us to follow them doe demolish the fences and bullwarckes of the same Christianity and good life But all they who deserve the name of heretikes do agree to charge the Church of Christ with corruption and adultery and do deny in her both infallibility to know Christs doctrine and power to governe And consequently they destroy externall unity and the essence of it Which as it is not formally to ruine good life so it is more then to breake downe her outworkes since it entrencheth upon the very substance in common and leaveth no meanes but meere chance and hazard to come to the knowledge of Christs law and consequently to eternall salvation Whence we may understand what this name Popery signyfyeth to witt An affection or resolution to maintaine faith and good life and the causes of conserving them There are divers other points controverted betweene Catholikes and Sectaries But they are such as for the most part require no explication but a flatt denyall As when they accuse us to have deprived the Laiety of halfe the Communion we deny it For besides that the generall practise of Christians hath bin from the beginning to give the sacrament sometimes in one kinde ometimes in both the Church hath alwayes believed that the entire communion was perfectly administred in either We likewise deny that ever the Church held the necessity of communicating Infants The Popes personall infallibility that Indulgences can draw soules out of Purgatory that Prayers ought of necessity be in an unknowne tongue to though we may thinke it fitting in some circumstances that the publike service for reverence and Majesty be so performed that faith is not to be kept with Heretikes that the Pope can dispense with the subjection to Princes And many such other Tenets which are injuriously imposed upon Catholikes by Sectaries and are flatly denyed by us and therefore require no further explication or discourse about them A Sampler of Protestants Shuffling in there Disputes of Religion COntroversy Logick or the art of discoursing in matter of Religion between those who profess the Law of Christe can not be complete unless as Aristotle made a Book of fallacies to avoide cavills in his Organe or instrument of science so wee also discover the common fallacies used in controversies Not all but the chiefest and most ordinarily in this business This then is the scope of my present work For which the first note I make is that owre Ancients have taught us and by experience wee daylie finde that Heresie is in a manner as soon overthrowne as layed open falshood like turpitude being ashamed of nakedness Therefore 't is falshoods game to vest it self like an Angel of light in the skin of the lamb and to seeme to weare the Robes of truth I mean by words like those of the Catholick party to delude the simplicity of the Innocent and welwishing People And now must it be our theame to unvaile theire Shufflings The first Shuffle Of the Word Scripture And first If we aske them what they rely upon they braggingly answer on Gods word upbraiding Catholicks to rely upon men when they fly to the churches witness but if we press thē to declare what they meā by Gods word to wit the Book of the Bible or the meaning of it they are forced to answer the sense for even beasts can convince them that wee have the Book as well as they Marching on another step and pressing to know by what instruments or means they have the sense there is no subterfuge from confessing it is by reading and their owne judging or thinking the sense of the Scripture is that which they affirme though all Catholicks affirm the contrary And although even in this they are cosened following for the most part the explication of their preacher Yet I press not that for they know not that they do so But I conclude see what you meane when you say you rely upon Scripture or Gods word to wit that you rely upon your owne opinion or guessing that this is Gods word So that this glorious profession of relying upon Gods word is in substance and reality to rely upon the opinion or guessing of a Cobler or Tinker or some house-wife when the answerers are such or at most of a Minister who for his owne interest is bound to maintaine this is the meaning of Gods word The second Shuffle Of Generall Councils SOme Protestants are so bold as to profess they wil stand to Generall Councils Now a General Council in the language of Catholicks is a general meeting of the Christian World by the Bishops and Deputies of it to testify the Doctrine of the Christian Church And is accounted inerrable in such determinations and therefore to have power to command the faith of Christians and to cast out of the Church al who do not yield to such their determinations and agreements and by consequence to have a supreme Authority in the Church in matters of faith The Protestants loath to leave the shadow though they care not for the substance use the name but to no effect For the intention being to manifest the Doctrine of the Christian World They first agree not upon the notion of what a Council is Requiring sometimes that al Bishops should bee present sometimes that all Patriarks though known to bee professed Hereticks and under the Turk sometimes objecting want of liberty and mainly that they decide not by disputation out of onely scripture or that they taught false Doctrine So that to the Protestant a Council signifies an indefinite and uncertaine when and what it is meeting of men going upon the scripture Which as it is before declared signifies every cobler or Ministers fancie which hath no authority to binde men to believe and is to bee judged by the Doctrine or agreement in faith with the Protestants The third Shuffle Of the consent of Fathers THe consent of the Fathers or Doctours of Christians before oure age and controversies beares so Venerable an aspect as that few Hereticks dare at least before honest understanding Christians give it flatly the lye Therefore the discreeter part of Protestants acknowledg it yet with a salve that they were all men and might bee deceived which in effect is to say that it is no convincing or binding Authority as Catholicks hold it to bee nay to bee a stronger authority then that of Councils as being the judgement of the Catholick Church or the learned part of it which is al one as to faith The Protestant first at one clap cutts of a thousand or 13. hundred yeares nay some 15. hundred The one saying S. Gregory the great was the last Father and first Papistrie the more ordinary course being to acknowledg onely the Fathers of the Persecution time before Constantine finding Popery as they call it to publick afterwards some pressing that ever since the decease of the Apostles the Church hath been corrupted So that they neither give any authority to the consent of Fathers nor
