An answer to the Bishop of Condom (now of Meaux) his Exposition of the Catholick faith, &c. wherein the doctrine of the Church of Rome is detected, and that of the Church of England expressed from the publick acts of both churches : to which are added reflections on his pastoral letter.

THE CONCLUSION.

HEreby therefore it appears, that M. Condom's explication has given us but a very unsatisfactory resolution, the great∣est part of the Objections being still left in full force, and their Doctrines shewn some necessarily, and others very probably, others absolutely to subvert the foundations of Faith; which abundantly justifies that Provision made by the Reformation, and makes it absolutely necessary that they let not go that Provision, which the maintenance of our common Christianity rendred at first, and does still require necessary.

Neither has M. Condom mentioned all the material Points in dif∣ference: Two I am sure there are omitted, as considerable as many by him taken notice of. One is the Decree of the Coun∣cil, which requires the Scriptures, which we call Apocrypha, to be admitted with like reverence as the unquestionable Canonical Scriptures, and to be received as all of one rank, which before had never been enjoyned but with that difference which had al∣ways been acknowledged in the Church. Which Act, giving to them the authority of Prophetical Scripture, inspired by God, which they had not before, though it be thereby null in itself, (because what was not inspired by God to him that wrote it, can never become inspired by him, and that which was not at first received as such, can never be known to be such without spe∣cial Revelation) yet usurpeth an Authority which was never heard of in the Christian World, and claims a submission which a Christian cannot give to any but such as shall prove themselves to have had an immediate Revelation in the case. The other is their Decree, that the Service of God be not performed in the vulgar Tongue: For if the People be obliged to assist in that Ser∣vice, (which if they are not, To what purpose do they assemble?) then certainly the Offices in which they assist ought to be under∣stood by them. Possibly they will say, that Ʋnity is preserved by the universal use of one Language, though the Service of God be not understood; but then the end, for which it should be preser∣ved,

is not accomplisht, when the Service of God is not, nor can be performed as Christianity requireth, by those who understand it not.

Besides, it is observable, that it's M. Condom's way to take these Points single, and spend all his pains in extenuating them as much as possible, that they may not appear absolutely to destroy our Christianity, and then to press us to compliance with it: But he never looks upon them together, nor considers, whether with that care of our common Christianity which all ought to take, they can be all complyed with and submitted to.

I then have shewn even in the Particulas wherein I have gone along with M. Condom, That the Invocation of Saints is with∣out warrant from our Christianity, has no Promise of any Grace or Mercy, yea tends so greatly to the prejudice of Christi∣anity, that it shall be very difficult for a Christian to preserve himself from Idolatry in the use of it, and which Experience has shewn to have been Idolatrously practised by many: That the Use of Images again, is no way necessary in God's Worship, but dangerous, and makes it most difficult to avoid that Idolatry which many have really committed in the use of them: That the Relicks of Saints have no such virtue by any divine Promise as they are frequented for; that the Church therefore ought not to teach or perswade People to frequent them for such Aid or Helps, since their recourse to them has been experienced to have brought forth much Superstition, advancing Peoples Devotion to Saints, to the prejudice of that they should preserve for God alone: That their Doctrine of Justification involving a mistake in the very nature of it, by making Inherent Righteousness the formal Cause of Justification, gives too great appearance that they claim Remission of Sins as due to that inherent Righteousness; whereas it is only the effect of Christ's Merits: That likewise by their Anathema's they have condemned those who hold the Truth in this Point: That in the Point of Merit, if the Do∣ctrine of the Council be not expresly, yet that vulgarly taught in that Communion, is contrary to the Faith, and injurious to Gods Grace, which Doctrine is favoured by the very words of the Council; that herein also they condemn those who assert the Truth, and desire to magnifie God's Grace: That their Doctrines of Satisfactions, Purgatory and Indulgences, are built on a foundation that has not the least ground in holy Scripture, their Satisfactions being enjoynd to other ends than those in which they take place in Christianity; being also according to the purposes by them used injurious to the Merits of Christ, and

