faith were delivered to them by the Apostles to the Apostles by Christ to Christ by God the fountain of all truth CHAP. IX That there is and ever shall be a visible Church upon earth And that this Church is one holy Catholique and Apostolique § 1. NOw considering all that hath been said before the summe whereof is this That we have no meanes to know certainly the doctrines of the Apostles but only the Tradition of the Church and that that Tradition is and ought to be infallible hence I conceived that this consequence was necessary that there should be and is alwaies a visible Church in the world to whose Traditions men might cleave and that this Church is one universall Apostolicall Holy First there is alwaies a true Church of Christ in the world for if there be no meanes for men to know that Scriptures and all other Articles came from Christ and his Apostles and so consequently from God but the Tradition of the Church then there must needs be in all ages a Church receiving and delivering these Traditions else men in some age since Christ should have been destitute of the ordinary meanes of salvation because they had no meanes to know assuredly the doctrines of Christianity without assured faith whereof no man can be saved And although a false Church may deliver the true Word of God as it is contained in the Scripture and the Creed yea even a Jew or Heathen may do so for this is but casuall yet none but a true Church can deliver the Word of God with assurance to the receiver that the text is incorrupt thereby binding him to the belief thereof Now it is necessary that men have the true Scripture not only casually but they must be sure the Text thereof be uncorrupt therefore there must be a true unerring Church whose authority is so aut hentique that it is a sufficient warrant for men to believe the doctrine shee delivers to come from the Apostles Secondly this Church must be alwaies visible and conspicuous For the Traditions of the Church must ever be famous and most notoriously known in the world that a Christian may truly say with S. Augustine De utilit Cred. c. 14. I believe nothing but the consent of Nations and Countries and most celebrious fame Now if the Church were at any time invisible or very secret and hidden then could not her Traditions be famously known nor could men that were willing to submit themselves to her directions know where to find her out of whose communion they cannot attain salvation Thirdly this Church is Apostolicall that is derived from the Apostolicall Sea by the succession of Bishops and Pastors for else how can we be assured that we have the Apostles doctrine It must be one generation that must certifie another and if there should be any interruption in that time all might be lost and changed And how could the Tradition of Christian Doctrine be notoriously Apostolicall if the Church delivering the same hath not a manifest and conspicuous pedigree and derivation from the Apostles Which is a convincing argument used by S. Augustine Epist 48. circa med How doe we trust out of the divine writings that we have manifestly received Christ if we have not also from thence manifestly received his Church The Church that hath a lineall succession of Bishops from the Apostles famous and illustrious whereof not one hath been opposite in Religion to his immediate predecessor proves evidently that this Church hath the Doctrine of the Apostles For as in the rank of three hundred stones ranged in order if no two stones be found in that line of different colour then if the first be white the second is white and so the rest unto the last even so if there be a succession of three hundred Bishops all of the same Religion if the first have the Religion of the Apostles and S. Peter the second hath and so the rest even unto the last Fourthly this Church is one that is all the Pastors and Preachers deliver and consequently all her Disciples and children believe one and the same Faith For if the Preachers and Pastors of the Church disagree about matters which they preach as necessary points of Faith they lose all their credit and authority for who will believe witnesses on their own words if they disagree in their testimony Fifthly I infer that this Church is universall spread over all Nations that she may be said to be every where morally speaking that is according to common humane account by which a thing diffused over a great part of the world and famously knowne is said to be every where In this manner the Apostle said that the faith of the Romans was renowned in the whole world Rom. 1.12 that so the whole world may take notice of her as of a worthy and credible witnesse of Christian Tradition howsoever her outward glory and splendour peace and tranquillity in some places and at some times be more or lesse eclipsed and shee be not alwaies in all places at once And the reason of this perpetuall visible universality is because the Tradition of the Church is the sole ordinary meanes of faith toward the Word of God This Tradition therefore must be so delivered as that it may be known to all men seeing God will have all men without exception of any nation to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth 1. Tim. 2.4 which they cannot do unlesse the Church be so diffused in the world that all known nations may take notice of her And Gods will that all men should be saved though it be but an antecedent will as Schoolemen call it yet it inferreth two things which some Protestants deny first the salvation of all men secondly the meanes of their salvation In respect of the meanes the will of God is absolute that all men in some sort or other have sufficient meanes of salvation In respect of the end to wit the salvation of all men the will of God is not absolute but as Schoolemen say virtually conditionall that is God hath a will that all men be saved as much as lies in him if the course of his providence be not intercepted and men will cooperate with his grace And the reason why some Nations hear not the Gospell and Word of God is not the defect of his Church but the want of working in the naturall causes to discover such Countries which defect God will not ever miraculously supply But if the Church were invisible to the world and hoarded up her Religion to her selfe either not daring or not willing to professe and preach the same unto others Nations may be knowne and yet the Word of God not known to them If therefore this Church should be hidden for a long time mens souls should perish not through defect in the naturall causes but only through the hiddennesse obscurity and wretchednesse of the supernaturall meanes to wit of the Church not
thing invisible and according to this notion the Catholique Church is proposed in the Creed Secondly propositions of Faith must be invisible according to the Predicate or thing believed but not alwaies according to the Subject or thing whereof we believe some other thing The things the Apostles believed of Christ to wit that he was the Son of God the Saviour of the world were things invisible but the subject and person of whom they did believe these things was visible to them yea God did of purpose by his Prophets foretell certain tokens whereby that subject might by sense be seen and discerned from all other that might pretend the name of Christ or else his comming into the world to teach the truth had been to little purpose In this sort the Predicate or thing believed in this Article the Holy Catholique Church to wit Holy is invisible but the Subject to wit the Catholique Church which we affirme and believe to be holy in her doctrine is visible and conspicuous to all Yea God hath of purpose foretold signes tokens whereby shee may by sense be cleerly discerned from all other that may pretend to the title of Catholique For were not this subject the Holy Catholique Church which we believe to be holy and infallible in her teaching visible and discernable from all other that pretend to that title of what use were it to believe that there is such an infallible teaching Church in the world hidden we know not where like a Candle under a Bushell or a needle in a bottle of hey § 3. Secondly if there must be alwaies in the world as was proved before one holy Catholique and Apostolique Church that is a Church delivering doctrines uniformly thereby making them credible universally thereby making them famously known to mankind holily so making them certain and such as that on them we may securely rely Apostolically so making them flow in the channel of a never-interrupted succession of Bisbops from the Apostles then this Church must be either the Roman or the Protestant or some other opposite to both Protestants cannot say a Church opposite to both for then they should be condemned in their own judgement and be bound to conforme themselves to that Church which can be no other but the Grecian a Church holding as many doctrines which the Protestants dislike as the Church of Rome as might easily be proved if need were It is further manifest that the Protestants are not this One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church since their revolt and separation from the Church of Rome because in that very act of separation they did extinguish all these titles for they changed the doctrines they once held they forsook the body whereof they were Members brake off from the stock of that tree whereof they were branches neither in their departure did they joyne themselves with any other Church different from the Roman professing the particular Protestant doctrines so that they made a new Church of their own not agreeing in all points of faith with any that went before neither have they which have come after them as there are very many Sects risen out of the first Protestant agreed with them And therefore there is none or the Roman is the One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church § 4. Thirdly the Protestants had the Holy Scripture from the Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church otherwise they cannot be sure that they are the true Scriptures of the Apostles because the testimony and Tradition of any other Church is fallible and may deceive them And if it may for ought they know it hath seeing they lived not in the Apostles daies thereby to make themselves certain thereof and so they will be altogether uncertain of that which they make the only object of their faith Luther cont Anab To. 7. German Ien fol. 169. whitaker de Eccles l. 3. p. 369. Now it is most certain that they had the Scriptures from the Roman Church acknowledged by Luther himselfe and also by Doctor Whitaker only they took the wicked boldnesse to cancell some parts thereof therefore they must either acknowledge that they are not sure that the Scripture is the Word of God or that the Church of Rome from whom they received it is the true Church And if the true Church hath delivered the true Text of Scripture then hath she also together with the true Text delivered the true Apostolicall sense because the Apostles themselves did not deliver to her the bare Text but with it the true sense to be delivered perpetually to posterity not by making a large and entire comment of all difficult places but by delivering with the Text the sense also about the maine and principall points So that they who by Tradition receive from the Apostles the true Text must together with it receive the true sense Now principal * Chemnit exam Cont. Trid. p. 1. fol. 74. Doctor Bancroft in the Survey p. 379. Protestants affirme the former saying No man doubteth but the Primitive Church received from the Apostles and Apostolicall men not only the Text of Scripture but also the right and native sense Which is agreeable to the Doctrine of the * Vincentius Lyrinens cap. 2. Fathers that from the Apostles together with the Text descends the line of Apostolicall interpretation squared according to the Ecclesiasticall and Catholique sense Whereupon * Aug. de util cred c. 14. S. Augustine affirms the later that they that deliver the Text of Christs Gospell must also deliver the Exposition saying that he would sooner refuse to believe Christ than learn any thing concerning him but of those by whom he was brought to believe Christ For they that can deliver by uniform Tradition a false sense may also deliver a false Text as received from the Apostles their freedome from or liablenesse to error in both being equall If therefore the Church of Rome have delivered the true Text then she hath also delivered and preserved the true sense or else we are sure of neither and so she only is the true holy Catholique and Apostolique Church or else there is none § 5. Fourthly it is granted by Protestants that the Romane Church was once the true Church and it cannot be proved that she hath changed her doctrine since the Apostles time therefore she is still the same true Church And that she hath not changed her Doctrine is thus proved the Doctrines that have continued for divers ages in the Christian Church and no time of their beginning can be assigned must needs be Doctrines descending from the Apostles and unchanged and such are the Doctrines of the Church of Rome Than the Doctrines of the Romane Church which Protestants reject have been universally received for many hundreds of years is by many learned Protestants confessed Perkins saith * Expos of the Creed p. 307. 400. during the space of nine hundred years the Popish Heresie hath spread it selfe over the whole world and
much as concernes the full sense thereof be not all one to him as if they were in Hebrew I will set them downe according to the English Protestant translation and their number of the Psalmes Moab is my washpot over Edom will I cast out my shoe Psal 60.8 Also this Though ye have lien among the pots yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold Psal 68. v. 13. And this in the same Psalme v. 30. Rebuke the company of spearemen or as it is in the margent the beasts of the reeds the multitude of the bulls with the calves of the people c. Also this as it is in the Service book Or ever your pots be made hot with thornes so let indignation vex him even as a thing that is raw Psal 58.8 Therefore when Protestants read these and the like unintelligible places of Scripture to the unlearned people without interpreting them their end in reading being only the instruction of the people they truly fal into that error of which they untruely accuse us of speaking in the Church without the edification of the people So have many of them alone in their Sermons also speaking Latin or some other more unknown tongue without interpreting it Moreover the end of the Church meetings here spoken of by the Apostle was to instruct the ignorant and convert the infidels as may be gathered out of the 23. and 24. verses But the drift of the Church in appointing Liturgies and set formes of publique prayer and readings in the Masse was not for the peoples instruction though that as I have shewed be not neglected but for other reasons as first that by this publique service a continuall dayly tribute or homage of prayer and thanksgiving might be publiquely offered and payed unto God by his Priests Secondly that Christians by their personall assistance at this publike Service might professe exercise exterior acts of religion common with the whole Church represented by the Synaxis or ecclesiasticall meeting of every Christian Parish Finally that every Christian by his presence yeelding consent unto the publike prayers praises thanksgiving of the Church might participate of the graces benefits fruits which the Church doth ordinarily obtaine by her Liturgies publike oblations Now for these ends there is no need that every one should understand word by word the prayers that are said in the publike Liturgie but it sufficeth that the Church in generall and in particular Pastors Ecclesiastical persons dedicated to the Ministeries of the Church have particular notice of all the prayers that are said and that all may be taught and instructed in particular if they desire it and will be diligent therein But Protestants are more easily lead into this error of beleeving that the Church Service must be said in the vulgar tongue because they conceive the principall intent thereof with us is as it is with them for the instruction of the people For with them they doe not usually read the Church Prayers unlesse there be company to heare not is there any receiving of their Communion unlesse there be a number of the people to communicate But in the Catholique Church it is not so for with us the Office of the Church is said though there should be no people present for it is the Priests Office not the peoples and the daily Sacrifice is offered though there be no people present these are done to the service honour of God and for the benefit of the people too though not for their instruction and they are bound to be present at Masse only upon Sundaies other Holydaies yet may be present at any other time and are present more frequently numerously than the Protestants are at their Service or Sermons and for the substance of things done or said understand much more And all women children in their answers to the Priest are as ready if not more than ever they were in the use of the Liturgie of England And while they understand the generall purport of that which is said though they cannot apply every Latin word to its proper signification in the vulgar yet I suppose their understandings are more edified then theirs that know the signification of most of the words but not a jot of the inward sense meaning thereof as happens to the unlearned Protestants while they hear most parts of the Scripture read in the vulgar tongue Moreover most certain it is that the present custome of the Roman Church to have their Liturgie in a tongue not vulgar is agreeable to the custome of the Church in all ages and also of all Churches now in the world bearing the name of Christian though opposite to the Roman only those of the pretended Reformation excepted which constant concurrence is a great signe that the same is very conform unto reason not any where forbidden in the Word of God The Scripture was not read in any language but Greek over al the Churches of the East as S. Jerom praefat in Paralip witnesseth Also the Greek Liturgie of S. Basil was used in all the Churches of the East yet the Grecian was the vulgar language of all the countries of the East as is apparent by many testimonies particularly of the b Basil de Spiritu Sancto c. 19. Capadocians c d Hieron in Proâ—m 2. lib. com ad Galat. Act. Apost c. 1. v. 10 11. Mesapotamians d Galathians e Theodoret. in histor SS Patrum hist 13. Lycaonians f Hieron de Script Eccles in Anton. Egyptians Syrians yea that all these Countries most of the Orient had their proper language distinct from the Greek is manifest out of Acts 2. where divers nations of the East being assembled in Jerusalem at Pentecoste hearing the Apostles speak with tongues said How hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born Acts 2.8 No lesse manifest is it that the Latin Liturgie was common anciently to all those of the Western parts yea even in Africk as appears by testimonies of S. Augustine Epist 57 de doct Christ l. 2. c. 13. in Psal 123. in Exposit Ep. ad Rom. Ep. 173. Yet was not the Latin the vulgar language of all the nations of the West but every one had his owne distinct as now they have particularly in England the British language was then in use Nor yet was the Latin language vulgarly known in all these nations though understood by the beteer sort as it is at this day in all likelihood more generally known now than then in as much as the study of Arts Sciences communion in Religion are fitter meanes to spread a language than the sword of a Conqueror So that it is manifest that the Christian Church did never judge it requisite that the publike Liturgie should be turned into the mother tongue of every nation nor necessary that it should be presently
still that Scripture which giveth credit to the rest would require another Scripture to give credit to it * Ibid. p. 103. neither could we ever come to any pause whereon to rest unlesse besides Scripture there were something else acknowledged And this something is as he saith * Lib. 2. ca. 4. p. 300. The Ecclesiasticall tradition an argument whereby may be argued and convinced what books be Canonicall and what not § 8. Lastly some say they know the Scripture to be the Word of God by the Spirit of God prompting it to their soules And this of all the rest seemed to me most absurd For first I durst not arrogate this Spirit to my self nor could I know it was in any other His saying the Spirit told him the Scripture was the Word of God did not prove it nor had I reason to believe he had the Spirit more than I without some proof If a mans testimony in his owne case might thus be admitted I saw that no Heretique would want it to support his impiety by ascribing it to the Spirit as * Epiphanhaer 21. Simon Magus did only this H. Spirit he believed to be his Concubine Helena and Protestants ascribe the title of the Spirit to their private fancies If I should have said that I know by the suggestion of Gods Spirit that this or that part of Scripture or that none of it was the Word of God my proof was as good to him as his to me For although the testimony of the Spirit of God be a sure witnesse to him that hath it yet it is none to others unlesse he can prove he hath it by some miraculous effect And without this kind of proof every prudent man hath reason to believe that such a boaster is a lier and intends to deceive others as it is likely of the first Authors of Heresies or else that he deceives himselfe by a strong operation of his fancy which he calls the Spirit because he is told by the doctrine of some Protestants that he must feel that he hath the Spirit as in particular concerning the assurance of his salvation desirous then to be in the right way that which he would have he perswades himself he hath because else he finds himselfe at a losse which begets a horror in him Which to avoid he flies to this pitifull refuge being the best he is instructed to that he may have some stay for his belief and repose for his soul And this happens commonly and most strongly to those that have some zeal but little wit on whom therefore the reflection of their fancy is the stronger and works upon them as upon some I have read and heard of who by their eager desire to be so have strongly conceited themselves to be indeed Kings and Princes and other kind of great and rich men when truly and in all other mens judgements they were either mad-men or fools So that this I perceived was to open a gap to any mans fantasticall pretence whatsoever who had the impudence to ascribe it to the Spirit of God Nor is there any peaceable way to compose the differences amongst men of this nature for each one pretending the Spirit he hath no reason to yeeld to another the holy Spirit being an infallible director wheresoever it is yet when it is different in different men who pretend to it as it often falls out it is a certaine signe that one of them is deceived and both are deceived in the opinion of each other yet neither yeelding to other the contention ends in the action of Zedekiah against the Prophet Micheas who gave him a box on the eare and said 2 Chron. 18.23 Which way passed the Spirit of our Lord from me that it should speake to thee And so it hath fallen out amongst those that derive their knowledge this way that they end their differences by blowes and conquests not by Councels and miracles Plut. And as the sonnes of Pyrrhus asking him who should succeed him in his Kingdome he answered he that hath the sharpest sword so if it be demanded amongst them who hath the Spirit of God and consequently the true Religion It must be answered He that hath the most strength of armes to maintaine it But S. Peter did otherwise who provoked by Simon Magus proved that he had the Spirit of God by raising up a childe from death Egesippus which the other with all his Magick could not do who also challenging S. Peter to fly from the Capitol to Mount Aventine while he was doing so by the prayer of S. Peter he came tumbling down and brake his leg whereof he soone after died If men that boast of the Spirit cannot this way prove it the saying of S. Augustine is appliable unto them * Tract 45. in Ioan. There are innumerable who do not only boast that they are Videntes or Prophets but will seem to be illuminated or enlightned by Christ but indeed are Heretiques § 5. Yet most certain it is that no man can believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God but by the Spirit of God inclining him thereunto for as the Apostle saith Ephes 2.8 Faith is the gift of God But there are two kinds of inspiration of the Spirit of God one immediate without the concourse of any externall ground of assurance the other mediate moving the heart to adhere to an externall ground of assurance making it to apprehend divinely of the authority thereof they that challenge the first are Enthusiasts and run into all the fore-mentioned absurdities they that take the latter way must besides their inward perswasion have an externall ground of belief and then what is there so high and sufficient as the testimony of Vniversall Tradition Agreeable whereunto Hooker saith * Eccles Pol lib. 2. sect 7.8 The outward letter sealed with the inward witnesse of the Spirit is not a sufficient warrant for every particular man to judge and approve the Scripture to be Canonicall the Gospell it self to be the Gospell of Christ * lib. 3. sect 3. but the authority of Gods Church as he saith is necessarily required thereunto § 9. And though it were true that we might know the Scripture to be the word of God without the testimony of the Church yet it doth no where appear that the Scripture is the whole word of God and containes all that the Apostles left unto the Church for their direction so that my first Quere would still be unsatisfied to wit how we should know the whole word of God which the Apostles taught For even that word which is written doth tell us that all is not written and therefore doth S. Paul exhort us to keepe both the written and unwritten Stand fast saith he and keepe the traditions which you have learned whether by word or by our Epistle 2 Thes 2.15 It is manifest that the first Church of God from the creation untill Moses which was about the space
of two thousand years had no word of God but that which was unwritten which we call Tradition the Church of the Jewes had Scripture but with it Tradition as the prayer of Elias concerning raine Jam. 5.15 The contention of the Archangel S. Michael and the Devill about the body of Moses Jude v. 9. with others and of the Scripture both Old and New many books are lost as many Parables and Verses of Salomon 3 King 3.32 with many other books and S. Paul wrote an Epistle to the Laodiceans Col. 4.16 and another to the Corinthians which are not extant 1 Cor. 5.9 And seeing we have not the whole Canon of the Scripture how can we be sure that that part which we have conteineth all that we are bound to believe and do we do not read that the Apostles were sent to write but to preach and S. John denies that he had expressed in writing all that he had to say Having more things to write unto you saith he I would not by paper and inke for I hope that I shall be with you and speake mouth to mouth that your joy may be full Now that these things that the Apostles did not write but teach by word of mouth were matters also of weight and belonging to Faith S. Paul assures us in these words Night and day more abundantly praying that we may see your face and may accomplish those things that want of your faith 1 Thes 3.10 By which it is evident that the Apostles besides their writings did preach other things which were wanting to their faith § 10. Nor did the Apostles surely intend to write all points of faith for if they had it is probable that they all together or some one of them would have done it purposely punctually and methodically and declared so much unto the world But we know the contrary to wit that they did not write all by their own confession and that which they did write was but accidentall and upon particular occasions as Hooker affirmes Eccles Pol. l. 1. sect 15. p. 37. The severall Books of Scripture are written upon severall occasions and particular purpose which occasions if they had not happened it is most likely that they had not written that which they did For instance the Epistles of S. Peter James John and Jude were written against certain Heretikes who mis-understanding S. Paul did thereupon teach That faith onely without works sufficed to salvation of which very point S. Augustine saith Because this opinion was then begun De fide operibus c. 14. other Apostolicall Epistles of Peter John James Jude do chiefly direct their intentions against it that they might strongly confirm Faith without works to profit nothing S. John also did preach the Gospell till his last age which was very long without writing any Scripture and took occasion to write as S. Ierome affirmes by reason of the heresie of the Ebionites De Scriptoribus Eccles which then brake out The like might be shewed of all the rest And lastly which is worth the observation all the Epistles are written to such persons onely as were already converted to the Christian Faith therefore they were written not so much to instruct Tom. 2. l. de Eccles fol. 43. as to confirme as Zuinglius also confesseth § 11. By all which it is evident so far as we can see that the Apostles and Evangelists did write their books not by any command from Christ but upon some accidentall occasion moving them thereunto Wherein one and the same matter is often repeated as in S. Pauls Epistle to the Romans and to the Galatians and also in all the Evangelists and many other things are omitted as a world of works which our Saviour did as S. John testifieth 2. John 21.25 and which the Apostles did also the small book of their Acts being too little to expresse all their actions and also the things which S. Paul ordained in the Church of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.34 by which it is manifest that they neither intended any compleat Ecclesiasticall history nor body of divinity containing all matters of faith and practice So that it did neither appear to me that the Scripture contained all the doctrine of salvation that the Apostles taught nor yet any of it because I could not see by the directions that Protestants gave me whether the Scripture were the Word of God or no. CHAP. III. Of the insufficiency of the Protestants meanes to find out the true sense of the Scriptures And of the absurdity of their assertion that all points necessary to salvation are clear and manifest § 1. AS to know the letter of the Scripture so to know the meaning thereof I found a matter of great difficulty agreeable to S. Peter who saith speaking of S. Pauls Epistles 2 Pet. 3.16 In which are certain things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable deprave as also the rest of the Scriptures to their own damnation But * Falke Con. Rhē Test in 2 Pet. cap. 3. Morton Apol. part 1. lib. 1. cap. 19. VVhitaker contro◠2. q. 5. c. 7. p. 513. Protestants to avoid their dependence on the Church for the interpretation thereof say that all things necessity to salvation are easie to be understood even by the most unlearned Reader But they never yet expressed what points were necessary to salvation and what not nor have given any rule by by which it might be found out but have left themselves the liberty of adding to or substracting from that title what and whensoever they pleased And who seeth not that with this device they may exclude if they please almost all the points of Christian belief and practise § 2. Wonderfull confusion I found herein for here the understanding of the most unlearned Reader is made the size of things necessary to salvation and if it be a measure unto all men then the most learned Clerk is bound to believe no more than the most unlearned peasant that can but read and the most unlearned need not the help of the learned for the understanding of things necessary but can find them out by his own reading So that you must take the arrantest dunce in their Church that can read and after he hath diligently perused the Bible and prayed for understanding therein that which he understands must be accounted necessary to salvation and no more Surely me thinks they are to blame that have not for the greater credit and cleernesse of their cause made this tryall upon some silly fellow and from his mouth have set downe their points necessary to salvation But by this it appears that they are willing to draw the matters necessary to salvation for their great ease into a very narrow compasse and make the same measure serve the silliest clown and the greatest Clerk which is uncomly And coming closer to the matter I have known some affirm which I believe is the opinion of very many that to believe
being no such plaine places in many cases to be found which they themselves prove by their disagreement about the sense of many places Therefore to allay the unreasonablenesse of this assertion they add that it is Scripture diligently read by us and one place conferred with another all circumstances weighed and much prayer used which is in effect that not the Scripture it selfe but they interpret the Scripture by the aforesaid meanes § 6. But all these waies of study and conference skill in the tongues or the like are but humane endeavours and subject to error yea though much fervour of prayer be mixed therewith and such as the meanes are such of necessity must be the interpretation and determination but the meanes are uncertaine doubtfull and fallible therefore such must be the interpretation and if it be uncertaine it may be false and whether it be so or no Protestants have no way to discover but by the Spirit as he instructs every particular man whose insufficiency I found in my former consideration of the meanes to know the Scripture to be the Word of God And if it cannot assure me of the letter of Gods Word no more can it of the meaning considering that I can neither know whether another have the Spirit nor yet whether I have it my selfe or no without some miraculous revelation for all other proofs of having the direction of the Spirit are but humane and so subject to deceipt but miracles we are sure are from God because they exceed all humane and created power § 7. And seeing Protestants ground their salvation upon faith onely which as they say doth onely justifie and faith upon Scripture only which according to them containes all things necessary to be believed and the Scripture and sense thereof upon the private Spirit only by which they expound the Scripture it followes that the private Spirit is the sole or principall ground to them of the sense of Scripture the Scriptures sense the like ground of their faith and this their faith the like ground of their salvation therefore no Protestant can have greater certainty of his faith or salvation then he hath of this private Spirit whereof seeing he hath none either from Scripture Church Councells Fathers common sense or experience it must needs follow that he hath certainty of nothing and that this relying upon the private Spirit must needs plunge him into infinite and abominable errors CHAP. IV. Of the vanity and impiety of those who affirm that each mans particular reason is the last Judge and Interpreter of Scripture and his guide in all things which he is bound to believe and know And that the Catholike Church is the sole Judge § 1. FInally Chillingworth the last reformer and calciner of the Protestant Religion seeing the weaknesse of all the former pretences hath boldly and roundly reduced all to one only principle and that is of naturall reason affirming that our belief of the Scripture to be the Word of God and also our belief of the Scripture in every particular part thereof depends upon each mans reason and discourse beyond which or different from which he is not bound to believe a title Yet he doth not say that this way is infallible but because all wayes else are fallible as he supposes and this the onely way God hath given us to be guided by we must be herewith contented and God also must be contented herewith in us and give salvation to those that believe and do according to their best understanding And this opinion I observed had got a large possession in the minds of Protestants especially of the Clergy and Gentry whose ingenuous education gave them the highest claime to the exercise of reason who were therefore very glad to embrace such a principle of Religion as of which they accounted themselves the chiefest Masters § 2. This conceipt seemed to me no lesse absurd and much more insolent than any of the other for the other did seem at least to ascribe our knowledge of the Scripture and sense thereof to God either speaking in the Scripture or by his Spirit speaking to their soules or concurring with their humane endeavours though in conclusion they drew it to the determination of their owne fancies But this man more impiously hardy than all that went before him doth directly and in plaine termes attribute all the assurance we have of the Word of God the director to salvation unto our selves and that too as we are meer men And this resolving of faith not into Authority but into reason and that not as preparing or inducing us to believe which Catholiques allow but as the maine ground and strongest pillar of our faith and the dependence of faith upon reason as the Conclusion on the premises is a doctrine incredibly pernicious and the source of monstrous impieties And for this purpose he builds much upon this * Pag. 36. n. 8. Axiome we cannot possibly by naturall meanes be more certaine of the conclusion than of the weaker of the premises as a river will not rise higher than the fountaine from whence it flowes Hence in the same place he inferres that the certainty of Christian faith can be but morall and humane and not absolutely infallible Therefore as an instance to the same purpose he saith * Pag. 116. We have as great reason to believe there was such a man as Henry the eight King of England as that Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate And in larger explication of this his doctrine he saith If upon reasons seeming to my understanding very good I have made choice of a guide or rule for my directions in matters of faith when afterwards I discover that this guide or rule leads me to believe one or more points which in the best judgement that I can frame I have stronger reason to reject than I had to accept my former rule I may and ought to forsake that rule as false and erroneous otherwise I should be convinced not to follow reason but some setled resolution to hold fast whatsoever I had once apprehended From which wild and vast principle doth follow that if the Scripture for example propound things seeming more contrary to any mans reason and opinion than the inducements which first moved him to believe Scripture were in his opinion strong and convincing he must reject the Scripture as an erroneus rule and adhere to his owne reason and discourse as his last and safest guide Especially considering that according to him the motives for which we believe the Scripture are but probable and by consequence subject to falshood which in all reason must give place to reasons seeming demonstrative and convincing as there will not want many such against the highest mysteries of Christian faith if once we professe our assent to them must be resolved into natural discourse For for what reason do the Socinians and such like deny the misteries of the blessed Trinity the Diety of our blessed Saviour
