spoken And although Alford Mr. Cressy's Author will by no means allow any Saxons to be converted by Kentigern for fear forsooth the Saxons should not owe their entire Christianity to S. Gregories Missionaries yet Bollandus ingenuously confesseth that boâ—h Kentigern and Gildas did employ their zeal and charity towards the conversion of the English Saxons For in the life of Gildas published by Ioh. à Bosco it is said that the Northern pâ—rts of Britain flocked to his preaching and for saking the errours of Gentilism they destroyed their Idols and were â—aptized in the faith of the Holy Trinity Mr. Cressy although he allows the next passages to be understood of Gildas Sapiens who lived after the Saxons had over-run the Island yet he applyes the forâ—er passage to an elder Gildas called Gildas Albanius that it might with less probability be understood of the conversion of the Saxons but Bollandus hath sufficiently proved that there was but one Gildas called by those several titles and so much is acknowledged by the French Benedictins so that no relief can be had from thence Thus we see what ground we have to believe that the Northern Saxons were acquained with Christianity before the Order of Benedictines was ever heard of The next settlement we find was of the Western Saxons by Cerdic who landing with a great force after the death of Hengist A. D. 495. did so weary out the Britains that Malmsbury saith that they willingly yielded themselves to him and lived quietly together under his Government and is it then reasonable to conceive that so many Saints as lived in that Age by the Confession of our Adversaries should not in all that time acquaint their Neighbours with the Christian Doctrine especially if it be true which Mr. Cressy reports of them that they wrought so many miracles such as S. David S. Iustinian S. Dubricius S. Paternus S. Theliau S. Paulens c. Certainly these men were in all respects better qualified than Augustin the Monk if one half of the Legends concerning them be true and why should they neglect so necessary a duty where they had such advantages of doing it and such an easie way of working miracles to convince the Saxons Shall we say as Bede doth that the Britains wholly neglected it but that must certainly be understood of such wretched Britains as Gildas describes not of such Saints as these were and Bollandus thinks those words of Bede do need a limitation viz. that such Apostolical men were but few in comparison of those afterwards Or shall we say that these Saints had a great mind to do it but because of the continual wars and persecutions they were forced to retire to a Monastick life No Mr. Cressy himself tells us that Cerdic did permit the Inhabitants of Cornwal paying an annual tribute to enjoy the exercise of the Christian Religion which saith he appears by the great number of Saints which in these and the following times flourished there If there were such a number of Saints then how came they never to employ themselves in the Conversion of their Neighbour Infâ—â—els I had thought those who glory so much and beyond all reason in the Conversion of Remote Infidels would have allowed their Saints to have converted those that were so near at hand especially considering how successful they werâ— where they undertook it For S. Kentigern they tell us for his share purged Galloway converted Albania and sent disciples to the Orcades Norway and as far as Iseland Methinks a little charity would have dâ—ne well nearer home when the Saxons needed it so much and they bred up such numbers of Disciples under them as is reported of Gildas Iltutus S. David and the rest of them But if notwithstanding all this Christianity was unknown to the Saxons what will become of the Saintship of these persons who were so highly qualified by the gift of Tongues and all sorts of miracles if their Writers say true and yet utterly neglected to preach Christianity to the Saxons But for all that I can see the reputation of these British Saints must vaile when it stands in competition with the Apostolicalness of Augustin the Monk § 3. But although in these remâ—ter parts the Britains being mixed with the Saxons might acquaint some of them with the Christian Religion yet surely in Kent and those parts to which Augustin came he was the first who brought the knowledge of Christianity among them This is as far from being true as the other for to omit what Alford confâ—sseth to be very probable viz. that Irmiric Father to Ethelbert did permit the Christian Religion to be professed in his Kingdom I shall insist upon what is more certain viz. the confeâ—sion of Bede himself that the same of the Christian Religion was brought to Ethelbert before the coming of Augustin by the means of a
mentioned by O. N. which they have not been before-hand with him in producing to the very same purpose I cannot then find out the difference between the highest of our Enthusiasts and theirs and the very same pleas which serve for the one will justifie the other also What have they ever pretended to but to understand celestial secrets divine mysteries or future events by immediate Revelation Now all these things are owned defended and justified by the Roman Church and yet they not lyable to the charge of Fanaticism § 7. No saith O. N. Enthusiasm or Fanaticism doth not lye in speaking things hard to be understood nor yet the pretending high and mysterious effects Visions Revelations c. for all these we believe may be and are often wrought in Gods Saints by the Holy Spirit and his special presence in their souls and that we say in a