offensive to their Christian Brethren; their Indulgences granted to unheard of purposes and perverted from their primitive use; their Purgatory a vain invention, and the occasion of much Su∣perstition; and these, taken together with their Absolution in Penance, tending directly to the manifest prejudice of our Chri∣stianity, since the Pardon of Sins is presumed to depend not up∣on Reconcilement wrought with God before, but on the Power of the Keys, as the ground of it, whereby Absolution is pronounced before the Church has done any thing to work the Cure of Sin, and the Penances afterwards imposed for the satisfaction of a temporal punishment, the Sin being to be supposed pardoned before, and no eternal punishment to remain due, and those to be expiated by some easie satisfactions in the present Life, or to be abated in Purgatory by some Indulgences purchased here, or Services performed by their Friends afterwards; whereby sim∣ple Souls must necessarily be entangled in the Snares of their Sins, there being so great likelihood, that Pardon being held forth upon such undue grounds, the corruption of our Nature will take hold of and presume upon it, when we have not wrought in our selves a true Repentance: That in those things which they call Sacraments, they will not suffer us to distinguish either in that Grace which the Ceremony signifieth, or in the Force whereby they concur to the obtaining of it; whereas our Chri∣stianity requires us to distinguish between Graces given to this or that particular effect, and those that are given for the gene∣ral and perpetual subsistence of Christianity, and likewise be∣tween those Offices that are effective of Grace by virtue of a peculiar and special promise to those effects, and others that are only used by the Church, out of a hope that our Prayers shall be heard to those effects: That they conceive Christ present in the Eucharist after such a manner, as it does no way appear he promised his Presence therein; that hereupon it is required that Adoration due to God alone, be given to the Sacrament, which if the Elements remain, is by themselves confessed to be Idola∣try, and therefore may justisiably by us, who know them to re∣main, be so accounted: That without warrant they make the Eucharist a Sacrifice as distinct from a Sacrament, and of a greater virtue as a Sacrifice, than when it is received as a Sa∣crament, according to our Saviour's Institution: That they warrant it propitiatory for those who use it not according to his Institution, whereby they frustrate the End of his blessing Bread and Wine, and commanding it to be received, and likewise void the necessity of a Christian Life, applying the 〈1 page duplicate〉〈1 page duplicate〉

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Benefits of Christ's Sacrament to such as come not worthily to partake of it, and pretending it efficacious to ease them of pu∣nishments which they are to suffer for sins after Death: That whilst they with-hold the Cup from the Laity, they void Christ's Institution, who enjoyned and appointed both, they likewise rob Christians of their Birthright, and cannot warrant one part of this Sacrament beneficial to all those effects for which Christ was pleased to bless both Bread and Wine: That whilst they plead for Traditions, they thereby endeavour to obtrude upon us their own Corruptions, and by these, instead of interpreting, pervert the Scriptures, and by Traditions of men have indeed in many things made void the Comandments of God: That by claiming an Authority for the Church above the Scriptures, which they do to justifie what the Church of Rome has decreed against them, they do indeed advance an Authority that may de∣stroy our common Christianity: That in pleading their Pope uni∣versal Bishop, not to speak of their Ambition in this Aim, they require us to submit to an Authority for the sake of Unity, which is not only none of God's Ordinance, but such as Expe∣rience has shewn to have almost wholly destroyed that Christia∣nity which Unity should preserve. Having shewn, I say, the danger of these Doctrines in particular, and their inconsistence with Christianity, when I reflect upon them all together, and find that our Union with the Church of Rome, requires submission to them all, must conclude that whatever allowance might be made in some one of them (provided that the rest of that Christian Truth which they hold, did so prevail over the Error, that it did not take effect in their practices to God's Dishonour, or the subversion of a Christian Life) yet to submit to them all, as we must do if we will have peace with the Church of Rome, is to redeem the Communion of the Church by transgressing that Christianity which the Church is appointed to maintain, and absolutely to prostitute our own and the Souls committed to our Charge.

