of Opinions opposite to the Power and Life of Christianity I know none who hath a better Title to it than your Reformation For the Life of Christianity is Faith and Charity and you have destroy'd the first by Heresie and the second by Schism as shall be proved hereafter Children delight in edged Tools which serve only to cut their fingers and you and your Brethren use weapons against us which wound your selves Fatal Experience might have taught you more Discretion than to be still moving that stone which hath once crush'd both your Church and State to pieces And truly the Reproach of Antichristian will fall on your Church if prov'd against ours For say what you please of the ancient Britans the first Apostles of the English who brought us the light of Faith and planted the Gospel amongst us came from Rome The Hierarchy you pretend to came from thence By Authority from the Pope my Lord of Canterbury is Primate and my Lord of London is his Suffragan By the same Authority the Country is divided into Dioceses your Deans and Chapters setl'd your Universities founded and several Degrees instituted in them If the Pope be the Antichrist both Universities and Hierarchy amongst you is Antichristian Moreover the Livings you enjoy were for the most part if not altogether given by the pious Liberality of Persons who profest that Faith we profess and lived and died in the Communion of our Church Gratitude to such Benefactors may teach you to judge less severely to suspend your Judgment till you have more convincing Arguments to ground it on than your own bare and bold Assertion CHAP. III. The true Designs of Christian Religion THe Design of God in establishing Religion was that Men should serve him in this World and enjoy him in the next that they (a) Psal 126.5 here sow with tears there reap with joy now run (b) 2 Tim. 4.7 8. their race and fight their battel then receive their crown Rivers (c) Eccles 1.7 receive their waters from the Sea and return to it again And Religion receives its beginning from God runs through all Ages to return to God again Each Man before his Creation is Creatrix essentia says S. Anselm From which by Creation he is separated and by Regeneration and the good Works which follow it he returns to him again never more to be separated from him The first Action is of God alone the rest are of God and Man For God (d) Aug. Qui te creavit sine te non te salvabit sine te will not compleat the Work of our Salvation with out the Cooperation of Man. God (e) Subest tibi cum volueris posse can do all without Man but will not Man (f) Sine me nihil potestis facere Jo. 15.5 can do nothing without God from whom he must expect prevenient concomitant and subsequent Graces for all and every meritorious Action That Bliss which God prepares for us in the next Life contains God himself and when enjoy'd renders the thrice happy Soul like (a) Similes ei erimus 1 Jo. 3.2 unto God and we must attain to it by means proportionable which partake of the resemblance Wherefore our Understanding must be like that of God believing him and our Will loving him The first is Faith the second Charity to which add Hope to keep our Soul steady amidst the Difficulties of this Life as an Anchor (b) Heb. 6.19 fixes a Ship And you have the three Vertues call'd Theological because they rely immediately on Almighty God Faith on his Veracity or Truth in affirming Hope on his Fidelity in promising and Goodness as he is our Chief Good And Charity on his Goodness in its self Which Three Vertues contain what is required of us in this Life Whatsoever is required to a good life is known as we know what to believe to hope and to love Says (c) Aug. Ench. c. 4. Omnia quae requiris proculdubio scies diligenter sciendo quid credi quid sperari debeat quid amari Haec enim maximè imò verò sola in Religione sequenda sunt S. Austin Which are the only things Religion regards as being designed only for these three Vertues But are we not oblig'd to keep the Commandments Or do not they advance towards Heaven who run (a) Psal 119.32 in the paths which God hath traced out And how come these to be omitted Answer They are not ommitted but are contained in Charity (b) Rom. 13.8 9. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law our whole Duty to our Neighbour and the Commandments relating to him being briefly comprehended in this Saying Love thy Neighbor as thy self As our whole Duty to God is contained in that other Saying Love God above all things (c) Matt. 22.40 On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets These are the two Rootes (d) Matt. 7.17 of the good tree which brings forth good fruit As love of our selves is the root of the bad tree which brings forth bad fruit The (e) Aug. Serm. 44. de Temp. Radix omnium bonorum est Charitas sicut radix omnium malorum est Cupiditas root of all good is Charity as the root of all evil is Concupiscence Again (f) Aug. l. de moribus Eccl. c. 25. Nihil aliud est bene vivere quam toto corde totâ animâ totâ mente Deum deligere To live well is to love God with all our Heart with all our Soul with all our Mind I should as easily write out the whole new Testament as endeavour to cite all the passages which directly or indirectly commend Charity Seeing all tend to extinguish in us self-Love and to kindle Divine Love. In it Divine Love sometimes is preferr'd before (a) 1 Cor. 13. the Tongues of Men and Angels before Faith working Miracles before knowledge of the greatest Mysteries Almsgiving c. It is call'd (b) Col. 3.14 The bond of perfection the end (c) 1 Tim. 5. or intent of the Commandments c. I end with the Words of the beloved and loving Disciple (d) Jo. 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Wherefore with Reason S. Austin (e) Aug l. de laudibus Charitatis said Ille tenet quicquid latet quicquid patet in divinis sermonibus qui servat Charitatem in moribus I should not have been so long upon a Point of which I thought none could be ignorant who reads the Scriptures or knows the Rudiments of Christianity did not I perceive that you either never knew it or have forgotten it And When (f) Heb. 5.12 for the time and your Vocation you should be a teacher you have need that one should teach you which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God. For how happens it that in relating the Designs of Christian Religion there is not one clear
