IT was the wish, not the hope of the most excellent Lord Bacon in his never enough admired Advance­ment of Learning, that good Books had the quality or faculty of Moses's Rod, that being be­come a Serpent, eat up, and devoured the other Serpents, which were produced by the Rods of the Sorcerers or Magicians: The number was so great in his time of [Page 2] idle, and impertinent, and Seditious Books, and the number of the Readers who were delighted with them was like­wise so great, that Books of Learning, weight and importance found little coun­tenance, and few Men at leisure to peruse them, and he saw no remedy, but by such a miracle: What would that great and discerning Person think, if he had lived in these days, when the licence of writing, and publishing light and scandalous Books of all Arguments, without any rules or li­mits of modesty is grown the Epidemical disease of the Nation, and a reproach to the Government, in the violation of the Laws, the contempt of the Magistrate, and the general contagion that is spread abroad, and threatens the very peace of the Kingdom, at least disturbs the sober conversation of it? The spirit of Martin Marprelate, which hath for so many years been expired, or extinguished, is revived with greater insolence, and improved, and heightned as well against the State, as the Church in a petulancy of language, in a style so new, and unbecoming Men of honest education, that the gravest argu­ments in Divinity it self, and Texts of the Sacred Scripture are handled in a manner, and fashion, and with such vain and Co­mical [Page 3] expressions, as have not used to be admitted in the lightest arguments, or in sober and chast mirth. The important and vital parts of Government, the digni­ty of the Laws established, and even the Person of the King himself, and the grea­test Magistrates are arraigned, censured, and inveighed against in such a bitterness of words, with terms so reproachful, as have not been ever used in good company; and as if the English tongue were too nar­row to comprehend all the Ribaldry and filthiness of their thoughts and inventi­ons, they coin new words of contempt and indignation, and make use of a Dia­lect never heard of, but in the company of Ruffians, and the lowest and most de­bauch'd of the People, which for wit sake they apply to their vile purposes; so that this extravagance (if not timely suppres­sed) doth really seem to threaten, not on­ly a general corruption of manners, but of the purity, and integrity of the Language, and of the good humor, and good nature, and modest conversation of the Nation; and upon this occasion I cannot but la­ment the want of that caution and pru­dence which was heretofore observed, when this unruly Spirit first broke out in the time of Martin Marprelate, who had [Page 4] a contribution of Jests, and Scoffs, and Comical inventions brought to him, by all the party who desired to expose the Church and the Government of it, to the contempt and scorn of the loose and rude People. It was not thought worthy of any serious Man to enter into the lists with such adversaries, or to take notice of their Pamphlets, but Men of the same Classis, of the same rankness of Wit and fancy, and of honester principles were the Cham­pions in that quarrel. Thom. Nash was as well known an Author in those days, as Martin, who with Pamphlets of the same kind, and size, with the same pert Buf­foonry, and with more salt and cleanliness, rendred that libellous, and seditious crew so contemptible, ridiculous, and odious, that in a short time they vanished, and were no more heard of. What was urged or insinuated by any Men of discretion and understanding, that might make any im­pression upon sober, unwary, and misin­formed Men, was carefully and learnedly answered by Persons assigned to that pur­pose, that the Church, or the State might not undergoe any prejudice by want of sea­sonable advice, without mingling any of the others froth or dregs in their composi­tions, which they left to the chastisement [Page 5] of those who could as dexterously manage the same weapons, and were fitter for their company: And methinks grave and seri­ous men, or they who ought to be grave and serious, should be afraid of imitating such adversaries in their licence and ex­cesses, lest they should get into a scoffing vein, which they should not easily shake off, or lose their credit with worthy Men, for dishonouring the cause they maintain ironically.

A man will hardly be thought provident enough, or solicitous for his own peace, and credit, who having discovered this unruly frantick disease, will expose him­self to the malignity thereof, by approach­ing so near the company of those angry Wasps, and Hornets, who are like to be willing to take any opportunity to be re­venged upon a Person, who hath presu­med to be offended with their manner of writing, and in the same instant, submit­ted his own to their censure, which is like to be liable to as many exceptions of weak­ness and impertinence: To which I shall only say, that whatever other faults they shall discover in this short writing of mine, they shall not find the same of which I complain; I shall give no body ill words, [Page 6] nor provoke them by contemning their Persons; and I chuse rather to be at their mercy, than not to endeavour the best way I can to divert men from that inde­cent way of reviling each other; and in­stead of answering Arguments, to traduce the Persons who urge them. Truth is of so tender, and delicate a constitution, that it is defiled by rude handling; and hath advantage enough to encounter and con­quer its adversaries, by the vigour of its own beauty, without aspersing the defor­mity of the other, farther than unavoid­able reason makes it manifest: I shall not interpose in those Arguments, which are now most agitated in that scurrilous style that I complain of, but chuse to take upon me to make Animadversions upon a Book lately published, at least lately come to my sight, Intituled, Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Church of England, by Doctor Stillingfleet, and the imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Author where­of professes himself an avowed Enemy to the Church of England, and would be thought as much an enemy to the foul cu­stom introduced into the Controversies concerning it, and the liberty men assume to deride Religion instead of vindicating it; to wound the profession, by a petulant [Page 7] and scornful mention of the Professors; and by expressions full of pride and vanity, and destructive to peace and government: and yet how contrary soever this way of writing is to his practice and inclination; he hath some jealousie of himself, that up­on the insupportable provocation he hath received, some phrases of bitterness may have scaped his Pen, which he doth be­lieve he hath very good authority not to make any excuse for, and there being such plenty of that noisom Gall scattered throughout his whole discourse, it will be but just to take a view of his provocation, and whether his revenge be no more than proportionable to the occasion, and then whether the imputation be not rather con­fidently retorted, than reasonably refu­ted; and whether in the endeavoring the one or the other, the bounds and limits of all modesty and civility are not so far trans­gressed, that the Author is liable to just censure.

I do the rather enter into the List upon this occasion, because I may infallibly pre­sume, that I know the Author of that Dis­course; for I no sooner read it, which was long after it was published, but that it was manifest to me by many particulars [Page 8] contained in it, in which I cannot be de­ceived, that it is written by Mr. Cressy, with whom I have been acquainted very near fifty years, and have very long esteemed him for his parts, and learning, and for his good nature, and his good manners, all of which were in as great perfection then, as they have been ever since, or are at present; and therefore as I shall treat him with that candor that be­comes an old Friend, so I do not suspect his reception, and interpretation of it will be such, as is worthy of that temper of spi­rit, which he professes to be of; nor do I despair of presenting some considerations and reflections to him, which may so work upon it, as to induce him to believe, that both in regard of the matter it self, and the manner of treating Dr. Stilling­fleet, he hath swarved very much from those Rules which he prescribes to others, and pretends to observe himself, and then the tenderness of his own Conscience will instruct him what reparation he ought to make.

But before I enter into the debate, I must first declare, that the Religion I pro­fess and defend, is the Religion of the Church of England, and not the particular [Page 9] opinions, much less the expressions of any member of it, how worthy soever: and Mr. Cressy, who professes to be an adver­sary to it, ought to insist only upon what is owned, and avowed by her, and not hope to wound her through the sides, or by the weakness or passions of those who have deserted her, or still adhere to her: And in the second place, that I do not take upon me to write against the Catholick Church, of which the Church of England is a vital part; or against the Religion professed in any Catholick Country, but against the Roman Catholick Subjects of his Majesties Dominions; whose Religion I take to be different from that, which is professed and established in any Catholick Country in Europe, and disavowed by all the Catholick Countries out of Europe. And one of the principal reasons that engages me in this Discourse, is to endeavour to draw the dispute that is between the Church and the Laws of England, and his Majesties Subjects of his own Dominions who profess to be of the Roman Faith, in­to a narrower room, and within that compass that properly contains it: And I have always thought that they have had too much countenance, and too great a latitude allowed them, in reducing the [Page 10] contest to what concerns all the members of the Roman Church equally with them­selves; as if the Roman Catholicks of Eng­land withdraw their obedience from the Kings authority, and oppose the Laws of the Land, so much to the damage of their Estates, and the danger of their lives, if the Laws were prosecuted against them, only for the support, and in the defence of the cause common to all other Catho­licks: Whereas I say, the difference be­tween us depends wholly upon the perso­nal authority of the Pope within the Kings Dominions, which is an argument never used for the support of the Catholick Religi­on; if it were, all Catholicks must be of the same opinion. It was that, and that only that first made the Schism, and still continues it, and is the ground of all the animosity of the English Catholicks against the Church of England, and produced their separation from it; and if they will re­nounce all that personal authority in the Pope, and any obedience to it within his Majesties obedience (which I say again is not admitted in any other Catholick King­dom) they will purge themselves of all such jealousie, or suspicion of their fideli­ty, as may prove dangerous to the King­dom, and against which the Laws are pro­vided: [Page 11] their opinions of Purgatory or Transubstantiation would never cause their Allegiance to be suspected, more than any other error in Sence, Grammar or Philo­sophy, if those opinions were not instan­ces of their dependance upon another Ju­risdiction foreign, and inconsistent with their duty to the King, and destructive to the peace of the Kingdom: and in that sence and relation the Politick Govern­ment of the Kingdom takes notice of those opinions, which yet are not enquired into or punished for themselves; let them dis­claim that, and they will find themselves at great ease.

This is the only Argument I wish should be insisted on between us and our fellow­subjects of the Roman profession; not that I think that the other Doctrinal points be­tween the two Churches are not worthy the insisting upon, but that as much hath been said already upon them on both sides, and as convincingly as is necessary: No­thing new can be added, at least no man will be convinced with what shall be ad­ded, who is not moved with what is al­ready said; nor doth the meer difference upon any of those points naturally produce that uncharitableness, those animosities of [Page 12] which we complain towards each other: No man was ever truly and really angry (otherwise than the warmth and multi­plication of words in the dispute produced it) with a man who believed Transubstan­tiation, more than he would be with an­other, who should come into a room where he was reading by a Candle, and swear that the room was so dark that he could not see his hand; but when he will for the support of this Paradox introduce an authority for the imperious determina­tion thereof, that the Word of God hath not commanded men to submit to, and the word of Man, the Law of the Land hath positively forbidden them to submit to, it is no wonder if passion breaks in at this door, and kindles a Fire strong enough to consume the House. This is the Hinge upon which all the other controversies be­tween us, and the English Catholicks do so intirely hang and depend, that if that only were taken off, all the rest would quickly fall to the ground; and therefore it concerns Mr. Cressy, and the rest of his friends to fasten, and make that Hinge strong, that it may support the rest from falling: And I cannot but observe how unwillingly they are brought to touch this point, or if they do, it is so lightly, as if it [Page 13] were too hot for their fingers; and upon the necessity of a through examination of this material Argument, I shall be obli­ged to inlarge in the Conclusion of this Discourse.

There is another reason that hath prin­cipally invited me to this unequal under­taking, that is, my Zeal to the Church of England, and a compassion of the very ill condition it is reduced to, by an unwor­thy conspiracy, that was never before en­tred into, against it, or any other establish­ed Church, in undervaluing whatsoever is written by any Clergy-man, how learned and vertuous soever in defence of it; as if he were a party, and spoke only in his own interest, so that they who would under­mine it, by all the foul and dishonest arts imaginable, have the advantage to be con­sidered as Persons engaged in that ac­compt, meerly and purely by the impulsi­on of their Consciences, and for the disco­very of such dangerous errors, as are dan­gerous to the Souls of men; whilst they who are most obliged, and are best able to refute those vain and malicious pretences, and to detect the fraud and the ignorance of those Seditious undertakers, are looked upon as men not to be believed, at least [Page 14] partial, and that all they say is said on their own behalf. This is a sad truth, and a new Engine to make a Battery, at which Atheism may enter without opposition, with all its instruments and attendants, that would make Christianity it self ridicu­lous, that it may be contemptible. God forbid that this Scarcrow should impose si­lence upon, or seal up the mouths of any Learned and worthy Clergy-man, who should open them the wider for this combi­nation, and contribute the more to the assistance and vindication of the best con­stituted Church in the world, because it is in a distress by mockers, and scoffers, and neutral or unconcerned persons, who make the approaches, and sap the ground to open the way, and make the access the more easie, for more declared Enemies to oppress and destroy it. This hath been a motive to me, who have neither depen­dance upon, or relation to any Clergy-man, nor any temptation to imbark my self in this quarrel; but my love of truth, and the most abstracted duty to my Country; and likewise because I think, though the Clergy is best able to judge of any difficul­ties in matters of Religion, the Laity is equally engaged in the consequences which will inevitably attend any prejudi­ces [Page 15] it shall undergo, or be exposed to, and therefore ought in time to contribute their talent towards the securing it, and not stand idle spectators of those stratagems which are no less designed against the State, than the Church.

In the last place, the particular esteem I have of the profound Learning and inte­grity of Dr. Stillingfleet, (to whom I am very little known) and his great merit to­wards the Church of England, (whose wor­thy Champion he will not be thought the less, for the untrue aspersions Mr. Cressy hath presumed to cast upon him, and which will easily be wiped off) hath dis­posed me to interpose in his Vindication, which is so much due to him from other Men, that I wish he may not trouble him­self with it. And having now observed Mr. Cressy's own method, in giving first account of the reasons and motives which have prevailed with me for this engage­ment; for which I cannot alledge ano­ther that was most powerful with him, obedience to certain friends, whose com­mands he ought in no wise to resist, since I may honestly declare, that no Friend I have is privy to my purpose, or knows what I am doing: I make hast to wait [Page 16] upon him by his own stages, and shall make no excuse for not affixing my name to what I write, which I do purposely de­cline, not by the example of S. C. but by the assurance I have, that the publishing my name would be so far from bringing any advantage to the cause for which I am solicitous, that it would rather increase and propagate the prejudice that is against it. I do therefore provide a more natural countenance to support it; and which le­gally will supply the defect of the name, by having it Licensed by lawful Authori­ty, without which it shall never be pub­lished.

IF Dr. Stillingfleet hath in truth cast any contemptuous aspersions upon Mr. Cressy; or if he hath suffered any scorn or calumny, only for recommending to devout Christians, instructions for the practice of Christian vertues, and piety in the greatest perfection that this life is ca­pable of: If he hath selected the most Sa­cred things and Persons in the Catholick Church, on purpose to be contaminated with his Ink full of Gall and Poyson, there­by administring new Arms to Atheists: If he hath endeavoured to shew, that all the Religion professed in the World, and that [Page 17] thing that bears the name of a Catholick Church for so many Ages before the time of Luther and Calvin, was nothing for their Worship but Idolatry; for their Devotions but Fanaticism, and for their doctrine and discipline, nothing but faction, ambition, and avarice: And if the Doctor hath im­ployed his talent of reasoning upon these subjects, to discharge his excess of spleen and choler, and to give free scope to all unchristian, and even inhumane passions, (with all which the three first Pages do confidently and directly charge him) I must confess that Mr. Cressy will not only be excusable for any Zeal and confidence he shall express against such an adversary, but that the Doctor hath neither direction or authority from the Church of England in either of the particulars, nor would I un­dertake to vindicate him from that great guilt. But if nothing of all this be true, and if the Doctor hath neither said or done any thing of this with which he is charg­ed, Mr. Cressy shall but comply with his obligations in seriously considering whe­ther he hath observed St. Paul's injuncti­on; Let all bitterness, Eph. 4. 31. and wrath, and an­ger and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And of the greater importance any controversie [Page 18] is, especially if it hath any relation to Re­ligion, the swarving from that rule can never be dispensed with, and therefore it will be proper in the first place to examine the evidence that is to prove this charge, or charges against the Doctor, before we consider the three Imputations, by which it is said he would fright men from the Communion of the Catholick Church, or the other three Retorsions by which Mr. Cressy is confident to wound the Pro­testant Churches, upon both which, re­flexions will be made in the proper sea­son.

Though I am no stranger to the wri­tings of Dr. Stillingfleet, but have read, I think, all that he hath published, at least all that I have seen of his; and as I always admired the strength and vigour of his ra­tiocination, and the clearness of his style and expressions (a faculty not natural to all very Learned and pious men) by which he renders the most difficult points, and which are usually by others wrapt up in obscure terms, plain and intelligible to vulgar understandings: So I have been exceedingly delighted with the softness, gentleness and civility of his language, (which can never flow from an insolent [Page 19] or proud spirit) in which he represents things, which in themselves are light, and as such might be neglected, in a plea­sant, not reproachful manner; a dialect his adversaries are not acquainted with: And when he is compelled to answer Ar­guments, or rather Allegations full of bit­terness and reproachful words, which would tempt another to take the advan­tage they are liable to, with some sharp­ness; he passes by the provocation, and collects what can possibly be found like reason, out of what is alledged, and re­futes it with very much less severity than the matter would justifie, and seems some­times to require. Yet knowing Mr. Cressy well too, and that he is not of a quarrel­some disposition, or apt to give ill words in his discourse, and to have a full under­standing of what he reads, that cannot be imposed upon; I had some fear that the Doctor had upon some great provocation exceeded his former limits he had prescri­bed to himself, and retorted the language of his adversaries with a bitterness natural enough for them, though not to him: And that temper I wished might never de­part from him; and therefore I was in some pain till I could procure the Doctor's Book that had raised so much passion in [Page 20] Mr. Cressy, and which I had not seen be­fore: But when I had carefully read those places to which the exceptions were made, and examined as well as I could the signifi­cation or implication of every word; I begun to suspect that I was mistaken in my former conjecture, and that Mr. Cressy was not the Author of that Imputation Refu­ted; but when I again reflected upon the reasons which had first produced that judgment of mine, I found they had still the same strength, and had then nothing to hope, but that his obedience to those Friends, whose commands he ought in no wise to resist; for the writing and pub­lishing his discourse, had prevailed like­wise with him to publish it in their, and not his own words, and I shall hereafter give Mr. Cressy a warrantable reason, why I am still of the same opinion.

The first thing Mr. Cressy lays to his charge is, Pag. 11. That he accuses the Catholick Church of Fanaticism, which he says no man ever presumed to do before; and that he hath written an invective against the life and prayer of Contemplation, com­mended and practised only in the Catholick Church; it being a state which from the infancy of the Church (he says) hath [Page 21] been esteemed the nearest approaching to that of glorified Saints; and the evidence that he produces to make this charge good is, That the Doctor that he might make an entrance into the invective with a bet­ter grace, hath produced on his Stage an­tiquely dressed, the famous Teachers and erecters of Schools for Contemplation, S. Bennet, S. Romaulde, S. Bruno, S. Fran­cis, S. Dominique, and S. Ignatius, ex­posing them to the derision of prophane per­sons, for which he threatens him shrewd­ly upon an Epigram in the Margent out of Martial.

Before he proceeds farther in his evi­dence, lest the Doctor may be too much exalted with the novelty of his invention of his prophanely imployed Wit; he doth assure him that he hath heard that kind of Wit before, when he was a young Stu­dent in Oxford, in a repetition Sermon to the University, which, he says, if fancy be alone considered, far better deserved applause, wherein the Preacher descanting upon the whole life of our Saviour, ren­dred him and his attendants, men and women, objects of the utmost scorn and aversion, as if they all of them had been only a pack of dissolute vagabonds and [Page 22] cheats: But presently the Preacher chang­ing his stile, as became a Disciple of Christ, with such admirable dexterity, and force of reason, answered all the Ca­villations and invectives made before, that the loudly repeated applause of his hearers hindered him a good space from proceed­ing: Notwithstanding which the grave Doctors and Governours of the Universi­ty, though much satisfied with his abili­ties, yet wisely considering that a petu­lant Histrionical stile, even in objections, did not fit so sacred a subject, and that it was not lawful too naturally to personate a deriding Jew, obliged the Preacher to a publick recantation-Sermon in the same Pulpit the Sunday following. To which pretty tale I should make no reply, since in the judgment of no dispassioned man, it cannot be thought to be parallel to any thing the Doctor hath said or done: Yet I shall endeavour to convince Mr. Cressy, that his memory hath not been faithful to him, in preserving the merit of that case and sentence, and shall give him cause to believe that I was likewise present at that Sermon, by putting him in mind that it was preached by one Mr. Lushington, a man eminent for his parts, upon those words in the Evangelist; And his Disciples [Page 23] came and stole him away whilst we slept: Which gave him occasion to help the Souldiers in their defence, in which he gave them leave to use some light expressi­ons against the witnesses for the Resurre­ction, which were not decent upon that subject; but that part was quickly ended, when he put into the mouths of the Di­sciples, to whom he likewise assigned a part, words very worthy of them, and fit to be uttered in that place, and with which the gravest Auditors were abun­dantly satisfied, though they were displea­sed with some light and scandalous expres­sions in some other parts of the Sermon: Which he begun with qu' elle Novelle, as if he came thither to ask and hear News; but under favour of Mr. Cressy's memory, nothing of this was the ground of the sen­tence or his Recantation; but a Parlia­ment being then sitting, the Preacher had unwarily, and very unnecessarily let fall some words which reflected upon their pro­ceedings, particularly that now every Pe­sant in Parliament, by the priviledge of his Vote there, cared not how he behaved himself towards the King, or the Church, or to that effect; which made those who loved him best, willing to censure him there, that he might escape a harder judg­ment [Page 24] in another place: Whereupon the Vice Chancellor, who was Dr. Pierce (af­terwards Bishop of Bath and Wells) com­manded a copy of the Sermon, which be­ing delivered and perused by him, and a Delegacy of the Doctors, Mr. Lushington was reprehended for the light and scanda­lous expressions he had used upon a subject too much above those excesses; and was ordered to make a recantation Sermon for what he had said of the Parliament; and had a Text likewise given him to that pur­pose; the words concerning the Apostles in that of the Acts, And they assembled toge­ther with one accord in one place: Which Recantation he performed with great inge­nuity and much applause. If these parti­cular recollections do not induce Mr. Cressy to concur in the truth of the relation, I doubt we shall find few equal Arbiters to determine the difference between us; for this Sermon, if I am not very much decei­ved, was preached in April 1624. or 25. of which I believe that there be not many surviving Auditors besides Mr. Cressy and my self.

In the next place let us examine how the Doctor came to provoke Mr. Cressy, by laying this grievous charge of Fanaticism [Page 25] upon many members of the Catholick Church, and to charge the Church it self to be guilty of giving too much counte­nance to it: Mr. Cressy confesses that the first occasion was given him, by charging the Church of England with Fanaticism; which is sure as new a charge upon that Church as it can be upon the other, which he is so far yet from retracting, that he still justifies it, by there being so many Fanaticks in the Church of England; whereas he knows there is no Fanatick in England, or in any other Country, who doth not avow a particular malice, and displeasure against the Church of England, and if he doth not, he is no Fanatick. There can be nothing more contrary to Fanaticism, than the order, and discipline, and steddiness of the Church of England: And it is not ingenuously nor generously done of Mr. Cressy to charge that Church with inclining to, and favouring an ene­my, that he knows hath rebelliously in­vaded her, and would destroy her: He would not think it just, nor indeed would it be honest, to charge the Church of Rome of inclining to, or favouring of Iudaism, because many Iews live there: And yet the publick liberty and protection they have in their allowed Synagogues, where [Page 26] they must both renounce, and contemn, and blaspheme the Person of our Saviour, is a greater argument of inclination, and of favour, than can be charged upon the Church of England towards any Fanaticks; all whom it doth heartily desire to convert or to remove out of its limits. This un­seasonable and untrue reproach, made it necessary for the Doctor to answer, and refell that calumny, and as reasonable to instruct Mr. Cressy that his own Church is much more liable to that accusation, than the other: And why this provocation should be so innocent an assault for the one, and the defence by the other should prove so heinous an offence, will require an im­partial Judge to determine; who will likewise discover which of them doth most discover his excess of spleen and choler, or gives most scope to all unchristian, and even inhumane passions: And he cannot but observe the Doctor's commendable mo­desty, that he would not give himself leave to retort the monstrous aspersion up­on his own Mother, without very exactly setting down the particular instances of the ground of that his Retorsion, without any other sharp language than is unavoidable in the mention of the matters of fact; a method Mr. Cressy doth warily decline in [Page 27] his bitterness towards his native Church; nor do I blame him, for being so much displeased with the length of the Doctors discourse of that subject, nor for his so slightly answering those particulars of which he takes notice, and undervaluing the rest, rather than go about to answer them, of which it will not be possible to avoid speaking more particularly anon; and in the mean time I believe more of his Catholick, than of his Protestant Friends do heartily wish that the task had been impo­sed upon him, to answer the points in controversie between the Catholick Church, and the Protestants, and that the Doctor's pleasant fourth Chapter had been left un­touched, to those who will needs be read­ing his Books; than that Mr. Cressy's ex­traordinary zeal on the behalf of so prodi­gious a number of Saints and Miracles (which are very rarely particularly urged by the learned Catholick writers in defence of their doctrine) should invite men far­ther to examine those records, which the Church it self hath given so many orders to reform.

Mr. Cressy finds himself most concerned to vindicate the honour and the sanctity of S. Benedict from the Doctors contumelious [Page 28] imputations; which contumelious impu­tations, and whether the weight and vi­gour of the vindication be answerable to the zeal, will be next examined, and the examination will be the shorter, because he will leave the other Saints to answer for themselves, but is obliged, in respect of the publick interest that obliges the whole Western Patriarchate, and especially Eng­land, to be tender of the honour of S. Bene­dict, by whose disciples, if they were Fa­naticks, he says, Christianity hath been established amongst us; and in veneration to whom, such a world of Religious Houses and Churches have been erected, and in­riched with vast possessions; and there­fore he cannot without renouncing his du­ty as a Christian Religious man, and an English man, conspire to his dishonour by si­lence; whereas probably silence would have been the more seasonable vindicati­on; and truly I have no mind to rake into the ashes of a Person whom I believe to have been a devout man in a dark time, ac­cording to his talent of understanding, and who hath been so long since dead; nor do I believe the Doctor had inclination to have made that scrutiny, if it had not been made necessary to him, by a very unneces­sary reproach; and the more Mr. Cressy [Page 29] enlarges upon that argument, the more he will be offended on the behalf, because he is in love with his own mistakes; else he could not tell us that Englands Christia­nity was established by the Disciples of S. Benedict.

Indeed there is some evidence, and for ought I know it may be true, that we owe our glass windows, and our warmer habita­tions to one of his Disciples, our Country­man Bennet, who was an Abbot here, and is a Saint too; who having made many journeys into Italy, when he returned last from thence, brought with him Archi­tects, who taught our people to build Houses with Stone, which till then were rarely seen, the habitations being com­monly in Houses made of Earth, nor was there till his time any glass windows seen in England: All this may be true, and there are several Authors aver it, but Mr. Cressy very well knows that Christianity was planted with us many hundred years be­fore the birth of S. Benedict, and we may reasonably believe by the Roman Records, to which we are more beholding for those testimonies than to our own, and which are in truth as full and clear, as in any other matter of fact in that first Age, that [Page 30] it was sooner planted in Britain, than it was at Rome it self; for if Ioseph of Arima­thea did come into England in the last year of Tiberius, it was before S. Peter ever was at Rome. Sure it is that there was no Monastery built in England, according to S. Bennet's rules, till near the year Six Hundred, so that there is no reason to ac­knowledge, that he, or his Disciples plan­ted Christianity with us.

If Mr. Cressy will be offended with all men who examine the miracles of S. Bene­dict, as they are mentioned by S. Gregory, or in the lives of the Saints, with less re­verence than he himself considers them, he will have as many quarrels with Roman Catholicks, as with Protestants; since there are very few of them of his talent of learning and understanding, who give cre­dit to one of one hundred of those which are mentioned to have been done, though they are all willing, (how piously they shall do well to consider) the Women, and the weaker People should believe them all; nor doth the less serious discoursing of them in any degree reflect upon the honour of S. Gregory, or of S. Bennet himself, much less imply that they were guilty of lying against the Holy Ghost; for S. Gre­gory [Page 31] gives no other testimony of those mi­racles, than that he was informed by four men who are named by him, and who had conversed much with the Saint, that they were true; nor doth it appear that the Saint himself did own or avow the having done those miracles, which are imputed to him by other men; so that if they should in truth be but pretended miracles, and vi­sions, they cannot be imputed to either of them as sleights of Legerdemain.

Besides, take them all to be true, as they are reported, most of them may be proved to be no miracles; for if it was only the Nurses Sieve that she had borrow­ed of a Neighbour to winnow her Corn, which was broken in two pieces, as Saint Gregory reports, a youth without a mi­racle might joyn them together, to wipe off his Nurses tears. Indeed if it was an Earthen-pot, that with the fall broke into a hundred pieces (as the Author of the Lives of the Saints declares it to be) it was a harder work for a little boy to put them together again. And if he did after three years such austerity in a Cave, and such a spare diet as the cure kept him to, find it necessary to roll himself in thorns to con­quer his amorous passions, the miracle is [Page 32] rather in the novelty of the invention, than in the cure it wrought: Nor doth it ap­pear to be confirmed by the practice of any of his Disciples since, who probably may have been liable to the same temptations. He doth very well to pass over all the other instances the Doctor gives of the same nature, except his being spectator of the Soul of his sister Scholastica (which im­plies a subtiler sight than any other Saint ever pretended to) nor will I mention any of the rest, not so much as the Crow that buried the poysoned piece of bread, which by the way was a miracle on the Crows part, more than on the Saints: I say I for­bear to mention any more of them, lest I should be much less serious in it than the Doctor hath been; for which I will only make this excuse, that if Mr. Cressy will call to him any three friends, who have been bred in as good company as he hath been, and let them together read S. Ben­net's, in the Lives of the Saints, and if at least one of them be not as pleasant upon it, and believes as little of it, as the Doctor seems to do, I will ask his pardon for being less serious than he would have me upon such occasions.

[Page 33] I think the Doctor may lawfully and reasonably suspect the truth of most of those miracles which Mr. Cressy seems to believe, and conclude the falshood of ma­ny of them, without denying that any mi­racles were wrought by God's servants in that Age; nor will he be scrupulous in denying that he hath met with many, or any learned and prudent men, who have been eye-witnesses of many, and deserve to be believed. It is a wonderful thing that when God himself never wrought mi­racle in the Old or New Testament, nor ever any qualified by him to that purpose, but it was to some visible purpose to mani­fest his power and glory, and always by persons eminent in his favour, and trust­ed and imployed by him in his particular service, and then that the miracles them­selves, those arcana imperii, were always exposed to the view and examination of those natural senses which God hath given men to judge by, of what they see and hear. If Moses's rod had not produced the Serpent, and that Serpent had not de­voured the other Serpents which the Magi­cians rods had brought out in the sight of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, so that they could not but confess, that they saw the [Page 34] rod and the Serpent, and the execution it did, and then that it returned again to be a rod; God would not have blamed Pha­raoh for not believing any thing that Moses had said to him. If the guest at the wed­ding feast had not drank the first Wine, and seen the empty pots filled again with Water, and found the Wine poured out of those pots of Water to be better than the Wine that they had formerly drank; we should never have heard any mention of that miracle. They who were raised by our Saviour or his Apostles from the dead, were seen dead by a multitude of the people, and some of them buried, and were by the same people seen alive again, and conversed with by them. The Passi­on, and Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ's, the chief evidences upon which Christianity is founded, were the object of the sight of witnesses enough, who proved what they had seen: Nor was there any one miracle that the senses of any men could contradict to be any thing but what they seemed to be: And can Mr. Cressy be angry with us for not giving credit to a mass of Miracles, most of which are said to be wrought many hundred years before they were heard of, and by men who we are not sure ever were in this [Page 35] world, since we do not meet with their names in any other History, at least whose vertues were never heard of but by their miracles, nor their miracles proved but by their vertues. Mr. Cressy well knows, that the Church hath been so oppressed with the numbers of them, and so scanda­lized at the matter of them, that by its special order and direction they have been several times purged, and many of them rejected for the folly and impossibility of them; and the last purgation was made by the Jesuit Ribadeneira, who is the Author of the Lives of the Saints to which Mr. Cressy refers, and was Chaplain to King Philip when he came into England to marry Queen Mary; and upon the experience he got there, he undertook to write the Hi­story of England for twenty years, which whosoever shall read, may very reasona­bly take it to be a History of Spain, since he shall neither find the names of persons, or any transactions of which he ever heard before; and therefore it may be reasonably thought, that he had no extraordinary fa­culty in writing Histories, and that he had no better evidence of the miracles he hath preserved the memory of, than of those which were rejected out of the for­mer Legendaries.

