Charity mistaken, with the want whereof, Catholickes are vniustly charged for affirming, as they do with grief, that Protestancy vnrepented destroies salvation.

A recapitulatiō of the whole discourse, wher∣in it followes vpon the confession of both parties, that the Catholickes, and the Pro∣testants, are not both of them saueable in their seuerall Religions, without repen∣tance thereof before they dy; and that Ca∣tholickes must therefore be no longer held vncharitable for saying so: but those Pro∣testants are shewed to be Libertines, who say the contrary. CHAPTER X.

SInce the Faith, Religion, & Church, hath beene prooued both by Scri∣ptures and Fathers, as also by vnanswea∣rable reasons, which haue beene drawne both from the very groundes of true Faith, and from the nature and spirit of Heresy and Schisme, and finally by the Confession of both parties, to be but only one; and that out of that one, there is noe saluation to be obtayned: Since the difference concerning the Doctrine of faith betweene Catholickes & Pro∣testants, are so many, so important, and so resolutely maintained, cōcerning both the Canon of Scriptures, the number &

nature of Sacraments, the authority of traditions, the supreme Iudge of Cōtro∣uersies, the visible heade of the Church, the iustification of ouer soules, the va∣lewe of our good workes, the liberty of our will, the possibility of keeping the Commandements, the relations which runne betweene the men of this life on the one side, and both the soules in Pur∣gatory, and the Saints in Heauen on the other: Since, besides our differences in points of Doctrine, we swarue also from one an other in points of discipline, and haue separated our selues & haue mutual∣ly excōmunicated one another: Since we hold them to liue in heresie and schisme, and they vs in affected ignorance, grosse superstition and Idolatry, and are dayly making Sermons and bookes and edicts and lawes against one another: it is cer∣taine that either both they, and we must not be saued, if we dy vnrepētant of our seuerall Religions; or else that the whole world hath beene in a dreame of three thousand yeares old, euer since Moyses time, which furnished vs, with the first proofe that there must be vnity in Reli∣gion, and obedience in the professours thereof, & that such as should obstinate∣ly

trangresse, were ordained to be put to a first death, which might serue them for a Preface to their second destruction.

Which truth being once graunted, I trust they will not take it ill, at our hands, if we hope well of our selues in our owne way; and consequently if we conceaue that we haue no cause to hope well of them, if they dy impeditent in theirs, they haue no reason to be offēded with vs: and the lesse since the Lutherans declare so expresly and resolutely that the Resolution of the Sacramentaries, that is to say, of our English Protestants, is also damnable, as hath been seene. And this not only for the heresie which they hold in point of the Sacrament, but for many others also, as appeares by those authours of theirs, whom I cited before. So that still I see lesse and lesse colour, why they should except against vs, as if we wanted charity, for saying that of them, which when they list, they not only take liberty to say of vs, but euen of one another also; and yet do not thinke that they offend Charitie therein.

As for vs, we neither do, nor can with any reason conceaue, that they breake the lawe of charity towards vs

(supposing their owne Religion to be true) in that they allow not saluation to vs, if we dye in ours; which conse∣quently must be false. And if ours be a false Religion, (as it must needes be, if their Church be true, and that we obsti∣nately refuse to obay it) we cannot be saued by the profession thereof. And so therefore, on the other side, if ours be true (as euen they must giue vs leaue to thinke it, and as infallibly we belieue it to be) theirs must then be no lesse false, then ours is true. Now supposing this on both sides, it will not be want of Charity in either of vs, both to hold, and declare, the others Religion to be incō∣patible with saluation: nay it will be want of Charity if we do it not.