his Superior Christ Jesus I never heard S. Ambrose suspected of Pride for refusing to admit Theodosius the Great into the Church before his Penance for the Slaughter at Thessalonica or for excluding him the Cancels after it It was a Zeal of the Glory of God and the good of the Church which moved him the Emperor himself understood it so As for precious Ornaments of the Church I will own ours to be too costly when you shall have proved that any thing is too good for God's Service not till then The infinit Majesty of God is ground sufficient to oblige us to bear him the greatest Respect interiorly and express our Duty to our Creator and our Gratitude to so great a Benefactor by returning to him in the best manner we can an Acknowledgment of his most bountiful Gifts This serves also to stir up in the Auditory Submission Respect and Adoration which otherwise would fail CHAP. XXVII Vnity of the Church in Faith and Sacraments G. B. owns that Protestants are Schismatics Of Severity against Dissenters And of Hugo Grotius G. B. p. 100. A Fourth Design of Christian Religion was to unite Mankind under one Head into one Body not by Love and pardoning Injuries only but also by associating the Faithful into one Body the Church which was to be united by Bonds of Love governed by Pastors and Teachers and cemented with the Ligaments of the Sacraments Answ You say something thô disorderly but not all For 1. You omit Faith by which we are inserted into the Body of Christ 2. You put Charity which doth not make us parts but living parts of that Body whose parts we are by Faith. 3. You add Sacraments which are only exterior Signs of interior Communication 4. You confound Charity and Sacraments as equally concurring to the Vnity of the Church yet there is a vast difference betwixt them the one formally quickning the Members of the Church interiorly the other only effecting it interiorly and testifying it exteriorly 5. Betwixt the Sacraments there is a vast difference as to this and you confound them for Baptism being our Regeneration in Christ is an esficient Cause of our Union with him and makes us his Members the others are designed only to nourish those who are already united to and in him When you speak of being Governed by Pastors I hope the Pope may find place amongst them he being the prime Pastor G. B. pag. 101. The Gospel pronounceth us free and no more Servants of Men but of God. Answ Free from the Ceremonial Law of Moses not from that of the Gospel and Obedience to the Governors of the Church How changeable are your Sentiments In the foregoing Page 100 the Church was to be Governed by Pastors and Teachers now she is to obey none but God and if any Man pretend to Command he changeth the Authority of the Church into a tyranical Yoke So we must have Governors without Authority to Command and Subjects without any Duty to Obey A new Model of Government G. B. ibid. Those things for which we withdrew from the Church are Additions to our Faith. She added to Scriptures Tradition to God Images to Christ Saints to Heaven and Hell Purgatory to two Sacraments five more to the Spiritual Presence of Christ his Corporal Presence Ans Never Man spake more and proved less than you who offer not one word in proof of these disputed Points which we declare to be evident untruths Is not this a poor begging of the thing in question But they are say you Additions to your Faith. Did we add to your Faith or you cut off from ours and that of the whole Christian World before your Deformation How could we add those things to your Faith when they were in peaceable possession all over the Christian World as you own your selves many Ages before Protestancy was thought on You have here only one Truth viz. That you withdrew from the Church Which convincingly proves the Guilt of Schism to lie at your Door G. B. pag. 105. If a Society of Christians visibly swerve from Christ so that Communion cannot be retained with it without departing from Christ then the departing from the Corruptions brought in can be no departing from the Church If then it appear that the Roman Church hath departed from the Truth of the Gospel those who separated from her cannot be said to separate from the true Church Answ Here we have a Paralogism which might better become a Junior Sophister than a Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty You will see it in these Instances The Communion of that Church ought to be renounced which obligeth her Children to Mahometism If then the English Protestant Church oblige hers to that her Communion ought to be renounced Another That Man deserves the greatest Contempt who writes Controversie and hath nothing to write but Calumnies and Sophisms If then Mr. G. B. hath nothing else but such stuff to fill his Books with he knows his Deserts What think you Sir of such Arguments which serve only to delude an unwary Reader into an assent of what you would but cannot prove There is no Logician but knows that Conditional Propositions signifie only the Connexion betwixt two things under such a Condition but they assert nothing absolutely unless the