[Page 36] That we may know that many good Ca­tholick writers (for I shall only cite such evidence against Mr. Cressy) mention such miracles, to which he is so solicitous to have due reverence paid, as negligently as the Doctor hath done; I shall set down the Animadversion which is given us by the best Catholick Historian of the Civil, together with the Ecclesiastical transacti­ons that I think is extant in any language, Monsieur Mezeray in his own words: ‘The German Monks of this time (says he) as it is the Genius of men to fain mi­racles always in great dangers, tell us, that S. Uldrick Bishop of Ausburgh, who accompanied Otho the second Emperor of Italy and Germany, in his expeditions of War, passed the River Aisne dry-foot, and made himself the example for Otho and all his Army to follow; the waters which had overflowed their Banks be­coming miraculously solid under their feet, and the River serving for a Bridge to itself.’ It is very true this miracle is not inserted in the Life of that Saint, the Bull of whose Canonization is the first that is ex­tant in the first Tome of the Bullarium, and was granted in the year 993. and there can be no reason why that miracle was left out, [Page 37] since another is there recorded, as the principal inducement to his Canonization, of the vindicative humour of S. Peter, which is more wonderful; for it says, that as Uldrick was going to repose himself, S. Afra a Martyr of Ausburgh appeared to him with a Vermilion countenance, and took him out into the fields, where he found S. Peter, who was sitting amongst a multitude of Saints, who demanded ven­geance of God against those who had per­secuted them, and they cried out especi­ally against Armenulphus Duke of Bavaria, who was then living, and had demolished many Churches and Monasteries, and gi­ven their Revenues to secular persons, and Armenulphus was condemned by the judg­ment of all those Saints. Is it not pity that the other of passing the River, if it had not been too much talked of, was not made use of to have contributed to that Canonization? Because I do not intend to grieve Mr. Cressy any more upon his mi­racles throughout his Book, except I may be thought obliged to it; I will only in this place add a very memorable instance of the same Mezeray, which he relates ve­ry pleasantly: That the Duke of Aquitaine, who was then a Soveraign Prince, at his return from his third or fourth Pilgrimage [Page 38] from Rome (for they were most esteemed, who made most of those Journeys) found his Country enriched with a new Treasu­ry. The Abbot of S. Iohn de Angeny, ha­ving found the Scull of a man in the wall, the report was spread abroad, that it was the head of S. Iohn Baptist. The people of France, Lorrain, and Germany (who in those days, which were after the year One Thousand, run with great zeal after all sorts of Reliques) came thither from all parts: King Robert, the Queen, the Duke of Normandy, and an infinite number of Lords brought thither their Offerings. That of the King was a shell of Gold, which weighed thirty pounds, which was a very admirable present in a time when Gold and Silver were fifty times more rare than it is in these days: And truly when Mo­nasteries came to their wealth by such de­vices as these, it is not to be wondered at, that succeeding times thought they might rob them of some part of it, without being guilty of the sin of Sacriledge. In a word, since so many learned Catholick Authors, either take no notice of the miracles impu­ted to the Saints by him who hath written their Lives, or mention them very Comi­cally, since Cardinal Cajetan calls them old Wives tales; and Cardinal Baronius, who [Page 39] in the course of his History is obliged to relate many of them, yet in such manner as makes it manifest he gave no credit to them: And since Mr. Cressy himself con­fesses that no Catholick is bound to believe them; I can see no reason why it should be so hainous an offence in Dr. Stillingfleet to express no more reverence towards them.

Concerning the person of S. Benedict, I do not find that the Doctor in any place calls him an Hypocrite, or a counter feit En­thusiast; he may have been deluded by the effects of a distempered faney, as many well-meaning men have been; and in truth I think Mr. Cressy is less tender of his honour than he ought to be, by challeng­ing all men to discover any thing in, or of S. Benedict, that may abate that reverence to his memory, that he is bound to pay him, and none disturb him in it, except they be haled by him to rake into his ashes, which whosoever shall do cannot but find enough that will lessen the esteem men would be willing to have of him. If Saint Bennet's rules contain nothing but a colle­ction skilfully made of all Evangelical pre­cepts and Councils of perfection: If there the Ecclesiastical office is so wisely ordered, [Page 40] that the whole Church judged it fit to be her pattern, of which I never heard be­fore. If S. Bennet teaches his Disciples to begin all their actions with an eye to God, begging his assistance, and referring them intirely to God's glory. If there be no­thing in his Rules, but what is mentioned by Mr. Cressy (though there doth not ap­pear all things necessary in it, for a great and a wise King to make choice of for his rule in managing his Kingdom, nor doth he tell us who that wise King was) S. Ben­net may have been, and Mr. Cressy might have continued a Protestant; all those ends, if there be no other in S. Bennet's Rules, being as much commended and enjoyned by the Church of England, as they are by any thing prescribed in the other Injunctions; and if humility and peaceful obedience are indeed so copiously and vehemently inforced, as if in them the spirit of his rule did principally con­sist; he must not take it ill if he be thought not to have studied or conformed himself to that Rule, when he presumes to call a great King a Tyrant, a King that was Soveraign over all his Ancestors, and lived and died as much a Catholick, and as much an enemy to all Protestants as Mr. Cressy himself is at present; and how [Page 41] he comes to have authority from the pra­ctice of his humility and peaceful obedi­ence, to stile such a Prince a Tyrant, be­cause he would not permit another Prince to be a Tyrant in his Dominions, and over his subjects, cannot be easily understood, except it be to insinuate to all other Prin­ces what he thinks of them; and what he thinks he speaks, when they shall deny obedience to the Pope, which the most Catholick Kings frequently have done upon several occasions in the most Catholick times.

In the mean time, if he well consider it, he must believe that that single appellation of Tyrant (setting aside the distance of the Persons) is an expression more inde­cent, more rude, and in all respects more reproachful and scandalous than all the terms put together in Dr. Stillingfleet's Book can amount unto, and to which he takes so great exception. But I cannot enough wonder after all this at the meek­ness of Mr. Cressy's spirit, in which he is willing even to appeal to the Doctors own judgment, if he will but vouchsafe to read, and examine the rules of S. Benedict, which it is not possible for him to do, without reading the second Chapter, in which he [Page 42] describes the duty of an Abbot, who, he says, ought to be the more careful of his behaviour, Christi enim agere vices in Mo­nasterio creditur, quando ipsius vocatur prae­nomine; for he proves that our Saviour was an Abbot upon Earth by that of S. Paul, Accepistis spiritum adoptionis filiorum in quo clamamus Abba Pater, We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father; by which Text S. Bennet thought it was sufficiently pro­ved that Christ was an Abbot. Is the read­ing of this Rule now like to advance the honour of S. Benedict? Or is it possible for any man who doth read it, to believe the poor man (how good soever his meaning might be) qualified to give rules which can improve knowledge or devotion? And in truth I think every man who reads the Orders which were at first instituted by S. Benedict, and the other religious men named, as every man may read them who desires it, will find himself more in danger to be stirred to another passion than choler, which is too predominant in the Doctor, if he be provoked to it upon such an occasion, at least that he will not find himself obliged to be of Bellarmine's opini­on, that those Orders were instituted by [Page 43] the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; and a man may honestly believe that there are not two men of that Society, to which Bellarmine was a great honour, who do concur with him in that opinion, further than in what relates to S. Ignatius.

For my own part I have always had more kindness and esteem for the Monks of that Order, I mean for those of the Eng­lish Congregation, and have had more con­versation with them, than with any other Religious of our Nation. They are (very few excepted) all Gentlemen, and of very good Families (as Mr. Cressy is) and of ve­ry civil and quiet natures, not petulant and troublesome to those who do not think as they do: and they were very kind to all their banished Country-men in France and Flanders; for I have not known them in any other Provintes in the times of the late persecution. I have been assured that they expressed more affection and duty to the King, and were more useful to him, even in assisting him with money in his greatest distresses, and performing other offices for him, than all the other Religious Communities put together: And they had the good fortune to have opportunity to be instrumental towards his Majestie's happy [Page 44] deliverance, after the Battle at Worcester; the consideration of all which hath pre­vailed with the King to give them more countenance and protection than he hath done to any other Ecclesiastical order; and which on their part they have so well me­rited, that I have not heard of one Benedi­ctine Monk (Mr. Cressy only excepted) who hath imbarked himself in controver­sies in the present conjuncture, to the dis­queting of himself and others, and in throwing reproaches upon the Church of England; which may make men think that they do not live all by the same rule, at least that they do not interpret it by the same spirit; and yet after all this Testimo­ny which is due to them from me, I can by no means acknowledge or imagine why Mr. Cressy avows it, That we owe to the fol­lowers and Disciples of S. Benedict the pre­servation of almost all the Literature which remains in the World, which he says pag. 26.Pag. 26. and which all the other Orders me-thinks, which for the most part have been much more industrious in that contribution, should not take well.

Besides, that as in the time of S. Bennet (which may be reckoned to be about the year Five Hundred and Fifty) Learning [Page 45] did in no degree flourish; so it grew less and less for Seven Hundred years after his time, or near so much, even to the Age in which Erasmus lived, who knew the ta­lent of the Monks and Friers very well: And truly I think Mr. Cressy's Superiors may believe that he hath taken too much pains in collecting a bundle of reproaches of a false pretender to Visions, Miracles and Inspirations, and an ignorant fool to be cast upon their Founder, not one of which is laid to his charge by the Doctor, and must therefore be imputed to another Author; and he hath less reason to ima­gine that those reproaches must fall upon S. Gregory, because he confirmed the Rules, and writ the life of S. Bennet, both which he might do without being guilty of either of those imputations. He never knew S. Bennet, and confirmed his Rules long after his death, which makes some Catholick Writers believe that the Rules were in truth not made by S. Benedict; and a known Catholick Antiquary, Mr. Broughton, takes upon him to pro­nounce that S. Gregory himself was never a Monk of that Order, which is a greater affront to it than any that the Doctor hath put upon it.

[Page 46] I do not know but that the Church of England hath a just reverence and esteem of the learning, and of the piety of S. Gre­gory, and a greater than Mr. Cressy hath, (as will appear anon) however as the most learned men, who write many Books, seldom write all with the same perfection and accurateness of judgment, and their Readers do not look upon all with the same estimation; so many do not believe (and I doubt not many Catho­licks) that S. Gregorie's Dialogue of the Life of S. Bennet, is for the learning or judgment of it, equal to the rest of his Works: But Mr. Cressy is very hard to be pleased, who hath been so very angry with the Doctor for the rudeness and incivility of his language, and is now no less dis­pleased with him for his excess of civility in calling S. Benedict Saint, which, he says pag. 31.Pag. 31. If he was guilty of what the Doctor charges him with, savours something of blas­phemy. Truly though many men cannot comprehend how S. Benedict attained that degree, yet no body is sure that he hath it not, and his title doth not seem the worse, because he doth not appear qualified by any particular Canonization at Rome (there being I think no Record of any such) but [Page 47] by a general consent amongst many devout persons, which is the title of all those Pri­mitive Saints, to whose memories our Church pays as much reverence as the other doth, before those very costly com­mencements were established at Rome, which have lately conferred all those de­grees, and the preliminaries to it: But I think it is now the civility of most of the Provinces of Europe to treat all men with the same stile that they assume to them­selves, or their Friends attribute to them, and so we use to call those Saints who are commonly called so, though we are not sure they are in Heaven, and he would be­lieve that he were very unkindly dealt with, if he should be charged with want of integrity for calling the Reverend Pre­lates of our Church, Bishops, when if he did believe them really to be so, he would not when he left the Church have been re-or­dained; and if he does not believe them to be such, his insincerity is more to be re­proved than our blasphemy in calling those Saints of whose station we are not so well assured.

But Mr. Cressy hath a greater insight into History, and a more discerning spirit than any man of whom I have ever heard, if he [Page 48] hath discovered, That the greatest Iudg­ment and Plague that God ever (no doubt in his just anger) brought upon the Christian world, or any Christian part of it, in that general deluge of the Goths, Vandals, Huns, Saxons, Danes, and other Pagan Nations, proved a most unvaluable blessing (as he says pag. 32.Pag. 32.) because God of those stones raised up children unto Abraham, that is, after these inhumane miscreants had for many hun­dred years massacred many millions of Christians, demolished so many Churches and Religious houses, and introduced a brutish savageness into the very nature of the Inhabitants within the Provinces of which they were possessed, some of their posterity became Christians, and yet for al­most an Age after their conversion, their manners remained still almost as much Pa­gan as they were before. And for their building of Churches and Schools of piety, hear what Monsieur Mezeray (who is much more conversant with the transacti­ons of those times than Mr. Cressy is) says, I know no time in which there were more Churches and Abbies built than in this, (speaking of the Tenth Century, which was near the time when the most general conversion of these Barbarians happened) The most wicked persons affected (says he) ve­ry [Page 49] much the title of Founders, whist they ruined Churches on one side, they built others on the contrary, and made sacrilegious Offer­ings to God of those things which they had ra­vished from the poor; and therefore those structures are not always the best Records of the piety of the Age in which they are erected; and very few of the Monasteries into which Kings, and Queens, and Prin­ces used to retire for attending their Hea­venly meditation were erected after the in­cursion of those barbarous Pagans, and be­fore which that numerous Army of Mar­tyrs was likewise expired, since that time must be reckoned under the Ten Persecu­tions: So that the unvaluable blessing that Christian Religion received from that im­pious inundation, is not yet discovered or understood; and less, that the persons who by Gods blessed directions instilled in­to the hearts of men such an heroi­cal Faith, and Divine love were principal­ly the Disciples of S. Benedict. I must tell him again that Christianity was well culti­vated before S. Bennet's Rules were pub­lished or confirmed, which was not till af­ter the year Six Hundred; and from that time it received greater improvement from the piety and learning of many devout Pre­lates, and from the learning and good lives [Page 50] of the Clergy, and of other Religious men, than it hath ever done by the disciples of S. Bennet, except all the Monasteries that have been ever founded, and all the pro­fessed Monks shall be looked upon as foun­ded by him; upon which computation I doubt many of Mr. Cressy's mistakes are to be imputed; nor is he probably well in­formed of the numbers which have been converted to Christianity by the Protestant Churches, though he takes upon him to know that there is not one Village which he would hardly undertake, since he can­not but know that the Protestants have many large Plantations in Provinces inha­bited by Pagans, whereof many have been converted; if he did not think that a con­version from Paganism is to little purpose, if it be not to the Popes obedience, which is not indeed a condition imposed upon the Protestant proselytes: And if he will not allow us the having ever done one miracle, he is not of the mind of as great a Catholick Doctor as himself, Dr. Harpsfield, who in his Ecclesiastical History of England, after he hath at large described the miracle wrought by Edward the Confessor, in the cure of those noisom swellings (which hath since got the name of the Kings Evil:) Pag. 219. He adds, Quam strumosos sanandi [Page 51] admirabilem dotem in posteros suos Anglorum Reges, ad nostra usque tempora transfudisse & perpetuâsse meritò creditur: And Mr. Cressy may be informed that no prece­dent King hath more notoriously cured multitudes of people of both Sexes, than the present King hath done, both whilst he remained in the parts beyond the Seas, and since his return into England.

Truly Mr. Cressy hath chafed himself into a very tragical heighth of choler, when after his passionate and ungrave commination of what the Doctor shall un­dergo at the day of Judgment, he defies him to say, pag. 35.Pag. 35. publickly, or by wri­ting to signifie only his opinion, That S. Benedict, S. Gregory, S. Francis, and the rest are now reprobate damned Souls in Hell, yet such (he says) they must be if they were hypocritical Visionaries, and false pre­tenders of Miracles, &c. and if such be not his opinion, nay, if he be not assured that they are in a cursed condition, he asks, Whether his Tongue or Pen was not set on fire of Hell, whilst he uttered such blasphemies against them, as a perpetual monument of his rage till the day of Iudgment, I cannot imagine what storm hath raised this tem­pest of words; where is this rage? where [Page 52] was this blasphemy? Mr. Cressy will have too great an advantage against those who differ from him in opinion, if they must be obliged to condemn all those whose words which they are said to have spoken, they do not believe, nor those actions which are imputed to them to be damned in Hell: Such fury may possess Mr. Cressy, and some others (I hope not many) of his Religion, but our Church allows no such presumption in her Children. Many me­lancholick and fanciful men have belie­ved that they have had visions and illumi­nations which have been but the effects of their fancy and melancholy: Others have believed men to have wrought miracles, which they never did work; and some things to have been miracles which were not miracles, and no sober men will con­demn either of those to damnation: Nay, if any pious persons out of their zeal to Christianity have believed it necessary to the promotion thereof, to devise miracles, and perswade others to believe them (as many such frauds have been imputed to the ancient Monks by Catholick writers) God forbid that we should believe that those Souls are therefore in Hell. Mr. Cressy hath a credulity towards miracles greater than most Catholicks, it may be than any [Page 53] one other learned Catholick; and yet it is possible that he may not believe that vision or illumination which S. Francis relates of himself; that when he had made his first Rule, many thought it too hard, and de­sired that he would lessen the rigour of it; whereupon he went up into a mountain called Palombo, and after many prayers and tears to God, and long fasting upon Bread and Water, Spiritu sancto suggerente, & Christo dictante, he writ those Rules which still are pretended to be observed, and which upon this ground were confirmed by Pope Honorius the third; notwithstand­ing all which, his own Friers of Assissium remained still unsatisfied with the severity and rigour of those his second Rules, and obliged their Superiour to accompany them to S. Francis, who seeing them coming, called to them, and asked them what they came for; to which they resolutely an­swered, that his new rule was too sharp, and that they would not be bound to ob­serve it; he should make it for himself, but not for them: upon which S. Francis turned his face to Heaven, and said to our Saviour, Lord, did not I tell thee that these men would not believe me? Tune audierunt omnes vocem Christi respondentem in aere, Francisce, Nihil est in regula de tuo, sed [Page 54] meum est quicquid est ibi; & volo quod re­gula sic observetur, ad literam, ad literam, ad literam, sine glossa, sine glossa, sine glossa; and added, Ego scio quantum potest humana fragilitas, & quantum volo juvare eos, qui hanc regulam amplectentur, qui ergo nolunt observare eam, exeant de ordine; upon which he pacified his Friers, and thought his Rules to be as much dictated to him by our Saviour, as the Law was by God to Moses upon the Mount Sinai, all this is printed with his Rule, and with the Popes Bulls, and the testimony of S. Bonaventure. If Mr. Cressy doth believe this, he doth be­lieve more than any learned Capuchin or Franciscan Frier doth pretend to believe, and if he doth not believe it, he rejects S. Francis his own evidence, which is bet­ter than hath been given for any one mi­racle that is imputed to him: Certainly whatsoever a man is not bound to believe he may very lawfully disbelieve; so that I know not where the Doctor's fault is by Mr. Cressy's own judgment; for he says, no man is obliged to believe them: After all which I cannot enough admire and pity the strange extasie into which Mr. Cressy's passion hath transported him, that he should reprove the Doctor for not giving the same credit to the Visions, and Dreams, [Page 55] and Revelations of S. Benedict & S. Francis, as he is bound to do, to the prescription of diet which God himself gave to the Pro­phet Ezekiel, and the command he gave to the Prophet Isaiah to go naked and bare­foot, or to the injunction our Saviour laid upon his Disciples in an extraordinary mission not to salute any man they met; that is, because he believes the word of God, which every Christian professes to do, he should likewise believe those visions and miracles, which few wise men think to be true, and they who do, confess that they are not bound to think so; and therefore it is the office of a Friend to desire Mr. Cressy once more to revolve the three last pages of his second Chapter, and seriously consider, whether there be not more wrath, and clamour, and evil speaking, and even prophaneness, if not blasphemy, than all put together in the Doctors Book can possi­bly amount to in any candid interpreta­tion.

I doubt he will have as ill luck in his third Chapter, and the worse because the subject of it, Prayer and Contemplation, hath not at all mollified his spirit, or re­duced his passion to any sobriety. Must a man be thought to be averse to a contempla­tive [Page 56] life, or to be an enemy to, or a deri­der of the Prayer of contemplation, because he is not much affected with the Rules and prescriptions which Mr. Cressy and some other of his Friends have taken upon them to give, for rendring the same more per­fect and exact? And though the Doctor is more modest than to make his own judg­ment and understanding an argument to condemn what another man thinks very reasonable (which is the syllogism the other out of kindness hath made for him;) yet truly I have so good an opinion of Mr. Cressy's understanding, that if he should tell me, that he had held a dis­course upon matter of Religion with a man who entertained him for half an hour in a continued speech, with many proper, and in themselves very intelligible words, which drew his best attention to what he said, which was all pronounced in so grave a tone, that he suspected his own understanding for not quickly compre­hending what his meaning could be; but that after all his intentness of mind, he could observe nothing but a heap of words improperly mingled together, without any coherence or context to make any sig­nification: I should presently conclude, that what he had heard was unintelligible [Page 57] canting; for what other definition can be given of unintelligible canting, than a dia­lect of affected words, which have no con­gruity, and of which men of very compe­tent parts, and who hear patiently, can­not collect any sence? And I have always believed that men who cannot express their own meaning, in words and a me­thod that men of good comprehension do understand their meaning, have not clear notions themselves of what they do deli­ver; and if mystick Divines will express their conceptions of the most pure opera­tions of the Soul her self, and likewise of God upon the Soul, in such terms and lan­guage, as none but those of their own fra­ternity can upon hearing them know what they would have, they must not take it ill if other men believe that they have a peculiar cipher between themselves, which being in words, is only sence to them, and canting to every body else: But without doubt Prayer, and whatsoever relates to it, should always consist of language so plain and easie, that the meanest and low­est of the people cannot but know what every word signifies. And as he is com­monly very unhappy in his application of Scripture; so he now prophanes S. Paul's name to a purpose so contrary to what he [Page 58] would apply it to, that if there were no other argument to convince him of his er­ror, that Text alone would do it very am­ply. S. Paul, who, he says, was the grea­test Master of Language that perhaps ever was, yet for want of words could not describe the extasie he had been in, nor the vision that he had seen, but professed that no humane language could describe them, nor humane fancy comprehend them, and therefore Mr. Cressy says, that according to the Doctors grounds, S. Paul should be the greatest Fanatick that ever was, yea the Father of all Fanaticks, yet the Doctor dares not call him so, whereas the Doctor only calls those Fanaticks who will not imitate S. Paul, but upon an imagination that they have seen somewhat which few men believe they did see, will needs de­scribe it in words which no body under­stands: and though that great Master of Language, therefore forbore to mention what he had seen or heard, because there were no words which would serve the turn, he hath helped S. Paul to proper words to do it by; and says that it cannot be denied to have been a passive union of S. Paul's Soul with God, but since S. Paul could not tell what it was, we are not bound to believe that Mr. Cressy knows [Page 59] better, or can better express it; and it were to be wished that his Friends, if they have such apparitions as they cannot un­derstand, they will be as modest as S. Paul, and not go about to describe them, nor be­lieve that they do understand themselves, what they cannot make any body else to understand.

Since Mr. Cressy appeals from the Do­ctor to the indifferent Reader, upon his sharp censure of some expressions in Sancta Sophia, and takes much pains to make elucidations upon those difficult places which the Doctor thought hard to be un­derstood, and which he seems to believe will, by the pains he hath taken, appear very intelligible. I cannot but take my self to be one of those indifferent Readers, who is not by any prejudice to the man, or to the matter uncapable of judging of the sence of what he reads: And I must con­fess that by Mr. Cressy's favour and directi­on, I had one of those Books of Sancta So­phia presented to me assoon as it was prin­ted; which I was the more impatient to read, because he had recommended it to me as a Book worthy to be read by all Christians, since it medled not with any Controversies, but was the greatest help [Page 60] to devotion in general, that had been yet published; nor did he think himself con­cerned in the commendation, since he al­ways professed that he was not Author of any thing contained in the Book, but of the method and marshalling the several discourses out of Papers and Notes, not enough digested by the death of Mr. Ba­ker, who was generally esteemed a learn­ed and devout man; and truly I believe he might be so, and as I have heard (for I never saw him, nor did Mr. Cressy I think) spent more time privately upon his own thoughts, than in books or conversation. I cannot deny but that I did then think that what was not very vulgarly said, which was honest, was very obscure and difficult to be understood, which I did re­ally impute to want of capacity in my self, until I read many of the particulars to others much wiser, and in all respects very competent judges of such discourses; and when upon a full disquisition I found them of the same opinion, and that they knew not how to make any thing that was said applicable to heighten their own devoti­ons, I begun to conclude too, that what benefit soever others might attain by read­ing it (for I met with some women who professed to have received much benefit by [Page 61] it) I should get little in taking more pains to comprehend it; and I remember it came out much about the same time that Sir Henry Vane published a book of the same subject, of the love of God, and the union with God; which when I had read, and found nothing of his usual clearness and ratiocination in his discourse, in which he used much to excel the best of the com­pany he kept, and that the stile thereof was very like that of Sancta Sophia, and that in a crowd of very easie words the sence was too hard to find out: I was of opinion that the subject matter of it was of so delicate a nature, that it required ano­ther kind of preparation of mind, and it may be another kind of diet than men are ordinarily supplied with: And I am now the more confirmed in that judgment, by finding all Mr. Cressy's glosses which he hath taken the pains to make, to inform his indifferent Reader of the sence of those hard places, do but make the understand­ing thereof the more intricate, and that the Commentary is not less obscure than the Text, and nothing is more wonderful than that the illustration he makes to facilitate the understanding of what is conceived obscure, by the Prayer in our Churches Liturgy, (which he says was borrowed [Page 62] from the Roman, and I say was translated out of our own,) Lord, from whom all good things come, grant us thy humble ser­vants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding we may perform the same: I say it is strange that he does not so far dis­cern, that this Prayer is so easie that no one pretends not to understand the perfect meaning and extent thereof; whereas he cannot but know that some men of more than common understanding profess not to comprehend the other; and therefore it is too magisterial a determination, that whosoever hath not a capacity to under­stand Sancta Sophia, is an enemy to mental Prayer, which no body can be who un­derstands it, or in the least degree hath endeavoured to practise it: Since it is the best, if not the only way to keep the mind fixed upon the subject it is solicitous for, and the object to whom the Prayers are di­rected, which in the loud pronunciation of many words, is, it may be, to many men the most difficult thing in the sacrifice of Prayer, especially if there be any affe­ctation of words, which insensibly carries the mind away from what it should be in­tent upon, and the least moment of diver­sion puts a period to mental prayer, which [Page 63] without any sensible motion hath a vehe­mence that cannot bear interruption, and as little any prescription of method from another man.

To the personal reflexions and inve­ctives against the Doctor, fuller of cause­less passions, and of bitterness, and viru­lence, than I have ever observed in so little room in any book, I shall answer in a more proper place anon.

After Mr. Cressy hath spent many pages in commending to his friends the having a good opinion of Visions, and Revelations, and Miracles, and very pathetically ad­vises them to read the Histories of the lives of Saints, which the more they have done, they may probably be the less inclined to conform to his opinions; he professes that the only ground of the Catholicks faith, is divine Revelation made to the Church by Christ and his Apostles, and conveyed to posterity in Scripture and Tradition; and we say that the ground of the Faith of the Church of England is the same, leaving out the two last words, and tradition; not that the Church of England is an enemy to, or disclaims the use of tradition, but is not guided and governed by it, by reason of [Page 64] the incertainty of it: Where the tradition is universal and uncontradicted, we have as much resignation to it as they have; and therefore we do acknowledge the recepti­on of the Scripture to be by unquestion­able and never doubted tradition: and that having thereby received it, it hath in it self enough to convince the Reader that it could not be formed and invented by the wit of man, nor that it hath not been dis­guised or corrupted by the malice of man; and so we are possessed of the Scriptures by the same tradition that they are; and whatever they believe by as confessed a tradition, we believe likewise as well as they: But when they urge many things as necessary to be believed by the authority of tradition, we do not reject the authority, but deny the tradition, and say there is no tradition that will warrant it; and how fallible that pretence is, needs no other manifestation than that controversie of the observation of Easter, which continued half a hundred years only upon the point of tradition with so much bitterness and animosity; the Greek Church alledging that tradition was for them, and the Ro­man Church the contrary; and if tradition was so doubtful a guide in those Primitive times, when so few years had run out, [Page 65] what must it be now, when five times as many are since expired. They therefore do not deal ingenously, who amuse their auditors with telling them, that we reject all tradition, consider not antiquity, submit to no authority, but every man chuses a Religion according to his own spirit: Whereas they well know that the Church of England doth as much respect tradition when it is agreed upon (as all evidence must be that is submitted to) and requires as much subjection to authority, and leaves as little to the private fancy and imagina­tion of men, and pays as much reverence to the primitive Fathers where they con­cur together in opinion, as the Church of Rome doth; but denies any subjection to that Church, and believes that her own children (with others she meddles not) should have the same reverence for her de­terminations, as those others have for the Roman; since her determinations are made with as much regularity, as lawful authority, and with the unanimous advice of as learned men, as by the others, of which we shall say more in the conclusion of this discourse.

