Valentian I absolutely deny as the Catholick Doctors upon good reasons generally do that the Pope can erre in such a business The certainty of this his belief he would ground upon those promises by which we are assured it shall never come to pass that the universal Church can be deceived in points of Religion But the whole Church should erre very grossly in such matters should it repute and worship him for a Saint which is none Hereit would be observed how Satan instigates these men unto such Tenents as may occasion God and his Gospel to be blasphemed First they would make it an Article of Faith that all must believe as the Pope teacheth whence it follows that either he cannot teach amiss or else faith may perish from off the earth Which if it could God were not true in his promises The surest pledge the Christian world can have of his fidelity in them must be the Popes infallibility so as from the first unto the last he must be held as true in his dealings as God in his sayings If he fail in Canonizing a Saint whom he cannot possibly know to be such unless he knew his heart which belongs wholly unto his maker God must be a lyar and there is no Truth in him The final issue intended by Satan in these resolutions is this When men have been a long time led on with fair hopes of gaining heaven by following the Popes direction and yet in the end see as who not blind sees not his gross errors and detestable villanies they may be hence tempted to blaspheme God as if he had been his copartner in this cosenage From this root I take it hath Atheism sprung so fast in Italy For whilest faith is in the blade and their hopes flourishing they imagine God and the Pope to be such friends as their blind guides make them But afterwards comming to detestation of this man of sin and his treachery holding his spiritual power as ridiculous they think either as despitefully or contemptuously of the Deity or say with the fool in their hearts there is no God 3 Thus Antichrists followers still run a course quite contrary to Christian religion For if it be true as it is most true that faith cannot utterly perish from off the earth what damnable abuse of Gods mercie and favour toward mankinde is this in seeking as the Jesuites do to make all absolutely rely upon one in matters of Faith For so if he fail all others must of necessity fail with him That is the whole world must be as kind supernatural fools to him as that natural idiote was to his Master who being demanded whether he would go to heaven with him or no replyed he would go to hel with so good a Master seeing any man would be willing to go to heaven with an ordinary friend yea with his enemy Though we should use no other argument but that Avoid ye sons of Satan for it is written ye shall not tempt the Lord your God It should me thinks be enough to put all the Jesuites in the world unto silence in this point did they not as far exceed their father in impudency as they come short of him in wit For this manner of tempting God is more shameless then Divels suggestion unto our Saviour when he was instanly silenced with this reproof A presumption it is more damnable to expect the protection or guidance of Gods spirit in such desperate resolutions as Valentian here brings then it were for a man to throw himself headlong from an high towr upon hope of Angelical supportance For seeing as I said God hath promised that true faith shal not perish from off the earth for all men to adventure their faith upon one mans infallibility who may have less saving faith in him then Turk or Infidel is but a provoking or daring of God to recall his promise Or what more damnable doctrine can be imagined then that all men should worship him for a Saint whom the wickedest man on earth doth commend unto him for such 4 But to proceed As the Doctrine is most impious so are the grounds of it most improbable For how can the Pope or Papists infallibly know this or that man to be a Saint Seeing there is no particular revelation made of it either to the Pope or others I answer saith Valentian that the general revelation whereby it is evident that whatsoever the Pope shall decree as pertaining to the whole Church is most true may suffice in this case Moreover saith he unto the Canonizing of Saints appertain these revelations of Scripture in which heavenly joyes are generally proposed to all such as lead a Godly life For by the Popes determination we know the Saint which he hath Canonized to be contained in the foresaid universal proposition Whence it is easie to frame an assent of faith by which we may perswade our selves that such a Saint hath obtained eternal bliss 5 I would request the Reader by the way to note the Jesuites injurious partiality in scoffing at such of our Writers as without express warrant of particular revelation hold a certainty of their own salvation when as they onely by Gods general promises to such as lead a godly life and the Popes infallibility in declaring who have so lived can be certain defide others are saved But the former doubt is rather removed then quite taken away by this his answer if it stand alone As yet it may be questioned how any can infallibly know the truth of what he cannot possibly know at all but onely by other mens testimonies in their nature the Jesuite being judge not infallible and in whose examination it is not impossible his Holinesse may be negligent For how men live or dye in England Spain or the Indies no Pope can tel but by the information of others no Popes The Reader perhaps wil prognosticate Valentians answer as in truth I did For when I first framed the doubt before I read it in him me thought it stood in need of such a reply as Bellarmin brought for defence of the vulgar interpreter Altogether as foolish it were to think any private mans information of anothers uprightness in the sight of God as to hold Theodotion the Heretick could not erre in translating of the Bible But though they may be deceived in testification of anothers sanctity yet Valentian tels you supposing the Pope is once induced by their testimonies though in nature fallible to pronounce him a blessed Saint all must infallibly believe their testimonies at least so far as they prove in general that he died a Godly and religious death are true and that the party commended by them is of that number which as we may gather from the general revelations of Scriptures shall be made partakers of everlasting life Again whether the Pope in defining a controversie use diligence or no yet without all question he shall define infallibly and consequently use the authority
