TRUE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC FAITH MAINTAINED IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND "^ TRUE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC FAITH MAINTAINED IN THE CHURCHOF ENGLAND. BY ANDEEW gALL. DOCTOR IN DIVINITY. ; ;;.;:',; y\''V TO WHICH IS I'REFlXEf) . A sermon'' ' PREACHED BY HIM AT CHRIST CHURCH, DUBLIN, BEFORE THE LORD LIEUTENANT AND COUNCIL, THE 5th DAY OF JULY, 1674; WITH A DECLARATION MADE IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, IN CASHEL, BEFORE THE ARCHBISHOP OF THE PROVINCE ; AND A PREFACE SHEWING THE REASONS FOR DESERTING THE COMMUNION OF THE ROMAN CHURCH, AND EMBRACING THAT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND EDITED, WITH A MEMOIR AND NOTES ILLUSTRATIVE AND BIOGRAPHICAL, L WHITTAKER & CO.; SIMPKIN & MARSHALL; AND HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. DEARDEN, NOTTINGHAM. 1840. S3 W. DEAKDEN, PRINTEE, NOTTINGHAM. ^77 '^ DEDICATION. TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD VISCOUNT LORTON, Dear Lord Lorton, I had several reasons for dedicating tlie present volume to you, and for desiring your permission so to do. It is completely Irisli ; and it exposes with ability and force, neither^of which for a moment can be questioned, the errors, the iniquities, and the malignity of that system, which is the overwhelming and almost solitary cause of the deplorable evils under which Ireland has so long groaned, and still, perhaps increasingly, groans ; and in the removal of which alone Ireland can find spiritual health and national prosperity. An additional motive for the liberty which I now take is supplied by the circumstance, that to you, my Lord, I am indebted for the honour of introduction to your pious and benevolent relation, the late deeply lamented Countess of Rosse, whose generosity enabled me to pursue studies and persevere in a course of exertion, which, however grateful for their end, have brought witli them no little vexation and hazard in the evil times on which we are fallen, when the agitating and servile mercenary of Rome often obtains more favour DEDICATION. tlian the faithful and uncompromising servant of British Christianity. Your Lordship will allow me to proceed to obligations more personal, and to express my deep gratitude for the friendly and unsought partiality, by which you have uniformly been pleased to encourage my efforts in a cause which is most dear to yourself the welfare of your own Country. How much this subject engrosses your attention and exertions ; how feelingly you deplore the evils which are allowed and encouraged to prey upon the vitals of Ireland, and even to extend their pestilent influence to the Constitution in Church and State of the whole United Empire ; and with what manly and Christian bearing, both in and out of Parlia- ment, you have maintained the cause of your suffering Country are facts, which the public voice has attested, and which, with the motives before specified, point to your Patronage, as the most suitable and desirable to be obtained by, My Lord, Your Lordship's gratefully attached and devoted servant. JOSIAH ALLPORT. Birmingham, June, 1810. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. It may be proper for the Editor of this republication of the English portion of Dr. Sail's writings to observe, that considerable alteration has been occasionally made in the style of the original, which is, at times, rather too concise, and might, probably, in the present day, be regarded as evincing a degree of ruggedness; there occurs now and then also an obscurity, which it has been attempted in the alterations ventured upon to remove : but this, it is believed, has been effected without introducing any variation in the sense in which Dr. Sail himself would have explained his meaning. It is possible that his long acquaintance with the Spanish language, and conformity to its peculiar idiom, might have imparted the tinge observable in his English compositions. All the publications connected with Dr. Sail's work not to mention his own are very rare, and almost unknown ; perhaps not altogether undeservedly as re- spects those of his opponents ; nevertheless it has been an object, of course, to see, and, if possible, peruse them. We have accordingly to express our obligations to the Rev. C^sar Otway of Dublin, either for the loan or the possession of some of the rarest of the works A 3 VI 11 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. quoted in this volume, iiamelv, tliose from the pen of the titular of Ferns, Dr. French. To the Rev. Geo. Ingram, also, Rector of Ched- burgh, Suffolk, we are indebted for facilities in consult- ing, not merely various works in which Dr. SalVs conversion and his history are alluded to, but also his own publications, which are without exception, we may say, all rare, and almost unattainable. Most, if not all, of these are in the University Library, Cambridge. From these sources we have been fully satisfied of the coiTcctness and latitude of an observation made by the Rev. C. Otway, in the introduction to his Memoirs of Dr. Sail, which appeared in the Dublin Chiistian Examiner, for Nov. 1828, that his " conversion accord- ing to Protestants, his ' doleful falV as the Romanists term it, caused a considerable sensation at the period of its occuiTence." Whilst his adopting and maintaining the liberal sentiments of an enlightened and Catholic Christian, gave great umbrage to the sons of Rome, and his abandoning her and joining the true Catholic Church, drew upon him the usual furious ire of the Papacy, it is pleasing to find how his character was estimated, and his attainments spoken of, in his own day, by various writers of the time and subsequently. Not to anticipate the testimonies adduced in the following pages, we just advert to a few others. In " an Historical Relation of several great and learned Komanists who embraced the Protestant Religion ^'^ published in London in 1688, Axidrew Sail brings up the rear; and an account is given of him at some length from his own statement : after which, the writer, speaking of his Sermon, says, it ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. IX shews him to have read much and to have seriously studied the point of his conversion. In a tract pubHshed in London in 1718 by a member of the Convocation against Dr, Snape, a portion of which was intended to exhibit the arts of the Jesuits and their base efforts to deceive and disturb mankind, amongst others is noted (what is still their practice) that of aiming to blacken the characters of any who shall dare to quit their community ; and SalFs case is dwelt upon as one in point. He had the character, says the author of the Tract, quoting from Cox's History of Ireland, pt. III. p. 25, of " a learned and pious man, who had been in great esteem among that party ; he was afterwards made one of the King's Chaplains, and continued a good Protestant to his death. But when the Jesuits lost him they blackened him in several libels and bitter invectives." And the writer then enters upon evi- dence in his defence. We might adduce other such instances. The reply of /. S,, to which the second part of Dr. Sail's volume contains a rejoinder, the Editor was privi- leged to consult in the Bodleian Library, Oxford the only place, public or private, where he has been able to ascertain that a copy exists, excepting one which is understood to enrich a Roman Catholic Collection ; and to that he had no particular claims which might entitle him to an inspection. In the Sermon which commences this Volume Dr. Sail has been largely indebted to the first part of Bishop Taylor's Dissuasive from Popery, from which he has borrowed most of his authorities and which, we X ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. must here remark, are far more accurately printed in the present than in Dr. Sail's own publication. The Notes must be left to speak for themselves we would merely observe that care has been taken to iden- tify and correct the references in Dr. SalFs own, and that we consider ourselves fortunate in having been able though to ever so limited an extent to support the statements from the anonymous writer largely quoted in part I. chap. IX. beginning at p. 163, and continued through Chapters X. and XI. from Papal authorities this has been done, however slightly, yet far more satis- factorily than could have been hoped for ; but we place importance upon it, because it tends to corroborate the remaining statements materially. MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. [In presenting the Reader with the promised Memoir of Dr. Sail, we have done little more than transfer to our pages the Sketch of him which appeared, as already observed, in the Dublin Christian Examiner for November, 1828, from the pen of the Rev. Cassar Otway. Such passages only are omitted, as were derived from Sail's own account of himself, and which here appear in their proper place in the Preface to his Triie Catholic Faith ; and in their stead such other matter has been added as we have been able to collect from other mediums of information.] Romish writers and orators have often boasted, that no upright, intelligent, consistent, and permanent convert from them, has ever been gained over to the Established Church. In this respect they would seem to rely on a promise, said to have been extorted from the Virgin Mary by St. Patrick, that collectively or individually, the Irish should not plunge into the abyss of heresy. In the present instance at any rate, we have an individual to notice, who may be said to disprove the promise though in reply, it may be urged, that the Virgin is yet as good as her word, for Andrew Sail was not of the " mere Irishry" he was not a Milesian his heretical pravity was perhaps owing to the Saxon taint in his blood ; at all events he was a Jesuit of the highest Order had solemnized his fourth* vow an eminent scholar a great linguist a deep divine who, after mature deliberation, sprung over the pale of Popery, and took refuge in the Established Church, of which he became a valuable Minister, and to which he adhered consistently until his dying hour. Dr. Sail was born in the vicinity of Cashel, where his family were possessed of property granted to them, as English settlers in * Jesuits of the highest Order, besides the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, make a fourth of peculiar obedience to the Pope, whereby they bind themselves to go any where, or do any thing to support the cause of the Roman See. XU MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. the veign of Elizabeth.* How this family became Popish, or how the subject of this Memoir became a student in a Romish seminary abroad, I have not been able to ascertain, but have reason to believe that after a certain probation at St. Omer's, he was transferred to Valladolid in Spain, for future training and perfection as a hopeful and efficient Jesuit. There lies before me a curious quaint book, composed by an ex-Jesuit of the name of Carpenter, and entitled " Experience, History, and Divinity," and printed in 1650, in which in a wild and rambling way, he tells many curious things about Popery and Jesuitism. He thus describes the way in which English and Irish youths were dis- posed of at Foreign Seminaries : " It is the course of the Jesuits at St. Omer's, to send in the time of harvest, two missions of English Scholars into remoter parts of the Christian world, one to Rome and another to Valla- dolid in Spain. In these places are English Colleges, the Superiors and Governors, Jesuits; and here I have a notable trick to discover of these Jesuits; their best and most able scholars they always send to Spain, and only their weaker vessels to Rome, and it is a great proportion of their labour to win their apt scholars, by favours, by promises and much cunning, to become Jesuits, and so they never leave any (if all they can do, will do withal) for the secular Priests, but they leave the lean, bony end, and the refuse for them. Their manner is to make trial of every one that comes, what nature and spirit he is of, partly by applying subtle lads to him which keep him company, and turn him outward and inward again, and make return of their observa- tions to the Jesuits ; and partly by their own sifting him, either in discourse or examination, or some laboured exercise." Andrew Sail tested in this way did not disappoint the clear- sighted anticipations of his triers transmitted to Spain he arose to great eminence as a Theologian in their Schools, which were the best at that day in Romish Christendom ; he became succes- Andrew was not the only Jesuit that the family produced ; we find a James T. Sail flourishing as a Jesuit in Cashel, at the time of its captui-e by the Romish rebels, in the early part of the Rebellion of 1641 ; and, he on this occasion, acted with great humanity towards the Protestants, and actually saved the life, and afterwards protected Dr, Samuel Pullen, Chancellor of the Cathedral. MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. XIU sively Reader of Divinity at Pampeluna, Professor at Tudela and Palencia, Rector of the Irish College, and Lecturer of Controver- sial Divinity at the University of Salamanca ; here he enjoyed the rare privilege of having and using prohibited books, as appears by the Licence from the Inquisitor General of Spain, which Licence was annually renewed for the three years he acted in the above capacity : and not alone within the walls of his College was his higli character confined, for we find the Conde de St. Stephano, Viceroy of Navarre, in a work of his, which one of his sons presented in person to Pope Alexander VII., giving a laboured eulogium of Dr. Sail, which has this heading, " Rev. P. Andreas Salo Hiberno Societatis Jesu, Eulogium." Moreover, when it was judged expedient by his Superiors to remove him from his Professor's Chair at Pampeluna, we find the famous expatriated Nicholas French, Bishop of Ferns,* expostulating with the Provincial of the Jesuits [in a remarkable manner, which appears in his letter given by Sail in the Preface to his Catholic Faith at p. 96 of the present Volume.] Honoured and useful as he is thus shewn to have been in Spain, the time arrived when the Society required him as their useful and obedient instrument to proceed to his native Country, and there occupy a difficult and important mission. The situation of the Church of Rome in Ireland, during the reign of Charles II. was peculiarly critical, and the management of its cause there required all the efforts of Jesuitical astuteness. The restoration of the King found Popery trampled to the dust under its Cromwellian conquerors and so humbled, that many of the Clergy, and most of the influential Laity, chastened by adversity, were ready to swear allegiance to the King, and an instrument called the " Loyal Remonstrance" was drawn up, which purported that the subscribers were willing to adhere to their allegiance, even though the Pope should excommunicate and depose them ; that they disclaimed all Foreign power, whether Papal or princely, temporal or spiritual, that should pretend to absolve them from their oath of allegiance. This Remonstrance, drawn up by Richard Belling, and supported by the talents and countenance of such men as Peter Walsh, Caron, Lynch, and * Of whom more by and by. XIV MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL, Harold, would, if it had been universally signed and adopted by the Romish Clergy and Laity of Ireland, have produced a public toleration of their Religion, and given their Lords and Commons admission to Parliament, and almost every other political privilege. But it was determined at Rome that such a concession should not be made to the British Government all the foreign-influenced Bishops, and the whole host of Jesuits, were set in array against it ; and they so amply succeeded, by means of exciting the rabble against the gentry, and by excommunicating the Clergy who favoured the Remonstrance, that the hope of accommodation entirely failed. Walsh, Caron, Harold, &c., &c. were denounced as heretics the Remonstrance was styled the infamous instru- ment that was to injure the Church more than any former persecution ; and the Irish were exhorted to martyrdom rather than APOSTATIZE, by signing such a damnable doctrine.* * Dr. O'Connor adverting to this transaction exclaims Gracious heaven ! must I be compelled to stale with shame and anguish, that it was an unequal contest that the foreign influenced Bishops knew the temper of which the Irish rabble were composed that the stoutest hearts, whom no sword could conquer, and no danger could appal, trembled before an Episcopal censure, whether just or unjust, and that with such stuff to work on, every thing could be carried and was carried against the dearest interests, the properties, and genuine Religion of our honest ancestors, by an infamous excommunication. Dr. O'Connor's (a Roman Catholic) Historical Address, p. 161. What a price Ireland has paid and is doomed to pay for Priests and Popery ! [Dr. Stillingfleet selects the Irish Remonstrance, and the treatment which its " authors and fau tors'' received, to shew that " that party which has been most destructive to civil government has ever had the most countenance and encourage- ment from Rome :" " The Popish Clergy of Ireland (very few excepted) were accused of Rebellion for opposing themselves to the King's authority, by the instigation of the Pope's Nuncio ; after which followed a meeting of the Popish Bishops, where they banished the King's Lieutenant, and took the Royal Authority upon themselves; almost all the Clergy, and a great part of the people joined with them; and therefore it was necessary since the King's return, to give him better satisfaction concerning their Allegiance ; and to decline the Oath of Allegiance which they must otherwise have taken, some of them agreed upon this Remonstrance to present to the King, the news of which was no sooner come to Rome, but Cardi- nal Barberini sent a letter to the Irish Nobility, 8th July, 1662, to bid them take heed of being drawn into the ditch by those blind guides who had subscribed to some propositions testifying their Loyalty to the King, which had before been condemned by the Apostolic See. After this the Pope's Nuncio at Brussels July 21, 1662, sends them word how displeasing their Remonstrance was at Rome, and that after diligent examination by the Cardinals and Divines, they found it contained MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. XV In order then to uphold Papal pretensions, which never were and never will, while Popery lasts, be effectually laid aside, a full and constant supply of Jesuits w^as necessary, and Andrew Sail was drafted for the service. On his arrival in Ireland, the foreign-influenced party, (at whose head was Peter Talbot, the Romish Archbishop of Dublin,) had in a great measure got the better of their antagonists the Remonstrants were excommu- nicated and driven from their native land, leaving the field open for those, who, at the risk of a new Revolution, were determined to cast another die for the restoration to splendor of the Roman Church. Sail, located in his native Province, and well adapted as he appeared to be, from the suavity of his manners, his cheerful consistent piety, and his acknowledged talents, had consigned to him the office of holding frequent communication with the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry of Munster, in order to engage them in the projects and attach them to the interests of the Church. While thus sojourning in the house of a Roman Catholic lord, connected by kindred and cordial feelings with many of his Protestant neighbours. Sail was solemnly enquired of, whether there was any chance for salvation for these Protestant friends ? Amiable and pitiful, Sail had even while in Spain, as a matter of scholastic disputation, maintained a thesis in the schools, that it was possible for those without the pale of the Church of Rome to be saved ; and it is curious to observe, how within the reach of the Inquisition, and as it were beneath the lingers of its familiars, he could venture to uphold a tenet so subversive of pure Popery. But it only shews that in Spain, as prior to the Reformation over all Christendom, the slaves of the Pope were allowed saturnalian liberties; provided that at all times (as Luther has it) they forbore from meddling with the Priests' paunches or the Pope's crown. Sail, on the present occasion, in accordance with what he freely maintained in Spain, gave it as his decided opinion, that all who propositions already condemned by Paul V. and Innocent X., and tlierefore the Pope gave them order to publish this among them j that he was so far from approving the Remonstrance that he did not so much as permit it, or connive at it, and \va,s extremely grieved that the Irish Nobility were drawn into it, &c.'' A Discourse upon Idolatry in the Church of Rome, and a particular account of her Fanaticisms, (Lond. 1671,) pp. 305, 306.] XVI MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, and who actually believed in all things set forth in the Apostles' Creed, would see the salvation of God. It could not be that those liberal doctrines of our Jesuit should escape the notice of his brethren ; it became a matter of notoriety and animadversion ; and grievously did the trained bands of the Pope lament and chafe, when it became evident that this, their boasted member, their "malleus hereiicorum^'' was likely to prove not only a useless, but dangerous tool. Sail describing their proceedings, states, that there was nothing that was bitter, nothing that was venomous and virulent, that they did not cast out against him ; all said, he was infected with heretical pravity many declared, he was nothing but a rank Atheist. But, unmoved by these denunciations, he had the courage and consis- tency to preach at Cashel, before a large congregation of the Romish Nobility and Gentry, on the Salvability of Protestants, and afterwards he wrote a tract, and had it circulated amongst his detractors, in which lie maintained his point, and adduced authorities in support of it, from Scripture, Fathers, Councils, and even the Popes' decrees. But all in vain, he might as well argue with the winds ; and every where he was cried down. [For a detail of his trials and conduct under them, and his whole procedure till his entire renunciation of the Romish Com- munion, the reader is referred to p. 82 of the present volume, and the five following pages, where he will find his own account at large.] Having decidedly passed over to the Church of England, the last 'peaceful effort made to reclaim the lost sheep, was a solemn Bull of Pope Clement X., signed and sealed by his Protonotarius Apostolicus, Claudius Agreste, assuring him in terms of full authority, of an entire and absolute remission of all that was past, and a favourable reception and admission into his former condition and privileges, if he would return to the Church ; and at the same time warning him of great evil designed, and which must befal him, if he persevered in his Apostasy. Sail having returned no answer to this overture, a host of writers and literary traducers were let loose on him a shower of books came down on him, (as he says himself) one upon the back of another : MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL, XVU " The first that appeared on the stage was J. E., a fit person to break the ice, a rough trotter, with a book of small bulk and less sense bearing a thundering title, ' A Sovereign Counter- poison, prepared by a faithful hand, for the speedy reviviscence of Andrew Sail, a late Sacrilegious Apostate:'' In this book he extravagantly extols' me above the skies for what I was before, and depresses me under the abyss for what I am at present ; now calling me Sacrilegious Apostate, and now dear Andrew, sweet Andrew, and what not." It may be amusing to see a specimen of Father Egan's writing : " The restless and hellish labours of some pseudo prelates in compassing sea and land, to make one proselyte, are very strange whereas. Apostates, made their Apostles, can be little purchase to Protestants, and the loss of Catholics much less, they having been twice dead, and canker-eaten branches, that could produce no fruit while united to the stock, much less could they after their separation. Their endeavour is not to go far off and convert Pagans from the worship of dead idols to serve the living God, but rather to pervert illuminated Christians ; to corrupt and evacuate the Sovereignty of Christ's faith, by novel devices, foul lies, and forgeries is their main ambition. The main reason that put the author upon the sudden contrivance of this small tract, was to give a seasonable check to the despiteful malice, venom and brawny-faced impudence of the renowned wight, vile apostate, and professed enemy to Christ, Andrew Sail to dash back all his shameless and thundering brawling strains of profound and wonderful nonsense, in his late open, avowed, and dirty practices in Dublin and elsewhere, all no better stuff than old worn-out bold railings, and false ignorant accusations of superstition, idolatry, sacrilege, &c. &c. against the Mother Church. " O wretched Andrew, it would have been more advantageous to you to have your living body fastened to a rotten putrid carcase, than to have your soul fastened to the darkness and loathsomeness of cursed heresy and apostacy. Now, do consider the infinite advantages, prerogatives, and dignity of your former happy state, and compare it with your present deplorable, cursed, and most black condition you were vir Apostolicus now Apos- tata, vilis dicta before, a most resplendent star in tlie firmament XVlll MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. of the true Church now an obscure, dusky, and abominable ignis fafuiis, leading yourself and others to the precipice of eternal perdition before, a religious Priest now an accursed Judas before, conferring life and grace on others now you are left destitute of all life, and light, and grace, blessing and good- ness before, called by the hand of God to a most high-saving dignity and honour now blindly fallen from that into the Devil's jaws before, an obedient child now facius liber voti fractiis before, a chaste evangelical missioner now a Sacrilegious ScoR- TATOR before, reputed an honest man, questuosus mercator now fugitivus Apostata et seditiosus sectarius factus before, raised from a Sail to be a Paul, a preacher of the word and penance now turned to be a Saul, a persecutor, and warring in a most furious manner against the heavenly witnesses of true faith, and so you are become a wretched lying vile Protestant wallowing like a sordid, nasty, stinking sow, in the mire of liberty, libidinous lust, and pride, and concupiscence. Retire, retire, poor Andrew, to your interior man, have a care of your drooping soul mind eternity." A grave and honourable prelate (says Sail) reading this, said " They were beholden to him for giving so good an account of what I was before, but needed not his information for what I am now, themselves knowing that better." And this egregious writer being questioned in a private discourse with what truth he could say, I was become so debauched since I came to the Reformed Church, living all that time very abstemious and retired in Trinity College, Dublin, and in good repute with those that conversed with me; he answered, that he never meant that I was really guilty of those vices, but in a metaphorical sense for that the Church of England being a harlot, I embracing her communion, became guilty of spiritual uncleanness and all those vices he mentioned. He cannot deny that I know this to have been his answer. He was well contented that his followers should under- stand that I was really guilty of the debauchery he speaks of, but if brought to the test he is provided with the reserve aforesaid to come off with. The specimen I give (says Sail) of this man's genius, will, I presume, quit me in all good judgments, of any obligation to regard further what he wrote against me. " The next book published against me was entitled the ' Bleed- MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. XIX ing Iphigenia,' by way of Preface to another greater preparing which soon after appeared under the title of * the Doleful Fall of Andrew Sail;'' both written by a grave and ancient Prelate of my acquaintance in Spain." In a collection of treatises by Morley, Bishop of Winchester, I find a letter addressed to French, Bishop of Ferns [the writer of the abovementioned pieces] by a Franciscan Friar, who though not named, was, I believe, the famous Peter Walsh, in which he animadverts very severely on the excessive uncharitableness of the attack of Bishop French on Sail and the Church of England. " If ever," says he, "there was a violation of that command of our Lord, ' nolite judicare,' it is on your part. The most tremendous, peremptory, cruel judgment that could be given by mortal men of others ; it excludes for ever as vv^ell ' secundum praesentera,' as * secundum futuram justitiam,' all the Church of England univer- sally, both Priests and people, out of the mystical ark of Christ; and so, without any remorse or regret, I am sure without any sufficient examination of their cause, without any allowance to the insensible prepossession of their minds, without any regard to their particular merits or demerits. Your application of the Ark of God utterly raseth out of the book of life so many millions of human souls, who have since the Reformation, died or shall die hereafter in the Church of England, condemning them all without any exception to a deluge of fire, and the life of devils lo a long eternity." [Mr. Otway was quite right in his conjecture as to the above coming from the pen of Peter Walsh ; and we present the reader with some further remarks of his on French's production. " By this time you may remember in my last letter I promised to give you of Dr. Sail (the occasioner of your book and this letter) somewhat more than I said then. Know therefore that within some few days after (to be as good as my word) I found out his lodgings, and spent a great part of three days in his company, and put him many questions about himself and some matters of fact which happened before, and in, and since his change. And that he on the other side was (for ought I could perceive) as willing to answer, as I to demand. Among other things he told me at large the cause of your kindness to him, and great concern for him. He told me also that in case he had not b2 XX MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. left the Roman communion, he had nevertheless resolved to leave the Jesuits' Order, and this for some, as well doctrines, as prac- tices maintained by, if not peculiar to that Society. And yet withal he averred to me, that neither his own Order nor any other Order or person of the Roman Church had ever offended him, or given him by any such offence, the least occasion of quitting their Communion. That only his own reading, and this also in our Schoolmen, was it that changed his judgment. And that no earthly consideration, but the irresistible power of Truth, and the insupportable tortures of those ictus' and laniatus' of Conscience, which must be at long running the unhappy conquest of all that continue rebels against the light, (Job xxiv. 3.) made him resolve at last, and in point of external profession of faith or communion of Sacraments, exchange the present Church of Rome, for the present Church of .'//<7//^G^. He moreover told me he had no thoughts of answering your book, but would assuredly I. S's. book, though he knew not the author, but thought him to be John Sergeant, a Secular Priest of note among the Roman Catholic English Clergy. And this is all I remember now of his dis- course. Soon after he departed for Dublin ; where I suppose he has been hard at study ever since. For though I have no corres- pondence with him in any manner, nor enquired, nor heard of him all this while ; yet I can tell you this is but the fourth day since I saw a fair MS. come hither from him (but some days be- fore) to be printed in answer to three several books written against him, the one by I. S , the other by I. E., and the third by N. N. 1 had no leisure to look into it, but only to see the title- page, whereby I saw however, that in reference to your book, he entertained new thoughts after departing hence." Peter Walsh's Letter addressed to Nicholas French, of Ferns, dated London, March 13, 1676, and included in his Four Letters, pubMshed anno 1686, pp. 122 24 ] In the commencement of his "Bleeding Iphigenia," (which is in effect more a defence of the Popish Clergy in Ireland, during the great rebellion, against the accusations of Lord Orrery, than an attack on Sail) he thus speaks of vSall : "A public abjuration of the Roman Catholic Faith made by A. Sail, a Jesuit of the fourth vow, gave me great heaviness, for I loved the man dearly for his amiable nature and excellent parts, MEMOIR OF BR. ANDREW SALL. XXI and I esteemed him both a learned and pious person, and so did all who knew him ; however this sudden change of him made me say with sad attention these words of St. Paul, ' He that thinketh he standeth, let him take heed lest he fall;' for God knows I no ways feared that this man could have fallen into lieresy." Bishop French's larger work, ' The Doleful Fall,' is scarcely less angry and vituperative than the tract of Friar Egan. It be- gins thus " O Sail, tell us, what domineering spirit of darkness, what black temptation hath drawn you out of the liouse of God. O mistaken soul, thou hast forsaken the Ark, to drown thyself in the deluge. Hearken, unhappy man, flying out of the temple, hearken to God crying upon thee, what is that my beloved hath in my house done ? Mad mischief as if God would say in a complaining way, what have I done to this man, that he has be- come so wicked and ungrateful ? First, What sin so abominable as abjuration of the holy Faith, which is spiritual rebellion, a treason against heaven, a separation from God eternally, a de- clared war against the Holy Trinity ? Secondly, Deserting your Faith, without which there is no salvation ; you have damned your own soul to all eternity." Farther on he says, " Consider, Sail, having departed out of the Catholic Church, what eternity you may await for, an eternity of flames and darkness and inconsolable lamentation." It iSj as Mr. Otvvay has well remarked, pleasant to have to record the concluding words of the amiable Franciscan, as a Christian contrast to the horrih'de decretum of the bigot of Ferns.* " God of his infinite mercy grant, that our controversial * It may not be amiss to give the character of French of Ferns, as drawn by a Roman Catholic, (Dr. Charles O'Connor.) " No man," says he, (page 241, Let- ter of Columbanus) '' who is not acquainted with the character of French, Bp. of Ferns, can adopt any of the imputations which he throws out against the Duke of Ormond in his Unkind Deserter, since French himself had so often changed sides, that no reliance could be placed on his word. French was Chancellor and Chairman of the exclusive Synod of Waterford, in 1646. He changed sides soon after, and was sent Ambassador to Rome by the nobility and gentry in 1647. On his return, in 1648, he promoted the second peace; but scarcely was that concluded when he changed sides again, and signed the excommunication denounced by the foreign-influenced Bishops at Jamestown. He then went to Brussels, with instructions from the same foreign-influenced men, to offer the crown of Ireland to the Duke of Lorraine : and here, (see p. 4.55 of O'Connor's Historical Address) in order to transfer the crown of Ireland from its right b3 XXll MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. thoughts on every side may centre at last in truth and in happi- ness. I am sure they are in themselves at least no other than vexations and afflictions of spirit. But what shall we say, or shall we answer in the words of Solomon * This sore trouble hath God given to the sons of men, to be exercised therewith.' But our comfort is that it shall not be so for ever. ' We know that when he, the Lord Jesus, shall appear, we shall be like him, be- cause we shall see him as he is;' but seeing him, ' what is it w'e shall not see?' said Gregory the Great. But then, if on the contrary, our unfortunate checking of the light of conscience should thus deprive us of seeing that light of lights, and super- essential fountain of all light, what shall become of us .^ O thou keeper of men, prevent this dreadful IF, oh thou that desirest all men to be saved, and for that end to come to the knowledge of the truth ; oh thou that rejoicest not in the destruction of the living, but in their correction and amendment hie ure, hie seca, ut in aeternum parcas here burn, here cut, that thou mayest spare for ever." London, 13th March, 1676. But Peter Walsh was excommunicated, and counted a heretic, and his life attempted, so that these his Christian aspirations would go for nothing with a real Papist. Sail's answer to the Bishop of Ferns was perfectly temperate and firm ; he says in his Preface " The good will and pious intention of this Prelate, I truly love and honour, and accordingly will endeavour to satisfy in sober, serious, and sincere terms." He therefore published a very valuable work indeed, entitled, " True Catholic and Apostolic Faith maintained in the Church owner to a Flemish Papist Prince, who was a notorious adulterer ; he forged Lord Taafe's name to an instrument, and thus added (as O'Connor says) forgery to sacrilege, and thus tbe spiritual power of the Keys, and that sacred authority which were equally committed to all Bishops hy the voice of Inspiration for the benefit of immortal souls, and in reference to eternity, were made subservient to ambition, instrumental to mahgnity, and prostituted to intrigue. He was after- wards cancerncd in carrying on a secret negotiation with Cromwell against the J^oyal Family. He then had the efironteiy to wait on King Charles II. at Paris, who refused to see him. At the Restoration, he was instrumental in opposing the Loyal Remonstrance ; and was one of those who, wiping their mouths, said, that with regard to the King, as they knew no crime they were guilty of, so they needed no pardon. Such a disloyal intriguer and busy bigot was not allowed to return to Ireland he died in Spain. MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW Sx\LL. XXUl of England^ hij Andrew Sail, D.D , being a reply to several Books published under the narnes of I. E., N. N., and I. iS." I am not acquainted with a better Controversial work than this ; it is written in a truly Christian spirit, out of which he is never tempted to step; it exhibits considerable acuteness in argument, great learning, and is altogether worthy of being reprinted. Very i'ew converts from the Church of Rome have served the Cause of the English Church so well. [It may be permitted us here to present the Reader witli a specimen of Bishop French's (the N. N. among Sail's opponents) vie.v of the character and writings of the defenders of the Church of England: At page 236* of the Doleful Fall, quoting with approbation from another Romish author, we have as follows, edit. 1749: " I really perceive a strange humour in our Protestant writers. You have their books, it is true, difficulties now and then hinted at, words multiplied, much talk in general, intricate discourses carried in darkness, (and this to amuse a vulgar reader) weak conjectures enough, now drawn from this, now from that evi- denced authority : margins charged with Greek and Latin, and they must be thought learned margins. "But after all you see the main difficulties waved, you find nothing proved, nothing clearly reduced to any other owned prin- ciple but their own proofless word and bare assertion, insomuch as I am apt to believe (if I think amiss, God forgive me) all that Protestants aim at in their Polemical writings, is only to keep up talk in the world, and glory when they have the last word in con- troversy, whether a proved w^ord, or no, it imports not, so it may be proved they answer it." Proteslancy without principles, or Sectaries tmhappy fall from Infallibility to fa)icy laid forth by E. ff^[orsley] printed at Antwerp 1668, p. 320 : no bad descrip- tion of sundry Romish writings. In the following we meet with some fancies which have been revived in Ireland of late. " We have been above 1000 years and more in possession, be- fore the world heard anything of Luther and his knot of Schis- matical companions, are not we then Priores tempore ? But they will perhaps tell us, they have prescribed against us by holding our Churches, Benefices, and all power and jurisdiction XXIV MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. in England for 100 years and more ; to this we reply, that vio- lence gives no ground to Prescription : we allege that undeniable rule of the Law : possessor malm Jidei illo tempore non pre- scrihit, that is, * a Professor of evil faith or conscience can never prescribe, (mala fides here is mala conscientia y and doth cut off all title they can make to prescription. It is manifest to the world all they have of ours, they have against conscience, and so their crime in holding that by force, which by justice is ours, is the more grievous, and the longer they retain them the greater is their sin." Doleful Fall, pp. 237, 238.] But, (to return to Mr. Otway's narrative,) before closing this imperfect memoir, I desire to shew its subject in a more interest- ing light, than as a polemic contending against the barbarous bitterness of the Romish Priests whom he had deserted. Indeed, it would have been scarcely possible for such a mind as his to have rem lined amongst them. Dr. Sail, well acquainted with the Irish language, and knowing that the only way to spread the Gospel amongst his deluded and dark Countrymen was, to give them the word of God in their own language, therefore entered readily into the views of that super-excellent individual, the Hon. Robert Boyle, and became his co-adjutor in the great work he had in hand, the printing and publishing of an Irish Bible. In the Vlth Volume of Boyle's works,* we find a few Letters from Sail on this important subject, extracts from which may not be uninteresting, as they shew what an interest these good men took in this but too neglected cause. He writes from Christ's Church, Oxford, whither he had gone to print his book, 1678 *' Whereas you are pleased to give me leave to deliver my opinion, touching your design of printing the New Testament in Irish, and how it may conduce to the conversion of these mise- rably deluded souls; I bless God for inspiring you with such holy zeal, and those that join you therein, and doubt not but that it may conduce highly to the glory of God, the good of men's souls, and the credit of our government: if the other Prelates and pastors of Ireland did use such measures as the good Archbishop of Cashel does, (Dr. Price) by communing with the natives, nnd bringing them to hear and read the word of God and specially, * I'ajUfc 593, - MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. XXV if in the College there was course taken for obliging or enticing such as expect to have Orders, read and declare the Holy Scripture in Irish, for want of which, I saw good men in both kingdoms give grievous complaint." From Dublin he writes to Mr. Boyle, dated May, 1680. " I am now to give you an account of my endeavours to concur with your most noble and holy zeal of brfnging the word of God to the hands and hearing of this most miserably blind people. I conferred with the Lord Lieutenant (Ormond,) my Lord Bishop of Meath, and with the Provost of the College, and found all three most willing to concur in the matter ! I doubt not to find tlie same inclination in my Lord the Primate, and other worthy persons. I hope God will raise men of good spirits to advance this work for the good of poor souls. I intend to set forth in three days for Cashel, there and elsewhere preaching in Irish, I will endeavour to prepare the way for the reading of your Irish Testament." From Cashel he writes in the October following. " Since my last I have spent my time preaching and catechis- ing in English and Irish every Sunday in this city and country near it, when God was pleased to visit me with a dangerous sickness of the country disease. I was given over for dead ; but he has been pleased to restore me to my former measure of he,alth. May it be to his honour and glory ! I fully approve of your intention to apply in the Preface, what yourself and other Worthies think fit, of that used by the Jan- senists in their French version ; and am not a little joyed to hear of so great an advance to what is right on the part of the Catho- lic^, as to suffer the Word of God to come into the Vulgar tongue. The best and greatest men of this Kingdom commend your pious zeal, and so approve of our endeavours to promote the spiritual welfare of this miserably blinded people. But besides the private opposition of the Romish Clergy, who would have themselves to be the only teachers, we have a more public and bolder opposition by some of our apparent, but very false brethren, who are not ashamed to profess a distaste of our endeavours to convert the natives of this country, upon the maxim of the Ame- rican Planters, in hindering the conversion of slaves to the Christian Religion. One of them had the gallantry to tell me to XXVI MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. my face, and at my own table, that while I went about to gain the Irish (to God I mean) I should lose the English. Our good Archbishop has continual battles with them on this subject: but I hope God will help us to carry on his work against opposition." Again he writes from Dublin, November, 168 J. " I am daily expecting the Old Testament in Irish to be sent to me, that I may see what it is, and what it wants, that I may contribute my small endeavours while those few live who have any zeal for the conversion of the natives. How few they be, I bemoaned sadly and seriously with my Lord Lieutenant this afternoon, admiring how few there were who followed your good cause, even of those whose calling did strictly oblige them to it, and from whom I am to expect little thanks for my endeavours to co-operate therein." Good God 1 what a deplorable exposure does Dr. Sail make here of the base avarice, the short-sighted selfishness of these English landed proprietors, who, fearing that the instructed and converted Irish would be less their slaves, still conspired to keep them in the darkness of Popery still left them in the clutches of the Priest ? Or is it any wonder that the retributive vengeance of Providence should come down on their children and their chil- dren's children; and that revolution, and rebellion, and insurrec- tion, should still keep this land convulsed and miserable ? But Sail hints at more monstrous conduct, he infers that some of the Clergy objected to the conversion of the natives, through the medium ol their own language. Protestant Ecclesiastics were found who opposed and counteracted this work and alas ! Sail was not singular in making this- remark ; it was not a soli- tary occurrence these base men were not confined to the year 1680. For near half a century before. Bedell was opposed in a similar manner, and on the very same grounds ; and Bishop Burnet, his biographer says, " the Priests of the Church of Rome had reason to oppose the promoting of a book that had been so very fatal to them, but it was a deep fetch (of Satan we suppose) to possess Reformed Divines with a jealousy of this work, and of hard thoughts concerning it " Certainly, there was not only the greatest cruelty, but the most inordinate absurdity, in the con- duct of these Church-men, who accused and ridiculed the Church of Rome for using prayers in an unknown tongue, and yet ex- MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. XXVll pected the Irish to come and hear them not only pray but preach in an unknown language nay, who exacted by law a fine from them, if they absented themselves from a service of which they understood not a syllable. The rebellions of 1641, and the wars of the revolution were, perhaps, visitings from the Lord for these things ; and was it any wonder that the Lord should avenge his soul on such a nation as this ? There are yet found some who are careless, if not opposed to the conversion from Popery of the Irish there are some who set no account on the efforts that are making to give a million of people a knowledge of the Gospel, through the only medium by which they can receive it their own language. It would be well for them to consider that the Lord's arm is not shortened ; there may be yet more rebellions and bloodshed in store for this distracted land. Dr. Sail in a succeeding letter informs Mr. Boyle, that many Roman Catholic gentlemen had applied to him for Irish Testa- ments to read in their families, and one gentleman of influence promised Sail, that he would insist on his Parish Priest reading in his Mass-house, portions of the Irish Testament to the people. But all these good works and hopes fell to the ground, and we find in a few months after, early in the year 1682, Mr. Boyle in a letter to a friend, noticing the death of Dr. Sail, and lamenting it as not only an individual loss an affliction to himself but as a National calamity for Ireland. Sail died without having received any benefice in the Established Church ; he was ap- pointed indeed to the empty honour of King's Chaplain, but though promised by the Lord Lieutenant and the King himself, the promotion and independence he deserved, we find him in one of his letters to Boyle expressing his conviction, that there was some dark agency at work, which on sundry occasions interfered to obstruct his promotion doubtless the Jesuits that wrought be- hind the shelter of the Duke of York, were instrumental to Sail's disappointments. He never was married, and by his celibate life he ought to have escaped the accusations which Romish adversaries have cast upon all converted Priests who have taken wives ; but it appears from the writings of Friar Egan above quoted, that even he could not escape from the imputation of carnality, he must be designated a Scoriator. Dr. Sail has left behind him no other works, as far as I can XXVlll MEMOIR OF DE. ANDREW SALL. ascertain, than a Latin tract, entitled Votum pro Pace ; a Latin Treatise on Morality, his True Catholic Faith Maintained, and the Sermon preached in Dublin on occasion of his recanta- tion. [Anthony Wood gives a summary account of Sail which as it respects his Preferment, differs somewhat from the foregoing. He says,* "In the latter end of July or thereabouts, an. 1675, he came to Oxon, and by Letters of commendation was not only received into Wadham Coll. where he continued for some Months, but afterwards actually created (not incorporated) D.D. ; and in the Act following (as in that of 1677) he shewed himself a smart disputant in the Theological vespers, being then domestic Chap- lain to his Majesty and dignified in Wales. After he had remained in the said College, and in an house in Holywell adjoining for some time, in a weak and sickly condi- tion, he, by the favour of Dr. Fell, removed to convenient lodg- ings in the Cloyster at Ch. Ch., near the Chaplain's quadrangle, where he remained about two years. In 1680 he went into Ire- land to live upon his Preferments there, which were a Preb. of Swords, the Rectory of Ard Mulchan, and a Chauntership of Cashels, where he continued in a weak condition till the time of his death on the 6th day of April, 1682, aged 70, or thereabouts, and was buried in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick, near Dublin." With respect to Dr. Sail's works, the Sermon, which com. mences the present Volume, was translated into French under the title of Les Erreurs de VEglise Romaine refutees en iin Sermon precJie le 5 de Juillet 1674 par A. Sail traduit en Francois par un Ami de I'Auteur ; imprime a Londres vis a vis de I'Hos- tel d'Exeter, 1675. This is a bare translation : it is very rare, but there are copies both in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and in the public Library, Cambridge. Since the following reprint of the Original passed the Press, a copy has appeared in one of Mr. Thorpe's Catalogues which is priced at 2 guineas. It is a small 12mo. Wood's Athe/ivc Oxon, vol. iv. Fasti Oxon. col. 356, edit. Bliss. MEMOIR OF DR. ANDREW SALL. XXIX The Latin Treatise on Morality is thus entitled : Ethica, sive Moralis Philosophia ex Veterum et recentt. Sententiis ; &c. Oxon. 1680. In the title to this neat little volume he is styled, " S, T. D. Brit. Regi a Sac. Dom.'' The title of the " Votum pro Pace " runs thus : Votum pro Pace Christiana, quo xponu7itur et amoventur prcecipiia oh- stacula Pads per Rom. Ecclesice Ministros ohjecta, &c. Oxon. 1678. This resembles his English work now reprinted, very much, especially in the Preface, which the Latin almost copies verbatim. He makes a curious remark on the work of Suarez, on p. 56, which may be worth quoting. " Nimh'um doctrina resurrectionis Christi a mortuis, si a Ro- mista tradatur, Apostolica est; non item, si a Doctore Anglicanae Ecclesiae. Siste Lector, et pende Roraanum supercilium hie magnifice elatum. Fama est non pauca, erripsisse huic Suarii libro, quae ab ipsius calarao, aut mente, non emanaverant." The fact of reprinting Dr. Sail's work which forms the bulk of this volume True Catholic and Apostolic Faith maintained in the Church of England engages, in a gi-eat measure, our assent to its sentiments and opinions. We attach value to it not so much for the quantum of Evangelic Truth, which constitutes the essence of that Faith and the basis of our Church, as for its full and explicit testimony against Romanism, or that system of de- parture from the true Catholic Faith, of which he gives evidence as one who knew what he spake, and whereof he affirms, and whose testimony to the errors and corruptions of the Papacy can- not be gainsaid. But it is needful, especially in the present times, that we qualify our approbation of such sentences as appear rather to subject the Scriptures to the interpretations of the earlier ages; and this leads us to subjoin a few reflections upon the much lauded quotation fromiJ^incent of Lerins, quod uhique, quod semper, quod ah omnibus, &c. of which Sail also expresses his admiration. Denique regulse usus difficillimus, et supra vires non plebis modo, sed et omnium fere doctorum. Quis enim Herculeum laborem ilium peragere potest, ut de iis qiicE uhique, qucB semper, qu/ England and Ireland to keep their people from reading and hearing the reasons of their adver- c saries as elsewhere you know it is. And as Suarez, and Bellarmine, and others the ablest defenders of the Roman cause, are here read with due regard to their learning, so any learned man will be welcome to our disputes ; and in his good behaviour will have a sure warrant of his indemnity for what he shall say against us by Scripture and reason. And where the answer may seem deficient, he may with confidence go on with contra sic argumentor, by that modest and clean way of the schools. But if his reply should be some foul words or rudeness, though I have resolved to pass over that kind of opposition, I may not assure him that the audience here (which is to be very illustrious and learned) may bear it. I heartily pray to God, that he may send us all grace to seek after, sincerely, and happily find out, the true way of serving and praising him. And so I rest. Sir, Your sincere friend to serve you, ANDREW SALL. 88 THE PREFACE. Upon this invitation, the said Doctor, with some others of the Romish Communion, came to our disputes ; but for reasons to them best known, they resolved not to oppose in that public manner ; neither did we, by their defaults, want learned and able opposers : for several of our own Doctors of Divinity and Masters of Arts, members of this University, well furnished with skill in controversies, and the best arguments our adversaries have, pro- posed them vigorously upon the chief points controverted, reduci- ble to the heads which I proposed for Thesis ; and by vote, even of the Romish auditors present, they were not wanting to the duty of able disputants. Nor could I understand that any missed of a satisfactory answer to the arguments used, which were many ; and all in the presence of the most Reverend Father in God, James, Lord Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland, our Vice-Chancellor; and of the Right Reverend Fathers in God, the Lord Bishop of Kildare, the Lord Bishop of Ossory, the Lord Bishop of Killalo ; and of a very great and flourishing number of learned men, both of the clergy and gentry. This trial being over, my great longing was for a serious and well considered reply to my reasons proposed in print ; which by that way might be performed, without pretence of fear or want of liberty. Long was I in expectation ; when at last came out a shower of books against me, one upon the back of another. The first that appeared upon the stage was J. E., a fit person to break the ice, a rough trotter, with a book of a small bulk and less sense, bearing a thundering title A Sovereign Counterpoison prepared hy a faithful hand for the speedy reviviscence o/* Andrew Sail, a late Sacrilegious Apostate. The rest of the title page was bestowed in magnifying the force of that book to inform the ignorant, to resolve the wavering, and to confirm the cotistant well-principled Roman Catholic. Under so magnificent a title, who would not expect a strong and formal answer to my arguments against the Pope's Infallibi- lity, Supremacy, Transubstantiation, Purgatory, Indulgences, and other tenets of the Romish Church, which I took in hand to confute? But instead of this, he presented to his reader two or three (we may call) common-places, dropped from a student of some College : THE PREFACE. 89 1. Of the happiness of the restoration of the soul of man. 2. Of the true essence of the Divine Faith. 3. Of the happiness of the Christian Religion. And thence, without the least attempt of applying those docu- ments (which he so calls) to any purpose, he falls abruptly to railing, in the rest of his book, at the Church of England, and at those whom he conceived to concur in my conversion to it, in such a rude and raving style, as to all judicious men he seemed to be stark mad, and unworthy of any regard or answer ; and that I understand to be the opinion of sober men of his own party. But towards my person his terms are so heterogeneous, as may resemble a monster composed of a syren and a tiger ; extrava- gantly extolling me above the skies for what I was before, and depressing me under the abyss for what I am at present ; now calling me sacrilegious apostate, and now dear Andrew, sweet Andrew, and what not. With what propriety his book may be called a Court terpoison 1 know not ; if it be not that the commendations which he be- stows upon me in one place, may be an antidote against the venom that he and his fellow railers spit against me in others. " You have been heretofore (says he) known and counted a Philo- sopher, both by words and deeds ; you spoke great things and did likewise practise them ; " and after, (p. 27) " Before, you were vir Apostolicus a most resplendent star in the firmament of the true Church ; a religious Priest, conferring life of grace on others ; called by the hand of God to a most high and sovereign dignity and honour ; before, a chaste and Evangelical Missioner, raised from a Sail to be a Paul, a Preacher of the Word and Penance. Now, turned to be Saul, persecuting and warring in a most furious manner against the heavenly fortress of true faith, become a wretched, lying, and vile Protestant, plunged in all vices contrary to those former virtues ; " not to repeat more of his dirty terms. A grave and honourable Prelate, reading this strange contra- position, replied, they were beholden to him for giving so good an account of what 1 was before ; but needed not his information for what I am now, themselves knowing that better. And this egregious writer, being questioned in a private conversation, with what truth he could say that I was become so debauched since 1 G 90 THE PREFACE. came to the Reformed Church, living all that time very abstemi- ously and retired in Trinity College, Dublin, and in a good repute with those who associated with me ? answered " That he never meant that I should be really guilty of those vices, but in a metaphorical sense ; * that the Church of England being a harlot, I, embracing the communion of it, became guilty of a spiritual uncleanness, and all those vices which he mentions." He cannot deny that I know this to have been his answer. We thought that such equivocations and mental windings existed only among the prime politicians of that party ; but when we find them in one so simple as Mr. J. E.'s book shews him to be, the sickness seems to be very far spread among them. Well con- tented he would be that his proselytes should understand I could be really guilty of the debauchery of which he speaks ; but if he be brought to a test, he is provided with the reserve aforesaid to escape by. This specimen which I have given of the man's genius, will, I presume, quit me, in good judgments, of all obligations to further regard of what he says to me ; but I will not discharge myself of the duty of defending the Church of England against his barba- rous injuries and calumnies, which I will perform (God willing) in the whole discourse of this Treatise, resolving the objections of others, and with some reflections, at the end, upon part of his peculiar extravagancies ; to let the world know how different the Church of England is for piety and learning, from what his malice would make his blind flock believe of it. The next book of those published against me that came to my hand, was one entitled the Bleeding Iphigenia, by way of Pre- face to another greater preparing, which soon after appeared under the title of The Dolejul Fall of Andrew Sail, &c. ; f both He simply employed the figure Prosopopoeia, common with these Rhetori- cians. Vide Baxter's Key ; Note f p. 212. Edit. 1839. ^ The remainder of the title is of Andrew Sall, a Jesuit of the fourth vow^ lamented by his constant friend : Douai, 1674. This Tract, written by Nicholas French, R. C. Bp. of Ferns, is of no particular value, except as connected with Dr. Sall. Still from its rarity the price of ten guineas has been recently affixed to it in a Bookseller's Catalogue ; and several quotations have been made in the Roman Catholic publication called the Catholicon, vol. V. pp. 85 93. London, 1818 ; from which we learn that Dr. Sall was induced, (according to the state- ment of this writer at least,) by the arguments of Dr. Whitaker, Professor of THE PREFACE. 91 written by a grave and ancient Prelate of my acquaintance in Spain ; who, in both of them, dolefully laments a supposed fall of mine from the Catholic faith into Heresy, and enlarges in magnifying the virtues and learning of the prime Fathers and Doctors of the Church, whose company he says I have forsaken ; and exclaims against the errors and vices of many Heretics, whom he mentions, drawing their pedigree down from Cain ; whose society he says I have embraced; and concludes, conjuring me by all that is holy and precious on earth and in heaven, that when the last visit of God comes upon me, I may be found a true pro- fessor of the Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Faith. The good will and pious intention of this Prelate I truly love and honour ; and accordingly will endeavour to satisfy him in sober, serious, and sincere terms. If it were so indeed, as he supposes, that I should have fallen from the Holy Catholic Apostolic Faith, I should be the most unhappy, and worthy to be lamented of all men ; but I am cer- tainly persuaded that T have rather fastened myself to it by the change which I have made : and I hope shall make it appear so, to all unbiassed men, in the progress of this book. And to his request that I may be found a true professor of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Faith ; I promise him faithfully, it shall be my constant and inflexible resolution to hold that faith to the end of my life, wdieresoever it be uncorruptly professed, whether in Rome or Jerusalem, or elsewhere : I know it is not tied to places. And Tlieology at Cambridge, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to leave the Church of Rome : vide ,Whitaker's Disputat. de Scrip, contra Bellarminum, controv. 1 qucBst. 5, cap. 8, which appears to be the portion alluded to : or, Queestio 3. See also Episcopii Resp. ad Epist. P. Wadingi de Regulajidei, cap. 5. Peter Walsh, to whom the titular of Ferns had sent this book, remarks upon it thus : " I must confess, that when I read it, T was very unwilling to let him know what I thought of a book, which represented the Church of England, as partaking with all the sects, that ever had been from the Cainists to the Qua- kers j nay, as leading undoubtedly all her children, all her members, both Priests and people, without exception of any, to the eternal woes of Hell; even damning them all for a long eternity to the life of devils in the other world. For so does that book, written by occasion of this good Bishop's old acquaint- ance, the said Andrew Sail, having deserted the Jesuits' Order, and Roman Catholic Church, to make himself a member of the Protestant Church of Eng- land, as he did." Four Letters, on several subjects, to pcnons of quality, by Peter Walsh, of St. Francis's Order ; 12mo. 1686, Pre/ace. g2 92 THE PREFACE. in truth of the sincerity of my heart, I say to God in the words of holy David, which I have put for a motto in the frontispiece of this work One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple. Psalm xxvii. 4. This desire appeared early in me, having hetaken myself in my younger years to that course of life, which I conceived to he most expedient to come to God, and dwell in his house, hy the strict practice of piety and learning, secluded from the world in a society of great reputation for both. And in that course I persevered, whilst that apprehension lasted ; but having dis- covered errors therein opposite to the Piimitive Catholic and Apostolic Faith leading to the house of God, and finding by seri- ous and due considerations, the same true Faith to be professed uncorruptly in the Reformed Church of England, I did con- stantly resolve to embrace it, in prosecution of my aforesaid pro- fessed design of dwelling in the house of God I mean, in the true Catholic Apostolic Church. And as no human force or in- dustry could win me to this change, without a strong interior motion and full persuasion of being in the right ; so all arts and endeavours, by terrors or allurements, are vain to recal me : this interior persuasion persisting, and which I find rather confirmed than weakened, by all industry hitherto used to draw me from it ; as I hope will appear to the dispassionate reader, by the sincerity of my discourses in this treatise. The fourth and last book of those published against me, which came to my hands, was one of J. S. bearing title The Unerring Unerrable Church. Whosoever this said J . S. be, if we measure him by his conceit of himself, his contempt of his adversaries, his boast of his arguments for unanswerable, and the vaunts of his friends in his behalf for matchless, certainly he is the Goliah of their camp of gigantic stature among them. I was not a little joyed to find a person, of such great repute and trust, engaged in answering my arguments. If 1 find it easy to render void bis answers, and to confute his arguments, then may I expect to be at full quiet in my persuasion, and immoveable against all their oppositions ; whereof the prudent reader will judge after he has viewed our encounter. THE PREFACE. 