of Faith no General approved Synods did ever make contrary Decrees so that when any are shown opposite in words they may with sufficient satisfaction be reconciled and manifested to agree in the Catholick sense of Doctrine therein contain'd For could there be really contrary Decrees in points of Catholick Faith determin'd General Councils confirm'd by the Pope and received by the Church that would be eternally false and most unreasonable which is ratified for a most manifest Truth and most agreeable to right reason by universal Church-practice namely That all those who will not he accounted Hereticks must conform themselves to the Deerees of Oecumenical Synods And are the words of Vincentius Lyrynensis in his Admonitory against Prophane Novelties a Discourse as express for us as if it were now ex professo writ against Protestants in this controversy But not to be tedious I will close up these Testimonies so pregnant for the Infallibility of the Church declaring her Faith by Oecumenical Synods with the most famous Speech of St. Gregory the Great Sicut Sancti Lib. 1. Ep. 24 ad Pat. Constan Alexan. Evangelii c. I confess my self to receive and venerate the four Councils as the four Books of the Holy Gospel And then names them yet not with any intention to exclude the like esteem of the fifth being the second Ann. Ch. 553. General Council at Constantinople which afterwards he specifies and were all the General Councils celebrated before his happy Government of the universal Church Neither will the Protestants be ever able to give any satisfactory reason why they do not give the same veneration and acceptance to all approv'd Oecumenical Synods and in particular to that of Trent being confirmed by the same visible Head and received by the Body of the same Catholick Church And to make this more evident I will make a brief parallel of the Protestants Case with the Arians by them confess'd to be Hereticks by which I think will easily be discover'd that they can say nothing to justify themselves against that Council but will be as good and strong for the Arians against the Nicene Fathers their tryals being alike upon their disturbance of the Peace of the Church with new Doctrines and their condemnation alike by the same Authority If they say the Council of Trent was not a lawful General Council did not the Arians pretend the same against the Nicene Synod and all Hereticks take up the same Plea against the Councils by whom they were condemned If they say true they did so but They without cause We justly Let them give us a demonstration of this and we are satisfied and nothing else can carry it in this controversy Did not the Arians repute the Novatians Hereticks being condemned by a Council though not General And yet refus'd themselves to stand to the Nicene Synod though Oecumenical Why The Novatians say the Arians complain without cause We justly Did not the Nestorians and Eutychians abhor the the Arians as justly anathematiz'd by the Nicene Fathers and yet these refuse to obey the Decrees of the Chalcedon Council those of the Constantinopolitan Why The Arians contradicted without cause say the Nestorians and Eutychians but we justly In a word 't is a plea common to all condemned Hereticks with Protestants and if they would speak fully amounts to thus much We will receive no Councils farther then they agree with us and will never acknowledge or submit to any as lawful that condemn our Doctine For when they they have a long time hunted up and down for excuses this in reality is the only and justest cause they have of their disobedience If they appeal from the Council to the Scriptures as in their Opinion standing for them did not the Arians do the same And I dare be bold to say with far more probability then Protestants can pretend to in many points controverted between Them and Us. If they say they never had a fair hearing before Sentence was pass'd against them and that they were condemn'd by their Enemies being Judges in their own cause Did not or might not the Arians and any other Hereticks pretend the same against the respective Councils by which they were condemned And 't is all one as if some Rebels stubbornly refusing to answer for themselves in a just Tryal according to the establish'd Laws of the Kingdom which they have transgressed should after Sentence pronounc'd complain of Illegal proceedings as not being heard for themselves and having no reason to plead where the Party offended was their Judge by his Commissioners This is the parallel And seriously for my own part in the most Impartial examination of it I cannot see any possible evasion for the Protestants but that in all Doctrines of Faith wherein they contradict the present Church of Rome they are as notorious Hereticks by the decisions of the Council of Trent as the Arians for denying the Divinity of Christ by the Authoratative Sentence of the Nicene Fathers And to conclude this Section and Motive after all these express Texts of Scripture for the Churches Authority and Obedience unto her under pain of damnation with the sense of them so brought down to us by the Writings of Antiquity and Church-practice of her jurisdiction which is an evidence that all contrary Interpretations are false and spurious for any blinded with Interest or Passion to venture his eternal Salvation upon a May be otherwise or a probable argument deduced from Scripture leaning on the weak crutches of private reason or a particular Fallible Congregation is a strange and dangerous presumption For in Fine the Authority of the Catholick Church in such matters is of more weight than ten thousand Arguments of private Reason It being a thing manifest to judicious men that there is no place for Ifs and And 's where there can be no evidence brought against a point of Doctrine which the highest Tribunal upon earth had already Decreed and propos'd to be believ'd by all Christians as sufficiently