not to discern the danger We who follow their steps and have seen the whole world in a conspiracy for to reduce them with all possible force and artifice from this separation and to reunite us to Rome One must needs think then that both our Ancestours and We were carried on to this motion so apparently contrary to our own good and welfare by some very strong reason that forced us as it were against our wills to sleight what ever is naturally desirable and in stead of enjoying that to suffer what we are wont to dread which certainly can be no lesse then a strange fantasticalnesse and a silly opinionative humour which should make us take a delight in running counter to others as some without any appearance of reason are pleased to imagine I heartily wish it were in our power to accommodate our selves in this particular with a good conscience to the customes and Services of our Countreymen whose friendship We know very well how much we ought to value and how highly to prize the good favour of those Princes whom God hath set over us especially rather then to displease them needlesly in a matter of such high importance and which they affect with so much passion according to the great and singular devotion which they bear towards those things that they esteem divine We behold likewise and grieve to behold the disorders that this diversitie in Christianitie breeds and the extreme scandal that it gives to Infidels and such as are weak in faith And what ever others say We are not thanks be to God such enemies to His glory and the salvation of mankind as not be as sensible of these dolefull emergencies as of ought that most concerns our temporall good and private interests CHAP. V. Reasons of our Separation from Rome founded upon the diversitie of our Beliefs Object BUt you 'l say If it be thus how can you possibly passe over these considerations your selves which you pretend to think so important why do you not follow them whither they would lead you Seeing you desire the favour of Princes the love of your Countreymen a peaceable and settled condition seeing you would gladly promote the glory of God and the edification of men and do really abhorre the scandal of this disunion why are ye not again reconciled to the Romane Church she opens her arms wide unto you and is not so stiff and rigorous as you seem to apprehend her but for to gain you is willing to yield to some Accommodation and in favour of you to mitigate some of those things that offend you most What I pray is there so strange in her doctrine or in her service that should cause you to forsake her communion to avoid the ancient Churches and Religion of our Fathers to renounce the ordinary publick assemblies of Christian people to sever from all the rest of the world and to suffer all sorts of extremities Our Church adores the same JESVS CHRIST whom you professe to be the Prince and Authour of your Religion She confesseth the unity of His person and the veritie of His two natures She believes Him to be God eternal of the same substance with the Father and with the Holy Ghost and likewise man made in time of the flesh of the blessed Virgin like to us in all things sinne onely excepted truly Immanuel as the ancient Prophesies foretold She acknowledges the truth benefit and necessity of his sufferings and preacheth even as you That His bloud expiated the crimes of mankind That the freedome and salvation of the world is the fruit of His death She exalteth His glory and believes That He sits at the right hand of God in heaven and That He shall come in the last day to judge the world and she hopes after the renovation of this world for a blessed immortality through his grace in one to come She gives to her children baptisme which Christ did institute and refreshes them with His Eucharist and recommends to them piety toward Him and charity toward men She reverenceth the Gospels and the Epistles of the Apostles as books divinely inspired And if there be any other Article in the discipline of our Lord she receiveth and embraceth it as well as you and curseth the names and memory of those who have gone about to overthrow or shake them whether in former or latter ages Ans The truth is We neither can nor will denie that the Church of Rome doth at this day believe all these holy truths We thank our gracious Lord that she hath preserved them through so many ages midst so many disorders But we would to God That she had been as carefull of not adding as of not diminishing That she had foisted in nothing of her own but permitted us to content our selves with that which sufficed the Primitive Christians to bring them to salvation For had she kept within those bounds neither our Fathers nor We had ever had any cause of withdrawing from her Communion We had then sworn to her opinions and performed her service without any scruple finding abundantly in this brief but full and admirably complete rule of wisdome enough to replenish our faith and season our manners