For men are not so made for them selues, as that they must not also procure to do their neighbours good, and espe∣cially in that, which most imports. And besides the generall tye of one part of mankind to another (whereof we are put in minde so many wayes) the holy Scripture it selfe is often pointing vs out to our duty in this kind; and most espe∣cially it doth in one passage of Ecclesia∣sticus lay a direct obligation vpon vs, in

these most binding words;* 1.1 Mandauit vni∣cuique Deus de proximo suo. God hath laied a charge vpon euery man, that he looke to his neighbour. Which as it warrants not the busie or medling humour of any priuate man, to intrude himselfe into the secret affaires of another, nor obliges him so much as euen to the reprooffe of his knowne sinnes, (when he hath nei∣ther charge ouer that person, nor hath hope of amendement by it, and when it is not agreable otherwise to the circum∣stāces and rules of charity, which ought to be conducted and carryed on by Chri∣stian prudence;) so yet on the otherside, it layes not only a Counselle, but a strict commandement, not only vpon some one, but vpon euery one; not to omit opportunity, whereby a man may pru∣dently be in hope, either to doe his neighbour any important good, or else to diuert him from any thing, which may doe him any considerable hurt.

Now if a priuate man must not only be excused, if according to the rules of Christian piety and prudence, he assist his neighbour in doing well, and decla∣ring the danger wherein he is, if he doe otherwise, but he shall not be excusable

in the sight of God, if he dischardge not this duty; how much more highly shall the Church of Christ our Lord be both authorized, and obliged to instruct Chri∣stians in the right way, and to reduce such others as are in the wrong, by mak∣ing them vnderstand their danger of e∣uerlasting damnation?

Nay we see by that which past be∣tweene Almighty God and the Prophet Ezechiel, that he was appointed to stand Centinell ouer the house of Israel, and to heare Gods word out of his owne mouth, and so to announce it to his peo∣ple in his name; and that God said thus to him, Si dicente me ad impium &c.* 1.2 If when I shall say to the wicked mā, thou shalt dye the death, thou declare it not to him, nor aduise him to returne from his wicked way, that he may liue; that wicked man shall dy in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy handes. But if thou anounce it to him, and that yet he will not returne from his sinne and from his wicked way, that man in∣deed shall dye in his owne sinne, but as for thee, thou shalt haue freed thy soule from death.

Now therefore if a single Prophet,

being called to that office by Almighty God, be obliged, vnder the paine of his owne damnation, to aduise men to de∣part from their wickednes; how much more precisely will this obligation lye vpon the Church of God, which hath the chardge ouer all Christian soules, to teach them that Doctrine which is true, and to let them see the danger wherein they are of hell fire, if they continue to professe that which is false? For the word of God, whether it be written in holy Scripture, or vnwritten and so deliuered from hand to hand by Tradition, is his reuealed will; and the Church is his Em∣basadour Leidger in this world, to de∣clare and announce that word and will of his to mankind; and to bring them into league with God, as S. Paule affir∣med of him selfe, and of the other Pa∣stours and Doctours of the Church;* 1.3 Le∣gatione pro Christo fungimur &c. We are Embassadours on the part of Christ, with instructions for the reconciling of man to God. And accordingly S. Paule was care∣full to let men see their case, and to de∣clare the danger wherein sinners were. For we haue seene how he warned men to take heede of the speech of hereticks

as of a Cancer; and else where, to auoid them if they did not first reforme them selues, after they had beene reprooued once or twice; as also that such as de∣parted from the vnity of faith were peo∣ple who attended to the spirit of Er∣rour, and to the Doctrine of diuells; and a great deale more of that kind, which you shall find related before in the ninth chapter: which clearly and fully shewes what opinion the holy Scripture hath of heretickes.

Besides all this if a man shall eter∣nally be damned for committing of one theft, or one act of simple fornication, vnles he repent himselfe thereof before he dy,* 1.4 which is cleare by S. Paules ex∣presse text: much more, as Father Lessius shewes, shall he incurre those eternall torments for heresie, which is a most grieuous kind of infidelity, and which in∣cludes in it selfe so many other most hor∣rible sinnes, as namely blasphemies, con∣tempt of Sacraments, scoffes and scornes, a prophanation of holy things, a hatred and persecution of true Religion, diso∣bedience to the Church and her Pre∣lates; sacriledge, pride, obstinacy, schisme and rebellion against the supreme Eccle∣siasticall

Magistrats. How great torment therefore, I say, shall any man eternally endure, for the sinne of Heresie, which is more grieuous then thousands of for∣nications and thefts?