If Mr. Cressy was not very confident that all for whom he writes, will confidently [Page 66] believe all he says, and had not a marvel­lous contempt of all other persons, he would not so positively say, That when ex­amination is made of miracles in order to the Canonization of any Saint, the testimony of women will not be received, pag. 68.Pag. 68. and gives the reason for it, because naturally imagination is stronger in them than judg­ment, and whatsoever is esteemed by them to be pious, is easily concluded by them to be true; which may likewise be the reason that his beloved Sancta Sophia is so much valued by women, and his Miracles so much be­lieved by them only, and neither the one or the other in any degree regarded by any learned men of the Roman Church: But his averment that the testimony of women is rejected in those cases, is without any ground. Was not the single testimony of the Nurse the only evidence of the first mi­racle that was wrought by his adored S. Benedict in the mending the Sieve, or putting together the broken pieces of the Earthen pot? If he were much conversant in the acts of Canonization, as he ought to be before he publishes the Rules observed there, he would have found that the se­venth miracle wrought by Philip Nereus (the Founder of the order of the Oratori­ans) for which he was Canonized, was, [Page 67] that he cured diseases oftentimes by his word; as particularly in the case of Maria Felici à Castro; in Monasterio Turris specu­lorum Moniali, quae continua febri correpta, Philippo jubente statim convaluit: And his eighth was, that he cured many sick people meerly by his apparition; Ac Drusilla Fan­tina, quae praecipiti casuprostrata, ac horri­bili capitis, oculorum & totius corporis collisi­one, semiviva jacens, tribus Philippi appa­ritionibus mirabiliter liberatur: And he would likewise have found in the Canoni­zation of Ignotius Loyala his thirty third mi­racle is, that of Isabella Monialis ord. S. Cla­rae, who being threescore and seven years old, being in a very high place about bu­siness, by mischance had a terrible fall to the ground, with which she broke her thigh, and for above forty days adhibitis per Medicum & Chirurgum, eventu planè irrito, medicamentis, and all hope of life being in the judgment of all, hopeless and desperate, petita tamen pia cum religione & impetrata reliquia B. Ignatii & super coxen­dicem applicata, statim sana est reddita, & coxendicem & tibiam prius tumentem, atque immobilem, expedite, & sine dolore movere coepit, & die proxima surrexit, ac libere & perfecte ambulavit. Many more of the like instances he will find in the fourth [Page 68] Tome of the great Bullarium; and without the evidence of these three women, these miracles had been lost, which could not but contribute very much to their Canoni­zation: Nor was the Testimony of women ever rejected in those cases, it is probable for that very reason for which Mr. Cressy seems to think their evidence ought not to be received, because imagination is stronger in them than judgment, and that whatsoever is esteemed by them to be pious, is easily by them concluded to be true; and such a Con­fessor as Mr. Cressy will easily perswade them to believe that many things are pi­ous, which he knows not to be true: And in truth he hath not answered the weight of the Doctors instance of the visions of S. Bridget, and S. Katherine of Syena, with all the help that S. Anthony and Cardi­nal Baronius can give him; the last of which apparently believed neither of them; and his own addition is much less sa­tisfactory to any discerning person, that no Oecumenical Council hath made a Canon with an Anathema against all those who will not ac­knowledge all the Revelations of S. Bridget to have been divine, and the belief of them necessary to salvation, and that all that was done by the Council, was upon occasion of in­vectives made against those Revelations by [Page 69] many Catholicks to require Joannes à Turre­cremata, to peruse and give his judgment of them; which being favourable, the Coun­cil approved them, says the Doctor, that is (says Mr. Cressy) freely permitted them to be read, as containing nothing contrary to faith and good manners. The Councils ap­probation was much more than that; but if it were no more, it doth not become the Catholick Church, or any National Church to give that countenance to any new opi­nion that may encourage such a liberty, as he says is taken by many writers to decry both the one and the other, and introdu­ces animosity, and uncharitableness be­tween Christians, which hath been noto­rious enough in this particular: And since he confesses that many illusions and fancies have been brought into the Church by pretence of such Revelations by the several Sects and Persons named by the Doctor; as the Sects of Mendicants, the Authors of the Evangelium aeternum, and the rest; all or most of which did find countenance, and exceedingly disturb the peace of the Church, and who Mr. Cressy confesses were Monsters raised up by the Devil in a cursed imitation of the graces and gifts communicated by God to his devout and faithful servants: There cannot be too [Page 70] much vigilance in shutting all doors at which such illusions may enter, and no body is to be blamed, who is most jealous of their integrity.

We come in the next place to his fifth Chapter of resisting authority, falsly impu­ted, he says, to Catholick Religion, in which, he says, the Doctor doth very ingeni­ously absolve the Catholick Church her self, and lays the fault only on the principles and pra­ctices of the Iesuitical party. Indeed the Doctor cannot but absolve the Catholick Church from that reproach, except he thought all Christian Churches liable to it; but he is far from absolving all Catholicks of the Roman Church from rebellion, except­ing only the Iesuits (though he instances most in them, because the books which most defend it have been written by those of that Society) but nothing can be stran­ger than that Mr. Cressy should so magnifie the general obedience of all Roman Catho­licks, that none of them were ever in re­bellion against the King, or his Father, when he knows very well, and hath some marks of it, that the whole Irish Nation (very few persons of honour excepted) joyned in rebellion against the King; and but for that rebellion neither Presbyterian, [Page 71] Independant or Anabaptist had been able to have done any harm in England. For the Scots rebellion was totally suppressed, and their Army disbanded before the Irish rebel­lion begun: It was that which produced all the mischief that succeeded in England, and gave those Sects in Religion opportuni­ty to bring in their confusion to the de­struction of the Church and State, with such barbarous circumstances as are too horrible to repeat, though they can never be forgotten: Was not that Rebellion be­gun, and carried on intirely by the Kings Roman Catholick subjects? Was there one man but Catholicks who concurred in it? and did they pretend any other cause for it but Religion? at least when they had the satisfaction they desired, in whatsoever else they pretended, did they not continue it still under pretence of Religion? Was not the secular and regular Clergy equally engaged to support it? And did not the Pope him­self contribute to it, if not contrive it? And was not himself in the person of his Nuntio Rinnuccini, General of the Rebels, both by Sea and Land? And can there be a greater manifestation that the Catholick Roman Religion it self favoured rebellion, than when their head of their Church, and all Ecclesiastical Orders joyned, and concur­red [Page 72] in it? And it it cannot but be obser­ved, that though the Irish for ought ap­pears only carried on, or were active in that Rebellion, there was not any English Catholick that made any publick profession against it, nor did one English Priest, Se­cular or Regular, manifest his detestation or dislike of it by any publick writing: And how much they favoured it in private dis­course, there wants not abundant evi­dence: All which should be forgotten, as it is forgiven, before there be such loud En­comiums published of the never-failing obe­dience of the Romish Catholicks, and the Records of later rebellions in France, as well as those of the League should be razed out. It is to be wished rather than hoped that the profession of Christian Religion in any Church had that impulsion in it as it ought to have, that it preserved the professors of it from entring into rebellion, and the pra­ctice of any other iniquity: Yet it may be truly said, that there were very few who did so much as pretend to have a reverence for the Church of England, that were ever active in the late rebellion: How far the fear and consternation men were in, for­ced them to submit to that torrent which over-bore them, ought not to be imputed, since it over whelmed multitudes of all pro­fessions, [Page 73] who heartily abhorred those that they were compelled to obey.

It is a great instance of Mr. Cressy's good temper, if it be of his sincerity, that he is so solicitous to purge the Iesuits from the im­putations which are more particularly cast on them: I believe they did not expect it from him, who is not thought to agree with them in all which they account fun­damental: Yet truly the excuse he makes for them, is such, as if he invited men to keep up their prejudice against them: That for asmuch as concerns the unsafe Anti­monarchical doctrine contained in those books cited by the Doctor, it is almost a whole Age, since that they have been by their General for­bidden under pain of Excommunication, and other most grievous censures to justifie them, either in writing, preaching, or disputing, &c. Mr. Cressy speaks much of retractati­on, and says well, That they who by writing or otherwise have published scandalous do­ctrine, which hath corrupted other men, do not do their duty in being silent, and giving over to do that which will be no longer safe for them to do, but that recantation and retractation is necessary, that they may be known to be no longer of the samc mind. Is there any man of the society that hath writ­ten [Page 74] against that Anti-monarchical doctrine, who hath endeavoured to confute Cardinal Bellarmine, or Mariana, or Emanuel Sa, or any of the rest? Is not Bellarmine's book of the power of the Pope over Kings? are not all the other books to be bought at every Stationers shop? Who knows any thing of the Generals warrants but them­selves? It was known to, and permitted by the Pope; that is, the Pope was wil­ling when their books were out, that they should be quiet, and write no more, which would excuse them for not answer­ing those books, which Catholicks as well as Protestants should write against them; and that they might not enter into dispute with the Colledge of Sorbon, which detested their Principles: He says, It is well known that in this point, Princes and States are ge­nerally become more clear-sighted, and more wise than formerly they have been, and by consequence the Court of Rome also. It is indeed well known that the Court of Rome adheres still to its own principles, though they do not think fit to put Princes in mind what they are; well knowing that all their Bulls and Interdictions and Absolutions, how long soever since published, are still in the same force and vigour, as they were the first hour of their publication; and it [Page 75] is very few years since, that upon an occa­sion of some consultation between the secu­lar and regular Clergy of Ireland to present an address to the King, in testimony of their obedience, in which they disclaimed any temporal authority to be in the Pope; the Court of Rome was so alarm'd by it, that Cardinal Barberine writ to them to desist from any such Declaration, and put them in mind that the Kingdom of England was still under Excommunication; and since that time, the Pope hath made many Bishops in Ireland, which his predecessors had forborn to do from the death of Queen Elizabeth, to the year One thousand Six hundred and Forty; and this is the clear­sightedness and wisdom that the Court of Rome is lately improved in.

But he doth assure you, that if an oath were framed free from ambiguity, and with­out odious phrases inserted in it (wholly unne­cessary to the substance of it) the Iesuits would not make any scruple of joyning with their Ca­tholick brethren in it: Alas! what autho­rity hath he to assure us this? He knows very well that the Society will not trust him to frame such Oath; and that they and he differ very much in their judgments in that point; and of all men, Mr. Cressy [Page 76] is the most unfit for such an undertaking: He cannot forget that shortly after he de­serted the Church of England, and publish­ed his Exomologesis (which in comparison of all that he hath writ since may be look­ed upon as a modest Book,) he did in that Book publish a protestation or subscription, which all the Roman Catholicks in England would be willing to take; and in truth it did not differ much in substance or sence from the Oaths which are enjoyned by the Law; and no doubt he would have taken it himself, and did then believe that all other Catholicks might have taken it like­wise: But within a short time all that im­pression of that Book was bought up, or otherwise procured; and a second Edition of it published, wherein there were very many substantial alterations and additions from what was in the former; the prote­station of duty and obedience, which was in the first, was totally left out in the second impression, it being not thought a fit obli­gation for the Catholicks to enter into: The discourse he had made of Purgatory was likewise left out, for he had mistaken the tenent of his new Church in that parti­cular: Many other alterations were made, as must be confessed by any man, who will take the pains to examine both Editions: [Page 77] There were also many additions, especial­ly of reproaches against the Church of Eng­land, and many bitter and virulent expres­sions against the Clergy of that Church: And I know a person who meeting with Mr. Cressy, expostulated with him upon all those particulars; and asked him how it came to pass that those were left out, when his Book had been first licensed by Dr. Holden, and another Doctor of the Sor­bon, and why the other calumnies were added which so much reflected upon the Clergy, contrary to what in his own Con­science he knew was true, to all which he answered with passionate protestations, that he never knew of one or the other till he saw the second impression; that his Superi­ours were offended with the first, in which there were some mistakes, and that he had intirely left it to their discretions to do what they should think fit upon it; whereupon they had caused it to be re­printed as it now stood, without at all communicating with him; which it seems being a custom amongst them, gives me yet some hope that the very unusual passion and incivility that runs through this discourse may be added by the appointment and direction of some Superiour: Since he is not so much altered in his face or habit [Page 78] from what he was, when he was thirty years of Age, as he is from that modesty and gentleness of nature, and smoothness and civility of stile, if all the expressions in his Book are his own, from the time I knew him, and had conversation with him: But he finds it much easier to revile than answer any Books the Doctor hath writ in any time: Nor can his opinion be doubted of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, both which he hath often taken, and as often declared his detestation of the Cove­nant, which Mr. Cressy will never be able to prove he ever took: And if he had, it could not be wondered at, since by the age he was of when he published his Book in defence of Archbishop Laud, (which some who knew it well, assured me to be but twenty eight years:) I cannot sup­pose him to be, when the Covenant was first appointed to be administred to all Scholars in the Universities, above the age of thirteen years, if so much; and cannot be conceived to be at all instructed in the principles of the Church of England, which had been long before that discountenanced and suppressed: And no body doubts but that there are very many reverend and learned persons, who have now great and unquestionable affection and zeal for that [Page 79] Church, who did in their minority, and under that accursed and tyrannical Go­vernment, take that lewd Covenant, and whose affection and zeal is not the less for having taken it: But of all men it least becomes Mr. Cressy to put them in mind of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, when himself broke from the obligations of them, and his own subscription, though he was near, if not full forty years of age when he last repeated those obligations; and himself acknowledges that the Doctor had the courage, even in those ill times, to write against all the Religions which were then professed, and countenanced, in his Ironicon that he is so angry with: And I do profess that I am not of the Doctor's mind in all things which he says in that Book; yet as Mr. Cressy will never under­take to confute it, so I am not sorry that no body else hath gone about to answer it.

I will not accompany Mr. Cressy in his uncharitable passion, which every expres­sion how lawful soever, that he dislikes, kindles in him, by treating others as he doth Archbishop Cranmer, whose memory will be preserved, as of a most worthy Pre­late, and glorious Martyr, notwithstand­ing the foul imputations he is pleased to [Page 80] cast upon him: Yet I must tell him, that if that unhappy and ill advised Queen (who had just reason to be offended highly with that Archbishop) could have found that the Law would have condemned him for Treason, she rather desired to have had him hanged for a Traitor, than to have him bur­ned for his Religion, since she wanted not other instances enough of her severity in that kind: But the Law would not extend to serve her turn that way; if it would, no body would have blamed her for ha­ving prosecuted him with the utmost ri­gour, whereas many good men then did, and since have for proceeding the other way with him. It is not new to find those who have been adjudged Traitors by the Law of the Land, looked upon in his Church as Martyrs, which he well knows is the case of some who were execu­ted for the Gunpowder Treason: But he will answer, that is no act of the Church, which hath never declared them Martyrs; it may be so, and it is as true, that the Church hath in some times Canonized those who were by Law known to be guilty of High Treason (though not executed for it) as Saints; for whoever understands the Law as it was in those days, cannot doubt but that Thomas Becket was guilty of High [Page 81] Treason, and might legally have been pro­ceeded against for it, as he was condem­ned afterwards for it; though the assassi­nation of him was in no degree warran­table, or to be excused: Many other ex­amples of the same kind may be given; however it is a very sorry exception that Mr. Cressy takes to Archbishop Cranmer's subscription of his opinion, that he remits the judgment thereof wholly to the King: So, says he, a final judgment both touching Government and Doctrine is by the prime Bishop referred to a King of about nine years old, a great glory surely to the English: Which is a suggestion below the wisdom and experience of Mr. Cressy, who cannot but know that in all Kingdoms hereditary, that the King is not less King for being but nine years of age, and that all sentences and judgments are as much referred to him then as when he is at full age; and the transactions are concluded in the same me­thod and formality as they would be then: As that opinion of the Archbishop was considered by the Privy Council, and what­soever was done afterwards, which was not in all particulars agreeable to that opi­nion, was concluded by the Parliament. Nor is he much graver in his Comical discourse of the Kings Title of being Su­preme [Page 82] Governour of the Church of England, (for he knows that head is not in the title, though if it were, it would be of no other signification) that the King may thereby ordain Bishops and Priests himself, which he well knows the Crown always dis­claims, and the Church never admitted, but knows very well that the King hath as much authority to appoint and autho­rize those who shall do both within his own dominions, as the Pope (who doth neither with his own hands) hath in his own Territories, or others, where, by the consent of the Princes, he hath that jurisdiction.

I shall say nothing in defence of the Hu­gonots of France, of whose communion I do not profess my self to be; they are of age, let them speak for themselves; yet I may say that I do not comprehend how their Confession of faith obliges them to be Traitors and Rebels whensoever the honour of God (which, he says, is the defence of their ex­ecrable Religion) is concerned; and it can­not be denied, that there have been many rebellions in France by the Catholicks, since there have been any in which the Hugo­nots joyned; who for these many years have given great testimony of their signal af­fection, [Page 83] and fidelity to the King; and when they were known to have temptati­ons which many Catholicks did not resist: And Mr. Cressy knows that there are many very learned men amongst them, whose lives are not reproachable, and whose writings for the learning contained in them, and the modesty with which they are represented, are thought worthy to be answered by the reverend Bishops them­selves, and other eminent and learned Catholicks, who are contented to answer their Arguments and their Allegations with all possible candor and condescension, and without any bitterness of language; and therefore I cannot but lament on the behalf of our Nation, and our manners, and of the English tongue, that the good spirit of France, and the urbanity that is there used in handling Controversies in Religion, hath not made greater impression upon Mr. Cressy, who hath lived so many years amongst them, as might well have dispo­sed him to have followed their example, and might have convinced him that rude­ness of stile and impetuosity of words in con­tradictions of the highest importance which can relate to Religion, are not essen­tial to the being a good Catholick; and since he urges the great liberty the Hugonots en­joy [Page 84] joy in France, as an argument against the severity (he will call it by a worse name) of the Laws of his Country, which forbid any exercise of the Romish Religion in that Kingdom; he will not take it ill that I put him in mind, that as the Hugonots have great obligations to his most Christian Ma­jesty, their true and lawful King, for his clemency and justice towards them, in de­fending and protecting them in the enjoy­ment and possession of all those rights, pri­viledges and immunities which are gran­ted to them by the Law of the Land, so they do enjoy no more liberty than by that Law is due, nor can it be taken from them without a bare-faced violation of the Law, which is of no more force to defend the Subjects in their other possessions, than it is to defend the Hugonots in the exercise of their Religion, and yet with all this right and legal title to protection, no Hu­gonot in France dares revile the Bishops or the Magistrate, much less the Religion that is established there; nor mention the Laws without reverence, or do any thing that is scandalous to the government, or that is not allowed by the Law; whereas a Benedi­ctine Monk, who by being so hath renoun­ced his subjection to his King, by chusing other Superiors for himself, with obedience [Page 85] to whom, his obedience to the King is in­consistent; who hath deserted the Religion, and the Church in which he hath been edu­cated, and to which he hath vowed sub­jection, (and in that respect cannot but be less acceptable than those who have never been subject to it) who is so obnoxious to the Laws, that he cannot securely live one day, or set his foot in England; notwith­standing all which this man hath the cou­rage to enter into it, publickly to defie the Laws, traduce the Government, treat the Bishops, and the reverend Clergy, and the Christian Religion that is established there by Law, and all the professors of it, with those scoffs, and derision, and contempt, as if they were Turks and Pagans, and if he had a warrantable mission to convert them, would not yet in common prudence and discretion become him, and seems contrary to any good and Christian inten­tion; and all this while in his triumphant stile, as if he had subdued all Protestant Churches, he complains lamentably of the cruel persecution against Catholicks.

God be thanked the King hath many good Catholick subjects of another temper of spirit, who with all duty acknowledge the goodness and indulgence of the King, [Page 86] in permitting them to live with that ease and security that they have enjoyed from the time of his Majesties blessed restoration, without any distinction between them, and any other of his subjects; and desire nothing more than the continuance of the same ease, and protection, and take care to provide, and warily entertain Confes­sors of the same humble and grateful spirit. Is there one Roman Catholick in England of the Laity or the Clergy, that hath suffered in the least degree in his Person, or his Estate, for being a Roman Catholick, (whe­ther many have not gotten by it, who would not have been considered under any other title, many men do doubt) since the time of his Majesties blessed restoration? Did they ever enjoy the like tranquillity for a quarter of that time since the Refor­mation? The King looked upon many of them, as persons who had deserved well from his blessed Father and himself, which cannot be denied, and upon the rest as good subjects, and upon all of them as men who had suffered with him, if not for him, in the late barbarous times of Usurpation: His Majesty graciously remembred the hu­manity he had found in many Catholick Countries, and from some Catholick Prin­ces, who always besought him not to be [Page 87] severe to his Catholick subjects, when God should restore them to his protection; and it was not agreeable to the gentleness and clemency of his Majesties nature, when he pardoned all the breach, and contempt, and violation of the Laws, almost to the highest and foulest transgressors, upon his arrival to awaken those Laws for the de­struction of his poor Catholick subjects, which upon the matter had slept even in that season of Tyranny, though a more ar­bitrary power had been exercised for their ruine, as well as for theirs who had been most active and faithful to him: And the whole Nation was as well content with that his Majesties lenity, and did not think it reasonable that the general and universal joy, which filled the hearts of all men with the blessing of the Kings re­turn, should be eclipsed or interrupted by the tears and sighs of their Roman Catholick neighbours, and that they who had born their full share in the late persecutions, should undergo new vexations by the ex­acting those penalties which they were li­able to, by Laws which had been necessa­ry to be provided against them in times wherein there was more cause to be jea­lous of them, than they hoped there was, or would be hereafter: This cannot be [Page 88] denied to be the case of the Roman Catho­licks in England for many years after the Kings return, until the rude and boiste­rous behaviour of some of them disturbed the happy calm they all enjoyed, and the vanity and folly of others made that ill use of the Kings bounty and generosity to­wards them, that they endeavoured to make it believed that it proceeded not from charity and compassion towards their persons, but from affection to their Religi­on, and took upon them to reproach the Church of England, and all who adhered to it, as if they had been in a condition as well as a disposition to oppress it, and to af­front and discountenance all who would adhere to it, and so alienated the affections of those, who desired they should not be disquieted, and kindled a jealousie in others, who had believed that they were neither able or willing to disturb the pub­lick peace, to think that they were wil­ling to attempt it, and had more power to compass it than was discerned: This hath changed the face of that affair, and even compelled his Majesty to with-draw that countenance from them, that he was wil­ling should have been more propitious to them, if they had known how modestly and innocently to have been happy under [Page 89] the shadow of it; and this mischief the wisest and the soberest Catholicks of Eng­land have long foreseen would be the effect of that petulant and unruly spirit that sway­ed too much amongst them, and did all they could to restrain it; and Mr. Cressy shall do well to revolve how much he hath contributed to this storm, which seems to have a little shaken the repose they were in, and to take heed that the Catholicks of England may not undergo more prejudice from the distempered carriage and behavi­our of him and two or three more, (for no body is incensed against those who with gravity and sobriety defend and maintain the Religion they profess) who have contracted a scurrilous stile (that hath been long laid aside, and declined in such debates) to exalt themselves in against the Religion of the Kingdom, and those who are obliged to defend it, than could be brought upon them by any combination of the Presbyterians and Independants, whom they do likewise as unskilfully to their purpose irreconcile to them, as if they could subdue the whole Kingdom, and so care not whom they provoke. If the noise, and clamour, and evil-speaking of these men do awaken the sleeping Laws to take that vengeance upon them that they [Page 90] were ordained for, and which yet remain in that drowzy posture, that their own modesty may reduce them to the manners of Gentlemen and Subjects, or if the Kings mercy continue as obstinate toward them, as their guilt and provocation, so that he thinks fit still to abate the sharp edge of the Laws towards them, in which very few men wish his Majestie less merciful, there are still other Laws which the dignity of his Government will not suffer him to re­strain, and which are provided to vindi­cate those who do their duty, from the ex­travagant passions and insolence of those who observe no rules of good behaviour, and of peaceable conversation: And what may be inflicted upon them of this kind, will be unpitied by all good Catholicks, and will never be thought a persecution of their Re­ligion; and it may be their Superiours, at least upon their observation to what ill use they put their tongues, may exact from them that silence, for cherishing whereof, their Order was first instituted, and here­after only imploy such in their missions, as may return to them again without doing them any harm, or bringing prejudice to the Religion they profess.

[Page 91] Mr. Cressy thinks he hath a wonderful advantage against the Church of England, because, he says, he can find no religious Orders in it, he cannot hear so much as of one single person whom he might call a Fanatick, for leaving the flesh, and the world, to the end he or she might intirely consecrate them­selves to God in solitude and exercises of spiri­tual prayer, and mortification; and if God should call any one to such a state of life, there is an utter want amongst them of instructors, or instructions proper for it. I will not en­ter into any discourse of the benefits, or in­conveniences, or ill uses which are too often made of those Monasteries and Religi­ous houses of the He's and the She's: I have nothing to say against them, nor do I doubt that there are amongst them many persons of great learning and vertue; and therefore I shall say no more, but that most Catholick Kingdoms think the number of them too great, and frequently forbid the erecting more of them, and the Popes themselves have done the like in Italy, and have dissolved many of them; but I may say (which is as much as is necessary to say) that we have no cause to lament the absence of them in England, since any defects which arise by the want of them, [Page 92] is so abundantly provided by the noble Col­ledges in both the Universities, and the great Free-Schools all so plentifully endow­ed, not only for the good education of Youth in all principles of vertue, piety, and good literature; but for the support of them af­ter they are bred, in the improvement of their parts for the service of the Church, and of their Country; insomuch, that it may be truly said that more Scholars are liberally maintained upon the sole charge and charity of the several Founders, and greater emoluments assigned for the en­couragement of learning in England, than can be said of any Kingdom in Europe, how much larger and richer soever; and I be­lieve the Common-wealth of Learning in all other parts doth think (and with great reason) that all kinds of Learning are at this day in as great a heighth and perfecti­on, as they have been in any age in any Kingdom of the world; and Mr. Cressy can­not forget, though he doth not care to ac­knowledge, that himself had his educati­on in a Religious house founded by Walter Merton, where he received a much more liberal and bountiful education, and sup­port, than he hath ever had from S. Bene­dict; and from whence he brought more learning than he hath found in any other [Page 93] place that he hath since inhabited, or I doubt than he hath yet about him. In this Religious house, where I think he li­ved as many years as he hath done since under a worse discipline, he had opportuni­ty and obligation to consecrate himself to God in as much solitude as would contri­bute thereunto, and to exercises of spiritu­al Prayer and mortification: He was as much bound to chastity, and to all kind of temperance as the severe Rules and Statutes of a magnificent Founder could oblige him; and which he was likewise sworn to ob­serve: And I believe he under went as se­vere, and a much more beneficial Noviti­ate there (in which silence likewise was a part of the mortification) as he did after­wards at Douay, for I saw him in both those: It is very true, there, and in all other Colledges, if they found that the obligations they were under, were stricter than they could submit to, they are at li­berty to quit those benefits their Founder hath bequeathed them, and to dispose of themselves according to their inclinations, otherwise they may enjoy the other to their lives end, as very many do, who pre­fer that solitude, before the pleasures of the world: It is very true that the Church and State of England did by observation and [Page 94] experience find, that vows did not make people chast, who would not be restrained by conscience of their duty to God, and that those actions were not worthy the name of vertue and piety, (I speak still only of our own Country) which were the effects of force, and want of opportunity to decline them. In a word, the practice they had too much testimony and evidence of, made them conclude that the mischief from those inclosures, constraints, and vows was greater, and more apparent than the bene­fit and advantage; and so they thought not fit to restrain that liberty which God and Nature did allow to all those persons who would decline the profit of those Communi­ties in which they were possessed of them, and betake themselves to another conditi­on of life: And I doubt not but Mr. Cressy knows that many learned Catholicks have always been, and still are very averse to those vows and inclosures of Women, which seems not to be much favoured by the Church it self, the constitutions whereof require a greater number of years than are now required before they receive the vail, and whether the scandalous lives of many Religious men abroad brings not a greater prejudice to the Religion they pro­fess, than their habit and vows brings ho­nour [Page 95] to it, I leave to his observati­on.

The other defect he finds in our Church of want of instructors, and instructions for those, in case God should call any one to such a state of life in solitude and exercises of spiritual prayer and mortification, is yet more strange. Without doubt if God doth in truth call any one to such a state of life; he will not leave him destitute of instruction and instructors, and he may be very confident if he finds neither of those, that God hath not called him: Sure Mr. Cressy cannot forget the names of very many persons, it may be both men and wo­men, with whom, and in whose conver­sation he had the honour and the happiness to spend many years of the most innocent part of his life; from whose grave and learned information, and excellent ex­ample he might have led a life more useful to God, his Country, and himself; and in which he would have had less to answer to all three, than that which he hath since by worse counsel and example given himself unhappily to. And for Books I shall not supply his Catalogue with the names of many more of the same kind, which he might as well have mentioned, but I shall [Page 96] put him in mind of the excellent, pious and devout Sermons, which are constantly preached in that Church, much better I believe than he hath heard in any other language; and there was no restraint up­on him, but if he had liked other Books of devotion better, he might have read the life of Mother Teresa, that abounds in those visions he admires, and that mystical Theology he delights in, and even his own Sancta Sophia, if any other man would have taken the pains to have put it toge­ther, in that Colledge he was bred in, with the same liberty he hath done either ever since, sure good Books are not wanting in that climate For Miracles, whereof he says, we do not pretend to one, not so much as the curing a Tertian Ague, to testifie that our Reformation is pleasing to God: I shall say no more than I have done: We have not ma­ny to boast of, and very good Catholicks think they boast of too many, and would be glad to be without the mention of most of them; and I do believe that very many pious men of his Church do believe that the restoration of the Church of England from that dust and ruines, to which the barba­rity, impiety, and sacriledge of the late rebellion had exposed it, and in which the Roman Catholicks, his Majesties own subjects [Page 97] more delighted and triumphed to see it al­most buried, than any other Catholicks did, is a greater miracle of Gods mercy, and power; and if we make our selves wor­thy of it, even a testimony of his being pleased with it, then all those, of which they brag so much, are an evidence that he is pleased with what they do. I have never had the luck to see his Church Histo­ry, which he is offended with the Doctor for stiling a great Legend, which he knows is the stile given to those Collecti­ons in all Languages, and he challenges the Doctor more scornfully to give to the world a pretty little legend of his reformed Saints. The Doctor could very well have given him as large a list of as extraordina­ry persons of most profound learning, and most exemplary lives of the Church of Eng­land since the Reformation, as any other Christian Kingdom can supply him, who it may lawfully be presumed since their deaths have enjoyed those sacred mansions of bliss, which God hath prepared for those who please him; but we are not ashamed that our Church is too modest to confer the sacred title of Saints which God hath reserved to his own only disposal, for them to whom he had before assigned such a pro­portion of grace as is answerable to that [Page 98] high station; and doth not receive the ad­vice, nor communicate the power in that particular, of or to any person or jurisdi­ction upon Earth; yet it shall be glad, and doth pray that all such whom the Church of Rome hath presumed to call to that honour, without any ambition or privity of their own, may really enjoy the same: And we do not in the least degree apprehend the displeasure of God Almighty upon our Church, because it doth with all humility, and after all possible endeavour to be ca­pable of his favours, leave the disposal of all the places, and offices, and imployments in his own house, to his own gracious will and pleasure: And though we do not pre­tend to know so much of their modern Saints, as to think that they were of the same Religion with us: Yet we do presume to say that the primitive Saints and Martyrs were all as much our Saints and Martyrs as theirs; that is, that we are as much of the same faith with those, as they are: We are as firm in the Apostles faith, who were the first Saints and Mar­tyrs of Christ, as they can pretend to be: We adhere as much to all the doctrine they taught, and endeavour to practise all the duties which are enjoyned by them, as sin­cerely and diligently as they do. During [Page 99] the twelve persecutions, which were the times when those prodigious Armies of Martyrs for their numbers were levied, it may lawfully be presumed that very much the major part of them (for those persecutions raged much more furiously in the East, than in any part of Europe) never heard of the Church of Rome, none of them professed to have any opinion in which we differ from them. The first and only subject of their Martyrdom was, that they loudly avowed the birth, passion, and resurrection of our Saviour, and their pe­remptory refusal to offer sacrifice to, or to acknowledge the power of the Pagan Gods; and the last would have excused them, and preserved their lives, whatsoever they had thought of the other; so that there was no other point of controversie in issue, but whether they were Christians, and their marvellous, and without doubt divine courage in affirming that, and asserting that doctrine so soon after they were in­formed of it, and before they were ac­quainted with any other operation of it, than in their courage to lay down their lives for it, was the whole ground and me­rit of their Martyrdom: For according to the best evidence we have of those dark times, and of that darker affair, we may [Page 100] reasonably believe that many thousands of those blessed Martyrs lost their lives within a day, an hour, or less time, according as the wild, and brutish rage of the Iudge could find ways for their torture and execution, after the moment of their con­version, in which the spirit and zeal of the new Christians to die for their faith, was little more stupendious than the implacable rage of their persecutors was, in the vin­dication of the honour of their Pagan Gods; for which the husband condemned his wife, the father his son, the brother his brother, and all relations, those who were nearest and dearest to them, to the most exquisite torments that could be devised. Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum!