Condition be proved For Example If a Man flies he hath Wings If the Heavens fall we shall catch Larks These I say are granted to be true althô the Condition be impossible Yet those who grant them do not expect those Wings to go a Journey nor rely on those Larks for a Supper In like manner suppose we should grant your Conditional Illation yet the Guilt of Schism would lie on your Consciences because you neither do nor can prove the Condition upon which your Excuse relies G. B. pag. 106. The Cruelty of Papists extendeth to as much bloudy and barbarous Rage as ever sprung from Hell. Answ You mean the Laws made against Heretics which being made by the Secular Power and not by Churchmen I think my self not obliged to vindicate them Yet seeing the most severe of them all the Faggot was till of late as I am informed in force in England and hath been actually executed upon some since the Reformation I leave you to answer to our Honorable Judges for your pragmatical Boldness in censuring them so severely Another would take notice of the Laws in force against Papists but I let that pass it is enough to vindicate our Churchmen that they never made those Laws they never condemned any Man by them all they do is to judge of the matter of Fact whether a Person be guilty of Heresie and if they find him so to leave him to the Secular Power This is the most that ever the Inquisition did as far as ever I heard G. B. pag. 108. Grotius says that in Charles the Fifth's time more than One hundred thousand were butchered on the accout of Religion And in his Son Philip 's time the
word of the love of God which is the main design of it you speak of Purity Ingenuity Patience Generosity and something of the love of our Neighbour but why are you silent of the Love of God which gives Vertue to all the rest which without it avail us nothing (a) 1 Cor. 13. how perfect soever they be in their kind Do you intend to make that fall under the Notion of Antichristianism as being with you no part of the Designs of Christianity I shall expect a satisfactory Answer to these Doubts and proceed to CHAP. IV. G. B. His Explication of the Designs of Christianity G. B. Pag. 4. THe first Design of Christian Religion is to give us right apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God. Pag. The second branch is to hold forth the method of Mans Reconciliation with his Maker You mean that the intent of Christian Religion is to teach us that there is One God and One Mediator which are Objects of our Faith. Pag. 7. The third is to teach the perfectest clearest and most Divine Rules for advancing of the Souls of Men to the highest perfections of their Natures it giving clearer Rules and fuller Directions than either moral Philosophers or the Old Testament The Lessons of Purity Chastity Ingenuity Humility Meekness Patience and Generosity Not one word of Charity but Generosity I know not whence comes in to take its place Pag. 8. The fourth to unite Mankind in the closest Bonds of Peace Friendship and Charity which it doth tempering our Passions forgiving Injuries loving our Enemies teaching Obedience to those in Authority over us and by associating us into one Body call'd the Church Answer This is indeed a Design worthy of Christian Religion but imperfectly explicated by you seeing you omit the love of God the God (a) 2 Cor. 1.24 of Peace who alone can give us perfect Peace Humane Wills are naturally opposite to one another they cannot meet but in their natural center God. And the Love of our Neighbor is never sincere and lasting but when it is grounded on the Love of God. The first effect of Self-love is to separate us from God. The second to divide us among our selves Both are the effects of Sin and nothing can prevent them and link us together in the Bonds of Charity but he who can remit Sins That Peace then which Christian Religion teaches which the Church recommends to her Children which in her Prayers she demands of God is not an effect of humane industry but of Grace It proceeds from the Mercy of God it is a sequel of Purity of Conscience and the Crown of real and true Justice In fine it is the work of the unspotted Lamb (a) 1 Pet. 1.19 at whose Birth (b) Luk. 2.14 Peace was announced in his Name to the World by the Angels who left Peace (c) Jo. 14.27 as a Legacy to his Disciples before his Death and who was sacrificed on the Altar of the Cross to reconcile us to his Heavenly Father and restore Peace betwixt Heaven and Earth which the Sin and Rebellion of Men had banisht You see Sir how insufficient your Explication of Peace is for the end you propose You leave out the chief and most necessary Ingredient for purging our Dissentions and to use a Prophets Comparison (d) Ezech. c. 13.10 you build with untempered Mortar You (e) Jerem. 6.14 heal the hurt of the people slightly saying Peace Peace when there is no Peace You hint indeed at a good humane means to Peace Obedience to those in Authority It was to prevent Schism (f) Inter Apostolos unus eligitur ut capite constituto schismatis tolleretur occasio Hieron l. 1. adversus Vigilantium c. 14. that God establish'd one Apostle over the rest But your endless Divisions and Subdivisions amongst your selves shew how inefficacious this means is in your Reformation And how can it be otherwise when all your People have before their Eyes the Example of your first Patriarkes who began your Reformation by rejecting all Authority over them and breaking the Rules of Divine Worship setled all over the World and till that time acknowledged by themselves Cur non licebit Valentiniano quod licuit Valentino de arbitrio suo fidem innovare Tert. l. de praescript c. 40. p. 338. Why may not not a Lutheran do what was lawful to Luther Your first Reformers