141 TO THE CHRISTIAN READER. CHRISTIAN reader, of what communion soever thou beest, so thou beest within the communion of the Ecumenical Church, either in act or in desire, I offer this second treatise of Schism to thy serious view and unpartial judgment. The former was a Vindication of the Church of England, this latter is a vindication of myself, or rather both are vindications of both. In vindicating the Church then, I did vindicate myself. And in vindicating myself now, I do vindicate the Church. What I have performed I do not say, I dare not judge; the most moderate men are scarcely competent judges of their own works. No man can justly blame me for honouring my spiritual mother the Church of England; in whose womb I was conceived, at whose breasts I was nourished, and in whose bosom I hope to die. Bees, by the instinct of nature, do love their hives, and birds their nests. But God is my witness, that according to my uttermost talent, and poor understanding, I have endeavoured to set down the naked truth impartially, without either favour or prejudice, the two capital enemies of right judgment;-the one of which, like a false mirror, doth represent things fairer and straighter than they are; the other, like the tongue infected with choler, makes the sweetest meats to taste bitter. My desire hath been to have truth for my chiefest friend, and bias, it hath been desire of peace, which our common Saviour left as a legacy to His Church; that I might live to see the re-union of Christendom, for which I shall always bow the "knees of my heart" to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not impossible but that this desire of unity may have produced some unwilling error of love, but certainly I am most free from the wilful love of error. In questions of an inferior nature Christ regards a charitable intention much more than a right opinion. no enemy but error. If I have had any [Prayer of Manasseh Eph. iii. 14.] Howsoever it be, I submit myself and my poor endeavours, first, to the judgment of the Catholic Ecumenical essential Church; which if some of late days have endeavoured to hiss out of the schools as a fancy, I cannot help it. From the beginning it was not so. And if I should mistake the right Catholic Church out of human frailty or ignorance (which for my part I have no reason in the world to suspect; yet it is not impossible, when the Romanists themselves are divided into five or six several opinions, what this Catholic Church, or what their infallible judge is), I do implicitly and in the preparation of my mind submit myself to the true Catholic Church, the spouse of Christ, the mother of the Saints, the [! Tim. iii. "pillar of truth." And seeing my adherence is firmer to the 15.] infallible rule of Faith, that is, the Holy Scriptures interpreted by the Catholic Church, than to mine own private judgment or opinions; although I should unwittingly fall into an error, yet this cordial submission is an implicit retractation thereof, and I am confident will be so accepted by the Father of Mercies, both from me and all others who seriously and 142 sincerely do seek after peace and truth. [Cic., Tuscul., v. 17.] Likewise I submit myself to the representative Church, that is, a free general Council, or so general as can be procured; and until then, to the Church of England, wherein I was baptized, or to a national English Synod: to the determination of all which, and each of them respectively, according to the distinct degrees of their authority, I yield a conformity and compliance, or at the least, and to the lowest of them, an acquiescence. Finally, I crave this favour from the courteous reader, that because the Surveyer hath overseen almost all the principal proofs of the cause in question (which I conceive not to be so clearly and candidly done), he will take the pains to peruse the Vindication itself. And then, in the name of God, let him follow the dictate of right reason. For " as that scale must needs settle down whereinto most weight is put, so the mind cannot choose but yield to the weight of perspicuous demonstration." troduction I EXAMINE not the impediments of R. C. his undertaking [Of the inthis Survey. Only I cannot but observe his complaint of to R. C.'s "extreme want of necessary booksa," having all his own Preface. ] notes by him, and such store of excellent libraries in Paris at his command, than which no city in the world affords more, few so good: certainly the main disadvantage in this behalf lies on my side. Neither will I meddle with his motives to undertake it. I have known him long to have been a person of great eminence among our English Roman Catholics, and do esteem his undertaking to be an honour to the treatise. "Bos lassus fortius pedem figit b" (said a great Father)— "The weary ox treadeth deeper." Yet there is one thing which I cannot reconcile; namely, a fear, "lest, if the answer were longer deferred, the poison of the said treatise might spread further, and become more incurable." Yet with the same breath he tells us, that "I bring nothing new |