How the Church of Rome comes to in­gross all these Saints and Martyrs to themselves as their peculiar Patrons and Advocates, an evidence cannot easily be comprehended, except they conclude, the because they have a power to make, or to declare Saints, they have likewise a power to appoint them what they shall do after they are Saints, which is a species of Logick they make often use of to many pur­poses: For our parts we have as much rea­son to be confident of all the good offices they [Page 101] can do us in Heaven, as the others are; but because we do not know what their province there is, or whether there be such a line of communication, that they know what we would have them to do for us, we acquiesce in a profound veneration of their lives, and of their deaths, and a full confidence that they do enjoy the reward of both, without importuning them by any particular address of our own in our behalf; having an assurance in our selves, that they will do us all the good they can, though our ignorance knows not how to ask it from them, and this is all that our Church informs or instructs us of our duty and behaviour to Saints. And Mr. Cressy will not take it ill that I tell him, if his Church History consists in the lives of any Welch Saints and Martyrs, or of those who were before the year six hundred, as there were many more before than there were after, he cannot reckon those to belong to the Church of Rome, since he well knows that before the arrival of Austin the Monk in England, there had never been mention there of the Bishop of Rome, but most of the Christians had been long before driven in­to Wales by the tyranny and power of the Pagan Saxons, who spent their time more profitably by subduing the other parts of [Page 102] the Kingdom, than they could have done by pursuing them into those mountains and narrow retreats, where they could better have defended themselves: So that the British Christians remained for some time, in some quiet in those parts, and li­ved under the direction of their Bishops and Prelates in the exercise of the Christian Religion, according to the institutions which they had received from their first Planters; and after Austin came into this Island with a worthy, and no doubt a ve­ry pious intention, and God blessed him so much, that he converted a Pagan King, and most of his subjects, who were at that time only they who lived within the cir­cuit of Kent, which opened a door to him, and those who succeeded him for a larger conversion, for which his, and their name ought always to be mentioned with reve­rence and gratitude, as blessed instruments God used for the good of the Nation, though they were not the first Planters of Christianity in the Island, as Mr. Cressy well knows; and that when Austin desired to confer with the British Christians, and had two several meetings with their Bishops and Prelates, they were so much offended with the proposition he made to them of their subjection to the Pope, that they did [Page 103] not only positively reject that, but would not consent to change the course of their observation of Easter, in which they had always concurred with the Eastern Christi­ans, nor yield to any thing else that he pro­posed, left they might be thought to have any respect for the Pope: So that I say, if his Saints are before the year six hundred, he hath no claim to them, but must either be content to be without their merits and miracles, or that we may have an equal share with him, upon our joynt stock of Christianity, and I hope he hath not in his History inserted the lives or miracles of any, which have been left out as explo­ded upon the reformation of more ancient Legends.

Methinks Mr. Cressy seems to imitate the example of angry women, who think it lawful to give worse words than they re­ceive, which is the natural progress of choler; he provokes first the Doctor by reproaching him with the number of Fa­naticks amongst us, to tell him, that there is Fanaticism likewise in many of their Church, and so mentions the Visions and Revelations, and Miracles in many per­sons of great esteem amongst them, and by those pertinent instances puts him into [Page 104] great wrath: and he again to be revenged on him will no longer be contented that we have too many Fanaticks in the Church; but will prove that the very na­ture and essence of our Church it self and our Religion is pure putid-Fanaticism. A man would have expected upon this underta­king that he should presently have singled one of the Articles of the Church that is so founded, but that would have held him too much to the point, and restrained him from those wandrings with which he is so delighted; that would withhold him from falling upon the person of the Doctor, or upon the Presbyterians and Independents, with whom no body can blame him for being angry, for they drove him from the Church, by driving him from his prefer­ments in the Church: And from this charge upon the Church, without any one instance he falls again upon the Presbyte­rians and Hugonots of France, and reckons up some of the opinions they hold, and maintain, and then says (pag. 94.) That he must take the boldness to tell him, Pag. 94. (a great boldness indeed) that the Doctor himself does hold the same, and if he denies it, it is because he is ignorant of what passes in his own mind. Now the Doctor must be lost, for if his own denial cannot absolve him [Page 105] from being concluded to be of an opinion, and Mr. Cressy knows better of that which the Doctors ignorance keeps him from dis­cerning, of what passes in his own mind, he is to blame if he doth not lade him with all opinions which he wishes he would own: But to prove this intricate aver­ment, like a great Magistrate he takes up­on him to administer many questions to him, and kindly to make answer to them on his behalf, and so makes him as arrant a Fanatick as he can wish: Yet after all this he is compelled to confess, with per­haps, That it would be rashness in him to af­firm that the Church of England doth ground her faith upon such a Fanatick principle, as the Doctor lays; and if the Doctor wrongs the Church of England, he (good man) is unwilling to wrong her with him: And in this fit of good nature he makes a kind of an Apology for the Bishops, who may be deceived themselves in the Doctors principles, by the negligence that is used in licensing Books to the Press, or rather the Doctors virulence against poor Catho­licks was so highly approved by the grave Censor Librorum, that rather than it should be hindred from doing mischief to them, he was content that the Principles also should pass, which utterly destroy the [Page 106] foundations of his own Church, and so concludes with some instances of the per­functory care that is taken in the licensing Books. The Church of England cannot but be now secure, when a Benedictine Mark is so vigilant as to stand Sentinel, that she may receive no prejudice from her own Children, and he doth very well to put the Bishops in mind, that they may be more solicitous what Books are suffered to be printed, who have no less obligation upon them, to look that no lewd seditious Books are sold, as that none such may be prin­ted: And if this kind advertisement of Mr. Cressy hath that operation upon the Magistrates of all sorts, both the Printers and Sellers, and it may be the Buyers of the multitude of Popish Books, which are every day vented with as much freedom as the Book of Common-Prayer, they of his own Religion will have new cause to cele­brate his prudence, and acknowledge the great advantage he hath brought to their cause, by his pen, as he hath to their per­sons by his modesty and his manners.

Mr. Cressy comes at last after very much passion, and much more virulence against the poor Protestants, than the Doctor hath expressed against the Roman Catholicks, to [Page 107] a matter of importance indeed, in which he believes (which might have kept him from triumphing so soon) he is absolute master of the field, and that is to peace and unity, which, he says, is more fit to be the subject and argument of writings composed by Ecclesiastical persons, that is, unity of faith and doctrine, (pag. 102.)Pag. 102.) and in truth who­ever is really an enemy even to that unity of faith and doctrine, (how hard soever to be attained) must be an enemy to man­kind; but I must tell him too, that the writings of Ecclesiastical persons have not hitherto in any age contributed to the pro­duction of that unity; I mean such who have a pride & petulancy of understanding, & obstinacy of will, that will suffer nothing to be called peace and unity, but a pro­stration of all other men to their dictates. Mr. Cressy and his Ecclesiastical Friends af­fect, and insolently prescribe a unity that is neither practicable nor desirable, and there are other Ecclesiastical persons as humorous, who are such enemies to unity, that they think it not necessary to peace, especially in Ecclesiastical matters (that is in matters of Religion) all men may think, and speak, and do what they please, and upon the ir­rationality of these last, the former impute all the folly, and all the madness that [Page 108] would introduce the most uncontroulable confusion, to those who observe order and discipline with more regularity and obedi­ence, than any of the pretenders will do. It must not therefore be the Ecclesiastical persons, who have given each other too ill words to be of one mind, who can procure this unity of faith and doctrine, that must constitute this peace; but it must be the writings and actions of Magistrates, who by the execution of those Laws and rules, which the wisdom of the State for which they are made, have provided for that purpose, can infallibly establish that uni­ty and peace that is necessary for it: Ma­gistrates who do not pretend any jurisdi­ction out of their own limits, nor will suf­fer those who live within it to be disobedi­ent, much less to revile the Laws which are provided for the publick peace: Where there are no Laws, confusion is necessary and natural, and where the Laws are not executed, it is as unavoidable, and in some degree necessary: So that where unity is not as much provided for as is ne­cessary for peace, it is the Magistrates fault, and not the fault of Ecclesiasticks, who can only prosecute it by the ways pre­scribed by the Laws. I say where unity is necessary; for nothing is more mistaken, [Page 109] or more misapplied, than this precious word Unity: Who doth not know, or hath not had it frequently in his observa­tion, that men who have the same end af­fect several ways which lead to that end, and he who goes the farthest way about may possibly come sooner to the end, than he that believes he goes more directly to it? However if he comes thither later, he is liable to no other reproach than being laughed at for being longer upon the way than he needed to have been. I knew two Gentlemen of good quality and for­tunes, one of which I think is still living, who were very near neighbours in Berk­shire, and lived in that good correspon­dence and conversation, as persons of qua­lity and authority in their Country use to do; they had both very frequent occasions to ride to London, and the house of one of them was the confessed way of the other thither, but the difference was, whether from thence the nearest way was by Wind­sor, or by Maidenhead, and in that they were so great Opiniators, that they still parted at the door, and one took the one way, and the other that which he concei­ved to be nearest, and in twenty years they never made the journey together. How light soever the instance seems to be, [Page 110] it will be found fit enough to be applied to very many differences of opinion, which by the excess of fancy on the one side, and the defect of judgment of the other, are blown up into a magnitude that dazles the eyes of too many spectators; and for the determination of the rest, there wants not a submission and obedience to authority; the difference only is where that authority is placed to which obedience ought to be paid. We of the Church of England hold ours to be due to the King, the Church, and the Law: Mr. Cressy would have us pay it to the Pope, which we cannot sub­mit to, not because he is fallible, but be­cause he is not a Magistrate who hath any jurisdiction over us. In matters that con­cern Religion, we resort to the Articles of the Church, which we are obliged to con­form to: He would have us observe the Canons of the Council of Trent, which we are forbidden to do, and he as an English Catholick is not bound to, upon which we shall enlarge hereafter; and this election to believe that the Church of England, which flourishes at least as much in learned and pious men, as any Church of the world, can better direct English-men in the way to Heaven, than the Church of Rome, is the greatest use we make of [Page 111] our reason which is not like to de­ceive.

What that union is that was intended certainly by our Saviour, when he left his Church established under spiritual Gover­nours will best appear by the rules he pre­scribed, and the directions he gave in or­der thereunto, which we may lawfully believe he never intended for such a unity, as Mr. Cressy and his friends dream of, and that he foresaw the same could never be, and depended more upon what was neces­sary towards it upon the civil Magistrates, than upon the Ecclesiastical power. He prescribed the essential principles himself of that Religion which he intended should be established, and left persons trusted by him who not only knew his mind, but knew all things which are necessary to be known for the accomplishment of it. And no temporal or spiritual authority under Hea­ven hath power to alter any thing that was setled by him or his Apostles, who were the only Commentators intrusted by him to explain whatsoever might seem doubtful in what himself had said, and they per­formed their parts with that plainness in what is necessary, that there remains no difficulty to men of very competent un­understandings, [Page 112] and it is as plain that they did not affect such a unity in opinions, as these men would perswade us. If we will believe our Saviour himself, even after his Resurrection;Mark 16. 16.He that believeth and is bap­tized, shall be saved. What is this preci­ous belief that is required with such an in­estimable benefit and reward? Nothing but the Resurrection; he that believeth the Resurrection, and is baptized into that faith shall be saved. The only cause of our Saviours appearing at that time, was only to upbraid his Disciples with their unbelief, and hardness of heart,Ver. 14.because they believed not them which had seen him after he was ri­sen; he was not offended with them for not believing it upon the word of several of the Prophets, nor upon his own, ha­ving so often, and so clearly declared to them that he should rise, and even the time when; how essential a point soever it was in the Religion he had plan­ted, it had such a repugnancy to humane reason and understanding, which he ne­ver intended they should devest themselves of, that he was not angry that they did not suddenly believe it: He well remem­bred that Iohn the Baptist, who could not but know much of Christ when he first saw him,Mat. 3. 14. and said, I have need to be bapti­zed [Page 113] of thee, and comest thou to me? and when at his Baptism, which out of obedi­ence he administred to him, the Heavens were opened, and the spirit of God descended like a Dove, and lighted upon him, and a voice from Heaven said, This is my beloved Son, &c. Yet after all this S. Iohn was so far from being clearly confident, that he whom he had baptized was really our Saviour, that being in prison, and hear­ing of the works done by him, he sent two of his Disciples, asking him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? And after S. Peter had confessed that he was Christ, the Son of the everliving God, and had seen him (together with Iames and Iohn) transfigured upon the Moun­tain, and had heard the voice from the cloud, This is my beloved Son, Mark 9. 10. yet neither of them could understand what the rising from the dead should mean: And S. Luke tells us, that when our Saviour informed the whole twelve at his going up to Ieru­salem, of all things that were written by the Prophets concerning him, and which were then to be accomplished, That he should be delivered to the Gentiles, and should be mocked, and spightfully intreated and spitted on, and that they should scourge him, and put him to death, and the third day he [Page 114] should rise again: Luke 18. 34. They (the whole twelve) understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them, nei­ther knew they the things which were spoken; Christ himself thought it not fit to explain that most important point to them, well knowing that in that point of his Resurrection, they must have ano­ther assistance to their faith than his own words could give them; and therefore we see how long it was before that Article could gain belief even after his actual Re­surrection, and how there he condescended to convince their senses in all circumstan­ces before he could obtain their belief in that point, which concerned them more than all the rest, nor could less than the descent of the Holy Ghost finish that part of the Creed, and propagate that doctrine: But when he had vouchsafed after his Re­surrection to be seen, and to be conferred with, taken the way to satisfie their senses which could not be deceived, and which could not but challenge and compel their belief, that they should not yet believe seemed obstinacy and perverseness, it was not only infidelity, but ill nature, incivi­lity, and hardness of heart, want of that charity which he had so often, and so so­lemnly enjoyned them to practise, not to [Page 115] believe those who had seen him, and whom he had sent to inform them. This was a countermine to blow up the doctrine of his Resurrection, if men contemned the only evidence that could be given of it, if they resolved they would not believe them who had seen him dead, and buried, and seen him after he was risen, they might as well not believe their own eyes when themselves should see him, that he added a terrible commination to his short Creed: He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be dam­ned: Now they knew the reward, and the penalty, they might chuse for them­selves: S. Paul did inlarge this Creed very little in his gloss upon it:Rom. 10. 9 If thou shalt con­fess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: We must publickly own and avow our faith, not dissemble our Christianity out of any worldly consideration, out of hope to gain, or out of fear of danger: S. Peter never denied his faith in Christ, lost nothing of his reverence for him, he did only not con­fess with his mouth his relation to him, denied he had been in his company, with­out the least disaffection in his heart, and it cost him so many tears, and remains as a [Page 116] brand upon him to the end of the world, of his unkindness to his master; his fol­lowing him that he might see what they would do to him, and be at hand to assist him if he stood in any need of his service, when all the rest left him, to provide for their own security, could not expiate for not confessing his relation to him, though impertinently urged by those who had no authority to make the enquiry; we must always confess with our mouth, acknow­ledge that he is the Son of God; we must believe the History of his Nativity, of his Passion, and of his Resurrection, all which he hath manifested unto us himself, we have it from his own mouth, and we have done our part.

If an exact knowledge in all particulars contained in Scripture were required from us, or if it had been in any great degree necessary, there would have been more pains, and care taken by the Apostles, who were enlightened to make a short Commen­tary upon the whole Christian faith by Gods own spirit, and were endued with the spirit of Prophecy, and so could foresee what doubts were most like to arise by the excess of wit, as well as the weakness of our un­derstanding, to have determined & defined [Page 117] those things, in defining and determining whereof so much time hath been since spent, and so much uncharitableness infu­sed into the hearts of men, so that instead of learning more of what Christ would have us know, we have almost unlearn­ed all that he would have us do; yet S. Paul, as if he foresaw that that Original corruption and itch of knowledge would be propagated by the curiosity of mankind, begun his preaching in his masters me­thod, that they might not be terrified with any imagination of the difficulty of his doctrine, he declared that that which may be known of God, was manifest to them, for God had shewed it to them: There are no doubt many things fit to be known, and which we should be the better for know­ing, which are not so manifest, but it is not so necessary if it be not manifest; and it is very observable, that when he tells them what became of those under the Law, and the sins of the Gentiles, who did not like to retain God in their knowledge, he mentions not what false opinions grew up amongst them by reason of their not reten­tion of him in their knowledge,Rom. 1. 29, 30. but that God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which were not convenient: Being filled with all unrighteousness, forni­cation, [Page 118] wickedness, covetousness, malicious­ness, full of envy, murther, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, back-biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to Parents: He doth not so much as mention their Idolatry in that place, because it was matter of opi­nion, which was the greatest contradicti­on of the Majesty of God, but those vices which had proved destructive to all hu­mane relation and society; and the same Apostle finding still that the infant Christi­ans perplexed themselves with many diffi­culties between the Law and the Gospel, took the pains as Moses had done, to abridge the obligations of the Law, as was mentioned before to abridge the Re­ligion of the Gospel: If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus,Rom. 10. 9aud shalt be­lieve in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: He that cordially believes the History of our Savi­our, That he was the only begotten Son of God, that he suffered death for the sins of mankind, and that after he was put to death, and buried, he rose the third day; the birth, and death, and resurrection of Christ hath faith sufficient to salvation, and all that is absolutely necessary to be believed, lies within that narrow com­pass: [Page 119] Notwithstang the clearness of which definition and authority of the Apostle, the wit of men, and even the zeal of Religi­on produced many differences of opinion, and much faction amongst the believers, many men thinking that this excellent foundati­on would very well support this manner of building, and others that it would as well or better bear another sort of build­ing, rather this deduction than that would result from the same proposition, S. Paul still adhering fast to the foundati­on, without much examining the super­structures, tells them, Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, 1 Cor. 3. 11, 12. which is Iesus Christ: If they would keep them­selves steddy to that foundation, let their superstructures be of gold or silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble, let their conceptions or deductions be of the finest allay, the more probable and rational, or more gross and irrational, there will at last be such an examination of every one of them, that the truth shall appear and be made manifest; but for their comfort, to abate the superciliousness of him who hath more reason to think himself in the right, and to raise the spirits of them who may be terrified with the consequence of being in the wrong, he tells them, that they who [Page 120] have done their work best, raised such doctrine upon, and from the foundation, as will endure the trial, that doctrine shall stand, and they shall receive a reward; and that they who have built less skilfully, raised imaginations too large, or contract­ed opinions too narrow to be supported up­on that foundation, their doctrine shall not subsist, their opinions shall be disavowed, and condemned; yet because they depart­ed not from the foundation, let their mi­stakes and errors in judgment be what they will, they themselves shall be saved; nor did he think the determination of those buildings, how different soever, and vile the materials might seem to be, were pro­per for the judgment of any but the Master­builder, the Architect who had directed the foundation, who could only judge whether there were malice or hypocrisie in preparing such superstructures to rest upon that foundation:1 Cor. 4. 5. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come: Who­soever takes upon him to judge before, presumes to judge before the cause is ripe for judgment, which is not only beside the office of an upright Judge, but against the rules of Justice; and it was very good hus­bandry as well as wisdom in the Master in the parable, who though he saw the Tares, [Page 121] Tares not grown up by chance out of the rankness of the soil, but Tares maliciously and industriously sown by the labour and craft of an Enemy, would not suffer his active servants to pull them up, he reject­ed the providence; Nay lest whilst you ga­ther up the Tares, Mat. 13. 29, 30. ye root up also the Wheat with them, let them both grow until the Harvest: And lest men should think by the ripeness of the Tares that the harvest was come, our Saviour himself interprets his own parable; The Harvest is the end of the world, and the Reapers are the Angels; an unskilful hand will mistake the Wheat for Tares, and a rude passionate hand will for expedition pull up both, that he may be sure he hath destroyed one; unskilful and unlearned men may believe that to be an error which in truth is none, but enough consistent with the truth, and angry men will not enough consider if it be in truth an error, what root it may have taken from some unquestionable truth, and how far it may have insinuated it self into the minds of good and pious men, which ought to be undeceived by applica­tion and gentle remedies, and by time, but will violently tear it from the hold it had, and make a greater wound than they found; disturb the peace of a Kingdom▪ [Page 122] rather than connive at an error till it be ripe, and the mischief thereof fully disco­vered; and when the malice of the disease is evident, proportionable remedies may more easily be found. Our Saviour was not more careful of the season than of the Rea­pers; the season is the end of the world, the Reapers are the Angels; dispassionate and unpartial Reapers, who understand the nature of the Tares, and the hurt they have done to the Corn. It is a complaint and observation as ancient as S. Gregory, Lib. 9. Ep. 39. Quam multi sunt fidelium qui imperito zelo succenduntur, & saepe, dum quosdam quasi Haereticos insequuntur haereses faciunt? Cha­rity and discretion can only preserve men from splitting upon those rocks, and the time prescribed in the parable can only de­termine all disputations.

It seems an expression of a wonderful latitude which S. Paul uses to the Philip­pians: Phil. 1. 15, 18. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of good will; what then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoyce, yea, and will rejoyce: S. Paul found opposition and contradiction (as all other Preachers have done since) even from some other Apostles [Page 123] and Disciples; emulation was a strong pas­sion, and well grown in the infancy of the Church, and did no great harm: No doubt S. Paul wished that all who were to preach Christ had had the same thoughts, and had used the same words, and had had the same affection towards each other; which unity would much have advanced the propagation of Christianity; but he knew that was impossible, and that different ap­prehensions and different conceptions must be always attended with difference of expressi­ons; whilst the birth, and life, and death, and resurrection of Christ was taught, though they who preached him had their own passions and prejudices towards each other, he was still glad that the number of the Christians were increased. There may be much good done in the world without taking its rise purely from Con­science, and only to please others, or to imitate others; and the like may be done to anger, and to cross and contradict other men; and though the Authors of that good have lost their reward, yet there is matter of rejoycing still that good is done. It is very well worth our reflexion, how little pains our Saviour took (who well foresaw what disputations would arise concerning Religion to the end of the [Page 124] world) to explain any doctrinal points, or indeed to institute any thing of speculative doctrine in his Sermon upon the Mount, which comprehends all Christianity, but to resolve all into practice; and his Apostles though they met with a world of questions and disputes, and in the highest points of the mystery of Religion, were very short in their answers and determination, and left no room for any contention in the under­standing upon any matter of faith, it de­pending purely upon believing what was past and done, and of which they recei­ved unquestionable evidence; but in the application of this faith to practice they were large in their discourses, and clear to remove all doubts; they had observed in­to how many Schisms and Sects the Church of the Iews had run by their several inter­pretations of the Law and the Prophets, of both which they had all equal veneration, and from both gathered arguments enough to found an animosity against each other, that vented it self in all the acts of unchari­tableness and denunciation of Hell-fire to their opponents, and they did all they could that the Gospel and the professors thereof might not be exposed to the like mischiefs by the same disputations: Men might set their wits on work to raise [Page 125] doubts and scruples, and improve them to what degree they please by the subtilty of their own invention, they were difficulties of their own making, not finding: Christ and his Apostles left their Declarations of what we are to believe, and what we are to do, so clearly stated, that we cannot dangerously mistake, and so much the more clearly by informing us what we are not to believe, and what we are not to do, by the obligations of Christianity; and as they did no doubt foresee the weakness and the wilfulness of the succeeding times, and that men would make use of the Scriptures themselves to the prejudice of Religion, they took care that they might know that there is much in them above their understanding, and that they should govern themselves by what is easie & plain to be understood therein: and above all, that they should not presume to censure and judge those who differ from them in their opinions, because Christ hath reserved all those differences to be determi­ned by himself, and except it were inflict­ing Ecclesiastical censures upon corruption of manners, and transgressing against Christi­an duties: It was some Ages before the Church expressed any great severity upon differences in opinions, and used such cir­cumspection in the expressions upon their [Page 126] determinations, as rather pleased all per­sons concerned, than strictly defined the matter in controversie: The Primitive Church never prescribed any other rule to themselves to judge by, than the sacred Scriptures, by consent of which they made all their definitions and determinations: and as no man yet, at least with any coun­tenance of authority, hath pretended to understand the intire meaning of any one of the Prophets; so it was some time (a long time) before the Revelation of S. Iohn was received into the Canon of the Church for the difficulty of it; and whosoever hath since undertaken to understand it, hath received more censure than approbation from pious and learned men, nor have they attained to credit enough to be belie­ved; Seek not out the things that are too hard for thee, neither search the things that are above thy strength, is very good coun­sel, and proportioned to mens different faculties and understandings; he that is stronger than I may search for things that are too hard for me, and there is no harm in that search, but I who am weaker, am in no degree obliged to make that search, nor shall fare the worse because I am so weak. The Dialogue between the Angel and the Prophet Esdras may be very good [Page 127] Divinity, thoughs it be contained in the Apocrypha; 2 Esa. 4. He that dwelleth above the Hea­vens may only understand the things that are above the heighth of the Heavens; 21. 26, 27. The more thou searchest, the more thou shalt marvel, for the world hasteth fast to pass away, and it cannot comprehend the things that are promi­sed to the righteous in time to come: Let us endeavour to do the things which we are plainly enjoyned to do, and which we can very well comprehend, at least let us for­bear doing any thing which we are as plainly forbidden to do, and we shall in due time obtain those things which for the present we cannot comprehend.

It hath been an artifice introduced to perplex mankind, and to work upon the conscience, by amusing and puzling the understanding, to perswade men to be­lieve that there is but one Church, and one Religion in which men may be saved, that by their confident averring themselves to be that Church, and of that Religion, others may be prevailed with to be of their party, and they who with most passion abhor their presumption, and so withdraw from their Communion, adhere to the same un­reasonable conclusion, and will not suffer them to be a Church at all, or capable of [Page 128] salvation, and form their own Church upon those principles only which most contradict the other; whereas there is room enough in Heaven for them all, and we may chari­tably and reasonably believe, that many of all Christian Churches will come thither, and that too many of every one of them will be excluded from thence. There is indeed, as was said before, but one faith, which no authority upon Earth can change, or suspend, or dispence with; but Religion, which is the uniting, or the be­ing united of pious men in the profession of that Faith, may be exercised in several and different forms, and ways, and with several ceremonies according to the consti­tutions and rules of the several Countries and Kingdoms where it is practised, and there are so many Churches united in one and the same faith; and methinks the ve­ry stile and appellation used by the Apostles themselves, should discountenance and abo­lish that quarrelsome proposition to the Church of, or at Corinth, at Ephesus, at Philippi, and other places, to the seven Churches of Asia; and it is observable that the Apostles in their method of writing and prescribing their rules and orders to the several Churches, have a regard to the cu­stoms and natures of the several people, and [Page 129] permit some things, and for some time in one place, and to one People, which they do not to another; they who succeeded them followed their example, and did not only permit, but encourage the People to all actions, which they perceived did really contribute to, and improve their Devoti­ons, and so many things which afterwards degenerated into Superstition, had their o­riginal from fervent piety, and innocent Devotion, as some kinds of Worship and Forms of Adoration, and an over easie be­lief of Miracles, when there seemed less danger in that fervour which inflamed them, than might have been in extingui­shing that good Fire that warmed them, by an over severe examining, and refi­ning the Fewel that had kindled it. It is an unanswerable argument of the truth of Christian Religion, of the Christian Faith, that being so different from all things then known to Mankind, and so much contradicting the very Principles of their belief, and knowledge in very many things, it should in so short a time possess the hearts of so many Millions of People of all Nations, of both Sexes, and of all Religions; and as God did miraculously prepare, and dispose the hearts of men to the reception of their faith; so as a natu­ral [Page 130] means to that operation, he infused likewise into them a profound reverence for the Persons of those who published this Faith, and informed the People of the mysteries, and instructed them in the know­ledge of it towards the Apostles, and to­wards those who succeeded them, and ob­served their Orders, and followed their examples; this Universal esteem of such Persons amongst all Christians, created such an implicit belief in all they said, and so intire a submission to all they required, that Men were not less guided by them in all the affairs of humane life, than in their determinations of the most spiritual mat­ters which related to their Conscience; and this general resignation continued in a great degree, until Religion grew to be a faction, and reproach amongst Christians themselves, and the preaching it a Trade to live, and to grow rich by, and Men stu­died it for preferment, and practised it for profit.