93 And whereas the main strength of this combatant lies in his calumnies and impostures, wherewith he besets thick the front or preface of his book, I will in this place remove that engine. In order to lessen the weight of my arguments with a great number of readers, who rely much upon the credit of the writer, he will, he says, strip me of those titles which my public employments for many years have given me ; and with a kind of power never heard of before, will make out that I should not have been what I really was, to the knowledge of many thousands of men now living. Finding me stiled Professor of Controversies, in the Irish College of Salammica, he says resolutely that no Controversies were taught in that College for these forty years; in which venture he has been so unlucky, that several persons of honour in Ireland, who have been in Spain, and know the language of it, saw an instrument in Spanish, yet extant in my keeping, of the Inquisitor General of Spain, giving me licence for having and keeping prohibited books upon the very account of being Professor of Controversies in the aforesaid College, after the tenor follow- ing : En la villa de Madrid a ]5, de Junto, 1652, 8^c. En la villa de Madrid a quinze dias delmes de Junis de mily sciscientios y cinquenta, y dos annos. El Illustrissimo y Reverendissimo Sennor Obispo de Palentia Inquisidor General en los Reynos y Sennorios de su Majestad y de su consejo ^c. dio Licentia al P. Andres Salo de la compania de Jesus, Rector del Collegio de Irlandezes de Salamanca, y Lector en el de la catedra de Controversias contra Herejes, paraque por tiempo de un anno, que comience a correr y contarse desde oi, dia de la fecha, pueda tener, y leer libros prohibidos para el efecto de escrivir y imprimir, y dar ala estampa qual quier libro o tratado, y le encargo, que si hallare en algun libro antiguo, o moderno, alguna proposition censurable, no comprehendida en el expurgatorio, compliendo con suobligacion, lo advierta y de cuenta dello a su Sennoria Illustris- sima al consejo por lo que importa al servicio de dios nuestro Sennor, De lo qual testifico yo el infra escrito secreiario de camara de su Sennoria Illustrissima. EL LDO. PEDRO LOPEZ DE BRIJV^N'AS. And at the bottom of the leaf, on the left hand corner, are written these words, assetiiada a fol. 138 ; which is to say, set G 3 94 THE PREFACE. down page 188, I suppose of the book where Licences given were enrolled, to prevent the using of supposititious ones. Thither I refer Mr. S. if he doubts of the legality of this Instrument. The aforecited Instrument rendered into English, runs thus : In the town of Madrid, the 15th. day of the month of June, 1652, the most Illustrious and Reverend Lord Bishop of Palencia) Inquisitor-General in the kingdoms and dominions of his Majesty, and of his Council &c. gave Licence to Father Andrew Sail of the Society of Jesus, Rector of the Irish College of Salamanca, and reader in it of the Chair of Controversies against Heretics, that for the time of one year, which shall begin to run and be counted from this day of the date hereof, he may keep and read prohibited books, for the purpose of writing, printing, or publish- ing any books or treatises, and hath charged him, that if he find in any book, ancient or modern, any censurable proposition, not comprehended in the Expurgatory, complying with his duty, he shall advertize and give notice of it to his Grace, or to the Council, for the importance of it to the service of our Lord God, of which I certify the undernamed Secretary of the Cabinet to his Grace, LKJENTIAT PETER LOPEZ DE BRINNAS. For each one of the three years I was in that office, a similar instrument was sent me, and each of the said years my name was enrolled in the Matricle or public books of that University, for Rector of the said College of it, and Reader of Controversies. Mr. J. S. may go thither, and see himself to his shame found to be a liar. The same shame he shall meet with for saying that I never was a Reader of Moral Theology in the Royal College of the Society in that University. The Superiors and Lectors of the said College in the year aforesaid, and my auditors, which were a chief part of the students of divinity of the Jesuits in that province of Castile, will be, on a trial, witnesses of tlie profligate boldness and imposture of J. S. Let several Jesuits now living in Ireland, who at that time were students of divinity in the aforesaid College of Salamanca, and saw me sit with the other Divinity Professors, examining yearly their sufficiency for pro- motion, and were examined by me let them, I say, be put to THE PREFACE. . 95 their oath, and if they will not forfeit their ears by the law of this land for perjury, they must testify against J. S. and his impostures. Finding me stiled Professor of Divinity in Pamplona, Palentia, and Tudela, he says that there is not, nor was at any time, Divinity taught in the Colleges oi Palentia and Tudela; and he may as well say, in some places of Spain, that there is no such thing as a Lecture in Divinity in Oxford or Cambridge. With some whom he may meet in that part of the world, who could not contradict him it would serve ; and haply it is so with him now where he is. To some of his familiars he may commend his saying ; but to expose it to public view in print, shews clearly that passion has so blinded him as that he cannot see his shame : for certainly it would appear no less insolent in Palentia or Tudela to say that there is not, nor was any time, a Lecture of Divinity in those Colleges, than if you should say in Oxford or Cambridge so much of those Universities. A numerous congre- gation of Priests and Students of Divinity to be priested, of those two great and famous cities and of the country about, who were my auditors, will cry out against such a blind and bold writer, who has no regard to truth in what he says. He allows me the honour of having been Reader of Divinity in the College of Pamplona ; which is no small wonder, that being one of the most famous and flourishing Colleges which the Jesuits had in Spain; and consequently to his purpose declared in order to rob me of that credit, as he may do with the same ground that he did with the rest, that is to say, with only his bold assertion or fiction, without any proof alleged. But he does it lo bring upon me a greater discredit, telling his reader that if they have been contented with me, I might have continued longer in that employment ; and this we must take upon his credit, though a convicted bankrupt in truth. But how shall I refute him at this distance from those men ? and in the present difficulty of getting their testimony in my favour ? I admire and praise God's Providence in putting into my hands abundant evidences to repulse the spiteful attempt of this virulent adversary. I will, to his confusion, produce here two testimonies which may suffice for many ; the one of a Prelate, the other of a Prince. The former is of a grave and aged Bishop, then supplicating to the Provincial of Castile for my continuance at Pamplona, by a letter of the tenor following : 96 THE PREFACE. Admodum Reverendo in Christo Patri Martino de Lesaun, Castellans Provincice Societatis Jesu preeposito Provinciali, Admodum Rde. in Christo Pater. Capiens per ultimum tabellarium rumorem de P. Salo brevi inde abituro jussione tua, in mentem venit quod dixit Job, Venit mihi timor quern tim ebam : vix enim quidpiam prceter peccatum in Deum meum et cladem Religionis et patria plus iimendum censui aut dolendum, quam imperium de ejus migratione. Cur, pater colendissime, scholam Pampelonensem Magistro tarn claro, populum Ecclesiastum, Principes et Magnates regni Consiliario in for o Conscientim, et me prcesulem afflictum et mosrentissimum, ac gementem in exilio, spolias unico meo solatioP Quid aliis nostro incommodo bonus esse vis? Sed haud dubio ibi subditum tuum vivere malis, ubi Deo melius famulans proximo poterit magis prodesseP Si ita est, relinque ilium Pampelona, ubi hactenus prater obsequia societatis occasione mutuce inter nos consuetudinis (dum ibi vixerimj multum profuit patriae su ^24, Hen. a. j (^Hen. Asaphensi. j Against all these evidences Henry Fitz Symons takes up the cudgels in defence of BecarCs assertion, that Cranmer w^as not consecrated by any Bishop, but a mere Layman, intruded upon that See of Canterbury by Henry Vlllth's sole will. This he promises to demonstrate, a gravissimorum totius gentis authorum monumentis et consularibus actis hy the testimonies of the most grave authors of the nation, and public Acts of Parlia- menU Seeing these big words and knowing upon what subject, I could not but sigh and grieve, remembering how these Rhetori- cians delude poor credulous people with such swelling phrases, sounding high in the ears of boys and women, and of womanish weak men ; whereas being touched close they are found to be no better than a bubble, floating pompously, and containing nought but wind. Where he promises the testimonies of the gravest authors of the nation, in favour of his pretension, he only brings one testi- mony ; and of whom ? of some impartial writer ? No, but of Sanders,^ the most passionate and bitter enemy of the Reformed Sander, de schism, lib. 3, pag. 296 [fol. 165, edit. Col. Agrip. 1^8.5.] Sanderi de origine ac progressu Schismatis Anylicani, &c. printed at Cologne, 1585j at Rome, 1586; at Ingoldstadt, 1588 ; at Cologne, 1590 and 1610, and in 8vo. This is the book so justly censured by learned Authors, for its infinite IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 141 Clergy that could be named. But even his testimony how much to Fitz Simons's purpose ! He relates these words of him : Henricus VIII., radix peccati, cum ah Ecclesia et sede Apostolica Regnum suum divisisset, decrevit ne quisquam electus in Epis- copum hullas Pontificas, vel mandatum Apostolicum de conse- crations requireret, sed regium tantum diploma afferret Henry the eighth ^ the source of evil ^ having separated his kingdom from the Church, and from the See Apostolic, hath decreed, that no Bishop elect should look for Bulls from the Pope for his consecration, but only should bring the King's patetit. And here Fitz Simons stops fraudulently, pretending his unskilful reader should understand by those words, that the King was accustomed to give the title of Bishops without any consecration. But the words following of Sanders overthrow his purpose, which run thus : Sed Regium tantum diploma ut afferret, secundum quod a tribus Episcopis cum consensu MetropolitcB ordinatus, jubebatur lege comitiorum facta ad imitationem antiquorum canonum, esse verus Episcopus, nee alio modo ordinatum pro Episcopo agnosci oportere Tliat he should bring the King''s mandate, according to which the person ordained by three Bishops with the consent of the Metropolitan, was by Act of Parliament made in imitation of ancient Canons, declared to be a true Bishop; and that any person otherwise ordained should not be taken for a Bishop. And is this to say that Henry VIII. was in the habit of giving the title of Bishops to, and intruding upon Churches, persons without any consecration ? Truly this defence of Becan by Fitz Simons, is like the cause defended, both guilty of fraud and disingenuousness ; so as we may call it males caused pejus patrocinium of a bad number of Falsehoods ; which, being left in many places imperfect, was sup- plied augmented, and corrected by Ed. Rishton : * * * Afterwards, the same being translated into French, and printed in 1673, gave occasion to Dr. Burnet to . write his History of the Reformation ; in the Appendix to the first Volume of which, you may read more both about Sanders and Rishton. (A. Wood.) Translator's Preface, p. xl. to Vindication of the Church of England by Fr. Mason, Lond. 1728. Saunder's book is worthy of notice, as having been the common source of all the Continental misrepresentations respecting the History of the Reformation, Ribadeneira having transferred the substance of it into Spanish, Davanzati into Italian, and others into other languages. 142 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED cause a worse defence. Kellison is more ingenuous, saying thus :* Cranmerum vere ordinatum non nego, quia ah Episcopis Catholicis munus con seer ationis accepit, ita et vixisse enm et mortuum esse verum Episcopum fateor / do not deny that Cranmer was truly ordained, having received his ordination from Catholic Bishops : so that I confess he lived and died a true Bishop. Let now the author of Britonomachy, (I mean Fitz Symons) come and reconcile this piece of Romanomachy. In the mean time, be it concluded, that their testimonies against Cranmer are like those of the false witnesses against Christ, which did not agree together, (Mark xiv. 56.) And let that blessed Martyr, canonized by Christ for such, where he declared, Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousiiess, as Cranmer did for doing justice to his King and Country, in maintaining their right against the tyrannical usurpations of the Court of Rome \ let him, I say, enjoy in glory the indelible character of a Bishop, which all the malice of his adversaries will never be able to take from him. And let their calumny against the Church of England be confounded, wherewith they pretend that the ordination of our Clergy has been vitiated in that of Cranmer. By this it appears, that all Bishops, made in King Henry the Vlllth's reign, were true and lawful Bishops, as being conse- crated by three Bishops, and according to the accustomed rites of the Catholic Church, it being enacted then,t that the con- secrations should he solemnized with all due circumstance, and moreover that the Consecrators should give to the Conse- crated all henedictions, ceremonies, and things requisite for the same. And if anything essential were abolished or omitted, certainly Sanders, when speaking purposely on this point would not have concealed it. But he rather says plainly,^ it was King Henry's will that the Ceremony and solemn unction should as yet he used in Episcopal Consecration, after the manner of the Church. But the Statute of Queen Mary\ puts the matter out of all doubt, enacting that all such divine service and adminis- tration of Sacraments, as were most commonly used in this * Kellison, in replic. contra Doct. Sut. p. 30. f Henr. VIII. c. 20. + Sanders de schism. lib. 1, p. 297, I Mariae, Sess. 2,c. 2. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 143 realm of EnglanJiil*?^ the last year of King Henry VIII. should be used and frequented through the whole Realm of Eogland and all other the Queen^s dominions, and no other in any other manner, form, or degree. The framers of this Statute were of opinion that Holy Order was a Sacrament, and therefore was administered in Queen Mary's time, as in King Henry^s, They will not pretend that any form essential was omitted in Queen Mary's time, and consequently must say the same of Orders given in King Henry^s reign. What Bishops, when, and by whom they were consecrated during King Henry VIITth's time, Mr. Mason relates out of the Public Records; as Thomas Cranmer, in the Year 1533, as above mentioned ; next after, r Rowland Lee consec. ^ T Thos. Canterb \ Bp. of Lichfield, 14 of ^ April,* 1534, by C George Brown cons. < Archbish. of Dublin, (19 Mar. 1535, by And so of the rest, until the year 1545, every one being conse- crated by three Bishops, and with the usual Ceremonies, and the great penalty of premunire being denounced by Act of Parlia- ment f against any Bishop consecrating or consecrated other- wise. * The 19th of April appears the more coiTect date : see Mason translated by Lindsay, p. 160 ; (bk. 2, oh. 12, 3) and Godwin de PrcesuUbus Anglice, p. 324, Cantab. 1743. f 25 Henr. VIII. c. 20. ^ f Thos. Canterb. ^ > J John Lincoln. y ) (Christ. Sidon. ) SC Thorn. Canterb. 1 s. John RofFens. > (Nichol. Sarum. J 144 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER VI. The Ordination of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, in King Edward the Sixths time and after, proved to be legal and valid. The greatest opposition is directed against the Ordination of our Clergy since the Reformation. Of the Ordinal,* or ceremonies of Ordination in the time of King Edward the Sixth, Kellison thus speaks In King Edward's time neither matter nor form of Ordination was used, and so none were truly ordained. Against this rash and slanderous censure of Kellison, I will pro- duce the testimony of Vasquez and Bellarmine, men of greater credit and knowledge touching the matter and form of ordination. Vasquez declares the matter of Episcopal ordination to he only the imposition of hands, and the form, those words Receive the Holy Ghost, which are said by three Bishops together; and refers to Major and Armilla for the same opinion, proving it first out of Scripture, from 1 Tim. iv. 14, Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee hy Prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. Out of which placet Vasquez thus argues solidly, unde sequitur manifeste cam manuum im- positionem esse materiam, acproinde verba, qucs simiil cum ed proferuntur, esse formam. Nam gratia Sacramentalis in ipsa applicatione materim et former, et per ipsam confertur Whence followeth ynanifestly, that such imposition of hands is the matter, and consequently the words pronounced with it the form ; for sacramental grace is conferred in the very applica- tion of the matter and form and by it. Then he proceeds to prove by testimonies of the Fathers, that three Bishops ought to concur in the ordination of a Bishop, and that what is not per- formed by all three, belongs not to the essential matter or form. But in all the Roman Pontifical, says he, no other ceremony is * Vasquez, torn. 3, in 3 p. disp. 240 c. 5, t Kellis. reply to Dr. Sutlif, fol. 31, IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 145 appointed to be performed by three Bishops, but only the imposi- tion of hands ; therefore that alone must be the matter, and con- sequently only the words pronounced with it the form of Episco- pal Ordination. That three Bishops are necessary for ordaining a Bishop, (which was a foundation laid by him for the former argument,) he proves, first, by the testimony of Pope Anacletus, affirming that the first Archbishop of Jerusalem, James called the just, brother of the Lord according to the flesh, was ordained by Peter, James, and John Apostles; giving therein a rule to suc- cessors, that a Bishop should not be ordained by less than three Bishops. Anacletus adds, that lie learned thus much from St. Peter, by whom he was himself Priested. Secondly, Pope Ani- cetus delivers the same, adding that it was so practised institu- ente Domino hy the institution of Christ,* Thirdly, he alleges the first Council of Nice, with several other Councils and Fathers to the same purpose. If you oppose, that the aforesaid words. Receive the Holy Ghost, are too general for a form to ordain a Bishop ; he answers^ that being pronounced by three Bishops laying their hands upon the person ordained, they specify the degree of a Bishop, since thereby they signify, that they receive him to their own proper order and degree : the conjunction of three Bishops, in laying their hands upon the person ordained, being only proper to the ordaining of a Bishop, as he proves Disp. 243, c. 6. Thus much Vasquez respecting the matter and /o7'm of Episcopal Ordina- tion.f Bellarmine contributes not a little to the truth of this verity (though with less coherence to another doctrine which he supposes, as I will shew hereafter:) For, speaking of Sacraments in general,! he says, that all Sacraments of the New Law are composed of visible things, as matter, and of words, as form. * Anaclet. in Epist. 2 decretali, c. 2, Anicetiis, Damas. et alii apud Vasquez^ 243, c. 6, an, 63. [Sail appears to have taken these authorities of Vasquez without objecting (as he might have done at starting) to their authenticity. An acknowledgment to this efiFect by Contius, as regards the Epistle of Anacletus, is omitted, in the Paris Edition (1687) of the Canon Law, where it is quoted Distinct. 99, . I : vide Blondel's Censura Epist. Decretalium (Genevse, 1625) pp. 121 , 130, 202.] f Vasquez, Disp. 246, n. 60. J Bellarm. de Sacrum, in Gen. lib. 1, c. 18. K 146 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED And, coming to speak of Holy Orders, he says,* that there is no mentiofi in Scripture of any visible sign that may he the matter of it, hut only the imposition of hands. Whence it follows, that Holy Order being of Divine institution, and declared in Scripture, as he proves well, the essential constitutes of it must be likewise in Scripture. And therefore no other visible sign or matter proportionable for it, being in Scripture, it follows that the imposition of hands only must be the matter of it. How well this agrees with what Bellarmine in the same place supposes, but proves not, that in the ordination of a Priest, not only the imposition of hands, but also the delivering of the Chalice and Patin belong to the essential matter, let him consider. He quotes Dominic Soto, and others, saying, that the delivering the Chalice with wine, and the Patin with bread, is the only matter ; and that the words pronounced by the Bishop delivering them is the form of Ordination of the Priest: the words are these Accipe potestatem offerendi Sacrificium take power of offering a sacrifice. Bellarmine proves efficaciously, that the imposition of hands is a matter essential to Ordination ; but supposes, without exhibiting any proof of it, that the delivering of the Chalice and Patin is also a part essential to the matter, affirming against Soto, that not only the delivering of the instruments, but also the imposition of hands is a matter essential in the Ordination. This I say seems not to agree with what he said before, that in Scripture no mention was made of any Symbol, that could be taken for a matter of Ordination, but only the imposition of hands. And truly the proof which he alleges out of Soto or others, that the words of their Pontifical accipe potestatem offerendi sacrificium pro vivis et defunctis, are contained in those others of our Saviour at the last Supper hocfacite in meam commemorationem Do this in rememhrance of me, is notoriously weak: gratis dicitiir, gratis negatur ; as it is said without ground, so it may he denied without regard. Now as to the form of Ordination, Bellarmine tells us,t that all agree in taking ^oi form the words that are pronounced by the Minister when he exhibits the sensible signs or matter ; he adds, that though the Scripture does not mention particular words to * Bellarm. de Sacrum. Ordims, c, 9. f De Sacrament. Ordinis, lib. 1, c. 9, IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 147 be pronounced in each Order, yet the ancient Fathers of the Church, Ambrose, Jerora, and Augustine, expressly teach, that a form of words suitable to each Order is required, and was practised so in the ancient Roman Ordinals, and that this is the practise to this day in the Ordinal of the Church of England, which in King Edward the Vlth's. time was disposed according to the more qualified ancient Ordinals used in the Catholic Church. In the Ordination of Deacons, the Bishop lays his hands severally upon the head of every one of them kneeling before him, saying Take thou authoidty to execute the office of a Deacon in the Church of God committed unto thee, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, &c. After delivering to every one the New Testament, he says. Take thou authority to read the Gospel in the Church of God, and to preach the same, if thou be thereto licensed by the Bishop himself In ordaining Priests, the Bishop, and the Priests present, lay their hands severally upon the head of every one who receives the Order of Priesthood, the receivers kneeling, and the Bishop saying. Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands: whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained ; and be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God and of his holy Sacraments, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. In the consecration of Bishops, the Archbishop and Bishops present lay their hands upon the head of the elected Bishop, kneeling before them and the Archbishop, saying, Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Bishop in the Church of God now committed unto thee, by the imposition of our hands, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. And remember that thou stir up the grace of God which is given thee by this imposition of our hands ; for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and soberness. The Church of England being thus exact in observing the form and matter essential to holy Orders, it appears how rash and false was Kellison in saying, that in King Edward's time K 2 148 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED neither matter nor form of Ordination was used. How vain and windy is Fitz Symons's flourish !* cum in Sacramento mutatur materia, forma, intentis, faciendi quodfacit Ecclesia, qu f This portion also is confirmed, in a great measure, by Tempesta in his Sioria delta vita e gesta di Sisto Quinto ; (Roma 1754) tom 2, p. 288, 9, though there the AmbaSvSador Olivaresis mentioned as the chief mover in these transac- tions. In Leti's Life of Sixtus the Ambassador is styled Duke of Sessa. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 167 the Cardinals, (such as were created by his predecessors) and the other Prelates and Clergy to whom it belonged, to appear in the said Council to be holden in Spain, at the City of Seville in Andalusia. And though this business could not proceed to full effect, for that Sixtus upon this intimation made to him, knowing he should be condemned by his own hand, of mere fear and desperation fell sick and died, (having only that way left to prevent deprivation ;) yet by this beginning his simoniacal covenant and election there- upon ensuing, was called into question ; or, as the Lawyers say, dravi^n into judgment and made notorious. Neither did the King of Spain more than right ; for by Divine law all Catholics may rise against an Heretical Pope ; and that law of God is recited in the body of the Canon Law. And in the case of Simoniacal election, that secular Princes have power to call a Council is the plain text of Isidore, that ancient Father, which is related in the Canon Law,* To proceed therefore : Sixtus, by virtue of the said constitu- tion of Julius, which is inscribed in the body of the Canon Law, being a Magician, an Ethnic, and an Arch-heretic, could not, therefore, nor had he the power in him, to create Cardinals ; for- asmuch as he was ipso facto despoiled and deprived of all juris- diction, power, and faculty, spiritual and temporal ; and all use and exercise of such jurisdiction spiritual and temporal is by the law so far forbidden him, that all acts by him done in that kind are absolute nullities, as done by one who has no power at all to do them. Now from this ground thus laid, it follows by infallible infer- ence, that all the Popes since Sixtus V. were intruders, and not one of them a true Pope. For after his death Cardinal Montalto his Nephew entering the conclave with forty voices in his faction, by the strength thereof was elected Urban the VITth. ; who, living but a few days, by the same means Gregory the XlVth. was chosen into his place, who continued but ten months ; after whom, by the same voices, entered Innocent the IXth., who held the Papacy but two months : at last was chosen Clement the Decreti pars. 2, causa 23 quaest. 5, . 32, si audieris. Isidorus de summo bono lib. 3, cap. 53, relatus in Causa 23, quaest. 3, . 20, principes sseculi. 168 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Vlllth., by the same voices ; who, by the permission of God, continued this intrusion and usurpation for thirteen years. Now that none of these were, nor could be, true Popes, is thus demonstrated : Unto the election of all these concurred the voices of those Cardinals created by Sixtus V., whereupon it follows, inevitably, that all those elections are plain nullities ; since by the constitu- tion of Pius IV., regarding the reformation of the conclave in the election of Popes, the power of choosing the Pope is granted only to the College of Cardinals ; which is to be understood of true and lawful Cardinals : but the Cardinals who made all those elections were no true Cardinals, being made by Sixtiis V., who was no true Pope, and therefore had neither place nor power to make them ; therefore the aforesaid elections of Popes from Sixtus being made by no true Cardinals, were no elections, but absolute nullities in the law to all intents and purposes. Now that such titular Cardinals, as were created by him who is no true Pope, are no true Cardinals, and consequently can give no voice, nor make any lawful or good election, is evident by continual proceedings of former times in the Roman Church. Such was the case of Beiiedict XIII., who sitting at Avignon created divers Cardinals ; but forasmuch as he w^as deemed no true Pope, but an Anti-pope and a usurper, therefore all by him created were no Cardinals ; and were held and reputed as none such to their dying day. And when after the death of Alexander v., he who was called John XXIII., in the time of that long and miserable Schism, intruded himself unlawfully into the Papacy at Bologna, where he then was Legate, and so being Pope and creating divers Cardinals, they were all reputed and judged to be no true Cardinals in the Council of Constance ; and a new and true Pope was then chosen, named Martin the fifth, not by the said Cardinals (because they had no power) but by the whole Council. From all which, and more of this kind that might be produced, it follows evidentl}^ that the Cardinals so called, created by Sixtus V. being no true Pope, are no true Cardinals, and consequently cannot make elections of a Pojje ; and therefore all by them chosen were no Popes but mere intruders and usurpers. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 169 CHAPTER X. A further cause of Nullity discovered in the election of Pope Clement the Vlllth. Besides the former cause of no true Cardinals concuning to the election of Clement the Vlllth., it is found to be void in another respect; for two parts of the Cardinals concurred with one consent on another, namely Cardinal Sa7i Severine (as the afore- said nameless Roman Catholic author relates.) For they called him by name ; they took him and led him into the Chapel of St. Paul, where they performed their ceremony of adoration to the new elected Pope ; that in this place they made him sit in the Pope's chair of State, and by public scrutiny proclaimed him Pope : and that this makes a full and legal election of a Pope, the text of the law expressly teaches in these words, He who shall be elected and received by two parts of the Cardinals with uniform consent, let him be held and received of the whole and universal Church as true Pope without all question or contra- diction.^ Now from what is above related by our author, it appears that the Cardinal San Severine was chosen by two parts of the Cardinals with full consent, and was by them conducted, and placed in the Pope's seat ;t he was therefore lawfully chosen Pope, and so ought to have been accepted ; but see, reader, (and admire the arts of that Court) how this poor man was put off. When this was done, and while the rest of the Cardinals who were without were expected (for such is the custom, that when * Decretall. Gregor. IX. lib.^ 1, tit. 6, . 6, Licet de vitanda discordia in electione. f The substance of this information we again find corroborated in Ciaconius : " Cardinales 57 Comitiis inter fuerunt; triginta quinque Cardinalem S. Severi- nae, probitate et doctrina illustrem ad sacellum Pauli, die Jan. II, aperto, ut aiunt, Scrutinio, in Apostolica Rom. sede collocaturi, (ut MSS. gravium virorum comitiis praesentium monumenta, quse legi, testantur) deduxerunt: at Deus cujus judicia incognita nobis, et incomprehensa, Hippolytum Card. Aldobran- dinum supremo regenda? ecclesise muneri destinaverat." Ciaconii Vitw Pontiff. et Cardd. lom iv. col. 251, edit, 1677. 170 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED two parts have made election, the third part which consented not, but could not hinder, is expected to come to the place where the new elect is adored by the two parts which chose him, and whence the election is to be published ; that so all being together, the election may be said to be made by all, without contradiction of any man) while the rest (I say) were expected to come in, there came into the Chapel Cardinal Gesualdus and Sfortia (the former whereof was Dean* of the College of Cardinals) and by a crafty and wicked device disturbed the election, in truth and in law already made. Gesualdus cries out, My Lords, let us number the voices, to see if two full parts have consented ; whereupon he began to count, not hasting to make an end, but leisurely proceeding with intermissions and delays, which he did purposely for a crafty object, that the Cardinal St. Sfortia might have time also to act his part, which he failed not to do ; for in that mean time he got two of the Cardinals out of the Chapel who had given their voices, and carried them into another place called Salla Regia ; and leaving them there he returned to the rest, and largely lays open to them the rigour and severity of San Severino (for they feared his justice, he being a just and upright man;) and hereupon the greater part of them most perfidiously took them- selves out of the Chapel, and assembling together with the rest made a new election of Cardinal Aldobrandme, who was called Clement VIII. ; and this is the truth of that business. Now, that the former election of San Severine was good and effectual in law, is a clear case ; for the voices that chose him were for number complete and sufficient, when they pronounced him Pope, and set him in the Chair. And as for the ceremonious solemnity used in the elections, that all the Cardinals sitting in their order together with him who is to be chosen, every one in order shall say, I such a one choose such a one to he Pope ; and that the Secretary of the conclave shall take the Scrutiny, and write down every one's voice ; it is not an essential part of the election, or necessarily, or essentially required to make an election ; for the express words of the text do declare, define, and peremp- torily pronounce him to be Pope instantly, as soon as he is * " In Pontificatu Gregorii XIV. Episcopus Card. Hostiensis et Veliternus, ac sacri coll. Decanus renunciatur." Ciaconii Vitce Cardd. torn iii. col. 936. IN THE CHUECH OF ENGLAND. 171 chosen, and received by two parts of the Cardinals ; and he is then by the law said to be accepted and received by the Cardinals, when they take him and convey him to the Chapel aforesaid, and make him sit down in the Pope's seat : and he is said to be chosen or elected, when the said two parts declare their consent and agreement upon him to be Pope. Now all these concurred in and upon the Cardinal San Severine ; and when the election is thus made by public and open denunciation, there needs no scrutineers to take the voices, as is clear by the law. And this is one way of choosing the Pope, and is called the way of assumption, of which mention is made in the aforesaid Bull of Julius II. ; and by this way, which is as sufficient and effectual in law as the other, was Cardinal San Severine chosen ; and there wanted nothing required by the law to the essence of a true election, but only some formalities, which by the law are not necessary. Nor is it material to say, he wanted enthroniza- tion or ordination, or kissing of his foot ; for all these are but effects and consequences of a true election, and are appointed to be done to him who is elected, but do not help forward his election ; and the election is considered to be properly done and perfected before they are performed ; as any man may see in the aforesaid Bull of Julius II. Neither is the calling together of all the Cardinals necessarily required ; for it is expressly commanded in no law ; and as for the text of the Canon Law, called licet de vitanda, it shews the validity of the election, as is soundly proved by Cardinal Jacoha- tius, who shews,* that at least a Council is to be called, to declare whether the election be good or not, and that they may not proceed to the election of another. The election therefore of Clement thus made, is to be held a nullity, as being effected by deceit and fraud, according to the express text of the law laid down in these words But if any shall he elected^ ordained, or enthronized Pope through sedition, presumption, or any ingeny or trick of wit, contrary to this our sentence and Sy nodical decree pronounced in open Council ; hy the authority of God and his Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, we pronounce him subject to the great curse, and separated hy perpetual Anathema * Jacobat. tr. de Concil. part. 3, ar. 4, n. 154, 1 72 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED frcmi all Siociety with God^s Church, together- with all his authors, fautors, and abettors, an Anti-Christ, an intruder and destroyer of Christian Religion, &c.* And, after Cardinal Hostiensis,t the great doctor called the AbbotjJ in his commentaries on the text, expounds the word ingeny to be craft, collusion, and deceit, and such like, as in the election of John XXII., who was afterwards condemned in the Council of Basil. For when, after the death of Alexander V., the Cardinals assembled at Bologna, and consulted about the choice of a new Cardinal ; Cossa, who then was Legate there, a man potent and warlike, obtained of the electors by his greatness, that they would commit the whole power of the election to him ; which they had no sooner granted him, than he forthwith elected himself. But, forasmuch as upon examination of the matter in public Council, it was found to be compassed by fraud and deceitful tricks, he was therefore deprived by the Council. Whence it follows, tliat Clement could not be considered a true Pope ; both because he was chosen by such as had no power to elect, as also because that choice by them made was wrouglit by fraud and deceit, and to the injury of another lawfully chosen before: and was therefore void, though it had been carried by such as had been lawfully enabled to make such an election. * Decreti pars 1, distinct. 23, . 1, /n Nomine Domini. f Abb. in d. licet de vitanda n. 1 1, ver. exposuit Hostiensis. Henry Archbishop of Ambrun, commonly called Hostiensis " vir in utroque jure peritissimus." He flourished about 1256. Trithem. de scripp. eccles. No. 460: Ciaconii Vitce Pont, et Card, tom 2, col. 157. See Allport's Davenant on the Colossians, art. Hostiensis. I Nicolaus Tudeschi, Jbbot of Palermo, seems to be alluded to. He wrote largely upon the topics, to which reference is here made " Sane viristeinsignis inter Canonistas, cum pleraque difficilibus quasi salebris essent in hac facultate impedita, complanavit, &c. veritatem liquidiorem ob oculos studiosorum posuit." Possevin. Apparat. sac. tom 2, p. 160, edit. Col. Agrip. 1608. " Jureconsultus omnium celeberrimus " is the judgment of Trithemius de Scripp. Eccles. no. 781 Fabricius {Bihlioth. media ctinfimce Latin, tom 5) decides the point as to who is the person referred to. IN THE CHUBCH OF ENGLAND. 173 CHAPTER XI. Nullities declared in the Popedom of Paul V. and others following. The before mentioned Roman Catholic author discovers another egregious fraud and cheat, used in the election of Paul V. who succeeded Clement VIII., wherewith they turned out the Cardinal of Florence who had been lawfully elected, in order to bring in factiously this Paul, before called Cardinal Borghese. The par- ticulars of that intrigue are to be seen in the first chapter of the said Treatise, N. 15; besides which damnable fraud, and the nullity of the Cardinal's electing, both rendering the election void, our author discovers another foul cause of nullity in the Popedom of Paul V. in regard of his notorious Simony. For which it is to be presupposed, that the Pope, as Pope, is not free from the crime of Simony, nor exempted from incurring censures in that case ; as Aquinas proves at large,* concluding and resolving, that the Pope, as well as any other man, may incur the vice, and come within the compass of the crime of Simony, if he takes money for any spiri- tual thing. Of the same opinion are all the divines who write upon that place of Aquinas. In consequence of which doctrine, the Council of Basil even for this crime and the sin of Simony, called in question, examined, convicted, and condemned Eugenius IV. then Pope, and deprived him of the Papacy. The words of the Council's Decreet are these: ^'^ By this definitive sentence of the great and universal holy Council, which is here recorded in writing, for all the world to know, and all posterity to take notice of; the Council pronounceth, decreeth, and declareth, Gabriel, formerly called P. Eugejiius IV. to have been, and so * Aquin. 2. 2. q. 100. art. 1. ad. 7. It is worth mentioning in connection with this name, that so great is his authority, that the Fathers of the Council of Trent, on dubious or controverted questions, framed their decrees so as to coincide with his opinions. See P. Zornii opuscula sacra, tom. 1. p. 459, and the oration of John Gallio in Le Plat's Collectio Monument. Cone. Trid. illusi. vol. I, p. 625. f Session 31, apud. Concitl. Studio Labbei, tom. XII. col. 620. 174 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED to be a notorious and manifest and contumacious rebel to the warnings and commandments of the Universal Church ; and that he still persists in the said open rebellion ; and doth therefore condemn him for a wilful contemner and violator of the holy ancient Canons, a perturber of the peace and unity of the Church, a notorious scandalizer of the universal Church, a perjured, incor- rigible, and schismatical Simonist, and therefore a forsaker of the faith, an heretic, a dilapidator and consumer of the rights and riches of the Church committed to his trust ; and hath thereby made himself an unprofitable member, and not only unworthy and unfit for the Papal power, but of all other title, degree, honour or dignity Ecclesiastical. Whom the aforesaid General Council doth, by the power of the Holy Ghost, declare and pronounce, to be by the law deprived of the Papacy and Bishopric of Rome, and by these presents it doth depose, remove, deprive and throw him out." Now that Pope Paul V. was guilty of Simony, and deserves to be treated as Eugenius in the Council of Basil, our author* declares in the aforesaid treatise. Chapter IT. from the 2nd num- ber, by the words following : " In the Datary, which is an office at Rome, wherein all matters of benefices and businesses of that kind are expedited, this is the course and custom at this day. It is duly observed, that the benefices belonging to the Pope's colla- tion, whether reserved to his gift, or falling void in the month that belongs to the Papacy, which in regard of their far distance froni Rome, or that they are with cure, cannot be given to his nephew Borghesius, are given to some of the suitors or competitors, who are of that country, or next adjoining to it. For they take order, that none be bestowed presently, but lie vacant for a time ; that so a whole concourse of competitors may flock together for it; which is not done for any good end, that so they might know the difference of the suitors, and give it to the worthiest, as by the * The author of The New Man; or, a Supplication from an unknown Person, a Roman Catholic, unto James the Monarch of Britain, &c., translated into English by W. Crashaw, B.D. (London, 1622.) p. 26, from which the greater part of this and preceding pages are transcribed, together with the authorities. Several of the latter, which were either incorrect or unintelligible, have been corrected and improved, in the present edition of Dr. Sail's work. Paul the Vth. was elected Pope in 1605. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 175 Decree of the Council of Trent they are bound to do ; but that they may learn which is the richest, and so may know how to make the best bargain. To this end, the time of this competition is appointed at a certain day, whereof public notice is given, that so all the suitors may come ; and that tlie officers of the Datary may learn in that time which, of all that seek it, are best able to buy out and extinguish the pension that is laid upon that living. For this is the fashion now in use ; the Pope chargeth every living in his gift with a pension more or less ; ordinarily it amounts to half of the whole value of the benefice; if but a third pt'rt, it is held easy and favourable ; but sometimes it extends to two parts of the whole divided into three; which done he provides by another ordination, that by present payment of five years' profit, the pension shall be extinguished. " Now when by this concourse and comparison of competitors, they have found which of them is best able to buy it, on him presently it is conferred ; and so not the worthiest, but the wealthiest carries it : and thus are all the Pope's livings bestowed at Rome. Now he that comes thus to a benefice, by paying down five years' pension beforehand, buys it full dear ; for he pays for it at the rate of thirty in the 100, over and besides his personal service. For the clearing of this point ; suppose a benefice worth 300 crowns a year ; this is sure to be charged, being so great a living, with a pension of the largest size, namely, some 200 ; that so 100 may be left to the incumbent ; he then who comes to it in this manner, pays down 1000 crowns for the pension, and 100 more for writing, and seal of his Bulls, and for expedition ; and so all laid together, he buys his living of 300, at the rate of 30 for the 100, besides his personal service in the cure of souls. " Moreover, whereas in the Council of Trent, certain Simonia- cal tricks and devices called regressus and expectatives, are flatly forbidden ; the Pope, to elude the Council's Decree, grants coadjutorships, with assurance of future succession after his death to whom he is made coadjutor ; but makes them pay one year's profit for the expediting and dispatch of their Bulls. Now these coadjutorships are the very same, and tend to the very same end, even to bring in by hook and crook sums of money ; for by these pensions, and buying out of pensions, this Pope has scraped up twenty hundred thousand Scutes, all which he has bestowed in 176 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED buying lands for his nephew. He bought from Sarelly a goodly large territory called Rignanum, near unto Rome, at the price of 353,000 Scutes. The city of Sulmona in the kingdom of Naples, he bought of the King of Spain, and gave for the same the sum of 150,000 Scutes. " He purchased those goodly domains, called the four Casalia, within the territories of the city of Rome, which cost no less than 700,000 Scutes. In the mountainous countries belonging to the city, which are commonly at six in the hundred, he made a pur- chase that stood him in 400,000 Scutes. "He has built a palace and called it after his own name, the palace of Borghesius ; upon the fabric whereof he has bestowed 300,000 Scutes. " He has so enriched the Cardinal Borghesius his nephew in private stock and wealth, that his very moveables are esteemed worth 600,000 Scutes. " Good God ! what a mighty wealth is here ! And I appeal to any who know the court of Rome, if this could be got together by any means into the Pope's own coffers and private purse, but only out of that office of the benefices called the Datary. Therefore this one demonstration is presumption sufficient enough, to prove his foul and detestable Simony; seeing it is certain that the whole name and blood of the Borghesius were but of a mean estate, nay, many of them are known to have run out of their livings, and to be little better than bankrupt, when this man obtained the Pope- dom."* Hitherto the words of the aforesaid author, who promised to juslify all that he had said to be true out of the authentic books, records, and writings extant in Rome ; and that out of the Regis- * To prove the correctness of this statement, though anonymous, we quote a few lines out of a multitude of testimonies to its truth : " Pontificio ^rario acervum novies centenum aureorum miliium reposuit ; Sacris Pontificiis, cura majestate faciendis Tiaram Episcopalem adamantibus, et unionibus ditissiraam pretio septuaginta miliium aureorum comparavit '' [Paulus V.] Ciaconii Vitce Pontiff, it Card. torn. 4. col. 384. Sixtus V. a predecessor, in the course of but three years managed to scrai)e together and principally in Coppers (whether after the manner of the big beggar. man of the present age we know not exactly) " quinquies circiter milliones (ut vocantur) id est, 5,000,000 coronatus aureos ut videre est apud Cicarell. in Vita Pontif Sixti V." Bank de tyrannide Papa, p. 236. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 177 ter of the Pope's Bulls it should appear, to whom each benefice had been given, and with what pension they were charged. Oi all which the Spanish nation can give a large testimony ; for many of them dealing in businesses of benefices at Rome, have transacted them in this manner. The conclusion of all btjforesaid is, that if Simoniacal contracts do annul the election of a Pope ; and the same crime, committed after his election, deprives him of all right to that place and call- ing ; if all Cardinals made by such unlawful and criminal Popes, were no Cardinals ; and Popes made by unlawful Cardinals are no Popes, as is established by the Laws and Canons afore- mentioned; if all those nullities of Simonies, frauds, and cheats, have intervened in the election of Sixtiis and following Popes, as hitherto recorded, and no care has been taken for repairing those nullities, as is manifest, but rather the same practices are con- tinued to this day (as is well known to those who are acquainted with that Court ;) all this being the case, it follows as a forcible consequence, that there is not in the See of Rome, any true Pope, nor has been since Gregory XIII. How strange will all the preceding narrative appear to many poor Irish, and English Roman Catholics ! who are not per- mitted to know more than their beads, and some small prayer book, with the Litanies of the conception, of St. Joseph, Sancta TJieresa,^ Sac, and a list of great indulgences for very small devotions. But such as know, by sight or faithful relation, the intrigues of Rome, (whereof my good friend N. N., who gave me the occasion of this discourse, is one) will easily perceive, that all that has been related is very suitable to the language and practice of that Court. Now, therefore, let the poor souls consider by these particulars, of what metal that Roman holiness is made, which they so blindly adore. And let their bold and presumptuous instructors forbear to censure the Ordinations of the Church of England, in which no such dirty practices ever intervened; whilst their prime See is * The Flaming Heart, or the Life of the Glorious S. Teresa, Foundresse of the Reformation of the Order of the All Immaculate Virgin Mother, our B. Lady of Mount Carmel, written by herself in Spanish, and now translated into English, was printed at Antwerp in 1642 ; and her works in 3 4to. vols. 166975. She was born in 1515, and died in 1582. M 178 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED defaced and disgraced with such public and peremptory excep- tions against the usurpers of it ; and let them cease boasting, as they do, of a wicked practice, in re-ordaining such as were ordained in the Church of England, if they chance to pass to their communion : whereas it is not less sacrilegious and unlawful to re-ordain persons already lawfully ordained, than to re-baptize such as were lawfully baptized, according to Gregory the Great's declaration : Sicut baptizatns semel, iterum haptizari non debet, ita qui consecratus est semel, in eodem iterum ordine consecrari non dehet^ As those who were baptized before, ought not to be re-baptized ; so he that was once consecrated, ought not to be consecrated again in the same Order. The same was decreed in the Council of Carthage, Ch. 38 ;t and before, in the Council of Capua, as related by the said Council of Carthage, and by Baroniusin the year 389, . 74. To transgress the Decrees of these grave and ancient Councils is the boast of Romanists, when they brag of not admitting Priests ordained in the Church of England, to the function of. Priesthood with them, if they are not ordained again after their ceremonies. Which point of presumption and contempt of ancient Canons, the Church of England refuses to learn from the Romish ; admitting to the practice of their respective Orders amongst us, such as have been ordained in the Romish Church ; though we have far greater reasons to suspect their ordinations, as disagreeing with ancient Canons, than they have to suspect ours : as we have hitherto largely demonstrated. By all this discourse it appears how groundless is the scruple of such as refuse to join with the Church of England, for fear that the Ordination of its Clergy is not valid ; whereas we have all the certainty (and even more) for the validity of our ordination, that the Roman Church has for hers: and how much Suarez was mistaken in affirming, that the Church of England has not the Ecclesiastical hierarchy composed of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, necessary to the constitution of a Catholic Church, is, I think, now made sufficiently evident. * Lib. 2, Epist. 32, end. 10, cap. 58. f [See the Synodus Capuana in Labbe's collection, torn ii. col. 1039; and the Conril Carthag. iii. (anno 397) col. 1 172.] IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 179 CHAPTER XII. Of the large extent of Christian Religion professed in the Church o/* England. The fourth and chief kind of universality proposed by Suarez, as necessary to the constitution of a Catholic Church, is the extent of it over all the parts of the earth: This he denies to the Church of England^ as not passing (says he) the limits of the British Dominions But if he is speaking of the Faith professed in the Church of England (as he ought to do for the present purpose) he was greatly mistaken. Here I will shew, that King James's saying (as Suarez relates) that the one half of the Christian world join with us in the same faith, did not exceed the bounds of truth and modesty ; and that of three parts of Christians, two join with us in the profession of the faith of Christ, contained in the Apos- tles' Creed; though not of all contained in the Creed of Trent, whereby the Roman Church alone is singled from us, and from all other Christian Churches ; not unlike Ishmael, whose hand was against every man, and every maiibs hand against him, (Gen. xvi. 11, 12) And as the Donatists would confine the Church of God to that corner of Africa which they themselves inhabited ; so the Romanists would not have it extended further than their jurisdiction, declaring all who join not with them in obedience to their Pope to be excommunicated and damned. That they may be ashamed, or weary of their blind presumption and cruelty, in offering to mangle and deface, in this manner, the Church of God (if avarice and ambition, the general cause of this proceeding, is capable of shame or amendment) I will give to the people, blinded by them, a view of the multitude of illustrious nations and religious believers in Christ, which they do rashly, if not maliciously, condemn, and degregate from their communion. And beginning with Protestants inhabiting Europe, from the remotest parts thereof Eastward, in the Kingdom of Poland, containing under its dominion Polonia, Lithuania, Podolia, Russia the less, Volhinia, Massovia, Livonia, Prussia ; all which, united M 2 180 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED in a roandish enclosure, are in circuit about 2,600 miles, and of no less space than Spain and France laid together. In this so large a kingdom, the Protestants in great numbers are diffused through all the quarters thereof, having in every province their public Churches and Congregations,* orderly severed and bounded with Dioceses, whence they send some of their chiefest men of worth unto their general Synods, which they have frequently held with great celebrity ; and with such prudence and piety, as may be a happy example to be followed by all Christian Churches ; and which it is likely would be followed, upon a due consideration, if the insatiable avarice and boundless ambition of Rome, aspiring desperately to a monarchical power over all, did not obstruct all the methods that sincere piety and zeal for Religion can imagine, for the peace of Christians. Forasmuch as there are divers sorts of these Polonic Protes- tants, some embracing the Waldensian or the Bohemian, others the Augustan, and some the Helvetian, Confession, and so do differ in some outward circumstances of discipline and ceremony ; yet knowing well, that a Kingdom divided cannot stand, and that the one God, whom all of them worship in spirit, is the G od of peace and concord, they jointly meet at one general Synod : and their first act always is a religious and solemn profession of their unfidgned consent in the substantial points of Christian faith necessary to salvation. Thus in General Synods at Sendo- mir, Cracow, Petercow, Wadislow, Thorn, they declared upon the Bohemian, and Helvetic and Augustan Confessions, severally received amongst them, that they agree in the general heads of faith, touching the Holy Scripture, the Sacred Trinity, the Per- son of the Son of God God and Man ; the Providence of God, Sin, Free Will, the Law, the Gospel, Justification by Christ, Faith in his Name, Regeneration, the Catholic Church, and the Supreme Head thereof Christ; the Sacraments, their number and use ; the state of souls after death, the Resurrection, and Life Eternal. They decreed, that whereas in the aforenamed Confessions * The Count Krasinski's History of the Reformation in Poland will afford, we are afraid, rather a mournful Commentary upon these once favourable statistics.: Romish persecution has impeded here, as almost every where, the " expansive- ness" of Protestantism. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 181 there is some difference in phrases and forms of speech, con- cerning Christ's presence in his lioly supper, which might breed dissension, all disputations touching the manner of Christ's presence should be cut off; seeing that all of them do believe the presence itself; and that the eucharistical elements are not naked and empty signs, but do truly perform, to the faithful receiver, that which they signify and represent. To prevent future occasions of violating this sacred consent, they ordained, that no man should be called to the sacred Ministry, without subscription thereunto ; and when any person shall be excluded by excommunication from the Congregation of one Confession, that he shall not be received by them of another. Lastly, Forasmuch as they accord in a substantial verity of Christian doctrine, they profess themselves content to tolerate diversity of ceremonies, according to the diverse practice of their particular Churches ; and to remove the least suspicion of rebelling and sedition wherewith their malicious and calumniating adversaiies might blemish the Gospel (though they are subject to many grievous pressures, yet) they earnestly exhort one another to follow that w^orthy and Christian admonition of Lactantius [Institut. Div. lib. 5, cap. 20,] Defendenda Religio est non occidendo, sed moriendo ; non saevitid, sedpatien- tid; no7i scelere, sedjide ; ilia enim hoiiorum, Jicbc malorum sunt. This is the state of the Professors of the Gospel in the Elective Monarchy of Poland ; who in the adjoining Countries in the south, Transylvania and Hungary^ are also exceedingly multi- plied. In the former, by the favour of Gabriel Bartorius, Prince* * This Prince is better known by the name of Gabriel Bethle?i. He is highly praised by Lampe (Hist. Eccles. Reform, in Hungaria et Transylvania ; Trajecti 1728, p. 356,) for his encouragement of learning, &c. ; but he was perhaps too much engaged in warlike measures against Ferdinand II., Emperor of Austria, to effect much in a religious way. " Anno 1629 bellorum satur vivere desiit. Erat ille illustri in Transylvania genere natus, et inde a puero Helvetica doctrina ac religione imbutus ; unde facile intelligas cur ille Ferdinandum rem Evangeli- cam undique attenuantem, toties bello lacessiverit.'' Rihini memorabilia Aug. Confessionis in Hung. (Posonii 1787) torn 1, p. 439. A later writer gives a more probable reason, when, speaking of some religious compact between Ferdinand and his Protestant subjects, in which Bethlen was compelled to make the Emperor profess an intention^ at least, of observing, he adds : " sed Rege Jesuitarnm fraudibus obcascato, nunquam serius fuit animus exsolvendi promissum. Quam- diu namque vixit (ad annum 1637) fidem Evangelicis datam frangere nunquam dubitavit." Hist, Eccles. Evang. in Hungaria (Halberstadt. 1830) p. 32 M 3 182 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED of that region, who not many years since expelled thence all such as are of the Papal faction, in a manner the whole inhabitants, except some few rotten and putrid limbs of Arians, Anti-Trini- tarians, Ebionites, Socinians, Anabaptists (who here, as also in Poland, Lithuania, and Prussia have some public assembly) are professed Protestants, and, in Hungary, the greater part, especially when compared with the Papists. Thence Westward in the Kingdom of Bohemia, consisting of 3,200 Parishes, and its appurtenances, the Marquisates of Lusatia, and Moravia, the Dukedom of Silesia (all which jointly in circuit contains 770 miles) and in Austria itself, and the countries of Gorilz, the Tyrol, Celia, the principalities of Suevia, Alsatia, Brisgow, Constance, the most part of the people are Protestants, especially the nobility; and are in regard of their number .so potent, that they are formidable to their malignant opponents. And they are near of the same number and strength in the neighbouring countries of the Arch-duke of Gratzden (a branch of the house of Austria) namely in Stiria, Carinthia, Carniola.* But the condition of the Protestants residing among the Cantons of Helvetia, and their confederates the city of Geneva, the Town of St. Gall, the Grisons, Vallesians, seven communities under the Bishop of Sion, is a great deal more happy and settled ; insomuch that they are two third parts, having the public and free practice of Religion : for howsoever of the 13 Cantons, only these five Zuric, Schauffhausen, Glarus, Basle, Appenzel, are entirely Protestant ; yet these in strength aiid ampleness of territory much exceed the other seven ; and hence Zuric in all public meetings and embassies, has the first place, being chief of the five. Now coming to Germany, the whole Empire consists of three * Dr. Sail could hardly have been aware of the miserable state of the Protest- ant Churches in these districts, existing, as they appear to have done, almost by sufferance; though even at the beginning of the 17th Century, so large were their numbers, when proscribed, stripped of their property and banished, by Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, at the instigation of the Jesuits, (ab Ignatiand sodalitate excitattis) that they resembled an army when removing into other provinces. Indeed the British public generally has no conception, we may say, of the Catholic expansiveness of Protestantism, and the sectarian exclusiveness of Romanism. See Caroli Memorabilia. Eccles. sceculi, xvii. (Tubingas, 1697) torn I , p. 3. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 183 orders or slates ; the Princes Ecclesiastical, the temporal Princes; and the free Cities. Of the Ecclesiastics the Arch-Bishop of Magdeburgh and Bremen, with the Bishoprics thereunto belong- ing are under the Protestants, as also the Bishoprics of Verden, Halberstad, Osnaburg, and Minden. ^ The temporal Princes all (none of note excepted) besides the Arch-Duke of Austria, and the Duke of Bavaria, are firmly Protestants. And what the multitudes of subjects are, professing the same faith with these Princes, we may guess by the ampleness of dominions under the government of the chief of them, such as are the Prince Elector Palatine, the Duke of Saxony, the Marquess of Brandenburg, the Duke of Wirtenburg, Langrave of Hesse, Marquess of Baden, Prince of Anhalt, Dukes of Brunswic, Hoist, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Fryburg. Among whom the Marquess of Brandenburg has for his dominion not only the Marquisate itself, containing in circuit about three hundred and twenty miles, and furnished with fifty Cities, and about sixty other walled Towns ; but likewise a pari of Prussia, the region of Prognilz, the Dukedom of Crossen, the Seigneuries of Sternberg and Colbus, and lately the three Dukedoms of Cleve, Dulic* and Berg, of which the two former have either of them in circuit about one hundred and thirty miles. " The free Cities, which w^ere in number eighty-eight, before some of them came into the possession of the French, Polanders, and Helvetians, are geiierally Protest- ants, especially those called the Hans cities, very rich and powerful, situated in the Northern part of Germany, inclusively, between Danlzic eastward, and Hamburg westward. As for Ratisbon, Slralsburg, Augsburg, Spires, Worms, and Francfort- upon-the-Main, both Papists and Protestants in them make public profession. Nearer to us are the Provinces of the Low Countries, governed by the Slates General; namely, ^ulphen, Utrecht, Overyssel, Groninghen, Holland, Zeland, West-Friesland, in which only Protestants have the public and free exercise of their Religion. The power and strength of these Provinces is too much known to need a relation of it. I find it stated in Mr. Pagittf that they * In Boterop. 301 " Julien." f Pagitt's Christianography, chap. 2, [or a Descrii>tion of the sundry sorts of Christians by E. Pagitt. D.D., folio, London, 1674.] 184 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED contain about two hundred and ten Cities, compassed with w^alls and ditches, and six thousand three hundred Towns and Villages, and more ; and that they keep about thirty thousand men in continual garrisons. Now passing from the United Provinces into France, those of the Religion (as they usually stile them) are possessed of above seventy towns having garrisons of soldiers, governed by Nobles and Gentlemen of the Protestant Religion ; they have eight hundred Ministers retaining pensions out of the Public Finance, who are so dispersed through the chief Provinces of the Kingdom, that in the Principality of Orange, in Poictou almost all the inhabitants, in Gascony half; in Languedoc, Normandy, and other Western Provinces, a strong party profess the Protestant Religion. Besides the Castles and Forts, which belong in property to the Duke of Bullen, the Duke of Rohan, Count of Laval, the Duke of Trimovil, Monsieur Chastillion, the Mareschal of Digniers, the Duke of Sully and others. Now, if to all the forenamed Kingdoms, Principalities, Duke- doms, States, Cities, abounding with Professors of the Reformed Religion, we add the Monarchies of Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, wholly in a manner Protestants, we shall find them not inferior in number and power to the Romish Party ; especially if we consider, that the main bulk here of Italy and Spain* are, by a kind of violence and necessity, rather than out of any free choice and judgment, detained in their Superstition; namely, by the jealousy, cruelty, and tyrannical vigilancy of the Inquisition ; and by their own ignorance ; being utterly debarred from all reading of the Holy Scriptures, and of controversial books, whereby they may come to a knowledge of the truth and of their own errors. If any shall object that the Protestants, in the various countries beforementioned, cannot be reputed as one body and one Church, on account of many differences and contentions among them ; * The Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in both of these Countries has been well described in Dr. M'Crie's two volumes published in 1829 and 1833; fully deserving the attention of the friends of " Civil and Religious Liberty." So " expansive " tons the jjower of Protestantism in Spain in the sixteenth Century, that the Inquisitor, Lewis Paramo, was led to declare that the whole Kingdom would have been pervaded by it, had it not been forcibly repressed and finally burnt out: See Mendham's Literary Policy oftJie Church of Rome f p. 305. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 185 let him consider that however many private persons living among Protestants, rather than belonging to them, have strained their weak understandings to coin several erroneous tenets, and by them have bred dissensions and animosities ; yet these wicked practices are not to be imputed to the whole sacred community of Orthodox Churches, whose harmony and agreement in necessary points of faith are to be seen and esteemed by the public Con- fessions of their faith, which they have divulged unto the whole world by public authority ; and in which they so agree, that there is a most sacred harmony between them in the more substantial points of Christian Religion necessary to Salvation. This is manifest from the Confessions themselves, which are the Anglican, Scotch, French, Helvetian, Belgic, Polish, Strasburg, Augustan, Saxonic, Wirtenbergic, Palatine, and Bohemic or Waldensian. For there is none of the Churches formerly pointed out in different parts of Europe, which does not embrace one of those Confessions ; and all of them do harmoniously conspire in the principal articles of faith, and which nearest concern our eternal salvation ; as in the Divine Essence and Divinity of the Everlasting God, the sacred Trinity of the three glorious Persons, the blessed Incarna- tion of Christ, the Omnipotent Providence of God, the absolute Supreme Head of the Church Christ ; the infallible verity and full sufficiency of the Divine Scriptures for our instruction to life Everlasting, &c. In none of those Confessions is to be seen that heap of desperate Heresies which my Antagonist N. N. attributes to the Church which I have followed, and wherewith Bellarmine, and Becan, and other Romish Controvertists swell their volumes, filling the minds of their proselytes with hatred and animosity against the Reformed Churches ; whilst in them such impious Heresies are most seriously rebuked, and learnedly refuted by pen and tongue, from Chairs and Pulpits, as I am daily finding, to my great comfort ; and no small grief to consider the disingenu- ousness of Romanists in fomenting animosities among Christians, by thus calumniating the opposers of their errors. 