Traditionary points may be involved in those Texts So that we may safely argue thus far from such expositions they held such Tenets or else they would not have applyed those places for the confirmation of such Doctrines though such Doctrines cannot manifestly be concluded from those places And therefore when Protestants rationally show that some Texts so applyed by the Fathers may admit their Interpretations yea sometimes perhaps with greater probability they must not think they then carry the cause against Them and Us in those points This indeed is enough for Catholicks to do in all Controversies of Faith against Protestants who depend wholly upon Scripture as explicated by Wit and private Reason or Spirit for their Religion But it is no concluding argument against some Ancients for their over-credulity as I may say in relying on such Texts for some points now denyed by Protestants or against the present Church of Rome as relying upon them when that the Fathers neither did nor doth the Church of Rome now only rely upon such Texts for those particular points nor yet upon Scripture for any point of Faith at all but as handed and fensed to us by Tradition But to conclude this point seing Scripture thus manifestly descends to us by a lower degree of Tradition than Christian Doctrine and being received for the Word of God upon the credit of Tradition by Protestants themselves we cannot enough wonder at their unreasonable prevarication in taking the Churches word for the whole Rule of their Belief and yet refusing to rely upon her credit for any one Article of Faith in acknowledging her Authority Infallible in the delivery of the Letter and yet denying to believe her Tradition for the Ssense nor will be perswaded to conform to her in those points and practices which are handed to us by her attestation with far greater evidence of credibility And this being clear to me could I any longer continue a Protestant Had I not all the reason in the world to become a Catholick The second ground of the first Motive viz. The Authority or Infallibility of the Church in determining all Controversies concerning Faith and defining what is of Faith and what not when call'd in question SECT VI. An Introductive Discourse concerning the Judiciary Power of the Church YEt notwithstanding this certainty of Tradition handing from Age to Age the Evangelical Law with so much evidence unreasonable men have arose of perverse minds questioning and contradicting the Truths of Jesus Christ Insomuch that hardly yea perhaps not any one fundamental point of Christianity but hath been controverted in some Age or other Wherefore as Tradition is a constant Rule so the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God hath provided in his Church an Authoritative Judge to give Sentence by the guidance of the said Rule if there happen to be contentions about matters of Faith among Believers For unless in such cases an Authoritative Judge be allowed to give a definitive Sentence from which there is no appeal by the contending Parties for the decision of such Controversies Authoritatively assuring us what Doctrines were taught by Christ and his Apostles if denyed and what not when falsly pretended Actum est de fide unitate Faith and Church-unity must necessarily be destroyed and all Religion lost in a Chaos of disagreeing judgments without any probability of reconcilement A supreme and unerring Judicature being then absolutely necessary for the ordering and preserving of the Church in all things essential to Salvation how little satisfaction and that not without just cause I received in this point from the English Protestants who indeed grant a Judge but one wholly Inefficacious to this purpose yea impossible to reconcile Dissenting Litigants as the super-abundant experience of above sixteen hundred years for all Hereticks fly to the dead Letter of Scripture for their refuge hath sufficiently evidenc'd I shall make hereafter appear in the examination of their Rule and Judge and for the present endeavour to demonstrate how all Christians ought to be contented and acquiess as I did in what the Church of Rome teaches and the Catholick Church always hath and doth practice on such occasions Now what the Catholick Church teacheth and always hath delivered in this point is briefly this That all Divine Truths taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation whether Traditionary only or also Written are deposited in the Church as a Witness to attest them and as a Judge Divinely assisted to Interpret and give an Authorative Sentence if their be any Controversy about them which all Christians are obliged to believe and follow under pain of Damnation A Doctrine brought down to us from the Apostolical Times by a more visible practice and unquestionable Tradition than the Scriptures themselves which yet the Protestants receive for the Word of God upon the same Authority What concerns the Church as a Sacred Depository of all Revealed Truths written and unwritten hath already been manifested in the precedent Discourse And that the Spouse of Christ is an Authoritative Judge or Infallible Guide to determine