That unreasonable, inconvenient, and mischievous distinction of Ecclesiastical, and Temporal, as it exempts things, and Persons from the Civil Iustice, and the Soveraign Authority, and as it erects an­other Tribunal, and sets up another di­stinct [Page 131] Soveraign Iurisdiction Superiour, and independant upon the other, hath cost the Christian World very dear in Treasure, and in blood, and hath almost heaved that Government (which ought to preserve the order, and peace of Christendom) off the Hinges. That there are offences, and crimes of an Ecclesiastical, and Spiritual Nature, according to the manner, and cu­stome of speaking, and Persons who by their Functions, to which they are assign­ed properly, fall under the same distincti­ons, is very true, and very reasonable; but that any such difference in the appellation, should create a Schisme in the Government, that the civil justice of the Kingdom should not have the full cognisance of either, and both, but that an other Supreme, and Sove­raign Iurisdiction should examine, and de­termine those things, and have the only authority to regulate, reform, and punish those Persons, is such a solecisme, such a contradiction, indeed such a dissolution of all the principles, and substantial frame of Government, that there is not wherewith­all left to prevent the highest, and most dismal confusion that can be imagined; for if the same Treason may not be deter­mined before the same Tribunal, because of the difference, and distinction of the [Page 132] Persons who are guilty of it, if the Sove­raign power over the Nation have only power to judge, and condemn the Laymen who Rebel, and the Clergy which hath fo­mented it, the Church-men who have preached it up as lawful, and necessary, and justifiable, may appeal from that justice to another jurisdiction, which it may be wish­ed good success to that undertaking, which is now condemned, however will not be obliged to the same rules of judging, which were to confess it self inferiour; Is it not possible that the same offence may be con­demned and justified, and one Man legally commended, and preferred for the same action for which the other is censured and executed? Kings and Queens can never be the Nursing Fathers, and Nursing Mo­thers of the Church, if they themselves shall be kept as Children in the Nursery of the Vicar of that Church, if he shall ex­ercise a Soveraignty above the Soveraignty they have in their own Dominions. Aaron had a function of his own Offices to per­form, which were proper to him, and to his Tribe after him, but he was inferiour to Moses, Moses had the power over him, and it was well he had so; had it been other­wise, he who was so ready to gratifie the people in their impious desire of having [Page 133] Gods to walk before them, and had no o­ther excuse for not only permitting, but con­triving their abominable Idolatry, but that the people were set on mischief, and said unto him, make us Gods, and he said unto them, whoever hath any Gold, let them break it off, so they gave it, he cast it into the Fire and out came the Calf, which they worship­ped before the Altar which he built before it; what would not this Man have done that the People would have required, and if Moses had not been the Soveraign to have examined, and punished this foul transgres­sion? Idolatry had probably been established, as a Law by God's own High Priest, and as by his own Commandement; He who had the presumption to murmur, and speak a­gainst Moses as Aaron did,Numb. 12. 1. would have re­belled against him, if God himself had not given him such a reprehension as made him tremble, Wherefore were you not afraid to speak against my Servant Moses? the speech was but between two, but it would hard­ly have been stilled, if God had not stop­ped their Mouths, and struck his joynt murmurer with Leprosie, and sent him to ask mercy of Moses. It is no undervalu­ing the persons, or their functions, to say it were better for the Successors of Aaron, and for the Successors of St. Peter, and for the [Page 134] things and Persons which are committed to their charge, if they, as their Predecessors were, were subject to a superiour visitation, which is more like, and more able to re­form things as they grow amiss, and to pre­vent dangerous innovations in Church, as well as in the State; and surely that Sove­raign power which is trusted by God to provide for the peace and prosperity, and security of a Nation, if it cannot as well prevent, and punish those enormities which grow up in the Church, from the corruption of Doctrine, and contentions, and contra­dictions in the practice of Religion, as any exorbitancies in state, is so far from being soveraign, that he holds upon the matter the little authority he hath in other things, but precariò of him who hath the exercise of the other jurisdiction. And as this mis­chief, and confusion is very demonstrable to all men who understand the foundation, and rules of Policy, and Government, so the benefits which accrew from this di­stinction, are not discernable by the eyes of reason, or of faith. Temporal Princes, and Kings cannot have authority to change Reli­gion, nor are qualified to perform the Offices, and functions of Religion; that's true. Nor hath any Ecclesiastical and Spiritual power authority to change Religion; The Pope [Page 135] whom some Men call the Church, nor a Ge­neral Council, which no doubt is the most natural representative of the Universal Church, doth not pretend that they can change Religion; Our Saviour left our Re­ligion intire, and the Apostles left all things so plain which he directed, that no power under Heaven can add to, or take from that body of Religion, which they com­mended to all Christians; nor can it be more reasonably imagined that God will suffer any Christian state to make such an alteration, than that the Universal Church shall fall away from being Christian: but if Christianity were deposited with one Church-man, or any body of Church-men, we have too much reason to apprehend what would become of it, by the progress Arianisme once, and other Heresies too made in the World by possessing many great, and learn­ed Men, even of the Fathers themselves. So that we may say, that the purity of Chri­stian Religion hath been in truth preserved by the piety of Princes, with the advice, and assistance of their National, and Ecclesi­astical Councils, more than by any spiritual authority. Religion it self then must not, cannot be changed, but the advancement of it, the information in it, the exercise, and practice by which it is best to be made [Page 136] manifest, cannot be so well provided for, as by that supreme soveraign authority to which God hath intrusted the peace, and prosperity of a Nation, which best knows how to establish such formes, and ceremonies and circumstances in what pertains to Reli­gion, as are most agreeable to the nature, and inclination, and disposition of a peo­ple. A conformity in humours and in man­ners, is a great introduction to conformity in Religion, and will not suffer the pride, and affectation, and singularity of any man to contradict the order established. This Soveraign Authority knows best how to preserve Peace, in which the being of a Nation consists, and how to reform errors which are grown, and prevent those which are growing, by such ways as may not disturb that peace; and such errours as are grown too obstinate, are too deep rooted to be pulled up without shaking the whole peace of the Kingdom, he will let alone, drawing by degrees such nourishment from it, as most cherishes it, until a fitter season for the intire cure of it. No Reformation is worth the charge of a Civil War; Nor was it a light reproach which Seneca charged upon Sylla, Qui patriam durio­ribus remediis quam pericula erant, sana­vit; The Remedy was worse than the [Page 137] Disease, and God knows Christianity hath paid very dear for the too hasty and pas­sionate application of remedies to very con­fessed diseases, when the disease was not ripe for the remedy, nor the remedy pro­portioned to the disease. State surgery can­not be used with too much caution, nor are the wounds, and sores of it cured at once, or with one kind of medicine, but the leni­tives and corrosives must be applied succes­sively, and if the first will do it, there cannot be too little used of the latter; No sore is so ill cured, as that which is hastily cured. There is no necessity, nor convenience that the outward exercise, and forms of Religi­on be the same in all climates, and in all Countries; Nay, it is very necessary that it be different, according to the natures, and customes of the people. It would be very incongruous where genuflexion is neither the posture of reverence or devotion, to in­troduce a command for kneeling; and there are many particulars worthy of the same consideration. They do equally mistake, who believe that the out-works of Religion must be equally, & with the same passion guard­ed, and preserved, as the walks themselves, that no form, or ceremony, or circumstance in Religion may not be altered or parted with, more than the faith it self, and they [Page 138] who would be always mending, and alter­ing, and reforming according to every mo­del & description they meet with, as a thing indifferent, and only to please the fancies of men where there is no indifference; there may be alterations made by, and according to the wisdom of the Government, and as the good Order, and peace of the Nation requires, and with the same gravity, and deliberation as all other mutations, and provisions are made; but there must be out-works still, and such as may secure the walls from rude approaches; every fanciful Engineer must not demolish the out-works upon pretence they are too high, or too ir­regular, nor must the decency of the pro­spect so much transport others, as not to suffer the least alteration in them, though thereby the walls would be the better gar­ded. No one Classis of men will dispas­sionately weigh all necessary consideration in this matter, but that authority which must provide for the publick peace, is the most competent provider for this branch of it. It is no irreverence to the purest times, to believe that in the first plantation of Christian Religion (I speak not of infusion of Christian Religion into the Apostles, and the inspiration by the Holy Ghost, but of the plantation [Page 139] of it by the Apostles, and those who suc­ceeded them, by the strength of their rea­son, and the powerful effects of their lives, and actions) the same method, and order, and application was used and observed as is in other Plantations: The Sun and the Soil are first consulted, and husbandry practised accordingly in the sowing of Seeds or setting of Plants, and that hus­bandry altered and improved according to seasons, and upon observation and expe­rience what is most like to advance the Plantation. If ever the Spaniard loses the West Indies (which it is probable enough he will do) it will be by his positive and rigorous adhering to the same rules which were most prudently established by Philip the Second upon the first conquest of that Empire, and under which the Infant Plantation prospered exceedingly, and not admitting any such material alterations since, as would produce more benefit and advantage now, than the other did then, and which time, and the people will make, if the policy of the Government do not first introduce it, and then it is very hazardous that the presumption of doing it will shake off that authority that should have done it. It may be observed in the Plantation of Christianity, that where the age and the [Page 140] people were most inclined to superstition, which in the first conversion and growth of Religion they were not disposed to, at least to that worship and reverence which shortly after degenerated into superstition, there was least care taken to introduce Forms and Ceremonies into the Church; but when prophaneness broke in as a tor­rent, and the lives of Christians discredi­ted the doctrine of Christ, and the power of Princes was found necessary to reform the manners of the Church; such Forms and Ceremonies were brought into the ex­ercise of Religion, as were judged most like to produce a reverence into the pro­fessors towards it, and to manifest that re­verence, in providing whereof General Councils medled very little, knowing very well that they could not be the same in all places, and that every State and King­dom knew best what ways and means were most like to contribute to the gene­ral end, the reverence for Religion; and sure there cannot be too intent a care in Kings and Princes to preserve and main­tain all decent Forms and Ceremonies both in Church and State, which keeps up the veneration and reverence due to Religion and the Church of Christ, and the duty and dignity due to Government, and to [Page 141] the Majesty of Kings in an age when the dissoluteness of manners, and the pro­phaneness and pride of the people too much inclines them to a contempt of Religion, to a neglect of order, and to an underva­luing and contending with the most Sove­raign authority.

That the Secular power cannot provide for Ecclesiastical Reformations, because Kings and Princes are not qualified to perform the offices and functions of Religion, because they do not pretend to consecrate Bishops, to ordain Priests, or to administer the Sacraments, is an argument to exclude them, as well from the temporal as spiritual jurisdiction in the determination of matters of right between private men, in the punishment of the most enormous crimes and offences. Justice must be administred according to the esta­blished rules of the Law, and not the will and inclination of the Iudge; and it can­not be presumed that Kings can be so well versed in the Laws and customs which must regulate the proceedings of Justice, and therefore may be excluded from the authority and power of judging the people; and they are wonderful careful that you may not believe that they would bereave them of that inherent power and authori­ty [Page 142] which they confess is committed to them alone; but why the one and not the other, since they can as well provide for the one as for the other, is not so easie to be comprehended by any rules of right reason. Kings provide for the good administration of justice, by making learned men Iudges, whose province it is to execute the Law in all cases; and they provide for the ad­vancement and preservation of Religion, by making pious and learned men Bishops, and use their advice and assistance in mat­ters relating to the Church, as he doth that of the Judges in cases pertaining to the Law; and as he doth other Counsellors in such things as have an immediate depen­dance upon the Wisdom of State; and both Bishops and Iudges are bound to render an account of their actions to Kings, who have intrusted them; and if they have been corrupt in the discharge of their seve­ral Offices, they are equally liable to the Kings displeasure, and to such punishments as the Laws have provided for such enor­mities, which are inflicted upon them by the Kings authority. And as no foreign power can be so competent as the King's to administer this Justice, since it must either controul it, or be controuled by it; so it is no easie matter for the Pope to prove [Page 143] himself a more spiritual Person than Kings are, who have been in all Ages thought to have somewhat of the Priest and the Pro­phet by their very Office, whereas some Popes have been pure Lay-men, when they have been chosen to that Supreme office, which is all the qualification they have to be more Ecclesiastical after; and very ma­ny have been chosen Popes, who never were Bishops, which is not a necessary qualification for that dignity, every Dea­con-Cardinal being as capable to be elected Pope, as the Priest and Bishop Cardinal; and he that was a Bishop before consecrates no Bishops himself after he is Pope, but that function is performed by other Bishops by vertue of his Commission or Bull; and the same may as regularly be done by Bishops by vertue of Kings Commissions in their se­veral Kingdoms, otherwise it would be in the power of Popes to extinguish the fun­ction of Bishops in any Princes Dominions; and therefore the French Ambassador de­clared in his Masters name to Innocent the Tenth, that if he persisted in the refusal to make Bishops in Portugal upon that King's nomination, they should chuse a Patriarch of their own, who should supply that de­fect. But God be thanked that senseless usurpation and exemption of the Clergie from [Page 144] the common justice of Nations, is pretty well out of countenance; and since the Republick of Venice so notoriously baffled Paul the Fifth upon that very point, other Kings and Princes have chastised their own Clergie for transcendent crimes, without asking leave of his Holiness, or treating them in any other manner than they do their ordinary Malefactors.

For the unity proposed and professed by us in the Creed, I believe one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church, if it be well considered in what time that Creed was made, which is not yet defined or determined by any Church; and if it had been made by the Apostles themselves, according to the fancy of some men, that every one of the Apostles should contribute his Article, it would then be Canonical Scripture, which it is not pretended to be; yet I think it is agreed by most learned men, that it was framed in the infancy of Christianity, and in, or very soon after the time of the Apostles themselves, and then it can have no other signification than Credo Sanctam Apostolicam Ecclesiam esse Catholicam, which was a necessary Article at that time, when the believing that the Church was to be universal, and to consist equally of Gentiles [Page 145] as well as Iews, was one of the most diffi­cult points of Christianity, and most oppo­sed; and for the Confirmation whereof the Apostles took most pains after they were all reconciled to it themselves; and as it could have no other sence then, so the restraining it to any one Church now, or to make it serve for a distinction between Churches and Nations, and to produce a separation between them, must be very unnatural if any sence at all. To conclude then this discourse of unity, I know not how Mr. Cressy can refuse to submit to that good rule and determination that S. Gregory long since gave upon the third Interrogati­on administred to him by Austin the Monk, Cum una sit fides, cur sunt Ecclesiarum di­versae consuetudines, & altera consuetudo Missarum in sancta Romana Ecclesia, atque altera in Galliarum tenetur? Respondet Gregorius Papa, Novit fraternitas tua Ro­manae Ecclesiae consuetudinem, in qua se nu­tritam meminit, sed mihi placet, ut sive in Romana, five in Galliarum, seu in qualibet Ecclesia, aliquid invenisti quod plus omnipo­tenti Deo posset placere, sollicitè eligas, & in Anglorum Ecclesia, quae adhuc ad fidem nova est, institutione praecipuâ, quae de mul­tis Ecclesiis colligere potuisti, infundas, non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca [Page 146] amanda sunt. Ex singulis ergo quibusque Ecclesiis, quae pia, quae religiosa, quae recta sunt elige, & haec quasi in fasciculum collect a apud Anglorum mentes in consuetudinem depo­ne. If Austin had conformed himself to these Instructions, it is very probable that he might have had as good success in reconciling the Eritish Church, who prin­cipally insisted against any deference to the Roman, not comprehending any possible reason for such a superiority; or if the successors of Gregory had been of his temper and Christian prudence, Christendom had been much better united at this day, or more innocently separated, and unanswe­rable reasons for the reformation of some errors which had unwarily creeped in, or removing some scandals, which could not otherwise be kept out, would not have been so often rejected, upon no other rea­son than that the Bishop of Rome was not of that opinion, nor would whole National Churches, because they have with the con­sent of the Soveraign power removed some error which the other chuses to retain, be reviled with the names of Hereticks and Schismaticks, and the universal be con­tracted within the Province of Rome, and not be allowed to be members of the Ca­tholick Church, because they will not be [Page 147] subject to that of the Roman, which would usurp the authority of condemning many more Christians than are contained with­in the community thereof. To make any profession of a willingness to submit mens judg­ments for the sence of Scripture to a lawful General Council, (besides that I do not know that there is any difference upon any Text of Scripture that concerns Salva­tion) I confess I take it to be very im­pertinent, and in that respect not very in­genious, since it is manifestly impossible for any such Council ever to meet, whilst that of Rome challenges the sole power of calling it, and pretends to such a Sove­raignty in it, that nothing must be deba­ted by it, but what is proposed by the Pope or his Legats, and all Kingdoms or Provin­ces as well as private persons, who will not submit to his Soveraignty, shall be exclu­ded from thence under the notion of being Hereticks; so that all Protestants must ap­pear as Delinquents to be censured and con­demned, which would be a strange condi­tion to submit to, when no body can com­pel them to appear but their own Sove­raigns: Nor can it be called a free Council, where all who ought to be looked upon as members of it, are not equally free. When General Councils were first called, [Page 148] all the Christians of the world were one mans subjects, who could both compel as many of them as he thought necessary to be present, and to obey and submit to whatsoever was determined; whereas now there being so many Kings and Prin­ces who have much larger Dominions than the Emperor, and are equally Soveraigns in those their Dominions, and none of their subjects can appear there without their Soveraigns consent: And lastly, it being a Catholick Tenent, that how nume­rous soever the convention in Council is, and how universal soever the consent is in what is determined, the Canons made there are not obligatory to any Kingdom before it be received and submitted to in that Kingdom, upon which the Council of Trent is not yet received in France, and in many other Catholick Countries; and there­fore it will be very hard for Mr. Cressy to justifie the defending or urging the autho­rity of that Council in England, where it was never received, and hath been always rejected: And for these reasons it may rea­sonably be thought morally impossible for any general free Council ever to meet, which must grow every day more impossible as the Christian Faith is farther spread, and when the whole world is converted, as [Page 149] we do not only pray it may, but believe it will be; it will be very hard for the great­est Geographer to assign a place for the meeting, where the Bishops from all parts may reasonably hope to live to be present there, and to return from thence with the resolutions of the Councils into his own Country.

For the Instruments and means of unity, which Mr. Cressy says were left by our Lord to his Church, for the preservation of unity, (besides that most of those means are as applicable to the Church of England, as to the Church of Rome, though none of them in the terms he uses appear to be enjoyned or left by our Savi­our) let him but prove the Ninth and Tenth, That the ordinary authority is esta­blished in the Supreme Pastor, the Bishop of Rome, and that his jurisdiction extends it self to the whole Church, &c. and in case any Heresies arise, or that any Controversies can­not be any otherwise ended, he hath authority to determine the points of Catholick truth op­posed, &c. I say let him prove this, and he hath no need of any of the other means; and I will give him farther this advantage over me, that if he can prove that I am ob­liged to conform my judgment in any thing [Page 150] to the determination of the Pope more than to the determination of the Bishop of S. Iago, I will go to Mass with him to morrow; and Mr. Cressy himself might be a good Catholick if he had not unwarrantably (to say no worse of it) subscribed to the Bull of Pius the Fourth, which is no obligation by the Council, when he submitted to his new Ordination, though he were of the same opinion. And if that Tenth proposition of his be the doctrine of the Catholick Church, the Colledge of Sorbon hath been often to blame in not consenting to it; and I know not how the Iansenists in France can be excused for paying not more re­verence to the judgment and determina­tion of two Popes upon the five Propositions; for Alexander the Seventh confirmed what Innocent the Tenth had first defined, nor was the silence that is since submitted to in those particulars, an effect of the Popes authority, but of the Kings, which amounts to little less than a revocation, at least a suspension of the Popes Decree.

The Argument that the Doctor uses from the Tragical miscarriages of Popes is very apposite and convincing to those Pro­positions which Mr. Cressy would per­swade men to believe do establish his perso­nal [Page 151] Supremacy. He says that our Saviour hath committed a Supreme jurisdiction to the person of the Bishop of Rome over the whole Church, that in case any Heresies arise, or any Controversies, in causis majoribus, to determine the points of Catholick truth, &c. To which there can be nothing more sub­stantially answered for confutation, than that the State of the Church must have been very deplorable and desperate, if that had been a Catholick verity, when Pope Marcellinus sacrificed to Idols, or when Pope Liberius turned Arrian, and would be much more lamentable in these days, when the Church must remain in perpe­tual wardship and servitude under the Pope, since no man can rationally expect a gene­ral Council to relieve her; and when there is no other definition of Heresie in the Coe­na Domini, than that which contradicts, or is contrary to the doctrine or practice of the Church of Rome; and when the autho­rity of the Pope is urged as the best expe­dient for the establishing peace and unity in the world; can there be any thing re­plied more pertinently for the conviction, than the mention of those Popes, who by the assuming that authority, and purely for the vindication of it, have caused more Christian blood to have been spilt, more [Page 152] horrible Massacres of Kings and Princes and People, than all the Heresies in the world, and all other politick differences have pro­duced, if you cast in the Wars for the Ho­ly Land, which may justly be cast upon the Popes account, and (which is a cir­cumstance very infamous as well as lamen­table) much the greatest part of this de­struction and ruine proceeded from the perjury of Popes themselves, after they had promised and sworn to observe such pacts and agreements voluntarily entred into by themselves, or from the Dispensations they granted to others to break their Faith, and not to perform the contracts they had entred into; all which, he says, being granted, nothing will follow; whereas cer­tainly it must follow, that the persons of such men are not capable or worthy of such trusts or authority, which is as much as those arguments are urged for. Mr. Cressy would be contented to confess that some Popes for about an Age or two did cause into­lerable disorders in the Church and Empire, (which by the way is argument enough against those personal qualifications) upon condition that we would gratifie him with ac­knowledging that the Government of Popes did for a thousand years produce excellent or­der in the world; which we are so far from [Page 153] granting, that as we must confess that they were so modest for half that time, as to make no claim to any such authority in Church or State; so from the time they did claim it, it produced more blood-shed than all other quarrels whatsoever. And as Mr. Cressy must have the assistance of ve­ry good Antiquaries to name one War of a years continuance, that was ever composed by the authority or mediation of any Pope, where there can very hardly be named one solemn bloody War upon what Politick pretence soever it was at first entred into, but that hath been carried on either upon his immediate advice and interest, or fo­mented under-hand by his Council and assist­ance, of which the Rebellion in Ireland must be one of the latest instances. It cannot be denied that some Ages have been so igno­rant and barbarous, that the Popes autho­rity hath been sufficient to kindle the most cruel and the most unnatural bloody diffen­tions; and he hath never failed in contri­buting his utmost power to that end; and it can be as easily proved, that in this last Age many rebellions and ravenous Wars have fallen out, which might either have been prevented or quickly composed, as the late Rebellions in France, and those in Catalonia, being both between Catholicks, [Page 154] if he as a common Father would have inter­posed his special authority, and excommu­nicated those who he could not doubt were in Rebellion; but he never would be in­duced to apply his power to that good end. The Supremacy and Soveraignty of the Bishop of Rome was never the product of peace; it grew very fat, and the bulk thereof encreased to that unruly size in and by the most bloody Wars which Christen­dom hath ever been infested with, which makes it discernable enough what diet they chuse to feed upon; of which appe­tite their late savage Bulls against the peace of Munster, and that of Osningbrooke, when the Empire was even at its last gasp for want of blood, is too great a manifesta­tion. Nor have they to this day, how little noise soever they now make, dis­claimed any of those principles, or the pretence to any of that power, by the ex­ercise whereof so many intolerable disor­ders, as Mr. Cressy confesses, were caused for about an Age or two in the Church, and in the Empire.

I wonder Mr. Cressy should accuse the Doctor for arguing less reasonably in men­tioning the Schismes which have been in the Church of Rome, and the more modern [Page 155] disorders, by reason of the quarrels between Bishops and Monastick Orders about exem­ptions, and priviledges, &c. But I wonder more at his unskilfulness in the Ecclesi­astical History, when he says, that all the Schismes were after the Church was a­bove twelve hundred years old, for before there were scarce any; which is so great a mistake, that my old kindness will scarce suffer me to take notice of it; The last Schisme (as I think) before the year twelve hundred was that between Alexander the third, and Victor the fifth, which was after the year eleven hundred and fifty, and is reckoned by all Ecclesi­astical Writers to be the twenty fourth, or twenty fifth Schisme, and it is an unrea­sonable objection, that there can be no such power inherent in the Pope, as he assigns to him, when it is so frequently uncertain who is Pope, and that uncer­tainty hath continued so long, and all the Princes of Christendom divided in the re­ception of him, and the anti-Pope, some­times three or four together, act, and do all that the true Pope pretends to do, and is o­beyed as such in the Dominions of several Christian Princes; This sure cannot be thought a light argument, by any but such who think the pretence too frivolous to re­quire [Page 156] an argument against it; and he says the mention of the quarrels between Bi­shops, and Monastick Orders, and between the Regulars, and the Seculars, and much more such stuff, implies no more, but that Subjects are often times Rebellious to their Superiours, therefore it were better there were no Superiours at all; when such stuff is an unanswerable argument, that the au­thority with the which he would invest the Pope for peace, and unity sake, doth not produce either, where it is most sub­mitted to; He says very true, that it is not the Popes infallibility, but his au­thority which ends Controversies, which is a good argument that they must re­main unended, when either party doth not acknowledge his authority; and it seems the case is not very different, when both sides do confess it, for he says that all Catholicks do acknowledge that they are obliged at least to silence when imposed by the Pope, yet it cannot be denied, but that some have not complied with the obligation; but that he says is not to be imputed to want of authority in the Pope, but to the unruliness of mens passions and pride, and I say it serves the Doctor's turn, if his authority be not such as can curb, and suppress the unruliness of the passi­ons, [Page 157] and pride of his own Subjects. He will not understand how the Doctor can say, that the Church of England makes no Articles of Faith, but such as have testi­mony, and approbation of the whole Chri­stian World of all Ages, and are acknow­ledged to be such by Rome it self, and in other things she requires subscription to them, not as Articles of Faith, but as inferiour truths, which she expects submission to, in order to her peace and tranquillity. Mr. Cressy is the only man alive that can find obscurity in this clause, and I con­fess his exception to it is so obscure, that I will rather rely upon the Readers under­standing of the most exact plainness of it, than inlarge my self in any explanation, and I wish that he could say as much for the Church of Rome, that it makes no Article of Faith, but such as have the testimony and approbation of the whole Christian World of all Ages; our com­plaint is, that he multiplies articles of faith to that degree, that he will not suffer us to be saved for believing all that most Chri­stians believed for a thousand years toge­ther, without the least doubt of their Sal­vation, nor will he yet let us know the full extent he would have our faith reach to, for we are no less obliged to submit to [Page 158] what he or his Successors shall declare hereafter to be matter of faith, than to what is at present contained in the whole Canons of the Council of Trent, which makes it absolutely necessary for the peace of Conscience, as well as the peace of King­doms to protest against, and as far as in us lies to restrain that exorbitant autho­rity; but of all arguments it is a most pleasant one, that if the Church of Eng­land believes nothing as of faith, but what the Popes, and Church of Rome do like­wise believe; Therefore it follows that the Church of Rome, notwithstanding its Ido­latry, Fanaticisme, &c. failes in no ne­cessary point of faith; which would be true, if it added nothing to that confessed faith that must destroy it. He then in­volves himself in his old circle of the Churches authority, and of that Churches being the Church of Rome, and of the re­sidence of that authority being in the Per­son of the Pope, which whosoever refuses to submit to, must be an Heretick; to all which enough hath been said before, nor can I enlarge upon it, without saying somewhat that I have said before, which I have no mind to do.

We come now to the Seventh, and [Page 159] Eighth Chapters concerning Penance, &c. upon which I shall enlarge the less, be­cause the Church of England is so far from condemning Confession or Penance, that it uses, and commends both, and upon Con­fession always satisfaction is enjoyned there, as much as in the Church of Rome; it is true that with us it is not so positively en­joyned, that is, men are not compelled to it; nor are those forms used in ours, or those interrogatories administred, by which those secrets are extorted from Men and Wo­men, which they would willingly con­ceal, and which may lawfully be con­cealed as in their Church, but Penitents are lest to their own liberty, and their own method of drawing such information and comfort from their Confessors, as they believe most useful to them, which was the original end of Confession, and from which very many good Catholicks believe there is at present too great a deviation. God forbid the integrity and piety of any Church should be suspected, much less condemned for the evil livers who re­main within the pale of it. No Church hath ever yet, nor any will ever be but the triumphant, without abundance of them; yet it being the principal end, and the most manifest perfection of Re­ligion [Page 160] to introduce an innocence of life, and a sincerity of manners into all those who profess it, all Churches cannot too severely affect that Discipline which hath the greatest operation upon the lives, and actions of their Children; whether there are not some corruptions creeped into the common practice of auricular Confession, whether the ordinary customary Confessors are not too remiss, or over curious in ex­amining, and consequently in informing their Penitents, or too easie, and perfun­ctory in their absolutions, will not become me to determine, but Mr. Cressy well knows that very many learned and pi­ous Catholicks do publickly lament the scandalous corruptions which have been practised, and countenanced in that vital part of their Religion. Who those Apo­states from the Catholick Church are, who have left their Monasteries out of carnal liberty, and carnal lusts, I am not at all informed, but if they are so carnally minded, I doubt some of them may be instructed by him to ask him, how he forgot what he had formerly believed, and whether he was in a moment inspired to answer to a new Catechisme full of new Articles of Faith? If conscience hath had no influence upon them, they have been [Page 161] very weak, and not Roman Catholicks e­nough to be tempted by the Woman, since they might have had the full use of her with much more good husbandry, and less guilt, without leaving their Mona­steries; for it is a ruled and a vowed case by most, if not all their Casuists, that fornica­tion is a less sin than marriage, and the reason they give is, that the last is living in perpetual adultery. Whoever hath lived in those places which are most inhabited by Religious Men, is very little conver­sant with the Catholick same, if he doth believe the major part of Religious Men to be enough mortified against that li­berty, though no doubt very many of them have subdued the temptation, and it will not only be charity, but common justice to think that those Apostates over whom Mr. Cressy so much infults, have been governed by their Conscience, since it was hardly possible they could be invi­ted by the Woman, having enough of that Sex at their devotion, without the obliga­tion, and impediment of marriage; and till Mr. Cressy informs us why Monasteries are better Schools of Holiness and Devotion, than our Colledges are, whose Discipline is as severe, admitting cleanliness be to be preferred before slovenlines, and doctrine [Page 162] much stricter, enough hath been already said for their vindication, and need not be repeated.

I think I understand the excuse that Mr. Cressy makes for the notorious trans­gressions which have been in the matter of confession, and absolution, in reference to which he says the Doctor is not ig­norant, that not very long since, among several dangerous positions collected out of some modern Casuists, such scandalous re­laxations in administring the Sacrament of Penance had a principal place, all which were not only condemned by the Bishops of France, almost in every Dio­cess, but also a Book, the Author of which undertook to defend them, was so­lemnly prohibited, and condemned by the Pope, since which time he says such do­ctrines have been wholly restrained, and silenced; to which I shall only say, that these modern Casuists continue still the greatest Confessors in all Catholick Coun­tries, and it is observable that not one amongst them, hath ever yet renounced, or disclaimed one of those dangerous O­pinions or positions which stand so con­demned, and it can therefore hardly be known that such doctrines are wholly re­strained, [Page 163] and for their being silenced, which they urge still as a matter of great refor­mation in those loud differences, and as if all the passions, and inconveniencies which arise from thence were thereby suppressed, if not extinguished, whoever hath any conversation with those adversaries may quickly discern, that neither of them hath laid aside their propositions, or the animosities against each other, and the silence contributes so little of charity that poor Monsieur—since he was known to be the Author of the Provin­cial Letters, can scarce enjoy peace in his Grave; Indeed if the Bishops of France were not over-powred, and even silenced too, by the Regular Clergy, those excesses would in a short time be well reformed; The danger is, that in the method and form of customary confessions, there remains still a contention between the Authority of the Scriptures, and of the Church, without which it could hardly fall out, that so many men, who all hours of the day and of the night indulge to themselves, even without concealing it, the practice of those sins which the Scripture hath prohibited under the penalty of damnation, cannot be seduced by example, or importunity, hardly by sickness, to eat flesh upon a day of absti­nence, [Page 164] nor from prophane or unclean dis­course in that very time, which can proceed from no other principle, than that the dis­obeying the injunctions of the Church, (which without doubt ought to be obser­ved) is a greater sin, than those of our Sa­viour; and men would not run to confession as they wash their hands, with a resolution to make them less clean as soon as they have done. If those fountains of confession and absolution, from whence so many draw the waters of life, come to be poysoned or prophaned, they were much better be dry­ed up for a time, or carefully inclosed that men might not resort thither, till they are better instructed in the use of them; and we may without breach of charity believe that very odious corrupti­ons and presumptions had broken into those sacred offices, when the Church it self took so much notice of it, and could not prescribe a more secret remedy than a publick Bull, which Pope Pius the fourth thought necessary to publish, Contra sacer­dotes, qui mulieres poenitentes in actu Con­fessionis ad actus inhonestos provocare, & al­licere tentant, Bul. To. 2. Nor can we sup­pose that this remedy wrought its effect, when another Pope near one hundred years after was compelled to renew and [Page 165] inlarge that Bull with greater penalties, as Pope Gregory the fifteenth hath done, Con­tra sacerdotes in confessionibus Sacramenta­libus poenitentes sollicitantes, Bul. To. 3. In which it is observable, that a greater latitude is permitted to Confessors for the discovery of this horrible impiety, than is allowed for the discovery and prevention of the foulest Treason; and after all this, the condemning the dangerous positions of the modern Casuists hath been found as necessary, which is still an argument that somewhat was still amiss in the admini­stration of those Offices.

