they might have true Faith in him Which they could not have but by Believing the Word of God The Apostle saying Rom. 10. Faith is by Hearing and Hearing is by the Word of Christ Whilst such then Heard and Believ'd The Doctrine of the Church that is the Teaching of the Doctors and Pastors of the Church they Heard and Believ'd the Word of God The same do Papists now Futhermore it cannot be doubted but that the Gospel and Voice of Christ is the Word of God and that those which hear these hear the Word of God. But the Preaching and Teaching of the Doctors and Pastors of the Church of Christ is the Gospel and Voice of Christ Ergo c. This is clear out of Matth. 24. where Christ says This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be Preach'd in the whole World for a Testimony to all Nations and then shall come the Consummation For who do Preach this Gospel in all Ages till the end of the World but the Doctors and Pastors of the Church Their Preaching then is the Gospel of Christ and consequently the Word of God. Christ likewise says John 10. speaking of his Sheep which he is to gather out of the Gentiles even till the end of the World Other Sheep I have which are not of this Fold that is of the Flock of the Jews Them also I must bring and they shall hear my Voice Christ did not nor doth not Preach to the Gentiles to gather his Sheep from amongst them in all Ages by his own Corporal Voice But by the Voice and Teaching of the Pastors of his Church Their Voice then is his Voice and consequently the Word of God. Which is yet further shew'd out of Luke 10. where Christ says to his Pastors and Teachers He that heareth you heareth me Wherefore while Papists do hear the Teaching of the Doctors and Pastors of the Church lineally succeeding the Apostles they hear the Word of God the Gospel of Christ the Voice of Christ yea Christ himself And therefore they cannot be justly said to believe in matters of Faith the Doctrines of men Or to hazard their Souls upon the Doctrines of men But upon the Authority of God speaking in and by that Church which his continual assistance maketh to be The Pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. But the Case is not so with Protestants For they do not only rely and hazard their Souls upon the Doctrines of Men But they also prefer the Doctrines of men before the express Word of God. For in divers most weighty Points of Religion they leave not only the Antient Fathers the General Councils and the ever visible and Catholick Church of Christ but even the Word of God it self to follow the Teaching of their new Masters This will seem at first a strange or rather a very Injurious and Contumelious Imputation But let us make it plain by some examples The Word of God says James 2. 24. Do you see that a man is justify'd by Works and not by Faith only But Protestant Teachers say that a man is justify'd Not by Works but by Faith only Mark how directly they contradict the Word of God. For that says By Works and not by Faith only And these do Protestants believe rather than the express Word of God in the weighty point of Justification On which their Salvation depends which is not obtain'd but by the true manner of Justification Secondly The Word of God says Luke 1. 6. That the Parents of John the Baptist Were both Just before God walking in all the Commandments and Justifications of our Lord without blame Whence it clearly follows that this Holy Couple kept all Gods Commandments For he that breaks them doth not Walk in them without blame The Word of God likewise says 1 John 5. 3. This is the Charity of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not heavy But Protestant Teachers generally affirm that the Commandments of God are Impossible are such as no man can keep are Insupportable And confequently they must say that no man is bound to keep them For no man is bound to do more than he is able By which Doctrine they do not only loose the Bridle to all Vice and make God more Indiscreet and more Tyrannical than any other Commander in the World But They also flatly contradict the word of God Which not only shews that some men have kept the Commandments but also expresly affirms that they are not Heavy And yet Protestants rather believe these than the Word of God in this most weighty point But Note well what follows against these Teachers out of the Word of God 1 John 2. 4. Which there says He who saith he knows God and does not keep his Commandments is a Lyer and the Truth is not in him But Protestant Teachers affirm that they rightly know God but do not nor cannot keep his Commandments Ergo They are Lyars Our Saviour Instituting the Holy Eucharist says Luke 22. 19. This is my Body which is given for you But English Ministers generally say That the Eucharist is not Christ's Body which was given for us that is his True Body But a Figure or remembrance of it Christ says My Body which is given for you That is my True Body For his True Body was given for Us suffer'd for Us and not a Figure or Remembrance thereof But these new Teachers say Not his True Body not that which was given for Vs that suffer'd for Vs But a Figure of it which the Word of God no where Teaches And thus they flatly contradict the Word of God in this most important Article of Faith On the right Belief and Use of which Salvations depends as is manifest out of the 6 St. Joh. and out of the 11. of the 1 of Corinthians And yet These our English Protestants believe rather than the Word of God though it expresly says That the Eucharist is the Body of Christ The Flesh of Christ He himself saying John 6. 51. The Bread which I will give is my Flesh for the Life of the World. 4ly Daniâ—l 2. 44. The VVord of God says In the days of those Kingdoms the God of Heaven will raise up a Kingdom that is the Church of Christ that shall not be dissipated for ever And his Kingdom shall not be deliver'd to another people And it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Of which Church of Christ speaking again c. 7. He saith His Power is an Eternal Power that shall not be taken away and his Kingdom that shall not be corrupted Conformable to which clear Prophecy of Daniel concerning the Perpetuity and Incorruption of the Kingdom and Church of the Messias Christ speaking of his Church Matth. 16. says And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her That is The Power of the Devil and false Doctrines by which men are seduc'd and brought to Hell. John 14. 16. He says That
Veritas Evangelica OR THE GOSPEL-TRUTH Asserted in Sixteen Useful QUESTIONS WHICH Being seriously Searched into will open the way to find out assuredly the True and Saving Faith of Christ which is but One as the Apostle affirms Eph. 4. One Lord one Faith one Baptism Written by T. K. and now Published by R. C. Read Understand and then Censure Published with Allowance LONDON Printed by Nat. Thompson at the Entrance into Old Spring Garden near Charing Cross MDCLXXXVII To the most Serene and Supreme Nursing Mother of the Holy Catholick Church MARY by the Grace of God Queen of England Scotland France and Ireland Madam THe Poor Woman's Mite cast into the Treasury of the Church was not only Mark 12. 41 42. accepted but also commended by the Holy and ever-blessed JESVS who is Truth it self and prime Author of that Truth which under the Tutelage of your Majestie 's truly Great and Glorious Name this small Treatise now publickly offers for the Good and Eternal Welfare of your Majesties Subjects who can never be truly Happy without embracing the Truth of the Catholick and Saving Faith of Christ He that will be happy in the end says Plato must lay hold on Truth in the beginning And that all your Majestie 's Protestant Subjects might attain to this Felicity I am certain is Your Majesties most Sincere and Gracious Desire and it is the sole Design of this Book wherein the Author endeavours to un-deceive the People who hitherto have been mis-led into Errours through the Ignorance of some and the Malice and Avarice of others Dread Soveraign to doubt of Pardon for the high Presumption of this Dedication unto your Sacred Majesty by so mean and simple a Woman as I am were not only to doubt of your Superlative well-known and resplendent Goodness but also to detract from the worth of a design so good in it self and so congruous to the Christian Fervours of your Great and Noble Soul. Wherefore waving all puny Expressions of that Nature I will turn all my Excuses into Prayers for your Majestie 's long Life and Prosperity and humbly beseech the God of Truth to send and continue the True Religion amongst Us that the Stately Ship of your Majesties Kingdoms and Dominions may always bear the happy Badge of Castor and Pollux I mean a happy Conjunction of Truth and Peace And the Star of Jacob so guide the Course of our Royal Pylot JAMES the Great the Good and Just through the rough Seas of these latter Times that He may safely Land the Ship of our Commonwealth in the fair Haven of Tranquility by the Actions of Peace and Prosperity and may settle the State of the Church on those Mountains of Ararat Grace and Glory that by this Jacob's Ladder of Blessedness God may always descend to Us in the Blessings of Peace And We at last ascend to God by the Benefit of True Religion which is and will be ever the Cordial Wish and Devout