all Controversies of Faith among her Children that they may know with security what to believe and follow according to their Duty I hope shall be made no less evident in the following Sections SECT VII That there is a Supreme Visible Judge to decide Controversies in matters of Religion Instituted by Christ Infallible in all points of Faith to which as such all Christians are obliged to a submission of Judgment under pain of Damnation is here made apparent from Scripture And some further Reasons also given TO acknowledge a visible Judge to interpret and apply Laws in Controversial matters is so conform to common Sense and Reason and so confirmed by the experience and practice of the whole World in all kinds of Governments that to deny such a Power from God in his Church is in effect to say That Jesus Christ the Wisdom of the Father hath not so well provided for the regulating and preservation of his Kingdom and peculiar People purchased with his own most precious Blood in order to their eternal Good and Happiness as meer men subject to manifold weaknesses and Passions do by the common Light of Nature and ordinary Principles of Prudence and Discretion provide for the well-being of Families and Commonwealths in Temporal matters A Position unavoidably drawing after it so many strange and to say no worse dangerous consequences that they will be here better lamented than infisted upon But because Protestants whom I have forsaken fly to Scripture as the only Infallible Judge in all Controversial matters of Faith thither I shall bring them first to be tryed and show them out of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth which they acknowledge what ample and most abundantly satisfactory provision the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God hath made and left in his Church to bring us securely to the certain knowledge of his revealed will nothing being wanting on
to have fail'd in this particular must needs acknowledge this point concerning the Rule of Faith to be Apostolical Secondly They do not consider that seing it cannot be deny'd but Tradition was at first the usual means of Planting and Conserving the Law of Christ the greater part of the World being converted before the Scriptures were written and receiv'd by the Church so that when any false Teachers did arise they of necessity had recourse to Tradition whether they had been so Taught and not to Scripture whether it was so written being impossible to Rule before it had a Beeing I say this being undenyably evident they will never be able to give a rational account to Intelligent persons why an immutable Faith should have a mutable Rule and a standing Edifice should have a moving Foundation If they think to salve this soar by saying Tradition was necessary 'till the written word took place they will never be able to prove that all things at first delivered necessary for the Salvation of the World were afterwards committed to writing by the Apostles And yet 'till this be done satisfactorily who sees not the insufficiency of this assertion But then Thirdly if they could prove that the whole Law of Christ necessary to Salvation at first Traditionarily convey'd was afterwards entirely committed to writting by Infallible Inspiration and deposited in the Church They do not consider that were it so as most certainly they will be never able to prove yet it is necessary Tradition should be the Rule of Faith as well after as before the reception of such a Canon it being impossible for Scripture by its self to perform what Tradition did without it in the beginning For dead words being capable of endless controversy because lyable to various Interpretations Hereticks will either shrowd themselves under the Umbrage of obscure Passages in Sacred Writ or darken plain places with Metaphors or Clouds of witty Criticisms so that no evident Conviction can be had or possibility to hold up Church-unity in Faith and Government except the controverted Doctrines be brought for their tryal to the Touch-stone of Oral Tradition which with the same unerring voice delivers Scripture and the true sense of it to the Houshold of Faith in all Ages And therefore it is Lih de Praescript c 19. S. Irenae cont haeres St. Aug. eont Ep. Fund Vinc. Lyri in Com. that we find Tertullian and other Ancients affirming That no good can be done with Hereticks by disputing out Scripture to reduce them to Truth And if we will not take their word our own experience is an evidence beyond all exception Lastly they do not consider that as in Natural Sciences there are some Prima Principia fundamental Axioms which need no proof into which all Conclusions rightly from them deduced are reducible So in supernatural Revelations there must be some self-evident Principle a Rule of Faith into which points of Faith are resolvable having it self no need of further probation as to such evidence Or else we run in a circle not having any satisfactory ground upon which we may without any more ado rely for the Truth of what we believe Now Scripture is not nor can be such a Principle it depending manifestly as Protestants themselves acknowledge on Tradition