revealed by Almighty God The second Motive That the English Protestant Church making Scripture the only sufficient Rule of Faith without any Visible Judge to Interpret and give the Sense of it Authoritatively to Christians stands on a most uncertain and groundless Foundation SECT I. An Introduction to the following Discourse THus having by the Grace and Blessing of God on my endeavours in the inquisition of Truth found sure Principles whereon to build Faith and Religion in the Roman Church and no where else nothing remained but notwithstanding all interposed difficulties to betake my self to that Communion wherein rationally that is upon Infallible grounds I was perswaded Truth only was to be found and Salvation ordinarily to be expected However that I might give the Religion I had profess'd so long a full hearing to the best of my abilities and understanding before I shak'd hands with it I diligently examin'd the grounds of the Protestant Church and Doctrine which too few do
un-interrupted Succession of lawful Pastors and true Doctrine Scripture is very copious I shall name a few A City seated on a Hill cannot be hid The Mat. 5. 14. Is 2. 2. Psal 18. mountain of the house of our Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains In sole posuit tabernaculum suum Isa 59. 21. My Spirit which is thee and my words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed for ever All Dan. 7. 13 14. Nations Tribes and Tongues shall serve him his power is an eternal power that shall not be taken away and his kingdom shall not be corrupted Thou art Peter and upon this Mat. 16. Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Christ gave some Apostles some Eph. 4. 11 c. Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors some Doctors for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edification of the Body of Christ c. 'Till we all meet in the unity of Faith and be not as Children toss'd about with the wind of every Doctrine See more in Esa 62 Ezek. 37. Matt. 5. 15. c. From which and such like places this Major Proposition is evident As also from Antiquity We must seek for Truth among whom the Succession L. 4. de hae c. 45. of the Church from the Apostles and the Purity of Doctrine is maintain'd in its Integrity So St. Iraeneus What I believe says Tertullian I received L. de praesc c. 37. from the present Church the present Church from the Primitive that from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ. And St. Austin tells us That the succession of Priests from the Contr. Ep. Fund c. 4. very seat of Peter to the present Bishop held him in the Church Which if it shall not continue here on earth to the end of the World to whom did our Lord say Behold I am with you alwayes to the Worlds end It is easier L. 3. de Bapt. cont Donat. saith St. Chrysost that the Sun should be extingush'd then the Church should be obscured Concerning which St. De utilit cred c. 7. Austin assures us The Prophets have spoken more plainly and manifestly then of Christ himself And therefore 't is no wonder the same Saint affirms That the Church hath this most certain mark that it cannot be hid Cont. Petil. c. 104. And certainly it is not hid except to those that are lost the Children of perdition who seeing will not see and hearing will not understand Who shut their eyes against a light set upon a Candlestick and are so blind as not to see so great a mountani as the Catholick Church As the same Father complains of the Hereticks of his days From which premisses thus prov'd it invincibly follows that the Protestant L. 3. cont Parm. and all other Heretical and Schismatical Churches being wholly destitute of these inseparable badges or marks of the true Church viz. Universality perpetual visibility by an uninterrupted Succession of Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this time cannot possibly be the true Church Whose builder and preserver is God All which manifestly belonging to the Church of Rome and those in Communion with her by most undoubted Records of all Ages it likewise as inevitably follows that this Church of Rome only is the true Catholick Church and all other Communions but false Worshippers Thus briefly of these indubitable marks of the true Church from Sacred Scripture so much made use of by the Ancient Fathers to reduce the Hereticks and Schismaticks of their times to the Catholick unity that I may not too long detain you from beholding Miracles wrought by God in his Holy Church for the confirmation of our Faith SECT II. That Miracles were vouchsafed always to the True Church SUch is the Sublimity and Purity of Christian Doctrine so sublime in respect of knowledge so pure in respect of practice that if there was nothing else to witness that it came from Heaven they of themselves are sufficient evidences that the Author of it can be no less then of incomprehensible Wisdom and infinite Holiness Notwithstanding as God was pleas'd by wonderful Signs and frequent Miracles to set his Seaâ— to attest the truth of it that it might find entertainment from contradictors so in after Ages in opposition not only to all false Religions who deny Christ and maintain their Worship to be right but also to many seduced Christians who pretend to have among them the Purity of this Doctrine the same infinite Goodness hath more or less continued Miracles in his Church that we may see with our eyes what we ought to believe with our hearts and not be deceived by false Teachers This Heavenly Testimony God vouchsafed to the Jewish Worship whilst it was in force and therefore cannot in reason be denyed to the Christian Church being in every respect a Ministration much more Divine and Glorious and no less standing in need of such a Priviledge Moses brought forth the Children of Exod. Israel from the house of bondage in signs and wonders and mighty deeds The Sun stood still at the Prayer of Jos 10. Joshua and went back 15 degrees Isa 38. at the earnest request of Hezekiah The bones of Elizeus the Prophet rais'd a dead man to life The constant cure Joh. 5. 