Prayer of Your Majestie 's most Humble most Loyal and Dutiful Subject R. C. To all Courteous and Nobly-disposed PROTESTANTS Noble and Generous Countrymen NAture Duty Christian Piety have invited urged obliged me after Twenty Years search into Religion to propose unto you the Evangelical Truth which this little Treatise here humbly Offered up at the Altar of your Favour will doubtless discover unto you For therein you will find if affection overmuch dimm not the eye of Reason a Richer Jewel than any that comes from the Indies The inestimable Margarite I mean of the Gospel that is the True Divine and saving Faith of Christ Which being but one as hereafter is convinced how studiously the same ought to be searched out especially in these our times so fruitful of opposite and contrary Religions the worth of your Souls the long Eternity of Joy or of Sorrow which we are to inherit cannot but dictate unto you Esteem me not to brag before you read what I write neither Arraign me as Guilty at the Bar of your Judgements nor pass your Verdict upon me till you have well examined by weighing my Arguments in the impartial Ballance of right Reason whether Truth must Crown or Errour Disgrace and cast me I crave not a milde but a just Censure I fear not Reason but Passion not solid Learning but partial Affection not certain Knowledge but prejudicate Opinions which the Tongues and Pens of your Educators and Teachers by mis-information have ingendred in you And therefore I adjure you by the Judgement-Seat of Christ before which we are all one day to stand if you love your Souls take not all for Truth touching the Old Religion commonly styl'd Papistry which is delivered unto you by those who enjoy fair Women in Rich Benifices provided by your Fore-Fathers for chaste Priests by disgracing treading down and keeping under this Religion Which to be far other than you are made to believe the worth of your Progenitours cannot but assure you Whom to have been earnest Professors of the same you cannot doubt For if you but read your Chronicles If you but look upon the Windows of your Churches If you but reflect upon the Names of the same Churches of divers Days of the Year of divers of your Colledges upon the Crosses every where erected Upon the multitude of Monasteries Abbies and other Religious Houses which heretofore flourished in this Kingdom You cannot doubt but that your Noble Progenitors almost for the space of a thousand Years were zealous Papists Cast your Eyes then upon their Wisdom known by the Government and Laws which they established upon their Piety blazoned by the goodly Churches by the stately Monasteries by the Renowned Colledges which they Erected and Endowed and Censure them not to have been so stupid so ungodly that with so great Zeal and Costs they would have embraced honoured and established Papistry had it been so absurd so ungrounded so Superstitious and Idolatrous and so dangerous to Princes and their States as divers of your deceived or deceiving Teachers do bear you in hand Neither think your Neighbours who live Papists amongst you so blockish that they would forsake the easie and flesh-pleasing Religion of Luther Calvin and other new Teachers to embrace with so great loss and hazards the austere Profession of Papists if the same were such as you are made to believe Let not then any prejudicate conceipts defraud you of this fit Opportunity to free your selves from the worst of all mistakings and consequently from the fruitless pangs of too late Repentance wherewith every one will be fearfully afflicted that departs this life culpably in a wrong and false Religion when the Judging Light of Christ shall lay open to him how naked he is through his own irremediable negligence of Divine Faith of Heavenly Charity and of other Celestial Virtues absolutely necessary to Salvation But take me not here to invite or urge you to any Herculian Labour to the tedious Reading and difficile discussing of the particular
Controversies about Faith and Religion now in question amongst Christian People which few I know have leisure or means fewer Capacity to look throughly unto or ability to distinguish always Light from Darkness Truth from Falsehood in them But my Endeavour is to stir you up to a serious consideration of certain general Heads and undenyable Truths which this little Treatise doth present unto you easie to be conceiv'd yet powerful to lay open even to mean Understandings the assured Light of the True Gospel of Christ and the absolute necessity of admitting some sure and un-erring Interpreter of God's Word by him ordained and enabled to deliver the right meaning thereof unto us in all Ages but especially when Controversies about Faith and Religion are raised which Interpreter being once admitted of and agreed upon all other Controversies about points of Belief will quickly be at an end Peace will be restored again to Christians and nothing will remain for the securing of Souls conjoin'd together in the Communion of Saints but a studious care to decline from Evil and to do Good and Industriously to imitate the Blessed Life of Christ But further yet to facilitate this affair be pleased to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks whom I often call Papists to condescend to the Style of Protestants so terming them for adhering in Religion to the Pope in Latine Papa this word signifying Father as the common Spiritual Father of Christians and supreme Pastor of the Flock of Christ be pleased I say to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks Divine Faith from Humane Their Articles of Faith from Humane Stories which many distinguishing not and thereupon perswading themselves that Catholicks with equal certainty and obligation believe the one and the other that is their Articles of Faith and the Humane Stories which relate the Lives Actions and Miracles of certain Saints and finding some of these to be very strange and to savour in their conceit of fraudulent Fictions take this to be a sufficient Warrant for them to contemn Papistry as a foolish ungrounded and fabulous Religion and to repute Papists indiscreetly credulous and plainly to be led in darkness and blindness But these do much mistake for the truth is that although all Catholicks be strictly bound to believe those points of Doctrine which their Church doth propose for Articles of Faith contained in the written word of God or in the perpetual Tradition of the Church or deduced by General Councils or by the Pastors of the Church out of God's Word when Heresies are condemned yet they are not bound to believe the Relations of particular Authors concerning the Actions and Miracles of Saints or other like things farther then discreet Prudence and Christian Piety doth lead them every Man being at liberty to weigh the worth and honesty of the Relator and the probability of the thing related and then to believe or not to believe as Reason and Piety shall dictate unto him Yet not forgetting that God is admirable in his Saints That His Wisdom Power Justice Mercy and Sweetness in Governing the World and in contriving and ordering the Affairs of Man's Salvation is far above the reach of our weak Understanding That frequently there is less danger in believing too much than in believing too little and that there are some as strange things related in the Holy Scriptures at which Atheists do stumble as are in the approved Histories of the Church Neither do Catholicks believe these Stories and their Articles of Faith with one and the same certainty for these Stories they believe meerly with Humane Faith for the Authority of the Relators who may Err mistake or deceive But their Articles of Faith they believe with Divine Faith for God's Authority speaking in his Word and by the ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church being bound under pain of forfeiting the Name of Catholicks and of incurring damnable Sin not to disbelieve wittingly any one of these Articles all of them being Divine Verities warranted for Truth by the Holy Ghost who continually guideth and directeth the Church in her Doctrine of Faith as is hereafter shewed out of Gods Word And so by disbelieving stubbornly the Articles of Faith which the Church professeth Heresie is incurred which is not incurred by disbelieving her Stories Furthermore if hereafter I affirm not for want of Charity but forced by unanswerable Arguments drawn from the word of God that the Followers of the Protestant Religion so dying are not sav'd take me to speak of those who culpably prefer this Religion before the Catholick or culpably dye therein being thereby destitute of that Faith and Charity which is of necessity required to Salvation and not of those who being truly Baptiz'd and brought up among Protestants have excusable Ignorance of the Catholick Faith and Church by reason either of their tender Years or of their weak Capacities or else of their mean and rude Education for such are secret Members of the Catholick Church and therefore if they depart this Life cloathed with those Garments of Christ with which he adorned them in the Sacrament of Baptism not having fallen into mortal Sin they shall certainly inherit the Kingdom of Heaven In which happiness none shall be Sharers that pass out of this Life destitute of Divine Faith which is the Gift of God of which more hereafter or defiled with Mortal Sin which is so called because it destroys the supernatural life of the Soul received by Regeneration in Baptism consisting in Divine Faith and other Celestial Virtues but especially in Sanctifying Grace and divine Charity without which Divine Charity nothing doth avail to Salvation as the Apostle teaches 1 Cor. 1. 