de Eucharistia And was adored with outward Gestures as the true Body of Christ in Concil Ephes. in Epist. and Nestor in Concil Nicaen c. 14. To give prime Honour and supreme to St. Peter Bishop of the first See as Universal Pastor and Vicegerent of Christ Concil Nicaen c. 15. Concil Chalced. Act. 4. 16. constit c. 5. To pray to Saints that they may intercede for us in Concil Chalced. Act. 11. Prayers for the Dead offered publickly and privately in St. Augustin's time August de cura pro mortuis In those days the Church held the Fast of Forty days of Lent as Apostolical Tradition St. Hier. ad Marcel Ep. 54. Fridays likewise Confession and priestly Absolution St. August Homil. 49. saith The Keys given to the Church is to some purpose sure We must not frustrate the words of Christ. So St. Basil Tertullian St. Clement c. And thus of all other Points in Controversy we may find Reason Authority Practice and uninterrupted Custom in all Ages as Napier in his Treatise on the Revelations pag. 145. confesseth saying After 300 years the Emperour Constantine subdued all Christian Churches to Pope Silvester from which time till these our days the Pope and his Clergy hath possess'd the outward and visible Church Protestants employment being not at all to convert Heathens but to pervert those already converted Tertul. praescr c. 42. And we may find in the Writings of Roman Catholick Authors Orthodox Fathers that the Doctrine now held by Protestants were condemned as Heretical in those Persons that then held them For Example The Protestant hold that the Church may err so did the Donatists who were condemned by St. Augustin Potestants deny unwritten Tradition and urge Scripture only so did the Arrians and were condemned by St. Augustin and Epiphanius Protestants teach that Priests may marry so did Vigilantius and condemned by St. Hierom contr Vigilant c. 1. Protestants deny Prayers for the Dead so did Arrius condemned by St. August haer 53. and St. Epiphan haer 75. Protestants deny invocation of Saints so did Vigilantius for which he was condemned by St. Hierom contra Vigilant c. 3. Protestants deny the Real Presence so did the Capernaits and Berengarius who reclaimed and did Penance Protestants deny confession of Sins to a Priest so the Novatian Hereticks did reproved and condemned by St. Ambros. lib. de penitent c. 7. So did the Montanists condemned by St. Hierom Epist. ad Marcel 54. I leave off an addition of many other Points which makes really the new-moulded Protestant Sect appear but a meer frippery or hodge-podge of old condemned Heresies Hence you may understand that the Doctrine of the Roman Church is this day as it was 1600 years ago still one Holy Catholick Apostolick and Unchang'd grounded on such a solid unshaken Foundation that it is never to be brought down by the Gates of Hell i. e. Heresie Schism Apostacy Wranglings foolish Fopperies Lyings Railings c. Now Sir if you are sufficiently toss'd and wearied out with variety of Disputes and desire to put an end to them now follow the guide and direction of the Roman Catholick Church in Faith Religion Sacraments Sacrifice and Doctrine all which are derived from Christ himself to his blessed Apostles from the Apostles down to us and is to continue in the same heavenly Channel of Succession unto the end of the World Which Roman Catholick Church hath obtain'd supreme Authority from the Apostolick See by a wonderous succession of Bishops by the judgment of the People by the gravity and authority of Councils and lastly by the Majesty of Miracles And not to submit to this Divine Authority sure is the height of Impiety and precipitant Arrogancy and not to Dotages of particular idle Intruders Now as Rebellion is the bane of Civil Government in Kingdoms and Peace and Concord the preservation of the same so is Schism Division and diversity of Faith the ruin and calamity of the Church and Unity Peace and Uniformity the special Blessing of God therein and in the Church above all Commonwealths because it is in all points a Monarchy tending every way to Unity there being but one God one Christ one Church one Faith one Hope one Head one Body one Baptism Christ's Church is a Society of those that God hath called to Salvation by the profession of the true Faith Religion dread Sacrifice the sincere Administration of Sacraments and the adherence to a lawful Pastor as Head which Description is so fitted and proportioned to the Church that it resembles the Nest of the Halcyon which according to Plutarch is of such a just and exact size for the measure of her Body that it can serve no other Bird either greater or lesser Since Christianity is a Doctrine of Faith a Doctrine whereof all Men are capable of and since the high virtue of Faith is in the humility of our Understanding and the merit thereof in the ready obedience to embrace it what madness it is for any Man to tire out his Soul to wast away his Spirits in tracing out all the thorny Paths of the main Controversies of these our backsliding days wherein to err is easie and dangerous what through the malice of Authors abusing him what through Sophistry beguiling him what through blind