understandings and wills with all perfections necessary for attaining to that Soveraigne Happinesse which both you and We naturally desire But who knows not That to the aforesaid divine Articles clearly expressed in the Holy Scriptures authentically preach'd and founded by the Apostles uniformly believed and confessed by Christians of all places and ages Rome hath added divers others which she presseth equally with them forcing all those of her communion to receive them with the same faith as they do those aforesaid thundring out horrible anathemaes against all them that doubt of them and using for the ruine of such all the power and credit that she hath whether in the Church or in the world For besides J. Christ whom she acknowledgeth with us to be the Mediatour of mankind the High-Priest and chief Soveraigne of the Church she would have us hold the Saints departed to be our Mediatours and her Priests our Sacrificers and her Pope to be the Head and Husband of the Church Besides the sacrifice of the Crosse she forceth upon us that of the Altar Besides the bloud of Christ she commands us to expect our cleansing from the sufferings of Martyrs and from the vertue of a certain fire which she hath kindled under ground Besides the water of Baptisme and the refection of the Eucharist she presseth us to receive unction with oyles and the mysteries of her private Confessions Besides the Great God whom she adores and prayes to as we do she commandeth us to adore the holy Sacrament to invocate Angels and beatified Spirits Besides that service of the Gospel wherein she agreeth with us she imposeth upon us divers ceremonies abstaining from meats distinction of times veneration of images Besides the H. Scriptures which are divinely inspired which she confesseth with
us she would have us receive with the same faith and respect all the traditions which she approves of Besides the repose and rest in the Kingdome of heaven which she with us promiseth to the faithfull she will have us to believe another in Limbo a prison for children that die without baptisme And besides the torments of hell which she with us threatens to the wicked she denounceth to the faithfull another like it in purgatoric These and severall others like to these are the positions which she addeth to the true and fundamentall Articles of the good Old Christianity and which are the points that divorce us from her Communion For every one knows how carefully she hath established them in her Councels how daily she recommendeth them in her Schools and pulpits how rigourously she exacteth them in confession having long since pronounced and oft since daily still proclaiming and repeating That she esteems them Hereticks Enemies of Christ and worse then Infidels that reject these opinions or any of these And which is more offensive yet not content to teach them by the voice of her Doctours she imprints them in the hearts of her people through continuall observation and use so that among them of her communion the practise of these additionall Articles makes more then a full half of what they esteem Christianity For the greatest part of their service consists in invocation of Angels and Saints in adoring the Sacrament in worshipping images in offering up the Sacrifice of the Altar or in partaking of it in making Confessions and exercising other ceremonies But as for us all the world knows that we have quite another opinion of these matters We content our selves with the intercession sacrifice and monarchy of J. Christ and can joyn to Him neither Saints nor Priests nor the Pope in any of those three qualities which the Scripture of the New Testament attributes to none but Him alone We deem His bloud sufficient for the purgation of our souls having never learnt that either S. Paul or any other Saint was crucified for us nor That after this life the Saints shall enter into any other place but onely one of repose and rest After Baptisme and the Lords Supper we desire no other Sacraments not having heard in His Word that he hath obliged us necessarily to go to the eare of any Priest to receive his absolution or to the hand of any Bishop to have his chrisme We dare not adore the bread which we break nor the cup which we blesse because all confesse That it is not permitted us to adore any but God onely We can neither invocate creatures since we have in the Scripture neither commandment nor example for it nor prostrate our selves before images since we have expresse commands therein against it We scruple at making any thing an Article of our Faith which we have not heard in the Word of God be he an Apostle or an Angel that evangelizeth So that since we find nothing in the Scripture of abstinence from meats distinction of times and other Romane ceremonies nor of the Limbus of infants or purgatory we cannot yet be perswaded that it is necessarie for us to believe them CHAP. VI. That our Separation ariseth not from particular matters of fact or private