notwithstanding all the miracles they had seene him worke in allmost 4. yeares tyme they continually cōuersed with him which appeareth plainely by the discourse of the disciples going to Emaus when they sayed we hoped c. And expressed their sadnesse for the contrary successe to their expectation and by saint Thomas his saying that he would not belieue his resurrectiō vnlesse he saw him and pnt his fingers into his woundes c. And by the rest of the Apostles that were so long before they would belieue his resurrection as hauing giuen ouer the thought of his diuinity and after his death considered him but as a pure man like other mē Therfore it was necessary that some inward light should be giuen them so cleare and so strōg and so powerfull as the senses should not be able to preuaile against it but that it should onerflowingly possesse ād fill all their vnderstandings and their soules and make them breake out in exteriour actions correspondent to the spirit that steered them within And the reason is euident for whiles on the one side the senses discerne apparantly miracles wrought in confirmation of a doctrine and on the other side the same senses doe stifly contradict the very possibility of the doctrine which those miracles testifye the soule within hauing no assistāce beyond the naturall powers she hath belonging originally vnto her is in great debate and anxiety which way to giue her assent and though reason doe preuaile to giue it to the party of the present miracles yet it is with great timidity But if it happen that the course of those miracles be stopped thē the particular seeming impossibilies of the proposed faith remayning alwayes alike liuely in their apprehension and the miracles wrought to confirme it residing but in the memory and the representatiōs of them wearing out dayly more and more and the present senses and fantasy growing proportionably stonger and stronger and withall obiecting continually new doubts about the reality of those miracles it cannot be expected otherwise but that the assent of the soule should range it selfe on the side of the impossibilityes appearing to the present senses and renounce the doctrine formerly confirmed by miracles vnlesse some inward and supernaturall light be giuen her to disperse all the mistes that the senses rayse against the truth of the doctrine Now the infusion of this light and feruour we call the giuing of the holy Ghost which Christ himselfe foreknowing how necessary it was promised them assuring thē that he would procure his father to send them the Holy Ghost the spirit of truth that should for euer remaine among them and within them and suggest vnto their memory and instruct them in the right vnderstāding of the faith he had preached vnto them And this was prophesied long before of the state of the law of grace by Hieremy whose authority S. Paule bringeth to proue that the law of the Gospell was to be written by the holy Ghost in mens hearts and in their mindes and accordingly he calleth the faithfull of the Corynthians the faith of Christ not written with inke but with the spirit of God nor grauen in stony tables but in the fleshy ones of their hearts And in performance of this prophesy and of Christs promise the hystorie telleth vs that on the tenth day after the ascension of Christ when all his disciples who were then all his Church and were to preach and deliuer it to all the world were assembled together the holy Ghost was giuen thē and that in so full à measure as they not onely were confirmed so perfectly in their faith as they neuer after admitted the least vacillation therein but they immediatly casting away all other desires and thoughts were inflamed with admirable loue of God and broke out into his prayses and into a vehement ardor of teaching and conuerting others and when by reason of that zeale of theirs any thing happened to them contrary to flesh and blood and humane nature as persecutions ignominies corporall punishmēts and euen death it selfe they not onely not shunned it as before but greedily rann to meete and embrace it and ioyed and gloryed in it all which were effects of the holy Ghost residing in them and filling their myndes and gouuerning their soules Where vppō by the way we may note that in what Church soeuer we find not à state of life for sanctitie and neere vnion with God and contempt of wordly and transitory things raysed aboue the pitch of nature and morality we may conclude the holy Ghost inhabiteth not there for euery agent produceth effects proportionable to the dignity of it and the excellency of any cause shineth eminently in the noblenesse of its effects Now that this guift of the holy Ghost is to remaine with the Church as long as the Church remaineth to illuminate it with the spirit of truth and to giue it a supernaturall and diuine vnction will appeare manifestly vpon consideratiō of the cause why the holy Ghost was to be giuen at the first which remaineth alwayes the same and therfore the same effect must alwayes follow and accordingly Christ promised his Church vpō his ascēding into heauen that he would alwayes ramaine with