power thereof to be extinguished by permitting damnable errors in the whole Church and that soon after his departure as some Protestants say and not to recover light for twelve or fourteen hundred years together especially considering there was no possible meanes for any man to know the contrary there was no society of men that taught otherwise and if at any time there started up any they were condemned of error by all their fellow Christians and in processe of time melted from the face of the earth The Scripture if that were the means as Protestants pretend not being printed the invention of Printing not being in the world till about two hundred years ago and the Bibles that were written being but few by reason of the great labour of writing them and those that were not purchaseable but by few because of their price nor legible but by fewer because they were not printed but written and lastly not to be knowne to be the Word of God as I have shewed before but by the testimony of those men who they say were corrupted who having corrupted the doctrine might with much more ease have extinguished or corrupted the Text and made them speak what they pleased it being known to far fewer than the doctrine was it being difficult to obtaine uncertain whether it were right and very obscure in its meaning so that if they had been guilty of changing the Apostles doctrine they could easily have razed out all those places which Protestants urge against them and so have prevented the strange and notable discovery that the Protestants think they have made of their errors And if they say that God by his providence preserved the Scripture both from extinction and corruption may not we much more reasonably say having warrant for it out of the Scripture also whereas they have no warrant for the preservation of the Text that God by the same providence did and will alwaies preserve his Church from corruption which is a thing much more easily known than the Scripture consisting of a living multitude can expresse it self more plainly This infallibility in the mouth and Tradition of the Church the Prophet assureth Esa 59.21 My Spirit which is upon thee and the words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed from hence forth for ever And therfore S. Augustine saith Aug. Ep. 118. that to dispute against the whole Church is insolent madnesse § 4. To know divine and supernaturall truth by the light and lustre of the doctrine belongs to the Church triumphant Inward assurance without an externall infallible ground is proper to Prophets and Apostles the first publishers of Religion and seeing that God doth not now instruct either of these waies as I have shewed but by an externall infallible ground and this being the Tradition of the Church it followes that he must preserve it from error and likewise render the Church it selfe alwaies conspicuous that it may be discerned by sensible markes of which we shall speake anon And he is also bound by his providence to assist men in the finding out of this Church when they apply their best diligence thereunto that so they be not deceived And whereas some of the more learned Protestants say that though they have no infallible ground besides the teaching of the Spirit yet they are not taught immediatly by propheticall manner because they are also taught by an externall probable though not infallible motive to wit the Churches tradition I conceive that except they assigne an externall infallible meanes besides Gods inward teaching they cannot avoid the challenging of immediate revelation For whosoever knowes things assuredly by the inward teaching of the Spirit without an externall infallible motive unto which he doth adhere is assured prophetically though he have some externall probable motives to direct his belief S. Peter had some come conjecturall signes of Symon Magus his preversenesse and incorrigible malice yet seeing he knew it assuredly we believe he knew it by the light of prophecy because beside inward assurance he had no externall infallible ground If one see a man give almes publiquely though he see probable signes and tokens that he doth it out of vaine glory yet cannot he be sure thereof but by the light of immediate revelation because the other tokens are not grounds sufficient to make him certain For if a man be sure and have no certain ground of this assurance out of his own heart it is cleer that he is assured immediately and only by Gods inward inspiration Wherefore Protestants if they will disclaime immediate revelation in deed not in words only they must either grant Tradition to be infallible or else assigne some externall infallible ground besides Tradition whereby they are taught what Scriptures the Apostles delivered Lastly I was perswaded of the Churches infallibility in her Traditions and Doctrines because she is endowed with the power of miracles which wheresoere they are which I shall hereafter examine do both prove that that society of Christians is the true Church and that that Church is infallible in all that she proposes as the Word of God And the reason is because God who is truth it self cannot set his hand and seal that is miracles and works proper to himself to warrant and authorize a falshood invented by men Against which * Feild lib. 3. cap 15. Whites Reply p 216. Protestants object and say that miracles are only probable and not sufficient testimonies of divine doctrine alleadging Bellarmine who saith we cannot know evidently that miracles are true for if we did we should know evidently that our faith is true and so it should not be faith To which may be answered that such evidence as doth exclude the necessity of pious affection and reverence to Gods Word evidence that considering the imperfection of humane understanding may enforce men to believe cannot stand with true faith If we know by Mathematicall or Metaphysicall evidence that the miracles done in the Church were true this evidence would compell men to believe and to overcome the naturall obscurity and seeming impossibility of the Catholique Doctrine therefore as Bellarmine saith we cannot be Mathematically and altogether infallibly sure by the light of nature that miracles are true Notwithstanding it cannot be denied in reason what our Saviour affirmes that miracles are a sufficient testimony binding men to believe the very works that I do do bear witnesse of me that the Father hath sent me Joh. 5.36 and consequently that we may know them to be true by Physicall evidence as we are sure of things we see with our eyes and handle with our hands as S. John saith 1 Epist 1.1 what we have seen with our eyes what we have beheld and our hands have handled of the word of life Or we may be as sure of Miracles as we are of such things as
being once evident to the world are by the worlds full report declared unto us which is a morall infallibility So that if we have not a Metaphysicall or Mathematicall infallibility of the truth of Miracles yet we have a Physicall and morall infallibilitie as much as we have of any thing we either hear or see Nor doth this Physicall evidence take away the merit of faith because this evidence not being altogether and in the highest degree infallible in it self for our senses may somtimes be deceived it is not sufficient to conquer the naturall obscurity darknesse and seeming falshood of things to be believed upon the testimony of those miracles For the mystery of the Trinity of the Incarnation Reall presence and the like seem as far above the reach of reason as any Miracle can seem evident to sense hence when faith is proposed by Miracles there ariseth a conflict betwixt the seeming evidence of the Miracles and the seeming falshood and darknesse of Catholique Doctrine against which obscurity a man cannot get the victory by the sole evidence of miracles except he be inwardly assisted by the light of Gods Spirit moving him by pious affection to cleave to the Doctrine which is by so cleer testimony proved to be his Word Even as a man shut up in a chamber with two lights whereof the one makes the wall seem white the other blew cannot be firmly assured what colour it is untill day-light enter and obscuring both those lights discover the truth so a man looking upon Christian Doctrines by the light of miracles done to prove them will be moved to judge them to be truth but looking upon them through the evidence of their seeming impossibilities unto reason they will seem false nor will he be able firmly to resolve for the side of faith untill the light of divine grace enter into his heart making him prefer through pious reverence to God the so-proposed authority of his Word before the seeming impossibility to mans reason CHAP. VII That Catholique Tradition is the onely firm foundation and motive to induce us to beleeve that the Apostles received their doctrine from Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ from God the Father And what are the meanes by which this doctrine is derived downe to us § 1. AS Catholique Tradition is infallible in it self so is it most necessary for us there being no other certaine testimony to any prudent man no firme ground or motive to believe that the Primitive Church received her doctrine from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God nor no way to bring it downe from those times to these but only the Tradition of the Church For we may observe three properties of the doctrine of faith to be true to be revealed of God to be preached and delivered by the Apostles The highest ground by which a man is persuaded that his faith is true is the authority of God speaking and revealing it the highest proof by which a man is assured that his faith is revealed is the authority of Christ and his Apostles who delivered the same as descending from God but the highest ground that moveth a man to believe that his faith was preached by the Apostles is the perpetuall Tradition of the Church succeeding the Apostles unto this day assuring him so much according to the saying of * De praescr c. 21. 37. Tertullian who maketh this ladder of belief in this sort what I believe I received from the present Church the present from the Primitive the Primitive Church from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God and God the prime verity from no other fountaine different from his own infallible knowledge So that he that cleaveth not to the present Church firmely believing the Tradition thereof as being come down by succession is not so much as on the lowest step of the ladder that leads unto God the revealer of saving truth successive Tradition unwritten being the last and finall ground whereon we believe that the points of our belief came from the Apostles which may be proved by these arguments § 2. First if the maine points of faith be to be believed to come from the Apostles because they are written in Scriptures and the Scriptures are believed to be the Word of God upon the report of universall Tradition then our belief that the things which we believe come from the Apostles and from God resteth upon the Tradition of the Church but it is most certaine that the Scriptures cannot be proved to have been delivered unto the Church by the Apostles but by the perpetuall Tradition unwritten conserved in the Church succeeding the Apostles all the other waies by which the Protestants endeavour to prove the Scripture to be the word of God being vaine and insufficient as I have proved before Secondly common and unlearned people which comprehend the greatest part of Christians may have true faith yet they cannot have it grounded on the Scripture for they can neither understand nor read it or if read it yet but in a vulgar language of the truth of whose translation they are not assured therefore must rely upon the testimony of the present Church that that which they believe is the Word of God Thirdly if all the maine and substantiall points of Christian faith must be believed before we can securely read and truly understand the holy Scripture than they are believed not upon Scripture but upon Tradition going before Scripture and that it is so is manifest because true faith is not built but upon Scripture truly understood according to the right sense thereof nor can we understand the Scripture aright unlesse we first know the main Articles of Faith which all are bound expresly to believe by which as by a rule we must regulate our selves in the interpretation of the Scripture otherwise without being setled in the rule of faith by Tradition men are apt to fall into grievous errors even against the main articles of the faith as of the Blessed Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God as experience doth sufficiently testifie so that reading and interpreting Scripture doth not make men Christians but supposeth them to be made so by Tradition at least for the main points such as every one is bound expresly to know Fourthly they to whom the Apostles wrote and delivered the Scripture were already converted to Christianity and instructed in all necessary points of faith and in the common practises of Christianity and so by what they knew by Tradition could easily interpret what was written but otherwise might easily have failed in the mainest points as some forsaking Tradition did for example the Arrians who were confuted by the Catholiques not by bare Scripture for of that the Arrians had plenty but as it was interpreted by Tradition Therefore none can be supposed to understand the Scripture aright so to know the true word and will of God but by being such as they were to whom the Apostles
delivered the Scripture that is first instructed by Tradition Otherwise they may easily erre in some chiefe articles of Faith any of which to erre in is damnable And I would faine know whether any understanding Protestant doth believe that if a Bible were given to a heathen or to one borne amongst themselves supposing he had not been trained up by Catechisme and other traditionall instruction whether I say he could out of that extract as points cleerly expressed therein the thirty nine Articles of the Church of England or the book called the Harmony of Confessions which is the profession of the faith of most of the Protestants of the world Lastly we cannot with modesty say that we are more able to understand Scripture than were our fore-fathers the ancient Doctors of the Church but they thought themselves unable to interpret Scripture by conference of places or such like humane means without the light of Christian Doctrine before-hand knowne and firmly believed upon the Tradition of the Church witnesse * Ruf. Eccl. hist l. 2. c 9. S. Basil S. Gregory Nazianzene and * Orig. tract in Mat. 29. c. 23. Origen who thus writeth In our understanding of Scriptures we must not depart from the first Ecclesiasticall Tradition nor believe otherwise but as the Church of God hath by succession delivered to us therefore no man is able to interpret Scripture without the light and assistance of Christian faith afore-hand received by the voice of the Church delivering what shee received from her ancestors Dangerously and high boldnesse then it is for men of this age so to presume on their owne interpretations of Scripture gotten by humane meanes as to make them over-ballance a thousand * Luther de capt Babil Tom. 2. VVittenberg p. 344. Cyprians Augustines Churches and Traditions § 3. From all which I observed that the Protestants do not well understand that place of Scripture so frequently urged by them against Tradition where S. Paul saith to Timothy Thou hast known the holy Scriptures from thy childhood which are able to instruct thee or make thee wise unto salvation Inferring from hence that the Scriptures are able to make all men wise unto salvation whereas this was spoken with relation to Timothy only and to such as agree with him in the cause for which this saying is true in him that is such as were aforehand instructed by Tradition and did firmly believe all substantiall Doctrines of faith and know the necessary practises of Christian Discipline even as what God said to Abraham I am thy protector and thy exceeding great reward Gen. 15.1 is not appliable to all men absolutely but only to all men that were of the same qualification that is faithfull and devout as he was Moreover the Apostle in that place speaketh only of the Scriptures of the Old Testament for the New was not written in the infancy of Timothy nor some of it at this very time that these words were written and these Scriptures he affirmes also to instruct Timothy not by themselves alone but by faith which is in Christ Jesus that is joyned with the doctrine of the Christian faith which Timothy had heard and believed on the voice of Tradition And the following words of the Apostle are with equall confidence insisted on All Scripture inspired of God is profitable to teach c. is very unprofitable for their purpose seeing that profitable can by no means be stretcht to signifie sufficient as they would have it and that for every man but particularly for him that is HOMO DEI a man of God that is one already instructed by Tradition in all the main points of Christian faith and godly life such an one as Timothy was Thus indeed the Scriptures may be granted sufficient joyned with Tradition but not alone And whereas there are some places of the Fathers alledged by Protestants to prove the Scriptures to be clear in all substantiall points they are to be understood as the Apostles words are with reference to such men who have been before instructed by Tradition even as they that hear Aristotle explicate himself by word of mouth may easily understand his books of nature which are very hard to be understood of them that never heard his explication either from his own mouth or by Tradition from his Schollers § 4. Whereas some Protestants say that the difficult places of Scripture are unfolded a VVootton triall of the Romish c. p. 88. l. â—9 by Scripture and the rules of Logick b Field p. 281. lin 20. and by other things beside Scripture evident in the light of nature it seems to me very incongruous First because the rule of faith must be for the capacity of the unlearned as well as the learned and unlearned men cannot be sure of the infolded sense of the Scripture by Logicall deductions Secondly the Scripture it self sends us to supply her wants not to the rules of Logick but unto Tradition saying Hold the Traditions which ye have received by word or our Epistle 2 Thes 2.15 It sendeth us to the Church the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 which whosoever doth not heare is as a Heathen and a Publican Matth. 18.17 It did the same to the Jewes who had the Scriptures also saying Remember the old dayes think upon every generation ask thy father and he will declare unto thee the elders and they will tell thee Deut. 32.7 The same do the Fathers as I shall shew hereafter § 5. And whereas it is further objected that the Fathers disputed negatively from the Scripture against Heretiques thus Doctrine is not cleerly delivered in Scripture therefore it is not to be received as a matter of Faith we must know that the Fathers proceeded upon this supposition that was known to all and granted by the Heretiques themselves namely that the Doctrines they disputed against were not the Traditions of the Church and in this case they required the testimony of Scripture Yea more the Fathers did not onely require places of Scripture from the Heretiques by way of deduction and Logicall inference for to such all ancient Heretiques and Protestants now pretend wherewith they delude ignorant people but they required of them to shew their Doctrine in Scripture saith Irenaeus expresly and in termes and to prove it not by texts * Aug. de unitat Eccles cap. 5. which require sharpnesse of wit in the Auditors to judge who doth more probably interpret them not by places which require an interpreter one to make Logicall inferences upon the text but by places plaine manifest cleere which leave no place to contrary exposition and that no Sophistry can wrest them to other sense to the end that controversies which concern the salvation of soules be defined by Gods formall Word and not by deductions from it by rules of Logicke And even by this way of the Fathers arguing negatively from the Scripture the Protestant Religion is quite overthrowne for seeing nothing is
endewed with so much zeal and courage as to professe her Religion and to propagate it in the world which cannot be Therefore it is impossible that the true Church should not be ever universall and famously known Sixthly this Church is holy both in life and Doctrine Holy for life shining in all admirable sanctity the rayes whereof do overcome the hearts of the beholders such as the Holy Apostles gave example of as of poverty chastitie obedience charity in undergoing all forms of labour and danger for the safety of soules patience invincible in the rough handling of themselves by wonderfull fastings and all kind of austerities fortitude heroicall in suffering martyrdome not onely with patience but with joy though given them in all the most hideous shapes that mans imagination steeled with malice could invent And although this kind of sanctity does not shine in all the members of the Church but in the more eminent professors and principally in the Pastors yet if this kind of sanctity together with Miracles were wanting she could not be so sufficient a witnesse to Infidells who ordinarily are not won to the affection and admiration of Christianity but by beholding such wonders of power and sanctity in the Professors thereof Holy shee is also for doctrine in regard her traditions are divine and holy without commixture of error for if the Church could deliver any one or few errors intermingled with many truths her Traditions even of the truth were questionable and could not be believed upon her word Even as if we admit in Scripture any error in smaller matters we cannot be sure of its infallibility in matters of greatest moment as he that shall say Gods written word is false or uncertaine when it tells him that S. Paul left his cloake at Troas may also say with as much reason that it is false or uncertain when it tells him that Christ was borne of the Virgin Mary Even so he that grants that some part of Traditions or the Word of God unwritten may be false inferrs by consequence that every part thereof may be so and that because we have no antecedent ground or touch-stone to try Traditions by but they must be believed for their own sakes being therein more fundamentall than the Scripures which are not known to be Apostolicall but by Tradition whereas perpetuall Tradition is knowne to come from the Apostles by its own light for what can be more evident then that that is from the Apostles which is delivered as Apostolicall by perpetuall succession of Priests and people affirming and believing the same § 2. But against this truth that if the Church may erre in one thing neither wee nor shee can be sure that shee speakes truth in any thing Chillingworth makes these in my judgement impertinent interrogations A Judge may possibly erre in Judgement can he therefore never have assurance that he hath judged right A travayler may possibly mistake his way must I therefore be doubtfull whether I am in the right way from my hall to my chamber pag. 117. sect 106. In which he weakly falls into comparison betwixt matters which are the object of the sense or of the understanding and of faith which in this case have no proportion betwixt them For the doctrines of faith as they are of faith being altogether and all equally without the reach of our knowledge we have no way to attaine to but by the help of others whom we must absolutely believe and if we know that they may deliver that which is false to us wee can never be sure that any thing they deliver to us is not false unlesse we had some superiour rule to try and examine their Traditions by which certainly we have not Nor can the Church it selfe if shee may erre in the delivery of one thing be sure that shee doth not erre in every thing because shee hath no infallible rule to examine her doctrines by out of her selfe who if shee be assisted by the Holy Ghost cannot erre in any thing if not for ought shee knowes shee doth in all things Now that the Church is assisted by God and that mans reason cannot be the highest judge to whom the last appeal is made in matters of faith which descend from God I have shewed before As for a humane Judge as he may erre through ignorance wilfulnesse or negligence which to conceive of the Church is absurd yea blasphemous shee having Christ for her Head and the Holy Ghost for her Spirit so he cannot bee more certaine of the truth of his judgement than his reason can make him which will not reach to an absolute infallibility And as a travayler may mistake his way in one journey so he may in another if he have no more certainty nor better guide of the one way than of the other which is the Churches case in propounding and believing matters of faith revealed to her by God which like the Circumference from the Center are all equally distant from our knowledge and the Church hath an equall Prerogative of infallibility by the guidance of the Holy Ghost in all who therefore can erre in nothing or in all things which she saith she so receives and delivers Yet Chillingworth saith that his consequences are as like the other as an egge to an egge or milk to milk but more truly they are as like as an egge to an oyster or milk to ink § 3. And lest any Protestant who honours the Scriptures much with his lips though he be far removed with his heart should think that I am injurious to the Scripture in saying that Tradition is more fundamentall than Scripture it selfe I desire him to take notice that Tradition and Scripture according to different comparisons are equall and superior the one to the other Compare them in respect of certainty of truth they are equall both being the Word of God the one written the other unwritten and so both infinitely certain Compare them in respect of depth of sublimity and variety of doctrine the Scripture is far superiour to Tradition Tradition being plaine and easie doctrine concerning the common capitall and practicall Articles of Christianity whereas the Scripture is full of high hidden senses and furnished with great variety of examples discourses and all manner of learning Compare them in respect of antiquity and evidence of being the Apostles the Scripture is inferiour to Tradition in time and knowledge and cannot be proved directly to be the Apostles and therefore Gods but by Tradition As Philosophy is more perfect than Logicke and Rhetoricke than Grammar in respect of high and excellent knowledge yet Logicke is more prime originall and fundamentall than Philosophy Grammar than Rhetorique without the rules and principles whereof they cannot be learned Even so Tradition is more prime and originall than Scripture though Scripture in respect of depth and sublimity of discourse be more excellent then Tradition CHAP. X. That the Roman is that one holy Catholique
examine the matter and being infallibly assisted by the Spirit of truth which our Saviour promised should be with his Apostles to the end of the world that is with the Church their Successor which was to continue to the worlds end shee declares what is true and what is false as agreeing with or disagreeing from that doctrine which shee hath received from her Fore-fathers the Prophets and Apostles upon whom shee is built as S. Paul saith built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Ephes 2.20 For as in a building there is not the least stone which rests not upon the foundation so in the doctrine of the Catholique Church there is not the least point which is not grounded on or contained in that which was delivered by the Apostles For example in the principles of every Science are contained divers truths which may be drawn out of them by many severall conclusions one following another These conclusions were truths in themselves before though they did not so appear to us till wee saw the connexion they had with the premises and how they were contained in them And by the many severall conclusions so drawn the truth of those principles doth more shew it selfe but doth not receive any change in it selfe thereby even so in the prime principles of our faith revealed immediately by God and delivered to the Church are contained al truths that any way belong to our faith but it was not necessary that the Church should manifest all these at their first meeting in Councell but only so much in every severall Councell as should concerne the present occasion of their meeting which is some particular heresie or heresies then sprung up and so more according to the successive growth of heresies which when shee hath done shee cannot be charged with creating of a new faith or altering of the old but shee doth only out of old grounds and premises draw such conclusions as may serve to destroy new heresies and shew them to be contrary to the ancient faith In this manner the Church hath grown and increased in knowledge by degrees and shall still do so to the end of the world And as the sun spreads the raies of his light more and more betwixt morning and noon and his beames display themselves in a valley or some roome of a house where they did not before without any change of light in the sun himselfe So may the Church spread the light of her faith shewing such or such a point to be a divine truth which before was not known to be so or which though it were a divine truth in it selfe yet it was not so to us for want of sufficient proposall that is of the Churches wherein the Church resembles our Blessed Saviour her Lord and Spouse who though he never received the least increase of grace and knowledge from the first moment of his being conceived yet the Scripture saith He grew in wisdome and age and in favour with God and men Luc. 2.52 to wit because he shewed it more and more in his words and actions This also further appeares by the method which Catholique Fathers and Doctors observe in and out of Councells in proving and defining points of faith namely by having recourse to the authority of Gods Word conteined both in Scripture and Tradition and to the belief and practise of the Church in searching whereof the Holy Church joynes humane industry with Gods grace and assistance For when any question or doubt of faith ariseth particular Doctors severally dispute and write thereof then if further cause require the Holy Church assembles her Pastors and Doctors together in a generall Councell to examine and discusse the matter more fully as in that first Councell of the Apostles whereof the Scripture saith The Apostles and Elders assembled together to consider of this word Acts 15.6 The Pastors being thus come together and having the presence of our Saviour and his Holy Spirit according to his promise amongst them out of Scripture and Traditions joyning therewith the consent of holy Fathers and Doctors of foregoing times she doth infallibly resolve and determine the matter not as new but as ancient orthodox and derived from her forefathers making that which was ever in it selfe a divine truth so to appeare to us that now wee may no more make question thereof So that from hence it appeares that the Church makes no new Articles of faith such as then may be said to have their beginning but only explications and collections out of the old which were delivered to the Apostles and by them to us And though the Church doe thus grow in the knowledge of points of faith yet this is no newnesse of faith but a maintenance of the old with a kind of increase by way of explicating that which was involved cleering that which was obscure defining that which was undefined obliging men to believe more firmly and explicitly that which before they were not bound so to believe That is only to be called a new faith which is contrary to that which was held before or hath no connexion with it and when we cease to believe that which we believed before this indeed is change of faith the other is but encrease And if this encrease of faith by the declaration of Councells may be called a change and innovation of faith there is no Heretique but may challenge antiquity to himselfe and put novelty on the score of the Church For he may say such a thing for example that the Sonne is of the same substance with the Father was not held de fide a matter of faith before the Councell of Nice therefore it is new That Baptisme administred by Heretiques is good baptisme was not held as a matter of faith before the daies of S. Cyprian therefore it is new And the Heretique may say that he believes only that which was believed before such or such a Councell which he please for the case is alike in all and therefore he believes the antient Faith By which way of arguing he may renounce the decrees of all Councells as Novelties and maintaine many Heresies as the antient Faith Yea by this absurdity a man may deny divers Books of the Scripture as the Epistle to the Hebrewes the second Epistle of S. Peter the Epistle of S. Iames of S. Iude and the Apocalyps with some others because they were not admitted for Canonicall untill 300. or 400. yeares after they were written Yet when they were declared to be Canonicall there was no change of faith in the Church thereby for the believing of these Books was involved in this revealed Article I believe in God and the believing of them to be Canonicall was involved in this revealed Article I believe the holy Catholike Church onely hereby was an increase of the materiall object of our faith to us not in it selfe we being bound upon the declaration of the Church to believe that thing firmely and without dispute
TAU that is the picture of the Crosse had signed Let us rejoice therefore most dear brethren and let us lift up holy hands to heaven in the form of a Crosse when the devils shall see us so armed they shall be vanquished And note I pray by the way that some English Bibles doe leave out the letter TAU in this place of Ezekiel but how justly let any indifferent reader judge In the second age heare S. Justin Martyr speaking of the parts of dead beasts thus arguing e Ad quaest 28. Gentilium How is it not most absurd to account these things cleane by reason of the profit which is reaped of them and that the Greeks do detest the bodies and sepulchres of holy Martyrs which have power both to defend men from the snares of the Devills and to cure diseases which cannot be cured by the art of the Physitian In the first age S. Ignatius speaks thus f Epist ad Phil. ante med For the Prince of the world rejoyceth when one shall deny the Crosse For he knowes the confession of the Crosse to be his overthrow For that is a trophie against his power which when he shall see he trembles and hearing he feares § 6. Fourthly concerning Confession and Priestly Absolution in the fift age S. Augustine thus exhorteth g Homil. 49. ante med Do penance such as is done in the Church Let no man say to himself I doe secretly I do to God God knowes who pardons me that I do in my heart Is it therefore without cause said what you shall loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven Mat. 18.18 Are therefore the keyes given to the Church of God to no purpose Do we frustrate the Gospell of God do we frustrate the words of Christ In the fourth age S. Basil the great speakes thus i Suis regulis brevioribus interr 288. Men ought necessarily to open sinnes to them who are intrusted with the dispensation of the mysteries of God For truly we see that even those antients did follow this order in penance after which manner it is written in the Gospell that they did confesse their sinnes to John Mat. 3.6 and in the Acts ch 18. v. 18. to the Apostles themselves by whom also all were baptized In the third age S. Cyprian beseecheth them saying m Serm. de lapsis Let every one confesse his fault I intreat you brethren while as yet he that hath offended is in this life while his confession can be admitted while satisfaction and remission given by the Priests is gratefull to the Lord. In the second age Tertullian speaking against mens concealing part of their sins in Confession thus reproves them n lib. de poenit c. 10. The hiding of a sin doth promise plainly a great profit of bashfulnesse To wit surely if we shall steale any thing from humane knowledge we shall then also hide it from God The esteem of men and the knowledge of God are they so compared Is it better to lie hid damned than to be openly absolved It is a miserable thing so to come to Confession And in the first age S. Clement adviseth thus a Clem. Ro. Epist 1 If peradventure envy or infidelity or some of these evills which we have remembred above shall privily steale into any bodies hearts he that hath a care of his soule let him not be ashamed to confesse these things to him that hath authority that he may be cured by him by the Word of God and wholesome Counsell whereby he may by found faith and good works avoid the pains of eternall fire and attain to the everlasting rewards of life Now concerning Purgatory and Prayer for the dead in the fift age S. Augustine saith b De civit Dei l. 20. c. 24. l. 21. c. â—3 Neither could it be truly said of some Matth. 22.32 That they are not forgiven neither in this life nor in the life to come unlesse there were some who though they are not forgiven in this life yet should be in the life to come And again e Serm 41. de Sanct. prope initium ' There are many who not rightly understanding this reading are deceived with false security whilst they believe that if they build capitall sinnes upon the foundation Christ those sinnes may be purged by transitory fire and they afterward come to life everlasting This understanding c. is to be corrected because they deceive themselves who so flatter themselves for with that transitory fire wherof the Apostle said 1. Cor. 3.15 He shal be saved yet so as by fire not capitall but little sins are purged And concerning Prayers for the dead he saith d Serm. 32. de verb. Apost It is not to be doubted that the dead are holpen by the prayers of the Church and the saving Sacrifice and by almes which are given for their soules that God would deale more mercifully with them than their sinnes have deserved In the fourth age S. Ambrose in his interpretation of the fore-mentioned place of S. Paul saith a Amb. in 1 Cor. 3. But whereas S. Paul saith yet so as by fire he sheweth indeed that he shall be saved but yet shall suffer the punishment of fire that being purged by fire he may be saved and not be tormented for ever as the Infidells are with everlasting fire And S. Hierome saith there are some b In Comment in cap 11. Prover who may be absolved after death of lighter sinnes of which they die guilty either being punished with paines or by the prayers and alms of their friends and the celebration of Masses In the third age we shall find S. Cyprian speaking thus c Epist 52. ad Anton. post med It is one thing to stay for pardon another to attain to glory one thing being cast into prison not to go out thence untill he do pay the uttermost farthing Mat. 5.27 another thing presently to receive the reward of faith and vertue one thing being afflicted with long pain for sinnes to be mended and purged long with fire another thing to have purged all sins by suffering to conclude it is one thing to depend upon the sentence of the Judge in the day of Judgement another thing to be presently crowned of the Lord. In the second age Tertullian in agreement with the rest saith d lib. de anima cap. 58. In sum seeing we understand that Prison which the Gospell doth demonstrate to bee places below and the last farthing wee interpret every small fault there to be punished by the delay of the Resurrection no man will doubt but that the soul doth recompence something in the places below saving the fulnesse of the Resurrection by the flesh also And in his book De corona militis he saith e cap. 3. ' we make yearly oblations for the dead And a little after f cap. 4. If you require a Law of Scripture for these and other the like
