as is to be seen in their Breviaries Missals Hours of our Lady Rosary of our Lady the Latany of our Lady called Litania Mariae the Speculum Rosariorum the Hymns of Saints Portuises and Manuals These only are the instances which amongst many others presently occur Two things only we shall add instead of many more that might be represented THE first is That in a Hymn which they from what reason or Etymology we know not neither are we 〈◊〉 call a Sequence the Council of Constance did invocate the Blessed Virgin in the same manner as Councils did use to invocate the Holy Ghost They call her the Mother of Grace the remedy to the miserable the fountain of mercy and the light of the Church Attributes proper to God and incommunicable they sing her praises and pray to her for graces they sing to her with the heart they call themselves her sons they declare her to be their health and comfort in all doubts and call on her for light from Heaven and trust in her for the destruction of Heresies and the repression of Schisms and for the lasting Confederations of peace THE other thing we tell of is That there is a Psalter of our Lady of great and antient account in the Church of Rome it hath been several times printed at Venice at Paris at Leipsich and the title is The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin compil'd by the Seraphical Doctor S. Bonaventure Bishop of Alba and Presbyter Cardinal of the Holy Church of Rome But of the Book it self the account is soon made for it is nothing but the Psalms of David an hundred and fifty in number are set down alter'd indeed to make as much of it as could be sense so reduc'd In which the name of Lord is left out and that of Lady put in so that whatever David said of God and Christ the same prayers and the same praises they say of the Blessed Virgin Mary and whether all that can be said without intolerable blasphemy we suppose needs not much disputation THE same things but in a less proportion and frequency they say to other Saints O Maria Magdalena Audi vot a laude plena Apud Christum chorum istum Clementer concilia Vt fons summae pietatis Quite lavit à peccatis Servos suos atque tuos Mundet dat â veniâ O Mary Magdalen hear our prayers which are full of praises and most clemently reconcile this company unto Christ That the Fountain of Supreme Piety who cleansed thee from thy sins giving pardon may cleanse us who are his servants and thine These things are too bad already we shall not aggravate them by any further Commentary but apply the premises NOw therefore we desire it may be considered That there are as the effects of Christs death for us three great products which are the rule and measure of our prayers and our confidence 1. Christs merits 2. His Satisfaction 3. His Intercession By these three we come boldly to the Throne of Grace and pray to God through Jesus Christ. But if we pray to God through the Saints too and rely upon their 1. Merit 2. Satisfaction 3. And Intercession Is it not plain that we make them equal with Christ in kind though not in degree For it is 〈◊〉 avowed and practis'd in the Church of Rome to rely upon the Saints Intercession and this intercession to be made valid by the Merits of the Saints We pray thee O S. Jude the Apostle that by thy Merits thou wouldst draw me from the custom of my sins and snatch me from the power of the Devil and advance me to the invisible powers and they say as much to others And for their Satisfactions the treasure of the Church for Indulgences is made up with them and the satisactions of Christ So that there is nothing remaining of the honour due to Christ our Redeemer and our Considence in him but the same in every kind is by the Church of Rome imputed to the Saints And therefore the very being and Oeconomy of Christianity is destroyed by these prayers and the people are not cannot be good Christians in these devotions and what hopes are laid up for them who repent to no purpose and pray with derogation to Christ's honour is a matter of deepest consideration And therefore we desire our charges not to be seduc'd by little tricks and artifices of useless and laborious distinctions and protestations against evidence of fact and with fear and trembling to consider what God said by the Prophet My people have done two great evils they have for saken me fortem vivum the strong and the living God fontem vivum so some copies read it the living fountain and have digged for themselves cisterns that is little phantastick helps that hold no water that give no refreshment or as S. Paul expresses it they worship and invocate the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Creator so the word properly signifies and so it is us'd by the Apostle in other places And at least let us remember those excellent words of S. Austin Tutius jucundius loquar ad meum Jesum quam ad aliquem sanctorum spirituum Dei I can speak safer and more pleasantly or chearfully to my Lord Jesus than to any of the Saints and Spirits of God For that we have Commandment for this we have none for that we have example in Scriptures for this we have none there are many promises made to that but to this there is none at all and therefore we cannot in faith pray to them or at all rely upon them for helps WHICH Consideration is greatly heightned by that prostitution of Devotion usual in the Church of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to every Upstart to every old and new Saint And although they have a story among themselves That it is ominous for a Pope to Canonize a Saint and he never survives it above a twelve-month as Pietre Mathieu observes in the instances of Clement the IV. and Adrian the VI. yet this hinders not but that they are tempted to do it frequently But concerning the thing it self the best we can say is what Christ said of the Samaritans They worship they know not what Such are S. Fingare S. Anthony of 〈◊〉 S. Christopher Charles Borromaeus Ignatius Loyola Xaverius and many others of whom Cardinal Bessarion complain'd that many of them were such persons whose life he could not approve and such concerning whom they knew nothing but from their Parties and by pretended Revelations made to particular and hypochondriacal persons It is a famous saying of S. Gregory That the bodies of many persons are worshipped on Earth whose souls are tormented in Hell and Augustinus gustinus Triumphus affirms That all who are canonized by the Pope cannot be said to be in Heaven And this matter is beyond dispute for Prateolus tells that Herman the Author of the Heresie of the Fratricelli was
stronger than their Supporter Now then in order to the proving the Doctrine of Purgatory to be an Innovation 1. We consider That the Doctrines upon which it is pretended reasonable are all dubious and disputable at the very best Such are 1. THEIR distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in their own nature 2. THAT the taking away the guilt of sins does not suppose the taking away the obligation to punishment that is That when a mans sin is pardoned he may be punished without the guilt of that sin as justly as with it as if the guilt could be any thing else but an obligation to punishment for having sinned which is a Proposition of which no wise man can make sense but it is certain that it is expresly against the Word of God who promises upon our repentance so to take away our sins that he will remember them no more And so did Christ to all those to whom he gave pardon for he did not take our faults and guilt on him any other way but by curing our evil hearts and taking away the punishment And this was so perfectly believ'd by the Primitive Church that they always made the penances and satisfaction to be undergone before they gave absolution and after absolution they never impos'd or oblig'd to punishment unless it were to sick persons of whose recovery they despaired not of them indeed in case they had not finished their Canonical punishments they expected they should perform what was enjoyn'd them formerly But because all sin is a blot to a mans soul and a foul stain to his reputation we demand in what does this stain consist In the guilt or in the punishment If it be said that it consists in the punishment then what does the guilt signifie when the removing of it does neither remove the stain nor the punishment which both remain and abide together But if the stain and the guilt be all one or always together then when the guilt is taken away there can no stain remain and if so what need is there any more of Purgatory For since this is pretended to be necessary only lest any stain'd or unclean thing should enter into Heaven if the guilt and the pain be removed what uncleanness can there be left behind Indeed Simon Magus as 〈◊〉 reports Haeres 20. did teach That after the death of the body there remained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a purgation of souls But whether the Church of Rome will own him for an Authentick Doctor themselves can best tell 3. IT relies upon this also That God requires of us a full exchange of penances and satisfactions which must regularly be paid here or hereafter even by them who are pardon'd here which if it were true we were all undone 4. THAT the Death of Christ his Merits and Satisfaction do not procure for us a full remission before we dye nor as it may happen of a long time after All which being Propositions new and uncertain invented by the School Divines and brought ex 〈◊〉 to dress this opinion and make it to seem reasonable and being the products of ignorance concerning remission of sins by Grace of the righteousness of Faith and the infinite value of Christs Death must needs lay a great prejudice of novelty upon the Doctrine it self which but by these cannot be supported But to put it past suspition and conjectures Roffensis and Polydore Virgil affirm That who so searcheth the Writings of the Greek Fathers shall find that none or very rarely any one of them ever makes mention of Purgatory and that the Latin Fathers did not all believe it but by degrees came to entertain opinions of it But for the Catholick Church it was but lately known to her BUT before we say any more in this Question we are to premonish That there are Two great causes of their mistaken pretensions in this Article from Antiquity THE first is That the Antient Churches in their Offices and the Fathers in 〈◊〉 Writings did teach and practise respectively prayer for the dead Now because the Church of Rome does so too and more than so relates her prayers to the Doctrine of Purgatory and for the souls there detain'd her Doctors vainly suppose that when ever the Holy Fathers speak of prayer for the