13. Lastly because divers Protestant Teachers endeavour to make their Followers believe That the Fathers of the Primitive Church were Protestants seeking thereby to Illustrate the Protestant Religion that the greatness and boldness of this Imposture pardon the Word for I know not how otherwise to express truly the dealing of these Men may clearly appear I humbly intreat all understanding Protestants which know it not to take notice That those ancient Worthies and Lights of the Church of Christ were either Monks or Founders of Monastical Discipline or at least Approvers and Praisers of the same St. Anthony was a Monk and St. Athanasius his Praiser St. Basil the Great a Monk and the Founder of a Monastical Institute which in the Eastern part of the World is yet practised St. Gregory the Divine was a Monk St. Chrysostom a Monk St. Hierom a Monk the Great St. Augustine the Founder of a Monastical course of Life St. Martin a Monk St. Benedict a Monk and Founder of the Famous Order of Benedictine Monks which does yet flourish in the Western Church St. Gregory the Great was a Monk and by the Labours of Fourty Monks did first plant Christianity amongst the English Let any Man judge how likely or how true it is that these men were Protestants Secondly take notice that
and certain Guide in matters of Religion any Infallible Interpreter of his Word p. 24. Question 7. If God hath left no sure and un-erring Interpreter of his Word in matters of Faith how can it be defended that the Holy Scriptures are not unprofitable and even pernicious to Mankind p. 30. Question 8. Whether the State of the great Family City Kingdom and Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is of his Church doth require a Supreme Spiritual Head or no p. 33. Question 9. Whether the way to Salvation be narrow or no p. 40. Question 10. How it can be defended that Jesus was the true Messiah promised in the Old Testament if the Church which he Founded erred so many Ages in her Doctrine of Faith p. 42. Question 11. Did the Church of Christ Err heretofore because Christ could not preserve her from Erring or because he would not p. 63. Question 12. If the Church of Christ did Err for so many Ages How can it be defended that God is truly Good and doth truly desire the Salvation of Mankind p. 65. Question 13. If the Church of Christ did Err from the true Light of the Gospel so many Ages could he find none fit in so many Hundred Years to restore the same till Luther falling out with the Pope and breaking his Vow of Chastity began to teach a new Religion tending to Liberty and Looseness p. 69. Question 14. Whether God by Miracles can draw and incline men to believe a false Religion or no Where it is shew'd that Cod by Miracles did draw our Fore-Fathers at their first Conversion to Christianity to believe Papistry p. 74. Question 15. Out of which Religion the Elect of Christ are to be gather'd at the day of Judgement p. 80. Question 16. Whether Protestants or Catholicks do take the sure way to Eternal Happiness Where it is shewed that Papistry by the Judgement of all Learned Protestants is a saving Religion and consequently a securer way p. 87. An Appendix Whether the Apostles were Protestants or no p. 95. Question I. Where was the Protestant Religion Believ'd and Practis'd the last five hundred years before Luther First I Demand of Protestants where in what Countries Provinces or Cities was the Protestant Church and Religion Extant and Practis'd the last five hundred years immediately before Luther's Revolt from the Roman Church Which he began in the year 1517 First To say that Christ for those five hundred years had no True Church no Saving Faith and Religion upon Earth is flatly against Daniel 2. 44. foretelling that the Kingdom that is the Church of Christ should stand for ever and c. 7. v. 14. That it should Never be Corrupted And against Christ himself assuring us Matth. 16. 18. That the Gates of Hell should never prevail against his Church Moreover out of this Answer it follows that Christ was not the Saviour of the World. For if the World had no means of Salvation from him for those five hundred years Such means it had not from him the next five hundred years which passed before these Which being granted it will be hard if not impossible to prove either by Scripture or Reason that for the space of the next five hundred years which reach up to the times of the Apostles the World from Christ had any true means of Salvation And so by this Answer he will be wholly excluded from being the Saviour of the World as hereafter more clearly shall appear Secondly No understanding Protestant will deny that the World was full of Christians before Luther began his new Preaching or that they then had believ'd and re-cited the CREED of the Apostles If then a Christian in those times had been press'd by a Jew Turk or any other Infidel to deny that Article of his Creed I believe a Holy Catholick Church a Communion of Saints Whether might he with a safe Conscience have deny'd it or no If safely he might have deny'd this Article safely also he might have deny'd the rest In regard that all these Articles so far forth as they are the Object of Faith are of equal Truth and Certainty as is manifest For if one of them be false what certainty is there of the rest But if he might not without damnable Sin and the high offence of God have deny'd this Article as doubtless he might not then this Article as well as the rest is a Divine Truth which we ought to believe with firm and Divine Faith And consequently there was extant in the World before Luther's rising a Catholick Church and a Communion of Saints That is a common union or conjunction of Sanctify'd People in that Church Otherwise Christian People could not so strictly have been oblig'd to believe that Article For they cannot be oblig'd to believe a Falsehood Christ then in the Ages immediatly before Luther began to Preach and institute the Protestant Church and Religion had on Earth a Catholick Church and a Sanctify'd People therein united together in Faith and Religion and in the participation of his Divine Benefits Which being so What will Protestants Answer to my Question Will they grant as the Truth is that although the Protestant Church and Religion were no where extant and in practice the last five hundred years before Luther Yet Christ had then and in all former Ages a saving Faith and Religion But then I must tell them first That if the Protestant Religion and Church were not then the Catholick Church and saving Religion of Christ it cannot prudently be thought or possibly prov'd to be so now But rather all Discreet and Judicious People must hold it to be a new Invention such as the Arrian or the Nestorian Profession was Secondly I must tell them that That Religion which before Luther's Innovation was a Saving Religion is still a Saving Religion For why should it not it being the same that it was Which being granted the Protestant Profession cannot be a Saving Religion Because there cannot be two Saving Religions extant at the same time opposite and contrary one to another as hereafter more clearly shall appear in regard that one of them must of necessity be a false Religion and proceed as from the prime Suggestor and Author not from God but from the enemy of mankind Who will never invent and set a foot a Religion apt to save men in Thirdly I must tell them that if in all Ages before Luther's time Christ on Earth had a Holy Church and a Saving Religion as most certainly he had The first Protestants did very ill in forsaking her Communion and in raising against Her such Factions and Tumults meerly for Liberty sake as they have done For this breaking off was not to secure their Souls whatsoever they pretended to have some colour of their doing but to enjoy more Carnal Liberty than the long settled Discipline of that Holy Church could bear and allow And as ill do They who still maintain the same breach and impugne the same Holy