3 c. of Lame and Diseased persons in the Pool of Bethesda immediately after the motion of the water by an Angel was a standing Miracle c. All which with many more were evident Testimonies of the Divine presence among them that the Creator and Governour of Heaven and Earth was their God in a special manner and they his peculiar Church and People To which might be added their many Prophets of extraordinary Power and Sanctity not only miraculous in their predictions but sometimes mighty in signs and deeds Though 't is observable that St. John the Baptist though more then a Prophet then whom none greater was born of women yet did no Miracle to attest his Mission Doubtless not without some singular cause perhaps because the Jewish Synagogue was then expiring and giving place to the Christian Church as a Handmaid to her Mistress or glimmering twi-light to the Sun arising in beams of Glory The most remarkable Miracles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ are left unto his Church by the Evangelists in the History of his Life and Death That we might believe and believing have Life Eternal by him After the Holy Apostles had received Power from above by descent of the Holy Ghost upon them to fit them for the great work of converting all Nations to Christianity what wonders and signs were frequently wrought by them in the first planting of the Gospel are made famous and wellknown to us Acts. in their Acts related by St. Luke
among the Gentiles and they should Sacrifice in every place and Chap. 1. 11. a Pure Offering should be offer'd to his Name a new form of Worship prescrib'd a new form of Government erected new Sacraments instituted new Precepts deliver'd Councels super-added agreeable to the Evangelical Law And in a word a Catholick Church founded to continue for ever This Church of Christ as it is one body so likewise it was of one heart and of one mind while Apostolical purity remain'd unspotted The Professors were all united in the same Faith Worship and Government holding close to Church-Tradition the Pillar and ground of Truth without any rent or Schism Till among Act. 20. 29. 30. themselves arose Wolves in Sheeps-cloathing not sparing the Flock teaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them That is who set up a Congregation of Christians separated from the Communion of that Church which was founded by Christ and his Apostles And so by this means unity being destroy'd and Faith perverted Heresie shut up the gate of Heaven against false Christians as Infidelity did against Unbelievers A sad case this yet not so much to be wondred at seing the Apostle tells us Opportet esse Haereses There must 1 Cor. 11. 19. be Heresies for the Tryal of others and greater glory of the Truth And therefore the true Church hath in all Ages been more or less vex'd with them But never more then in these last and perillous days which since Luther's Apostacy from the Church of Rome have produc'd such an innumerable brood of New Gospels and Sects all pretending to believe and practice those Doctrines and that Worship which were taught by Christ and his Apostles and to be the only true Church of God or at least the purest Members of it Now it being acknowledg'd on all hands that they only are the true Church who believe and observe all points taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation and 't is impossible contrary Beliefs and Worships should be all true and come from the Fountain of Truth Christ Jesus those whom a more serious desire and care of their Eternal Good may excite to seek for satisfaction in so important a business shall upon diligent inquisition by the blessing of God find that the chief externe grounds or evidence ordain'd by Christ for the guiding us in the knowledge of what was taught and left by him to be believ'd and practis'd to the Worlds end and consequently also for discerning which is the true Church among so many Pretenders are those according to which the Church of Rome regulates her Faith and Worship namely Universal Tradition and the Authority of the present Church as shall hereafter be made manifest And the farther they search into the Rule of the Protestant Religion that is sole Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit exclusively to Tradition and Church Authority the more they will see such unsteady Maxims are destructive to Faith and manifestly leading to endless Divisions and Errors in matters of Religion This Conviction I had in examining the Fundamentals of the Roman and Protestant Religion and therefore am not to be blam'd for the Change I made and to my understanding whosoever searches as I did will easily receive the same satisfaction SECT II. A Preparatory Discourse to Church-Tradition and what it is THo' whosoever examines aright the Motives of Christian belief cannot rationally but become a Catholick that is find evidence how he may come to the certain knowledge of what Christ and his Apostles taught the World yet Faith is not grounded on Reason but Authority and that no less then Divine which excludes all possibility of Errour Whatever it is that brings men to know what they must believe Faith hath for its formal Object Divine Revelation into which it finally is resolv'd So that we believe nothing as of Faith but what is revealed and because it is revealed by Essential Verity who can neither deceive nor be deceived Catholicks then believe by Divine Faith Truths only revealed by Almighty God wherein Protestants agree with us But Catholicks believe the same Truths as they are ascertained declar'd and handled down to us by the Testimony of the Church wherein Protestants are defective the difference thefore between us in Faith arises chiefly from hence in that we use not the same externe Medium to convey unto our understandings