dead that they conclude for Purgatory which vain conjecture is as false as it is unreasonable For it is true the Fathers did pray for the dead but how That God would shew them mercy and hasten the resurrection and give a blessed sentence in the great day But then it is also to be remembred that they made prayers and offered for those who by the confession of all sides never were in Purgatory even for the Patriarchs and Prophets for the Apostles and Evangelists for Martyrs and Confessors and especially for the blessed Virgin Mary So we find it in Epiphanius S. Cyril and in the Canon of the Greeks and so it is acknowledged by their own Durantus and in their Mass-book antiently they prayed for the soul of S. Leo Of which because by their latter doctrines they grew asham'd they have chang'd the prayer for him into a prayer to God by the intercession of S. Leo in behalf of themselves so by their new doctrine making him an Intercessor for us who by their old doctrine was suppos'd to need our prayers to intercede for him of which Pope Innocent being ask'd a reason makes a most pitiful excuse UPON what accounts the Fathers did pray for the Saints departed and indeed generally for all it is not now seasonable to discourse but to say this only that such general prayers for the dead as those above reckoned the Church of England never did condemn by any express Article but left it in the middle and by her practice declares her Faith of the Resurrection of the dead and her interest in the Communion of Saints and that the Saints departed are a portion of the Catholick Church parts and members of the Body of Christ but expresly condemns the Doctrine of Purgatory and consequently all prayers for the dead relating to it And how vainly the Church of Rome from prayer for the dead infers the belief of 〈◊〉 every man may satisfie himself by seeing the Writings of the Fathers where they cannot meet with one Collect or Clause for praying for the delivery of souls 〈◊〉 of that imaginary place Which thing is so certain that in the very Roman Offices we mean the Vigils said for the dead which are Psalms and Lessons taken from the Scripture speaking of the miseries of this World Repentance and Reconciliation with God the bliss after this life of them that die in Christ and the Resurrection of the Dead and in the Anthems Versicles and Responses there are prayers made recommending to God the Soul of the newly defunct praying he may be freed from hell and eternal death that in the day of Judgment he be not judged
charges that besides that the Scriptures expresly forbid us to enquire of the dead for truth the Holy Doctors of the Church particularly 〈◊〉 S. Athanasius S. Chrysost I sidor and Theophylact deny that the souls of the dead ever do appear and bring many reasons to prove that it is unfitting they should saying if they did it would be the cause of many errors and the Devils under that pretence might easily abuse the world with notices and revelations of their own And because Christ would have us content with Moses and the Prophets and especially to hear that Prophet whom the Lord our God hath raised up amongst us our Blessed Jesus who never taught any such Doctrine to his Church BUT because we are now representing the Novelty of this Doctrine and proving that anciently it was not the Doctrine of the Church nor at all esteemed a matter of faith whether there was or was not any such place or state we add this That the Greek Church did always dissent from the Latines in this particular since they had forg'd this new Doctrine in the laboratories of Rome and in the Council of Basil publish'd an Apology directly disapproving the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory How afterwards they were press'd in the Council of Florence by Pope Eugenius and by their necessity how unwillingly they consented how ambiguously they answered how they protested against having that half consent put into the Instrument of Union how they were yet constrain'd to it by their Chiefs being obnoxious to the Pope how a while after they dissolv'd that Union and to this day refuse to own this Doctrine are things so notoriously known that they need no further declaration WE add this only to make the conviction more manifest We have thought sit to annex some few but very clear testimonies of Antiquity expresly destroying the new Doctrine of Purgatory S. Cyprian saith Quando istinc excessum fuerit nullus jam locus poenitentiae est nullus satisfactionis effectus When we are gone from hence there is no place left for repentance and no effect of satisfaction S. Dionysius calls the extremity of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end of all our agonies and affirms That the Holy men of God rest in joy and in never failing hopes and are come to the end of their holy combates S. Justin Martyr affirms That when the soul is departed from the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 presently there is a separation made of the just and unjust The unjust are by Angels born into places which they have deserv'd but the souls of the just into Paradise where they have the conversation of Angels and Archangels S. Ambrose saith that Death is a haven of rest and makes not our condition worse but according as it finds every man so it reserves him to the judgment that is to come The same is affirm'd by S. Hilary S. Macarius and divers others they speak but of two states after death of the just and the unjust These are plac'd in horrible Regions reserv'd to the judgment of the great day the other have their souls carried by Quires of Angels into places of rest S. Gregory Nazianzen expresly affirms that after this life there is no purgation For after Christ's ascension into Heaven the souls of all Saints are with Christ saith Gennadius and going from the body they go to Christ expecting the resurrection of their body with it to pass into the perfection of perpetual bliss and this he delivers as the Doctrine of the Catholick Church In what place soever a man is taken at his death of light or darkness of wickedness or vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same order and in the same degree either in light with the just and with Christ the great King or in darkness with the unjust and with the Prince of Darkness said Olimpiodorus And lastly we recite the words of S. Leo one of the Popes of Rome speaking of the Penitents who had not perform'd all their penances But if any one of them for whom we pray unto the Lord being interrupted by any obstacles falls from the gift of the present Indulgence viz. of Ecclesiastical Absolution and before he arrive at the appointed remedies that is before he hath perform'd his penances or satisfactions ends his temporal life that which remaining in the body he hath not receiv'd when he is divested of his body he cannot obtain He knew not of the new devices of paying in Purgatory what they paid not here and of being cleansed there who were not clean here And how these words or of any the precedent are reconcileable with the Doctrines of Purgatory hath not yet entred into our imagination To conclude this particular We complain greatly that this Doctrine which in all the parts of it is uncertain and in the late additions to it in Rome is certainly false is yet with all the faults of it passed into an Article of Faith by the Council of Trent But besides what hath been said it will be more than sufficient to oppose against it these clearest words of Scripture Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth even so saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours If all the dead that die in Christ be at rest and are in no more affliction or labours then the Doctrine of the horrible pains of Purgatory is as false as it is uncomfortable To these words we add the saying of Christ and we relie upon it He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath eternal life and cometh not into judgment but passeth from death unto life If so then not into the judgment of Purgatory If the servant of Christ passeth from death to life then not from death to the terminable pains of a part of Hell They that have eternal life suffer no intermedial punishment judgment or condemnation after death for death and life are the whole progression according to the Doctrine of Christ and Him we choose to follow SECT V. Transubstantiation a Novelty Their Doctors confess it is not necessarily proved from Scripture A disputable question in the 9 and 10. Ages made first an Article of faith 1215. in the Lateran Council P. Lombard a little before doubted of a Substantial change Durandus afterward maintained that the matter of bread after consecration might remain without absurdity What Berengarius owned in his recantation is now renounced Plain Testimonies of the Fathers against it Horrid questions it has occasion'd It implies many contradictions THE Doctrine of Transubstantiation is so far from being Primitive and Apostolick that we know the very time it began to be own'd publickly for an opinion and the very Council in which it was said to be passed into a publick Doctrine and by what arts it was promoted and by what persons it was introduc'd FOR all the world knows that by their own parties