prove even in this Sense their Religion to be Apostolick Question III. If the Protestant Religion be Truly Catholick When was it spread over the World and what Heathen Nations hath it Converted to Christ IF the Protestant Religion be truly Catholick as the Teachers thereof do stile it it is now and in former Ages must have been spread over the World. For Christ as Daniel foretold c. 2. Was to grow into a Mountain that is into a Church which is his Mystical Body that was to fill the whole Earth And as the Royal Prophet Sung Psal 2. He was to have the Gentiles for his Inheritance and the ends of the Earth for his Possession The Christians also of all Ages were bound to believe a Catholick Church according to the Creed of the Apostles as I before shew'd Which being so if Protestants have been this Catholick Church and their Religion the most common and Vniversal Religion believ'd over the World They must have spread themselves and their Religion over the World by Converting Heathen Nations to Christ according to the clear Promises of God made to the Patriarchs that in their Seed that is in Christ all the Nations of the Earth should be Blessed Which Promises you shall find in my tenth Question and according to the words of Christ Matth. 24. saying This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be Preached in the whole World for a Testiomny to all Nations And then shall come the Consummation That is the end of the World. Now then I demand of Protestants what Heathen Nations in this and in former Ages they have Converted to the Belief and Practice of their Religion and have thereby spread the same over the World as the True Catholick Faith of Christ ought to be spread If they cannot truly name any such Nations as indeed they cannot unless they will feigne Let them confess as the certain Truth is that their Religion is neither Truly Catholick but so term'd to delude the simple nor the true Faith of Christ by which in him the Nations of the Earth are to be Blessed Let each Prudent Protestant who truly seeks Salvation thoroughly weigh this Point Question IV. What likelihood there is that to bring to pass and effect the great and Merciful work of the Conversion of the Nations of the Earth and of their Kings to Christ God hath never yet made use of the True Religion of Christ and of the Pure Light of his Gospel IT is certain out of the Word of God alledg'd in the last Question that Christ was to have the Gentiles for his Inheritance and the ends of the Earth for his Possession as the Royal Prophet foretold Psal 2. 8. That is He was to destroy false Religions and the Worship of False Gods and of the Devil through the World and to introduce his own Divine and most Holy Religion and the True Worship of one God amongst the Nations of the Earth Thereby to bring unto them the Blessing Promised Gen. c. 12. c. 22. c. 26. c. 28. and Psal 71. 2ly It is also certain that Christ was to enter upon this his Inheritance and to begin the ruine of Idolatry and the Conversion of the Gentiles by the Preaching of his Apostles within some few years after his Ascension As is clear out of the Commission which he gave them Matth. 28. saying Go Teach all Nations and out of the words of St. Paul Act. 13. saying to the Jews To you it behoov'd us first to speak the Word of God But because you repel it and judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life behold we turn to the Gentiles for so our Lord commanded us I have put thee to be the Light of the Gentiles that thou mayest be Salvation unto the utmost of the Earth Isaias 49. Thirdly It is certain that although the Conversion of the Gentiles was to be begun by the Apostles yet it was not to be compleatly finish'd by them but was to be continued by their Successors the Doctors and Pastors of the Church Ephes 4. 12. And not to be accomplish'd till toward the end of the World as is clear out of Gods word Matth. 24. Where our Saviour being ask'd a Sign of his coming to Judgement and of the end of the World gave the compleat Preaching of his Gospel to all Nations for a sign thereof saying This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be Preached in the whole World for a Testimony to all Nations and then shall come the Consummation This also is manifest out of Isaias by whom God foretold the conversion of the Kings of the Earth to Christ his Son and their lowly subjection to his Church saying v. 7. c. 49. Kings shall see and Princes shall arise and Adore for the Lords sake And again Kings shall be thy Nursing Fathers and Queens thy Nurses With Countenance cast down toward the ground they shall Adore thee and they shall lick the Dust of thy feet And c. 60. Thy Gates shall be open continually day and night they shall not be shut that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to thee and their Kings may be brought For the Nation and the Kingdom that shall not serve thee shall perish And a little after speaking again of the Church of Christ gather'd out of the Gentiles he says For that thou wast forsaken viz. in the time of the Law of Moses and hated and there was none that pass'd by thee I will make thee to be the pride of Worlds a joy unto Generation and Generation And thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles And thou shalt be Nursed with the Teats of Kings Out of which clear Prophesies it seems to be manifest that the chief Conversion of the Gentiles was to be effected long after the times of the Apostles When the Roman Empire the strength then of the Gentiles in the time of Constantine the Great And in the following Ages the Kings and Princes of Spain France England Scotland Ireland Denmark Norway Swedeland Poland Hungary and of other Countries were Converted to the Faith of Christ and wonderfully Honour'd and Inrich'd his Church as the Laws of exemption which they made or receiv'd the Edifices which they Built and Bishopricks and Monasteries which they Founded and Endowed do abundantly testify For in the Apostles days and some Ages after was rather fulfill'd the Prediction of Christ foretelling Luke 21. That his Disciples and Servants should be Hated before Kings and Presidents and should be Despis'd Persecuted and Kill'd by them Which things being so I demand of Prudent and Considerate Protestants what probability there is that to bring to pass the Divine and Merciful work of the Conversion of the Nations of the Earth and of their Kings to the Chaste and Holy Faith of Christ and to the Worship of the true God from the Impure Service of False Gods and detestable Worship of the Devil God hath never made use of the True Religion of Christ and of the Pure Light of his Gospel if
one and the same Faith Why do not all believe the self same Articles and Divine Verities if the Scripture it self clearly and distinctly propose them to all Where the Rule is certain all that is measur'd by it is Uniform and of the same quantity As is manifest by a Pound by a Quart by an Ell by a Bushel and the like And therefore if the Scripture of it self without the help of any Interpreter be unto Men a sure Rule a certain and stinted measure of Faith it doth to all that Read or Hear it measure shape and square out one and the same Belief one and the same Religion one and the same Worship of God. But this is evidently false Ergo evidently also false it is that the Scripture of it self without the help of an Interpreter is a sure Rule and Guide in matters of Faith. For what is more manifest then that several Readers left to the guidance of the Scripture it self and not tyed to any Interpreter do gather out of it several and opposite Faiths and Religions though they use all Humane Diligences to understand them rightly and be never so Learn'd never so well skill'd in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues This is evident by the several branches of Protestants before-nam'd Who all take the Scripture it self as they say and pretend for their Guide and Director in matters of Faith and Religion And yet they differ and contend so infinitely as they do Which differing and contending we must not conceive to spring in them meerly from Malice and the Spirit of Contention But rather from the Obscurity of the Scripture and the depth and profundity of the Mysteries therein contain'd In which our weak understandings may easily mistake and may easily be deluded by the Devil if we want the help of a sure and Infallible Interpreter This I think understanding Protestants will not deny And therefore if they will have the Scripture to be a Sure Rule to direct their Faith and Religion by will they nill they they must admit of and adjoyn to the Scripture a sure un-erring and Infallible Interpreter thereof But such an one it is impossible for them to find unless they will leave the Protestant and return to the Catholick Faith again For seeing they reject the Interpretation of Fathers of Councels of the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the Church And hold that the Church of Christ may err yea and hath shamfully and perniciously err'd for above these thousand years where will they find an Vn-erring Interpreter of the Scripture Or in whom hath God plac'd this high most necessary and most important Office If he hath not placed it in the Doctors and Pastors of his Church which he hath ordain'd to Perfect his People and to keep them from wavering in matters of Faith Ephes 4. And which the Holy Ghost hath plac'd in the Flock of Christ Act. 20. To govern the Church of God Hath he placed it in the Temporal Magistrates of Kingdoms and Common-wealths Or in some one Temporal Magistrate to whom God hath committed the Teaching and directing of all Nations If God hath not placed this most needful Office in General Councels consisting of the Learned Sages and Prelates of the Church hath he plac'd it in the Parliaments of England consisting for the most part of unlearned Lay-men I think no Sober Protestant will say so Neither will any Vnderstanding Protestant I think fly here to the private Spirit And make thereby every Crack-brain'd Scripturist an Infallible Interpreter of Gods Word For if hither he fly not only a Quaker an Anabaptist a Presbyterian but a Taylor also a Button-maker Weaver or Cobler will make his Party good with any Doctor the Protestants