186 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER XIII. OJ the several large and flourishing Christian Churches in the Eastern Countries not subject to the Pope.* To all men truly zealous for the honour of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, it cannot but be comfortable, to see how happily the blessed Apostles have complied with the command of our Sovereign Lord and Saviour Go and teach all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matt xxviii. 19 ;) and how gloriously the Churches, planted by them, have persevered in the Faith of our Saviour in spite of the greatest persecutions, and under the greatest enemies of the Christian name, such as the Turk is known to be : and yet under his dominions is a numberless number of Christians; of which the Grecians are, for Antiquity, number, and dignity, the chief. They acknowledge obedience to the Patriarch of Constantinople, under whose jurisdiction are in Asia, the Christians of Natolia, Circassia, Mingrelia, and Russia; as in Europe also the Christians of Greece, Macedon, Epirus, Thrace, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Wallachia, Moldavia, Podolia, and Moscovia ; together with all the Islands of the ^gean Sea, and others about Greece, as far as Corfu ; besides a good part of the large Dominion of Poland, and those parts of Dalmatia and Croatia, which are subject to the Turkish dominion : all which Congregations of Christians, subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople, exceed in number those of the Romish Communion ; as I find recorded by diligent writers,t whereof Pagitt says, that Christians make up the two third parts of the Grand Signior's subjects. All these Churches deny the Pope's Supremacy; they account * This portion of Dr. Sail's volume, including this and the next Chapter, will in the present day perhaps be considered as defective, and, in some few cases, in- correct. If the reader should therefore desire larger information, as to the Chris- tian Communities here mentioned, he can consult Mr. Conder's Analytical View^ or other publications mentioned in the Notes. f Brerewood's Inquiries^ cap. 15. Pagitt's Christianography, cap. 2. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 187 the Pope and his Church schism atical. The Patriarch of Con- stantinople yearly upon the Sunday called Dominica invocavit, solemnly excommunicates the Pope and his Clergy as schismatics. They deny Transubstantiation ; touching which point Cyril, the Patriarch of Constantinople, delivers this excellent confession, as agreeable to the doctrine of the Church of England, and opposite to the Romish : In the Eucharist, says he,* we do confess a true and real presence of Christ, but such a one, as faith offers us ; not such as devised Transubstantiation teacheth : for we believe the faithful to eat Christ's body in the Lord's supper, not sensibly champing it with their teeth, but partaking it with the sense of the soul. For that is not the body of Christ, which offereth itself to our eyes in the Sacrament ; but that which faith spiritually apprehendeth and offereth to us. Hence ensueth, that if we believe, we eat and participate ; if we believe not, we receive no profit by it. Jeremy the Patriarch teaches a change of bread into the body of Christ, which he calls fxera^oXr) that is a transmutation ; which is not sufficient to infer a Transubstan- tiation, because it may only signify a mystical alteration, which the Patriarch in the same place plainly shews ; saying, that the mysteries are truly the body and blood of Christ, not that these, fiTat>aXK6^Eva, says he, are changed into human flesh, but we into them ; for the better things have ever the pre-eminence. The words of Cyril and Jeremy in Greek, are to be found with Mr. Pagitt, in his Christianography, cap. 4. They deny a Purgatorial fire : so Nilus, Archbishop of Thessa- lonica: We have not received by Tradition from our teachers, that there is anyjire of Purgatory, nor any temporal punish- ment by fire, neither do we know of any such doctrine, taught in the Eastern Church.f Alphonsus de Castro : It is one of the most palpable errors of the Grecians and Armenians, that they teach that there is no place of Purgatory, where souls after this life are purged from their corruptions, which they have con- tracted in their bodies, before they deserve to be received into the eternal tabernacles.X They administer the Eucharist in both kinds, of which Cyril the Patriarch thus speaks : As the Institutor speaketh of his * Cap. 17, pag. 60. f Nilus, p. 219, de purg. igne. X Castro advers hceres. lib. 12, p. 188. 188 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED body, so also of his blood; which commandment ought not to be rent asunder, or wrangled according to human arbitrement, but the institution delivered to be kept entire.'^ They allow married Priests. Hier. Patr. says, We do permit those Priests who cannot contain^ the use of marriage. \ They deny the worship of images. Concerning which point, Cyril speaks: We forbid not the historical use of pictures ^ (painting being a famous and commendable art) we grant, to those who will have them, pictures of Christ and saints ; but their adoration and worship we detest, as forbidden by the Holy Ghost in holy Scripture ; lest we should, before we are aware, adore colours instead of our Creator and Maker. % They acknowledge the sufficiency of Scripture for an entire rule of faith and of our salvation, of which Damascene gives this testimony: Whatsoever is delivered unto us, and was in the Law and in the Prophets, by the Apostles and Evangelists, that we receive, acknowledge, and reverence ; and beside these we require nothing else.^ They do not forbid the Laity the reading of the Scriptures. As the reading of Scripture is forbidden to no Christian man, (says Cyril the Patriarch) so no man is to be kept from the read- ing of it ; for the word is near in their mouth and in their hearts. Therefore manifest injury is offered to any Christian man of what rank or condition soever he be who is deprived or kept from reading or hearing the holy Scripture.^ * Cyr. c. 17, p. 61, [And also in Covel's Account of the Greek Church (Cambr. 1722) where it is remarked " Now, his saying, the bread and wine are changed into the very body and blood of Christ, without doubt pleased the Latins well ; but as he explains himself, it is far enough from Transubstantiation. They are changed, saith he, direpcpvais, inrep \6yov kuI ^evvoiav, supernaturally ; as to the mode, or manner, it is beyond what we can say or think : and again [xvpiwv ffrwfjidroov XP^i'f'i thousands and thousands of mouths or tongues are not able to express it. The bread is changed into Christ's body, no man knows how ; saith Jeremias; yes, say the Latins, we will tell you how, the substance of the bread is quite lost, and only the accidents remain. The good Patriarch either knew nothing of this Theology ; or, if he did, he would not own it," p. 123 : see also p. 118. Jeremy was Patri- arch of Jerusalem in the 16th Century.] f Resp, p. 129 ; [Decreti pars 1 ] Distinct. 31, . 14, aliter. + Cyr. resp. ad inter. 4, p. 97. Damas. de orthodoxa fide, lib 1, c. 1. II [/n respons. ad inter. I. Both Cyril's confession and these replies to certain queries, may be found with a French translation in Aymon's Monumens Authen- tiques, pp. 23754.] IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 189 They allow no private Masses ; as Chytraeus relates : No private Masses, says he, are celebrated among the Greeks, without other communicants, as the Liturgies and faithful relations testify. They have prayer in a known tongue. They use not prayer for souls to be delivered out of Purgatory, nor the Extreme Unction ; nor elevating or carrying about the Sacrament, that it may be adored ; nor indulgences, nor sale of Masses. Neither is there in their Canon, any mention made of the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ for the living and dead, as Chytraeus, Guagninus, and others quoted by Pagitt relate.* Other differ- ences of less account between the Grecian Church and the Roman, you may see related by Brerewood and Possevin.f Of the same Religion with the Grecians, are the Christians of the vast and mighty empire of Muscovy and Russia, under their Metropolitan the Archbishop of Moscow, nominated and appointed by the Prince, the Emperor of Russia ; and upon this nomina- tion consecrated by two or three of his own Suffragans. To these may be added the Christians called Nestorians (for having maintained anciently the error of Nestorius) spread over a great part of Asia. For besides the countries of Babylon, Assy- ria, Mesopotamia, Partbia, and Media, where many of them are found ; they are scattered far and wide in the East, both northerly to Cathaia, and southerly to India. So that beyond the river Tigris eastward, there is no other sect of Christians to be found ; (as learned Brerewood relates) except only the Portuguese and the converts made by them in India. The Patriarch of the Nestorians to whom all those of the Eastern parts acknowledge obedience, has his seat in the city of Moosul, on the river Tigris in Mesopotamia, or in the Patriarchal Monastery of St. Ermes fast by Moosul. In which city, though subject to Mahometans, it is recorded, that the Nestorians retain yet fifteen temples, being reckoned at about 40,000 souls. Sanders mentions the great number of Suffragan Bishops and Metropolitans subject to the Patriarch of Moosul.J Next to these, we may name the Christians of Egypt, called Cophti, under the Patriarch of Alexandria ; to whose jurisdiction * Pagitt, cap. 4. f Brerewood, c. 1 5, Possev. de reb^ Muscov. p. 38. + Tho. a Jesu, lib. 7, p. 3. 190 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED belong not only the native Christians of Egypt, but also those about the Bay of Arabia, and in the Mount Sinai eastward ; and in Africa, as far as the greater Syrtis westward. To him like- wise are subject the Christians called Abyssinians spread over the wide empire of Kthiopia, with their Prince commonly called Prester John. For though they have a Patriarch of their own, whom they call in their idiom Abuna (our Father) yet are they limited to choose one of the jurisdiction of Alexandria, and a Monk of St. Anthony he must be * Besides the Confirmation and Consecration of him belongs to the Patriarch of Alexandria, and by him is he sent with Ecclesiastical charge into Abyssinia. The conferring of Bishoprics and other Ecclesiastical benefices, except the Patriarchship, belongs only to the King. Their Priests and other inferior Ecclesiastical Ministers, (as also Monks,) live by their labour, as having no tithes nor any Ecclesiastical revenues to maintain them, nor being suffered to crave alms. All which is recorded by Zaza Zaho, an Ethiopian Bishop. The Christians of Egypt are so constant in the Profession of Christianity, that if any of them are by force circumcised by the Turks, he is marked in the forehead or hands with the sign of the cross, that all men may know him to be a Christian. The Patriarch of Alexandria's dwelling, is now near the Church of St. Nicholas in Cairo, which city is one of the greatest cities in the world, reputed to be twenty-eight miles in length, and fourteen in breadth, (as Lithgow reports,!) and that of Greeks, Copates, Armenians, and others, there are about 200,000 Chris- tians in that city of Cairo. Thomas a Jesu relates % a foul mistake in Baronius ; who in the end of his fifth tome, tells that in the time of Pope Clement * Zaga Zabo de Relig. et Mor. /Ethiop. apud Damian. Goes [Fides, Religio, Moresque^ CEthiojmm sub Imp. Preciosi Johannis ; Damiano a Goes autore (Paris, 1541)pp. 87 89. In the Church History of Ethiopia, composed by M. Geddes: Lond. 1696, will be found an examination into the truth of the Romish accounts of the Missions of that Church in the same Country; and we need hardly say that the issue of the enquiry proves the Missionaries to be no particular dealers in truth. * Lithgow's Travels, p. 306. f Tho. a Jesu de convers. Gent. lib. 7, par. 1, c. 6, p. 363. Anno 452, 23. This embassage took place in 1594, and Baronius seems to have introduced the fact, so much out of its chronological order, with a view to rejoice his soul that, at a time when so many were deserting his Church, IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 191 the Vlllth, an embassage was brought from the Church of Alex- andria, to the Roman Bishop ; in which the Patriarch and all the Provinces of Egypt, and others adjoining, acknowledged him as chief and universal Pastor of the Church ; but the matter being more diligently examined into, appeared to be a mere lie and fic- tion of a certain Impostor Bartavis. How great has been the spread of Christianity in Ethiopia may appear by the vast extent of that empire, which, according to Mr. Brerewood's computation, is equal to Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. Others report it to be as great as all Europe. Horatiiis Malegueius* makes the dominion of the Ethiopian Emperor larger than any other ; excepting the dominion of the Catholic King. Godignus reports, that there are in Ethiopia 127 Arch- others were joining it, even from afar ; or, to use bis own language, in a supple- mentary chapter at the end of the volume, '" ita ut magno miraculo, reruin versa vice, ^thiopes dealbentur, duni super carbones facies Borealium dfenigrantur." De legal, cedes. Alexand. 5. Then he gives several acts and instruments but the Court of Rome was over-reached in that point, and Baronius too easily published these acts." Father Simon's Religions and Customs of Eastern nations, p. 120. In fact, the Church of Rome seems to have been often mistaken in these conversions. " The Jesuit Roderigo, who was sent to that nation (the Copts) by the Pope in 1562, upon submissive and respectful letters which they had written to his Holiness, as if they owned the Church of Rome for chief and mistress of all others, will furnish us with a pretty instance of their Counterfeit reconcilia- tions, which, most frequently, have no better foundation than mere human in- terest. This Jesuit having had some conference with two Cophtics, whom the Patriarch Gabriel had deputed for that purpose, easily persuaded them of the Pope's authority : but when the Jesuit aftervvards pressed the same Patriarch to send letters of submiRsion and obedience to the Pope, telling him he ought not to scruple at that, seeing that in his former letters, he had called the Pope Father of Fathers Pastor of Pastors, and Head of all Churches ; he made an- swerthat as to what he had written to the Pope, it ought not to be taken too strictly, what was only meant for civility and modesty ; and that he spoke of sub- mission and obedience, yet that was no more than friends commonly do to one another. In fine, he added, that if there was any thing in those letters, which he wrote to the Pope, which was not agreeable to the doctrine of his Church, it ought not to be imputed to him, but to the carrier of the letters, who without doubt had corrupted them. In this manner did the Patriarch of the Copts entertain the Pope's Envoys, after that he had received from the Consul the money that was sent to him from Rome." This history is more largely related by the Jesuit Sacchini. (Hist. Societ. lib. 6, 124.) Father Simon (ut supra) p. 112. Apud Pagitt, p. 38. 192 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Bishops.* Alvares, a Portuguese Priest, relates,t that in Micham Talacem, which is the Church of the Holy Trinity, he saw 200 mitred Priests together ; and sixty-four canopies carried over them. Their Churches were built round, and very rich with hangings of cloth of gold, velvet, and plate. They have many goodly Monasteries : to the Monasteries of the vision of Jesus belong about 3,000 Monks. Many were the attacks of Rome upon this flourishing Chris- tianity of Ethiopia, in order to bring it under the dominion of the Pope. The more remarkable which I find recorded is that of An- dreas Oviedo,J who was sent thither with the title of Patriarch, in the year 1557 ; who coming with his Letters to the Emperor Clau- dius, received this answer from him : That he would never yield obedience to the Bishop of Rome : (he gave him leave to teach the Portuguese, hut forbad him to speak one word to his Abys- sinians concerning Religion) and that he would not suffer the Roman yoke to be laid on him or his. This Emperor Claudius dying, Adamas succeeded, who banished the said Patriarch An- dreas ; and this was the issue of the Embassy, as Godignus relates. Under the Patriarch of Jerusalem are the Christians, inha- biting Palestine, mingled with Turks and others. The Patriarch keeps his residence in Jerusalem, where are now remaining ten Churches of Christians. The Patriarchal Church is the Church of St. Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and his house is near to it. To this Patriarch belonged the three Palestines. Tyrius adds || two Provinces more, Rubensis and Beritensis. He relates also that five Metropolitans belonged to this See, and* about 101 Bishops. The Armenians, Georgians, Abyssinians, and other Christians have several Churches in Jerusalem. Godig. de Abass. reh. lib. 1, c, 32, p. 195. [Or De Abassinorum rebus, deque Mthiopice Patriarchis, J. N. Baretto et And. Oviedo ; N. Godigno Auct. (Lugd. 1615) lib. 1, c. 32, which commences thus '' Tradiderunt aliqui centum viginti septem in Abassia esse Archiepiscopos," &c. ; and the writer then proceeds to shew its inaccuracy and improbability. But we need not spend more time over such an unimportant subject, but refer to the Introduction to Mr, Gobat's /owrnaZ.] f Alvares, c. 14. + Godig, p. 365. Chytraei de statu Ecclesicc \in Grcecia, Asia, Boemia, &c. Francof. 1583] p. 24. II Lib. 14, cap. 2. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 193 Under the Patriarch of Antioch, are the Christians called Syrians, from the place of their chief habitation ; and Melchites, which, according to the Syrian Etymology, is equivalent to Royalists ; because their Bishops have followed always in faith, and in their Councils, the example and authority of the Empe- rors of Constantinople. They inhabit, mingled with Mahomet- ans, part of Syria, Beritus, Tripoli s, Aleppo, and other places in Asia. Botero states* that they are the most numerous sort of Chris- tians in the East. They live under the jurisdiction of the Arch- bishop of Damascus, by the title of Patriarch of Antioch. For Antioch itself, (where the name of Christian was first heard in the world,) lying at present waste, or broken into small villages, the Patriarchal seat was translated thence to Damascus, where are reported to be above a thousand houses of Christians. For although the Patriarch of the Maronites and of the Jacob- ites, (whereof the former keeps residence in Libanus, and the latter in Mesopotamia,) entitle themselves Patriarchs of Antioch, and by the Christians of their own sects are so acknowledged ; yet do the Melchites, who retain the ancient Religion of Syria, acknowledge none for Patriarch, but the Archbishop of Damas- cus ; reputing both the other for Schismatics, as having departed from the obedience and communion of the true Patriarch. And yet beside all these, a fourth there is, of the Pope's desig- nation, who usurps the title of Patriarch of Antioch. For ever since the I^atins surprised Constantinople, (which was about the year 1200) and held the possession of the Eastern Empire about seventy years all which time the Patriarchs of Constantinople were consecrated by the Pope ; as also since the Holy Land and the Provinces about it were in the hands of the Christian Princes of the West, which began to be about the year 1 100, and so continued about eighty years; during which season the Patri- archs of Antiochia also and of Jerusalem were of the Pope's Con- gregation ; ever since then, I say, the Church of Rome has and does still create successively, imaginaiy or titular Patriarchs * Boter. relat. univers. par. 3, lib. 2. [Relations of the most famous Kingdoms and Commonwealths throughout the World translated out of the best Ttalian im- pression ofBoterusi 4to. Lond. 1630. This work of Botero was of some conse- quence in its day, this being the third English Edition.] N 194 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED (without jurisdiction) of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria : so loath is the Pope to lose the remembrance of any superiority or title which he has once compassed. The Georgians inhabit the country anciently named Iberia, betwixt the Euxine and the Caspian seas. The common opinion is that they obtained the name of Georgians from their devotion to St. George, whom they honour as their Patron, and whose image they bear in their military ensigns. Yet this seems to be but a vulgar error ; whereas mention was made of the nation of the Georgians in those parts both by Mela and Pliny before ever St. George was born.* Their Religion both in ceremony and substance resembles that of the Grecians, who yet were never subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople ; but all their Bishops, being eighteen, profess obedience to their own Metropolitan, w^ithout any higher dependence or relation ; who yet keeps resi- dence far off in the Monastery of St. Catherine on the hill of Sinai. These Christians live separately, by themselves, without mix- ture of Mahometans or Pagans, under their own King. They are a very wariike people, valiant in battle, of great strength and might, with an innumerable multitude of soldiers, very terrible to the Saracens ; as it is reported by Vitriacus the Cardinal. Neighbouring with the Georgians are the Mingrelians and Circassians, anciently called Colchi and Zychi, both of the Greek Religion, and subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople, as converted by his Ministers, Cyril and Metliodius,t to the Christian Religion. The Mingrelians inhabit Colchis, which lies near the Euxine sea. The Circassian country extends itself on the Maeotis 500 miles, and within land 200 miles. J These coun- tries bring forth the bravest warriors reputed in the East. * Mela lib. 1, c. 2. Plin. lib. 6, c. 13. Prateo, de hares. Sect, Verb. Georgiani. f Belon. Ohserv. lib. 1, c 35, + Mr. Herbert, p. 68. It may be proper here to subjoin the remark that we do not suppose Dr. Sail intended to make mere numbers an argument f(.r the truth of any doctrine; or because "a majority of the Christian world " (as it is sometimes phrased) is either induced or compelled to support a system of religious opinions, that they must therefore be admitted to be true. Dv. Sail simply intended to shew, it is presumed, that even with regard to numbers, he " too could something do." IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 195 CHAPTER XIV. Of the Jacobites, Armenians, Maronites, and Indians. The Jacobites derived this name (as Damascen and Nicephorus relate) from one Jacobus, sirnamed Zanzalus of Syria, who living about the year 530, was in his time a mighty promoter of Entyches' sect, respecting the unity of natures in our Saviour ; and his followers are at this day in great numbers known under the name of Jacobites, in Syria, Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and Palestine ; in which regions they are estimated to make about 160,000 families ; and are besides so far extended, that they are recorded to be spread abroad in some forty kingdoms.* They have a Patriarch of their own, whose Patriarchal Church is in the Monastery of Saphran, near the City of Mordin, in the North part of Mesopotamia. These Jacobites condemn Eutyches and bis error,t who confounded the two natures of Christ ; and they confess two natures to be united in Christ, and one personated nature to be made of the two natures not personated, without mixture or confusion. The Armenians for traffic (to which they are exceedingly addicted) are to be found in multitudes in most cities of great trade, especially in those in the Turkish empire, having more favour among the Turks than any other sect of Christians, by a patent granted to that nation under Mahomet's own hand ; as some report.^ So that no nation is more spread abroad in merchandizing than the Armenians, except the Jews ; yet the native regions, where they are found in greater multitude, and their Religion is most supported, are Armenia the Greater, named (since the Turks' first possession of it) Turcomania beyond Euphrates, and Cilicia, now called Caramania. The Armenians were anciently under the jurisdiction of the * Boter. relat. p. 3, lib. 2, c. de Giacohitis. Brcitenbach pereffrin. c. dc Jacohitis. f Tho. a Jesu de convers. lib. 7, p. I, c. 14. X Postel. lib. 22, de Unguis tit. dc lingua Armenica. N 2 196 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Patriarch of Constantinople ; but since the time of Photius, they have departed both from the government of that Patriarch, and from the communion of the Grecians; and ever since they ac- knowledge obedience, without further or higher dependence, to two Patriarchs of their own, whom they term Catholicos ; namely, the one of the greater Armenia, under whose jurisdiction are reputed to be above 150,000 families, besides very many Monas- teries. He keeps his residence* at present near the city of Erivan in Persia, being translated, at their first reduction to the Pope's obedience, thither, by occasion of the late wars between the Persians and the Turks ; his ancient seat having been Sebastia, the Metropolis of Armenia the greater. The other Patriarch of Armenia the Less, the families of whose jurisdiction are reckoned to be about 20,000, anciently kept at Melitene, the Metropolis of that Province, but now is resident in the city of Cis, not far from Tarsus in Cilicia; the middle limit of the jurisdictions of these two Patriarchs being the river Euphrates. The Maronites-^' were so named, not from an heretic called Maron, as some have erroneously written, but from a holy man of that name ; since in the book of Councils we find mention of the Monasteries of St. Maron. Their main habitation is in the mountain Libanus ; which, though it contain in circuit about 700 miles, and is possessed in a manner only by the Maronites, yet of all sects of Christians they are the least, as being accounted not to exceed 12,000 houses. Their Patriarch, who is usually a Monk of St. Antony, and has under his jurisdiction eight or nine Bishops, keeps his residence, for the most part, in Lebanon, in a Monastery of St. Antony. He professed obedience of late, together with all the Maronites, to the Bishop of Rome ;t being the only nation of the East, except the Indians, lately brought over to the Romish Communion, w'ho acknowledge that obedience. Gregory XIII. founded a Seminary in Rome for the training up of the youth of that nation in the Roman Religion % The Indian Christians, commonly called of St. Thomas, because * Possevin. Apparat. Sacr. torn 2, p. 70, edit. Col. Agrip. 1608. f Boter. relat. Pa. 3, lib. 2, c. de Maronitis. \ But the education given in this school being purely Monastic, the Pupils carry home little besides a knowledge of Italian, which is of no use to thera, and a smattering of technical theology. Conder's Analytical View of Religions, p. 47. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 197 by his preaching they are supposed to have been converted to the Christian Religion,* inhabit in the nearest part of India, nigh to Cape Comorin, being computed (before the Portuguese frequented those parts) at about 1 5,000 families. Their Archbishop formerly acknowledged obedience to the Patriarch of Moosul by the name of the Patriarch of Babylon ; as by those Christians of India he is still termed. But the Archbishop revolting from his former Patriarch, submitted himself of late, by the persuasion of the Portuguese, to the Bishop of Rome ; retaining, notwithstanding, the ancient Religion of his Country, which was also permitted by the Pope : insomuch that in a Synod held at Goa, for that purpose, he would not suffer any alteration to be made in their ancient rites or Religion, as one who lived in those parts at that time has recorded.f But that Bishop being dead, his Successor in another Synod held by the Archbishop of Goa, at Diamper,| not far from Maliapur, was induced to make profession, together with his Suffragans and Priests, both of the Roman obedience and Religion. * There is very little, or we might perhaps more properly say, no ground for this supposition. " While however we reject this account as applied to the South of India, we admit that there would be much less improbability in the Tradition if supposed to refer to the Northern Provinces bordering on the banks of the Indus. He (St. Thomas) might, without much difficulty, have visited some of the upper Provinces of Hindoostan. Origen, who lived in the third Century, says expressly that this Apostle preached in Parthia, Media, Caramania, and Bactriana." Hough's History of Christianity in India, vol. I, p 40. f Linschot. lib. 1, cap. 15. + This representation does not appear to be quite correct. The state of affairs is more accurately given in Hough's Protestant Missions vindicated against the Aspersions of N. Wiseman^ D.D. (Lond. 1837) pp. 71 4, from which we shall make a brief quotation : "The Synod was convened at Diamper in 1599, about a Century, it is important to remember, after the Portuguese first became acquainted with these Christians. The Decrees were the counterpart of those of the Council of Trent, adapted to the circumstances of the Syrian Church : and instead of anything like a discussion of the Archbishop's pretensions being allowed, he at once assumed them all, had his decrees read, and demanded the instant and unconditional assent of the assembly. The opposition manifested to this imperious and unjust mode of proceeding was instantly put down, vietarmis, and the Synod acceded to everything according to his dictation.'' See also the History of the Church of Malabar, by Michael Geddes, Lond. 1694, to which the acts of the Synod at Diamper are subjoined, and in Mr. Hough's second volume of his History of Christianity in India, together with very pertinent remarks extracted from Geddes, on several of its edicts and regulations. N 3 ^98 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Here the reader may note, how ready the Roman Court is to wink at any errors in the Proselytes whom they can purchase, provided they acknowledge the Pope's Supremacy ; that being secured, all is well ; the rest will come in with time, as has happened with these Indians. If not, that wise Court will stop where it cannot go further, and allow what they may not deny. For it is to be considered, that these Indians at their first reduction to the Pope's obedience, with permission to use their own rites and Religion, being Nestorians, held several articles contrary to the Roman faith. First, That there are two Persons in our Saviour, as well as two Natures ; that the blessed Virgin ought not to he termed Mother of God ; that Nestorius, condemned in the third and fourth General Council, and Diodorus of Tarsus, and Theodorus of Mopsuestia,^ condemned for Nestori- anism in the fifth, were holy men ; rejecting for their sake the third General Council held at Ephesus, and all other Coimcils after it, and especially detesting Cyril of Alexandi'ia. Thos, a Jesu de convers, Gent. lib. 7, c. 2. TJiey celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist with leavened Bread, f They communicate in both kinds. They use not Auricular Confession. Nor Confirmation. They celebrate the Communion, instead of with Wine, with the juice of Raisins, softened one night in Water, and so pressed forth. They baptized not their Infants, until they were forty days old. They used not Extreme Unction. * See Mosheim, Cent. 5pt. 2, ch.5; Gander's Analytical View of Religions ; pp. 40 65, and some good reflections of Luther upon the Councils, and their proceedings at Ephesus and Chalcedon ; quoted in Baxter's History of Councils defended, (Lond. 1682) pp. 17578. f The Doctrines and Customs of the Church of Malabar before the Synod of Diamper will be more accurately learnt from Mr. Hough's History of Christianity in India, vol. 2, pp. 1320. " They denied the doctrine of Transubstantiation. The Syrians maintained the spiritual presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament, and rejected as an absurdity the figment of the actual presence when first brought to their notice." p. 14. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 199 TJieir Priests were married, and after the death of their first Wives, had the liberty of the second, third and oftener Mart'iage- They had no images of Saints in their Churches, hut only the Cross. Other particular tenets, peculiar to each one of the afore- mentioned societies of Christians inhabiting the East, may be seen in Mr. Brerewood and Mr. Pagitt, in their relations of these Churches. In short, we may say, they agree with our Reformed Churches of Europe, as well in asserting the fundamentals of Christian Religion as in reproving the novel errors of the Roman Church, and detesting the arrogancy of it, in pretending to a Supremacy over all* other Christian Churches, and condemning all who will not submit to their pretensions herein. m 200 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER XV. A reflexion upon the contents of the Chapters preceding, and upon the pride and cruelty of Romanists, in condemning and despising all Christian Societies not subject to their jurisdiction. Certainly if those bold and blind zealots of the Roman Church, who can speak no peaceable word, nor entertain any charitable thought of any man who is not of their communion, would but reflect upon the contents of the three chapters preceding, and consider how many illustrious nations, and numerous societies of men, serve God sincerely both in the Eastern and Western Churches, many under continual persecution and suffering for their Religion ; they would abate their pride in despising all who are not of their way, and moderate their fury in condemning all to hell fire, who will not pay subjection to their Pope.* When the Emperor Charles V. had reduced the city of Ghent from a revolt, one of his Peers counselled him that he should rase to the ground that great city. The generous Emperor, in order to win that Counsellor to milder thoughts, brought him to an elevated spot, whence he could view the vast extent and rare beauty of that city ; which when he had viewed and considered, he could not find in his heart to persist in his former severe * St. Alphonso Maria de Liguori, who has been lately canonized, thus speaks of tlie Calvinists in France, in his Storia dclV Eresie colle loro con/utazioni, pub- lished at Venice in 1773. " In the year 1572 another great battle followed on St. Bartholomew's day, in which a slaughter of the Calvinists took place. Historians estimate the total number of Calvinists who perished in this war at 100,000. A fine triumph for Hell just at the time when Calvin had taken up his abode in it." And again ; *' Let eternal praise then be given to Louis XIV,, who first, by means of preach- ers effected the humiliation of this cursed sect of Calvinists (questa maledetta secta del Calvinisti) and then punished them with such severity that many returned to the Catholic faith, and the contumacious departed from the King- dom, for which Innocent XL in 1685, wrote him a letter of congratulation and great praise for his zeal " We are indebted for these extracts to the Bath Protestant, December^ 1839. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 201 judgment, of having it ruined. Inhumanly cruel he must be, who, considering the number and splendor of nations and people mentioned in the preceding Chapters, serving Christ, without dependence upon the Pope of Rome, will have them all consigned to hell. When Scapula President of Carthage threatened the Christians with cruel usage, Tertullian bade him bethink himself, " What wilt thou do with so many thousands of men and women of every sex, age, and dignity, as will freely offer themselves ? What fires, what swords, wilt thou stand in need of! What is Car- thage itself likely to suffer, if decimated by thee, when every one shall see there his near kindred and neighbours, and shall see there matrons and men perhaps of thy own rank and order, and the most principal persons of either the kindred or friends of those who are thy own nearest friends ? Spare them for your own sake, if not for ours."* And in his Apology, speaking of the vast spread of that party " Though (says he) we are men of quite another way, yet have we filled all places among you ; your cities, islands, castles, corporations, councils ; nay, your armies themselves, your tribes, companies, yea, the Palace, the Senate, and the Courts of Jus- tice." f Certainly these expressions of Tertullian so tender and pressing, could not choose but work upon the mind of Scapula, and win him to a milder dealing with the Christians. I would desire N. N. and others of the Roman Church, severe censurers of their Christian brethren, to reflect upon the number and quality of those whom they condemn, and are endeavouring to ruin, by the notices delivered in the three last Chapters preceding ; and that they would consider with how much propriety the words of Tertullian may be addressed to them. What power will they require to subdue the rest of Christianity, alien from their com- munion, so far exceeding themselves in number and forces, as has been above declared ? And in case they should subdue them ; what fire and sword would suffice to destroy them ? And if all should attend their wishes ; what heart could endure to see such multitudes of their dear countrymen, friends and nearest relations, perish, whether temporally by their decrees, tending to the ruin of * Ad Scapulam, c. 5, p. 71. ^j^^lb* t ^^' *^- ^'^> P- ^^' ^ 202 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED all Christians not submitting to their power ; or everlastingly, by the cruel verdict of eternal damnation, which they pronounce against all Dissenters ? I know some of them will say, that this severe sentence is not of their making, but delivered by Christ, against all who will not obey his Vicar upon earth, the Pope of Rome, And possible it is, that some of the simpler sort may believe so. But it is long since I knew and proved, that none sufficiently conversant in the principles of their own Theology, could seriously think it to be so ; but that according to their principles it is blasphemy and heresy, to say without restriction, and in general terms (as com- monly they do) that none may be saved out of the communion of the Roman Church. And my antagonist I. S. tells us, I did not trespass therein against truth of doctrine, but against policy or prudence, as he calls it, whereby I put a great stop to the conver- sion of Protestants, if people should be led to suppose that out of the Romish communion any may be saved. So that the prudence demanded from me, was to fashion my doctrine to the increase of the Pope's dominion, be it with truth or untruth ; and pronounce sentence of damnation against all Christians not subject to them, though I should know no such sentence to be against them in the judgment of God. I wish my good brethren of the Roman Church would but reflect upon and acknowledge, the great injury which they are doing to themselves, in breeding and fomenting this unchristian hostility, with the whole society of Christians separated from their communion, so numerous and illustrious as we have seen in the preceding Chapters ; imprinting hatred towards all, in the hearts of their children ; which forcibly must excite a return of hatred, or disaffection and mistrust. How incommodious it is to create to themselves so many enemies ! how uneasy and disadvan- tageous, to bereave themselves of the free and amiable society, of so many noble nations and brave people, whom the apprehension of heresy makes intractable to them ! What happened to me in the case of a Spanish young man, who came in my company out of Spain into England, makes me more sensible of the misery which Romanists bring upon them- selves in this way. He was, of his own disposition, cheerful and sociable ; but as soon as he came among the English people, his IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 203 heart and countenance fell down, and he appeared sad and melancholic. I enquired of him the cause of that alteration ; he answered, that he looked upon all these men as Heretics, which made their very sight odious to him, and their company displeas- ing. The man did not well know what Heresy was ; and much less did he know, whether those whom he saw were Heretics, or not. He acknowledged them to be good men, just and civil in their dealings, and adorned with noble gifts of God; yet the prejudice with which he was inflamed against them, by conceiving them to be Heretics, made their sight and company odious to him. Would not this man have been more happy in conceiving a better opinion of the people ? Would it not have caused him to live with more ease and comfort among them ? not to mention now that higher advantage and duty, of maintaining charity towards all men. w 204 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER XVI. Inferences from the 'preceding doctrine of this whole treatise against the several objections of N. N. He who has not considered the order which I proposed to observe in this treatise, and sees me going through many Chapters of it, debating with Suarez and other Romish writers, without any mention of N. N. may think that I have neglected or forgotten him and his book. But if he will call to mind my purpose made in the beginning, of cutting down by the root the whole fabric of the said book, he shall find, I am still engaged upon my intended work. The ground and foundation of all the cries and complaints of N, N. against me, is a supposition, that 1 have left the Catholic Church and Faith, by withdrawing from the communion of the Roman Church, and embracing this of England. In the whole course of this Treatise, I have proved, that the Church of Eng- land is in all propriety Catholic ; and the Faith professed in it truly Catholic and Apostolic ; and all this by rules and principles taken from the ablest of Romish writers, for prosecuting this enquiry : whereby it remains proved, that all the exclamations of N. N. against me, proceeded upon a false supposition, and conse- quently are vain and groundless. Hence I infer, first, how vain is his query, and more vain his divining answer, about what drew me out of God's house ? It appears by what is said hitherto, and will be farther declared in the rest of this book, that in my change I did not leave the house of God, but removed to the best and soundest part of it; that no private spirit or rash fancy moved me; but a sincere acknow- ledgment of truth, by the ordinary means which God has disposed for our attainment of it. I infer secondly, how groundless and unreasonable his preten- sion is, that I should have quitted the holy Doctors, Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome, and all the ancient Fathers and Catholic Divines. He does not tell how or wherein I have TN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 205 deserted that noble company ; neither indeed were it easy for him 10 shew it. I live, and firmly resolve to die, in the same Catholic Church in which they lived and died ; and in the profession of the same Catholic and Apostolic faith, which they professed. The same, and no other faith is professed in the Church of England; whose communion I have embraced, as has been sufficiently demonstrated hitherto ; and I hope by the merits and grace of our Saviour Jesus, to enjoy the company of those blessed saints in heaven, maugre all the censures of Rome. Neither was I ever closer with those holy Fathers in the Romish Church, than I am now in the English. It is one of the perverse calumnies of our adversaries, to assert, that there is not due regard paid to them here. I see the contrary. I have observed diligently the ways of the Universities, and method of study with learned men in England and Ireland ; and I perceive with them far greater application to the study and reading of holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church, than ever I saw amongst Romanists. Whilst the most learned of these are spending their life and forces in speculative notions, only serving school debates; learned Protestants employ their time more happily in the study of the Holy Scriptures, of Fathers, and credible histories. I infer thirdly^ how rash and injurious is his censure, in saying, that by embracing the Confession contained in the XXXIX. Articles of the Church oi England, I have made myself partaker of all the Heresies, and an associate of all the Heretics, that were from the beginning of the world to this day. Of these he makes a great list, beginning with Lucifer, whom he will have to be the first Heretic before man's creation; and from him proceeds to Lamech, the Giants, and all those who entered not into the Ark, but perished in the Deluge, who were all Heretics, says he. Then he brings up Cham, with the builders of Babel ; Esau ; Jannes and Jambres ; Corah and Dathan ; Nadab and Abihu ; all those strange kings who made war against the children of Israel, and all the false Prophets of Baal. Of all these Heretics, he says, I am become an associate, by embracing the Confession contained in the XXXTX. Articles of the Church of England.* But is not all this rage without any mixture of reason ? Is it not * N. N.; or, Doleful Fall, chap. 16. 206 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED a sufficient confutation of the man, and a foul confusion to him, to repeat this raving speech of his ? In what part of the XXXIX. Articles, or of the three Creeds which we use in the Church of England, will he find those Heresies which he appropriates to us? But he will come nearer home, and make a long narrative of errors and vices related of Luther^ Calvin^ Melancthon, and others, who contributed by their writings to the Reformation of the Church. To which I say, Jirst, that I have but too much reason not to believe all that they say of their opposers. Secondly, that though some of those, who concurred in the Reformation, should have fallen, as men, into some vices or errors ; the Refor- mation itself (which certainly was a work of God) ought not to be undervalued on that account. The sacred College of the Apostles, the first founders of the Christian Church, had in it one as bad as Judas : shall the whole College of the Apostles, and the Religion founded by them be disesteemed, because of such an occurrence ? Several of those renowned Fathers, Preachers and defenders of the Gospel after the Apostles in the Primitive Church, as Origen, Tertullian, Sec. through human frailty, were guilty of no few errors ;* shall we therefore despise the work they did, and the healthful part of their doctrine ? If you should tell me of some doctrine imposed upon us as an article of belief, and rule of manners, that was heretical, or opposite to the Law of God, that were pertinent to work upon me; but this I am certain you will never be able to do ; and no less certain am I, that your Church is guilty of such impositions upon its followers, as I shall demon- strate by several instances in the second part of this treatise. But to tell me of vices and errors of particular persons is both misplaced and imprudent ; I knowing so much how matters go on your side. I appeal to your own knowledge by what you have seen and heard of the Court of Rome ; and, if you will conceal your knowledge herein, I remit yourself, and the reader, not to Protestant Historians, whom haply you may suspect ; but to your own most qualified, as Platina, Onuphriiis, and even Baronius. Read in them the acts and lives of several of those your holy * The XlVth. CJiapter of Walch's Bihliotheca Pairistica will afford a sufficient commentary upon this remark. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 207 Fathers, and infallible oracles of doctrine the Popes of Rome ; consider the transactions of John the Xlllth, about the year 966; or, of Sylvester the Ilnd, about the year 999; or, of /o/m the XVIIIth, about the year 1003 ; or, of Benedict the IXth, about the year 1033; or, of Gregory the VII th, about the year 1080; or, Boniface the Vlllth, about the year 1294 ; or, o^ Alexander the Vlth, and of his outrageous son Caesar Borgia, about the year 1494 ;* and you shall find them to be such men, that no Epicu- * The passages are quoted in Baxter's Key for Catholics, (p. 250, edit. 1839;) to which may be added one not so commonly adduced, from Rolwinck de Laer's Fasciculus temp, (apud Rerum German. Scripp. torn, 2, p. 331, Ratisb. 1726) ann. 994: " Heu, heu, domine Deus, quomodo obscuratum est aurum, mutatus est color optimus ! Qualia contigisse circa haec tempora etiam in sancta sede Apos- tolica, quam usque hue tanto zelo custodisti, legimus scandala ! Quales conten- tiones, et asmulationes, intrusiones, persecutiones ! O tempus pessimum," &c. And still more loud complaints were made, even after the Reformation in the 16th Century had set in, by Martin Cromer in 1542, at a Synod held at Peter- cow in Poland. *' Thomas de Plasa edidit Colonise 1566 Cromeri sermones tres Synodicos Card. Commendono dedicatos, quorum primura an. 1542 Petricoviae in Synodo provinciali habuit de tuenda dignitate sacerdotii." An extract, which is made by Cypriani, is so remarkable, that it should be quoted : " Quid mirum, si nunc tam contemptum ac propemodum abominabile vulgo est sacerdotium, quando omnia haec, quas priscos illos venerandos et admirabiles faciebant, in nobis desiderantur ? Nemo officium suum facit, ac ne norunt quidem plerique. Omnes cultu divino ethominum nobis commendatorum salute neglecta, bonis pauperum et patrimonio Christi flagitiose et indigne abutimur, et in vicarios munera nostra rejicimus; atque utinam in iis tamen delectum aliquem probitatis atque doctrinse haberemus; utinamque ii non alios porro pro se vicarios subjicerent. Et quod pejus est, eo ventum est, ut nos sacerdotes esse, haberi, dieique pudeat. In omne scelerum et flagitiorura genus, pudore omni metuque profligato, projecti sumus : et peccata nostra, quemadmodum Sodoma, praedicamus. Quid mirum si contemnimur, vexamur, exagitaraur, diripimur et exshibilamur passim ? atque nostris quidem odio, haereticis vero ludibrio sumus ? Recessimus de via, et plurimos ofFendimus in lege: Irritum fecistis pactum Lem, dicit Dominus exercituum per Malachiam ; propter quod et ego dedi vos contempt- ibiles et humiles omnibus populis. Mittam in vos egestatem, et maledicam benedic- tionibus vestris. Et per Ozeam, Gloriam, inquit, vestram in ignominiam commutabo. Magis certe mirandum est, religionem Christianam non proculcari vulgo, et explodi, cum tantum absint Sacerdotes, primores etiam, utpossint rudes erudire, aut errantes in viam reducere, ut vix noverint nonnuUi, quare dicantur Chris- tiani, quamque vim habeat, et in quo posita sit Christiana Religio. Quid porro rairamur non poscere eos, qui neque oves, neque pabula norunt, ac neque quid sit pastoris officium ? Quid miramur, non docere eos, qui nunquam ipsi didice- runt? An nos, Patres, non libamus forlunae, cum fructus et emolumenta sacer- dotii, non sacedotium ipsuin, consectamur? Et vivat, seutiat, credatque, ut vnlt quisque, dummodo commoda nostra nobis salva sint, si non verbis reipsa 208 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED rean monster storied out to the world, has outgone them in sensuality, cruelty, tyranny, and all manner of vice. And while I have in my memory, and before mine eyes, unfeigned histories of this kind ; do you spare heaping fables against some particular persons who concurred in the Reformation. But who will not be astonished at the man's disingenuousness in reproaching me and the Church of England, with the tenets or madness of the Quakers, which he relates at the end of the sixteenth Chapter of his book ; knowing and confessing in the same place, that they are reproved and punished by this Church ; and that the author of them, James Naylor, was condemned to a perpetual imprisonment, after being whipped publicly, and his tongue bored with a burning iron. May not I, with the same reason, reproach him and his Church, with the horrid impieties of the Jews, Moors, and Atheists ; as thick set in Spain and Italy, as Quakers among us ? But were that fair dealing, when I know that such sects are not approved of, but rather punished in those Countries ? Why then, for shame, will N. N. tell me, that I am become one of the Society of Quakers, by adheriug to the Church of England ? he telling at the same time how severely they are punished among us. And if I were of his temper for entertain- ing common readers with stories and rarities of this kind, I could with more ground of truth, and therefore sensibly, return upon him a large sum of practices, which to impartial judgments would appear no better than madness ; yet daily used by persons and societies approved and applauded in his Church. But I certe palam loquimur. Itaque etiam sacerdotiorum nomine antiquato, beneficia vulgo appellamus, quasi quae non, ut aliquo munere fungamur, sed ut bene sit nobis, dentur. Unde impise illcB et horrendae voces natae sunt, cum patronorum in beneficii loco sacerdotia clientibus data exprobrantium, tum clientum merce- dis nomine ea vel jactantium vel efflagitantium. Quo fit, ut omni alia cura exclusa, nocte dieque census, decimas, fructus, et prsedia istorum ipsorum beneficiorum, ut vocamus, privatim atque publice, vel in abaco, vel in digitis computemus : Divinas vero scripturas procul a cubiculis, mensis, contuberniis, collegiis, conventibus, et omni vitas nostras consuetudine relegavimus. Nee sacra Prophetarum, Apostolorum et Christi ipsius Servatoris nostri verba unquam fere in sermonibus nostris usurpamus, praeter, quod non sine magno animi dolore dico, joci gratia, cum maxime videri volumus argutuli atque ridiculi.'' The speaker afterwards became Bishop of Warmia in Eastern Prussia. See Tabularium Eccles. Rowi., moumcnta Cone. Trid. Hist, illustrantta ; publicavit E. S. Cyprianus ,) Francof. 1743) pp. 205, 6. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. reserve my time and labour for more serious and becomf^f^ji^ork ; in the mean time I remit him to Sir Edwin Sandys' s Book^ 'Con- taining a Survey of the Western Church ; where he shall see set down, with candour and ingenuousness, becoming a gentleman and a Christian, the rites and customs which he saw practised in several societies of the Roman Church. He does not grudge to praise them, where he finds them praiseworthy, neither does he sour his pen in relating their faults. If you will be ingenuous, you will confess, that he says nothing but what you yourself know to be in practice ; and if long custom, and passion acquired by it, has not blinded your judgment, you shall perceive many of those practices to be as unreasonable and mad as any of those which you relate of the Quakers. And if you will have a more exact and vigorous discussion of this point, go to Dr. Stilling- fleet's book,* where he speaks of the Fanaticism practised in the Church of Rome ; and you shall find in it confusion enough, and reason to refrain from objecting to us the follies of the Quakers. And whereas you pretend to frighten me by representing to me errors of particular members of the Protestant Church ; if I would resolve to make a return to you of that kind, I could make my book swell and the reader's heart tremble, by relating the Heresies, Blasphemies, and execrable doctrines, which I have heard preached and seen printed by persons of your Church. I will only relate to you for example, some few propositions of books that came to my own hands ; the one was of a grave preacher who was pre- * A discourse concerning the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome jvith a particular account of the Fanaticisms and Divisions of that Church, Lond. 1671, chap. 4. Sworn members of the Church of Rome seldom venture upon any defence of the strange narratives contained in this volume. They endeavour to affix similar aberrations upon the Church of England, and, as in the present day, are in the habit of referring, most absurdly, to Johanna Southcote ; vfho could have made a good female, as Mr. John Nichols Thorn, would, a good male, saint of the modern Church of Rome. We should like to be informed of the difference between Mr. Thom's method, in acquiring proselytes, keeping them, and treatment of them ; and the proceedings of many a Romish Priest both of modern and former days. To Dr. Stillingfleet's book may be added, Brevint's Saul and Samuel at Endor ; or new rvaies of salvation and service, which tempt men to Rome ; Oxford, 1 674 the various Chapters of which will fully justify Sail's statements, unless the reader is tired or grieved (as well he may) with a perusal of the befoolings and delusions practised upon an unsuspecting and hood-winked population. O 210 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED paring for the press a large volume of Commentaries upon the Gospel of St. Mark. This book was sent by the Provincial of his Order to be examined by me ; and having read it with atten- tion, I voted against the printing of it, for several faults which I specified in my censure ; but especially for containing some desperately blasphemous propositions, as this following, relating to St. John the Evangelist: Joannis ecccellentia titulo dilecti maxima est; major est quam Redemptoris etiam in Deo. Tanta est, quanta esse Deum trinum et unum ; imo propter hoc verhum caro factum est. For the understanding of which mad piece of Rhetoric, it is to be considered, that there are two sects of Nuns ; the one passion- ately bent upon extolling St. John the Evangelist above St. John the Baptist; the other preferring with no less pertinacity the Baptist before the Evangelist. Our preacher before mentioned, in order to please the Nuns of the Evangelist, delivered that prodigious Paradox, which in English may be rendered thus: Exceeding great is the excellency of St. John, upon the account of being the beloved. It is greater than that of a Redeemer even in God ; it is so great, as to be God in trinity and unity : nay, for this cause the fVord was made flesh. Go now and compare this piece of doctrine with any of those which you relate of the Protestant writers; and if it has not surpassed them all, add to it what follows. Being advertised by the Inquisitor General of Spain, at the second time he sent me a License for reading prohibited books, that 1 had not given him account of what censurable propositions I might have lighted upon in my reading, as he had charged me to do, in the instrument of such a Licence, which he had sent me the year before ; I forwarded to him a list of some perverse doctrines which I saw in books approved, and in much use among themselves (for Protestant books I could find none to give account of;) among which were the three propositions following prefixed for titles to so many moral discourses of Leander de Murcia* in his Commentaries on the book of Esther. The first runs thus Adeo efficax est mortis memoria ad reducendos in * A Capuccine of the city of Murcia, where he was Professor of Theology. The Commentary was printed at Madrid 1647. Antonio Biblioth. Hisp. nov 2. 13, IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 211 meliorem f rug em homines, ut non solum ipsi, sed etiam Deus Opt. Max. proposita ante oculos morte in meliora contendat The recollection of death is so powerful to reduce men unto a better life ; that not only they, hut even God Almighty himself laying death before his eyes becomes better. The second was this Etiam Dmmon morte ante oculos constituta, contendit in meliora even the Devil looking upon death, mends himself. The third proposition was Tanta dilectione prosecutus estfilius Dei homines, ut pro ipsis quasi insanire videatur The love of the Son of God to men has been so great, that he seems to be mad for them. And if thus the case stands, even in books current and approved among you, what if I should relate the doctrines of others censured and prohibited by your Inquisitions ! as you and your party frequently upbraid our Church with erroneous doctrines of private individuals, which we utterly detest, and our learned men vigor- ously oppose, by word and pen, in pulpits, books, and the schools. o 2 212 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER XVII. The Reformation of the Church of England vindicated from the slanderous aspersions of N. N. and other Romanists. It is very usual with the Zealots of the Romish Church to make Henry the Vlllth sole author of the Reformation of the English Church; loading that Prince with bitter invectives and odious reports, thereby to render the Reformation itself contemptible : to which N. N. in the 14th Chapter of his book adds a slanderous relation of the lives and behaviour of some Monks and Friars from Germany, whom he pretends to have been the authors and contrivers of the XXXIX Articles of the Church of England. I will not repeat the many idle stories which he tells of them, more fit to divert simple persons of his own credulity, during winter nights at the fire, than to work on serious and intelligent men. I have chosen for a more short and solid way, rather to justify our cause, by positive arguments, than to follow our adversaries in sifting fopperies. To this purpose I will lay for the foundation of my present discourse, that the whole frame of the Reformation stands upon two points : whereof the first, and most resented at Rome, is the denying of the Pope's supremacy, and the withdrawing of the Church of England from subjection to him. The second is the Reformation of the Liturgy and doctrine of the said Church from errors and corruptions introduced into it. As for \he first, it is clear and evident, that neither Henry the Vlllth., nor Luther, nor Calvin, nor any of those strangers mentioned by N. N. were authors or causers of the freedom of the Church of England from subjection to the Pope of Rome ; this freedom being by its own right inherent in it from the beginning of its Christianity, however King Henry's valour and resolution broke off effectually the tyrannical usurpations of Rome, which for a long time oppressed the English Church and nation, notwithstanding their continual reluctancy, and complaint against those Romish extortions. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 213 Far were those good Christians who inhabited England before the time of Gregory the Great from giving or owning obedience to the Bishop of Rome ; and accordingly, when Austin came hither, about the year 590, and demanded their obedience to the Church of Rome, the Abbot of Bangor returned him answer That they were obedient to the Church of God, to the Pope of Rome, and to every godly Christian, to love every one in his degree in Charity, to help them in word and deed, to he the children of God; and other obedience than this they did not acknowledge due to him, whom he named to be Pope, nor [did they consider him] to be Father of Fathers.* And if Austin pretended to such a subjection from England to Rome, as the Popes of it now would have, certainly he exceeded his commission ; for St. Gregory, who sent him, never pretended to that Supremacy to which his successors aspire ; as we shall demonstrate in the 15th Chapter of the second part of this treatise : and how far he was from pretending England to be under his jurisdiction, may appear by what is related of him,t that, being told that certain children were de Britannica Insula, he did not know whether the Country were Christian or Pagan. The filial and voluntary respect and obedience, which the holiness and learning of Gregory and some other good Popes gained among the English, gave occasion to others following, of less merit, to pretend to a right to such obedience ; which being perceived by the Kings, they prohibited all appeals to Rome, and the coming of Legates from thence, and so much as the receiving of letters without the King's licence,^ as may appear by Paschal the Ilnd's. letter to Henry I. expostulating with Concil. Spelm. p. 108 ; [and in the Concilia M. Brit, a Wilkins, torn 1, p. 26, where it is placed under the year 601.] f Joh. Diacon. 1. 1, e. 21, Vita Greg. , % Rather too much credit is sometimes given, or too much stress placed upon those occasional reluctances to be totally, and at all times, servants of the Bishop of Rome, In many cases, as Rivet most truly remarks, " vix ulterius processer- unt plerique, quam ut Pontificum sisterent audaciam in iis quae spectabant regia jura." (Apologeticus pro vera pace eccles. .10:) when the encroachments in this quarter had been repelled, the agents of the Bishop of Rome were either suffered, or contrived, to practice, in the usual style, upon the other parts of society, who could offer less or no resistance. Apud Concill. Gen. Studio Labbei torn x, col. 710, and the Council at Rheims (together with a long extract from Ordericus Vitalis) col. 865. o3 214 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED him about this particular, in these words Sedis ApostoliccB nuncii vel literce, pradter jussum regi(B Majestatis, nullam in potestate tua susceptionem aut aditum promerentur, nullus inde clamor, nullum inde judicium ad sedem Apostolicam destinatur, &C.- This happened in an. 1115, notwithstanding the King stood upon his resolution; so as in the year following 1119, sending his Bishops to a Council held by Calixtus the llnd. at Rheiras, at their departing he gave them instructions, not to complain of each other, because himself would right each of them at home ; that they should salute the Pope from him,* hear his precepts, but bring no superfluous devices or innovations into his kingdom. True it is, that several of our godly Kings generally permitted that appeals should be made to Rome, in matters wherein our own Bishops could not agree, and directions to be sought from thence, as from a flourishing and learned Church, not as a superior Judicature. And when the Roman Bishops pretended to any such superiority, our Kings protested against it. Thus Henry Vth. demanded of Martin IVth. some particulars, to which his ambassadors not finding the Pope ready to assent, told him that, they had orders to protest be/ore him, that the King would use his own right in those particulars, as things which he demanded, not out of necessity, hut for the honour and respect he was willing to shew to that See; and that they should make a public protestation thereof before the whole College of Cardinals.f And to this purpose are sundry examples remaining on record;! where the King at the Petition of the Commons, for redress of some things amiss belonging to Ecclesi- astical cognizance, first chooses to write to the Pope ; but on his delay, or failing to give satisfaction, does either himself by statute redress the inconveniency, or command the Archbishop to see it done. For certain it is, by the course of all our Chronicles and histories, that our Kings, together with the convocation of their Bishops and Clergy, had in themselves absolute and entire power * Orderi. Vitalis, p. S57. Jte Dominum Papam de parte mea salutate, et Apostolica prcecepta humiliter audite ; sed superfluas inventiones regno meo inferre noltte. f Arthur Due. in Vita Henrici Chichly, pp. 56, 57. + Rot. Parliam. 17, Edward III., n. 59. 25. Edw. III. oct. purif. n. 13, 7, Hen. IV. n, 1 14. 13. Hen. VI. n. 38. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 215 of governing and reforming the Church of this Kingdom, without any dependency upon any foreign authority. It was never doubted, neither could it be denied upon any warrantable ground, that they had within their own dominions, the same power which Constantino had in the Empire; and that our Bishops had the same which St. Peter had in the Church. On which account, since the erection of Canterbury into an Archbishopric, the Bishops of that See were held, Quasi alterius orhis Papce, as Urban the Ilnd. styled them ;* and were accustomed to exercise vices Apostolicas in Anglia ; that is, they used the same power within this Island which the Pope did in other parts, f And in our writers the Archbishop of Canterbury is frequently called Princeps Episcoporum Anglice, Pontifex Summtis,X Patri- archa.