and condemned according to his sins but that he may appear among the Elect in the glory of the Resurrection but not one word of Purgatory or its pains THE other cause of their mistake is That the Fathers often speak of a fire of Purgation after this life but such a one that is not to be kindled until the day of Judgment and it is such a fire that destroys the Doctrine of the intermedial Purgatory We suppose that Origen was the first that spoke plainly of it and so S. Ambrose follows him in the opinion for it was no more so does S. Basil S. Hilary S. Hierom and Lactantius as their words plainly prove as they are cited by Sixtus Senensis affirming that all men Christ only excepted shall be burned with the fire of the worlds conflagration at the day of Judgment even the Blessed Virgin her self is to pass through this fire There was also another Doctrine very generally receiv'd by the Fathers which greatly destroys the Roman Purgatory Sixtus Senensis says and he says very true that Justin Martyr Tertullian Victorinus Martyr Prudentius S. Chrysostom Arethas Euthymius and S. Bernard did all affirm that before the day of Judgment the souls of men are kept in secret receptacles reserved unto the sentence of the great day and that before then no man receives according to his works done in this life We do not interpose in this opinion to say that it is true or false probable or improbable for these Fathers intended it not as a matter of Faith or necessary belief so far as we find But we observe from hence that if their opinion be true then the Doctrine of Purgatory is false If it be not true yet the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory which is inconsistent with this so generally received opinion of the Fathers is at least new no Catholick Doctrine not believ'd in the Primitive Church and therefore the Roman Writers are much troubled to excuse the Fathers in this Article and to reconcile them to some seeming concord with their new Doctrine BUT besides these things it is certain that the Doctrine of Purgatory before the day of Judgment in S. Augustin's time was not the Doctrine of the Church it was not the Catholick Doctrine for himself did doubt of it Whether it be so or not it may be inquir'd and possibly it may be found so and possibly it may never so S. Augustine In his time therefore it was no Doctrine of the Church and it continued much longer in uncertainty for in the time of Otho Frisingensis who liv'd in the year 1146. it was gotten no further than to a Quidam asserunt some do asfirm that there is a place of Purgatory after death And although it is not to be denied but that many of the antient Doctors had strange opinions concerning Purgations and Fires and Intermedial states and common receptacles and liberations of Souls and Spirits after this life yet we can truly affirm it and can never be convinc'd to err in this affirmation that there is not any one of the Antients within five hundred years whose opinion in this Article throughout the Church of Rome at this day follows BUT the people of the Roman Communion have been principally led into a belief of Purgatory by their fear and by their credulity they have been softned and 〈◊〉 into this belief by perpetual tales and legends by which they love to be abus'd To this purpose their Priests and Friers have made great use of the apparition of S. Hierom after death to Eusebius commanding him to lay his sack upon the corps of three dead men that they arising from death might consess Purgatory which formerly they had denied The story is written in an Epistle imputed to S. Cyril but the ill luck of it was that S. Hierom out-liv'd S. Cyril and wrote his life and so confuted that story but all is one for that they believe it never the less But there are enough to help it out and if they be not firmly true yet if they be firmly believ'd all is well enough In the speculum exemplorum it is said That a certain Priest in an ecstasie saw the soul of Constantinus Turritanus in the eves of his house tormented with frosts and cold rains and afterwards climbing up to heaven upon a shining pillar And a certain Monk saw some souls roasted upon spits like Pigs and some Devils basting them with scalding lard but a while after they were carried to a cool place and so prov'd Purgatory But Bishop Theobald standing upon a piece of ice to cool his feet was nearer Purgatory than he was aware and was convinced of it when he heard a poor soul telling him that under that ice he was tormented and that he should be deliver'd if for thirty days continual he would say for him thirty Masses and some such thing was seen by Conrade and Uldric in a Pool of water For the place of Purgatory was not yet resolv'd on till S. Patrick had the key of it delivered to him which when one Nicholas borrowed of him he saw as strange and true things there as ever Virgil dreamed of in his Purgatory or Cicero in his dream of Scipio or Plato in his Gorgias or Phaedo who indeed are the surest Authors to prove Purgatory But because to preach false stories was forbidden by the Council of Trent there are yet remaining more certain arguments even revelations made by Angels and the testimony of S. Odilio himself who heard the Devil complain and he had great reason surely that the souls of dead men were daily snatch'd out of his hands by the Alms and Prayers of the living and the sister of S. Damianus being too much pleas'd with hearing of a Piper told her brother that she was to be tormented for fifteen days in Purgatory WE do not think that the wise men in the Church of Rome believe these Narratives for if they did they were not wise But this we know that by such stories the People were brought into a belief of it and having served their turn of them the Master-builders used them as false arches and centries taking them away when the parts of the building were made firm and stable by Authority But even the better sort of them do believe or else they do worse for they urge and cite the Dialogues of S. Gregory the Oration of S. John Damascen de Defunctis the Sermons of Saint Augustine upon the Feast of the Commemoration of All-souls which nevertheless was instituted after S. Augustin's death and divers other citations which the Greeks in their Apology call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holds and the Castles the corruptions and insinuations of Heretical persons But in this they are the less to be blamed because better arguments than they have no men are tied to make use of BUT against this way of proceeding we think fit to admonish the people of our
than what Berengarius was commanded to renounce and no interpretation can make it tolerable but such an one as is in another place of the Canon Law statuimus i. e. abrogamus nothing but a plain denying it in the sense of Pope Nicolas But however this may be it is plain they understood it not as it is now decreed But as it hapned to the Pelagians in the beginning of their heresie they spake rudely ignorantly and easily to be reprov'd but being ashamed and disputed into a more sober understanding of their hypothesis spake more warily but yet differently from what they said at first so it was and is in this question at first they understood it not it was too unreasonable in any tolerable sense to make any thing of it but experience and necessity hath brought it to what it is But that this Doctrine was not the doctrine of the first and best ages of the Church these following testimonies do make evident The words of Tertullian are these The bread being taken and distributed to his Disciples Christ made it his body saying This is my body that is the figure of my body The same is affirmed by Justin Martyr The bread of the Eucharist was a figure which Christ the Lord commanded to do in remembrance of his passion Origen calls the bread and the chalice the images of the body and blood of Christ and again That bread which is sanctified by the word of God so far as belongs to the matter or substance of it goes into the belly and is cast away in the secession or separation which to affirm of the natural or glorified body of Christ were greatly blasphemous and therefore the body of Christ which the Communicants receive is not the body in a natural sense but in a spiritual which is not capable of any such accident as the Elements are Eusebius says that Christ gave to his Disciples the Symbols of Divine Occonomy commanding the image and type of his own body to be made and that the Apostle received a command according to the constitution of the New Testament to make a memory of this sacrifice upon the Table by the symbols of his body and healthful blood S. Macarius says that in the Church is offered bread and wine the antitype of his flesh and of his bloud and they that partake of the bread that appears do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ. By which words the sense of the above cited Fathers is explicated For when they affirm that in this Sacrament is offered the figure the image the antitype of Christ's body and bloud although they speak perfectly against Transubstantiation yet they do not deny the real and spiritual presence of Christ's body and bloud which we all believe as certainly as that it is not transubstantiated or present in a natural and carnal manner THE same thing is also fully explicated by the good S. Ephrem The body of Christ received by the faithful departs not from his sensible substance and is undivided from a spiritual grace For even baptism being wholly made spiritual and being that which is the same and proper of the sensible substance I mean of water saves and that which is born doth not perish S. Gregory Nazianzen spake so expresly in this Question as if he had undertaken on purpose to confute the Article of Trent Now we shall be partakers of the Paschal supper but still in figure though more clear than in the old Law For the Legal Passover I will not be afraid to speak it was a more obscure figure of a figure S. Chrysostom affirms dogmatically that before the bread is sanctified we name it bread but the Divine grace sanctifying it by the means of the Priest it is freed from the name of bread but it is esteemed worthy to be called the Lords body although the nature of bread remains in it And again As thou eatest the body of the Lord so they the faithful in the old Testament did eat Manna as thou drinkest bloud so they the water of the rock For though the things which are made be sensible yet they are given spiritually not according to the consequence of Nature but according to the grace of a gift and with the body they also nourish the soul leading unto faith To these very many more might be added but instead of them the words of St. Austin may suffice as being an evident conviction what was the doctrine of the primitive Church in this question This great Doctor brings in Christ thus speaking as to his Disciples You are not to eat this body which you see or to drink that bloud which my crucifiers shall pour forth I have commended to you a sacrament which being spiritually understood shall quicken you And again Christ brought them to a banquet in which he commended to his Disciples the figure of his body and bloud For he did not doubt to say This is my body when he gave the sign of his body and That which by all men is called a sacrifice is the sign of the true sacrifice in which the flesh of Christ after his assumption is celebrated by the sacrament of remembrances BUT in this particular the Canon Law it self and the Master of the Sentences are the best witnesses in both which collections there are divers testimonies brought especially from S. Ambrose and S. Austin which whosoever can reconcile with the doctrine of Transubstantiation may easily put the Hyaena and a Dog a Pigeon and a Kite into couples and make fire and water enter into natural and eternal friendships Theodoret and P. Gelasius speak more emphatically even to the nature of things and the very philosophy of this Question Christ honour'd the symbols and the signs saith Theodoret which are seen with the title of his body and bloud not changing the nature but to nature adding grace For neither do the mystical signs recede from their nature for they abide in their proper substance figure and form and may be seen and touch'd c. And for a testimony that shall be esteem'd infallible we allege the words of Pope Gelasius Truly the sacraments of the body and bloud of Christ which we receive are a Divine thing for that by them we are made partakers of the Divine nature and yet it ceases not to be the substance or nature of bread and wine And truly an image and similitude of the body and bloud of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries NOW from these premises we are not desirous to infer any odious consequences in reproof of the Roman Church but we think it our duty to give our own people caution and admonition 1. That they be not abus'd by the rhetorical words and high expressions alleged out of the Fathers calling the Sacrament The body or the slesh of Christ. For we all believe it is so and rejoyce in it But the