by which we only come certainly to know and accept it for the Word of God and so is the Rule of Scripture as well as of other necessary points and consequently the ground or evidence of what we believe upon Scripture-Authority Which yet is not to be understood as if Tradition made the Word of God Infallible but that thereby we are rationally assured what is Scripture and the true sense of it which otherwise is subject to perpetual quarrells of Dissenting minds For my part I see not how Protestants can answer this Argument for they acknowledging Tradition to be the Rule of Scripture and contending for Scripture to be the Rule of Faith Tradition must necessarily be the prime Rule that is the Rule of their Rule and antecedent ground of their foundation And so by unavoidable consequence all their Faith is built upon the credit of Tradition See it clear by a parallel We Catholicks rely upon the Church for points of Faith will Protestants therefore say that we rely not upon Tradition For in relying upon the Church we rely also upon what the Church relyes which in all points of Faith is Tradition We rely upon the Church immediately as an Infallible Guide we rely upon Tradition as an extern Evidence 'T is easily applicable to Protestants receiving the Scriptures upon the credit of Tradition Who while they shun it as a stone of Offence fall upon it as a Rock of Foundation And truly 'till they show us some other self-evident Principle which can assure us what Doctrines Christ and his Apostles taught the World we must believe and maintain Universal Tradition to be the Fundamental Rule of Faith to the Christian Church in the sense hitherto explain'd Thus they might be satisfied with reason in this controversy but because they pretend to be mov'd more with the Authority of the Fathers than our Arguments they shall hear them speak and truly one would think plain enough to their condemnation Witness St. Iraeneus an Anti-Protestant certainly while he teaches * Lib. 3. cont Haer. c. 4. What if the Apostles had not left us Scriptures ought we not to have followed the Rule of Tradition which they delivered to those to whom they committed the Churches Which is not to be understood as if because they have left Scriptures the order of Tradition is by them evacuated but that revealed Truths depending on Tradition only are as Divine and certain as if no Scriptures had been left unto the Church by the Apostles Or else we make the Saint while he is showing the excellent use and necessity of Church-Tradition so Incongruous as to say there is no need of it at all But Arguments might be spar'd when the following instance of Nations believing by Tradition only without Scripture makes his meaning evident Before him in the front of the second Age B. Ignatius St. Johns Disciple Exhorted the Churches to hold themselves inseparably to the Tradition of the * Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 35. Apostles as Eusebius testifies Had the Rule of Faith been only Scripture as Protestants contend could he have given such advice Yea it inevitably implyes Tradition to be the sure ground to rely upon for Christian Doctrines Doth Origen assert Scripture or Tradition for a Rule while he teaches * In Tract 27. in c 23. S. Matt That in our understanding Scripture we must not depart from the first Ecclesiastical Tradition nor believe otherwise then as the Church of God hath by Succession deliver'd to us And elsewhere he tells us That only is to be believed * In Praef. lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Truth which in nothing disagrees from the Tradition of the Church What more full
the Church which the Holy Scriptures without any ambiguity do demonstrate To the end that because the Scripture cannot deceive us whosoever is afraid to be deceived by the obscurity of any question may have recourse to the Churches judgment concerning it which Church the Holy Scriptures demonstrate without any ambiguity Two things are suitable to our present purpose which are clear from hence First that though we may sometimes doubt what is Truth yet we can never doubt which is the true Church demonstrated to us by the Scriptures upon whose judgment while we rely we are secure from holding any thing contrary to the written Word commending to us her Authority Secondly That though the Scriptures are Infallible and cannot deceive us yet if we will not deceive our selves and kill our Souls by the dead Letter without the quickning sense we must believe what the Church believes submitting our private reason to her publick Interpretation For else let Hereticks never so much boast of Scripture for them we may tell them in the words of the same Saint This ye Cont. Faust l. 32. c. 19. seem to do that Scriptures may loose all Authority while every one may allow or disallow what his own mind suggests to him out of them That is may not subject his Faith to the Authority of Scripture but subject Scripture to his Faith It being indeed the property of all Hereticks not to take sense from but to bring sense to those Sacred Oracles forcing them by manifest distortions or dark conjectures to speak in defence of