much higher and more admirable way than any of Satans infatuations can imitate or ascend to but Fanaticism is a false pretence of these or the like when having no just ground to be credited they pretend to them So that the main point is yielded up to the Fanaticks viz. Visions and immediate Revelations and unaccountable Impulses from the Spirit of God all the dispute is whether the Popish Enthusiasts or those among us are only pretenders If O. N. were to convince a Quaker who pretends to such an immediate impulse of the Spirit this must be his method of proceeding with him Friend I perceive thou talkest much of the Spirit of God moving thee and revealing the hidden mysteries of his Kingdom to thee but thy pretence is vain and thou art deceived by thy own fancy if not by an evil Spirit No saith the Quaker I know I am not for I have the testimony of the Spirit within me that I am not deceived but thou art deceived and lyest against the Holy Ghost and blasphemest the Spirit of God working in his Saints Not I saith O. N. I grant that the Holy Ghost doth work in his Saints such supernatural elevations whereby they understand divine Mysteries and have Visions and Raptures and Revelations more than any of you but all ours are true and yours are false Thou lying Prophet replyes the Quaker Gods speaks truth by thee as he did once by Balaams Ass and Caiaphas but thou through the Wickedness of thy heart dost condemn the Generation of his Saints among us as hypocrites and wouldst have the Spirit of God dwell only among you that are the Sons of Mystical Babylon and partake of all her defilements that are the seed of the Beast and the false Prophet that commit adultery with Images and set up the Man of Sin in his Throne that have covered the face of the earth with your abominations and still go about to deceive the Nations You have the Spirit of God among you You pretend to the seeing hidden Mysteries and immediate Revelations and Mystical Unions with God! No yours are the Mysteries of Iniquity the Revelations of Antichrist and unions only with Mystical Babylon You have the Spirit of God among you No yours is the Spirit of Enchantment and Divination the Spirit of lying and deceit the Spirit of Antichrist and not of God I say again saith O. N. that we have the Spirit and you have not And I say by the Spirit that you have not saith the Quaker And is not this a fair conclusion of this Dispute Hath not O. N. extreamly got the better of the Quaker But O. N. pleads yet farther that they make use of Notes and Rules of discerning of the pretences to Inspiration which I shall consider afterwards but that which O. N. and Mr. Cressy do most insist upon is this that if such pretenders to Inspirations do speak or do any thing against the Catholick Church as they call it then their pretences are to be rejected as Satanical illusions Very good This is a way to preserve themselves but what is this to the preventing the delusions of such fanatick pretenders to Inspirations who may be grosly deceived and yet never speak or do any thing against their Church but it seems the least touch that way presently marrs all If Mother Teresa had but chanced to let fall a word against the Power of Holy Water in driving away Devils or chanced in one of her Visions to have seen Bread upon the Altar after consecration away with her a meer hypocrite and Impostor one deluded by the Devil and it had been well if after all her Visions and Raptures she had escaped the Inquisition For can it possibly be so certain that she had Divine Visions as that Holy Water drives away Devils or that she had Mystical Unions as that no bread remained upon the Altar after consecration No no. If melancholy Women once offer to meddle in those matters they must then be told of their weakness of Iudgement and strength of Imagination and delusions of the Devil but if they admire every superstitious foolery and see strange effects of Holy Water and in some Visions can discern the very flesh and blood of Christ in the Eâ—charist then O heavenly Visions O Divine Saint Then her Confessor must sooth and flatter her and suffer her to be deceived by her own imagination at least if not by something worse So that this whole business of Visions and Revelations among them is managed by Politick Rules if they can serve to strengthen their interest they are encouraged if not the persons are presently discountenanced and if they persist in their pretences in great hazard of the Inquisition But may not weak and Melancholy Persons be deceived in judging the effects of a strong Imagination to be the Inspirations of the Spirit of God What then say they these do no hâ—rt to the World But is it no injury to their souls to suffer them to be so deluded Is it no dishonour to Christian Religion to make the Perfection of the Devotion of it to consist in such strange unaccountable Unions and Raptures which take away the use of all Reason and Discourse Is it nothing to have Persons Canonized for Saints and admired and worshipped chiefly for the sake of these things In which case not only the particular persons while they lived were suffered to be abused but the whole Christian World as much as lyes in them is imposed upon and the effects of a strong Imagination and Mystical Unions are recommended as the perfection of the Christian State § 8. But whatever Rules they go by I shall now shew that such kind of Ecstasies and Revelations as the Mystical Divinity pretends to have been condemned by the Christian Church in former Ages which will yet farther discover how far it is from being a part of the Cristian doctrine â—o far is it from being the perfection of a Christian State And the Instance I shall produce will be such a one wherein the judgement of the whole Christian Church was seen viz. in