Predestinate and shall bee saved by this persuasion through the merits of Christe without any regard to his works and life Of which sense seeing there is no revelation there can be no relying upon the word of God for any such effect and so it is cleare these people have nothing like Faith the former Protestants having at least the Carcase but renounce the soule life and being of it A bundle of divers Shuffles If wee should as thus pass over all the points controverted between Catholiks and all that have separated thēselfs from the Catholick Church we should finde very few freely disputed but that either they calōniate the Catholick position or counterfeyt it As concerning images and Saints they pretend we worship them as Gods As for mariage they report we disallow it For the merits of Christe they say wee rely not upon them because we understand them otherwise then they do For the Catholick Church understands that Christe by his life and passion procured the Establishment of the Holy Church the preaching of the Gospel over the whole earth a settled meanes to continue and encrease what he by himself and his Apostles begun a seed and root of good life plāted by the sending of the Holy Ghost to remaine in the Church for ever a Government of Bishops and Doctours for ever sacraments to bee Vniversally administred Extraordinary Examples of Heroick vertues in Martyrs Confessours Monks and Nunnes and in a Word al that was necessary to bring the Vniversality of Mankinde to heavenly bliss and these meanes to be derived to single Persons according to Gods all good providence and the connatural suite of causes The protestant understands that Christe in his private prayer spake to his Father in particular for every one of the predestinate to save him for his and his passions sake and so infer that the beliefe that he is one of those for whome Christe specially prayed is that which must apply the grace granted by Christs eternal Father to his soule and thinkes the Catholick relyes not upon Christs merits because he doth it not so sillily as he does In penance the Catholick holdeth it a sacrament in forme of a judgment in which the penitent is absolved or condemned according to his desert The Protestant holdeth onely as it were a complement of ones acknowledging himself a sinner and asking of mercy and that the preacher without farther ceremony absolve him Those who believe not the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation nevertheless use the words of one God and three Persons and profess that though they hold the son and Holy Ghost to be creatures yet that they are to be called each of them God and likewise though some hold Christe to have no other nature then of a Man yet that he is justly called God for his greate perfections and Vnity in Charity with God It were superfluous to multiply more examples to shew how it is not the zeal of truth but either ignorance in them who do not understand the true difference betwixt the Catholick Church and its deserters or malice in them who disguise either theire owne tenets or those of the Catholick party God prosper the labours of those who seek Vnity and by his sweet conduct bring all who profess the name of Christe into perfect concord in one flock by the Vnity in faith and charity PAg. 3. l. 16. Leap p. 6. l. 8.50 l. 18. so p. 7. l. 4. with l. 7. even l. 27. of all p. 13. l. 6. too weak to p. 14. l. 14. of coming p. 17. l. 22. a quality p. 18. l. 7. to p. 21. l. 1. to p. 21 l. 1. to p. 22 l. 23. observe p. 23. l. 7. same manner l. 9. Godliness p. 27. l. 23. and 4. one then it p. 30. l. 6. hynde p. 52. l. 1. bee turned p. 58. l. 3. cultivated p. 59. l. 5. byassed p. 51. l. 27. different p. 74. l. 7. preaching p. 66. l. 18. cure drunkeness p. 69. l. 23. bring the p. 70. l. 9. God as solidly p. 72. l. 15. Conicks p. 74. l. 18. obstructed p. 76. l. 10. be forced p. 82. l. 22. before to bee for p. 87. l. 4. proceedeth upon l. 2.5 long p. 88. l. 24. solve p 89. l. 7. imparity p. 92. l. 8. and contradict p. 93. l. 8. offer p. 103. l. 22. overweened p. 104. l. 21. runne p. 105. l. 8. see l. 13. carry p. 107. l. 19. condescendences p. 109. l. 10. to see p. 117. l. 17. of allegations p. 119. l. 22. are as good p. 122. l. 25. Coelibate p. 128. l. 10. Angles l. 17. upon can l. 28. excused neither p. 131. l. 25. who as soone l. 26. think that p. 133. l. 9. not for l. loath p. 136. l. 21. which is out p. 140. l. 12. persecution p. 142. l. 15. certainty p. 146. l 4. of death and of l. 13. best when p. 148. l. 24. solue it p. 152. l. 16. importeth p. 153. l. 13. Abyssine p. 154. l. 9. singing and p. 157. l. 16. are so close l. 19. is so p. 158. l. 21 of such talkers p. 159. l. 12. else p. 160. l 24. exalted p. 163. l. 6. though their p. 164. l. 14. which praise p. 169. l. 14. heapes p. 170. l. 5. a Corus p. 182. l. 25. just indifference p. 184. l. 4. on it p. 189. l. 2◠capable of p. 190. l. 18. default p. 195. l. 18. with p. 1 6. l. 11. inure us p. 197. l. 10.11 toward theire teachers what adhesion to p. 198. l. 23.24 profess there p. 203. l. 21. cultivatour p. 206. l. 14. long as l. 201. l. 20. the fall p. 202. l. 25. tongue though
Sanctifications or Initiations to enter us in the other six vertues Baptisme for faith Confirmation for hope Penance to redresse the wrongs we do to God and to our neigh-bour Matrimony and Extreme-Unction to injure us to temperance and to fortify us against the terrours of death Prudence because it eminently belongeth to commanders received its proper initiation in the installing of Spirituall Gouvernours which are Priests and Bishops Who being more eminent in Science and Charity have power to governe the flocke oâ— Christ And to the end that emulation might not breake unity among them Christ by his owne practise and mouth gave the Primacy to Saint Peter to whose see and successour inferiour Bishops were to have recourse in all publike necessities or dissentions of the Church And who att this day is commonly called the Pope It is incredible how great encrease of devotion and Charity accrueth to Christian people by the reverent administration and faithfull reception of these sacraments What respect and awe towardes to what adhesion their teachers their doctrine what obedience to their directions in fine how great a life to the Church and eminency above such synagogues as