Passion and Prejudice transporting him and not rather betake himself to the right way of Truth whereunto Christ Reason Nature and Experience do all give witness and that is to associate himself to that Church established by Christ whereunto the custody of a heavenly and supernatural Truth hath been from Heaven it self committed to weigh and find out discreetly which is the true Church to receive it chearfully and discreetly without doubt or discussion whatsoever it delivers without any farther inquisition she having the warrant that he that hears her hears Christ and whosoever hears her not hath no better place with God than a Publican and Pagan And what folly is it now to receive Scriptures upon the credit of her Authority and not to receive the interpretation of them upon her Authority and Credit also Sure if God should not always protect his Church from Error and yet peremptorily commanding Men upon pain of Damnation to obey her always then had he made very slender provision for the Salvation of Mankind which conceit concerning God would render us very ungratefully impious These Considerations or Motives may very easily perswade Persons of Reason and Piety to embrace and maintain that which they know to be the Religion of their Fore-fathers before her Adversaries had a Name her Doctrine having had a very long continuance which cannot easily be supposed in the present possessors to be a Design since they have received it down from so many Ages and it is not likely that all Ages should have the same purposes or that the same Doctrine should serve the several different ends of divers Ages relying upon the Grounds to wit that Truth is more ancient than Falshood
divers prudent and religious Counsellors And even Nature gives us a Hieroglyphick hereof in the Bees whose sweet Commonwealth is ordered by one King See Georg. lib. 4. Quemadmodum mirantur omnes circumstant fremitu denso stipantque frequentes They all follow and obey like little nimble Courtiers their little King c. All this considered will not a good Judgment see that to go about to oppose any of these two Powers is to do that which St. Austin said To suffer ones self to run into a folly which hasten'd into the height of Insolency and Madness and in the end find nothing but an Ocean of Disturbances and unavoidable Perdition and Ruin. God bless King IAMES our most gracious Pole-Star no sooner His Royal Brother King Charles the Second of ever glorious Memory died but he publickly went to hear Mass confiding in the mercy of ever blessed Jesus who for him doubtless will all Safety and Prosperity provide O Prodigie never to be duly pondered for which he is through all the World praised and admired Magna est Veritas praevalet We must not meddle with things Sacred but with due reverence we must not confound the true Churches Spiritual Authority with the Regal Civil and Temporal both being distinct in Office and severally given and appointed by the Almighty they are like the two Arms of his Divine Power employed by him and distributed to their several Uses the one exercising the meer Spiritual and Persuasive Power the other the Corporal and Coercive Power the one holding the Pastoral-directing and Soul-corrective Staff the other swaying the Royal and All-subjecting Scepter the one unsheathing the Spiritual Sword cutting off by Authority Disobedient Schismatical or Heretical Sinners from the communion of the faithful Flock and from eternal Life the other brandishing the Kingly Sword cutting off the Lives of the Offenders of established just Laws and even as God holds this World in his hands that the vast Sea and firm Land may not mix together but observe their just bounds lest they should come to another Chaos So he will not have those two sovereign distinct Dignities be blinded into one least Confusion and inevitable Ruine should follow Sure since King Henry the Eighth revolted from the Monarchical Spiritual Power of Christ's Church nothing to this day followed but confusion misery disasters in this brave Kingdom of England by degrees ascending to height of unheard-of Iniquity and Tyranny as to cut off the best of Kings Charles the First assuredly those miscreant Hell-hounds that murdered him would not stick to murder even Divinity This is the woful Catastrophe of disjoyning the Spiritual from Kingly and Monarchical Government Now I must say this much of the Roman Catholick Church that according to St. Paul Rom. 1. was and is yet and will continue in perpetuum famous for Faith Religion Sacrifice and Sacraments throughout the Universe for the sound of her Doctrine hath been heard every where and her Fame to the utmost Parts of the World so as it is the same to say Roman as Catholick or Vniversal whereas there where the Roman Eagles Wings did never spread the Roman Faith did reaching down to all Ages and spreading over all Kingdoms for who can view Christianity in its extent but must consider how all Kingdoms and Nations were by Roman Emissaries converted to the true ancient Faith of Iesus we need not make any further Enquiries but embrace and walk confidently in those plain Paths in which Fools cannot err