their prejudicated Tenets and so make nothing of Scripture while they seem to value nothing else Now what remedy against this intolerable abuse of the Word of God and everlastingly-quarrelproducing evil but that of Origen Quoties c. As often as they Hereticks Ho. in Mat. Praef. l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring forth Canonical Scriptures which no Christian but believes and assents to they seem to say Behold the word of Truth is in our Houses but we must not believe them nor depart from the Primitive Ecclesiastical Tradition nor believe otherwise then as the Churches of God by succession have deliver'd to us And to put them to silence with that of L. de Praes p. 19. Tertullian We must not appeal to Scriptures neither is the controversy to be setled upon them in which either there will be no victory at all or very uncertain Yea there is no good got by disputing out of Texts of Scripture that is as interpretable by private reason and play'd upon by wit but either to make a man sick or mad But that is only to be believed for for Truth which in nothing disagrees from the Tradition of the Church Thus he fully agreeing with Origen in the fore-quoted place And I cannot omit here what the glorious Bishop of Hippo hath so apposite for our present purpose to his Catechumens The Holy Church the Church which is one the true S. Aust de Symb. lib. 1. v. 6. Church the Catholick Church fights against all Heresies She may be resisted but cannot be conquer'd All Heresies have gone out of her as unprofitable branches cut off from the Vine see Protestants your Original but she remains in her Root in her Charity The gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Nor that to Honoratus when therefore we see God standing for us and so much fruit and proficiency doubt we to repose our L. de util Cred. c. 17. selves in the bosom of that Church which from the Apostolical Chair by Successions of Bishops Hereticks on all sides barking in vain against her hath obtain'd Supremacy of Power To whom not to give the chief is truly either the highest Impiety or harebrain Arrogance Thus the Fathers always brought Believers to the Church for a firm foundation in tottering times there they cast Anchor and fix'd themselves amidst the storms of Controversies and Contentions rais'd by unreasonable men with the wind of strange Doctrines lest they should make Shipwrack of their Holy Faith this still they prest upon all Christians in doubts of Disputations the Church the Church believe the Church the Pillar and ground of Truth the Sacred Depository of revealed Verities the rich Store-house of all things belonging to Salvation protected by Christ to the Worlds end endowed with the certain gift of Truth by the special guidance of the Holy Ghost founded upon a Rock that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Which is nothing else but what they had learn'd and received from Scripture and Tradition A Truth so convincing that it extorted from Dr. Field a great Patron of the English Protestants In his Book of the Church words to this effect Controversies are now a days grown to that height and so numerous and intricate that few have time to discuss and search into them thoroughly for satisfaction fewer wit and abilities to do it as such a business of concernment require that no security remains but to fly into the arms of the Church and acquiess in her judgments and definitions But from words let us proceed to deeds from the Doctrine to the practice of Antiquity SECT IX The aforesaid Authority of the Church cleared and demonstrated by the constant practice of all Ages IF we cast our eyes through the whole Christian World not a Popish Priest in the exercise of his Spiritual Jurisdiction but is in some sort a practical proof of this Authoritative Power wherewith the Church is invested by Jesus Christ Yet residing more eminently and with larger extent in Bishops the supreme Order of the Clergy made Overseers of their respective Flocks by the Holy Ghost it appears more gloriously visible in the Decrees and Acts of General Councils the highest Ecclesiastical Tribunal determining all emergent Controversies in Spiritual matters with Anathemae's against all Contradictors whatsoever And Catholicks in all Ages acknowledging their Sacred and obliging Authority paid most inviolably the just Tribute of Obedience to their Decisions with submission of their private Judgments and Opinions however rational before they seem'd unto them So that what points soever were once declared to be of Faith by lawful and approved Councils those who persisted in the contrary Doctrines where accounted Hereticks and being justly Excommunicated for such incorrigible obstinacy shunn'd by all the Faithful as no better than Heathens and Publicans Now I cannot think that English Protestants will say though such Decrees issued out from General Councils yet it was by an usurped Power not of Right and so though such exact obedience was paid by Christians to them yet it was in their own prejudice and not of duty or obligation though truely in deeds they assert it because they pretend much veneration to the first four General Councils and Bishop Montague one of the Learnedest In his Appello ad Casa men they ever had proceeds so far as to defend against his more zealous Brethren of Romes ruine the
