An answer to Monsieur de la Militiere his impertinent dedication of his imaginary triumph,: to the king of Great Britain to invite him to embrace the Roman Catholick religion. / By John Bramhall D.D. and Lord Bishop of London-Derry.

A second difference flow∣ing from Transubstantiation is about the Adoration of the Sacrament; One of those im∣pediments which hinder our Communication with you in the Celebration of divine Of∣fices: We deny not a vene∣rable respect unto the Con∣secrate Elements, not only as love-tokens sent us by our best friend, but as the In∣struments ordeined by our Saviour to convey to us the merits of his Passion: But for the person of Christ (God forbid) that we should deny him divine worship at any time, and especially in the use of this holy Sacrament, we beleeve with St. Austine that No man eats of that flesh, but first he adores. But

that which offends us is this, That you teach and require all men to adore the very Sa∣crament with divine Honour. To this end you hold it out to the people. To this end Corpus Christi day was in∣stituted about 300. years since. Yet we know that even up∣on your own grounds, you cannot without a particular Revelation, have any infal∣lible assurance that any Host is consecrated; And conse∣quently you have no assu∣rance that you do not com∣mit materiall Idolatry.

But that which weighs most with us is this, That we dare not give divine wor∣ship unto any creature, (no not to the very Humanity of Christ in the Abstract, much

less to the Host) but to the whole person of Christ God and man, by reason of the Hypostaticall union between the Child of the blessed Vir∣gin Mary, and the eternall Son, who is God over all bles∣sed for ever. Shew us such an union betwixt the Deity and the Elements, or accidents, and you say something. But you pretend no such things, The highest that you dare go is this, As they that adored Christ when hee was upon Earth did [after a certain kind of manner,] adore his Garments. Is this all? This is after a certain kind of man∣ner indeed. We have enough. There is no more Adoration due to the Sacrament, than to the Garments which

Christ did wear upon Earth. Exact no more.

Thus the seamless Coat of Christ is torn into pieces; Thus faith is minced into shreds, and spun up into ni∣cities, more subtil than the Webs of Spiders,

Fidem minutis diffecant ambagibus Ut quisque est lingua nequior.

Because curious wits can∣not content themselves to touch hot coals with tongs, but they must take them up with their naked fingers, nor to apprehend mysteries of Religion by faith, without descanting upon them, and determining them by reason, whilst themselves confess that they are incomprehensible by humane reason, and imper∣ceptible

by mans imagination; How Christ is present in the Sacrament can neither be perceived by sense, nor by i∣magination. The more in∣excusable is their presumpti∣on to anatomise mysteries, and to determine super∣naturall not revealed truths, upon their own heads, which if they were revealed were not possible to be compre∣hended by mortall man; As vain an attempt, as if a Child should think to lade out all the water of the Sea with a Cockleshell. Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but things revealed unto us, and our Children for ever.

This is the reason why we rest in the words of Christ, This is my Body, leaving the

manner to him that made the Sacrament; we know it is Sacramentall and therefore efficacious, because God was never wanting to his own Ordinances, where man did not set a bar against him∣self. But to determine whe∣ther it be corporeally or spiri∣tually, (I mean not only after the manner of a spirit, but in a spirituall sense,) whether it be in the Soul only, or in the Host also; And if in the Host, whether by Consubstantiation or Transubstantiation, whether by Production or Adduction, or Conservation or Assump∣tion, or by whatsoever other way bold and blind man dare conjecture, we deter∣mine not.

Motum sentimus, modum nescimus, praesentiam credimus.

This was the belief of the Primitive Church, this was the Faith of the antient Fathers, who were never ac∣quainted with these modern questions de modo, which e∣difie not, but expose Chri∣stian Religion to contempt. We know what to think, and what to say with pro∣bability, modesty, and sub∣mission in the Schools; But we dare neither scrue up the Question to such an height, nor dictate our Opinions to others so Magisterially as Ar∣ticles of Faith.

Nescire velle quae Magi∣ster maximus

Docere non vult, erudita est inscitia.