following the foot-steps of the true Flock and the heavenly good Pastor where alone Sanctity Verity and all Virtues inerrability infallibility and perpetuity are found for when where or how she ever err'd or fail'd no Authentick Author have yet related no faithful candid Writer recorded nor have any of those watchful Luminaries and Sentinels whom God hath placed in his Church ever given the least alarm of Innovations gotten into the same only Schismaticks and Hereticks combining conspiring and reviling and in vain CHAP. II. Of the CHURCH THe Church of Christ is one Society or Company of Men link'd and combin'd together in one and the same profession of Christian Faith Religion Sacrifice and use of Sacraments under lawful Pastors and under one supreme visible Head Pastor or conservator of Peace Union and Verity This is a true notion or definition of the Church established by Christ and propagated by the blessed Apostles here the true nature essence and constitution of a Church is manifested and doth truly distinguish it from all Hereticks and Schismaticks vain Pretences whatsoever for they are apparently excluded from Christ's Church and she appears glorious without spot wrinkle or any such thing she is described in holy Writ by the Emblems of a City orderly govern'd by one chief supreme Governour or of an Army govern'd by that Military Discipline that requires subjection to one Generalissimo the King had placed over it of the Body each Member in due subjection to its visible Head on Earth and the Pope in point of Government rul'd by his invisible Head in the highest Heaven Hence it followeth by order of good consequence that Divine Faith and Belief wherein consisteth as well the ground and foundation of our eternal welfare as also the Fruit and entire Utility of Christ's coming into this World is to be had in the Church made plain by the Prophet Esay 45. he foreshewed the wonderful Providence of God in providing for Christians so manifest a way of Direction for their Faith and Religion as that the most simple and unlearned Man in the World should not be able but out of wilfulness to go astray therein his words directed to the Gentiles are these Take comfort and fear not behold your God shall come and save you then shall the Eyes of the Blind be opened and the Ears of the Deaf shall be restored and there shall be a Path and way and it shall be called The holy way and it shall be to you a direct way as Fools shall not be able to err therein Sure the plain and direct way mentioned by Esay wherein no simple or ignorant Men can err is the general Body of Christ's visible Church upon Earth planted by his Apostles throughout all Nations and Countries and continuing by Succession unto the World's end in which Church who remaineth and believeth all things taught therein cannot at all fall into any Error of Faith for that this Church is guided by Christ's Spirit and therefore in no ways subject or within the compass of Error For which cause St. Paul ultimo calls it The Pillar and Firmament of Truth And the same Church is so conspicuous and evidently manifest that it is more easie to find it out than it is to see the Sun or Moon when it shineth brightest at Noon or to behold the greatest Hill or Mountain in the World and for more declaration of this it 's to be noted That in the time from Christ's ascension until the 13
and that God would not for so many Ages forsake his Church and leave her in Error Schism or Novelty Again Let us consider the exceeding Beauty and Splendor of her Churches her solemn Service stateliness and magnificence of her Hierarchy the Name of Catholick which she claims as her own due and to concern no other Sect of Hereticks the wondrous continual Succession of her Popes of an honourable and most certain Line of 250 Popes Successors of St. Peter both Tyrants Traytors Pagans apostate Hereticks in vain wresting raging combining conspiring and undermining it Let us reflect that beside the Roman Church and such others as are united with it you will find all other Churches to have failed and have an end or decay long since or their beginning of late The Roman Church was founded by the Prince of the Apostles with a Promise to him from Christ that Hell Gates should never prevail against it Mat. 16.18 And that himself would be assistant to it to the consummation of the World. All the lawful general Councils that ever were in the World have approved and honoured it condemning its Adversaries God so miraculously hath blessed it from above that very many famous learned wise and godly Doctors in all Ages have enriched it with their Writings Legions of Saints with their rare Holiness and Virtues Millions of Martyrs with their Blood many Millions of Virgins with purity of Soul and Body have sanctified and embellished it And even at this day of unjust Rebellions Apostacy and cursed Schism of her revolted Children she stretcheth out her Arms to the utmost corners of the world daily and newly embracing whole Nations into her Bosom Mark how that in all Sects opposite are found inward Dissensions Contrarieties change of Opinions uncertainty of Resolutions in matters