opinion but from such things as are believed generally by all the Romane Church and so that it is not like to the schisme of the Donatists I Might yet alledge many other differences but this little may suffice to let you see what are the main reasons which oblige us to separate from Rome Whence it appears how unjust a comparison it is that I say not impertinent and silly which some make of our Separation to that of the Donatists For they pretended not to find any thing in the doctrine of the Catholick Church from whence they separated which was contrary to their belief Both the one and the other taught the same faith read the same books exercised the same services The Donatist entring with the Catholicks found nothing either in their belief or discipline which he had not seen and learn'd in his own But as for us 't is impossible that we should enter into the Communion of the Church of Rome without swearing to many doctrines which we formerly never learn'd in the schole of the Scriptures without receiving Sacraments which are utterly unknown to us without bowing our knees before images which is absolutely forbidden without adoring a thing for God whose Deitie we know not without acknowledging him to be the Head and Husband of the Church whom we know to be but a mortall man without subjecting those consciences to an humane which are taught and wont to submit unto none but a divine Authority And as for that which the Donatists alledge That Felix the Ordainer of Cecilian Bishop of Carthage did in former times deliver up the Holy Scriptures to the Pagans during the persecution though it had been true as indeed it was not the Catholicks having clearly justified their innocence in this point by many irrefragable testimonies supposing I say it had been true that he had committed this fault who seeth not that this is not a cause in nature like to those for which we make our separation For this was a matter of fact and not a doctrine a fact of one man that is of Felix alone and not of the whole body of the African Church So that it should have given the Donatists no occasion or cause of separating from Cecilian much lesse any just cause of breaking communion with all Africk For suppose that Felix the Ordainer of Cecilian had committed this fault yet 't is cleare That he did not teach or think that it was lawfull for him to deliver the H. Scriptures up to Infidels but on the contrary by denying that he committed it and standing upon his defence as he did he confessed plainly by consequence that it was a fault The Donatists then might have continued in that communion without any way staining either their Creed or their manners without being forced either to do or believe any thing against their consciences But for all that supposing which yet is manifestly false that Cecilian had defended and preach'd publickly in his pulpit That it was permitted Christians in times of persecution to deliver up the books of HOLY WRIT to the enemies of the Church and supposing again which 't is not fit now to examine that this errour were pernicious and inconsistent with a true faith I cannot discern how the Donatists had any just cause of avoiding the communion of the successours of Cecilian or other Bishops of Africk who unanimously held taught and preached that to commit such a fault was a weaknesse unbefitting the soul of a Christian and made all such submit to the rigours of Ecclesiasticall discipline whom they found guilty of it This crime or what ever you will imagine it was onely Felix's or perhaps Cecilians but not any mans else The
AN APOLOGIE FOR THE REFORMED CHURCHES Wherein is shew'd The necessitie of their separation from the Church of Rome Against those who accuse them of making a Schisme in Christendome BY JOHN DAILLE Pastor of the Reformed Church at PARIS Translated out of French And a Preface added containing THE JUDGEMENT OF AN UNIVERSITY-MAN concerning M r. Knot 's last book against M r. Chillingworth Printed by Th. Buck Printer to the Vniversitie of Cambridge MDCLIII To the Right Worshipfull the Master Wardens and Assistants of the Honourable Company of Mercers LONDON Right Worshipfull THough I am very much obliged to the Authour of this Book and other friends for whose sake I translated it yet I am to none more than unto You whose bounty enabled me of which I have been a partaker untill the yeare last passed ever since the fifth of my age through my education at S. Pauls Schole And that it is not still continued to me is not any cause in You but my superannuation Thus though my catalogue be short I have reckoned up almost all the friends I have living which as my books I ever desired might be few and good if they be not it shall never be my fault And with You whom I number among the chief of them I here deal as Sinaeta in the Persian story did with Artaxerxes who knowing it was the custome of the Countrey to offer the King somewhat each time he rid abroad meeting him accidentally and having nothing in readinesse ran to the river-side where snatching up his hands full of water he presented it to his Soveraigne crying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who considering the gratefull mind wherewith it came graciously accepted it If You shall in like manner vouchsafe to look upon this small book which is presented with the same affection and with my hearty prayers to God for the continuance of His Blessings on You and your Munificence to poor Students as a tender of my many humble thanks which I shall ever acknowledge due to You I shall think it next to the glory of God and conversion of souls the greatest reward to this devoir that can be hoped for by Your obliged servant THO. SMITH Christs-Coll Cambr. Aug. 2. 