brest He may by his own followers Consession be as incorrigible for bad Life and Manners as infallible for matters of Doctrine Seeing then their supposed Rule cannot remove those Impediments which detain the Jews with other Infidels and Hereticks from the Truth can it make men Believe aright whilest They remain If it can it is of greater force then either our Saviours Authority or skil in Scriptures Neither of which not all his travels and best endeavours here on earth though infinitely surpassing any pains the Pope is willing to take could instruct the Jews in the Doctrine of Faith whilest their carnal Affections remained in strength How can ye Believe saith he who spake as never man spake and had wrought those Works none other could which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh 〈◊〉 God alone 14 To conclude then If the Infidelity of the Jews be any just exception why Scriptures cannot be the perfect Rule of Faith this Exception will disinable the Roman Churches infallible Authoritie for being such a Rule But if the general Error of the Jews in the very main Foundation of Religion be no just Exception why either the Scripture according to us or the Churches Authority according to them should not be the Rule of Faith then cannot the Errors of Hereticks or varietie of Opinions about the sense and Meaning of particular places of lesse moment impeach the sufficiencie of Scripture for performing all that is required by either Partie in their supposed absolute Rule For it shall God willing be made evident in due place that the self same Affections onely different in degree sometimes not so much which caused the Jews Insidelitie in our Saviours time are the onely roots and fountains of Heresies and Dissentions throughout all Ages 15 And as elsewhere is already proved wheresoever the habitual Affection for degree and qualitie is the Heresie or Insidelitie is likewise the same even in such as hold contrary Opinions and would perhaps maintain their contrarietie unto death for as many strongly perswaded of their Belief in Christ shall go for Infidels in that last day so may such as think themselves Orthodoxes be tainted with the contrarie Heresie which they impugne if subject to the same Affections which did breed it But for us to account such as make profession of Christianitie Insidels or such as subscribe to Orthodoxal Doctrine Hereticks would be injurious and unlawfull not because the former Assertion indesinitely taken is not warrantable but because no man can precisely discern the Indentitie of inward Affection save he alone that knoweth the secrets of all hearts Thus all the Blasts of vain Doctrine they can oppose unto the Truth we maintain do in the issue fasten the roots of Faith once rightly planted howsoever they may shake the timerous or faint-hearted Christian or cause the weak in Faith not cleaving to Scripture as their onely infallible Rule and sure Supporter dangerously to reel and stagger But though they fall yet Gods Word shall never fail to approve it self a most perfect Rule besides others in these Two respects First in that none can fail in that course which it prescribes or fall away from Faith but by such means as the Jew hath done the true Causes of whose Apostacie and incredulitie it hath expresly foretold and fully registred to Posterity Secondly because such as it doth not no other Rule Means or Authority possible either in the earth or in the region below the earth shall ever win to true Christian Faith CAP. XXIII The Suffficiencie of Scriptures for Final Determination of Controversies in Religion proved by our Saviours and his Apostles Authority and Practise 1 NOr will They be ruled by an Angel from Heaven That will not obey the live Voice of the Son of God whose Miracles whilest he lived here on earth joyned with his Doctrine we will suppose were of as much force if the Jesuite will grant no more as the Popes Proposal of Scriptures to beget Faith or convince gain-sayers of Truth The Jews were of diverse Opinions about his Doctrine Some said he was a good man Others said No but he deceiveth the People he gives them a Rule as you heard before how to discern it If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine c. This contents them not albeit he had done many and good works amongst them sufficient to have manifested his Divine Authority unto such as had never heard of Moses or a Messias to come Nay they go about to kill him for those works which bare Testimonie of his Worth and as they thought had Warrant of Scripture for so doing because he did them on the Sabbath day Here Christ is of one Opinion the Jews of another concerning the Sense of Scripture Who shall judge or by what Rule must their contrary Doctrine be tried By Christs infallible Authoritie they admit it not By extraordinary and miraculous Works they persecute him for his Miracles already wrought for their peoples good Doth Christ here leave them because destitute of a Rule to recall them If he had none how shall the Pope by his own challenge but his Vicar have any to convince his Adversaries It Christ submit his Divine Doctrine to any other Rule how dare the Pope deny submission of his to the same What Rule then was left Onely the Scripture which both 〈◊〉 acknowledge They pretend Moses Law concerning Sabbath-breach why he should die unto their false interpretation of this our Saviour opposed the true meaning of another Mosaical Scripture Moses forbad Murther as well as Sabbath-day-breaking and yet they seek to kill Christ only for Fealing a man upon the Sabbath-day so forgetfull are they of the One and so partially addicted to the Other But how shall they know that to make a man whole upon the Sabbath was not to break it and violate Moses Law This our Saviour makes evident unto them by exposition of that Law and their own Custom which continued from the first promulgation was a good interpretation of it Moses saith our Saviour gave unto you Circumcision not because it is of Moses but of the Fathers and ye on the Sabbath-day circumcise a man If a man on the Sabbath-day receive Circumcision that the Law of Moses should not be broken be ye angrie with me because I have made a man every whit whole 〈◊〉 the Sabbath-day Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgement Thus was Scripture applied to their Conscience the last and finall Rule by which they stand or fall and is alwayes a Light either bringing men to see their own Salvation or putting out their wonted sight in token of their Condemnation to utter darknesse And Christs last words in that Controversie Judge not according to the appearance are likewise a written Rule of Scripture so absolute a Rule is this Sacred Word of God by our Saviours consent and practise both to inform the