or will the first which stood for nothing keep cold and without any sensible errour serve when you shall indeed die 9. You must also enquire and be rightly inform'd whether an Indulgence granted upon a certain Festival will be valid if the day be chang'd as they were all at once by the Gregorian Calendar or if you go into another Countrey where the Feast is not kept the same day as it happens in moveable Feasts and on S. Bartholomew's-day and some others 10. WHEN your Lawyers have told you their opinion of all these Questions and given it under their hands it will concern you to inquire yet further whether a succeeding Pope have not or cannot revoke an Indulgence granted by his Predecessor for this is often done in matters of favour and privileges and the German Princes complain'd sadly of it and it was complain'd in the Council of Lions that Martin the Legate of Pope Innocent the VIII revok'd and dissipated all former Grants and it is an old Rule Papa nunquam sibi lig at manus The Pope never binds his own hands But here some caution would do well 11. IT is worthy inquiry whether in the year of Jubilee all other Indulgences be suspended for though some think they are not yet Navar and Emanuel Sà affirm that they are and if they chance to say true for no man knows whether they do or no you may be at a loss that way And when all this is done yet 12. YOUR Indulgences will be of no avail to you in reserved cases which are very many A great many more very fine scruples might be mov'd and are so and therefore when you have gotten all the security you can by these you are not safe at all But therefore be sure still to get Masses to be said So that now the great Objection is answered you need not fear that saying Masses will ever be made unnecessary by the multitude of Indulgences The Priest must still be imployed and entertained in subsidium since there are so many ways of making the Indulgence good for nothing And as for the fear of emptying Purgatory by the free and liberal use of the Keys it is very needless because the Pope cannot evacuate Purgatory or give so many Indulgences as to take out all souls from thence And therefore if the Popes and the Bishops and the Legates have been already too free it may be there is so much in arrear that the Treasure of the Church is spent or the Church is in debt for souls or else though the Treasure be inexhaustible yet so much of her Treasure ought not to be made use of and therefore it may be that your souls shall be polt-pon'd and must stay and take its turn God knows when And therefore we cannot but commend the prudence of Cardinal Albernotius who by his last Will took order for fifty thousand Masses to be said for his soul for he was a wise man and lov'd to make all as sure as he could SECT V. Ensie to conclude that all is an Art to get money and deceive mens souls to tempt a man to negloct himself when he hopes to be relieved by many others How good Life is undermined by their Doctrines relating to Indulgences in 3 or 4 remarkable instances Their Doctrine dangerous in all the parts of Repontance Contrition Confession Satisfactions and Penances all spoiled as they teach them The 〈◊〉 scandal of the Tax of the Apostolical chamber where a Licence is given to many sins and for such 〈◊〉 summ an Absolution from the greatest BUT then to apply this to the Consciences of the poor people of the Roman Communion Here is a great deal of Treasure of the Church pretended and a great many favours granted and much ease promised and the wealth of the Church boasted of and the peoples mony gotten and that this may be a perpetual spring it is clear amongst their own Writers that you are not sure of any good by all that is past but you must get more security or this may be nothing But how easie were it for you now to conclude that all this is but a meer cozenage an art to get mony but that 's but the least of the evil it is a certain way to deceive souls For since there are so many thousands that trust to these things and yet in the confession of your own Writers there are so many sallibilities in the whole and in every part why will you suffer your selves so weakly and vainly to be cozen'd out of your souls with promises that signifie nothing and words without vertue and treasures that make no man rich and Indulgences that give confidence to sin but no ease to the pains which follow BESIDES all this it is very considerable that this whole affair is a state of temptation for they that have so many ways to escape will not be so careful of the main stake as the interest of it requires He that hopes to be reliev'd by many others will be tempted to neglect himself There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Unum necessarium even that we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling A little wisdom and an easie observation were enough to make allmen that love themselves wisely to abstain from such diet which does not nourish but fills the stomach with wind and imagination But to return to the main inquiry WE desire that it be considered how dangerously good life is undermined by the Propositions collaterally taught by their Great Doctors in this matter of Indulgences besides the main and direct danger and deception 1. Venial sins preceeding or following the work enjoyned for getting Indulgences hinder not their fruit but if they intervene in the time of doing them than they hinder By this Proposition there is infinite uncertainty concerning the value of any Indulgence for if venial sins be daily incursions who can say that he is one day clean from them And if he be not he hath paid his price for that which profits not and he is made to relie upon that which will not support him But though this being taught doth evacuate the Indulgence yet it is not taught to prevent the sin for before and after if you commit venial sins there is no great matter in it The inconvenience is not great and the remedy is easie you are told of your security as to this point before-hand 2. POPE Adrian taught a worse matter He that will obtain indulgence for another if he does perform the work enjoyned though himself be in deadly sin yet for the other he prevails as if a man could do more for another than he can do for himself or as if God would regard the prayers of a vile and a wicked person when he intercedes for another and at the same time if he prays for himself his prayer is an abomination God first is intreated for our selves and when we are more excellent persons admits
us to intercede and we shall prevail for others but that a wicked person who is under actual guilt and oblig'd himself to suffer all punishment can ease and take off the punishment due to others by any externally good work done ungratiously is a piece of new Divinity without colour of reason or religion Others in this are something less scandalous and affirm that though it be not necessary that when the Indulgence is granted the man should be in the state of grace yet it is necessary that at some time or other he should be at any time it seems it will serve For thus they turn Divinity and the care of souls into Mathematicks and Clock-work and dispute minutes and periods with God and are careful to tell their people how much liberty they may take and how far they may venture lest they should lose any thing of their sins pleasure which they can possibly enjoy and yet have hopes of being sav'd at last 3. BUT there is worse yet If a man willingly commits a sin in hope and expectation of a Jubilee and of the Indulgences afterwards to be granted he does not lose the Indulgence but shall receive it which is expresly affirm'd by Navar and Antonius Cordubensis and Bellarmine though he asks the question denies it not By which it is evident that the Roman Doctrines and Divinity teach contrary to God's way who is most of all angry with them that turn his grace into wantonness and sin that grace may abound 4. IF any man by reason of poverty cannot give the prescrib'd Alms he cannot receive the Indulgence Now since it is sufficiently known that in all or most of the Indulgences a clause is sure to be included that something be offered to the Church to the Altar to a Religious House c. The consequent of this will be soon seen that Indulgences are made for the rich and the Treasures of the Church are to be dispensed to them that have Treasures of their own for Habenti dabitur But then God help the poor for them Purgatory is prepar'd and they must burn For the rich it is pretended but the smell of fire will not pass upon them FROM these premises we suppose it but too evident that the Roman Doctors prevaricate in the whole Doctrine of Repentance which indeed in Christ Jesus is the whole Oeconomy of Justification and Salvation it is the hopes and staff of all the world the remedy of all evils past present and to come And if our physick be poison'd if our staff be broken if our hopes make us asham'd how shall we appear before Christ at his coming But we say that in all the parts of it their Doctrine is insinitely dangerous 1. Contrition is sufficient if it be but one little act and that in the very Article of Death and before that time it is not necessary by the Law of God nay it is indeed sufficient but it is also insufficient for without Confession in act or desire it suffices not And though it be thus insufficiently sufficient yet it is not necessary For Attrition is also sufficient if a Priest can be had and then any little grief proceeding out of the fear of Hell will do it if the Priest do but absolve 2. Confession might be made of excellent use and is so among the pious Children of the Church of England but