the knowledge of what Truths are revealed and what not For could we once agree about this latter we should soon be of one Heart and of one mind in all points of Faith especially when once this Medium is proved to be infallible As to this Medium therefore Catholicks regulate their Faith by the Rule or Standard of Tradition and Church-Authority as the externe Proponent of Faith a Proponent also evidenced to them by the same Rule to be Infallible and thus they safely rely on the Testimony of Tradition and Church Authority in Declaring and Expounding both the Sense of Scripture and all other Christian Misteries necessary to Salvation Whilst on the contrary Protestants relying on the sole express Texts of Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit as their only Rule and Guide in matters of Faith become unsteady in their Belief obnoxious to dangerous Errors and divided amongst themselves into endless Sects and Factions But because a more clear understanding of this matter in some sort depends on a right notion of Tradition we shall here define it in the sense it is usually understood by Catholick Divines Tradition then is the delivery of that Doctrine which was taught by Christ and his Apostles from hand to hand descending as such from Fathers to their Children making up the body of the Faithful This is the true notion of Tradition among us Catholicks and it matters not whether it be call'd Divine Apostolical or Universal being only the same thing exprest by divers adjuncts For it is call'd Divine because Christ our Lord as well true God as true man is the Spring-head of it It is call'd Apostolical because the Apostles immediately receiv'd from him things so deliver'd and Preach'd them to all Nations And Universal because Attested by the Catholick Church of all Ages to have been handed to her as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles And to prevent all mistakes let Protestants take notice that the Church of Rome sends not her Children only to search for what is Divine or Apostolical Tradition in matters of Faith and Discipline out of the Writings of the Fathers or other Libraries of Books fill'd with dead Words which are subject to various Interpretations by Critical heads without any hope of Agreement and can have no Authority dependent on Tradition though upon this account she has infinite advantage against all other Communions in the World to justify her Faith and practice in any unbyass'd Judgments But sends them to a visible living Oracle Oral Tradition that is the voice of the present Church attesting
and after much enquiry it was evident to me they could not afford to Impartial Judgments any solid and real satisfaction For the main Pillar of the Protestant Religion being to make the Scripture the sole Rule of Faith I finding by clear conviction this foundation to be without Solidity how could I in Reason or Conscience stand firm to that Church which I saw built on so unstable a bottom And indeed were Protestants able to perform what they promise that is to resolve all Controversies of Faith by Sacred Scripture we should be so far from being true Christians the best of men that we were worse than Beasts if we should refuse to be judg'd thereby Wherefore it is a wrongful Imputation in them to bear the World in hand that we have not a due veneration of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth when our reverence and respect to them is in reality more than theirs our Canon more general our Expositions more elaborate humble and submissive and our Assent unchangeable to whatsoever the Church declares to be revealed by them or is contain'd in them evidently by necessary consequence They in the interim only believing by a Spirit with a strange presumption what they please saying and unsaying in Civil Wars among themselves as well as against us whom they call the common enemy what they think is for their present advantage to serve their turn on all occasions And while we necessarily urge to all Christians the Authority of the Church as the Pillar and ground of Truth we are so far from intending any diminution of their just esteem that if they can produce but one single place of Scripture evidently containing the contrary to what we believe Conclamatum est The controversy is at an end we will confess we are in the wrong and for this Miracle for 't will be no less when ever it is done yield the whole cause unto them But 'till then let thâ—m cease to traduce us as Non-Veneraâ—ers of Sacred Writ because we will not receive it for what God did never intend it and leave it to his Church And against the evidence of our own Eyes and long experience acknowledge it to have conditions fit and requisite for the plain and Infallible instruction of all Christians of the whole Law of Christ and final decision of all Controversies For that Scripture by it self cannot perform those necessary Offices in the Church will manifestly be made to appear in the following Sections But first I shall shew that herein they agree with other Hereticks and Dissent from the Antient Church as well as from Us in this main fundamental of their Religion SECT II. Hereticks from the beginning were accustomed to Appeal to Scripture as the sole Rule of Faith whereby they would be judg'd in opposition to the Traditionary Doctrine and Sense of the Catholick Church THat whatsoever is purely of Divine Faith depends necessary on the Word of God is sound Doctrine but that all Supernatural Verities revealed to the Church are so written in the received Canon as none can misunderstand them is a most dangerous position yet the Anchora Sacra and chief refuge of old condemned Hereticks as well as of our modern Adversaries who groundiug their novel Opinions upon Texts of Scripture as interpreted by their own private Reason do at last make them Heretical by choosing pertinaciously to adhere to them against the Sense and Judgement of