of Faith rebelling against Governours and daily confusion of Order whereas contrariwise in the Roman Church there is Unity Uniformity undivided and Resolutions unaltered a most heavenly Order all with admirable Harmony and undefective Correspondence bending the same one way to the effecting of one and the same work Wherefore let no Man doubt to submit himself and judgment to this glorious Spouse of Jesus Christ reverently obeying her in all things whose Authority every Man may safely follow and rely upon she being so happy in being instrumental in converting all Nations from Infidelity by unfeigned Miracles and among many other things the Names of Hereticks and Schismaticks which she fathers upon all those that disagree and revolt from her Bosom This brings me to mind that saying of St. Hierom lib. 1. c. 14. contra Iovinian concerning St. Peter's Primacy Amongst the twelve Apostles one was chosen that a Head being constituted and appointed all occasion of Schism might be taken away Melanghton holds that the Primacy is most necessary for the retaining and preserving of Unity and adhering to the Roman Catholick See. Seeing therefore that Controversies in Religion in these our times are grown in number so many and in matters so intricate that few have time and leisure fewer strength of Understanding to examine them it remains for Men desirous of satisfaction in things of such consequence diligently to search out which Church hath divine revealed Faith in it and the same to embrace follow and practise St. Paul says That Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for and an argument or demonstration of things not appearing to us I wonder that St. Paul calls Faith a Substance when it is but an Accident we must understand St. Paul thus Even as the Substance is the foundation stress of the Accidents as of Quantity Quality Relation c. all cleaving and adhering to their substance so as if those accidents become separated from their substance then the substance will be reduc'd to a punctum indivisibile even so Divine Faith if it be not whole and entire believing all and every Article and Principle revealed preached and handed down from Christ and his Apostles then Faith will be no Divine Faith but is become a folly phantasm and illusion it must be a Faith animated with Charity Piety Obedience c. that will avail for Salvation For suppose you believe the Incarnation Resurrection Ascension of Christ with all other Mysteries belonging to his Divinity and Humanity and not to believe the Real Presence Auricular Confession Purgatory c. you have no Faith for Salvation As if but one Wheel of your Pocket Watch be broken nay if but one Tooth of it be broken your Watch serves for nothing so one Article of Faith denied destroys Faith. Sure he that admitted a leak in his Ship drowns it and he that divides Faith believing some Points and denying other Points comes to have no Faith at all for all that comes from one and the same Divine Authority ought to be believed with like equality reverence and submission Doing otherwise is to suffer ones self to run headlong into real blindness which hasten'd to the height of Insolency and Madness and to have nothing so assured as incertainty nothing so undoubted as the loss of true Faith transform'd into a real Schism the headlong descent of a horrible Precipice to never ending scorching Flames CHAP. III. Appendix to the former Chapter THe Almighty God independent and immense in his Extent eternal in his Duration infinite in his Perfections glorious in his Mercies and mysterious in the wonderous communication and dispensation of his Favours Mercies and Graces to Man above all sublunary Creatures for the Apostate Angels are lost without Redemption and the punishment their insolent Pride hath merited doth pursue them without relaxation term or pity it is Man therefore who must be plac'd and substituted in the empty Seats of Angels O Mercy never to be duly ponder'd Lo God the fountain cause and origin of the Universe drew Man out of Dirt and Morter as the Master-piece and prime Substance of all his Operations it was Man that deserved the last wonderous touches of his omnipotent Hands so as Plato cryes out calling Man the Miracle of all visible Miracles it 's certain that of all Encomiums given to Man the most noble august and transcendent is that he is created to the Image of God as a character of his Divine Nature Herehence God's Goodness requires Homages his Majesty all Worship and Acknowledgments and Affections of all Hearts Now we are to consider that God when he created Man did not assign him to remain in the state of pure Nature but did out of his goodness confer on him original Righteousness and Grace and after did endow him with supernatural Means which may bring him to the supernatural end he was created for viz. The vision fruition and possession of Heavenly Glory for all Eternity Now a supernatural End must require a supernatural Means whereas by no natural helps we can arrive to be compleatly happy in the next Life then of all supernatural Means or Gifts the ground and stress of all the rest