have and dart Text for Text with him for whole Hours together without loosing one Inch of ground Till Church Authority the deadly Weapon of the Papists be urg'd against him By urging which against these Fanatick People Protestant Prelates do not a little or sleightly Wound themselves they being as blame-worthy indeed if not much more for resisting the Authority of the Catholick Church of Christ as these are for resisting the Authority of the Church of England Nevertheless I approve not but detest the Male-peart boldness of these and the like Ignorants Who transgressing the bounds to them prescrib'd and entring upon to their own Perdition the smoaking mount of the Holy Scriptures Exod. 19. wherein God doth speak to Moses and Aaron and deliver his Sacred Oracles to be by them made known to his People dare take upon them to interpret the same and to search into and Sense the Profound Mysteries of God wickedly betrampling with their Impure Feet and Polluting with their base Conceits those pure but deep Fountains of Heavenly Verities It being their Duty to Learn and not to Teach Yet I cannot but pitty their Mislead Zeal Which if it were steer'd by the True Church of Christ would Inrich their Souls with the precious Jewels of many Christian Virtues whereas now it is likely to be the utter ruine of them Neither can I but greatly blame those who to draw these weak and unwary People off and to seperate them from the Breast of the Catholick Church At which they were securely nourish'd with the Milk of Celestial Doctrine Meat befiting their state and Weakness did put the Bible into their Prophane Hands inviting them to the Gospel to the Pure Light and Liberty of the Gospel And assuring them that those Sacred Volumes were easie to be understood and that in them they were to seek for the Truth of Gods Religion as being ordain'd by him for the Reading and Instruction of all And to facilitate this desir'd separation those New Teachers spar'd not to Disgrace with all Art and Cunning the Rank and Dignity of the Prelates of the Church and to Vilify Church-Authority Proclaiming it to be Tyrannical And that to urge men to believe as the Church doth Teach was no less than plain Butchering of Consciences But when these New Masters had effected what they sought and by the help of Temporal Power had brought Multitudes of People under their Command Then presently they stept into the place of the Antient Prelates Took their Authority upon them and in matters of Faith and Religion would have all to dance after their Pipe all to believe not what they themselves Learn'd out of the Book of God but what these men thought fit to propose That Book now being too hard for Vulgar People for the Unlearn'd sort Who now must stand below and not ascend and enter upon that obscure and smoking Mountain But must hear Moses and Aaron must hear Authoriz'd Teachers must obey the voice of the Church viz. Of Saxony of Geneva of England and must follow in Saxony one Faith in Geneva another in England another Now they must learn the Law of God from the mouth of Teachers allow'd of by the Commonwealth and be ty'd to believe what they propose And therefore in Saxony
unto us and to guide us in Matters of Faith and Religion if ever they mean to repress justly the Irreligious boldness of Fanatical Interpreters and to see Peace again restored to the Christian World. Which Root of Dissention is no other thing than that liberty to Read and Interpret the Holy Scriptures which the Protestant Religion instilleth into Men while it denieth the Infallibility of the Church admitteth of no certain and un-erring Judge of Controversies to whose definitive Sentence all are bound to submit and maketh the written Word of God of it self without an Interpreter the sole Rule of Faith by which all Men ought to square out their Belief and Religion By all which it appeareth to be manifest That according to the Grounds and Tenets of the Protestant Religion the Sacred word of God is not only unprofitable but even hurtful and pernicious to Mankind for want of a Sure Interpreter appointed by God to guide us in Faith and Religion to the right Sense and Meaning thereof As beside the Reasons given the manifold Examples of divers unfortunate Men do convince who by over-boldly searching into the Bible have either crack'd their Brains or fallen into despair or turned Jews Turks or Atheists or imbraced absurd and ridiculous Opinions for what made Hacket formerly Naylor and others lately to give themselves out for New Christs What made so many false Prophets and Prophetesses appear in the late Confusions of England Or what occasion'd then so many Sacriledges Barbarities and Cruelties but too much poring into and medling with the Bible Question VIII Whether the State of the Great Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is of his Church do require a Supream Spiritual Head or no ALL understanding Protestants will easily grant that no Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army or Navy can be fittingly and rightly ordered and govern'd without some Head or Supream Magistrate to whom Subjects may have recourse and from whom they may receive Directions as need shall require Which being so I demand of Protestants whether the State in Earth of the Great Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is his Church doth of necessity require for the fit Uniform and peaceable Government thereof a Supream Head a Supream Spiritual Magistrate to whom the Subjects thereof may have Recourse and from whom they may re-receive Directions in matters of Faith and Religion as need shall require To deny the Necessity of such a Supream Magistrate for the fit Government of the Church of Christ consisting of Men yea of so many several Nations differing in Laws Customs Affections Empire and the like is manifestly against Reason And to affirm that although such a Magistrate be extreamly needful for the due Government of His Church yet he neglected to provide Her of any such is to accuse him of want of Wit and Discretion for there was never yet amongst Civil People so simple a Founder of a Commonwealth or so simple a Law-maker that ordained no Supream Power in his Commonwealth no Interpreter of his Law no Judge to decide and end Controversies Christ then being Founder of the best Commonwealth that ever was and maker of the best Law that Mankind ever received it can be no less than Blasphemy to affirm that he left this his Noble Common-wealth without a Supream Magistrate to whom his People might have recourse and his Divine and Evangelical Law containing so many obscure Verities so many profound Mysteries without an Interpreter without a Judge to decide and end Controversies Moreover If Christ hath ordained no such Supream Magistrate Head or Guide of his Church in things Spiritual appertaining to Faith and Religion it seems to follow clearly and manifestly that every man is at liberty to believe what he list and to practise what Worship of God he thinks best What Unity then in Faith what Uniformity in the Worship of the Divinity can there be in the Church of Christ Or what sure means have Christian People to know who be right and who Heretical Believers Or to discern their true Prelates whom they are bound to obey Heb. 13. 17. from False Prophets from Heretical Teachers whom they are to shun under pain of Damnation Matth. 7. Tit. 3. Yea How can any man be proved to be a false Teacher if there be not some known true Teacher If no man hath Power and Authority from God to direct the Faith of others If no man be bound and obliged by Christ to Believe or to Teach as an other would have him how can any man be justly esteemed to Believe or Teach amiss Or why should he be reputed to Believe or Teach amiss if he be not bound to limit and square out his Faith and Teaching by the Judgement and Discretion of some other Wherefore either we must say that the Church of Christ is not to be obeyed that false Prophets are not to be avoided that no man doth Believe or Teach amiss so long as he Believes and Teaches well in his own Judgement and that no man is or can be in respect of Men an Heretick or a false Prophet All which is contrary to the Word of God and plainly overthroweth all Christianity or else we must affirm as the certain Truth is that God hath ordained and appointed some to teach and to direct others what they ought to Believe and Practise to obtain Life everlasting and others to be taught and guided What will Protestants to this Will they deny all possibility of Vnity and of Order in the Church and Family of Christ or else will they grant as Reason and as the Truth requires that God hath ordained some visible Ministerial Head some Supream Spiritual Magistrate in his Church to whom all may have Recourse in the Affairs of Religion and by whom all are bound to be directed in Points of Faith and in the Practise of his Divine Worship If this they grant I demand which is this Head this Spiritual Magistrate and in whom doth reside this Supream Spiritual Power and Authority Doth it reside in Supream Spiritual or in Supream Temporal Magistrates If in Supream Temporal doth it reside in one or in many If in one who is this Supream Temporal Magistrate Who hath Power and Authority even by Gods Ordination to direct the whole World all the Nations of the Earth in matters of Faith and in the Practise of Gods Worship And how is this proved out of the Word of God If this Supream Power reside not in any one Supream Temporal Magistrate Doth it by Gods Ordination reside in many that is in the Supream Temporal Magistracy of each Common-wealth in such sort that the Supream Temporal Magistrate Prince or King of each Commonwealth or Kingdom hath Power and Authority from God to direct the Subjects thereof in Faith and to appoint them what Religion they shall follow what Worship of God they shall practise If so then the Subjects of each Commonwealth are bound under Pain of