Disciplines you shall find none Tradition is shewed thee for the Author custome the confirmer and faith the observer And in the first age S. Clement speaking of S. Peter reports thus of him g Clem. Ro. Ep. 1. de S. Petre prope fin His daily preaching amongst other divine commandements was this c. every one as farre as he understands and is able to love God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself to relieve the poor to cloath the naked to visit the sick to give drink to the thirsty to bury the dead and diligently to perform their funeralls and to pray and give alms for them § 8. Concerning Traditions in the fift age S. Augustine saith h Lib. 4. de bapt con Donat c. 24. That which the whole Church doth hold and is not instituted by Councells but is alwaies retained is rightly believed not to be delivered but by Apostolique authority And S. Chrysostome i In 1 Thes 2. In 1 Thes hom 4. It is manifest that the Apostles did not deliver all things by Epistle but many things without writing And as well these as those are worthy of the same credit wherefore let us esteem the Tradition of the Church to be believed It is a Tradition seek no further In the fourth age S. Basil speaks thus k Lib. de Spirit sancto c. 27. The opinions which are kept and preached in the Church we have partly out of written Doctrine partly we have received by the Tradition of the Apostles brought to us in a mystery Both which have the same power to piety and no man contradicted these who hath but mean experience of Ecclesiasticall rights In the third age * Heres 61. we must use Traditions saith S. Epiphanius for all things cannot be received from divine Scripture wherefore the holy Apostles have delivered some things by Tradition even as the holy Apostle saith As I have delivered to you and elswhere so I teach and have delivered in Churches In the second age S. Irenaeus thus expostulateth * lib. 3. c. 4. But what if the Apostles neither had left Scriptures unto us ought we not to follow the order of Tradition which they delivered to them to whom they committed the Churches And in the first age S. Dennys tells us that c Areopag c. 1. Eccles Hierar those first leaders of our Priestly Office delivered to us those chief and supersubstantiall things partly in writings partly in unwritten institutions I could give plenty of proofs in all other particulars But as the cluster of grapes which was brought out of Canaan to the Israelites was a testimony of the fruit the Land brought forth Numb 13.23 So this small parcell of antiquity taken out of their great store is proof sufficient that the most antient Church even in all the first ages and the Scripture it selfe in the judgement of those Fathers did teach the same Doctrines that the Roman Church now doth and hath had a perpetuall and uninterrupted succession in those Doctrines and her Pastors and is therefore the self-same Church with the Apostles A thing fore-told by Daniel who cals it a Kingdom which shall never be dissolved Dan. 7.14 And in which the Maxime of wise Gamaliel is verified if this counsell or work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it Act. 5.38 39. § 9. But among the Protestant Churches I found no such thing neither Antiquity in their Doctrine but contrariwise their Doctrine condemned by Antiquity as I have shewed before nor yet in the bodie of their Professors And though they alledge some places of the Fathers in proof of their Doctrines yet they corrupt the meaning as may easily appear to those that divesting themselves of all interest can and will indifferently examine the places who shall find that they make not for them Nor indeed can they for my former alledged reason namely that if Antiquity had understood them so to wit in the Protestant sense some or other would either have reproved them for so frequently elswhere affirming the Roman Doctrines as Protestants confess they did as I have shewed or for affirming those Protestant doctrines which were contradictory to them which seeing they did not 't is manifest they believed no such contradictions in their writings but understood those places which Protestants alledge as Catholiques now doe as making nothing to the Protestants purpose But for their Catholique doctrines it is manifest that they cannot be interpreted to comply with the Protestant Religion for if they could why do the most learned Protestants accuse them of Popery It is a rule of * De doct Christ lib. 3. cap. 25. 26. S. Augustine in the interpretation of Scripture which is also as proper for the Fathers and agreeable to reason that where there are many cleer places on the one side and some few obscure places on the other the obscure must give place to the cleer and be reduced to an agreement with them in meaning which rule if it be observed it will easily appeare whether the Fathers were of the Roman or the Protestant Church As for the Antiquity of the body of the Professors of the Protestant religion it whom the antient Apostolicall Church hath her resurrection which like Epimenid◠they say fell asleep when she was yong and waked not till she was old no man knowing what was become of her in the mean while I could not indeed find i◠more antient than some very old men somewhat above sixscore yeares old Pa◠that died in England but few years agoe might have been grandfather to the Religion or at least elder brother to the Father thereof Martin Luther who in the year 1517. like a prodigious Comet began to appear and ingendring with the devill blasted the beauty of the Spouse of Christ and filled the Christian world with Heresie and bloud And in the year 1529. Luther and his Disciples received the name of Protestants from their Protestation and Appeal from the decree of the Diet of Spira in which title the nation of England I think doth more triumph than any of Luthers ofspring And whereas they do pretend some of them to have alwaies had a Being before that time it will fitly be examined in the next mark of the Church which is visibility For the maxime of law will hold good in this case IDEM EST NON ESSE ET NON APPARERE it is all one not to be and not to appear For the present seeing no more of them than yet we doe we may speak to them in the words of Tertullian * Tertul. de praescript 17. QUI ESTIS VOS UNDE ET QUANDO VENISTIS who are you from whence and when came you for either they are as young as Luthers Apostasie or else older than Christ and his Apostles even Jewes and so old that the mark is quite worn out of their mouth CHAP. XIII Of visibility the
not prove it shewes the interruption of their succession and while they affirm it shewes that they believe their succession and calling insufficient unlesse they derive it from the Church of Rome thereby acknowledging the Church of Rome the true Church which they in their Doctrine and dependence have forsaken and there can be no reason to forsake the true Church upon what pretence soever For the errors of the Church of Rome are but supposed and their Reformation neither is but supposed they being infallibily sure of nothing since they hold their Church may erre and so for ought ought they certainly know it did in accu and forsaking the Church of Rome and in their own imaginary amendment and instead of Christ have chosen Barrabas And what can be more inconsiderate than to forsake the true Church by their own confession upon pretences of whose truth they are by their own confession also uncertain For he that confesseth he may erre in that wherin he may erre being an object of the understanding not of the sense cannot be sure that he doth not erre And so they are altogether at a losse and a ground not infallibly no nor prudently sure of the least tittle they affirm They cannot be infallibly sure because they may erre as themselves confesse they cannot be prudently sure seeing there is a hundred voyces and judgements of men for the Roman Church to one for any Protestant Church They had therefore done much more wisely to have followed the admonition of S. Paul to Timothy DEPOSITUM CUSTODI keep that which is committed to thy charge 1. Tim. 6.20 and what is that saith Vincentius Lirinensis He answereth Comomnit advers haer c. 27. It is that which thou art trusted with not that which is found out by thee that which thou hast received not which thou hast devised a thing not of wit that is of thine own fancy but of learning that is which thou hast learnt not of private usurpation but of publique Tradition a thing brought to thee not brought forth by thee wherein thou oughtest to be not the Author but the keeper not a Master but a Scholler not a leader but a follower § 2. As for their assertion who say that Roman Catholiques and Protestants are all one Church it is both false foolish False it is because the differing in any one point of faith proposed by the Church makes one party not to be of the true Church it is certain that the Church of Rome and England differ in many Doth not the Church of England account the four grand Heretiques who were condemned in the first four Generall Councells to be out of the Church and not one with her that condemned them and they held each of them but some one or very few points different from the Church of Rome So that either they must confesse themselves also not to be one with the Roman Church or else that all Hretiques are of it which is absurd and contrarie to the mind of d De fide Symbolo c. 10. S. Augustine who saith that neither Heretiques nor Schismatiques are of the Church If Protestants say that they that were condemned in those Councells did indeed hold Heresies and so were not the Church but their own are truths and amendments of the Doctrine of the Church I answer so did those Heretiques also say yea and prove it by Scriptures and Fathers in their own sense and did believe their Doctrines to be the pure Word of God as confidently as any Protestants in the world do theirs who cannot say more for themselves than they did and they were some of them as numerous and as learned as Protestants are nor was there more authority against them than against the Protestants which is The Catholique Roman Church guided by the Spirit of God and the Word of God written unwritten Moreover they were the parties accused so are the Protestants it is not fit therefore that they should be the Judges If they say that they also accuse the Church of Rome of errors and therefore it is not fit that she should be Judge I answer some body must if ever we will have an end of controversie and then whether the whole society of Christians or some one or few men for so all Heresies began and so did the Protestant Religion in one Luther let any indifferent man judge Moreover God hath made the Church the Judge saying tell the Church and that is the Church of Rome as those Protestants must grant who say they are one with it and that it was the Church when they revolted from her And to consider the matter according to reason seen in the practise of all societies and bodies whether Ecclesiasticalll or Civill if any one or few members break the law and rule of the whole who shall judge whether it be well or ill done Surely either the head or the head and whole representative body together And this was the proceeding against Luther and the Protestants in a Generall Councell by which they were condemned and cast out of the Church Which judgement if it be not sufficient but that the condemned party justifying himself by his own bare affirmation or interpretation of the Law according to his own particular fancy contrary to the whole body whereof he is or was a member may be admitted what Heretique or Rebell will ever be found guilty or will not in despite of all mankind be accounted a true Christian and loyall subject and the soundest member of the whole body Secondly it is both poore and absurd for Protestants to seeke for shelter and countenance under that Church which they have abandoned disgraced and cruelly wounded though to their owne destruction thereby also abusively perswading many people to keep still in the Protestant Church while they think they are of the Roman they being as their new Masters teach them both but one Church § 3. But Catholiques whose consent it is very fit should be taken in this matter acknowledge no such union of Churches betwixt themselves and Protestants for Catholiques doe not allow their Ordination and Consecration of Bishops and Priests for good which appeares in that if a Priest of the Roman Church revolt to the Protestant party he is allowed by them to be a lawfull Priest but not so if a Protestant Minister returne to the Roman Church Also some Protestants grant that Roman Catholiques may be saved in their Religion but Catholiques doe not grant the like to Protestants which they would doe surely if they thought they were all one Church Besides the denying to communicate with each other is a proof that in the opinion of both they are not all one Church And whereas Protestants magnifie their own charity in this kind conceit of theirs and accuse Catholiques of the want therof it is very idle for the controversie about the meanes of salvation and the Church wherein it is to be had is not to be determined by
but that it is necessary and fundamentall to believe God in all that he saith whether the matter be great or small now Protestants professing to believe nothing necessarily but what may be proved by the Scripture and their differences being in the things which they believe it followes that their differences are in things which are proved by Scripture that are the pure Word of God and the meaning of the Holy Ghost as they use to speak and therefore must needs be in the severall opinions of them that hold them fundamentall and necessary to salvation To instance in some particulars of their disagreement for to speak of all were to enter into a Labyrinth First concerning Scripture it selfe I think they will grant it is a fundamentall point I am sure their learned Hooker doth so Eccles Pol. lib. 1. sect 14. who saith Of things necessary the very chief is to know what books we are bound to esteem holy and as sure I am that in this there is great disagreement for the Lutherans do deny besides those books of the Old Testament which the Calvinists also deny * Châ—mnit exam conc Trid. part 1. pag. 55. also Enchyrid p. 63. the second Epistle of S. Peter the second and third Epistle of S. John the Epistle to the Hebrewes of S. James of S. Jude and the Revelation all which the Calvinists and the Church of England do undoubtedly believe to be the Word of God And if they disagree about their prime Principle how can agreement be expected in the things that they derive from thence Secondly concerning their translation of Scriptures in the truth whereof consists the truth of Gods Word to those that understand it not but as it is translated very great are the disagreements and bitter the reprehensions between Luther and Zuinglius between Calvin and Molineus between Beza and Castalio between legall Protestants and Puritans of England each party condemning the others translation I will instance chiefly in the English The Ministers of Lincoln Diocesse in a book delivered to King James being an abridgement of their grievances say pag. 11.13.14 that the English translation of the Bible is a translation that takes away from the text that addes to the text and that sometimes to the changing or obscuring the meaning of the holy Ghost And Broughton the great Linguist in his Advertisement of Corruptions tels the Bishops that their publique translations of Scripture into English is such as that it perverts the text of the old Testament in 848 places and that it causeth millions of millions to reject the new Testament and to run into eternall flames And yet the translators of the Bible and the Bishops were of another mind or else surely they would not have commended it to the use of the people And what a wofull condition were the people in who must be guided by such a Bible in which either there was certaine falshood or they were not certaine that it was the truth Secondly the Reall presence of Christs body in the Eucharist by consubstantiation and to the bodily mouth of the receiver is affirmed by the Lutherans but denyed by the Calvinists Thirdly that Christ descended into Hell which is an article of the Creed is affirmed by Hill in a Treatise of that subject by Nowell and by many Protestants but is denyed by Carleil in a book written to that purpose and commonly by all Puritans Fourthly Evangelicall Councells are affirmed by Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 3. sect 8. p. 140. but are denyed by Perkins Reformed Cath. p. 241. and most of the Church of England Fiftly concerning the head of the Church or the supreame governour in causes Ecclesiasticall which one would think a fundamentall matter the Church of England holds that the King or Queen when the Kingdome is governed by a Woman is the head thereof but the Church of Helvetia saith f Harmony of Consess p. 308. forward we acknowledge no other head of the Church but Christ and that he hath no deputy on earth and many there are in England of the same opinion who are not afraid to say so now though it be by law a capitall offence Sixtly the government of the Church by Bishops one would think were a fundamentall point for it is affirmed to be jure divino by divine law by many Protestants in England and particularly Bishop Hall wrote a book a few yeares since to that purpose and yet this is denyed by a great party in England as the Bishops by woefull experience do know A hundred other differences might be named in the maintenance whereof books have been written one against another one side holding with the Catholiques so that there is scarce any point of Catholique doctrine but is maintained by some or other Protestants amongst them all almost the whole Catholique doctrine If therefore they differ from the Church of Rome they differ from one another And that their differences are not light but about most important matters in their own opinions being about matters as they conceive revealed in the word of God to which all men are bound to adhere even their persuit of those differences doth plainly demonstrate which stretcheth to the g Luth. con art Louan Thes 27. condemning of one another for Heretiques h Osiander â—pit Eccl. hist cont 16 par altera p. 805. and banishing each other from their severall territories i Hospi hist Sacrament par alt fol. 393. 395. 397. 398. forbidding the reading of each others books imprisoning of their persons and finally breaking into open Arms one against another are not al these tragical particulars to our infinite grief now acted on the stage of England the chief pretence is Religion And surely they are guilty of extreme folly that will fight to the fundamentall overthrow of themselves families for ought they know of the whole Kingdome for matters which they hold not-fundamentall § 4. But the Protestants think to wipe off this staine of disagreement by retorting it upon the Catholiques accusing them of as great disagreement as is amongst themselves which when I considered I found altogether impertinent For amongst Catholiques there are two sorts of points some defined by the Church in a Generall Councell and so infallibly certain others not defined In the former they all exactly agree in the later each man follows the direction of his particular reason Like to this there are amongst Protestants certaine Articles as they call them which are agreed upon in each severall dominion of Protestants which are set down in their Harmony of confessions concerning which first it is to be noted that there is great disagreement in generall betwixt their Churches they never meeting all together in any one Councell to determine any one thing so that they are not united in any one point by consent Then in particular dominions the decrees that they publish are not firmely believed by all under those dominions but are accounted as
directions only not obligations Therefore in England many both of the people and Clergie also doe deny some one some another particular according to their pleasure and yet the Generall Church of Protestants and the particular of England doth suffer men teaching and professing contrary doctrines as points of faith to abide in her communion and passe under the name of Protestants And seeing that of contrary doctrines one side must needs be false while the Protestant Church permits both sides to be preached as matter of faith and the Word of God she knowingly suffers the profession of false doctrine and so is the mother of falshood as much as truth and therefore cannot be the true Church The Church of Rome doth not so but if any preach or professe contrary to that which is decreed she shuts them out of her Communion and disinherits them of the title of Catholique As for other points which are without the compasse of her decrees wherein there is a mighty latitude according to the extent of mens reasons she permits every man to hold as his particular understanding shall direct him The Puritanes will have all governed by the written word of God The Chillingworthians will have all guided by particular reason and both sorts differ amongst themselves The Church of Rome more wisely in matters of faith and Religion is directed by the Word of God either written or unwritten and therein her children never differ or if they do are renounced In Schoole points and things undefined her children are guided by their particular reason and herein they do and may differ yet without disunion as well as in points of Philosophie For Schoole points are not points of Religion properly religion being derived à RELIGANDO from binding but in School points men are not bound to the belief of either side but have free liberty to hold or change as they think they have cause untill it be otherwise determined by a Councell And this may be done without the just imputation of division as S. Augustine De Bapt. cont Donat. l. 1. c. 18. l. 2. c. 4. saith Divers men be of divers judgements without breach of peace untill a generall Councell allow some one part for pure and cleer Thus doth he excuse S. Cyprians disagreement and error concerning the baptizing of such as were baptized by Heretiques saying that himselfe durst not have condemned the same unlesse I had been strengthened with the most agreable authority of the Catholique Church to which Cyprian himselfe no doubt would have yeelded if at that time the truth of the question had been made cleer and manifest by a generall Councell Which some refusing to doe after that that opinion of Cyprians was by a Councell condemned to shew the difference of holding against a point defined and not defined Vincentius Lyrinensis chap. 9. thus breakes out O admirable change the authors of one self opinion are called Catholiques and the followers of it heretiques Secondly there is in doctrines a difference between the conclusion or point of faith it selfe and the reason or manner thereof in the former of these unity is required and is performed most axactly amongst Catholiques but in the later which concernes but the reason of that conclusion which reason is for the most part reduced to some Scholasticall subtilty learned men have in all ages and may without breach of unity maintaine their difference For although all men be bound to the decree'd point of faith yet they are not so to the reason and manner thereof unlesse the same also be defined by the Church And hereby are answered all the objections of Protestants concerning the disagreement of Catholiques as of the Thomists and Scotists concerning the Conception of our Blessed Lady of the Dominicans and Jesuites about the concurrence of Grace and Freewill with such like in which the Church hath not yet interposed her Decree And some Protestants affirm out of their profound politicall insight that she never will and that because forsooth she dares not out of fear to displease so mighty a party as each opinion hath And yet they know that the Church was not afraid to decree against the opinions of Luther and his brood notwithstanding she lost some Kings and much people thereby but the losse was not only hers but theirs much more she lost some incurable members but they lost themselves And doubtlesse when she sees it meet to determine any of the controversies amongst the learned shee will doe it without any fear but of God In the mean time we see that their differences of opinions breed no more disturbance in the Church nor rancor amongst themselves than their different colours and shapes of apparrell Brotherly charity is not violated amongst them they will all goe to the same Church they will communicate together and confesse to one another nor is there any of them but if he be asked will say that he will stand to a Generall Councell in any of the points of difference amongst them and submit his judgement to hers But Protestants have no Councells nor any authority to call a Councell out of the extent of their temporall dominions the Articles of Religion which they have agreed upon apart are very different one from another as may be seen in their Harmony of Confessions nor in the same Dominion will they stand to any determination of Convocation Synod or Assembly further than it decrees according to the Word of God of which every one will be a judge for himfelfe And in the mean time they violate brotherly charity make schisms and separations one from another refuse to goe to Church or communicate together and in defence of their differences wage war one against another So that their Harmony of Confessions may more truly be called the confusion of Confessions and their Churches the tumults of Religion The greatest unity they have is not in believing but in not believing though therein they are not exact as I have shewed before their faith as they call it being for the most part negative consisting in denying what Catholiques affirme as denying and not believing the infallibility of the Church the Reall Corporall presence seven Sacraments Invocation of Saints Purgatory and Prayer for the dead with many other abating their positive faith almost to nothing now not-believing is not believing and their profession and union in the most is not of faith but of infidelity And for their positive belief I think it consists in two Articles only That there is a God and that Jesus Christ died for the sinnes of the world and whosoever affirmes more than this it will be no hard matter to find some other Protestants that will deny it what union then is there amongst them but that which was betwixt Symeon and Levi to be brethren in evill and in writing the Articles of their Religion as Draco did his lawes in blood For what nation is there where the Protestant Religion hath settled her foot where they did
he saith l. 7. ind 2. Ep. 96. If there be one that is universall Bishop all the rest are no more Bishops Now S. Gregory maintained that all Bishops were true Bishops Ministers and officers of Christ although concerning jurisdiction they were subordinate the one to the other He therefore that usurps that title wholely to himselfe exalts himselfe with relation to the Episcopall order above his brethren denying him the essence and propriety of Bishops and officers of Christ and makes them only Commissioners to him as if they had the originall of that office from him and not from God And in this sense S. Gregory withstood the title of universall Bishop and not to deny in case of jurisdiction the superiority of one Bishop over another and the Bishop of Rome over all For that he maintaines Lib. 7. ind 2. Ep. 62. saying If there be any crime found in Bishops I know no Bishop but is subject to the Sea Apostolique He also addes for explication of the matter in hand Lib. 4. ind 13. Ep. 32. that The care of the Church hath been committed to the holy Apostle and Prince of all the Apostles S. Peter the care and Principality hath been committed to him and yet he is not called universall Apostle In which words hee ascribes the Primacy and headship of the Church to S. Peter yet denies the universality it must therfore needs be that the word universal in S. Gregories sense in this case is not the deniall of the Primacy of Jurisdiction over the whole Church but of his being the only Apostle as if there were none but he such as should derive their authority originally from him not from God And with application to the Pope it is the denyall of his being the only Bishop as if there were no Bishop in the world but he or such as he should constitute his deputies as from himself and not by command from God and as the Officers of God Moreover the Histories of all ages beat record that the Bishop of Rome hath exercised authority over all other Bishops in the world even in all Forraign Nations both before S. Gregory and after and even in his person and therefore he cannot mean the universall Government when he reproves the title of universall Bishop as by creating them himself by confirming them created by others by deposing them by restoring them being deposed by others by appointing them his Vicars by finall deciding their controversies by accepting their Appeales by making Lawes over all the Church by dispensing with them by inflicting his censures by being President in Generall Councells by calling of Councells so far as concerned the Ecclesiasticall authority which is the chiefest though the Emperours concurred therein in regard of temporall authority and of that only to make them obligatory to the secular tribunall and executory by the Ministry of the Officers of the Emperour as witnesseth the sixt Generall Councell Act 18. speaking of the first Generall Councell of Nice which saith The most sacred Constantine and the Praise-worthy Sylvester called the famous Councell of Nice which may also be proved of all the rest And by the saying of Athanasius ad solit That an Emperour presiding in Ecclesiasticall judgements is the Abomination of Desolation fore-told by Daniel And of Osius the Bishop of Cordua in an Epistle of his to Constantius the Emperour Go not about to meddle in Ecclesiasticall affairs and command not us in such matters but rather learne of us God hath committed the Empire to thee and the government of the Church to us And by the Protestation of the Emperour Constantine Pogonat sent to Rome for the holding of the sixth Generall Councell I will not sit as Emperour amongst them I will not speak imperiously In Epist Greg. 2. ad Leon. Imp. Ep. 1. but as one of them and what the Prelates shal ordain I will execute All which do undoubtedly prove the Pope of Rome both by divine and humane Law and by the right of prescription in all ages to be the supreme Pastor and Head of the Church And all the objections urged by Calvin all other invaders of this Sea are but like water furiously beating against a Rock broken into drops and forced creepingly to recoile and to foame and cry through shame and indignation at their vaine and impossible attempts impossible indeed unlesse they have more force then the gates of hell for they shall never prevaile against this Rock CHAP. XXI That English Protestants do much mistake Catholique Doctrine being abused by the malice or ignorance of many of their Ministers And that upon their owne grounds they are obliged to inform themselves more exactly of the truth § 1. AFter all these fore-going considerations for my more explicite satisfaction I descended to the examination of all the particular Doctrines in controversie betwixt the Church of Rome and the Protestants whom I found in all things to be exceedingly over-weighed both by Scripture Councells Fathers and reason Of which I will say no more than I have done but onely to shew in some few particulars how our poore English people are abused by their ordinary Preachers and made to believe monstrous things of the Doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome who for the most part stating the question false and laying to the Catholiques charge the things that they do not teach raise an error out of their own fancy and then fight against it most couragiously under the title of Popery And every young Minister is so valiant herein that he thinks he baffles the most learned Cardinall Bellarmine as Goliah thought he could have done David and in this case for the most part the most ignorant and imprudent are the forwardest And this I add to rectifie the opinions of the lesse learned and to reconcile them so far to the Catholique doctrines as to believe they are not so monstrous as they are vulgarly imagined First then they tell the people that the Papists as they call them are Idolaters in that they worship Images stockes and stones little painted babies and puppets with many such like titles wherewith they make themselves merry and then alledge all the places of the Scripture or Fathers wherein the Idolatry of the Heathen is reproved Now it is most certain that this is an unjust charge against Catholiques first because the worship of Images and Idolls is not all one seeing the words are of different signification as is manifest by those places where it is said Let us make man after our Image Gen. 1.26 And a man ought not to cover his head because he is the image and glory of God 1 Cor. 11.7 with many the like wherein if they say that Image Idoll were all one they must say also that when God made Adam hee made to himselfe an Idoll Secondly Catholiques doe not worship Images as God which the Heathen and Jewes when they had committed Idolatry did as appears by Elias who saith