hidden sences furnished with variety of Parables Examples Histories Revelations Figures Allegories so as it cannot be proved directly to be the word of God but by Tradition The Christians of the Primitive Age on pain of Damnation held nothing of Faith but what they received from Christ and his blessed Apostles for Moral and Apostolical Tradition without written Scripture or written Books was the means of planting and conserving Christian Religion see St. Paul Galat. 21.8 Altho' we or an Angel from Heaven preach to you besides that which we have preached to you he be Anathema And again 2 Thes. 15. Therefore Brethren stand ye fast and hold ye the Traditions which ye have learned whether by Word or by our Epistle Sure Apostolical Tradition is the sure Guide by which we may infallibly be assur'd what Doctrin for Salvation Christ and his blessed Apostles left many years before any thing was written or printed CHAP. IV. The Scripture of Protestants decry'd FIrst I say that all Sectaries tho' never so many and opposite one to another have ever risen and have still pretended to Scripture nay the Devil urged his Temptation with a scriptum est Matth. 4. And so many frequently deprave the Scriptures to their own perdition 2 Pet. 3. I decline not Scripture but allow admit and embrace it as containing that irrefragable Doctrine which eminent Persons in the Church of God penn'd even a thousand years before Printing was invented Scripture is a good Instrument to draw Men from Paganism to Chistianity but not Protestants to the Catholick Faith. When the Christian explicit Articles of Faith prepared and delivered to us by our Primitive Pastors according as they had received them from Christ the prime Inventor were rashly annull'd taken away and rejected by Sectaries and the Bible put into all hands for to search and find out by our own skill the Results and Principles of Religion implicitly couch'd in the Bible is not this extream Madness and Tyranny to Souls Is it not a tyrannous Cheat and an Abuse hardly to be parallell'd to put Men to seek for a thing with a fore-imprinted prejudice of that they go about to find and seek for Faith with a prejudice against Faith With such-like prejudice do the English People read the Bible being afore-hand advised by their Reformers fully to believe that the Catholick Mass is abomination the Real Presence a late invention the Merit of Good Works a Dream fasting and mortification of sensual Appetites folly and madness the indifferency of Man's Free Will to Good or Evil an Error the making a Vow a Chimera restitution or satisfaction of Injuries done a prejudicial Mistake all Expiation of our Sins an inexpiable Crime honour to blessed Saints Idolatry Sacrifice Altars and the whole Priesthood of Christ Prophaneness the conscionable practice of Sobriety Justice and Piety necessary to Eternal Life detestable Popery for God's sake what good can accrew to the drooping Soul of an Heretick by reading of Scripture with these Prejudices these Diabolical Anticipations these Antichristian Preconceptions these meer Obstructions to all Faith Grace and Salvation Yet thus forewarn'd and prepossess'd all Sectaries read the Scripture no sound or solid Fruit arising thence to their Souls but hardness of Heart Pride Schism sencelesness of God's Judgments desperateness in all Sin and Injustice Sure the Scripture do little or no good but as it is presented by the Church and received with her Interpretation and practised in her Bosom The Ark of God so long as it was upheld by the Priests comforted and sanctified them but look'd into or touch'd by others destroy'd them nor was it to them an Ark of Salvation but an Offence and occasion of Fall Therefore it was a heavenly Caution that which we received by a Voice from Heaven Act. 10. Things that God hath sanctified do not make common We see Scripture takes up Figures Allegories Parables c. wherein are inclosed Truths of a differing strain to what the Letter relates which will cause an obscurity almost invincible even to Church-men singularly assisted and inspired It is therefore but madness to undertake Labour and Hazard for naught The Law and Government of the Messias differs from the Law of Moses in this That one was committed to Paper but the Doctrine of Jesus should be written in the Heart and Entrails of his Church He is a God that writes on the Paper of the Heart unto Eternity indelible Tenets The Law of Christ is written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the Living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart promising to animate the Body of his Church with his own Spirit which should lead them into all Truth so as in very truth Scripture of the New Testament was drawn by the Rule of our traditional Doctrine and explicit Faith and not our explicit Faith gathered out of them neither was ever any General Council called together to teach the Church her Doctrine but upon the rising of Heresies judging by the Rule of Tradition declared against Heretical Innovations Here I infer how they are bereaved of Human Understanding that do not see palpably that a pretended Church which begun by breach of Promises to God by