rejected some Articles of Faith then universally believed because they seemed not to be contain'd in Scripture why may not the same motive authorise their Followers to reject some others which you would retain altho they are as little to be found in Scriptures Why may not a modern Protestant retrench some unnecessary Ceremony used by you at present seeing you have cut off so many others Let others live by that law which you publish think not so highly of your own Authority as to make your Dictamens not only the Rule of Actions but of the Laws themselves It shall be lawful to dissent from this Article of Faith but not from that other to quit this Ceremony and not that when the same rule is applicable to both Is not this properly (a) 2 Cor. 1.24 To lord it over the Faith of the People What wonder you find your Laity refractory to your Ordinances They are in this directed by your Rule and encouraged by your Example Wherefore look no where abroad for the root of these tares Your Reformers planted them they laid the Egg out of which this Cockatrice is hatched They eat the sower Grapes which set all your Teeth an Edge Neither appears there any possibility of a Remedy while your Reformation subsists this Principle of Discord and Schism being laid in its very Foundation and consequently it cannot be removed without the ruine of the whole Structure nor retained without perpetual Danger of renting it in pieces I wish these troublesome Schisms and endless Discords amongst your selves may make you seek a proper Remedy by a Reunion to the Center of Union God and his Church CHAP. V. Of the Characters of Christian Doctrin G. B. P. 8. I Shall add to this the main distinguishing Characters of our Religion which are Four. Pag. 8. First its Verity Pag. 10. The Second its genuine Simplicity and Perspicuity The Third its Reasonableness and the Fourth its easiness Thus you Answer Are these the only or even the chief Characters of Divine Truths whether you take them as they are delivered in holy Writ or as taught in the Church Can you find no other quality peculiar to them not common to others Then human Learning may equal if not surpass Divine Take for Example some Principles naturally known as Two and two make four or The whole Body is greater than any part of it These are true it is impossible they should be false they are perspicuous and easie no Man can doubt of them who understands the terms They are reasonable For what more reasonable than
Gods let them know how much better the Lord of them is But if they were astonish'd at their power and vertue let them understand by them how much mightier he is who made them There is yet another Species of Idolatry of such who Deified and Adored all Creatures which was grounded on that Opinion of the Stoicks that God was the Soul of the World which is exprest by Virgil Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet But nothing about this occurring in Scripture and not much in Fathers I let it pass These are the several Species of Idolatry which occur and are most conspicuous amongst Pagans All were absolutely inexcusable for leaving the Creator for the Creature Yet amongst all methinks the cause of those who adored the Sun was somewhat more excusable than the rest for altho Reason teaches it evidently not to be a God yet Experience shews it to have one Property of God for the Sun gives Light and Life to all that have Eyes and Heart it gives without Interest it never appears but as a common good and besides its visible effects produces many other by hidden Influences These Considerations do not excuse but they somewhat diminish the guilt of those who adored that wonderful Instrument the work of the most High. Ecclesiastici 43.2 To sum up what we have said we find that even the wisest Men have been guilty of the greatest Folly that can enter into man's head how weak soever to take for a God a thing so much inferiour to them in nature that they expected help of a thing helpless and direction from what is senseless To this they were disposed by the humane Shape striking their fancy they were moved to it by love of a dead Master Fear of a living Tyrant Flattery to one on whom their fortune depended and these altogether heightened by the Illusion of the Divel Sometimes Gratitude to beneficial Creatures enclined Men to renounce the great Benefactor Yet these motives how powerful soever could never have made Men so prodigiously to renounce the use of Reason had they not by former sins so far left God as to deserve to be left by him not that they received no Grace at all from him but that they had not such Graces as would keep them in what was good and prevent their fall into those sensless Errors SECTION III. What were the Gods of the Pagans Or What things were represented by their Idols where it is proved that Pagan Gods had been Men. THE Occasion I have to treat of this Quaestion is given by G. B. and E. Still who pretend that Chiefly one and he the true God was adored by the Idolaters who used several Statues and Names only to represent his several Atributes And that by Jupiter they understood the true God. What I have cited out of Scripture and Fathers is sufficient to convince the contrary seeing that it appears that dead Men Stars c. were adored Vossius l. 1. de Idol cap. 5. p. 30. says Idolatry began with the Adoration of Angels thence past to the Souls of Men. Lactantius l. 2. c. 14. says the Aegyptians first adored the Stars afterward their Kings S. Cyril of Alex. l. 1. contra Jul. p. 17. saith the same of the Chaldaeans But the Aegyptians whilst the Israelites lived amongst them adored either Apis or Joseph under the shape of an Ox or Calf And in imitation of them the Israelites in the Desert Exod. 32. and