Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A62556
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A treatise of the nature of Catholick faith and heresie with reflexion upon the nullitie of the English Protestant church and clergy / by N.N.
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Talbot, Peter, 1620-1680.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing T119; ESTC R38283
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71,413
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104
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to judge that God will do so extraordinary a favour to Protestants who are out of the Church and have not the helpe of the true Sacraments as to give them an act of contrition in the last houre 4 I have often said that I can not but admire to see any person of solid judgement and good understanding a Protestant The more I consider the grounds beginning and progresse of these new Religions the more I am confirmed in my admiration What matter can then be of greater wonder then to see wise men preferre the testimony of some few wanton and dissolute Priests and Friars to the testimony of the grave and ancient Fathers of the Catholick Roman Church Let the Councell of Lateran be confronted with Cranmer and the six or seven Ministers who invented the English Church and with the Parliament that confirmed it Let both the Councells of Lateran and that of Trent be compared with the petty Assemblies of Ministers in the English Protestant Church or in the Kirke of Scotland Dort or any other pretending Reformation Shall a few Ministers know better the Catholick tradition the sense of Scripture and Fathers then the Councell of Lateran wherein sate two Patriarchs and the Pope 70. Metropolitans 400. Bishops 800 Conventuall Priors all learned men out of the most parts of Christendome Shall one Apostate Paulo Dolce his word be taken concerning the Councell of Trent and preferred to the testimony of all the Catholick Churches which hath accepted all its Decrees in matters of Faith I speake not of other Councells nor of the cleare testimonies of Fathers which are obvious to all persons who understand Latin in Bellarmine Coccius and other Authors 5 Most of all I admire to see any person stick to the Common prayer Booke or to that Church as if it were the true Catholick How is it possible that God should permit the publick exercise of Catholick Religion and Church to be brought so low and to so narrow a compasse as we see the Common prayer If Antichrist reigne were come or the Turke had possessed the whole world then it might be thought that the Church fled to the wildernesse and became almost invisible but when through the mercy of God we see Christianity flourish not onely in Europe but in all other parts of the world how is it credible that God should permit the true and pure exercise of Catholick Religion to be invisible 6 Therefore I judge it a duty of conscience and charity to warne all Protestants that they may be pleased to reflect upon the Authors and first Apostles of their Reformation Is it credible that God would make choice of such wicked persons as they were knowne to be to reform his Church Suppose there were some abuses in the Court of Rome must therefore the Popes authority be tread under foot Must Kings loose their Crownes because some Courtiours are lewd If Luther had beene appointed to preach for Indulgences he had never writ against them the Pope or the Church of Rome If Henry the VIII had prevailed with the Pope to declare null his mariage with Queene Catharine of Spaine he had never made himselfe spirituall Head of the Church of England If Calvin had obtained the Bishoprick of Geneva Puritans had never beene so fierce against Episcopacy If Queene Elizabeth had not beene declared illegitimate by the Doctrine and Church of Rome the Common prayer and Reformation had ended with Edward the VI. who begunne it Doth not the world see that these pretended Reformations of Religion were onely pretexts for Princes to obtaine their politick ends and for dissolute and incontinent Clergy to gaine authority whereby their liberty and vices might not onely be excused but applauded by the ignorant and common people Let Protestants therefore examine how things past because ignorance in so important a matter can not be warranted by relying upon other mens judgements seeing they may so easily informe their owne 7 Neither ought they to sooth themselves with that no lesse usuall then groundlesse excuse Agree you Clergy men amongst your selves and we will agree submit our judgements c. But untill then we are not obliged seeing our Ministers are learned and honest men We Catholicks declare to all the world and the same must Protestant do that the Church out of which there is no salvation may be so easily discerned from all false Sects by signes so visible and obvious to all persons though illiterate that to trust to Ministers testimony in so important a matter is damnable negligence especially seeing we charge them of not believing Clergy men nor ordained As for the Protestant Ministers being learned and honest men its certaine that either we or they want learning or honesty and that either they or we impose upon the people manifest falshoods which may easily be discovered by any person that desires to be saved Let our Doctrines and Tenets be examined and it will clearly appeare that the Protestant Faith doth tend to liberty of believing and doing what every man thinkes convenient which is an infallible marke of Heresie and damnation CHAP. XIV VVhether Protestancy be manifestly against reason and common sense and how may the most learned Protestants be convinced in disputes of Religion by every illiterate Roman Catholick SECT I. 1 THe true Christian and Catholick Religion is so evidently credible that all others must necessarily be evidently incredible It is not in Religion as in cases of morall Divinity Two