^ King Edgar asserted this power to be in himself, and in his Clergy, in his memorable speech made to them, Ego Constantini, vos Petri, gladium hahetis in manibus / hear in my hand the sword of Constantino, and you that o/* Peter. || And therefore as the affairs of most concerns in the Church had their dependance upon the Emperor, and the holy men of those times did not doubt to continue to him the style of Pontifex Maximus, asBaroniusnotesH sine till a Christianitatis lahe so King Edgar** was solicitous for the Church of his Kingdom, veluti Domini sedulus Agricola, et Pastorum Pastor and vvTote himself the Vicar of Christ, and by his laws and Canonsft he made known, that he did not assume those titles in vain. King Edward the Confessor, J J a canonized saint, declared the * Malms, de Pontif. lib. 1, in Anselm fol. 127, 15. p. 223, edit. Franco/. 1601, f Eadmer. p. 27. + lb. p. 107. 33. Gervas. Dorob. col. 1663. 54. jl Apud Ailred. col. 361, 16. ^ Tom. 3, an. 312, n. 106. [The Editions of Baronius seem to have been altered about this portion of the history. The 93 . would suit better as a reference ; but neither there, nor in the section quoted by Sail, do the identical words appear.] ** Regularis Concordia, &c. Not. Seldeni ad Eadmerum, p. 146, 16. ft Concil. Spelm. a p. 444, ad p. 476. XX Leg. Edw. Confess, c. 1.5. [in Concilia M. Brit, a Wilkins, torn l,p 312.] Rex qui vicarius summi Regis est, ad hoc est constitutus, ut regnum terrenura et populum Domini et super omnia sanctam veneretur Ecclesiam ejus, et regat, et ab injuriis defendat. 216 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED same, and practised accordingly : The King, says he, being Vicar of the Supreme King, his duty is to govern the earthly kingdom, and defend the people of the Lord from injuries, and over all to reverence, govern, and defend his Church. The same was declared and practised by Ina,* whom Baronius [an. 740, .14] styles a most pious King, by Canutef acknowledged for a most bountiful benefactor of Churches, and of the servants of God Erga Ecclesias atque Dei servos, benignissimus largitor, as Fulbertus CarnotensisJ relates of him, and several other godly Kings of England; whose several laws respecting Ecclesiastical affairs, you may see related by Jornallens, c. 2, col. 761 ; c. 5, col. 830 ; c. 23, col. 921 ; as also the laws of Emperors to the same purpose in the books of Theodosius and Justinian. || The Emperors often employed their Bishops and Divines in resolving upon wholesome Decrees respecting Church affairs ; and these Decrees they themselves espoused for Laws, so as the transgressors of them should be subject to penalties. This same course our Kings have taken as well in former ages, as in this latter of the Reformation of our Church. Henry VIII. having those occasions of discontent with Pope Clement VII. (which as being well known I omit to relate,) and being urged by the States of the Kingdom to execute at last what had been for a long time desired, and often attempted in England, viz. to throw off the usurped power and jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome over this Kingdom ; in order to proceed with due legality and considera- tion in so weighty a matter, wrote to the Universities, and great Monasteries and Churches of the Kingdom, in the year 1534 ; and the 18th of May, of the same year, to the University of Oxford, requiring them like men of virtue and profound literature, diligently to entreat, examine, and discuss a certain question, * Leg. Inae in Praef. p. 1. t Leg. fol. 11, p. 109. X Epist. 97, fol. 93, Canut. [Fulbert of Chartres flourished in 1007. Vid. Henr. Gandaven. de Scripp, Eccles, in Fabricii Biblioth. Eccles. p, 118, where it is stated, " scripsit Epistolas multas."] [Jo. Brompton] Jornallens. [in Sir R. Twysden's Collection of English Historians, Lond. 1652.] II Codex Theodos. de feriis, de nuptiis &e. de fide Catholica, de Episcopis Eoclesiis et clericis, de monachis, de haereticis, de Apost. de Religione, de Epis- copali judicio, et cod. Just. I. 1, tit. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, et passim in eo. IN THE CHUaCH OF ENGLAND. 217 viz. An Romanus Episcopus haheat major em aliquam Juris- dictionem sihi collatam in Sacra Scriptura in hoc Regno Angliw, quam alius Externus Episcopus Whether the Bishop of Rome had an'^ greater Jurisdiction given to him in Holy Scripture over this Kingdom of England, than any other foreign Bishop ; and to return their opinion in writing under the common seal, according to the mere and sincere truth of the same. To which, after mature deliberation and examination, they returned answer That he hath no such jurisdiction IN THIS LAND. The words of the University of Oxford on returning their answer to the King upon this subject, the 27th of June, of the aforesaid year 1534, which I saw in the Records of that Univer- sity,* are as follows : "Post susceptam itaque per nos quaestionem antedictam, cum omni humilitate, devotione, ac debita reverentia, convocatis undique dictae nostras Academiae Theologis, habitoque complurium dierum spatio, ac deliberandi tempore satis ample, quo interim cum omni qua potuimus diligentia, Justitiae Zelo, Religione et conscientia incorrupta, perscrutaremur, tam Sacrae Scripturae libros, quam super eisdem approbatissimos interpretes, et eos quidem saepe et saepius a nobis evolutos et exactissime collates, repetitos et examinatos, deinde et disputationibus solennibus palam et publico habitis, et celebratis, tandem in banc sententiam unanimiter omnes convenimus, ac Concordes fuimus, viz. Romanum Episcopum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere siBi a Deo collatam in Sacra Scriptura in hoc Regno ANGLIiE, QUAM ALIUM QUEMVIS EXTERNUM EpISCOPUM." We therefore, after having taken in hand this question with all humility, devotion and due reverence, the Divines of our Uni- versity being called together from all places, and the space of many days and time enough being given for deliberating, in order that with all diligence possible, zeal for Justice, Religion and upright conscience, we should search as well the books of Holy Scripture, as the most approved interpreters of them ; and they being very often consulted by us, and most exactly compared together, reviewed and examined; and moreover * In the Concilia. M. Brit, a Wilkins, torn 43, pp. 775 6. 218 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED having celebrated and held public and solemn disputes on this subject, at last we have all unanimouslg agreed upon this sentence, viz. That the Bishop of Rome hath not any more JURISDICTION GIVEN TO HIM BY GoD IN HOLY SCRIPTURE, IN THIS Kingdom of England, than any other Foreign Bishop HATH. Having met with this religious and learned declaration of the University of Oxford, I thought convenient to relate it here, as well for the authority which the opinion of this great University is apt to give to the matter ; as also, that it may be to us an argument of the zeal and diligence, wherewith the other Schools, Monasteries, and Churches proceeded to deliver their opinions upon this subject. And if that be true, which the Famous Canonist Navar* affirms, (and now is more commonly said and confirmed by Casuists and Canonists) that he who does anything, following therein the opinion of one Doctor of known learning and piety (though others may be of a contrary opinion) is excused, though haply what he did should not be just in itself; and if the authority of one Doctor of learning and piety can justify a man's proceeding, shall not the opinion of so great a number of men famous for learning and piety, who were then in the Universities, Monasteries and Churches of England, justify the proceedings of King Henry in freeing his Navar. cap. Cum contingat de rescript, remed. L n. 30 ; qui unius Doctoris eruditione ac animi pietate Celebris autoritate ductus, fecerit aliquid, excusatur, etiamsi id non esset justum, et alii contrarium tenerent. [The character here given of this (in his way) celebrated Spaniard is quite cor- rect : " Martinus de Azpilcueta^ clarissimus Navarrsei nominis (unde Navarrus vulgo denominatus) Canonicseque totius doctrinse lumen fulgentissimum, Varas- oayn hujus regni oppido baud longe a Pampelone dissito, natales referrebat acceptos." He was bom in 1493, and died, after having occupied the Professor- ship of Canon-law at Salamanca and Coimbra, at Rome, in 1586, where he had spent the last 27 years of his life. His works ^" auctoris sui varse imagines, quas posteritas omnis nunquam non reverebitur" were collected into 3 vols. Romse 1590 ; and the Manuale sive Enchiridion Confessorum^ as translated into Latin, was published separately at Rome 1558, Cologne 1600, &c.; afterwards it was translated into Italian, and is to this day referred to in Papal publications. Vide Antonio Biblioth. Hisp, nova. torn. 2 pp. 93 6. The Releciio, from which Sail quotes, was first published at Coimbra, and, after revision, at Rome, 1575, and Madrid, 1595. " A quo universa Eccles. Catholica finictum accepit," writes Mirseus (Scripp. Seculi xvi p. 222. in reference more especially to his Manual for Confessors, IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 219 Kingdom from the slavery in which it was held under the Bishop of Rome f This indeed was to lay the axe to the root of the Romish usurpations and corruptions in this land. Their pretended authority in it being found and declared not to be from God, nor grounded upon his Divine word, but illegally and fraudulently intruded upon the nation ; it follows that they were all at their own liberty to reform their Church, by a national Synod of their own Prelates and Clergy, under the protection and inspection of their Prince ; as in other times was done in this land : and in consequence the states of the kingdom, being congregated in Parliament an. 1533, declared, that his Majesty, Ms heirs and successors, Kings of this Realm, shall have full power and authority, from time to time, to visit, repress, redress, all such errors, heresies, abuses, 8fc. which by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction may be lawfully reformed, repressed ordered, redressed, 8fc.* And this was not to assume a new power, but to renew and publish the ancient right of the Kings of this land. It is true that Popes in former ages, not finding means to hinder our Princes from exercising this right of their own, would by privilege continue it unto them. So Pope Nicholas finding our Kings to express one part of their office to be Regere populum Domini et Ecclesiam ejus, wrote to Edward the Confessor Vobis et posteris vestris regibus (AngliceJ committimus convocationem ejusdem loci et omnium totius Anglice Ecclesiarum, et vice nostra cum consilio Episcoporum, et Abbatum constituatis ubique qucBJusta sunt.f JVe commit unto you and your succes- sors. Kings of England, the Government of that place, and of all the Churches of England ; that in our name ye may, by the Councils of Bishops and Abbots, order in all places what will be just The same Pope allowed the same privilege to the Emperor : Nicolaus Papa hoc domino meo privilegium, quod ex Paterno jure susceperat, pr(Bbuit ; said the Emperor's advo- catet Pope Nicholas allowed this privilege to my Master, * Stat. 26, Hen. viii. c. 1, begun Nov. 3, end. Dec. 18, 1533. f [Nicolas II. The Bull is included in Wilkins's Concilia, torn 1, p. 320, where however we have " advocationem et tuitionem '' for convocationem.} t Bar. xi. Annal. 1059, n. 35. ^20 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED which himself had hy his birthright. By similar arts, finding the people of England unwilling to acknowledge any Ecclesiastical power besides that of the land, and the Archbishop of Canterbury for supreme of it under the King, the Popes have contrived that the Archbishop of Canterbury should exercise that power as from them, under the name of Legatus natus, or Legate, by his place, of the Roman See. This may seem like what they report of the great Cham of Tartary, that after he has dined, he orders leave to be given by the sound of a trumpet, to all the Kings of the world, that they may go to dinner. But the Pope drives further in his grants, that in time, if power should assist him, he may force upon them a subjection to him ; as if really the Princes owed their power to him. But the arts of Rome are too much known in England, for the people to be further deluded by them. And therefore a National Synod, or a Convocation of the Arch- bishops, Bishops, Abbots, and other Clergy of the Kingdom being celebrated at London by order of King Edward VI., in the sixth year of his reign, being that of our Lord 1552, a summary of articles was agreed upon* to remove dissensions in Religion, and reform the Church from coiTuptions which had crept into it, so A copy of these Articles has been reprinted by Dr. Lamb. Sail uses too elevated language perhaps about the Synod, at which they were agreed upon, and though the title of the Latin and English book containing them would seem to assert that "they had been prepared, or at least sanctioned by the Convocation of 1552 ; this was not the case ; they were neither submitted to the Convocation nor confirmed by any Act of Parliament. Nevertheless it was certainly the intention of the King, and of the Archbishop (Cranmer) to require the subscrip- tion of the Clergy to them ; but the period between their promulgation, and the death of the King was so short, that this intention could hardly have been carried into effect in a single instance. The King's letter which is prefixed to the book containing the articles, is dated, Greenwich, May 20, 1553, and Edward died the 6th of the July following. But there is extant among the Papers of Archbishop Parker, in the Library of Corpus Christi College, a Letter from the Visitors to the Vice-Chancellor and Senate of Cambridge, dated June 1, 1553, in which they state ' That these Articles having been carefully prepared by good and learned men, published by Royal Authority, and sent to all the Bishops in their respective Dioceses ; they think it right to send them also to the University;' and they go on to require, * That every Doctor and Bachelor of Divinity, as well as every Master of Arts, shall, before his creation, by his oath and by his subscription declare his assent to the said Articles ; and pledge himself both in the Schools and Pulpit, to defend them as true and agreeable to the Word of God, and to oppose all Articles contrary to them.' " Lamb's Historical Account^ &c., p. 4. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 221 pious and moderate, so well grounded upon Divine Scripture, and upon the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Apostolic Church, that Romanists may more easily rail and rant at, than discover any real error in them. My adversary, N. N., after highly inveighing against these Articles, and boasting of his having discovered heresies in them, singles out the XXII. Article, which runs thus: The Roman Doctrine of Purgatory, Indulgences, Veneration and Adoration as well of Images as of Reliques, as also of the Invocation of Saints, is absurd and vainly invented; nor is it grounded upon any authority of Scripture, hut is rather repugnant to the Word of God. Upon which Article N. N, delivers this heavy censure, that it is false, profane, and heretical. But in the whole discourse of the second part of this treatise, I will demon- strate (God willing) that it is rather true, religious, and Catholic ; as also I intend by the help of God, to vindicate the rest of those Articles, in a separate Treatise, from the cavils of Alexander White and other Romanists, whereby N. N. will find how much he is mistaken in taking the said Alexander White'' s book* against the XXXIX. Articles for unanswerable ; as certainly he is far mistaken in saying resolutely, though without having any ground for it, that the aforesaid White has bestowed more time and deliberation in quitting those Articles, than I have done in The title of Mr. White's book is Schismatis Anglicani redargutio, authore Alexandra White ex eodem Schismate per Dei Gratiam ad fidem Cath. comjerso ; Lovanii, 1661. Mr. White (according to French, p 22,) was " bred in the Protestant Religion, and for a long time a zealous Defender of said XXXIX. Articles ; but after a long and due examination of the substance of them, he refuted them so sub- stantially, as to this day, no man of the Church of England hath answered him. I observe in this place, that this gentleman spent a great deal of time in delibera- tion (about seven years) before abjuring said XXXIX. Articles, which he once believed, (as you do now. Sail) as Articles of faith, which belief and doctrine he sucked from the cradle ; much more time I say, he had bestowed, and delibera- tion in quitting them, than you have done in deserting the Catholic Religion, and its holy communion, in which you were bred and your parents before you, which cannot be spoken but to your shame and infamy. The light and grace God gave to Mr, White (the gentleman I speak of) led him out of Babylon into Jerusalem ; and you without great musing on the weightiest matter, can ever concern you the damnation, or salvation, of your soul, are fled from Jerusalem to Babylon." On p, 24, French adds, " he hath impeached your new English Creed (the XXXIX. Articles) of a treason against Heaven and verity ! ! " 222 IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. deserting the communion of the Roman Church. Seven years he says Mr. White spent in deliberating upon his resolution ; but certainly I have spent many more years in deliberating upon mine. How many they were, as it is not easy to demonstrate, so it is not material to tell ; men may deliberate long and eiT at last in their resolution. To my reasons alleged for that resolution which [ took I appeal, and do willingly expose them to public view and examination, that others, as well as I, may judge of the weight of them. Very foul and slanderous also has been the mistake of our adversary, in saying that the authors of our XXXIX. Articles were only some few obscure men. Priests and Friars run out of Germany,* and that by them the Church and Kingdom of Eng- land was governed in the Reformation of their Religion. How false their report is, may appear by the public Records and Histories of the land, and by several Acts of Parliament passed with great deliberation of all the States of the Kingdom upon thq settlement of the Reformation, and of those Articles, as well in that great Synod or Convocation celebrated under Edward VI. in the year 1552, above mentioned ; as also another no less famous Synod held at London, ten years after, viz. 1562, wherein the said Articles were reviewed, examined, and confirmed. I have seen among Selden's books f kept in the Bodleian On pp. 110119, edit. 1749, of the Doleful Fall, from which may be selected the following specimen : " Let any Christian man (I say) be judge, whether this man (Cranmer) together with Ochinus, a Jew ; Bucer, an Atheist, (or at the best a Jew) ; Peter Martyr of the Religion the Parliament would have him to be of; Hooper and Latimer and Rogers stubborn discontented Presbyterians ; Bale, and Coverdale, Lutherans, two lewd and runagate Fryars, whether he that cares for his own soul, should rather believe these wicked impious men, in points of faith, and matters of salvation, than all the Ancient Fathers and the holy Councils ! '' p. 116. Dr. Lamb, in his work upon the Articles, remarks, " there is one copy of which I ought to make some mention, viz. that of Wolfe's edition of 1563, with the names of the Convocation of 1571 on a sheet of Parchment sewed on its cover. It is not at all clear that these names were subscribed to any Articles. If they were they must have been attached to an English copy of 1571, from which they have been separated and sewed to this book. Selden obtained it from Abp. Laud." An Historical Account of the XXXIX. Articles, with exact copies of the Latin and English MSS. (Cambridge, 1829.) p. 40. A full account Is given in the same work, (pp. 15 20,) of the *' famous Synod CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED 223 Library of Oxford, an authentic copy of these Articles, printed at London in the year 1563, and a scroll of parchment annexed to it with the subscriptions (by their proper hands) of the members of the lower house of Convocation, being all Deans, Archdeacons, and procurators of Clergy ; which I found to be in number 104, besides the Archbishops and Bishops sitting in the upper house, whose names came not in my way to see ; but I suppose they were all the Prelates of the land, as they used to meet in Convo- cation. And is this to shuffle up a Reformation, and make articles in a clandestine manner, without due examination, as our adver- sary would make his reader believe ? * in London" 1562, to which Dr. Sail has just referred, and the signatures of 106 individuals to the articles, agreed upon at that Synod, are there faithfully re- printed from the Latin MSS. preserved in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. For the way in which the Trent Decrees were "made," the reader may consult Mendham's Memoirs of the Council of Trent from MS. Records^ ike. 224 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER XVIII. A view o/*N. N.'s discourse upon Transiibstantiation and upon the affinity of the Roman Church with the Grecian, Though N. N. had declared his purpose in the beginning to deal with me not Scholastically, but Historically ; yet it seems he would not part with me, without disputing upon the point of Transubstantiation. He alleges testimonies of Fathers, and Miracles in favour of it ; and pretends it to have been a doctrine of more ancient standing than the Lateran Council! To all which 1 have given a full answer in what I have delivered by my discourse formerly printed, and in what will follow in the second part of this treatise from the l&th Chapter forward. Only I will reflect here upon two or three very gross mistakes of N, N, in his present discourse with me upon the point. The first is respecting my belief of this great mystery. He says resolutely (without giving any ground for his assertion, as indeed he could have none for it) that I do not believe Christ to be really present at all in this Sacrament : IVhy then (says he) should he dispute with us about the doctrine of Transubstantiation, see- ing he Jlatly denies the body and blood of Christ to be really and substantially present in the Sacrament ? * But, good Sir, where have you seen this flat denial of mine ? Certainly not in my Declaration (which seems to be the object of your quarrel ;) not in the XXXIX. Articles ; not in any public Catechism, or System of Doctrine generally received by the Church of England : nay, the Catechism approved by authority, and commended to the use of all being inserted into the Common Prayer Book delivers a doctrine quite opposite. For to the question proposed, respecting the inward or invisible part of this Sacrament, this answer is returned The body and blood of * This false charge has been reiterated up to, and is still made in, the present day. See the Popish Doctrine of Transubtantiation refuted. By the Rev. G. Ingram, D.D. London, 1840; where information on this subject is adduced, most disgraceful to Romish controvertists. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 225 Christ which are verily and indeed taken, and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper. And is this to deny flatly, that the body and blood of Christ are really present in the Sacrament, as you impute to us ? When a Jesuit in Germany broached a similar calumny, in a Conference held with some of the English Nobility when waiting upon our King in that country, in presence of his Majesty and of a Prince Elector in that Empire ; both his Majesty and the Noblemen took offence at his speech as being a foul calumny ; and therefore desired the Reverend and learned Dr. Cosin, Bishop of Durham, to vindicate the Church of Eng- land from that aspersion : which he did abundantly, in a very learned Tract, published under the title of Historia Transuhstan- tiationis Papalis. Wherein he proves by the Articles, public Catechisms, and by the testimonies of several very grave and learned Prelates,* that all true Protestants, especially those of the Church of England, do constantly believe and profess, that Christ our Saviour is really and substantially present in the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist; and his body and blood really and substantially received in it by the faithful ; and accordingly he alleges the learned Bilson, Bp. of Winchester, declaring the belief and doctrine of the Church of England relative to this point in the words following : Eucharistiam non solum figuram esse Corporis Domini, sed etiam ipsam veritatern, naturam, atque suhstantiam in se comprehendere That the Eucharist is not only a figure or i-epresentation of the body of our Saviour, but that it comprehends also the very truth, and nature, and sub- stance of his body. * Vide Usher's Answer to a Jesuit, pp. 41 73; Montague in Anti-diatrihis ; Laud's Relation of the Conference with Fisher, . 353, p. 192, edit. 1673 j Hooker's Eccles, Polity, Book V. . 55; Roffin's de potest. Pap. in Prcefat. Stat, primo, Elis, c. 1, et 8. Elis, e. 12, 13. Elis. c. 1. [The John Roffensis referred to in this Note, it may be proper just to observe, was John Buckeridge, who was consecrated Bishop of Rochester in 1611. Godwin (de Prasulibus, p. 539 Cantabr. 1743,) gives his work high praise. He died Bp. of Ely. in 1631. Dr. Cosin's History of Transubstantiation has just appeared in a new and much approved form, under the editorial care of the Rev. I. S. Brewer. But the view of Archbp. Cranmer upon this important subject is far more just, simple, and free from confusion. See his Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, particularly his extended Answer to Gardiner's papistic sophistries on the subject. The late edition of this venerable Martyr by Rev. H. Jenkyns, at the University press in Oxford, needs not, though it has, our emphatic commendation ; vol. 2, p. 290.) P 226 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED The very same Doctrine is contained in the 28th article of the XXXIX above mentioned, in these words : The body of Christ is given, or taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. Here you have a real giving, eating, and taking ; and consequently a real presence of the body of Christ confessed by our Church as well as by yours. Our differ- ence is only regarding the mode of his presence. We say that mode or manner is spiritual ; you pretend that it is corporal, but with what consequence, or coherence with the rules of common reason, you will never be able to declare; nor how to avoid contradiction, in saying that his flesh and blood is present in the Sacrament after a corporal manner ; and withal that none of our corporal senses is able to give testimony of such a presence. Neither will you find it an easier task to declare unto us what may be the object of your adoration given to the consecrated bread. If you say it is the person of our Saviour, God and Man really present, we adore and reverence the same as well as you. If you pretend that your adoration extends to more ; that must be only the accidents of the bread and wine appearing to the senses ; which accidents, being in your own confession mere creatures, to give to them the worship of Latria, cannot with any colour of reason be excused from a fomial Idolatry. The second very gross error which I perceive in the discourse of N. N. upon this subject is, that finding me complain of the Roman Church, for forcing upon Christians a belief of monstrous Miracles in their doctrine of Transubstantiation ; he exclaims against me in tragical terms, as if I had reviled God's wonders, calling Miracles monstrous ;* and appeals to the Catholic reader Most justly so are they: for evidence read Bellarmine de Saa'am. Euchar. lib. 3. cap. S. postremum arg. ; and lib. 4. cap. 24. quarta ratio ; and the School of the Euc/iarist established upon the miraculous respects and achnowlegments of birds afid insects, 8fc. Lond. 1687 ; translated from the French of T. Bridoul, a Flanders Jesuit, who published his works at Lisle, 1 672. See Biblioth. Soc. Jesu, p. 772. edit. 1676. " It is," says Bellarmine, " described in his life," [that is, the Life of St Anthony of Padua] , " by Surius in the 3d. vol. and by St. Antonius iu his His- torical Summary, p. 3. tit. 24. c. 3. tliat St. Anthony being engaged in a dispute concerning the truth of the Lord's body in the Eucharist with a certain Heretic in the neighbourliood of Toulouse [for at this time the Albigenses, who were led astray by this as well as many other errors, vexed the Church,] the heretic de- IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 227 for a severe censure against me in these words, Num quid Ikbc est atrox homuncionis insultantis Christo et EcclesicB rabies ? (p. 126.) And I appeal to any reader of sense, whether I may not on good ground return on him this other quere, Amion hie est hominis frigide, id est non opportune, excandescentis inconditus clamor? (p. 136.) Is not this cry a fit of zeal unseasonably burning ? To call those miracles which they pretend to intervene in the consecrated bread monstrous, he takes for a contempt of God's wonders in general. So if I say that a man born with two heads and three eyes is a monstrous man, that must be taken for an affront put upon all human kind ! Sir, I reverence God's wonders, and those many Miracles manded of Anthony, whom he knew to be endowed by God with the gift of Mira- cles, a sign of this sort, ' T have a horse, [Jumentum, perhaps a pack-horse] he said, to whom for the space of three whole days I will give no food. When the third day is finished, do you come with the Sacrament, and I will come with the horse, and I will pour out before him some corn ; if the horse, leaving the corn, goes Sind venerates the Sacrament, I will believe.' It was done as he de- sired ; and when the third day was finished, Anthony, accompanied with a crowd of the faithful, and holding in his hand the Venerable Sacrament, addressed the horse, " In the virtue and name of the Creator, whom I truly hold in my hands, although unworthy of it,' [In virtute et nomine Creatoris tui^ quern in manihus^ licet indignxis^ I command and enjoin you, O animal, immediately to come with humility and to revere him, that this heretical wickedness may hence learn, that every creature is subject to the Creator, whom the sacerdotal dignity continually handles on the altar : [quem sacerdotalis dignitas jugitur tractat in altari.] Having uttered these words, the horse, tcnm'mdful of the corn poured out before him, and his hunger, ran to the Saint, and inclining his head and bending his knees [et capite inclinato^ ac genibus curvatis]^ he adored his Lord in the best mannei' lie could [eo modo pottdt], and confuted the heretic." Bellarmine de sac. Euch, lib. 3, c. 8. For this translation and the reference to Bellarmine we are indebted to the Rev. J. Heron M'Guire, of St. Helens, Lancashii'e. In the present year a volume has been published which states that St. Francis De Girolamo S. I. having been interrupted by a carriage, during a sermon, which he was preaching in the open air, " the persons in it were requested to wait a few moments, and not interrupt the servant of God, but they contemptuously cried out to the coachman to drive on ' Blessed Jesus !' he exclaimed, holding the Crucifix before the horses, * since these goddesses have no respect for thee, the brute beasts at least shall do thee homage.' And in very deed the animals sank down on their knees., and would not stir till the discourse was over :" p. 80, oi Lives of St. Alphonstis Liguori^ St. Fra?icis de Girolamo, St. John Joseph of the Cross, St. Pacificus of San Severino, and St. J'eronica Giuliani, whose Canonization took place on Trinity Sunday., 1839 ; I2mo. London, published by C. Dolman, 1839. P 2 228 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED wrought by his powerful hand ; and I bless his holy name for all. But those miracles which you would have us believe to happen in the consecration of the Eucharist as, that the substance of the bread vanishes away, and the accidents of it remain witliout any substance to rest upon, &c. these I deny to be true Miracles or works of God, but a product of your erring imagination ; and if you will persist in calling them Miracles, certainly they must appear monstrous ones. For the proof whereof, you give yourself very considerable assistance by a definition, or description, of a Miracle, which you produce out of Aquinas, how much to your purpose is not easy to find ; but very clearly it serves for my present purpose, of making your pretended miracles in the Eucharist appear most properly monstrous. You tell us that Aquinas says, quod nomen iniraculi ah admiratione sumitur : Admiratio autem consurgit, cum effectus sunt manifesti et causa occulta^ that the word miracle comes from admiration; and this admiration doth arise when the effect appears, hut the cause is hidden. Here we have the common and ordinary nature of a miracle described; that a wonderful effect should appear, though the cause should be hidden. Now it remains to know what is the proper notion of a monster. Philosophers give us this defini'ion of it out of Aristotle Monstrum est effectus a recta et solitd secundum speciem dispositione degenerans ; that is, A Monster is an effect degenerating from the right and com- mon disposition of things of that kind. So that a man born with two heads is called monstrous, because he degenerates from the right and common disposition of other men. The College of Coimhra declares this to be vulgata Monstri deJinitio\ the commonly received definition of a Monster. Now then, if the common and ordinary nature of a Miracle is, as you tell us out of Aquinas, that the miraculous effect should be manifest and apparent, though the cause were hidden ; then a miracle degenerating from this common course and nature of miracles, so that the effect pretended to be miraculous should not be manifest or known to any, must be according to these rules, a monstrous Miracle, deviating and degenerating from the com- * I. P. qusest. 105, A. 7. t Conitnb. in Arist. 2, Phy. c. 9, q. 5, Ar. 1. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 229 mon course of true Miracles. Of this kind are your imaginary- Miracles of the Eucharist : that the bread and wine should be substantially converted into the flesh and blood of our Saviour corporally present. If this were so indeed, and therefore a real and true Miracle; this miraculous effect would appear to the senses of men, as that true and miraculous conversion of the water into wine, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, appeared to the senses of men present there ; and thereby appeared to be a true Miracle, and more fit to produce a belief in the beholders ; which is the ordinary aim of Divine Providence in working Miracles ; and which [result] certainly Christ would not have obtained fiom the persons then present, if he had only told them that the water remaining with the same colour, taste, and smell which it had before, was really converted into wine, without letting any of their senses bear testimony to such a conversion. Of this latter kind are your imaginary Miracles, which being of your own making, I may without offence to God, or prejudice to his true Miracles, call monstrous, as degenerating from the common course of true Miracles. The third mistake which I am to put N. N, in mind of at present is, concerning his pretension to affinity with the Greek and Ruthenian Church,* in the doctrine of Transubstantiation, and of other points controverted, with our Reformed Churches ; for which he pleases himself in telling us of a favourable relation to his purpose, given by a Muscovite Priest to a French Prelate who feasted him.f But that he may see how wide is his mistake herein, and how far the Grecians and Ruthenians are from joining issue with the Roman Church against us, I remit him to what I have related above upon more solid and authorized grounds in the Xlllth chapter of this Treatise. Neither indeed can I see upon what ground you can pretend to union with the Greek Church in their tenets ; if it be not that If the reader is at all anxious to enquire into this supposed " affinity," he may consult the Dissertation of Buddeus Ecclesia Romana cum Ruthenicd irrecon- ciliabilis included in his Miscellanea sacra Jense 1727, pt. 2, pp 165 214. f This Conference " passed between L. H. Gondrin, Archbishop of Sans^ a \'ery learned Prelate, and a venerable Priest of Muscovia^ and a Canon of the Cathedral of Moscow, then in the retinue of the Muscovite Ambassador in Paris, and with the Secretary of the said Ambassador, This Conference was made at Paris in 1688." Doleful Fall, p. 161, edit. 1749. p 3 230 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED several of your greatest schoolmen, such as are Lomhardy^ Bona- venture,-^ Scotus,X Aquinas,^ and others, endeavour to excuse the Grecians in their chief enror respecting the proceeding of the Holy Ghost only from the Father, and not from the Son ; saying that therein they differ from the Roman Church only in the manner of speaking, not in the substance of Doctrine. Lomb. lib. 1, Sentent. dist. xi. sane sciendum est, quod licet in praesenti articulo a nobis Grseci verbo discordent, tamen sensu non diflerunt. [The words are rather diflferent in the edition of Lombard (Paris 1632) to which we have access ^but the sentiment is the same.] f Bona, in 1, Sent. d. 11, A. 1, qu. 1. X Scot. 1, Sent. d. prima, qu. 1. Aquin, 1, p. q. 3Q^ 42. TN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 231 CHAPTER XIX. N. N.'s book* ^//^zYM ^/^^ Bleeding Ipliigenia, examined; his abusive language therein bestowed tipon persons of honour, and his censure upon the King^s Majesty reprehended. Though this book begins with me, and in the running title styles itself a Preface to the other greater book designed against me ; yet I have so small a share of this Preface addressed to me, that I hope the discreet reader will excuse me if I am not so copious in discussing it as some may expect. Truly the matter and style of it is of such a nature, that it made me doubtful for a while in resolving upon any reply to it. But upon more consideration I conceived it my duty to make the reflections following upon it. * This book is perhaps the very rarest in the class to which it belongs, no copy of the original being known to exist, except, we believe, in one of the Dublin Libraries. The fuller title is, " The Bleeding Iphigenia ; m^ mi excellent Preface of a work unfinished, published by the author's friend^ with the reasons of publishitig it ; Lovain : printed in the year 1674." A small re-impression of the rare volume was made in 1829, but not published ; and we must again acknow- ledge ourselves indebted to the Rev. Caesar Otway for the acquisition of a copy. The author Dr. Nicholas French " first came under notice as Parish Priest in the town of Wexford in Ireland ; in this avocation the Rebellion of 1641 found him ; and being an Ecclesiastic of ascertained talent, devotedness, and activity, he was elected as Burgess to sit in the General Assembly at Kilkenny. He did not remain long in this capacity, for he was consecrated Bishop of Ferns in the year 1643, and it is remarkable that he was the only individual elevated to the Prelacy from the period of the breaking out of the Rebellion to the arrival of Rennucini as Nuncio from Pope Innocent the Xth. In 1646 he bore a prominent part as Chancellor and most leading member of the Prelatical Congregation at Waterford, who denounced the Peace made with the Marquess of Ormonde, and excommunicated its adherents ; shortly after he changed sides, and as partisan for the Nobility and Gentry, was sent ambassador to Rome. On his return he was instrumental in promoting the second peace with Ormonde, of 1648 ; but again veering round, he became the most vigorous member of the synod of James-town, which denounced the same second peace, and excommunicated the Lord Lieutenant. Dr. French on the departure of Ormonde, and during the brief Lieutenancy of his R. Catholic successor Clanricarde, preached in favour of a peace with the Cromwellians, and subsequently retired to Gallicia in Spain, on the entire subjugation of Ireland by Coote and Ludlow. There he remained 532 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED After having bestowed some few pages in bemoaning a supposed Fall of mine from the Catholic Faith, he falls suddenly on lament- ing the sufferings of the Irish, and to accuse the supposed authors of it. As to the Jlrst T have endeavoured to give satis- faction in the whole discourse of this Treatise. If he has true charity for me, he will be glad to find that I am not in that bad condition which he supposed. And if he will be ingenuous, and has not resolved (as it is usual with them) to shut his eyes against until the year 1666, acting as Suffragan to th6 Bishop of St. Jago. About this period, having entered into an amicable correspondence with Peter Walsh the Franciscan, who was much in the confidence of Ormonde, he was invited back to his native land. But having, while on his return, written a letter to the Lord Lieutenant, notifying the conduct of the James-town Synod, it so offended the Duke, that his return was countermanded, and instead of proceeding from St. Sebastian to Ireland, he passed through France into Flanders ; here he exerted all penitential diligence with the Internuncio Airoldi to have the Papal censure removed, which he had incurred for promoting the second peace of 1648. And restored to favour, he was by Airoldi 's means provided for at Ghent by being appointed Suffragan to the Bishop of that Diocese. While here he entered again into controversy with Peter Walsh, on the subject of his History of the Irish Remonstrance, and he arraigned the Franciscan as guilty of the unpardonable sin in calling that a most bloody and wicked Rebellion, which the Bishop deemed and decided to be a just and necessary war. About the year 1673 he wrote the present tract on occasion of the secession of the Jesuit Andrew Sall from the Roman Church. Two years afterwards he put forth a severe attack against Ormonde and Peter Walsh, in a work entitled * The Unkind Deserter of Loyal Men and True Friends.' He subsequently wrote his * Doleful Fall of Andrew Sail,' and died about the year 1680, at the advanced age of 74." Introductory Biographical Notice to the reprint of the Bleeding Jphigenia of 1 829, by the Rev. Csesar Otway. * The main scope of it (the Iphigenia) was a plain justification of the Irish Rebellion, and breach of the two peaces by his Lordship ( French) and the rest of the Clergy at fVaterford in 46, and at James-town in the year 49. And therefore in the foresaid year 1674, when he sent me that little book, earnestly pressed me for my judgment of it. Finally, he had, on my dislike of it, signified by letter to him, not only altered again his style, replied with much acrimony, treated me as a public enemy to the nation, as an Ishmael against all, and all against me ; and in a word, arraigned me as guilty of the unpardonable sin, viz. the calling their just, hohj^ and necessary war^ a Rebellion ; but withal, and notwithstanding my advice to the contrary, dispersed so many printed copies of the said Iphigenia, both in Ireland and England too, that sev-eral of them came to the hands of such Protestants of both nations, as were most concerned to make, and accordingly did make that use of them, which was most proper and obvious to continue for ever the afflictions of a people, who justified rebellion, as Sijust, holy^ atid neces- sary war, against their lawful Prince." Walsh's Four Letters, Preface j printed 1686. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 233 all evidences, that may let him see his errors, or entertain a charitable thought of his Christian neighbours, he may perceive clearly by what I have said hitherto, that by embracing the com- munion of the Church of England, I have not forsaken the true Catholic Faith and Church ; that I am far from being guilty of the Heresies, or the associate of those Heretics whom he mentions. Now as to the second, respecting the miseries of the Irish, I heartily condole with him therein, but cannot approve of his manner of pleading for them ; nor of some doctrines which he lets fall by the way. I think it to be a more Christian duty, and more becoming a good Pastor, to exhort people in affliction to a con- formity with God's holy will, and to an acknowledgment of their sins which have drawn his anger upon them, with due repentance for them; than to excuse their errors and thereby encourage them to provoke Divine Justice to further severities against them. The former I have done on all occasions ; the second I see you do in the particulars of your book which I am now to examine. I will not debate with you concerning the matters of fact which you handle ; who began, or who were more faulty in those unhappy revolutions. I do not envy you the opportunities which you had of greater knowledge in that part than myself, who left the Country in my younger age, two years before those Tragedies began, and never returned until some years after our Sovereign's happy Restoration. I leave to others better furnished with notices, to examine your statements on that subject. But I may judge of the style and doctrinal part of your book, grounding my judgment (as I hope I shall do) upon good reasons. And Jlrst, as regards the style, I am probably persuaded, that no sober or wise man, even of the party which you pretend to favour, will approve of the harsh and contemptuous language wherewith you speak of persons of great honour and quality ; especially of one of the great Peers of the Realm,* an Earl, and * The Earl of Orrery; "Orrery,'' writes Dr. French, "you cannot say soe much for yourselfe in the ranck of Nobility ; but be what you will, English or Irish, I will tell you what an English Gentleman writes of you (1 have myselfe scene the man) disguised under the name of William Allen, in a most excellent piece, styled, Killing is noe Murther, speaking therein of the qualities of a tyrant, applying all to Cromwell, of the fift quality he speaks thus /n all places they have their spyes, and delators, that is, they have Fleetwoods ; theire Broughalls, theire S. Johns, (besides innumerable small spyes) to appeare discontented, and not to 234 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED son to one of the greatest Earls of this Monarchy, Lord President of thai/air and goodly Province of Munster, so styled by your- self; not to mention his personal talents, adapted to make even one of lower birth noble, and to gain him respect. All these titles and honourable qualities could not induce you to give him once any of those civilities and marks of respect, which are due to persons of his degree and quality. And what is yet more intolerable, not contented to abuse his person, you extend your contemptuous language to his whole family, linked by manifold ties of consanguinity with the most illustrious families of England and Ireland. I know that one of the Rules of your Roman Expurgatory Index is,* to blot out of all books any honorary title of wit or virtue given to Heretics (which is to say in their language, to any Christian who is not of their communion) a rule indeed rude enough ; but I have not heard yet of any rule given, for divesting Earls and Lords, of their ordinary titles, (rather the said rules permit it of courtesy) if it be not perhaps a branch of that gTaud power which they assign to the Pope of deposing Kings; and of which N. N. may pretend to partake of so much as may enable him to degrade an Earl. Certainly this practice of speaking with contempt of Peers and Presidents of Provinces, may be sooner learnt in the School of Rome, than in the School of Christ and his Apostles. When our dear Saviour was brought before the President of Judea, Pilate, and most unjustly sentenced to side with them ; that under that guise, they may gett trust, and make discoveries. Orrery in CromweH's tyme was Lord Broughalls.'' Bleeding Iphigenia. There is no pagination in this reprint, but the passage, if the book is accessible, will be found over the signature ****** 3. From so rare a volume this extract may be acceptable, though of no great importance. It is how- ever curious in some other respects. * Index Expurg. noviss. edit. Matrit. 1667. Reglas gener. 16. advertent. 5. p. XIX. Todo lo que tiene sonido, oapariencia de alabanza se les niegue a los que estan fuera de la yglesia. Specialmente todos los epitetos de bueno, virtuoso, y pio, ni el titulo de Sennor o Don a quien es Sennor temporal, y el de Padre o suegro a quien to es, por cortezia, aunque no se le deve. [Dr. Sail seems to have abridged or copied from a difl'erent Spanish edition from that to which he refers, as there the matter is much amplified. The same distinction is maintained in Modern Indexes : " Ephitheta honorifica et omnia in laudem haereticorum dicta deleantur." Instructio Clem. VIII. auct. regulis Indicis adjectaj (de correct, lib. . 2.) p. XX. Romze, 1786.] IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 235 death by him, he uttered no bitter or contemptuous word against him. When the great Apostle Paul stood before Porcius Festus Governor of the same Province, and was abused by him, calling his excellent speech madness, Paul answered him in mild and respectful terms, / am not mad most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness* Could not you like- wise speak what you conceive to be truth with soberness, without oiFending Governors and great men by contemptuous expressions? Does your calling give you greater right to reprehend Princes and Governors, than that of Christ and St. Paul did to them? Thus matters are ordered in the School of Christ and of his Apostles, but the Roman School teaches different lessons : a very famous one N. N. professes to have learned there, which is, that he honours the Pope or Bishop of Rome, whom he calls Luminare majus the Greater Light, more than the King, whom he styles Luminare minus the Meaner Light. This he affirms to be the practice of his Catholics, which was taught to them by Pope Innocent the IIIrd,t who declared himself to be as much above Emperors and Kings on earth, as the sun is above the moon in the heavens ; of which and of the bold glosses of his Canonists, we shall say more hereafter. J N. N. seems to pretend to a share in this vast superiority of the Pope over Princes. He betakes himself to a seat of Judica- ture, and pronounces a severe sentence against our gracious Sovereign, his own natural Prince That he has not been just and impartial in the distribution of his favours to his subjects, applying to his Majesty that old verse, Non erat Rex Jupiter omnibus idem that he was not the same King to all ; that all being guilty in Ireland, (as he supposes, for this comptaint) he extended his Royal bounty to one party more than to the other. In which supposition N. N, delivers both the guilt of his judgment and a defence of our King. If all were guilty, all lost their right to the Royal favours, all forfeited their possessions. Then all was at the will and mercy of his Majesty to confer upon those he thought worthy of it. Why will you pretend to deprive him of his liberty herein ? May not his Majesty return upon you those * Acts xxvi. 25. t [Anno 1 198 in the Canon Law, Decretall. Greg, IX. lib. 1, tit. 33, . 6.] X Part 2, ch. 15. 236 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED words of the Lord of the Vineyard spoken to the envious labourers Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own ? Is thine eyes evil because I am good ? Matt. xx. 15. But this is not the only defence which his Majesty has against your rash judgment. It is very manifest that his Majesty has shewn the compassions of a loving Father to all his subjects, as well in Ireland as in all the rest of his dominions, and has pro- cured by all the means possible to him, the comfort and satisfaction of all, so far as consists with right and justice. And to this purpose, for ordering the affairs of Ireland, he has erected in Dublin a Court of Claims, placing therein Justices, whom I have heard the Irish themselves commend as men of admirable integrity and constancy, in delivering their judgment according to the right without regard of persons. Such as could prove their innocency in this Court, obtained the benefit of it ; and they were many : and very many more, who would not go through that trial, had the benefit of the King's gracious pardon and Royal bounty, in restoring them to their estates and possessions. I have heard from a person of great honour and truth, and of great knowledge in the matter, that of the lands, which by rigor of Law were declared to be forfeited to the King, his Majesty has bestowed already more than the one half upon those who lost them. Neither are the streams of his Royal Clemency put to a stand, but ever descending in graces and favours upon deserving persons, on all possible occasions; though when the claimants are so numerous, it is impossible to content all, and not easy for those standing afar off to judge which, of the several pretenders to the same thing, ought to be preferred. Men are apt to speak eagerly and conceive strongly for their own interest ; self-love will suggest arguments for that side, and suppress all that favour the contrary. It is for the King, whom God has placed on high, to consider impartially, and accordingly to decide on both sides. You plead vigorously for the necessity of a supreme Judge in spiritual matters, by whose decretory judgment all must abide ; to resist it, or call it in question, must be regarded for a rebellion in Religion, for Heresy or Schism : if such a Judge were wanting, say you, there would be no end of Controversies' in Religion. How far your pretension goes that way, and how well grounded, will be seen in the second part of this book ; now to our present IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 237 purpose briefly. Will you not acknowledge in a proportionable parity, the like necessity of a Supreme Judge, for civil debates in each kingdom or state, to whose final judgment the parties must conform ? Otherwise there will be no end of quarrels, no peace among neighbours. I will not assume for such a Judge that sovereign kind of Infallibility, absolutely incapable of any error, which you claim for your Ecclesiastics. But such authority as subjects ought to reverence, and abide by his decretory sentence without farther appeal, I can prove out of God's word that a King has in his dominions ; so that without breach of Loyalty and transgression of God's will and command, a subject may not resist the judgment of his King, nor call it further in question ; much less may he pronounce a judgment against it. See all declared by the heavenly preacher, Ecclesiastes viii. 4, in these words. Where the word of a King is, there is power, and who may say unto him What doest thou ? Certainly it is no act of Loyalty to question his actions done with accord and public legality, as in the case in hand. It is a commenced Kebellion. The first Rebellion of men upon earth that of our first parents against God in Paradise, whose contriver was the Devil began with such a question. The fiendish Serpent began his conspiracy with Eve by calling in question the Law and Government of their Prince and Master : cur prmcepit vohis Deus, ut non comederetis ex omni ligno Paradisi ? Why hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden? (Gen. iii. L) Thus did the first Rebellion of man against God begin in questioning his Decree. Questions against Laws established by a lawful Prince, thus deriving their progeny from the Devil, should be, for that very reason, abhorred by Christians. And the rather, if we consider how destructive they must be to peace and human society, as overthrowing the very nature and intrinsic constitution of a Magistracy, ordained principally to decide quarrels, and put an end to debates, by a legal sentence; which if not obeyed, but exposed to further enquiry and censure of the parties, is firuitless, and debates will be endless.* * Upon the presumed necessity of an Infallible Judge on Earth to decide in religious questions, see Chillingworth, Chap. 2, . 13, Sec. ; and the Prcclectio de Judice ac Norma Fidei et cultus Christiani of Bishop Davenant. 238 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER XX. That it is not lawful for subjects to raise arms, and go to war with their fellow subjects without the consent of their Prince. The doctrine of killing men, and making war by way of preventio7i, and on pretext of Religion, confuted. From the lesson of censuring and murmuring against Royal orders, which has been rebuked in the preceding Chapter, as from a corrupt root, springs this other very evil branch, that it is lawful for subjects to war with their fellow subjects without the consent of their Prince ; and so we find the one following the other in N. N's. Preface. Neither could we expect less from the ante- cedent premise. If subjects will not submit to the determination of their Prince in their debates, they must appeal to their swords. And our Antagonist tells us, magisterially, that it is the common opinion of Divines that they may do it : for which he quotes in the margin Aquinas and BannesJ^ But Aquinas in the place * 2 a. 2 as. q. 40. art. 1. Bannes ibid. dub. 4. It is rather odd that Dr. Sail was not aware that these Doctors of the Church are most ambidextrous gentlemen, and that they generally talk on all sides of a question ; in doing which there certainly accrues to them and to their Church a variety of advantages such as the putting forward any opinion which may suit some particular emergency ; the necessity of appeals to some deciding officer, &c. &c. Of course while the State did not impede or contravene the Church's high behests, she would be very loyal : but for a contrary course, when needful, in her estimation, see this same Thomas of Aquin, (2. 2 qu. 12, art. 2); and Bellar- mine, (de Pont. Rom. lib. 5, cap. 6, 7) references for which we must again repeat that we are indebted to the Rev. R. J. M'Ghee's speech at Exeter Hall, April 15, 1839. They are correctly quoted. The same sentiments are expressed by Suarez, Heissius, Mariana, Azor, Sanctarel, &c. &c., as recited in Riveti Oper. torn 3, p. 1243 44 ; and in a very large collection in Foulis's Romish Treasons, 1671 j so that if any dependence is placed upon these Ecclesiastical Jim Crows, it will soon be found to be misera- bly misplaced, " whenever the necessity of the Church requires" them to chop about, and change about. " Cardinal Pamfili, the Pope's Secretary of State, wrote to him (Clanricard) from Rome, May 20, 1646, in these words: 'The Holy See, never can, by any positive act^ approve of the Civil Allegiance of Catholic subjects to an Heretical Prince.' From this maxim of the Holy See have arisen the many difficulties and disputes in England about Oaths of Jllcyiance.' " Dr. O'Connor's Hist. Address, pt. 2, p. 415. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. ^^^ 239 quoted by him, delivers the quite contrary doctrine, affiiining and proving with strong reasons, that no war is just which is not made by the authority of the Prince ; and relating for his opinion these grave words of St. Augustin \contra Faustum lib. 22, cap. 75,] Ordo naturalis Mortalium pad accommodatus hoc poscit, ut suscipiendi belli autoritas atque consilium penes principem sit That the natural course best suited to the peace of men requires, that the authority and determination of making a war should belong to the Prince. I could not but expect that Bannes, a sworn disciple of Aquinas, should be of the same opinion : surely he would not deliver for a comment upon his Master's text, a contrary doctrine to it. And so I found it, he maintaining upon the present subject these three conclusions: the first, that it is a mortal sin to make war against any kind of enemies without the consent of a Prince. And he adds this to be the common opinion of all ; and it is to be noted, that he speaks even in case the war should be against the Turks. His second conclusion is, that soldiers plundering or burning towtis by their own private authority, are bound to repair the damage they have done. The third conclusion of Bannes runs thus Such as fight in a war made without the authority of the Prince, are obliged to make a restitution for all the damages that have resulted from such a war to their own Republic or Country.^ Now, if such as make a war even against Turks, (as Bannes says and proves) without the authority of their Prince, sin mortally, and are obliged to a restitution for all the damages done to friends and foes, what account will they who began that bloody war in Ireland against their fellow-subjects give to God for the destruc- tion of so many thousands of men, women and children on both sides; the devastation of that fair land, and the burning and desolation of so many goodly towns and houses ? Let the Bannes 2 a. 2 ae, q. 40, art. 1, dub. 4. [Dominicus Bannez, a Spaniard, of the Order of St. Dominic, "inter praestantissiraos theologos numerandus;" according to the authors of the Scriptores Ord. Proedicat. (torn. 2, p. 352, Lutet. Paris, 1721.) Four volumes of his Commentaries upon the first and second parts of the Angelical Doctor were printed at Salamanca, 1584; Venice, 1586; and at Douay, 1615; besides other editions. Bannez died in 1604, and, as Quetif and Echard state, transHt ad meliora : thus contradicting or making nothing of Purgatory, when their own favourites are concerned.] 240 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Counsellors of that blind and furious war, (no less damnable than the actors,) reflect upon the heavy judgment which hangs over them for it, and let N. N. consider better what he writes. Let him not be so easily wrought upon by hot-headed and shallow- brained informers, as to deliver in public for a doctrine of Divines, what the Divines whom he names condemn and detest ; as all men of sense and conscience must needs do. For certainly, to say that subjects may go to war without the consent of their Prince, let who will say it, is a perverse and seditious doctrine, destructive to Loyalty and public peace a fierce error often practised in Ireland,* to the great injury of it, and which there- fore, ought to be reprehended sharply, rather than be renewed or countenanced by good teachers. But our antagonist tells us he is speaking of a defensive war, and brings a heap of testimonies to prove such a war to be lawful, and to declare how far it may extend. But the main point is, what he supposes, without giving a sufficient proof of it, that the engagement of the party he pleads for, was only defensive. He allows that the Irish were the first aggressors ; hut this objection, says he, is easily answered ; as thus : It is a common doctrine of the Divines, that it is lawful to prevent an evil that cannot otherwise he avoided than hy preventing it. E. g. I see you take your pistol in your hand, cocking it to shoot at me ; in that case it is lawful for me to discharge my pistol and kill you, otherwise I should he killed hy you. And he relates several testimonies of Tanner, Becan, and others, to prove such a preven- tion to be lawful. But to evince that to have been the case of the Irish at the beginning of those tumults, (this being the point wherein the consistency and whole strength of his argument was to appear) it is strange what jejune and weak stuff he brings up. TJiey were hotted up in an Island, says he ; there was no door open for them, hut hy preventing the Preshyterians' hloody design ; if this they had not done there had heen an end of them all.f Here I see words, but no substance or ground upon which to build a serious conclusion to his purpose. What bloody designs were those he speaks of? how far discovered .? how near * See William Watson's testimony, given in Baxter*s Key for Catholics, Edit. 1839, p. 367 Note. f The Bleeding Tphigenia. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 241 at hand to be executed ? If he knew it, why does he not declare it? being the very foundation of his defence, and precisely necessary to make his allegations appear pertinent. What pistols were put to the breasts of those who began in the north ? What cannons were charged, what annies were marching against them ; so as without killing those who lived peaceably about them, they could not save their own lives ? Yet if they were not in such a strait as this, the testimonies of Divines which you allege are misapplied by you, and come very short of proving what you pretend; as appears by the example which you relate of one cocking his pistol to shoot at you ; and to prevent him you shoot first at him. I have heard of some report spread among the Irish,* of a design of a Massacre of them ; and that this report was repre- sented to the State by some Lords of the Pale about Dublin, who being called to assist at the Council, in order to consult with Ihem, concerning the condition wherein the kingdom then was, and the safety of it ; they answered, that having received adver- tisement, that a member of the Council had uttered at the Council- board some speeches tending to execute upon those of their Religion a general Massacre, they could not wait on their Lordships, but rather must stand upon their guard till they were secure from peril. Thus I find it written by a credible historianf of those times, who adds, that to this letter written by those Lords to the Council of the 7th of December, 1641, the State gave answer by Proclamation, with all satisfaction to the Lords, with a view to remove all misunderstandings, and clear the member of the Council aspersed, from any such pretended speeches, or any intention thereto, and to request the attendance of the Lords at the board on the seventeenth day after. But all this it seems was not sufficient to ^i-qq them from their apprehension of danger. Now, if this passed so indeed, to say that a mere apprehension of danger from our neighbour without any certainty of it, is a sufficient warrant to make war against him, if it regard a Com- * Some of the tales by which the unhappy Irish were inflamed, through the Popish Priesthood, to join in the Massacre of 1641, are mentioned in Dr. O'Conor's Historical Address, pt. 2, pp. 260, 1 ; and in the Protestant Journal for 1832, p. 632. f Sanderson in the History of King Charles f. ad ann. 1641, p. 451. Q 24^ CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED niunitj ; or to kill him, if an individual (as our opponent seems to intend) is a doctrine of dreadful consequences both to societies and particular persons. It is but too much experienced, how rash and heady a thing the apprehension of men is, how ready are false reports to fly ; and if an apprehension or report without certain ground be taken for a sufficient cause to kill a man, or to wage war, who can have security of his life, or how long shall peace and quiet last among us ? In this discourse I do not intend to favour either of the parties mentioned in that debate handled by N. N. I profess not to be a competent judge of those quarrels; I only attend to the pernicious doctrines which I see assumed, in order to maintain the interest of one side, with intention to rebuke the same as universally false, and destructive to the public peace and quiet. Neither in truth cau I understand which of both parties may fear more prejudice from the doctrine that I am reprehending. I see com- plaints and jealousies upon both sides ; which of both has more reason for it, as I am not able to determine, so I do conceive that N. N. (as also any other) may be uncertain to which of the parties he is preparing ruin, by allowing subjects upon suspicion of danger from their fellow-subjects, to go to war with them, without the consent of their Prince. If both complain and fear, why may not either party, as well as the other, fall upon his fellow-subjects, when opportunity will assist him, in conformity with that doctrine ? Truly I cannot but wonder how any one living under a Prince or State which has several Kingdoms, Provinces, or Societies to govern, should dare to publish so pernicious a doctrine as this I am reprehending. If those of Navarre and Arragon, of Sicily and Sardinia, of Brabant and Flanders, should renew old quarrels, or stir up new ones, and run to war about them, without the consent of their common Prince, how long would the King of Spain be able to preserve peace in his dominions.