the ten Tribes at their Schism from the Temple of Hierusalem the third of Kings 12.28 which continued amongst them till they were removed quite out of the Country Altho that was not the only Idolatry they were guilty of for they had Baal 3. Reg. 18. and the host of Heaven toward the end of their Kingdom as appears 4 Reg. 17.16 which they learnt probably of the Assyrians After the Transmigration of the Tribe of Juda we find those who remained in their Country much addicted to the Star-worship Hieremy 44. as to a Superstition ancient amongst them which I guess they learnt of their King Achaz and that he receiv'd it from Damascus 4 Reg. 16. where a Copy of an Altar was sent to the High-Priest to have another made like it and placed in the Temple But this being a matter of no moment I do not trouble my self with further examining it Our only Dispute is about the Romans and Greeks whose Idolatry was banish'd the World by Christian Religion which our modern Adversaries pretend that we have renewed again You say then that they by Jupiter adored the true God Creator of Heaven and Earth we say that all the Gods of the Pagans were Men and that Jupiter himself was such and that they were Divels who took upon themselves those persons Names to delude the World I will prove this 1st out of Scripture 2ly out of such Fathers as lived with Pagans and consequently had more occasion to know their Theology than we who must gather it only out of their Writings 3ly out of the Confession of Pagans 4ly out of the Acknowledgment of the Gods themselves who were adored and lastly by the Confession of Protestants My First Proof is taken out of Scripture Psal 95. 96. 5. All the Gods of the nations are divels Omnes Dii Gentium Daemonia So it is in the vulgat Edition and was so from the beginning while Paganism slourish'd and yet Pagans never accused the Christians for imposing upon them Opinions which they did not hold See S. Augustin upon that place The English Translation is somewhat different viz. All the Gods of the Nations are Idols Which notwithstanding confutes sufficiently the contrary Error for if this be true All Gods of Nations are Idols as it must being in Scripture E. S. his Proposition being contradictory to it must be false Jupiter the chief God of Nations is no Idol nor Devil Moreover if the Sacrifice the Idolaters offered which was always held to be the Prime Act of Religion was offered by them to the Devils and not to God then it follows they did not worship the true God but only Divels But they sacrificed to Divels and not to God Ergo they did not adore the true God but Divels I prove the Minor. Denter 32.17 They sacrificed to Divels not to God to gods whom they knew not to new gods who came newly up whom your fathers feared not Psal 105. 106 37. They sacrificed their sons and their Daughters unto Devils And 1 Cor. 10.20 The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God. Hence Aug. l. 20. contra Faust c. 18. ait Nihil in sacrificiis Paganorum Deo displicuisse nisi quod fierent daemoniis Nothing in Sacrifices of the Pagans was displeasing to God but those to whom they were offered viz. the Devils My Second Proof is taken out of those Fathers who living with the Pagans and conversing familiarly
quicquid daemonum colitis victi dolore quod sunt eloquuntur Nec utique in turpitudinem sui nonnullis praesertim vestrum assistentibus mentiuntur Ipsis testibus esse eos daemones de se verum confitentibus credite adjurati enim per Deum verum solum inviti miseri c. Most Men and even many of your own know they are no better then Divels whom you adore Your Gods Saturn and Serapis and Jupiter have been adjur'd by the name of the true and only God and have been forced out of the bodies they possest and confessed themselves to be foul and seducing Devils And their Confession was to be supposed true in point of Reason For they that were adored as Gods would never belie themselves into Devils to their own reproach especially in presence of them that worshipped them were they not forced Thus is that place Englished by W. L. Julius Firmicus pag. 20. Ecce daemon est quem colis cùm Dei Christi ejus nomen audierit contremiscit It is the Devil whom you adore he trembles when he hears the Name of God and of his Christ In my next Section I will cite Prudentius who says the same in his Apotheosi You may find in S. Austin and other Fathers several Reasons proving those Gods to be Divels chiefly for their promoting Vice by encouraging Poets Fables concerning those filthy Acts related to have been committed by them My Fifth Pooof is taken from the Testimony of Protestants themselves The Author of the Whole Duty of Man pag. 138. I need speak little of the Second Commandment as it is a forbidding of that grosser sort of Heathenish Idolatry the worshipping of Idols which though it were once common in the World yet it is now so rare that it is not likely any that shall read this shall be concerned in it Could he have said this had he not known the Practice of Papists to be far different from those of Heathen Idolaters Vossius l. 1. de Idol cap. 18. pag. 139. Omnes Gentium Dii fuerunt homines All the Gods of the Pagans were Men. Godwin l. 4. Antiquit. c. 1. well deserving Men were reputed Gods. Mr. Thomas Prat in his Epistile Dedicatory of the History of the Royal Society having said that Generals of Armies and great Conquerors were by the Pagans esteemed Heroes he adds The Gods Antiquity worship'd with Temples and Altars were those who instructed the World to plow to sow to plant to spin to build houses and to find out new Countrys M. G. B. in this very Book p. 17. The herd the comonalty of the Idolaters did formally worship the Image And p. 23. The Souls of deceased men