It will not therefore serue a mans turne towards eternall life, if being out of the Communion of Gods Church, he carry himselfe otherwise as sweetly, as ciuilly as can be deuised; and that men praise him for a worthy person, an ho∣nest man, the best neighbour in a whole kingdome, one who owes no man a penny, one who is curteous to all the world, who neuer sweares an oath, nor giues offence to any, in any kind. These are all goods things, but these are not all those good things, which are required of him who will be saued. For whilest such an one is so kind and ciuill to man, he is both vnkind & cruell towards Al∣mighty God, if he be rebellious to that Church which was purchassed by the death of his only sonne. But it seemes we are still made of that mould, where∣of S. Hierom speaks after this manner, Nos in Dei iniurijs benigni sumus;* 1.5 in pro∣pri••s contumelijs odia exercemus. We are easy & remisse towards such as ar iniuriours

to God; but we are reuinge full, when there is question of righting those wronges which are done to our selues. But withall, he al∣leages the example of Hely in the booke of kings, against this ill custome, saying, Si peccauerit vir in virum,* 1.6 placari ei potest Deus: si autem in Deum quis peccauerit, quis orabit pro eo? If one man offend an other, God may yet be appeased towards him: but if any man sin against God, who shall pray for that man? A very different dictamen from that which raignes now in the world; where a man, who giues men no offence, shall be celebrated by men for a kind of Saint, though withall his whole life be consumed in sinning against God, by infidelity, by secret blasphemy, by heresie, and by all that pride and malig∣nity which it involues against God and his Church, together with contempt & scorne, as hath been sayd, of all those de∣uout Ceremonies, and almost all those holy Sacraments, which his diuine Ma∣iesty hath ordained for our eternal good, with so much cost to him selfe.

But Saints and men of God, who see with clearer eyes then others, make a contrary iudgment of these things: and so also are they very remisse, whē wrōge

is done but to themselues; but rigorous, when peruerse men will needs be put∣ting affronts vpon Almighty God. The Ecclesiasticall story is full of examples in this kind. See but how S. Iohn carryed himselfe towards Cerinthus, & Polycarpe to Marcion, and S. Antony to the Arrians; and a thousand others. And least it should be thought that Saints fall not foule, but only vpon such Hereticks as deny the very prime Articles of Christiā Religiō, which concerne either God the Father, or the immediat person of Christ our Lord himselfe: cast but an eye vpon S. Bernard, that milde & mercifull man of God, & see how he treates the hereticks of his time, who had too much affinity with those of ours, as you will perceaue by his censure of them; but yet it was for certaine points which seemed not to trench so deepe into the Christian Faith. But howsoeuer, he speakes of them in no gentler a still then this,* 1.7 Videte detra∣ctores, videte canes; irrident nos, quia bap∣tizamus infantes; quòd oramus pro mortuis; quòd Sanctorum suffragia postulamus. Be∣hold these detractours, beh••ld these dogs. they scoffe as vs, because we baptise infants; be∣cause we pray for the dead; and because we

beg the prayers of the Saincts. So that still we see into this truth, more and more. That how smooth soeuer the face, and how sweete soeuer the words, and how ciuill soeuer the cariage be; yet if here∣sie be in the heart, it is of all others the most odious and offensiue thing, both to Almighty God, and to all good men, who haue his honour in high account. Yea and euen how kind, and ciuill soe∣uer they seeme to their neighbours and friends in morall things, such especially as they see often, and salute, and con∣uerse with; yet you may obserue by that saying of S. Bernard, that they are cruell inough to such as they see not. And with all their ciuillity and curtesy and suauity in ordinary conuersation, they can find in their hereticall hearts, at a clap to rob all dead men, of the helpe & comfort of the prayers of the liuing; & al liuing mē, of the prayers of the Saints who are in heauē, & the same Saintes, of all the ho∣nour which Catholickes pay to thē here on earth; to omit in this place, their infi∣nite & innumerable detractiōs, & slaun∣ders, & reproaches of the whole Church of God. Al which I haue not sayd, either by way of aggrauating their sins, or of a∣lienating

men from their persons; which I esteeme, and loue, and desire to serue with my whole heart; but only, to the end that they may know their owne case, and consider well, what kind of thing heresie is, and how hatefull in it selfe to God, and man; that so, by the diuine goodnes, they may grow to change, both their names and natures; & passe from being enemies, to become children of that one true Church, out of which ther is no saluation.