are destitute of these holy institutions The Apostles therefore armed with these and the aforesaid powers dispersed themselves into all the quarters of the earth planting this common doctrine and practise through the universe and dying left the inheritance of the same to their successors Who in debates about doctrines and in other dissentions meeting together and finding what the Apostles had left to the Churches they had planted did cast out such as would not conforme themselves to the received Tradition And so Christians were divided The parties cast out being denominated from their Masters or particular doctrines The part adhering to the Apostles Tradition retaining the name of the Apostolike Church Which because it was as it were the whole of Christians was therefore termed Catholike or Universall These Apostles and Disciples left certaine writinges But neither by command nor with designe to deliver in any or all of them a summary of our faith but occasionally teaching what they thought requisite for some certaine place or company which the Holy Ghost intended for the comfort of the Church In which as we professe there is nothing false or uncertaine so we know the unwritten Preaching ought to be the rule of their interpretation att least negatively Neither can we vindicate those bookes from the corruption of transscribers and much lesse of Interpretours whose labours can not pretend to the authority of scripture otherwise then by a knowne conformity to the Originals Tradition therefore became the rule of faith and Councells and Apostolicall Sees became the infallible depositaries of Tradition The other Sees fayling either by the destruction of Christian Religion in those quarters or by a voluntary discession from the rule of faith the Roman See first instructed by the two chiefe Apostles and afterwardes by perpetuall correspondence with all Christian countries and their recourse to it in matters of faith and discipline remained the onely single Church which was able in vertue of perpetuall succession to testify what was the Apostles doctrine Afterwardes Heretikes confounding equivocally the names of Apostolike and Cathlick by an impudence of saying what they list without shew of reason the Catholike party hath been forced for distinction sake to adde to their Church the sirname of Roman Declaring there by that the Roman particular Church is the Head and Mistresse and cause of Vnity to all those Churches that have share in the Catholike By this linke of truth namely of receiving doctrine by succession and by the linke of Vnity in the Roman head of the Church as the Church hath hitherto stood in Persecutions Heresies and Schismes so we are assured it will never faile untill the second coming of Christ but do hope it will encrease into an universall kingdome of his to dure an unknowne extent of Ages designed in the Apocolypse by the number of a thousand yeares in great prosperity and in freedome both from Pagans without and from Heretikes with in and in great aboundance of Charity and good life This being evidently the effect of Christs coming we see that the generall good life of Mankinde which proceedeth from the knowledge of the End to which we are created and from other motives and meanes delivered by Christs doctrine was the great and onely designe for which he tooke flesh that is to be the cause to us of a happy life both in this world and in the next The which having been the main advantage of the State of Paradise or of our nature before corruption It is cleare that Christ hath repaired the fault of Adam by making whole Mankind capable of attaining everlasting blisse unto which before his coming one only family had means to arrive The settling of Mankind in this repaire restored it to such a condition in respect of God that from thenceforth he resolved to bestow his greatest benefits upon it that is eternall felicity Whereas before as long as it was in the state of sinne his decrees were for its Vniversall Damnation By which it is cleare that Christ appeased his Fathers wrath and made him a friend of a foe he had formerly been unto us So that because eternall blisse followeth out of a good life and out of a constant habit or inclination to it as likewise damnation out of the state of a sinnefull inclination formal justification and sanctity do consist in the habit of good life and the state of damnation consisteth in an habituall inclination to sinne Neither the one nor the other in an extrinsecall acceptation or refusall of the Divine Will or its arbitrary Election or dislike which are only the efficient causes from whence proportionably to their natures they depend Further because Man-kinde was not able of it selfe to gett out of the State of sinne and by consequence lay in subjection and slavery to it And seeing that Christ by the explicated meanes and actions did sett it free and gave it power to come out of that subjection and misery he did clearely Redeeme Man-kinde from this servitude of sinne and of sinnes Master the Divell and gave it the liberty wherein it was created att the first And because Christ did this by his death and by the penall actions of his life he is rightly said to have by them payed a ransome for mankind Notwithstanding this generall preparation by which Man-kinde was enabled to well-doing no particular man arriveth to any action of vertue without the speciall providence and benevolence of Almighty God By which by convenient circumstances both externall and internall he prepareth the heart of that man unto whom he is gratious and favourable to receive these common impressions and maketh it good earth fitt for the seede of his eternall cultiuatour who without any respect to former merits planteth faith and charity and all that is good in him meerely of his
