A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux wherein the principles of the Roman church, as to moderation, unity and truth are examined and sundry important controversies concerning the rule of faith, papal supremacy, the mass, images, &c. discussed / by John Owen.

CHAP. V.

Other Principles of Fiat Lux re-examined. Things not at quiet in Religion, before Reformation of the first Reformers▪ Diparture from Rome no Cause of Devisions. Returnal unto Rome, no means of Union.

YOu proceed unto the fourth Assertion gathered out of your Fiat, which you thus lay down. It is, say you, frequently pleaded by our Author that all things, as to Religion, were ever quiet and in 〈◊〉〈◊〉, before the Protestants Relinquishment of the Roman Sea. That ever is your own addition, but let it pass; what say you hereunto? This Principle you pretind is drawn out of Fiat Lux, not because it is there, but only to open a door to your self to exspatiate into some wide generall discourse, about the many wars, distra∣ctions, alterations, that have been aforetime up and down in the world in some severall Ages of Christiani∣ty. And you thereforê say, it is frequently pleaded by me, because indeed, I never spake one word of it, and it is in truth a false and fond Assertion. Though nei∣ther you nor I can deny that such as keep unity of faith with the Church, can never, so long as they hold it, fall out upon that account. S^r, I take you to be the Author of Fiat Lux; and if you are so, I cannot but think you were a sleep when you talk'd at this rate. The Assertion is false and fond, you speak not one word of it. Pray S^r, take a little advice of your Son, Fiat, not to talk on this manner; and you will wonder your self, how you came to swallow so much confi∣dence as in the face of the world to vent such things

as these. He tells us from you, p. 234, 235, 236. Chap 4. Ed. 2. that, After the conversion of this Land by the Children of blessed S^t Benet, notwithstanding the interposition of the Norman Conquest, that all men lived peaceably together without any the least distur∣bance upon the account of Religion, untill the end of King Henry the eighth's raign, about five hundred years after the Conquest. See also what in generall you discourse of all places to this purpose, p. 221, 222, And p. 227. you do in express terms lay down the position which here you so exclaim against as false and fond; but you may make as bold with it as you please, for it is your own. Never had this Land, say you, for so many hundred years as it was Catholick upon the account of Religion any disturbance at all; whereas after the exile of the Catholick belief in our Land from the period of King Henry the seventh's Raign to these dayes, we have been in actuall disquiet or at least in fears. Estne haec tunica filii tui? Are not these your words? Doth not your Son Fiat wear this livery? And do you not speak to this purpose in twenty other places? Is it not one of the main sup∣positions you proceed upon in your whole discourse? You do well now indeed to acknowledg that what you spake was fond and false, and you might do as much for the most that you have written in that whole discourse; but now openly to deny what you have asserted, and that in so many places, that is not so well done of you. There are S^t, many wayes to free your self from that dammage you feel or fear from the Animadversions. When any thing is char∣ged on you, or proved against you which you are not able to defend; you may ingenuously acknowledg your mistake, and that without any dishonour to you at all: Good men have done so; so may you, or I,

when we have just occasion. It is none of your Tenents, that you are all of you Infallible, or that your per∣sonall mistakes or miscarriages will prejudice your Cause. Or you might pass it by, in silence, as you have done with the things of the most importance in the Animadversions, and so keep up your reputation that you could Reply to them if you would, or were free from flyes. And we know 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Menander speaks. Silence is with many the best Answer. Or, you might attempt to disprove or answer, as the case requires. But this, that you have fixed upon, of denying your own words, is the very worst course that you could have chosen, upon the account either of Conscience or Reputation. However thus much we have obtained; One of the chief pretences of your Fiat is by your own confes∣sion, false and fond. It is indeed no wonder that it should be so, it was fully proved to be so, in the Ani∣madversions; but that you should acknowl••dge it to be so, is somewhat strange; and it would have been very welcome news, had you plainly owned your con∣viction of it, and not renounced your own off-spring. But I see you have a mind to the benefit you aymed at by it, though you are ashamed of the way you used for the obtaining of it; and therefore adde; That neither you, nor I, can deny that such as keep the unity of faith with that Church, can never, so long as they hold it, fall out on that account. But this, on the first consideration, seems to mee no very singular Privi∣ledge; me-thinks a Turk, a few, an Arian, may say the same of their Societies: It being no more but this. So long as you agree with us, you shall be sure to agree with us. They must be very unfriendly minded to∣wards you, that will call these 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 into que∣stion. Yet there remains still one Scruple on my