O! how happy had the Christian world been, if Scholars could have sate down contented with a la∣titude of Generall, sufficient, saving Truth, (which when all is done must be the Olive branch of peace, to shew that the deluge of Ecclesiasticall division is abated,) without wading too far into particu∣lar subtilties, or doting about Questions and Logomac••ies, whereof commeth envy, strife, raylings, evill surmisings, per∣verse disputings. Old contro∣versies evermore raise up new controversies, and yet more controversies, as Circles in the water do produce other Circles.

Now especially these Scho∣lasticall quarrels seem to be

unseasonable, when Zenos School is newly opened in the world, who sometimes wanted opinions, but never wanted Arguments; Now when Atheism and sacrilege are become the mode of the times; Now when all the fundamentals of Theology, Morality, and Policy, are undermined and ready to be blown up; Now when the unhappy contentions of great Princes, or their Ministers, have hazarded the very be∣ing of Monarchy and Chri∣stianity; Now when Bello∣nia shakes her bloody whip over this Kingdom, it be∣cometh well all good Chri∣stians, and subjects, to leave their litigious questions, and to bring water to quench the

fire of civil dissention alrea∣dy kindled, rather than to blow the Coals of discord, and to render themselves cen∣surable by all discreet per∣sons, like that half-wirted fellow personated in the O∣rator, Qui cum Capit is mede∣ri debuisset reduviem cura∣vit; when his head was ex∣tremely distempered, he bu∣sied himself about a small push on his fingers end.

But that which createth this trouble to you and me at this time, is your Preface, and Epistle Dedicatory; wherein to adorn your vain∣ly imagined Victory in an un∣seasonable Controversie, you rest not contented, that your Adversary grace your Tri∣umph, unless the King of

great Britain, and all his subjects, yea and all Prote∣stants besides attend your Chariot. Neither do you on∣ly desire this, but augurate it, or rather you relate it as a thing already as good as don: for you tell him, that his eyes and his ears do hear and see those truths, which make him to know the faults of that new Religion which he had sucked in with his milk; you set forth the causes of his Conversion, The tears of his Mother, and the Blood of his Father, whom you suppose (against evident truth) to have dyed an invisible Mem∣ber of your Roman Catho∣lick Church. And you pre∣scribe the means to perfect his Conversion, which must

be a conference of your Theo∣logians with the Ministers of Charentou.

If your charity be not to be blamed, to wish no worse to another than you do to your self, yet prudent men de∣sire more discretion in you, than to have presented such a Treatise to the view of the world under his Majesties protection, without his licence and against his conscience: Had you not heard that such groundless insinuations as these and other private whis∣perings concerning his Fa∣thers Apostatising to the Roman Religion did lose him the hearts of many sub∣jects? If you did, why would you insist in the same steps, to deprive the Son of

all possibility of recovering them?

If your intentions be only to invite his Majesty to em∣brace the Catholick Faith, you might have spared both your Oyl and labour. The Catholick Faith flourished 1200. years in the world, before Transubstantiation was defined among your selves. Persons better acquainted with the Primitive times than your self (unless you wrong one another) do acknow∣ledge that the Fathers did not touch either the word or the matter of transubstantia∣tion. Mark it well, neither name nor thing. His Maje∣sty doth firmly beleeve all supernaturall truths revea∣led in sacred Writ. He em∣braceth

cheerfully whatso∣ever the holy Apostles, or the Nicene Fathers, or bles∣sed Athanasius, in their res∣pective Creeds or Summaries of Catholick Faith did set down as necessary to be be∣lieved. He is ready to re∣ceive whatsoever the Catho∣lick Church of this age doth unanimously believe to be a particle of saving Truth.

But if you seek to obtrude upon him the Roman Church, with its adherents, for the Catholick Church, excluding three parts of four of the Christian world from the Communion of Christ, or the opinions thereof for Articles and fundamentals of Catho∣lick Faith, neither his rea∣son, nor his Religion, nor his

charity will suffer him to li∣sten unto you. The Truths received by our Church are sufficient in point of Faith to make him a good Catho∣lick. More than this your Roman Bishops, your Roman Church, your Tridentine Councill, may not, cannot obtrude upon him. Listen to the third generall Councill, that of Ephesus, which de∣creed, that it should be lawfull for no man to publish or com∣pose another Faith or Creed than that which was defined by the Nicene Councill, And that whosoever should dare to compose or offer any such to any persons willing to be con∣verted from Paganism, Ju∣daism, or Heresy, if they were Bishops or Clerks should be

deposed, if Laymen anathema∣tized.