particular all the Articles of Faith which the Learned Pastors of the Church believe yet they are bound under the Penalty of Eternal Damnation not to deny wittingly any one of them nor to doubt stubbornly of the truth of them nor to believe wittingly the contrary for he that so doth falleth thereby into the damning Crime of Heresie Which ever includes an Election or Culling out of certain Articles out of the Doctrine of the Church which are imbraced for true and a Rejection of the rest as Doubtful False or Erronious Which presumptuous discarding of Divine Verities revealed by Christ to his Apostles for the direction of Mankind to Eternal Happiness and by them laid up in the Treasury of the Church as a Sacred Depositum 1 Tim. 6. 20. under the sure Custody of the Holy Ghost is no less than High-Treason against Christ our Saviour in regard that it raises a most pernicious Rebellion in his Spiritual Kingdom bringing part thereof again under the Tyranny of the Devil It frustrates the full Operation of his Passion extinguishes the true and right Worship of God despoils Christian People of Divine Faith and thereby of the true means of Salvation It deprives the Saints of due Honour defrauds the Faithful departed of necessary Relief It robbs Heaven of Souls and inriches Hell with innumerable unwary and most unhappy People For which respects it is rightly stiled one of the greatest Sins and of the loudest crying Crimes that is Although I say the Unlearned of the Church are not bound to believe explicitly all Her Sacred Verities yet they are bound not to deny any one of them wittingly even as they are not bound to know all that is in the Sacred Scripture yet they are bound not to deny any thing therein contain'd though it be never so small a thing because all is warranted by the Authority of God which is of equal Force and Worth of equal Truth both in great and in small things which therefore are of equal Certainty it being as far from God to lie and deceive in small things as in great And therefore prudent Men in Matters of Faith and Religion seek no farther than whether this or that be warranted by Gods Authority or no which they learn by the Teaching of the Church guided by the Holy Ghost for there is no other sure and infallible Means on Earth to direct us in the obscure Misteries of Faith about which anew God now reveals nothing but leaves us to the Teaching of his Church guided as I said by the Holy Ghost which makes all Discreet Christians to submit so humbly their Judgements to the Church and to relie so securely upon her Authority God himself assuring them that She is the Pillar and Ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Second Truth is That the Subjects of the Church of Christ are not bound either to know or believe certain disputable Points of Divinity not defin'd by the Church which are controverted among the Learned The pernicious Falshood inferred out of these Truths is That Christian People who are not Learned are not bound under hazard of their Souls to believe those Articles of Faith taught by the the True and Catholick Church of Christ which false Prophets which Heretical Men reputed Learned do question deny and dispute against As though the Bad Proud Rebellious and Ungodly proceeding of these Men were a sufficient Warrant unto others to doubt of the Truth of Gods revealed Verities to mangle and believe by halves his Sacred Religion to disobey their Lawful Prelates to deprive their Souls of the fruitful use of Christs Divine Sacraments to contemn the Doctrine and to forsake the Communion of the Church Which is manifestly absurd and untrue being contrary both to Reason and Scripture as I have shewed Which teach that Christian People in the profound Mysteries of the Christian Religion are bound to be guided by those Doctors and Pastors Act. 20. which God hath placed in his Church and authorised to Teach Direct and Guide them And that they are likewise most deeply obliged to beware of and to shun false Prophets and Heretical Teachers and not to heap to themselves new Masters with itching Ears leaving the Truth of the Pillar of Truth the Church of the Living God and turning to Fables that is either to their own Self-conceits or to the Self-conceits of others which in the Mysteries of the Christian Religion when they swerve from the Doctrine of the Church are no truer than Fables though they be gilded over with the fair Title of the true Light of the Gospel and therefore the Faith of those who are guided by such Conceiters is never Divine never the Gift of God never available to Salvation For the clear understanding of which Assertion Note First That most true it is that God hath revealed many profound Misteries and Divine Verities for Men to believe to be thereby directed fittingly what to hold and to practise for the obtaining of ever-during Happiness Note Secondly That it is also most true that Man of himself without the Aid of Coelestial Grace is not able to believe these Verities fittingly and suitably to his Supernatural End. Note Thirdly That God cannot stir up and draw men by this his Heavenly Grace to believe these Verities unless they be proposed to be believ'd without all mixture of Falshood for if any Falshood be packt in among them and proposed with them for a Divine Truth revealed by God he cannot draw men by his Grace to believe them thus mingled and proposed with Falshood as is manifest because he cannot induce men to believe any Falshood at all And therefore whosoever doth thrust in among some Divine Verities any false Doctrine contrary to that which God hath revealed proposing the same to be believed as a Divine Truth and therein stubbornly contradicting the Teaching of the Church he debars God from co-opperating with his Grace and from drawing People to believe with Divine Faith the Doctrine so mixt and proposed Note Fourthly That Gods revealed Verities will fall out to be of no utility at all to Mankind but rather a Trap to ruine them unless there be some sure un-erring and infallible Proposer of them who doth propose them to Gods People without any mixture of Falshood at all in such sort that he doth not propose any thing as an Article revealed by God which is not so or which is false and contrary to that which God hath indeed reveal'd And therefore that God may draw men by the special aid of his Grace to believe with Divine Faith his revealed Misteries and Verities he must cause them to be proposed to men sincerely and without all mixture of Falshood He I say must cause them to be so proposed because no man of himself without the continual guidance and assistance of the Holy Ghost is able always so to propose them All then that will have Divine Faith must be guided by Gods Proposer of Divine Doctrine and
certain it is that God hath ever preserv'd in the World a True Divine and Illustrious Religion in which Men may be Sav'd if they will. For Christ did not Light up a Candle to put it under a Bushel Mat. 5. And so certain it is that the Protestant Religion which is Erected upon so bad a Foundation as the Erring of the Church is is neither good nor sufficient to Salvation Question XIII If the Church of Christ did Err from the True Light of the Gospel for so many Ages could be find none fit in so many hundred years to restore the same till Luther falling out with the Pope and breaking his Vow of Chastity began to Teach a New Religion tending to Liberty and Looseness TO make way for my next demand I must again repeat that Protestants Believe and Teach that the Church of Christ quickly fell from that Purity of Doctrine which he and his Apostles deliver'd unto her And that shortly after their times her Pastors and Doctors by Humane Inventions and Traditions Obscur'd the true and sincere Light of the Gospel And obtruded upon their Followers many gross Errors about Faith many vain and hurtful Superstitions in the practice of Religion and about the Worship of God. In which she continu'd still increasing them for 1400 1200. or at least a thousand years And from which she ought long ago to have been cleans'd but was not through the Ambition Negligence or gross Ignorance of her Pastors Who living in Blindness themselves lead their Followers in Blindness as Protestants imagine Who therefore call this long tract of time in which they esteem the Church to have Err'd the time of Blindness But how Blindly may partly appear by that which I have already said partly by this That those Articles of the Old Religion which these men account Errors are the prime parts of the Religion of Christ which tend to good Life to nourish Piety and to inflame Devotion and which he ordain'd to Animate Help Curb and Cure our sluggish weak and frail Nature and to bring his People to live in the Fear of God to walk in his Holy Commandments to live according to Conscience to abstain from Evil and to do Good To Crucifie the Flesh and the bad Desires thereof Gal. 5. 