by the Doctrines and Practices in the Church of Rome it is made not the remedy of sins by proper energy but the excuse the alleviation the considence the ritual external and sacramental remedy and serves instead of the labours of a holy and a regular life and yet is so intangled with innumerable and inextricable cases of conscience orders humane prescripts and great and little artifices that scruples are more increased than sins are lessened 3. FOR Satisfactions and Penances which if they were rightly order'd and made instrumental to kill the desires of sin or to punish the Criminal or were properly the fruits of repentance that is parts of a holy life good works done in charity and the habitual permanent grace of God were so prevailing as they do the work of God yet when they are taken away not only by the declension of primitive Discipline but by new Doctrines and Indulgences regular and offer'd Commutations for money and superstitious practices which are sins themselves and increase the numbers and weights of the account there is a great way made for the destruction of souls and the discountenancing the necessity of holy life but nothing for the advantage of holiness or the becoming like to God AND now at last for a Cover to this Dish we have thought fit to mind the World and to give caution to all that mean to live godly in Christ Jesus to what an insinite scandal and impiety this affair hath risen in the Church of Rome we mean in the instance of their Taxa Camerae seu Cancellariae Apostolicae the Tax of the Apostolical Chamber or Chancery a book publickly printed and expos'd to common sale of which their own Espencaeus gives this account That it is a book in which a man may learn more wickedness than in all the Summaries of vices published in the World And yet to them that will pay for it there is to many given a Licence to all an Absolution for the greatest and most horrid sins There is a price set down for his Absolution that hath kill'd his Father or his Mother Brother Sister or Wife or that hath lien with his Sister or his Mother We desire all good Christians to excuse us for naming such horrid things Nomina sunt ipso penè timenda sono But the Licences are printed at Paris in the year 1500. by Tossan Denis Pope Innocent the VIII either was Author or Inlarger of these Rules of this Chancery-tax and there are Glosses upon them in which the Scholiast himself who made them affirms that he must for that time conceal some things to avoid scandal But how far this impiety proceeded and how little regard there is in it to piety or the good of souls is visible by that which Augustinus de Ancona teaches That the Pope ought not to give Indulgences to them who have a desire of giving money but cannot as to them who actually give And whereas it may be objected that then poor mens souls are in a worse condition than the rich he answers That as to the remission of the punishment acquir'd by the Indulgence in such a case it is not inconvenient that the rich should be in a better condition than the poor For in that manner do they imitate God who is no respecter of persons SECT VI. Other Instances of dangerous Doctrines as That one man may satisfie for another That a habit of sin is not a sin distinct from those actions by which it was contracted Mischief of this doctrine shewed The distinction of Mortal and venial sins
In what senso to be understood and admitted With them one whole sort of sins is venial in its own nature and a whole heap of them cannot make a mortal sin nor put us out of God's favour But when the Casuists differ so much in determining whether this or that be a venial or mortal sin if the Confessor says it is venial and it proves to be a mortal one a man's soul is betrayed THESE Observations we conceive to be sufficient to deter every well meaning person from running into or abiding in such temptations Every false Proposition that leads to impiety is a stock and fountain of temptations and these which we have reckon'd in the matter of Repentance having influence upon the whole life are yet much greater by corrupting the whole mass of Wisdom and Spiritual Propositions THERE are indeed many others We shall name some of them but shall not need much to insist on them Such as are 1. THAT one Man may satisfie for another It is the general Doctrine of their Church The Divines and Lawyers consent in it and publickly own it The effect of which is this that some are made rich by it and some are careless But qui non solvit in aere luat in corpore is a Canonical rule and though it was spoken in the matter of publick penances and so relates to the exterior Court yet it is also practis'd and avowed in satisfactions or penances relating to the inward Court of Conscience and penance Sacramental and the rich man is made negligent in his duty and is whip'd upon another man's back and his purse only is the Penitent and which is worst of all here is a pretence of doing that which is too near blasphemy but to say For by this Doctrine it is not to be said of Christ alone that he was wounded for our transgressions that he only satisfied for our sins for in the Church of Rome it is done frequently and pretended daily that by another man's stripes we are healed 2. THEY teach That a habit of sin is not a sin distinct from those former actions by which the habit was contracted The secret intention of which Proposition and the malignity of it consists in this that it is not necessary for a man to repent speedily and a man is not bound by repentance to interrupt the procedure of his impiety or to repent of his habit but of the single acts that went before it For as for those that come after they are excus'd if they be produc'd by a strong habit and the greater the habit the less is the sin But then as the repentance need not for that reason be hasty and presently so because it is only to be of single acts the repentance it self need not be habitual but it may be done in an instant whereas to mortifie a habit of sin which is the true and proper repentance there is requir'd a longer time and a procedure in the methods of a holy life By this and such like Propositions and careless Sentences they have brought it to that pass that they reckon a single act of Contrition at any time to be sufficient to take away the wickedness of a long life Now that this is the avowed Doctrine of the Roman Guides of souls will sufficiently appear in the Writings of their chiefest of which no learned man can be ignorant The thing was of late openly and professedly disputed against us and will not be denied And that this Doctrine is infinitely destructive of the necessity of a good life cannot be doubted of when themselves do own the proper consequents of it even the unnecessariness of present repentance or before the danger of death of which we have already given accounts But the reason why we remark it here is that which we now mentioned because that by the Doctrine of vitious habits having in them no malignity or sin but what is in the single preceding acts there is an excuse made for millions of sins For if by an evil habit the sinner is not made worse and more hated by God and his sinful acts made not only more but more criminal it will follow that the sins are very much lessened For they being not so voluntary in their exercise and distinct emanation are not in present so malicious and therefore he that hath gotten a habit of drunkenness or swearing sins less in every act of drunkenness or profane oath than hethat acts them seldom because by his habit he is more inclin'd and his sins are almost natural and less considered less chosen and not disputed against but pass by inadvertency and an untroubled consent easily and promptly and almost naturally from that principle So that by this means and in such cases when things are come to this pass they have gotten an imperfect warrant to sin a great deal and a great while without any new great inconvenience Which evil state of things ought to be infinitely avoided by all Christians that would be sav'd by all means and therefore all such Teachers and all such Doctrines are carefully to be declin'd who give so much easiness not only to the remedies but to the sins themselves But of this we hope it may be sufficient to have given this short warning 3. THE distinction of Mortal and Venial sins as it is taught in the Church of Rome is a great cause of wickedness and careless conversation For although we do with all the antient Doctors admit of the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial yet we also teach That in their own nature and in the rigor of the Divine Justice every sin is damnable and deserves God's anger and that in the unregenerate they are so accounted and that in Hell the damned suffer for small and great in a common mass of torment yet by the Divine mercy and compassion the smaller sins which come by surprize or by invincible ignorance or inadvertency or unavoidable infirmity shall not be imputed to those who love God and delight not in the smallest sin but use caution and prayers watchfulness and remedies against them But if any man delights in small sins and heaps them into numbers and by deliberation or licentiousness they grow numerous or are in any sense chosen or taken in by contempt of the Divine Law they do put us from the favour of God and will pass into severe accounts And though sins are greater or less by comparison to each other yet the smallest is a burthen too great for us without the allowances of the Divine mercy BUT the Church of Rome teaches that there is a whole kind of sins which are venial in their own nature such which if they were all together all in the world conjoyn'd could not equal one mortal sin nor destroy charity nor put us from the favour of God such for which no man can perish etiamsi nullum pactum esset de remissione though God's merciful Covenant of Pardon did not