submission to the Churches Decrees in things necessary to Salvation and likewise in vertue of the same Principle as in all equity they extend it withdraw their obedience from the Secular Magistrate in his necessary commands as he Judges for the publick good 'till it be made out to them that they are in the present matter though not taken out of the Holy Scriptures yet agreeable unto them doubtless all Government and Order is brought to nothing and their Edicts and Laws will be evacuated as often as the pride or prejudice or passion or Interest of Subjects shall think them not warrantable from Holy Writ Neither could such sad effects be hindred from daily breaking out to the Worlds disquiet were they not curb'd in with fear of present punishment For when they who are thus taught think themselves secure from the lash their deeds sufficiently evidence what Temporal Magistrates are to expect from their hands But to stick close to the Church which they have forsaken If they think they have kept firm ground enough for Church Authority to stand upon by inserting these words In things necessary to Salvation thereby implying that though her Decrees in things necessary to Salvation have no strength or Authority 'till it may be declared not by her self for she hath already made her declaration that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures yet in things not necessary and indifferent her Authority is absolute and independent on such a declaration with an obligation of obedience fâ—om Believers If this I say be their meaning to keep up Church-Authority it will not do the business but is only to put a Reed in Christs hand instead of a Royal-Scepter and to allow his Church a Mock-power onely in Spiritual matters as will easily appear to any one considering the end for which our Lord and Saviour set up a Government in his Church For having founded and furnish'd his Church with plentiful means for the Salvation of mankind and instituted a Government therein to conserve and apply those means that they might be effectual for the foresaid end and purpose Church-Governours cannot possibly make a sufficient application as Co-workers with God by his appointment in the great work of our Salvation if their Power extended it self absolutely to things indifferent without which we may be saved and in those things necessary to Salvation can ordain things 'till a Declaration from God knows whom and when makes it good and valid For they tell us not by whom or when this Declaration must be made in such Cases but inveloping their conceit in general words only deliver that what Oecumenical Synods ordain in things necessary to Salvation have no strength nor Authority 'till it may be declared that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures Is this Doctrine consistent with the end of Church-Government Would not those Superiours be invested with a goodly power who can without dispute bind their Subjects hands from scratching their own Faces but have no obliging Authority to hinder them from thrusting a Sword into their Bowels or striking a Dagger to their Heart Hath Christ given some Apostles Prophets and some Evangelists and Ephes 4. some Pastors to feed and govern his Church for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ 'till we all come into the unity of the Faith and yet what points they teach as necessary to Salvation have no strength nor Authoriry 'till their Disciples and Learners of them shall declare that they are taken out of Holy Scriptures Would God exact of Church-Governours an account of their Subjects Souls committed to their Charge threatning to require their Blood at their Hands if any perish Acts 20. 26 27. through their negligence and yet not invest them with an Authority essentially requisite for the sufficient discharge of so dreadful a duty What says St. Paul to this point Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account for them Now comes the English Protestant Church with a Paraphrase and teaches Obey them that have the rule over you who watch for your Souls because they must give an account of them and submit your selves to their commands and order in things indifferent and not necessary not in what they teach and ordain as without which Salvation cannot be had for such Decrees have no strength nor Authority 'till it may be declared that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures Can any Conscientious or Rational man possibly perswade himself that this is the Apostles meaning Thirdly the English Protestants teach That the Church hath power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith Had they stopt here and stood to it they had soon return'd to their Catholick Mother But forsooth it is with this Provisoe That she ordain not any thing that is contrary to Gods word nor expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another But never tells us who shall be this Judge to determine when her Decrees and Orders