24. And in a Word to imitate studiously his own Blessed Life and the Lives and Actions of his Holy Apostles and other prime Saints who Forsook all to follow him Mat. 19. 27. Such are those Articles of the Old Religion which bind under pain of Damnation to the necessity of keeping the Commandments of God by abstaining from Mortal Sins such as are Murder Fornication Theft in a notable quantity Perjury and the like by which property they are broken to the necessity of Fasting as the Church Commands Of Confessing all grievous sins Sacramentally to a Lawful and Authoriz'd Priest Of doing Pennance for them in this Life or of Suffering severe Punishment in the next Of restoring other mens Goods unlawfully gotten or possess'd and to the necessity of obeying the Church and all other Lawful Superiours in things appertaining to their Power Such also are those Articles which Teach the merit of good Works proceeding of Grace and done in the state of Grace and the excellency of the Evangelical Councils of Christ of perpetual Poverty Chastity and Obedience practic'd in the Church of Christ even since the Apostles times by innumerable Holy Men and Women All which Articles and divers others connex'd with these are the things which Protestant Teachers repute Errors and dislike in the Old Religion as restraining too much from the Liberty of the Gospel that is to speak plain English from the Liberty of the Flesh from Venus and Bacchus Which Liberty is chiefly intrench'd upon by the Roman Church in that she will not admit any to the high and Heavenly Function of Priesthood who will not Voluntarily Geld themselves for the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19. 12. By Vowing perpetual Chastity which point indeed doth chiefly sting many Protestant Teachers and doth incite them to rage so furiously and to stand out so Rebelliously as they do against this their True and Antient Mother though divers of the more Learned amongst them do it with some Reluctation of Conscience which tells them that Chastity is a Decent dignifying and excellent Ornament of Christian Priests and which therefore not Obscurely foretells them that the short solace which a Wife in this Life affords them is likely to cost them in the next the Eternal loss of their Souls But to come to the matter and question here intended If the Church of Christ did Err from the true Light of his Gospel so many Ages and imbrace so many gross and dangerous Superstitions as She is accus'd to have done I demand of Prudent and Considerate Protestants how it could become the Wisdom Goodness and Mercy of God first to drive off and defer the Cleansing and Reforming of his Church so many hundred years to the great Dishonour of Himself and of his Blessed Son and to the loss of Infinite Souls and then after so long a tract of time to make choice of such Instruments as Protestants imagine he did to restore again to the World the true Light of his Gospel Could he find none fit to take in hand and to bring to effect this Needful Merciful and Holy Reformation till Martin Luther a Cholerick and Bold Austine-Fryer Incens'd with Anger because the Preaching of certain Indulgences granted by the Pope was committed to the Dominican-Fryers and not to his Order fell out with the Pope cast away his Religious Weed brake his Vow of Chastity which he had long kept Married a Nun Consecrated to God and plung'd himself into a Carnal course of Life Could God I say find none fit neither amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church nor amongst the Saints and Sages of the next thousand years to be the Actors of so Needful a Reformation till the Love of Carnal Liberty made Luther and his Brood shew themselves to the World There liv'd in those times St. Basil the Great St. Hierome St. Ambrose St. Augustine St. Gregory the Great Venerable Bode St. Bernard St. Anselme St. Thomas of Aquin St. Bonaventure beside Innumerable others all excellent Men for Learning Wisdom Sanctity and all so Devoted to God that He had them all at his command And yet among all these could he find none so fit to be his Instruments in the Divine Work of Reforming his Church and of restoring again to the World the true Light of his Gospel as Luther and his Associates Who dares Pawn his Soul hereon Especially if he consider that these Men were not only destitute of Excellent Sanctity of Life which those usually have who are Gods peculiar Instruments in the effecting of any such kind of work but were also branded with all the Marks of False Prophets of Perfidious Hereticks as Learned Protestants cannot but know Insomuch that it is not possible
settled amongst them to follow another of their own inventing Especially seeing that living so near the time of our Saviour and of his Apostles they could not be ignorant what Religion He and They had Taught and Planted Did they more esteem of the Religion of Christ than of all their Worldly Contents and prefer the Profession thereof before their own Lives and yet did they wittingly and willingly abandon and forsake it not for the good and safety but even to the certain perdition of their Souls Who will so judge but mis-led and blinded Souls 3. Because such a change as this in the Religion of Christ which is the Heart and Marrow of his Church is directly contrary to the predictions of the Prophets and Promises of Christ himself For Daniel foretold cap. 2. and cap. 7. That the Kingdom that is the Church of Christ should stand for ever and should never be corrupted Isaias foretold cap. 59. that the Word and Spirit of God should never depart from the mouth that is from the teaching of the Church Christ promised Mat. 16. that the Gates of Hell should never prevail against his Church that the Holy Ghost should abide with his Apostles for ever that is with them and their Successors even to the end of the World Joh. cap. 14. and should teach them all truth John cap. 16. All which had been false if the Protestant Religion planted by Christ and his Apostles by the Folly and Wickedness of the Successors of the same Apostles had been rejected and abandoned as Protestants imagine and Papistry brought in instead thereof 5. The impossibility of such a change is clearly shewed and plainly convinced out of the natural Inclination and common custom of all Societies of men which is as evident experience doth teach rather to descend then ascend rather to fall than to rise rather to slide to looseness and to more liberty than to aspire to more strictness and to greater Sanctity unless the special Grace of God do stay them and incite and stir them up which must not be here admitted of because God by his Grace doth not use to draw men from the pure Light of the Gospel to embrace false and erroneous Doctrine and to follow superstitious and Idolatrous practises as Protestants imagine Christians to have been drawn in the primitive Church And therefore it cannot be deny'd with any colour of Truth but that good Discipline Conscientious Dealing virtuous courses strictness of Life and the practice of Godly Actions do rather decay by tract of time than get ground and increase in all Communities and Societies of Men And on the contrary Liberty Ease Idleness Sensuality do ever rather increase than decay and vanish away of themselves as evident experience doth teach For as the Poet saith tendimus in vetitum semper cupimusque negata We tend toward things forbidden still and covet things denyed This is manifest First by the decay of good Order of honest and upright dealing in Commonwealths which hath caused so many new Laws so many new Orders and Statutes to have been made Decreed and Enacted by Supream Authority to repress the bad and vicious Inclinations of men 2. By the decay of Ecclesiastical Discipline from time to time in the Church of Christ which hath occasioned the Pious Endeavours of so many Zealous and Apostolical Preachers of so many Holy Biships of so many Godly Emperours Kings and Princes to reform and restore the same by the help of General of National of Provincial Councils 3. By that which hath happened to most of the Religious Orders of the Catholick Church For although these Holy Congregations have ever begun with great Zeal and Fervour and have been furnished with special Helps to continue the same yet through Humane Frailty by tract of time they have so fallen off that Reformation hath often been needful 4. In Cities in Colledges in particular Families Reformation is often and vigilancy of Superiours is ever needful Yea who is it though never so Saintly though never so well inclin'd and accustomed to Virtue that finds not that his Inclinations have ever need of repressing and his Manners often of Refining 5. The same appeareth evidently in all the Nations of the Earth which hitherto have been Converted to Christ which ever by degrees fall from their first Fervour Zeal and Devotion of which we have a clear example in the Word of God Rev. 2. 