intervene And whereas Christ said Of every idle word a man shall speak he shall give account at the day of judgment and By your words ye shall be justified and By your words ye shall be condemned Bellarmine expresly affirms It is not intelligible how an idle word should in its own nature be worthy of the Eternal wrath of God and Eternal flames Many other desperate words are spoken by the Roman Doctors in this Question which we love not to aggravate because the main thing is acknowledged by them all BUT now we appeal to the reason and Consciences of all men Whether this Doctrine of sins Venial in their own nature be not greatly destructive to a holy life When it is plain that they give rest to mens Consciences for one whole kind of sins for such which because they occur every day in a very short time if they be not interrupted by the grace of Repentance will swell to a prodigious heap But concerning these we are bidden to be quiet for we are told that all the heaps of these in the world cannot put us out of Gods favour Add to this that it being in thousands of cases impossible to tell which are and which are not Venial in their own nature and in their appendent circumstances either the people are cozen'd by this Doctrine into an useless confidence and for all this talking in their Schools they must nevertheless do to Venial sins as they do to Mortal that is mortifie them fight against them repent speedily of them keep them from running into mischief and then all their kind Doctrines in this Article signifie no comfort or ease but all danger and difficulty and useless dispute or else if really they mean that this easiness of opinion be made use of then the danger is imminent and carelessness is introduc'd and licentiousness in all little things is easily indulg'd and mens souls are daily lessen'd without repair and kept from growing towards Christian perfection and from destroying the whole body of sin and in short despising little things they perish by little and little THIS Doctrine also is worse yet in the handling For it hath infinite influence to the disparagement of holy life not only by the uncertain but as it must frequently happen by the false determination of innumerable cases of conscience For it is a great matter both in the doing and the thing done both in the caution and the repentance whether such an action be a venial or a mortal sin If it chance to be mortal and your Confessor says it is venial your soul is betrayed And it is but a chance what they say in most cases for they call what they please venial and they have no certain rule to answer by which appears too sadly in their innumerable differences which is amongst all their Casuists in saying what is and what is not mortal and of this there needs no greater proof than the reading the little Summaries made by their most leading guides of Consciences Navar Cajetane Tolet Emanuel Sà and others where one says such a thing is mortal and two say it is venial AND lest any man should say or think this is no great matter we desire that it be considered that in venial sins there may be very much phantastick pleasure and they that retain them do believe so for they suppose the pleasure is great enough to outweigh the intolerable pains of Purgatory and that it is more eligible to be in Hell a while than to cross their appetites in such small things And however it happen in this particular yet because the Doctors differ so infinitely and irreconcileably in saying what is and what is not Venial whoever shall trust to their Doctrine saying that such a sin is Venial and to their Doctrine that says it does not exclude from God's favour may be these two Propositions be damned before he is aware WE omit to insist upon their express contradicting the words of our Blessed Saviour who taught his Church expresly That we must work in the day time for the night cometh and no man worketh Let this be as true as it can in the matter of Repentance and Mortification and working out our pardon for mortal sins yet it is not true in Venial sins if we may believe their great S. Thomas whom also Bellarmine follows in it for he affirms That by the acts of Love and Patience in Purgatory Venial sins are remitted and that the acceptation of those 〈◊〉 proceeding out of Charity is a virtual kind of penance But in this particular we follow not S. Thomas nor Bellarmine in the Church of England and Ireland for we believe in Jesus Christ and follow him If men give themselves liberty as long as they are alive to commit one whole kind of sins and hope to work it out after death by acts of Charity and Repentance which they would not do in their life time either they must take a course to sentence the words of Christ as savouring of Heresie or else they will find themselves to have been at first deceived in their Proposition and at last in their expectation Their faith hath fail'd them here and hereafter they will be asham'd of their hope SECT VII Their new doctrine of Probability That a probable opinion may be safely followed in practice The opinion of one grave Doctor or the example of good men makes a matter probable and either side may be chosen Though this is not an Article of their Faith yet it is a Rule of manners Sad instances of wickedness this gives warranty to A strange Instance of obtaining an Indulgence granted upon condition of Visiting an Altar of a distant Church by those that cannot go to it as Nuns and Prisoners if they address to an Altar of their own with that Intention secured by the practice of the Church THERE is a Proposition which indeed is new but is now the general Doctrine of the Leading Men in the Church of Rome and it is the foundation on which their Doctors of Conscience relie in their decision of all cases in which there is a doubt or question made by themselves and that is That if an Opinion or Speculation be probable it may in practice be safely followed And if it be enquir'd What is sufficient to make an opinion probable the Answer is easie Sufficit opinio alicujus gravis Doctoris aut Bonorum exemplum The opinion of any one grave Doctor is sufficient to make a matter probable nay the example and practice of good men that is men who are so reputed if they have done it you may do so too and be safe This is the great Rule of their Cases of Conscience AND now we ought not to be press'd with any ones saying that such an opinion is but the private opinion of one or more of their Doctors For although in matters of Faith this be not sufficient to impute a Doctrine to a whole
Church which is but the private opinion of one or more yet because we are now speaking of the infinite danger of souls in that communion and the horrid Propositions by which their Disciples are conducted to the disparagement of good life it is sufficient to allege the publick and allowed sayings of their Doctors because these sayings are their Rule of living and because the particular Rules of Conscience use not to be decreed in Councils we must derive them from the places where they grow and where they are to be found BUT besides you will say That this is but the private opinion of some Doctors and what then Therefore it is not to be called the Doctrine of the Roman Church True we do not say It is an Article of their Faith but a rule of manners This is not indeed in any publick Decree but we say that although it be not yet neither is the contrary And if it be but a private opinion yet is it safe to follow it or is it not safe For that 's the question and therein is the danger If it be safe then this is their rule A private opinion of any one grave Doctor may be safely followed in the questions of Vertue and Vice But if it be not safe to follow it and that this does not make an opinion probable or the practice safe Who says so Does the Church No Does Dr. Cajus or Dr. Sempronius say so Yes But these are not safe to follow for they are but private Doctors Or if it be safe to follow them though they be no more and the opinion no more but probable then I may take the other side and choose which I will and do what I list in most cases and yet be safe by the Doctrine of the Roman Casuists which is the great line and general measure of most mens lives and that is it which we complain of And we have reason for they suffer their Casuists to determine all cases severely and gently strictly and loosly that so they may entertain all spirits and please all dispositions and govern them by their own inclinations and as they list to be governed by what may please them not by that which profits them that none may go away scandaliz'd or 〈◊〉 from their penitential chairs BUT upon this account it is a sad reckoning which can be made concerning souls in the Church of Rome Suppose one great Doctor amongst them as many of them do shall say it is lawful to kill a King whom the Pope declares Heretick By the Doctrine of probability here is his warranty And though the Church do not declare that Doctrine that is the Church doth not make it certain in Speculation yet it may be safely done in practice Here is enough to give peace of conscience to him that does it Nay if the contrary be more safe yet if the other be but probable by reason or Authority you may do the less safe and refuse what is more For that also is the opinion of some grave Doctors If one Doctor says it is safe to swear a thing as of our knowledge which we do not know but believe it is so it is therefore probable that it is lawful to swear it because a grave Doctor says it and then it is safe enough to do so AND upon this account who could find fault with Pope Constantine the IV. who when he was accus'd in the Lateran Council for holding the See Apostolick when he was not in Orders justified himself by the example of Sergius Bishop of Ravenna and Stephen Bishop of Naples Here was exemplum bonorum honest men had done so before him and therefore he was innocent When it is observ'd by Cardinal Campegius and Albertus Pighius did teach That a Priest lives more holily and chastely that keeps a Concubine than he that hath a married Wife and then shall find in the Pope's Law That a Priest is not to be removed for fornication who will not or may not practically conclude that since by the Law of God marriage is holy and yet to some men fornication is more lawful and does not make a Priest irregular that therefore to keep a Concubine is very lawful especially since abstracting from the consideration of a man's being in Orders or not fornication it self is probably no sin at all For so says Durandus Simple fornication of it self is not a deadly sin according to the Natural Law and excluding all positive Law and Martinus de Magistris says to believe simple fornication to be no deadly sin is not heretical because the testimonies of Scripture are not express These are grave Doctors and therefore the opinion is probable and the practice safe When the good people of the Church of Rome hear it read That P. Clement 8. in the Index of Prohibited books says That the Bible publish'd in vulgar Tongues ought not to be read and retain'd no not so much as a compend of the History of the Bible and Bellarmine says that it is not necessary to salvation to believe that there are any Scriptures at all written and that Cardinal Hosius saith Perhaps it had been better for the Church if no Scriptures had been written They cannot but say that this Doctrine is probable and think themselves safe when they walk without the light of Gods Word and rely wholly upon the Pope or their Priest in what he is pleas'd to tell them and that they are no way oblig'd to keep that Commandment of Christ Search the Scriptures Cardinal Tolet says That if a Nobleman be set upon and may escape by going away he is not tied to it but may kill him that intends to strike him with a stick That if a man be in a great passion and so transported that he considers not what be says if in that case he does blaspheme he does not always sin That if a man be beastly drunk and then commit fornication that fornication is no sin That if a man desires carnal pollution that he may be eas'd of his carnal temptations or for his health it were no sin That it is lawful for a man to expose his bastards to the Hospital to conceal his own shame He says it out of Soto and he from Thomas Aquinas That if the times be hard or the Judge unequal a man that cannot sell his wine at a due price may lawfully make his Measures less than is appointed or mingle water with his wine and sell it for pure so he do not lie and yet if he does it is no mortal sin nor obliges him to restitution Emanuel Sà affirms That if a man lie with his intended wife before Marriage it is no sin or a light one nay quinetiam expedit si multum illa differatur it is good to do so if the benediction or publication of Marriage be much deferr'd That Infants in their cradles may be made Priests is the