them vntill the end of the world to witt by this holy spirit for he was then at the point of withdrawing his corporall presence from them 15. Our next conclusion shall be that this Church or congregation of men spread ouer the world cōseruing and deliuering the faith of Christ from hand to hand is euen in its owne nature perpetuall in tyme and cannot faile as long as mankinde remayneth in the world This needeth noe further proofe then that which we haue already made which is deriued from the necessity of supernaturall faith to bring mankinde to the end it was created for and that there is no meanes to deliuer this faith to mankinde in the ages after Christ but by the traditiō of the Church and therefore as long as mankinde lasteth this meanes must be cōtinued Yet in this way of reasoning that I vse we are to examine our conclusions as well by the genuine and orderly causes that beget them and by their owne particular principles as to assent vnto them for the necessity that we see in them in regarde of the end that they are referred vnto And when we haue retriued those and euidently discerned theire force it giueth an admirable content and satisfaction to the vnderstanding Thus then as Philosophers conclude that it is impossible any whole species or kinde of beastes should euer be vtterly exterminated and destroyed that is diffused vp and downe ouer the whole face of the earth because the amplitude of the vniuerse is greater then the variety of causes can be from which such a generall and entire corruption must proceed In like manner we may confidently conclude that it is impossible any depraued affections should so vniuersally preuaile and so absolutly raigne in mens mindes throughout the
we remaine here in our earthly habitations imprisoned in our houses of clay as we cannot lift vp our heauy and drowsie eyes ād steddily fixe our dimme sight vpon the dazeling and indeed inuisible Deity nor entertaine an immediate communication with him like the childrē of Israel who desired that Moses not God might speake vnto them it was necessary that God himselfe should descend to some corporall substance that might be more familiar and lesse dazeling vnto vs And none was so conuenient as humane nature to the end that he might not onely conuerse freely and familiarly with vs and so in a gentle and a sweete manner teach vs what we should doe but also preach vnto vs by his example and himselfe be our leader in the way that he instructed vs to take The conclusion then of this discourse is that it was necessary Christ God and man should come into the world to teach vs what to belieue and what to doe 10. The tenth conclusion shall be that those vnto whom Christ did immediatly preach this faith and vnto whome he gaue commission to preach it vnto others and spread it through the world after he ascended to heauen ought to be belieued as firmely as he himselfe The reason of this assertion is that their doctrine though it be deliuered by secondary mouthes yet it proceedeth from the same fountaine which is God himselfe that is the prime verity and cannot deceiue nor be deceiued But all the difficulty here in is to know who had this immediate commission from Christ and by what seale we should discerne it to haue bin no forged one The solution of this ariseth out of the same argument which proueth that Christ himselfe was God and that the doctrine he taught was true and diuine which is the miracles and workes he did exceeding the power of nature and that could be effected by none but by God hmiselfe for he being truth it selfe cannot by any action immediatly proceeding from him witnesse and confirme à falsehoode In like manner the Apostles doing such admirable workes and miracles as nether by nature nor by art magicke could be brought to passe that must necessarily inferre God himselfe cooperated with them to iustifie what they sayd it is euidēt that their doctrine which was not their owne but receaued from Christ must be true and Diuine 11. Te eleauenth conclusion shall be that this faith thus taught by Christ and propagated by the Apostles and necessary to mankinde to belieue as well that part of it which is written as the whole which is not dependeth intrinsecally vpon the testimony of the Catholicke Church which is ordayned to conserue and deliuer it from age to age By which Catholike Church I meane the congregation of the faithfull that is spread through-out the whole world for we haue proued before that the way to the true faith ought to be open and playne to all men of all abilities and in all ages that haue a desire to embrace it and this cannot be but ether by the immediate preaching of Christ or else by the information ether in writing or by word of mouth of them that learned it from him and their deliuering it ouer to others and so from hand to hand vntill any particular tyme you will pitch vpon But from Christs owne mouth none could haue it but those who liued in the age when he did therfore there remaineth no other meanes to haue it deriued downe to after ages then by this deliuery ouer from hand to hand of the whole congregation of fathers or