of which prophanation there hath been over frequent experience CHAP. XXIII Of the Liturgie and private prayers for the ignorant in an unknowne tongue § 1. PRayer in an unknowne tongue hath two branches one concerning publique prayer in a tongue which the people that are present doe not understand the other private prayer in a tongue which the party praying doth not understand both which Protestants think absurd in reason and contrary to Scripture but Catholiques beleeve truly that they are neither For maintenance whereof let us consider the meaning of S. Paul 1 Cor. ch 14. the place by them violently but impertinently objected against us We must then know that as the gift of tongues was given to the Apostles by the Holy Spirit when he in the shape of tongues desended upon them so the same gift with divers others was continued amongst the Christians for some time after This gift amongst the other they did exercise in their publique Church-meetings where they assembled for the benefit edification of the hearers speaking some extemporary prayer or other holy discourse both for matter and language as the Spirit gave them utterance with great affection elevation of the mind towards God Yea the language many times was such as no man present understood as is intimated verse 2. for he that speaketh in an unknowne tongue c. no man understands him no nor many times did the speaker understand himselfe for the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues were two distinct gifts as we see in the 12. ch and did not alwaies meet together as we may gather from the 13. verse of this chapter where the Apostle exhorteth him that speaketh in an unknowne tongue to pray that he may interpret which was a signe that ordinarily they could not by verse 14. where he saith If I pray in a tongue my spirit prayeth but my understanding is unfruitfull now this must be meant of a tongue which he himself did not understand otherwise his own understanding could not be unfruitful And thus also doth S. Augustine de Genes ad lit lib. 12. cap. 8.9 and other Fathers interpret S. Paul By this it is manifest that the Apostle doth not here reprove the practise of the Church of Rome in her Latine Liturgie directly seeing this here reproved and that are extreamly different Therefore ours can be only so far reprovable as it agrees with the other in the reasons for which it was reproved which are want of interpretation therby want of edification to the auditors of sufficient warrant to the unlearned through want of understanding of what was said to say thereto Amen Now seeing ours doth not agree with that in any of these it is therefore irreproveable Yet if it should agree with that in any of these it should not notwithstanding be unlawfull because they differ in the maine and principall part the end for these Church-meetings were intended for the instruction edification of the auditors therefore it was fit the exercises thereof should be in a tongue which they that were to be instructed understood but the publike Liturgie of the Church was instituted for the service praise of God therfore may be without unlawfulnesse in any tongue that he understands to whom it is dedicated The truth of all this will appear if we consider the differences between that case and ours The languages then spoken were utterly unknowne many times to any man there present even to the speaker himself but the Liturgie of the Church is in a language or languages known to very many as the Latin in the Latin Church to all Scholars to most Gentlemen youths bred in Grammer Schools in some countries to most Mechanicks it cannot therfore absolutely be said to be an unknown tongue And though it cannot be proved unlawful to have the Liturgie in a tongue absolutely unknowne yet where the Latin tongue hath been unknowne to all or most of the better sort the Church hath dispensed with the use thereof as appears by the dispensation of Pope Paul 5. to turn the Liturgie of the Masse into the vulgar language of China to use the same until the Latin tongue grew more known familiar in that country Moreover the prayers other spiritual excercises which S. Paul speaks against were extemporall made in publike meetings according to the present inspired devotion of the speaker So that the unlearned hearer or he that supplied his place the Clark except he understood the language consequently the matter could not prudently say Amen to it seeing he knew not whether the thing that was spoken were good and lawfull or no. But the Liturgie Service of the Church hath set offices for every day approved by the Church therefore from hence a man may be confidently assured that it is good lawfull and therefore he may boldly say Amen Besides there are means applied to the ignorant multitude by which they are or may be if they use diligence therein made to understand the publike Prayers of the Church namely Sermons Exhortations Catechismes private instructions Manualls Primers in vulgar languages where the Prayers used in the Church are found So that the ordinary common passages of the publike Service may be and are easily understood even by women children they may understandingly say Amen Therefore as the Apostle did allow of an unknowne tongue in the exercises of the Corinthians provided there were some to interpret it so the Service in Latin is very allowable even under this notion while there are the aforesaid meanes used for the interpretation thereof And the Congregation is edified as the Apostle appoints it should be by the things that are done said in the Church while the people have but a generall understanding of the severall passages thereof And if they were in a vulgar language the difference for matter of understanding would be but in a little more or lesse for that every woman boy girl in a Church should be able to understand word by word the Liturgie therof be it in what language it will is morally impossible seeing there are great store of words in every tongue in common use amongst the better sort which common people do not understand And suppose this might be avoided in those parts of the Liturgie which are composed by the Church by making choice of the most vulgar words that might be found yet it is impossible to be so in that which makes the greatest part of the Liturgie to wit the Scripture And if yet all the words of the Scripture could be bowed to their understanding for the Grammatical signification thereof yet without all paradventure the sense which is the chiefe thing to be understood and for which only the language doth serve by reason of the innumerable figurative speeches therein is altogether impossible For example let any unlearned Englishman say whether these following places in English for so
though the Apostles their hearers be departed out of this life yet there still remaines a meanes in the world by which all men may assuredly know what the Apostles preached and the primitive Church received of them seeing the Church to the worlds end must be built on the Apostles and beleive nothing as matter of Faith besides that which was delivered of them as S. Paul saith Ephes 2.20 and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ being the chiefe corner stone CHAP. II. Of the meanes to know which is the Word of God And that all the Protestants Arguments to prove that the Scripture and it onely is the Word of God are insufficient And that the generall Tradition of the Catholike Church is the only assured proof thereof § 1. THese things being supposed the chief difficulty to my seeming consisted in this how we might certainly know now adaies so many ages after the Apostles death what all necessary points that they taught and preached the Protestants said that this was to be found in the Scriptures which were written by them but this did not satisfie my doubt for supposing the Scriptures to be the word of God delivered by the Apostles and others inspired by him yet I wanted some sufficient witnesse or proofe to assure me so much for of my selfe I could not find it The bare word of the Protestants I saw I had no reason to take because they confesse that they may erre and I in this matter not being able to discover whether they did erre or no relying upon a fallible guide must alwaies remaine in uncertainty and fear I observed moreover that although in most of their assertions they might upon examination prove false yet in saying that the Church might erre and taking themselves for the Church they had said most true finding that they indeed had erred in this most important Particular of declareing what is the word of God and what not the Lutherans affirming much lesse for the word of God then the Calvinists and the Church of England doth § 2. Now of necessity one of these sorts of Protestants must erre and that most dangerously the one by beleiving that to be the word of God which is not but the invention of men and perhaps false and foolish Praefat. in Epist Iac. in Edi◠levens as Luther said of S. Iames his Epistle or the other by renouncing that which is indeed the Word of God and so not believing what God himself hath spoken Their Authority being by themselves in their evident disagreement thus broken I descended to consider the reasons by them alledged to induce men to believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God which in general I apprehended to be insufficient because they did not lead the Protestants themselves to an agreement in the quantity thereof But I further weighed them particularly the principall whereof are these § 3. First they say the Scriptures are knowne to be divine by their owne light shining in them Cal. lib. 1. Inst cap. 7. Sect. 2. infine Even as sweet and bitter are knowne by the tast white and blacke by the sight which assertion to me seemed very absurd I confesse indeed much of the Scripture is but the amplification of the Morall Law which is a knowledge engrafted in man by nature by the light whereof we may see that it is true but this proves it not to be the Word of God For though all truth be from God as he is the prime verity and so may be called in some sense his Word yet by the Word of God in this case is meant truth revealed by God immediately unto the pen-men thereof and though we find much thereof to be true as agreeing with the engrafted principles of reason yet this proveth not that it was revealed immediately and extraordinarily which is the circumstance that makes it the Word of God in the sense of those that dispute about it As for the historical parts both of the Old and New Testament the institution of Sacraments with the like they have no affinity with the in-born principles of reason and are therefore not knowne to be so much as true by any light they carry with them much lesse to be extraordinarily revealed by God and so to be his Word Besides if it could be discerned what were the Word of God and what not by the resplendent light thereof as easily as the light is knowne from darknesse as some of them say how could there be so much dissention about the parts thereof as it is knowne there is the Calvinists seeing more to be the Word of God then the Lutherans do and lesse then the Catholikes and yet if it shew it selfe by its owne light the Turks may see it as well as any of them And heere I observed that many had blinded themselves with looking on the light and could not see so far as to discern between corporall and spirituall light but because the Prophet David saith Thy word is a lanterne unto my feet and a light unto my paths Psal 118.105 they conceived the Scripture was as easily discerned by its own light as the Sun True it is that every corporall light that doth enlighten the eye of the body must be evident in it selfe and originally cleer but not so every truth that doth illustrate mens understanding The reason is because the eye of the body cannot by things seen inferre and conclude things that are hidden but can only apprehend what doth directly and immediately shew it selfe but mans understanding apprehends not only what shewes it selfe but by things knowne inferres and breeds in it selfe the knowledge of things hidden Hence though things shewing themselves directly and by their own light be prime principles of the understanding and the meanes to know other things yet also things hidden in themselves being formerly known by the light of authority may thereby become lights that is meanes to encrease our knowledge of hidden things So that speaking of spirituall and intellectuall lights it is false that all lights that enlighten mans understanding to know other things are evident in themselves yea some secondary principles and lights there are which must be shewed by a superiour light before they become lights themselves In which kind is the Scripture being a light only to the faithfull because known by the Churches Tradition to be from the Apostles by the Apostles authority confirmed by miracles to be of God by Gods supreme verity who cannot deceive nor be deceived to be the truth Moreover this conceipt of theirs doth utterly extinguish faith and beleife of the word of God for every thing is so far forth the object of faith that it is not seen as S. Paul saith Faith is the argument of things not seen Hebr. 11.1 In Evang. Ioan. Tract 40. and S. Augustine What is faith but to believe that which thou dost not see If therefore they do see it they cannot properly
be said to believe it but to know it and if so what excellency what vertue what merit what pious affection towards God to believe that which they see plainely before their eyes A bold presumption also it is in them to claime a cleerer degree of knowledge then the Apostles had for they did but see through a glasse darkely 1 Corinth 13.12 but these men are convicted of the divine truth of the things they believe Fran White Orthodoxe p. 107. by the lustre and resplendent verity of the matter of Scripture which is a priviledge which whosoever hath equalls the blessed Saints in heaven whose happinesse it is to see what we believe especially seeing one point of the Doctrine Protestants pretend to see is the mysterie of the Blessed Trinity the true light resplendent veritie wherof no man can see manifestly out of the state of Blisse § 4. Secondly they pretend to know the Scriptures to be the Word of God by the * Whites Reply p. 16.30.68 Feild Appendix pag. 34. Cal. Inst l. 1. c. 7. majestie of the matter and purity of the Doctrine but I conceived that though some mysteries of the Scripture carry a majesty in them in respect of naturall reason and an elevation above it as of the B. Trinity yet other matters of Scripture seem unto reason ridiculous as the Serpents talking with Eve and Balaams Asse reproving of his master with many others Nor could the purity of the doctrine convince me seeing we know that many learned and godly men have written very holily whose writings are not therefore accounted the word of God Besides there are many historicall parts of the Scripture which do not at all touch upon purity therefore cannot be discerned by it Againe they affirme that the Scripture may be knowne by the stile but I considered that God hath no proper stile or phrase of his owne but can at his pleasure al stiles that he did vse the pens of those whom it pleased him to inspire couching his heavenly conceipts under their usuall language and ability of expression whence issueth so great difference of stiles as is on all sides acknowledged amongst sacred Writers and that God did only guide them in the truth they wrote not in the stile for then all their stiles in likelihood should have been alike Indeed God hath an eternal increated manner of speaking which is the production of the eternall word by which the blessed do discern him from all other speakers by the evidence of blissefull learning but no created manner of speaking no not his speaking inwardly to the soule is so proper to God as that it can be knowne to be his speaking by the meer sound of the voice or by the stile without especiall revelation or some consequent miraculous effect § 5. Thirdly the * VVhites Reply p. 19. Harmony of the Scriptures is alledged by some as an argument to prove them to be the Word of God But though this Harmony appeare in divers things yet it is most certaine that there are very many seeming contradictions many of which are but probably answered by Commentaetors by assuming some things without proofe because otherwise they must admit contradictions some places are not fully answered but the Fathers were forced to fly from literall to allegoricall senses as appeares particularly in the foure first Chapters of Genesis the Genealogy of our Saviour and in the reconciling of the Chronologies of the Kings And seeing no man is infallibly sure that all the answers used to reconcile the seeming contradictions of Scriptures are true no man can be assured by the evidence of the thing that there is this perfect harmony in them nor consequently that they are thereby knowne to be the Word of God Moreover if we were infallibly assured that there were this perfect harmony in the Scriptures yet this to me seemed not a sufficient proofe that they are the Word of God because there is no reason forbids me to believe that it may not be also found in the writings of some men yea I make no question but it is to be found and that with lesse seeming contradiction then is in the Scripture yet no man accounts that this proves their writings to be the Word of God Neither as I saw could these pretences before mentioned be laid hold on by the unlearned multitude an innumerable company whereof cannot read at all and when they heare them read if they were asked would say that they see not this light this majestie stile and harmony which their learned men talk of nor do they know what it meanes nor that a tittle of it is the word of God but only because they are told so Indeed S. Peter saith in the behalf of the old Testament 2 Pet. 1.21 That holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost But we are as uncertaine by any thing in the words themselves that S. Peter said this as of all the rest that is altogether § 6. So that I could not find that there was any more then probable arguments to be drawn from the Scriptures themselves to prove them to be the word of God For that which is the word of God and the rule of faith must be certaine not only in some parts but in every part and particle book chapter and line thereof which is impossible to be knowne by the light and evidence of the sense and doctrine seeing many places even by * Field of the Church lib. 4. cap. 15. VVhites Reply p. 35 Protestants confessions are darke obscure and full of difficulties and how can that be knowne to be the Word of God by the light thereof when the light thereof is not knowne As uselesse also to their purpose is the majestie purity stile harmomony or any the like for we believe it to be harmonious because it is the Word of God not to be the Word of God because it is harmonious which wee doe not infallibly see So that upon these considerations I saw no evident certainty out of the Scriptures that they were the Word of God but that they are believed to be such without being seen upon some other Word of God more cleerly appearing to be the Word of God and lesse liable to corruption then the Scriptures are assuring us so much and that is the Tradition of the Church according to the saying of S. Augustine * Aug. contra Epist fundament c. 5. I would not believe the Gospell unlesse the Authority of the Catholike Church did move me To which Hooker one of the learnedest men that ever the Protestant party could boast of agreeth saying * Eccl. Pol. lib. 1. sec 14 p. 36. Of things necessary the very chiefest is to know what books we are bound to esteem holy which point is confessed impossible for the Scripture it self to teach * Ibid. l. 2 sec 4.102 for if any one book of Scripture did give testimony to all yet
government can best determine § 7. Lastly if any of these fore-mentioned waies of Protestants for the knowledge of the Word of God the guide to eternall life were sufficient what need were there of preaching and instructing of the people at least of them that can read but let them take the Bible and let nature work which in the co-operation of their owne wise fancies will hatch a goodly Religion no doubt borne like Minerva of the brain of Jupiter and be as comely as a Chymera of many seuerall shapes tackt together and to them instead of the ancient heathens houshold-Gods which every one must adore as his private God within himselfe O sacras gentes quibus haec nascuntur in ipsis Numina Who prove the truth of this saying in themselves that He that is Schoole-master to himself is Scholler to a fool § 8. Observing thus the weaknesse and absurdity of all the Protestants alledged in proof that the Scripture is the Word of God easie to be understood at least in all things necessary to salvation and that it is to be interpreted by it self or by the Spirit to everie particular man so making way for as much variety in Religion as there may be diversity of opinion I saw that although some probable arguments may be drawn from the Scriptures to prove them to be of God yet there was no other infallible way to know what is the true Word of God first taught by the Apostles and their hearers but by the testimony of some sure certain and agreeing witnesses and what is the meaning of this Word of God in case there should be any important difference about it thereby to give a period to all controversies but by some society of men renowned for their wisdome And this I conceived in common prudence a far better way than for a man to rely upon himselfe But though this were a better way than those of the Protestants yet if this society of men were not in these matters free from error although it is more likely they should tell truth than the Protestants yet I could not have an immovable foundation for my saith but it would be subject to wavering and inconstancy and so there could be no prudent setlednesse in Religion nor any well-built hope of the end thereof eternall life I saw then that it was needfull that there should be a faithfull witnesse a wise judge and so wise and faithfull that he should not be subject to falshood or error otherwise it seemed to me that God had not contrived a competent way to his own glory or mans salvation which to be wanting in is neither sutable to his wisdome nor his goodnesse I therefore concluded that there was some society of men who must instruct us in the premises and that this society in reason ought to be infallible and that none could with any colour pretend to be this society but that which we call the Catholique Church which all Christians professe to believe according to the Creed of the Apostles But before I could proceed any further I was cast upon the examination of the sense of the words Church and Catholique finding therein much difference amongst the pretenders to these titles CHAP. V. Of the meaning of these words Church and Catholique and that neither of them belong to Protestants § 1. THere were seven Cities that strove for the body of Homer And very many societies of Christians there are that lay claime to the body of Christ which is his Church And as when Telesius a young Grecian having won the prize in the Pythian games was to be led in triumph there arose such a dispute between the severall Nations there present every one being covetous to have him for their owne that one drawing one way another another instead of receiving the honour that was prepared for him he was torne in pieces even by those who seemed most ambitious to honour him So happens it to the Church all those that beare the name of Christians avow that to her only appertaines the victory over hell and that whosoever will have part in the prize and glory of this triumph must serve under her Ensigne but when they come to debate about the body of this society then every Sect desirous to draw her to themselves they rend and teare her in pieces and instead of embracing the Church which consists in unity they embrace Schism and Division which is the death and ruin of the Church § 2. The Protestants do somtimes give a strict definition of a Church somtimes a large somtimes they restraine her to the number of the predestinate only somtimes they enlarge her so far that they imbrace within her compasse because they will be sure not to leave out themselves all the variety of Christians whatsoever But by all the former they exclude the visibility of the Church which is an inseperable companion thereof as I shall shew hereafter for the predistinate are not knowne to any body nor ordinary unto themselves But those that are so presumptuous as very many are to assume unto themselves the assurance of their predestination do easily lay hold on this tenure which they do the more boldly by how much it is more difficult for another to disprove but as it is not easie for another to disprove so it is as hard for them to prove and concludes nothing therefore in the behalf of the Churches description in generall or of their share in particular Beside the word Ecclesia Church is derived from a verb which signifies to call not to predestinate And the Church is a society but the predestinate are a multitude and there is this difference between a societie and a multitude that a society hath a certain form and vertue whereby they communicate together which the other without this association have not Now predestinaton as it is meere predestination establisheth nothing in the predestinate nor is it made in them but in God only and by consequence doth not make them actuall parts of the society called the Church It is not the union of predestination but of vocation that builds men into a Church By the later definition of a Church they deny the very being of Heresie and Schisme for if the whole Masse of Christians be the Church notwithstanding the errors in faith which some of them hold or separation in communion which they make then there are none that can be called Heretiques or Schismatiques or else which is equally absurd all Heretiques and Schismatiques are of the Church and this destroyes the holinesse of the Church in doctrine which is another inseparable ornament thereof Others which are some of the subdivisions of sects amongst the Protestants as Brownists Anabaptists and the like say each sect for it selfe that that is the Church excluding all others from that title even their fellow Protestants but this excludes the universality of the Church another inseparable companion thereof at least after the Apostles had
propagated it But the Church having in it the property of heat which as Philosophers say is to gather together things that are of the same nature and separate things that are of different natures includes all that are of the same faith and admitteth no other § 3. I therefore conceived according to the judgement of the most learned the Church to be a society of those that God hath called to salvation by the profession of the true faith the sincere adminstration of the Sacraments and the adherence to lawfull Pastors Which description of the Church is so fitted and proportioned to her that it resembles the nest of the Halcion which as Plutarch saith is of such a just and exact size for the measure of her body that it can serve for no other bird either greater or lesse Then for the meaning of the word Catholique the Protestants say that that Church is Catholique which holdeth the true faith which though it be not spread universally over the world yet it ought to be so say they and therefore it is Catholique By which they leave men in a labyrinth of finding out the true faith in all the particulars thereof which as they say must guide a man to the Church that is truely Catholique which being the object of the understanding is much more difficult to find out than that which is the object of the sense as is its being Catholique And therefore it seemed to me as proposterous as to set the cart before the horse to prove a Church Catholique because it is true whereas it should be proved true because it is Catholique Beside the name Catholique is not a name of belief only but of communion also else antiquity would not have refused that title to those which were not separated from the belief but only from the communion of the Church S. Aug. Ep. 50. nor would they have affirmed that out of the Catholique Church the faith and Sacraments may he had but not salvation So that Catholique imports thus much both the vast extension of doctrine to persons and places different and the union of all those places and persons in Communion Therefore allbeit the Protestants should hold the same belief that the ancient Church did yet if they did not communicate with the same ancient Church which by succession of Pastors and People is derived down to this present time I could not see how they could with justice assume to themselves the title of Catholiques CHAP. VI. Of the Infallibility of the Church § 1. NOw that the Catholique Church which society of Christians soever it be of which we shall deliberate hereafter is the only faithfull and true witnesse of the matter of Gods Word to tell us what it is and what is not it the only true interpreter of the meaning of Gods word and the last and finall judge of all controversies that may arise in matters of Religion and that shee is not onely true but that shee cannot be otherwise seeing shee is infallible I was perswaded to believe by many reasons In the alleadging of which I will avoid the accusation of Protestants of the circular disputation of Catholiques saying they believe the Scripture because the Church saies it is so and the Church because the Scripture bids them do so First then without dependence on the Scripture I conceived the Catholique Church to be infallible in her Traditions in that which she declareth to us concerning the doctrine of Christ and the Apostles and that even in the very nature of her testimony and tradition For Tradition being a full report of what was evident to sense namely what doctrines the Apostles taught what Scripture they wrote it is impossible it should be false Worlds of men cannot be universally deceived in matters evident to sense as are the things men heare and see and not being so it is impossible they should either negligently suffer it or maliciously agree to deceive others being so many in number so distant in place so different in affections conditions and interests Wherefore it is impossible that what is delivered by full Catholique Tradition from the Apostles should be by the deliverers first devised as Tertullian saith Tert. de praesc cap. 28. That which is found one and the same amongst many is not an error but a Tradition Yet supposing universall Tradition as it is meerly humane be in its nature fallible yet the Tradition of the Catholique Church is by God himselfe preserved from error which is thus demonstrated God being infinitely good and ardently desiring the salvation of mankind cannot permit the meanes which should convey the Apostles doctrine to posterity by the belief whereof men must be saved to be poisoned with damnable error to the destruction of their salvation now the onely meanes to convey this doctrine is the Tradition of the Catholique Church Tert. de Praes cap. 21. as Tertullian saith what the Apostles taught I will prescribe ought no other wayes to be proved than by those Churches which the Apostles founded All other means as I have shewed you before are insufficient and if this Tradition of the Church should be insufficient also by reason of its liablenesse unto error then were there no certainty at all of the truth of Christian Religion no not so much as that there was such a man as Jesus Christ but all men would be left to grope in the wandring uncertainty of their owne imaginations which for God to suffer cannot fall under any prudent mans belief § 2. Secondly that which bindeth men to believe a thing to be Gods Word God cannot suffer to delude men into error whereby for their devotion unto his truth they may fall into damnation now Catholique Tradition from the Apostles is that which bindes men to believe the same to be the Word of God and that because it is thereby sufficiently proposed the World affording no higher nor surer proposall so that either this must be infallible or else God hath left us to the guidance of our own weak understandings the weaknesse of which conceit I shewed even now and all Christians to that confusion which all different opinions yet reputed the Word of God by them that hold them may produce § 3. Thirdly God being the Prime Verity he cannot so much as connive at falshood whereby he becomes accessory of deceiving them who simply readily and religiously believe what they have just reason to think to be his Word but there is most just and sufficient reason to believe that the doctrine delivered by full and perpetuall Tradition from hand to hand even from the Apostles is undoubtedly their doctrine and the Word of God therefore he cannot suffer Catholique Tradition to be falsified Nor can as I conceive any prudent man imagine that God having sent his Son into the world to teach men the way to heaven every moment of whose life was made notable by doing or suffering somthing to that end should suffer the efficacy and
to be reputed a matter of faith which is not formally and expresly to be proved by the Word of God either written or unwritten and delivered by full Ecclesiasticall Tradition and seeing the Protestants doe not nor can pretend to this Tradition nor yet can prove their tenets by Scripture in expresse and evident termes but such as themselves confesse to receive probable solutions it must hence necessarily follow that their doctrines are false without foundation and to be rejected by every Christian § 6. Lastly whereas Protestants object that the Pharisees are reproved by Christ for the observation of Traditions it is altogether impertinent for the Scripture doth not say that their Traditions were derived by succession from Moses the first deliverer of their law nor did the Pharisees pretend to it but they were Traditions of their owne whereof some were frivolous and superstitious some impious some pious The frivolous and superstitious were their washing of hands pots dishes the like supposing that otherwise they might have some spirituall impurity in them which our Saviour confutes saying There is nothing without a man entring into him which can defile him Mark 7.15 The impious were such as whereby they violated the commandements of God under the pretence of observing their Traditions as when they allowed a man under pretence of giving something to the Church to neglect his duty to his parents Mar. 7.11 Neither of these kinds is the Catholike Church guilty of Of their pious we have an example in their paying Tithes of mint a very small herb which was a Tradition of their owne not commanded in their law yet this our Saviour approves and binds them to it saying this you ought to have done Luc. 11.42 And it is worth the observation that the thing most of all objected against our Saviour was the written word and Tradition of God by Moses about keeping the Sabbath day as appeares in all the Evangelists from which precept not by Tradition unwritten but by logicall inferences of their owne they concluded that our Saviour brake the Sabbath by healing or doing some small labour thereon So that the Pharisaicall Traditions were not pretended to be doctrines unwritten derived from the first deliverer of their religion but doctrines concluded from the Scripture by the rules of Logick and reason as they conceived according to the present manner of the Protestants CHAP. VIII That the Church is infallible in whatsoever she proposeth as the Word of God written or unwritten whether of great or small consequence That to doubt of any one point is to destroy the foundation of faith And that Protestants distinction between points fundamentall and non-fundamentall is ridiculous and deceiptfull § 1. HAving thus found out that the Church was shee from whom I was to receive assurance what is the word of God and that otherwise it was impossible for me to know it and that shee could not mistake nor erre in her directions I conceived then that I was bound to believe all that shee propounded to me as the word of God whether it were written or not written writing being no testimony of the truth of any thing seeing it may be false as well as speaking and that to doubt of any thing was to call all into question and to dissolve the whole nature of divine faith For to believe hath a threefold signification in speech first it is taken for knowledge as where our Saviour saith Thomas because thou hast seen me thou believest John 20.29 to wit that I am risen now he that sees one knowes so much Secondly for opinion which is an assent begot by probable reason so men delivering their opinions use to say I believe thus or thus Thirdly and most properly for an assent unto such things as doe not appear but are assented unto by a firm reliance on the truth of him that reports them as S. Paul saith Faith is the argument of things not seen Heb 11.1 And this reliance on an Author such as cannot deceive or be deceived at least in those things which he propounds unto us to be believed must beget in us an equall belief of things that have humane possibility or probability on their side and of things that are clean against it the matter propounded makes no matter nor yet the manner of propounding it is the Author and our apprehension of him that controles all opposition By this do we believe the inexplicable mystery of the Trinity the Incarnation of God the Mother-hood and yet Virginity of the B. Virgin Mother with many others with as much ease as we believe that Noah had three sons or that S. Peter had neither silver nor gold and by this do we believe the latter with as much strength and firmnesse as the former For he that believes a thing because such an one sayes it who he believes cannot lie must believe all that he sayes and that with the same firmnesse because the reason of his belief still remaines namely the inerrability of the speaker But if he apply his belief according to the probability of the thing spoken and no further then he doth not believe because of the truth of the speaker but of the thing spoken which he must gather from probabilities of reason wherein he doth not believe the thing for the truth sake of the speakers testimony but for the likelihood thereof which he finds by the measure of his own understanding which is not to believe the other but himselfe and the other no more than he would do the arrantest lyer in the world yea the Devill himself that is so far as he by his reason conceives that he speakes the truth Which reason of his if it be infallible he doth not believe the thing properly but he knowes it if it be but probable he believes it not properly but hath an opinion of it and no more assurance than of other humane reports whose authors have no security from error which as they may be true so they may also be false And thus to believe is not to believe by divine and infallible faith but by humane and fallible and so it cancells divine supernaturall faith the first in order of the three theologicall vertues without which no man can be saved § 3. So that all the place that reason hath in the government of our faith is this to lead us to believe that testimony which cannot deceive us and for the particular objects of beliefe to take them upon trust of that testimony without checking at them whatsoever they be and though they be bones to Philosophy yet make them milke to faith and not as Heretiques doe make us demand a reason of every particular point of faith which if it square not to their apprehensions they cashiere This is not faith but fancy For to rely upon a humane basis such as reason is will not support such a mighty statue as divine faith And to use Chillingworths own similitude Water will not rise