4. I have against thee saith Christ to the Bishop and Church of Ephesus a few things because thou hast left thy first charity Be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen and do pennance and do thy first Works c. If Pennance was needful so quickly if even in the times of the Apostles Charity Zeal Fervour Sanctity decayed among Christian people how much more afterwards in the Ages following How then is it so much as probable yea rather how is it not altogether improbable and even incredible that the Christians of the Primitive Church through all the World of themselves of their own accord without any Warrant from Christ and his Apostles but rather contrary to His and their Doctrine and Practice without any good to themselves yea even contrary to the Eternal Good and safety of their Souls did cast aside fall from abandon the easie belly-pleasing and sweet liberty of the Protestant Gospel to embrace and practice the hard harsh austere and mortifying Discipline of Papistry In such sort that neglecting the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and the example of their Lives yet fresh in memory amongst them they fell to believe contrary thereunto as Protestants imagine that we are justifyed not by Faith only but by Faith Hope Charity and other Divine Virtues that we have Free-will in the Works of Grace that Works of Grace done in the state of Grace do truly merit the increase of Grace and of Glory That we are bound under pain of Damnation to keep the Commandments of God by abstaining from all great and mortal Sins such as are the Profession of false Religions the denyal of the Truth Perjury Murder Fornication Theft in a notable quantity Cousenage Vsury and the like that we are able to keep them by the help of Divine Grace of which God for the merits of our Saviour doth measure to every Man a sufficient quantity That we are bound under pain of Damnation to Confess all our mortal Sins so far forth as with reasonable Diligence we can call to mind to some lawful Priest or other That we are bound under the same Penalty to restore all Goods and Lands unlawfully gotten to Fast and to abstain from Flesh as the Church appointeth and commandeth That ordinarily when our Sins are forgiven God doth reserve some Temporal Pain or Punishment for which if we get it not released in this Life by Prayer Fasting Alms-deeds and other holy laborious and penitential works we shall suffer terribly in the purging Fire of the next That to Vow perpetual Poverty Chastity
and Obedience is very meritorious and pleasing to God That Virginity vow'd and Consecrated to God is better than Matrimony That Bishops and Priests ought to live chaste and single Lives That the Body and Blood of Christ is truly and really in the Blessed Sacrament which Sacrament is also truly and properly a Sacrifice Christ therein being truly offered to his Heavenly Father in an unbloody manner under the forms of Bread and Wine which Sacrifice doth not only represent the Sacrifice of the Cross but it doth also copiously apply the same to those for whom it is Offered both as it is impetratory and also as it is satisfactory That it is not lawful to interpret the Scriptures contrary to the Interpretation of the Church or to reject any parts thereof by Her approved But in this and in all other things appertaining to Faith and Religion we are bound under pain of Damnation to submit our Judgements to the Teaching of the Church and to believe as She doth direct us These and the like Points professed now in the Roman Church were in practice amongst the Primitive Christians which lived presently after the Apostles as is manifest not only by the Records of Antiquity but also by their Practice which clearly sheweth their Faith For Fasting the keeping of Lent the abstaining from Flesh on Fridays the Vowing of Virginity of perpetual Chastity Monastical Discipline the wearing of Hair-cloth and other like Austerities the single Life of the Clergy and the like were in use and did wonderfully flourish amongst them Insomuch that Sebastianus Francus a Learned Anabaptist searching most curiously among the Writers of former Ages after the Protestant Religion and finding no Footsteps thereof in all Antiquity even up to the Apostles times he freely and boldly affirmeth in his Epistle of abrogating all Ecclesiastical Statutes That presently after the Apostles times all things were turned upside down c. and that for certain through the work of Antichrist the External Church together with the Faith and Sacraments vanished away presently after the Apostles departure Into which Blasphemy this Learned Protestant would never have fallen if he could have found any certain signs of the Protestant Religion among the Primitive Christians which lived presently after the Apostles or could have inclined his Conscience to outface the matter with stout lying as many of his Fellows do to conceal the Truth in this point from the Eyes of well-meaning People The same in effect is affirmed by Coelius Secundus Curio a Learned Protestant also in his Book of the Amplitude of the Kingdom of God Lib. I. pag. 43. Are we ignorant saith he in how great Darkness and Blindness the World hath continued almost from the Apostles Age to these our times in which beyond all expectation the Lord hath begun to manifest himself The Protestant Author of the Book Entituled Antichristus or Prognostica finis mundi pag. 13. affirms likewise That from the Apostles times till Luther the Gospel had never open passage To that there can no doubt be made but that the first Christians who lived presently after the Apostles did forsake and abandon the easie pleasing and sweet Liberty of the Protestant Religion if ever they were taught it by the Apostles and fell of themselves through all the world to believe and practice the hard and harsh Discipline of Papistry contrary to the custom of Mankind The which how improbable yea how impossible it is Who is so senseless that he doth not see Which improbability and moral impossibility will appear yet much more clearly if we take into our consideration that not only a few ignorant People must be thought thus to have neglected and abandoned the Doctrine and Discipline of Christ and of his Apostles if that indeed was such as is now believed and practised by Protestants and to have preferred without any necessity without any Utility yea with manifest peril of their Souls Fasting before Feasting Pennance before Pleasure Labour before Ease course Dyet before Dainties hard Couches before Beds of Down rough Hair-cloth before soft cloathing a mortified chaste and single Life before the delights of Wedlock seeking foolishly as Protestants imagine to curb and bring under the Appetites of the Flesh and to rid themselves of the molesting temptations thereof rather by severe harsh and cruel usage of their Bodies than by the pleasing remedy of a Female Consort as Protestant Ministers use to do Not only I say the ignorant and vulgar sort must be thought thus to have neglected the sweet liberty of the Protestant Gospel if ever the Apostles had settled them in it and to have embraced foolishly and madly the hard and severe Discipline of Papistry but the better sort also even the Learned and Holy Fathers of the primitive Church such as were Dionisius Ignatius Cyprian Athanasius Basil the Great Gregory the Divine Chrysostome Hierom Ambrose Augustine and others the chief and principal Lights after the Apostles of the Church of Christ All which were either real Practisers or Praisers of Monastical Discipline of the chaste and single life of vowed Virginity and the like which they would never have done most certainly if these things had been contrary to the Doctrine and practice of Christ and of the Apostles and against the true liberty of his Divine Gospel of which they could not be ignorant being so excellently skilled in the Scriptures as they were and living so near the times of those Blessed Founders of the Christian Religion as they did And so the Doctrine and Discipline of the Ancient Fathers and of the Christians of the primitive Church which really was the same in substance that is now in use in the Roman Church do evidently convince that the Apostles were not Protestants neither in Doctrine nor in Practice but rather that truly and really they were Papists in regard that they were strict Practisers and Teachers of those many points in Papistry which so clearly shined in their Disciples and Successors the Pastors and People of the primitive Church which is so certain out of the Doctrine of the Antient Fathers and other Records of Antiquity that it cannot be denyed with any colour of Truth And therefore the Conceipt of those Protestants who imagine that the Apostles practised and taught the easie Discipline and Belly-pleasing liberty of their new Gospel is but a meer fancy a vain and empty Dream there being no colourable ground thereof at all neither in the Word of God nor in the Records of Antiquity Out of which Records how little may be expected to prove that the Apostles were Protestants doth sufficiently appear by that which hath been said For if by them it doth appear as most certainly it doth that much Fasting great austerity of life Monastical Discipline the vowing of Virginity of perpetual chastity and single life in the Clergy did greatly flourish among the first Christians what Hop can there be to gather from thence that the Apostles were Protestants certainly none