That great reverence was paid to the memory of many excellent persons after their death, by visiting their Tombs, and other commemoration of their vertues, and noble actions, hath great testimony from antiquity, as ancient as we have any evidence of the practice of any formal de­votions amongst Christians: As the Pri­mitive Christians amongst the Iews did not decline going to the Synagogues, nor the practice of all things which were in cu­stom with that Nation, when the same could be innocently performed; so amongst the Gentiles they observed what­soever was in great reverence amongst [Page 166] them, as the paying respect to the memo­ry of their Ancestors always was, and that did not contradict or offend any Christian Precept; and it is not improbable that they might take that practice from them, since the visitation of the Tombs and Sepul­tures of Martyrs is as ancient as Martyr­dom it self: but that those forms of Prayer for the dead, which are now practised in the Roman Church, were in use amongst Christians from the beginning till Prote­stantism arose, Mr. Cressy will not prove; and there is too great reason to doubt, that whosoever doth believe, that enor­mous sins which are unacknowledged and unrepented of at the death of the sinner may be expiated, and consequently must be pardoned by what they who live after him can do for him, hath a great tempta­tion to live without that strict guard upon his affections, and his passions, which he might otherwise believe to be necessary. But I do not think that any but illiterate Catholicks have that opinion, whether the most learned amongst them are not well content, that the rest in this, and many other particulars should believe what they themselves do not believe, I refer to Mr. Cressy; assuring him likewise, that if I did think that my Prayers, or any thing [Page 167] else I could do, could purchase the least ease to the Souls of my Friends, or of my Ene­mies, I would your them out with all may heart, and should not fear any reprehensi­on from the Church of England, which hath declared no judgment in the point, except it be comprehended in the Article of Pur­gatory, and then the censure is no more, than that it is a fond thing, which in that case I would be content to undergo; and for the many Masses which are usually said for them, and which seems to give rich sinners some advantage, I will say no more, than that to my understanding that Priest who believes his Mass gives any be­nefit to the departed Soul, hath much to answer that he doth not say it for charity, but takes ten pence or a shilling (at the rate that Masses are sold in that climate) which seems to be more literal Simony than any act that passes under that reproach.

For the matter of Indulgences Mr. Cressy seems to be intirely of the Doctors judg­ment and opinion, and therefore I cannot but wonder and lament, that it being up­on the matter the only Chapter in which he hath treated him with civility, he chu­ses to conclude it so rudely, as to say that every prudent Reader will easily discover from [Page 168] how poysonous a heart it issues, and to how unchristian an end it was directed. My ex­ceptions to Indulgences is, the deceit and fraud that is in them, and the circumventi­on of the common people, from which the Church it self cannot be excused; there is scarce a Village in all the Catholick Domini­ons of the world, which hath not one day in the year, if not more, the benefit of an Indulgence, to obtain which they visit such and such places and Churches so many times, and in this expedition, people of both sexes, the lame and the blind tire themselves, when whoever can read La­tin finds, that if he complies with the Pre­cepts and Injunctions, which are the con­ditions of every Indulgence of hearty repen­tance of all their sins, and a sincere amend­ment of life, and the like, he shall be sure to enjoy all the benefits, and more than are promised by that Indulgence, though he should lie in his bed, whilst others make those perambulations; and yet this kind of fatuity is the ground of all those Indulgen­ces, and of the Pilgrimages which are un­dertaken, except for Penance, whereas if the conditions be performed, they have no need of the Indulgence, and if they be not, they have no benefit by it, though it costs even the poorest people some mo­ney, [Page 169] which they cannot well spare in most places.

Mr. Cressy is not so sturdy a maintainer of all the points in difference with the Ro­man Church, but he would willingly part with the Prayers in an unknown tongue, though he says there is scarce a rustick so ig­norant, but well understands what the Priest does, through the whole course of the Mass; but I must confess my self so much more ignorant than his Rustick, that though I have seen many Masses, I never heard any, nor saw any Congregation so intent, as if they did desire to hear any thing that is said, but whisper, and talk, and laugh, except only at the Elevation; and if the Congregation be great, especially at a high Mass, it is hardly possible that any considerable number of them can under­stand one word that is spoken; nor is it held necessary, for as the Priest takes more than ordinary care by an affected and in­dustrious pronunciation not to have what he says understood, so the people generally think themselves only concerned in being present, and that it is not necessary for them to hear or understand what is spo­ken, because all that relates to them is done, and completely performed by the [Page 170] Priest. He confesses that it was far from being the Churches primary intention, that the publick office should be in a tongue not un­derstood by the people, for it was at first com­posed, he says, in the language generally spo­ken and understood through Europe; by which I suppose he means the Latin tongue, in which he is much mistaken, both that Latin was generally spoken and under­stood through Europe; I am not sure that it was the language of all Italy it self, or that in the first composing of Liturgies, they were all one and the same, or in one Language. In the East, and throughout the Greek Church we are sure they had, and still have different Liturgies, and we have no reason to believe, that in the La­tin Church the Liturgies were the same throughout the West, but were such as the Bishops allowed, or made for their own Dioceses. We know that the British Church retained its Liturgie for many years; and that it was near, if not above one thousand years (for it was not till the time of Gregory the Seventh) before Spain parted with the Gothish Liturgie, and ac­cepted that from Rome; and how many alterations have been since made in it, is known to all who will inform them­selves; and after all, I think S. Ambrose's [Page 171] Missal is still retained in Milan, notwith­standing the Bull of Clement the Eighth, and of the succeeding Popes; and therefore I cannot doubt but that and very many particulars in common practioe, are parts of that Religion of State, which may with­out breach of charity or unity, be altered and reformed by the Soveraign in such or­der as such mutations are made for the ad­vancement of Gods service in such a King­dom or Province for which it is made. But Mr. Cressy would find himself as much deceived even in the making up that breach, if the Popes consent be necessary to it, as he was formerly in his draught of a protestation or subscription for the fideli­ty of the English Catholicks; yet we know that Pope Pius in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign, was very willing to have dispensed with the usage of the Eng­lish Liturgie, the Communion in both kinds, and whatever else was practised in that Church, upon condition that the Popes au­thority and supremacy might have been re­setled in that Kingdom, which he knew would be a good bargain, and enable him to undo all the rest when he should think it necessary; but Mr. Cressy would have pro­ceeded more warily if he had before he left the Church in which he was first ordained [Page 172] a Priest, procured a Reformation in those two particulars, for which he is now so willing to compound, Indulgences and the praying in an unknown tongue, which are greater blemishes in the Church he hath betaken himself into, than all he hath left in that, which he is departed from.

We are come at last to the Doctors ex­ception against the Church of Romes deny­ing the reading of the Bible indifferently; and with this exception Mr. Cressy makes himself very merry, as if the principles of the Religion of the Church of England must fall to the ground, or, as he says, utterly go to wrack if that liberty were denied; for how then should every sober enquirer into Scripture frame a Religion to himself? And so pleases himself with endeavouring to perswade others, contrary to his own conscience, that every one of the Church of England hath liberty to frame a Religion to himself, whereas he well knows that eve­ry member of the Church of Rome hath as much liberty to frame a Religion to himself, as any one of the Church of England hath, who is as much obliged to conform himself to the doctrine of that Church, as the other is to that of Rome. And for the opinion it hath of the Scripture, it answers for it self in [Page 173] these words; Article Sixth, Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary for salvation, so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation: How will this serve his turn to frame a Religion to him­self? But then he recreates himself with a Dialogue which he makes between the Doctor and one of his Parishioners, which if he pleases, is his own case, whilst he triumphs in his conquests of those poor people, which he perverts; what do those simple creatures know of the authority of the whole Church, when he amuzes them with points of Controversie of good works, and of Christs very flesh and blood in the Sacrament, contrary to the very evi­dence of all his senses, to which all mi­racles have been subjected; have those people any other knowledge or informa­tion of the sense of the Catholick Church than from him? and would it not better become them to answer him, that in those points they would chuse rather to believe their own Minister, to whom the care of their Souls is committed, than him who is a stranger to them? or if they have heard of him, they ought the less to believe [Page 174] him. Whoever knows the Doctor and Him, or hath carefully perused their wri­tings, cannot be blamed for preferring the former before the latter. But then how can these people who read the Scripture, and appeal to it, know that they have the true Scripture, which is the word of God? which is a worn-out question, that hath been as often answered as asked. The Church of Rome hath no other evidence of the truth of it, than we have, and the Tradition that hath derived it, doth as much belong to the Church of England, as to the other; there is no difference be­tween us in any particular that relates to Tradition, where the tradition is as univer­sal or as manifest as it is in that of the Scrip­ture. The Doctor is so far from saying or thinking that every Christian is to be a judge of the sence of Scripture, that he doth not believe that every Church is fit to be a judge of it; nor doth it appear that the Church of Rome it self, which would be thought to be Catholick, and instar omnium, doth pre­tend to understand, much less to judge of the sence of the whole Scripture; and yet a very weak member of either may clearly understand the sence of those particular places, which are necessary to be under­stood for his salvation; as no man is so ig­norant [Page 175] as not to know what the sence of Adultery, and of Theft, and Murder, and the like, which he is forbid to be guilty of; and if he be so ignorant, he will not be the more inclined to detest them by reading the School-men; and if he be of the Church of England he knows whither to repair for advice and counsel in difficult cases, and refuses not to submit to it. But that no authority may be able to do us good, he hath obtained a very extraordi­nary faculty to answer and avoid it, and which is the nearest to smelling it out with his Nose that I have been informed of. The Doctor to prove that the Christians in all times were indulged and exhorted to read the Scriptures, besides many other ar­guments, backs his demonstrations, as Mr. Cressy confesses, with an army of the ancient Fathers, who are cited by him, and their doctrine acknowledged by seve­ral late Catholick Divines of the most emi­nent account, and which he himself con­fesses to be true; but he says notwith­standing that no Catholick, nor he thinks any other man in his right wits will grant that every Porter, Cobler, or Lawndress is ca­pable to instruct themselves by reading the Scriptures alone, or to clear the doctrine of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Incarna­tion [Page 176] of our Saviour, the Procession of the Holy Ghost, &c. In all which I do not know that he hath an adversary. After he hath asked the Doctor a question or two of his own judgment, concerning the Fathers concessions in those cases, whether they did not suppose that they to whom they gave this license, would for the sence of difficult points have submitted their judg­ments to the Church. But then he under­takes to know, that if there had been such an Architect of principles, as the Doctor, in the time of the Fathers, they would not have been so zealous in their exhortations to a promis­cuous reading of Scriptures. For he says, and hopes you will take his word for it, that the Doctors principles do evidently con­tain the most pernicious Soul-destroying Here­sie that ever assaulted Gods Church; prin­ciples which banish peace, charity, humility and obedience utterly from the Church and State; which if true, as they could never have entred into the Doctors thoughts by reading the Scriptures, so there can be no such antidote to expel those poysons, as by the Scriptures; for I will undertake to shew very plain places in Scripture, of the sence whereof there is no doubt made, for the confutation of all those principles; and [Page 177] if he be of the Philosophers mind, that more Syllogisms can be made for truth than against it, he will not think the worse of reading the Scriptures for those principles; yet he concludes, that if the Fathers had foreseen these mischiefs, they would never have given such advice; yet he does con­fess that the four first general Councils never put any such restraint upon the reading the Scriptures; for which he gives as good a reason as his answer concerning the Fa­thers, because of the difference between the Heresies of those times, and the Heresies of these times. The Inventors of the ancient Heresies, he says, were great learned Pre­lates, and subtle Philosophers, and the ob­ject of their Heresies were sublime mysteries of Faith, examined and framed by them, ac­cording to the grounds of Plato's and Ari­stotle's Philosophy, &c. Hence, he says, it come to pass that in those days the Scrip­tures might be read freely enough by ordina­ry Christians without danger, especially con­sidering their intention of reading them was not to find out a new Religion, but to instruct themselves in piety, and to inflame their hearts in the Divine love: pag. 161, 162. But our modern Heresies (he says) are of a quite different complexion, they are conver­sant about matters obvious to the weakest ca­pacities, [Page 178] as the external administration of Sacraments, the jurisdiction of Superiors Civil and Ecclesiastical, the manner of mens devotions, the institution of Religious Or­ders, the obligation of Vows, the Ordinances of the Church touching Fasting, Matrimony, Celibacy, paying of Tithes, &c. Or if about sublime mysteries men are taught to examine such mysteries by natural reason, and the verdict of their outwardsenses.

Is not the English or sence of all this, that towards the conviction of the highest and the greatest Heresies which ever were in the Church, and which were only wor­thy of the name of Heresies, and were con­denned as such by the pure and strong evi­dence of Scripture, the reading of the Scrip­tures might be permitted, at least might be read without danger; especially be­cause the intention of reading them then was, that men might be the better for it: But that now in these modern Heresies, up­on the Sacraments, and the institution of Religious Orders and Vows, &c. the read­ing the Scriptures are pernicious, and serves only to find out a new Religion? I can in truth collect no other sence than this from Mr. Cressy's distinction between the ancient and modern Heresies; or for his conclusion, [Page 179] that those godly Fathers who are cited by the Doctor, and truly cited, as he confes­ses, had lived amongst us, or if such Here­sies had been then spread amongst their Disciples, they would not have been so zealous in their exhortations to a promis­cuous reading of Scripture. I think they would, because I am sure they would have had the same reason, and would have wondered how any differences of opinion upon the Civil or Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, upon the manner of mens devotions, or upon the institution of Religious orders, or the rest, come to be called Heresies? And who had authority to declare them such? If no­thing that hath reference to any of these particulars was in practice in their time, we have the less reason to acquiesce in the new invention of them; and it will be the more worth our enquiry, whether they who have put that brand upon them, were not rather parties than judges and gainers by their determinations. If those particu­lars can neither be confirmed by Scripture, nor defended by reason, we need not be troubled for their being called Heresies, though there were no Scripture against them, nor reason to confute them; both which we conceive we have clearly on our sides; let us examine them in order▪ [Page 180] Concerning the external administration of Sacraments, we take upon us to say, that they rob the people of half that which our Saviour instituted, and that (besides the novelty of it, for we say it was near, if not full one thousand years before that violence was offered to Christianity) they may as well defraud them of both, as of either of the species, and the answer they give to it, can give no reasonable satisfaction to any; for to that allegation that the body cannot be without the blood, and consequently the bread contains both, if our Saviour had thought so, he would have instituted it in that manner; the whole obligations of mystery depending only upon the instituti­on, then our Saviour well knew that in the sence they put upon it, it would have been an institution directly contrary to the Law, which our Saviour never violated, for the eating the flesh with the blood was utterly unlawful, and what was unlawful in the institution, cannot become lawful since, by any authority under Heaven; and therefore they who cannot be suffered to receive it in both species, are without the benefit of the Sacrament that was instituted by our Saviour, and that is all I shall say of the external administration. For the exa­mination of the mysteries by natural reason, [Page 181] and the verdict of their outward senses; I shall only ask whether those outward senses are proper judges, that that is bread, and that is wine, by their sight, and their taste, and their feeling it, before the consecration, which no body will deny. How different the operation thereof may be after that mysterious action, and the spiritual effect of it, no man pretends to make a judgement by his outward senses, but if he be admit­ted to taste both after the consecration, why his senses should not be as competent discerners whether they remain still bread and wine as they were, or are become flesh and blood, which they were not before, I cannot comprehend; no more than why we should be bound to understand those few words literally, which are so evident­ly contradicted by our senses, which no other miracle ever was, rather than many other metaphorical and allegorical expressions in which the Scriptures abound, and which cannot be more controuled by the outward senses than this is. For the juris­diction of Superiors Civil and Ecclesiastical, what Judge can there be, but the Laws of that Kingdom where such jurisdiction is to be exercised, and of that Church which ought to settle the publick manner of mens devotions? For the institution of Re­ligious [Page 182] Orders, and the obligations of Vows, the Bishop of Rome himself doth not pre­tend any power or authority to erect any Monastery, Colledge or Religious House in any Kingdom or Province, without the consent and approbation of King or Prince, to whom the Soveraignty belongs; and if they do admit such institutions to be made, and such obligations by vows to be entred into, as are prejudicial to the peace and happiness of their Dominions, the institution is theirs, and not the Popes; and when their reason or their experience discovers any mischief or detri­ment to their other subjects, to redound from those Institutions, either in their ori­ginal or by new orders and concessions, or that the subjects under those Institutions are become less their subjects, than their other fellow-subjects are, and that they depend more on some foreign Prince than on them in their own Territories; they may, and ought to alter the form and in­stitution, or to suppress if they cannot re­form the whole; and if they cannot do this, they cannot provide for the peace and happiness of the people committed to their charge: And the like for fasting, (that is, the observation of publick Fasts) Celibacy, paying of Tithes, they can be no [Page 183] otherwise regulated, than by the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws of every Nation and Province, and are so regulated, and not in the same manner in all the Catholick Kingdoms and Provinces in Europe. And therefore since that is the greatest objecti­on Mr. Cressy makes against the reading of the Scripture, that the contradictions which arise upon those particulars may be impro­ved and inflamed into Heresies by the passi­on and humor of the Court of Rome, we will rather acquiesce in the advice of the Primitive Fathers of the Church, and be­lieve that what the four first general Coun­cils did not prohibit us to do, we may law­fully continue the practice of; and since the Church of England in conformity with the purest antiquity, permits and enjoyns us to read the Scriptures, we will obey its directions, without caring what that of Rome forbids.

Mr. Cressy comes now in excuse of his just indignation against the Doctor's Principles, to discover a secret that his own unhappiness, if not guilt, gave the first occasion, that those principles should be known, and received into the Church of England; and this discovery must be the more ingenuous, because he is sure no man [Page 184] now alive knows any thing of it; Then he tells you a story of his accidental finding, and buying at a Book-sellers Shop Mon­sieur Dallies Book, Of the true use of the Fathers, which he shewed that night to his Noble Dear Lord Lucius Lord Falkland, who reading a little of the Contents, desi­red him to give it to him, which he willing­ly did, and that my Lord shortly after sent him a most civil Letter full of thanks, both in his own, and Mr. Chillingworth's name for that small present, telling him that that little Book had saved him a most tedious labour of reading almost twenty great Vo­lumes, and then tells another story of Mr. Chillingworth; and I confess when I read this notable discovery, and knew that I was no great stranger to the transactions which had been in that time in that com­pany, I could not suddenly comprehend what his meaning or purpose was in ma­king that relation, but I quickly found that all his meaning was, under the stile of his Noble Dear Lord (as in truth he de­served from him the highest expressions of gratitude he could utter) to traduce the memory of that incomparable Lord, and to cause him to be thought a Socinian, and I cannot enough lament that he hath found credit enough with two or three Persons [Page 185] of the Church of England (who I am sure never knew, I think never saw that excel­lent Person) to take upon them to asperse a Noble man of the most Prodigious learning, of the most exemplar manners, and singu­lar good nature, of the most unblemished integrity, and the greatest Ornament of the Nation, that any Age hath produced, with the Character of a Socinian; Mr. Cressy well knows that before that time of his Journey into Ireland, in the Year One thousand six hundred thirty eight, that Noble Lord had perused, and read over all the Greek, and Latine Fathers, and was indefatigable in looking over all Books, which with great expence he cau­sed to be transmitted to him from all parts, and so could not have been long without Mr. Dallies Book, if Mr. Cressy's present­ing it to him, had not given him opportu­nity to have raised this scandal upon his memory, nor could that Book have been so grateful to him, if he had not read the Fathers; For Mr. Chillingworth, if Mr. Cressy had not been very wary in saying any thing that might redound to the ho­nour of any of the present Prelates, he can­not but know that the present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, had first reclaimed him from his doubtings, and they were no [Page 186] more, nor had he ever declared himself a Catholick, except being at S. Omers amounts to such a Declaration, before ever he was sent for by Arch-Bishop Laud; and I am very much deceived, which I think I am not in that particular, if Mr. Chillingworth's Book against Mr. Knott was not publish­ed before the time of Mr. Cressy's Journey in thirty eight, into Ireland, and I know had been perused by him, and therefore Mr. Dallies Book could not interrupt him in his study of the Fathers, nor induce him to fix his mind upon Socinian grounds, which now serves his turn to reproach all men, and the Church of England it self, for refusing to believe his miracles, or to submit to that authority to whose blind guiding he hath lazily given up himself, and all his faculties; Yet he does so much honour to those grounds, that he does confess, that they obstructed a good while his entrance into the Catholick Church, the contrary whereof I know to be true, as much as negative can be true, and that he never thought of en­tring into the Religion he now professes, till long after the death of the Lord Falk­land, and Mr. Chillingworth, nor till the same rebellious power that drove the King out of the Kingdom, drove him likewise [Page 187] from the good preferments which he enjoy­ed in the Church, and then the necessity, and distraction of his fortune, together with the melancholick, and irresolution in his nature, prevailed with him to bid farewell to his own reason and understanding, and to resign himself to the conduct of those who had a much worse than his.

If the having read Socinus, and the commending that in him, which no body can reasonably discommende in him, and the making use of that reason that God hath given a man for the examining of that which is most properly to be exami­ned by reason, and to avoid the weak argu­ments of some men, how superciliously so­ever insisted upon, or to discover the falla­cies of others, be the definition of a Soci­nian, the party will be very strong in all Churches; but if a perfect detestation of all those Opinions against the Person, and Di­vinity of our Saviour, or any other doctrine that is contrary to the Church of England (and the Church of England hath more for­mally condemned Socinianism, than any o­ther Church hath done, as appears by the Canons, of One thousand six hundred and forty) can free a man from that reproach, as without doubt it ought to do: I can [Page 188] very warrantably declare that that unpa­rallel'd Lord was no Socinian, nor is it pos­sible for any man who is a true Son of the Church of England, to be corrupted with any of those Opinions. But in truth if Mr. Cressy hath that Prerogative in Logick, as to declare men to be Socinians, from some propositions, which he calls Princi­ples, which in his judgment will warrant those deductions, though he confesses he does not suspect the Doctor will approve such consequences, yet he is confident with all his skill he cannot avoid them, that is, he is a Socinian before he is aware of it, and in spight of his teeth; this is such an excess in the faculty of arguing, as must make him a dangerous Neighbour, and qualifies him excellently to be a Commissioner of the Inquisition, who have often need of that kind of subtilty, that will make Heresies which they cannot find; All this inven­tion is to perswade his new friends, of that which they call the old Religion, that his old Friend's Religion is new, that they have no reverence for antiquity, no re­gard for the Authority of the Fathers, and only make use of their natural rea­son to find out a new Religion for them­selves; whereas in truth whoever will impartially, and dispassionately make the [Page 189] enquiry, shall find that there is no one substantial controversie between the Ro­man, and the Church of England, but what is matter of Novelty, and hath no foundation in Antiquity, and that the Fa­thers are more diligently read, and studi­ed in our Church, than they are in theirs, and more reverence is paid to them by us, than by them, though neither they nor we, nor any other Christian Church in the World, do submit or concur in all that the Fathers have taught, who were never all of one mind, and therefore may very law­fully have their reasons examined by the reasons of other men; This that I say con­cerning the reading, and the reverence paid to the Fathers ought to be believed till they can produce one Prelate, or Member of the Church of England who hath ever used such contemptuous words of the Fathers, Ego, ut ingenuè fatear, plus uno summo Pontifici crederem, in his quae fidei mysteria tangunt, quàm mille Augustinis, Ieronymis, Gregoriis, &c. Cre­do enim & scio, quòd summus Pontifex in his quae fidei sunt non posse errare, quoni­am authoritas determinandi quae ad fidem spectant, in Pontifice residet: which are the words of Cornelius Mussus an Italian Bishop, and much celebrated amongst them [Page 190] for his extraordinary learning, in Epis. ad Rom. cap. 14. pa. 606. Michael Medina a man as eminent in the Council of Trent as any who sate there, in the debate whether a Bishop was Superiour to a Presbyter, jure Ecclesiastico, or jure Divi­no, when they who sustained the former, alledged Saint Ierome, and S. Augustine to support their opinion, Medina said a­loud, Non mirum esse si isti, & nonnulli alii Patres, re nondum eo tempore illustra­tâ, in eam haeresim incidissent; How would Mr. Cressy, and his Friends insult, if a Doctor of the Church of England should publish in Print by the authority of the Church, Illud asserimus, quo juntores eo perspicaciores esse Doctores, & contra hanc quam objectant multitudinem, Respondemus (inquit) ex verbo Dei, Exod. 23. In judi­cio plurimorum non acquiesces Sententiae ut à vero devies, and yet they are the words of Salmeron, a man of great learning a­mongst the Iesuits, and confessed of all men to be so, in Ep. ad Rom. 5. dif. 51. pa. 468. How would they triumph upon the modesty of one of our Clergy, if when he had reckoned up the opinions of most of the Fathers upon a difficult Text of Scripture, he should conclude, Sed si meam quoque sententiam avet audire, liberè fate­bor, [Page 191] in nulla prorsus earum, meum quale­cunque judicium acquiescere; and yet these are the words of Maldonate in his Com­mentary upon the 11 verse of the 11 ch. of St. Matthew, Qui est minimus in regno Coe­lorum major est Iohanne Baptista; The que­stion is not whether these very eminent Men, and great Scholars, for such they were, said well, and reasonably, but whether they who assume this liberty, should reproach us who never mention the Fathers but with veneration, and rarely dissent from them, but when they dissent from one another, for taking less liberty, or whether they do ingenuously to desire the People should be­lieve that they are so severe observers of the Doctrine of the Fathers, that they ne­ver tread out of their steps.

Why may it not become the Church of England to use the same expressions which Cardinal Cajetan so long since did in his Preface to his Commentaries upon the Books of Moses, in his excuse for having rejected many expositions of the Fathers, Solis sacrae Scripturae authoribus, reservata authoritas haec est, ut ideo sic credamus esse quia ipsi sic scripserunt? Why may it not become any particular member of that Church in a particular point, it may be but [Page 200] in a particular expression, to differ from a particular Father, when Petavius, who had as exactly read the Fathers, and was as great a Master of universal Learning as this Age hath produced, presumes to say, Multa sunt à sanctissimis Patribus, praeser­tim à Chrysostomo in homiliis aspersa, quae si ad exactae veritatis normam accommoda­re volueris, boni sensûs inania videbuntur, in Epipha. pa. 244. These, and very ma­ny more of the like animadversions, and detections by Monsieur Dallie, anger, & vex Mr. Cressy, and his new Friends much more than any disrespect he is guilty of towards the Fathers, of which they can­not assign one instance; all that he says, besides the mentioning them always with all possible reverence, is no more than what Mr. Cressy says of them, and of the four first general Councils, and which indeed was the cause of Monsieur Dallies writing that Book, that those Holy men, nor the times in which they lived, knew any thing, or had heard of any of the points, especi­ally in controversie between us, and the Church of Rome, and therefore that it was a vain affectation to appeal to them for a decision; I do not much wonder at any thing Mr. Cressy says, upon this argument, for he owed to himself some extraordinary [Page 193] observation, to make his tale of present­ing that unlucky Book (as he calls it) of Mr. Dallie, to My Lord Falkland, and which he says perswaded Mr. Chillingworth to have a light esteem of the Fathers; but I can­not but admire, and grieve, that he hath so much credit with any member of the Church of England how obscure soever, as to perswade him to have the same opi­nion, and thereupon to assume the Li­cence, and the rashness to asperse (as far as his talent can contribute unto it) the memory of that most loved, and most e­steemed Lord Falkland (whose name he is not worthy to pass through his mouth) with the odious reproach of being a Soci­nian, and that when no Person of the Church of Rome hath had the courage in so many years to attempt the answering that Book de usu Patrum, one of the other Church should think it necessary to take the quarrel upon him, and without any reason, or any instance of moment, re­proach Mr. Dallie with his light esteem of the Holy Fathers, in language not in any degree decent: nor was the matter, or the manner at all necessary to the other part of his Book concerning the Church of England; nor can any Man who is dispo­sed to make that enquiry, meet with a [Page 194] greater encouragement to pursue it, than by having read that Book of Mr. Dallies.