are fundamentall others not that is some points are to be believed explicitely and distinctly others not and more points are to bee believed explicitely by some than by others as I have shewed before speaking of points necessary to salvation But in regard of the formall object and motive for which we believe namely the truth of God revealing it by his Church there is no distinction of points of faith we being equally bound to believe all that is sufficiently proposed unto us as revealed by God whether the matter be great or small and whether the points be fundamentall in their matter or no yet they are proposed unto us by the same authority therefore we are bound equally with the same firmenesse of faith to believe every one as any one For example the Creed of the Apostles containes divers fundamentall points as the Diety Trinity of Persons Incarnation Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour it containes also some points for their matter and nature in themselves not fundamentall as under what judge he suffered that he was buried and the circumstance of time when he rose againe to wit the third day Now whosoever knowes these to be contained in the Apostles Creed is bound to believe them as firmely as the other and the denyall of any one of them is a fundamentall and damnable errour a giving of God the lie For the nature of faith doth not arise from the greatnesse or smalnesse of the thing believed for then there should be as many different faiths as there are points to be believed but from the motive for which a man believes which is Gods revelation testified by the Church which being alike for all objects it is manifest that they that in things equally revealed by God do grant one thing and deny another do forsake the very formall motive of faith Gods revelation and so have no true divine faith at all § 7. Moreover if the Churches infallibility be tied to a certain matter in Religion then it is meet we should know that first that so we may accordingly apply our belief if it be fundamentall then without doubt to imbrace it if not to exercise our liberty and believe it so far as we see cause but then we must know the matter wherein she is infallible distinctly and particularly as also infallibly or else we may mistake and believe when we need not and disbelieve when we ought not Now from whence shall we have this knowledge God hath no where revealed it and it ought to have been revealed together with the Commission given to the Church to teach or else shee might have deceived us before the caution came but the Church it selfe hath told us no such matter we have no such Tradition therefore we must have this most fundamentall point of all the rest which is to know what is fundamentall and what not either by inspiration or by the strength of reason both which are ridiculous or by some authority coequall to the Churches and yet not hers which is most absurd And in this businesse the Protestants seemed unto me to deal as obscurely and deceiptfully as did once Richard the second King of England who in a return to peace betwixt him and his subjects granted pardon to all except fifteen but would not declare what their names were but if at any time he had a mind out of some new displeasure to cut off any man he would say he was one of the fifteen whom he excepted from the benefit of his pardon In like manner the Protestants say we will believe the Church in all points but those that are not fundamentall not expressing what they are and when they have a wanton disposition to deny their belief to something that the Church hath declared they shelter their denyall under the protection of this unlimited distinction and say it is a point not fundamentall And if on the other side they find it for their advantage to close with other Churches they say they are all one Church with them because forsooth they agree in they know not what that is in their inexplicable fundamentalls § 8. But Chillingworth hath undertaken to give us though not a catalogue yet a description as he supposes by which we may discern between fundamentalls not fundamentalls or circumstantialls as he calls them pag. 137. sect 20. The former being such as are revealed by God and commanded to be preached to all and beleived by all The later such as though God hath revealed them yet the Pastors of the Church are not bound under paine of damnation particularly to teach them unto all and the people may securely be ignorant of them And this is even the same obscurity in more words for what is to be preached to all and believed by all and what the Pastors may forbear to preach and the people may be ignorant of especially seeing the same degree of ignorance is not secure to all people alike but receives infinite variety according to their meanes of knowledge is as undeterminable as what is fundamentall and what not But suppose the Pastors doe preach more than they are bound to preach and reveal that truth which if it had not been revealed the people might safely have been ignorant of may they be ignorant or unbelieving now it is revealed to them If they be then they deny that very authority upon which they believed the most fundamentall points which is the ground of all belief and by consequence deny the whole faith From whence wee may see that the Pastors teaching is not to be stinted by the things the people ought necessarily to believe but the peoples necessity of believing ought to be enlarged according to the measure of the Pastors preaching The Church is not confined to the teaching of fundamentalls only for the matter but whatsoever shee teacheth is fundamentall for the forme and motive of beliefe The circumstantialls are as he confesseth revealed by God to the Church and if the Church reveal them to the people the people must either believe them or deny to believe God And though common people and others also may safely be ignorant before they have been instructed yet they may not be so after nor hath God confined the Pastors instructing of the people to any certain matter to fundamentalls only for Christ bids his Apostles teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever he commanded them Matth. 28.20 And though common people may safely be ignorant of many things yet they must not be unbelieving of any thing but by an implicite faith at the least believe all that the Church believes by adhering and resigning themselves to her being prepared to believe explicitly what and when shee shall declare it to them Which faith is originally and fundamentally built upon the Word of God not as written but as delivered by the Tradition of the Church successively from the Apostles upon the authority whereof we believe that both Scriptures and all other Articles of
and Apostolique Church THese premises considered I look'd round about to see amongst al the societies of the world professing the name of Christ to which of them the title and dignity of the Church might most justly be applyed and I found that the Roman Church that is the multitude of Christians spred over the face of the known world adhering to the doctrine of the Church of Rome is the One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church The vulgar objection against the title of Catholique Roman that is say they universall and yet but particular seemed very childish the one title being applyed in regard of the doctrine and the extent thereof which is universall the other of the discipline and the fountaine and head thereof which is particular from the Bishop of Rome For the word Catholique is taken three waies to wit formally causally and participatively Formally the universall Church only that is to say the society of all the true particular Churches united in one selfesame Communion is called Catholique Causally the Roman Church is called Catholique for as much as shee infuseth universality into all the whole body of the Catholique Church For to constitute universality there must be two things one that may be instead of matter thereto to wit the multitude and the other instead of form thereto to wit unity for a multitude without unity doe not properly make universality Take away vnity from the multitude saith S. Augustine and it is a tumult De verb. Dom. sceundum Luc. Serm. 26. but bring in unity and it is a people Therefore the Roman Church which as the center and beginning of the Ecclesiasticall Communion infuseth unity which is the forme of universality into the Catholique Church may be called Catholique causally though in her own being shee be particular Even as the chief Captaine of an army on whom all the inferiour Captaines Officers and common Souldiers have their dependency and with whom they hold correspondency is called The Generall though he be but one particular man because it is he that by the relation that all others have to him gives unity to the whole body of the Army And thirdly particular Churches are called Catholique participatively because they agree and participate in doctrine and Communion with the Catholique Church § 2. Now I was induced to believe that the Roman Church is the only true Catholike Church by these ensuing reasons First God being the Prime Verity revealing truth cannot suffer the knowledg of saving doctrine to be impossible but it is impossible if it be hidden or if a false meanes of knowledge thereof be so drest with the marks of the true as that the true become undiscernable from it And if the Roman be not the true Catholique Church and Tradition then the true Catholique Church and Tradition is hidden and a false Church hath the marks of the true so cleerly that no other can with any colour pretend to be Catholique rather than it that is to have doctrine delivered from the Apostles by whole worlds of Christian Fathers to whole worlds of Christian children Hence either there is no meanes left assuredly to know the saving truth or else it must be inward teaching by immediate revelation without any externall infallible meanes or the Scripture known to be the Word of God and truly interpreted by the light and evidence of the things or by the force of naturall reason the vanity and falshood whereof I have already shewed for knowledge of supernaturall truth by the light and lustre of the doctrine is proper to the Church triumphant inward assurance without an externall infallible ground is proper unto Prophets and the first publishers of Religion Hence it may be concluded that if God be the Prime Verity teaching Christian Religion darkely without making men see the light of things believed and mediatly by some externall infallible meanes upon which inward assurance must rely then he must ever conserve the Catholique Church and Tradition visible and conspicuous that the same may be by sensible marks discerned And if any object that the senses of men in this search may be deceived through naturall invincible fallibility of their organs and so be no ground of faith that is altogether infallible I answer that evidence had by sense being but the private sense of one man is not ordinarily fallible but when the same is also publique generall that is when a whole world of men concur with him then his evidence is altogether infallible Besides seeing God will not teach men immediatly but will have them cleave to an externall infallible means and to find out this means by the sensible evidence of the thing he is in a manner bound by the perfection of his veracity to assist mens senses with his providence that therein they be not deceived when they use such diligence as men ordinarily use that they be not deceived by their senses Now what greater evidence can one have that he is not deceived in this matter of sense that the Roman doctrine is the Catholique that is doctrine delivered from the Apostles by worlds of Christian Ancestors unanimous amongst themselves in all matters of faith what greater assurance I say can one have that herein he sees aright than a whole world of men professing to see the same that he doth And surely this was the meaning of God by the Prophet Esay when speaking of the Church of Christ he calls it a direct way so that fools cannot erre therein Esa 35.8 which cannot be but by following a world of Ancestors going before them in the same Tract Otherwise it is not only possible for fools but even for them that seem to be wisest to erre yea in this case it is impossible to be otherwise And if it be further objected that I believe the Catholique Church is an Article of Faith and Faith is the argument of things not seen I answer an Article of Faith may be visible according to the substance of the thing and yet invisible according to the manner it is believed in the Creed The third Article He suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried according to the substance of the thing was evident to sense and seen of the Jewes and is now believed of their posterity but according to the manner that it is believed in the Creed to wit that herein the Word of God by his Prophets was fulfilled and that it was done for the salvation of man in this manner this visible Article is invisible and so it is believed in the Creed In like manner that there is in the world a Catholike Church and that the Romane is this Catholique Church Pagans Jewes and Heretiques if they shut not their eyes against the light do clearly behold but that herein the Word of God concerning the perpetuall amplitude of his Church is accomplished that this is an effect of Gods varacity to the end that the meanes to learn saving truth may not be hidden this is a
which before perhaps we were not so obliged to doe § 6. A fifth argument moving me to believe that the Roman Church is the Catholique was this That doctrine which hath been delivered by Tradition as the doctrine of our Ancestors without any opposition made by any known Catholique Fathers and Doctors and if any did oppose the doctrine he was censured of Novelty and after admonition if he persisted therein was condemned of Heresie such doctrine is derived from the Apostles and unchanged and such is the doctrine of the Roman Church 'T is true indeed that divers points of the Roman doctrine have been opposed as by Arrius Pelagius Berengarius Waldo Wickliffe Husse and many others but these were not accounted orthodox Fathers but were taxed of Novelty and innovation and for such are delivered to us by Tradition and history of the times wherein they lived And it cannot be prudenty imagined that if the Church of Rome had like these men attempted to change the doctrine of the Apostles there should be no Tradition of it no historicall narration of it but that all the good and true Catholiques should be asleep to this great businesse of defending the flock from Wolves or which is more absurd should against their knowledge and conscience suffer damnable errors to steal in to the destruction of themselves and all the world that should succeed them Now the opposition of the Church in the forementioned manner is so far from obscuring the Churches doctrine that it makes it far more famous and illustrious and apparently Apostolicall even as the sun strugling with a misty morning breaking through it appears more beautifully glorious and unconquerable And this Doctor Feild a learned Protestant confesseth when a doctrine is in any age constantly delivered as a matter of faith Field of the Church l. 4. c. 14 and as received from ancestors in such sort as the contradictors thereof were in the beginning noted for novelty and if they persisted in contradiction in the end charged with heresy it is impossible but such a doctrine should come by succession from the Apostles But Protestants think it sufficient that they find as they say the Roman doctrine contradicted in the writings of orthodox Fathers though their opposition was not noted by antiquity nor by the fame of Tradition delivered to posterity But this answer leaves no meanes to common people to know certainly the perpetuall Tradition of Gods Church which is the guide of their faith but by reading and examining the Fathers which to them is impossible Besides if that some few obscure and hard passages out of the Fathers may suffice to call the Tradition of the Church into question then there is nothing so cleerly and unanimously delivered by Tradition but may fall under a new examination seeing nothing is or can be writ so plainely especially where there is very much also written but that some obscure and oblique passages may be raked out to make shew of a contradiction and if this counterpart may have the title of antiquity set over it what Heresie will want its defence out of the Fathers What Tradition was more constantly delivered by the Christian Fathers and Doctors than our Saviours Consubstantiality with his Father Yet the new Arrians as we may see in Bellarmine bring divers testimonies out of the antient Fathers Lib. 2. de Christ c. 19. to prove that in this point they contradicted themselves and one another In like manner doe the Protestants now bring some obscure places out of the Fathers in the defence of their heresies which yet in a true sense doe import no such thing but being a little obscure they more easily wrest them to their corrupted meaning But on the contrary the Fathers are abundant and cleer in those places which maintaine the Catholique doctrines and none of the Fathers of those times did accuse other of error in those points which if they had thought them so there is no doubt they would For wee cannot imagine the true believers of those times lesse vigilant than of these and we see now that no man can broach an error against faith but presently he hath abundant opposition and further questioning if the cause require Therefore it is apparent that Protestants when they alledge the Fathers as contradicting themselves and one another in the Catholique Doctrines of those times either mis-alledge their words or mistake their meaning For if those contradictions were reall why did not antiquity note them as it noted their differences about smaller disputable matters S. Hierome and Epiphanius took pains to note the errors of Origen yet amongst them all they did not note any which the Church of Rome now holds though his writings be full thereof If the sentences of the Fathers be true in the sense that Protestants alledge them why did not some charge them for maintaining the contrary Romane Doctrines a thousand times more frequently mentioned in their writings And on the other side if the Romane Doctrines were true why did not some tax them for maintaining of Protestantisme doubtlesse they would if they had understood them in the sense that Protestants now do It is manifest therefore that they that lived in those times who were therefore better able to understand their meanings than the Protestants that are sprung up so many hundred yeares after did not conceive that the Fathers maintained the Protestant doctrines in their writings for if they had they would quickly have been reproved seeing the current of Christian Religion even of those times was agreeable to the present Roman for as * Napier On the Revelat p. 191. also Cent. Mag. cent 2. c. 4. col 55. Napier saith during even the second and third ages the true temple of God and light of the Gospell was obscured by the Roman Antichrist himself And according to * Treatise of Antichrist lib. 2. c. 2. p. 25. Downeham the generall defection of the visible Church fore-told 2 Thess 2. began to work in the Apostles time § 7. On the contrary wee find in the writings of the Orthodox Fathers that the Doctrines which Protestants now hold were condemned as hereticall in those persons that then held them and they were not therein opposed by any other Orthodox Fathers For example the Protestants hold that the Church may erre so did the Donatists for which they are frequently reproved by * S. Augustine Passim cont Donat. Protestants deny unwritten Traditions urge Scripture only so did the Arrians and are condemned for it by * Epiphan Her 75. Aug. cont Maximin l. 1. c. 2. ult S. Epiphanius and S. Augustine Protestants teach that Priests may marrie so did Vigilantius and for it is condemned by * Cont. Vigilant c. 1. S. Hierome Protestants deny prayer for the dead so did Arrius for which he is condemned by * Aug. haer 53. Epiphan har 75. S. Augustine and S. Epiphanius Protestants deny invocations of Saints so did Vigilantius
have been eye-witnesses of the severall Countreys thereof wherein though the publike profession thereof be Hereticall Mahometicall or Heathenish yet even there hath the Romane Catholique Church both Fathers and children Pastors and people And like the Sea what she loseth in one place she wins in another what she hath lost by the falling away of the Protestants in Europe she hath gained with increase by the propagation of her faith in the East and West Indies where whole Kingdomes are converted thereunto as a Protestant Author confesseth saying Simon Lythus in respons altera ad alteram Gretseri Apologiam p. 333. The Jesuites within the compasse of a few years not content with the bounds of Europe have filled Asia Africa and America with their Idols And thus shee was Catholique by Napier a Protestant Writers confession forementioned and others for 12. or 1300. yeares ago and ever since And whereas Protestants say that this universality is no true mark of the Church because it is appliable to Turkes and Pagans it is doubtlesse a very poor objection for the markes of the Church are not given her by God to distinguish her from all sorts of Religions but only from those that are contained equivocally under the same next kind and may be supposed and taken for Churches that is to say from other Christian societies to wit from Hereticall and Shismaticall Sects which challenge by false markes the title of the true Church To which purpose S. Augustine saith disputing with the Donatists Thou askest of a stranger whether he be a Pagan or a Christian he answers thee a Christian thou askest him whether he be a catechumene Aug de Pastor c. 13. or one of the faithfull he answers thee one of the faithfull thou askest him of what communion he is he answers thee a Christian Catholique Besides the Roman Church hath this forme of universality beyond all Religions of the world even Turkes or Heathens That there is no place of the known world where there are not Roman Catholiques propagating their Religion by converting the people of the land whosoever they are which is manifestly wanting to all other Religions and is therefore in this regard also more universally spread over the face of the earth than any other Others say that this universall spreading of the Church is antidated by Roman Catholiques with application to themselves for that it was not to take beginning but from the time of Luther because some places of Scripture which speak of the largenesse of the Church say it shall be in the later daies But it is manifest that by later daies is meant all the space of time from Chirst to the end of the world as S. Peter interpreting a prophecie of Joel which saith that it shall come to passe in the last daies that God will powre his Spirit upon all flesh Acts 2.17 by which is intended the amplitude of the Church applies it to that present time when the holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles Nor can any reasonable man imagine that it can sort with the goodnesse of God and his tender love to mankind to suffer the light of his truth in the not spreading of his Church to be eclipsed for 14. or 1500. years seeing that according to the opinion of some learned men grounded upon fair probabilities the world is likely to last but 2000. yeares after Christ. Howsoever this universality of the Protestant Religion is but begun it is not perfected for the Roman Church is yet actually exceeding larger and Protestants that allow this for a mark of the true Church now begin hopefully to apply it to themselves are bound to be of the Roman till they see their expectation satisfied in the Protestant Churches exceeding her in latitude which I dare boldly say will not be as long as they live and therefore they ought to die in the Roman Faith § 3. But if we examine the matter a little more strictly we shall find that the Protestants plea for universality wil be cut very short when we consider that though they make themselves all of one Church when they would vie for multitude with the Roman Church yet compared with one another we shall find that they are very many Churches not distinguished by nation only but by doctrine and points of faith and that there are many Churches in one Nation as in England for example and will be many more if the desired Independency be advanced Now it is not sufficient that the Protestant Religion in generall be enlarged but it must be the true Protestant Religion which every particular Sect thinking it self to be of and denying it the most of them to the rest the universality of the Religion wil be mightily abated Indeed when they muster their strengths together and make boast of their greatnesse then they rake all into the title of Protestantisme who have revolted from the Roman Church count them on their side as if the definition of a Protestant were one that is opposite to the Church of Rome So that if there were a thousand sorts of Heretiques in the world they would in this case account them but one Church But the word Catholique being a note of Communion as I have shewed already as the Roman Church calls none a Catholique that doth not communicate with her so cannot the Protestant Church of Engl. count any to be of her Religion thereby by inlarging of her bounds to prove her selfe Catholique unlesse they will communicate with her which the Grecian Churches wil not the Lutheran Churhes will not many of the Sects within the Kingdom will not as Presbyterians Antinomians Anabaptists Brownists Familists Erastians Socinians Arminians Seekers Adamites Shakers Independents with many others These I say will not communicate with the Protestant Church of England nor will they communicate each with other but have at least most frequently their Congregations as they call them separate and apart so that these are all to be accounted severall Churches and Religions and no one is further universall than the communion thereof doth spread which is so litle a way that none of them is nay though they were al united together would they be able to stand in competition with the Roman Church under whose Communion are many entire Kingdoms and in all known parts of the world an infinity of people even in Asia Africa and America where the name of Protestant much more any particular Sect thereof is altogether unknowne Besides all the Christian Churches which are now separated from the Roman were once united to her both in faith and communion and then either she was the Catholique Church or there was none in the world which is impossible therefore they that departed from her departing from the Catholique Church became Schismatiques and departing from the faith they received from her become Heretiques § 4 Lastly the very possession of the name Catholique is a proof that it doth belong to her seeing no sort of Christians
else can usurp it from her For howsoever some when being so hard pressed that they cannot claime the title of true Chritian unlesse they assume the name of Catholique do then arrogate it to themselves and say that they are Catholikes yet in ordinary speech if you speak of a Catholike every one understands thereby a Romane Catholike all other Sects voluntarily taking to themselves the name of some men for their founder as of Luther Calvin whom they call their Reformers or of some place as the Albigenses or from some accident of their pretended reformation as Protestants by which the legall Protestants delight to stile themselves with this addition of the Church of England renouncing therein as they suppose Luther and Calvin as ashamed or seeming to scorne to derive themselves from any one man as though the Church of England in this matter namely in opposition to the whole Church both present and precedent were of more consideration then one single man Moreover certain enough it is that the Reformation of the Church of England began by one man and he no God neither except it were such an one as Jupiter was who transform'd himself into a beast for the love of women before it filled the whole Kingdome and arrived at that high pitch of perfection that some suppose And who that man was is well enough knowne and what godly motives he had which they must confesse or else that their Church is like Melchizedek without Father or Mother or like a Mushrump started up in a night no man knowes how On the contrary the true believer will own no name but that of the Catholique Faith which was first devised by the Apostles in the Creed and which the successors of the Apostles in that Faith have alwaies worne As the Antient Father a Pacianus ad Symp. Ep. 1. S. Pacianus saith in an Epistle to Sympronianus a Novatian Heretique Christian is my name Catholique is my Sir-name that names me this marks me out by that I am manifested by this I am distinguished And Saint b Cyrill Hieros Catech 15. Cyrill of Jerusalem expounding the Creed For this cause saith he thy faith hath given thee this Article to hold undoubtedly and in the holy Catholique Church to the end thou shouldest fly the polluted Conventicles of Heretiques And a little after when thou comest into a Town inquire not simply where the Temple of our Lord is for the Heresies of impious persons do likewise call their dens the Temples of the Lord neither ask simply where the Church is but where is the Catholique Church For that name is the proper name of this holy Church And on the contrary c Hieron cont Lucifer c. 9. S. Hierome saith If in any part thou hearest of men denominated from any but from Christ as Marcionites Valentinians c. know that it is not the Church of Christ but the Synagogve of Antichrist And d Lib. deutilitat cred cap. 7. S. Augustine fully Although there be many heresies of Christians and that all would be called Catholikes yet there is alwaies one Church if you cast your eyes upon the extent of the whole world more abundant in multitude and also as those that know themselves to be of it more sincere in truth than all the rest but of the truth that is another dispute That which sufficeth for the question is that there is one Church to which different Heresies impose different names whereas they are all called by their particular names that they dare not disavow from whence it appears in the judgement of any not pre-occupate with favour to whom the name of Catholike whereof they are all ambitious ought to be attributed And again e De vera relig cap. 6. We must hold the Christian Religion and the communion of that Church which is called Catholique both by her own and by strangers for whether Heretiques and Schismatiques will or will not when they speak not with their own but with strangers they call the Catholiques no otherwise than Catholiques As for the Protestants it is certain that neither by others nor yet by themselves in ordinary speaking are they called Catholiques No nor yet in their most solemne and serious speaking as appears by the severall Acts both of the King of England and of the Houses of Parliament wherein both sides publish to the world and yet in a sense different from one another that they will maintain the Protestant Religion But the Roman Church hath alwayes possessed the name of Catholique and therefore she is such CHAP. XII Of the second Mark of the Church viz. Antiquity both of persons and doctrines § 1. THe second mark of the Church is Antiquity as God saith by the Prophet Jeremy Stand in the waies see inquire of the old paths which is the good way and walk therein Ier. 6.16 And our Saviour saith Mat. 13. that the good seed was sown first and afterwards the tares And even in nature truth is before falshood And this Antiquity I found applyable in the highest degree to the Roman Religion for though some heresies are very antient as is intimated in that the tares were sowen soon after the good seed yet the truth is more antient and so is the Church of Rome This antiquity of hers for the greatest part of time is confessed by Protestants Perkins whom I alledged before grants it for 900. yeares Napier goes higher and saith it raigned universally and without any debateable contradiction 12. hundred and 60. yeares And seeing this raign of the Catholique Religion which Protestants call Popery was then universall it is apparent that it did not then begin for such an universall possession could not be got on the suddain as they may perceive by the Protestant Religion which is not improved to neere that universality in above a hundred yeares so that in all probability even according to the opinion of Protestants the beginning thereof must be in or neere the Apostles times Now whether we take the Roman Church for the society of Christians that acknowledge the Bishop of Rome for their head or whether we take it for Fathers and Doctors holding the doctrines of the present Church of Rome in both respects it will appear that the Church of Rome is most antient and Apostolicall The former is proved by the testimony of S. * Iren. cont Val. lib. 3. c. 3. Irenaeus who calls the Roman Church the greatest and antientest Church founded at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul And of S. Augustine * Aug. Epist 162. who saith In the Roman Church hath alwaies flourished the Principality of the Apostolique Seat This word alwaies including all the time upward from that present to S. Peter So that by this it is manifest that there was a Roman Church even from S. Peters time who was the first Bishop and Pope thereof Which S. Augustine confirmes in another place saying Number the Priests even from
the Sea of Peter De Baptis cont Don. lib. 2. c. 1. c. that is the rock which the gates of hell do not overcome Nor do the Protestants deny the antiquity of the Church of Rome but only some of them deny S. Peter to have been Bishop there or indeed ever to have been there in person which I count a fancy not worth the confuting and they may with as much truth and more reason deny King William the Conquerour to have been King of England or so much as to have been in England seeing there is much more and more noble testimony of that than of this The main thing that they deny is the Antiquity of the doctrine of the Church of Rome for they say the Primitive Fathers taught the Protestant Doctrine and not that which the Church of Rome now teacheth Which I found to be false by the examination of particulars all which if I should here set down I should swell this intended little Treatise into a huge Volume It shall suffice me therefore to give a scant map of the Churches doctrine in the Primitive times and the testimony of some Fathers of the first five hundred yeares of every severall age some in the proof of some of the present Catholique doctrines most strongly opposed by Protestants referring him that is desirous of larger proof to the painefull volumes of Coccius and Gualterus Noting first two things by the way The former that it is not necessary that Catholiques should give this proof For it is sufficient that they are in possession of this faith and that they all say they received it from their Ancestors and they from theirs and so upward to the first beginning of Christian Religion and that the Protestant cannot by any sufficient testimony of Fathers or histories prove the contrary a thing which the Protestants no doubt would highly boast of if they were able to performe it in their owne behalf The latter is that many Protestants do confesse that the antient Fathers did hold many points of belief of the present Roman Church Whitguift Archbishop of Canterbury saith and that without exception of the very first times * Defence against Cartwright p. 472. 473. almost all the Bishops and Writers of the Greek Church and Latine also for the most part were spotted with the doctrines of free will of merit of invocation of Saints and such like And the like is affirmed by many others in many other points as is largely shewed by the book entituled The Protestants Apologie for the Roman Church Against which the Protestants have nothing to say but that which is worse than nothing to wit that they were the spots and blemishes of the Fathers And who I pray are they that undertake to correct Magnificat as we say and like Goliah to defie the whole hoast of Israel But they say that a dwarf standing upon a Giants shoulders may see further than the Giant can and so they by perusing the Fathers may see further than the Fathers could Further perhaps they may in some cases but never contrary they cannot by their help see that to be black which they saw to be white that to be false which they saw to be true § 2. Let us then take a view of the Roman Doctrines as they were held in the dayes of S. Augustine and the foure first generall Councells which were held between the yeares 315. and 457. to which first foure Councells some Protestants seem to give much honour and to subscribe to their Decrees but they do but seeme In those times the Church believed the true and reall presence and the eating with the mouth of the Body of Christ in the Sacrament as Zuinglius the Prince of the Sacramentarians acknowledges in these words a lib. de vera falsa relig cap. de Eucharist From the time of S. Augustine the opinion of corporall flesh had already get the mastery And in this quality she b Chrys in 1. Cor. HoÌ„ 24 adored the Eucharist with outward gestures and adoration as the true and proper body of Christ. The Church then believed the Body of Christ to be in the Sacrament c Cyril Alex ep ad Caesar Pat. even besides the time that it was in use and for this cause kept it after Consecration for d Cypr. de laps domestical Communions e Euseb hist l. 7. to give to sick f Amb. de obit Sayr to carry upon the Sea g Euseb hist l. 5. to send into far Provinces She then believed h Paulin. in vita Ambr. Tertul. ad uxâ—c 55. Basil Ep. ad Caes Pat. that Communion under both kinds was not necessary for the sufficiency of participation but that all the body and all the blood was taken in either kind And for this cause in domesticall Communions in Communions for children for sick persons by Sea and at the houre of death it was distributed under one kind onely In those times the Church believed i Cyp. ad Coecil ep 63 that the Eucharist was a true full and entire Sacrifice not onely Eucharisticall but k Euseb de vita Const l. 4. propitiatory and offered it as well for the living l Chrys in 1 Cor. hom 41. as the dead The faithfull and devout people of the Church in those times made pilgrimages to m Basil in 40. Martyr the bodies of the Martyrs n Ambr. de vid. prayed to the Martyrs to pray to God for them o Aug. in Psa 63. 88. celebrated their Feasts p Hier. ad Marcell Ep. 17. reverenced their Reliques in all honourable formes And when they had received help from God by the intercession of the said Martyrs q Theod. de Grac. aff l. 8. they hung up in the Temples and upon the Altars erected to their memory Images of those parts of their bodies that had been healed The Church of those times held r Basil de sanct Spir. the Apostolicall Traditions to be equall to the Apostolicall Writings and held for Apostolicall Traditions all that the Church of Rome now imbraceth under that title She also offered prayers for the a Tertul. de Mon. Aug. de verb. Ap. dead both publike and private to the end to procure for them ease and rest and held this custome as a thing b Aug. de cura pro mort necessary for the refreshing of their soules The Church then held the c Hier. ad Marcel Ep. 54. fast of the forty daies of Lent for a custome not free but necessary and of Apostolicall Tradition And out of the time of Pentecost fasted all the Fridaies of the years in memory of the death of Christ except Christmasse day fell on a Friday d Epiph. in compend which she excepted as an Apostolicall Tradition That Church held e Epiph. cont Apostol Haeres 51. marriage after the vow of Virginity to be a sinne and reputed f Chrys ad Theod.