Christian Wife which he had of the Royal Family of the Franks named Bertha whom he received from her Parents on that condition that he would suffer her to enjoy her Religion and to have a Bishop to attend her whose name was Luidhardus What can be more plain from hence than that the first entertainment which Christianity met with in the Saxon Court was by the means of Queen Bertha and her Bishop Luidhardus This Queen Bertha was the only daughter of Châ—ripertus King of Paris one of the four sons of Clotharius among whom his Kingdom was divided by Ingoberga and her marriage is mentioned by Gregorius Turonensis to the Son of the King of Kent which marriage was in all probability solemnized before the death of Charipertus now Charipertus dyed A. D. 567. so that Christianity had been known about thirty years in King Ethelberts Court before ever Augustin set footing upon English ground And is it conceivable that when a Bishop had performed the exercises of the Christian Religion for thirty years in a Church for that purpose viz. S. Martins near Canterbury the English Saxons should know nothing of Christianity till Augustins arrival But this is not all for we have great reason to believe that the Conversion of the Saxons to Christianity is in a great measure owing to this Queen and her Bishop Luidhard or Letardus who had been Bishop of Senlis in France as Thorn tells us I know herein how much I shall provoke the whole Generation of Romish Missionaries but I value not the displeasure of those whom Truth and Reason will enrage William of Malmsbury himself a Benedictin Monk and one of the most judicious of our Monkish historians saith that by Ethelberts match to Queen Bertha the Saxons began by degrees to lay aside their barbarous customs and by conversation with the Frâ—nch became more civilized to which was added the holy and single life of Letardus the Bishop who came over with the Queen by which without speaking he did invite the King to the knowledge of Christ our Lord by which means it came to pass that the mind of the King being already softened did so readily yield to the preaching of Augustin By which it appears that the main of the business as to the Kings Conversion was effected before Augustins coming only for the greater solemnity of it a Mission from Rome was obtained and I am much deceived if Gregory himself doth not imply that it was at the request of the English Saxons themselves I know very well what an idle story the Monks tell of the occasion of the conversion of the English Nation viz. S. Gregories seeing some pretty English boys to be sold for slaves at Rome and having luckily hit upon two or three pious quibbles in allusion to the names of their Nation and Countrey and King he was at last in good earnest moved to seek the Conversion of the whole Nation A very likely story for so grave a Saint I do not quarrel with it on the account of the custom of selling English slaves but for the Monkishness i. e. the silliness of it I know Bede reports it but he brings it in after such a fashion as though he were afraid of the anger of his Brethren the Monks if he had left it out for he mentions it as a reverend tale with which the Monks used to entertain themselves that had come down to them by that infallible method of conveyance viz. Oral Tradition and quotes nothing else for it Whereas in the Preface to his History he tells his Readers that in the matters relating to Gregory he relyed on Nothelmus who had been at Rome and had searched the Register of the Roman Church but we see as to this story he saith he had nothing but an old Tradition for it But since Mr. Cressy is so zealous in Vindication of this story I desire the other part of it may not be left out which is told by Broâ—pton Abbot of Iorval viz. that S. Gregory and his companions were come three dayes journey towards England and then sitting down reading in a Meadow a Grashopper leapt upon his Book and made him leave off reading then S. Gregory thinking seriously upon this little creatures name for his wit lay much that way he presently found this mysterie in it Locusta saith he quasi loco sta which saith Brompton he spake by a Prophetick Spirit for messengers immediately came upon them from Rome and stopped their journey And surely he had been much to blame to undertake such a journey upon the instigation of one quibble if he had not been as ready to turn back upon the admonition of another But to set aside these Monkish fopperies the best Authority we can have in this case is of S. Gregory himself several of whose Letters are still extâ—nt in the Register of his Epistles relating to this affair In one sent to the Kings of France Theodoric and Theodebert he expresseth himself thus Atque ideo pervenit ad nos Anglorum gentem ad fidem Christianam Deo miserante desiâ—eranter velle converti sed sacerdotes vestros è vicino negligeâ—eâ— desideria eorum cessare suâ aahâ—rtatione succendere Ob hoc igitur Augustinum servâ—â—m Dei praesentium portitorem cujus zelus studium bene nobis est cognâ—tum cum aliis servis Dei praevidâ—mus illuc dirigendum Quibus etiam injunximus ut aliquos secum è vicino debeant presbyteros 〈◊〉 cum quibus eorum possint mentes agnoscere voluntatem admonitione sua quantam Deus donaverit adjuvare and to the same purpose he writes to Brunichildis their Mother Indicamus ad nos pervenisse Anglorum gentem Deo annâ—ente velle fieri