I am glad I am now come to Mr. Cressy's conclusion, which is not long, and consists in a softer and more civil kind of scolding than the other parts of his Book, but with the same bitterness, and hath in truth in it somewhat of ingenuity a man would not have expected; for after so many re­proaches almost in every page of his Book of being a Presbyterian, an Independent, an Hypocrite, indeed all the calumnies cast upon him, which a good wit, and an ill nature can suggest; he confesses at last that the Doctor in one of his Books, and the place he cites, declares, That the Church of England upon the greatest enquiry he can make, is the best Church of the World, which is a greater and fuller vindication of him for all the contumelious aspersions cast on him, and a more ample and clear testimo­ny, because it is more innocent, that he is a true son of the Church of England, than any Mr. Cressy can produce of his being a Roman Catholick. Will any Presbyterian, or Independent, or Anabaptist make that Declaration? he well knows they neither can nor will whilst they retain the prin­ciples of their parties, and they cease to be [Page 195] of either party assoon as they make that declaration; he confesses that the Doctor hath subscribed, and submitted to, and practises all that Church requires of him, and hath farther unprovoked given this ample testimony to it, that he was not ob­liged to do, and which no man can give, that is divided in his affections, and equal­ly inclined to another Church that differs from it; and yet he is so jealous of the ho­nour and security of the Church of England, that Church that he hath Apostatized from, that Church that he hath traduced and re­viled with all the scurrility of Language, of this Church in which he will not permit a possibility of Salvation; he is so careful, that he will not allow the Doctor to be a mem­ber of it, but advises like a loving Father, the drowzy and sleeping Prelates, to be watchful over him as a spy and treacherous person, who whilst he perswades them (poor simple creatures) that he will be a champion for their Church, endeavours all he can to destroy and undermine it. How will Mr. Cressy answer to his Superiors this preposterous zeal of his own behalf of a Church the most odious, and the most formidable to them, that when it is even almost undermined by Officers of its own, who are trusted to search and survey all its [Page 196] Vaults and most secret Avenues, so that it is upon the point of falling, by taking away the strong supporters which have hi­therto upheld it, and erecting rotten or mouldering pillars in the place, and all this benefit and advantage may be lost or prevented by his fond and unseasonable advertisement, if the King and the Bishops have prudence enough to make good use of it, by driving away or discountenan­cing such a perfidious and unskilful cham­pion. May they not from hence appre­hend, that as he came to them upon a sud­den and unexpected, so that he is upon thoughts of returning to the Church for which he hath so much care, and entering into a kind of correspondence with his ad­versaries, by giving good counsel how to behave himself better. But how comes it to pass that this miserable Doctor who he yet seems to think may mean well to be so stupidly couzened and deceived, that in­stead of complying with his engagement to defend the Church, he hath betrayed her, and the whole cause to all the Fanatick Sects which have separated from her, and with most horrible cruelty sought her destruction, and with her the ruine of Monarchy? All this tragical demolishing of foundations consists in this, that he allows all sober enquirers [Page 197] to be for themselves judges of the sence of Scripture in necessaries, and judges like­wise what points are necessary. This say­ing of his hath betrayed the cause of his Church, and left her in a most forlorn condi­tion, tottering upon foundations and prin­ciples, which to Mr. Cressy's certain know­ledge were not extant, at least not known in England thirty years since. Let it be in the first place observed (and it is sure worthy to be observed) that this most pernicious proposition, which hath in such an instant brought the Church of England into such a tottering condition, is not made use of, nor so much as taken notice of by any of those enemies of hers, the Presbyterians, Ana­baptists, or Independents, who have been so vigilant and industrious so many years to make her totter, and yet now the work is so near done to their hands by a secret friend, who is the more able to do them good, by his not pretending any affection towards them; neither of them will put their cause upon that proposition, nor ap­ply it to their own designs, and therefore it is possible that it may not be altogether so dangerous to the Church, as he would have it supposed to be, and of which it is probable he would not have given notice if he had in truth thought it to be dange­rous. [Page 198] In the next place let us examine whether the Doctor himself cannot make another and better interpretation of his own words, than his implacable enemy hath done; all good Physicians compound their Antidotes according to the nature and ma­lignity of the poyson that their patients have swallowed. Now the poyson that Mr. Cressy and his lurking brethren usually bait their traps with, and by which they catch most of their prey is, Their confident denoun­cing damnation against those, and all those who are not of their mind, that is, who are not received into the Church of Rome, and not intirely submit to all her dictates: That the Scripture consists in dumb letters, which cannot declare its own meaning, and therefore is liable to be misinterpreted by the wit of bold and presumptuous men, as the founders of all Heresies have been; and therefore they can only be safe who receive and conform themselves to that interpreta­tion of Scripture that the Church (in the custody of which it is deposited) hath gi­ven and declared to be Orthodox. That that Church is the Church of Rome where there constantly resides a Supreme Magi­strate, who, in case any new opinions shall start up to the prejudic of Religion, which have not been enough convinced by former [Page 199] definitions of the Church hath full authority committed to him by our Saviour to declare and determine what is agreeable or contrary to the sence of the Scripture, since it cannot be supposed that our Saviour would consti­tute an officer, and not indue him with all necessary faculties, or not qualifie him sufficiently for the discharge of so great a trust; and from hence they resolve, that the greatest danger of damnation is not from the commission of those sins against which the spirit of God hath so plainly denounced it, but in an obstinate presumption in con­tradicting the opinions or directions of the Catholick Church, and refusing to submit to the authority of the Vicar of Christ, who hath the unquestionable power to bind and to loose, to pardon and to condemn sins, having the Keys of Heaven, and of Hell; and therefore whilst they will depend up­on him, and put themselves under his pro­tection, they cannot but be safe.

This is the common poyson which these men carry about them to administer to those who they find most like to be delu­ded, and in the composition of it there are some ingredients according to the humour of the compounder, which cannot be ac­cording to the Catholick prescription, since [Page 200] that Soveraign power of their Supreme Magistrate the Pope, is not, nor ever will be acknowledged to be an essential part of the Roman Catholick Religion. Let us now see what Antidote the Doctor hath provi­ded for the prevention or expulsion of this poyson; to confirm men in their absolute confidence and dependence upon the Scrip­ture, the force and virtue whereof that poyson would enervate; he says, That it is repugnant to the nature of the design, to the wisdom and goodness of God to give an infal­lible assurance to persons, in writing his will for the benefit of mankind, if those writings may not be understood by all persons, who sin­cerely endeavour to know the meaning of them, in all such things as are necessary for their Salvation, and consequently there can be no necessity supposed of any infallible society of men, either to attest or explain those wri­tings amongst Christians; and this, and no more than this is the sence of that, which contains all that confusion which Mr. Cressy thinks must bring confusion upon his own Church, as into that of the Roman, and from thence the Doctor proceeds to shew how incompetent a Magistrate they have chosen to determine all differences in Reli­gion, which he proves by such arguments, as are very natural for the proving thereof, [Page 201] and for the answering, & avoiding where­of we shall be compelled anon to take no­tice of Mr. Cressy's admirable artifice, and dexterity; Now if the Doctor hath for want of skill in discerning consequences, made choice of an improper medium to prove that which he hath a mind to prove, God forbid that there should be such Tragical effects to attend that argumentation, as the destruction of Church, and State, and it would be as unreasonable to condemn an argument, that he who uses it thinks to his purpose, because it was never used till within thirty Years; One man says that the Scripture is so very difficult, that no man can understand it, without repairing to the advice of an adversary, who will tell him the interpretation of it, to which he is to conform, let the advice be never so contra­ry to his own judgment and reason; The other answers that the understanding all the places of Scripture is so difficult, that men had need to consult very much about it, yet that whatsoever is necessary towards salvation is contained in such easie places of Scripture, that every man who sin­cerely enquires to know the meaning of them, may easily do it, and is ready to name those places in which there is no diffi­culty, nor any difficulty hath yet been pre­tended, [Page 202] the believing of which, our Savi­our himself hath declared to be enough for Salvation: Oh! but (says he) the conse­quence of this proposition makes every man the judge of his own Religion, and he may be of what Religion he pleases; The question is not, what the consequence is, which few men agree upon, one conse­quence seeming natural to one, and another to an other, but whether the averment be a good answer to the other suggestion, when an other more weighty argument is urged, an other answer shall be applied, without the reach of his consequences, and yet the Doctor hath never said, that no man hath need of any information, or advice even in the easiest places of Scripture, and so that Coblers and Laundresses may choose a Reli­gion for themselves, nor doth believe that any sober cr sincere enquirer, will fail in asking advice of those to whom he ought to repair, if that which seems to others most easie, appear hard to him, nor can any man appear to himself to be a so­ber, or sincere enquirer, without enqui­ring to help his ill understanding, and then even the Laundress or the Cobler will be out of Mr. Cressy's reach by his argu­ments of damnation, which will mani­festly appear to them to have no foun­dation [Page 203] in Scripture, but to be a presum­ption against it.

Certainly it is a new way, and a new Law imposed upon the handling of Con­troversies, and was not in practice thirty Years since, that a man can no sooner ap­ply a proposition (let it be new, and not known to be urged before) towards the confirmation of a Principle in one Religion, or towards enervating a principle in an o­ther, but that proposition is called a Prin­ciple, and thereupon all the ill consequences are deduced from it, that may serve turn to asperse his Person, wound his reputati­on, and to make the unhappy man who hath not been sharp-sighted enough in Lo­gick to discern those consequences, nor con­sents to any one of them, be looked upon, and abhorred as a Socinian, or if that be thought worse, of a Turk; for the conse­quence by well stroking, will be stretched as well to the one, as to the other, and the case of this unhappy disputer is the more mi­serable, because though he intends very ho­nestly, and acknowledges none of the con­sequences, that is only by his ignorance of what passes in his own mind, which a cun­ninger man than himself hath discovered, and assures him, and can easily prove that [Page 204] he doth believe that, which he protests he doth not believe, by which no Classis of men seem to be liable to so many woes, as they who make false syllogismes, and they who cannot discover when they are false, for both these will be perplexed with ill conse­quences, according to the mercifulness of the subtle man, who hath the handling of the man, and the matter. If I will not sub­mit to the authority to which Mr. Cressy will subject me to, because he says the Church requires my subjection, and I tell him that it is an irrational claim, and my reason cannot therefore submit to it; If I will not believe what he hath in his hand to be a flint, when he suffers me to handle it, and to put it into my mouth, because my senses tell me that it is a piece of butter: I am presently concluded to be a man, who will examine all matters relating to Reli­gion by natural reason, and make my out­ward Senses the sole judges of the mysteries of Faith, and of the interpretation of Scrip­ture, and therefore I am a Socinian, and do neither believe the Trinity, the Incarnation, nor the other Elements of Christianity, and therefore no Name can be bad enough for me, nor is it any matter what I say. And after all this, I am no Socinian, and I do be­lieve the Trinity, the Incarnation, and all the [Page 205] other Elements of Religion, and my reason obliges me to believe them, because they being all matters of fact, are manifested by such evidence, that I cannot suspect nor can my reason contradict, though all the parts of it, it cannot comprehend. Doth not the most abstracted reason oblige me to believe that the Scripture contains nothing in it, but what is true, when I have as great a mani­festation as the subject is capable of, that it is the Word of God, and therefore it must be true; yet when Mr. Cressy, or the Pope him­self (as he frequently does in all his Bulls) applies a Text of Scripture to a very light, or erroneous purpose, the same reason may enable and warrant me to declare, that such an interpretation is not reasonable, & there­fore it is to be rejected; Must that greatest faculty that God hath bestowed upon man­kind, (and therefore bestowed it upon him that he may judge by it) reason, be laid aside or cast away, because there are some few things above the reach of it? and yet even when that is true (for it is often thought to be true, when it is not, and that some things are above reason which are not) rea­son shall contribute more to that obedience that is requisite, than any stupid resignation to such authority, as every day betrays it self in some weak or wilful determination.

[Page 206] It is more than probable that very many learned and pious men may be so partial to the Doctor, as to believe that he is equal­ly skilled in Logick, and to foresee all con­sequences which may naturally follow from any proposition or principle he makes use of, and that he can make it evident that none of those direful consequences do result from them, which Mr. Cressy's subtilty doth discern, and if this should be so, his friends will have cause to wish, that he had not been so transported with passion; for two principles which he hath made choice of out of thirty (whereas if half the other twenty eight sufficiently evince what he would have, his work is done) which the Doctor for his ease had abridged in the end of his Book, that he hath upon the matter left all the rest of his Book, at least those parts which are most dangerous to the Roman allegation unanswered and unex­mined, and that he hath made too much hast to his conclusion, and to his trium­phant Declaration on his own behalf, of the right and justice whereof he makes so little doubt, that having treated his adversary with that meekness from the beginning of his Book, he charitably con­cludes with giving him good counsel upon [Page 207] the peril of his damnation; and truly the manner of his excusing his so brief answer­ing his Book, that is, his not answering it at all, is very well worth the taking no­tice of. It may be the Doctor was consci­ous to himself of having said many parti­culars throughout his Book, which had not been urged above thirty years since; and upon the petulancy of Mr. Cressy, and some other of his friends, were now be­come necessary to be pressed, and there­fore was so wary, as to quote Catholick Au­thors to justifie all that he alledged, the controversie being upon matter of fact, which need no other proof on his side, than the authority he cited, and which in truth is not capable of any other answer, but that he hath alledged somewhat that is not true. But that he says plainly he will not examine, for he observes in the Doctors Book a world of quotations out of Authors he never saw, nor intends to see, containing many dis­mal stories, and many ridiculous passages of things done or said by several Catholicks in former, and some in later times. He says, If he had a mind to examine and say something in answer to them, an impossibility of finding out those Authors must have been his excuse; but he hath a better excuse than that, for if the Doctor would have lent him those Books [Page 208] out of his Library, he should have thanked him for his civility, but should have refused to make use of his offer; for to what purpose would it have been to turn over a heap of Books to find out quotations in which neither the Church or himself is concerned? Not con­cerned, he says, though they had been opini­ons or actions even of Popes themselves; it is to him all one whether his allegations be true or false, &c. pag. 172. which is one of the most haughty resolutions and declarations for a man who doth in the next page call for an applause for having so clearly over­thrown his adversary, that hath been heard of; all those quotations are the te­stimonies of Catholick writers, which prove somewhat that Mr. Cressy denies or contra­dicts, somewhat that he and his friends have confidently affirmed; and by doing so, have obliged him to produce that evi­dence, the truth whereof he will not vouchsafe to examine, because it is all one to him, whether the allegations be true or false. An admirable answer! He thinks it very reasonable to magnifie his Religion upon visions, and apparitions, and miracles, but cares not for quotations out of Catholick Authors, of dismal stories and many ridiculous passages of things said and done by Catholicks, which are therefore cited [Page 209] toprove the frequent and common delusi­ons in those visions, and apparitions, and miracles, it's all one to him, whether these allegations be true or false. That is very strange, if he should say that in all times the Popes have constantly been the protectors of all vertue and chastity; can any answer be more pertinent, than the testimony of all the Catholick writers of that time, that after a world of other impie­ties committed by him, a Gentleman of Rome found Pope Iohn the Twelfth in bed with his wife, and killed him? Can it be all one to him whether this allegation be true or false? Is it possible that he is not concerned in the opinion and actions of Popes, whose persons he declares as a point of Catholick Religion to be necessarily be­lieved to be the conservators of the purity of Religion, and the determiners of any Here­sie that shall arise or start up; and he hath still that comfort, that he is assured, That never Pope yet how wicked soever did bring any Heresie into the Church; now is not he concerned (though I cannot blame him for not daring to peruse or examine the Records of such deviations) when he is put in mind of Pope Liberius, who though he did not bring Arrianism into the Church, did support and maintain it, when he [Page 210] found it there, and being Pope, became Arrian, which may periwade a man to believe that our Saviour did not depute him as his deputy to determine controver­sies in Faith. These and much other vexa­tions of this kind he preserves himself from by his firm resolution not to examine any of the Doctors quotations; but whether he be so absolutely unconcerned in them, whether they be true or false, shall be left to his own party to judge.

Nothing will concern Mr. Cressy unless the Doctor will undertake to demonstrate that it is unlawful, or but considerably dangerous to be a member of a Church where any persons do or have lived, who have been obnoxious to er­rors, or guilty of ill actions; and in this he hath wisely provided for his own ease, for he is sure the Doctor will not un­dertake to make any such demonstration, and yet it may be it is one of the best argu­ments by which he hath gained most of the Proselytes he hath made. There is great difference, as hath been said before, between remaining in a Church, where ma­ny errors are received and practised, and ill actions are committed, and leaving and renouncing a Church upon pretence of some errors in it, to run into another Church [Page 211] which hath the same, or greater errors. But the difference is yet greater between errors in a Church, and errors of a Church, errors and vices committed, and practised in a Church, and errors and vices commit­ted and practised by a Church, such as the Church it self knows to be errors, and many men believe the Church of Rome guil­ty of many of those. I will not mention the common objection of the worshipping of Images, which the Church carefully dif­claims, and takes it very ill that any Catho­lick should be thought so brutish as to wor­ship and Image in wood or stone, and yet the sufficient evidence of that brutality pre­vailed with some Emperors and General Councils utterly to suppress them, and take them out of all Churches; and very pious and learned Catholicks have since, and still do very heartily with that they were abo­lished for the scandal it brings upon the Church: For let that declare what it will, nothing is more notorious, than that more than the common people do literally and really pay adoration to the very Image; nor are they without reason to perswade them that there is a peculiar vertue in it; for why should the Saint be more propitious in one place than another, if the address were only to the Saint, and not some advantage [Page 212] in the Image it self? Why should so many more miracles be done by our Lady in one place than another, insomuch as there is no Catholick Province but hath distinct Images of her, which receives more re­markable visits than others, and works more wonderful effects? Who can read the life of S. Bernard, and find him with that fervour and vehemence in his devotion be­fore a Crucifix, that the Image bowed it self, and with both the arms imbraced him, and then returned to the stiffness of its posture? This is testified in the most authentick ac­count the Church hath of his life; but there are too many particulars in the lives of the Saints to charge the Church with believing, and therefore it may be won­dered at that they are so much countenan­ced. But the instance I would insist upon is our Ladies House at Lauretta, which is alledged to have remained still at Naza­reth, till after the year twelve hundred, (time enough to have reduced the greatest Palaces into dust) but that after that time (some Catholick writers name the year when it begun its journey) it was taken by Angels, the very house in which the lived, and had received the salutation from the Angel, and carried to a mountain in Dalma­tia, and at three stages more, whereof [Page 213] one was a wood belonging to a widow na­med Lauretta, many years rest interve­ning, it was brought to, and left in the place where it now stands, and where it is covered with the most rich and very beau­tiful Church, which for the good widows sake, in whose wood it rested some years, is called Lauretta, and where her Image and her House receives visits, and very rich presents from all parts where the Catholick Religion is professed, for the reception and entertainment whereof a good Town is built, several Religious houses, Pilgrima­ges made thither from far and near, and hereby that people may without going so far as Nazareth see the house of our Ladies abode; the Church in Plate and Jewels is richer than any other in the world; not to speak of the incredible number of miracles which have been wrought there since the miraculous coming of that Cottage thi­ther. I dare not ask Mr. Cressy whether he doth believe this wonderful voyage or progress, because I dare not say he doth not, since he hath brought his reason and his judgment into such a marvellous cap­tivity; but I would presume to ask whe­ther the Church, as it can be contracted into that denomination, (for if the Pope be enough the Church to declare Heresies, [Page 214] and determine controversies which are yet undetermined, methinks he should be Church enough to answer questions, and in this particular he is more concerned, for being a Soveraign temporal Prince in his own Dominions, as well as the Su­preme Prelate, he is in some degree an­swerable for the discretion and the good manners, as well as the Religion and the Faith of his subjects:) May we ask whe­ther it may be presumed that he and his Consistory, with which he consults in mat­ters of importance, that he doth believe this miracle, or may it be presumed he doth not? To say he doth believe it, is to accuse him of such an impotency of under­standing, as the most illiterate Frier is hardly guilty of, as to imagine that a thing so monstrous in nature, and so impertinent as to any pious or prudent effect, can be true. To say that God can do as much, is an answer that may as well support the most notorious fiction that is in Ovid's Meta­morphosis; and it may be as well replied, that God if he had done it, would have provided some such witnesses in the way, as should have made it manifest that he had done it, whereas they who have been at so prodigious a charge in beautifying and enriching that little mansion, have not [Page 215] yet been able to purchase one Record of so long a voyage, but satisfie themselves that they who take the pains to come thither, do easily believe it, whereas more go thi­ther to see those who do pretend to be­lieve it, than to see the Relique that draws men thither.

I never spoke with any Roman Catholick who knew so much of the story as I have here mentioned (for most that have been there, or have heard of the stories of it, have heard no more than that our Ladies own House is there, and for ought they know Nazareth may be within three miles of it) who hath pretended to believe it, he was not bound to it, it was not of Di­vine faith, it might be of humane and Hi­storical faith. I ask him whether he be­lieves it as much as he doth that Iulius Cae­sar was Emperor of Rome? That he cannot say neither. In a word, most Catholicks laugh at it, as much as I do, and many of them are as angry at it; so that I suppose it may become us to conclude that the Pope doth not believe it to be true, or rather that he knows it to be a fiction; and if that be so, with what conscience and sincerity can he suffer, or indeed permit such a Pa­geantry to be acted in his Territories to the [Page 216] delusion of so many millions of Christians, and to the scandal and opprobrium of Religi­on, in exposing the dignity of the Mother of our Lord to so much derision, only for his own benefit and advantage; for it's no small revenue that accrews to the Pope's Exechequer by the visitation and adoration of that Mansion of our Lady. Many come to Rome in a year for no other reason than that they may worship our Lady at Lauret­ta, and many go thither immediately without going to Rome, as lately a great Ecclesiastical Prince did, and returned without so much as seeing the Pope, after he had for the cure of his Hypochondriack in­disposition liberally presented our Lady with as many Jewels as are worth above five thousand pounds Sterling, which she could not but receive very graciously, yet his infirmity hath encreased ever since, though it may be his Present hath much added to the devotion of the place; for the fight of the richness of the Copes and Plate, and other Utensils is a great part of the business of the Visitants: Though it was a very pertinent scoffe upon the occasion that was used by a Legate in France, who was after­wards Pope himself, when he passed in state through that Kingdom, and found all passages thronged with people, who [Page 217] upon their knees implored and expected his benediction; he repeated it often, with the usual ceremony of making the sign of the Cross, with these reiterated words, Si­vulgus vult decipi, decipiatur; however, I say, it might be a proper benediction for such occasion in the high-way, yet to induce men to so solemn Pilgrimages, and to the performance of so solemn acts of devotion, there ought to be some such solid and sub­stantial foundation of it, as may be a sup­port to real piety, which can hardly be imagined in this case; and I cannot tell whether it were not rather to be wished that the Pope, and Cardinals, and Prelates of the Roman Court, did at the expence of their reputation really believe all that Machine, than suffer it to be shewed with­out their own believing it at the expence of their sanctity, at least of their ingenuity. Nor could it seem strange to any man, if an honest man of a good understanding, who hath not been moped in his education with such discourses, and hath in the pur­suit of his own satisfaction fallen into some doubts of things practised in his own, shall, if he had no other exception to it, refuse to cast himself into the arms of such a Church that seems to believe, or without belie­ving to countenance such an imposture, [Page 218] or any other thing contrary to common sense, and repugnant to all motions of Piety.

Mr. Cressy will not part with the Do­ctor without kindly putting him in mind of his Souls health, and that being a ge­nuine English Protestant he will find an Ex­communication denounced, ipso facto, against all such as shall (in the manner there ex­pressed) openly oppose any thing contained in the Nine and thirty Articles, in the Book of Common-Prayer, and of Ordinations of Bi­shops and Priests, &c. which Excommuni­cation (he says) is there declared to remain in force, till the Offender repent of his wick­ed errour, which he ought to revoke; Having told him this, he wishes him to reflect upon his Book called Irenicum, long since publish­ed by him, and comparing it with the Con­stitutions of the Church, ratified with an Ex­communication, and thereupon to ask his con­science whether he hath not incurred that Ex­communication, since his guilt having been publick and notorious, no repentance, no re­tractation appears, &c. He foresees that himself (who hath so often subscribed to those constitutions, and so often taken those Oaths which accompanie them) will be thought liable to that Excommunication, [Page 219] having so apparently renounced all the ob­ligations, and shewed no other repentance than in a constant reviling and malice to­wards the Church in which he received his Baptism, and therefore to clear himself from reproach, he declares that the Doctor, cannot doubt of the validity, or legality of that Excommunication, he for his part may, so the Doctor is to look only to him­self; But if Mr. Cressy had not been in great hast, as it cannot be denied that he hath used great expedition in his conclusion, he might have thought himself obliged for the more full conviction of the Doctor to have alledged those particulars in his Ire­nicum, which have involved him in that Excommunication, and then that that Book was published by him after he had subscri­bed to the Thirty nine Articles, &c. neither of which he hath done, nor I believe will ever be able to do; I confess I have not the Irenicum now in my reach, and there­fore must only resort to Mr. Cressy himself for a vindication, and methinks he contri­butes very fairly to it in a testimony he gives him (pa. 100) without any purpose of good will towards him, where he says, It cannot be denied, but that the Doctor did not, during the late calamities, joyn in the cla­mour for destroying the Church, he was no root, [Page 220] and branch enemy, but on the contrary gene­rously undertook their defence, and with great boldness told his then Masters (in his Ireni­cum) that though Episcopal Government, and Ordinations, as likewise Deans and Chapters (which anciently were the Bishops Councils) were not necessary, nor perhaps convenient as matters then stood, yet neither was their utter destruction, they might if the state pleased be retained without sin; in all which he be­lieves he hath laid an indelible reproach upon the Doctor, but I must tell him, that he hath therein given a larger testimony of the Doctor's courage, and affection to the Church, than all his revilings will be able to deface; For a young Scholar who had then no obligation to the Church by Oaths, or Subscriptions, and knew little of the constitution of the Church of Eng­land, to tell his Masters (as he justly calls them) who had newly Murthered their King, and perswaded the People to believe that Bishops were therefore suppressed be­cause they were Anti-christian, that they might still be retained without sin, was such a flat contradiction to the Doctrine they would have the People be taught, that he shewed more courage in saying so, than all the English Catholick Clergy ever expressed, who owed as much Allegiance [Page 221] to the King, or would be thought to owe as much, as any of his other Subjects, yet never wrote one line, or published one Opi­nion against whatsoever the Rebels said, or did; He might well say that Episcopal Go­vernment, and Ordination were not necessary as matters then stood, in a Government whose foundation was laid in the most precious blood of the King, and the most horrid Sacriledge, and Murthers that were e­ver perpetrated by Christians, and when no honest man would, or could be made a Bi­shop; But it is too much countenance to Mr. Cressy's unwarranted calumnies to take pains to absolve the Doctor from his as­persions, who stands an object of reverence and esteem, with all men who have either for the Church.

However such is Mr. Cressy's modesty, that for the excellent performance of his task, he desires no other Iudges but the Pre­lates of the Doctor's own Church, which could have been no excuse for me to in­terpose my poor opinion in the matter; but when he so frankly calls upon any indif­ferent Reader to judge between them two, whether with better success he hath defended the cause of the Church of England against the Church of Rome, or he (Mr. Cressy) the [Page 222] cause of the Doctor's own Church against him­self, I may hope that I may be looked upon as one of those indifferent Readers who is called upon or authorized by him to speak my opinion in the matter, and upon that supposition I do assure him upon the reputation of an old Friend, that he hath very much hurt his own Church, in his very passionate, and uncomely way of de­fending her, and in seeming to look upon some very Excentrick Lives in the estima­tion of most learned Catholicks, as essenti­al parts of their Religion, and to make such Miracles, and Dreams, and Apparitions, the very foundations of the Romish faith, which the most credulous in the Church do but believe are possible to be true; and the wisest, and most learned think never to have been: and lastly in undertaking to answer a Book, which upon his own, or his Associates clamour was necessarily to be full of citations of Catholick Authors, and Testimonies, contrary to what he averred, and without applying any answer to them, to declare that he will not examine them, nor cares whether they are true or false. So that his whole Book consists in nothing else (besides the petulant, & insolent language) but finding fault with the method of the Doctor's arguing, and his making use of [Page 223] new, and other Principles, than have here­tofore been insisted upon in arguments of this kind, and leaves all the material parts of the Book unanswered, which possibly may make his Superiours believe that he hath not performed the task they imposed upon him very laudably; For the Doctor having solidly discharged all that can be expected from him, he needs no such pri­vate, and obscure testimony as mine, which can do him no good, but he hath the ac­knowledgement of the King himself, and the Church, whose worthy Champion he de­serves to be esteemed, and it is like he per­forms the work the better, because Mr. Cressy, and so many of his Associates are so much offended, and do so bitterly in­veigh against his Principles, and all for the novelty of them; that is, he says some­what that hath not been said before, and which they are not provided to answer, which is rather an argument that all disputing is to little purpose, and that it is time to give it over, because neither party is reformed, than that what he says is easie to be answered; there will be every day new Principles, new Arguments to inform, and convince, and convert those who obstinately persist in old Er­rours; They who are but moderately ver­sed [Page 224] in the Controversies about the Sub­stantial points in difference between the Protestants (I mean which are common with all Protestants) and the Church of Rome, cannot but find that the Romish Champions have quite shifted the Scene in all their arguments upon the most mate­rial matters, and have found new mediums to support their cause; They are visibly weary (all but the Iesuits) of insisting up­on the Popes infallibility, you scarce meet with an argument from it in any Book that is Printed, nor can you engage them in it upon discourse; They are with great difficulty drawn into the matter of Tran­substantiation, but presently shelter them­selves under the shadow of their Church, and if they cannot avoid enlarging upon it, they neither use argument, or answer that ever Bellarmine relied upon, being not satisfied with much he said in that point, or Purgatory, or some other matters which he hath handled more at large; in­somuch that it hath been observed these many years, that Bellarmine's Controver­sies are so gathered up, that they are not easie to be procured amongst the greatest Book-sellers, and if they are ever reprint­ed, they will pass a severe expurgation; In these varieties, and lawful changes of [Page 225] the method, and order of disputation a­mongst learned men, which cannot but be administred by the often saying and re­peating the same things, which are often evinced by a new medium, after it hath been long unmoveable by an old, why should it only be unlawful, or incongruous in the Doctor, or any other Writer in de­fence of the Church of England to intro­duce new principles, if they will better con­tribute to the maintenance of old truths, and which it is plain doth stagger them, and forces them to fall upon the Person, and decline the matter? yet I am con­tented for the ending all disputes which are full of obstinacy, and uncharitable­ness, to concur in the reference, and how ill soever Mr. Cressy and I have a­greed from the beginning of his Book hitherto, I am intirely of his mind in the matter, and very words of his conclusion, That there is a horrible depravation in the minds, especially of Ecclesiasticks, which de­pravation can now only be cured by the wisdom, and power of the Civil Magi­strate, and to his wisdom and severity I leave it.

I have now waited upon Mr. Cressy to the end of his Book, and I think [Page 226] have not left any clause in it of any im­portance, unanswered; and before I con­clude, I shall observe Mr. Cressy's own me­thod in giving him some Counsel, and Advice, without taking much notice of his Post-script, in which there is little ad­dition of new matter, but from the same temper of spirit some variety of bitterness, with some new very ill words; He wishes that if the Doctor thinks not himself obli­ged in Conscience by breaking all Rules of piety and humanity to do all manner of despight to his Catholick fellow Subjects, he would hereafter please to abstain from re­viling, and blaspheming Gods Saints, or traducing the most divine exercises of con­templative Souls more perfectly practised only in Heaven; Alas! the Doctor wish­es and desires that all the English Roman Catholicks, against whose corrupt opinions he hath with much strength of reason, and very little passion, writ very weigh­tily, but never against their Persons, would be his Fellow-subjects, give that evidence, and security of, and for their fidelity, as their Fellow-subjects do; That they would disclaim all kind of subjection to any o­ther Soveraign, and which till they do (and which the Catholick Religion cannot hinder them from doing) they cannot [Page 227] reckon themselves, nor be accounted by others, his Fellow-subjects; And I do heartily wish (not without some appre­hension) that Mr. Cressy hath not by break­ing all rules of modesty, and discretion, brought more prejudice upon the Persons of his fellow-Catholicks, than all the Do­ctor's want of humanity hath done; It was a little too soon to awaken all the Protestants of England, that they might discern in what an ill condition they must be in, if that Catholick spirit that disco­vers it self unwarily in him, and others of his fraternity, should have any pre­valence, or much countenance in the State. To his blaspheming, and reviling Gods Saints so absurdly charged upon him, enough hath been said before, nor is there evidence to induce the most cha­ritable man to believe that all those are Gods Saints, which stand in Mr. Cressy's Calender of Saints, and it was very un­advisedly done that only one single line was not expunged, if there was no more that gave the occasion of mentioning Saints, and Miracles, and Enthusiasmes, which extorted from the Doctor all those animadversions, which put the other in­to so much rage and fury, that for the support of that one onely line, he hath [Page 228] writ this whole Book, that in every line is full of nothing but Miracles, and Saints, and divine exercise of contempla­tive Souls, which by his favour, is as new a Principle to defend the Romish Re­ligion by, as any the Doctor hath intro­duced against it, and surely contains more of that kind of Learning, than all the Books of pure, aud solid Controversie that have been written since Luther be­gun his Separation, as if he had a mind to put the verity of the Lives of the Saints in issue, and to be strictly exami­ned, from which affectation I suppose his Superiours will divert him, that they and their Miracles may be left to their own repose: And for his most divine exercise of contemplative Souls, more perfectly pra­ctised only in Heaven, which is another new principle, and which, and the like, must unavoidably be examined by new methods, and argumentations, it would be much better to leave those obscure con­templations to the Persons who delight in them, and find relief by them, which we may charitably hope is better under­stood by them, than comprehended by us; but if they will not keep their Ci­pher privately to themselves for their mu­tual correspondence and conversation, but [Page 229] will constitute a new language in old words, for the information, and amazement of other men, and will be then offended, and shortly after condemn them for be­ing without the effects, which pious Souls naturally produce; they should not take it ill, if men who patiently hear what they say, do in truth believe that they themselves are without any clear notions, and can draw no sence out of that mist of words in which it is concealed. Mental Prayer (which they would fain make their imaginations understood by) is a faculty every devout man compre­hends, it signifying no more than per­forming that in thought, which is other­wise done in speech, and thoughts are as plain, and easie to be understood as words can, and whoever cannot express plainly and clearly to an other man whatever he thinks, rather dreams than thinks; but be­cause the very noise of words do very oft­en, at least with some men, disturb, or in­terrupt, or divert the thoughts, they do pray very allowably, and effectually, and it may be more powerfully, who apply themselves to God, by fixing their silent thoughts upon God, and upon what they desire of Him, without using any words at all, and this is mental Prayer, which probably may keep [Page 230] the mind more, and longer bent towards God, than the pronunciation of words will enable or suffer it to be; and yet I doubt it must have frequent intermission, and relaxation, and contemplation may hold its vigour longer upon other argu­ments than in the exercise of Pray­er.