elders dispersed throughout the world to the whole congregation of sonnes or youngers which course of deducing faith from Christ we call tradition so that this conclusion proueth that the Church is the conseruer both of the whole doctrine of faith necessary for saluation and likewise of the diuine writ dictated by the Holy Ghost and written by the Prophetes Euangelists and Apostles which we are also bound to belieue And the same assent that we are to giue to the truth of Scriptures that is to say that the Scriptures we haue are true Scriptures the very same we are to giue to other articles of faith proposed vnto vs by the Church for they alike depend of the same authority which is the veracity of the Church proposing and deliuering thē vnto vs to be belieued And we may as well doubt that the Church hath corrupted the Scriptures as that she hath corrupted any article of fayth 12. The twelueth conclusion shall be that into the Catholike Church noe false doctrine in any age can be admitted or creepe in that is to say no false proposition whatsoeuer can euer be receiued and imbraced by the Catholike Church as a proposition of faith For whatsoeuer the Church beleeueth as a proposition of faith is vpon this ground that Christ taught it as such vnto the Church he planted himselfe and so it left it in truste to be by it deliuered ouer to the next age And the reason why the present Church belieueth any proposition to be of faith is because the immediate preceeding Church of the age before deliuered it as such And so you may driue it on frō age to age vntill you come to the Apostles and Christ. Therefore to haue any false proposition of faith admitted into the Church in any age doth Suppose that all they of that age must vnanimously conspire to deceiue their children and youngers telling them that they were taught by theire fathers to belieue as of faith some proposition which indeed they were not Which being impossible as it will euidently appeare to any prudent person that shall reasonably ponder the matter that so many men spread throughout the whole world so different in their particular interests and endes and of such various dispositions and natures should all agree together in the forgery of any precise lye it is impossible that any false doctrine should creepe into the Church But because the force of this argument may peraduenture not appeare at the first sight to your Ladyshipp that happily hath not had much occasion to make deepe reflection vpon the certainty that must needs be in the asseueration of any history of matter of fact subiect to the sense which shall be made by a great company of men so distant from one another and of such different interests and affections as they cannot conspire together in the forgery of a falsehood But that you may happily thinke since any one man is lyable to be deceiued or out of some indirect end may be iuduced to deceiue another it is also possible that a whole multitude of men be it neuer so great consisting of particular men may allso deceiue or be deceiued I will therefore for a further declaration of this matter propose for the thirteenth Conclusion that fayth thus deliuered is absolutly more certaine and infallible then any naturall science whatsoeuer And yet sciences are so certaine I meane such as depend of
whole world as would be requisite to extirpate and roote out a doctrine vniuersally spread ouer it all that was at the first taught and confirmed with such sâ—ales of truth as the miracles that Christ and the Apostles wrought that in it selfe is so pure and agreable to the seedes that euery man findeth sowed euen by nature in his owne soule that worketh such admirable effects as the reformation of manners in maÌ„kind that withdraweth mens affections from humane and wordly contentments and carryeth them with a sweete violence to intellectuall obiects and to hopes of immortality and happinesse in another life that prescribeth lawes for happy liuing euen in this world to all men of what condition soeuer ether publike or priuate as working a moderation in mens affections to the commodities and goods of this life which else in nature is apt to blinde mens mindes and is the cause of all michiefes and euills and lastly that is deliuered ouer from hand to hand from worlds of fathers to worlds of sonnes with such care and exactnesse as greater caÌ„not be imagined and as is requisite to the importance of that affaire which is infinitly beyond all others as on which the saluation and damnation of mankinde wholy dependeth Now vnto these rationall considerations let vs adde the promise which Christ made to his Church that the gates of hell should not preuaile against it and I thinke we haue sufficiently maintained that the Church of Christ in which the true doctrine of Christ is conserued can neuer faile but must infallibly continue vntill the worlds end Thus hauing proued that a supernaturall doctrine is necessary to bring mankind to beatitude that Christ taught this doctrine that from him the Churh receaued it and is the sacrary in which it is coÌ„serued that this Church cannot erre in the tradition