Melody and joy at their Destructions yet we assure our selves and ye might dread Gods further Judgement by the event it was the Cry of their innocent Bloud which fill'd the Court of Heaven and in a just revenge of their Oppression procured Luthers Commission for Germanies Revolt And yet say you Luther was the Cause of Dissention in Christs Church why so Because he burst your former Unity whose only Bond was Hellish Tyrannie Of such a dissention and of the breach of such an Unity we grant he was the Cause and you have no just cause to accuse him of dissention or disobedience for it For all kind of Unity is not to be preferred before all kind of Dissention or Revolt He that will not dissent from any man or society of men upon any Occasion whatsoever must live at perpetual Enmity with his God and War continually against his own Soul For there is an Unity in Rebellion a Brotherhood in Mischief a Society in Murther both of Body and Soul Wherefore unlesse you can prove your Cause or Title for exacting such absolute submission of mens souls and spirits unto your Church or Popes Decrees to be most just and warrantable by Commission from the Highest Power in Heaven Luther and all that followed him did well in preferring a most just most necessary and sacred War before a most unjust and shamefully-execrable Peace A Peace no Peace but a banding in open Rebellion against the Supream Lord of Heaven and Earth and his Sacred Laws given for the perpetual Government of Mankind throughout their generations 4 To presse you a little with your Objections against us and our Doctrine for nourishing dissention Our Church say you hath no Means of taking up Controversies aright If this were true yet God be praised it ministreth no just occasion of any dangerous Quarrel But be ours as it may be hath your Church any better Means for composing Controversies of greatest moment that raign this day throughout the Christian World Or doth it not by this insolent proud tyrannical claim of Soveraigntie and imperial Umpiership over all other Churches in all Controversies give just cause of the greatest dissention and extremest Opposition that can be imagined could be given in the Church of Christ The whole world besides cannot minister any like it Nature and common Reason teach us that a man may with far safer Conscience take arms in defence of his Life and Liberty then in hope to avoid some pettie loss or grievance or to revenge some ordinary cause of private discontent the Quarrel in the one though with resistance unto our Adversaries bloud may be justifiable which in the other albeit within the compasse of lesse danger were detestable But Grace doth teach us this Equitie Skin for Skin all that ever a man hath the whole world and more if he had it is to be spent in the defence of Faith the only seat of our Spiritual Life or for the Libertie of our Conscience You alone teach that all men should submit their Faith to your Decrees without examination of them or appeal from them we usurp no such Authoritie either over yours or any mens Consciences You challenge our Soveraign Lord and all his People to be your ghosily Slaves we only stand in our own defence we exact to such absolute Service or Allegeance either of you or any other the meanest Christian Church no nor our Prince and Clergie of the natural members of our own They only seek would God they sought aright in time to keep them short at home whose long reach might hale over Sea your long-sought Tyrannie over this People of Brittany happily now divided Lord ever continue this happy Division from the Romish world Unlesse your Means of taking up so great Contentions as hence in equitie ought to arise be so superexcellent that it can make amends where all is marred for which I cannot see what Means can be sufficient unlesse you either let your Suit fall or prove your Title to be most just by Arguments most Authentick and strong you evidently impose a necessitie of the greatest Contentions and extremest Opposition that any abuse or wrong losse or danger possibly to befall a Christian man either as a Man or Christian either in things of this life or that other to come either concerning his very Life and Libertie whether Temporal or Spiritual or whatsoever else is more dear unto him can occasion of breed 5 That which ye usually premise to work such a prejudice in credulous and unsetled minds as may make your sleight pretences of Reason or Scripture to be sifted anone seem most firm and solid to ground you Infallibility upon is the supposed Excellency of it for taking up all Controversies in Religion and so of retaining Unitie of Holy Catholick Faith in the Bond of Love If indeed it were so excellent for this purpose you might rest contented with it and heartily thank God for it Yea but because you have this excellent Means which we have not nor any like unto it yours is the true Catholick Church and ours a congregation of Schismaticks What if we would invent the like would that serve to make ours a true Church Or tell us what Warrant have you for inventing or establishing your supposed most excellent Order for taking up Controversies Was it from Heaven or was it from Men If from Heaven we will obey it if from Men we will imitate you in it if we like it But first let us a little further examin it CAP. XXVIII That of two Senses in which the Excellency of the Romish Churches pretended Means for retaining the Unity of Faith can only possibly be defended The one from the former discourse proved apparently False The other â—… self as palpably Ridiculous 1 WHen you affirm the Infallibility of your Church to be so excellent a Means for taking up all Controversies in Religion you have no choice of any other but one of these two Meanings Either you mean It is so excellent a means de facto and doth take up all Controversies or else it would be such as might take up all if all men would subscribe unto It. 2 If you take the former Sense or meaning we can evidently take you as we say with the very manner of Falshood For this claim of such Authoritie as we partly shewed before is the greatest eye-sore to all faithful eyes that can be imagined and makes your Religion more irreconcilable to the Truth And for this Church of England as in it some dissent from you in many Points others in fewer some more in one some more in another so in this of your Churches Infallibility all of us dissent from you most evidently most eagerly without all hope of Reconcilement or agreement unlesse you utterly disclaim the Title in as plain terms as hitherto you have challenged it Your dealing herein is as absurdly impious and impiously insolent as if any Christian Prince or State should