do acknowledg the thing the Catholicks call the Fathers accepting thereof commonly that is the two latter opinants no considerable part of them and the larger opinion nothing neer the half So that the consent of the Fathers in the sense of the Protestants signifieth nothing but the opniō of some few who have written either nothing or litle and obscurely of the points in cōtroversy The fourth Shuffle Of this Word Catholick Church TO the Catholick Church all plead the Apostles Creed forcing them to the name And Catholiks by this word understand a Church which hath endured from Father to Son from Christs time to ours still teaching the same Doctrine and living under an outward Visible goverment the head of which is in the Church of Rome and is the Pope And so acknowledg and obey a Visible and determinate authority to which recourse for Doctrine may in every moment bee made by looking into theire Catechismes and lives which are publick as those which were made by the order of the Council of Trent and in great ocasions to Generall meetings and in the meane while to the particular Church of Rome But the Protestant by this name pretends to a Church made of all whome they account good Christians which hath no other Rule then of the scripture that is of the fancy of every particular Congregation for their opinions no common goverment no bounds or limits to bee knowne by but such as the particular fancy of the Protestāt shal upō occasiō set to include or exclude whome he pleases So that plainly what they mean by the name of the Catholick Church is no determinate Congregation of men nor can have any influence to govern either faith or behaviour The fifth Shuffle Of consent with the Greeck Church SOme Protestants highly brag of theire communion with the Greek Church or rather of their consent of Doctrine with it for I have not heard of any communion unless with the Patriarch Cyril who for that cause was put out as an Heretik a business though of no consequence now yet for the name of what it hath been anciently of a colourable credit to them Let us therefore see what the Protestant means by this communion or consent Two points there are and onely two of moment of dissension betwixt the Greek and Latine Church The one about the Procession of the Holy Ghost in which the 39. Articles men agree with the Latine Church against the Graecians and yet these are the men who most pretend to the Greek Vnion The other of obedience to the Pope in the which the Greeks freely acknowledg the Popes Primacy which is the stumbling block to the Protestants and confess he were to bee obeyed if he made just commands and onely except against his oppression as they call it and clayming of more then his right And in this which is no matter of faith but of Schisme and if unjust confest if doubtfull suspected rebellion So that this glorious consent they boast of is not in Doctrine or sacraments the life of Christians but in a case of schisme and disobedience which is common to all Hereticks The sixth Shuffle Of Roman Church Nay some of thē being ashamed of their owne orphanage and that they can not name their Father or Mother wil in spite of the Roman Church and her defying them intrude themselves into heroff spring saying shee is substantially a true Church though shee coucheth insufferable errours in her faith which force them not to communicate with her let us therefore see what these meane by this Word the Roman Church Catholicks Meane by the name of Church a Congregation of men joyned with Rome in an obligation of Government for the maintaining faith sacraments and good life taking this obligation to bee that which maketh the mene bound together by it to bee a Church The Protestant takes this obligation to bee an unsufferable Tyranny wil have no rule of faith but such an one as hee can turne which way hee thinkes best for his interest or fancy sacraments and government no other then what hee cannot avoide out of his proposed rule of faith or at most without the shame of the world So that hee meanes nothing that belongs to the making a multitude of men a Church but onely the multitude of men of which a Church may bee made as if a man should call a house or Palace the ruines of one lying in a heape where it was fallen The seventh Shuffle Of the Word Mission THese are some but Generally the Prelatick party engages in deriving themselves by Mission from the Roman Church Lett us see then what they intend by this word Mission The Catholick interpretation is that Mission signifies a command givē to the party sent to deliver a Message to them to whome hee is sent which makes the Apostles question good How can they preach if they are not sent That is if no body deliver them an Errand to carry and God is sayed to put his owne Words in the Mouths of those he sends and Christe when hee sent his Apostles bad them preach or deliver to the world what he had taught them Now because this command or commission is delegated in the Catholick Church by a certaine ceremony which is called ordination or the sacrament of Order The Protestant grew ambitious of this outside and so pretends his first Prelates had an Ordination from the Catholick Bishops whome they had deposed or at least violently cast out from theire sees And this they call to have a Mission from the Roman Church So that they do not as much as pretend to the substance of the thing called truely Mission but to an outside and shadow good enough to serve their turnes who love the Glory of men and seek not after Gods honour The eighth Shuffle Of being like to the Primitive Church Another thing in which they insult over Catholicks is Antiquity the which because it hath a venerable awfulness in it self they specially the Presbyterian party much presume upon professing their Church to be more like the Ancient Christian Church thē the Catholicks is asking whether S. Peter were the Prince of Rome Bishops in such great Pompe had such Courts Altars Churches pictures in such abundance and so richly attired Ceremonies and Sacraments performed with so great magnificence and Order By which we see wherein these men place the Antiquity they pretend to to wit that the Church had not those meanes to draw weak hearts which need the helps of bodily appareances to raise themselves to the conceit of invisible goods Whereas the Catholick pretends to Antiquity and to bee like the primitive times in the substātial means of Christian life as in Church government and power of Bishops their accommodating of the quarrels of the faithfull by the order of the Apostles Performing the mass Baptisme Ordination and other Sacraments with exactness and diligence the Reliques and Holy Burialls having Feasts Fasts Penitential Canons flocks of People of both