the Church A sad Case this that with the Waters of Life they should suck in Eternal Death into their Souls But alas Thus they turn Remedies into Diseases and blind their Eyes with the Heavenly Light of the Word becoming so much the more incorrigible because they perswade themselves even against evidence if seeing they would see that they have Divine Authority for their Doctrines The Arians in the Controversy between them and Catholicks about the Divinity of Christ would admit nothing but Scripture as St. Austin testifies bringing in Maximus an Arian Bishop thus disputing with him If you produce any thing Cont Max. l. 1. Init. out of the Divine Scriptures which are cemmon to all of necessity we must give ear unto it But these words which are without Scripture in no Case are received by us The direct Language of Protestants who in this however are perfect Arians The Macedonians impugning the Divinity of the Holy Ghost rejected the Gloria Patri Filio Spiritui Sancto whereby the Church professes her belief of a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence because not contained in Holy Writ Witness St. Basil They Li. de Sp. S. c. 25 26. the Macedonians cease not to brag up and down that the Glorification of God with the Holy Ghost wants Testimony wants Scripture Thus they then and thus Protestants now in points controverted between them and us But hear the same Holy Fathers answer Verily against The Church then in â—hâ—r Doxology us'd Cum Spiritu Sancto as El Spiritui Sancto that they say the Preposition cum Spiritu Sancto to want Testimony nor to be extant in Scripture we reply thus If nothing else be received without the Scripture neither truly let this be received by us without Scripture let us also receive this among many other For I think it Apostolical to adhere to the unwritten Traditions You see we need not new words to condemn the Protestants who will never be able to give any rational satisfaction why they receive some things not in Scripture only upon the score of Church-Tradition and yet refuse other alike commended to them by the same Authority In all reason they deserve an equal reception and so they must become Catholicks Euryches the Arch-Heretick denyed Christ to be perfect man as well as perfect God and for his defence appealed to Scripture Ergo a S. Scripturâ—s 〈…〉 saith he have vet learned from the Sacred Scrâ—ptures of two Natures To whom it was replyed Neither have we been Concit Chalced. Act. 1. taught the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Sacred Writ Which must needs put him to a bashful silence the verity of Christ's Humane Nature being as fully deliver'd in Scripture as his Divine though not in such express terms as they required And therefore both either to be necessarily receiv'd or rejected by them But Protestants certainly have far less to say for themselves who with the Eutychians receiving the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not found in Scripture yet deny the Corporal presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist by a real though Invisible Change of the Visible Elements when My Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink Joh. 6. 51. 55. indeed And again The Bread that I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the World And the most Sacred words of Institution This is my Body This is my Plood are plain and express terms as any Doctrine can be delivered unto our capacity The Pelagians to
name no more and only such as Protestants themselves repute Hereticks those Arch-Enemies of the Doctrine of Grace so abundantly delivered in Sacred Writ yet fly thither also to set up Nature against it as St. Austin who best knew relates of them in these words Let us say they the L. de Nat. Grat. 39. Pelagians believe what we read what we read not let us believe unlawful to maintain Thus Scripture was their Sword and Buckler against the definitions of the Church whereby they were condemned neither could they so escape the brand of Heresie And Protestants taking up the same Weapons in the same manner to uphold themselves against the Faith and practice of all Ages by treading in the steps of such Predecessors shew sufficiently of what Generation and Spirit they are and seem justly involv'd in the same condemnation Thus having made good the first thing I promis'd in this Section namely that the common course of Hereticks is to have recourse to sole Scripture and to urge it as Interpreted by themselves against the Churches sense and judgment to speak any thing of the second to wit the different Faith and Practice of the Christian World would be but actum agere a superfluous labour being so largely before declared Sect. 5. of Trad. and the two last Sections of the Churches Authority in the handing of Tradition and the Infallibility or Authority of the Church and thither I refer the Courteous Reader Only for the present give me leave to say that I carefully comparing both these together found manifest different Rules of Faith without any possibility of reconcilement old and new Hereticks appealing to Scripture and resolute to be tryed by nothing else without any visible Judge to interpret them The Ancient Fathers and present Catholicks asserting the word of God whether written or unwritten as delivered to us by the universal Tradition of the Church and declared by her voice in approved General Councils to be the only sufficient and sure foundation of Christian belief I found that if these built their Faith on solid and safe Principles as it appeared to me they did the other must needs rely on an uncertain and groundless foundation for their Religion and having a desire to be numbred with the Saints not Hereticks of old I found I could not be so except I did relinquish Protestancy and unite my self to the Roman Church of the same belief and practice with Primitive Christians SECT III. A declaration of the English Protestants