their Churches absolute priviledge from all error and That other of Christs real presence in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation It cannot again but add much to our grief and indignation if we call to mind how when the chief Governor and publick authority of this land were for them subscription was not urged upon such violent and bloudy terms unto any articles of their Religion as unto that of Real presence The mystery of which iniquity cannot better be resolved then into the powerful and deceitful working of Satan thus delighting to despight our Lord and Saviour by seducing his professed subjects unto the highest and most desperate kind of rebellion he could imagine upon the least occasions and shallowest reasons For such is their madness in that other point as hath been shewed in this Not one inconvenience they can object to our opinion but may be demonstrated against theirs not any fruits of Godliness they can pretend but our doctrine more directly brings forth then theirs could though we did admit it for true For to what other purpose such a Presence as they imagin should serve them save only to countenance those desperate idolatrous practices and Litourgies of Satan touched by the way in some parts of these discourses is inexplicable as shall be shewed more at large without depriving that heavenly mystery of any solemnity or devotion due unto it in the unfolding of that controversie Yours in Christ Jesus THOMAS JACKSON A Table of the Several Sections and Chapters in the Book following SECTION I. CAP. I. Containing the Assertions of the Romish Church whence her three-fold Blaspemie springs Page 309 SECT II. The first branch of Romish Blasphemie in preferring Human authority before Divine 315 2. Bellarmines replie to the main Objection joyntly urged by all Reformed Churches against the Romish the Equivocation which he sought in the Objection apparently found in his Replie 316 3. Inferring the general conclusion proposed in the Title of this Section from Bellarmins resolution of faith 319 4 Containing a further resolution of the Romish faith necessarily inferring the authority of the Roman Church to be of greater authority then Gods word absolutely not only in respect of us 324 5 That in obeying the Romish Churches Decrees we do not obey Gods word as well as them but them alone in contempt of Gods principal Lawes 327 6 Propounding what possibly can be said on our adversaries behalf for avoiding the force of the former Arguments shewing withall the special points that lie upon them to prove as principally whether their Belief of the Churches authority can be resolved into any Divine testimony 339 7 That neither our Saviours Prayers for the not failing of Peters faith Luke 22. 32. nor his commending his sheep unto his feeding Joh. 21. 15. prove any Supremacy in Peter over the Church from which the authority of the Pope can with probability be derived 31 8 That Christ not S. Peter is the Rock spoken of Matth. 16. 18. That the Jesuites exposition of that place demonstrateth the Pope to be The great Antichrist 347 9 That the Romanists Belief of the Churches infallible authority cannot be resolved into any Testimony better then Human whence the main Conclusion immediately follows That the Romanist in obeying the Church-decrees without examination of them by Gods word prefers mans Lawes before Gods 365 10 In what sence the Jesuites may truly denie They Believe the words of man better then the words of God In what sence again our Writers truly charge them with this Blasphemie 373 SECT III. 11 What restraint precepts for obedience unto the Priests of the Law though seeming most universal for their form did necessarily admit How universal Propositions of Scriptures are to be limited 376 12 The authority of the Sanhedrim not so universal or absolute amongst the Jewes as the Papists make it but was to be limited by the former Rules 385 13 That our Saviours injunction of obedience to the Scribes and Pharisees though most universal for the form is to be limited by the former Rules that without open blasphemie it cannot be extended to countenance the Romish cause that by it we may limit other places brought by them for the Popes transcendent universal authority 391 14 What it would disadvantage the Romish Church to denie the infallibility of the Synagogue 398 15 That justly it may be presumed the Iewish Church never had any absolute infallibility in proposing or determining Articles of Faith because in our Saviours time it did so grievously erre in the Fundamental point of salvation 400 16 That Moses had no such absolute authority as is now ascribed unto the Pope that the manner of his attaining to such as he had excludes all besides our Saviour from just challenge of the like 405 CAP. 17. That the Churches authority was no part of the rule of Faith unto the people after Moses death That by Experiments answerable unto the precepts and predictions the faithful without relying upon the Priests infallible proposals were as certain both of the divine truth and true meaning of the law as their forefathers had been that lived with Moses and saw his miracles Page 411 18 That the societie or visible company of Prophets had no such absolute authority as the Romish Church usurps 417 19 That the Church representative amongst the Jews was for the most part the most corrupt judge of matters belonging to God and the reason why it was so 422 20 That the Soveraignty given by Jesuites to the Pope is greater then our Saviours was 427 21 Confirming the truth delivered in the former Chapter from the very Law given by Moses for discerning the great Prophet further exemplifying the use and force of miracles for begetting faith The manner of trying prophesies Of the similitude betwixt Christ and Moses 434 22 That the method used by the great Prophet himself after his resurrection for planting faith was such as we teach The excesse of Antichrists