In the meane time it is more them clear, that the chardge, which Prote∣stants lay vpon vs, as wanting Charity, for saying that their Religion vnrepented destroyes saluation; must needs be now transferred from vs, and imputed with as much reason to him, who hath layed (as hath been seene) an obligation euen vpon all Christians, and much more vpō the Church, and the Pastours thereof, to declare the daūgers which they incurre, who are departed from the Communion of the holy Catholicke Church. And as truly, yea & much more probablely, may they affirme, that the holy Fathers of the Primitiue Church wanted Charity, for the strictnes, which they vsed in condē∣ning

men to Hell, as heretickes, for their obstinancy in holding some one single Doctrine of it selfe, which yet was not somtimes so very importāt.* 1.8 That S. Paule wanted charity, when he excluded men from heauen for those sins of frailty, to which we are daily sollicited, euen by the very nature and condicion of our owne flesh and blood; and in particular also for dissentions and sects, which signify heresy in that place. That the holy Ghost wanted charity, being the hand which guided the Apostles finger, to write so seuerely as he did. That Christ our Lord wāted Charity, in cōmaunding that mē should be held for no better then Pagans,* 1.9 and Publicans, if in any thing of scandall, and much more of doctrine concerning faith they disobeyed the Church: for his precept of obedience was indefinite, and there∣fore our obedience must not be limited, only to this, or that. That God the Fa∣ther himselfe wanted Charity, who sent Chore, Dathan, and Abiron aliue,* 1.10 and headlong into hell, for a meer act of schisme, and commanded that whosoe∣uer would not obey the sentence of the Priest for the time being, should, with∣out any other remedy, be put to death.

And lastly that Luther himselfe, and his most learned Disciples wanted Charity, not only for defaming the Church of Rome, as the seate of Antichrist, the whore of Babylon, and the Beast of the Apocalips, which printes the marke of damnation vpon the foreheads of her Children; but for condemning also all Caluinists, for their heresie, concerning the blessed Sacrament, besides many o∣thers, which are both imputed and proo∣ued vpon them, by the Lutherans.

As for Luther and his Disciples, it costs me little to lay them a side, as not importing much what they say, saue that their authority is argumentum ad hominē, against al such Protestāt Libertins, of this nation, as so vniustly chardge vs with want of Charity towards them, for say∣ing that if they dye in Protestancy, they cannot be saued. But that which I haue shewed à parte rei; namely that the Fa∣thers of the Primitiue Church, that the blessed Apostle S. Paule, nay that God the Father, the Sonne, & the holy Ghost haue both practised, and imposed vpon all Christians, and especially vpon the Church and Church-men to declare the danger wherein sinners are to loose their

soules, by cōtinuing in sinne; must needes suffice to exempt vs in the iudgment of any indifferent morall man, from offen∣ding against Charity for doing the like.

It is not therefore want of Charity in vs, to affirme the danger of their state, who are in errour, out of a most Chri∣stian desire to see them deliuered from the same: but it is too euident, that their mislike of vs, vpon this occasion, pro∣ceedes in them out of Libertinisme and their too great good fellowship in mat∣ters of the soule, and out of the meane conceit, which they haue framed in their mindes, of the vnity of Faith, and of Cō∣munion both in Doctrine and discipline with the Catholicke Church, and of the entirenes of the infallible truth, and the vnspotted seruice of Almighty God.

And what indeed doe they, but shew by their whole course, that they desire and resolue, to belieue, and professe ac∣cording to the occasion; and to comply with the superiour powers of this world; and to obay the motions of appetite and sense, without being euer so much as tould, if they can choose, that they must loose heauen for their labour? Where∣by it may be seene, that the children, are

in this, as like their Mother as they can looke. For who perceaues not, that the Protestant Church, doth rather carry a respect to outward Conformity, then to reall vnity in matter of Religion; & that indeed, they are but as in iest, when there is speech of sauing soules in any one Church, rather then in another.