Doctrine how and why they make Scripture the only Rule of Faith FOr the clearer handling of this point and prevention of all mistakes I shall faithfully deliver what the Protestant Church of England teaches Principally in this main fundamental of her Religion and not injure it or her to the best of my judgment by any Observations made thereon First she teaches That Holy Scripture doth explicitly contain all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite and necessary to Salvation This the Composers of her Articles do teach and this they must teach who will make the written Word an entire Rule of Faith that is comprehending all points necessary to Salvation Now in all reason to satisfy those whom they would perswade to be of this belief it ought to be made evident that the Apostles in their Writings did intend plainly and perfectly to comprize whatsoever is necessary to be believ'd and practis'd by all Christians and deposited them in the Church as a complete Rule of Faith for the tryal of all Doctrines she also receiving it for such and practising accordingly in all Ages Which once done their position is then a most clear and rational inference But this being impossible for them to prove because contradicted by the Faith and practice of the Primitive Church which could not be ignorant of all Apostolical Doctrines and Constitutions and also of present Catholicks receiving them from her by an uninterrupted visible Tradition must needs be a false and most dangerous Principle though laid for the foundation of their Religion Secondly for a further ground-work she teaches That General Councils may and have erred even in things appertaining to God That is in matters of Faith as well as of Fact as her own Expositions more freely express her meaning A Doctrine the first Reformers would never have given place in the foundation of their Spiritural building even for their own sakes but that it was not possible their new Fabrick of Faith could stand for any considerable time without fall of the Churches Authority Were not they then sit men to be credited if General Councils may err But that which follows Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary unto Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken explicitely out of Holy Scriptures Is the very quintessence of Anarchy and Rebellion so destructive of all Government though an Engine made only to batter down the Church that were it put in practice as here taught confusion would cover the face of the earth and the World would run quickly back into its first Chaos For if things ordained by General Councils have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that it is made out to every private Judgment that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures I demand by whom this may be or must be declared Now let it be considered that Church Governours are instituted by Jesus Christ having the Keys of so wonderful and transcendent power committed to their hands That whatsoever they Mat. 18. 18. shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven With a promise from Christ That where they meet in his Name he will be in the midst of them and ver 19. that he will be always with them to the Mat. 28. 20. Worlds end And that the Holy Spirit shall guide them into all Truth Joh. 16. 13. I say let this be consider'd and if the Decrees of such a Tribunal ordaining concerning points of Faith and proposing them to all Christians to be believ'd as the revealed will of God by his word from Heaven and necessary to Salvation have no strength nor Authority 'till it may be further declared that they are taken out of Holy Scriptures those that require this condition to make them obligatory cannot possibly give any reasonable satisfaction to this demand unless they find out such a Judge who is fitter and in all probability more likely not to err or deceive us in teaching what are revealed Truths But how impossible this is to be done any one of an ordinary understanding may without much study determine Yet while they are in vain attempting it if men should take their word as too many have already in denying
Corruption 't is morally impossible that such novelty as an universal Usurpation in matters of the highest concern should insensibly creep into the Church without discovery and invade the whole Christian World without opposition and this too in producing notoriously visible effects which necessarily must accompany such an innovation Doubtless such a change in a matter of pretended Divine Institution would have made a strange clamour and confusion in the Christian World One may as well maintain that the bloody alterations of Government in our Island have crept into the Nation and after the sad miseries of so long a war leaving behind it evidences to every eye no man can tell how or be sensible when and in what manner those grand mutations hap'ned Yea this might be defended with more show of reason those alterations being in Temporal matters acted in a corner of the World and therefore more easily brought about with lesser noise and better stifled in their birth that they might not be transmitted to posterity then this usurpation in a Spiritual Government founded by Christ himself to continue for ever over all the Nations of the Earth in those things which concern the eternal Salvation of their Souls Those reverend Witnesses of our Ancient Faith the Holy Fathers who were so tenacious and careful of Christian Customs and the Doctrine once deliver'd to the Saints that they have exactly observ'd and register'd in the least innovations of Faith or practice which new Teachers would have brought into the Church and were always more ready to part with their lives than any one point of their Religion would they have quietly suffered the Government of the Church the sole Conserver of its Doctrine instituted by Christ himself to be changed and not generally complain