exaltation above Christ The Diametral opposition betwixt the Spirit of God and the spirit of the Papacie 449 23 That the authority attributed to the present Pope and the Romish rule of faith were altogether unknown unto S. Peter the opposition betwixt S. Peters and his pretended successors doctrine 452 24 That S. Paul submitted his doctrine to examination by the Word before written That his doctrine dissposition and practise were quite contrary to the Romanists in this argument 456 25 A brief tast of our Adversaries blasphemous and Atheistical assertions in this argument from some instances of two of their greatest Doctors Bellarmin and Valentian That if faith cannot be perfect without the solemn testification of that Church the raritie of such testifications will cause infidelitie 460 SECT IIII. Containing the third branch of Romish Blasphemie or the last degree of great Antichrists exaltation utterly overthrowing the whole foundation of Christian Religion preposterously inverting both Law and Gospel to Gods dishonour and advancement of Sathans Kingdom 464 26
judgement which in outward profession not disclaiming the former main foundation of Christianity God manifested in the flesh can in deed and issue more evidently overthrow it more distinctly contradict either those Fundamental precepts of salvation last cited or more fully evacuate the often mentioned promise made unto Saint Peter then the foundation of Romish religion as Romish doth and I will do publick pennance in sack-cloth and asâ—es for laying the imputation of Antichristianism upon it Our Saviour saith whosoever heareth these words and doth them not doth build his house upon the sand They teach the contradictory as an Article of faith that the Pope or a Councel of Bishops assembled by his appointment instructed by his Infallibility confirmed by his plenary power do alwayes build upon the same Rock as Peter did yea that the Pope himself how wicked soever is that very Rock whereupon the Church that is in their language the Bishops thus assembled is built the oecumenical Pastor that must keep them and by them all Christs flock from going astray the supream head that by his vertue and influence must sustain every member of Christs body here on earth from falling into heresie or approaching the territories of hell through any kind of errour or infidelity 27 Our Saviour promised in solemn manner ex Cathedra the gates of hell shall never prevail against his Church What Church the Catholick What Catholick Visible or Invisible Triumphant or Militant Visible and Militant What Catholick visible militant Church The Roman that consists of divers members In it some are Pastors some are sheep whether have better interest in that Promise Pastors Of Pastors some are Prelates some inferiours whether are to be preferred before the other Prelates doubtlesse for of them consists the body of the Church representative which is most properly called the Church and next in reversion unto Peters prerogative Did the gates of hell then never prevail against the greatest Romish Prelates I nominate no particular person I speak onely of them as the Scripture doth of Drunkards Whoremongers Adulterers Dogs Enchanters Many of highest place in that Church have for a long time lived and for ought their followers can or care to say unto the contrary died such as the Spirit of God hath excluded from the Kingdome of Heaven such as Gods Word tels us hell must swallow up with open mouth Are they the Church and may hell gates prevail against them and yet not prevail against the Church 28 But if a woman an whorish woman cannot be taken without an excuse may we think those effeminate sworn creatures of servitude to that great Strumpet can want an answer No this distinction is alwayes at hand Their Popes and Cardinals may as erre so go to hell But how as private Doctors not as oecumenical Pastors not as they speak ex Cathedra so to my remembrance I have read of a proud Romish Prelate that being reproved for his secular pomp made answer he followed these fashions as he was a Duke not as an Archbishop But the reprovers reply hath made the Apologie better then which no Jesuite can make for the Pope most ridiculous ever since If this be so quoth the shepherd such was the Pastor God had appointed to rebuke the madnesse of this false Prophet I pray resolve me what shall become of my Lord Duke if the Archbishop go to the Devil If many sometimes Popes be now in hell as no Jesuite I think will professe any morall hope that all are saved What is become of the Church representative which lodged in their brains Hath the number of glorified Saints been encreased by their departure from earth Were they ever a whit more happie for being heirs to that glorious Promise Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church Or were their Comments upon that place Orthodoxal What was the comfort Saint Peter himself could ever have reaped thence Onely this though Sathan may so fist thee that thy soul may go to hell before thy body descend to the grave yet rest assured of this that thy faith which in Cathedral resolutions shall never sail thee in thy life time shall survive in thy successors when thou art dead but to what purpose if notwithstanding this prerogative all may descend one after another into hell 29 Or if their Doctrine were true to what end did Christ come in the flesh onely to build a Church which like a lamp or candle may gloriously shine whiles there is an uninterrupted succession of Popes to propagate the splendor but whose glorie when that expires for ought that glorious promise addes unto it must be extinguished as the light goes out when the oil is spent Better assurance then every Pope for his time hath Saint Peter by their doctrine had none from those words of our Saviour For whatsoever power or prerogative was in them bequeathed to him doth descend by inheritance to his successours And would the meanest Jesuite now living have gloried much in a life graced with no greater visible Church dignitie then S. Peters was perpetually exposed to like danger without any other solace to support it save onely this that his posterity should enjoy the same priviledges But now that the glory and dignity of the Romish Church is become so great and the Iesuites portion thereby grown so fat they can be well content to sooth up the Pope in this conceit that howsoever his person may go to hell a place it seems not much dreaded because unknown yet hell gates shall never prevail against his faith which hath brought such large possessions to the Church both which he may infallibly entail to his successors untill the worlds end But as I said before what then shall become of that Cathedral faith shall it augment the quire of Gods elect or can they make as many S. Faiths as have been Popes 30 Herein appears the excesse of these dayes impiety in respect of former that this imaginary Idea of Romish faith should be more superstitiously adored then any other Idoll in the World ever was Although that of the Apostle may be more properly said of it then any other nihil est in mundo Other Idols represented either men or beasts some permanent creature or reall quality This is a fancie of a Chimaera a shape of nothing or if by nature and essence ought it is such a conceit or mental quality as may be in devils Existence it hath none but as Eclipses of the Sun by fits or courses when the Pope shall speak ex Cathedra What shall become of it and the colours in the Rainbow after the day of judgement are two questions of like use and consequence and of these two Objects the one as fit to direct mens courses by Sea or Land as the other to conduct us towards heaven The dazled imaginations of these Idolaters that can thus conceit this faith to be spiritual and eternal by succession when it cannot save
Without the help or ministerie of man We maintain as wel as they God is not a father to such as will not acknowledge the Church for their Mother Notwithstanding thus we conceive and speak of the Church indefinitely taken not consined to any determinate place not appropriated to any individual or singularized persons Now to verifie an indefinite speech or proposition the truth of any one particular sufficeth As he that should say Socrates by man was taught his learning doth not mean the specifical nature or whole Mankind but that Socrates as others had one man or other at the first to instruct him The same Dialect we use when we say Every one that truly cals God father receives instructions from the Church his Mother that is from some in the Church lawfully ordained for planting faith unto whom such Filial Obedience as elsewhere we have spoken of is due The difference likewise between the Romanists and us hath partly been discussed before In brief it is thus We hold this Ministery of the Church is a necessary condition or mean precedent for bringing us to the Infallible Truth or true sense of Gods word yet no infallible Rule whereon finally or absolutely we must rely either for discerning divine Revelations or their true meaning But as those resentâ—â—ances of colours which we term Species visibiles are not seen themselves though necessary for the sight of real colours so this Minisiery of the Church alâ—… in it self not infallible is yet necessarily required for our right apprehension 〈◊〉 the Divine Truth which in it self alone is most infallible yea as infallible to us as it was ‖ to the Apostles or Prophets after it be rightly apprehended The difference is in the manner of apprehending or conceiving it They conceived it immediately without the Ministery or instruction of man so cannot we This difference elsewhere I have thus resembled As trees and plants now growing up by the ordinary husbandry of man from seeds precedent are of the same kind and quality with such as vvere immediately created by the hand of God so is the immediate ground of ours the Prophets and Apostles Faith the same Albeit theirs was immediately planted by the finger of God ours propagated from their seed Sown and cherished by the daily industry of faithful Ministers 3 Neither in the substance of this assertion nor manner of the explication do we much differ if ought from Canus in his second book where he taxeth Scotus Durand and others for affirming the last resolution of our faith was to be made into the veracity or infallibility of the Church The Apostles and Prophets saith he resolved their faith into truth and authority divine Therefore we must not resolve our faith into the humane authority of the Church For the faith is the same and must have the same Formal Reason For better confirmation of which assertion he adds this reason Things incident to the object of any habit by accident do not alter the formal reason of the object Now that the Articles of faith should be proposed by these or these men is meerly accidental wherefore seeing the Apostles and Prophets did assent unto the Articles of faith because God revealed them the reason of our assent must be the same Lastly he concludes that the Churches authority miracles or the like are only such precedent conditions or means for begetting faith as sensitive knowledge exhortations or advise of Masters are for bringing us to certain knowledge in demonstrative faculties Had either this great Divine spoken consequently to this doctrine in his 5th Book or would the Jesuites avouch no more then here he doth vve should be glad to give them the right hand of fellowship in this point But they go all a wrong way unto the truth or would to God any way to the truth or not directly to overthrow it Catharinus though in a manner ours in that question about the certainty of salvation saith more perhaps then they meant whom Canus late taxed Avouching as Bellarmin cites his opinion that divine faith could not be certain and infallible unlesse it were of an object approved by the Church Whence would follow what Bellarmin there infers that the Apostles and Prophets should not have been certain of their Revelations immediately sent from God until the Church had approved them which is a doctrine wel deserving a sharper censure then Bellarmin bestows on Cathirinus Albeit to speak the truth Bellarmin was no fit man to censure though the other most worthy to be severely censured Catharinus might have replied that the Prophets and Apostles at least our Saviour in whom Bellarmin instanceth vvere the true Church as wel as they make the Pope Nor can Valentia's with other late â—esuites opinions by any pretence or thew hardly Bellarmins own be cleared from the same inconveniences he objects to Catharinus as will appear upon better examination to be made hereafter CAP. XXVII That the Churches Proposal is the true immediate and prime cause of all obsolute belief any Romanist can have concerning any determinate divine Revelation 1 WHereas Valentian and as he sayes Caietan deny the Churches infallible proposal to be the cause why we believe divine Revelations This speech of his is Equivocal