Sexes dedicated to God Religious Ceremonies and all sorts of enticements to love heaven and follow good life So that the Antiquity the Protestant pretends to is of wanting wilfully those means of helping soules which the primitive Church wanted by the Violence of Persecution and the Antiquity meaned by Catholicks is of being like the Ancient Church in all things that promote vertue inwardly and outwardly The ninth Shuffle Of the Word Tradition TO Antiquity hangs Tradition that is the receiving of Doctrine and Customes from the Ancient Church The which Catholicks place in this that it is derived fom the Apostles to us by the continuall and immediate delivery of one Age to another the sons continuing their Fathers both beliefe and conversation in Christian life and treading the same paths of Salvation This was a bit of too soure a digestion for Protestants being not able to shew any Masters from whome they had received theire beliefe Yet a Tradition they must have not to be openly convinced of having forged their doctrine Some of them therefore sayed they received their doctrine by the Tradition of the Bible made unto them by the Churches continuing since the Apostles time Wherein you see an open equivocating in the word of Tradition Catholicks taking it for the delivery of doctrine that is of sense and meaning the Protestants for the delivery of a mute book or killing letter Others call Tradition the Testimony of the Fathers of all Ages and so att least divert the Question Turning the proof of Religion which is plaine and easie to every ordinary understanding into a business of learning and long study in which though they be worstted yet the People cannot see it nor descry theire falshood The tenth Shuffle Of the word Really TO descend from the Universality or defence of their whole Religiō to speciall articles of it wee shall finde them there like themselves As for example those who beare an outward respect to the Fathers finding them concurring so thick to testify Christes Body to bee in the Holy Eucharist will see me to say the same and use the word of Christ being Really and verily and truely in the Sacrament and that they onely question the manner how he is there which is lawfull amongst Catholicks to do So that you cannot almost distinguish them from Catholicks Vntil you come to explicatiō There the Catholick sayeth that Christes Body is in the sacrament as the substance of Bread was in the thing which before wee called Bread and now is no more but turned into that body wich was hanged on the Cross by an entitative and reall mutation The Protestant wil tell you that it is stil Bread and naturally and entitatively the same thing wich it was before consecration but that by faith which is a real actiō it is Christes true body to us How to justify these words that by Faith it is Christes true body is impossible unless they wil have us believe by faith what they tell us is false Therefore others say it is an assurāce of Christs Body as a bond is of mony Peradventure of enjoying Christe in Heaven But how different both senses bee from the Catholick which they seek to be thought theirs and from the natural meaning of the words every mā cā see So that the manner of being Christes Body which they question signifies whether it bee truely there or no but onely by a false apprehension they call Faith The eleventh Suffle Of the Word Sacrifice The like is of the word Sacrifice and Altar and such other In which the Catholick position makes these words proper and that the Mass is as or more properly signified by the word sacrifice as the sacrifice of the old law That there is a true and real separatiō of the body of our Saviour from his bloud and more proper to the names then nature can make which can not make a true body when the bloud is separated nor true bloud whē the body is left out wich in this sacramēt is performed and nevertheless Christe entire and untouched But a Protestāt wil tel you that whē the Holy offering is called a sacrifice it is meaned a sacrifice of praise or thanks giving that is in reality no sacrifice but an outward ceremony of praise or thāks giving others that it is a resemblāce or represētatiō of a sacrifice to wit of that of the holy Cross so that you see the differēce of the two significatiōs is no less thē whē by the same word as of Christes one means Christs Person another a Crucifix or the picture of Christe The twelfth Shuffle Of the Word Priesthood In consequēce and conformity to this they abuse the Word of Priesthood For finding al Antiquity gloriously full of this name they must also use it and finding St. Paul had too expressely taught us that a Priest was a publick Officer ordained to offer to God giftes and sacrifices and that he ought to be legitimately called to the office and that Catholiks take Priesthood in this meaning And how on the other side themselves had taken out of the Church all solemn offerings and sacrifice the business of a Priest and nevertheless shame on one side and ambition on the other egged them on to call themselves Priests they were forced to corrupt the Word sacrifice first as is declared to come to the name Priesthood So that Priesthood in the Protestant meaning is an officer chosen to sing Psalmes in the sight of the People The which how different it is from the Catholick explication of being the publick Officer of the eternall sacrifice is too plain to be declared Onely I must add that who takes ordination with the intention onely to become the chief or high singer of the Parish receiveth not Priesthood as it is meaned and used in the Catholick Church The thirteenth Shuffle Of the word Faith THe abuse of this name Faith must not bee omitted which Catholicks taking for a perswasion of such truths as are necessary to bring us to good life and salvation which perswasion wee settle upon Christes doctrine delivered unto us by Tradition of the Church The which meaning is cleare in the Apostle who expresseth himself to speak of faith that works by Charity The first Protestants took the word Faith as excluding Charity and cryed downe good works as improfitable the latter ashamed of this as destroying good life and plainly contrary to the whole designe of Scripture and Fathers took it for the same faith that Catholicks do but would have it have force precisely out of its being a persuasion and the working to follow to no effect but as a hanger on without any End whereas Catholicks make the persuasion to bee chiefly or wholly to breed Charity which is the true cause of salvation But the presbiterian party and the plainer dealing Protestants have quite changed and destroyed faith saying faith is a Persuasion that the believer must have that hee in Person is one of the