Christianam c. Which are the most remarkable testimonies we could desire to our purpose for these Letters were sent by Augustin the Monk before ever he had been in England and therein the Pope expresseth the desire of the English Nation to embrace Christianity not barely of Ethelbert and his Court that this desire was made known at Rome that upon this the Pope sends Augustin and his Companions that the French who were their Neighbours had been too negligent in this Work and began to be more slack than formerly in it that however now since he had taken so much care to send these on purpose for that work he intreats them to send over so many Priests as might serve for their interpreters which is a plain discovery that there had been entercourse about the Christian Religion between the French and the Saxons before and that still they understood their language so well as to serve for interpreters to Augustin and his Brethren Mr. Cressy who pares and clips testimonies to make them serve his purpose renders those words Anglorum gentem desideranter velle converti velle fieri Christianam only thus that the English Nation were in a willing disposition to receive the
such a manner by persons who by making reflections on the Iustice and Wisdom of a Nation do endeavour to expose the Laws and Government of it to the censure and reproach of the malicious and ignorant But since our Laws are so publickly accused of injustice and cruelty and the Kingdom charged with the guilt of innocent blood I hope I may have leave as an English man to vindicate the Laws of our Countrey and as a Protestant to wipe off the aspersion of Cruelty from our Religion which I shall do without the least intention of mischief to any mens persons or of sharpening the severities of Laws against them § 3. And to proceed with the greatest clearness in this matter I shall consider 1. The charge of injustice and cruelty which he lays upon our poenal Laws 2. The proposals he makes in order to the repeal of them and giving a full liberty to the exercise of their Religion 1. The charge of injustice and cruelty upon our poenal Laws Whosoever adventures to charge the publick Laws of a Kingdom in such a manner ought to be very well advised upon what grounds he proceeds and to understand throughly the nature and constitution of Government and Rules of Iustice and the power of interpreting as well as making Laws and the certain bounds within which Laws may make actions Treasonable and how far actions thought Religious by the Persons who do them may become treasonable when they are against Laws made for the publick safety and what actions of Religion make men Martyrs when they suffer for them and what not for it is certain they are not all of equal consequence and necessity these and many other things a man ought to come well provided with that dares in the face of the World to charge the Laws of his own Nation with injustice and cruelty But Mr. Cr. may be excused in this matter for that would indeed be an unjust and cruel Law to require impossibilities from men I wish so noble a subject had been undertaken by a Person fit for it that could have managed it otherwise than in a bare declamatory manner But since he is the Goliah that dares so openly defie our Laws and Government I shall make use of his own Weapons to cut off the heads of this terrible accusation For 1. He grants That the Laws made by their Catholick Ancestors viz. the Statutes of Praemunire and Provisors were just Laws 2. That our King hath reason to expect as much security of the Fidelity of his Catholick Subjects as any Catholick Prince hath from his 3. That all Christian Kings have in some sense a kind of spiritual Authority that they ought to be Nursing Fathers to Gods Church that they ought to promote true Christian doctrine both touching Faith and manners and to imploy their power when occasion is to oblige even Ecclesiastical Persons to perform their duties and all their Subjects to live in all Christian Piety and Vertue These are his oâ—n words which in short come to this that they are bound to promote and preâ—erve the true Religion 4. That it is absolutely unlawful for them to defend their Religion being persecuted by Soveraign Magistrates by any other way but suffering which he saith they do sincerely profess according to their perswasion 5. That the treasonable actions of persons of their own Religion were the occasion of making and continuing the poenal Laws for upon their account he saith they are thought dangerous Subjects and care is taken to exact Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy from them 6. That where the Popes temporal power is owned especially as to deposing Princes there can be no sufficient security given as to the Fidelity of such persons This I prove from his saying that there is no reason to question their Fidelity whose Ancestors were so far from any Supremacy of the Pope in Temporals and much less any Authority in him to depose Princes that they made the Statutes of Praemunire and Provisors which by his favour is a very weak argument unless men can never be supposed to degenerate from the Vertues of their Ancestors but besides the satisfaction he offers is by renouncing the Popes temporal power and declaring that his power of deposing Princes and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance is repugnant to the Word of God although they dare not call it heretical from whence it follows that Mr. Cressy doth not think those can give sufficient security for their Fidelity who dare not thus far renounce the Popes power 7. That