1653. A Table of the Chapters I. THE occasion and importance of this Treatise Page 1 II. The necessity of an union among believers pag. 2 III. That it is sometimes lawfull to separate from a company of men professing Christianitie p. 3 IV. That our separation from the Church of Rome was not made rashly wilfully or unnecessarily p. 6 V. Reasons of our separation from Rome founded upon the diversity of our beliefs p. 8 VI. That our separation ariseth not from particular matters of fact or private opinion but from such things as are believed generally by all the Romane Church And so that it is not like to the schisme of the Donatists p. 13 VII That there are two sorts of Errours the one overthrows the foundation of faith and obliging man to separate and the other not That the opinions of the Church of Rome which we reject are of the first sort and those of the Lutherans are of the second p. 18 VIII That the adoration of the Eucharist as it is practised by the Church of Rome doth overthrow the foundation of piety and religion p. 26 IX That the opinion of the Lutherans which we bear withall doth not bring with it the adoration of the Eucharist either de jure or de facto p. 32 X. That the dignity and excellencie of the Eucharist doth not hinder it from being a mortal sinne to adore it if it be bread in substance as we believe it to be p. 37 XI That the opinion which those of the Romane Church have of the Eucharist excuseth not such as adore it p. 45 XII The errour of those who think they may give to the Host of the Church of Rome that reverence which she commandeth without adoring it p. 55 XIII That he who believeth the Eucharist to be bread in substance cannot give it the reverence which is practised in the Church of Rome without evident falshood hypocrisie and perfidiousnesse p. 61 XIV That every man who exerciseth the ceremonies and services which the Church of Rome renders to the Host declareth thereby that he adoreth it and taketh it for his true and eternall God p. 65 XV. An answer to the example of Naaman the Syrian objected by some p. 72 XVI That to think it is lawfull for a man to exercise the ceremonies of a Religion which he believeth not doth by consequence diminish the glory of and cast a slur upon the Martyrs p. 78 XVII That this dissembling is condemned by our Lord in the Scriptures p. 81 XVIII That this dissembling grievously offendeth God and scandalizeth men p. 85 XIX That there are many other beliefs in the Church of Rome which overthrow the foundations of our faith and salvation as the Veneration of images the Supremacie of the Pope c. p. 91 XX. A conclusion of this Treatise That They who are of our perswasion are obliged to forsake the communion of Rome and They who are not are to prove and trie their own faith before they condemne our separation from them The Preface THe particulars which I intend to premise are chiefly these two 1. What was the occasion of writing this Apology 2. What is the occasion of printing it The first will lead me to say somewhat of schisme which is the subject of the book And the second to take notice of a large book lately published by the English Jesuites entituled Infidelity unmasked c. I shall speak of both with as much brevity as may be remembring I am to write a Preface not a Treatise I. Of the first Some seditious people in France did in the yeare MDCXXXIII endeavour to raise a bloudy persecution against the Protestants in that nation inciting the Magistrates to constrain them to adorn their houses on that Festival which is ordinarily called in that nation la Feste de Dieu and do other acts of reverence to the Host or to put them to death or banish the refusers Whereupon Monsieur Daillé conceiving in what eminent danger he and all of his Religion were wrote this Apologie which being publickly approved was presented by Monsieur Drelincourt Mestrezat himself and many others deputed by the Protestants of France for that purpose unto the King of France and Lords of His Counsel as containing the Doctrine and resolution of all the Protestants in that Kingdome And through Gods blessing it prevailed with Them so farre that the said destructive counsels were rejected And let not any man imagine That because Adoration of the Host is the chief sinne mentioned in this Tract as being indeed one of the chief causes of our Separation therefore Protestants have nothing else to alledge for themselves though one unanswerable reason is enough and I am perswaded that any unprejudiced Reader will think this such For he that