contradict oppose register and publish it to the whole World that they might know it to be a usurpation a spurious issue no plant of our Heavenly Fathers planting and therefore to be abominated and rooted out It is incredible that they who were so eagle-ey'd to observe and eager to contradict matters of far less moment should in a business of such concernment be wholly silent and betray the Truth For if they have declar'd the Bishop of Rome's supreme Power and Jurisdiction in Gods Church as Successor to St. Peter in his Primacy to be an usurp'd Authority and of humane invention and as such oppos'd it let them show it out of their Writings that we may know when by whom and by what means 't was introduced into the Church so as to invade the whole Body of Christianity And if they cannot as most certainly they cannot having labour'd in vain to do 't for above these 100 years and their own differences about the time when 't was first brought in being a manifest proof it can never be assigned and confess'd so by the most ingenuous among them seeing 't is a Government that hath been in quiet possession of the Christian World time out of mind with a belief of its divine institution handed as such to us by Universal Tradition unless they will divest themselves of reason they cannot but acknowledge that ab initio fuit sic 't is as old as Christian Religion and all those Schismaticks who disobey so Sacred a Power under the pretence of usurpation The Divine Right of the Pope's Supremacy in Spiritual matters being thus vindicated those pretences of a Godly Reformation and reducing Church Government to its Primitive Institution fall to nothing of themselves what they call Reformation being a violent usurpation of anothers right and upon what Motives is too notorious to be justified 'T were much to be wish'd they would lay to heart how in the late Revolutions by Gods most remarkable judgments on them those very weapons which they us'd against Papal Power have been taken up by the Presbyterians to the ruine and extirpation of Eposcopacy for some time And those Zealots in the same sort as handsomely cudgell'd by the Independants all equally pretending a Godly Reformation and reducing Religion to its primitive Purity Here I might conclude this Motive of my Conversion wherein I have been very large because Schism being a matter of fact is more discernable by ordinary capacities than disputes of things more abstracted from sense and consequently it is more easie to discover to all Seperatists the danger of their condition that they may return to Catholick unity especially considering the proof wholly lyes on our Adversaries side to demonstrate so long a continued Government as the Pope's Primacy over the Catholick Church to be a meer Tyrannical Usurpation or else to stand unanswerably convicted of Schism for renouncing such an Authority evidenced unto us by Universal Tradition which is our tenure in points of Faith However in that many poor Souls not knowing or not considering the strength of universal practice and immemorial possession on the Catholicks side are still seduced and kept in error by some places gleaned here and there from Sacred Scripture and the Writings of Antiquity wrest'd to their purpose that they may evidently see that all such verbal proofs from dead Letters are made to speak what the Authors never intended I shall ex abundante to give them all possible satisfaction in a matter of so great consequence produce such clear Testimonies from undoubted Records of Antiquity speaking the Faith and practice of the primitive Church in the point of the Pope's Supremacy to be the same with the new present Church of Rome that more cannot be required by men of Reason SECT VIII Wherein the Pope's Universal Power and Supreme Jurisdictidiction in Gods Church is farther manifested and made good from Councils and the verdict of Ancient Fathers grounded on Sacred Scriptures WE holding St. Peter to be constituted by Christ himself the Head and Prince of the Apostles that is to have a Supreme Power and Jurisdiction in Gods Church peculiarly entrusted to him and the Pope's universal Pastorship to be founded on the Primacy of St. Peter as his Successors the Testimonies we are producing must make good too things First that the Ancient Church believed St. Peter to be Prince of the Apostles and Head of the Universal Church Secondly the Bishops of Rome succeed him in that Authority and Jurisdiction Here the Fathers first declare their belief in these particulars I begin with Anacletus Pope and Martyr immediately after the first Century speaking the very words of the present Church Haec Sacrosancta Ann. 101. Epist 3. ad omnes Epist Romana c. This Holy and Roman and Apostolical Chair hath obtained the Primacy and eminency of Power over all Churches and the whole Congregation of Christian People not from the Apostles but from our Lord and Saviour as he said to Blessed Peter the Apostle Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church Julius the first of that Name in the Roman Chair writing to the Bishops of the East in behalf of St. Athanasius that invincible
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