where there is no sufficient security given for the Fidelity of Persons there is great reason they should lye under the severity of Laws Which Mr. Cressy alwayes supposes and only complains of their hardship upon the offers he makes of their Fidelity And this must hold as to all sorts of persons who may be dangerous to Government although they may pretend never so much exemption by their Function or being imployed in Offices not immediately relating to Civil Government From these concessions it will be no difficult task to clear our Poenal Laws from injustice and to vindicate the whole Kingdom from the guilt of innocent blood if I can prove these following assertions 1. That the same Reasons which justifie the antient Statutes of England and the Laws of Catholick Princes abroad do vindicate our Poenal Laws from the charge of Injustice and Cruelty 2. That Laws originally made upon the account of acknowledged treasonable practices do continue just upon all those who do not give sufficient security against the principles leading to those practices 1. That the same Reasons which justifie the antient Statutes of England and the Laws of Catholick Princes abroad do vindicate our Poenal Laws from the charge of Injustice and Cruelty For if the penalties do bear no greater proportion to the nature of the offence if the Power be as great and as just in our Law-makers if the occasions were of as high a nature and the pleas in behalf of the persons equal then there can be no reason assigned why those Laws should be just and lawful and not ours And the making out of these things is my present business 1. I begin with the antient Laws and Statutes of England And I hope no one dares question but that the power of makeing Laws is as good and just in England since the Reformation as ever it was before For if there be the least diminution of Power by vertue of the cutting off the Popes Authority then so much of the Civil Power as was lost by it was derived from the Pope and this is in plain terms to make the Pope our Temporal Soveraign and the whole Kingdom to be only Feudatary to him which is asserting his Temporal power with a vengeance and contains in it a doctrine that none but very Self-denying Princes can ever give the least countenance to because it strikes at the very root of their Authority and makes them only
precarious Princes and in a much more proper sense than the Popes use that Title The Servants of Servants Supposing then the Legislative and Civil Power to be equal since the Reformation and before our work is to compare the other circumstances together and if it appear that the Plea of Conscience and Religion did equally hold then and notwithstanding that the penalties were as great upon the same or far less occasions I hope our Laws will at least appear as just and reasonable as those were § 4. To make this out I must give an account of the State of those times and the Reasons and Occasions which moved the Law-makers to enact those Poenal Statutes in which I shall shew these two things 1. That they began upon a controversie of Religion and that the Poenal Laws were made against those persons who pleaded Religion 2. That the Reasons and Occasions of the Poenal Laws since the Reformation were at least as great as those 1. That the antient Poenal Laws were made upon a Controversie of Religion And to give a clear account of the Rise and occasion of them I must begin from the Norman Conquest for then those Foundations were laid of all the following controversies which happened between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power On the behalf of the Ecclesiastical Power was the plea of Conscience and Religion on the behalf of the Civil Power nothing but the just Rights of Princes and the necessary preservation of their own and the publick safety And this Controversie between the Two Powers was managed with so much zeal and such pretences of Conscience on the behalf of the Ecclesiastical Power that the Civil Power notwithstanding the courage of some Princes and the resolution of Parliaments had much ado to stand its ground or to be able to preserve it self from the encroachments and Usurpations of the other So that to see Princes give any Countenance to the same pretences would be almost as strange as to see them turn Common-wealths-men I know there were good Laws frequently made to strengthen the Civil Power but the very frequency of them shewed how ineffectual they were For what need many Laws to the same purpose if the first had any force at all and the multiplication of Laws for the same thing is a certain sign of defect in the Government To undeceive therefore all those who judge of the State of Affairs by the Book of Statutes I shall deduce the History of this great Controversie between the Ecclesiastical and Civil Power in England so far as to shew the necessity there was found of putting an issue to it by casting out the Popes pretended Power and Iurisdiction in this Nation The two first who began this Dispute were both men of great Spirits and resolute in their undertakings I mean william the Conqueror and Gregory the seventh who was the first Pope that durst speak out and he very freely declares his mind about the subjection of the Civil Power to the Ecclesiastical and the exemption of all Ecclesiastical Persons and Things from the Civil Power In his Epistle to Herimanus Bishop of Metz about the excommunication of Henry the fourth and absolving his Subjects from their Allegiance he thus expresses himself Shall not that power which was first found out by men who knew not God be subject