of this doctrine that besides the infallibility of it this Church is perpetuall It remaineth now that we close vp this discourse by applying all these premisses vnto the question in hand which is where we shall find out this infallible Church that by it we may gaine the knowledge of the true faith of Christ whereby we are to be saued 16. For this end our sixteenth and last conclusion shall be that the congregation of men spred ouer the world ioyning in communion with the Church of Rome is the true Catholike Church in which is conserued and taught the true sauing faith of Christ. The truth of this conclusion will without bringing any new proofes appeare euideÌ„tly by reflecting vpon what we haue sayed and onely examining whether the Romane Church be such a one as we haue determined the true Church of Christ must be or whether the notes which me may inferre out of our discourse to belong inseparably to the true Church may not rather with more reason be acknowledged of some other then of that in coÌ„munion with the see of Rome this point after these groundes layed requireth no very subtill disquisition but is discernable euen by the weakest sights and therefore this way of arguing appeareth to me most satisfactory and contentfull when taking the whole body of the question into suruey and beginning with the first and remotest considerations of it we driue the difficulties still before vs and pursuing of them orderly at euery steppe we establish a solide principle and so become secure of the truth and certainty of all we leaue behind vs which course although it may at the first sight appeare to be a great way about and looking but superficially vpon the matter we may seeme to meete with difficulties which coÌ„cerne not our question yet in the effect we shall perceiue it is the most summary method of handling any controuersie and the onely meanes to be secured of the truth of what we conclude and that will recompense the precedent difficulties by making the conclusion which is the knotte of the affayre plaine easy and open I say then first that vnity of doctrine in matters of faith is inseparable from the Romane Church and can neuer be found in any other it onely hauing a precise aÌ„d determinate rule of faith For it hath belieued in euery age all that hath bin plainely aÌ„d positiuely taught vnto it by theire fathers as the doctrine of faith deriued from Christ and admitteth noe other article whatsoeuer as an article of faith Whereas on the other side all other Christian Churches amoÌ„g vs that pretend reformation haueing no certaine and common rule of faith but euery particular man gouerning himselfe in this matter by the collections of his owne braine and by his owne priuate vnderstanding and interpretation of Scripture which onely he acknowledgeth as the entire rule of faith it must consequently follow that according to the variety of their tempers and iudgemeÌ„ts there must be a variety and difference of their opinions and beliefes which difference of temper happening for the most part betweene euery two men that are it likewise followeth scarse any two should in all particulars of their opinions agree together And accordingly we see by experience that scarce any two authors out of the Romane Church that haue written of matters of faith haue agreed in their tenets but rather haue dissented in fundamentall doctrine and haue inueighed against one another in their writings with great vehemence and bitternesse Whereas on the other side the Doctors of the Romane Church in all tymes in all places and of all tempers haue agreed vnanimously in all matters of faith although in the meane tyme seuerall of them haue in diuers other points great debates against one another and pursue them with much sharpnesse which strongly confirmeth the ground vpon which we frame this obseruation But to insist a little further vpon this materiall and important consideration it is euident that the proceeding of the reformers openeth the gate to all dissention schisme irreuerence pride of vnderstanding heresie and ruine of Christian religion for to iustify the new births of their rebellions braines the first stroke of their pen must be to lay a taint of ignorance and error vpon the whole current of Ancient fathers and Doctours of the Church and generall Councells and to blast their authority which is so precisely contrary to their doctrine whose names and recordes ought to be sacred with posterity Which when they haue done to settle a coÌ„stant and like beliefe in all men they giue noe generall and certayne rule but leauing euery man to the Dictamens of his owne priuate iudgement according to the seuerall tempers and circumstances as we sayd before that sway euery single man in particular there must result which we see by experience as great a variety of opinions as those are different And lastly since they quarell at Catholickes beliefe in those points where they differ from them because they captiuate their vnderstandings with reuerence to what the Church proposeth and teacheth and thereby admitt into their beliefe articles which may seeme absurd to common sense