ask how I shall know which is the infallible judge And if M r. K. give us in answer that generall rule which he sets down p. 369. When de facto any Pope defines some truth to be a matter of faith we are sure even by his doing so that he is true Pope Then I 'le reply to omit the circle he runs in that there may be not onely two but twenty true Popes together for twenty men may define twenty severall positions at the same time and all true and yet all these men may be foulely mistaken another time and if so I desire to know whether all these will be true Popes Or by what rule a Romanist may tell when a truth is defined and when not since Sixtus V. defined one Bible to be true Anno 1590. and Clemens VIII another two years after and each of them prohibited and condemned all but his own and these two Bibles contain many contradictions each to other See D r James of the contrariety of the vulgar Latine Bibles and certainly contradictory propositions cannot both be Gospel And if not then either one of these two was not such really whence inconveniences enough will follow or they were both true Popes and so both their definitions true and so no true Papist hath any true Bible XV. But suppose there be no schisme and all agreed on the Pope and a General Councel met How shall I be sure that he who is reputed Pope is so indeed seeing by their own principles Simonie makes him none See the Bull of P. Julius II. super Simoniaca Papae electione Si contigerit c. and Specul in tit de dispens § juxta vers 2. and Majolus de irregularitate l. 5. c. 47. p. 433. and that he was not Simoniacal it is impossible for me to know The election of Sixrus V. was notoriously Simoniacal For Cardinal d' Esté whom he bribed and promised to obey and defend against an opposite faction c. Sent all these obligations subscribed by Sixt. V. his own hand to Philip then King of Spain Who in the year MDLXXXIX sent to Rome to bid the Cardinals who had been elected before Sixt. V. came to the See to come to a Councel at Sevil in Spain where the original writing was produced and the crime was evidently proved And if so all the Cardinals which were made by this Sixtus were in reality no Cardinals and then all the Popes which have been made by those Cardinals since as Montaltus Sixtus his Nephew Urban VII Gregory XIV Innocent IX Clement VIII and Innocent X. that now is have been really no Popes See a book entituled Supplicatio ad Imperatorem Reges c. written at Rome by one that calls himself NOVUS HOMO and dedicated to K. James Anno MDCXII But testimony enough of such doings may be seen in the letters of Card. d' Ossat and the transactions of Card. de Joyeuse set down by Card. Pervon Heul sedes Apostolica orbis olim gloria nunc proh dolor efficeris officina Simonis Damian epist ad Firminum Baronius T. 11. 1033. XVI But admit the Pope were certainly known to be such and that neither he nor any of his predecessours came in by Simony yet how shall I know whether those Bishops who with him make up a Councel are Bishops indeed For if they be no Bishops then it is no Councel And that they are true Bishops it is for ever impossible for any Papist certainly to know For if he that did ordain them did not intend it when he gave Orders and whether he did or no God onely knows then by their own principles they are no Bishops and by consequence no Councel XVII But further how shall I know that the Pope and Bishops so met at Trent for example are Christians For if not then sure they are no legitimate Councel or Church representative And that they are Christians 't is impossible for any Catholick to know with any infallible certainty For if they be not baptized then I am sure with them they are no Christians and if the Priest that baptized them did not intend to do it then by the Canon of the Trent Councel they are not baptized Now what the Priest intended when he administred that Sacrament 't is impossible that any save God who knows the heart should certainly know without immediate revelation which they pretend not to and consequently 't is impossible that any of them should certainly know That ever there was a Pope or a Bishop or a Priest since our Saviours dayes nay impossible that They should know whether there he now one Christian in their Church and therefore much lesse that there is or hath been a lawfull Councel XVIII But admit all these doubts were clearly solved and a Councel in their own sense lawfull sitting and determining matters in Controversie yet how shall we know certainly with that absolute certainty M r Knot speaks of that these are their determinations specially since the Greek Church above two hundred years since accused the Romane for