The Case is little otherwise in those other things which M. Condom lets alone as things of themselves not suffici∣ent matter of Separation; these if taken together, though singly they may not be very considerable, render the Means of Salvation very difficult; since the Substance of Christianity being overwhelmed and choaked with a deal of Rubbish Opinions, Customs, Observations, Ceremonies, &c. it is a thing very dif∣ficult for simple Christians to discern the Substance from the Shadow, and almost impossible to pass through such a multitude

of Observations, Customs and Ceremonies, which create so much business in the Practice of Religion, and upon which so great Zeal is spent, without Superstion and Will-Worship, and a fond Opinion of those Services, placing their hope of God's Favour upon these carnal Observations and humane Inventions, which indeed are nothing to the Reality of Religion. So that these at least must be allowed to add to that Mass of Corruption which they seek to obtrude upon us, though of themselves they are not of such a poysonous Nature.

But though we cannot joyn with them without manifest preju∣dice to our Christianity, yet it is most easie for them to come to us, and would be for the great advantage of our Christian Re∣ligion, as even themselves must and do acknowledge.

For first, Those Doctrines which are established by the Church of England, at least such as concern the Foundation of Faith have been in all Ages professed by the Church of Rome itself. This M. Condom allows as to Fundamentals,

That the Church of Rome holds all which the Reformers do. They further agree

with us,

That we are to pray unto God through Christ: That God may be worshipped in Spirit without an Image: That we may have recourse to him in all our Necessities without seeking the Relicks of Saints: That Jesus Christ is the meritorious cause of our Justification: That men may do good Works, and shall never fail of Salvation through not confiding in them: That there be two Sacraments which have the Promise of Grace. That Christ is really and spiritually received by some in the Lord's Supper: That Christ made an Oblation of himself upon the Cross for the Redemption, Propitiation and Satisfaction of the whole World: And where they with hold the Cup

from the Laity, and forbid the Administration of the Sacra∣ments in the vulgar Tongue, yet even in these they condescend to us for the Lawfulness of the Practice, even in respect to the Law of God, and oppose them only in regard of their necessity and conveniency, and for that the Church of Rome hath other∣wise ordained: They acknowledge likewise the Authority of written word of God, and the Design of Providence in their being

written for our Learning: They acknowledge the Church does and ought to act in deciding Controversies of Faith according to the Scripture committed to her, and to tell us nothing from herself, and invent nothing new in her Doctrine.

Again secondly, The Truths we hold (even by the judgment of several of the Learned Writers of the Church of Rome) have been in all ages deemed sufficient to salvation; so that we re∣ject

no Doctrine, the explicit Belief whereof is absolutely neces∣sary. For first, in respect of Knowledge, the Schoolmen hold,

That much less is needful to be explicitly believed, than what is contained in our Doctrines. For whereas we enter∣tain

and embrace not only the Doctrine of the three Creeds, but also sundry other Truths, as appears by our Homilies and Arti∣cles, they declare it needful to believe, some but the whole Creed, others, the Nicene and Athanasian, joyned with the A∣postolical, to make a man a compleat Believer; and this, although we go no further than the proper Sense of the words, and have no great distinct knowledge of the Matters; whereof however there is none will deny but the Church of England has a perfect understanding, as also a right apprehension of them according to their true Christian Sense, in which the whole Christian Ca∣tholick Church ever understood them. Secondly, For Practice, they grant,