Suffer us to enjoy the same Creed the Primitive Fathers did, which none will say to have been insufficient except they be mad, as was alleged by the Greeks in the Coun∣cill of Florence. You have violated this Canon, you have obtruded a new Creed upon Christendom. New I say, not in words only; but in sense also.

Somethings are de Symbolo, somethings are contra symbo∣lum, and somethings are only praeter symbolum. Somethings are conteined in the Creed, either expresly or virtually, either in the Letter or in the sense, and may be deduced by evident consequence from

the Creed, as the Deity of Christ, his two natures, the procession of the Holy Ghost. The addition of these was properly no addition, but an explication. Yet such an ex∣plication, no person, no As∣sembly under an Oecumeni∣call Councill, can impose upon the Catholick Church. And such an one your Tri∣dentine Synod was not.

Secondly, somethings are contra symbolum, contrary to the symbolicall Faith, and either expresly or virtually overthrow some Article of it. These additions are not on∣ly unlawfull, but hereticall also in themselves, and after conviction render a man a for∣mal Heretick; whether some of your additions be not of this

nature, I will not now dis∣pute.

Thirdly, somethings are nei∣ther of the Faith, nor against the Faith, but only besides the Faith; That is, opinions or truths of an inferior na∣ture, which are not so ne∣cessary to be actually known: for though all revealed truths be a like necessary to be be∣lieved when they are known, yet all revealed truths are not a like necessary to be known. It is not denyed, but that Generall or Provinciall Councils may make con∣stitutions concerning these for unity and uniformity, and oblige all such as are subject to their jurisdiction to receive them, either active∣ly, or passively, without con∣tumacy

or opposition. But to make these, or any of these, a part of the Creed, and to oblige all Christians un∣der pain of damnation to know and believe them, is re∣ally to adde to the Creed, and to change the Symbolicall, Apostolicall Faith, to which none can adde, from which none can take away, and comes within the compass of St. Pauls curse, If we, or an Angell from Heaven, shall Preach unto you any other Gospell (or Faith,) than that which we have Preached, let him be accursed. Such are your Universality of the Ro∣man Church, by the Insti∣tution of Christ, to make her the Mother of her Grand-Mother the Church of Jeru∣salem,

and the mistress of her many elder Sisters. Your Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences, and the Wor∣ship of Images, and all o∣ther novelties defined in the Councill of Trent, all which are comprehended in your New Roman Creed, and obtruded by you upon all the world to be believed un∣der pain of damnation. He that can extract all these out of the old Apostolick Creed, must needs be an excellent Chymist, and may safely un∣dercake to draw water out of a Pumice.

That afflictions come not by chance, that prosperity is no evidence of Gods favour, or adversity of his hatred; that crosses imposed by God

upon his servants, look more forwards towards their a∣mendment, than backwards to their demerits, and proceed not from a Judge revenging, but from a Father correcting, or (which you have omitted,) from a Lord Paramount pro∣ving and magnifying before the world his own graces in his Servants for his glory and their Advantage, are unde∣niable Truths which we rea∣dily admit. As likewise that the dim eye of man cannot penetrate into the secret dis∣pensations of Gods tempo∣rall judgements and mercies in this life, so as to say this man is punished, that other chastised, this third is only proved.

But you forget all this soon after, when you take upon you to search into, yea more, to determine the grounds and reasons why the hand of God; aswell as the Parliament, hath been so heavy upon the Head of his late Majesty, and his royall Son. Namely on Gods part, because he called himself the head of the Church. God purposing by his punishment, to teach all other Princes that are in the Schism, with what severity he can vindicate his glory in the injury done unto the Unity and Authority of his Church, And on the Parlia∣ments part, because he would not consent to the Abolition of Episcopacy, and suppression of the Liturgy, and Ceremonies established in the Church of England.