foisting a Canon into the Nicene Councels in behalf of the Popes being Head of the Universal Church which could never be found in the authentick copies though the African Bishops sent to Constantinople Alexandria Antioch to search for them Codex Can. Eccles Afr. Justel p. 39 40. We were not in the Councel nor ever saw any of the men that made the Canons we must rely on the honesty of the Amanuensis or of those other persons that conveigh them to us and those are certainly not infallible and we know there are such things as Indices expurgatorii foysting in and blotting out of Manuscripts XIX But admit all this cleared yet when I have indeed the genuine Canons and am sure of it how shall I be assured of the true meaning of them for M r K. tells us that we cannot without His Churches determination know what faith or repentance or any word else in the Scripture meaneth though I suppose the Apostles intended as well as he or I to be understood and though he tell us That the Scriptures are as perfect a rule as a writing can be I am fallible and may mistake and in his opinion so may any man but the Pope or a Councel This is no vain supposition for we know that Vega and Soto two famous and learned men in the Councel of Trent write and defend contradictory opinions yet each thinketh the Canon of the Councel to determine on his side Now of necessity one of them must mistake the doctrine of the Councel unlesse you 'l say the Councel determined contradictions and then the Councel is not infallible it self and if either of them mistook the Councel then it was not an infallible guide to him Now if learned men who were members of the Councel such as disputed much in it could not infallibly know the meaning of it how can I who am neither XX. Lastly not to trouble M. Knot with
any more queries then are necessary what necessity of an infallible Judge at all The Christian world had no such Judge sor CCCXXIV years for the Nicene Councel was the first General and if They vnderstood Scripture and were saved then when they had no such thing why may not We now And if they were not saved the Church of Rome must blot out many hundreds and thousands of Saints Martyrs out of her Martyrology Till these twenty questions be insallibly resolved it seems to me impossible that any man should have any infallible knowledge of the Church of Romes Infallibility And I am the more confirmed in the necessity of a plain resolution to this last querie because though M. Knot be sometimes hot and positive in grounding all Christian Religion upon the infallibility of the Church I find beside what I said p. 22. Christ and the Apostles intimating the contrary Joh. v. 39. Act. iv 19. xviii 11. 2. Thess v. 21. 1. Joh. iv 1. Rev. ii 2. But to passe by such places of Scripture because I know that they who make profession of devising shifts will find euasions for them and to omit the positions of many Romane Doctours of lesse note who are as high for the non-necessity of an infallible guide as any Protestant can wish I shall onely hint at Lactantius his large Chapter to this purpose lib. 2. de orig error c. 7. beginning thus Quare oportet in ea re in qua vitae ratio versatur sibi quemque confidere suóque judicio ac propriis sensibus niti ad investigandam perpendendam veritatem quà m credentem alienis erroribus decipi tanquam ipsum rationis expertem Dedit omnibus Deus pro virili portione sapientiam c. and rather insist upon a couple of most eminent Cardinals Baronius and Lugo Both these give their opinions very plainly on our side and which I value more their reasons and examples The former hath spent to our purpose a whole Appendix which he prefixed before the second tome of his Annals printed at Rome MDLXXXVIII where appealing to every particular Protestant's judgement concerning the truth of his cause and not once mentioning the infallibility of the Church he goes on thus Ingens sanè vis humanae insidet rationi c. Great is the power of humane reason if it be left unsettered and free in all things And therefore our Ancestors placing great confidence in the force of truth where they contended with obstinate hereticks when they declined and despised all judgement of the Church were so indulgent as not to refuse to try the judgement even of Infidels and expect their determination Such men being Judges the Jews Joseph Antiq. l. 13. c. 6. had the victory over the Samaritans And an heathen Philosopher being by consent chosen for an Arbitrator to whose judgement they were to stand Origen dialog overcame five most wicked hereticks And Archelaus Epiphan haeres 66. a Bishop in Mesopotamia did consute Manes a most desperate Arch-heretick before certain Heathens who were by consent chosen Judges c. The latter though a Jesuite a Spaniard plainly asserteth this non-necessity tom de virtut fidei dis 1. § 12. n. 247. c. And making it good by foure instances 1. THE BELIEF OF THE INFALLIBILITY IT SELF which must be received from some other motive than it self