That we may obtain Salvation without undergo∣ing such Duties as we refuse. For if one worships God without

an Image, they do not deny this worship to be acceptable: If a man pray immediately to God through Christ, they will not say this Devotion is fruitless: If one perform the best works he can, * 1.1 (which we also require) and stand not upon their Merit, but on∣ly upon the Mercy of God, as we do, they judge it to be not only profitable, but also commend it as most secure. They de∣ny not but sometimes true Contrition does obtain Pardon with∣out Penance, or the Priest's Absolution. They cannot deny but * 1.2 that to receive Christ spiritually in the holy Sacrament, is suffi∣cient to all the Effects of it; for the Council places the difference between those that receive it worthily, and those that receive it to their own destruction, in this, that the former receive him both sacramentally and spiritually; the other only sacramentally. Nor I suppose will they deny, that he that relies only on Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross, has a sufficient expiation for Sins, whilst he confides only in him whom God hath set forth to be our Pro∣pitiation: Nor that we receive the Sacrament aright when we communicate in both kinds. Likewise if a man believes no more than is contained in the Scriptures, they confess him to believe as much as is necessary and profitable to all men. And if a man submits to the Authority of the Church in all things which she acts for the maintenance of that Christianity she ought to pre∣serve, whilst she acts according to God's Word, and her own Commission both given and limited by it, they cannot say, I presume, that such aman disowns her Authority, or voids Gods Ordinance, or that the Church, which professes herself to have▪

no other Authority, but acts according to this which is given her of, and limited by the Scriptures, does not do what she ought for the maintenance of Chrstianity, and discharge of her Trust.

Again, Thirdly, The Doctrines which we disown, were not received as Articles of Faith, nor the contrary judged heretical by the Church of Rome for many hundred years after Christ. For a 1.3 that Church held at first, by our Adversaries own con∣fessions, all things which the Apostles used to preach openly, and which were necessary and profitable for all men, to be contained in the Scriptures. b 1.4 Even the Popes themselves disowned the Title of Ʋniversal Bishop; neither has that Church as yet decreed itself infallible, though pretended by her Champions so to be. c 1.5 Neither did they anciently worship Images, or approve the Image of God to be made; nor does any worship of Saints ap∣pear therein for 300 years after Christ; and it grew therein by degrees, and came in by custom, says Bellarmine. d 1.6 Where∣in Purgatory for a time was not known, nor for a long time after resolved which way it concerned Salvation e 1.7 either in regard of the Persons thereby to be purged, whether the damned, just∣est, or middle sort, or in regard of the Ends and Effects which it hath, whether to satisfie God's Justice by punishing Sin, or to diminish and take away the Affections of Sin yet remaining, by corrections and chastisements. Wherein f 1.8 Indulgences, as now practised, were not known, nor any instance of them till a thousand years after Christ, wherein Transubstantiation was not heard of till the Council of Lateran. Wherein a thousand years after Christ and more, the Sacrifice in the Eucharist was said, g 1.9 to be only a Memorial and Representation of our Saviour's Sacrifice upon the Cross: wherein the Cup was administred to the Laity, and the Priests received not the Eutharist alone, but together with the People.

Further, It's evident that we run no hazard, neither do we venture upon any dangerous practice, but walk in the safe way to salvation. There is no danger in offering our Devotions to God through Christ, and to him only, as there is in the worship of Saints, which is not only without warrant, and most likely to be offensive to God, but is even Idolatry if a right distinction be not always preserved, which is very difficult to be preserved at all times: nor in omitting the use of Images, nor in having re∣course to God's Providence only leaving the Reliques of Saints; as is confessed to be, if the use of Images seduce us to believe any divinity or vertue in them, to place any trust in them or hope any thing from them. Nor is there any danger in relying

on Christs Merits and God's Mercy for the Remission of our sins, not depending upon our own works, but doing what we are able in obedience to God, and after all, saying we are unprofitable servants, vilifying ourselves, but magnifying the grace of God; as there may be in trusting to our own Righteousness. Nor in requiring Contrition as absolutely necessary to the Remission of sins, as there is if we content our selves with less. Nor whilst we reject the Adoration of the Sacrament, so we offer up our souls to Christ in Heaven, as may be in worshipping the Sacrament, which themselves confess to be Idolatry, if the opinion of Tran∣substantion be false. Nor in not relying on the Sacrifice of the Eucharist, but frequenting it as a Sacrament with due prepara∣tion, nor in receiving it in both kinds, according to Christ's in∣stitution; as may be in supposing it beneficial, when we use it not according to Christ's institution, which obliges us to partake of it as a Sacrament, and in withholding part of it when it does not appear that he has left any such power in the Church to mi∣nister but a part of what he commanded. Nor in chusing the Scriptures for a Guide, so we sincerely follow them; as there is if Tradition should lead us, as it did the Jews, to void the Com∣mandments of God. Nor does that Church run so great a ha∣zard, which owns the limits that God has set her, and acts ac∣cording to them, as the Church that having acted against our common Christianity, or at least being accused so to have done, claims an absolute and infallible authority to justifie what she can∣not defend by God's Word.

There are but two things wherein they possibly can object to us any hazard or danger that we incur. One is, That, if the Church be not acknowledged Infallible, and all obliged to an Absolute submission, a way is open for men, under this pretence, to cast off her Authority and set up Religions according to their own fancies. This I have shewn we labour to prevent so far as the Divine Providence has appointed means for its prevention, and we think it not safe to set up others of our own invention, which may be liable to equal or greater mischiefs another way. Nor that it is as certainly probable, on the other side, That, by advancing an absolute and unlimited Authority of the Church, our common Christianity may be destroyed by Decrees, that may be made, which may subvert the foundations of Faith, cannot be doubted; but must needs be evident to all that know it pos∣sible for men to be led by their own Interests or Opinions, and have also actually seen by what interests late Councils have been managed and swayed in their Determinations, whereby

men of good intentions have not been able to bring to pass what they intended and endeavoured for the good of Christianity, being overruled by a greater number of men prejudiced and less considerate, which has been confess'd even by sincere men of the Roman Communion.

If they tell us, That, according to our Principles, the Churches Authority is insignificant, it being in every man's power to reject it, so that it is a very unsufficient means for Peace, such as be∣came not the Divine Wisdom to constitute, because not certain to take effect: Not to repeat what is said before, Section 19. but only to shew them how unreasonable it is that they should re∣quire us to shew the Reasons of the Divine Providence in its Constitutions that are evident to us, when the Reasons of them are not. Let them resolve us, if the Scriptures be not our Rule of Faith and Manners, or if we cannot understand the sense of them without the Churches Authority, why they were writ∣ten, or if the Churches Authority be absolute and unlimited, why it had not been plainly and expresly told us by God, that we must submit our selves in all things to this Authority; or why we are bidden to search the Scriptures, why God should have suffered the Scriptures to be written, when he could not but foresee that the pretence of the Churches Authority, clashing with that of the Scriptures, is that which has and will disturb our Peace.

If they tell us of the many Heresies, Schisms and Divisions that are seen to have faln out by mens expounding the Scripture for themselves: They will give us leave, I hope, to tell them of the Idolatries, Superstitions, and other Irreligious Customs and Practices, which we see to have fallen out through their exalting the Churches Decrees to the prejudice of Christianity. And further, that as to those Heresies and Divisions which we see and lament among our selves, we are beholden to the Church of Rome and her Emissaries in great part for them, who have en∣deavoured to ruin our common Christianity by another extream, only because we would not yield to those things which they have first done to the prejudice of it. Besides, I am apt to think, that even such will have a great Plea at the day of Judgment from the rigorousness of the Church of Rome extending the Churches Authority beyond all bounds that our common Chri∣stianity will allow, and necessitating well-disposed Christians to refuse submission to it: whereby it becoming visible, that Chri∣stianity is not in all things maintained by the Church necessarily, and it not being evidently visible to common sense, what bounds

being kept, her Authority does by God's Law claim submission, they have presumed upon their own understandings for the sense of the Scriptures, and framed their Religion according to them. This I only urge, that they may look about them, lest they become guilty of the many souls that may miscarry in both ex∣treams, whilst they have rendred the means of salvation diffi∣cult among themselves, and have, by pretending to justifie that, occasioned others to oversee the due means they should betake themselves to, and run as dangerous a way in the other extream.