are contrary to the Word of God or not or when she gives the true sense of Scripture according to the Analogy of Faith so that one place be not repugnant to another And so leaves us in a maze for our Salvation They had denyed the Catholick Church Representative to be an Infallible Witness of the Truths of Jesus Christ and Authoritative Interpreter of Scripture to guide Believers in the true sense of it and so it would have been too a notorious Inquisition to have assum'd it to their Conventicles wherefore having taken away the Pillar and ground of Truth the Churches Authority or Infallibility they laid no other sure foundation nor set up any other determinate Column to uphold Religion but leaves it in uncertainties to certain ruine Well fare the Churches under St. Paul's care and governance who had receiv'd a Power not for destruction but edification and could do nothing against the Truth but 〈◊〉 10. 8. for it The English Protestant Church can do nothing for the Truth but against it has no Power at all for edification but only for destruction Neither indeed might she exercise her new assum'd Jurisdiction without destroying her self when she could not be builded up but by pulling down to patch up a Fabrick out of the ruines For the Composers of her Articles did very well perceive if they admitted the Church to be the Authoriz'd Visible Judge of the Sense of Sripture by the Rule of Tradition shining bright in the practice of the whole Christian World and immemorial possession of such points they contradicted it was not possible to escape the Sentence of condemnation but in the Controversy giving a decisive power only to the dead Letter of Scripture the refuge of old condemned Hereticks they feared no Anathema while themselves were Interpreters And having the supreme Magistrate on
true Church who knows himself by communicatory Letters which anciently were in use to be a Member of the Roman Church in which the Primacy of the Apostolical Chair always flourish'd More need not be said at present to shew that to be true Members of the Catholick Church is to live in the same communion with the supreme Pastor thereof under the same Government in the acknowledgment of the same Articles of Faith in the participation of the same Sacraments in the same manner of worship brought down to us by Tradition from Christ and his Apostles And to be separated from this One and Catholick Communion after once we have been Incorporated by Baptism is formal Schism pertinaciously to contradict her Doctrines of Faith is formal Heresie Thus the Scripture and Ancient Fathers concerning the nature of Heresie and Schism Now let us see whether the Protestant Church of England by separating from her Catholick Mother in Doctrine and Government be not both Schismatical and Heretical whatever is pretended to the contrary SECT II. Wherein is shew'd that the Protestant Church of England is guilty of Schism and Heresie by their Separation from the Roman THe Separation of the English Protestants from the whole body of Christians into a Church by themselves is a matter of Fact not so Ancient that it cannot be easily traced The Case in short was this King Henry the Eighth was of the same Faith and Communion with his Pious Predecessors from the very first Conversion of our Island and the whole Church in all Ages 'till the Popes Spiritual Power did cross his Amorous desires And then alas the unruly passion of Love so blinded his Reason that he could not see or would not longer acknowledge the Primacy of the Church of Rome which not long before he had so famously maintain'd against Luther the Apostate that deservedly he was rewarded with the glorious Title of Defender of the Faith For giving way to his Intemperate pleasure he fell passionately enamour'd on Anne Bullen who being of a subtil wit and perceiving the King charmed with her Beauty was resolv'd not to yeild to his Will unless he would first marry her This her resolute denyal did blow up the fire of his Love to a greater height and he being toss'd up and down with the billows of several passions determin'd at last with himself to quench those raging flames with her embraces according to her own terms though the impendiments seem'd almost insuperable and the consequences might prove very sad Hereupon he pretends scruples of Conscience about his Marriage with Queen Catharine no less then 22 years after their solemn Espousals sealed with the endearing pledge of Issue to succeed him in the Royal Throne And upon his hot Devotion to his new Saint he grew suddenly so tender-hearted in the point that by all means his former Marriage must be disannull'd that the storm and inquietude in his breast might be appeased And forthwith Addresses are made to the Pope to Commissionate Legates in England to hear and determine the business with all possible speed But the Queen appealing from them to Rome by the advice of her most Learned and Counscientious Councel and the Pope understanding the equity of her Case and how much it might be endanger'd where the King had so much power accepting of her Appeal recals the hearing of it to Himself and after mature deliberation