Chapter 13

Your following Discourse pag. 44, 45. is spent partly in the commendation of your Fiat Lux, and the metaphysical abstracted discourses of it; partly in a repetition in other words of what you had before insisted on. The former I shall no further endeavour to disturb your contentment in. It is a common error — Neque est quisquam Quem non in aliquare videre Suffenum Possis. I am not your rival in the admiration of it, and shall therefore leave you quietly in the embracements of your darling. And for the latter, we have had enough of it already, and so by this time I hope you think also. The close only of your discourse is considerable, and therefore I shall transcribe it for your second thoughts. And it is this,

But Sir what you say here, and so often up and down your book of Papists' contempt of the Scripture, I beseech you will please to abstain from it for the time to come. I have conversed with the Roman Catholics of France, [illegible] and Germany; I have read more of your books both histories, contemplative and scholastical divines than I believe you have ever seen or heard of. I have seen the colleges of sacred priests and religious houses, I have communed with all sort of people and perused their counsels. And after all this I tell you, and out of my love I tell you that their respect to Scripture is real, absolute and cordial, even to admiration. Others may talk of it, but they act it, and would be ready to stone that man that should diminish Holy Writ. Let us not wrong the innocent. The Scripture is theirs, and Jesus Christ is theirs, who also will plead their cause when he sees time.

What you mention of your own diligence and achievements, what you have done, where you have been, what you have seen and discoursed, I shall not trouble you about. It may be as to your soul's health — Tutior, poter as esse domi. But yet for all the report that you are pleased to make of yourself, it is not hard to discern that you and I — Nec pondera rerum Nec momenta sumus. And notwithstanding your writings, it would have been very difficult for any man to have guessed at your great reading, had you not satisfied us by this your own information of it. It may be if you had spared some of the time which you have spent in the reading of your Catholic books to the study of the Scripture, it had not been to your disadvantage. In the mean time there is a hyperbole in your confidence a little too evident. For it is possible that I may, and true that I have seen more of your authors in half an hour, than you can read I think in a hundred years; unless you intend always to give no other account of your reading, than you have done in your Fiat and Epistola: But we are weary of this [illegible], Quin tu alium quaeras quoi centones farcias. But to pass by this boasting, there are two parts of your discourse, the one concerning the faith, the other expressing the charity of Roman Catholics. The first contains what respect you would be thought to have for the Scripture, the latter what you really have for all other Christians besides yourselves. As to the former you tell me, that I speak of the Papists' contempt of the Scripture, and desire me to abstain from it for the time to come. Whether I have used that expression anywhere of contempt of the Scripture, well I know not. But whereas I look upon you as my friend, at least for the good advice I have frequently given you, I have deserved that you should be so, and therefore shall not deny you any thing that I can reasonably grant; and whereas I cannot readily comply with you in your present request, as to the alteration of my mind in reference to the respect that Papists bear to the Scriptures, I esteem myself obliged to give you some account of the reasons why I persist in my former thoughts, which I hope, as is usual in such cases, you will be pleased to take in friendly part. For besides Sir, that you back your request with nothing but some overconfident asseverations, subscribed with teste meipso, I have many reasons taken from the practice and doctrine of your Church, that strongly induce me to abide in my former persuasion. As 1. You know that in these and the neighbouring nations, Papists have publicly burned the Scriptures, and destroyed more copies of them than ever Antiochus Epiphanes did of the Jewish Law. And if you should go about to prove to me that Protestants have no great regard to sacred images that have been worshipped, because in these and the neighbouring nations they broke and burned a great number of them, I should not readily know what to answer you. Nor can I entertain any such confidence of your abilities, as to expect from you a satisfactory answer to my instance of the very same nature, manifesting what respect Papists bear to the Scriptures. 