First, what warrant have you to enquire into the Acti∣ons of that blessed Saint and Martyr, which of them should be the causes of his sufferings? Not remembring that the Dis∣ciples received a check from their Master upon the like presumption; Who sinned? this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

The Heroicall Virtues, the flaming Charity, the admira∣ble Patience, the rare Humili∣ty, the exemplary Chastity, the constant and frequent Devotions, and the invinci∣ble Courage of that happy

Prince, not daunted with the ugly face of a most horrid death, have rendred him the glory of his Country, the Ho∣nour of that Church whereof he was the chiefest member, the admiration of Christen∣dome, and a pattern for all Princes, of what Communi∣on soever, to imitate untill the end of the world. His Suf∣frings were Palms, his Prison a Paradise, and his death-day the birth-day of his happi∣ness; whom his Enemies ad∣vantaged more by their cru∣elty, than they could have done by their courtesie. They deprived him of a corruptible Crown, and invested him with a Crown of glory; They snatched him from the sweet society of his dearest Spouse,

and from most hopefull Olive branches, to place him in the bosoms of the holy Angels. This alone is ground enough for his suffrings, to manifest unto the world those transcen∣dent and unparallel'd graces, wherewith God had enriched him, to which his suffrings gave the greatest lustre, as the stars shine brightest in a dark night.

The like liberty you assume towards the other most glo∣rious Martyr, the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, a man of profound learning, and ex∣emplary life, of clean hands, of a most sincere heart, a pa∣tron of all good learning, a Professor of antient truth, a great friend indeed, and ear∣nest pursuer, of Order, U∣nity,

and uniformity in Re∣ligion, but most free from all sinister ends, either a varitious or ambitious, wherewith you do uncharitably charge him, as if he sought onely his own Grandeur, to make himself the head of a Schismaticall body. In brief, you therefore censure him, because you did not know him. I wish all your great Ecclesiastiques had his Innocency, and fervent zeal for Gods Church, and the peace thereof, to plead for them at the day of Judge∣ment.

By applying these particu∣lar Afflictions according to your own ungrounded Fancy, what a wide gap have you opened to the liberty and boldness of other men? who

if they should assume to them∣selves the same freedom that you have done, might say as much, with as much reason, concerning the pressures of other great Princes abroad, that God afflicts them, be∣cause they will not become Protestants, as you can say that God afflicted our late King, because he would not turn Papist.

But if you will not allow his Majesties suffrings to be meerly probatory; And if (for your satisfaction) there must be a weight of sin found out to move the wheel of Gods justice, why do you not rather fix upon the body of his Subjects or at least a dis∣loyall part of them? Wee confess that the best of us did

not deserve such a Jewell, that God might justly snatch him from us in his wrath for our ingratitude. Reason, Religi∣on, and experience do all teach us, that it is usuall with Almighty God, to look upon a body politique, or Ecclesia∣stique, as one man, and to deprive a perverse people of a good and gracious Gover∣nour, as an expert Physician by opening a vein in one member, cures the distempers of another. For the Trans∣gressions of a Land, many are the Princes thereof.

It may be that two or three of our Princes at the most (the greater part whereof were Roman Catholiques,) did stile themselves, or give others leave to stile them, the

Heads of the Church, within their Dominions. But no man can be so simple, as to conceive that they intended a spirituall headship to infuse the life and motion of grace into the hearts of the faith∣full, such an head is Christ a∣lone; No not yet an Ecclesi∣asticall headship; We did ne∣ver believe that our Kings in their own persons could exer∣cise any act perteining either to the power of Order or Ju∣risdiction: Nothing can give that to another, which it hath not it self. They meant one∣ly a Civill or Politicall head, as Saul is called the Head of the Tribes of Israel, to see that publick peace be preser∣ved, to see that all Subjects, aswell Ecclesiastiques as o∣thers

do their duties, in their severall places; to see that all things be managed for that great and Architectonicall end, that is the weal and be∣nefit of the whole body poli∣tique, both for soul and body. If you will not trust me, Hear our Church it self, When we attribute the Sove∣reign Government of the Church to the King, we do not give him any power to admi∣nister the Word or Sacraments; but onely that Prerogative which God in holy Scripture hath alwayes allowed to Godly Princes, to see that all Sates and Orders of their Subiects, Ecclesiasticall and Civill, do their duties, and to punish those who are delinquent, with the civill Sword. Here is no

power ascribed, no punish∣ment inflicted, but meerly politicall, and this is appro∣ved and justificed by S. Clara, both by reason, and by the example of the Parliament of Paris. Yet by vertue of this Politicall power, he is the Keeper of both Tables, the preserver of true piety to∣wards God, as well as right Justice towards men; And is obliged to take care of the souls, aswell as the skins and carkasses of his subjects.