is all one a Protestant On the other side If it be the Catholikes share to be the Defendant He is bound to make good many points That is to say all that doctrine which we maintaine to be of faith and to have received by Tradition The Conclusion therefore is that the Catholike hath much to maintaine and little to oppose The Protestant hath great choice of what to oppose and little to maintaine So that his advantage on this hand is very great in regard of disputation Since if he receive a wound in any limb of that great body he is to defend it is a mortall one to his cause And his adversary is invulnerable to him every where but in one pointe The reason of this difference dependeth of the knowne Axiome Bonum ex integrâ causâ Malum ex quolibet defectu The Catholike Party hath a Religion hath an Art and skill of living well and of going to heaven Such a thing must have a body And a body can not consist without many members and parts Every one of which must be defended and made good All other Sects are but deficiencies more or lesse from this rule Those more who cleave fastest to the rule of deficiency that is to say to the rejecting of all that cannot be convinced out of Scripture Those lesse who perceiving the inconveniencies this bringeth upon them do soonest recede in practise from this crooked rule and to contradict their maine ground of all being fallible by forcing their subjects to hold their Tenets that they have no authority for themselves having forsaken the legitimate authority by which the Catholike Church sticketh to Tradition The eleventh REFLEXION Of some particular Caveats for Catholikes THe Catholike defendant having so hard a taske some few notes will be necessary for him As first that he should not ofter to maintaine against arguments drawne out of nature such positions as he is not able to satisfy himselfe in for example against an Arrian or Sabellian lett him not undertake to dispute and argue in reason how the same thing can be one and three unlesse he be first sure that hee understandeth it well and that himselfe resteth satisfyed with reason in that point For it is impossible to give the Auditory satisfaction if he hath it not himselfe Especially if the disputant be subtle and able to manage his Argument The like is of the blessed Sacrament to shew how one body can at the same time be im more places then one In this case therefore the Defendant is to keepe himselfe upon the generall defence that wee believe Mysteries of faith whether we can answere Arguments against them or no That the word of God is able to give us certitude above all demonstration and above all that wee can understand Neither are wee without the example of our Adversaries themselves when we do thus For in this very Mystery of the Eucharist they will tell us that Christ is really and truly present in it But that the Manner how he is there is not understandable In the Trinity and in the Incarnation Protestants do the like acknowledging these Mysteries to be true but withall professing them to be above their understanding Yet this rule is not so peremptory but that by discretion it may admitt exception For our Adversaries are so weake that they ground most of their Axiomes and proofes rather upon confidence wee will not deny them then that themselves are able to make them good So in the Mystery of the Eucharist when they insist upon the Maxime that the same body can not be att the same time in two places If you putt them to proove it you shall finde that their word will be to say that even our owne Doctors confesse it or that experience assureth us of it Whereas experience is no Argument against Gods Omnipotency And as to what private Doctors affirme it is att every Mans pleasure to grant or deny it So that if you understand your Adversaries strength you may non-sute him by putting him to prove what you know he can not But this is a hazard And you are shamed if you faile An other Caveat for our defendant is Not to engage himselfe in a Controversy upon the opinion of one party of Devines Nor undertake to defend against his Adversary a position which some of our owne Devines do oppose and so is rather a question of Scholasticall Divinity then a Controversy of faith To this purpose it is to be noted that some opinions are of a greater latitude then others establishing faith upon that whereof others confine it but to some one part As in the Matter of Infallibility some place it in the Pope some in a generall Councell some in both some in the whole Church which conteineth all these and more Here the cautious Controvertist that hath care of his Safety will be sure to choose that which is most ample and so quitteth himselfe from the trouble and danger of answering Arguments made against the single parts and keepeth himselfe to the strong hold of Christianity wherein all parties agree True it is that if the defendant be putt to declare his position and an Argument do presse him Hee may sometimes be obliged to choose one opinion of Divines before an other or rather is forced to follow that which he is best acquainted with But the rule I give must serve where and when there is place for it And besides the already mentioned advantages that this course giveth It causeth a great narrownesse or brevity in controversies which bringeth the dissenting parties farre neerer to agreement and setleth more stablenesse in Religion by making men dicerne what belongeth to faith and what doth not but is the opinions of particular Doctors The twelfth REFLEXION Of the qualities of some sort of Arguments drawne out of Scripture THe next thing we are to look into Is the quality of the Arguments which are to be used in those Disputations By the precedent discourse it is evident â—hat they are of three kindes Out of Scripture out of Fathers and out of reason To begin with Scripture It is againâ— cleare that arguments may be thence deduced two wayes The one out of the pure force of the wordes The other out of the connexion of the sense and discourse acknowledged â—n the wordes With the conclusion that iâ— to be proved In the former way Arguents either presse the wordes of one single sentence which they bring thinking to make it evident that their assertion is the very meaning of those wordes Or else they bring a conglobation of sundry places of which the one fortifyeth the other so as to make it evident that the plaine sense of wordes so often reiterated cannot choose but be the true meaning of the Scripture To begin with the first branch of the Manner of drawing arguments out of single Texts of Scripture we may divide into two kindes the Texts that are produced for this purpose For they are either such as