Sacrileges and Impurities of Apostates by general Revolt against Kings against Divine and Human Laws by the filth and ordure of the Carrion and caitive Flesh by the dissolution of good Manners by Blood Furies and Confusion could not come and take its source from the Divine Spirit yet they boldly say they find Scripture of their side Ah lamentable Illusion To whom did the Scripture send them but to the Priests and lawful Pastors What said the Scripture unto them but that they ought to keep the Traditions and obey Prelates That they must not trust to their own judgment but captivate it in matters of Faith and that it was better to believe with holy Simplicity than question with a proud Curiosity And it 's observable how the poor deluded People in England after using their Bible now above a hundred years how they have a Church without Apostolical Preachers these without Character Mission Priesthood or Divine Jurisdiction Sheep without true Pastors faithful without Churches Christians without Sacraments Temples without Altars Altars without Sacrifices Religion without form or fashion a Law without Obedience a Faith without Works and Grace yet they all peruse Scripture and all is but that they overthrow themselves by these Scripture ways by which they seek to establish themselves for if we ought not to believe any thing but that which is written in what place of their Bible will they find that the revealed positive and affirmative Principles of our Church must be denied and abrogated In what place will they shew that these words Hoc est Corpus meum must be understood figuratively not really In what place will they find that Sunday must be kept holy and not Saturday Where will they find that there are but two
saved and that they who believed not should be damn'd Math. 28.19 Mark 16.15 O Soveraign and Heavenly Promises Priviledges and Graces of the true Catholick Roman Churches Infallibility Add to this how the Apostles tell us that the Chuch of the living God is the Pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim 3.15 Sure we may securely rely upon her and they assure us that Christ gave his Son Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the perfection of the Saints that henceforth we may be no more Children tossed to and fro c. Eph. 4. Are not these plain and wondrous texts of Scripture and cannot you see clearly an infallible assistance promised to the directing and guiding men that they should not be carried about with every wind of false Doctrine by the slght and wiles of men and cunning craftiness whereby some lie in wait for to deceive No other Congregation under the Sun but the Roman Catholick Church can stand up or pretend to these great Priviledges it follows that Protestants are as they aver fallible saying so they tell all the World an Infallible truth and thereupon we may be infallibly assured that they always are failable and fallible And hence it follows whilst Protestants themselve declare they are fallible they can no ways pretend to be the infallible Church of Christ For if the Word of God should have the first place and serve as a basis for the perpetuating of a Church infallible as it is most reasonable I incessantly challenge Ministers to shew but one only Text of Scripture express formal and irreprovable contrary to the Articles of the Roman Catholick Church sure this they could never yet perform for hitherto they have produc'd nothing but Semblances Stories Lyes and Railings for to delude weak inferior Judgments of the giddy Multitude being unable to make them good before considering and learned understanding Men And if a lawful Succession sacred Mission Character and real Consecration of true Pastors be required which is absolutely necessary for the establishment of an Ecclesiastical Hierarchy the Roman Church can shew that from the Apostles hitherward our Popes and other inferior Pastors do all to this day successively follow one another above two hundred and thirty Popes Magna est veritas prevalet If the Authority of Councils be requisite which are the Sinews Mouths and living Oracles of Religion in the Revolution of sixteen Ages all Councils will be found call'd for to confirm the Roman Church confute and condemn her Adversaries If the Interpretations of Holy Doctors who have been the Lights of their times Instruments of the Holy Ghost and Secretaries of the Divinity they all with one accord and consent speak for the Roman Church condemning loudly the Errors and Schism of new Sects If Miracles which were wrought in all Ages and in the sight of all Mankind with so much approbation that they have evicted Confession even from the most Incredulous and Reverence from the most Stupid Millions and unfeigned Miracles were and are daily wrought in confirmation of the verity of the Roman Catholick Religion So as that there is not a Country wherein the Roman Catholick Religion is profess'd which doth not produce Testimonies so prudently and evidently credible of true Super-natural Miracles that to deny them were to destroy all Humane Faith. Did not Simon Magus impiously boast by the Spirit of his private Fancy that he would do wonders