to that which God himself hath appointed for his own honor in the World and the head of which is the Son of God Who knows not that Kings and Dukes had their beginnings from men who gained their Authority over their equals by blind ambition and intolerable presumption by rapines and murders by perfidiousness and all manner of wickedness Is not this a very pretty account of the Original of Civil Power by the Head of the Church But this is not all for he adds While Princes make Gods Priests to be subject to them to whom may we better compare them than to him who is the Head over all the Sons of Pride who tempted the Son of God with promising him all the Kingdoms of the World if he would fall down and worship him This is better and better it seems it is as bad as the sin of Lucifer for Princes not to be subject to the Pope and it is like the Devils tempting Christ to offer to make Priests subject to the Civil Power Who doubts saith he that Christs Priests are to be accounted the Fathers and Masters of Kings aud Princes and all the faithful Now saith he is it not a lamentable madness if the Son should offer to make the Father subject to him but one of his Successors did not think so that set up Henry the fifth against his own Father or the Scholar his Master or to think to bind him on earth by whom he expects to be loosed in Heaven These were the Demonstrations of that Age and the main supports of the Cause and in his Epistle to William King of England he tells him that God had appointed two kinds of Government for mankind the Apostolical and Regal that is much that the same Government should come only from the sins of men and yet be from the appointment of God but we are to consider he writ this to a King whom he hoped to perswade and therefore would not tell him the worst of his thoughts about the beginnings of Civil Power but saith he these two powers like the Sun and Moon have that inequality by the Christian Religion that the Royal Power next under God is to be under the care and management of the Apostolical And since the Apostolical See is to give an account to God of the miscarriages of Princes his wisdom ought to consider whether he ought not without farther delay take an Oath of Fealty to him For no less than that would content him but William was not so meek a Prince to be easily brought to this as Robert of Sicily Richard of Capua Bertram of Provence Rodulphus and several others were whose Oaths of Fealty to him are extant in the Collection or Register of his Epistles But William gives him a resolute answer which is extant among the Epistles of Lanfranc that for the Oath of Fealty he had not done it neither would he because he never promised it neither did he find that ever his predecessors had done it to Gregories predecessors The Pope storms at this and writes a chiding Letter to Lanfranc Arch-bishop of Canterbury who like a better subject to the Pope than to the King writes an humble excuse for himself to the Pope and tells him he had done his endeavour to perswade the King but could not prevail with him And Cardinal Baronius saith the Pope took it very ill at his hands considering the kindness he had received from the Papal See For Alexander the second favoured his cause against Harold and sent him a consecrated Banner and if we may believe Henricus de Silgrave the Pope gave him his title
of finding the guilty As if we should suppose upon the account of the Treasons of many years and frequent Rebellions and conspiracies for the destruction of the King and Kingdom which any Sectaries among us should be found guilty of as for instance I will put the case of Quakers as more easily differenced I desire to know whether if the Law made it poenal for men not to put off their hats only out of consideration of the Treasonable doctrines and practices they were guilty of should that man who were taken because he did not put off his Hat be said to sufâ—er on that account and not rather upon the first Reason and Motive of the Law In the Statute 23 Eliz. c. 1. the whole intent and design of the Law is expressed to be to keep persons from withdrawing her Majesties Subjects from their Obedience to her and because the Pope had engaged himself in several Treasons and Rebellions against her by giving assistance to them and endeavouring what in him lay to deprive the Queen of her Crown therefore the drawing any persons to promise Obedience to the Pope is adjudged Treason as well as to any other Prince State or Potentate And where there is an equality of Reason why should there not be an equality in the punishment If any other Prince should have engaged Persons in the same actions which the Pope did there is no question they had been Treasonable actions the Question this whether that which would be Treason if any other commands it ceases to be Treason when the Pope allows or requires it If it doth so then the Pope must be acknowledged to have a supreme Temporal Power over Princes and they are all but his Vassals which is expresly against the ancient Law of 16 R. 2. if it remains Treason then those may be justly executed for Treason who do no more than what the Pope requires them and which they may think themselves bound in Conscience to do But on this account may not any act of Religion be made Treason if the Law-makers think fit to make it so By no means for in this case there was an apparent tendency to disobedience and Treason in promising obedience to the Pope but there is no such thing in any meer act of Religion considered as such but when Priests have been known to be the common instruments of