^ If his Ministers took notice of this doctrine, and the consequences of it, certainly they would have all books containing it banished out of their territories. But all this is sanctified in N. N's. view, by telling us that the war was for Religion ! and since the law of God and nature permits one man to kill another who pretends to take away liis IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 243 life ; with the same, or more reason, he may kill one who means to take away his Religion, which ought to be more precious and dear to him than his life. Good God ! whither has the perverse- ness of men arrived, to canonize murders and the most barbarous cruelties with the sacred name of Religion ? This language came not from heaven. Neither Christ, nor any of his Apostles ever taught it ; the Church, instructed by them, did not practise it. Lactantius sets before us the maxims and practice of Christians in those times by these noble words- Defendenda Religio est no7i occidendo sed moriendo, non scevitia sed patientia, non scelere sed fide Religion is to he defended^ not by killing, hut hy dying for it ; not hy cruelty, hut hy patience ; not hy mischief, hut hy faith. Thus St. Peter and St. Paul, and the rest of the Apostles; thus did the brave Theban Legion* defend their Religion, though able to defend it with the sword (as is testified by Tertullian) if the spirit and doctrine of Christ, then steering the Church, had permitted it. A particular person, in order to save his life, say you, may kill, by way of prevention, an unjust aggressor who pretends to take it from him. To this purpose you quote Divines and Civilians, and from thence you infer two consequences ; the first, that like- wise, a Community or Society may war against and destroy another Society, from whom it fears a similar destruction : the second consequence is, that a private individual or a Society may also, by way of prevention, set upon and kill another suspected of an intention to take their Religion from them. You abuse foully the doctrine above mentioned of Divines and Civilians, by misapplying it. Both your consequences not only contain a perverse doctrine against right Divinity and Christian discipline, as now declared, but also trespass against the rules of Logic. The former, because it is not so easy to surprise a whole Society largely dispersed, as it is to surprise one particular person. Evidences requisite to qualify a prudent fear, such as may justify * See Mosheim's Commentaries on the affairs of the Christians, translated by Vidal, vol. 3, pp. 190 95. There must be some mistake in Dr. Sail's referring to Tertullian as he flourished A.D. 200, and this Martyrdom is assigned to the year 297. The name of Tertullian occurs repeatedly on the margin of Baronius, under this year, and hence perhaps the mistake arose; or the Legio Fuhninatrix alluded to in Tertullian, Apolog. . 5, may have been confounded with it. Q 2 244 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED a preventing onset, may not so easily be found against a Society : the threatening words or purpose of one individual or more, in a Society, afford not so much assurance of the purpose or intention of the whole Society, as the words of an individual may give of his intention. Besides the killing of one person is not so criminal and heinous, nor so much exposed to an oppression of innocents, as the killing and destroying of a whole Society is ; therefore it is no lawful consequence a particular person may kill, by way of prevention, another who, he fears, may kill him, ergo, a Society or great party may likewise, by way of prevention, destroy another from whom it fears a similar destruction. Your second consequence above mentioned, that if one man, in order to defend his life, may kill another who intends to take his from him ; he may likewise kill him or them who intend to take his Eeligion from him this consequence also, I say, besides the perverse doctrine it contains, is a faulty piece of Logic : it is not so easy to take his Religion from a man as his corporal life. Your Religion may not be taken from you by a surprise, or when you are asleep, or against your will, as your corporal life may be. Wherefore the same prevention cannot be necessary or lawful for the preservation of both. Any one who has true Religion in him, due love to God, and a sincere and serious desire for his own happiness, must take the loss of his corporal life for his Religion, to be the greatest gain he can make ; it being the greatest security he can have of gaining life and glory everlasting for his soul and body, as our Saviour has declared (Mat. x. 39.) And is it not a desirable exchange to leave a painful, short and wretched life, for a gloriously blessed and everlasting one ? Much he has in him of earth and little of the Christian spirit, who would not wish to be dissolved, if he were sure of being, after his dissolution, with Christ. The only reason that can justify a fear to die and part with this miserable life is, the uncertainty of what may be our doom in the other, and the hopes of securing a good one by further living : but when a security is given to pass by death to a life everlasting (as Christ gives to such as die for God and his holy Faith) what Christian consideration can justify a fear to such a death, so far as to kill those who intend to bring us to it? Truly, N. N. I have so much of kindness and true friendship left in me for you, as makes me sorry, and not a little troubled to IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 245 find such pernicious doctrines as these contained in your book. I took you to be a better principled man ; and if I had perceived any such errors in your conversation at the time of our acquaint- ance in Spain, I would have refuted them and shewn my dislike to them, as freely as I do now. I am willing to imagine, that non ex tuo hcec diets it is not your own deliberate sentiment, but imposed upon you by some of those fiery emissaries of Rome who will not hesitate to go through streams of blood * to extend the Pope's power, and their own earthly advantages with it, under the colour of Catholic Faith. But by what is said hitherto, and will be further confirmed in the discussion following, it will easily appear to the unbiassed reader, that it is no want of true Catholic faith in the Church of England, nor any true zeal for it in the Roman Court, which makes them thus disturb the peace of these kingdoms, and obstinately endeavour the ruin of them. And if the Irish are not quite given over to the spirit of delusion, they will look upon all blood^y suggestions of this kind, as pro- ceeding from him who was the first author of Rebellion in heaven, and upon earth, and a Murderer from the beginning,^ and they will accordingly reject and detest them, not only for conscienceX (which ought to be the principal motive) but also for wrath, remembering the sad effects of God's wrath against them in each one of their several rebellions, whether for Religion or for any other cause. * French, Bishop of Ferns, both in his Bleeding Iphigenia, and in his Epistle to the Bishop of Paris, endeavours to justify or extenuate all the treasons, and perjuries and cruelties of the times. Dr. O'Conors Hisioricai Address, 2, 235. f Joh. viii. 44. X Rom. xiii. 5, q3 246 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER XXI. A Conclusion of my Discourse with N. N. ; with a friendly Admonition to him. Sir, if the severe Decree of your Church prohibiting to the common people the reading of controversial writings, does not comprehend you also, I hope you will bestow an attentive reading upon this book for our old friendship's sake, but the more so for the love of truth. And if you have not made a firm inflexible resolution of not yielding to any evidences (be they ever so clear) which may justify the way I took, or discover the errors of that in which you are writing, I may v^ture to hope that by reading this treatise, you shall find that 1 am not in that deplorable condition by my change which you seem to imagine ; that by it I have not forsaken the whole house of God, as you say, but removed to the soundest and safest part of it ; that I have not deserted the society of the holy Fathers of the Church, nor am become an associate of Heretics, having come to a Church where I find as much veneration and study of those Fathers, and as much aversion to the Heresies you mention, as ever I saw among you. And if you read further the Second Part now to follow of this same book, you shall find that I did not forsake the communion of the Roman Church without grave and urgent reasons forcing me to it. Those reasons [ have laid open in my first sermon preached at Dublin and printed. Great labour and study has been employed in answering them ; yet if you bring impartiality with you, in reading my reply to that answer, you shall find that my reasons alleged still remain in their force ; and that the errors which I refuted are farther discovered and made clearer by occasion of the defence made for them. But if you resolve either not to read my book, or bring to the reading of it a firm purpose of not yielding to any reason that may oppo^ie those sentiments with which you are prepossessed, IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 247 then my labour is lost as to you ; but I hope not so as to others more rationally disposed. The word of God is a grain of seed, and brings forth its fruit in time differently, according to the different disposition of the subjects it meets with. But especially I hope that my endeavours will avail me with God, in whose presence I write with sincerity, what I understand to be con- formable to his holy word and will ; and with a constant desire in all these scrutinies to satisfy my own conscience principally of the rectitude of the course taken, and to help others also to the knowledge of the same truth. When St. Paul was brought before King Agrippa, and the Governor of Judea, Porcius Festus, to give account of himself and his Religion, he gave it so fully, that Agrippa said. Almost thou persuadest me to he a Christian. To which the great Apostle replied, / would to God that not only thou^ but all that hear me, were such as I am, except these bonds. Acts xxvi. 29. If you read with candour and attention, the account which I have given of my resolution, and of the Religion which I embraced, I am persuaded (whatsoever your outward expression may be) it will work upon your mind a motion like that of Agrippa. And if you ask whether I would have you act as I did in this point, I say freely (as St. Paul said to Agrippa) that I would to God that both you and your brethren should take the same resolution; but that it may be with less difficulty and reluctancy than I had, and with less crosses and dangers for adopting it. You tell me I am old ; and I have many reasons to believe it by my long continued infirmity of body ; but I remember the time when you called me a young man, and yourself an old man. I then being now old, you must be very old ;* and therefore both of us ought to measure our resolutions and doctrine by the Rules of Religion, and the interests of Eternity, rather than by those of earthly policy and temporal advantages ; in which we can have but a little share and a shorter enjoyment. How then come you to speak to me of the loss of friends, and of infamy obtained by my change .? If it has been for the best in the presence of God * On page 252 of the Doleful Fall, edit. 1749, Dr. French says" I count two years above 70 ; and on the last page he states that the book was finished the 12th of March, 1675, 248 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED (and I am certainly persuaded it was) then I have attained by it the grace and favour of God, and given joy to his angels ; and this applause is to be preferred before that of the earthly friends of which you speak. I am much afraid that the fear of temporal shame and losses is so strong with you, and many others of your party, as to keep you from following truth, and from searching after it with due care ; I found it to be so in myself I confess my weakness herein with sorrow, humbly craving pardon of God for it. The fear of shame and loss among men, more than any superior consideration, caused me to struggle a long time against the inward callings of God from my former errors, and made me use all means possible to silence the cries of conscience ; but the more I laboui'ed and studied to allay them, the more force they acquired ; and when I saw clearly by a strict enquiry that they were indeed from God, T yielded to them, notwithstanding my natural reluctancies, and the heap of shames, crosses, and dangers which I saw in the way ; looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, Heb. xii. 2. In the life and doctrine of Christ we shall find lessons of this kind, but never in the dictates of nature. How would you imagine it should be a natural inclination, that a man in his declining age should change a state of quiet, honour, and plenty of all things necessary for human life, for another of troubles, crosses, affronts, no certainty of a competent livelihood, and a certain and continual danger of losing his life ! This was my condition on my change of Keligion, and I may better declare it to you than to many others. You can remember in what degree of honour, applause and advantage I was, where you knew me, plentifully assisted ^viib all things necessary, without any care or trouble in procuring them. Of temporal blessings I could desire no more. Neither would 1 at any time, though I had a choice of fortune given to me. To this condition I might at that time have returned, with some special assurances of good reception, when I came over to the Protestant Church, without any bargain made, or promise of a livelihood ; relying solely upon Divine Providence, which is never wanting to such as truly confide in it ; and with certain knowledge that I was to suffer crosses, calumnies, curses, affronts. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 249 false testimonies, and conspiracies against mj life and credit ; of all which I found a plentiful store as I expected : and you tell me that my change was a work of nature, not of grace ! one of your very ill-grounded assertions. I pray you consult the case with your own natural inclination and be ingenuous. Do but imagine yourself a little while making such a change as I did, and undergoing on account of it similar danger and losses, (as probably you should, if the case might happen ;) certain I am that your nature would represent to you such horrors in the change, that if all the angels in heaven came down, furnished with the most Divine reasons to persuade you to it, you would take them all for so many devils, and their reasons for absolute madness. Thus much I can tell you of your own nature ; but what grace may work upon you, God the author of it only can tell. And whilst you do not feel this motion upon you so strong as to forsake errors (though known) upon the hard terms now mentioned, spare I pray your ill-grounded and severe censures against others, whom God moves to undergo those difficulties for the truth's sake. Moderate your inconsiderate zeal ; and if you will govern it well, read dispassionately w^hat is written here and is to follow in this book : whereby you shall perceive how far mistaken you are in many things about yourself and others. And whereas you acknowledge yourself to be near the end of this mortal life (as a man of your age must needs be) leave to your friends and brethren that legacy, which your good Saviour Jesus left, and with repeated earnestness commended to his disciples, saying. Peace I leave with you ; my peace I give unto you.* Endeavour first to make peace with God, by due acknowledgment and repentance of your sins and errors ; and then endeavour to sow peace in the hearts of your hearers. Make it your business to quench, rather than to blow up the fire of dissensions and animosities. Have a real pity for your poor country, bleeding and groaning under wounds received in barbarous wars and broils stirred up by blind, fiery zealots. Pour into those wounds the sweet oil of peace. Impress upon the people, by all the means you may, charity with their neighbours and loyalty to their sovereign. Thus will they recover * John xiv. '27. 250 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED those blessing.?, of which the bitter spirit of hatred, envy, revenge, and ambition, have robbed them in former times ; and thus will you, and other inspirers of peace and charity, compass that great blessing reserved for Peace-makers, that they shall he called the children of GodJ^ And now the God of peace he with you,f whilst I turn my face to a Scold, and afterwards to a Sophister, with a view to vindicate Truth from the assaults of both. * Matt, y. 9. f Rom. xv. 33. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 251 CHAPTER XXII. A Check to I. fi.'s scandalous Libel, and a Vindication of the Church of England, from his slanderous and false report of it. All who saw /. E.^s scolding Libel, agree in thinking that it deserves no answer; but none will deny that it deserves a check. And what check can be so sensible to the author (if he has any sense in him) as to lay before his eyes a piece of his own com- position.* St. Jerom in the beginning of his book against Jovinian, in order to render the man ridiculous, produces a parcel of his frantic phrases, and cries at them with his usual and pointed eloquence, Rogo quds sunt hsunt Pro reges, eminet authoritas." 256 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED their public Churches on holy days, the very silence and modesty of their carriage in the streets gives me a testimony of their inward good disposition ; and when they are come to the Church, each one retires to his respective seat, all being decently severed to avoid confusion and disorders. Divine office is performed in a most grave and decent manner, all fitted to the benefit and spiritual food of souls, so as if any Hymn or Psalm be sung, with more exquisite music, the Chanter or some other of the Choir informs the people what Psalm or verse is to be sung, that seeing it in their books they may be furnished with the sense, and that thereby the music may work better on their minds to devotion ; so great a care is taken, that in all we pay to God rationahile ohsequium a rational service with sense and feeling of what we do, may be rendered. What if I consider the admirable devotion and reverence wherewith they go to receive the sacred Communion, far greater than ever I saw among Papists, though pretending to believe something more (they knew not themselves what) about the presence of our Saviour in that Sacrament, than Protestants do. A spectacle of this kind, certainly grateful to God and to his angels, which T saw in Christ's Church in Dublin on Resurrec- tion Sunday last year, adheres still in my memory with joy. The most Reverend the Lord Archbishop of Dublin, Chancellor of Ireland, having performed the Communion Office with singular decency and good order, he himself first reverently took the sacred Communion and gave it to the Minister of the Altar, then to the Lord Lieutenant, to the Peers and the Royal Council, and to a numerous concourse ; all receiving it with singular devotion ; having for associates in giving it the most Reverend the Arch- bishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland, the Right Reverend the Bishop of Meath, the chief of the Bishops of Ireland : after the Metropolitans and three Dignitaries of the Church, there were Doctors in Divinity to administer the Cup, each one making a godly brief exhortation to the receiver for a due receiving of it ; the Lord Archbishop having read at the Communion table a grave and pious Homily, exhorting to a right preparation for receiving that venerable Sacrament, as is usually done in all Churches upon such an occasion. Go now, Mr. J. E., and compare these practices of piety and IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 257 devotion, with your number of Are Marias, gabbled over beads of stick or glass, sitting or walking, and mixed with sundry dialogues to the people about you ; wnth your Mass mumbled over in haste, and the people thronging to have a sight of the Priest, and a touch of the holy water, without understanding a word of what is being said. This is your ordinary course of devotion and spiritual assistance given to your people (if some particular person will not provide otherwise for themselves.) And yet you speak to me of your Deiform inteutioris, of ravishwg devotions, &c. ! Truly I saw much of those devotions among your Extatics, and in them much of delusion, cheat, and vanity ; I wish I may never see more of them. What shall I say of the Preaching used in the Protestant Church truly Apostolic and godly, all delivering doctrinavi sanam et irreprehensihilem sound and, blameless doctrine. I may say with truth, that I never saw a Protestant Preacher yet, delivering a sermon which w^as indecent or unbecoming that place: not so with you. There, would I hear frequently torrents of nonsense, madness, and blasphemies poured out. One, with a view to magnify his Order, will make his Friar a Cherubim ; another to out-go him will make his a Seraphim; and another, thinking that but a small purchase, will set up his saint higher than Jesus Christ and the holy Trinity : with other desperate essays, like those which I produced above. Chapter XXVI. This lofty style certainly you missed in me, when you tell your reader, that though I was a Professor of Divinity, yet not of any solid intensive learning ; and in all the Doctors of the Protestant Church, when you style them ignorant Sciolists * The good Lord, who knows them and knows you (as any may by your goodly book) what will he judge of your presumption ? Finally, will you tell me, what purchase did you expect to make by your defamatory Libel ? To get the credit of an eminent scold ? I confess you deserve it, and tlie highest chair appointed for persons of that quality. And as for myself, you have confirmed me in the esteem of the election that ] made, and in the acknowledgement of the great mercy of God, in drawing me out of a congregation where the spirit of fury and untruth, Page 56; in Epist. dedicat. 258 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED animating all your libel, is countenanced. If we are to believe you (and shall we ?) you had the boldness to present it to a most illustrious person, whom T forbear to name for very reverence, fearing an offence even in mentioning that so dirty a piece of paper should be put into such hands. You tell us moreover, that it was published by the approbation of your superiors. If it be so, certainly God has turned the counsel of your Ahithophels into foolishiiess. Let any man who has not lost his wits judge, whether it be tolerable, that men who profess to be poor and humble should speak so scornfully and contemptuously of so great and illustrious a part of Christianity, as we have seen the Protes- tant Church to be : Whether it be prudence in persons complain- ing that they are persecuted for their Religion, and under the lash of a Protestant Government, to crow and insult over their masters, with barbarous and abusive language, and most gross and manifest calumnies ! Mr. /. E. knows that in two visits which he was pleased to bestow upon me, after he had honoured me with his famous Libel, at the same time excusing the harsh language of it, I told him my discontent was not for any injury done to me, but for the prejudice that I conceived such indiscreet writings would bring upon his poor countrymen and mine of the Romish communion ; of whose welfare I could not omit to be solicitous, and grieve for the harm that they have received often by means of blind zealots. Truly I was much pleased with the knowledge that he seemed to have of my temper, very alien from spite or malice ; and of the spirit of the Protestant Church, in coming so freely to me, after such grievous affronts published by him against both. I do admire and honour the singular patience and Christian modesty of the English Government, in not being so severe as Romanists are (where they can command) in punishing such proceedings ; and if Mr. /. E. and his Council were wise, they would rather honour than abuse this modesty of their Masters. When I consider the different procedure of the Protestant Chinch, and of the Romish, with their deserters, I am strongly confirmed in the choice which I have made. If any person departs from the Protestant Church to the Romish, they neither curse nor rail, nor plot against his life or credit; they only commiserate his fall, and pray for him, that God may convert TN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 259 him. Herein appears the spirit of Christ his meekness and charity. But when any one leaves the Romish Church for the Protestant, he may be sure to have curses, cahimnies, affronts, conspiracies against his life and reputation follow him while he lives. A strong point of policy, apt indeed to terrify weak minds, so that they dare not assert their quarrel; but it is a policy dictated not by that wisdom which is from above, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy, &c., James iii. 17; but from that other called by the same Apostle (verse 15.) earthly, sensual, devilish. Learned, grave, and civil discussions about Religion, such as those of Isaac Casaubon with Cardinal Perron and Fronto DuccBiis;* of Peter JVadiny with Simon Ejpiscopiusf and the The letters of Casaubon addressed to Fronto Le Due, and to Cardinal du Perron, respectively, both appear in Is. Casauhoni Epistola, (Roter. 1709.) pp. 385 426; and pp. 489505. The latter portion of Casaubon's life, when this letter was written, was much embittered both by the unfounded and contradictory reports which were circulated against his Protestantism, and by the unceasing set which was made to trap him into Popery; and then, when these attempts did not succeed, by all kinds of impediments devised to debar him, if possible, from access to books; for Rome dreaded his pen. Even when he had obtained admission to King James's Library, the Jesuits laboured with all their might to spoil his enjoyment of it. " Quando fidei meae regia Bibliotheca est commissa, quid illi (Jesuitas) comment! non sunt, ut ne hoc fieret? Possem hie fiaKphv IA({5a (TKaiwpiwv contexere, quas ne videar ad animum unquam revocasse, missas facio. Possem doctissimi cujusdam viri, et inter Jesuitas suos non obscuri, epistolam proferre, qua de nonnullis eorum in Germania et Belgio odiis Vaticini- anis, gratis susceptis et variis consiliis adversus meam existimationem initis, ante annos quatuor, certior fiebam." Exercitat. 1 ad apparat. Baronii annall. p. 33, Francof. 1615. Yet these worthies may have succeeded in some measure, for we have little doubt that the distant treatment, which the English scholars of the day, with whom he had lived on terms of intimacy, began to exhibit towards Casaubon, arose from the practised and well-directed mendacity of the Loyolists; see the Life prefixed to Casauh. Ejnstolce^ Roterod. 1709, pp. 41,42. 57. The preceding remarks seem called for, in order to correct (if they may so avail) the ideas, which BIr. Hallam's representation of Casaubon's views would tend to generate. His unsettledness was, we doubt not, oftentimes merely Epistolary, and as to the reports spread about him, we know their origin even the patrons of calumny. f- The Correspondence between Episcopius and Peter Wading is given in Episcopii Opera Theolog. pt. 2. pp. 97 147 ; the Rule of faith, and the use of Images, being the main subjects in debate. Episcopius having been compelled to vacate his situation as Professor of Theology at Leyden, retired to the neigh- bourhood of Antwerp, where he soon made the acquaintance of Mr. Wading, Professor of Theology, Poetry, &c., at Louvain, who very readily entered upon Controversial topics, and sought with the accustomed and well-timed alacrity of R 2 260 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED like, I shall always honour, and willingly entertain; but with scolds I do not fancy spending my time. And thus I leave you to God (Mr. I. E.) to direct you, while I enter the lists with another pretending to subtilty in reasoning the case with me ; which is to form the Second Part of this book. his Order, to proselyte Episcopius to the Church of Rome. " Quod primo illo congressu fecisse non contentus, postea etiam iteratis vicibus continuavitj argu- tiis et sophismatibus suis, ut conjicere est, sperans Episcopii (a reliyionis suce sociis male habiti) constantiam expugnare, atque sic eum in castra sua pertrahere. Sed cum in familiaribus colloquiis res ipsi ex voto non successisset, mutata velificatione se ad scribendum contulit, et diversis temporibus duas ad eum satis prolixas Epistolas misit: quibus Episcopius responsum, quod nunc tibi commu- nicamus, paulo post opposuit." The Preface of Courcelles to this portion of the works of Episcopius. Peter Wading was an Irishman born, a native of Waterford, " vir in orani genere scientiarum praestans." He spent the greatest part of his life at Louvain and Prague, and at last died at Gratz in 1644 ; and (as the Bihliotheca. Scrip. Soc. Jesu states, p. 704.) *' ad vitara transiit sempiternam" nothing about Pur- gatory, for which others have to pay ! &c. &c. END OF THE FIRST PART. TRUE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC FAITH MAINTAINED IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND THE SECOND PART. R 3 TRUE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC FAITH MAINTAINED IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. PART II. A SURVEY OF MR. J. E.'s BOOK, ENTITLED, THE UNERRING UNERRABLE CHURCH."* CHAPTER I. An Anatomy of Mr, I. S.'s genius and drifts, appearing in his Dedicatory Epistle to my Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The dissections of Anatomy discover imperfections and diseases in the vitals, and other exterior parts of the body, which a fair skin or cunning dress hides from the eyes of a common beholder. In like manner a scholastic examination will lay open the faults and corruptions both in the essential and ornamental parts of a discourse, which upon a transient view appear plausible and commendable. Unto a mind clouded with passion and prejudice, and the favour of an espoused, or the dislikes of an adverse party, the writing of Mr. /. S. may appear without blemish or fault ; but an incision being made, the flesh and the skin being cut off, it will be found void of truth in the proposals, of force and form in the argumentation, sincerity in the design, and lastly of modesty * The unerring and unerrable Church / or an Answer to a Sermon preached by Mr. Andrew Sail, formerly a Jesuit and now a Minister of the Protestant Churth. The initials /. S. are added tothe Dedication to the Earl of Essex, the then Lord Lieutenant. This is the same book as the one in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, catalogued and labelled " Church Infallible, against Andrew Sail," It bears date 1675. 264 CATHOLTC RELIGION MAINTAINED and ingenuousness in the style and terms ; which are the several requisites that can render a writing in any degree worth the reading. This kind of Anatomy I will now take in hand, and by no other art than plain incision, shall with truth and perspicuity lay open the fallacies and gross errors of the beforementioned Author, w^ho delivers boldly his judgment upon w^hat he does not understand; or, if he were not really ignorant, yet delivers insincerely, and misrepresents those things of wdiich he treats ; all which I shall demonstrate in the following Chapters. After the several attacks made by /. E., N. N., and others upon my small book, upon myself, and the Church of England, comes up confidently to complete the victory Mr. /. S'.,* as Scipio Africanus to the siege of Numantia, with a view to amend the errors of the preceding vv-arriois.f And in order to appear a Scipio indeed in his present adventure, he promises himself so to beset and straighten us, as to make us burn ourselves, as the Numantines did, thinking thereby to prevent their falling into the hands of the Roman Conqueror. To compass this magnificent design, he proposes to the Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, my good Lord and Patron, in the Dedicatory Epistle of his book to his Excellency, that I should be burned for a crime which he calls a Blasphemy, wherein all the learned men of the Church of England are involv^ed with me, viz., for saying that the Roman Church, as it now stands, is not a secure way to salvation. And the executioner of this severe sentence passed upon us by Mr. /. S. must not be the Inquisitor of Rome or of Spain, but our ow^n King's Prime Minister and Lieutenant in the Kingdom of Ireland! * I. S. "John Sergeant, an Enijlish Priest of the Secular Clergy." Peter Walsh's History of the Irish Remonstrance, pt. 2 of the first treatise, p. 737. John Sergeant (alias Smith, alias Holland) was born in Lincolnshire, and admitted Student of St. John's College Cambridge in lf>37. He was a very prolific writer, and what is remarkable, though so zealous in fixing, we might perhaps say, hammering, correct notions into others, himself fell under censure for heterodox doctrine. He died, as Dod writes, " with his pen in his hand an. 1707, aged 86." Church History of England, vol. 3, p. 472, edit. 1742. Some of his writings are highly valued by his Church, chiefly, no doubt for the faults wliich Bp, Stillingfleet and Dr. Sail found in them, but which his Patrons consider his excellencies. f- See Florus, lib. 2, c. 18. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 265 He allows that I have so much wit, as to know that I could not justify my separation from the Church of Rome, if I hoped to be saved in it; whereas believing I may, to forsake it were then a formal Schism ; thus much of wit he doth very injuriously deny to all other learned Protestants, saying, that all allow the Koman Church to be a secure way to salvation, which is to say that they are all confessedly Schismatics. The inference is but too clear from his Positions, confusedly delivered, if thus ordered All men who separate from the Roman Church, knowing and allowing it to be a safe way to salvation, are formally and confessedly Schismatics ; all learned men of the Church of England do acknowledge and allow the Church of Rome to be a safe way to salvation ; therefore all of them are confessedly and formally Schismatics. This Thesis Mr. /. S. presents to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, hoping to win his favour. To clear the ground of all this discourse, and show how bold and blind was the attempt of Mr. /. S's charging me with Blas- phemy, observe the occasion given to him for it, that in the page 226 of my book (according to the first edition* of it at Dublin) when rebuking their ordinary vaunt wherewith they delude the simple, saying that Protestants allow Papists may be saved, but Papists do not allow that Protestants may be saved, &c. I delivered these words following: But in ?ieither case do they assert the truth ; for no learned Protestant does allow the Popish Religion in general and absolutely speaking, to he a secure way to salvation ; for all agree in affirming that many of their tenets and practices are inconsistent with salvation, though ignorance may haply excuse many of the simple sort, but not such as know their error, or with due care and enquiry may know it. On the other side, &c. This has nettled the poor man to rage. Perhaps he found himself to be of those who know, or, with due enquiry, may know the damnable errors of the Roman Church. Now I desire the judicious reader to consider, with what propriety of terms Mr. /. S. calls it a Blasphemy in me, to relate this sentiment of learned Protestants. Though I were mistaken, to call such a mistake Blasphemy, is extravagant language. * Where does this edition exist now? 266 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Three kinds of Blasphemy I find mentioned by Aquinas and other Schoolmen : 1. To appropriate to God something unbeseeming. 2. To deprive him of a perfection due to him. 3. To attribute to a creature any of God's properties. To which of these classes will Mr. /. S. reduce my mistake, if what I relate of learned Protestants be not so? That one of those women who sit in the Market-places selling roots, should call it a Blasphemy in another of her trade to say that her turnips came out of Flanders, not being so, may excite laughter ; but that a man pretending to learning, and a disputant in Divinity should ramble on at this rate, I confess plainly seems to me intolerable ; and it is a sad task in having to dispute with a person of so irregular a style. But if what I related of learned Protestants be so indeed, which way comes it to be a Blasphemy to tell truth ? Now in order to know whether it be so, let any one who ever heard learned Protestants deliver their opinion upon that subject, or ever read their writings, say whether he knew any of them affirm, that the Popish Religion in general, and absolutely speaking, is a sure way to salvation ; or whether they could say it in accordance with their assertions, ever accusing the Church of Rome of Idolatry, Superstition, Impiety, &c. crimes certainly inconsistent with salvation, if ignorance did not excuse, or penitence heal the malady. The testimony of learned Chillingworth,* well versed in the doctrine of both parties, may serve for many to this purpose, who, relating that Franciscus a Sancta Clara, and the Jesuit his antagonist, among other learned Romanists, affirm that ignorance and repentance may excuse a Protestant from damnation (he dying in his error) adds these words And this is all the charity which hy your own confession also the most favourable Protes- tants allow to Papists. Here we have witnesses on both sides affirming, that Protestants do not allow salvation to Papists, if ignorance or repentance will not protect them ; how then comes it to be so great a Paradox in me to state that they do ? a greater Paradox certainly to call it Blasphemy to tell it. * Chillingworth, chap. 7, . 17; see Baxter's Key for Catholics for large quota- tions from Santa Clara's volume, p. 307. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 267 CHAPTER II. A Vindication of several Saints and worthy souls, our Ancestors, from the sentence of Damnation passed upon them by I. S. To render me odious to my Lord Lieutenant, to my own kindred, and to all good men, he pretends that I adjudge unto hell his Excellency's ancestors, my own ancestors, St. Bernard, Aquinas, and other holy men. The ground which he alledges for fathering this severe sentence upon me, is, that I should say, that in the Popish Religion none may he saved; and, which is more intolerable, that there is no salvation in the Catholic Church. All men who know my principles and temper in writing and speaking, will be surprised at the impudence of this man, in imputing to me such desperate and rude positions. That none may be saved in the Romish or Popish Religion, I never said with that generality, but with a limitation, leaving a gate to salvation for innumerable good souls, and for the holy and renowned men whom he mentions, as 1 shall now shew. To pronounce for damned all the adverse parties of Christians without distinction, is a rashness I ever abhorred, and constantly opposed in the Romanists, when I was on their side ; and which I would not imitate against my present adversaries : much less did I or could I say, that there is no salvation in the Catholic Church, out of which I expect no salvation for myself or others. I have said indeed, and proved with reasons which /. S, will never solve, that the Roman Church according to the present profession and practice of it, is not a safe way to salvation, generally and absolutely speaking ; that many of the tenets and practices of it are inconsistent with salvation, in such, as under- standing the error of them, do continue to embrace them. This I have said, and will maintain at all times, by the help of God and truth; but how different this is from saying, that in the Roman Church a man may not be saved, and that there is no salvation in the Catholic Church, any person of common sense 268 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED may easily conceive ; and withal, judge how unpleasing a work it is, to spend precious time in debating with a man of such con- fused brains and ill digested expressions. The foundation therefore for the censure of damnation passed against those saints and renowned men not having been laid by me, but proceeded from the fancy or fiction of /. S. it remains that he is the author of that malignant censure : My work will be to vindicate the persons injured from that cruel sentence, by shewing that it is not a consequence of my opinion above mentioned, owned and confirmed by many thousands of learned and pious men. The stress of his argument, and where he hopes to be more successful is, in what concerns Thomas of Aquin. He says, that the sanctuary of ignorance which we allow to others for escaping damnation, cannot avail him, being well versed in Scripture, and an eminent master in most sciences; and so he conceives his damnation to be unavoidable in consequence of my before men- tioned position, and the common sense of all the Reformed Churches; and then proceeds to sound a triumph as upon a manifest victory. But if Mr. /. S.^s Logic makes a demonstra- tion to him of this consequence, it does not to me ; nor will it to any ordinary Logician, who understands the terms and state of the question. If he does not know how to save Aquinas, and several other good and learned men of the Roman Church, from damnation, in the opinion of so many thousands of learned men of the Reformed Churches, I can and will teach him. I am not of those fiery spirits, reproved by the Royal piety of King James, who affirm, that in the Popish Religion none can be saved, as Mr. /. S. falsely and maliciously to his own knowledge imposes upon me. I am inclined with my study and wishes, and far more willingly deliver my opinion for the salvation than the damnation of men, when by the least probability induced thereunto. And first for Aquinas and other learned men of his time, I thus plead : The errors and foul practices of the Roman Church were not so many then as now ; they increase daily. They have not been so known and cleared in the crucible of public opposition ; none dared to check them : and so they kept credit. The impos- tures, fallacies and absurdities of Mr. /. SJ's book will not be so well known to his proselytes possessed with prejudices, and to others that see it alone, as to impartial persons, who can compare IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 269 it with my exceptions against it ; so it is with those erroneous tenets which began to come into use in Aquinas's time, or some- what before, and were not opposed. Secondly, for many learned men even of our own time, which seems more difficult, I say that invincible ignorance may be pleaded. For which I advertise, that invincible ignorance (according to the common use of the Schools and our present purpose) is not that which by no means absolutely possible may be avoided, but such as a man cannot remedy by means obvious to him according to his state and condition. In this sense Shep- herds and the hke in Spain and Italy, who want instruction for knowing the Creed or Ten Commandments, are commonly excused upon the account of invincible ignorance ; and the fault is laid upon their fathers, masters, or curates. In the same manner I say that many Professors of Philosophy and Divinity in Spain and Italy, may be invincibly ignorant of the malice contained in the erroneous principles which they profess, having sucked them in during their tender years, as Divine Verities proceeding from a living reputedly Infallible Authority. They never heard them controverted or examined; no books written against them were permitted to come in their sight. They were taught that it was a sin to doubt of the truth of their tenets ; ergo those men wanted the ordinary means of instruction, and consequently may have the refuge of invincible ignorance. All this I know to be so by my own experience. Having lived in Spain many years, and having had, for several of them, licence from the Inquisitor General to read all manner of prohibited books, the prohibition was so severe that I could never find one book of a Protestant to read. And even in Ireland, where more liberty may be expected, there is a severe prohibition against reading books in opposition to the Romish tenets;* which appeared Dr. Carroll (a Roman Catholic Prelate in the United States) assserted, '* that Roman Catholics read ivithout censure or /lesitation whatever Controversial books they pleased. This is notoriously untrue, as Mr. Pilling [a Priest] has confessed. ' La defense de lire des livres Heretiques,' say the Conferences D' Angers, a work of great repute, 'est generale : elle comprend les Pretres comme Laiques; les personnes ecclairees, comme celles qui ne sont pas instruites. * * * * Mr. Collet (defide cap. 1, sect. 2,) ne reconnoit pas de legerete de matiere dans la lecture des livres heretiques. Le Pere Antoine estime que quinze lignes et peut-etre moins, suffisent pour faire une peche mortel. * * * Sanchez 270 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED particularly in reference to that small book which I published. For upon my offering it for perusal to a Romish Priest, Vicar General of a famous Church in that Kingdom, that he might see I did not without consideration and reason what I had done, he desired to be excused from reading it, as fearing it would raise in him doubts which he could not solve : and if this injunction is so severe upon persons of that degree, it must be more indispensible upon the generality. Means of instruction for knowing their errors being thus care- fully prohibited to members of the Romish communion in all times and places, we may favourably conceive that many of them, both learned and unlearned, may have and plead the excuse of Invinci- ble Ignorance, the sin lying upon the statists who, for temporal ends, debar them from the means of healthful knowledge. One remark more in favour of the learned. Very many of them having bestowed the flower of their age in studies of humanity, philosophy, and speculative divinity, are taken up, and often kept all their life-time teaching those faculties, without ever exige un peu plus qu' une page in folio et in 4to. pour qu'on encourre la censure. * * * On en doit conclure qu' il faut bien peu de chose pour tomber dans la reserve sur cette matiere.' Such, Sir, is the present discipline of the Roman Church.'' Hawkins's General Defence of the Ref in a Letter to Berington ; (Wor- cester, 1788,) p. 23. [The Conferences D'Angers were reprinted at Besangon, in 26 vols., 1823.] To the above may be added the testimony of another Priest, who also aban- doned the Church of Rome, and became Rector of Burlington, Jersy, U. S. " Inconsistency apart, he must have a daring soul, who shall venture upon a pasture, which the Universal Shepherd pronounces to be poisonous, and forbids his flock to taste at the hazard of their salvation. The Rev. Gentleman (Dr. Carroll) will not deny that these lofty pretensions have their effect to this day. Else why are R. C.'s constantly advised to obtain permission to read heretical books for the security of their consciences ? Among Xhe factdtics as they are called, or parochial powers conferred on R. C. Missionaries even in England, is not a special Licence granted for keeping and reading heretical books ? The Chaplain's warrant on this head is expressed in these words: Conceditur facultas tenendi et legendi libros hjereticorura de eorum religione tractantes ad eff'ectum eos expugnandi Leave is granted to keep and read the books of heretics, which treat of their religion, in order to refute them.' These lines place this whole matter in its proper point of view.'' Whar- ton's Beply to the Address of the Roman Catholics of the U. S. p. 9. New York, 1817. Dr. Wharton had been a Priest at Worcester, England and the honest volume from which this extract is made, contains both his and Dr. Carrols's pamphlets. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 271 reflecting upon, or having means to know, the errors of their Church in the points controverted. They embrace them upon the credit of their instructors, as infallible verities, and the more so, from their being continually beaten into their ears, with horror and execration against the opposite doctrine. And how great the power of education and prejudice is, let the Dominicans and Jesuits testify. How fiercely and eagerly does each one act and opine for the school in which he was educated, and against the opposite ! * By this it appears how vain the triumph of /. S, is, as if in my opinion all learned men dying in the communion of the Church of Rome were condemned to hell. We have seen that impious sentence to be a product of his own fancy, no consequence of any doctrine of mine. More rash and wicked was his attempt in casting a similar sentence of condemnation upon those glorious saints and great doctors of the Church, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Chrysostom. What have they to do with his errors to be condemned for them ? Strong opposers of such errors, no patrons of them were they ; as partly I have already and hereafter will more fully declare. It appears likewise by this discourse, how ridiculous his charge upon me is, of contradiction and speaking against my consciencef in calling Thomas Aquinas a saint. I have shewed how that consists with, and contradicts not, what I have delivered respect- ing the insecurity of salvation in the Communion of the Roman Church. He pretends to render me guilty in the tribunal of the English Inquisition for calling Aquinas a saint ; but the Inquisi- tion of England is not so rude as that of Rome in denying common civility to men, and the honorary titles which custom allows them. He may as well accuse the compilers of the London Gazettes for giving to the Pope the title oi Holiness, and * It cannot be pressed too often upon the attention of the considerate reader to what a lamentable extent this conduct of the Roman Church is carried in order to keep her children in ignorance and thus secure, as she thinks, their devotion to her. See Baxter's Key for Catholicsj p, 247, and note to the same ; edit. 1839. f Popish and Jesuitic disputants have a very happy and rather amusing facility in being beforehand with an opponent, throwing charges upon him first which they are conscious are most applicable to, and therefore most likely to be thrown upon themselves. 272 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED will have as much thanks for it, as for his present impeachment of me for calling Aquinas a Saint. We do not take it for a certain proof of holiness to be canonized in the Church of Rome. Many of their own more learned writers deny it to be inerrable therein. It is not merit alone* which attains that honour there. And though we know all this to be so, we do not grudge to call those saints whom we find by custom to be so entitled. And from all that has been said hitherto, we may see and w-onder at the rare boldness of this man, in terming it Blasphemy in me to relate the common opinion of all learned Protestants, or to consent to it ; and to propose to have us all burned for it, by sentence of our own chief governor ! to pretend, in justification of this wicked attempt, the authority of our Sovereign King James of glorious memory I whose decrees and sentiments herein T do most willingly obey, and consent unto to impose upon me an opinion which I never uttered by word, or writing, nor ever harboured in my thoughts, that there is no salvation in the Roman Catholic Church I and that her errors are inconsistent with salvation ; * True enough: see Baxter's Key for Cafhalics, edit 1839, p. 24(5. Ihit a modern illustration of the truth of the charge, evidencing the semper eadim practice of the Church of Home may be acceptable to the reader : " Soon after landing in Malta, 1 paid a visit to a subterraneous cavern beneath the Church of St. Pubblio at Florianne, just out of Valletta. * * Jn this valley of vision were two bodies, which one of the monks informed me, laid claim to what the Papal pale styles Canonization, that is, to hold the rank of Saints, and stand in the Calendar as Mediators. 1 approached these skeletons * These,' said the Monk, ' claim Canonization.' Then what are they doing here ? < The question is not yet settled at Rome.' What question ? ' Whether they are really saints.' How is that? ' Why, no miracles have yet been wrought by their bones, and their living relatives have not been able to defray the heavy expences of a trial at Rome.' What trial ? < Any human body preferring a claim to Canonization must undergo a trial like those in Courts of Law. An Ecclesiastic acts as Advocate for the candidate relics, while a second performs the part of a demon, raking up whatever he can against the candidate to prevent his attaining the high honour of Saintship. After both parties have finished their statements, the decision is pronounced by an appointed Judge.' And who pays the process? ' Oh, the friends of the man or woman tried.' Does the man who acts Satan's part at a trial tell all he knows of a candidate's faults? 'Of course : the man who acted this part at the trial of the bones of St. Francis, alleged against that Saint, that when a mere boy he played at bowls; but this objection was overruled.' Are tiie expenses great ? ' Very ; in fact, it is for want of money that these two bodies remain here unsainted." Wilsons Narrative of the Greek Mission, &c. pp. 126, 7, London, 1839. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 273 thus to clip my words and force them against my will and well declared meaning, in order to subserve his own malicious purposes [this, I say, is wonderful boldness.] And notwithstanding these enormous excesses and absurdities of his language, his presumption is so blind, that he concludes his Dedicatory Epistle by stating that, even if his Treatise contained nothing else but this check which he offers me, it must nevertheless be grateful to his Excellency ! If this address were made to a weak or dull person, it were yet criminal enough ; but in presenting it to so deep a judgment and well known wisdom as that of my Lord Lieutenant, pardon me, sacred laws of Modesty ! if I say it is a very insolent boldness. But now to the main point in debate. XT^^T? 274 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER III. Mr. I. S's. cold defence of the Infallibility of his Church examined. Both in my Declaration and in my printed Sermon, or discourse against the errors of the Roman Church, I signified, that the only anchor left to keep me in the Communion of it, (after a strong apprehension of its erroneous tenets) was the opinion of Infallibility granted to that Church, and the Head of it : but that anchor being cut off, and a clear discovery made of the fallacy of their pretended Infallibility, I set open my eyes and heart to receive the light which God sent me in his holy Writ, to discover their pernicious errors and declare for his precious truth against them. My adversary perceiving this to be the hinge on which all the fabric turns, and that if I were persuaded of that Infallibility, I would blind my eyes to follow, without any further dispute, the conduct of such a guide goes about to set up the said Infallibility with all his power, and so entitles his book, The unerring un- errable Church. But the way for compassing his design is very odd, which is yielding to my first and main attack upon it, that is the uncertainty of such an Infallibility to assist them, which I proved by the disconformity of their authors in asserting it, and the weakness of the grounds which they produce for it. But Mr. I. S. (page 167) gives me leave to believe what I please therein: It is no article of faith (says he) that the Pope is Infallible.* If he disliked that doctrine, he might have denied it and remain a Catholic. A Catholic I may remain and die, but not of their Communion, that prop for these structures failing, which I saw clearly to be ruinous without it. It is an intolerable cavil to say that I was speaking of the * Of what value then can his decision be in the position, to which he is exalted by Bellarmine, Gretzer, and many others, as being the Church per Ecclesiam, quando Ecclesiam dicimus esse omnium controversiarum fidei Judicem, intel- ligimus Pontificem Romanuni. Gretzer's Defen. of Bellarmine, lib. 3, c. 10; quoted in Inyram's Transubstantiation Refuted, p. 4 IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 275 Pope alone, or of the Roman Diocese, in order to delude the reader with impertinent digressions, as he often does; I have clearly expressed my meaning to be, that neither the Pope, alone, nor in a Council (such as that of Trent,) nor the congregation under his obedience, are infallible. To say that the said congi'e- gation should be considered the Church Universal, (which I do allow, according to St. Paul's expression (1 Tim. iii. 15,) to be the pillar and ground of truth) is an arrogant begging of a conclusion which will never be allowed to them ; all Christian Churches who differ from them, which are far the greater part of Christendom, exclaiming against their blind presumption in appropriating unto themselves the name of the Catholic Church. That the Church truly Universal, composed of all believers in Christ, whether diffusive, or representative in a Council truly OEcumenical and free, such as were the first four General Councils, (and such as was 7iot the Council of Trent*) is promise^ * The objections of Peter Walsh to the Council of Trent are, that it was not (Ecumenical that it was merely an Occidental Council, and that it was not " free." His reasons for the last complaint are : " Because all the members of it, to a man, were sworn vassals of the Pope by the strictest oath of fidelity that could be dratvn by pen. And the Proponentibus Legatis [clause], and the continual directions by the Mail, and the numbers of Titulars and Pensioners and even Renouncers hurried on a sudden from the Court to the Council, and the Archbishop of Otranto, with his forty sure seconds, and the place itself of Trent so much at the devotion of Rome, and many other both fine devices and frighting menaces of the Pope, and of his Legates presiding in the Council, might be added, were it necessary. But, after that oath once mentioned, there needs no more to be said. It is not only an oath that has been unknown to all Christian Bishops and Churches for a thousand years from Christ downwards, nor only an oath that is repugnant to the duty of every good subject on earth who is subject to any other Prince or State besides the Pope; but an oath that tyrannizes over all freedom of Religion, Reason, Conscience an oath that betrays all the Christian Churches in the world to the lordly will of one single man. But therefore an oath so necessary to the Pope that being desired to dispense in it with the Members of the Council, or at least to suspend the Obligation of it during the Sessions, he expressly refused to do either." Four Letters by Peter Walsh of St. Francis's Order, pp. 107-8. To this may be added Mr. Hawkins's pertinent queries " Can you really afiirm with your hand upon your bosom, that either in this Council or almost any other, every subject was discussed ' previo examine fideli et diligenti, absque suffragiorura ambilu, aut solicita prensatione,' as Hooke and Holden and common sense require ? Of 267 Prelates who assisted at it, more than two thirds were Italians, entirely at the beck of the Roman Pontiff; and it is well known how great the prejudices of the ultramontane Clergy are, in favour s 2 276 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED to have the assistance of the Holy Ghost, so that, though it be not properly infallible, yet it shall not eiT in things fundamental to men's salvation, 1 do piously believe, and of my meaning therein I gave him no occasion to doubt. Therefore if he will speak to the purpose, admitting that it is not an article of faith, that the Pope is infallible in the sense in which I denied Infallibility to him, that is to say, in a Council of those depending upon him, or out of it, it follows that they have no certainty for their tenets in relying upon the Pope's Infallibility; which being no article of faith cannot be certain in itself, nor consequently give certainty to things depending upon it.* He only allows Infallibility to the Pope jointly with a General Council. Herein he gratifies the Jansenists, who may upon this ground plead for indemnity, notwithstanding the definitions of Innocent X. and Alexander VII. against them; which being not confirmed or authorized by a General Council in conjunction with the Pope, cannot pretend to [nfallibility in Mr. I. 8h opinion, who hereby must incense against himself all the party adverse to the Jansenists, and they may prove too hard for him. But he says that all Catholics do agree in the Infallibility of the Pope and a General Council. Therefore Aquinas^ Turre- cremaia and Alphonsus a Castro are in his opinion no Catholics, of whom Canus relates, that the Church, even Pope and Council together may err materially in their opinion,t as I mentioned in of whatever is fhe discipline or doctrine of that Court. Indeed enough of this may be seen in the historian of its own choice, to justify these reflections. Nor can we wonder, when we reflect on the dissensions, (Pallav. lib. 8, c. 6,) as well as the political manoeuvres which he has recorded, that Amelot (Preface to his Trans, of Fra. Paolo) and Jquilinm should have acknowledged that he has done more to lessen the authority of the Council, than even the writer of whom he so grievously complains." A General Defence of the Reformation, in a Letter to Berington, by Hawkins; (Wore. 1788,) p. 162. See Holden's De Resolutione fidei, lib. 2, cap. 3, , 2. * See note upon this subject in Baxter's Key for Catholics to open the Ju^ling of the Jesuits, p. 57, edit. 1839. f Canus lib. 4, de loc. com. 4. cap. 4, p. 16; Aquin. in 4, d. 6, qu. I, art. 7, in 3, qn. 2, ad 3 ; Turrecrem. 1. 2, Stim. Ecclesice, c. 91 ; Alphons. a Cast, dejusta Hcere- ticorum punitione, lib. 1, cap. 5 ; Gloss, interlin. m illud Mat. xvi. porta infer. &c. [This empty affirmation as to Infallibility will enable us to shew the equally empty boast as to Unity, in the Church of Rome, even on the (to them) most important subjects: " God nevertheless has in our days raised up at last a Catholic doctor in the IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 277 the 30th page of my discourse,* which if he had considered and examined, he would not so peremptorily assert that all Catholics do agree in the Infallibility of Pope and Council jointly. Neither indeed does Mr. /. S. himself seem to be very strong in the belief of this Infallibility; for in the comfort which he gives his brethren on this account, extolling their happiness herein above Protestants, he so orders the matter, that their comfort must not be grounded upon the real existence of that Infallibility ; but upon a strong apprehension or belief of it, though not extant. It is a comfort^ says he, to an unacquainted traveller^ to he guided by one whom he firmly believes to be acquainted with the way ; though really your guide were not acquainted with the way ; if you certainly believe that he is and cannot stray ^ 8fc. This Church, as it were on set purpose to undeceive the world ; by exposing Bellar- mine and all his flattering courtly tribe, as well in this very matter, as in many other of his Controversial points. I mean the never-enough celebrated Launoy. It is he that has quite overturned all the foundations of Bellarmines edifice for the Pope's Infallibility in any kind of sense j nor those of Bellarmine only, but those of Cano and Cajetan too, who preceded him j and rendered all, both their arguments and answers, on this whole subject, vain and foolish nonsense ! It is he that has ferreted them out of all their holes, and caught them in their own nets, and concluded them even by their own principles ! It is he, that notwith- standing BeUarmine's alledging ten classic authors for his own opinion, and saying it was the common tenet of almost all Catholics, has even demonstratively stripped him of eight of this number, and left him only those two before-named; Cajetan and Cano, I mean ! It is he that, besides those five authors of Bellarmine^s own naming, and besides at least five hundred more in several great bodies of Theo- logical Faculties united together, viz. those of Bononia, Pavia, Siena in Italy, Louvain in Belgia, Colen and Hertford in Germany, Vienna in Austria, Cracow in Poland ; Anjou, Orleance, Toulouse, and Paris in France. (And Paris too, even in the very days of yore, and three several times convened on purpose ; that is (1) in the year 1333, against the errors of Pope John XXIT. ; (2) in the year 1387, against the error oi Montisonus } (3) in the year 1429, against the error of Saracenus, a Dominican; (4) in the year 1482, against the error of John Angelius, a Minorite.) Launoy, I say, is he, that besides those 12 Italian, Belgic, German, Polish, Austrian Universities in particular, and the Spanish too in general, has given us a much larger list of single eminent authors who upon the question have purposely and positively written against this pretended Infallibility of the Pope! It is he who has quoted the books, and censures, and passages, and precise words at length, not only of those five single authors allowed us by Bellar- mine himself, nor only of those last mentioned Universities specified by name but of those other additional private or single authors, amounting in all to full seven and fifty," Four Letters on several subjects, by Peter Walsh, of St, Francis's Order, p. 297. 1686, where the list is transcribed. * Page 35 of the present Edition. s3 278 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED is much such another inducement as the grand Turk holds out to his men, that, dying in his quarrel they will go immediately to Paradise ; though it be not so, it is a comfort to think it is : a sad comfort for the unhappy souls who are lost, but commodious for the Turk, in order to obtain by these means people to fight desperately and die for him. Thus it is with the Church or Court of Rome. To believe they are infallible is a satisfaction to the people, and very important for the authority and grandeur of that Court ; whether it be so indeed is not material. The understanding of this mystery we are to expect, it seems, from Mr. /. S'.'^ ingenuity. Poor man ! he has not been well acquainted with the intrigues of that Court ; they do not fancy to have the arcana imperii, the mysteries of their government discovered.* He will certainly fall short of his expected remuneration for his writing ; and if a Cap be deputed to him for it, sure I am it will not be that of a Cardinal. * It is stated by Campanella, that no Sovereign could found an universal Empire over Europe, because the Pope was the presiding Lord; and that he either seconded or thwarted the schemes of the Temporal powers, as best suited the Papal advancement quoniam Papa prwest illis (populis) et dissipat erigitque illorum conatus,prout Religioni expedit. (Camp. Politica cap. 8, quoted in Hallam's Literature of Europe, 3, 359) a valuable remark from such a quarter. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 279 CHAPTER IV. That Protestants have a greater security for the truth of their doctrine than Papists haveJ^ Mr. I. S.'s ridiculous exposi- tion and impious contradicting of St. Paul's text, in favour of Scripture, rebuked. Our Adversary triumphs upon the aforesaid fancied comfort of members of the Church of Rome on apprehending their guide to be infallible, though he be not so indeed ; which comfort he says the Protestants cannot have, being guided by a Church, which they believe is not so well assured of the way but that they may err. God forbid that Protestants should not have a better waiTant for the truth of their doctrine, than what he gives to Papists. They have the infallible word of God, delivering all their doctrine, and clearly containing all that is necessary to salvation and a perfect life ; as appears evidently by what I delivered in the discourse which Mr. /. *S^. goes about to oppose, and will be further evidenced, by shewing how vain and weak the opposition is. They have besides, in the general tradition of the Church, a full and sufficient certainty that the books, commonly received for Canonical, are the true word of God, and therefore are certain of God's Infallible Authority, assisting in favour of the verities contained in those books : which kind of certainty though only moral, regarding the existence of God's revelation in favour of those verities joined with an absolute and undoubted certainty, that whatsoever God reveals is infallible verity supplies up all the certainty that a pious and prudent believer ought lo expect in matters of Divine faith. Mr. /. S. talks of a kind of certainty requisite for Divine faith, of which I doubt much, whether he, or any of his party, ever had possession for all those articles which they pretend to be of faith. He tells us (and takes it upon the credit of his instructors, with- out much examination, as he often does in other matters) that for * Upon the insecurity of the Roman Religion, Bp. Taylor's Dissuasive may be consulted, pt. 2, bk. I, . 