that he was faine to learne of new to reade Deservedly hee But what I deduce out of this relation is first that his reasons though in his owne judgment they were not efficacious yet they convinced the whole auditory and that of no common persons By which we may understand that the reasons he brought were not demonstrations nor were the best that might have been alledged for that subject Celse better could not have been opposed And neverthelesse they carried so great an Auditory From whence we may inferre how violent a power the force of this art of talking must necessarily have upon the ordinary sort of men to make them take their Master for a great Doctor An other note that I make upon this occasion is that all the talking of such men is not or ought not to bee sufficient to perswade us not onely that they speake the truth but even that they speak their owne mindes And after all their earnestnesse we may suspect their discourse is framed but to comply with the humour of the times or to promote their present interest or to please their auditors Tully professeth the same of his Oratours and sayth he also practised it himselfe But here I may not omitt the story of that expert generall and understanding man Hanniball the Carthaginian Antiochus having furnished him with a puissant and flourishing army would entertaine him also with an Oration concerning the art of warre and the manner how he ought to proceede in it made by a famous and long-practised Oratour Phormio who in the presence of Antiochus and his Captaines discoursed to Hannibal of this subject to the great applause and admiration of all that heard him excepting Hannibal who being asked how he liked him answered that in all his life-time he had never heard such an old dotardly foole prate A strange censure one would thinke on a man so generally exacted and cryed up Yet if we consider that Phormio had learned his skill of warre onely in written discourses and Histories but Hannibal in the field and in action it selfe wee may easily conceive that Phormios Oration talked of thinges in the ayre and formed his adversary in his fancy whereas Hannibal had studied the thinges in themselves and so knew groundedly what he spoke and saw that all the Oratours glorious speech was but a painted pageant not any effectuall exhibition of truth Hence we may conclude that the ability of discoursing in a high straine and in a pathetike manner is no argument of true learning in him that exerciseth it unlesse juggling and folly in impertinency may passe for learning Who were better talkers or better discoursers then the Academikes Yet their profession was that they had no truth and that indeed there was none to be found The nineteenth REFLEXION On what Divinity And who is a Divine LEtt us now apply this to practise and to our present subject Religion as we have already said is the most important and the most necessary businesse that belongeth to Mans nature and action It is so precisely one that if a man chance to mistake in it be the cause what it will he is lost for ever For as hee that misseth his way cometh not to his journeyes end whether it be his fault or others misguidance that hath made him misse his way So who treadeth not in the true path of Religion never arriveth at eternall happinesse lett the fault lye where it will Now if learning in Religion be the skill of shewing the path to heaven and if all the great noise that these talkers make helpeth one never a steppe thitherwards as not delivering any point of truth that may be relyed upon It is evident that the pretended learning of such persons is much further from the notion of true learning then the Grammar learning we spoke of before For though learning be lowe ad meane as being onely of wordes yet of them att least the Grammarian hath knowledge Whereas this prating this parrate-vertue though it be of thinges yet is it not a science of them but all is meere wordes and winde I heare them reply as they want neither wordes nor impudence to dispute against evidence that though it is true they promise no certainty because none can be had yet they make out high probability which is the Princesse that governeth humane affaires I will not at present discusse whether there be any certainty or no It is enough that the Catholike Church professeth certainty and ever hath done so and nature forceth even the denyers of this truth to act as if they had certainty in perswading and forcing others to their opinions But I wish that these men would speake plaine English and that in lieu of this quaint terme High probability they would tell us the meaning of it in wordes that honest men may understand Lett me see if I can helpe them That which they meane by prohability must either be some accesse towardes truth on the objects side Or a strong perswasion made in the Auditor If it bee a perswasion In the Auditory without any approach to the object clearely it signifyeth nothing else but a high cheate or an excellent juggle with prayse neither may I deny nor do I envy to such men Then for the objects side If there be no fixednesse or certainty of the object by all the arguments of this high Oratour I can not comprehend there is more in all he sayth then peradventure it is true peradventure not So that High Probability signifyeth High Peradventure Which how great a Non-sence it is if applyed to fixed verities that are not subject to the mutability of change and chance that is how ridiculously it is applyed to Religion and to truths of faith is evident to every sensible man If now men will needes have one termed a Divine because he can thus finely talke in the ayre of God and of thinges belonging to him he must be a Divine of blind Tiresias his tribe who in the Poët professeth his Divinity in these termes O Laërtiade Quicquid dicam aut erit aut non Divinare etenim magnus mihi donat Apollo The last part of the reply telleth us that Probabiliry governeth all human action I deny it not But withall I take notice that Action is one thing Beliefe an other Human action is about the gaining of a future End which dependeth on fallible principles as all mortall thinges doe Which are continually involved in a thousand uncertainties and changes But faith is of unchangeable verities which nothing hath power to make otherwise then it is already settled It is a parallel to science I meane to true science such as we se exercised in Geometry for which no man looketh into probabilities And to expect that faith should depend on probabilities is no lesse ridiculous then to thinke the like of Geometry since it is more necessary and more important then Geometry and the way to heaven is missed with greater danger and losse then