and in the equivocation of it I think Valentian sought to hide the truth The ambiguity or Fallacy is the same which was disclosed in Bellarmins reply unto us objecting that Pontificians make the Churches authority greater then Scriptures In this place as in that the word of God or divine revelations may be taken either indefinitely for whatsoever God shall be supposed to speak or for those particular Scriptures or Revela tions which we suppose he hath already revealed and spoken Or Valentian may speak of the object of our belief not of belief it self If we take his meaning in the former sense what he faith is most true For the Churches infallibility is no cause why we believe that to be true vvhich vve suppose God hath revealed nor did vve ever charge them with this assertion This is an Axiom of nature presupposed in all Religions yet of which none ever knew to make so great secular use as the Romish Church doth But if we speak of that Canon of Scripture which vve have or any things contained in it all which vve and our adversaries joyntly suppose to have come from God the only cause vvhy vve do or can rightly believe them is by Jesuitical doctrine the Churches infallibility that commends them unto us 2 If that Church which Valentian holds so infallible should have said unto him totidem verbis you must believe the books of Maccabees are canonical even for this reason that your holy Catholick Mother tels you so he durst not but have believed as wel the reason as the matter proposed To wit That these Books were Canonical because the Church had enjoyned him so to think albeit his private conscience left to Gods grace and
the furtherance of Piety and Godliness in perpetuam Eleemosynam for a perpetual deed of Charity which I hope the Reader will advance to the utmost improvement He that reads this will find his Learning Christening him The Divine and his Life witnessing him a man of God a Preacher of Righteousness and I might add a Prophet of things to come They that read those Qualifications which he in his Second and Third Book requires in them which hope to understand the Scriptures aright and see how great an insight he had into them and how many hid Mysteries he hath unfolded to this Age will say his Life was good Superlatively good The Reader may easily perceive that he had no design in his opinions no hopes but that blessed One proposed in the beginning that no preferment nor desire of Wealth nor affectation of Popularity should ever draw him from writing upon this Subject for which no man so fit as he because to use his own Divine and high Apothegme No man could properly write of Justifying Faith but he that was equally affected to Death and Honour Thus have I presented you with a Memorial of that Excellent Man but with infinite disadvantage from the unskilfulness of the Relator and some likewise from the very disposition of the Party himself The humble man conceals his perfections with as much pains as the proud covers his defects and avoids observation as industriously as the Ambitious provoke it He that would draw a face to the Life commands the Party to sit down in the Chair in a constant and unremoved Posture and a Countenance composed that he may have the full view of every line colour and dimension whereas he that will not yield to these Ceremonies must be surprized at unawares by Artificial stealth and unsuspected glances like the Divine who was drawn at distance from the Pulpit or an ancient man in our daies whose Statue being to be erected the Artificer that carved it was enforced to take him sleeping That which I have here designed next to the Glory of God which is to be praised in all his Saints is the benefit of the Christian Reader that he may learn by his Example as well as by his writings by his Life as well as by his Works which is the earnest desire of him who unfaignedly wishes the health and Salvation of your Souls E. V. THE ETERNAL TRVTH OF Scriptures AND CHRISTIAN BELIEF Thereon wholly depending Manifested by it own light Delivered in two Books of COMMENTARIES upon the Apostles Creed The former Containing the positive grounds of Christian Religion in general cleared from all exceptions of Atheists or Infidels The later Manifesting the Grounds of Reformed Religion to be so firm and sure that the Romanists cannot oppugne them but with the utter overthrow of the Romish Church Religion and Faith By THOMAS JACKSON D. D. LONDON Printed by R. Norton for T. Garthwait 1653. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE RALPH Lord EVRE Baron of MALTON and WILTON Lord President of his Majesties Court established in the Principalitie and Marches of Wales My singular good LORD RIGHT HONORABLE THough few others would I trust Your Lordship will vouchsafe countenance to these Commentaries rude and imperfect I must confesse but whose untimely or too hastie birth if so it prove and must be censured hath not been caused by any inordinate appetite but onely from a longing desire of testifying that love and duty which I owe unto your Honourable Familie and Person as in many other respects so chiefly in this That being ingaged unto a more gainfull but not so good a course of life and well-nigh rooted in another soil I was by your Lordships favourable advice and countenance transplanted to this famous Nursery of good learning Wherein by his blessing who onely gives increase to what his servants plant or water I have grown to such a degree of maturity as these raw Meditations argue or so wild a graft was capable of Course and unpleasant my fruit may prove but whiles it shall please the Lord to continue his wonted blessings of health and other opportunities altogether unfruitfull by his assistance I will not altogether idle I cannot be Such as these first fruits are much better I dare not promise the whole after-crop I trust shall be both for the sincerity of my intention acceptable I doubt not to my God the later I hope more ripe in the judgement of men then can in reason be expected the first fruits of the same mans labours should be Thus humbly beseeching your Honour to accept these as they are and to esteem of them howsoever otherwise as an undoubted pledge of a minde indeavouring to shew it self thankfull for benefits already received and much desiring the continuance of your honourable favours I continue my prayers unto the Almighty that he would multiply his best favors and blessings upon you Corpus-Christi Colledge in Oxford October 5. Your Lordships much devoted