So then we are altogether as safe, yea, much more secure than the Church of Rome, for we take that way to confute Heresies and to preserve the purity of Faith, which the Divine Providence has appointed, appealing to the Scriptures, and using the best means for the understanding them, and declaring the Authority of the Church acting within the limits set her by God's Word, and for the maintenance of that Christianity she is established to preserve. They on the contrary pretending to maintain their Church in what she has decreed to the prejudice of Christianity, seek to establish a Power that has already prejudiced even in the foundations of Faith, and may in probability utterly subvert our Christianity, and have thereby given occasion to others to place their Reformation of the Church in the utter renouncing her Au∣thority. Nor are they ever the nearer putting an end to Heresies hereby, for all their pretences to Infallibility will never end the differences of those that disown it; and yet it's apparent, that in the mean time they prejudice our common Christianity by those Laws which make the means of salvation very difficult, if not al∣together ineffectual by denying, hitherto, those helps to salvation, which those Laws intercept.

The other danger which they pretend we run, is that of Schism, a great crime questionless, and that which all Christians ought not only to lament but seek to remedy, and if it be possible, and as much as in them lies, to follow after Peace which by so many obligations the Christian Church is bound to preserve. But we know that both Parties are liable to be charged with the breach, till it appear which is guilty, and the guilt of it will certainly fall on those who have made the separation necessary; so that if a Church requires such conditions of Communion, which are in∣consistent with Christianity, and subvert the Faith it ought to pre∣serve, they certainly are to be charged with the Crime, who will not suffer us to hold our Christianity, together with the Churches Communion. Besides there is nothing of this Charge can lye

against the Church of England, 'till they prove her either to have rejected any Authority to which she was legally subject, or to have departed from the Faith by her Reformation. But the Church of Rome, if she pleases to reform herself, need not fear this Crime, she may remove those Laws that prejudice the salvation of the Members of her Communion, establish those for herself that tend to the exceeding benefit of Christianity as well as the Peace of Christ's Church, and thereby provide for the Purity of Faith and Unity of the Church withal. And I see no reason why the Church of England (being a part of the Church Catholick, but no way subject to the Church of Rome) may not adventure to desire them to consider the things that belong to their own Salvation as well as the Peace of Christ's Church, and how much they are concern∣ed and obliged by all the commands and bonds of Unity that are obligatory upon Christians, as to lay aside their claim to an Au∣thority over all the Churches of Christ, which is not given them of God, and which they chiefly challenge to maintain what they cannot otherwise defend, so especially to reform all those Cu∣stoms, Laws and Practices that have been experienced prejudici∣al to the Faith, and establish such as may advance and promote it, since by doing this which is otherwise their duty, they may pro∣cure that, which themselves pretend so earnestly to seek, and which we acknowledg and pray for as the greatest blessing next to Puri∣ty of Faith, the Peace and Union of the Church of Christ.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Bellar. de Ju∣stif. l. 5. c. 7.
• * 1.2

  Concil. Trid. Sèss. 13. cap. 8
• a 1.3

  Bellarm. l. 4 de Verbo Dei, c. 11.
• b 1.4

  Greg. Pa∣triarch Alexan.
• c 1.5

  Bellarm. de Imag. l. 2. c. 9.
• d 1.6

  Bellar. de Sanct. Beat. l. 1. c. 8.
• e 1.7

  Bell. lib. 2. de Purgat. c. 1.
• f 1.8

  Bell. l. 2. de Indu. c. 17.
• g 1.9

  Aquin. par. 3. quaest. 83. art. 1.