This power, though not this name, the Christian Em∣perours of old assumed unto themselves, to Convocate Sy∣nods, to preside in Synods, to confirm Synods, to establish Ecclesiasticall Laws, to receive appeals, to nominate Bishops,

to eject Bishops, to suppress Heresies, to compose Ecclesia∣sticall differences, in Coun∣cils, out of Councils, by themselves, by their delegates: All which is as clear in the History of the Church, as if it were written with a beam of the Sun.

This power, though not this name, the Antient Kings of England ever exercised, not onely before the Reformation, but before the Norman Con∣quest, as appears by the Acts of their great Councills, by their Statutes, and Articles of the Clergy, by so many Laws of provision against the Bi∣shop of Romes conferring Ecclesiasticall dignities and benefices upon foreiners, by so many sharp oppositions a∣gainst

the exactions and usur∣pations of the Court of Rome, by so many Laws concerning the Patronage of Bishopricks, and Investitures of Bishops, by so many examples of Church-men punished by the Civill Magistrate. Of all which Jewels the Roman Court had undoubtedly rob∣bed the Crown, if the Peers and Prelates of the King∣dom had not come in to the rescue.

By the antient Laws of England it is death, or at least a forfeiture of all his goods, for any man to publish the Popes Bull without the Kings Licence. The Popes Legate without the Kings leave could not enter into the Realm. If an Ordinary did refuse to accept

a resignation, the King might supply his defect. If any Ec∣clesiasticall Court did exceed the bounds of its just power, either in the nature of the cauie, or manner of proceed∣ing, the Kings Prohibition had place. So in effect the Kings of England were al∣waies the Politicall heads of the Church within their own Dominions. So the Kings of France are at this day.

But who told you that ever King Charles did call himself the Head of the Church? thereby to merit such an hea∣vy Judgement. He did not, nor yet King James his Fa∣ther, nor Queen Elizabeth before them both, who took Order in her first Parliament, to have it left out of her Title;

They thought that name did sound ill, and that it intrench∣ed too far upon the right of their Saviour. Therefore they declined it, and were called onely Supreme Governours, in all Causes, over all persons Ecclesiasticall and Civill; which is a Title de jure in∣separable from the Crown of all soveraign Princes; Where it is wanting de facto (if any place be so unhappy to want it,) the King, is but half a King, and the Common∣wealth a Serpent with two Heads.

Thus you see, you are doub∣ly, and both wayes miserably mistaken. First, King Charles did never stile himself Head of the Church, nor could with patience endure to hear that

Title. Secondly, a Politicall Headship is not injurious to the Unity, or Authority of the Church. The Kings of Israel and Judah; the Christian Em∣perours, the English Kings before the Reformation, yea, even before the Conquest, and other Soveraign Princes of the Roman Communion have owned it signally.

But it seems you have been told, or have read, this in the virulent writings of Sanders, or Parsons, or have heard of a ludicrous scoffing propositi∣on of a Marriage between the two heads of the two Chur∣ches, Sixtus Quintus, and Queen Elizabeth, for the re∣uniting forsooth of Christen∣dome. All the satisfaction, I should enjoyn you, is to per∣swade

the Bishop of Rome (if Gregory the Great were living, you could not fail of speeding,) to imitate the piety and humility of our Princes; that is, to content himself with his Patriarchicall dignity and primacy of Order, & Princi∣pium unitatis, and to quit that much more presumptu∣ous, and (if a Popes word may pass for current) Anti∣christian terme of the Head of the Catholick Church. If the Pope be the Head of the Catholique Church, then the Catholique Church is the Popes body, which would be but an harsh expression to Christian ears; then the Ca∣tholick Church should have no Head, when there is no Pope, two or three Heads,

when there are two or three Popes; an unsound Head, when there is an hereticall Pope; a broken Head, when the Pope is censured or depo∣sed; and no Head, when the See is vacant. If the Church must have one Universall, vi∣sible, Ecclesiasticall Head, a generall Councill may best pretend to that Title.