notwithstanding all attempts and political motives to the contrary gave it as he was bound in Conscience on the Queens side against the King Which indeed was no more then to ratify what before had been adjudg'd lawful both by the Apostolical Chair with the approbation of the Christian World His Majesty now perceiving that all hopes were pass'd to procure from Rome a Divoce from his Lawful Wife and Vertuous Queen whom he could not but Honour even while he persecuted and a Dispensation to Marry his Beloved he grew highly enraged and passion so far prevail'd that abandoning Catholick Christian Peace and Unity he renounces all obedience to the Church casts the Popes Authority out of England under pain of death to the Acknowledger makes himself sole Head of the Church in his own Dominions and consequently Judge in his own Cause and then no question all things must pass for him and an usurped power would effect what Justice could not In a word he Divorces himself from his most Religious and Vertuous Queen shakes hands as I may say with Religion and joyns himself to Anne Bullen This was the original of this fatal Schism from this impure fountain stream'd a deluge of miseries upon our 'till then most happy Island For no sooner had he to satisfy his lusts remov'd the rampire of Church Government the sole preservative of Faith and Unity but an inundation of Evils broke in violently upon us and with Schism likewise Heresie Sacriledge Oppression ruine of Churches and Monasteries extirpation of Holy Orders contempt of Religion by making it lyable to perpetual changes uncertainties and and confusions as sad experience hath but too clearly manifested Thus was the Protestant Reformation as they call it in England first brought forth into the World and these are the Miseries which attended it I wish this point might be serionsly and impartially weighed and I doubt not but by God's Grace it would prove to others as it did to me a strong motive to return to Catholick Unity And here it will not be amiss to take notice what mark the Holy Scriptures have stamp'd upon Schism and Schismaticks to be known by Among your selves saith Act. 20. St. Paul shall arise men teaching perverse things to draw Disciples after them So did their first Reformers being Members of the Catholick Church till they contradicted the Doctrine which they before believ'd with the whole Body of Christianity to come from Christ himself and his Apostles teaching new Doctrines to draw Disciples after them They went out from us 1 John 2. saith St. John And so did they erecting a new communion distinct from the universality of Christians under a new Church Government it being never heard of before that a Secular person should be Head of a Spiritual Body or that Christ had left such an Oeconomy in his Church Scripture then condemns them for it condemns such Who will not hear Mat. 18. the Church it condemns such who 2 Thess 3. will not obey the word of her Governours it condemns such who sepeperate St. Jude Rom. 16 17. themselves who cause Dissention and Scandals contrary to the Doctrine delivered to the Saints And such were they as evidently in matter of fact as any thing that 's left upon Record in the World If therefore whosoever before them in the like sort separated themselves from the Church were accounted Schismaticks by all Catholick Christians how came they to be no Schismaticks by their Separation Never let them pretend any cause given on the Church's side to justify them for the Church
Let them give any convincing reason why Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep spoken by the fountain of all Jurisdiction to an Apostle should not be an Authoritative Commission as well as Go teach all Nations Matt. 28 Besides had they only been admonitory words to excite St. Peter to the work of his Apostleship they would have been as necessary to have been spoken to all the rest as to him who were equally Apostles with him and therefore not now minded of their duty because afterwards they were all to receive power from above by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them for the performance of that great and glorious work So then being a Commission and only given to St. Peter it must necessarily follow that he was thereby invested with some Spiritual Authority which the other Apostles had not though all Apostles And the question put to St. Peter by our Blessed Saviour immediately before the words of his Commission have no small influence to prove a Superiority of Power to be instated upon Him above the rest For being asked Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these Those words of command Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep do not correspond nor are at all emphatical as what follows relates to them if thereby no Authority more or above the rest was not imparted to him as a reward of his extraordinary affection in that he loved our Lord and Saviour more then the rest of the Apostles Moreover in short as St. Peter did profess his Faith before the rest when this supreme Authority was promiss'd to him so now our Saviour would have him profess his love especially above