Treasons as they were then by the confession of the Secular Priests then those actions which are performed by such persons and are proper only to themselves are looked on in the sense of the Law and according to the intention of it but only as the certain means of knowing the Persons whom the Law designs to punish So that if we do allow that the Law of the Land can declare Treason in any sort of Persons and punish Persons for being guilty and appoint a certain means of discovering the guilty then there is nothing in that severe Law 23 Eliz c. 1. which is not according to justice and equity alwayes supposing that some notorious Treasonable actions and not the bare acts of Religion were the first Occasions or antecedent Motives of those Laws which is fully confessed and proved in this case by the most impartial witnesses viz. the Secular Priests And the Preface to the Statute 27 Eliz. c. 2. gives the best interpretation of the design of it viz. Whereas divers persons called or professed Iesuits Seminary Priests and other Priests which have been and from time to time are made in the parts beyond the Seas by or according to the Order and Rites of the Romish Church have of late comen and been sent and daily do come and are sent into this Realm of England and other the Queen Majesties Dominions of purpose as it hath appeared as well by their own examinations and confessions as divers other manifest means and proofs not only to withdraw her Highness Subjects from their due obedience to her Majesty but also to stir up and move Sedition Rebellion and open Hostility within the same her Highness Realms and Dominions to the great endangering of the safety of her most Royal Person and to the utter ruine desolation and overthrow of the whole Realm if the same be not the sooner by some good means foreseen and prevented For reformation whereof be it ordained c. Can any thing be plainer from hence than that the whole scope and design of this Law is only to prevent treasonable attempts though masked only under a pretence of Religion If the design had been against their Religion the Preface of the Law would have mentioned only the exercise of their Religion which it doth not But withal is there not a Proviso in the same Act that it shall not in any wise extend to any Iesuit or Priest that will take the Oath of Supremacy then it seems all the Religion they suffer for must be contaiâ—ed only in what is renounced by the Oath of Supremacy And is this at last the suffering for Religion Mr. Cressy talks of viz. for the Popes Personal Authority and Iurisdiction here But who were the men that first rejected that Authoâ—ity and Jurisdiction here Former Princes long before the Reformation did it as far as they thought fit and made no scruple of restraining it as far as they judged convenient and upon the same Reasons they went so far H. 8. and other Princes might go much farther For the reason they went upon was the repugnancy of what they opposed to the Rights of the Crown and was there any other ground of the casting out the Popes Supremacy when long experience had taught men that it was to little purpoâ—e to cut off the Tayl of the Serpent while the Head and Body were sound But who were the zealous men in Henry the Eighths dayes against the Popes Authority and Jurisdiction Were not Stephen Gardner and Bonner as fierce as any against it and if they were not in good earnest they were notorious Hypocrites as any one may see by reading Gardners Book of True Obedience with Bonners Preface wherein very smart things are said and with good Reason against making the Supremacy challenged by the Pope any part of Catholicâ— Religion Did not all the Bishops in H. 8. time Fisher excepted joyn in rejecting the Popes Supremacy And was there no Catholick Religion left in England when that was gone It seems then the whole Cause of Religion is reduced to a very narrow compass and hangs on a very slender thread If there be no more in Christian Religion than what is rejected by the Oath of Supremacy it a is very earthly and quarrelsome thing for it filled the World with perpetual broils and confusions and produced dreadful effects where ever it was entertained and leaves a sting behind where its power is cut off But the Author of the Answer to the Execution of Iustice in England c. who is supposed to be Cardinal Allen speaks out in this matter and saith plainly that it
is a part of Catholick Doctrine that heretical Princes being excommunicated by the Pope are to be deprived of their Kingdoms and their Subjects immediately upon excommunication are absolved from their Allegiance which he saith is not only the doctrine of Aquinas and Tolet and of the Canon Law but of the Council of Lateran and as he endeavours to prove of Scripture too and that War for Religion is not only just but honourable and for the deposing of Princes he brings several instances from Gregory the seventh downwards particularly King John and Henry the second and saith that the promise of obedience to Princes is only a conditional contract and if they fail of their faith to God they are free as to the faith they promised them This I confess is speaking to the purpose and the only way in appearance to make them suffer for Religion for no doubt these were the principles which led them to those treasonable practices for which they suffered But the main question remains still whether Treason be not Treason because a man thinks himself bound in Conscience to commit it and whether Magistrates have not reason to make severe Laws when such dangerous and destructive principles to Government