of which the action formally is considered or else in respect of some other quality of the same person To speake more clearly A Catholike who writeth or disputeth against a Protestant or conferreth with him may deferre to him either in his very argumeÌ„t or in other things not concerning it as he may acknowledge him an eloquent man a good Linguist a subtile Critike or some other commendation belonging to either his understanding or his will Or else that his argument is good or hard to be solved or that his skill in divinity is extraordinary or the like Now as for this last commendation It is evident that it can not be given him without prejudice to the cause the Catholike maintaineth And therefore even if it should prove true which it is impossible it shoud Prudence would advise his adversary to wave taking notice of it as farre as ingenuity will allow him But he needeth not appreheÌ„d being reduced to streights upon this account For Protestant arguments out of authority are easily answered And if some drawne from reason be difficult and intricate it is because that nature upon which the question dependeth is obscure and unknowne not because the Divinity part hath any speciall difficulty in it What the pitch of Divinity is that a Protestant may arrive unto wee have already declared As for other qualities both humanity requireth we should afford them a friendly esteeme of their good parts and the very ayme we have in discoursing with them which is to change their judgements to agree with ours maketh it no small part of our businesse to proceede with a faire and just difference towardes them if we understand how much the will conferreth to incline the judgement and how powerfull courtesy is over the will As for the arguments themselves it is necessary especially in writing which alloweth descending to many particulars to shew that they are but slight ones and that they proceede out of ignorance and that they imply a great distortion in the will of him that maketh them which onely causeth them to be well esteemed of and the like according as there shall be cause It is necessary also to display how the producer of such arguments is not a man to be replyed upon nor hath those qualities which are requisite in a teacher For either his braine is weake or the will of maintaining an evill cause worketh upon him to throw out pittifull and triviall objections instead of framing strong and solide ones which is the worse condition of the two Now with what justice may one give the commendations of an honest man to one that for his owne honour or interest will maintaine a proposition himselfe knoweth to be false especially of that nature that the salvation or damnation of the hearer as well as his owne dependeth on it Were it not better he cheated me of my purse robbed me of my credit tooke away my life then to bring my soule into the hazard of perpetuall damnation How then can hee who doth this bee esteemed an honest man and worthy of such civill testimonyes as shall enable him the more to ensnare poore soules who will rely the more upon him for his receiving such applause He may peradventure defend himselfe by saying that if he seduceth others he is first seduced himselfe and so ignorance excuseth him att least from being malicious and wicked But he mendeth his cause very little by this plea since he who undertaketh to be a Master of others especially in matters of so great consequence and hazard must not be admitted to alledge ignorance for an excuse Why doth he undergoe the office of a teacher if he understandeth not what he undertaketh to teach He who will affirme any thing must first know it Else he is a lyar and if it be in a matter of great prejudice a knave Perhaps he will againe answere for himselfe that there is no meanes to come to certainty in Religion and that therefore he is not more faulty for being a teacher then every one else is that doth the like In saying thus first hee blasphemeth against God as not having provided man-kind of that which farre beyond all other thinges is most necessary to it Secondly he proceedeth very rashly for how doth he know or what demonstration hath he made or can he make that he knoweth all that can be said to the coÌ„trary Thirdly he knoweth with out the least doubt that either himselfe or his very late predecessours did leave the way they were bred in Now if it were but for likelihoods and that there be no certainty in Religion how was it honestly done by the first that made the breach or is now by him who maintaineth it onely upon peradventures But to make it appeare more evident that they who have left the Catholicke Church or that still keepe out of it are unexcusable and to take away their mis-understaÌ„ding of some points wherein their mis-taking of what we believe may seeme to justify in some sort their deserting us I will set downe a short explication of Catholike doctrine as farre as it is controverted by judicious and sensible men on both sides Against which I scarcely believe that any prudent person will thinke it fitt to make an objection unlesse it be out of naturall reason where the Mystery is difficult not for it selfe but because wee understand not nature As he who perfectly understandeth Logick will have no difficulty to believe the Trynity who knoweth the composition of body and soule in Man will easily admitt the Incarnation And who comprehendeth how living Creatures do nourish themselves will not sticke at the Mystery of the Eucharist I pretend not to set downe all For as there is no All of those demonstrations for example which may be made of the natures of a Triangle or of a circle So farre lesse of the dependencies of the Mysteries of our faith which the opposition of Adversaries may make necessary to be known and professed Therefore I content my selfe with those which I apprehend to be the most troublesome among the points in controversy now att present A briefe Explication of Catholik faith in order to moderne Controversies WEe believe that from all Eternity there was a Thing not made by any other but having its being from â—â—selfe without beginning or springing That this thing is unchangeable anâ— immortall Having neither parts noâ— composition and so is perfectly indivisible and spirituall That this same Thing is Substantially and Essentially knowing and loving it selfe And so is a substance knowne a substance knowing and a substance loving the Thing knowne That as a thing knowne it is from which the thing knowing is and as a Thing knowne and knowing it is from which the substance or Thing loving is That as it is a substance knowing or knowledge wee explicate it well by a name taken out of our naturall considerations that is by the word sonne and likewise as it is a substance knowne by the