Men are not to be blamed, and it may be less in our Country, which hath and doth still suffer by men and women too of disturbed fancies, who pretend to Revelati­ons and Illuminations, and such Enthusi­asms, not only to introduce many extrava­gant opinions in Religion, but to warrant and justifie unquiet and seditious actions in the State, from some light within, which they insist upon in large discourses of words hudled together, the meaning whereof other men cannot comprehend, and there­fore when they meet with this spirit revi­ved again in the writings of some modern Catholicks within the space of nine and twenty or thirty years, which had layn quiet, or much quieter for four or five hundred years, and scarce a mention of them in the common Catholick Writers of those times, it cannot be wondred at, that men are not willing to give any counte­nance [Page 231] to those infusions which have so of­ten been discovered to be mere delusions, or that many who have read all Mother Tere­sa's visions and ecstasies, and accidentally meet with some well exercised Quakers, are apt to think their stile very like, be­cause they comprehend the sence of both alike; and as it is some argument against the difficulty of a Book, that it is transla­ted into any other Language, than that in which it is writ; so when it is translated into very many Languages, and under­stood by none, or by very few who are not suspected for ignorance in the Lan­guage, it is a great discouragement to the Reader, if it be no reproach upon the work, and I believe and hope that it is a fate Sancta Sophia will not undergo, by being translated into as many Languages as Mother Teresa hath been. But it may be that the objection which Mr. Cressy un­warily says, keeps women from being ad­mitted for witnesses of miracles in the Ca­nonization of Saints (in which he finds he was grosly deceived) may be a good qua­lification of them for the receiving and ap­plying extraordinary Illuminations and Revelations. Naturally (he says pag. 68.) imagination is stronger in them than judg­ment, and whatsoever is esteemed by them to [Page 232] be pious, is easily concluded by them to be true; and I must confess I have found more Nuns and Religious Persons who seem perfectly to understand that dialect, than any other Catholicks with whom I have conversed. I confess I am so unwilling to think light­ly, or speak pleasantly of any expedient that may possibly in other men advance devotion, that I am most unwillingly drawn again into the discourse of it, since I now find by casting my eye upon a little Treatise written by a friend of Mr. Cressy's, or by himself, to illustrate that subject, that I am totally incapable of understand­ing it; for though Mr. Cressy confesses that many persons even in the Catholick Church have been seduced by the Devil and their own pride, to pretend to lights received from God, which were either the effects of a di­stempered fancy, or suggestions of the Devil, which his friend likewise acknowledges, and seems prepared to give advice how the one shall be discovered and distinguished from the other, in which I would have been very glad to be instructed, but am utterly disappointed by the first conditions that he establishes towards the discovery, which is, That the persons who pretend to Visions and Illuminations must necessarily be Roman Catholicks, because he lays it a [Page 233] ground indisputable, that all pretences and appearances of that kind in any persons of a different Faith, are infallibly Diabolical; which is so full a contradiction to the right of another sort of Enthusiafts, who to ma­ny men seem to make their claim with as much reason, and think that every instance that is urged out of the Scripture by this new Author of all the infusions, and visions, and illuminations, and revelations from the Creation to the end of the Revelation, may be as well applied to their justification; as for that of the Roman Catholicks, I am re­solved to be no farther engaged in the Ar­gument, but for ever take my leave of it.

I am confident the Doctor is so willing to gratifie Mr. Cressy, that he will deny him nothing that is reasonable; but it is not a just request, when himself hath de­clared in his Book that he will not examine one quotation which the Doctor hath with notable industry and punctuality set down to prove all he hath averred; and that it concerns not him whether they be true or false; he now requests him in his Post­script, that he will not hereafter abuse the world by fathering on the Church the Exotick opinions of particular School-men, (it was [Page 234] his part to have shewed what School-men, and what opinions the Church hath re­jected) and by representing the Churches Doctrines lamely, falsly and dishonestly, which he says, is his enormous faultiness committed in his last Book through every one of the points mentioned by him, which, he says, may be visible to all heedful Readers; truly the more shame for him, that would not have that advantage against him, when he was without any other, but he says, irrefragable proofs are making ready of this, if the Searchers would be quiet, and let the Printers work; but it is an even lay the want of that discovery will be al­ways laid upon the Searchers, though they cannot prevent the coming out of any thing else they have a mind to publish. And it may seem strange after his confessi­on in his Book, that all is required in and by the Church of England, is comprehend­ed in the Articles, and Canons, and Book of Common-Prayer well known, and publish­ed; he would have it thought in his Post­script that they know not where to find doctrines, for no other doctrines we de­fend, and he shall do well to declare by what authority the Catholicks of England conform themselves to the Council of Trent, that hath never been received in that [Page 235] Kingdom, as it hath not been in some Ca­tholick Countries, and therefore is not obli­gatory there; nor must he think he an­swers this question, by saying that all Ca­tholick Countries have received all that is of the Essence of Religion, and reject only some Canons which are indifferent; for if any thing remains indifferent after the de­termination of the Council, and may therefore be rejected, it is manifest that the jurisdiction is not in the Council, though confirmed by the Pope, but in that power that rejects it, and judges of the in­differency. For his invitation of the Do­ctor to a Christening, that a Colledge in Cambridge may have another name given to it, than it is now called by S. Bennet, or Corpus Christi Colledge, the wit of it is enough answered, when taken notice of.

The last Paragraph of his Postscript is a pure piece of Oratory, and may be in imi­tation of no worse an Orator than Caesar himself, who when he had tried all fair and foul means, threats and promises to draw Cicero to his party, and found it was impossible to engage him to be active against Pompey, he only considered how to make him Neutral, to sit still without doing any thing in the quarrel, and writ [Page 236] to him, Neque tutius, neque honestius repe­ries quidquam quàm ab omni contentione abesse. So Mr. Cressy after he hath heaped more ill words upon the Doctor, and ap­plied more reproachful Epithets to his grave and learned person, and stile, than hath been gathered together in so small a volume within these nine and twenty years; he concludes his Postscript with desiring him to consider that Almighty God commands us to love Peace and Truth, Zach. 8. 19. and then gravely informs him how they ought always to go together, and left his too ci­vil address to him should more work upon him, than would become an adversary; he quickens him for the better application of his Text, by telling him, that since he hath demolished all Tribunals in Gods Church, which might peaceably end controversies, and had endeavoured as much as in him lay to ba­nish peace eternally from among Christians, it was expected from him that he should give some testimony to the world, that he is at least a seeker, and promoter of truth; and so pro­ceeds very Rhetorically to perswade him that he doth not himself believe any thing that he says to others, because he is too reasonable a man, and of too great abili­ties to think that such a Book as his last can convert any Catholick, who cannot read with­out [Page 237] trembling at the blasphemy of it, and without a horrible aversion from one, who would make their Church and their Faith odious. Indeed I believe they will suffer very few of their Proselytes to read that or any other of his Books, which may open their eyes, or inform them of the darkness they are in. If Mr. Cressy's word may be ta­ken, as no doubt it will, he will tell them of blasphemies that may make them tremble, though he hath not in his whole answer named one; but if a man will not (that is, cannot) give credit to all the stories which are told of S. Bennet and S. Francis, he is streight a blasphemer of Gods Saints, as he who will not submit to the authority of the Bishop of Rome, demo­lishes all Tribunals in Gods Church, which might peaceably end controversies, and endea­vours to banish peace eternally from amongst Christians, whereas it is only that Tribunal that hinders and obstructs the peace, which, but for that judicatory, would be generally imbraced.

The counsel I would now give to Mr. Cressy will consist in two kinds, the first with reference to himself purely, the second with reference to the cause: If he thinks fit any more to write against the [Page 238] Church of England, which I do not dis­swade him from, that he will state truly and clearly the difference between it and the Church of Rome, which he hath never yet done. I advise him to remember that he hath been a member and son of the Church of England, cherished and educated in her, during the most vigorous part of his age, and that he ows to that education all the learning he hath; I will charitably believe that he saw, or thought he saw good reason to withdraw himself from her Communion, and that he is satisfied in his conscience, with his present state of sepa­ration; let it be so; why should that hin­der him from living fairly and civilly to­wards her? It is an ungenerous thing to fall from streight embraces to publick revi­lings. Men of honour after they have con­tracted friendships with each other for a long time, and afterwards find cause from some mutation in manners, and upon dis­covery of infirmities with which they can no longer comply, to live at a greater di­stance towards each other, to repose less confidence than they used to do, and by degrees to grow strangers; they yet re­tain such a decent behaviour, that standers by can scarce discover any alteration of af­fections in them; they are never heard [Page 239] to speak ill, to traduce, or disgrace one another, and believe that it is a debt and duty due to their former friendship never to undervalue each others parts, or to bring the honour of either into question; common prudence, and good breeding prevents those excesses; and methinks in Religion the same temper should have a greater influence, and Mr. Cressy should for his own sake allow some beauty to have been in the Church that did so long detain him, and not desire to render her so ugly and deformed, as takes away any excuse from any body for staying so long in her company. This I expected from his natu­ral genius, and from the conversation he frequented, where bitterness of words was never allowable towards men whose opi­nions were very different; and if any new illumination hath perswaded him that such urbanity is not consistent with the zeal that Religious discourses should be warmed with, he should suspect it for de­lusion. He hath an excellent example gi­ven him, by a Catholick learned and Reve­rend Bishop, the present Bishop and Prince of Condun, who treats an enemy more in­feriour to him, and more liable to re­proach, than the Church of England can be imagined to be to Mr. Cressy, with such [Page 240] condescension and humanity, as if they stood upon the same level with him. And no question those strokes make a deeper im­pression upon all ingenuous men, than louder blows, and are with more difficulty repelled. Whereas Mr. Cressy, like a rude and blustering wind, disturbs all sorts of men who stand near him, offends and pro­vokes all Classes of men with his unneces­sary choler. What can the King think to see his Laws and Government so vilified by his scornful expressions, to hear his Royal Ancestor, whose obsequies were kept and observed at Nostre Dame in Pa­ris with the highest solemnity by the first great King France ever had, in spight of the Pope's Excommunication, called a Ty­rant by one of his own subjects? What can all the Protestant Nobility and Prelates of England think to see the Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws of the Church and State despi­sed and trampled upon by a man who could not live an hour in that Air but by the Kings mercy? What must all the peaceable and well-affected Catholicks of England think, who have enjoyed so long tranquillity by the King's grace and fa­vour, to find the calm they were in inter­rupted by the boisterous and unskilful noise of one of their own Preachers, and to [Page 241] hear and see a jealousie kindled of their loyalty and good meaning, by the impe­tuous breath of a Religious man, that if it be not allayed by their prudence, may de­vour and destroy their chief and most beau­tiful habitations. Mr. Cressy therefore shall do well and wisely henceforward to de­mean himself with more temper and civi­lity towards the Church, and all the mem­bers of it, of whose clemency and gentle­ness he may yet stand in need; and if his passion will not suffer him to live as a Friend, let his discretion prevail with him to live like a Neighbour, at least like an old acquaintance, as long as he thinks it con­venient to enjoy the benefit of their quar­ters.

The advice that I give Mr. Cressy, with reference to the matter is, That he will contract the Controversie into what con­cerns the Church of England solely, and to say all he can against the Articles and Poli­cy thereof, and not to make any sallies against Presbyterians, Independents, Ana­baptists, or other Sectaries, who declare as great animosity against the Church of England, as that of Rome hath always, and therefore are more like to agree toge­ther. And the first question that is pro­per [Page 242] and pertinent to be debated, and which determination will go very far to­wards the reconciling all inferiour parti­culars is;

I. Whether a National Church hath power, with the approbation and authority of the Soveraign, to remove any errors or in­conveniences which have been practised in that Church, either by an Original cor­ruption, or by degenerating from what might at first be innocent, into superstition or scandal; and whether the long reception and continuance of what is erroneous or mischievous, can restrain the Soveraign power from reforming it, when he finds it necessary in the same peaceable order and method, as he provides Laws in other ca­ses for the well Government of his King­dom?

II. Whether whatsoever is not of the Essence of Christian Religion instituted by our Saviour himself, or declared or advised to be practised by the Apostles, may not lawfully be looked upon as Religion of State, in that it may be altered, or im­proved, or abolished by the Soveraign pow­er for the better advancement of those ends which are essential, and which no power [Page 243] on Earth can make alteration in? And whether Gods promise to his Church be not to be depended upon in every National Church where learning and piety flourish­es, that it shall not fall into enormous er­ror, whereby Christianity shall receive prejudice, and be not more like to ad­vance and propagate devotion in that Church and Nation, than any Foreign power whatsoever?

III. Whether the Bishop of Rome hath any authority given by God in the Domini­ons, and over the Subjects of other Prin­ces, and what authority and power it is, and what obedience and subjection it is, which the English Catholicks conceive themselves bound to pay to him by the ob­ligation of their Religion? It being abso­lutely necessary for the personal security of Kings and Princes, and for the peace and quiet of Kingdoms, that it may be clearly made manifest, what the authority and power is, that a Foreign Prince doth chal­lenge in an other Princes Dominions contra­ry to and above the Laws of the Land, and what obedience it is that subjects may pay to such a Foreign Prince without the privity, and contrary to the command of his own So­veraign, nor can any general answer be sa­tisfactory [Page 244] in this point. They who con­ceive the Pope hath a Temporal and Spiritu­al power in England, must explain what the full intent of that power is, that the King may discern whether he hath enough of either as to preserve himself & the peace of the Kingdom; and they who insist up­on his having a spiritual power as most of the most moderate Catholicks do, without imagining that it can in the least lessen their affection and loyalty to the King, which they do really intend to preserve inviolable, must as clearly explain and de­fine what they understand that spiritual to be, which may otherwise be extended as far as the former intend the temporal and spiritual shall extend; nor in truth can they be secure of their own innocence, of which they think themselves in possession, until they fully know from those who in­tangle them with distinctions, what that spiritual power is, and what submission they are bound to pay to it, which seeming to be some obligation upon their Conscience, it is fit they may be sure it cannot involve them in actions contrary to their duties, which they can hardly be secure of, and less satisfie others, till they absolutely dis­claim any power to be in him at all with reference to England, as they will upon a [Page 245] full enquiry discover, that he hath no o­ther in any Catholick Kingdom, but what is granted to him by the Soveraign power, and the municipal Laws of the Kingdome, which makes it differ so much in all the Catholick Nations of Europe, and to be little or nothing out of it.

IV. Whether Catholick Subjects in England are not bound to give as good se­curity to the King for their fidelity, and peaceable behaviour, as all his other sub­jects do, and without which they cannot wonder that they may be made subject to such Laws, and restraints, as may dis­able them from being dangerous, when they profess to owe obedience to a foreign Prince, who doth as much profess not to be a friend to their Countrey, and will not declare what that obedience is?

V. Whether his Majestie may not justly, and ought not prudently to require the same, or as full satisfaction and secu­rity for their allegiance, as Catholick Sub­jects give for their fidelity to Catholick Kings; if so, how can the English Ca­tholicks under pretence of Religion refuse to declare, that it is in no Earthly pow­er to absolve them from their fidelity [Page 246] to the King, when no French Roman Ca­tholick dares refuse the same, it being a Catholick resolution in France, and renew­ed upon the occasion of a seditious Book by a Declaration of the Sorbone concern­ing the Kings Independency, in the Year 1663. Quòd subditi fidem, & obedientiam Regi Christianissimo ita debent, ut ab iis nullo praetextu dispensari possint; and whe­ther any Catholick in France, or Spain, can refuse to profess that he doth not believe that the Pope can depose the King, if the King thinks to require it?

VI. Whether since the Pope so lately caused his Majestie's Catholick Subjects in Ireland to rebell, and when out of the conscience of their sin they submitted to the King, and subscribed, and swore to the observation of the Articles agreed upon; The Pope absolved them from the performance of their Oaths, and took up­on himself to be their General in the Person of his Nuntio, and assumed the exercise of the Regal power both at Land and Sea, and imprisoned those Catholicks, and threatned to take their Lives who had promoted the peace, and desired to return to the King's Subjection; And [Page 247] when since the Kings happy Restoration, the Nobility, and Catholick Clergie of Ire­land thought it necessary to present some Testimony of their future Allegi­ance to the King, in which they decla­red that the Pope had no power to di­spence with their fidelity to his Majesty, or to absolve them from any Oaths they should take to that purpose, which De­claration was attested, and subscribed by many of the principal Catholick Nobi­lity, and others of the best quality, and interest, as likewise by some of their Ti­tular Catholick Bishops, and many of their Secular, and Regular Clergie; But com­plaint, and notice hereof being sent to Rome, the Pope was so offended at it, that he caused his Nuntio in Flanders to command some of the Clergy who had subscribed that Paper to attend him, and threatned to excommunicate them, and Cardinal Barbaryne at the same time, writ a Letter to the Bishops, and Clergie of Ire­land, in which he signified how much the Pope was displeased that such a sub­scription, and declaration had been made, and commanded them to discountenance, and suppress the same, and take care that it should proceed no farther, and the Car­dinal added, That they should remember [Page 248] what they well knew, that the Kingdom remained still under Excommunication?

This being the case, it cannot but be very necessary that his Majesty should know what opinion his Catholick Subjects have of this Foreign power, which will observe no limits, but of his own pre­scription, and will concern all Roman English Subjects to explain their sence of it, that they may not be thought to de­sire only the protection of those Laws, which gives them equal title to what­ever all other Subjects enjoy, and to be willing to be dispenced with for perfor­mance of all those obligations which o­ther Subjects are under; and in conside­ration whereof the other benefits are granted to them.

VII. Whether the English Catholick Subjects are not bound in Conscience to submit to the Laws of the Land, in all things which are not against the Law of God, and who is to be judge whether they are against the Law of God or no, and if Men are forbid to keep Company, or to have conversation with dissolute, and pro­phane Persons, how they can justifie the living in continual company with, and in [Page 249] constant profession of friendship to those, who they conceive, and believe to be out of a possibility of Salvation; and for which (if in truth they do believe it) the saying, they may believe as well as hope that they will repent, and become Ca­tholick before they dye, when, whatever they may hope, they do not in truth be­lieve that they will ever change their Religion, so that it is more reasonable to believe from the learning, reason, and judgment of many Catholicks, that they do not believe it, whatever they are ob­liged to say, or rather whatever others say to them, and whether Protestants who do think that the Papists do really believe they must be damned, are not very excusable, if they avoid, and decline any commerce, or conversation with them, even to the abstaining from buy­ing or selling with them, or from enter­taining any Servant of that Religion, since it cannot reasonably be presumed that a Servant can love a Master, which it is his duty to do, who he doth believe will infallibly be damned?

VIII. How Mr. Cressy, and the rest [Page 250] who have received Orders in the Church of England, can justifie, or excuse their being re-ordained after they change their Religion, since so many Councils have de­clared against it, and no one for it, and since the succession of Bishops is as plainly manifest in one Church as in the other, and in truth may be more doubted upon their own grounds in the Roman, from the number of Schismes, and the continuance of them, in which so many excommunica­ted Persons have been consecrated Bishops, and they again ordained Priests under the same condemnation, which may be sup­posed to have made a great confusion, by many Mens having conferred Orders, who (by their Rules, I say) were Laymen them­selves; However, what difference can there be assigned, why such of the Greek Church who come to them, are not re­ordained, but those of the Church of Eng­land are compelled to be?

IX. Whether St. Peter exercised any jurisdiction, or assumed any superiority o­ver the rest of the Apostles, during the Se­ven Years he remained at Antioch, as he ought to have done, if the Supremacy was [Page 251] annexed to his Person, or in the Four and twenty Years he reigned in Rome, and whe­ther the contrary be not manifest by St. Paul's Epistle to the Galathians, not so much by the Contest that was between him, and St. Peter about Circumcision even at Antioch, in St. Peter's own Diocess, where St. Paul withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed, which is poor­ly answered by those who say, it was in the warmth of disputation, when all men contradict each other, without di­stinction of quality or degree; But I say I do not urge the equality so much by that contradiction (though it be not answered) as by the matter, occasion, and substance of that Epistle, which seems to be written principally upon that Subject: St. Paul had converted that People, the Galathi­ans from Paganisme, to the Faith of Christ, and he was no sooner gone from them to another place, but some other Christians (for there was no attempt to reduce a­gain to Paganisme) were inclined to a­muse with Scruples, that they were not throughly informed of the whole faith that was necessary, nor by one who had ever seen our Saviour, and so was not like to be himself informed as well as [Page 252] they, especially when St. Peter preached contrary to what the other taught, so that the weight of what was objected by those, whoever they were, was the incompetency of the Person who had taught them, in comparison of the other, and particularly of St. Peter; So that St. Paul could not at this time have been ig­norant of that Supremacy, if there had been any, this Epistle being written above Se­venteen Years after his conversion, nor could he have avoided the mentioning of it upon this argument, if he had known it, especially since he writ that Letter from Rome, where Peter at the same time was, nor could he more clearly have confuted that Opinion than he hath done, except he had believed St. Peter himself to have affected it, which he had no reason to do, since he knew who they were who had infused those suggestions; He gives them a short accompt of his own Apostleship, and how he had spent his time since, of his first Journey to Ierusalem, yet that he went not thither till three Years after his conversion, and till after he performed many acts of his Apostleship, in which he received no direction from any; Of his Second Iourney afterwards to Ierusalem in [Page 253] which he takes care that they might not think that he had any Superiour there, To whom we gave place by subjection, no not for an hour; He proceeds then in the same jealousie to make a comparison with St. Peter; He that wrought effectually in Pe­ter, to the Apostleship of the Circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles; effectually in Peter, mighty in Paul, a word of an equal energy: and lest all this might be looked upon as speaking behind his back, after he had mentioned the respect he had received from the other Apostles, from Iames, and Cephas, and Iohn, he tells them, that when Peter came to him, he withstood him to the face because he was to be bla­med, and the manner of his expostula­tion with him seems very rough, as with a man that stood upon the same level with him, not as with the sole Vicar of Christ; If thou being a Iew li­vest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Iews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Iews? Whosoever seriously reflects upon the tampering that had been with the Ga­lathians to lessen their confidence in Paul, and the gradations by which he endea­voured [Page 254] to reconfirm them in the same faith he had formerly taught them, can­not but believe that the Apostle had therein a purpose to root out any such Opinion of priority out of their hearts, especially when in no other place after this there appears the least mention of, or appeal to St. Peter, in the many er­rours and mis-interpretations of the words and actions of our Saviour, and of them in the Life of the Apostles, from whence many troubles, and great disorders sprung and grew up amongst Christians of that Age.

He shall do well to consider, whether it be probable that St. Peter himself, or any of his Successors did pretend a Precedency, or Superiority over Saint Iohn the Evangelist, who lived Twenty Years after Saint Peter, and to let us know when the first Pope discovered his Supremacy over other Bishops, and then we know well enough how it was introduced in Temporalities.

[Page 255] If Mr. Cressy and the rest of the enemies of the Church of England, who will not al­low any members of the same to have any hope, without deserting their Mother, of a place in Heaven, and hardly admit them to be in their wits upon Earth, would en­ter upon the disquisition of these particu­lars, which are warily declined in all their Writings, or very perfunctorily handled, the foundation, doctrine and discipline of that Church, would be in a short time ut­terly overthrown and demolished, or worthily vindicated and supported in the judgment of most learned and discerning men; and there can be but two reasons why they should decline this method, which they should the rather imbrace, be­cause all other have proved ineffectual, and in near two hundred years, the appeal to Fathers and Councils, or Scripture it self, hath not reconciled many persons in any one controverted particular, but those two reasons, so unwarrantable that they will never be owned, will never suffer them to admit the method, and pursue it closely. The first is, that if they should proceed in this ingenuous and substantial way, they would be cut off from those common places in which they are only [Page 256] versed, and by which they are supplied to urge all things which have been thought heretofore material to that mat­ter, and to reply to what is said of course, but especially they will find themselves restrained from that multitude of ill words in which they so much delight of calling those they do not love, and whose argu­ments they cannot answer, Hereticks, who are condemned already to Hell-fire, and from asking the old stale question, that hath been as often answered as asked, Where was your Church before Luther, and from their so often vain excursions upon the voluptuousness of Henry the Eighth, whom they would fain perswade the world to be the Founder of the Church of England, and all the reformation to have been devised by him. Whereas if they would seriously study these material points, the first whereof would go very far towards the facilitating the resolution up­on the rest, they might easily discern, that no member of the Church of England, by their own rules can be comprehended within any of their decrees for an Heretick, which serves their turn only as an angry word to throw at any mans head, whom they desire to make odious to all Roman Catholicks; and they would be as easily [Page 257] convinced, that we never had any thing to do with Luther; that in all those quar­rels and wars, which were either occasi­oned by him, or accompanied his do­ctrine, there was not a man of the English Nation that was ever engaged, and that it was long after his time, & not at all by his model that the Church of England without one sword drawn, and in as peaceable and grave a manner, as ever that Nation hath concurred in the making of any of those excellent Laws, which distinguishes them from all the subjects of the world, in the happiness they enjoy, did reject those superstitions and inconveniences, which they could not sooner free themselves from with those circumstances of justice and peace, and the retaining whereof would have been more for the benefit and advan­tage of the Court of Rome, than for the Church of England, or the good of that King­dom; and as such alterations cannot be supposed to be made with so universal a consent, but that many of all conditions ad­hered still to the exercise of their Religion, with all the circumstances which they had been before accustomed unto, and for which no body suffered in many years, nor till by their treasonable acts and con­spiracies they appeared dangerous to the [Page 258] State: For King Henry the Eighth he had some personal contests with Clement the Se­venth, who was then Pope, from whom he received such personal indignities, as in the opinion of most of the Princes of that Age, who had all out-grown the wardship of the Pope, he could not but resent and vindicate himself from▪ nor did he do it any other way, than his most glorious Ca­tholick Predecessors had always done upon far less injuries or provocations, as Ed­ward the First and Edward the Third, and others whose Religion was never suspect­ed, often restrained him from exercising any authority or jurisdiction in England, to which they well knew he had no other authority or right, but what the Crown had granted him, and forbid any of their Sub­jects to repair to Rome, or to receive any Orders from thence, which was upon the matter all that Henry the Eighth did, and was no more than Lewis the Twelfth of France had done very few years before, but was so far from being inclined or fa­vouring to any reformation or alteration in Religion, that he proceeded as long as he lived with the utmost severity against all who were but suspected to be averse from the Catholick Religion, and caused many of them to be burned as Hereticks very few [Page 259] days before, having made new Laws for the discovery of them stricter than had been ever before. And there is no reason to believe that he did not die as much a Catholick as he was when he writ against Luther; nor did any Catholick Prince for­bear to enter into the strictest alliance with him, notwithstanding the Popes Bulls of Excommunication, Deprivation, and Inter­diction; nor was there one Mass the less said for it in England; and after his death his obsequies were with all possible solemni­ty observed (as hath been said before) in Paris at Nostre Dame, by Francis the First, notwithstanding all those Bulls from Rome, in all which nothing can be more obser­vable, than that the great Emperor Charles the Fifth, who had threatned and compel­led that weak humorous Pope into all those acts of folly and presumption against the King, had no sooner made him commit that insolence, but himself entred into a straiter friendship and confederacy with the Excommunicated King, than had ever before been between them.

The other reason why they will very unwillingly expose their interest to this manner of debate is, That it would divide their party, which if they were solicitous [Page 260] only for truth would not prevail with them. Other Catholick Kingdoms and Na­tions which differ from one another, as well in the profession as the exercise of the Roman Religion, as the French hold a Council to be above the Pope, and the Spa­niards the Pope to be above a Council, and many other particulars; when they come to know that the Crown and Church of Eng­land have established only amongst them­selves such an exercise of Christian Religion, that in all the substantial and essential points is the same which they profess, without censuring them, or what they find fit to do in their Countries,. and have only made such alterations as by the consti­tution of that Kingdom they may lawfully do, and which they find more agreeable to the manners of the Nation, and for the peace and happiness of the people. They will not think themselves concerned in the policy of other Kingdoms, nor the Popes authority so much of the Essence of Catholick Religion, that they are bound to support all his pretences which are different in all those Countries which are most devoted to him, and therefore cannot flow from any determination of our Saviour, which would have made it the same in all places; besides, they too well know, that in all the [Page 261] particulars proposed, the Catholick Doctors are not of one mind, who are now kept united to them by not knowing the consti­tution of the Church of England, nor that the Roman Catholicks in that Kingdom re­fuse to give that security for their duty to the King, and for their peaceable and good behaviour, as all other their fellow subjects chearfully give, and as are required of all by the Laws of the Kingdom; and if they would perform that common duty, it is very probable that there appearing no more danger to threaten the State, from them, than from other men, those Laws which the iniquity of their forefathers brought upon them by their conspiracies and treasons may be suspended towards their innocent Children, until such time as their peaceable demeanour and good carriage shall make it appear just to be abolished. This expedient for the reasons aforesaid, will be obstructed by the Religious and regular Clergie, who have so absolute a dependence upon the Pope, that they are in truth sub­jects to no other Prince; and probably some few of the secular Clergie may concur with them, though more of them, if they can discern any security to themselves in disclaiming the Popes authority, which few of them look upon, as of the Essence of [Page 262] their Religion, and have in their hearts as well as in their professions as sincere purposes towards the King and his People. However I know not why all the Lay Ca­tholicks of his Majesties Dominions should bind up their interest, with those who have different obligations from them, nor how they can excuse themselves from not throughly examining every one of the par­ticular heads proposed, by which they will receive this benefit and information, that they will clearly discern what is ne­cessary for them to retain and insist upon, without which in their conscience (as thus informed) they cannot continue members of the Catholick Church, and what is so much of the policy of the State, that is warrantable or unwarrantable, only as it is established by the Soveraign authority, and by this means they will know how to give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to render unto God that which belongs unto God; the just distribution whereof is of an equal concernment to all Christians, being equally enjoyned by our Saviour Christ.