8; and Chillingworth, chap. 3, . 56. 280 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED all acts of belief touching revealed truths, an absolute certainty is requisite to release the believer from all manner of doubt. If you speak of an objective certainty, relating to the mystery revealed, all true believers have it, being fully assured that God cannot reveal an untruth; but if you speak of a subjective certainty, excluding all manner of doubts as well regarding the truth of Divine Revelation if extant, as of" the existence of it, I do vehe- mently suspect, that both you and your instructors are speaking against your sense and experience, especially with respect to points controverted, and not explicitly contained in Scripture ; such as is Transubstantiation for example, that mystery which Scotus, Ockam, Cajetan, and others of your ablest Schoolmen could never find in Scripture, nor agreeable to the rules of common reason. I appeal to your breast for judging, whether you have^ respecting this point, that degree of certainty excluding all man- ner of doubt, which you pretend to be necessary for all acts of belief in regard to revealed truths. Mr, /. S. must not expect from me, that I should take notice of, and pursue all the impertinencies which he runs upon in his book; my intention being only to clear the truth in our main concern, and therefore to follow him only so far as I find him speaking pertinently to the points which I proposed, for discover- ing their grosser errors, and which forced me to a separation from their communion. In the first Chapter of his book, he enlarges upon points which we allow, and know upon firmer grounds than his proofs for them, that God is to be adored ; that he has himself revealed what manner of worship he requires ; that this worship is true Religion ; that the same is but one ; that God has afforded sufficient means to know which is the true saving Religion, and that Divine faith must be grounded upon an Infallible Authority, fully assuring us of the truth of its proposals. The controversy is, what authority this is, whether of the Scripture as we believe, or of the Pope and Council, as he pretends. For a visible judge to ascertain us of Divine verities, I once argued, that it became Divine wisdom and goodness, to provide us such to determine our controversies, which otherwise would be endless. It was replied* that we ought to be wary in censuring Vide Sermon, p. 30. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 281 God's wisdom, if this or that, which seemed to us convenient, were not done in the government of the world. I acknowledged the force of the reply, and furthered it with an instance, that we may as well say that it belongs to the power and goodness of God not to permit his holy laws to be transgressed by vile creatures ; and as we do not judge it a failure in his goodness to pennit sin, so ought we not to waver in the opinion of his goodness, if he has not appointed us a visible Judge for our direction, having given us the Holy Scriptures which abound with all light and heavenly doctrine to such as are not wilfully obstinate. Mr. /. *S'. not accustomed to approve any thing in his opponents, calls this my acknowledgment weakness, and to my instance says, it becomes the goodness of God to permit sins, and the scandals of Popes, for the exercise of their liberty. But if this stout dis- putant were as provident as he is confident in running upon engagements, he might have seen a ready reply to his objection, that liberty is no less necessary to heresy, than to other sins, being an essential requisite to all moral actions good or bad. Neither is the permission of heresy less convenient, whether for the exercise of liberty, or for other reasons, which made the Apostle say, that there must he heresies among men, 1 Cor. xi. 25 ; neither does the pretended Infallibility of his Church hinder heresies, and endless controversies among them. But where I proceed to prove that the word of God is able to furnish us with all necessary instruction, out of St. Paul, 2 Tim, iii. 16, 17. saying, that Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation, that the man of God may he perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works ; this is the gloss of our antagonist But I infer the contrary; whereas Scriptures, though replenished they he with heavenly light, are not sufficient to declare unto us what we ought to believe, we might waver in our opinion of God^s goodness, if he did not appoint an infalli- hie living Judge to instruct us. Is this to interpret St. Paul, or clearly to oppose and contradict him ? St. Paul says that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation, and /. S. says, that they are not sufiicient to declare unto us what we ought to believe ; which is clearly to say, that they are not able to make us wise unto salvation ; for certainly without due belief we cannot be saved. This interpretation resembles another attributed 282 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED by a Friar, to Lyra^ who, being convinced that the proposition which he was denying was in Scripture, replied it was true, the Text said so, but Nicolas de Lyra said the contrary. So it is in our case : St. Paul says that the Scripture is able to make us wise unto salvation ; but Mr. /. S, says the contrary : which of them ought we to believe ? * I might expect indeed that the subtilty of our Sophister would tax me with giving my conclusion for a reason of itself; such is the identity in sense of my assertion with St. Paul's text alleged in proof of it : That Holy Scripture is sufficient to instruct us for salvation and a good life, is what St. Paul says, and what I say, neither more nor less. But it is for slow wits to fetch out of a text only what is contained in it ; sublime understandings must find in it more than the author meant, nay, the contrary to his words and meaning. It is not for them to submit to that rule of Canonists, that it is not a right way of interpreting a text to mend it ; Mr. /. *S'. mends the text of St. Paul by asserting the contrary to it, and from the contrary assertion by him substituted, he infers a contrary consequence to that which I inferred from St. Paul's assertion. I infer thus ^Whereas Scripture is sufficient for our full instruction, we ought not to waver in our opinion of God's goodness, if he did not appoint an infallible living Judge to direct us. But Mr. /. S. thinking that a small Discovery, thus resolves: But I infer the contrary: Whereas the Scriptures, though replenished with heavenly light, are not sufficient to declare unto us what we ought to believe, we might waver in our opinion of God's goodness, if he did not appoint an Infallible living Judge to instruct us. I leave the judicious reader to reflect upon the stock of insolencies heaped up iu these lines to give the lie flatly to St. Paul, and pronounce a sentence against the goodness of God, if He did not what Mr. /. S. thinks fit to be done ! But see how our admirable Doctor teaches St. Paul to mend his error, that where he said Scripture is able to make us wise If the reader wishes any farther elucidation of the text, and, as usual, the support of members of the Church of Rome to the Protestant interpretation, the Treatises of Rivet Pro vera pace Apologeticus^ . 119; Grotiance Discuss. Sid\vais sect. 14, . 3; and Father Simon's Critical Hist, of the New Test, part 2, pp. 63 70, may be consulted. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 283 unto salvation, he did not say it of Scripture alone, but in con- junction with those auxiliaries which Mr. /. S. is pleased to appoint. As if any one, to magnify his strength, should say he could carry two hundred weight, and being on a trial found unable to do it, with a view to verify his saying, should allege that he did not mean that he could carry so much alone, but he and a horse with him. Such quibbles as these are altogether more becoming Mr. /. S. than St. Paul ; and so he may keep them for himself, and not father them upon the great Apostle. Further; he proceeds to oppose St. Paul by asserting that when he wrote that Epistle to Timothy, the whole Canon of Scripture was not completed ;* and that the whole Canon, and not a part of it, can alone be sufficient means for our instruction ; therefore, the Scripture, of which St. Paul was speaking, cannot be a suffi- cient means for instructing us to salvation. Herein our Sophister is twice impious,^r*^, in taxing the great Apostle's assertion with untruth ; next, that ihe Oracle of God, delivered to men in each time, for their instruction to salvation, should not be complete and sufficient. By this it appears well, how much a stranger this man is to the common doctrine of Divines, who affirm, that, in the Apostles' Creed are contained all verities necessary to be believed for salva- tion ; and in the ten Commandments all duties to be performed of necessity to the same end. And may not the Creed and ten Commandments be known without a knowledge of the whole Canon of Scripture? His boldness is prodigious in making extravagant assertions without exhibiting any proof but his own bare ipse dixit, after the manner of Pythagoras. For, finding me declare myself unfit for Pythagoras's School, where ipse dixit was the rule, and men will not give reason for what they teach ; he opposes, that if I am to expect reason for what I believe, I am not fit for Christ's School, nor for learning from Scripture, which affords nothing but a bare ipse dixit. \ But if the man had any * The Second Epistle to Timothy is placed the last in date of St. Paul's writings, and was written, it is probable, in A.D. 65; see Home's Introduction to the Critical Study, &c. Vol IV. pp. 306. 406; edit. 1828. f It is strange that I. Sergeant or any Priest should oflFer such an objection, and still more so that he should claim the privilege for the Scriptures ; though it is supposed that from them the Proverb took its origin " Admonendum 284 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED ingenuousness in him, he would spare this objection, seeing it had beenalreadj^ anticipated in the 18th page* of my discourse, where I acknowledge with thanksgiving to God that I never doubted of the Truth of Holy Scripture, nor of the Creed proposed to us by the Catholic Apostolic Church, dictated by God Almighty, and worthy to be believed without cavilling examination; not so Pythagoras, nor the Pope. videtur in hac praBmia, perinde valere, quasi dicas Dominus dixit : ut Pythagoras ab ^gyptiorum vatibus videatur didicisse figuram banc prophetis familiarem." Erasmi Adagia. * Page 26 of this present Edition. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 285 CHAPTER V. Mr. I. S's. prolix excursion about the Pope's authority requisite to know which is the true Scripture, demonstrated to he impertinent ; and the state of the question cleared from the confusion which he puts upon it. Our adversary finding the Pope's Infallibility to be an expression odious and ridiculous to all intelligent men, and whereof even the sober part of Romanists grow ashamed, endeavours to serve us up the same dish under another dress ; calling it the Authority of the Church Universal.* And if therein he spake properly, or sincerely, he would have less opposition from us. But if you proceed to enquire what he means by Church Universal, he tells you it is the Congregation subject to the Poye o^ Rome, excluding all other men, and particularly the Church of England, from being any part of that his Universal Church. The said congre- gation subject to the Pope, whether diffusive or representative in a General Council depending upon the Pope, and confirmed by him, he pretends to be infallible. And whatever I alledge against the Infallibility of the Roman Church, he thinks to elude by pretending that I am speaking of the particular Diocese of Rome a gross misunderstanding or wilful misrepresentation of my meaning, for which I never gave any ground either in my writing or discourses. He is now to be infonned that I speak in proper terms, as generally used among learned men when writing upon * Vide Exomologesis, or a faithful Narration of the occasion and motives of the Conversion of Hugh Paulin De Cressy, 12mo. Paris, 1647, chap. 40. [The plan of using the word " Authority " which Cressy recommended as a substitute for " Infallibility,'' and as being less harmful, has been and is often follov?ed on other subjects also by Romish writers and speakers in Protestant countries. This Church which boasts so loudly of her unity and uniformity, allows her agents to frame even her most valuable doctrines to suit the varying fashion of the hour, for the sake of making proselytes. Cressy afterwards published a second Edition of his Narration, " with additions and explications " in 1653, but withdrew an Oath which he had drawn up, for Roman Catholics to take quite a mistake he found, when he began to be better acquainted with his Church ! See Dod's Church History, 3. 307, and Chalmer's Biog. Diet.] 286 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED this subject, understanding the Roman Church to be [the party following the Pope's faction wheresoever extant, whether congre- gated or dispersed, prescinding from his altercations with the rest, or any whom they may have among themselves ; for as both he and the rest make that Infallibility to depend ultimately upon the Pope's authority, we may well represent their assertion, as opposite to the sentiment of all other Christians, under the notion of the Pope's Infallibility.* The terms and state of the question being thus cleared, it remains to shew how impertinent his prolix excursion and vain ostentation is, in telling us of the diversity of opinions which were held in different times about Canonical Scripture, and the difficulty of ascertaining us which is the true one. This is an old device of those of his faction, in order to decline the main controversy in hand on which they still betray the weakness of their cause. They and he should remember that these points are controverted among parties who agree in reverencing the Bible as the Infallible word of God. And if he thinks the part of it received as Canonical by common consent, will not suffice for ending our controversies, we admit willingly St. Augustine's rule for clearing the difficulties relative to particular books, the authority of the Church and the tradition of it, as described by Lirinensis, Quod semper, quod uhi- que, quod apud> omnes What was in all time, in all places, and hy all Christians delivered, that we take for a true Apostolic Tradi- tion ; and to it we are resolved to stand or fall, as well for discerning Canonical Scripture, as for understanding the true meaning of it. If Mr. /. S, was in the habit of taking the words Church and Tradition in the sense that the holy Fathers did, and the learned men of the Church of England do, he would find in us all due reverence to those sacred fountains of Christian verities. But to call Church Universal, the faction adhering to the Pope of Rome, in opposition to the rest of Christians, is a presumption like that of the Turk, in calling himiself King of kings, and Emperor of all the world : such as are vassals to him may revere that calling ; others laugh at it. But we do not find the Turk to have played the fool so egregiously, as to fancy that his assumed title is * That all is grounded upon the Pope's Authority, Bellarmine declares, saying, totam firmitatem Conciliorum legitimorum esse a Pontifice, non partim a Pontifice^ partim a C'oncilio. Lib. 4, de Rom. Pont. c. 3, sect, at contra. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 287 granted by other Princes independent of him, or to allege it as a ground of bis pretensions with them. This is Mr. /. S's. folly, in taking for granted, in bis debates with us, that the Romish faction is the Catholic Universal Church. So great an intruder upon disputes should learn that rule of disputants, Quod gratis dicitur gratis negatur what is harely said without proof is sufficiently refuted with a bare denial. This alone, well con- sidered, will suffice to overthrow many Chapters of Mr. /. S.^s book. What makes him spend time in telling us of the difficulty of finding out which is true Scripture the Rule truly Infallible of our belief, when he sees us thus ascertained of it? Why does he trouble us with speaking of a criterion or beam of light pretended by Fanatics, though confessing it at the same time to be exploded by Protestants ? Is it to make his book swell ? But finding that he cannot hide Scripture from us, he will have us to be beholden to the Pope for the true meaning of it. He musters up a store of arguments objected by Pagans, Arians, and Sabellians against the Mystery of the Trinity ; and would have us leave the points in hand to answer them : let him go to the Fathers who propose the arguments they will deliver the answer. The Councils truly (Ecumenical of the Primitive Church, and universal Tradition secure to us the right meaning of Scripture, in relation to those points. How then arises here a need of the Pope and his faction to ascertain us ? He finds a special Mystery in the point of Purgatory, that either we for diminishing, or they for adding to, the words of God, are in a damnable error, deserving to be blotted out of the Book of Life, Rev. xx. 9. The danger is clearly on their side ; there being no mention of Purgatory in the written word of God, as shall hereafter be made to appear. In the IVth Chapter he is very prolix in telling us that the Church is a body, and must have accordingly a Head and members subject to it ! We allow all, provided Christ be the Head, and all others, both Pastors and flock, members subject to him, as it was in the Apostle's times ; each one of them preached Christ none himself for Head. There is no record of any pretence in St. Peter* over St. Andrew in Achaia, nor over St. Thomas in the * It has been argued with good effect that either St. Paul or St. John might have been put forward as the head of the Church with much better shew than 288 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Indies, nor over any other of the Apostles in their respective Provinces, no dependence of them upon him What he adds of obedience due from the Flock to the Pastors is right, meaning each flock with regard to their ordinary law- ful Pastors; right also, that in difliculties emergent of greater moment, a National Synod should be congregated, as that which he mentions in the United Provinces at Dort : right likewise that which the Synod of Delpht* resolved, that, though the former Synod was fallible, there was an obligation of conscience to obey the Decrees of it, as there is in all subjects to obey the orders of a lawful superior, received for such. And the Arminians having submitted to that Synod, and acknowledged it to be lawfully congregated, may well be declared to be obliged to submit to the Decrees of it, so far as not to disturb the public peace by illegal oppositions. But all this comes very short of Mr. /. 8*8. purpose, since the Reformed Churches never submitted to the Council of Trent, nor acknowledged it as a lawful, free, CEcumenical Council : and how could they think it to be such, when the party accused the Pope and his Court was to be the Judge and Supreme Arbiter of the cause ? His resistance to a true, lawful, and free Council, is one cause of all the combustion and confusion which we have in Christendom. He takes for an advantage against Scripture, that 1 said the reading of it made me doubt of the truth of those Articles which the Roman Church pressed upon my belief, as if it were not able to ascertain me. But I thank God and the light of his holy Word, which made me doubt of what your party would have me swallow withou tdoubt or examination ; and, from the doubt, brought me to a certainty of your corruptions, and of the truth of the Primitive truly Catholic and Apostolic Faith professed in the Church of St. Peter : see Koecheri Ohservatt. Selectee^ or Barrow ow the Supremacy, p. 102, edit. Oxford, 1836. We have much pleasure in recommending on this subject Mr. Nugent's small treatise on the Authority of the Roman Catholic Church ; Burton, 1839, (sold by Simpkin and Marshall, London,) as containing a dis- passionate examination of the general arguments used by Romanists in support of St. Peter's presumed headship, especially those of Dr. Challoner, which are sifted with much acuteness. * Held in 1657 for the purpose of suppressing the introduction of the principles of the Cartesian Philosophy into Religious questions: see Mosheim Cent. XVI r. Hist, of Reformed Ch. part 2, chap. 2, . 30. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 289 England: such a certainty as renders my mind quiet, and satisfied that I have the guidance of God's vv^ord for the belief proposed to me, and, consequently, a sufficient and full assurance of the truth of it. [We cannot refrain from adding a few lines to the foregoing, as space admits of it, from O'Sullivan's " Guide to an Irish Gentleman." " * At the present day, it is by no means sufficiently considered that the Church of England occupies a very peculiar station in the Christian world, constituting as it were a species in herself. " ' The Church of Rome fetters the judgment by implicit sub- mission to authority. Foreign branches of the Reformation give unbounded licence to the fancy, by the unrestricted exercise of private interpretation. But our national Church inculcates a liberal, discriminative, yet undeviating reverence for pious anti- quity ; a reverence alike sanctioned by reason, inspired by feeling, and recommended by authority. This principle is, in truth, our especial characteristic ; a principle which has ever enabled our Church to combine discursiveness with consistency, freedom of enquiry with orthodoxy of belief, and vigorous good sense with primitive and elevated piety. " ' This happy temperament is guarded by the most safe and sober limitations. The Church of England in the first instance, and as her grand foundation, derives all obligatory matter of faith, that is, to use her own expression, all that is to be believed for necessity of salvation, from the Scriptures alone ; and herein she differs from the Church of Rome. But she systematically resorts to the concurrent sense of the Church Catholic, both for assistance in the interpretation of the sacred text, and for guidance in those matters of Religion which the text has left at large ; and herein she differs from every other reformed communion.'* " The Liturgy of our Church is a permanent and substantial witness. * * * * It has been not only an instrument of devotion, but also a guardian of the faith. * * * * The * Sermons by the Rev. John Jebb, M.A. 290 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Articles serve as warnings to mark out the space within which it is safe and profitable to have the mind employed. " It may be said that the noble idea of a perfect system is realised in the structure of the Church of England. It has been careful of the two essential principles permanency and progression. With sufficient power of accommodation to the necessities which may arise, or the changes which may take place in society as knowledge advances, it is effectually guarded against such con- cession, to the caprices of a fickle people, or the circumstances of a difficult period, as might cause it to lose its distinctive character and forfeit its independent station. Against all departures from the principles of the Church, the book of Common Prayer will be ' a permanent and substantial witness ;' and while each minister in the Church of England collects the lights of modern art and literature, to illustrate and recommend the sacred truths he is privileged to declare, the Liturgy, by which, in part, his mind has been formed, is a link of association with early times, and causes our Church to be at the present day, with such accommodations as altered circumstances demand, the same that it was in the times of Polycarp or Irenaeus." O' Sullivan's Guide to an Irish Gentleman ; Chap. XVIII. The volume will amply repay the enquiring and candid reader's perusal.] IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 291 CHAPTER VI. Mr. T. S.'s defence of the Pope's pretended Infallibility from the cens^ire of Blasphemy, shewn to he weak and inapplicable ; his particular opinion censured as heretical by his own party. Low indeed must the cause be sunk with our Adversary, when he would plead for a milder sentence against their error, in attri- buting Infallibility to the Pope. He will not have it called Blasphemy ; but we may rest contented with finding it an error of any degree; for by that alone the whole structure of their tenets against us falls down. But inasmuch as mention was made of Blasphemy in their assertion, we will shew how faint is the defence which Mr. /. *S'. has prepared against that censure. It is a wonder that one so prodigal of similar censure, as we have seen him to be in the first chapter of this Treatise terming it a Blasphemy in me, to say that the learned men of the Church of England denied the Roman Church, as it now stands, to be a safe way to Salvation; and in the Vlllth. Chapter of his book, saying that Protestants may not without Blasphemy allege Scripture for their tenets: should take so great a scandal at my saying that it is a Blasphemy to make the Pope Infallible ; especially when the charge is grounded upon principles of their own authors. But it is no great wonder that Mr. /. S., in oppos- ing this censure, should not go the right way to it, nor attend to the form or force of my argument ; for it is his constant custom to do so. The Argument was ad hominem, grounded upon premises taken out of Authors of his own party ; the^r*^ was, that it is a Blasphemy to attribute to a creature any of God's properties ; so Aquinas, 2. 2. q. 13. art. 1. The second premise was, that Infallibility is an attribute of God, not communicable to any man; so the same Aquinas, 1 p. quaest. 16. art. 8. These two premises being granted, the conclusion is evident, that it is a Blasphemy to attribute Infallibility to the Pope ; which con- clusion being contained in the two premises the truth of it must T 2 292 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED stand or fall with Aquinas' s authority. If Mr. /. S. were formal in arguing, his way to answer this argument would be, to examine whether Aquinas did really deliver the premises ascribed to him, and so come directly to my conclusion that from principles of their own Divines, it is a Blasphemy to make the Pope Infallible. But why should we mention Aquinas, and formal disputing to Mr. /. S. ? He does not seem to be acquainted with that kind of reading or dealing he will not be tied to their strict rules of reasoning. Now let us follow him in his own way, and see how he argues when set at liberty. He taxes me with ignorance for not knowing that God may lend his attributes to men ; and the attribute of Infallibility being but passed over in a Grace, and lent to the Pope of Rome, it must not be considered a Blasphemy to ascribe it to him ! First, I inquire of this magisterial man, whether Infallibility be an attribute of God incommunicable to a mutable man, as Aquinas seems to say ? and being so, whether it is not likely that it may not be lent to another, as his Omnipotency cannot, both repre- senting an unlimited perfection ? For, as Omnipotency includes a relation to infinite effects producible; so the Infallibility ascribed to the Pope for determining, without error, all questions possible to occur about Religion, seems to argue an unlimited perfection, the said questions being endless ; the heavenly Preacher declar- ing, Eccles. vii. 29, that God having made man upright, he has entangled himself in infinite questions, which the Latin Vulgate translation delivers thus Hoc inveni quodfecerit Deus hominem rectum ; et ipse se infinitis miscuerit qucestionibus. And in the Xllth. Chapter, vs. 12, he says, that of making many hooks there is no end.^ The questions determinable being thus unlimited, the faculty relating to them for an unerring determination must be likewise unlimited, and consequently of unlimited perfection. Will he allow so much to the Pope ? He challenges me often, and defies all my Divinity to answer his arguments. Will he give me leave to challenge once all his Sophistry, for a direct and formal solution of this Query ? And whilst he is finding it, I enquire, * Our Author's application of these texts seems to be rather fanciful and strained; and the same remark would apply occasionally elsewhere, but we have not thought it necessary always to append our dissent. The Vulgate Latin has, in the present case, made the quotations only not quite misplaced. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 293 Secondly, Whether it be granted and allowed that God has lent his Infallibility to the Pope of Rome, to determine, without error, all questions possible occurring about Religion ? Whether I have not denied resolutely that the said grant has been made ; and confuted the foundations which they pretend for it, to his knowledge ? And the case being so, whether it is a proper way of arguing to take for a principle against us, the conclusion in debate ? Whether it be not a damnable arrogance to parallel his Pope, with the writings of holy Evangelists and Apostles, which all Christians acknowledge and reverence as unerring Oracles of God to declare his holy will to us ? And lastly, Whether it be not insolence to say, that our censures upon Romanists for attributing Infallibillity to the Pope, must reflect upon the sacred organs of the Holy Ghost, who speak to us by their mouth, according to Mr. /. S.''s most impious pretension ? And inasmuch as I signified that the censure of Blasphemy upon a pretence to Infallibility, was taken from their own authors not of my making ; as not so much concerned to aggravate their crime, so to manifest that they are absolutely in an error, I will further shew how bitter they are in censuring one another in this particular ; and how little is Mr. /. S. assisted by his brethren in his singular way to escape ! In the College of Clermont at Paris the 12th day of December, 1661, was defended this Thesis as a Catholic assertion against the Heresy of the tenth age : We acknowledge Christ to he so the Head of the Church, that during his absence in Heaven, he hath delegated the government thereof, first to Peter, and then to his successors ; and grants unto them the same Infalli- hility which himself had, as often as they shall speak ex Cathedra. There is therefore in the Church of Rome an Infal- lible Judge in Controversies of Faith, even apart from a General Council, as well in questions appertaiiiing to right, as in matters of fact. Therefore, since the publication of the Constitutions of Innocent X. and Alexander. VII. we may believe with a Divine Faith, that the book entitled The Augustin of Jansenius is heretical, and the five propositions which are gathered out of it, to he Jansenius's, and, in the sense of Jansenius condemned.* * Christum nos ita caput Ecclesia agnoscimu^, ut illius regimen, dum in coelos ahiitf primum Petro, turn deinde successoribus commisertt, et eandem qitam habehat T 3 294 CATHOLIC RELIGIOT^ MAINTAINED Here we have a celebrated authorized College of his own declaring in opposition to Mr. /. S's opinion, that the Pope even out of a General Council, is Infallible; and that he enjoys the very same Infallibility which Christ himself had : and if he is disposed to slight the Authority of this College (which may not be over safe for him to do, if he be the man who, some say, pretends to have the honour of being the author of this book) with more consideration he will find that the common opinion of the chief Schoolmen of his communion is against him ; such as are Aquinas, Cajetan, Suarez, Bannez, Valentia, Malderus, Turri- anus, Canus, Bellarmine,* and many others ; whereof Suarez, Bannez, and Valentia declare Mr. /. S.'*s opinion to be heretical, and branded as such in the Bull of Leo X. which condemns as an error of Luther this proposition, [. 27.] Si Papa cum magna parte EccUsics sic vel sic sentiret, nee etiant errarety adhuc non est peccatum, aut hceresis, contrariutn sentire, prcesertim in re non necessarid ad salutem ; donee fuerit per Concilium Universale alterum reprohatum, alterum approha- tum : and by Sixtus IV. in a Council of fifty-two Doctors celebrated at Alcala in the year 1479, Alphonsus Carillo, Arch- bishop of Toledo, being President in it against Petrns de Osma ; among whose Propositions condemned as erroneous this was the 7th. Ecclesia Urhis Romance errare potest.-^- Here we have ipse Infallihilitatem concesserit quoties ex Cathedra loquerentur^ Datur ergo in Ecclesia R. controversiarum fidei Infallihilis Ji^dex, etiam extra Concilium generale turn in qucestionibus juris, turn facti. Unde post Innocentii X. et Alexandri VII. constitittiones fide divind credi potest lihrum cui titidus, Augustinus Jansenii esse hcBveticum, et quinque propositiones ex eo decerptas esse Jansenii et in sensu Jansenii damnatas. [Vide Collectio Judiciorum ah initio XII seectdi usque ad an. 1735, opera C. Du Plessis D'Argentre; torn 3. p. 302, Lutet. Paris, 1736. * Aquin. 2, 2, qu. 1, art. 10; Cajet. op. de authorit. Pont.et Concil. cap. 9; Suar. d. 5. sect. 1 ; Ban. in com. hrevi. dub. conclu. 3; Valen. d. 1, q. 1, punct. 7, sect. .^9, et 40; Maid. dub. o; Turri. disp. 16, dub. 1 ; Can. lib. 6, de locis Theolog. c. 7, 8 ; Bellar. lib. 4, de R. P. e. 2. f See Concil. Gen. studio Labhei, torn xiii, col. 1465, and Antonio Biblioth. Hispana vetus, torn 2, p. 310. edit. 1788 ; the latter of which writers states : " salubriter admonitus iis (erroribus) renunciavit, dogmatibusque catholicis ad- hserere se in posterum velle, ex animi sententia protestatus fuit. Rem, uti facta est, cum capitura damnatorum et abjurationis de iis factae publici instrumenti notitia, Barth. Carranza in Summa Conciliorum prodidit." A full account of the presumed errors is also to be seen in the Collectio Judiciorum de novis erroribus opera C. Du Plessis D'Argentre (Lutet. Paris, 1724,) torn l,pp. 28 302; from IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 295 our poor Antagonist's peculiar way of defending the Romish quarrel, declared to be heretical by Popes, and the common opinion of Popish Doctors. Now let us consider another party of them, who censure the aforesaid position of the Clermont College as a horrid impiety, and a species of Idolatry: for Idolatry, say they, does not consist merely in giving to man the name of God, hut infinitely fnore, when we attribute to him those qualities which are peculiar to God, and when we render him those honours which are alone due to Deity. Now this entire submission of our Spirit, and of all our intellectuals comprehended in the act of our Faith, is no other than that adoration which we pay to the prime Verity itself; and therefore whosoever he be that renders it to the word of a man (whatever rank he may hold in the Church) whoever says that he believes with a Faith Divine, that which he would not believe but because a man has affirmed it, does in effect put man in the place of God, transfers to the C7'eature that which is due to the Creator alone, a?id makes fas far as in him lies J a kind of idol of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. And a little after they declare it to be formal Blasphemy in these words : But is it possible to offer a greater affront to the Prime Minis- ter of Jesus Christ, than to conceive that they are doing hifn honour by a Blasphemy, so injurious to Jesus Christ ? that he should suffer them to equal him with his Master, by ascribing to him, the same Infallibility which he alone possesses f and that men should render that supreme Cultus of a Divine Faith to his words, which is due only to the loord of God f Thus far the party opposed to the Parisian Doctors in their Declaration against the aforementioned Thesis of Clermont College, which was presented to all the Bishops of France, and is now extant in the hands of many both in French and English. And if the reason exhibited for their censure be well considered, we shall find it to comprehend Mr. /. S.''s opinion, no less than that of the Clermont Jesuits ; since both the one and the other ground the pretended Infallibility of their Church upon the Pope's Authority, whether in a Council or out of it : and thus the reason which it would appear that the accused, in several points, approximated to the doctrines of the Reformed Churches. 296 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED of the Parisian Divines concludes, in either case, that it is a Blasphemy injurious to Jesus Christ, to ascribe to the Pope that Infallibility which Christ alone possesses, and that men should render that supreme Cultus of Div ine Faith to the words of the Pope, which is due to the word of God alone. The allegations of our Adversary in favour of obedience due to the Church as to Christ, and of promises made of the assistance of the Holy Ghost to the Apostles, and the Church governed by them, will appear very impertinent to his purpose in favour of the Pope and his faction, when we come to examine the texts alleged, for which I wdll assign the Chapter following. In the mean time we may conclude from what has been said in this Chapter, that, to ascribe Infallibility to the Pope is Blas- phemy even in the opinion of Popish Doctors ; and Mr. I. S.'s peculiar way of defending that tenet demonstrated to be heretical by Doctors of his own party : which was my present undertaking. To which may be added the opinion of Mr. Thomas White of the same communion, whose whole book, called his Tabulce Snffra- giales,^ is purposely directed against this doctrine of the Pope's personal Irtfallihility, affirming it to be not merely heretical, but Archi-heretical ; and that the propagating of this doctrine is, in its kind, a most grievous sin : so weary are men of learning and parts beginning to grow of this intolerable arrogance of the Roman Church or Court, and of their flatterers. * Tahul. Suffrag. cap. 19, 20, 21. [This Author's Tahidce Suffragiales de tcrminandis fidei litibus, was published in London 1655. He was carefully educated in the Faith of the Church of Rome, and was ordained Priest at Arras in 1617. He spent the greater part of his life in teaching Divinity at Douay, but did not by any means escape the reproofs and castigations of his Church; "he had several quarrels both with the Clergy and religious of his own Communion, who attacked his works with great fury," (Dod. 3. 286.) and the publication noticed by Dr Sail was condemned by Innocent X. In short, he exercised the right of Private Judgment upon the doctrine of Prayers for the dead, and the Authority of the Inquisition ; and " exposed at the same time the methods and ignorance of the Cardinals and Divines, who were sometimes employed in censuring books; and hinted how unlikely it was, that his Holiness either would or could delegate his power to such kind of inferior Courts." But at last he was induced to perform an act of submission, and died in London in 1676, See Dod's Church History, 3. p. 285; and D'Argentre's Collectio Judiciorum, (Paris, 1786) tom 3, p. 294.] IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 297 CHAPTER VII. Our Adversary's corruption of Scripture detected. Our Adversary certainly never looked into the Bible for the Texts which he alleges in support of the Infallibility of his Church, bnt has snatched them out of some of his old Controver- tists, whose custom it is to cut and clip Scripture to their own pretences, without regard of their true meaning. Or if he has seen them, with their contexts, he has been strangely dull, in not discerning the right sense of them, very obvious to any ordinary good understanding; or malicious in misrepresenting the meaning of them. This is especially perceivable in his allegation of these words, John xv. 26. When the Paraclete will come, whom I will send from my Father, the Spirit of truth, he will give testimony of me, and ye shall give testimony. This he will have us take for a certain testimony of the Holy Ghost's assistance promised to his Church. If he had but looked at the half verse immediately following, which he left out, or his Tutors cut off, he would find that these words were spoken to the Apostles, with circumstances rendering them impossible to be applied to his Church. The verse restored to its integrity says thus And ye also shall hear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning. What man in his senses would think those words applicable to the Council of Trent ? Were the Fathers of that Council with Christ from the beginning ? Was the Holy Ghost not yet descended ? He further confirms his opinion out of Acts xv. 28, where the Council of the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem assembled for deciding the controversy concerning Circumcision, deliver their opinion thus : It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, signifying that the Holy Ghost tvas assisting them ; and that grounded on the words aforesaid of our Saviour, John xv. 26, When the Paraclete is come he shall give testimony of me, and you shall give testimony of me. If that be the ground of the Apostles' phrase, we have seen before to whom that promise was 298 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED given, whether to the Apostles alone, or the Bishops of Rome to be, for ever. We have seen that the text in its integrity cannot be applied to the latter : but Mr. /. *S'. of his own authority declares that that promise was made by Christ, not only to the Apostles, but to the Roman Church for ever. ^ And in order to make this latter text sound something like to \his purpose, he patches it up with a fragment of a verse taken / from Matt, xxviii. Until the consummation of the world. This \ customary art of theirs, of cutting from the texts what is against their purpose, and patching them up with other words far-fetched, that may have a gloss or appearance favourable to their pretension, J may be practised with more safety in conversation, or in a sermon Y addressed to a popular auditory, than in a serious debate by print V exposed to a strict examination. This is fi cheat like that used in Italy with rotten apples, to set them out for sound ones. They cut off the rotten pieces, and glue together the sound fragments so as to present an appearance of a fair apple ; but being handled closely it falls in pieces and discovers the cheat. This abominable Legerdemain is too often discernible in Romish Pulpits, where they father upon the Gospel forsooth most execrable Blasphemies, extolling their several new saints (to whom they would gain devotion, and, by that devotion, money to their coffers) above the Apostles, above the Angels, above Christ and all that is in Heaven; to the perpetual scandal of the discreet part of their own flock, and edification of none. All is sanctified with them, by repeating at the end of every desperate discourse, some words of the Gospel, as a burden of the song, though with no reference in its sense to their purpose. This is the art which Mr. /. S, practises in the testimony quoted of Acts xv. respecting the assistance of the Holy Ghost in the Council at Jerusalem, and grounded, as he confesses, upon the aforesaid text of John xv. 26, but shewn to relate only to the Apostles then present; though Mr. /. *S^. of his own head will have it extended to the Roman Church for ever; and his interpretation must be taken for Canonical Scripture, by closing it up with this fragment of the 20th verse of Matthew xxviii. until the consummation of the world ! The text which he corrupts and cuts off (Matt, xxviii. 20) contains a promise of Christ to the Apostles and Church founded, and the Faith preached by them, that he will assist them for ever, IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 299 saying, / am with you all the days, until the consummation of the world. St. Jerom better than Mr. /. S, will explain to us the meaning of these words ; glossing thus upon them qui usque ad consumrnationem seculi cum discipuUs se futurum esse promittit, et illos ostendit semper esse victuros, et se nunquam a credentibus recessurum. In these words om* Saviour promises to his disciples life everlasting ; and to the Church founded by them, and to all true believers in him, his perpetual assistance. This assistance of Christ to his own true Church, while following the steps and doctrine of the Apostles, we believe with joy, but cannot approve the arrogancy of Mr. /. ^S*. and his brethren in appropriating all such promises to their own faction, and per- petually taking for granted in his debates with us, that to be the only Church to be favoured by such gracious promises, being indeed but a very corrupt member of the Church Universal, to whom these promises were made ; a thing which we do not assert merely but prove evidently. Another example of their skill in clipping and corrupting Scripture, he fetches out of the same store-house, upon the words of John xiv. 16, / will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth, that will abide with you for ever, who will lead you into all truth. I made their abuse of this text plain by restoring it to its integrity, which according to their own Bible runs in these words If ye love me, keep my commandments ; and I will ask my Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive. By the first words we see this to be a conditional promise, limited to such as love God and keep his commandments; by the latter words, worldly and sinful men are expressly excluded from receiving that gracious assistance of the Spirit of truth : for which meaning of these words 1 referred to the Gloss interlineal and ordinary.* * Vide Sermon, p. 32, supra. Strabo, a Monk of Fulda, and scholar of Rabanus, Archbp. of May en ce, was the chief author of the Glossa ordinaria. It deserves rather the name of a Commentary than a Gloss. The interlined Gloss consists of words added to the text of the Bible to make it more intelligible; and is so called because it is inserted between the lines of the text. Critical Hist, of the Old Test, by Father Simon (Lond. 1682) bk.3, pp. 73, 4 where more. 800 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED That discourse our Adversary opposes thus : that after the former clause If you love me, keep my commandments, there is a stop, and then follows a distinct verse, and I will ask my Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, &c. which mates an absolute sense independent of the former. This is indeed a subtilty well becoming a Sophister ; as if a stop may not be interposed between several clauses of one discourse tending to the same end ; or between premises and a conclusion deduced from them ; as if the copulative particle and did not signify a conjunction of both clauses, and an influence of the one upon the other ; as if all that were not cleared by the words which I quoted in the margin of the Gloss interlineal Mundus, i.e. remanens amator mundi, cum quo nunquam est amor Dei; and of the Gloss ordinary, non habent spirituales oculos quibus Spiritum Sanctum videant mundi amatores. Here we see both Glosses denying the effect of that glorious promise to profane worldlings, and consequently that promise is made only to lovers of God, and keepers of his holy commandments. If our Adversary were ingenuous, he would spare his silly subtilties, perceiving them obstructed by this stating of the case. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 301 CHAPTER VIII. Mr, I. S's. horrible impiety against the sacred Apostles, and malicious imposing on the Church o/* England reprehended. Another grand argument which he brings forward, and which he affirms resolutely I can never answer, is this that if the aforesaid promise, John xiv. 16, was conditional, as above- mentioned, it follows, that we cannot be sure that the Gospel is Infallible; whereas no text of Scripture, (says he, page 89) tells us that the Evangelists were in a state of Grace when they wrote the Gospel, nor nothing else gives us assurance of it. My first answer to this unanswerable argument is, that if this man had delivered this expression in Spain, and had been accused to the Inquisition, his body would have suffered for it, if his intellect were not reduced to acknowledge and repent the horrid impiety of it. And I am certainly persuaded that there is no Christian, who has any sense of piety in him, whether Protestant or Papist, but will exclaim with horror against the insolent impiety of this man, in speaking so irreverently of those sacred organs of the Holy Ghost and blessed Disciples of Christ, con- firmed by him in grace, as is the common apprehension and expression of Christians, and replenished with the Holy Ghost (Acts ii. 4) ; for whose perseverance in grace our Saviour prayed so fervently to his heavenly Father, as we see in John xvii. 11, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me. Upon which words Maldonate^ delivers this * John Maldonate, a Spanish Jesuit. In 1563 he commenced teaching Theology at Paris, whither he had been brought to arrest, if possible, the progress of Reform ; a situation which he occupied for ten years, and according to Mirasus utterly routed the Calvinist Ministers, " disserendo et declamitando." We can easily believe this, when some of his instructions, as published in his Com- mentaries upon the four Evangelists, are taken into consideration ; specimens of which were submitted to the public by Mr. M'Ghee, in his speech on Maynooth College, April, 1839. Mirseus indeed is loud in his praises of these "most erudite " Commentaries ; and affirms that they were well suited to convince heretics " ad docendum et convincendum Haereticos aptum atqne robustum." The Author died in 1583. Miraei Scnpp. Sac. xvi, p. 248. 302 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Gloss: Non rogat Christus ut nunc a peccatis liherentur, sed ut jam liberatl in eo statu quo erant conserventiir, ne quis ah ed decidat gratia^ quam consecutus suo erat heneiicio^ quemad- modum Judae contigerat that our Saviour prayed for their perseverance in grace, that none of them should fall from it as Judas did. And will this rash man say, that the prayer of our Saviour was not heard, nor his request granted by his heavenly Father, in favour of his beloved Disciples ? If he will not be so profligately impious, how dares he say that no text of Scripture tells us, that the Evangelists were in the state of Grace, when they wrote the Gospel, nor nothing else gives us assurance of it ? If his book contained no other crime than this unchristian expression, any true disciple of Christ, and believer of his Gospel, ought to judge the said book more worth the burning than the reading. He is not, however, contented with the damnable expression aforementioned, but must raise his censure against the truth of the Gospel of Christ to a higher degree, p. 89, saying, that not only we are not sure of the Infallihility of the Gospel, hut that we are assured it is not infallihle ; and this horrible Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and the Gospel dictated by him, he must father upon the Protestant Church ; but upon a deduction so much of his own fabrication, that any dispassionate man, and not blind, will perceive the whole assertion to be his own, and the product of a disposition, which appears both here and in many other places, inclined for destroying the foundations of all Christian belief [rather than endanger the authority of his Church.] The ground which he gives for this latter most damnable Blas- phemy is, that the common doctrine of the Protestant Church maintains. That it is impossihle to keep God's commandments ;* Alegambe makes use of the same exalted terms in speaking of his Brother ; and his language in describing the Mission into France is quite warlike " Primus ille Sociorum ex ilia celebri Parisiensis Academise specula bellicuni cecinit, in campum descendit, in aciem prodiit, manum cum hoste conseruit." p. 474, Scripp. Soc. Jesu ; edit. 1676. * This assertion may be taken in two senses that to which reference is made by I. S. may perhaps be explained in the following words of Calvin, " Quod autem impossibilem Legis observationem diximus, id est paucis verbis explicandum simul et confirmandum. Solet enim vulgo absurdissima sententia videri : ut Hieronymus non dubitavit anathema illi denuntiare. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 303 therefore, says he, The Evangelists when they wrote did not keep God's commandments, and consequently they could not have the Paraclete to lead them into truth. I never yet heard any Protestant deliver such a desperate proposition as what he fathers upon them, which thus delivered categorically, without Video quidem quales nobis sanctos imaginetur stulta superstitio, quorum scilicet puritati vix coslestes angeli respondeant : sed repugnante turn Scripturae, turn experientiae ratione. Dico item neminem posthac futurura, qui ad veraa perfectionis metara perventurus sit, nisi corporis mole solutus. In banc rem primura suppetunt aperta Scripturas testimonia, I Reg. viii. 46 ; Ps. cxliii. 2; Epist. ad Gal. v. 17 ; iii. 10.'' Institutt. lib. 2, cap. 7, . 5. Or a still better explanation is furnished by Dr. Wbitaker : " Jam vero hoc Papistas docent et credunt, posse nimirum Legem ab hominibus servari. Hoc patet ex Cone. Trident. Ses. 6, cap. xi. Et quanquam recentiores quidam Papistaj distinctione quandam hanc sententiam mitigare conantur, dum aiunt posse a nobis Legem servari pro statu hujus vitas : tamen Tridentini Patres hujus modi rationem proponunt, qua legem simpliciter et perfecte a nobis servari posse probant. Aiunt enim impiam esse sententiam, Deum impossibilia prseci- pere. Ergo Lex secundum ipsos etiam perfecte impleri potest, et non tantum pro statu hujus vitse. Imo adjungunt Papistas, non tantum Legem k nobis impleri posse, verum etiam (quod execrandum est) amplius quiddam et excel- lentius posse prsestare, quam quod Lex requirit. Unde nata sunt illorum opera supererogatoria, et hinc thesaurus ille Indulgentiarum, quas Cone. Trident, in summo pretio habet quemadmodum patet in ejusdem Cone. Sess. 21, cap. 9 Controv. 2, qucest. 6, cap. 3, p. 563, Oper. torn 1. But there seems no valid reason for being angry with Calvin in particular, as the language here used has reference to, and had as usual been long employed in, the Pelagian controversy. See Augustin, de grat. et lib, arbit. cap. 16. It might perhaps have rendered such a statement less open to misunderstand- ing, if the word inability had been used ; but let the reader see the, as usual, excellent Chapter of Rivet's Cath. Orthod. tract 4, quasst. 5, where quotations are made (. 2) from eminent writers generally reckoned as Members of the Church of Rome, though not Tridentines, supporting the same doctrine upon this subject as the Reformed Churches held : Pergit adversarius et objicit multos sanctos viros servasse mandata. Urget prassertim quod de Zacharia et Elizabetha dicitur (Luc. i. 6) erant ambo justi, ante Deum incedentes in omnibus mandatis, &c. Hoc loco abusus est Pelagius, quum interpretatione Ambrosii corroborare voluit, ut probaret hominem in hac vita, sine peccato esse posse. Respondeat ergo pro nobis Augustinus novis Pelagianis. Dictum est inquit (de gratia Dei contra Pelag. lib. 1, cap. 48) quantum mihi videtur^ secundum quandam conversationem inter homines probdbilem atqu laudahilem * * * Non autem dictum est hoc, secundum illam perfectionem justitias in qua verb atqu omnino immaculati per- fectique vivemus. Nam et Apostolus Paulus dixit, secundum justitiam, quce ex lege est, sefuisse sine querela. In qua I^ge etiam Zacharias sine querela conversabatur. Sed hanc Apostolus justitiam in stercoribus et detrimentis deputat, in comparatione justitice speramus, et quam nunc esurire et sitire debemus, ut ed quandoque saturemur in specie, quce nunc est in fide, quamdiu Justus exfidevivit.'" 304 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED further declaration or limitation, is equivalent to saying that it is impossible for any man to be saved ; our Saviour having often declared, that the only way to life evelasting is to keep God's commands. It were also to give the lie to our Redeemer, saying that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, Matt. xi. 30 ; and that his commandments are not grievous, 1 John v. 3. If he is acquainted with any Protestant writer who has made such a statement and with that latitude, why does he not tell me who he is, and where he says it, that I may judge accordingly of the author and of the doctrine ? Must I take it upon his credit? having so much experience of the untruth of his references ? That he must not expect from me. I suppose he found this doctrine, which he declares to be common in the Protestant Church, where he found me saying, that there is no salvation in the Catholic Church ; as he does most impudently impose upon me in his Dedicatory Epistle to my Lord Lieutenant. This is their ordinary way of working in their proselytes an abhorrence of their opposers, viz. by impostures and calumnies. Of their calumny in this particular, learned Le Blanc complains, and affirms thus in behalf of Protestants cum Scrijptura dicimus et docemus Jideles Dei mandata per Christi gratiam servare, &c. Thesi 26 and 27, de Observant. Leg. We say and teach with the Scripture, that the faithful do keep the commandments of God by the grace of Christ. Let not our Sophister think to appease my just indignation against him, or to escape the censure that I pass upon him, as a blasphemous contemner of the Gospel of Christ and the sacred writers of it the blessed Evangelists by saying that he does not himself assert the aforesaid affronts which he puts on the Gospel and the Evangelists ; but that he infers them from positions of the Protestant Church. The whole doctrine and belief of the Protestant Church is contained in the Canonical Scriptures and in the XXXIX Articles of the Church of England. We are not in that confusion and uncertainty regarding the object of our belief that he and his party are, between so many articles daily coined, one overthrowing the other. In what place of Canonical Scripture, or of the aforesaid XXXIX Articles did he find this proposition, which he affirms is the common doctrine of the Church of England that it is impossible to keep God's cmnmandments ? TN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 305 which being all the ground he shews for this blasphemous asser- tion, that we are assured the Evangelists, when they wrote the Gospel, ivere not in the love of God and observance of his commandments, and hy that are assured the Gospel is not infallible ; the said ground, 1 say, not being to be found in any- place of the aforementioned Rule and Canon of our belief; I must conclude the assertion pretended to flow from it, to be of his own invention and his own sentiment. Let this therefore be known to be his tenet and assertion, to his eternal infamy, that we are sure the Evangelists, when they wrote the Gospel, were not in the state of grace ; that we are sure the Gospel is not infallible. A person who is found with a stolen horse, is to be regarded as the thief till he has proved that he received it lawfully from another. We find that execrable Blasphemy in the mouth of /. S, Let him be taken and punished as the author of it (if any just Inquisition find him) since he can find no other author for it. But all his Sophistry will not afford him even the least colour of excuse for the former part of his assertion, for which he will not be beholden to any other author, but delivers it for a docu- ment of his own that no text of Scripture tells us, that the Evangelists were in the state of grace, when they wrote the Gospel, nor any thing else glides us assurance of it. Ask any boy in Spain or Flanders, even meanly catechised, whether he was not taught by his Curate and Parents, that the Apostles, by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them, were confirmed in grace, and whereby we are assured that they never lost it after. And in case our adversary should gain by some pictures or medals the votes of the boys in his favour ; other Doctors we have whom he shall not so easily gain to his side, who affirm that the sacred Apostles, after receiving the Holy Ghost, were so confirmed in grace, that no human power or temptation could make them fail in their fidelity to God. St. Augustine (for one) thus delivers his opinion (Homil. 9. de Missione Spiritus Sancti.*) Ante adventum vero Spiritus Sancti sub ipso crucis Dominicm tempore, alii ex discipulis effugantur, alii unius Ancillm voce * [This Homily is placed among the supposititious in the Benedictine Edition of Augustin (Paris, 1683) torn v. col. 307, where it is headed Smno 182 (alias . du, 3. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 325 To that position of Bellarmine you reply that he was speaking of vices and virtues when there is a doubt of their being such;* for example, if there should arise a doubt of Usury being a vice, and in that case the Pope should command Usury to be practised, we should be obliged to practice Usury. Herein, Sir, you allow us all that we pretended ; and you confess what we condemned in Bellarmine. I could allege many texts of Scripture, supposing and affirming Usury to be a vice. But you spare me that labour, presupposing that Usury of itself is a vice of its nature had (per se malum J and that you all know it to be such; and notwithstanding that knowledge, and God's declaration in Scrip- ture, you say that if the Pope should command Usury to be practised, we should be obliged to practise it. And so it is indeed with you, both with regard to usury and other vices. We all know that Rebellion is a sin, and so odious to God, that in Scripture it is compared to Witchcraft and Idolatry, 1 Sam. xv. 23. But if the Pope should command you to rebel against your King for Religion's sake (forsooth,) then would you be obliged to rebel against him ; because (say you, with Bellarmine) in dubious cases the Church is obliged to obey the Pope. Men are apt to doubt of their duties, and the Devil is ready to stir up such doubts in them. Thus he wrought the first Rebellion in Paradise, Cur prcecepit vobis Deus, Sgc. Why has ^God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? And if the Pope comes out declaring, that it is lawful and religious to rebel, you must practise accordingly ; though Scripture and Reason give you to know, that Rebellion is an heinious vice. This is the great power of the Pope which you teach, to metamorphose vices into virtues, and virtues into vices. It is a common boast of your * [Bellarmine has himself given this interpretation of his words, in the Recog- nitis librorum omnium R, B. ah ipso edita (Ingold. 1608) by saying " Loquuti sumus de actibus dubiis virtutura aut vitiorum ; nam si praeciperet manifestum vitium, aut prohiberet raanifestam virtutem, dicendum esset cum Petro, ohedire oportet magis Deo quam hominibus ; p. 19. But even this statement, it will be seen, concedes private judgment to individuals; for who is to decide upon the dubiety or otherwise of certain actions ? If the Pope, then the case reverts to its old position. To parry this assertion [of Bellarmine] it has been urged that it is simply a link in a chain of argument. This may be, and is, the fact ; but it is not a whit the less an assertion for that reason it is still, and is likely to remain (for Bellarmine's Disputationes are now being reprinted at Rome) " a positive assertion," Protestant Journal, 1832, p. 112.] X 3 326 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED stout bigots to say, that if the Pope should prohibit them from repeating the Lord's prayer Our Father, &c. they would not say it, though Christ ordered them so to pray. With respect to that command of the Council of Constance, you reply that it is false to assert that they alleged no other reason for prohibiting the Cup to the Laity than the Decrees of preceding Popes. You affirm, that they alleged also for reason the examj^le of Christ and his Apostles who gave it in one kind ; whereby it appears that you did not read the Council. Read the 1 3th. Session of it, where this matter is given, and there you will find no mention of Christ and his Apostles as having given the Sacra- ment in one kind ; but the contrary is supposed, as appears by these words of the Decree Quod licet in Primitiva Ecclesia hifjusmodi Sacramentum reciperetur d Jidelihiis snh utraque specie, postea a conjicientibus sub utraque, et a Laicis tantum- modo sub specie pants suscipiatur That though the Sacrament of Communion in the Primitive Church was received by the faithful under both kinds, for the future it is to be received by the Priests consecrating, under both kinds, and by the Laity ^ only under the species of bread. It is therefore from your own invention to say that Christ and the Apostles administered it to the Laity under one kind ; the Council does not pretend to know so much, only alleging the custom formerly introduced, and say- ing, Unde cum hujiismodi consuetudo ab Ecclesia et Sanctis patribus ration abiliter introducta et diutissi?ne observata sit, habenda est pro lege That this custom being reasonably intro- duced, a long time observed by the Church and holy Fathers, it is to be taken for a law. Here you see no mention made of Christ or the Apostles to have so done, as you say ; upon what ground you do not tell us ; you will have it taken upon your own credit. By saying that I may flatter the Lord Lieutenant of Leland, by telling him that he has more power in this kingdom than the King his master, in whose place and name he acts, because I accused you of giving more power to the Pope than to God, by these privileges of fixing upon the Divine Law what sense he pleases, and overthrowing the ordinances of Christ to set up his own ; by this your expression, 1 say, you are twice criminal in a heinous degree: first, for imagining it should be a way to flatter my IN THE CHUECH OF ENGLAND. 327 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to say, that he had more power in Ireland than the King's Majesty ; which he could not hear without horror and indignation ; and, secondly^ for the falsehood of your supposition in framing your parity. When, or where, did the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland say, that notwithstanding the King of England ordained this or that, for the Government of Ireland, he himself would order the contrary ? as your pretended Vicar of Christ said in the Council of Constance now mentioned, that notwithstanding Christ ordered the Communion to be given in both kinds to the Laity, he did himself order to the contrary. And all this senseless and groundless extravagance you run upon just to find occasion of talking to us of a halter, after your wonted grave and modest style. But being convinced of a ialse accusa- tion, you deserve, by the law of retaliation, the punishment due to the crime which you so falsely impose upon us. Certainly that of the ducking-stool will appear in all good judgments both due and necessary to so foul a mouth. Another example I produced of your extolling Papal laws above the Divine, in the case of Coster, saying,* It is a greater sin in a Priest to marry than to keep a concubine, the former being but a transgression of a Papal law, the second of a Divine. You answer (p. 175) that though it be but a Papal law that Priests should vow chastity, yet the vow being made it is a trans- gression of the Divine law to violate it. Consult your Casuists, Sir, and you shall find them all say, that a vow made in any matter, opposite to God's orders, is null or invalid. There is an order of God intimated by St. Paul to the unmarried, that if they cannot contain they may marry, 1 Cor. vii. 9. Possible it is that a Priest should find by experience that he cannot contain. This you will not deny. Then the vow appears to be null, because by it was promised a thing contrary to that order of God intimated by St. Paul; and consequently the obligation of it * [In his Enchiridion, cap. \5,pj-op. 9, as quoted in Barlow's Brutum Fulmeti, p. 157 ; see Baxter's Key for Catholics, edit. 1839, p. 275." For a Priest to take a wife honestly and lawfully in the fear of the Lord, according to the words of the Lord, if the gift of chastity was not given him, was reputed a more abominable offence than to have a Concubine or a Harlot. See the Note on 1 Cor. vii. 9, in the Rhernish Testament, edit. 1582, p. 440, where this is openly and plainly asserted." Becons Writings and Note, by the Religious Tract Society, p. 44 L] 328 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED ceases ; only the Pope's law prohibiting Priests to marry urges. To it is opposed that other direction intimated to the unmarried if they cannot contain, let them marry. Which of these laws or orders must be observed ? If you say the Pope's law as Coster does ; then follows the conclusion, that you prefer the Pope's laws to those of God. You may exclaim at this ; but you see the premises containing in them the conclusion is inbred, undenied, doctrine among you. IN THE CHUKCH OF ENGLAND. 