mind, in reference unto what you assert. I am not sa∣tisfied that there is in your Church, any such unity of faith, as can keep men from falling out, or differing in and about the Doctrines and Opinions they profess. If there be, the children of your Church are mar∣vellous morose, that they have not all this while learn∣ed to be quiet; but are at this very day writing vo∣lumes against one another, and procuring the Books of one another to be prohibited and condemned, which the writings of one of the learnedest of you in this Nation, have fately not escaped. I know you will say sometimes, that though you differ, yet you differ not in things belonging unto the unity of faith. But I fear, this is but a Blind, an Apron of Fig-leaves. What you cannot agree in, be it of never so great im∣portance, you will agree to say, that it belongs not unto the unity of faith; when things no way to be compared in weight and use with them, so you agree about them, shall be asserted so to do. And in what you differ, whilest the scales of Interest on the part of the combatanfs hang eeven, all your differences are but in School and disputable points. But if one party prevail in Interest and Reputation, and render their Antagonists inconsiderable as to any outward trou∣ble, those very Points that before were disputable, shall be made necessary, and to belong to the Vnity of Faith; as it lately happened in the Case of the Jan∣senists. And here you are safe again; The Unity of the Faith is that which you agree in; and that which you cannot agree about belongs not unto it, as you tell us, though you talk at another rate among your selves. But wee must think, that the Unity of Faith is bounded by the confines of your wranglements; and your agreement is the Rule of it. This, it may be, you think suits your turn: but whether it be so well suit∣ed

unto the Interest of the Gospell and of Truth, you must give men leave to enquire, or they will do it ingrati, whether you will or no. But if by the Uni∣ty of Faith you intend the substantiall Doctrines of the Gospell, proposed in the Scripture to be believed on necessity unto Salvation; it is unquestionably among all the Churches in the world, and might possibly be brought forth into some tolerable communion in Pro∣fession and Practice, did not your Schismaticall Interest and Principles interpose themselves to the contrary.

The fifth Supposition in your Fiat, observed in the Animadversions, is, That the first Reformers were most of them contemptible Persons, their Means indirect, and their Ends sinister: To which you reply, Where is it S^t, where is it, that I meddle with any mens per∣sons, or say they are contemptible? what and how ma∣ny are those Persons, and where did they live? But this you adde of your own is in a vast universall notion, to the end you may bring in the Apostles and Prophets, and some Kings into the list of Persons by mesur named contemptible; and liken my speech who never spake any such thing, to the Sarcasms of Celsus, Lucian, Por∣phyry, Julian, and other Pagans. So you begin; but ne savi, magne Sacerdos! Have a little patience and I will direct you to the places where you display in ma∣ny words that which in a few I represented. They are in your Fiat, Chap. 4. §. 18. 2. edit. from pag. 239, unto §. 20. p. 251. Had you lost your Fiat, that you make such an outcry after that which in a moment he could have supplyed you withall? Calvin, and a Taylors Widdow, Luther and Catherine Bore, pleased with a naked Vnicorn, swarms of Reformers as thick as Grashoppers, fallen Priests and Votaries, am∣bitious heads, emulating one another, if not the worst,

yet none of the best that ever were, so eagerly quarrel∣ling among themselves, that a sober man would not have patience to hear their Sermons, or read their Books; with much more to the same purpose you will find in the places, which I have now directed you unto. But I see you love to say what you please, but not to hear of it again. But he that can in no more words more truely express the full and genuine sense of your eighteenth and nineteenth Chapter than I have done, in the Assertion you so cry out against, shall have my thanks for his pains; Only I must mind you that you have perverted it, in placing the last words, as if they referred unto the Reformers you talk of, that they did their work for sinister Ends, when I only said, that their Doctrine according to their Insinuations was received for sinister Ends, wherein I comprized your foul reflections upon King Henry the Eighth and Queen Elizabeth his Daughter, not placing them as you now faign among the number of them, whom I affirmed to be reported by you as a company of Contemptible Persons. But now upon a confidence that you have shifted your hands of a necessity to re-inforce this Assertion, which you find, it may be, in your self an incompetency for, you reflect back upon some former passages in the Animadversions, where∣in the generall Objections that you lay against Prote∣stancy, are observed to be the same for substance that long ago were by Celsus objected unto Christi∣anity: And say; So likewise in the very beginning of this your second Chapter you spend four leaves, in a parallel betwixt mee and the Pagan Celsus, where of there is not any member of it true. Doth Fiat Lux say, you lay the cause of all the troubles, disorders, tumults, warres within the Nations of Europe upon Prote∣stants? doth he charge the Protestants that by their

schisms and seditions, they make a way for other re∣volts? doth he gather a Rhapsody of insignificant words? doth he insist upon their divisions? doth he mannage the Arguments of the jews against Christ, &c? so doth Celsus who is confuted by Origen. Where does Fiat Lux, where does, does he, does he, any such thing? Are you not ashamed to talk at this rate. I give a hint indeed of the Divisions that be amongst us, and the frequent argumentations that are made to embroyl and pusle one another; with our much evil and little ap∣pearance of any good in order unto unity and peace, which is the end of my discourse. But must I therefore be Celsus? Did Celsus any such thing to such an end? It is the end that moralizeth and specifies the action. To diminish Christianity by upbraiding our frailties is paganish: to exhort to unity, by representing the incon∣venience of faction, is a Christian and pious work When honest Protestants in the Pulpit speak ten times more full and vehemently against the divisions, warres, and contentions that be amongst us, than ever came into my thoughts, must they therefore every one of them be a Celsus, a Pagan Celsus? What stuff is this? But it is not only my defamation you aym at; your own glory comes in the reer. If I be Celsus, the Pagan Celsus; you then, forsooth, must be Origen that wrote against him, honest Origen; that is the thing. Pray S^t, it is but a word, let me advise you by the way, that you do not forget your self in your heat, and give your Wife occa∣sion to fall out with you. However you may, yet will not your Wife like it perhaps so well, that her Husband should be Origen. Such trash as this, must he consi∣der, who is forced to have to do with you. These, it seems, are the meditations you are conversant with in your retirements. What little regard you have in them unto Truth or honesty, shall quickly be disco∣vered

unto you. 1. Do I compare you with Celsus, or do I make you to be Celsus? I had certainly been very much mistaken, if I had done so, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to compare a Person of so small abilities in literature, as you discover your self so to be, with so learned a Philosopher, had been a great Mistake. And I wish you give me not occasion to think you as much Infe∣riour unto him in morals, as I know you are in your intellectuals. But, S^r, I no where compare you unto him; but only shew a co-incidence of your objections against Protestancy, with some of his against Chri∣stianity, which the likeness of your Cause and inte∣rest cast you upon. 2. I did not say, You had the same end with him: I expressed my thoughts to the con∣trary; nor did compare your act and his, in point of Morality; but only shewed, as I said before, a Co-incidence in your Reasonings. This you saw and read, and now in an open defiance of Truth and Ingenuity express the contrary. Celsus would not have done so. But I must tell you S^r, you are mistaken, if you suppose that the end doth so absolutely moralize an action, that it of its self, should render it good or evil. Evil it may, but good of its self it cannot. For, Bonum ori∣tur ex integris causis, malum ex quolibet defectu. Recti∣fying the intention will not secure your morality. And yet also, on second thoughts, that I see not much difference between the ends that Celsus proposed un∣to himself upon his generall Principle, and those that you propose to your self upon your own; as well as the way whereby you proceed is the same. But yet upon the accounts before mentioned, I shall free you from your fears of being thought like him. 3. When Protestants preach against our Divisions, they charge them upon the Persons of them that are guilty; whereas you do it, on the Principles of the Religion

that they profess; so that although you may deal like Celsus, they do not. 4. The scurrilous Sarcasm wherewith you close your Discourse, is not meet for any thing but the entertainment of a Friar and his Concubine, such as in some places formerly men have by publick Edicts forced you to maintain, as the on∣ly Expedient to preserve their families from being de∣filed by you. 5. Let us now pass through the Instan∣ces that you have culled out of many, charged upon you, to be the same with those of Celsus, concerning which you make such a trebled Outcry, does he, does he, does he. The first is, Doth Fiat Lux lay the cause of all Tumults and Disorders on Protestants: clames licet & mare coelo confundas, Fiat Lux doth so, chap. 4. §. 17. p. 237. §. 18. p. 242, 243. §. 20. p. 255. and in sundry other places. You adde; Doth he charge Pro∣testants that by their schisms and seditions they make way for other revolts? He doth so, and that frequent∣ly, chap. 3. §. 14. p. 187, &c. Doth he, you adde, ga∣ther a Rhapsody of insignificant words, as did Celsus. I say he doth, in the pretended plea that he insists on for Quakers and for Presbyterians also, chap. 3. §. 13. p. 172, 173, &c. Again; Doth he manage the Argu∣ments of the Jews against Christianity as was done by Celsus? He doth, directly, expresly, and at large, chap. 3. §. 12. p. 158. &c. I confess, because it may be you know it not, you might have questioned the truth of my parallel on the side that concerned Celsus, which yet I am ready at any time if you shall so do, to give you satisfaction in; but, that you would question it on your own part, when your whole discourse and the most of the passages in it, make it so evident, I could not foresee. But your whole Defence is nothing but a noise or an outery, to deter men from coming nigh you to see how the Case stands with you. It will not

serve your turn, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, you must abide by what you have done, or fairly retract it. In the mean time, I am glad to find you ashamed of that which elswhere you so much boast and glory in.

With the sixth and seventh Principles mentioned by me, you deal in like manner. You deny them to be yours; which is plainly to deny your self to be the Author of Fiat Lux. And surely every man that hath once looked seriously into that Discourse of yours, will be amazed to hear you saying that you never asserted, Our Departure from Rome to be the Cause of the Evils among Protestants; or that, There is no Remedy for them, but by a Returnal thither again, which are the things that now you deny to be spoken or intended by you. For my part, I am now so used unto this kind of Confidence, that nothing you say, or deny, seems strange unto me. And whereas unto your Denial you adde not any thing that may give occasion unto any usefull Discourse. I shall pass it by, and proceed unto that which will afford us some better advantage unto that purpose.