as St. Peter did who provok'd by the said Simon Magus did prove that he had the Spirit of God by raising a Child from Death which the other with all his Black Magick Art could not do yet boldly challenging St. Peter to fly from the Capitol to Mount Aventin while he was doing so by the Prayer of St. Peter loe he came tumbling down and brake his Leg whereof he died soon after Even so that false Apostle Calvin for the credit of his new Damn'd Doctrine he would fain make a shew to the People of doing a Miracle hir'd one that was Sick to counterfeit himself Dead who when Calvin should speak certain words was to arise as it were from the Dead but he not stirring was found dead indeed Withall mark how that the Son of Calvin being bitten by a Mad Dog his Father not being able to cure him sent him to St. Hubert in Arden where the Body of that Saint is kept with Veneration and frequent Miracles wrought thereby where he was perfectly made whole whereupon abjur'd his Fathers Sect became a Roman Catholick and lived and died so Yet Protestants object its strange themselves never see any Miracle being so desirous and miracles so frequent as we pretend Herod was also very desirous to see a Miracle but his curiosity excluded him from that favour Men who believe nothing but what they see deserve not to see Miracles because they are obstinate Yet there are few Protestants who do not see Miracles what greater Miracle than that all Catholicks turn not Protestants If the continual Victory over natural and vehement Inclinations doth require a Miracle of super-natural Grace we are as naturally and vehemently inclined to their Religion as we are to our own Liberties and Pleasures What greater Miracle than that Roman Catholick sober and learned Men should be perswaded that their Senses are deceived in the Sacrament of the Altar and that they should suffer death for the Mystery of Transubstantiation There must be effects of super-natural Grace and not of Ignorance or Obstinacy which cannot be laid to our charge seeing we submit our Judgments to every definition of the Roman Church and our very Adversaries know we are learned Men. Sanctity of Life is a super-natural sign and effect of Grace and of the true Church This Sanctity is evident in the Roman Church Not to speak of Antonies Hilarions or Stillitas let 's draw nearer our times and consider the Lives of St. Bernard St. Dominick St. Francis St. Vincent Ferrer St. Francis of Paula St. Charles Barromeus St. Teresa St. Francis Xaverius St. Anthony of Padua and many more who were known Roman Catholicks professing the same Tenets and Obedience to the Pope which we now maintain against pretended Reformation And not to speak only of the Dead let any indifferent Person consider how in all Vocations of both Clergy and Laity we have many Persons eminent in Virtue far above that degree of morality Let our English Protestant be pleased to weigh with himself whether young Ladies of as great Quality Fortunes and Gifts of Nature as England doth afford could forsake their native Country Kindred and Friends contemn all pleasures of the World and themselves by embracing a religious poor and penitent Life in perpetual Inclosure submitting their wills to the Obedience and Humour of a Woman could this I say be performed by so many so continually and with so great alacrity and content of mind without a miraculous and super-natural Grace of the Almighty In my judgment it is a greater Miracle
that such Persons should resolve by a voluntary Banishment to dye to their Country and Friends and to the whole World by a Religious Profession and to bury themselves alive in a Cloyster than if they had restored Life to others and banish'd death from Graves and Monuments 7. Now after that our Protestant Gentleman hath considered our Catholick Monasteries let him examine whether in his own Church there hath been or now is any thing resembling so much Religion and super-natural Virtue as that which amongst us is not admired though admirable because so ordinary This kind of Life is as far from Protestants Practice and Doctrine as it is from natural Inclination Yet I have heard that Master Laud of Canterbury was once inclined to erect some Protestant Nunneries in England I believe it would occasion as great stirs as his Reformation did in England because nothing is more opposite to the Tenets of the reformed Gospel and first Reformers than to make Vows of Poverty Chastity and Obedience Protestancy begun and is founded upon the dissolving of Monasteries and Religious Vows and is not compatible with their observance if things must be carried on by the same means that acquired them a being 8. The Conversion of Nations to Christianity is not only a sign of the true Church but also the end of its Institution This is so proper to the Roman Catholick even at this present that none who heard the names of America Angola China Monomotappa India or Iaponia can be ignorant of our pious endeavours and miraculous success in preaching the Gospel to so remote Nations where nothing that is coveted in this World could be aimed at or expected by our Apostolical Preachers I will not say