Hier. cont Iov lib. 1. those that married together after their vowes not onely for Adulterers but also for incestuous persons That Church held the g Cyp. Cacil Ep 63. mingling of water with Wine in the Sacrifice of the Eucharist for a thing necessary and of divine and Apostolicall Tradition She held h Aug. de pecc orig cap. 40. Exorcismes Exsufflations and renuntiations which are made in Baptisme for sacred Ceremonies and of Apostolicall Tradition She besides Baptism and the Eucharist held i Aug. cont Petil lib. 3. cap. 4. Confirmation k Aug. de nupt conc c. 17. Marriage l Amb. de poenit c. 7. Penance m Leo 1. Epist or auricular Confession n Aug. cont Parm. l. 2. c. 13. Orders and Extreme-Vnction for true proper Sacraments which are the seven Sacraments which the Church of Rome now acknowledgeth That Church in the Ceremonies of Baptisme used o Cyp. Epist 70. Oyl p Conc. Carth. 3. c. 5 Salt q Gr. Naz. de Bapt. Wax-lights r Aug. Ep. 101. Exorcismes the ſ Aug. cont Iul. lib. 6. cap. 8. sign of the Crosse a Amb. de Sacra l. 1. word Ephata and other things that accompany it none of them without reason and excellent signification She also held b Aug. de an ejus orig l. 3. c 15 Baptisme for infants of absolute necessity and for this cause permitted c Tertul. de Bapt. Lay-men to baptize in the danger of death That Church used Holy Water consecrated by certain words and ceremonies and made use of it both for d Basil de S. Spirit c. 17. Baptisme and e Epiph. har 30. against Inchantments and to make f Theod. hist Eccles l. 5. c. 3. Exorcismes and conjurations against evill spirits That Church held divers degrees in the Ecclesiasticall Regiment to wit g Concil Lacd c. 24. Conc. Carth. 4. c. 2. Bishops Priests Deacons Sub-Deacons the Acolyte Exorcist Reader and the Porter consecrated and blessed them with divers forms and ceremonies And in the Episcopall Order acknowledged divers seats of Jurisdiction of positive right to wit Archbishops Primates Patriarchs and h Hieron ad Damas Ep. 57. Concil Chal. Ep. ad Leon. one super-eminent by divine Law which was the Pope without whom nothing could be decided appertaining to the universall Church and the want of whose presence either by himself or his Legats or his Confirmation made all Councells pretended to be universall unlawfull In that Church their service was said throughout the i Hier. praef in Paralip East in Greek and throughout the k Aug. Ep. 57. de doct Christ l. 2. c. 13. West as well in Africa as Europe in Latine although that in none of the Provinces except in Italy and in the Cities where the Romane Colonies resided the Latine tongue was understood by the common people She also observed the distinction of k Aug. Ep. 118. Psa 63. 83. Feasts and ordinarie daies the distinction of l Hier. ad Helis Ep. 3. Theod. hist Ec. l. 2. c. 27 Ecclesiasticall and Lay habits the m Optat. l. 1. p. 19. reverence of sacred vessels the custome of n Theod. hist l. 5. c. 8. Isod de Diu. Off. l. 1. c. 4. shaving and o Greg. Naz. de pac or 1. unction for the collation of Orders the ceremony of the p Cyrill Hier. Cac. Mart. 5. Priest washing his hands at the Altar before the consecration of the mysteries q Concil Lacd c. 13. pronounced a part of the Service at the Altar with a low voice made r Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 8. processions with the Reliques of Martyrs ſ Hier. cont Vigil kissed them t Hier. cont Vigil carried them in cloaths of silk and vessells of gold u Hier. c. Vi. took and esteemed the dust from under their Reliquaries accompanied the dead to their sepulchres with w Greg. Naz. in lul Orat. 3. Wax Tapers in signe of joy for the certainty of their future resurrection The Church of those daies had the pictures of Christ and his Saints both x Euseb de vita Const l. 3. out of Churches y Paulin. Ep. 12. Basil in Martyr Barlaam and in them and upon the very z Prudent in S. Cassian Altars of Martyrs not to adore them with God-like Worship but by them to reverence the Souldiers and Champions of Christ The faithfull then used the a Tert. de Coron milit sign of the Crosse in all their conversations b Cyril cōt Iul. l. 6. painted it on the portall of all the houses of the faithfull c Hier. in vit Hil. gave their blessing to the people with their hand by the sign of the Crosse d Athan. cont Idol imployed it to drive away evill spirits e Paul Ep. 11. proposed in Jerusalem the very Crosse to be adored on Good-Friday In brief that Church used either directly or proportionably the very same Ceremonies that the Roman Church useth at this day And finally that Church held f Tert. de Praescript Iren. l. 3. c. 3. l. 4. c. 32. that to the Catholike Church only belongs the keeping of the Apostolicall Traditions the authority of the interpretation of Scripture and the decision of controversies of faith and that out of the succession a Cyp de unit Eccles Conc. Car. 4. c. 1. of her Communion of b Hier. cont Lucif Aug. de util cred c. 8. her Doctrine c and her Ministry there was neither Church nor salvation d Cyp. ad Pup Ep. 63 ad Mag. Ep. 76. Hier. ad Tit. c. 3. And let the indifferent Reader now judge whether by this face we may know the Romane or the Protestant Church § 3. But because there is between two or three hundred years from the time of the first generall Councell to the Apostles and that some Protestants say that as Mephibosheth in his infancy fell from his nurses lap whereby he became lame and halted all his life after So the Church in the most primitive times fell from the true faith whereby she hath ever since gone awry we will still go on in the quest of the Roman Churches Antiquity even to the times of the Apostles alleadging some one amongst many of every age of the first five hundred years to make the proof the fuller in confirmation of some Roman doctrines that are most mainly gainsaid by Protestants Wherein will appear that false and vaine challenge of Bishop Jewell renewed by D. Whitaker who to the glorious Martyr Campian writes thus * Resp ad Rat. Camp Attend Campian the speech of Jewell was most true and constant when provoking you to the antiquity of the first six hundred years he offered that if you could shew by any one cleer and plain saying out of any one Father or Councell he would grant you the victory
it is the offer of us all the same do we all promise and we will all perform it Indeed in the first three of the first six hundred years the Church was almost under continuall persecution and so the writers of those times were few and much of that which they wrote did perish in those great ship-wracks of persecution and the matters that they wrote of most commonly were of another quality than concernes our present differences the Heresies of those daies being for the most part different from the present and much of their writings being spent in Apologies for themselves against the Heathen Yet all these advantages of the Protestants are too narrow to cover their designe For in those ages to retort the former boast of the Protestants there is not one single proof out of any one Father rightly interpreted for any one point of doctrine held by Protestants opposite to the Roman Catholique and for the Roman Catholique there is abundance In the alleadging whereof I will begin at the bottom and so go upward in some of which testimonies there shall be intermingling the interpretation of some Scriptures to the same purpose whereby I will include the testimony of Scripture also as it is interpreted by these Fathers who were doubtlesse better expositers than John Calvin or any of his followers And first of the Reall and corporall presence of our Saviour in the Holy Eucahrist and of the Holy Sacrifice of the Masse In the fift age or hundred of years S. Augustine expounding the title of the Psalme in which it is written And he was carried in his owne hands saith * Aug. Conc. 1. in Ps 33. Brethren who can understand how this could be done in man for who is carried in his own hands a man may be carried in the hands of another How this may be understood in David himselfe according to the letter we find not but in Christ we find For Christ was carried in his owne hands when commending his own body he said This is my Body for he carried that body in his hands Nor have the Protestants more reason to deny this place to intend the true reall naturall body and person of our Saviour because Turtullian saith it is a figure of his body than the Manichees and other Heretiques had to deny a reall body to our Saviour when he lived upon earth because the Scripture saith He took upon him the forme of a servant and was made in the likenesse of men Philip. 2.7 From which place they inferred that he was not a man really and indeed but had only the forme and likenesse of a man And if they would ' not stand to the judgement of the Church for the sense and meaning of these words who could convince them For they drew all other places to the sense of this and would not suffer this to yeald unto them though they were never so many or never so plaine In the fourth age S. Ambrose saith * Lib. 4. de Sacram c. 5. Before it be consecrated it is but bread but when the words of consecration come it is the body of Christ. To conclude heare him saying Take and eat of it all for this iâ— my body and before the words of Christ the chalice is full of wine and water when the words of Christ have wrought there it is made blood which redeemed the people Therefore mark in how great matters the word of Christ is potent to convert all things Moreover our very Lord Jesus testifieth unto us that we receive his body and bloud what ought we to doubt of his fidelity and testimony And again he saith * Lib. de iis qui misteriis initiantur c. 9. Perhaps you may say I see another thing how do you affirme to me that I shall receive the body of Christ This yet remaines to us to prove How great examples therefore do we use to prove that it is not this which nature hath formed but which benediction hath consecrated and that there is greater force of benediction than of nature because by the benediction the nature it selfe is changed Moses held a Rod he cast it down and it is made a Serpent c. which if humane benediction were so powerfull that it converted nature what say we of the divine consecration it selfe where the very words of our Lord and Saviour do work In the third age S. Cyprian tells us plainly if the former be not plaine enough for Transubstantiation that * Serm. de Coena Dom. prope init That bread which the Lord did give to his disciples being changed not in shape but in nature by the omnipotency of the word is made flesh and as in the person of Christ his humanity was seen his divinity lay hid so in the visible Sacrament the divine essence doth infuse it selfe after an expressible manner In the second age we find S. Iraeneus speaking thus * Lib. 4. c. 32. in fine But giving councell unto his diciples to offer unto God the first fruits of his creatures not as to one that wanted but that they might be neither unfruitfull nor ungratefull he took that which is bread of the creature and he gave thanks saying this is my body And the cup in like manner which is of that creature which is according to us he confesseth his blood and taught a new oblation of the new Testament which the Church receiving from the Apostles offers to God through all the world to him that maketh the first fruits of his gifts in the new Testament nourishments to us of which in the twelve Prophets Malachy 1.10.11 hath thus fore-signified I have no wil to you saith the Lord Omnipotent and I wil not receive a sacrifice of your hands for from the rising of the sun unto the going downe my name is glorified amongst the Gentiles and in every place incense is offered to my Name and a pure sacrifice because my name is great amongst the Gentiles saith the Lord Almighty Manifestly signifying by these words that the former people ceased to offer to God but in every place sacrifice is offered to God and this pure but his name is glorified in the nations Nor can this be meant of the Sacrifice of all Christians in generall but only of the Priests because as by the Chapter it doth appear God speakes of rejecting the Priests of the old law and their Sacrifice and choosing a new priesthood whom he calls the sonnes of Levi Mal. 3.3 by which figuratively is meant the Priests of the new Law and so do the Ministers of England frequently stile themselves the Tribe of Levi. Besides Protestants confesse that their * VVhitak cont Dur. l. 8. p. 572. praiers and best actions are impure and sinfull it cannot therefore be meant of such Sacrifices for this is a pure sacrifice and proper which none but Priests can offer is therefore according to the exposition of S. Irenaeus the Sacrifice of the Body and
third mark of the Church And of the vanity of Protestants supposition that the true Church is sometimes invisible That Protestant Churches have not alwaies been visible § 1. The third mark we will seek the true Church by is Visibility which was foretold by the Prophet Esay 2.2 Micah 4.1 It shall come to passe in the last daies that the mountaine of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountaines and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it Also Ezek. 37.28 The nations shall know that I am the sanctifier of Israel when my sanctification shall be in the middle of them for ever And S. Augustine resembles it according to the saying of our Saviour Matth. 5.14 A city placed on a hil that cannot be hid And he hath placed his tabernacle in the sun Psal 18.6 that is in open view c. his tabernacle his Church is placed in the Sun not in the night but in the day Tom. 9. in Epist Jo. Tract 2. And further saith of the Church that e Cont. Petil. l. 2. c. 104. she hath this most certain marke that she cannot be hid she is then known to all Nations the sect of Donatus is unknown to many Nations that then cannot be she To the children of the Church it is appointed by Christ that for the redresse of their grievances they tell the Church Mat. 81.17 which were a delusion unlesse the Church were alwaies visible who did also forewarn us against all obscure congregations saying If therefore they shall say unto you behold he is in the desert go you not forth behold he is in secret places believe it not Mat. 24.26 Now according to these assurances I found that the Roman Church was alwaies and eminently visible but the Protestant never eminent and for the most part not visible at all Concerning the visibility of the Church of Rome it is proved before by those testimonies which shew the antiquity perpetuall continuance thereof which cannot be proved but with the granting of her visibility Nor have I found the Protestants denying it the thing being so visible that it leaves no place for objections But they think to wipe out this mark by saying that it is not necessary to a true Church to be alwaies visible but others disliking that assertion by reason of the absurdity thereof do affirme to counterpoize the Roman that the Protestant Church hath been alwaies visible § 2. And first they that hold that the Church hath been invisible and that therefore visibility is not a certain mark of the Church indeavour to prove it by the example of the Church of the Jewes in the daies of Elias 3 King 19.10.18 who complained that the Prophets were slaine and he only was left alive and God answered that there were left seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to Baal To which objection I found the answer of Catholiques very true namely that this complaint of Elias was uttered with relation to the Kingdome of Israel onely wherein Elias then was and was persecuted by King Ahab but in the Kingdome of Judah the Church did florish and was sufficiently known to him and all men under the reigns of Asa and Joshaphat 3 Kings 22.41 who reigned in Judah when Achab reigned in Israel As what time the number of true believers was so great 2 Chron. 17.14 15 16 17 18 19. that the men of war only did amount to many hundred thousands And whereas M. Meade makes reply to this answer saying that the Church was invisible in the Kingdome of Iudah also in the daies of Manasses because it is said 2 Chron. 33. that Manasses set up Idolatry committed all impiety and caused Judah and Jerusalem to erre I answer that this comes short of a proof for though the Kings example in all cases though never so bad have a mighty influence on the people yet this proves not but that the Kingdome or an eminent part or at least a visible part both of Priests and people was still untainted even as it was in the daies of the persecution of Antiochus against the Jewes who set up the Abomination of desolation the Idoll of Olympick Jupiter in the Temple and compelled men to worship it Besides if it were as he would have it the case is much different between a very short time of the invisibility of the Church of the Jewes for we read in the same Chapter that Manasses quickly repented and amended all and the invisibility of the Protestant Church which by their own confessions was above a thousand years Also the comparison between the Church of the Jewes and Christians is not equall the New Testament being established in better promises Heb. 8.6 and therefore that may be incident to the one which is not to the other Moreover if there had been this totall eclipse it had relation but to the Nation of the Jewes only besides which were many other faithfull people in all ages as appears by the examples of Melchizedek Job c. in the Old Testament and in the New of Cornelius and the Eunuch to the Queen of Candace amongst which the Church might be visible though amongst the Jewes invisible § 3. Others I have heard say that by Catholikes own confession in the daies of Antichrist the Church shall be invisible But I never have read any Catholique that said so yet on the contrary I have found Protestants affirm a Bullinger in Apoc. 20. Fulk against Rhē in Thes 2. sect 5. the visibility of the Church and that universally even all the daies of Antichrist which makes against themselves if they account the Pope Antichrist as most of them do and themselves the Church Yet Doctor White contrary to his brethren saith that b F. VVhites Reply p. 61. lin 15. 26. in time of persecution the true Church may be reputed an impious Sect by the multitude and so not be known by the notion of true and holy nor can her truth be discerned by sense and common reason To which I answer that as there are four properties of Church-doctrine so there are foure notions of the Church The first is to bee Mistresse of saving truth and according to this notion the Church is invisible to the naturall understanding both of men and Angells for God only and his Blessed see our Religion to be the truth The second is to be Mistresse of Doctrine truly revealed by secret inspiration according to this notion ordinarily speaking the Church is invisible to almost all men that are or ever were the Apostles and Prophets only excepted The third to be Mistresse of the Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles by their preaching and miracles planted in the world according to this notion the Church was visible to the first and Primitive times but now is not The fourth is to be Mistresse of Catholique doctrine that is of Doctrine delivered received by full Tradition and profession all the
adversaries thereof that are under the title of Christian being divided amongst themselves and notorious changers and according to this notion the Church is ever visible and sensible to all men even to her enemies Otherwise there is no ordinary meanes left for men to know what the Apostles taught nor consequently what God by inspiration revealed to them And if she and the light of truth she carries with her should be hidden and lost we must begin again anew from a second fountain of immediate revelation from God and build upon the new planting thereof with Miracles in the world by some new Apostles And if this be absurd then there must ever be in the world a Church visible whose Traditions are famously Catholique and consequently shewing themselves to be the Apostles to all men that will not be obstinate And that the Church shall be universally visible even in the daies of Antichrist may be gathered out of the Scripture Rev. 20.8 For she shall then be every where persecuted which could not be unlesse she were visible and conspicuous even to the wicked And even during the first 300. years after Christ wherein the Church indured incomparably more universall and raging persecutions than ever were yet the a Magd. cent 1 2 3. Fulke cont Stapleton de success Eccl. p. 246. Century-writers and sundry others do take certain and particular notice of the Catholique Bishops and Pastors by name in those very ages of their administration of the Word and Sacraments and their open impugning of Heresies And surely our Lord himself had been which is blasphemy to think of him who is the eternall wisdome of the Father the most imprudent of all Law-makers to have a Law so obscure and exposed to so many suppositions depravations and false expositions whereto the malice of the Heretiques of all ages hath subjected it without leaving a depository to keep it and a judge to interpret it or to leave it to such a keeper and such a judge as should be invisible § 4. Other Protestants I have observed who though they confesse the invisibility of their Church yet professe the being thereof and assigne the place for it to be in the Roman Church mixed like a great deal of ore with a very little pure gold so that it was not discernable But this assignation of their Church seemed to me very unreasonable for either those Protestants did professe their owne faith or they did not if they did then doubtlesse they were visible and the Roman Church would soon have taken notice of them as she did in all ages of such though it were but one man that differed from her If they did not make profession of their faith what wretched sonnes of fear were they that to preserve their temporall security durst not publiquely avow their own Religion but comply in all things with a Religion in their opinion false and impious and dissemblingly do all the externall acts thereof and this all their lives for many generations successively This was not the part of a true Church or of any true member thereof who will surely die rather than deny his Saviour as he doth who believing himselfe to be of the true Religion makes profession of that which he deemes to be false Nor did they fulfill the Prophesie of Esay concerning the true Church which saith I have set watchmen upon thy walls which shall never hold their peace day nor night Esay 62.6 But Doctor Feild hath a new fancy of his owne which I never observed in any but himselfe who saith to this purpose that before the separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome the Church of Rome it selfe was the Protestant Church and that the Papists were but a faction of the Court of Rome an assertion so grosly false that all the world is a witnesse against it yea even I think all other Protestants themselves and needs no confutation § 5. Others taking all these Pleas for insufficient do affirm that their Church was in being and in sight also in all ages but that through the injury of later times no testimony thereof is now remaining but that all their records through the violence of the Pope and his Clergie have been utterly suppressed Of which vaine conceipt there is no proof at all and if the assertion without proof will serve their turne it may serve also for any other Religion Christian or not Christian who if they please may say the same thing but are never like to be believed by any man of common understanding Besides it thwarteth all experience as appeares by the example of Husse and Wickliffe whose writings are yet extant of Charlemaines pretended Book against Images and Bertrams concerning the Sacrament Also by the decrees of Catholique Councells and the large writings of Catholique Doctors reciting and condemning all opinions contrary to the Roman faith Lastly by the Ecclesiasticall Historiographers of every age who make this the argument of their writings yea even from them the Protestant * Centurists of Magdeburg Cent. Madg. Osiand Ep. Illyricus Catol VVhitak cont Duraeum pag. 276. 469. and others do recite the opinions mentioned and condemned in every age by the Church of Rome of which some were the very same that have since been revived by Protestants So that the Church of Rome hath been so far from extinguishing their records that she hath been the chief recorder of them and their doctrines § 6. The last and most valiant attempt of Protestants is to affirme that as the Church must be allwaies visible so theirs hath been in persons distinct from the Roman Church and thereby invite us to * A Protestants book so entituled look beyond Luther Which barren endeavour of theirs hath been like Peters fishing all night and catching nothing For they whom the Protestants claime for their predecessors were neither of their Religion nor yet alwaies visible there happening huge gaps betwixt them nor can the Protestants by any art or industry bring both ends together First they were not of the same Religion for to be of the same Religion or Church with another imports an agreement in all points of faith for the truth of doctrine being of the essence of the Church whosoever erres in any little thereof he ceaseth to participate of the soule of the Church which is the Spirit of truth and is but a dead member one equivocally and in name but not in truth We see that the Arrians Macedonians and many other Heretiques were accounted and are so by many Protestants not of the Catholique Church for one single error against faith now the Protestants disagreeing in many points not only from one another at this present but from all that went before them and that in points which they believe to be revealed in the Scripture their only rule are neither one Church amongst themselves at this present nor any one of them one with any society that hath gone before In particular the Grecians whom
they court to their faction are no Protestants for they hold damnable errors in the judgment of Protestants to wit Invocation of Saints Adoration of Images Transubstantiation Communion in one kind for the sick with many others So that Protestants are in great penury of professors of their Religion before Luther that are forced to call the Grecians in as Protestants in essence for they may even as well name the Pope himselfe As for John Husse and his followers who brake out about the year 1400. and are claimed to be Predecessors in the Protestant Religion it is certaine that they were no Protestants but held such Doctrines that if they were now in England they should suffer as Papists For they held a p. 216. seven Sacraments b p. 209. Transubstantiation c p. 217. art 7 8. the Popes primacy and the d Luther in Colloq Ger. c. de Missa Masse it self as Fox in his Acts and Monuments acknowledgeth No greater title have they to Wickliffe who appeared about the year 1370. in whom some Protestants say their visibility was maintained for he did visibly maintain Popery as e Wiclerus de blasphemia c. 17. holy water the f Idem de Eucharist c. 9. worship of Reliques and Images the g Idem in Ser. de assumpt Mariae intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary h Idem de apostosia c. 18. the Rites and ceremonies of the Masse all the i Idem in postil sup c. 15. Marci 7. Sacraments with all the points of Catholique doctrine now in question Moreover he held errors in the condemnation wherof both Catholiques and Protestants do agree as that k Acts Mon. p. 96. a. art 4. if a Bishop or Priest be in mortall sinne he doth not order consecrate or baptize l Idem p. 96 fine That Ecclesiasticall Ministers should not have temporall possessions He m Osiand Epit. hist Eccl. p. 459 art 43. condemned lawfull oathes with the Anabaptists and held many other pernicious doctrines Let any man then judge whether this man and his followers were Protestants or no. Then they ascend higher and claim on Waldo a merchant of Lions who brake out of the Sheepfold about the year 1220. with his followers as men in whom the Protestant Church was visible But these men were no more of kin to them than the former For they held the n In Ep. 244. p. 450. reall presence in the B. Sacrament for which they are reproved by Calvin who therfore understood them in the Catholique sense not in the Protestant And the most essentiall Doctrine of the Waldenses was their extolling of the merit of * Illiriâ—us Catolog Test p. 1498. voluntary poverty affirming all Ministers to be damned that had rents and possessions and that the Church perished under Pope Silvester and the Emperour Constantine through the poyson of temporall goods which Clergy-men began then to enjoy as they said against the Law of God Surely Protestants do not account this an Article of their faith Moreover the Waldenses held * Idem Catol Test p. 1502. these Anabaptisticall Errors That children are not to be baptized That there is no difference betweene a Bishop and a Priest a Priest and a Lay man That the Apostles were Lay-men and that every Lay-man that is vertuous is a Priest may preach and administer Sacraments That a woman pronouncing the words of consecration in the vulgar tongue doth consecrate yea transubstantiate bread into the body of Christ That it is a mortall sin to swear in any case That Magistrates being in mortall sin do lose in their office and no man is to obey them with many other absurdities too tedious to be recited The like may be said of the Albigenses and also of Beringarius who broached his Heresie about the yeare 1048. who was a Protestant but onely in the point against Transubstantiation which he also recanted and died a Catholique And what do any of these or all these together availe the Protestants every one of them extending but to some part of time between this and the Primitive Church and is also but the example of some one or other private man in whom the revolt first began who was first a Catholike and beginning afterwards to hold some one or few points of the Protestant faith continued in all other matters of controversie a Catholique By all which it appeares that none of these were Protestants and that therefore in them the visibility of the Protestant Church is not maintained And that if it were yet seeing they lived at severall times ununited by a line of time one to another but jumping over severall ages against the Law of nature which non facit saltum and that therfore in the between-spaces there was an invisibility of the Protestant Church the main question of their Churches perpetuall visibility is yet unsatisfied Especially when we consider that for about a thousand yeares which was the time betwixt Beringarius and the Apostles the Protestants pretend to no predecessors As for the most Primitive Fathers whom they affirm to maintain the Protestant Doctrine I have in brief shewed it to be false already and they that will search shall more largely find it so Also they all died members of the Roman Church So that the Protestants have not in them to wit the Fathers a visible Church distinct from the Roman nor was the Roman theirs From whence it is manifest that there is not any one Protestant Church in the world that can shew her visibility in any Kingdome city poor countrey village or particular person from the Apostles time to Luther the truth wherof M. Wotton is not ashamed to confesse where he saith in his answer to a Popish Pamphlet p. 11. You will say shew us where the faith religion you professe were held Nay prove you they were held no where c. and what if it could not be shewed yet we know by the Articles of our Creed that there hath been alwaies a Church in which we say this Religion we now professe must of necessity be held with us it is no inconvenience to have the true Church hid This stands you upon to disprove which when you attempt to do by any particular records you shal have particular answer Than which saying what more ridiculous To presume that their Church was alwaies visible in the land of Vtopia sure where no man ever saw it because it is the true Church wheras they should prove it the true Church because it hath been alwaies visible the knowledge of her visibility being much more easie than of her truth which is the main thing in controversie And to require of Catholiques proof that they were not visible by particular records is extreme foolish records being memorialls of things that were not of things that were not § 7. All which considerations shaking the confidence of many Protestants in the visibility of their Church before Luther
after they have thus fluttered up and down finding like the Dove out of the Arke no rest for the sole of their foot they at last fly to the Scriptures think to pearch upon that under whose obscurity and their corruption of them while they will admit none to interpret them but themselves they frame what sense they please as any bodie els may do with great confidence but little judgement as all Heretikes do assure themselves thereof But if they will allow the Fathers for good interpreters as none but those that are puffed up with the Spirit of Pride will refuse to do then we find as I shewed before that even Christ and his Apostles were of the Roman not the Protestant Religion and the first Founders and publishers thereof But Doctor White in his Reply p. 105. concludes thus that this notwithstanding if Protestants be able to demonstrate by Scripture that they maintaine the same faith and religion which the Apostles taught this alone is sufficient to prove them to be the true Church But they that cannot by the markes of the Church set downe in Scripture cleere themselves to be the true Church do most fondly appeale to Scripture to shew the truth of their particular points For what more vaine than to appeale from Scripture setting things down cleerly unto Scripture teaching matters obscurely or not so cleerly Now no particular point of doctrine is in holy Scripture so manifestly set down as is the Church and the markes whereby we may know her No matters about which the Scripture is more copious and perspicuous than about the visibility perpetuity amplitude the Church was to enjoy so that as S. Augustine saith the Scriptures are more cleer about the Church than even about Christ in Psal 30. Conc. 2. and De unitat Eccles c. 5. that the Scripture in this point is so cleer that by no shift of false interpretation it can be avoided the impudence of any fore-head that will stand against this evidence is confounded a Tract 1. in 1. Ep. Ioan. That it is a prodigious blindnesse not to see which is the true Church For b Aug. l. 1. cont Crescon c. 33. l. 13. cont Faust cap. 13. God would have his Church to be described in Scripture without any ambiguity as clear as the beams of the Sun that the controversie about the true Church being cleerly decided when questions about particular Doctrines that are obscure arise we may fly to her and rest in her judgement and that this visibility is a manifest sign whereby even the rude and ignorant may discern the true Church from the false What vanity then is it for Protestants not being able to clear by Scripture the cleerest of all points to appeal to her for the cleering of other points by lesse evident places CHAP. XIV Of the fourth mark of the true Church viz. a lawfull succession and ordinary vocation and mission of Pastors And that it is ridiculous to affirme that Catholiques and Protestants are the same Church § 1. A Fourth mark of the Church is personall succession of Pastors and their mission by ordinary callings which is alwaies to be found in the true Church as is foretold by the Prophet Esay ch 59. v. 2. My spirit which is upon thee and the words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed from henceforth for ever And the Apostle saith of our Saviour Ephes 4.11.12 that he appointed Pastors and Teachers in the Church to the consummation of the Saints for the work of the ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all meet in the unity of the faith And this charge is not to be undertaken by usurpation but by lawfull calling and mission as the Apostle saith Heb. 5.4 No man takes to himselfe this honour but he that is called of God as Aron was to wit visibly and by peculiar consecration And againe How shall they preach except they be sent Rom. 10.15 And our Saviour saith who so entreth not by the doore into the sheepfold but climeth another way is a thief John 10.5 And God in the old Testament reproves those that went without mission saying J have not sent these Prophets yet they ran Jeremy 23.21 I have not sent them saith the Lord yet they prophecie fasly in my name Jer. 27.15 And this is a note of the Church so pertinent that S. Augustine Lib. cont Epist Fundament c. 4. saith the succession of Priests from the very Seat of Peter the Apostle to whom the Lord commited his sheep to be fed even to the present Bishoprick doth hold me in the Church And Optatus Milevitanus reckons all the Roman Bishops from S. Peter to Syricius who then was Pope to shew that the Church was not then with the Donatists who by like succeson could not ascend up to the Apostles and then lib. 2. cont Parmenianum he addes Shew you the originall of your chaire who challenge the holy Church to your selves Now that this mark is found upon the Church of Rome I know no man that denies But the Bishops where they are and Ministers of Protestant Churches cannot thus derive themselves from the Apostles The Roman Church indeed made Luther Priest and gave him Commission to preach her Doctrine but to preach against her Religion who gave him order That Commission seeing he had it not from any Church he had either from himself minting a Religion out of his owne braine coloured with abused Scripture which he then proudly pretended to know better than all the Christian world beside g Tom 7. VVittenberg fo 228 or from the Devill with whom he conferred and to whose arguments he yeelded as himself confesseth Also the succession of the English Bishops and Ministers was interrupted upon their pretended Reformation the lawfull Bishops being turned out and others preferred to their place by the temporall authority of the Kingdome in chief which had no power to choose or consecrate Bishops and ordain Priests Or if they were at first consecrated by lawful Bishops of the Church of Rome as for their credit they pretend yet they had not thereby Commission to preach their new Doctrine differing from the Church of Rome nor howsoever is their succession lawfull for in a lawfull succession it is required that the former Bishops be dead or lawfully deposed but these conditions were not observed in Enland the Catholique Bishops being violently cast out by the Authority of Q. Elizabeth assuming to her self the title of head of the Church a thing never arrogated by any temporall Prince of the world untill her Father King Henry the eight gave the example But it is worth the observation that the Bishops and Ministers of England to maintain the lawfulnesse of their succession do affirm that they were consecrated by Catholique Bishops their predecessors which while they do