the rest when he conferr'd upon him this Jurisdiction Thus if these places be expounded according to the light of present circumstances in all reason Scripture makes for a Supremacy in Peter above the rest of the Apostles And as hath been shown the Ancient Fathers from these Texts unanimously assert That the Church was in a special manner founded on St. Peter in being constituted Vniversal Head and Pastor of it To which if we add the voice of the present Church attesting it to be a Universal Tradition handed to her as such from Age to Age the unerring Rule of Catholick Faith it amounts to an Infallible certainty and puts the question out of all question and further dispute And how unsafe it is and dangerous to forsake the direct Texts of Scripture the the constant interpretations of the Ancient Fathers and the consent of the whole Christian World in matters of the highest concernment and to rely upon the bare Authority of private and new invented glosses of a few interessed and confessedly Fallible Doctors or our own more vain presumptions let any sober-minded man be judge And whether the Protestant Church of England in separating from her Catholick Mother the Church of Rome can possibly be upheld from falling into formal and notorious Schism leaning only on such unstable grounds The fourth Motive That the many Miracles God hath ben pleased to work in the Roman Catholick Church and still continues to do more or less and in no other Communion divided from her are manifest proofs that she 's the true Church And those Miracles which in a special manner regard some Doctrines denyed by Protestants to come from God are Divine Testimonies that the said Doctrines are as well Heavenly Truths as others taught by the Church are confess'd to be so SECT I. A Preliminary Discourse IT being manifest by what hath been discuss'd in the precedent Motive that the Protestant Church of England is undeniably guilty of Heresie and Schism in a high manner by their wilful separation from the Church of Rome in Faith and Government and thereupon the universality and perpetual visibility of the true Church by a never interrupted Succession of Believers teaching and practising the same Faith and Worship from the Apostles to these present days have been in some sort handled as points co-incident and con-natural I shall not make any large discourse of them severally though they did not a little contribute to my Conversion but contract their strength into one Syllogism and so proceed to show what efficacy Miracles wrought in the Catholick Church for visible confirmation of her Faith and Worship to come from Heaven ought to have upon our Adversaries to reduce them to the bosom of that Chuch they have forsaken The Argument runs thus The true Church of Christ hath Universality perpetual visibility and Succession of Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this time and so to continue to the Worlds end inseparably annexed to it But no Schismatical or Heretical Communion of Christians can possibly be universal or have a perpetual visibility and Succession of Believers in those points which constitute them a distinct Communion from the Catholick Church of which they were Members before their separation Therefore no Schismatical or Heretical Communion of Christians can be the true Church of Christ That the Minor or second proposition belongs to the Protestant Church of England is manifest from the former Motive where 't was evidenced to be Schismatical and Heretical which once prov'd concerning any Communion of Christians 't is implicatory in ipsis terminis to say that 't is or can be universal visibly Successive from Christ and his Apostles to this time being all one as to assert That it was founded by Christ and his Apostles and yet began afterwards by a voluntary separation from the true Church so founded which is the Essence of Schism and that they were a Congregation Believing Ordaining Preaching and Administring Sacraments before they had a Beeing in the World That is they were and were not at the same time The Major or first Proposition is manifested from Scriptures and Fathers briefly thus From St. Matthew Behold I am Mat. 28. 20. with you always even to the end of Word From St. Luke He shall reign Luk. 1. 33 in the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end From St. John The Comforter the St. John 14. 16 17. Spirit of Truth shall abide with you forever From the promise of God All Nations shall flow unto it From Isa 2. 2. the Commission of Christ Go teach Mat. 28. all Nations Which clearly demonstrate the Church of Christ from its first foundation to be Catholick both in respect of Time and Place This also is the Doctrine of the Fathers 'T is only the Catholick L. 1. ca. ult Church hath the true Worship and Service of God saith Lactantius Let Praefa in l. â—â—â—â—ar the Doctrine of the Church be kept saith Origen which is deliver'd from the Apostles by order of succession and remains in the Church to this very day See more in Iren. l. 1 c. 3. St. Aug. Ser. 131. 181. de Temp. de Vnit Eccl. c. 2. Tert. contra Judaeos For the perpetual visibility of the true Church in an