Neither are you more suc∣cessfull in your other Reason, why the Parliament persecu∣ted the King; Because he mainteined Episcopacy, both out of Conscience and Interest, which they sought to abolish. For though it be easily admit∣ted, that some seditious and heterodox persons had an e∣vill eye, both against Monar∣chy, and Episcopacy, from the

very beginning of these trou∣bles, either out of fiery zeal, or vain affectation of Novel∣ty, (like those, who having the green-sickness, prefer chalk and meal in a corner, before wholsome meat at their Fa∣thers table,) or out of a gree∣dy, and covetous desire of ga∣thering some sticks for them∣selves upon the fall of those great Okes, yet certainly they: who were the contrivers, and principall actors in this busi∣ness, did more malign Epis∣copacy for Monarchy's sake, then Monarchie for Episco∣pacies. What end had the Nuncio's faction in Ireland against Episcopacy? whose mutinous courses apparantly lost that Kingdom. When the Kings consent to the Aboli∣tion

of Episcopacy in Scot∣land was extorted from him by the Presbyterian faction (which probably the prime authors do rue sufficiently by this time) were those Presby∣terian Scots any thing more favourable to Monarchy? To come to England, the chief Scene of this bloody Tragedy: If that party in Parliament had at first pro∣posed any such thing, as the Abolition either of Monarchy, or Episcopacy, undoubtedly they had ruined their whole design; untill daily tumults, and uncontrollable uprores had chased away the greater, and sounder part of both Houses: Their first Protesta∣tion was solemnly made to God, both for King and

Church, as they were by Law established.

Notes

• Conc. Vien.
• Bell. l. 4 de Euch. c. 29. quodam modo.
• Aq. p. 3. 1. 76. Art. 7.
• Deut. 29.29.
• Durand.
• Against multiply∣ing of questions, and con∣troversies.
• 〈…〉〈…〉
• The Oc∣casion of this Dis∣course.
• P. 37.
• The Au∣thors in∣discretion.
• To no purpose.
• The King is already a better Catholick than him∣self.
• Discursus modestus Jesuitarū p. 13. Wat∣sons quod- lib. l. 2. Art. 4.
• Par. 2. Act. 6. c. 7.
• Not law∣full to add to the old Creed.
• Concil. Flor. Sess. 10. prof. sid. in bulla Pti quarti.
• What are additions to the Creed, and what are only ex∣plications.
• Aq. 2. 2. q. 1. Art. 10.
• Gal. 1.8.
• P. 4. Crosses are not al∣waies pu∣nishments but some∣times cor∣rections, or tryals.
• Which the Author presently forgets.
• P. 8.
• P. 14.
• P. 9.
• Joh. 9.2.
• Better grounds of his Maje∣sties suffe∣rings, than those of the Au∣thor.
• Psa. 128.3
• The Au∣thors rash censure upon the Archbi∣shop of Cant.
• Sove∣raigns may be ta∣ken away for the sins of their sub∣jects.
• Prov. 28.••
• Not above two or three of our Prin∣ces cal∣led Heads of the Church.
• That is onely poli∣ticall heads. 1 Sam. 15.17.
• Art. 37.
• Expos. Pa∣raphr. art. Conf. Ang. Art. 37.
• The Chri∣stian Em∣perours politicall heads.
• The old Kings of England politicall heads.
• See Au∣thorities for all these in Cawdries Case, in Judge Crook his Reports.
• Neither K. Charles, K. James, nor Queen Elizabeth stiled heads of the Church.
• The Au∣thors satis∣faction to perswade the Pope to leave that vain Title.
• Hatred of Episcopa∣cy or the true cause why the Parlia∣ment per∣secuted the King.