were honored with divine honor I hope E. S. will not refuse the Testimony of his great Patriarch W. L. who in his Relation p. 77. cites with great esteem of them the words of Minutius Felix and very judiciously observes that it is not credible the true God should be forced out of his Possession much less that he be constrained to utter a lie and own himself to be a foul and seducing Devil Can any man think that God can denie himself to such a degree Credat Judaeus Appella non ego I scarce wonder at the extravagant Opinions of the Pagans seeing E. S. and G. B. can believe that Were there not some other more powerful tye then only imaginary or pretended Incredibility I should hope to see both believe Transubstantiation seeing they can believe that God can deny himself tell a lie and profess himself a Divel O Blasphemy But altho in a bad humor E. S. should refuse to subscribe to his quondam Primate yet I can have recourse to a person very near unto him even his own dear self for he Origines Sacrae l. 1. c. 2. p. 32. speaking of Sanconiathon says That which of all seems clearest in this Theology is the open owning the Original of Idolatry to have been from the Consecration of some eminent Persons after their Death who had found out some useful things for the world whilst they were living which the subtiller Greeks would not admit of viz. That the Persons they worshipped were once men which made them turn all into Allegories and mystical Senses to blind that Idolatry they were guilty of the better amongst the Ignorant And l. 3. c. 5. he says that Saturn Jupiter Mercury Neptune Vulcan Juno Minerva Ceres Bacchus and others had been Men and Women He could not have given a clearer and fuller testimony of the Truth of what we say and the Falshood of what he delivers than is contained in those two places To what can we attribute this Change in E. S. that what was before the certain Position of Idolatry should now be false but to a desire to charge that hainous sin upon the Roman Catholic Church which of it self falls to the ground if Pagan Idolatry be rightly represented Tantae molis erat to make Rome seem Idolater in the eyes of his ignorant Admirers Philo Biblius had reason to blame those Allegories to which the subtiller Greeks had recourse which made a clear new Religion by changing the Object adored as God from some man eminent for Power or Vertue to Elements much inferior to the least of men or any living Creatures for this yielded the cause and condemned the whole Idolatrous World. So Minutius Felix in Octavio pag. 16. Zenon interpretando Junonem Aëra Jovem Coelum Neptunum mare ignem esse Vulcanum caeteros similiter vulgi Deos Elementa esse monstrando publicum arguit graviter revincit errorem SECTION IV. That the Jupiter O. M. of the Greeks and Romans was not the True God. MY first and chief Proof is taken from what is already said out of Holy Scripture Fathers Protestants and Pagans For those universal Propositions contain all and every God of Paganism V. C. What are the Propositions of Scripture All the Gods of the Gentiles are Divels And The Pagans sacrificed to Divels not to God. What are the Propositions of E. S. One God of the Pagans was the true God and no Devil Item The sacrifices of the Pagans were offered to the true God and not to the Divel If the Logic of E. S. can reconcile with Truth two Contradictions it is a rare one Till he teach us how they can stand together we will stick to the common received Axiom of Sophists that both cannot be true So one of those Propositions must be false either that of Scripture or that of E. S. now I desire him to declare whether he takes to be true and whether the lyar God or himself Again Gal. 4.8 the Galatians knowing not God served those who by nature were not Gods. Which are the words of the Apostle and E. S. says The Galatians knew Jupiter and served him who was the true God Wherein he directly contradicts the Scripture The like Arguments might be brought from the Authority cited out of Fathers Protestants and
your Doctrin and made use of the same pretext as you do to defend their Doctrin The Church for which S. Ambrose pleads was Catholic so must we be in this seeing our Doctrin is the same with theirs The Novatians in this were Heretics what are you Indeed the words with which our Blessed Saviour (a) Mat. 16.18 first promis'd secondly (b) Joan. 20.22 23. actually communicated that power to forgive or retain sins are so express that it is the greatest disrespect imaginable so to wrest them as they must to draw them from their natural sense I desire you to shew your Art and invent some Speech which in so few words shall more clearly express this sense the Catholic Church understands them in And as for Fathers see S. Cyprian in many places S. Basil qq brev q. 288. S. Leo Epist 91. ad Theodorum Greg. Hom 26. in Evang. Cyril Alex. lib. 12. in Joan. But above all S. Chrysost lib. 3. de Sacerd. c. 5. Tom. 3. Edit Savell p. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those who dwell on Earth says he are enabled to dispense the things in Heaven To them a Power is given which neither Angels nor Archangels enjoy for to these it was never said What you shall bind Earthly Princes have power to cast into Prison but their Power is restrained to Bodies only Whereas the Bond we speak of reaches the Soul and Heaven it self insomuch as what Priests do below God ratifies above and the Lord confirms the Sentence of the Servant And what is this but to have put into their hands all Power to dispose of Heaven whose sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retain are retained What Power can be greater than this God the Father hath given all Power to Judge to the Son and the Son hath communicated all that same Power to Priests Thus the glorious Saint You see Sir the Grounds of our Belief in this Point the clear words of our Lord (a) Joan. 20.23 Whose soever sins you remit they are remitted unto them You see the Fathers and the Primitive Church Explicating those words as we do You see Novatians were held for Heretics for understanding those words otherwise What ground have you to deny a Truth delivered by Christ to the Apostles and from them handed down to us G. B. pag. 62. It was counted a Blasphemy in Christ when he said Thy sins are forgiven thee which shews it to be Blasphemy in all others it being an invasion of his Prerogative Answ Here we have a blasphemous Accusation of the Scribes against Jesus Christ opposed against the clear words of Christ and the meaning of the whole Church Nay their words althô full of malice and convinced of Falshood by a Miracle are preferred before those of Christ as being made a Rule by which his must be interpreted Thus under pretence of asserting the Authority of Christ you overthrow it as your Brethren ruined their Sovereign under pretence of making him a glorious King. But say you Christ cleared himself from the Power was committed to the Son of Man to forgive sins Answ That same Power given by the Son of Man to the Apostles and their Successors doth clear us G. B. pag. 61. After a Sinner hath gone over his Sins without any sign of remorse and told them to a Priest he enjoyns a Penance and without waiting that they obey it he says I absolve thee and after this they judge them selves fully cleansed from Sins Answ Were there Benefices or Preferments established for such as invent Stories without any ground I know none in a fairer way to them than your self You cannot but know that we hold Contrition to be an essential part of the Sacrament and that he who Confesses without Sorrow is so far from obtaining Pardon for the sins past that we judge him guilty of a new Sacrilege Consider a little what you say if not for Conscience and the Fear of God which you seem not to regard at least for your Credit G. B. pag. 61 62. What can take off more from the value of the Death of Christ than to believe it in the power of a Priest to absolve from sin Answ That cannot take from the value of that Sacred Passion upon which it is built By Baptism sins are remitted without derogating from the value of the Death of Christ The same of Absolution Because in both these Sacraments the Merits of the Passion are applied to cleanse our Souls in such a manner as Christ hath ordained and by Authority derived from him In Civil Matters as no Man can lawfully take upon himself the Authority and exercise the Function of a Judge without a Commission from the King So it is no less unlawful to refuse due Obedience to Judges lawfully Commissionated We have a lawful Commission in the Gospel and we stick to that till we see better Grounds to vacate it than such frivolous Reasons as you bring CHAP. XVIII Of Penances Fasting Prayer and Pilgrimages G. B. p. 62. ADD the Scorn put on Religion by the Penances enjoyned for sin abstaining from Flesh pattering over Prayers repeating the Penitential Psalms going to such Churches and Altars with other ridiculous Observances like these which cannot but kill the Vitals of true Religion And who can have any sad apprehensions of sin who is taught such an easie way of punishment Answ Experience shews us whether Practice preserves more the Vitals of Religion yours or ours And I am persaaded I shall have occasion before we part to give you a Prospect not very pleasing of the Piety of your Proselytes who as S. Paul said 2 Tim. 3.13 Proficiunt in pejus have waxed worse and worse ever since your Brethren have had the Direction of them But what are these Observances which move you to Laughter Fastings Prayers and Pilgrimages so much recommended and even commanded in both old and new Law sometimes in Scripture often in Councils and Fathers and confirmed by the Practice of the Church thrô all Ages These things seem ridiculous to this Democritus a new Man as much a Stranger to true Piety as his Education hath been to Prayers Fasting and Pilgrimages as far as appears by his Works That he should thus deride all Penitential Works designed either to punish our past offences or prevent those to come to reconcile us to our Creator or to rivet us to him when St. Paul the chosen Vessel the Temple of the Holy Ghost the Doctor of the Gentiles separated from his mothers womb and called unto Grace (a) Gal. 1.15 when he I say chastized his Body and brought it under subjection (b) 1 Cor. 9.27 lest Preaching to others he became himself a Reprobate What means did he use for his security to mortifie his Body but those this good Man counts Ridiculous Observances viz. Fasting and Prayer and the like We are sure he was animated with the Spirit of God what Spirit animates you SECTION I. Fasting AS