contrary opinions in morall matters may be prudently followed each of them as probable because there are learned men that patronize both If there were two or more Gods and they could differ in opinion or judgement men might accommodate themselves to which they pleased But seeing there is but one God there must be but one Faith and one Religion This one Faith is more then any probable opinion it is an undoubted and prudent assent of the understanding to whatsoever is sufficiently proposed as Divine Revelation An undoubted and prudent assent doth suppose there can be no prudent probability in any other contrary Faith or Church for if once we grant that two Religions are probable or prudently credible we have none at all because we reserve a doubt of both and are indifferent for any True Faith admits no doubts or indifferencies Supposing this no prudent Protestant can take ill that which I intend to prove in this Chap. unlesse he will have Catholicks acknowledge that they have one true Faith or Christian Religion 2 If it be proved that Protestancy is contrary to reason it s evidently demonstrated to be a false Religion because whatsoever is against reason can not be true The true Christian Faith doth perfect the understanding and not deceive that faculty of man whereby he is distinguished from brute beasts God is the Author both of Reason and Religion one must be subordinate to the other its true Faith is above Reason but never stands in opposition with it
propension to make our selves Scripture as our selves shall interpret it or which is the same the Rule or Judge of Controversies Therefore it s no supernaturall action nor no meritorious act to believe after this manner as Protestants do for men have no difficulty in believing themselves and they believe themselves not God when their own interpretation of Scripture is followed against that of the Church It remaines now a reason be given Why do Protestants believe the most obscure and difficult mysteries of Christian Religion if their Faith be meerly historicall How can they without a supernaturall power and favour believe that the Scripture is Gods Word the Trinity the mystery of Incarnation c. To this doubt I answer that as I said in the beginning of this Chapter there is no difficulty in believing the most improbable and extravagant things when they are told us by persons we credit and are not contradicted by any whose testimony we value In matters of Religion Protestants value no men but Christians and such mysteries as they believe are not contradicted by any Christians at least in our parts of the world They believe therefore all they believe because they have been told so by their Parents and others who had the charge of instructing them and not because God revealed it which is the onely motive of Christian and supernaturall Faith It s a received principle that he who denyes one article of Christian Religion believes none at all It can not be said that he believes none with historicall beliefe as Protestants believe the mystery of the Trinity Incarnation and Scripture to be Gods Word The meaning of all Divines is that he who denyes one article of Faith believes none at all with Christian or supernaturall beliefe This is most true for to believe like a Christian is to believe the mysteries of Christian Religion because they are sufficiently proposed as Divine Revelation by the testimony of the Church not of every Church but of the true Catholick one which onely giveth lawfull authority and sends Preachers and Doctors to instruct the people God hath not promised his helpe and supernaturall inspiâ—ations which are necessary to believe with Christian Faith to them who are unsent uncalled unconsecrated but onely to such lawfull Ministers as are appointed and ordained by them who derive their Doctrine and succession from the Apostles through a never interrupted line That no Church but the Roman Catholick doth propose sufficiently as Divine Revelation the Doctrine which they preach hath been proved in the 8. Chapt. whence it followeth that out of the Roman Catholick Church there can be no true Faith nor salvation and that to deny one article of Faith in the least matter is to deny all because the motive of our beliefe is denyed as much in a little matter as in the greatest See the 7. Chap. The motive being denyed or rejected nothing can be believed with Christian Faith because of the motive depends all An infallible argument of denying the motive of Christian Faith is to contemne the testimony of that Congregation of men which hath the signes of being the true Catholick Church as a legall and orderly succession of Doctors and Doctrine conversion of Nations Miracles and markes of so eminent and extraordinary sanctity of life that the like was never found in Heathen Philosophers but farre exceeds all that hath beene discovered in any that wanted supurnaturall grace as is the entire renunciation of all the worldly pleasure profit and honour an inflamed affection towards God and his glory with an unfatigable zeale of the salvation of soules and desire of suffering for Christs sake whereof we Catholicks alone have an infinite number of undeniable examples No other but the Roman Church can as much as pretend to have the signes of the true Church as miracles remarkable either in number or quality c. Therefore whosoever denyes one article of the Roman Religion denyth also the motive of Catholick Faith which as we have proved is proposed onely by the testimony of the Roman Catholick Church and consequently he who doth not stick to it believes nothing at all with Christian and supernaturall Faith The very Devils and damned soules have the Protestant or historicall beliefe God who is Author of all graces and favours both naturall and supernaturall grant to all Protestants that pretious gift of Faith without which it is impossible to please His Divine Majesty or to obtaine the end whereunto we were all created FINIS