are embraced as a part of Religion If there be any such thing as Civil Government appointed by God it must be supposed to have a just and natural Right and Power to preserve it self but how can it maintain it self without a just power to punish those that disturb and overthrow it if it have such a Power it must have Authority to judge of those actions which are pernicious and dangerous to it self and if there be such a natural inherent Right Power and Authority antecedently to any positive Laws of Religion either we must suppose that Religion left Civil Government as it was and then it hath the Power of judging all sorts of actions so far as they have an influence on the Civil Government so that no pretence of Religion can excuse Treasonable actions or we must assert that the Christian Religion hath taken away the natural Rights of Government which is very repugnant to the doctrine of Christianity and all the examples of the Primitive Church The substance therefore of what I say about suffering for Religion or for Treason is this that whatever principles or actions tend to the destruction of the Civil Government are in themselves Treasonable antecedent to Laws that Laws may justly determine the nature and degrees of punishment that those who are guilty of such actions let them be done out of what principle soever are justly lyable to punishment on the account of Treason and in the judgement of the Law and Reason do suffer on that account what ever private opinions they may have who do these things concerning the obligations of Conscience to do them and where there is just suspicion of a number of persons not easily discerned the Laws may make use of certain Marks to discover them although it happens that those marks prove actions of Religion which actions are not thereby made the Cause of their suffering but those principles or actions which were the first occasions and Motives of making those Laws From which it is I suppose evident that if the antient Poenal Laws were just and reasonable our modern Laws are so too because the Occasions of making them were of as high a Nature and the guilt as proportionable to the penalty and that men did no more suffer for Religion by these than by the Antient Poenal Laws § 23. 2. But supposing these Laws were acknowledged to be just and reasonable as to the Actors of those Treasons the Question is Whether they continue just as to other persons who cannot be proved actually guilty of those Treasons And here I confess as to the principles of natural Reason the case doth vary according to circumstances For 1. In a jealous and suspicious time when many Treasons have been acted and more are feared by virtue of bad principles the Government may justly proceed upon the tryal of the principles to the conviction of Persons who own them without plain evidence of the particular guilt of the outward actions of Treason For the very designing of Treason is lyable to the severity of the Law if it come to be discovered and where the safety of the publick is really in great danger the greatest caution is necessaâ—y â—or the prevention of evil and some actions are lawful for publick safety which are not in particular cases Especially when sufficient warning is given before-hand by the Law and men cannot come within the danger of it without palpable disobedience as in the case of Seminary Priests coming into the Nation when forbidden to do it under severe penalties In which case the very contempt of the Law and Government makes them justly obnoxious to the force of it He that owns the principles that lead him to Treason wants only an opportunity to act them and therefore in cases of great danger the not renouncing the principles may justly expose men to the sentence of the Law And if it be lawful to make any principles or declared opinions or words treasonable it cannot be unjust to make men suffer for them 2. In quiet times when the apprehension of present danger is not great it hath been the Wisdom of our Government to suffer the course of Law to proceed but not to a rigorous execution For the Law being in its force keeps persons of dangerous principles more in awe who will be very cautious of broaching and maintaining those principles which they hold and consequently cannot have so bad effects as when they have full liberty to vent them but in case Persons have been seized upon by the legal wayes of discovery who yet have not been actually seditious it hath been the excellent moderation of our Government not to proceed to any great severities 3. There can be no sufficient reason given for the total repeal of Laws at first made upon good grounds where there is not sufficient security given that all those for whom they were intended have renounced those principles which were the first occasions of making them These things I yield to be reasonable 1. That where there is a real difference in principles the Government should make a difference because the reason of the Law is the danger of those principles which if some hearâ—â—â—y renounce there seems to be no ground that they should suffer equally with those who will not but since the Law is already in being and it is easier to preserve old Laws than to make new ones whether the difference should be by Law or by Priviledge becomes the Wisdom of our Law-makers to determine 2. That such who enjoy such a Priviledge should give the greatest satisfaction as to their sincerity in renouncing these principles for if there be still ground to suspect their sincerity in renouncing by reason of ambiguous phrases aequivocations in words or