but only on such Occasions for as for such who do absent themselves either for Ambition or Envy or Pleasure or Friendship or any other unlawful Design or for some good but so little as not to countervail that of their Duty to their Flock we no less blame them than you our Canons for Residence are as severs as can be and those often executed with the utmost rigor What do you more Commendams offend you that is the recommending the Means of Abbeys to those who are not Monks Yet we give them only to Clergy you to meer Laymen Secondly we give them only for their Lives you give them to their Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns Thirdly we leave the Abby and its legal Superiors a competent Subsistence for the Monks you turn them a begging out of God's Blessing into the warm Sun. When you have proved that it is more lawful for your Church to steal a Goose than for ours to pluck a Quill I shall believe your Procedure legal and ours illegal G. B. ibid. They strugled hard against the honest Attempt of those who labored to have had Residence declared to be of Divine Right in the Council of Trent Answ What might the Catholic Church do to please you Had she pass'd that Declaration you would have clamored at your ordinary rate against new Definitions of Faith now she rejected that Definition she opposed the honest Attempt to promote it and she must be in the wrong and those who oppose her in the right whatever she or they do because she is the Church and they a discontented Party in her In fine as the Jews proceeded with our Saviour the Bridegroom so do you with the Bride the Catholic Church her Actions whatever they are are blamed To what are the men of this genertion like They are like unto children sitting in the market-place and saying We have piped unto you and ye have not danced we have mourned unto you and you have not wept Luc. 7.32 For doth the Church make a Decree you blame her for it doth she not make it you blame her for that too But Wisdom is justified by all her children A Conclusion of the First and Beginning of the Second Part. G. B. p. 116. I Have run around the great Circle I proposed to my self and have examined the Designs of Christian Religion and have found great contradiction given to them by the Doctrins of that Church Answ You have indeed run a Round and that so long that you are giddy with it as appears by your frequent and great Falls so evidently against common Sense as I have all along observed and yet I have not observed all for that would have been too tedious to the Reader and have taken up more time than I can bestow upon Trifles You have shewn no Contradiction betwixt the Doctrin of the Catholic Church and the Designs of Christianity I have shewn their Conformity But your Book discovers a Design against Charity which is the Heart of Religion it being a heap of rash Judgments evident Calumnies or uncharitable Surmises I say nothing of your Faults against Reason your incoherent Notions groundless Judgments and perpetual Sophisms because althô these are great Faults in themselves yet not considerable in presence of those others against Charity And these Faults are the greater for being brought to uphold a Schism a Design contrary to Christianity it being a most certain Truth that No Man can have the Love of God who withstands the Vnion of all Men in one Church Non habet Dei Charitatem qui Ecclesiae non diligit unitatem Aug. l. 3. de Baptis cont Donat. c. 16. And all your Pretences of Causes given of your Separation are but frivolous this tearing in pieces the my stical Body of Christ is so great a Sacrilege that no Pretext can excuse it Apparet saith S. Austin l. 2. contra Epist Parmen c. 11. non esse quicquam gravius sacrilegio schismatis quia praecidendae unitatis nulla est justa necessitas When I saw you reflect on your running so long round in a Circle I hoped you would come out of it and was in hopes that either I might have been a Spectator of your following Course or else that you would have led me a more pleasing Walk The Design of S. Austin Lib. 1. Retract cap. 7. came to my Mind who represented the Piety of Catholics and the vicious Lives of the Manichees in his two Books De moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae and De moribus Manichaeorum and I imagined you might design the like in the two Parts of this Book I expected you would have given us a Panegyric of your own Church after you had spent your Satyrical Vein in your Invective against ours I thought we should have seen described the Beauty of the Protestant Church the Advantages of Communion with it the Perfection of its Faith the Decency of its Ceremonies the Majesty of its Hierarchy the Reasonableness of its Canons the Fulness of its Conducency to Piety in this Life and Bliss in the next and all these confirmed with Examples of the vertuous Lives of its Devotes But how much have I been mistaken for casting an Eye a little farther after some few words in commendation of your Faith I find you throwing Dirt again as fast as before or rather faster as if in the First Part you had only essayed what in the Second you act in earnest Doth your Garden the Church Cant. 4.12 is compared to one afford only that one Flower Is the Soil so barren or so ill cultivated as none else should be found in it Or if there be any other do they thrive so ill as not to be worth being pointed to Or doth it come from a morosity of Nature which inclines you to blame and reprehend Or from a propensity to entertain thoughts only of Faults and Imperfections as Flies pitch upon Ulcers and some other Creatures wallow in Mire Or from another Quality worse than that which turns all to bad as a foul Stomach turns all Food into peccant Humors and a Spider draws Poyson from that Flower whence a Bee draws Hony Something of this must be for I will neither say there is nothing reprehensible in the Lives of Catholics it is a Propriety of the Triumphant Church to be free from any Spot or Wrinkle nor that all is bad in Protestants besides their Faith that being the Condition of the Damned Spirits in Hell. But I supersede these Personal Reflections and follow thô with little comfort you in the new Maze you lead me into CHAP. XXX Catholic Faith delivered by Men Divinely Inspired Rules to know true Tradition Faith never changed G. B. p. 116. THE first Character of our Faith is that it was delivered to the World by Men sent of God and Divinely Inspired who proved their Mission by Miracles Answ All Divine Faith is built on the Veracity of God the Men who delivered it at first were but the