329 CHAPTER XIII. Our Adversary's foul and greater circle committed whilst pre- tending to rid his claim to Infallibility from the censure of a circle. His many absurdities and great ignorance in the pursuit of this attempt discovered. A better resolution of faith proposed according to Protestant Principles. I ACCUSED our adversaries of a Circle committed in their pretence to Infallibility, because they prove it by Scripture, and the Infalli bility of Scripture they prove by the Infallibility of their Church, which is to go still round in a circle. Mr. /. S. with a view to wind himself out of this Circle, presents to us a resolution of his faith, containing in it a greater Circle, or many Circles together. Having premised some trivial notions respecting the obscurity of faith, and evidence of credibility required to the assent of it, he falls upon extolling the power and aptness of Miracles to produce such credibility, making all contribute to the advantage of the Roman Church, as he pretends, authorized with Miracles ; and from page 180, he enters into his resolution of faith thus: '* You ask why I believe the Trinity ? I answer, because God has revealed it. You ask, why I believe that God revealed it? I answer, because the Church, by which God speaks, tells us so. You ask, why I believe that God speaks by the Church ? I must not answer because the Scripture says it; * * * neither must I answer, that I believe God to speak by the Church, because she works Miracles." Here I am at a loss to understand whether this is the same man who was arguing a little before, p. 177, and more at large p. 102, and extolling the force of miracles to produce an evidence of credibility in the proposer of Divine Verities ; or another of his auxiliaries who came in his place to carry on the work, without regard to what the former had said. But whoever he be, let us see how he disputes against Miracles : If the Miracles be abso- lutely evident, says he, they can be no motive of faith, which is of its own nature obscure ; and if they be but morally evident 330 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Miracles, they cannot he the motive, because the motive of faith must he infallihle.* How blind is the attempt of this man against Miracles ! how destructive of his own purpose ! How absurd and ridiculous his argument against Miracles is, I have shewn above in Chap. IX. and thither I remit the reader. Now let us consider this mysterious work of our adversary in its progress. Having excluded Miracles from assuring us of the credibility of the Church proposing doctrines to us, he tells us how we must answer that question. Why I believe that God speaks by the Church ? and it must be thus : Because the Church, hy which God speaks, says that God speaks hy her ; and I am obliged to believe he speaks hy her, because he doth accredit her with so many Miracles and supernatural marks, which makes it evidently credible that he doth speak by her. If it is the same man who writes the whole page, it cannot but appear a wonder, that having employed his skill a few lines before, in weakening the force of Miracles in order to ground the Infallibility of his Church, he should now take up the same Miracles for his ultimate reason of believing in the Church as a fastidious man, who throwing away the paring of his apple, and checking his com- panion for eating his without paring, yet fell immediately after upon devouring the paring, which he had thrown away. But in order to remedy the sad want of coherence in reasoning which he manifests, our adversary shuffles in a distinction betwixt the motive of our act of faith, and the motive of our obligation of believing, which indeed is nothing else at the present than culicem excoriare to flay a flea ; after much ado to do nothing. The present question immediately proposed is. Why am I to believe that God speaks by the Church f The only reason which he gives for believing in the Church is Miracles. What needs that distinction of motive to my belief, and motive to my acknowledgment of obligation to belief? The same reason that causes me to believe, intimates to me my obligation of believing. The Primitive Christians who heard the Apostles preach, and saw their Miracles, knew nothing of these distinctions. Seeing those servants of God confirm their doctrine with Miracles, * [Page 141 of I. S.'s Unerring and Unerrahle Church.] IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 331 they believed that God spake by them, and for the same reason or motive thought themselves obliged to believe them. If we have the same faith that the Primitive Christians of Jerusalem and Antioch had, as Mr. /. S, says (p. 183) why shall we not be led the same way to believe as they did ? But our Adversary's design is to impose upon us a faith which the Apostles did not teach, and this he discovers clearly (though haply not so much to his own knowledge) p. 184, in these remarkable words The chief and last motive whereupon our faith must rest, is the Word of God speaking to us by the Church. The Church, I say, by which God actually in this present age speaks unto us ; for we do not believe because God did speak in the first, second, or third age by the Church, &c. Here you perceive, reader, a plain manifestation of the great guilt of the Roman Church, deserving the most severe resentment of all true Christians, that glorious, truly Catholic, Apostolic and Holy Church* of the Primitive ages being excluded from the office of being mistress of our belief; and the Church of this corrupt age, governed by the most corrupt Court in the world (if we are to believe those who are best acquainted with it) that of Rome, substituted in her place ; and as this is proposed by our adversary without any proof, so it ought to be rejected by all true Christians with indignation. I will just add a few reflections upon the inconclusiveness of the Man's arguments and shew how far he is from attaining his purpose of ridding himself from a Circle in resolving his Faith. All that great labyrinth which he works from p. 176 to p. 184, in order to declare his method of advancing each act of faith (enough to puzzle the best understanding) will certainly be requisite in his * [This deference to the imaginary perfection of the Primitive ages (to use Mr. Hallam's words, Literature of Europe, 3, 70) is rather incautious, and may lead, as it has often done, to a partial casting aside of help too readily seized upon, when found not strong enough to bear the weight laid upon it. For some very just remarks upon the point, we cannot do better than direct attention to Mr. Taylor's Ancient Christianity ; and to Mr. Pope's Roman Misquotation for the way, in which the writings of the earlier ages have been perverted to testify in behalf of the modern Church of Rome. Rivet's tractatus de Patrum autoritate prefixed to his Criticus sacer, will, as usual, reward a perusal, and Daille on the use of the Fathers, may be mentioned also for such as would be " resolved" upon the subject of submission to the Early Church, and its claims.] 832 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED opinion to proceed to this last act of faith, which he will have to be the guide of all others, that the Roman Church of this age is infallible in teaching what we ought to believe. This being, as he says, an act of Divine faith, I mean, that the Pope with a General Council, such as that of Trent, is infallible in proposing matters of faith, how shall he go about to assure his Faith upon this particular point? Certainly thus, according to his former discourse : I believe that the present Church governed by the Pope of Rome in the Council of Trent is infallible, and God speaks oy her, because the Church by which God speaks says, that God speaks by her ; and I am obliged to believe that God speaks by her, because he accredits her by so many Miracles, and supernatural marks, which vnakes it evidently credible that he does speak by her. These are Mr. /. /S.'s own words, and his Confession of faith set down in the 181st page of his book. And while the reader is reckoning in how many circles he is here entangled while endeavouring to rid himself of one, I ask of him where are those Miracles wrought by the Fathers of the Council of Trent, and the Popes moderating in it which are to produce in me an evidence of credibility that God spake by their mouth such as the Christians of Jerusalem and Antioch saw the Apostles work for believing that God spake by them ; because, he says, that I must take the objects of faith upon credit of the present Church, and that credit must be grounded upon Miracles and supernatural marks appearing in its favour ? Will he have us prefer his forged Miracles in favour of his new coined faith, to those wrought by the Apostles in confirmation of the faith preached by them ? Turn, reader, to what I said to this purpose in the IXth Chapter of this Treatise. The more I consider this resolu- tion of Mr. /. S.''s faith, the less I find in it of satisfaction, and the more circles and obscurities. Now I enquire of him further, why he excludes the Church of the first, second, and third age from the office of declaring God's will and word to us } He answers, because the declarations of that ancient Church are known to us only by Tradition ; and Tradition, says he, is not the motive, but the Rule of our belief All this he must say of the Council of Trent, or the Church represented in it of this age ; that alone, and not the Pope out of it, must be, in his doctrine, our infallible teacher. Now further ^Is not the doctrine of the IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 333 Council of Trent, proposed to us as a Rule of our Faith, of equal value and authority with the written word of God, inasmuch as they both proceed from the Holy Ghost ? They say it is. Is not, moreover, that doctrine known to us only by Tradition ? Certainly it is. I have no notice of it, nor can I have, but by relation of others ; and they of no more credit with me, but rather of far less, than those venerable writers who relate to us the doctrine of the Primitive Church. Are there not Controversies daily and endless, about the sense and meaning of the Council of Trent ; as well as about the more ancient Councils ? Witness the dismal broils between the Jesuits, Jansenists, and Dominicans. Where is now Mr. /. SJ's living, infallible Judge ? The Council of Trent has closed, and the Popes governing it are dead and gone. The Pope now living, or any Council which he can congregate, less than a General one, is not an infallible Judge. Who then will assure him ? Must he have a General Council congregated for the resolution of his faith in every doubt that may come into his head ? How shall we be sure that Popes Innocent and Alexander did not err in their decisions on the great debate with the Jansenists ? Their definition thereon not having originated in a General Council cannot be to us a warrant of security in Mr. /. S.^s opinion. The Jansenists will triumph at this;* and will that The Abbey of Port Royal in the Fields, situated in a retired valley not far from Paris, occupied at this period a very prominent place among the Religious Institutions of France. " It excited," says Mosheim, " the indignation of the Jesuits, the admiration of the Jansenists, and the attention of Europe;" and this not only on account of the highly religious tone of thinking and acting of its inmates, but of their literary acquirements. Founded in 1204 by Eudes de Sully, Bp. of Paris, its discipline had, in process of time, become gradually relaxed, and the inhabitants had sunk into that sloth and sensuality which was too prevalent among Monastic bodies; this was, in fact, a natural result of an unnatural seclusion from the ordinary occupations of life, equally at variance with the Gospel and common sense, and one which was in no small measure the means of forwarding the progress of the blessed Reformation ; and at the same time testifying that a life of supposed separation from the world might yet be spent in walking according to its course, and that the walls of a Monastery or Nunnery are by no means to be regarded as containing within them the most exalted Religious feeling or the purest morality. An important Reformation, however, had taken place under the government of Jaqueline, daughter of Anthony Arnaud, who after her conversion, assumed the name of Marie Angeli- que de la St. Madeline. It had for a century exemplified a model of piety, 334 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED please them at Rome and Paris ? While Mr. I. S. agrees with them upon this particular point, I ask further Though a General Council were congregated now to that effect, such as that of Trent, to assure us of Infallibility exercised in the articles defined against Jansenius, how shall I be sure that God speaks by such a Council, or the Church represented in it? Thus, in Mr. /. S.'s dialect : Because the Church by which God speaks says that God speaks by her, because he doth accredit her by so many Miracles and supernatural works, which makes it evidently credible that he doth speak by her. Well, and where are those Miracles and supernatural marks assisting this Council present, to assure us that God speaks by it ? Are you sure to find them at hand when the Council is assembled ? Likely you are, upon the experience of coining Miracles, when occasion requires it. By this, reader, you may perceive how little Mr. /. S, has accomplished after all his toil, for resolving his faith without arguing in a circle. How rash his assurance was, that Protest- ants will never resolve theirs without involving themselves in a similar fault, I will now briefly shew. The faith of Protestants is that contained in Canonical Scripture, as he often supposes. My faith regarding each point of those contained in Scripture, I resolve thus : I believe that the Son of God was made man, because I find it written in Holy Scripture I believe what is written in the Holy Scripture, because it is the infallible word of God and I believe it is the word of God, because the Apostles who preached it confirmed it with such Miracles and wonders as mingled indeed with lamentable error, and accompanied with austerities at variance with the true character of the Gospel; still, a great change had been wrought; the views entertained by Jansenius had here taken root, and had been instrumental in weaning many a heart from the world, and in producing a tone of seriousness which strikingly contrasted with that existing in many of the institutions which it has been, and now is, the policy of the See of Rome to sustain institutions that are silently working their way in our own country^ the increase of which is viewed with a strange apathy, but which may be one day instrumental in causing much confusion in the kingdom, in the attempt to raise Popery on the ruins of Protestantism.'' Church of England Magazine^ 1839, vol. vii. p. 229; where there is a very excellent and judicious account of this cele- brated Establishment, equally remote from the occasional unfairness of Moshe- im, and the childish charity of Mrs, Schimmelpenninck. It may be just added that the Jesuits at last accomplished the utter ruin of this, so far an excellent, Protestant community, in 1709 ; see pp. 259-60, of the same Magazine. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 335 God alone could work ; and, finally, that the Apostles delivered the doctrine contained in Scripture, and confirmed it with Miracles, I believe by virtue of Universal Tradition, according to that cele- brated notion of it delivered by Vincentius Lirinensis Quod uhique, quod semper, quod apud omnes est creditum what was always, in all places, and hy all Christians received and believed, is to he taken for Universal and Apostolical Tradition. This common consent of Christians making up Universal Tradition, we have in what is unanimously delivered by the ancient Fathers, and declared in the first General Councils of those more holy and sincere Primitive times. Thither I go to take up my belief, as to streams immediately proceeding from the fountain of Grace, with more pleasure and satisfaction than to the muddy waters of doctrine delivered by the Church of Rome of this corrupt age,* which has passed through so many hands defiled with ambition, avarice, and other earthly passions repug- nant to sincerity ; and of this indeed we have assurance more than enough. * [And yet Bellarmine, whose sentiment /. S. has in effect repeated, affirms (de effec. Sacram. lib. 2, c. 25.) that if we take away the authority of the present Church, and of the Council of Trent, then the whole Christian faith may be called in question ,- for the truth of all ancient Councils, and all points of faith depend upon the authority of the present Church of Rome. How much better said Austin (de Doctr. Christian, lib. 1. c. 37) " Our faith shall reel and totter, if the authority of the Scripture stand not fast." Let these assertions of the Papistry be well noted. White's Way to the true Church, . 8. 20. 336 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER XIV. A reflection upon the perverse doctrine contained in the Resolu- tion of Faith proposed to us hy Mr. I. S. and the pernicious and most dangerous consequences of it. It is a Providence of God, and the great force of Truth, that our Adversaries should forget themselves sometimes, and discover their wicked intentions which are covered under sacred pretexts. All their Novelties they frequently set forth under the venerable cloak of Antiquity. It is a glory of Humility, says St. Bernard, that Pride should wear a cloak of it, to he in esteem Gloriosa res humilitas qua se vestire solet Superhia ne vilescat ;* and so it is a glory of Antiquity that Novellers should pretend credit to their inventions, by casting on them a colour of Antiquity.t It is very frequent v^ith the Romanists to use this stratagem in order to cloke their new decrees with the venerable name of ancient Canons, to call their Church the ancient Church, though composed of Novelties where it opposes the Reformed. Mr. /. S. has been pleased to unmask his Church herein to us, declaring that the ultimate ground and motive of their belief, and that of their Proselytes, must not be the testimony of that sacred Primitive Church governed by Christ himself, and his blessed Apostles ; but the testimony of the present Church of Rome, infected with Bernard de gradihus humilitaUs, cap. 18, . 47 " qua ipsa quoque superbia palliare se appetit, ne vilescat !" Sail appears to have quoted memoriter, f " First in the Jewish temple, of which the ornaments were divinely appointed there was the candlestick, the emblem of the light of God's presence, and of the radiance of God's glory. Secondly, in the Churches (1) during the life time of St. John, there were candlesticks significant of the same mysteries, and of the knowledge of Christ in the Church, the removal of which was employed to prefigure the withdrawal of God's favour, and the times of ignorance and dark- ness, as you may read in the second chapter of Revelation." Sermon by the Rev. G. A. Walker at Newcastle, Jan. 12th, 1840 ! in " defence of certain doctrines, and ceremonies, and ornaments.)^' lately restored in St. Andrew's Church there. And yet what this man of 1840 wishes to see restored, was forbidden at the Council of Eliberis, A.D. 305, Can. 34, to be done even in Cemeteries. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. corruptions which the world knows, and both frien? and exclaim against as a universal scandal. Besides the perverseness of this doctrine obvious to'^yery one who will not blind his eyes wilfully taking from our sight a^d> view the sweet and comfortable face of Primitive ChristianityT" and willing us only to attend the foul and abominable practices of the Roman Court, calling itself the Church, and even the Catholic, Universal, and only Church to the offence and scandal of all sincere and knowing men ; besides the perversity of this doctrine, the dangerous consequences of it are much to be con- sidered for preventing the growth of this destructive seed. First, it follows hence that as there is no end of disputes and controversies among men (nor is likely to be,) so there will be no end of coining new articles of faith, all tending to the increase of the power and splendour of the Pope and his Court, though at the expence of disturbances and destruction to men and cities, provinces and kingdoms, as has often happened. This, to be their aim, under the pretence of exalting and propagating the faith of Christ, appears by the next attempt of Mr. /. S. in favour of the Pope's Supremacy, to be examined in the Chapter next following. Having established the Pope, and his present Church (as he conceives) in the situation of Infallible Judges in matters of faith, the next point which he takes in hand to establish, as the chiefest of his concern is the Pope's Supremacy, and absolute power over all Christians ; directly forsooth in spirituals, but effectively in their temporal concerns : as many powerful Princes, Kingdoms, and Provinces have experienced to their woe. These two great prerogatives of absolute power over all Christians, and of Infalli- hility in his Decrees, such as none may oppose or murmur against, being established in the Pope, what security can people or Princes have of their liberties or possessions, if liable to be voted Heretics because they do not receive and submit to anything which the Pope may be pleased to decree and declare for an article of faith ; and being thus censured, to have their liberties and lands seized upon and taken from them, by any who may have force to do it ? [Bellarm. de Potit. Rom. lib. 5, capp. 1. 5 and 6.] Next we are to consider the dangerous consequences of this doctrine in the daily extent of the Pope's power and authority, 338 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED by his Emissaries and flatterers. Hitherto they were content to assert his Infallibility in matters of right ; now of late they extend it to matters o^ fact ; as appears in the famous Thesis of the Parisian Jesuits, declared above in the IXth Chapter. And though another party opposed that assertion of theirs, as men- tioned in the place aforesaid, all men know how little success any may expect to have, in the Roman judicature, against such as will engage in exalting and extending the power and authority of the Pope ; and accordingly, the Jesuits have not only obtained a censure of heresy and blasphemy, &c. against the Doctrine of Cornelius Jansenius^ where the debate turned upon the matter o^ right, but another arising concerning the fact, whether Jmi- senius did indeed deliver such a doctrine. They obtained likewise from the succeeding Pope, Alexander VII. a Bull and Decree no less peremptory respecting the fact, and declaring that the said Propositions censured by his Predecessor are really contained in Jansenius's hook ; and (which is more wonderful that he should know) in the sense intended by Jansenius. The aforesaid sworn defenders and exalters of the Pope's authority have maintained publicly, that we are to believe with Divine Faith, the said declaration of the Pope against Jansenius, as well in matters of right as fact, to be infallible, by these notable words : Fide Divina credi potest lihrum cni titulis Augustinus Jansenii esse h. 19. Sail. f Caron supra, cap. 4, p. 15, Sail. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 353 [It may convey to the reader some insight into the circum- stances of these times and give some notion of the trouble which well-disposed Roman Catholics were content to undergo in framing and taking an oath, such as they fancied they would be allowed by their Church to take, for the satisfaction of a Protes- tant Sovereign ; and also furnish some idea of the grievous disappointments, checks, reproofs, and denials, which they met with from their own Church, by quoting a few pages from Dr. Charles O' Conor's able pen. ^ It happened that in the course of that year [1664] the Pope's Nuncio, De Vecchiis, landed in London. What brought him thither it becomes not Dr. O'C. to say ; he enquires not into motives, he relates facts De Vecchiis had travelled from Brus- sels to pay a visit to Cardinal Ghigi, the Pope's Legate a Latere^ at Paris, and this journey was performed whilst the affair of the Irish Remonstrance was agitated in Ireland with very great warmth, and with no small danger to the exorbitant influence of the Court of Rome. " Having had many Conferences with Ghigi, he returned to Brussels ; but, for reasons best known to himself, he took London, incognito, in his way ; and for other reasons best known to him, he called upon the Queen at Somerset House : and there for other reasons, no doubt, he passed most of his time, during his short residence in the Capitol. It becomes not Dr. O'C. to enquire into State affairs ; but matters were so managed that the principal leaders of the Remonstrants were made acquainted with his arrival ; and they were also informed that he was to make no stay, but immediately to depart for Flanders. On this information Walsh and Carron went at an appointed time to pay him their respects, intending also to expostulate with him for so many of his letters, and for those too of Cardinal Barherini, in which they stigmatized the Irish Remonstrants as a sect, assert- ing most impudently that they had apostatized from the Catholic faith, endeavouring, consequently, to withdraw the ignorant mass of the Irish people from their allegiance, and so preparing them for a Rebellion, in such contingencies, or oft such specious pretexts, as the discontents of many would approve, and the Court of Rome, or some of their inconsiderate Divines would allow. 354 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED " They met the NuDcio in one of the areas of Somerset House. The Rev. Patt. Magin, one of her Majesty's Chaplains, accom- panied him, and was present at the Conference, which lasted three hours, from ten in the morning till one in the afternoon. " After Walsh had shewn, that in the Loyal Remonstrance, there was not one tittle repugnant to Catholic Faith, the Nuncio replied. You think so hut his Holiness thinks otherwise. His Holiness, said Walsh, is misinformed with respect to the intent and object of this Formulary which is nothing more than a Declaration of Allegiance, merely in temporals ; and so also, added he, was Paul V. misinformed by the English Jesuit Parsons, of the intent of that other Oath of Allegiance, which James I. proposed in 1606 to distinguish the Loyal Catholics from those who were engaged in the Gun-powder Plot. Here the Nuncio, with some warmth, rejoined Ego informavi / am he who informed his Holiness, I am sorry for it, said Walsh for with your good leave, my Lord, you have not rightly informed him, Carron now interposed, begging of the Nuncio to point out any proposition in that Formulary which was repugnant to Catholic Faith. To which the Nuncio again replied, ' You think there is none hut the Holy See thinks otherwise.^ " Carron and Walsh, the one after the other, replied that , general allegations were to no purpose ; that even though the Pope had condemned the Remonstrance, yet as he was not infallible, they would not, merely on that account, be compelled to yield up the truth ; and that the Holy See, the Roman Court, and the Catholic Church, were three very different things ; and now the Nuncio looking more kindly, or at least with less super- ciliousness, moderately intreated them to lay aside all thoughts of the Remonstrance, and rather think of some other Medium, whereby they might obtain the King's favour for the Catholics of their native country. " Another Medium ! say they ; this is the Medium which the Government requires, that we should renounce the deposing Power we know no other. " * I know a better,' said the Nuncio ' the Pope shall issue a Bull to all the Irish, commanding them, on pain of Excommu- nication, to be henceforth faithful to the King.' " Indeed, my Lord ! said Walsh, why, that, if accepted, would IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 355 make the King a vassal of the Pope, and a very King of Cards I hope his Majesty has some better and surer means to rely on, than any Bull of Excommunication. "'Then,' says the Nuncio, 'I propose this other Medium. The Pope shall grant and create as many Bishops, and Abp- bishops of Ireland, as his Viceroy, the Duke of Ormond, will desire, and those v ery persons whom they shall fix upon ; and moreover his Holiness shall empower those persons, so created Prelates, to dismiss, and send away out of Ireland, all Catholic Clergymen, of all descriptions, whom they shall find to be disloyal to the King, or even suspected of disloyalty.'* " This is more specious than the former, said Walsh, but yet there is nothing even in this Medium ; but what was, and is, the King's by ancient right; I mean banishing of all disturbers: otherwise he would, in an essential point of temporal Sovereigniy^ acknowledge his own dependance on a foreign temporal power ; and, considering the strict Oath of allegiance and obedience which [R.] Catholic Bishops take to the Pope, before Consecra- tion, and not they alone, but all orders of beneficed Clergy, according to the present practice ; and must also take even expressly, against all those whom they deem Heretics, this last proposed Medium is inadequate, if the doctrine of our Remon- strance is condemned. It would prove, in effect, only a Medium to fortify the Pope's pretensions, and let all Irish Catholics loose, whenever an occasion offered ; and especially the Irish Clergy, who, either by solemn vow, or promise, or oath, and by the tie also of many other obligations, and statutes. Provincial and Diocesan, are already bound fast enough to the Court of Rome. " Here the Nuncio, seeing that the State of England would insist on the utter and unqualified abjuration of the deposing power, and of all Foreign interference in State affairs, looked at his watch, said it was One o'Clock, dinner-hour at that time ; attended the summons to dinner which was conveyed to him by Philip Howard, afterwards Cardinal Howard, who took him to dine with the Queen, and without further ceremony, the two Irisli agents were left to shift for themselves. * History of the Remonstrance ^ pp. 511, 512. Compare the Latin account of this Conference in Carron's Memoirs, z 2 356 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Here, then, it is plain that the Nuncio would not only have granted an unlimited Veto to a Protestant King, but also that he would have sacrificed the Irish Catholic Clergy to exile and imprisonment, even on mere suspicion, provided the Pope's claim to the deposing Power were acquiesced in by the Court of England." Dr. O'Conor's Columhanus, No. 5. pp. 40 44. London, 1812. It is strange that Walsh, Carron, Dr. O'Conor, Berington, and others, did not perceive that they were not members of the Church of Rome that what they fancied to be that Church was in their imaginations and writings a Reformed body; and hence their invariable endeavour to clear their Church from almost all that is peculiar to the Pope's portion, constantly affirming it to be no doctrine of the Catholic Church, or what they themselves hold ; and yet seeming to consider it hard that doctrines and practices should be attributed to the Church of Rome (as at pi*esent con- stituted) which they themselves reject; but which others of the same body, nearly as learned, and certainly as eminent, contend for most stoutly, and who, as we have seen, place all repugners to them, in the Class of Heretics. Which body then represents the Church of Rome ? The latter Class undoubtedly the Frenches, Riccinis, Serjeants, Milners, &c., &c., who uphold the peculi- arities of that Church as distinguished from the Catholic] IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 357 CHAPTER XVII. The complamt of Papists against our King, for the Oath of Supremacy which he demands from his subjects, shewn to he unjust, Mr. /. *S^. slighting that matter of the Remonstrance, would have me condole with the Irish on account of their sufferings, for not taking the Oath of Supremacy to the King of England as Head of the Church, which he says is a cruelty against souls to demand from them. I do lament heartily the sufferings of the Irish in that respect, I mean their folly and blindness in suffering them- selves to be so deluded by the arts of Rome, as to suppose Rebellion to be Religion;* and that it is Catholic piety, to transfer the obedience due to their natural Prince by God's command, to a foreigner, who has no other right over them than what by craft and cruelty he has usurped ; as has been shewn in the Chapter preceding. All this will be made clear to persons who will consider, that our Princes pretend not to any other Supremacy or power over their subjects, than such as the godly Kings of Israel enjoyed in their time over the Jews, and the Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church over their respective subjects ; as is asserted in the XXXVIIth. Article, and the Vllth. Canon of the Cimrch of England, and as indeed our Princes execute, exercising evefli less power in Church affairs, than the Kings of Israel and the Christian Emperors did. Do but read the second book of Kings, commonly called the fourth, in the xxiii. Chapter, and see liow * At a much later period, the Nuncio of Brussels, Ghilini, condemned as heretical and impious, a book published in Dublin, 1767, intitled the Catholic Manual^ because it asserted in the Appendix, that the Pope could not dispense in the Allegiance due by Catholics to their Sovereigns. The condemnation of this book, and proposition, is dated Brussels, June 29, 1770, and refers to a previous condemnation at Rome, dated 26th March the same year. Dr. O'Conor's Columbanus nr. 7. p. 62. London, 18l6j See also Index Lib. Prohib. Romas, 1786, p. 53. z 3 358 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED forward the godly King Josiali was in reforming the Church, both Clergy and Laity ; reading to them himself the book of the Covenant; removing unworthy Priests, and substituting lawful ones. The same course you will find in the Second Book of Chronicles, Chap. xxix. was pursued by Hezekiah ; and the text, approving his proceedings in all this particular, declares He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. (vs. 2.) If you would but consider the proceedings of these two good Kings related in the aforementioned places, in connexion with the behaviour of our Princes in the several Convocations of their Clergy and people for the Reformation of the Church in these Kingdoms, you would find them not to have taken so much of the work upon them in their own persons, as those Kings of Israel did ; but they commended to Prelates and Divines the examination of points belonging to Religion and the Government of the Church ; holding themselves the sword and stern of Government in order to keep peace at home and defend them from foreign enemies. Neither did our Saviour diminish, but rather confirm this supreme power of Princes over their subjects. We have his will intimated to us by St. Paul, Rom. xiii. 1. Let every soul he subject unto the higher Powers ; where, by higher powers, St. Augustine and the other ancient Fathers understood the secular power of Princes ; and the context itself is clear enough for that interpretation, as Salmeron confesses : Patres veteres, et praaci- pue Augustinus (Ep. 54.) Apostolum interpretantur de potestate seculari tantum loqui, quod et ipse textus siihindicat.* And that to this power, not only seculars but all sorts of Ecclesiastical persons are subject, S. Chrysostom declares: Omnibus istw interpretantur, et sacerdotibus, et Monachis, &c. This is a command laid upon all men, whether they be Priests, or Monks, whether Apostles, Evangelists, or Prophets, or whoever they be:f and St. Bernard considers well, that the very words of the text declared so much : If every soul be subject unto the higher powers, says he (writing to an Archbishop) yours also must be * Salmer. disp. 4. in Rom. XIII. f Chrysost. Horn. 23. in Rom. . 1. Khu 'a-noaToKos ^s, kUv 'vayyekiS^^. Paul. And as you say, in your processions on holy Friday, of the Cross w^hich you bear in your hand, and raise up to be adored by the people, bowing upon their knees, Ecce Lignum Crucis in quo Salus mundi pependit Behold the wood of the Cross upon which hung the Saviour of the world ; surely you are not so senseless as to think that these words are verified in a literal sense,* of the Cross which you bear in your hand, but rather in a tropical, having a reference to the Cross whereon our Saviour was really fixed. In the same sense you must suppose that Aaron spoke of the Golden Calf (if you will not make him quite senseless) when he said, This is thy God, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, which is to say This is a type or Image of thy God who brought thee up, &c. ; and under that notion the people adored it. And all this while I hope you will not pretend to absolve them from the guilt of Idolatry, for which they were so severely punished by * But that this is ordinarily supposed to be the doctrine of the Church of Rome, and defended as such, was shewn in a remarkable way in as remarkable a letter of Mons. Imbert to Bossuet. " Having reminded Bossuet of a kindness which he had formerly conferred on the writer, M. Imbert thus proceeds ' I have suffered persecution, especially since the time that your Lordship published your Exposition of the Faith. Your enemies who dare not declare against your Lordship, declare themselves against those who say the same things. And at this instant the Archbishop of Bourdeaux has caused a process to be made against me, for having explained upon Good Friday, that we adore Jesus Christ cruci- fied, in the presence of the Crois, and that we do not adore any thing that we see. And forasmuch as the Cure replied upon the place aloud ' the wood, the wood ; I added, * No, no, 'tis Jesus Christ and not the wood.' And when he added, * Ecce Lignum, venite, adoremus,' I took him up, saying, ' on which the Saviour of the world hung ; come let us adore this Saviour of the world,' " But, asks Dr. Kenney, what benefit did M. Imbert derive from his appeal to the Exposition, and from all his applications ? an important question where a book put forward (at times) as a true exposition of the doctrines and practices of the Church of Rome is concerned his agreement with the Exposition of Bossuet was deemed no excuse for him ; and he was threatened with perpetual imprisonment, or death itself for his offence ! ! ! See Dr. Kenney's very valuable Facts and Docu- ments, (London, 1827,) pp. 4245. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 395 God ; as we read in Exod. xxxii. Idolatry therefore is not only to adore an Image as God, but also to adore God in an Image. If we will give credit to Pagans relative to their belief, they will tell us, that they were never so blind as to think that the Statues themselves which they adored were Gods, Nemo unquam tarn fatuusfuit, says Cicero, qui saxum et lapidem Jovem esse credidit none was ever so void of sense as to suppose that a stone should he Jupiter. Neither could such a belief consist with what is generally supposed by them, that their gods are in heaven. Thus the inhabitants of Lystra when they saw Paul and Barnabas heal a man who had been a cripple from his birth, said. The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men, Acts xiv 11. And if even Pagans thought it a stupidity unbecoming men of common sense, to conceive a stock or a stone to be a God, still less ought we to imagine, that the Israelites with so much advan- tage of instruction should be so brutish. Their guilt therefore was not in supposing that the Golden Calf was God, but in attempting the worship of God by an Image, which is your guilt. You conclude that to worship the Image of Christ and his saints, cannot be called Idolatry ; for an Idol (say you) is a representation of a Deity that has no being, but Christ and his saints have a being, &c. If you are speaking of the subject of idolatrous worship tending to something created, it is true that it looks upon a Deity that has no being. But if you believe ^S*^. Paul, the real object of their worship was the true God which he preached, Whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. Acts xvii. 23. ; and, notwithstanding, he rebuked them for Idola- ters : therefore Idolatry is not only a worship dedicated to false gods, but also a worship of the true God in a way prohibited. But how will this your discourse apply to shelter from Idolatry the worship given to Images of Saints, which have in them no Divinity real or apprehended ? Is it because they have a being opposite to a Chimera or nothing ? Then the adorers oi Mars or Apollo in their Statues (and so of other Idols) were no Idolaters. Those Statues or Idols were representations of men (whether living or dead is not material) not Chimerical, but such as had had a real being. Read the origin of Idolatry described in the XlVth. Chapter of Wisdom from the 12th verse: you shall find that it began by making Images of men, absent or dead, to honour 396 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED their memory. Besides, your supposition is clearly contrary to what God's commandment against the worship of Images supposes, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image, or the like- ness of any thing that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, &c. Exod. xx. 4. Images of things are pro- hibited to be worshipped, and of things really existing either in the heaven or upon earth. But, as you hope to be saved, will you lay aside prejudices and subtilties awhile, and speak once sincerely ? What is it that makes you so eager for the worship of Images ? Is it any Divine Precept that moves or forces to it ? We never heard you talk of any such precept, and there is at least a very probable assurance of a precept of God extant, prohibiting under terrible penalty such a worship. There is moreover a certain danger of occasion- ing, in the ruder sort, a downright gross Idolatry, by an absolute direct worship of the Images which you set up to be worshipped, without those distinctions and precisions wherewith you pretend to justify your practice; and of which Ludovicus Fives gives* this testimony: Divos divasque non aliter venerantur quam Deum ipsum, nee video in multis quod discrifnen sit inter eorum opinionem de Sanctis, et id quod Gentiles putabant de Diis suis they worship holy men and women very much as they do God himself ; neither can I perceive in many things wherein their opinion respecting Saints differs from that of Pagans concerning their gods. Poly dor e Vergil (De rerum inventori- bus lib. 6. cap. \^.J speaks to the same purpose in these words: Sunt enim bene multi rudiores qui ligneas, saxeas, marmoreas, (Bueas, item in parietibus pictas Imagiiies colunt, non ut figii- ras, sedperinde quasi ipsce sen sum aliquem habeant, quique eis magis fidunt quam Christo ipsi, aut aliis Divis quibus dicaice fuerunt In the Church of Rome there are many who worship Images of stocks, stones, brass, or painted on walls, not as figures, but just as if they had some sense in them-, and who put more trust in them than in Christ himself or in the Saints to whom they are dedicated. This being the case, what prudence can it be to expose you^* own salvation, and the salvation of others, to a certain danger, by * Vives tn Comm, ad Amjiist. de Civitatc Dei I. 8. c. ultimo. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 397 practising a worship, at least very probably prohibited by God under pain of damnation ? This is the unhappy condition, in which you are placed ; and hence our great advantage over you in our debates, that if you are in an error, as very probably you seem to be, you are liable to damnation : not so we, though you should be in the right; for on our part there is no transgression of any Divine precept, and consequently no fear of damnation in not worshipping an Image. In the same predicament you are placed in your worship of the Eucharist. If Christ be not there after the manner which you pretend, you are damnable Idolaters ; as many of your own Authors do, and any one who is rational must needs confess. But on whatsoever side the truth lies in that con- troversy, our practice is free from danger of sinning by not paying the worship of Latvia to the Eucharist, since no precept of God obliges us to give it such worship. This with the similar advan- tages, which we have over you in all other points controverted, made me choose the way of the Church of England as surer to salvation than yours. What profit do you expect from the worship of Images ? I understand what posvsible profit there may be in the use of devout* Images (if separated from the worship) that they may form a book to the ruder sort, for raising their minds to heavenly things. But this benefit is not so great, nor the hope of getting to heaven this way so warrantable ; as the danger of losing it by unlawful worship is imminent. While the use of Images was harmless and beneficial, it was justly retained. It were insolence in a member of any Church or Congregation to oppose a custom or use introduced into it, while indifferent and not opposed to a higher law. But if that use degenerated into an abuse and trans- gression of God's Commandments, then it is to be reformed or rejected. This is what happened in the case of the Brazen Serpent, as before related. And this is the case of the Reformed Churches with regard to Images.f While and where a pious and * Images to assist devotion are probably meant, Ed. f It is rather strange that Dr. Sail should speak so much at his ease about Reform. It is exceedingly difficult to effect, or to get effected, any discontinuance of even an '' abuse," much more to attain to a Reform or rejection; especially too on such a point as the worship of Saints and Angels, &c., which seems, we doubt not, to many poetical and romantic Protestants, very elegant and interesting. 398 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED innocent use was made of them, they were allowed, and so are even yet. But when it was perceived that the ahuse of unlawful worship was offered them, they removed them from the sight of the common people, who are apt to commit those abuses in places of worship. Now we have seen how far this kind of abuse has spread among your people both learned and vulgar. As for the latter, reflect on what we have related out of Fives and Polydore. Add to theirs the testimony of George Cassander, a man renowned for his calm and even temper as well as for his learning, and who by both might have contributed to the peace and unity of Christian Churches, if the inflexible pride of the Court of Rome would have suffered any limit to be put to its ambition. Of the worship of Images he speaks thus : Manifestius est quam ut multis verbis explicari dehe at, Imaginum et Simulachrorum cidium nimium invaluisse^ et affectioni seu potius super stitioni popttli plus satis indultum esse ; ita ut ad summam adorationem qu9. But the practice was not abandoned in even later times, the Bishop's revenues being so much improved by it: vide Erasmi de conscrib. litt. Operum, tom I, p. 363, BasileaB, 1540. f During twenty-two years of the late reign (of Pius VI.) not less than 18,000 persons were murdered in public and private quarrels in the Ecclesiastical States alone, according to the Bills of Mortality in the Governor's office, where from every district a return w^as annually made. Duppa's Subversion of the Papal Government, p. 79, edit. 1807- Mr. Dominus Baddeley, in his Sure way to find out the true Religion, sixth edition, Dublin, 1833, puts down the number of criminals in England, the rob- beries, the 3000 receivers of stolen goods, the prostitution in Town and Country, all to the Protestant Religion ; and hopes the fruits of the Catholic Religion are better," p. 46. Heigho ! + He died in 1100, and then three new anti-Popes started up in succession; but the reader must pursue the history of this united Church himself if he pleases: Baron, an. 1100 S 18. 432 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED his Cardinals, or Hildehrand and his, as I do not know, so 1 will not dispute ; but conclude, that such Indulgences as these were given in Rome, by the relation of their own hired Histoiian ; and then the reader will perceive how unhappy Mr. /. S. has been in his pretended triumph over me respecting this point of History. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 433 CHAPTER XXX. Of the strange and absurd terms used in the grants of Indul- gences, and the immoderate profuseness wherewith, and slight causes for which, they are granted. Truly if we do but consider the absurd language used in the trade of Indulgences, and the vast and boundless profuseness exhibited in the grant of them for very slight causes,* of all which their most learned defenders confess that they are not able to give a rational account, we may with some good ground suspect that some such Lay-Cardinals as those mentioned in the preceding Chapter out of Baronius, granting Indulgences in Rome, were the authors and inventors of the present practice of Indulgences, and the terms of it used in the Roman Church. First, thej^divide Indulgences into total and partial. A total * In the Erernitane at Padova, their Preachers very solemnly publish a grant of Plenary Indulgence, from Baptism to the last Confession, with 28,000 years over, for the time ensuing. The pardon of Alexander VI. for 30,000 ycras to whosoever, before the Altar of our Lady, with Christ and her mother, shall say a peculiar Aye, importing that our Lady was conceived without sin, is printed anew in Italy, and pictured in fairest sort : but these are for short times. At the Sepulchre of Christ in Venice, a stately representation whereon is written, hie situm est Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi yet inferring no real presence thereby as 1 take it with verses annexed of conditur hoc tumulo ; there is hanging on a printed tablet a Prayer of 5'^ Austin, a very good one indeed, with an Indulgence four score and two thousand years, granted from Boniface VIII., and confirmed by Benedict XL, to whosoever shall say it, and that for every day toties quoties ; tvhich yet is somewhat worth, that in a few days a man may provide for a whole million of worlds, if they did last no longer than this has done hitherto. In St. Francis's Church at Padova^ I heard a reverend Father preach at large the holy history of the Divine pardon of Sisa, ah omni poena et culpa, granted by Christ in person at our Lady's suit, unto St. Francis, extended to all such as being con- fessed, and having communicated should pray in St. Francis's Church there of Sancta Maria de gli Angeli ; yet sending him for Order's sake, to his Vicar Pope Honorius, that then was to pass it, with many other re-apparitions and delectable strange accidents of solace and content, to the pleasant-minded believers ; which pardon is since enlarged by Sixtus IV, and V. (who both were Franciscans) to all Lay -brethren and sisters that wear St. Francis's Cordon in what places soever. Sandy's Survey of Religion, pp. lo, 16, edit. 1687. Sec Christian Observer, 1840, p. 31, for modern Indulgences. E E ^^^ CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Indulgence is a full remission of all the temporal pains due to the man's sins committed. A partial Indulgence is a remission of a part of the penalties, according to the will of the person granting it. A total Indulgence is subdivided again into plena, plenior, et plenlssimaQ. plenary or full, more full, and most full. Here the wits of the learned are strained* to find sense in these words, how one Indulgence that is plenary can be capable of these degrees of increase in regard of the same person. If by any plenary Indulgence, he has a total remission of all the penalties due to his sins, how can he have more total or full remission of them ? Suarez, fdisp. 1, de effectu Indulgent, sect. 4J perceiv- ing no ground for these degrees, would fain give some sense to them by adducing a parallel case of the Virgin Mary, full of grace by the coming of the angel, more full by the coming of her Son, and most full in her death ; but finding himself weary of such bare conjectures, he resolves that according to the present state there is no substantial difference, as to the effect in those gradations of plenary Indulgences, whatsoever was the meaning of those terms wnth the first authors of them, whereof at present there is no clear knowledge ; and quotes Sotus, saying, that Preachers of Indulgences have introduced those gradations by way of exaggeration. Partial Indulgences are likewise subdivided into quadragena, septena, carena, and the like, Quadragena they call an Indul- gence of forty days ; septena, of seven years ; carena, composed of both the former, containing seven years and forty days. And now comes in a very perplexing difficulty that turns the brains of their ablest Divines : what to understand by these years and days of remission whether so many years and days of the pains of * Bishop Taylor has exhibited some portions of these exertions, very happily, in his Dissuasive from Popery, pt. 1, p. 73, (edit. Oxford, 1836.) The writers seem to have laboured in providing checks against the purchasers of Indulgences making too much of their bargains, and in starting endless doubts, without a very large purchase, of their possible invalidity in some particular. And therefore he concludes, " we cannot but commend the prudence of Cardinal Albernotius, who by his last will took order for 50,000 masses to be said for his soul ; for he was a wise man, and loved to make all as sure as he could." Very true. In Dr. Lanigan's Catechetical Conferences on Penance (Dublin, printed for R. Coyne, 1836,) the interest of both Purgatory and Indulgences are attended to, so as always to keep the mark carefully. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 435 Purgatory are to be remitted, as Vigueriiis conceived,* or so much time of Penance enjoined by the Canons for sins. And though this latter be the more received and common opinion, and approved by Siiarez in the passage now mentioned, yet he finds so many difficulties in affixing a congruous sense to the so many thousand years allowed by Indulgences, and so little consistence in the reasons alleged by several authors, that he concludes, it is a matter obscure and unknown to us, and that we must rest upon the judgment of the Church which knows the meaning of those measures, concluding thus: Brevifer vero assero, de re nobis incerta authores hos disputare, Eccleslam vero uti ilia mensura qu(B sihi nota est / say briefly, that these authors are qiiar- relling about a thing unknown to us, and that the Church uses herein that measure which is known to itself ; remitting those pains of Purgatory, which may be proportionable to the penalties of this life enjoined by Canons ; and so leaves us as wise as we were before, for understanding what sense so many thousands of years can ha\;e, whether relating to the pains of Purgatory, or to penalties enjoined by Canons. But this is the style used and received in the Roman Church, and therefore we must maintain it, let it mean what it t\'ill, be it sense or nonsense. And that is all the account which Suarez can give us of it, after the trial of his own wit, and an examination of the Discourses of others, when at last he has to come to some determination ! Now to the cause for granting Indulgences, Mr. I. S. gives us occasion to say something ; since he boasts that Indulgences are not granted so slightly as Protestant Ministers would make their flocks suppose. It is true that Cajetan teaches (Opusc. de Indulgent, cap. SJ that great Indulgences ought not to be given for small causes, and that there ought to be a proportion between the quality of the Indulgence, and the work performed to obtain it. But how can this consist with what Cajetan states there ? that a plenary Indulgence is given to every one who stands in the * Probably John Viguier, a Frenchman, born at Grenade, a small Town near Toulouse. He was considered an eminent writer in his day, and his Institutiones ad naturalem et Christ. Philosophiam doctt. Eccles., prwsertbn Aqumatis erudilione conjirmata, had, to use a modern phrase, quite a run, tliere having been numer- ous editions, at Paris 1549, Venice 1560, Antwerp 1565, &c. &c. Sec Scriptores Ord. Prcedicatt. torn 2, p. 137. E E 2 436 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Yard of ^S*^. Peter's Church, when the Pope gives his blessing to the people there on Easter day. Here he recurs to a mystery that though to stand in that place be in itself of no great con- sideration, yet relating to the purpose of representing the members of the Church united under one head, it is of great importance, and proportionable to the Indulgence received. But what mystery shall we find to render decent that famous Indulgence granted by Innocent III. to all such as would marry public harlots ? as Spondanus releiies, in the year 1198. Who would not suppose that so many loud and learned outcries made against the abuses of Indulgences in the Roman Church for more than 100 years, and the scandal and contempt of them which has arisen among the sober and judicious even of their own party, would not be a means to moderate at least the boundless profusion of those grants, feeding continually the hopes of sinners for a remission of all their crimes, and encouraging them to per- severe in their wicked ways? But such is the unhappiness of that Church, and the dismal symptom of a disease being mortal, that it grows worse with remedies, and hates a cure. Setting aside numberless instances of their most absurd prodigalities of this description, wherewith many books are filled, I will here merely transcribe a copy of Indulgences granted by the present Pope Clement X., upon the occasion of canonizing certain new Saints, from which you may gain a full idea of the Romish corruptions in this respect. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 437 Formula Indalgentiarum^* cum quihiis S. D. N. Clemens Papa X., Coronas, Rosaria, Cruces, sacrasque Imagines, et numismata Medallias vulgo nuncupata benedicit, per occasionem Canonizationis S. S. Confessor iim Cajetani, Francisci Borgiae, Philippi Benitii, Ludovici Bertrandi, et Sanctae Rosoe Virginis Peruanae. f Quicunque saltern semel in hebdomada Coronam Domini, vel Beatis- simae Yirginis, aut Rosarium, ejusve tertiam partem, aut Officium Divinum vel parvum Beatissimae Virginis, vel defunctorum, vel septem Psalmos poenitentiales, vel graduales recitare, aut detentos in careere visitare, aut pauperibus subvenire, aut saltem horse quadrante mentali orationi vacare consueverit, si confessus Sacerdoti ab Ordinario approbate sanctissimum Eucharistiae Sacramentum sumpserit in quolibet ex diebus infra scriptis, piasque ad Deum preces friderit pro hseresium extirpatione, fideique Catbolicas propagatione, aliisque sanctae Ecclesiae necessitatibus, plenariam suorum peccatorum Indulgentiam consequetur ; nimirum die * In an Appendix subjoined to the Apology for the Pulpits, published by Dr. Williams (afterwards Bishop of Chichester) in 1688, this formula appears in Italian ; see The Church of Rome's Traffic in Pardons substantiated , London, 1839, p. 16. f Batches of five seems to be the favourite number for elevating to Saintship, in the Latin Church we have very recently published '* Lives of St. Alphonsus., Liguori, St. F. de Girolamo, St. John Joseph of the Cross, St. Pacijicus of San Severino, and St. Veronica Giuliani, whose canonization took place May 26, 183P, London, 1839." The following are specimens of the Acts and Monuments attributed to some Canonized Saints : St. Patrick, it is said, " was wont to repeat daily the whole Psalter, together with the Canticles and two hundred hymns and prayers, three hundred times on each day to worship God upon his knees, and in each canonical hour of the day to sign himself one hundred times with the sign of the Cross^ dividing the night into three portions, he spent the first, in running through one hundred Psalms, and in two hundred genuflections ; the second, in running through the other fifty Psalms, immersed in cold water, and with his heart, eyes, and hands raised to heaven ; he yielded the third part to a short sleep upon a hard stone. S. Patritius. Breviarium Romanum, die XVIL Martii, p. 4^. St. Rosa, of Lima : " Having assumed the habit of the tertian Order of St. Dominic, she doubled the former austerities of her life j she interwove small needles in an oblong and very rough hair cloth ; she wore, by day and by night, a crown, armed with numerous little sharp points. Treading in the arduous footsteps of St. Catharine, she bound her loins with an iron chain thrice wound round her j she made for herself a bed of knotty pieces of wood, and she filled the open seams with fragments of earthen vessels ; she constructed for herself a very narrow cell in an extreme corner of the garden, where, abandoned to E E 3 ^j8 catholic religion maintained Testo Nativitatis Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Circumcisionis, Epiphanise, Kesurrectionis, Ascensionis, Pentecostes, Sanctissimae Trinitatis, Corporis Christi, et die Conceptionis, Nativitatis, Praesentationis, Visitationis, Annunciationis, Purificationis, et Assumtionis beatissimge Virginis, turn Nativitatis Sancti Johannis Baptists^, Sanctorum modo Canoniza- torum, omnium Sanctorum, dedicationis propriae Ecclesi^e et ejusdem Patroni yel Tituli. Quisquis in vigilia cujuslibet istorum sanctorum jejunaverit, et con- fessus in ipsius Testo Sanctissimum Eucharistiae Sacramentum sumserit, oraveritque Deum, ut supra dictum est, toties Indulgentiam plenariam consequetur. Quicunque Missam celebrarit, vel confessus, et sacra Communione refectus interfuerit Missas ad Altare, in quo Imago aut Corpus aut reliquiae cujuslibet praedictorum quinque Sanctorum asser- vantur, pieque Deum oraverint, ut dictum est, die uno quern voluerit cujuslibet Mensis plenariam Indulgentiam lucretur. Quisquis vero poenitens peccata commissa emendare firmiter propo- suerit, et eadem die visitaverit septem Ecclesias quaslibet, et ubi tot heavenly contemplation, she fearlessly overthrew and subdued, victorious in manifold contests, the spirits of devils, extenuating her body with frequent discipline, with abstinence and with watchings, but nourished by the Spirit." Brev. Rom. Pars Estiva. Lectio V., p. 570. St. Francis Xavier: "Under this master, in a short time he made such a progress, that, absorbed in the contemplation of Divine things, he was sometimes lifted on high from the earth., which several times happened to him when sacrifi- cing before the multitude of the people.'' Pars Hiemalis. Die iii. Decembris. In festo S. Francisci Xavierii Confessoris. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi. " She burned with so great a fire of Divine love, that, being unequal to bear it, they were compelled to cool her breast rvith water, which was thrown upon it Tanto igne divini amoris (Estuabat, ut ei ferendo impar, ingesta aqua pectus refrigerate cogerentur." Pars Verna, Die xxv. Maii S. Marias Magdalente de Pazzi Virg. Lectio V. St. Philip of Neri : " And his heart worked with so great violence, that when it could not be contained in its proper limits, the Lord wonderfully ENLARGED his brcaSt, TWO OF HIS RIBS BEING BROKEN AND TAKEN OUT. But when he was performing the Sacrament, or more fervently praying, sometimes being taken up into the air, he was seen to shine on all sides with a marvellous light Tantoque cor ejus eestuabat ardorcy ut cum intra fines suos contineri non posset, illius sinum, confraclis atque elatis duabus costulis, mirabiliter Dominus ampliaret. Sacrum vero Jaciens aut ferventius orans, in aera quandoque sublatus^ mira undique luce fulgere visus est." Die xxvi. Maii. In festo Sancti Philippi Confessoris, Lectio V. My lloman Catholic brethren, said Mr. Maguire, your priests are obliged to devote a certain portion of every day to the perusal of such stories as I have now read for you. For the preceding examples we are indebted to the Rev. J. H. Maguire of St. Helens, Lancashire, from Lectures delivered by him at St. Helens. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 439 Ecclesia3 non reperiuntur, quotquot ibi sint, et si unica, tantum Ecclesia sit in loco, omnia ipsius altaria, et pro hasresium extirpatione, &c. pie Deum oraverit semel in anno, fruatur Indulgentiis concessis septem urbis Ecclesias visitantibus. Quicunque devote cogitaverit de aliquo sanctissimae passionis D. N. Jesu Christi mysterio, et in ejusdem passionis honorem septies terram deosculatus fuerit eo die, lucretur Indulgentias concessas ascen- dentibus Romce per scalam sanctam; hoc autem semel in singulis annis. Quisquis praedictorura quinque sanctorum imitatione vel peccata sua vere detestabitur, cum firmo proposito non peccandi de cetero, vel actum aliquera virtutis exercebit, toties lucretur Indulgentiam septem annorum et totidem quadragena. Quisquis leget aliquod libri caput de vita eorundem Sanctorum, aut invisitet eorum altare, vel imaginem venerabitur, et oraverit pro felici statu Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae peccatorumque conversione, singulis vicibus percipiet Indulgentiam centum dierum. Eandem pariter consequatur qui aliquid pauperibus tribuet, vel eosdem instruct, aut per alios instrui curabit in iis que pertinent ad finem bonosque mores. Quisquis in Sanctissim^ Eucharistiae cultu vel Beatissimas Virginis se exercebit, meditans illius mysterii dignitatem, quantaque ex eo ad nos beneficia manant, aut commiserans ejusdem Beatae Yiginis dolores, quibus in passione et morte filii affecta fuit, vel alia qualibet ratione Sanctissimum Sacramentum venerabitur, et pro necessitatibus Ecclesias orabit ; toties Indulgentiam centum dierum consequatur. Quilibet in urbe commorans, vel ab ea ultra viginti milliaria non absens, si legitime impeditus non interfuerit Benedictioni qua Romanus Pontifex in Festo Paschatis, et Ascensionis solemniter benedicere con- suevit ; confessus autem Sacrosancta Communione reficiatur, et pias ad Deum preces pro haeresium extirpatione, &c. fuderit, Indulgentiis fruatur quibus praesentes fruuntur ; eadem vero si adimpleverint longius ab urbe distantes, easdem Indulgentias etiam si legitime non impediti consequantur. Omnes supradictae Indulgentias fidelibus defunctis applicari possunt per modum suiFragii. Pro iisdem percipiendis satis est privatim habere apud se aliquam coronam vel crucem, &c. cum praedictis Indulgentiis a Sanctitate sua benedictam, et quae superius praescripta sint adimplere, licet ilia etiam alio nomine impleri forte debuerint. Quisquis in articulo mortis se totum Deo commendans pr^cdictos 440 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED Sanctos rel ex iis imum invocarit, ore, si potuerit, sin minus saltern corde, confessus sacraque Communione refectus si potuerit, alioquin saltern contritus, plenariam omnium peccatorum Indulgentiam conse- quetur. In distribuendis hujusmodi Coronis, Crucibus, earumque usu, Sanc- tissimus servari jubet decretum. Fel. record. Mexandri YII. editum sub die sexto Februarii 1657, nimirum ut Coronge, Cruces, Rosaria, Numismata, quae vulgo Medalliae nuncupantur, et sacrae Imagines cum praefatis Indulgentiis benedictae non transeant personam illorum quibus a sanctitate sua concessae sunt, aut quibus ab his prima vice distribuen- tur, neque commodari aut precario dari possunt, alioquin Indulgentiis jam concessis, et aliqua re ex praedictis deperdita, pro eo subrogari altera nullo modo potest quacunque concessione, aut privilegio in contrarium non obstante, Prohibet Sanctitas sua hanc Indulgentiam Imprimi extra Urbem. Michael Angelius Riccius, Secret. Bomae ex Typographia Rev. Cameriis Apost. 