A Key for Catholics, Treatise 1 · Chapter 1
CHAP. I.
THE thoughts of the divided ſtate of Chriſtians have brought one of the greateſt and conſtanteſt ſadneſs to my Soul, that ever it was acquainted with; eſpecially to remember, that while we are quarrelling, and plotting, and writing, and fighting againſt each other, ſo many parts of the world (about five of ſix) remain in the Infidelity of Heatheniſm, Judaiſm or Mahometaniſm, where millions of poor ſouls do need our help; and if all our ſtrength were joyned together for their Illumination and Salvation, it would be too little. Oh horrible ſhame to the face of Chriſtendom, that the Nations are quietly ſerving the Devil, and the Turk is in poſſeſſion of ſo many Countries, that once were the Inheritance of Chriſt, and that his Iron yoak is ſtill upon the necks of the perſecuted Greeks, and that he ſtands up at our doors in ſo formidable a poſture, ſtill ready to devour the reſt of the Chriſtian world; and yet that inſtead of combining to reſiſt him, and vindicate the cauſe and people of the Lord, we are greedily ſucking the blood of one another, and tearing in pieces the body of Chriſt with furious hands, and deſtroying our ſelves to ſave the enemy a labour, and ſpending that wit, that treaſure, that labour and that blood, to daſh our ſelves in pieces on one another, which might be nobly, and honeſtly, and happily ſpent in the cauſe of God.
Theſe thoughts provoked me to many an hours conſideration, How the wounds of the Church might be yet healed; And have made it long a principal part of my daily Prayers, that the Reconciling Light might ſhine from Heaven, that might in ſome good meaſure take up our differences; and that God would at laſt give healing Principles and diſpoſitions unto men, eſpecially to Princes and the Paſtors of the Church. But the more I ſtudied how it might be done, the more difficult, if not impoſſible it appear'd, and all becauſe of the Romane Tyranny, the Vice-Chriſt or pretended Head of the Church, being with them become an eſſential part of it, and the Subjection to him eſſential to our Chriſtianity it ſelf. So that (ſaith Bellarmine de Eccleſ. l. 3. c. 5.) No man, though he would, can be a Subject of Chriſt, that is not ſubject to the Pope; and this with abundance of intolerable corruptions they have fixed by the fancy of their own Infallibility, and built upon this foundation a worldly Kingdom, and the temporal Riches and Dignity of a numerous Clergy, twiſting ſome Princes alſo into the Intereſt; ſo that they cannot poſſibly yield to us in the very principal points of difference, unleſs they will deny the very Eſſence of their New Chriſtianity and Church, and pluck up the foundations which they have ſo induſtriouſly laid, and leave men to a ſuſpicion that they are fallible hereafter, if they ſhall confeſs themſelves miſtaken in any thing now; and unleſs they will be ſo admirably ſelf-denying, as to let go the temporal advantages which ſo many thouſands of them are intereſted in: And whether ſo much light may be hoped for in ſo dark a generation, or ſo much love to God, and ſelf-denyal in millions of men ſo void of ſelf-denyal, is eaſie to conjecture: And we cannot in theſe greateſt matters come over to them, unleſs we will flatly betray our Souls, and depart from the Unity of the Catholick Church, and from the Center of that Unity, to unite with another called the Romane Catholick Church, in another Center. And if we ſhould thus caſt away the Truth and Favour of God, and ſin againſt our Knowledge and Conſcience, and ſo prove men of no Faith or Religion, under pretence of deſiring a Unity in Faith and Religion, yet all would not do the thing intended, but we ſhould certainly miſs of theſe very ends which we ſeek, when we had ſold the Truth and our Souls to obtain them. For there is nothing more certain, then that the Chriſtian World will never unite in the Romane Vice-Chriſt, nor agree with them in their Corruptions, againſt plain Scripture, Tradition, Conſent of the ancient Church, againſt the Reaſon and common ſenſe of Mankind, This is not by any wiſe man to be expected. Never did the univerſal Church, or one half of it center to this day in the Romane Soveraignty: And why ſhould they hope for that which never yet was done? When they had their Primacy of Place (to be the Biſhop of the firſt Seat, and firſt of the Patriarcks) it made the Pope no more a Soveraign and a Vice-Chriſt, then the King of France is Soveraign to the Duke of Saxony or Bavaria; or then the Senior Juſtice on the Bench is the Soveraign of the reſt: and yet even this much he never had but from the Romane Empire: What claim did he ever lay in his firſt Uſurpations, to any Church without thoſe bounds? It was the Empire that raiſed him, and the Empire limited his own Uſurpations. Saith their own Reinerius, (or whoever elſe) Cont. Waldenſ. Catal. in Biblioth. Patr. To. 4. pag 773. [The Churches of the Armenians, and Aethiopians, and Indians, and the reſt which the Apoſtles converted, are not under the Church of Rome.] Yea in Gregories days, they found the Churches of Brittain and Ireland both ſtrangers and adverſaries to their Soveraignty; inſomuch as they could not procure them to receive their Government, nor change ſo much as the time of Eaſter for them, no nor to have Communion with them at laſt: Anno 614. Laurentius their Arch-Biſhop here wrote this Letter (with Mellitus and Juſtus) to the Biſhops and Abbots in all Scotland (that is, Ireland) [While the Sea Apoſtolick after its manner directed us to preach to the Pagan Nations in theſe Weſtern parts, as in the whole world; and we happened to enter this Iſland, called Brittain, before we knew them, believing that they walked after the manner of the univerſal Church, we reverenced both the Brittains and the Scots in great Reverence of their Sanctity. But when we knew the Brittains, we thought the Scots were better. But we have learnt by Daganus the Biſhop in this forementioned Iſland, and by Columbanus the Abbot coming into France, that the Scots do nothing differ from the Brittains in their Converſation. For Biſhop Daganus coming to us, refuſed not only to eat with us, but even to eat in the ſame Houſe where we did eat.] Uſher Epiſt. Hibern. 7. p. 18.
Our moſt peaceable Biſhop Hall was forct to write a [Roma irreconciliabilis.] While we are thinking of Reconciliation, they are about our ears with Plots and violence, and with ſwarms of Rome-bred Sects, and are day and night induſtriouſly undermining us; ſo that by their continual Alarms, I am called off to theſe defenſive wars which here I have undertaken; yet ſtill reſolving that the Deſperateneſs of the Cure ſhall not make me run from them into a contrary extream, nor be out of the way of Peace, nor neglect any neceſſary means, how hopeleſs ſoever of ſucceſs.
The Work that here I have undertaken, is, 1. To give you briefly thoſe Grounds on which you muſt go, if you will keep your ground againſt a Papiſt. 2. To give a few invincible Arguments, which the weakeſt may be able to uſe, to overthrow the principal grounds of the Papiſts. 3. To detect their Frauds, and give to the younger ſort of Miniſters, ſufficient Directions for the Confutation of all the Papiſts in the world. 4. To propound (though in vain) ſuch terms of Peace as we can yield to.