2. You know that they have imprisoned and burned sundry persons for keeping the Scripture in their houses, or some parts of them, and reading them for their instruction and comfort. Nor is this any great sign of respect to them, no more than it is of men's respect to treason or murder, because they hang them up who are guilty of them. And 3. Your Church prohibits the reading of them to laymen, unless in some special cases, some few of them be licensed by you so to do; and you study and sweat for arguments to prove the reading of them needless and dangerous, putting them as translated, into the catalogue of books prohibited. Now this is the very mark and stamp that your Church sets upon these books which she disapproves, and discountenances as pernicious to the faithful. 4. Your Council of Trent has decreed that your unwritten traditions are to be received with the same faith and veneration as the Scripture, constituting them to be one part of the Word of God, and the Scriptures another, than which nothing could be spoken more in contempt of it, or in reproach to it. For I must assure you, Protestants think you cannot possibly contract a greater guilt by any contempt of the Scripture than you do, by reducing it into order with your unwritten traditions. 5. You have added books not only written with a human and fallible spirit, but stuffed with actual mistakes and falsehoods to the canon of the Scripture, giving just occasion to them who receive it from you only, to question the authority of the whole. And 6. You teach the authority of the Scripture at least in respect of us, (which is all it has, for authority is [illegible], and must regard some in relation to whom it does consist) depends on the authority of your Church; the readiest way in the world to bring it into contempt with them that know what your Church is, and what it has been. And 7. You plead that it is very obscure and unintelligible of itself, and that in things of the greatest moment, and of most indispensable necessity to salvation; whereby you render it perfectly useless, according to the old rule, Quod non potest intelligi, debet negligi; it is fit that should be neglected, which cannot be understood. And 8. There is a book lately written by one of your party, after you have been frequently warned and told of these things, entitled Fiat Lux, giving countenance to many other hard reflections upon it, as has been manifested in the Animadversions written on that book. 9. Your great masters in their writings have spoken very contemptuously of it: whereof I shall give you a few instances. The Council of Trent which is properly yours, determines as I told you, that their traditions are to be received and venerated pari pietatis affectu & reverentia, with an equal affection of piety and reverence, as the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament: which is a setting up of the Altar of Damascus with that of God himself in the same Temple. Sess. 4. Dec. 1. And Andradius, no small part of that Convention, in his defence of that decree tells us that, cum Christus fragilitati memoriae Evangelio scripto succurrendum putavit, ita breve compendium libris tradi voluit, ut pars maxima tanquam magni precii thesaurus traditionibus intimis Ecclesiae visceribus infixis relicta fuerit. As our Lord Christ thought meet to relieve the frailty of memory by the written Gospel, so he would have a short compendium or abridgement committed to books, that the greatest part as a most precious treasure might be left to traditions fixed in the very inward bowels of the Church. This is that cordial and absolute respect even to admiration that your Catholics bear to the Scripture: and he that does not admire it, seems to me to be very stupid. It contains some small part of the mysteries of Christian religion, the great treasure of them lying in your traditions; and thereupon he concludes, Canonem seu Regulam fidei exactissimam non esse Scripturam, sed Ecclesiae judicium; that the canon or most exact rule of faith is not the Scripture but the judgement of the Church; much to the same purpose as you plead in your Fiat and Epistola. Pighius another champion of your Church, Ecclesiast. Hierarch. Lib. 1. c. 4. after he has given many reasons to prove the obscurity of the Scripture, with its flexibility to every man's sense, as you know who also has done, and referred all things to be determined by the Church, concludes, Si hujus Doctrinae memores fuissemus, haereticos scilicet non esse informandos, vel convincendos ex Scripturis, meliore sane loco essent res nostrae; sed dum ostentandi ingenii & eruditionis gratia cum Luthero in certamen discenditur Scripturarum, excitatum est hoc quod, proh dolor, nunc videmus incendium. Had we been mindful of this doctrine, that heretics are not to be instructed, nor convinced out of the Scriptures, our affairs had been in a better condition than now they are: but while some to show their wit and learning would needs contend with Luther out of the Scriptures, the fire which we now with grief behold, was kindled and stirred up. And it may be you remember who it was that called the Scripture Evangelium nigrum, and Theologiam atramentariam, seeing he was one of the most famous champions of your Church and cause. But before we quite leave your Council of Trent, we may do well to remember the advice which the Fathers of it, who upon the stirs in Germany removed to Bononia, gave to the Pope, Julius the third, which one that was then among them afterwards published. Denique say they in their letters to him, quod inter omnia consilia quae nos hoc tempore dare possumus omnium gravissimum ad extremum reservavimus. Oculi hic aperiendi sunt, omnibus nervis adnitendum erit ut quam minimum Evangelii poterit (praesertim vulgari lingua) in iis legatur Civitatibus, quae sub tua ditione & potestate sunt, sufficiatque tantillum illud quod in missa legi solet, nec eo amplius cuiquam mortalium legere liceat. Quam diu enim pauculo illo homines contenti fuerunt, tam diu res tuae ex sententia successêre, eademque in contrarium labi caeperunt ex quo ulterius legi vulgo usurpatum est. Hic ille (in summa) est liber qui praeter caeteros hasce nobis tempestates ac turbines conciliavit quibus prope abreptisimus. Et sane siquis illum diligenter expendat, deinde quae in nostris fieri ecclesiis consueverunt, singula ordine contempletur, videbis plurimum inter se dissidere, & hanc doctrinam nostram ab illa prorsus diversam esse ac saepe contrariam etiam. Quod simul atque homines intelligant, a docto scilicet aliquo adversariorum stimulati, non ante clamandi finem faciunt, quam rem plane omnem divulgaverint, nosque invisos omnibus reddiderint. Quare occultandae pauculae illae chartulae sed adhibita quadam cautione & diligentia, ne ea res majores nobis turbas ac tumultus excitet. Last of all, that which is the most weighty of all the advices which at this time we shall give to you, we have reserved for the close of all. Your eyes are here to be opened; you are to endeavour with the utmost of your power, that as little as may be of the Gospel (especially in any vulgar tongue) be read in those cities which are under your government and authority; but let that little suffice them which is wont to be read in the Mass (of which mind you also know who is) neither let it be lawful for any man to read any more of it. For as long as men were contented with that little, your affairs were as prosperous as heart could desire, and began immediately to decline upon the custom of reading any more of it. This is in brief that book which above all others has procured to us those tempests and storms wherewith we are almost carried away headlong. And the truth is, if any one shall diligently consider it, and then seriously ponder on all the things that are accustomed to be done in our Churches, he will find them to be very different the one from the other, and our doctrine to be divers from the doctrine thereof, yes and oftentimes plainly contrary to it. Now this when men begin to understand, being stirred up by some learned man or other among the adversaries, they make no end of clamouring until they have divulged the whole matter, and rendered us hateful to all. Therefore those few sheets of paper are to be hid but with caution and diligence, lest their concealment should stir up greater troubles. This is fair and open; being a brief summary of that admiration of the Scriptures which so abounds in Catholic countries. That Hermannus one of some account in your Church, affirmed that the Scriptures could be of no more authority than Aesop's Fables, were they not confirmed by the testimony of your Church; we are informed by one Brentius, and we believe the information to be true because the saying is defended by Hosius de Authoritat. Script. Lib. 3. who adds to it of his own; Revera nisi nos Authoritas Ecclesiae doceret hanc scripturam esse Canonicam, perexiguum apud nos pondus haberet: the truth is, if the authority of the Church did not teach us that this Scripture is canonical, it would be of very light weight to us. Such cordial respects do you bear to it. And the forementioned Andradius Defens. Con. Trid. Lib. 2. to the same purpose; Neque enim in ipsis libris quibus sacra mysteria conscripta sunt, quicquam inest Divinitatis quae nos ad credendum quae in illis continentur religione aliqua constringat; sed Ecclesiae, quae codices illos sacros esse docet, & antiquorum Patrum fidem & pietatem commendat, tanta inest vis & amplitudo, ut illis nemo sine gravissimâ impietatis nota possit repugnare; neither is there in those books wherein the divine mysteries are written any thing or any character of divinity or divine original which should on a religious account oblige us to believe the things that are contained in them. But yet such is the force and authority of the Church which teaches those books to be sacred, and commends the faith and piety of the ancient fathers, that no man can oppose them without a grievous mark of impiety. How, by what means, from whom should we learn the sense of your Church, if not from your Council of Trent, and such mighty champions of it? Do you think it equitable, that we should listen to suggestions of every obscure friar, and entertain thoughts from them about the sense of your Church, contrary to the plain assertion of your councils and great rabbis? And if this be the respect that in Catholic countries is given to the Scripture, I hope you will not find many of your countrymen rivals with them therein. It is all but Hail and Crucify; we respect the Scriptures, but there is another part of God's Word besides them; we respect the Scriptures, but traditions contain more of the doctrine of truth; we respect the Scriptures, but think it not meet that Christians be suffered to read them; we respect the Scripture, but do not think that it has any character in it of its own divine original for which we should believe it; we respect the Scripture, but yet we would not believe, were it not commended to us by our Church; we respect the Scripture, but it is dark, obscure, not intelligible but by the interpretation of our Church. Pray Sir, keep your respects at home, they are despised by the Scripture itself, which gives testimony to its own authority, perfection, sufficiency, to guide us to God, perspicuity and certainty without any respect to your Church, or its authority: and we know its testimony to be true. And for our parts we fear that while these Joab's kisses of respect are upon your lips, you have a sword in your right hands to let out all the vitals of divine truth and religion. Do you think your general expressions of respect, and that to admiration, are a covering long and broad enough to hide all this contempt and reproach that you continually pour upon the Scriptures? Deal thus with your ruler, and see whether he will accept your person. Give him some good words in general, but let your particular expressions of your esteem of him come short of what his state and regal dignity do require, will it be well taken at your hands? Expressions of the same nature with these instanced in, might be collected out of your chiefest authors sufficient to fill a volume, and yet I never read nor heard that any of them were ever stoned in your Catholic countries, whatever you intimate of the boiling up of your zeal into a rage against those that should go about to diminish it. Indeed whatever you pretend, this is your faith about the Scripture; and therefore I desire that you would accept of this account why I cannot comply with your wish, and not speak any more of Papists slighting the Scripture, seeing I know they do so in the sense and way by me expressed, and other ways I never said they did so.

From the account of your faith, we may proceed to your charity wherewith you close this discourse. Speaking of your Roman Catholics, you say, the Scripture is theirs, and Jesus Christ is theirs, who will one day plead their cause. What do you mean, sir, by theirs? Do you intend it exclusively to all others; so theirs as not to be the right and portion of any other? It is evident that this is your sense, not only because unless it be so, the words have neither sense nor emphasis in them; but also because suitably to this sense, you elsewhere declare that the Roman and the Catholic Church are with you one and the same. This is your charity fit to accompany, and to be the fruit of the faith before discoursed of. This is your Catholicism, the impaling of Christ, Scripture, the Church and consequently all acceptable religion to the Roman party and faction; down right Donatism, the wretchedest schism that ever rent the Church of God, which makes the wounds of Christendom incurable, and all hope of coalition in love desperate.

Saint Paul directing one of his epistles to all that in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that no countenance from that expression of our Lord Jesus Christ might be given to any surmize of his appropriating to himself and those with him a peculiar interest in Jesus Christ, he adds immediately both their Lord and ours; the Lord of all that in every place call upon his name (1 Corinthians 1). This was the old Catholicism, which the new has as much affinity to as darkness has to light, and not one jot more. The Scripture is ours, and Christ is ours, and what have any else to do with them? What though in other places, you call on the name of Jesus Christ, yet he is our Lord, not yours. This I say is that wretched schism, which clothed with the name of Catholicism (which after it had slain, it robbed of its name and garments) the world for some ages has groaned under, and is like to do so, while it is supported by so many secular advantages and interests, as are subservient to it at this day.