1671. [thus translated.] A Form of Indulgences, wherewith our holy Father Pope Clement X. blessed Crowns^ Rosaries, Crosses, sacred Images and Medals, or by occasion of canonizing the holy Confessors, Gaetano, Francesco Borgia, Filippo Benizio, Lodovico, Bertrando, and Santa Rosa, a Peruvian Virgin. Whosoever shall be in the habit, at least once a year, of saying the Crown of our Lord, or of the Blessed Virgin, or her Rosary, or the third part of it, or the Divine Office, or the little Office of the Blessed Virgin, or of the dead, or the seven Penitential Psalms, or the Gradual Psalms, or to visit Prisoners, or relieve the Poor, or spend at least a quarter of an hour in mental Prayer ; if he confesses to a Priest approved by the Ordinary, and receive the holy Communion on any of the days below mentioned, and shall pray to God for extirpation of Heresies, the Propagation of Catholic Faith, and for other necessities of the Roman Church, fshall obtain a plenary Indulgence of all his sins; viz., in the day IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 441 of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, his Circumcision, Epiphany, Resurrection, and Ascension, the day of Pentecost, Holy Trinity, and Corpus Christi ; and the day of the Concep- tion, Nativity, Presentation, Visitation, Annunciation, Purification and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin ; the day of the Nativity of St. JoJm Baptist, of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, of the five vSaints now canonized, of all Saints, of the dedication of his own Church, and of the Patron or title of it* Whosoever shall confess and receive on the Vigil of any of the aforesaid Saints, and shall pray to God as aforesaid, shall obtain plenary Indulgence as often as he doth it. Whosoever shall say Mass, or having confessed and received, shall hear Mass at an altar, in which the Image, or Body, or Relique of any of the aforesaid five Saints are kept, and shall pray to God, as aforesaid, on any one day which he pleases of any month, gains a plenary Indulgence. Whosoever, being truly penitent, shall firmly purpose to for- sake his sins committed, and in the same day will visit any seven Churches, or, where so many Churches are not to be found, shall visit those that are ; and if there be but one Church in the place, shall visit all the altars of it, and pray to God for the extirpation of Heresies once a year, shall enjoy the Indulgences allowed to such as visit the seven Churches at Rome. Whosoever shall think devoutly of any mystery of the Passion of our Saviour, and in honour of the said Passion shall kiss seven times the ground, will in that day obtain the Indulgences allowed to such as mount the holy stairs in Rome ; but this once in every year. Whosoever in imitation of the aforesaid five Saints, either shall truly detest his sins with a firm purpose of sinning no more ; or shall exercise some act of virtue, shall so many times obtain an Indulgence of seven years, and so many quadragenas or forty days Indulgence. Whosoever shall read any Chapter of the Life of the said Saints, or shall visit their Altar, or worship their Image, and pray for the happ^ state of our holy Mother the Church, and for the conversion of sinners, shall at every time obtain Indulgence of 100 days. See Bingham's Antiquities, VIII. I. 10. 442 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED The same Indulgence shall any obtain, who will give any alms to the poor, or shall instruct them by himself or by another in things pertaining to Faith and good manners. Whosoever shall exercise himself in the worship of the holy Eucharist, or of the Blessed Virgin, meditating upon the dignity of that mystery, and the benefits redounding from it to us, or commiserating the griefs of the said Blessed Virgin wherewith she was possessed at the Passion and Death of her son, or in any other manner shall reverence the blessed Sacrament, and pray for the necessities of the Church, shall obtain Indulgence of 100 days as often as he does it. Any person dwelling in Rome, or not distant from it above twenty miles, if he has a lawful impediment to his being present at the solemn blessing, which the Roman Pope is wont to give on the Festivity of Easter and Ascension, but shall confess and receive, and pray for the extirpation of Heresies, &c. shall enjoy the Indulgences which those present will enjoy ; but such as are farther distant from Rome, shall enjoy the same Indulgences on performing the said duties, though they have no lawful impedi- ment for absence. All the Indulgences aforesaid may be applied to the Faithful deceased by way of suffrage. In order to obtain the said Indulgences it is sufficient to have privately with you any Crown or Cross, &c. blessed by his Holiness with the aforesaid Indulgences, and to fulfil the duties beforementioned, even though haply you may be obliged to perform them upon another account. Whosoever at the point of death commending himself to God, shall invoke the aforesaid Saints, or any of them with his mouth, if he can, or having confessed and received the Communion, if he may ; or any how, being at least contrite, shall obtain a plenary Indulgence of all his sins. In the distribution of the said Crowns, Crosses, &c. and in the use of them, his Holiness commands that the decree oi Alexander VII. issued the 6th day of February, 1657, be observed, viz., that Crowns, Crosses, Rosaries, Medals and sacred Images blessed with the aforesaid Indulgences, may not pass from the persons of those to whom his Holiness has granted them, or such as from them receive those things the first time, and that they IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 443 must not be lent or be bestowed ; otherwise to lose the Indul- gences ; and any of them being lost, no other can be substituted for it by any means, notwithstanding any allowance or privilege to the contrary. His Holiness prohibits this Form of Indulgences to be printed out of Rome. Michael Angelus Riccius, Secret. Rome, from the Press of the Reverend Apostolical Chamber, 1671. I leave it to the judicious reader to reflect upon this grant and the profuseness of it, and to consider whether it be a rare or difficult thing to gain a plenary Indulgence where grants of this kind are so frequent. They will tell us that it promotes piety to have such encouragements to penitence, prayers, and deeds of charity. But let them consider whether it may not rather become an occasion of continuing in vice, and a wicked life, if, by a verbal confession and an imperfect kind of contrition, or from displeasure with sins, or the penalties following them (which are apt to be entertained by the most wicked livers) a security is given of remission of all sins, though ever so grievous and repeated, and of the eternal pains due to them ; and if likewise all the temporal penalties following them, are remitted by a plenary Indulgence, thus easy to be obtained as we have seen, who will not perceive that encouragement is given thereby to persevere in vice; whatsoever other intentions they may have who grant them ? And if this be well considered Mr. /. *S'. wdll cease to wonder that Protestant Doctors should accuse the Roman Church of facilitating by these means the way to sinning. [In the History of Priniing in America^ by Thomas (Wor- cester in Massach. 1810) the following anecdote is related of a humorous Bookseller, Editor of a Newspaper, called The Boston Evening Post : " In the Evening Post of Nov. 7, 1 748, Fleet inserted this Advertisement, viz., ' Choice Pennsylvania Tobacco Paper, to be sold by the jmblishers of this Paper at the Heart and Crown ; 444 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED where may be also had the Bulls or Indulgences of the present Pope, Urban VITI.' [Fleet did not know much perhaps about the chronology of Popes Benedict XIV. was Bishop of Rome in his day,] * either by the single Bull, quire, or ream, at a much cheaper rate than they can be purchased of the French or Spanish Priests, and yet will be warranted to be of the same advantage to the possessors.' " The Bulls or Indulgences of his Holiness were printed on the face of a small sheet ; several bales of them were taken in a Spanish ship captured by an English Cruiser, and sent into Boston during the war between England and France and Spain in 1748. I have one of them now in my possession. Fleet purchased a large quantity of them, and printed various editions of Ballads on the backs of them " See Dr. Cotton's Typogra- phical Gazetteer (Oxford, 1825) under Boston.'] IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 445 CHAPTER XXXI. The dismal unhappiness of the Romish people in having their Liturgy in a tongue unknown to them. Ex ore tuo te judico serve nequam ^Thus begins Mr. /. *S'.'s answer to my Discourse upon this subject, wherein I lamented the misery of the Romish people, in having their Liturgy in a tongue unknown to them ; and thus also shall my reply to him begin, which certainly will be to put the saddle upon the right horse. What is it, sir, that I have said which may be a judgment against myself in this case? That the purpose of nature by speaking is to communicate the sense of him who speaks to the hearer, which cannot be obtained, if the hearer perceives not the meaning of the words that he speaks this, say you, proves against myself ; for in the Liturgy or public service of the Church, we speak to God and not to the Congregation, and God can understand us, though we do not ourselves. But stay, sir, is not the Liturgy, or public service of the Church, as well with you, as with us, composed of an exchange of speech between God and his people, they speaking to him in prayers and thanksgivings ; He speaking to them by the Lessons of Sacred Scripture, by the Epistles, Gospels and Psalms ? Is it not necessary, for both these purposes, that the people should understand what they address to God in prayer, and what he says to them by exhortation ? And for the first, wherein you think your object is obtained, for praying, 1 mean ; is not Prayer a rational and voluntary elevation of the mind, helped by the ex- pressions and sense of the prayer read or said ? Is not this elevation of the mind mainly advanced by understanding the words of the prayer read or said ? Whoever heard a Psalm sung with solemn music, may well describe how different a feeling and elevation of mind he has when he sees or knows the words sung and the meaning of them, than when he hears the same Psalm without understanding either the words or the sense of them. Your comparison of a Polander presenting a Petition in English 446 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED to the King of England, which he himself does not understand, aggravates your crime and publishes the misery of the people abused by you. Would not that Polander wish to know the English tongue to act in his own cause and be sure that he was not deceived by a Notary, who possibly might have framed a Petition for him to the King requesting to have his Father or Mother hung as traitors. If the King understood the Polish language as well as the English, were it not a madness in the said Polander to have his Petition penned in a tongue which he did not understand and with such disadvantages, if able to do it in his own tongue with the contrary advantages ? What madness then is it in your people to frame their Prayers in a tongue unknown to them, to speak like Parrots, without feeling or knowing what they are saying, and exposed to the danger of being deceived by a knave, teaching them, or reading before them blasphemous words, in which they are to join with him by their Amen ? And in case the prayer which is read before them be good, what tendency can it have in elevating the minds of the people to a conjunction in sense with the Minister, if they do not understand what he is saying ? And thus ill it fares with you, even in the act of praying in your Liturgy, which you allow to be an eleva- tion of the mind to God. Even in this point I have your own judgment against you, and so may return your text upon you, affirming, Ex ore tuo tejudico serve nequam. But what [shall we say] of the second part of the Liturgy above mentioned, containing the words of God addressed to the people in the Epistles, Gospels, Psalms, and other sacred Lectures intended for the spiritual regulation and food of their souls ? Can this end be attained without perception and feeling in the people of what is said to them ? You confess that St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiv., prohibits preaching to the people in a language un- known to them ;* and are not those sacred Lectures a kind of * The Rev. Simon Foot has stated lately that at a funeral, where the Roman Catholics began to manifest unfriendly feelings, and endeavoured to interrupt the service, he having a knowledge of the Irish language, began the service in Irish ; and the R. C. peasants, who had before evinced such a disposition to disturb the ceremony, gathered round the grave, seeming to forget at once their former prejudices, and when he came to the Lord's prayer, many of them actually joined in it. Record Newspaper, May 21, 1840. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 447 preaching exhortation, and instruction of the people, and the best that can be, as proceeding immediately from God himself? Then you are acting against the Apostle's order, by your own confession, while proposing such exhortations to the people in a language unknown to them ; and thus your text returns upon you here again in full measure Ex ore tuo te judico serve nequam. It is a discredit to a cause so clear to dwell longer upon it. But let the world protest against the tyranny which you practise in this way with souls, by depriving them of their spiritual food. What you say of submitting your judgment herein to the Church is idle and absurd, when our present business is to rebuke the abuses and corruptions of youi Church the causes of our dislike of it 448 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER XXXII. The Cruelty of the Roman Church in prohibiting the reading of Scripture to the people, and their common pretence of Sects and divisions arising among Protestants refuted. From page 101,* of my former Discourse, I declared the Cruelty used towards the faithful people in prohibiting them the reading of Scripture, which is the food of their souls ; shewing how con- trary it is to the doctrine of Scripture itself, often inviting us to the reading of it, and to the doctrine and practice of the Fathers, and the people of the Primitive Church. To all which Mr. /. S. replies, that the fruit which we have in the Protestant Church of permitting the people to read the Bible, is the variety of sects sprung from the reading of it. But this you may repeat with a better prospect of being believed, to others than to me, who know how matters stand on both sides, and am certain that there are more divisions in several Societies of your Communion, both in doctrine and in ceremonies, than in the Protestant Church. He who is acquainted with the differences of opinion between Jesuits and Dominicans, each one condemning the other for heresy, and doctrines destructive of good life, and of the merits of Christ ; and the great difference in rites and cere- monies used among them, will clearly perceive that they differ more in all respects the one from the other, than the Orthodox Protestants do from any other Congregation of Christians in the Reformed Church. Their differences are not in matters so funda- mental and necessary to salvation and a good life, as those of the dissenting Romish Societies. Their censures of one another are not so heavy ; yea, the very stating of their questions on both sides declares as much ; both assuming that they refer to things indifferent ; the Dissenters, or Non-conformists maintaining that the points in debate, being only ceremonial and indifferent, not essential to salvation or good life, ought not to be forced upon See p. 62 of the present volume. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 449 them ; the Orthodox alleging that very thing to render Dissenters criminal* that the things enjoined being of their own nature indifferent, and not opposite to God's law, there is a necessity upon them of obeying lawful authority ordering such matters. So much we may say in relation to Rites and Ceremonies, that there is not near so great a diversity among Orthodox Protestants, and other Congregations dissenting, as there is in the Ceremonies and Rites used in Colleges of Jesuits, and Convents of Domini- cans, Carmelites, Franciscans, Carthusians, and other very many Societies differing both in habit, diet. Rites and Ceremonies one from the other.f All these differences both of Doctrine and Riles the Pope can wink at, provided they agree in paying obedience to him, and advancing his quarrel. The great union required by the Church of England makes meaner dissensions appear more * Dr. Sail probably meant hlameable ; but civil and religious liberty was not so well understood in his times and practised as in the present. We may prefer and defend our own Church polity, without considering Dissenters criminal we are not speaking of Sectarian Dissent which would not be unwilling to sup- plant an Establishment, and occupy the favoured height itself. f It is really time that any idea as to there being any true Unity in the Church of Rome, except in the two points which Dr. Sail mentions, should be dissipated ; and any fancy as to its superiority to other Churches even in this one point should for ever cease. Dr. John White has affirmed that " there is no point of our faith, but many learned in their own (the Roman) Church hold it with us, and no point of Papistry that we have rejected, but some of themselves have disliked it, as well as we ;" and if an exhibition is either wanted or required of one side of this statement, it will be found to ment'on but one head in Bp, Taylor's section of the Dissuasive from Popery, pt. ii, . xi. p. 342, Oxfd. 1836 ; and for variou kinds of Unity with which Rome may perhaps claim no distant acquaintance, see Dr. White himself in Way to the True Church (Lond. 1616) . 35, 2. In short, there can be no real Unity in the Modern Church of Rome, " Una, id est, con- sentiens in vera fide, Ecclesia Romana dici non potest. Prima hujus rei ratio est, quia consensio in ea vera, id est, libera, locum non habet ; sed qusecumque ibi est consensio, ea non nisi consensio coacta est et per vim ac metum extorta. Ubi enim dissentire non licet, ibi non habet locum vera consensio. Tolle si placet metum, tyrannidem, carcerem, crucem, ignes, rotas, concede cuilibet libertatem legendi, judicandi, dissentiendi, sine periculo famae, vita?, bonorum in Ecclesia Romana, et videbis quam brevi ea non dico in partes, sed infinitas particularum particulas dissilitura sit." Episcopii respons. ad Epist. P. Wadinyi de regulafidei ; cap. 8. The Church of Rome has been for the last three Centuries (and is now) like an old willow, kept and held together with iron hoops. Let " Civil and Religious Liberty " be proclaimed in her dominions, and her " expansiveness " will be manifested by her breaking into ten thousand shivers. F F 450 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED sensibly ; and greater yet would the dissensions and en*ors be, if the light of the Holy Scriptures were removed ; for St. Jerome well observes, that infinite evils arise from ignorance of Scripture ; from hence, he writes,* 7nost part of Heresies have arisen ; and so they are, of their own nature, and well used, not a cause of Dissensions and Errors, but a cure of them. And therefore the Roman Church being resolved not to be cured of her corruptions, decreed that the Scriptures should be removed from the eyes of the people ; as appears by the Council of Bishops mentioned by Dr. Stillingfieet^\ and by other grave writers of whose authority you doubt. But what need we the authority of that Council for a thing that we see with our eyes, and ordered by the Council of Trent by Pius IV , Clement VTIL, and Alexander VII. in the passages alleged on page 100 of my former Discourse?! * This seems a mistake the sentiment occurs in Chrysostom in Proem, in Epist. ad Rom. . 1, torn 9, edit. Paris, 1837. f The supposed Council at Bologna in 1553 is alluded to; see note on the Sermon, p. 65 of the present volume. This Advice, as it should be entitled, was translated into English by Dr, Clagett in the State of the Church of Rome when the Reformation began, as it appeared by the Advices given to Paul III. and Julius Iff., &c. 4to. Lond. 1688. X See p. 63 of the present reprint. ^^ Upon the general subject of this Chapter, the reader may be referred to Bp. Taylor's Dissuasive, part ii. bk. 2, . 5. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 451 CHAPTER XXXIII. Mr. I. S 's undertaking relative to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, and the practice of confession confuted. As an instance of the cruelty of the Romish Church, in pressing upon the belief of the faithful things uncertain and repugnant to their judgment, I made a brief mention of the opinion about the Immaculate Conception* of the Virgin Mary ; how they make people swear to defend it, and debar from offices and preferment those who will not take such oaths. And Mr. /. *S'. must needs enter into a formal dispute upon the point. The testimony of St. Paul (saying, Rom. v.) that all men sinned in Adam, and consequently the Virgin Mary with the * This is a subject of far greater importance than British Protestants could perhaps well imagine. . The Franciscan, Peter Walsh, has occasion to notice *' those manifold Constitutions of Sixtus IV., Pius V., Paul V., and Gregory XV., issued by them in the famous contest, which still had been carried on with so much heat, animosity, and scandal, on both sides, VA^ell nigh 300 years, about the blessed Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception ; that is, about her being conceived without Original Sin, and being preserved from it even in the very first instant of her life. A contest which had all the Dominican Schools and their partakers on one side ; and all the Franciscan Schools and their abettors on the other; and those even publicly teaching, writing, preaching against these; nay condemning them for Heretics and guilty of mortal sin ; as in like manner these declaiming against those no less, nor, as better, and the Universities of Paris, Colen, Mentz, Salamanca, Toledo, Alcala, Saragossa, Barcelona, Sevil, Valenlia, and all the rest of Spain, not only at last owning it, but even excluding all those from commencing Doctors that would not first oblige themselves by oath, never to oppose the Negative, i.e. her not being conceived in Original Sin : nay, the very general Synod of Basil (Sess. 3(5, an. 1439) by an express Decree, though without any anathema, defining and declaring the said negative, a,s pious and agreeable to the Church worship, Catholic faith., right reason, and Holy Scripture, to be approved and embraced by all Catholics, and opposed by none thenceforth, if they would not do an unlawful thing. Yea, long after this, and almost in our memory, the king of Spain himself, Philip III., having sent a splendid embassy to Rome, by Antonius de Trcio, intreating and mightily pressing his Holiness, to define the question ultimately, and under anathema, as a point of faith in the foresaid Negative : and yet all the Dominican Order unalterably persisting still, as to this day they do, in the Afiirmative." Four T.etters by Peter Walsh ; pp. 413, 14 : an. 1686. Luke Wadding's Account of the Spanish Embassy was published at Louvain in 1624, and is preserved in the British Museum. The" doctrine is eagerly supported even to the present day ; See the Bath Protestant for 184(>, p. 250. F F 2 452 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED rest, he considers of no value. It is a general rule, says he, capable of exception ; but gives us no testimony to prove how the Virgin. was excepted from that rule. He admits that Christ was the Universal Redeemer, and died for all men ; but thinks it not a consequence that the Virgin should have been redeemed, or drawn, but only preserved from sin, and so the consequence of St. Paul was not legitimate, saying, 2 Cor. v. 14, If one died for all, then were all dead ; or if it be legal, surely the Virgin was dead by original sin as the rest ; otherwise all were not dead. You say that it is not unlawful in a Community to require certain conditions from such as will be members of it, and so may require of them an engagement to defend the Immaculate Concep- tion of the Virgin Mary. To demand conditions not including a disturbance of conscience, nor occasioning dissimulations may be lawful ; not so, to require conditions contrary to a man's conscience and judgment, which was the point in question. You say that the Oath of Supremacy, in the opinion of Papists, is an Heresy, why then is it required from me ? I answer It is only folly or malice which can make it appear such, as I have shewn in the XVin. Chap. ; and the Law is not to be regulated by such passions. I dwelt likewise, though briefly, upon the cruelty used with consciences in the practice of Confession, as well in the manner of its exercise, as in the frequent reservation of cases. And here Mr. /. S'. must enter again into the deep of the dispute, whether Confession ought to be admitted ; which was not the question ; inasmuch as the Church of England, not only admits, but commends and enjoins the practice of Confession in necessary occasions, though not the unnecessary and pernicious super- structures* of the Roman Church, as it respects the mode prescribed, and the reservation of cases, occasioning lamentable perplexities, and desperate melancholy of soul ; of which I could state miserable instances, if certain due considerations did not incline me to supersede enlarging upon a subject of this kind. * The justice of these Epithets is shewn as well perhaps as in any modern publication, in the Roman Catholic Confessional Exposed, in three Letters to a Cabinet Minister ; Dublin, 1837 ; the evidence and argument grounded thereon being derived from modern, and. in some cases largely circulated, Romish Manuals and Directories; of which a list is given p. 24. Among old writers, Bp. Taylor may be recommended ; Dissuasive from Popery, pt. ii. pp. 341 79, Oxfd 1836. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 453 1 will add only one brief reflection upon a new addition of rigour introduced by Mr. /. S., of which he will have St. Augustine to be the Author ; that the quality of the sin, the place, time, continuance, and diversity of persons must be specified. This makes me doubt and wonder what kind of person my antagonist is ; whether ever he was bred among learned men of the Roman Church, or ever read their books ; for certainly any of them who has but the least tincture of moral theology, will think strangely of this paradox, that the place and time of sins are to be declared, as also the diversity of persons, being of the same kind or species. But of this description of lapses Mr /. S.^s Theology makes no scruple; if he were better acquainted with the practice of Doctors in the Romish Church, he would not bring up doctrines of Fathers opposite to the present practice of that Church. If he had been in the habit but of sitting certain hours of the day from Si. Luke's to Mayday, or thereabouts, in the halls of Divinity of the Colleges of Palencia and Tudela, where he says no Divinity was ever taught, he would have learnt, that it is not the duty of a Penitent to specify in his Confession the time,* place, and diversity of persons, wherein and wherevvith his sins were committed ; and they would tell him, that if St. Augustine said the contrary, it was one of his errors, and a doctrine now out of date. But Mr. I. S. is of a stronger stomach, can swallow by the gross, and cares^ not so much for chewing or mincing distinctions in doctrines. * Upon Dr. Sail's remark that it is not *' the duty of a Penitent to specify the time'' &c. in his Confessions, we must add that this of coijirse in such a Church as that of Rome, which shapes herself to all circumstanc\is (and by whom the non obstante clause is held more or less in constant requisition) must depend very much on circumstances. As usual, both sides might be stated and defended from Romish writers, and opinions of all sorts brought forward : but the modern system and the present mode of managing Confessions, may be perhaps best learnt from the Dublin Pamphlet just referred to. The value and real use of Confession in the Church of Rome is stated with a freedom seldom to be found elsewhere, by Alonzo Fernandez, a Spanish Domi- nican, when speaking of Peter Soto, who, as before noticed, became Confessor to Charles V., and says he, "in that capacity managed the government of his great empire," which shews, to use the words of a writer in the British Magazine, No7. 1839, at least the Spanish notion of the duties of a Confessor no wonder if such a man was a match for English heresy. Fernandez Hist. Eccles. de neustros tieynpos, lib. 3, c. 30 ; fol. Toledo, 1611: See Scripp. Ord. Proedicat. torn 2, p. 445; British Mag. p. 488; and Van Dale de oraculis Ethnicorum, p. 437. Amst. 1683. F F 3 454 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED CHAPTER XXXIV. A reflection upon the many falsifies, impertinences^ absurdities, and hallucinations of Mr. I. S.'s book, which may jus f if y a resolution of not misspending time in returning any further reply to such writings; and a conclusion of the whole Treatise, exhorting him to a consideration of his miserable condition in deceiving himself and others with vanity. Mr. /. S. concludes his book as he began and has proceeded in it, pouring out a shower of falsities, nonsense, impertinences, and hallucinations, of which I will give some evidences here; whereby the reader may see with how much reason I may resolve not to spend precious time in further answering, or taking notice of such faulty writings. The very first words of his Dedicatory Epistle to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland contains a very heap of the said faults and falsities. He calls his book A Vindication of both Churches^ which a Viper has endeavoured to bite, &c. ; he might have better called it an affront to both Churches : to the Protestant? for the rude injuries offered to her; to the Popish, for having no better defence of her cause to exhibit. With what truth or propriety can he say that I endeavoured to bite both Churches ? As for the Protestant, I gave sufficient testimony of my endeavours to make the world know, that in her is professed the true Primi- tive, Catholic, Apostolic Faith, and that she is therefore the surest way to salvation ; and as for the Roman Church, from which I received the belief of a Christian, if the matter be well considered, 1 will make it apparent that I have not been a Viper, but a dutiful and truly loving child ; and more dutiful and true than Mr. /. S, If a mother infected with a pestilent canker had two sons, of which the one knowing the remedy would apply it, notwithstand- ing the reluctancy and displeasure of the infected mother; and the other (not to displease his mother) would feed the sickness with lenitives or soothing, pleasing the mother, but festering her IN THE CHUKCH OF ENGLAND. 455 wound and hastening her ruin ; which of them should be regarded as the more truly dutiful and loving child ? Certainly the former, who would apply a healing hand to the mother though against her will. This is the difference, Sir, between you and me. I saw that mother (at whose breast I sucked in the belief of a Christian, and therefore cannot choose but revere and love her as a mother) sickening of a pestilent canker I tried to apply some beginnings of a remedy ; and finding her impatient of a cure, while in her reach, I betook me to a distance whence I might apply the cure ; letting her know that her Ennovations, proceeding from ambition and avarice, are the causes of that pestilent disease which renders her odious to God and men. She should return therefore to her former innocency and holiness, as exemplified in St. Peter and his Successors for many ages, which rendered them glorious and venerable to all the world ; their study being not to make Princes of Nephews and Nieces; or of Peasants, Heroes, and endeavouring with that view to make all mankind tributary to their power and riches ; but aiming to attain to heaven themselves and to lead others thither, cherishing a contempt for the things of earth. Soon after he asserts my having taught, that there is no salva- tion in the Catholic Churchy without telling where or when I ever delivered such a doctrine (as indeed he could not do) professing, as I did, every day my belief in the Catholic Church, and pro- testing that I did, and would, live and die in it. If by Catholic Church he means only the Popish or Roman, it is a foul abuse of terms ; especially when addressing the Lord Lieutenant of Ire- land, or any other person of sense in a polemic discourse ; and even speaking of the Roman or Popish Church, it is another great piece of untruth to say that I should have taught that none may be saved in it ; as appears by the second Chapter of this Treatise. It is another wilful or rude mistake which he falls into very often, that by Roman Church I understand the Diocese of Rome, of which I never took any notice or regard in my discourse, which was concerning the Roman Church as opposed to the Reformed, and so containing the whole Congregation of men subject to the Pope of Rome ; and it is to me a wonder, that this great Pre- tender to skill in Controversies should not know before now, that that is the meaning of the Roman Church in Controversies of this description. 456 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED What shall I say of his pitiful spite and envy in his Preface to the Reader, in pretending to rob me of those titles which my employments gave me so public and notorious (as appears in the Preface of this Treatise) without apprehension of shame from being convicted of palpable untruths ? What shall I say of his rashness and rudeness in affixing as a Thesis or Title to the Vlllth. Chapter of his book That the Protestant Church is not the Church of Christ, nor any part ofit; that they cannot without Blasphemy allege Scripture for their tenets ? What is to be thought of his profane Policy, in accusing me of indiscretion in delivering what I knew to be truth relative to the salvation of Protestants when I was on the Romish side, as mentioned in the XlVth. Chapter ; what of his blasphemous impiety in saying, that no text of Scripture tells us that the Evangelists were in a state of grace when they wrote the Gospel, nor does any thing else give us assurance of it ? Nay, further, against the Gospel itself he pronounces this horrible Blasphemy That not only tve are unsure of the Infallibility of the Gospel ; hut that we are assured it is not InfaUihle. And this hellish conception of his own, he must father upon the Protestant Church, asserting, that it is the common doctrine of that Church that it is impossible to keep God^s commandmejits ; the falsehood of which malicious imposture I have demonstrated above in the Ylllth. Chapter of this Treatise. What of his boldness in challenging me and all Protestants to answer his ridiculous and silly Sophisms, with boastings that they will never be answered, as appears in the XVlIIth. Chapter respecting Transubstantiation, and in the XXVIth. about Purgatory ; in denying that Scotus, Ocham, and other Schoolmen declare Transubstantiation not to be provable out of Scripture, as above affirmed. Chap. XX. : as also in deny- ing that Coster asserts it is the common opinion of Romish Divines, that the Images of God and Christ are to be adored with the worship of Latria, as abovementioned, Chap. XXIII. What shall be thought of his terrible hallucination in the matter of History regarding Indulgences, shewn in Chap. XXIX. appearing in every word ridiculously mistaken, when he pretends to be most magisterial in correcting the mistakes of his adversary ? And, carrying on constantly to the end this spirit of untruth, hallucination, and impropriety of terms, he concludes his book by IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 457 telling me, that I know in my conscience that the Church of Rome is not guilty of the errors which I attribute to her as causes of my separation from her. How came you. Sir, to know the interior state of my Conscience ? You tell me that I know the Pope's Supremacy in temporal affairs over Princes was no article of failh, but a School question that the Pope's Infallibility was but an opinion of some Divines. As to the Pope's Supremacy I have exhibited above (Chap. XXV.) what little comfort is left to Princes by that distinction of the Pope's Supremacy in spirituals from that of his power in temporals; whereas he backs his spiritual power with a temporal to the ruin and deposing of all Princes and Emperors who resist him. The one only case of furious Hildehrand with the Emperor Henry HI. as related by his own most friendly Historians, even Baronius, is apt to strike a horror into any human heart, and a terror into Princes and people, if the unspeakable arrogance of the Roman Court should not be bridled. As for the Pope's Infallibility, I have proved above in the Illrd. Chapter, how impertinent your distinction of the Pope apart from the Pope and his Council together, is, to escape the force of my arguments in the present Controversy ; how falsely you say that I was speaking only of the Infallibility of the Pope alone, my arguments proving he is still fallible whether alone, or in a Council depending upon him, as that of Trent. You tell me that I left the Romau Church, because I saw the Bible prohibited in it to the people, and the Liturgy performed in an unknown language. But though that is a great crime in the Roman Church (as I have shewn in the preceding Chapter) it was not the only cause ; others several and grievous I produced more immediately affecting my own concern and daily practice, wherein I could not continue with quiet or safety of conscience. You tell me that I forsook a Church honoured with many Saints,/or the Protestant Church, of which there was never yet any Saint. If this be true St. Peter and St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles were no Saints, for I am certainly persuaded they were of the Church of which I am a member; their doctrine and their faith, and no other, being taught in it. But you allude perhaps to the mass of Protestants, as contradistinguished from Roman Catholics. Well, and how came you to know that none 458 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED of ihem was ever a Saint ? Were you in the hearts of all, or did you ever sit in the tribunal of God^ to know what degree of grace they had in his Sovereign inscrutable judgment ? What is rash- ness if this be not ? But you have titular Saints who have purchased that title by public authority, as Dukes, Earls, and Knights purchase theirs ; of such we have none. Then you speak of titular Saints, not of real ones ; and upon this account you must not expect to win me from the Protestant Church to yours. 1 hear of some Sectaries about us, I know not where, who style all of their Congregation Saints ; to this degree of sanctity your Church has not aspired yet: then, if I ought to remove to a Church of more titular Saints, I should go to these Sectaries, not to you. But you speak of Saints that obtain heaven, and thither none may reach but under the conduct of the Roman Pope ! He has the keys of heaven, and none may enter there without his leave. I have heard of some Popes who were themselves kept out from entering thither, and I have great reason to believe that it was so, and to fear that by following their conduct, I should meet with the same repulse. It is one of your damnable errors, and not the least cause of my discontent with you, to affirm, that none may he saved without paying obedience to the Pope a spark of Hell- fire, which kindled and keeps alive the miserable combustions and distractions of Christendom, the bloody Massacre of so many thousands of men,* and the desolation of so many noble Kingdoms and Provinces; a monstrous paradox cut out to the measure of the unmeasurable ambition of the Roman Pope and his Court, to force all the world with the terror of everlasting fire, adding to it the power of the sword where he can,t that they should resign up * The celebrated Jesuit, Denis Petau, observes, that the bloody and calamitous 30 years' war (as it was called) was undertaken for the benefit of the Church of Rome. Speaking of Gustavus King of Sweden, who checked the career of victory, which had hitherto attended the Papal schemers, he remarks: " ne- quicquam ei Catholicarum partium opposite duce Tillio ;" and on the battle at Leipsic in 1631 ^" cujus excitus Catholicae parti funestus accidit." D. Petavii Rationarium Temporum, Paris, 1632, p. 525. f Very true " where he can.'' We have lately had a different Note most charmingly sung in Ireland by Dr. Crolly at Cork, in reply to an address of some Roman Catholic gentleman : " The only return a Christian can make in such circumstances is ' to pray for those who revile and persecute him ' the only means of defence recommended IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 459 their obedience, and contribute their wealth and liberties to the support of that power and grandeur, the greatest that ever was entertained in the fancy of man, if men were so mad as to yield to the proposals of the Pope and his Emissaries. With a view to diminish the heat of this hellish ambition the Seminary of the miseries of Christendom I have contributed my endeavours, even while I was among you, using only the armour of principles learned in your own Schools, and declaring that the practice of the Sycophantic Emissaries of the Roman Court is contrary not only to the intrinsic rules of Christian doctrine, but to the very professed tenets of the Romish Church I do not say of the Romish Court, for though both are corrupt, they have their different ways, and to conform with the tenets of the Roman Church was not thought sufficient in me, if I did not also fashion my doctrine to the interests of the Roman Court, and to the extension of the grandeur of it ; a want of policy or prudence of which Mr. /. S, accused me, as before mentioned. I will continue now with more liberty and resolution the same endeavours in letting the w^orld know how false and pernicious this doctrine is ; how great the disingenuousness of Romish Emissaries in publishing and preaching it to the people, contrary to truth and their own knowledge, to win Proselytes by frightening them to the Romish faction ; but it shall be in the school language and style, to make it more universal, not in the vulgar, to shun dealing with quibblers and cavillers, such as I find you to be, Mr. /. S. What you are in your person I know not certainly ; but your style and mode of discourse fashioned to a vulgar humour, with a total neglect of what learned and serious men may think of it, makes me conceive that you may be one of those Preachers whom I have seen in Pulpits, with a dead man's scull in their hand, or the picture of a devil, or a damned soul surrounded with flames, and girded with snakes and toads, moving the ignorant in the Sacred Scriptures, is, * to let our light so shine before men,' that beholding our patience and forbearance under grievous calumnies, they may learn from our example that spirit of Charity, which is the best proof of the truth of our Religion !" Dr. Crolly's Church has so often " let her light shine" in a different way, that we cannot help recording this new * proof of the truth " of Popery, as depicted in Revelat. xiii. 11 : " And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth j and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon," &c. 460 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED people with tragical cries and antic gestures to sighs and sobs, and knocking on their breasts ; while those of more sense and discretion were exercising their patience and biting their lips to refrain from laughing at the showers of non-sense poured down with so much confidence. He who will reflect seriously upon the passages of your discourse which I pointed at in this Chapter, and many others of the same kind to be seen in your book, will perceive that I am doing you no injury in the character which I give of your writing, and in resolving to take no notice of any that I may see for the future of this kind, being desirous to make better use of the time God is pleased to lend me, than to spend it in sifting such trifles. Here I will add only one argument more of this man's weak- ness and peevish temper, that, finding me refuting briefly a reply of Becan to an argument I was urging, and not understanding the drift of my argument, or wanting an answer, he only says that he knows not why I mentioned Becan, if it were not to let men know that I am acquainted with the books of great divines. Such as are acquainted with schools and books of Divinity, do know for what kind of Divines the Summary of Theology of Becan* was made, viz., for such as have not time or other requi- sites to go deeper. Truly when I take points of Divinity in hand to resolve upon, I am not accustomed to rest upon the Memorandums of Becan. I allow Mr. /. S. the glory of being more conversant in this writer. And indeed 1 find them symbolize in one thing, which is to put off" pressing arguments of their adversaries with a flout or sarcasm, fitted more to obtain vulgar applause than to the satisfaction of solid understandings.f This I observed sometimes in Becan * Martin Becan, a Belgian, joined the Society of Jesus in 1583. He taught Theology at Wirtzbury, Mentz, and Vienna, for 22 years, with great applause. He was mighty obliging to any Heretics he happened to meet with, and behaved towards them with great elegance and suavity. Although elevated to the high station of Confessor to Ferdinand II., he used to keep himself low, and to perform humility by fetching water for his own use from the well, and died at Vienna in 1624. There were Editions of his Compendium Manualis Controv. hujus temporis Herbip. 1623; Duaci 1631; Monast. 1638; Patav. 1719. For his Life, see Alegambe Biblioth. Soc, Jesu, p. 583, edit, 1676 ; and Buddei Isagog historico. theol. ad Theologiam. vol. 2, p. 1087. f The following remark by Bp. Taylor upon some replies to his writings deserves attention the instances are so numerous that we may not unreasonably IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 461 (which made me regard him less) but very often so in Mr. /. S. Another proof of the man's truth and talent, is to say that all the arguments contained in my Discourse are found in Bellarmine^ as also the answers to them, with which I ought to have been contented without giving him the trouble of answering me. Say you so, sir ? Then the answer which you return to me, are either out of Bellarmine, or of your own coining : if out of Bellarmine, your cause is desperate, when your ablest Champion could produce no better defence of it ; if of your own framing, then you have betrayed your trust in building the credit of your cause upon so weak a ground, and not producing the soundest reasons that existed in its favour on an occasion of so great expectation ; for certainly he must be very blind who will not see by what is said in this Treatise, that your answers are very weak, impertinent, and often ridiculous. But of all this you have an excuse in the condition of your cause. The greatest wits are too weak to support it. Look upon Scotus in 4. dist. 10. q. 3. shivering the arguments of Aquinag and others in favour of Trausubstantiation, and you will see wit and learning triumph in his Discourses. Look upon the same Scotus engaged in defending Trausubstantiation, to comply with the Lateran Council, though against his own sentiments, as he confesses, and you will find him ridiculous ! as may appear by what I related of him above. Chap. XXIIL How strong and argumentative is Siiarez in defence of Christian verities against Infidels ! how faint and wavering in the defence of Purgatory, Indulgences, &c. as seen above Chap. XXXI. ! It is a complaint become very common among your party against Bellartnine, that the arguments which he objects against the Romish tenets, are stronger than his answers to them, and certain I am, that it was notfor want of wit or will in him to advance the Roman interest, it was THE CONDITION OF THE CAUSE. suppose it to be a plan : " it seems they care not what any man says or proves against them, if the people be but cozened with a pretended answer ; for that serves the turn as well as a wiser." Bp. Taylor's Dissuasive, note pt. ii. p. 390, Ox. 1836. And again "there are very many that read him, who never will or can examine what S. Ambrose says, and with all such he (E. W.) hopes to escape," p. 423. 462 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED You boast of austerities which are practised by some Orders of the Romish Church.* If this be a rule of Perfection, there are Pagans who exceed you in it, afflicting their bodies by desperate austerities, even to the destruction of soul and body together. It is one of your Calumnies to say that Protestants are accustomed to condemn fasting and corporal afflictions discreetly used and without Hypocrisy, in order to curb the lust of the flesh ; such they commend, and many practice, though with less ostentation than is customary among you. You tell me that the Precepts of the Roman Church, without controversy oblige me, and that by every omission of a Holy day, Mass, &c. I am committing a heinous sin. Oh, great Divine J I have demonstrated with reasons, in my own judgment at least, evidently convincing, that I cannot fulfil the precepts of the Roman Church without infringing the Divine ; that in many * Just as Mr. O'Connell tells the Protestants of England, that when a man becomes a member of his Church "he enters a Religion in which he is restricted by fasts, by abstinence, by Lenten penances, by the humiliation of Auricular Con- fession, by the subjugation of the pride of the understanding and the adoption, in its place, of an entire submission in spiritual matters to the authority of the Church." Address, p. vi. prefixed to A full report of the Meeting in London^ edited by D. O'Connell, Esq., M.P.; London, 1839. We assert that the greater part of this is mere delusion a member of the Church of Rome fully satisfies his allegiance to her, in her own more peculiar territories at least, by attention to the two points which Dr. Sail so properly selects submission to the Church, and by paying her dues. It is true that others may go through all which Mr. O'C. mentions, and much more, may macerate and lacerate, may act the Brahmin or Pythagorean (see Enfield's History of Philosophy, vol. 1, pp. 377, 378,) and j?erform in a variety of ways, very well calculated in a country like England to obtain credit to the Order, to please themselves, to astonish the vulgar, and to contrast, (an' please you) Catholic severity and mortification with Protestant recklessness and sensuality! But Romanists in general are not bound to do this they may if they like, as their Church w ill find employment for all comers, and suit all tastes. How frequently are we reminded of the oft, and yet not too often, quoted passage from Saifdy's Survey of Religion, on the ways, which the Church of Rome studies and finds *< to fit each humour and ravish all affections !" It is given at length in Dr. Hale's Origin and Purity of the Primitive Church of the British Isles , and in Mendham's Literary Policy of the Church of Rome y pp. 346 8, Land. 1830. Yerron's Rule of Catholic Faith, translated by Waterworth, and published in Birmingham, 1833, and which has been recommended by Dr. Wiseman and the Irish Priests, leaves a man quite at liberty to believe any thing or nothing, just as it suits him (for a time at least) about the peculiar doctrines of the Latin Church. IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 463 things they are opposite. Which of them shall I prefer ? Is it not so, that we ought to obey God rather than man? Acts v. 29. You speak of vows that i made ; but if all was grounded upon a blind obedience to the Pope of Rome, involving a disobedience to the Laws of God whereof I am now certainly persuaded, and have delivered reasons for it, which after sundry oppositions and strict scrutinies remain still in the same force with me by the common vote of Divines such vows are null, and I am totally free from an obligation of complying with them. And finally, whereas you conclude with exhortations to me of returning to your Communion, I will requite you with an admoni tion better grounded, of considering the miserable condition in which you are living, pleased with the splendor of the Roman grandeur, and baited with the strong allurements of it, deceiving the world with colours of sanctity, when ambition and avarice is the primum mohile, and the soul that animates all your motions. Many simple souls are not aware of the profane and secular drifts of this great engine of Religion set up by cunning Italians, to make all the world contribute to their lust and pride, hooking in with sleight, more than those more honest ancient Romans could win by the sword. But you and your Brethren who pretend to learn- ing and knowledge, are in a worse condition, and we have but too much ground to suspect that you are wilfully in an error, and therefore guilty of deceiving the world, and being accomplices in the destruction and miseries of Christendom, being yourself the most deceived, when your business is to deceive others. This is a matter of greater scruple and consequence than that which you intimate to me of an obligation to hear Mass on every Holy-day. I commend it therefore to your serious consideration, and to fear and think upon seriously that woe pronounced against corrupt teachers, by the Prophet Ezekiel xxxiv. 2, &c. Woe to the Shepherds of Israel that feed themselves. Should not the Shep- herds feed the flock ^ * * * * with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them ; and they were scattered because there is no Shepherd. * * * * Therefore, O ye Shepherds, hear the tvords of the Lord, Thus saith the Lord God, behold I am against the Shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock, &c. O how may we fear that this will be the end of your pride and 464 CATHOLIC RELIGION MAINTAINED. cruelty ! that aiming to possess all, you will lose all ; and while you pretend to domineer over all the faithful, you may be trampled under the feet of Infidels.* If you continue to set God against you it will be so, he will cause you to cease from feeding the Jiock, and require at your hands the care of it. This is our fear: but our earnest desire and hearty prayer to God is, that he may be graciously pleased to clear your minds from the cloud of earthly passions, which possessed of the will, do blind the understanding ; that he may raise your hearts to a real enquiry of God's honour and service, and inspire into your leaders thoughts of peace with your Christian brethren, and not a further affliction to his Holy Church. * There is no great fear of that, just at present, at least, in England, as the two parties coalesce on some very important subjects. With regard to the authenticity and certainty of the books comprising the Holy Scriptures, the tactics of Romish Priests and Infidels are often, " even in lesser points, the same such as quoting and perverting passages from individual Protestant writers, to make out their argument. Both Wiseman and Milner follow Shaftesbury and Tindal in this respect, as any one may see, by comparing them together." Page 22 of an excellent Enquiry into the sameness of procedure, and the " con- nexion between Popery and Infidelity" in The Truths of Protestantism contrasted with the Errors of Poperyt in a series of Lectures ; Glasgow, 1837; No. 8, by the Rev. J. Gibson, where the arguments and statements of Drs. Milner and Wise- man, and those of Toland, Bolingbroke, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, &c. are shewn to be surprisingly similar almost identical. FINIS. INDEX Abbey of Port Royal described, 333 Alexander VI. (Pope) notice of, 163 Aloisius (Cardinal) how deceived by Sixtus V., 165 Authority of the Church, application of, 285 Aymon's Monumens authentiques quoted, 345 Azor on Image Worship, 47 B Bannes (Dominicus) 239 Bassolius (John de) the Franciscan, 43 Becan's Subterfuge respecting Infallibility, 31 ; his Controversia Anglicana de Potestate Regis &c., 139 [on this Note the reader may also consult the History of the Jesuits, Lond. 1816, vol. 2, p. 48]; account of Becan, 461 Bellarmine on Justification, 44; Purgatory, 57 ; obedience to Papal judgment, 325, 335 Berington's opinion of a Calumniator retorted, 100 Bethlen (Gabriel) or Bartorius, account of, 179 Bleeding Tphigenia, described, Life, xx. 231 4 Botero's Relat. Univers., 192 Breviary (Roman) caricatures the Trinity, 392 Brevint's Saul and Samuel at Endor, 209 C Cajetan (Card.) disproved Transubstantiation, 376 Calvinists, numbers who perished in the Bartholomew Massacre, 200 Canonization, process of, 272 Caramuel, John, 101 Carroll (Dr.) falsely asserts that Romanists have general liberty to read heretical books, 269 Casaubon's Epistle to Card. Perron noticed, 120; account of his latter days, 259 Catholic, the term truly applied to the Church of England, 123 Catholic Church, what it means in a Papist's view, 341 Challoner (Dr.) his Catholic Christian noticed, 373 Christianity, singular notion of it, 85; its extent as professed in the Church of England, 179 Church of England, a true Catholic Church, 117 ; proved to be Apostolic, 129 ; vindicated from the Aspersions of J. E. 251 , of 1. S. 313 G G Church, Head of, on priority of claims, 287 Church of Rome maintains or abandons her dogmas as convenient, 238, 321 ; peculiar doctrines of, when authorized, 309; Mr. O'Connell's account of his Church, 462; her cruelty in withholding the Scriptures from the people, 448 Churches, Christian, number of in the East, 186; disagreement of many with the Romish Church, 198, 229 Confession [See Cone. Trid. Sess. 14, cap. 5, 7] ; cruelty of the practice in the Church of Rome, 71, 460 Conference of Walsh and Caron with De Vecchiis relative to the Irish Remon- strance, 353 Cosin's History of Transubstantiation, 225 Coster, account of, 37 ; on Priestly continence, 327 Council of Bologna, more properly called -(^dvfce, 66; 450 of Trent, not a free Council, 275 of Lateran, its persecuting Canon, 348 of Eliberis, forbids Image worship, 336, 390 Cressy's substitution of the word autJiority, 285 Cumming (Rev. J.) on the use of the particle and in John vi., 53, 383 Curry's history of the Civil wars, 350 Cyprian's Tabularium Eccles. Rom., 208 D Dissensions between the Jansenists and Jesuits, 338 Distinctions to be observed in the Romish Controversy, 314; those adopted by the Romish Church, 318 Doleful Fall, quotations from. Life xxi. 90; described, 115 Doyle's (Dr.) evasions on the persecuting Canon of the Illrd. Lateran Council, 348 E Egan (Father,) sample of his style. Life xvii. Episcopius, the Theological Professor at Leyden, 259 Euthymius Zigabenus, 24 Fathers, exhorted people to the study of the Scriptures, 64 ; on deference to their opinions, 331; of Trent, aimed to concur with Aquinas, 173 French, Bp. of Ferns, specimens of his writings. Life xxiii. Account of his books against Sail, 113; his Bleeding Iphigenia examined, 231; much of his Doleful Fall derived, 115; his account of Alexander White, 221 ; his opinion of the Reformers, 222; justifies the Irish Rebellion 225, 245 ; a description of him, 231 ; his treatment of the Earl of Orrery, 232 G Gloss, interlineal and ordinary, explained, 299 Graffiis (James de) 48 Gregory the Great on the claim of Universal Bishop, 344 INDEX. Ill- H Half- Communion indefensible, 53, 381 Hawkins (Rev. J.) on the conduct of Romanists, 8, 12, 14 ; his retort on Bering- ton, 100; opinion of the Council of Trent, 275; Defence of the Reformation quoted, 339, 383 ; on the accommodating character of the Church of Rome, 321 Hickes's Letter to a Popish Priest quoted, 253 Hough's Christianity in India^ 197, 342; Protestant Missions Vindicated^ ibid.> Reply to the Abbe Dubois, 390 Idolatry of the Church of Rome compared, 209 Image-worship, 47; vainly attempted to be defended by distinctions, 49; sin- fulness of, 387; denounced by the Council of Eliberis, 390; idolatry of, 393 Images of the Virgin, number of, 52; term for those allowed, 397. [The notion alluded to in Note * is very ancient : see Porphyry advocating this plan for instructing " the ruder sort," as quoted in Euseb. Proep. Evang. lib. 3, cap. 7.] Imbert (Monsr.) persecuted for holding Bossuet's sentiments, 394 Immaculate Concepdon, Papists compelled to believe it, 67; disputes about it, 68,451 Indulgences undefined, 58 ; no foundation for them, 424 ; ridiculous claim of antiquity for them, 430 ; terms used and extent of the grant of them, 433 ; form of one granted by Clement X., 437 ; anecdote respecting a large im- portation to America, 443 Infallibility, ground for it untenable, 8; sin of attributing it to the Pope or a Council, 35 ; modern supporters of the dogma. Note, p. 35 ; weakness of every defence of it, 274; a blasphemous fiction, 291; indefensible, 325; a Nullity, 336 Ingram's Transubstantiation Refuted, 224; Witness referred to, Life xxx. Inspiration, Popish notion of, 324 Intention, doctrine of, held by the Church of Rome, 44, 377 Invocation of Saints opposed to God's appointment of one Mediator, 59; excesses in, 402 Irish, Papal cruelty towards them, 38; how inflamed to the Massacre of 1641, 241; vindicated in signing the Remonstrance of 1661, 349 Jansenius, 333 [Vide Keary's Papal and Conciliar Infallibility, p. 106] Jesuits, mode of training. Life xii. ; their practice of raising calumnies, 259; their Missionaries conform to Heathen customs, 390 J. S. (i. e. John Sergeant) notice of, 264; his impiety and maliciousness, 301; his bold assertion respecting the Irish, 349 ; on Infallibility, 307 ; character as a writer, 313 Justification, Bp. Davenant recommended upon it, 45 K Krasinski's History of the Reformation in Poland, 180 L Lambeth Articles, 220 Lamb's (Dr.) Historical account of the 39 articles, 220, 222 Lateran Council curiously evaded, 348 Lee (Dr.) on Transubstantiation, 37i Legacie, Bp. of London's, supplies much of Bp. French's Doleful Fall, 115 Lessius Leonardus, 309 Liguori (Alfonsus), 50; his opinion of Calvinists, 200; canonization, 437 Llamas (Jerom) on regard to Images, 398 Loftus (Dr.) on the Syriac writers, 371 M Mai donate, 301 Mary, the Virgin, worship of 50, 402 Maurice, Bp. of Paris, 59 Miracles absurdly urged by Papists in defence of Infallibility, 307 Missionaries, Romish, 190 Missions, Protestant, vindicated, 197 N New Man quoted by Sail," 164; author of the book, 174 Nugent on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, 288 Numbers no argument for the truth of a doctrine, 194 O Oath, nature of that required in the Episcopal Order, 167 O'Connor's (Dr.) Historical Address quoted. Life xiv.; 350 Orders, holy, validity of in the Church of England, 133, 144 Ordination, antiquity of the English form for it, 150; futility of Popish Objec- tions to it, 156 Orrery, Earl of, treated contemptuously by Bp. French, 232 P Papal authority, the claim of, to interpret Scripture, 285 Papal Glosses and assumptions, 347, 382 Patriarch of Alexandria and Pope Clement VITL, 191 Paul IV. (Pope) wished Queen Eliz. to acknowledge his Primacy, 124 v., his rapacity, 176 Petau (Dennis) on the 30 years war, 459 Plessis (Du) his collection of testimonies against the Papacy, 293 Pontifical, account of, 159; its form of ordination differs from the ancient one, 150 Pope, control of the, over the affairs of Europe, 278 Gregory the Great, on the alleged claims to Supremacy, 345 Gregory VII., his claim to Spain as the Property of St. Peter, 340 Popery, how it afl'ects Protestantism, 127; its tenaciousness of Supremacy, 131, 278; its tyranny, Life, p. viii. ; reasons for abjuring it, 25; acknowledg- ments of its changeableness, 160; perverts the facts of history, 215; upholds rebellion, 232, 238; its novelty, 320; requires implicit subjection of the mind, 335; assumes diflerent phases, 459; coalesces with all the abandoned, 464 Popish disputants, conduct of, 271; infallibility, plea for, 31,274; doctrine of the right of subjects to rebel against their Princes confuted, 238 ; unity, 274, 376, 388 Prayer in an unknown tongue, absurdity of, 60; inconveniences and injurj' to the people, 445 Protestant Churches, state of, on the Continent, 182, 184 view of human ability to keep God's commandments, 302; security for salvation, 279; vindicated against I. S., 313 Purgatory, Bellarmine's opinion of, 57 ; I. S.'s futile and absurd defence, 409 ; no article of the Apostles' Creed, 422 Q Quevedo defends St. James as the Patron Saint of Spain, 399 Reform unattainable in Popery, 397 Reformation of the English Church vindicated, 212 Remonstrance, Irish, occasion of it, xiii., 349 Rituals, early papal ones, recognize the doctrine of Intention, 377 Rochester, Bp. of, (John Buckeridge) maintains the Real Presence in the Eucharist, 225 Roderigo, the Jesuit, hi Mission to the Copts, 191 Rolwinck de Laer's Fasciculus, 207 Romanism, insecurity in the Religion of, 279 Romanists not allowed to read Protestant Books, 210, 269; extent to which kept in ignorance, 271 ; cruelty of in condemning other Churches, 200; their pitiful condition in regard to Image worship, 393 ; and having their Liturgy in an unknown tongue, 445 S Saits, proceedings on canonization of, 272; true ones vindicated, 267; con- dition of many regarded as such by Romanists, 406 ; new ones of J 839, 437 Sail, his recantation very distasteful to the Papal Ecclesiastics, 136; vindicates his secession from them, 204, 246; conduct of contrasted with that of a modern Pervert, 311 Sandersi de Origine Schismatis Anglicani, 140 Scapulars, when and by whom introduced, 52 Scotus, M.S. of his in Merton College, Oxon, 375 Scripture prohibited to Papists, 63, 448; Popish corruption of exposed, 297 Simon's (Father) Religion and Customs of Eastern nations, 191 Sixtus V. (Pope) his rapacity, 176 Soto (Peter) notice of, 138 Stillingfleet (Bp.) on the opposition of the Papacy to Civil Government, xiv;on Infallibility, 35 ; idolatry of the Church of Rome, 209 Suarez's Defensio Fidei, 118 Subjects, on their civil allegiance, 238 Succession, ministerial, vindicated, 133; valid, 161 Supremacy, how argued for and exercised by the Papacy, 371; vain and tyran- nical nature of the assumption, 342; its importance with Rome, 345; kingly vindicated against Popish objections, 357 Synod at Diamper, 197 at Petercow, complaining of Popish corruption, 207 at London, 220 Tertullian, falsified, 119; mistake in quoting him, 243 Thomas (St.) doubtful if he converted India, 197, 342 Transubstantiation, what is comprised in the belief of it, 27 ; contrary to Scrip- ture, 39 ; this admitted by Popish Doctors and Schoolmen, 43, 374 denied by the Syrian Christians, 18, 198, 363; indefensible from their writings, 37 1 ; fallacy of Popish arguments for it, 362 j otherwise disproved, 369 Trinity, the, how represented by Popery, 392 Tudeschi Nicolaus, 172 U " Unerring and Unerrable Church" by I. S., 263 ; quoted in reference to the Irish, 349 Unity, absence of, in the Church of Rome, 274, 376, 388 fallacy of charging Protestantism as a cause of disunion, 450 Urim and Thummim explained as favouring Papal Infallibility ! 324 V Vasquez, authenticity of alleged testimonies by him doubtful, 145 Vecchi, Clement the Vlllth's Nuncio, his visit to England, 353 Veron' sRule of Faith, a nose of wax, 463 W Wading (Peter) controversy with Episcopius, 259 Walker's (Rev, G. A.) defence of modern revival of innovations, 336 Walsh's (Peter) opinion of the Doleful Fall, 91 ; of Dr. Sail and the same book, 114; of the Council of Trent, 275; his Letters, 277; History of the Jrish Remonstrance quoted, 350 White's (Alexander) Schismatis Anglicani, 221 White (Thomas), 296 W. DEARDEN, PKINTEB, NOTTINGHAM. EDITED ALSO BY THE SAME, 8vo. 10s. 6d. BAXTERS KEY FOR CATHOLICS, To open the Juggling of the Jesuits, and satisfy all who are but truly willing to understand, whether the cause of the Roman or Reformed Churches be of God ; and to leave the reader utterly inexcusable that after this will be a Papist. A New Edition, revised and corrected, with Notes illustrative and biographical. Also, price 2s. THE SERMON Preached by Dr. Sail at Christ Church, Dublin, on the occasion of his leaving the Romish Church ; and now re-published with Notes, &c. Of whom may be had, a Translation of BISHOP DAVENANT'S EXPOSITION of St. PAUL'S EPISTLE to the COLOSSIANS. 2 Vols. 8vo. 24s. A few copies of which only are left. ^i^oo UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY