faid, that in the latter Times there will Chap. 3. be fome forbidding to marry, and abstaining Quest17 from Meats, which God has created. Thus

S. Auguftin.

Hence S. Leo (43) Abftinence, fays he, indeed is profitable, which being us'd to a spare Diet, curbs the Defire of Delicacy. But wo be to the Doctrine of thofe [the Manichæans] who fin even by fafting. For by condemning the Nature of Creatures, they affront the Creator; and fay, that Men are defil'd by the Ufe of those Things, which they fuppofe to have been made by the Devil, not by God. But you, the holy Offspring of your Catholick Mother, whom the H. Spirit has inftructed in the School of Truth, ufe your Liberty with due Moderation, knowing that it is good to abftain even from lawful Things; and when you ought to live in a more mortyfy'd manner, fo to diftinguish betwixt Meats, "that their USE MAY BE REMOV'D, not their NaTURE CONDEmn'd,

VIII. If the Apostles had commanded the first Christians, Acts xv. v, 28, 29, to abstain from eating Blood and strangled Meats, by way of Mortification; their Precept muft, or at T 4 leaft

(43) Utilis quidem est abftinentia, quæ parco affueta vidui, deliciarum cohibet Appetitum. Sed ve illorum dogmasi, apud quos etiam jejunando peccatur. Damnant enim creaturarum naturam in Creatoris injuriam ; & contaminari afferunt iis, quorum non Deum, fed Diabolum conditorem effe definiunt. Vos autem Catholice Matris Janita generatio, quos in fchola veritatis Spiritus San&tus erudivit, libertatem veftram congrua ratione moderamini, fcientes quia bonum eft etiam a licitis abftinere ; & cum caftiga tius vivendum eft, ita difcernere cibos, ut eorum fubmoveatur ufus, non natura damnetur. S. Leo Serm. iv. do Jejun. Quadrag. Cap. iv.

Chap. 3. least might, ftill have been in Force. As it Quest 17 was obferv'd in many Parts of the Catholick Church, long after the first Centuries. But it is more probable, that the whole Intention and End of that Injunction was only to make it more eafy for converted Jews to enter into the fame Society with converted Gentiles. And as the general End of this Precept expir'd after the firft Ages; fo the Obligation of it ceas'd. For all human Laws, as fuch, are fubject to this Rule. And fince the prefent State of the Gentile Church is fuch, fays S. (44) Auguftin, that no carnal Ifraelite appears in it: what Chriftian is now fo nice, that he will not touch Thrushes, or fmaller Birds, unless their Blood be fpilt? Or will not eat a Hare [or Rabbet] if kill'd by a Stroke of a Hand on the back of the Neck, without a bloody Wound? And thofe few Chriftians, perhaps,who are still afraid to touch thefe Things, are laugh'd at by the rest.

IX. But when did the Practice and Precept of abftaining from Flesh on certain Days, begin in the Catholick Church? Of this every one is at Liberty to think as he pleafes. The Practice might be, or was from (45) the Be ginning. But it is probable, that the Precept was not every where receiv'd, till after the fifth Century.

Eighteenth

(44) At ubi Ecclefia Gentium talis effecta eft, ut in ea nullus Ifraelita carnalis appareat: quis jam hoc Chriftianus obfervat, ut turdos vel minutiores aviculas non attingat, nifi quarum fanguis effufus est ? aut leporem non edat, ft manu a cervice percuffus, nullo cruento vulnere occifus eft? Et qui forte pauci adhuc tangere ifta formidant, cæteris irridentur. S. Aug. Lib. xxxii. con. Fauftum. Cap. xiii. (45) Nat. Alexandre, in Sæc. ii. Differt, iv.

Art. ii.

Eighteenth QUESTIÓN, Chap. 3.

Is the Church in Communion with the Bishop and
See of Rome, the Catholick Church?

ANSWER,

OR this there are chiefly Two

FOR

Arguments.

First. That is the Catholick Church, from which all Chriftian Sects have been cut off in their respective Times. But all Sects which are, or ever were in Christendom, have, in their respectibe Times, been cut off from the Church in Communion with the Bishop and See of Rome, which S. [1] Cyprian calls the principal See, from whence the Unity of Prieftbood is rifen.

Quest 18

In the first and second Century, befides Philetus, [2] who deny'd the Resurrection, and [3] Hymenæus and Alexander, whom S. Paul deliver'd to Satan, that they might learn not to blafpheme; the Difciples of Simon the Sorcerer, of Menander, the Gnosticks, the Cerinthians, the Nazaraans, the Ebionites, the Nicolaites, the Cainites, the Elcefaites, the Difciples of Saturninus, of Bafilides, of Carpocrates, of Valentinus, of Marcion, of Tatian, the Ophites, the [4] Montanists, and the Adamites were cut off from her.

[1] Petri Cathedram, atq; Ecclefiam principalem, unde unitas facerdotalis exorta eft. S. Cypr. Ep. lv. [2] 2 Tim. ii. v. 17. 18. [3] 1 Tim. 1. v. 19. 20.

[4] But did not Pope Eleutherius, or rather Pope Victor favour the Montanists in the Beginning? By Mifinformation he did. But when Praxeas had given him a true Account of their Darine, he cut them off from

bis

Chap. 3. In the third and fourth Century, the Theor Queft18 dotians, who held that Chrift was only a Man, the Novatians, the Sabellians, the Manichæans, the Hieracites, the Donatifts, the [5] Arians, the Macedonians, whom the fecond General Council calls [6] Semi-Arians, the Apolinarians, the Meffalians, and the Prifcilianifts were cut off from her.

1

In the fifth Century, the Pelagians, the Neftorians, and the Eutychians were cut off from her. And the two laft Sects continued feparated from her in the fixth, and are not yet extinct.

In the feventh and eighth Century, the [7] Monotheletes,fo call'd because they believ'd only

bis Communion, as a wicked Sect. Tillem. Mem. Ec-
cles. Tom. 20 pag, 713. col. 2. [5] Did not Pope
Liberius an. 357, condemn S. Athanafius, communicate
with the Arians, and fign their Creed? He did very ill,
of which fee Monfr. Tillemont, Tom, 6. pag. 419. But
Ift. In the Creed, which he fign'd, to regain his See, after
Be had been two Years banish'd from it, (which Creed was
the first at Sirmium, an. 351.) the Arian Error was
not exprefs'd. ly. The Bishops, with whom he communi-
sated, did not profefs it in fuch Terms, as could not poffibly
bear a Catholick Interpretation. For even the 2d. Creed
at Sirmium, bow wickedly foever intended, was capable
of this Senfe. 3ly. He condemn'd the Perfon, not the
Doctrine of S. Athanafius. 4ly. When in a peaceable
Poffeffion of his See, he foon repented of what he had
done, made Profeffion of the Nicene Creed, and
reconcil'd himself to S. Athanafius, fays Monfr. Du
Pin, Vol. 2. pag. 63, of the English Tranflation of bis
Bibliotheque. [6] Kai Tv Tv jageravay, hyo TES
Marouaxwv. Can. I. p. 946 E. Tom. 2. Conc. Labb.
[7] Did not Pope Honorius favour the Monotheletes ?
He did. But the Catholick Church bad not then condemn'd,
or examin'd their Error: Nor were they, at that Time
a feparate Selt

ly one Will in Chrift, and the Iconoclafts, or Chap. 3. Image-breakers, were cut off from her.

Quest 18 In the ninth Century, the Manichæans reappear'd. And fome of the former Sects continued in the tenth.

In the eleventh Century, the Berengarians, who deny'd the real Prefence of the Body and Blood of Chrift under the Sacramental Signs, and the Greeks, under Cerularius, were cut off from the Church in Communion with Rome. So were the Vaudois, or Waldenfes, in the twelfth.

In the thirteenth Century, the Albigenfes were cut off from her; and the Wicklefifts in the fourteenth. In the fifteenth Century, the Huffites, call'd Calixtins, because they held, that the Laity is commanded to drink of the Chalice, were cut off from her.

So were the Lutherans, the Calvinists, the Anabaptifts, and the Socinians or Anti-Trinitarians, in the fixteenth Century; and the Quakers in the feventeenth,

Since the Beginning of the eighteenth Century, Mr. Whiston and Dr. Clarke have endeavoured to refettle Arianifm: a Herefy, which was fo long fince, and fo juftly condemn'd by the Catholick Church in the first general Coun cil an. 325, and by all both Greek and Latin Fathers fince, as by S. Athanafius, S. Bafil, S. Gregory Nyffen, S. Gregory Nazianzen, S, Chryfoftom, S. Hilarius, S. Ambrofe, S. Ferom, and S. Auguftin. And if the new Reformers fucceed at Home, in this wicked Attempt, what can they expect, but the Pity, if not the Indignation of all good Men, and the Cenfures of the Catholick Church?

II. The