of Divine Authority And how in after Ages to this present the Truth of Christian Belief was attested to all men by signs from Heaven more or less wrought in the Catholick Church by her Professors is manifest by the undoubted Records and Histories of the whole Christian World Yea our Adversaries themselves who are Magdebu Centuria no friends to Miracles have distinctly set down and asserted manifold wonders wrought successively in the Church for 1300 Ages after Christ and why they should not as well believe the Miracles of the 14th Century and upwards wrought in the same Church related by as credible Authors as the former with as much evidence of certainty no man can imagine but that they were resolved Miracles should cease before their Church had a Beeing in the World lest they should justly be thought to introduce a false Religien having not the voice of Divine Miracles to attest it Wonderful The frequent use of Miracles was afforded to the the first Promulgators of the Gospel to give give it rooting and afterwards for increase and no sooner comes their Religion up but down goes Miracles to gain credit to It. As the Fathers must loose their Authority and begin to be erroneous when they manifestly assert what condemns their Doctrine So Miracles also must be put to silence and witness no longer to the Truth because they will not speak for their Religion And indeed themselves being wholly destitute of Miracles to confirm their new Faith and confessing they had been so long continued in the Roman Catholick Church they were necessitated if they would be obstinate in their way though against all evidence of Authority to deny any such to be now wrought in her least thereby they should confess that she only is the true Church of Christ But that the strength of this Motive may the better appear I shall in the further prosecution of it first declare wherein consists the nature of true Miracles Secondly I shall set down the causes why God is pleas'd to work such signs and wonders in and by his Church And thirdly I shall cull out among infinite some special Miracles which relate to our present Controversies being no less then so many Seals from Heaven stamp'd upon them in Divine Characters as visible evidences of Truth on the Catholicks side And those who assert the contrary do as it were deny God's attestation who can neither deceive nor be deceived SECT III. Wherein the nature of true Miracles consists is declared A True Miracle is an effect beside the ordinary course of the whole Creation and so above the Power of any Created entity visible or invisible Man or Angel Deus solus qui sacit mirabilia magna 't is God alone who worketh such wonders being the products of no less then Omnipotency it self For the order of the Universe in the concatenation of Causes and Effects being set a going by the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness of our great Creator the first mover not by necessity of nature but as a most free Agent according to the good pleasure of his will when it seems good unto him he can act besides this appointed course of nature either by producing the effects of secondary causes without their concurrence as by restoring sick and maimed persons to their perfect health and soundness in a moment by a word or as we read in the Acts Acts 3. 7. ca. 4. 30. ca. 5. 3. ca. 19 11 12 c. of the Apostles by Aprons and Handkerchiefs and such like things which having first touch'd the Bodies of his Saints are applyed to the parties ill-affected for their recovery Yea Act. 5. 15 16. the very shadow of St. Peter did cure many sick and infirm persons who were expos'd in the Streets lying in their Beds as he pass'd by Or else by restraining and curbing in the innate vertue of secondary causes from producing such effects to which by nature they are determin'd necessarily in the present circumstances as when the furious flames did not consume the three Dan. 3. 22 c. Children in the fiery furnace yea not so much as the smell of fire took hold on their Garments And as when the Sun was darkn'd at our Blessed Saviours passion the Moon being in opposition to it in its natural course Or else by producing some effects beyond the activity of created Agents to which second causes though strain'd to the utmost with their united forces cannot extend themselves as causing two bodies at the same time to be in the same place as when our Blessed Saviour came into his Disciples through the doors shut or raising the dead to life again as Lazarus was by our Blessed Saviour Notwithstanding our Souls being clouded with ignorance so that we apprehend not the utmost energetical vertue of created causes many things which are effected by a power secret and unknown to us are accounted by us though falsly truely Miraculous which indeed are either but Phantaâ—mes and meer deceptions Vide S. Tho. 22 ae q. 178. a. 2 in corp that is things not really done but only seem so Or if really produced and not in appearance only they are done by the application of natural causes though indiscernable to dim-eyed reason Vera mira truly wonderful to us because effected by a secret vertue But not Vere Miracula not true Miracles in their nature created causes producing them in the hand of quick-sighted strenuous and nimble Agents Of which sort are all those wonderful things which Magicians and Witches bring to pass by the Power and assistance of the Devil Such as the Aegyptian Magi wrought to harden Pharaoh's heart that he might not think Moses was sent from God or did by a Divine Power work true 2 Thess 2. 9 c. Miracles to confirm his Mission And Antichrist will come in great Power and signs and lying wonders according to the operation of Satan not true Miracles the only and peculiar work of Omnipotency Antichristi De Civ Dei l. 20. c. 19. opera possunt dici esse signa mendacii c. The works of Antichrist says St. Austin may be câ—ll'd lying wonders either because he shall deceive mens senses by Phantasms seeming to do what indeed he does not or if they be true Prodigies yet they shall draw men to believe a lye For they shall give credit to that man of sin as if he brought them to pass by a Divine Joh. 14 12. Power though only are effected by natural causes unknown to them Now though all things are alike easie to Omnipotency and so no Miracle properly greater then another 1 p q. cv a. 8. corp as having eye to the Power producing such effects Yet as more or less exceeding the faculty of created causes and looking that way they are truely said to be more or less Miraculous according to that of our Blessed Saviour Who believes in me the works that I do he shall do also and greater than