the judgement of charity but of discretion Catholiques judge no particular man to be damned because they know not the operations of God upon his soule in his latest minutes but they judge that all men out of the Roman Catholique Church are out of the road of salvation because they are assured thereof by the word of God And if to grant the possibility of salvation to others be such a testimony of charity as they conceive then surely Origen was of all men most charitable who held that at the last even the devills themselves should be saved and yet I find no man agreeing with him in this charitable opinion But the truth is as I conceive that Protestants are thus kind to Catholiques for their own ends which are to provoke Catholiques to shew the same favour to them that so they may have the better security in their way by the concurrent opinions of others and also for feare lest by denying salvation to the Church of Rome they cut off the hope thereof from themselves who acknowledge no lawfull ministry by consequence no Church and by consequence no salvation but that which they derive from the Church of Rome Which seeing they do indeed want they are neither united with her nor can justly hope for salvation without her CHAP. XV. Of the fifth Mark of the true Church viz. Unity in doctrine And of horrible dissentions among Protestants § 1. A Fifth Mark of the Church is unity in doctrine of which it is said by S. Paul I beseech you that all speak one thing be ye knit together in one mind and one judgement 1. Cor. 1.10 endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Ephes 4.3 Continue in one Spirit and one mind Philip. 1.27 of one accord and one judgement Philip 2.2 Thus in the first times were the multitude of them that believed of one heart and one soule Acts 4.32 Thus our Saviour prayeth and no doubt was heard that they may be one John 17.11 and the effect of that prayer we see in the Church of Rome and no where else Thus also the Holy Ghost describes the Church of Christ saying my dove is one Cant. 6.8 And the want of this unity is so improper to God that he is therefore termed the God not of dissention but of peace 1 Cor. 14.33 And it is such an assured meanes to shorten continuance that the Scripture saith if you bite and devoure one another take heed that you be not consumed one of another Galat. 5.15 and that a kingdome divided against it self shall perish Luc. 11.17 And by the want of this mark of unity did the antient Fathers discover the Heretiques of their times S. Crysostome saith Op. imperfect in Math. Hom. 20. All infidells that are under the devill are not united nor hold the same things but are dispersed by divers opinions one saith so and another so c. in the same manner are the falshoods of Heretiques who never hold the same things but have so many opinions as there are persons To the same purpose speakes Jrenaeus Tertullian and others Iren. l. 1. c. 5. Tertull. de praesc advers haer 42. And this unity I found apparently in the Church of Rome and the contrary as apparent amongst Protestants Thus the antient writers do wonderfully agree in all matters of faith so also do all the decrees of all lawfull Councells and Popes though they were men living in severall ages in severall countries and wrote in severall languages And now also all Catholiques in the world howsoever otherwise divided by country language particular interest civill dissentions or war yet agree exactly in all points of faith And this because they have a certaine compasse to steere by to wit the generall Tradition of the Church and the decrees of Generall Councells who they have reason to believe doe preserve that which was delivered by the Apostles and if any doubt arise about the sense of Scripture are better able to interpret it than any other persons to which therefore they doe modestly and wisely submit their judgements But no such agreement was ever found or ever can bee found amongst Protestants or any sort of Heretiques S. Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 21. saith of Simon Magus his Heresie that it was divided into severall sects S. Augustine of the Donatists lib. 1. de Bapt. c. 6. that in his time it was cut into small threds And particularly the same is happened to Protestants who soon after their separation from the Church of Rome were divided amongst themselves and have ever since so continued multiplying daily in their divisions insomuch that even in the one Kingdome of England and even in the one City of London there are very many And in many particular houses there are some different Sects of Religion each pretending to be the true Protestant and denying that title to the other Nor is there any meanes to reconcile their differences but they are rather likely to grow more and greater as wee see at this day For no Sect will acknowledge another its superiour in matter of Religion nor stand to its judgment except it be by force no not any one particular person thinks himself obliged to submit to the whole world therefore they use to say that they will not pin their faith upon another mans sleeve but all pretend to be guided by the Word of God which each one will interpret for himselfe and accuse all others of error so far as they dissent from him And though Sects and Heresies do first arise out of the Catholique Church as the Apostle saith There must be Heresies 1 Cor. 11.19 yet the Church doth not lose her unity hereby because she having a certain Touch-stone whereby to try them namely the judgement of the Church if they will not submit to that they are excommunicated and by judiciall sentence cut off from that body from which they first cut themselves by mis-belief as the Apostle saith an hereticall man after the first and second admonition avoid Tit. 3.10 whereby they preserve the rest of the body intire and at unity within it self So that the Heresies do not arise from the Doctrine of the Church but from the malice of the Devill But amongst Protestants the liberty of reading and interpreting Scripture and the examining and judging the Preachers Doctrine thereby being given to every silly soul as Doctor Bilson saith c True difference part 2. p. 353. The people are discerners and judges of that which is taught as with good reason they ought for it was upon this ground that they first separated from the Church of Rome undertaking to be judges of her Doctrine and if the present Clergie should not continue this liberty to the people against themselves who are no more infallible than the other nor can pretend to it they would play very foule play with the people and instead of giving them liberty of conscience which they promised only translate them from
not in the setling thereof fill their hands with blood And by Rebellion and unutterable cruelties propagate as they thought the Gospell of peace The Kingdome of England only excepted where the change was made by the Princes Which change not having gon far enough from the Catholique Roman Religion the people having got the sword into their hands doe now attempt according to the patern of all their fellow Protestants to make a second Reformation with such witty Rebellion and cruelty the only things wherin they did ever excercise any wit that as no posterity wil be able to imitate so no posterity will keep it silent but blazon it throughout the world to their eternall infamy when the Religion their Idoll to whom they sacrifice all this humane blood shall be sunk from whence it came to hell CHAP. XVI Of the sixth Mark of the true Church viz. Miracles And that there are no true Miracles among Protestants § 1. ANother mark of the Church is Miracles of which our Saviour saith John 14.10 He that believes in me the works that I doe he shall do and greater of which words the marginall notes of the English Bibles printed Anno 1576. say This is referred to the whole Body of the Church in whom this vertue doth shine for ever And againe Christ saith Mar. 16.17.18 These signes shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out devills they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover In so much that S. Augustine Cont. Ep. Fund c. 4. reckons this amongst many things forementioned that holds him in the Churches bosome saying The consent of people and nations retaines me the authority begun by Miracles nourished by hope increased by charity confirmed by antiquity retaines me the succession of Prelates since the Sea of Peter to whom our Lord consigned the feeding of his sheep after his resurrection to the present Bishops Sea retaines me finally the very name of Catholique retains me which not without cause this Church alone amongst so many so great heresies hath so maintained as when a stranger asks where they assemble to communicate in the Catholique Church there is no heretique that dares shew him his own Temple or his own house § 2. Now concerning Miracles the Protestants say that they are ceased and it is true to wit amongst them since they ceased to be members of the true Church and is therefore a signe that they have ceased to be so For this promise hath no limitation of time but is to continue for ever in the Church Nor do they prove the contrary by Scripture and if they cannot prove it by Scripture according to their own principles they are not to be believed And whereas some do alledge Fathers and Schoolmen to prove that Miracles are ceased they ought to distinguish and to know that there are two manners of being of Miracles to wit ordinary and extraordinary concerning which three things are affirmed First that in the Primitive Church Miracles were absolutly necessary for the planting of the Gospell in the world John 5.36 Acts 4.29.30 and then the gift of Miracles was ordinarily annexed to the ministry of preaching so that most Christians commonly had that gift in one kind or other 1 Cor. 12.28 Acts 8.17 Secondly that since the planting of the Gospell by 12. fishermen which was the Miracle of Miracles no further Miracle is absolutely necessary for men to whom this is known and therefore the gift of miracles is ceased to be ordinarily annexed to the office of preaching or common almost to all Christians as before it was Thirdly notwithstanding this in all ages there were are and ever shal be some speciall places and persons extraordinarily endued with the gift of Miracles for the comfort of Christians and conversion of remote nations to whom the same of the first miraculous planting of our Religion is not come And of Miracles of this kind c Aug. de civit lib. 22. c. 8. Greg. Dial. the writings of the Fathers and all Christian histories are full in so much that S. Augustine having mentioned many Miracles saith what shall I do I am not able to remember all that I know and doubtlesse sundry of ours when they read these will grieve that I have omitted so many which likewise they know aswell as I. And concludes that it would require many books to set downe the Miracles of healing done onely at the monument of S. Stephen * Beda hist l. 1. c. 26. Many Miracles also were done by S. Augustine the Monk who being sent from Pope Gregory above a thousand yeares ago converted the Kingdome of England the third time to the Roman Catholique faith Yea many Miracles were done in severall ages and severall places by Roman Catholiques by the confession of Protestant writers themselves In so much that the Centurists of Magdeburg do make report thereof in their 13. Chapter of every severall Century for thirteen hundred years after Christ out of the credible writers of those severall times In particular e Antonius 3. part Hi◠tit 23. 24. S. Francis S. Dominick and other holy men about their times did abound in Miracles also S. Katherine of Sienna and S. Bernard who being a Roman Catholique is yet acknowledged by f De Ecclés p. 369. post med Whitaker for a true Saint So did g Hackluit Navigat vol. 2. part 2. p. 88. Hartwell of the Kingdome of Congo in the Epist S. Xaverius in his conversion of the Indies of late yeares and many other Romish Priests in the conversion of the Kingdome of Congo in Africa and the same so credible that they are published to the world by Protestants themselves I will instance in some few that have been done in confirmation of some particular points of the Roman Faith Concerning Prayers to Saints S. Augustine de civit Dei l. 22. c. 8. saith that a devout woman called Palladia being diseased did in the presence of him and others pray to S. Stephen at his monument and was presently made whole Concerning Images Eusebius l. 7. c. 14. reports that the woman mentioned in the Gospell whom our Saviour cured of a bloody-flux by the touch of the hem of his garment erected the Image of our Saviour at the foot whereof there sprang up an herb which when it grew so high as to touch the bottome of the garment of the Image had power to cure all diseases c De passione imaginis Christi in Berito alledged in the 2 Councell of Nice Act. 4. Athanasius also and d De gloria Martyr l. 1. c. 22. Gregorius Turonensis make mention that upon violence offered by the Jewes to the Image of Christ blood did miraculously issue from thence The Miracles done by the signe of the Crosse by report of the Fathers are almost infinite in
Majesty is on my side so that I doe not care though a thousand Augustines a thousand Cyprians a thousand Henricane Churches stood against me And in his defence of his Translation of the new Testament he saith If thy Papist wil prattle concerning this word alone which he added to the text where it is said that we are justified by faith presently answer Doctor Martin Luther will have it so and saith a Papist and an asse are the same So I will so I command my will be a law For wee will not be the schollers of the Papists but the Masters and Judges And Sleydan his deare Scholer l. 3. fol. 29. b. initio l. 2. fol. 22. a. doth report that he himselfe acknowledged his profession not to be of life or manners but of doctrine wishing that he were removed from the office of preaching because his manners and life did not answer his profession In so much that it gained the place of a Proverb amongst the Protestants of those daies to expresse their riot and intemperance by saying c Morgensterne in â—ra de Eccl. p. 225. HODIE LUTHERANICE VIVEMUS to day we will live like Lutherans His impudent railing his foule filthy and Bedlam-like expressions have bred a stench through all his writings and it is no wonder for who would look for better language or beter life from one who was such a darling of the devill Luther in Conc. Dom. Reminis fo 19. apud Cochleum Idem in Colloq Germ. fo 275. 281. that he knew him very well as he to his great credit confesses that he had eat more than one measure of salt with him and that the devill slept with him oftner than his wife Katherine Concerning Calvin that admired Apostle of Protestants it is affirmed by Conradus Schlusselburg in Theol. Calvinistar l. 2. fol. 72. a man of eminence in the Protestant Church and certainly a great enemy to the Church of Rome that God in the rod of his fury visiting Calvin did horribly punish him before the fearfull houre of his unhappy death for he so struck this Heretique with his mighty hand that being in despaire and calling upon the Devill he gave up his wicked soul swearing cursing and blaspheming He died of the disease of lice and worms increasing in a most loathsome ulcer about his privy parts so as none present could indure the stench These things are declared concerning his lasciviousnesse his sundry abominable vices and Sodomiticall lusts for which he was by the Magistrate under whom he lived branded on the shoulder with a hot burning iron unto which I yet see not any sound and clear refutation made Thus far he Of Beza also another Father of the Protestant Religion many foul and impious things are recorded his odious conspiracies and seditious books are mentioned by Bolseck in his book of Beza's life and by Bancroft in his Survey pag. 127. 54. 59. 219. 220. By whom also he is taxed of insolency pride and impudence in being too bold with the antient Fathers Lastly he wrote a Faius de vita obitu Beza p. 19. many lascivious Poems and that after he was turned Protestant and one Epigram amongst the rest most infamous wherein debating with himself whether he should prefer his lust with Candida his wench or Andebertus his boy in conclusion he prefers the later and of two evill doings both of which he ought to have avoided he doth deliberately choose one and that the most foul and unnaturall These things and much more to this purpose are recorded of these and others the supposed Apostles converters of the world and restorers of the purity of Evangelicall Doctrine of whom we may say as Josephs brethren did to Jacob of his Coat all smeered with blood VIDE UTRUM TUNICA FILII TUI SIT AN NON See whether it be thy sonnes coat or no Gen. 37.32 Judge whether these be the lives of the Sonnes of God sent to controule the world to reform and lead out of error the misguided sonnes of men Surely any prudent man will believe that either God never intended the change they have made or if he did he would have chosen other kind of men than these such as Moses and the Prophets who gave the Law unto the Jewes and Christ and his Apostles who brought the Gospell to the Gentiles As for the common multitude Luther to the credit of his Doctrine confesses Postill super Evang. Dominicae 1. Advent that the world grows daily worse men are now more revengefull covetous licentious then they were ever before in the Papacy And again he saith Domin 26. post Trin. before when we were seduced by the Pope every man did willingly follow good works and now every one neither saith nor knowes any thing but how to get all things to himself by exactions pillage theft lying usury c. And of those that have changed from the Catholique Roman to the Protestant Religion it is confessed by Luther in Serm. convivial Germ. fol. 55. Musculus Loc. Com. cap. de Decal in explanat 3. praecepti p. 62. circa med That they have changed their lives into worse Which made Paulus Eberus a Protestant writer of note complain saying in praefat Comment Philip. in Ep. ad Cor. which evills seeing every one doth behold with his proper eyes he doubts not without cause whether our Evangelicall congregation be the true Church Which also with the other reasons forementioned hath made me not at all to doubt thereof but to believe assuredly that it is not the true Church § 3. As for the recriminattion of the Protestants and charging the lives of some Popes and many of the Clergie and Religious with great impiety as it is not denied so far forth as it is true so it is in it self impertinent for what Church pretends to have every particular person though of the highest rank blamelesse Let them look upon the heads of their own Churches whosoever they be that they count so and see whether by their owne members they are accounted spotlesse particularly the first head of the Church of England King Henry the eight And upon their own Clergie of whom not I but Doctor King Bishop of London in Jonam Lecture 45. saith that scarce the tenth man of the Ministry is morally honest But howsoever the successors may faile yet it is a matter highly suspitious yea altogether convincing that they that pretend to be the first revealers or revivers of the forsaken truth of God if they be not of godly lives are counterfeit Messengers and false Prophets And the Protestants have no reason to make an inventory of the faults of Catholiques for so many hundred years as they confesse Catholiques have possessed the Church and that throughout the world and compare it with their own faults whose Church is little above one hundred year old and possessing but some corners of the world Nor is the sanctitie of the Church I confesse to be measured exactly
by the zealous complaints against sin on either side for zealous complaint is hyperbolicall even in holy Scripture But it is manifest that the Protestant Religion hath not that sanctity of life in it that the Catholique hath when neither the founders thereof had any at all nor the followers any more but much lesse than when they were Catholiques In fine compare the lives of Roman Catholiques and Protestants both Clergie and Laity and of the same Nation for that some Nations perhaps are addicted to vice in generall more than others and every Nation to some one or few particular vices more than another the best to the best and the major part to the major part we shall find so have I done and I have heard even Protestants themselves confesse that they are exceedingly overballanced by the Catholiques CHAP. XIX Of the tenth and last here mentioned Mark of the Church viz. That the true Church hath never been separated from any society of Christians more antient then her selfe § 1. THe last Mark of the Church which I will mention is her never going forth out of any visible society of Christians elder than her self of which going out as a note of error and falshood the Apostles say They went forth from us 1 Joh. 2.19 Certain that went forth from us Acts 15.14 Out of your selves shall arise men speaking perverse things Acts 20.30 These are they that separate themselves Jude vers 19. Certain it is that the true Church is most antient as truth it self is elder than falshood if therefore there have risen in the Church men of indifferent judgements or affections from the true Church they have presently made a separation gone out of the Church wherein they were and erected a new Church to themselves As S. Augustine saith Tract 3. in Ep. Joan. de Sym. ad cateth l. 1. c. 5. All Heretiques went out from us that is they go out of the Church and againe The Church Catholique fighting against all Heresies may be opposed but she cannot be overthrowne all heresies are come out from her as unprofitable branches out from the Vine but she remaines in her vine in her root in her charity A vain thing therefore it is for Protestants to charge the Church of Rome with departing from the Word of God and the Doctrine of the Apostles unlesse they can prove that she departed from some former Church that held other doctrine than she doth But certain it is that this cannot be proved seeing she was planted by the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul and never separated her self from any precedent Church It is true indeed that there were Churches elder than she in time as she is a particular Church as the Church of Ierusalem where the Gospell was first preached and of Antioch where S. Peter was first Bishop with other Churches in Asia but these all agreed in the unity of Faith and were all subject to the Church of Rome after it was planted in union under the head thereof S. Peter and his successors as I shall shew by and by And the Church of Rome did never seperate from any of these but many of these from her in the Heresie of Arius and others as Protestants will not deny If then she did never separate from any elder Church so that men might say here is a Church and there is the Church of Rome once the same with her and now separated from her she must still be the first and true Church or there is none upon earth But certain it is on the contrary side that all the former Churches which Protestants themselves will call Heretiques as Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Entychians Donatists with many others did separate from the Church of Rome and she can tell when and why and no lesse certain is it that all that are now called Protestants and all the pedigree of their fore-fathers Waldo Wickliffe Husse Luther Calvin and all the Kingdomes wherein their followers are were once and first of the Roman Catholique Church and have forsaken her Communion and departed from her and have not joyned to any other Church more antient and subsistent apart from her by which shee was condemned of novelty and separation nor are they able to shew any such Church therefore the Roman must needs be the true Church Or else which is a most absurd and impossible imagination the true Church hath been utterly extinguished and revived againe and that not by the service of such men as proved their calling by miracles or sanctity of life as Roman Catholiques have done to all the nations they have converted but were men notable only for their wickednesse And these amongst many others which might be added and of which much more might be said are those infallible Markes that prove the Church of Rome and those that communicate with her to bee the one true holy Catholique and Apostolique Church That Church of whose infallible and never-erring Judgement the Scripture assures us calling it The ground and pillar of truth which hath the Spirit of God to lead it into all truth which is built upon a rock against which the gates of hell shal not prevaile wherein Christ placed Apostles Prophets Doctors and Pastors to the consummation and ful perfection of the whole body that in the mean time we be not carryed away with every blast of doctrine 1 Tim. 3.15 John 16.13 Mat. 16.18 Ephes 4.11.12 That Church which whatsoever it says God commands us to doe and he that will not is an heathen and a Publican which whatsoever shee shall bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatsoever shee shall loose one earth is loosed in heaven which is the spouse of Christ his body his lot Kingdome and inheritance given him in this world Math. 23.3 and 18.17.18 Of which S. Cyprian Epist 55. saith To S. Peters chaire and the principall Church infidelity or false faith cannot have accesse And S. Hierome Apol. advers Ruff. l. 3. c. 4. That the Roman faith commanded by the Apostles cannot be changed And S. Gregory Nazianzen Carm. de vita sua 'Old Rome from antient times hath the right faith and alwaies keepeth it as it becomes the city which over-rules the world Which being so what remaines to every man but laying aside endlesse dispute about particulars to cast himself into the armes of this Holy mother Church and wholly rely upon her infallible judgement wherein Christ Jesus her husband hath promised and hath reason to preserve her And to submit themselves to the visible head thereof the Pope of Rome of whose authority as I did my self particularly enquire and was moved thereby so I will briefly propound it to others CHAP. XX. That the Pope is the head of the Church § 1. THe Protestants doe usually blaspheme the Pope and Sea of Rome with the title of Antichrist of the Whore of Babylon of the Mother of Abominations of the Beast with seven heads and ten hornes and many other like courteous compellations
unto them 3. Kings 18.21 If the Lord be God follow him if Baal be God follow him cleerly intimating thereby that they that followed Baal followed and worshipped him as God Thirdly it is only the worship of Images for God which is by God forbidden as appears Exod. 20.23 where it is said you shall not make to your selves Gods of silver and Gods of gold and Lev. 26.1 you shall make no Idolls and graven Images c. to bow downe therto for I am the Lord and my glory I will not give to another neither my praise to graven images Esay 24.8 By which places as by all other is forbidden that kind of bowing honour and worship which is due to God only because it is said I am the Lord therfore Images are not and my praise and my glory I will not give to another that is that praise and glory which is due to me only for otherwise seeing man is another thing from God it would be unlawfull to give any kind of praise or bow down to men which no body I think will affirme This and this only is properly Idolatry namely to worship a creature believing it to be God and giving to it the divine incommunicable attributes and in that imagination to exercise devotion to it which is far from the belief or practise of Catholiques But that holy creatures as Saints and Angells are to be worshipped with such worship as we give to persons of severall qualities here on earth as bowing and kneeling or such as we give to all whose help we desire as praying and these in the absence of the parties by and through their Images and that the Images themselves are to be reverently handled for their sakes whom they represent no rationall man can deny § 2. And whereas many Protestants stumble at the word worship and think that it imports a thing that is to be done to God only they are therein mistaken worship signifying any kind of reverence and respect either of body or mind and is communicable to all creatures according to their dignity therefore in the English Phrase we call all eminent Gentlemen worshipfull that is men that deserve reverence or worship and all men do worship others when they put off their hats or bow their bodies to them And whereas they say it is but civill worship which they give to men it is impertinent for civill and religious worship do not differ in the outward act or expression but in the object that is worshipped that being civill worship which is given to a civil person or thing which is religious worship being directed to a holy person or thing Now Saints being holy persons their Images or other things that belong to them may be said to be holy first because they have relation to them as the Scripture saith put off thy shooes from thy feet for the place where thou standest is holy ground Exod. 3.5 which was in regard of the presence of the Angells by whom the Law was delivered Gal. 3.19 Secondly because Images are dedicated to honour God withall by and through them whom they represent of which the Scripture saith whatsoever shall once be consecrated shall be most holy to the Lord Levit. 27.28 for which cause all the Vestments and Vtensils of the Temples were called holy therefore the reverence and respect done to Images is and ought to be holy or religious worship for whatsoever is holy is religiously honourable or worshipfull and that so far and in that sense that it is holy and so are Images of religious persons The Councell of Trent Sess 25. decret de Sanct. Imag. hath expressed the doctrine of the Catholique Church herein in these words The Image of Christ of the Virgin Mother of God and of other Saints are to be had and retained especially in Churches and due honour and worship is to be imparted to them not for that any Divinity is to be believed to be in them or vertue for which they are worshipped or that any thing is to be begged of them or that hope is to be put in them as in times past the Pagans did who put their trust in Idolls but because the honour which is exhibited to them is referred to the first pattern which they resemble So that by the Images which we kisse and before whom we uncover our heads and kneel we adore Christ and his Saints whose likenesse they beare Whatsoever is more than this are but School-points which no man is bound to believe further than his particular reason guides him But howsoever the belief is say the Protestants yet the practise is otherwise and some ignorant people doe pray to Images believing them to be very God and so seek succour from them as from God and it is better say they that the worship of Images should be abolished than that it should be the occasion of Idolatry Their affirmation as it is not to be believed considering the plentifull meanes of instruction in all places and the easinesse of the thing to be apprehended so their inference is false for passing by their preferring their own judgement herein before all the world of Catholiques which objection lies against them in all that they say and is a great one I answer the good use of a thing is not to be taken away because of the abuse especially when the good use is very abundant and the abuse very rare and easily amended by instruction otherwise all good things must be abolished because by some or other they are abused These men that argue thus wil not say that wine is to be destroyed because some men are drunk therewith or the use of swords forbidden because some men commit murder with them espetially that the reading of the Bible should is be prohibited because some men pervert it as the Apostle saith to their own damnation The use of Jmages then notwithstanding this objection is lawfull and unfit to be abolished Nor truly can any man whose naturall understanding is not corrupted by his corrupting of Scripture boggle at it It is a Principle in nature gathered out of Aristotle IDEM EST MOTUS IN IMAGINEM ET EXEMPLAR that the image may and ought to stand for the person whose image it is and is by imagination to be taken as if it were the person and what we doe to the Image is done by imagination to the person And this is expressed by the Prophet David saying Adore his footstoole which the Protestants of England falsly translate at his footstool because he is holy Psal 98.5 God appointed that the Tabernacle should be taken by imagination for his house the Mercy-seat for his Throne and the Ark for his footstool and so he imagined there present as sitting with his feet on the Ark and this ordination being supposed the Prophet saith Adore his footstool yet taking of the Ark as a place where God is present 〈◊〉 but a positive ordinance whereas Images by the law of nature stand for those
way of receiving it is impossible to receive him unworthily which is contrary to the Scripture and the common beliefe of all Christians for according to them none receive him but they that receive him worthily faith being the means with them which makes them receive him both really and worthily which who so wants doth not receive at all so that every one that receives him really receives worthily and the rest receive nothing but bread and wine and so do not receive Christ unworthily but only bread and wine at the most unworthily and how this should make them properly guilty of the body and blood of our Lord which they do not receive and liable to damnation thereby as the Apostle saith it doth is beyond the reach of my apprehension Others coming yet nearer say that they believe the reall and corporall presence but they do not believe Transubstantiation they believe that Christ is truly there but the manner they say is unknowne and unexpressible But they ought to know that men ought firmely to believe the manner of a mystery revealed when the same belongs to the substance of the mystery so that rejecting the manner we reject also the substance of the mystery Now the mystery in substance is that the body of Christ is present in the Sacrament in such sort that the Priest the Minister thereof shewing what seems bread may truly say thereof in the person of Christ this is my body This supposed as the substance of the mystery I infer that two Catholique doctrines concerning the manner thereof belong to the substance of this mystery and cannot be called in question without danger of misbelief First the reall presence of the whole body of Christ under the forme of bread Secondly that this is done by Transubstantiation because it cannot be done otherwise Even as he that believes the mystery of the Incarnation the substance whereof is that in Jesus Christ the nature of God and the nature of man were so united that God is truly man and man God he must necessarily believe that this union is not metaphoricall and in affection only but true and reall Secondly that this union is substantiall not accidentall Thirdly that this union of natures is not by making one nature of both as Eutyches taught but hypostaticall whereby the nature of God and man is united in one person This mystery is high subtile and incomprehensible to flagging reason yet must be believed seeing it belongs to the substance of the mystery which could not be true if it were not thus so it is in the reall presence As for the novelty of the word which some object they have little reason to do so knowing it is some hundreds of years older than the name Protestant and for the thing it is as antient as our Saviours celebrating his last supper And had not the Catholique doctrine been opposed by Heretiques perhaps the word had not yet been in use no more had consubstantiall used in the Nicene Creed had not Arrius denyed the Son to be consubstantiall or of the same substance with the Father For the Church doth and may make fit words to explicate the truth of her doctrine as occasion requires wherein she doth not change the doctrine but expresseth it more plainly or significantly CHAP. XXII Of Communion in one kind § 1. I Will instance in two particulars more because I know that Protestants doe mightily check at them the former is Communion in one kinde the later Prayer in an unknown tongue Concerning the former Protestants are by their Ministers instructed to beleeve that in this matter Catholiques are sacrilegious against God and injurious to men robbing the Church of the precious blood of Christ and giving the people a lame and halfe Sacrament instead of one whole and entire But to rectifie their understandings they may be pleas'd to take notice that the Catholique Church doth not count it in it selfe unlawfull to receive in both kinds nor yet doth she hold it necessary but in its owne nature indifferent and so by consequence determinable to one or both kinds according to the differences of persons times and places as she in her wisedome shall think fit But Protestants think it absolutely necessary for the Laity to receive in both kinds first because it was so instituted secondly because it was as they think so commanded These being the two hinges of this their opinion we must here a while arrest our considerations wherein I shall shew that there is no precept of receiving under both kinds and that the institution hath not the force of a precept § 2. To begin with the institution we must know that for a man to be bound to use any institution of God two things are required First that the end of the institution be necessary and that it be necessary for every particular person to endeavour the attaining thereof whence all men hold that though the propagation of mankind by marriage be an institution of God necessary for the continuation of the world yet while there are enough that comply with that duty to which mankind is in generall bound every particular person is not oblig'd to marry Secondly that if every particular person be bound to endeavour to attaine the end of an institution that also the whole thing instituted be necessary for the attaining of that end for if there be variety of meanes ordained sufficient for the attaining of that end a man is not bound to use all that which is instituted but it is sufficient to use so much thereof as will lead a man to that end Whence all men againe hold that although God created and instituted variety of meats and drinks for the maintainance of mans corporall life yet no man is bound to use them all but he dischargeth his duty sufficiently if he use so much of any of them as will suffice to arrive at that end for which they were instituted to wit the maintainanee of his corporall life so that if a man can live of two or three sorts of meat he is not bound to use ten or twenty and if he can live of meat without drink he may without offence choose whether he will ever drink or no. To apply this to our present purpose it is apparent enough that by the force of divine institution only no man is bound to use Communion under both kinds For though the end why Christ did institute the Sacrament in both kinds be necessary and all must endeavour the attaining thereunto to wit maintainance and increase in grace which is the life of the soule yet there are other meanes of Gods institution also by which we may attaine to this end Whence it is that learned Divines hold that though the Sacrament of the Eucharist be necessary NECESSETATE PRAECEPTI by the necessity of precept yet it is not necessary NECESSITATE MEDII as they speak that is the use thereof is not such a necessary meanes for the maintenance of spirituall