Cradles and sick Cows Horns and upon them that are blasted and if they recover by any means it is imputed to the Holy Water And so the Simplicity of Christian Religion the Glory of our Dependence on God the Wise Order and 〈◊〉 of Blessings in the Gospel the Sacredness and Mysteriousness of Sacraments and Divine Institutions are disorder'd and dishonour'd The Bishops and Priests inventing both the Word and the Element institute a kind of Sacrament in great derogation to the Supreme Prerogative of Christ and men are taught to go in ways which Superstition hath invented and Interest does support BUT there is yet one great instance more of this irreligion Upon the Sacraments themselves they are taught to rely with so little of Moral and Vertuous Dispositions that the efficacy of one is made to lessen the necessity of the other and the Sacraments are taught to be so effectual by an inherent vertue that they are not so much made the instruments of Vertue as the Suppletory not so much to increase as to make amends for the want of Grace On which we shall not now insist because it is sufficiently remark'd in our reproof of the Roman Doctrines in the matter of Repentance SECT XII Their Doctrines as explained by their practice make men guilty of Idolatry They teach men to give Divine honour to creatures As the same worship to the Image and the prototype They teach the same thing with the 〈◊〉 whose worship of Images was relative and for a Christian to excuse himself by this is to say that for God's sake he will make bold to dishonour him Of worship of the Image of the Cross and their hopes of Salvation in it Their worshipping the consecrated Bread and Wine considered and the things they say to excuse themselves from Idolatry herein AFTER all this if their Doctrines as they are explicated by their practice and the Commentaries of their greatest Doctors do make their Disciples guilty of Idolatry there is not any thing greater to deter men from them than that danger to their Souls which is imminent over them upon that acoount THEIR worshipping of Images we have already reprov'd upon the account of its novelty and innovation in Christian Religion But that it is against good life a direct breach of the second Commandment an Act of Idolatry as much as the Heathens themselves were guilty of in relation to the second Commandment is but too evident by the Doctrines of their own Leaders FOR if to give Divine honour to a Creature be Idolatry then the Doctors of the Church of Rome teach their People to commit Idolatry For they affirm That the same worship which is given to the Prototype or Principal the same is to be given to the Image of it As we worship the Holy Trinity and Christ so we may worship the Images of the Trinity and of Christ that is with Latria or Divine honour This is the constant sentence of the Divines The Image is to be worshipped with the same honour and worship with which we worship those whose image it is said Azorius their great Master of Casuistical Theology And this is the Doctrine of their great Saint Thomas of Alexander of Ales Bonaventure Albertus Richardus Capreolus Cajetan Coster Valentia Vasquez the Jesuits of Colein Triers and Mentz approving Coster's opinion NEITHER can this be eluded by saying that though the same worship be given to the Image of Christ as to Christ himself yet it is not done in the same way for it is terminatively to Christ or God but relatively to the image that is to the image for God's or Christ's sake For this is that we complain of that they give the same worship to an image which is due to God for what cause soever it be done it matters not save only that the excuse makes it in some sense the worse for the Apology For to do a thing which God hath forbidden and to say it is done for God's sake is to say that for his sake we displease him for his sake we give that to a Creature which is God's own propriety But besides this we affirm and it is of it self evident that whoever Christian or Heathen worships the image of any thing cannot possibly worship that image terminatively for the very being of an image is relative and therefore if the man understands but common sense he must suppose and intend that worship to be relative and a Heathen could not worship an image with any other worship and the second Commandment forbidding to worship the likeness of any thing in Heaven and Earth does only forbid that thing which is in Heaven to be worshipped by an image that is it forbids only a relative worship For it is a contradiction to say this is the image of God and yet this is God and therefore it must be also a contradiction to worship an image with Divine worship terminatively for then it must be that the image of a thing is that thing whose image it is And therefore these Doctors teach the same thing which they condemn in the Heathens BUT they go yet a little further The Image of the Cross they worship with Divine honour and therefore although this Divine worship is but relative yet consequently the Cross it self is worshipped terminatively by Divine adoration For the Image of the Cross hath it relatively and for the Crosses sake therefore the Cross it self is the proper and full object of the Divine adoration Now that they do and teach this we charge upon them by undeniable Records For in the very Pontisical published by the Authority of Pope Clement the VIII these words are found The Legats Cross must be on the right hand because Latria or Divine honour is due to it And if Divine honour relative be due to the Legates Cross which is but the Image of Christ's Cross then this Divine worship is terminated on Christ's Cross which is certainly but a meer Creature To this purpose are the words of Almain The Images of the Trinity and of the Cross are to be ador'd with the worship of Latria that is Divine Now if the Image of the Cross be the intermedial then the Cross it self whose Image that is must be the last object of this Divine worship and if this be not Idolatry it can never be told what is the notion of the Word But this passes also into other real effects And well may the Cross it self be worshipped by Divine worship when the Church places her hopes of salvation on the Cross for so she does says Aquinas and makes one the argument of the other and proves that the Church places her hopes of salvation on the Cross that is on the instrument of Christ's Passion by a hymn which she uses in her offices but this thing we have remark'd above upon another occasion Now although things are brought to a very ill state when Christians are so probably and apparently charg'd with Idolatry
of the Church of Rome To this we reply 1. It is not the private opinion of a few but their publick Doctrine own'd and offer'd to be justified to all the World as appears in the preceding testimonies 2. It is the 〈◊〉 of all the Jesuit Order which is now the greatest and most glorious in the Church of Rome and the maintenance of it is the subject matter of their new Vow of obedience to the Pope that is to advance his Grandeur 3. Not only the Jesuits but all the Canonists in the Church of Rome contend earnestly for these Doctrines 4. This they do upon the Authority of the Decretals their own Law and the Decrees of Councils 5. Not only the Jesuits and Canonists but others also of great note amongst them earnestly contend sor these Doctrines particularly Cassenaeus Zodericus the Archbishop of Florence Petrus de Monte St. Thomas Aquinas Bozius Baronius and many others 6. Themselves tell us it is a matter of Faith F. Creswell says it is the sentence of all Catholicks and they that do not admit these Doctrines Father Rosweyd calls them half Christians Grinners barking Royalists and a new Sect of Catholicks and Eudaemon Joannes says That without question it is a Heresie in the judgment of all Catholicks Now in such things which are not in their Creeds and publick Confessions from whence should we know the Doctrines of their Church but from their chiefest and most leading Doctors who it is certain would fain have all the World believe it to be the Doctrine of their Church And therefore as it is certain that any Roman Catholick may with allowance be of this opinion so he will be esteemed the better and more zealous Catholick if he be and if it were not for fear of Princes who will not lose their Crowns for their foolish Doctrines there is no peradventure but it would be declared to be de fide a matter of faith as divers of them of late do not stick to say And of this the Pope gives but too much evidence since he will not take away the scandal which is so greatly given to all Christian Kings and Republicks by a publick and a just condemnation of it Nay it is worse than thus for Sixtus Quintus upon the XI of September A. D. 1589. in an Oration in a Conclave of Cardinals did solemnly commend the Monk that kill'd Henry the III. of France The Oration was printed at Paris by them that had rebell'd against that Prince and avouched for Authentick by Boucher Decreil and Ancelein And though some would fain have it thought to be none of his yet Bellarmine dares not deny it but makes for it a crude and a cold Apology NOW concerning this Article it will not be necessary to declare the Sentence of the Church