any more concerning the Signs of the true Church these being sufficient to convince any Person that desires to be saved that out of the Roman Church there is no Salvation seeing it alone hath supernatural and visible Signs whereby God doth declare sufficiently that it is an infallible guide to inform men of his Mysteries and direct them in the way he hath prescribed for his Divine Service commanding all men to hear and obey it as they would hear and obey God himself Now let us see what Luther the Apostate Apostle of Protestants says Velit nolit in praise of the Infallibility of the Roman Catholick in his Book against the Anabaptists who in hatred of the Pope of Rome did reject Infant Baptism Nos We confess sub papatu plurimum esse boni Christiani imo omne bonum Christianismum atque illinc ad nos devenisse quippe fatemur in papatu veram Scripturam Sacram esse verum Baptismum verum Sacramentum Altaris veras claves ad remissionem peccatorum verum praedicandi officium verum Catechismum ut sunt articuli fidei decem praecepta c. Dico insuper sub papatu esse veram Christianitatem imo verum nucleum Christianitatis esse O magna est veritas praevalet Mark what Calvin says Instit. c. 10. § 17. That St. Bernard was a godly and pious Writer Adding Et certe Papista fuit Bernardus nemo est Pius sine vera fide salutem veritatem ab inimicis habemus Mark lastly what Melancthon one of the first Followers of Luther said to his dying Mother whom he perverted from the old Religion to his new one Mother send for a Priest confess your sins before you die Illa securior haec plausibilior via ad salutem She did so and died in the Communion of the old Roman Catholick Faith in which she was born and bred This you will find in Florimundus de Ortu Haeresis lib. 1. cap. 9. What can be said more of the advantage of the Roman Catholick Church than what her mortal Enemies proclaim to the World for to undeceive men and guide them to the secure Ark of Sanctification and Salvation Now to deny this Infallibility so evidently demonstrated is the great crime Protestant pretended Reformers are charged with in this Infallibility is founded all the Power of Christ's Church obliging to believe the inviolableness of her Government the unjustifiableness of any Schism the firm security that Faith is certain and whatever in the Church is Sacred But Protestants never clear themselves from Schism upon any other grounds that those which if admitted would prove all Malefactors in the World innocent and make it lawful nay an obligation in conscience to dissolve the whole Fabrick of the Worlds Government whereas the very posture of a Fallibility of Faith first lays and in time hatches the Cockatrice Eggs of Anarchy and Atheism What Man ever arrived to that height of mistake as to endeavour to manifest his Innocency by the voluntary confession of a crime which implies the objected sin of Schism Now Protestants are accused of Schism they lay for the ground of their excuse that they acknowledge not Christs Churches Infallibility which is charged on them to be both Schism and Heresie and as the very sink of Infidelity Sure they clearing themselves by denying the Infallibility of the Church does the self-same as if some Male-contented Subject having first out-lawed himself by denying the Laws and rejecting the Government of the Land and afterwards this man becoming obnoxious to those Laws by Robbing or Murthering should endeavour to plead not Guilty by alledging that though indeed the Subjects who accept the Laws and allow the Government of England are liable to punishment if they offend against them Yet I quoth he who suppose this Government Tyrannical and the Laws unjust especially having a perswasion and thinking in my Conscience they are so cannot be obliged to obey them and therefore I must not be accounted a Factious Man nor liable to punishment if I break them Pray what will become of this Malefactor Sure Protestants will clear him in favorem Schismatis But I am perswaded wiser Judgments will think him more highly deserving the Gallows for refusing subjection to the install'd Government then it is manifest that Protestants do more deeply merit Excommunication for denying and rejecting Church-Government and her Infallibility CHAP. V. A Paraenetical Admonition to the People of England PRotestants regard the antient Faith of Christ whose Purity Ministers seek to blacken by insufferable Injuries Lyes Invectives and Calumnies of the deepest Dye They full well knowing that its Purity cannot be attacqu'd with solid evident Reasons nor Arguments they found out by experience that their Arguments to prove their new fangled false Doctrine makes but slight Impression in the Peoples minds And they daily see that when they but faithfully represent the Sentiments and real Doctrine of the Catholick Church they can neither justifie their Fatal Separation nor excuse the Extravagancies and Impudencies of their first Reformers they finding it impossible by these means to maintain the ground of their cursed Schism they have a recourse to a most unjust pernicious and hellish Artifice viz. to impute to the Roman Catholick Church an