thereof Mark 14.23 But the second All is restrained to all the Apostles what reason then is there to extend the former words further then to all the Apostles And the reason why Christ said drink yee all of this and did not say eat ye all of this was not as Protestants vainly imagine because Christ fore-saw that some would deny the use of the Chalice to the Communicants but that the first to whom our Saviour gave the cup and so the rest untill the last were to know that they were not to drink all but were to leave so much as might suffice for them or him that was to drink after without new filling and consecration Which forme of words he used most plainely a little before the supper of the Pasche for as S. Luke saith Luke 22.17 Taking the chalice he gave thanks and said take it and divide it amongst you whereas breaking the bread himselfe and giving to every one his part and not the whole to be divided amongst them there was no such necessity of the said words § 6. As for the words of our Saviour doe this in remembrance of me they doe no waies infer a precept of receiving in both kinds First because our Saviour said these words absolutely only of the Sacrament in the forme of bread but in the forme of wine only conditionally doe this as oft as ye shall drink in remembrance of me not commanding them to drink but in case they did drink which was lawfull and usuall in those times but not so now as I shall shew by and by that then they should doe it in memory of Christ So that this precept do this being the only precept given by Christ to his Church concerning this matter and given absolutely of the forme of bread conditionally of the form of wine there is no colour to accuse the Church of doing against Christs precept by communion under one kind only S. Augustine saith Epist 1 18. that Our Lord did not appoint in what order the Sacrament of the Eucharist was to be taken afterward but left authority unto the Apostles to make such appointments by whom he was to dispose and order his Churches But suppose Christ had spoken these imperative words doe this after the giving of the cup yet are they to be understood with restriction to those things that belong to the essence and substance of this action for if we extend it further to the accidentary circumstances thereof in which Christ did then institute and give the Sacrament many absurdities will follow For by this rule we must alwaies celebrate the Eucharist after supper and in unleavened bread the receivers must take it into their hands and the Priest must wash the feet of those to whom he administers it with the like Now seeing to bind men to these circumstances of our Saviours action is in all mens judgements very absurd we must not extend the precept doe this to the said or the like circumstances but acknowledge that the precept includes only the doing of that which pertaines to the substance of the Sacrament of which kind communion in both kinds cannot be it being also a circumstance the substance thereof being intire in one only kind as hath been proved So that the Protestants wrangling thus for the cup doe but fulfill in themselves though in a different sense the prophecy of Isaiah ERIT CLAMOR IN PLATEIS SUPER VINO there shall be crying for wine in the streets Isay 24.11 Thus it appeares that Communion in both kinds is not of the essence or integrity of the Sacrament nor necessary by any divine precept from whence it followes that as a thing indifferent it may be permitted or restrained according as the wisedome of the Church shall think fit For the precinct of humane power streacheth to things indifferent and only to them Things absolutely commanded man cannot forbid things absolutely forbidden man cannot command and therefore the territory of humane legislative power must be in things indifferent or else there is none at all which is against Scripture reason and the most generall beleef and practise of mankind The Apostles practised this power upon the Gentiles by imposing upon them a new law of abstinence for a time from things offered to Idolls and blood and that which is strangled Acts 15.29 which yet Christ himself never imposed but left it indifferent whereas after the Apostles decree it became necessary wherefore it is said that S. Paul walked through Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches commanding them to keep the precepts of the Apostles and Elders Acts 15.41 § 7. Now the reasons moving the Church to restrain communion to one kind were many and weighty First to prevent thereby the occasion of error for whereas in the primitive Church the use of one or both kinds was indifferently practised as is apparent by testimonies of antiquity yea by the example of the Apostles Acts 2.42 and our Saviour himselfe Luke 26.30 yet when as the Manichean heretiques rose b see Aug. lib. de haer c. 46. Leo Serm. 4. de Quadrag who abstained from wine as a thing in it selfe unlawfull to be drunk and by consequence abstained from it also in the Sacrament holy Bishops did hereupon much commend the use of the chalice But this error being extinguished and another arising c Aeneas Silvius hist Bohem capt 3.5 against the integrity of Christ under either kind as also avouching the absolute necessity of both the Church of God hereupon began more universally to practise communion under one kind and withall in declaration of the truth and for prevention of Schisme did absolutely decree the lawfulnesse thereof with prohibition to the contrary So in more antient times when the Ebionites taught unleavened bread to bee necessary in consecration of the Eucharist the Church commanded the consecration thereof to be made in leavened bread And when the heretique Nestorius denyed our Blessed Lady to be the mother of God and only to be called the mother of Christ the Church condemned him and commanded that she should be called Mother of God And the Church hath ever found this the most effectuall means for the confutation and extirpation of heresie namely by contrary decrees and practise to declare and publish the truth A second reason moving the Church to forbid the use of the cup was the deserved reverence due to this highest Sacrament in consideration whereof the Holy Fathers did appoint most diligent care to be used lest any little particle of the Host or drop of the Chalice should fall to the ground Now the multitude of Christians in laterages being very great the negligence of many in sacred things as great through the coldnesse of their zeale devotion it could not morally be possible but that frequent spilling of the blood would happen if the Chalice were to be given ordinarily to the people d Aeneas Silvius Ep. 13. de errore Bohem. Narrat de Bohem. ad Conc. Basil
English translates it thus whosoever shall eat this bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily putting and for or thereby making the Apostle speak of the receiving of the bread and wine unworthily in an united sense whereas he speakes of them in a divided sense Thus in very many places do they deal with the Scripture like the Elephant when he goes to drink who troubles the cleer water with his feet because he will not see the deformity of his face So they trouble and defile the sense of Scripture either in words or exposition because they would not see the deformity of their Errors Many falsifications also and corruptions of Catholique Authors by the Protestant writers I have met with as where they speaking something by way of supposition they alledge them as if they speak it positively and absolutely where they bring the objections of Heretiques they alledge them as speaking the words in their owne names where they relate with reprehension the sayings of wicked men they alledge them as saying those words themselves which is as if they should charge S. Mathew himselfe with the words of the Pharisees against our Saviour Behold a glutton and a drinker of wine Math. 11.19 But I will not be particular in this matter because many that have been guilty in this case have been called to a strict account by their Catholique answerers And when they are pressed by Catholiques with plaine and direct proofes O what serpentine wriglings and windings to escape the assaulters doe they make O what perverse ridiculous contradictory answers and evasions do some of them make in which they doe at once shew both much wit and much folly for fooles could not speak as they doe and wise men would not In so much that a Answer to a Jesuites challenge chapt of limb Patrum Bishop Vsher Primat of Armagh a very learned man to avoid the confession of Christs descent into hell according to the Article of the Creed in the plaine sense thereof doth so turn it and winde it that he makes the sense of the words He descended into hell to be He ascended into heaven to such pittifull refuges doth the weaknesse of a bad cause drive them And thus they that have the most learning amongst them being by unhappy accident bred up in an erroneous Religion and thereby presuming it to be true do bend all the endeavours of their learning to the maintenance of their errors and the obscuring of the truth which learning if it were directed to the right end might by just title claime a place in the first file of desert even like a torch which turned downward is extinguished with that wax which held upward would make it bright and glorious But though their learning were a hundred times doubled yet as Aarons serpent devoured the Magicians serpents Exod. 7.12 so the wisedome of God which is in his Church will confound the sensuall wisdome of all her opposers seeing there is no wisdome nor prudence nor councell against God Prov. 21.30 § 3. I further observed that the arguments of Protestants for themselves were very fallacious most frequently in that which the Logicians call FALLACIA CONSEqUENCIA which is when the consequence is not justly inferred for example they argue thus the Sacrament is called a figure of Christs body therefore it is not his true and reall body which is a false Consequence for it may be both even as Christ is called a figure of the substance of his father Heb. 1.3 and yet is also the same substance Christ saith come unto me therefore we may go to no body else which is false for we may go to him and others also The Apostle saith that we are Justified by faith therefore say they not by works whereas we are justified by both We must confesse our sinnes to God therefore not to a Priest whereas wee must do both Christ is the head of the Church therefore the Pope is not whereas both are in severall capacities The like might be said in many others by which kind of arguing unlearned people are exceedingly deluded think that while one thing must be done that must be done only the veine of that word only invented by Luther in the matter of justification by faith running through the whole body of their Religion § 4. Moreover I found this contradiction amongst the Patrons of Protestancy that some of them reject the Fathers and accuse them of being infected with the errors which prevailed in their times and what were their errors even all that they taught contrary to their Protestant doctrines so making themselves the rule to judge the Fathers by and not the Fathers which any wise man would think more fit a rule to themselves who no doubt knew the Scriptures also and what was agreable or contrary to them better than they Protestants being herein like carpenters who wear their rule at their backs casting behind them neglecting those that should guide their belief But other Protestants ashamed of this insolency pretend for the credit of their cause that the Fathers are altogether on their side and then with much labour hunt out some obscure passages most liable to be wrested and triumph therein as if they had found a demonstration which when they are sifted either they make nothing for them or else quite against them who in this case are like to a man ready to be drowned who to save himselfe will catch hold on a naked sword with which he cuts his fingers So Protestants sunk into the despaire of their cause think to save themselves by that which serves but to encrease their overthrow They pretend also to answer many plaes of the Fathers alledged by Catholiques and to give their words a Protestant meaning and thereby run the Fathers into manifest contradiction of themselves in regard that the Fathers have but some oblique passages which seem and but seem to make for them as whoever spake so exactly nay who can possibly speak so exactly as that his words may not be made to seem different from his meaning but they have whole Bookes Sermons Tractates and a world of dispersed places of purpose in the maintenance of Catholique truths And though they say that the Fathers taught Protestant doctrine and they give a Protestant sense though very incongruous to many of the places of the Fathers alledged by Catholiques yet they dare not use those words and Phrases of the Fathers as of the Masse the Altar the Sacrifice concerning reall presence prayers to Saints and for the dead merits satisfaction and Purgatory with the like in their prayers Sermons and books which if they speak Protestant Doctrine in the true sense of the Fathers as they say they do why do they not with the sense make use of the words and speeches also I can conceive no other reason but for fear the peoples understandings not so fraught with prejudice nor acquainted with their uncouth evasions should carry them
to the direct meaning thereof and so either in those things become Popish themselves or accuse their teachers of Popery § 5. Another fraud I have observed amongst the Canonical Protestants which is that when they dispute against Catholikes they have recourse to the Scripture and wil be tried by that only but when they dispute against the Puritanes and other Sects amongst them who deal with them at their own weapon of Scripture only then they have recourse to the Fathers and the Tradition of the Church and use the same arguments against Sectaries that Catholiques do against them and particularly in the points of baptizing of Infants against the Anabaptists and the keeping of the first day of the week holy against the Sabbatarians who would have Saturday for either of which there is not any command in Scripture And shall Tradition serve them in those cases and not in others Or shall Scripture with them prove all other points and not those And this shift is such a one as S. Augustine in Psal 80. witnesses to be common to Foxes and Heretiques For as Foxes have two holes to save themselves by one when they are driven from the other so Heretiques whom the Scripture figures out by Foxes when the Spouse saith Let us take the young Foxes that destroy the vines Cant. 2.15 have a double passage to save themselves by the one when they are assaulted by the other so that he that will catch them must set his nets before both issues and besiege both passages as the excellent Catholique Writers have done and have left them neither Tradition nor Scripture wherby to escape For although the Scripture do not teach all in direct and particular terms that Caliques do yet it teaches nothing that Protestants do in the things they differ from Catholiques And in generall the Scripture teaches all that Catholiques do by referring us to Tradition And this is sufficient for it is not required that all that we believe or do be expresly set downe in Scripture it is enough that there be no Scripture against it for what is not forbidden is lawfull as the Apostle saith where there is no law there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 If then there be no law of Scripture against it it is lawfull especially if it be warranted by the Tradition of the Church to which the Scripture referres us and is to us more evident to come from God than the Scripture is which we do not know to do so but by the Churches testimony So that I found the Protestants were like to the Giant Procustus mentioned by Plutarch who having a great iron bed fit for himself all strangers that he took he layed therein and if they were too long for the bed he cut off so much of their leggs if too short he stretched them out till they came even So the Protestants having built a Religion after the modell of their owne fancy doe examine Scriptures Councells Fathers and all authority by it whereof some they cut off as being too long in affirming more than they do and others being too short for their purpose they miserably serue tenter and rack till they come to the length they desire And had I the wicked ambition by impiety to make my selfe famous I believe I could conjure up new opinions which laying aside the authority of the Church I could varnish with as much reason and Scripture as any they professe Whose attempts have had no better successe then Achelous had in fighting with Hercules who took upon him severall shapes hopeing in one or other to overcome him but was by Hercules beaten through all his shapes and forced at last to take his owne proper shape and yeeld So Protestants fighting against Catholiques are by them beaten through all their changes and formes and shifts through which they wander and are forced at last to take the true forme of Protestancy which is obstinatly to deny the plaine and manifest truth But I heartily pray that it would please God to bring them to the true form which they ought to have which is of Roman Catholique untill which they will like the blinded Sodomites perpetually roule wander and grope in the darknesse of uncertainty and instability till eternall darknesse seize upon them For by embarquing themselves in such an enterprize as is the boarding of the Ship of Peter they are like to arrive at no other port but ruine and destruction § 6. Moreover I found this proceeding of the Protestants to be most uneasonable and full of pride in that they being but few in number especially in their beginning yea but one one infinitely audacious Luther once a child of the Roman Church should presume to correct or reforme the whole Christian world a thing which no man would admit in the private regiment of his own family that a sonne or servant should presume to find fault with and change the customs of the house against the consent of the Father Master and all the rest and assume to himselfe alone to be judge of the cause One earnestly desiring Lycurgus to establish a popular State in Lacedemon that the basest might have as great authority as the highest answered Begin to doe so first in thine owne house which he refused and thereby saw the injustice of his own demand So these men that will not admit within themselves either in matters Ecclesiasticall or civill that they whose duty it is to obey should command they whose duty it is to learne should teach withwhat face can they defend the practise thereof in the Church which is the house of God of which our predecessors were guilty in the first attempt and this present generation in the continuance of their Rebellion Nor let them think that their having of the Bible in the Mother-tongue will save them as if it were like the Palladium to the Trojans a thing dropt down from heaven no man knowes how with this condition annexed that while they kept it in their city they should never perish while in the mean time they extreamly pollute it with two things their interpretation and their conversation whereas the Church of Rome hath not only the word but the meaning of God also as the Apostle saith we have the sense of Christ 1 Cor. 2.16 both proved by never-erring authority And lastly weighing all the Protestants arguments with all impartiality or if there were any inclination of the ballance it was to their side with whose doctrines I had been from my childhood seasoned and had been a teacher of others for the space of neere twenty yeares and to whom to receive contrary impressions I knew must prove extreamly prejudiciall who therefore addrest my selfe to this enquiry with the disposition of a jealous husband seeking that which I was most loath to find yet all this notwithstanding I found that all their pleas and pretences and their answers to Catholiques were weake sleight false or impertinent and like to a certain fish called Sleve
of her Communion than of any other yea many times there have been when shee hath enfolded all Christians in her armes and not one to be found out of her Communion her doctrines then in reason are to be received as most probable And as some Philosophers say naturall bodies doe neglect the lawes and rules of of their particular motions to serve and follow the lawes of universall nature of which one is That there must be no Vacuum or place utterly empty which law to observe we see that heavie bodies will rise upward which otherwise would fall downward So the particular rules of reason in particular men if they will shew themselves the dutifull children of reason must give place to this generall and universall rule of reason implanted in mankind and when they are inclined one way to an opinion by their own private and domestique reason they must suspend that inclination and conquer the provocations thereof and readily yeeld unto the fundamentall and universall law of reason which is that in matters of whose truth there is no infallible certainty that is most likely to be true and hath the most reason on its side wherein the most and the most reasonable of reasonable creatures doe agree Which if they doe they shall not run upon the rock of believing contradictions as some of them imagine but shall find themselves obliged by the train of their owne principles to become Roman Catholiques These considerations together with the great assistance of Gods grace have caused me to forsake the Communion of all Protestant Churches who like those mentioned in S. John say they are Jewes the true Church and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan Revel 2.9 And not to content my selfe to be a Catholique in opinion only keeping it private to my selfe to save my temporall interest nor with the two Tribes and halfe forbear to enter into the land of Canaan but stay on the other side of Jordan tempted thereunto by the pleasantnesse of the land but disdaining to match my love so low as of this creeping world with the renouncing of all I possessed or that my hopes could reach at to the pulling on my selfe the displeasure of my friends and kindred the reproach and hatred of the Protestant party to the abandoning of my selfe my wife and children to all the calamities which are all that beggery and perpetuall banishment could throw upon us lanching forth into the deepe of this wide world without rudder anchor sailes or tackling to humble our selves at the feet of our Holy Mother the Church of Rome which is the one true holy Catholique and Apostolique Church and will be so and will be accounted so when these like their predecessors revolters from the Church of Rome shall be no more And to choose to perish for want if it be the will of God in communion with the Catholique Church rather than to have the Empire of the world stoop under my command and be a Protestant And to say as Themistocles did to his wife and children though in a different sense PERIISSEMUS NISI PERIISSEMUS we had perished if we had not perished if we had not perished temporally we had perish'd eternally nor would I sell the inward peace and consolation I here find though at such a rate as would undo the world to buy it for he that purchaseth worldly prosperity with the losse of the true faith out-buyes it and will prove a bankrupt with which the tendries of the whole world being counterpoized prove too light as our Saviour saith What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his owne soule Math. 16.20 And all this because they that are out of the true Church are out-lawes against God are without Christ and without God in the world as the Apostle speakes Ephes 2.12 and because as all antiquity testifies that b Concil Cart. 4. c. 1. out of the Catholique Church there is no salvation c Aug. Ep. 152. That whosoeuer is not in the Catholique Church cannot have life d Aug. de Sym ad Catech lib. 4. That he shall not have God for his Father who will not have the Church for his Mother e Cyp. de unit Eccl That Christ is not with those that assemble out of the Church f Ibidem That though they should be slaine for the confession of Christ this spot is not washed away even with blood g Ibidem That he cannot be a Martyr that is not in the Church h Aug de gest cum Emerito That out of the Catholique Church one may have Faith Sacraments and in sum every thing except salvation i Prosp promis praedic Dei par 4. c. 5. That he that communicates not with the Catholique Church is an Heretique and Antichrist k Fulgent de fide ad Pet. c. 19. That no Heretique nor Schismatique that is not restored to the Catholique Church before the end of his life can be saved And this Catholique Church is the Roman Church because the Bishop of Rome is the head thereof appointed so by God and received by the Christian world in all ages as I have proved before and that not only for a time but at this time and for ever And this being the Rock on which the Church is built surely it shall never be removed nor he that like the wise-man builds thereon as our Saviour saith the raine fell the floods came the winds blew and rushed upon the house and it fell not for it was founded on a rock Matth. 7.25 26 27. On the other side all other Churches are built upon the sandy foundation of humane invention and must expect the fate of the fooles house on which the the raine fell the floods came the winds blew and rushed thereon and it fell and the ruine thereof was great CHAP. XXIII The Conclusion wherein is represented on the one side the splendor and orderly composure of the Roman Catholique Church And on the other side the deformity and confusion of Protestant Congregations § 1. NOw for a Conclusion let me invite the Reader to stand as it were upon mount Nebo as Moses did and take a view of the Land of Canaan the Roman Catholique Church on the one side and the wildernesse of the Protestant Churches on the other Here amongst Catholiques you shall see a Church like the cloud that appeared to Elisha as big as a mans hand which by and by spread over the face of the earth a Church which hath incircled in her armes at least in their predecessors all that ever wore the name of Christians which hath stretched her dominions as far as the Sun his beames and wheresoever he hath bestowed his corporall she hath bestowed her spirituall light There amongst Protestants you shall see Churches that have got possession only of the most obscure places and that by patches like a poor mans land and those too usurped by fraud and violence
nor feet And even such imperfect things are all hereticall and deformed Churches which want faith for their head charity for their heart firmnesse and perseverance for their feet Holding such monstrous and absurd opinions that they make up a bundle of Heathenisme Turcisme Heresie and contradictions to common-sense Can then any indifferent and prudent man who knowes that God made the world with wisdome in number weight and measure can he think that they are the Church of God the deare Spouse of Christ for whose sake he descended from his heavenly Throne and took and lost humane life Or will he not rather say that they are mad 1 Cor. 14.26 Who are framed neither in number weight nor measure their societies and Churches being or being possible to be according to their principles as many as their persons their opinions vaine and foolish and their government confused and mis-shapen seeming rather a chaos than a creation In summe there is nothing that can be said for a true Catholique Church but may be truly said for the Roman there is â—othing that the Protestant Churches have said or can say for themselves but have been or may be said by Heretiques and are said by those who subdivide and separate from them which pretences if they be good in them against the Church of Rome they are good in others against them which yet they will not admit So that the Church of Rome is the true Church or there never was any true Church and all Protestants are Heretiques or there never were any that deserved that name § 9. What remaines then for all Protestants of what sort or title soever but to listen to the voice which sayeth Goe out of her my people that yee be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her plagues Revel 18.4 To redeem their soules from forfeiture that have been thus long morgag'd to eternall death and with the Prodigall son to returne home to the Catholique Church their mother and thereby to God their Father in whose house there is plenty of celestiall Manna while they perish for want of food or become fellow commoners with the hogs and feed upon huskes and draught and thereby to give joy both to earth and heaven in their conversion seeing that as the elements never rest contentedly but in their proper placeâ— so they will find no rest but in the bosome of the true Church which is the proper place of every Christian To listen to the voice which crieth Return return ô Sunamite return return Cant 6.13 And the Spirit and the Bride say come And let him that heareth say come and let him that is athirst come And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Revel 22.17 by coming to Mount Sion and to the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angells to the generall assembly and Church of the first borne which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant Heb. 12.22.23.24 before he come to them as a terrible Judge revealed from heaven with his mighty Angells in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Jesus Christ 2. Thess 1.7.8 And that they may all doe so especially the Kingdome of England and most especially the most excellent King thereof Strike ô strike their and his soule O Lord with thy omnipotent grace whose magnetique vertue may draw his Royall heart to thee and make him a glorious and happy instrument of drawing others till they all meet in the unity of the faith so to continue untill their mortality shall put on immortality and his temporall crown of thornes be exchanged for an eternall crown of glory Amen FINIS S. Ambr. Ep. 31. ad Valent. Imp. Non erubesco cum toto orbe longaevo converti verum certè est quia nulla aetas ad perdiscendum sera est Erubescat senectus quae emendare se non potest Non annorum canities est laudanda sed morum Nullus pudor est ad meliora transire A Table of the Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this Book Chap. 1. THe Introduction And that the knowledge of the meanes to arrive unto eternall life is not otherwise attaineable then by faith grounded on the Word of God pag. 1. Chap. 2. Of the means to know which is the Word of God And that all the arguments imployed by Protestants to prove that the Scripture and it only is the Word of God are insufficient And that the Generall Tradition of the Catholique Church is the only assured proof thereof p. 6. Chap. 3. Of the insufficiency of means used by Protestants to find out the true sense of Scripture The absurdity of that assertion of theirs That all points necessary to salvation are clear and manifest p. 26. Chap. 4. Of the vanity and impiety of those who affirm that each mans particular reason is the last Judge and interpreter of Scripture and his guide in all things which he is obliged to believe and know And that the Catholique Church is the only Judge p. 36. Chap. 5. Of the meaning of those words Church and Catholique and that neither of them belong to Protestants p. 49. Chap. 6. Of the Infallibility of the Church p. 54. Chap. 7. That Catholique Tradition is the only firme foundation and motive to induce us to believe that the Apostles received their Doctrine from Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ from God the Father And what are the means by which this Doctrine is derived down to us p. 66. Chap. 8. That the Church is infallible in whatsoever she proposeth as the Word of God written or unwritten whether of great or small consequence That to doubt of any one point is to destroy the foundation of Faith And that Protestants distinction between points fundamentall and non-fundamentall is ridiculous and deceitfull p. 78. Chap ' 9. That there is and ever shall be a visible Church upon earth And that this Church is one holy Catholique and Apostolique p. 94. Chap. 10. That the Roman is that one holy Catholique and Apostolique Church p. 105. Chap. 11. That the true Church may be knowne by evident marks and that such marks agree only to the Roman Church And first of Universality the first mark of the Church p. 137. Chap. 12. Of the second mark of the Church viz. Antiquity both of persons and Doctrine p. 151. Chap. 13. Of Visibility the third mark of the Church And of the vanity of Protestants supposition that the true Church is sometimes invisible That Protestant Churches have not alwaies been visible p. 188. Chap. 14. Of the fourth mark of the true Church viz. a lawfull succession and ordinary vocation and mission of Pastors And that it is ridiculous to affirme that Catholiques and Protestants are the same Church p. 208. Chap. 15. Of the fifth Mark of the true Church viz. Unity in Doctrine and of the horrible dissentions among Pretestants p. 216. Chap. 16. Of the sixth Mark of the true Church viz. Miracles And that there are no true Miracles among Protestants p. 240. Chap. 17. Of the seventh Mark of the true Church viz. Conversion of Kingdomes and Monarchs p. 254 Chap. 18. Of the eighth and ninth Marks of the true Church viz. Sanctity of Doctrine and life p. 260. Chap. 19. Of the tenth and last here mentioned Mark of the Church viz. That the true Church hath never been separated from any society of Christians more antient then her felf p. 276. Chap. 20. That the Pope is the head of the Church p. 281. Chap. 21. That English Protestants do much mistake Catholike Doctrine being abused by the malice or ignorance of many of their Ministers And that upon their owne grounds they are obliged to inform themselves more exactly of the truth p. 297. Chap. 22. Of Communion in one kind p. 331. Chap. 23. Of the Liturgie and private prayers for the ignorant in an unknowne tongue p. 351. Chap. 22. Of the foolish deceitfull and absurd proceedings and behaviour of Protestants in matter of Religion And of the vanity and injustice of their pretext of conscience for their separation from the Roman Church p. 336 Chap. 23. The Conclusion wherein is represented on the one side the splendor and orderly composure of the Roman Catholique Church And on the other side the deformity and confusion of Protestant Congregations p. 362. The faults made by the Printer I desire the Reader thus to correct Page 21. line 1. dele § 5. p. 37. l. 2. r. tittle p. 47. l. 25 r. faith p. 61. l. 18. dele come p. 71. l 19. r. dangerous p. 85. l. 14. 15. r. ununiversall p. 140. l. 24. r. Psal 2.8 p. 147 l. 3. r. became l. 17. r. man p. 165. l. 9. r. intermingled p. 168. l. 11. r. unexpressible p. 188. l. 23. r. to a City p. 199. l. 9. r. tittle p. 201. l. 21. r. one p. 208. l. 22. r. all meet p. 210. l. 4. dele ought r. accusing p. 221. l. 13. r. call p. 261. l. 17. r. of hell l. 25. r. in our p. 276. l. 23. r. different p. 290. l. 2. r. say of l. 12. r. pillar of p. 293. l. 8. r. denying them p. 292. l. 18. r. Bishop p. 307. l. 12. r. as his p. 341. l. 15. r. consequentiae p. 358. l. 12. r. done in p. 358. l. 14. r. to this p. 367. l. 15. dele in p. 368. l. 5. r. Vnion Postscript The French Printer to the English Reader WHilst this piece so generally and deservedly lik'd and applauded both in the English Originall and in the French Version was reprinting here at Paris the learned Author returning hither from Rome in the very nick of time hath thought fit to add a Preface and two new Chapters to it the first Of Communion in one kind the other Of praying in an unknowne tongue both no lesse requisite then abundantly satisfactory So that I make no question but the contentment and benefit you will receive thereby will easily reconcile you aswell to the misnumbring of some Chapters pages occasioned by the Addition as to some other Errata's for which my ignorance in your language craves the benefit of a pardon Adieu
understood word by word by every one of the vulgar assistants neither doth the end of the publike Service require it As for those Sects that use no Liturgie at all but in their Church-meetings do only make an extemporall prayer before after Sermon as the custome is now for the most part in England that the people may pray with them they do as they ought in using the vulgar tongue Catholiques if they used such exercise no doubt would do it in like manner § 2. As for the comfort more plentifull edification of the understanding which some few want in that they do not so perfectly understand all the particulars of divine Service it may by other means abundantly be supplied without turning the publike Liturgie into innumerable vulgar languages which would bring great confusion into the Christian Church For first the Church could not be able to judge of the Liturgie of every country when differences arose about the translation thereof and so divers errors heresies might creep into particular countries and the whole Church never able to take notice thereof Secondly particular countries could not be certain that they had the parts of the Scripture used in the Liturgie truly translated for they can have no other assured proof thereof than the Churches approbation nor can she approve what she her self doth not understand Thirdly if there were as many translations of the Liturgie as there be severall languages in the world it could not be avoided but that some would in many places be ridiculous incongruous and full of mistaking to the great prejudice of souls especially in languages that have no great extent nor many learned men that naturally speak them Fourthly the Liturgie must of necessity be often changed together with the language which doth much alter in every age as is very well knowne Fifthly in the same country by reason of different dialects some provinces understand not one another and in the Island of Japonia as some write there is one language for men another for women one language for Gentlemen another for rusticks into what language then should the Liturgie of Japonia be translated So that it is cleer that the inconveniences of divine Service translated in all vulgar languages are insuperable the commodity is but to the most ignorant part and that but in part and to be recompenced by other means and is so by prayer books and other instructions in abundance in the vulgar tongue In so much that I dare boldly say for I have been an eye-witnesse that in the cities of Paris and Rome there is five times as much preaching and ten times as much catechising of youth and ignorant people as is in London so that blindnesse ignorance to Catholiques is ignorantly blindly objected Lastly we cannot imagine that if S. Paul had intended that which the Protestants labour to enforce out of the above-named chapter to the Corinthians that both he and his fellow Apostles would have practised the contrary at the writing thereof and all their lives after for we doe not find that they or any after them did use any Liturgie but in one of the learned languages which though they were vulgar to some people in those times yet but to a small part in comparison of all the nations of the world amongst whom they celebrated Masse § 3. As for private prayer the Catholique Church permits all men whether out of the Churches or in them to pray in what language they please yea the Pater the Ave and the Creed are commanded by divers Councells to be learned in the vulgar tongue and divers bookes of prayers in the vulgar tongue are published and used in all Catholique Countries Yet those Catholiques that do pray or sing Psalmes in Latin which they doe not understand either by choice or obligation are not to be condemned For either they understand the prayer in the whole masse thereof as the PATER NOSTER for example though they know not perhaps whether PATER signifie our and NOSTER father or the contrary yet saying this prayer with due devotion and knowing that it is our Lords prayer which they can very well repeat in their mother tongue no man I suppose can be so absurd to think this prayer is not acceptable to God though the pious thoughts be not measured geometrically to the words Or else they understand only more generally that such or such a prayer or Psalme for example MISERERE is a Psalme full of penitent affections and this they say with much inward sorrow and contrition for their sinnes and who can deny that this pious affection is pleasing to God though the thoughts and words doe not mathematically correspond the one to the other I am sure the Apostle approved the like saying in the 17. verse of the forementioned chapter Thou verily givest thanks well And to conclude he doth absolutely allow it in the 28. verse saying But if there be no interpreter let him keepe silence in the Church and let him speak to God and himselfe And in this matter as well as the rest the Protestants also may keep silence unlesse they could speak more to the purpose § 4. These points all other I examined with diligence and found that Protestants ordinarily did not truly apprehend many of the Catholique doctrines nor justly oppose any of them But I have only touched these few particulars to let the unlearned Protestant Reader see that the Catholique doctrines are not such monstrous things as they ordinarily conceive them but rather that it is monstrous in them not to believe them And to awaken the further diligence of all Protestants to search into the truth of all points so far as they are able either by themselves or others if they will not at the first cast themselves upon the infallibility of the Church which I conceive I have sufficiently proved in the former part of this Treatise and is the shortest and surest way and to read the Bookes of Catholiques set forth to this purpose not to exercise an implicite faith to the Protestant Religion and even against the rule of it to their hurt seeing they will not yet do it to the Catholique Religion to their advantage In which Catholique books they shall find all the Pleas for Protestancy all their objections against Catholique doctrine answered with that learning and solidity with that cleernesse and fullnesse that were not faith also required which is the gift of God only to the apprehension of those things which the Church teaches it were impossible in my judgement impossible I say that any reasonable man should continue in his judgement a Protestant Yet many there are I fear who though they be in belief and judgement Catholiques yet in outward profession are Protestants Who like the inferiour spheares which are moved one way by the PRIMUM MOBILE and a contrary way by their owne peculiar motion So they are moved to believe the Catholique verities by the influence of