of England and Ireland because it is notorious to all the World and is expresly oppos'd against this Roman Doctrine by Laws Articles Consessions Homilies the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy the Book of Christian Institution and the many excellent Writings of King James of Blessed Memory of our Bishops and other Learned persons against Bellarmine Parsons Eudaemon Johannes Creswel and others And nothing is more notorious than that the Church of England is most 〈◊〉 most zealous for the right of Kings and within these four and twenty years she hath had many Martyrs and very very many Confessors in this cause IT is true that the Church of Rome does recriminate in this point and charges some Calvinists and Presbyterians with Doctrines which indeed they borrowed from Rome 〈◊〉 their Arguments making use of their Expressions and pursuing their Principles But with them in this Article we have nothing to do but to reprove the men and condemn their Doctrine as we have done all along by private Writings and publick Instruments WE conclude these our reproofs with an Exhortation to our respective Charges to all that desire to be sav'd in the day of the Lord Jesus that they decline from these horrid Doctrines which in their birth are new in their growth are scandalous in their proper consequents are insinitely dangerous to their souls and hunt for their precious life But therefore it is highly 〈◊〉 that they also should perceive their own advantages and give God praise that they are immur'd from such infinite dangers by the 〈◊〉 Precepts and holy Faith taught and commanded in the Church of England and Ireland in which the Word of God is set before them as a Lantern to their feet and a light unto their eyes and the Sacraments are fully administred according to Christ's Institution and Repentance is preach'd according to the measures of the Gospel and Faith in Christ is propounded according to the rule of the Apostles and the measures of the Churches Apostolical and obedience to Kings is greatly and sacredly urg'd and the Authority and Order of Bishops is preserv'd against the usurpation of the Pope and the invasion of Schismaticks and Aerians new and old and Truth and Faith to all men is kept and preach'd to be necessary and inviolable and the Commandments are expounded with just severity and without scruples and holiness of life is urg'd upon all men as indispensably necessary to salvation and therefore without any allowances tricks and little artifices of escaping from it by easie and imperfect Doctrines and every thing is practis'd which is useful to the saving of our souls and Christ's Merits and Satisfaction are intirely relied upon for the pardon of our sins and the necessity of good works is universally taught and our prayers are holy unblameable edisying and understood they are according to the measures of the Word of God and the practice of all Saints In this Church the children are duly carefully and rightly baptiz'd and the baptiz'd in their due time are Confirm'd and the Confirm'd are Communicated and Penitents are absolv'd and the Impenitents punished and discouraged and Holy Marriage in all men is preferr'd before unclean Concubinate in any and Nothing is wanting that God and his Christ hath made necessary to salvation Behold we set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing Safety and Danger Choose which you will but remember that the Prophets who are among you have declar'd to you the way of salvation Now the Lord give you understanding in all things and reveal even this also unto you Amen THE END TWO LETTERS TO PERSONS Changed in their RELIGION The I. LETTER A Copy of the first Letter written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome M. B. I WAS desirous of an opportunity in London to have discoursed with you concerning something of nearest concernment to you but the multitude of my little affairs hindred me and have brought upon you this trouble to read a long Letter which yet I hope you will be more willing to do because it comes from one who hath a great respect to your person and
that devotion that is passionate desires of religious things and the earnest prosecutions of them should be produced by any thing of ignorance or less perfect notices in any sense Since therefore you are taught to pray so that your understanding is the praecentor or the Master of the Quire and you know what you say your desires are made humanc religious express material for these are the advantages of Prayers and Liturgies well understood be pleased also to remember that now if you be not also passionate and devout for the things you mention you will want the Spirit of prayer and be more inexcusable than before In many of your prayers before especially the publick you heard a voice but saw and perceived nothing of the sense and what you understood of it was like the man in the Gospel that was half blind he saw men walking like Trees and so you possibly might perceive the meaning of it in general You knew where they came to the Epistle when to the Gospel when the Introit when the Pax when any of the other more general periods were but you could have nothing of the Spirit of prayer that is nothing of the devotion and the holy affections to the particular excellencies which could or ought there to have been represented but now you are taught how you may be really devout it is made facil and easie and there can want nothing but your consent and observation 2. WHEREAS now you are taken off from all humane considences from relying wholly and almost ultimately upon the Priests power and external act from 〈◊〉 prayers by numbers from forms and out-sides you are not to think that the Priests power is less that the Sacraments are not effective that your prayers may not be repeated frequently but you are to remember that all outward things and Ceremonies all Sacraments and Institutions work their effect in the vertue of Christ by some moral instrument The Priests in the Church of England can absolve you as much as the Roman Priests could fairly pretend but then we teach that you must first be a penitent and a returning person and our absolution does but manifest the work of God and comfort and instruct your Conscience direct and 〈◊〉 it You shall be absolved here but not 〈◊〉 you live an holy life So that in this you will 〈◊〉 no change but to the advantage of a strict life we will not slatter you and cozen your dear soul by pretended minisieries but we so order our discourses and directions that all our 〈◊〉 may be really effective and when you receive the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist or the Lords Supper it does more good here than they do there because if they consecrate rightly yet they do not communicate you fully and if they offer the whole representative Sacrifice yet they do not give you the whole Sacrament only we enjoyn that you come with so much holiness that the grace of God in your heart may be the principal and the Sacrament in our hands may be the ministring and assisting part we do not promise great effects to easie trifling dispositions because we would not deceive but really procure to you great effects and therefore you are now to come to our offices with the same expectations as before of pardon of grace of sanctification but you must do something more of the work your self that we may not do less in effect than you have in your expectation We will not to advance the reputation of our power deceive you into a less blessing 3. BE careful that you do not flatter your self that in our Communion you may have more ease and liberty of life for though I know your pious soul desires passionately to please God and to live religiously yet I ought to be careful to prevent a temptation lest it at any time should discompose your severity Therefore as to confession to a Priest which how it is usually practised among the Roman party your self can very well account and you have complained sadly that it is made an ordinary act easie and transient sometime matter of temptation oftentimes impertinent but suppose it free from such scandal to which some mens folly did betray it yet the same severity you 'l find among us for though we will not tell a lie to help a sinner and say that is necessary which is only appointed to make men do themselves good yet we advise and commend it and do all the work of souls to all those people that will be saved by all means to devout persons that make Religion the business of their lives and they that do not so in the Churches of the Roman Communion as they find but little advantage by periodical confessions so they feel but little awfulness and severity by the injunction you must confess to God all your secret actions you must advise with a holy man in all the affairs of your soul you will be but an ill friend to your self if you conceal from him the state of your spiritual affairs We desire not to hear the circumstance of every sin but when matter of justice is concerned or the nature of the sin is changed that is when it ought to be made a Question and you will find that though the Church of England gives you much liberty from the bondage of innumerable Ceremonies and humane devices yet in the matter of holiness you will be tied to very great service but such a service as is perfect freedom that is the service of God and the love of the holy Jesus and a very strict religious life for we do not promise heaven but upon the same terms it is promised us that is Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus and as in Faith we make no more to be necessary than what is made so in holy Scripture so in the matter of Repentance we give you no easie devices and suffer no lessening desinitions of it but oblige you to that strictness which is the condition of being saved and so expressed to be by the infallible Word of God but such as in the Church of Rome they do not so much stand upon MADAM I am weary of my Journey and although I did purpose to have spoken many things more yet I desire that my not doing it may be laid upon the account of my weariness all that I shall add to the main business is this 4. READ the Scripture diligently and with an humble spirit and in it observe what is plain and believe and live accordingly Trouble not your self with what is difficult for in that your duty is not described 5. PRAY frequently and effectually I had rather your prayers should be often than long It was well said of Petrarch Magno verborum 〈◊〉 uti decet cum superiore 〈◊〉 When you speak to your superiour you ought to have a bridle upon your tongue much more when you speak to God I speak of what is decent in respect of