or its own testimony and consequently saith he all other doctrines of Christianity may be believed upon the same inducements not meerly upon the infallibility of the Church 2. CHILDREN or OLD PEOPLE who are newly converted to the faith do not believe the Infallibilitie before they embrace other Articles for they believe Articles in order as they are propounded this is commonly one of the last 3. RUSTICKS AND COMMON PEOPLE at this day in Spain Italy and other Catholick Countreys who commonly resolve their faith no further than their Parish-Priest or some other learned or holy man at the most 4. He asserteth num 252. That IN THE LAVV OF NATURE most believed onely upon the Authority of their Parents without any Church-propounding And also after the law was written most believed Moses the Prophets before their prophecies were received and propounded by the Church for the sanctity of their lives c. And this discourse wa◠written by speciall order from the late Pope Urban and dedicated to the present Pope Innocent X. And now my patient Reader to draw to a conclusion as my spare-leaves do for I have unawares detained thee very much longer then I intended when I first set pen to paper for this Preface which was after the following English Apologie was fully printed and that is one reason of its immethodicalness If I have writ any thing impertinent I hope that my brother THE UNIVERSITY-MAN Mr. Knots friend will help to excuse me if any thing that savoureth of passion which I shall be very sorry for as soon as it shall be discovered to me that Mr. Knot will be my Advocate each of them being commonly conceived sufficiently guilty of one or both of these faults and hereafter I may do as much for them And further to encourage M r K. to do somewhat for me I do here assure him That if he shall vouchsase punctually to answer these xx questions which seem to me very necessary to be plainly determined before he can assure any man of the Infallibility of the Romane Church on which foundation he layeth so huge a structure and withall to refute that one argument which I mentioned pag. 18. out of Dr. Jer. Taylors nervous discourse then prove that the Church of Rome is infallible by any one infallible argument for he hath told us that nothing lesse can do it I will be his Proselyte Vntill which time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse which I think far the more probable and therefore shall daily pray for it Mr. Knot will be so ingenuous as S. Augustine was to retract his errours in his later dayes and come over to the good Old Catholick Apostolick Faith leaving Romane superstructures For I begin to despair with that Milevitan Bishop of ever seeing while I am upon earth any infallible living Judge in matters of saith and to believe I must as the Jews speak expect the coming of Elias for that purpose having long observed by Mr. Knot 's seven books in this Controversie that Cause patrocinio non bona pejor erit To the Preface p. 8. l. 29. adde That there were Christians in Britain before Augustine the Monk came over is plain out of Eusebius Theodoret Arnobius Tertullian Gildas Bromton and I suppose no man that is not a meer stranger to Antiquity will deny That those Christians had no dependance upon Rome will appear to any who readeth the ancient Histories of Rome or England Platina saith that Antherus the 20 th Pope sate eleven years and made onely one Bishop In a word from the death of S t Peter till the entrance of
that to us for a crime which inevitable necessitie hath forced us to doe God knows with what a deal of constraint we are come thus farre how troublesome a thing it hath seemed to us to renounce the duties and services which we owe to them to whom we bear so much respect and love our Princes our Fathers our Friends our Countreymen But what shall we doe when we find our selves surprized with necessity Ye see that our consciences torment us that they represent to us heaven and the eternity thereof hel and its punishments and which is more yet the will of God our Soveraigne Father This is not a toy nor can we please our selves in it You have seen that our belief doth necessarily bring along with it all these considerations Shall we preferre yours before them Shall we violate the motions of our conscience Shall we disturb the peace thereof and overthrow that which we beleieve to be the law of our Soveraigne God to please you Shall we venture willingly and knowingly to provoke His anger to avoid yours Shall we fear lesse to offend Him then to displease you You your selves I know very well will condemne such a loosnesse and in stead of approving it will extremely abhorre it For ye know and teach as well as we both by word and example that we owe all to God who looks upon the religion of our consciences Be pleased then to bear with us if we preferre what we believe to be the interest of His glory before your desires and our own And in other things where your contentment will not overthrow