It is true that they make both lawes and Canons, whereby they oblidge me, vnder a world of penalties, to frequent their Churches, and to receaue their Sa∣craments; but without caring greately, whether men belieue their Doctrine to be true or no. For I put this case. If a mā who were knowne to be wholly af∣fected in his heart to the Catholicke Faith, should yet, for the sauing of his lands or goods, resolue to comply with their lawes by going to their Churches, and by receauing their Communion; yea and withall should declare in company the day before, that he was resolued to do so the day after, for the only sauing of his estate, and for the shewing of his obedience to the Kings lawes; though yet withall, he were persuaded that their Sacraments were vnlawfull, and their Church impure: would that Minister,

refuse to let him goe to his Seruice, and or to communicate with the rest? Infal∣libly he would not; and we see dayly that they doe not in like occasions. For that Church, as I sayd, aspires not to Vnity, but Vniformity.

But the proceeding of the Catho∣licke Church is very different, and hath that diuine truth, which was commit∣ted by our Lord to her care, in so high account, that if she haue but iust cause to suspect, that any man belieues not in his hart, as she teaches; she is so farre from obliging him vnder pecuniary mulcts, to repaier to her seruice and Sacraments, that she will by no meanes, admit him thereunto, till he haue first cleare him∣selfe of that suspicion, and sufficienly shewed himselfe free, from any such want of beliefe. Thus doth the Catho∣licke Church of this age proceed, and thus also did the same Church proceede in the most Primitiue times: In so much as that then there were, and now there ar, certaine mē deputed, belōging to par∣ticular Churches, who were called Os∣tiarij. Whose duty was and is, to attend within at the Church doores, of purpose to hinder their being present at the cele∣brating

of diuine Mysteries, whom they may know to be obstinately auerst, either from belieuing any part of the Doctrine, or from liuing vnder the discipline, of the Catholicke Church.

This Church, which is enriched and endowed with the holy Ghost, and consequently with spirituall Fortitude, which is one of the seauen prime gifts thereof, proceeds like a body, which knowes it selfe to belong to an omnipo∣tent head; and feares not to avowe, both what it saith, and what it doth. And as, on the one side, she expresses all the sua∣uity which can be conceaued, and is most ready to wrap vp the most enor∣mous sinners of the world, and the most mortall enemyes which she hath, in the very bowells of her compassion, if they will come to God in the way of pen∣nance; so yet withall, on the other side, if men will presume to be soe vastly proud, as to preferre their owne fancies before her wisedome, which was sent downe from Heauen for, the direction of the world; and if, notwithstāding her most charitable endeauours to reduce them, they will yet add contempt and obstinacy to their other sinnes, she threa∣tens

them with the danger wherein they are; and she goes on so farre, if she finde cause, as to separate them, in the quality of heretickes, from her Cōmu∣nion; and proceeds not against them as a∣gainst Traitours to Princes, or states, ac∣cording to that poore shifte of Protestāts (whose guylty Consciences make them not dare, though their hearts be well bent that way) to punish our Priests ca∣pitally, as for a corrupt Religion; but they set vpon them impudent and false pretext of Treason. For as the Catho∣licke Church is most perfectly charita∣ble, so withall she thinkes she cannot expresse that vertue better, then by clea∣rely distinguishing betweene truth and false hood, and by exhorting men to im∣brace the one, and to auoid the other; so farre off is she from demeriting, by let∣ting Protestants knowe that if they dye impenitent in that Religion, they loose their soules.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Cap. 17.
• * 1.2

  Ezechiel cap. 3.
• * 1.3

  2. Cor. 5
• * 1.4

  Gal. 5. Cōsulta. decapes. relig.
• * 1.5

  In c. 16. Matt.
• * 1.6

  1 Reg. 2.
• * 1.7

  Serm. in Cantic. 66.
• * 1.8

  Gal. 5.
• * 1.9

  Matt. 16.
• * 1.10

  Numb. 16.