His service we shall freely acknowledge that we owe you our whole utmost are ready to testifie it by actions therein to do your absolute pleasures though it be with the losse of what we count most precious on earth our bloud our life it self Onely suffer us to reserve our consciences to our selves or rather to Him whole and entire over which no man can reign without affronting our God And if you think that the judgement we make concerning these matters is an errour be pleased to take the pains candidly to shew us it We shall willingly examine your proofs we shall bring pliant minds and as full of prejudice in your behalf as you can wish as persons that have all the interests in the world to perswade us to desire to live in your communion if it may be with the peace of our consciences We honour as well as you the H. Scriptures given and preserved to the Church by the Providence of God to be the laws and fountains of his Faith Let us we pray see you prove from thence the Articles which you presse so strongly or at least the principles whence they may be clearly and lawfully deduced If you shew them us and after such a manifestation we continue scrupulous we then neither can nor will denie but that you will have just and good cause to esteem us Schismaticks But if you cannot or do not me thinks you should have no reason to refuse what we request viz. To bear with our separation and not hereafter to give it the odious name of schisme which agreeth onely to such separations as are made by a pure and voluntary opinionativenesse grounded onely upon the peevishnesse ambition envy hatred animositie or the like passion of such as depart from the Communion of a Church without a true and necessary reason THE END * Ecclesia non in parietibus consistit sed in dogmatum veritate Ecclesia ibi est ubi sides vera est Caeterùm ante annos 15 aut 20 parietes omnes hîc Ecclesiatum haeretici possidebant Ecclesia autem illîc erat ubi fides vera erat Hieron in Psal 133. Nemo mihi dicat O quid dixit Donatus aut quid dixit Parm. aut Pontius aut quilibet eorum quia nec Catholicis Episcopis consentiendum est sicubi fortè fallantur ut contra Canonicas Scripturas aliquid sentiant August de unit Eccles c. 10. in Edit Lugdun Honorati Anno 1562. Ecclesiam suam demonstrent si possunt non in sermonibus rumoribus Afrorum non in Conciliis Episcoporum suorum non in literis quorumlibet disputatorum non in signis prodigiis fallacibus quia etiam contra ista Verbo Domini cauti redditi sumus sed iâ— praescripto Legis in Prophetarum praedictis in cantibus Psalmorum in ipsius Pastoris vocibus in Evangelistarum praedicationibus laboribus hoc est in omnibus Canonicis Sanctorum librorum autoritatibus Eodem lib. c. 16. ejusdem edit Vtrum ipsi Ecclesiam teneant non nisi divinarum Scripturarum Canonicis libris ostendant quia nec nos propterea dicimus credi oportere quod in Ecclesia Christi sumus aut quia ipsam commendavit Optatus Ambrosius vel alii innumerabiles nostrae communionis Episcopi aut quia nostrorum Collegarum Conciliis praedicata est aut quia per totu orbent tanta mirabilia sanitatum fiunt c. Quaecunque talia in Catholica fiunt ideò approbantur quia in Catholica fiunt non ideò manifestatur Catholica quia haec in ea fiunt Ipse Dominus Iesus cùm resurrexisset à mortuis discipulorum oculis corpus suum offerret nè quid tamen fallaciae se pati arbitrarentur magis eos testimoniis Legis Prophetarum Psalmorum confirmandos esse â—udicavit ibid. Non audiamus Haec dico sed haec dicit Dominus Sunt certè libri Dominici quorum Autoritati utrique consentimus Ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam ibi discutiamus causam nostram Eod. l. c. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in Act. hom 33. * It is entituled A memoriall for Reformation or A Remembrance for them that shall live when Catholick Religion shall be restored into England Wherein are directions in so many severall chapters what he thought best to be done as well in the Court as Countrey with the King and Counsell as with the rest of the Nobility and Commonalty Clergy as Laity when this Nation shall be as he said he was confident it would be reduced In summe he would have its Grand-Charter burnt the manner of holding lands in fee-simple fee-tail frank almain Kings service c. wholly abolished the Municipall laws abrogated and the Inns of Court converted to some other use That for Lawyers Then for Divines The Colledges in both Vniversities should be wholly in the power of six men who should have all the Lands Mannors Lordships Parsonages c. and what ever else belonged to Church or Cloyster resigned into their hands allowing to the Bishops Parsons and Vicars competent stipends and pensions to live upon according as Bishops-Suffragans and Mont seniors have allowance in other Catholick Countreys These are Parsons own words That at the beginning no mans conscience be pressed for matters in Religion then That publick disputations between Papists and Protestants