Chaplain THOMAS JACKSON TO THE CHRISTIAN READER IGnorant altogether I am not of the disposition though not much acquainted with the practises of this present age wherein to have meditated upon so many several matters as I here present unto thy Christian view will unto some I know seem but an effect of melancholie as to have taken the pains to pen them will argue my want of other imployments or forlorn hopes of worldly thriving Unto others and those more to be regarded so soon in print to publish what had been not so well concocted and more rawly penned will be censured as a spice of that vanity which usually haunts smatterers in good learning but wherewith judicious Clerks are seldom infected To the former I onely wish mindes more setled or lesse conscience of their own extravagancies and carelesse mispence of choicest time faults apt to breed a mislike of others industrie in such courses as will approve themselves in his sight that sits as Judge and trier of all our wayes howsoever such as desire to be meer By-standers as well in Church as Common-wealths affairs may upon sinister respects mutually misinform themselves For many of the later I am afraid lest being partly such and so esteemed they preposterously affect not to be taken for more judicious scholers then indeed they are for the fostering of which conceit in others their unwillingnesse to publish what they have conceived aright may well be apprehended as a means not improbable Not to expose their Meditations to publick censure is and hath been as the Christian world too well can witnesse a resolution incident to men of greatest judgement though no such essential propertie as necessarily argues either all so minded to be or all otherwise minded not to be alike judicious Certain it is the more excellent the internall feature of mens minds is the greater disparagement to them will an ordinary representation of it be and to adorn their their choice conceits with such outward attire as best beseems them would require too great costs
145 CAP. 33. A brief direction for preventing scruples and resolving doubts concerning particular sentences or passages in the Canon of Scripture 148 CAP. 34. Concluding the first Book with some brief admonition to the Reader 149 The Second Book How far the ministery of Men is necessary for planting Christian Faith and retaining the unity of it planted SECT I. What obedience is due to Gods Word what to his Messengers Pag. 154 CAP. 1. The sum of the Romanists exceptions against the Scriptures 155 CAP. 2. The former objection as far as it concerns illiterate and Lay-men retorted and answered 156 CAP. 3. The general heads of Agreements or differences betwixt us and the Papists in this argument 162 CAP. 4. Of the two contrary extremities the one in excesse proper to the Papists transferring all obedience from Scriptures to the Church the other in defect proper to the Anti-papist defrauding the Church of all spiritual authority That there is some peculiar obedience due unto the Clergie 165 CAP. 5 Of the diversitie of humane actions the Original of their lawfulnesse unlawfulnesse or indifferencie which without question belong to the proper subject of Obedience which not 168 CAP. 6. That sincere obedience unto lawful authority makes sundry actions lawful and good which without it would be altogether unlawful and evil pag. 170 CAP. 7. That the Apostles rule Whatsoever is not of faith is Sin doth no way prejudice the former resolution What actions are properly said to be not of faith In what case or subject doubt or scruple make them such 177 CAP. 8. That such as most pretend liberty of conscience from our Apostles rule do most transgresse it with general directions for squaring our actions unto it or other rules of faith That by it the flock stands bound to such conditional assent as was mentioned Chap. 4. 185 CAP. 9. Of the nature use conditions or properties of conditional assent or obedience 189 CAP. 10. Wherein this conditional belief differeth from the Romans implicit faith That the one is the other not subordinate to Gods Word or Rule of faith 196 CAP. 11. In what sence we hold the Scriptures to to be The Rule of Faith 198 SECT II. That the pretended obscurity of Scriptures is no just exception why they should not be acknowledged the Absolute Rule of Faith which is the Mother-objection of the Romanist 201 CAP. 12. How far it may be granted the Scriptures are obscure with some premonitions for the right state of the question 201 CAP. 13. The true state of the question about the Scriptures obscuritie or perspicuity unto what men and for what causes they are obscure 206 CAP. 14. How men must be qualified ere they can understand Scriptures aright that the Pope is not so qualified 210 CAP. 15. The Romanists objections against the Scriptures for being obscure do more directly impeach their first Authour and his Messengers their Pen-men then us and the cause in hand 220 CAP. 16. That all the pretences of Scriptures obscurity are but mists and vapours arising from the corruption of the flesh and may by the pure light of Scriptures rightly applied easily be dispelled 223 CAP. 17. That the Mosaical writings were a most perfect rule plain and easie to the ancient Israelites 229 CAP. 18. Concluding this controversie about the obscurity of Scriptures according to the state proposed with the testimony of Saint Paul 233 SECT III. That the continuall practise of Hereticks in urging Scriptures for to establish Heresie and the diversity of opinions amongst the learned about the sence of them is no just exception why they should not be acknowledged as the sole entire and compleat Rule of Faith 235 CAP. 19. Containing the true state of the question with the adversaries generall objections against the truth 236 CAP. 20. That the former objections and all of like kind drawn from the cunning practise of Hereticks in colouring false opinions by Scriptures are most pregnant to confirm ours and most forcible to confute the adversaries doctrine 239 CAP. 21. The pretended excellencie of the supposed Roman rule for composing controversies impeached by the frequencie of Heresies in the Primitive Church and the imperfection of that union whereof since that time they so much boast Page 242 CAP. 22. That our Adversaries objections do not so much infringe as their practise confirms the sufficiencie of Scriptures for composing the greatest controversies in Religion 247 CAP. 23. The sufficiencie of Scriptures for final determination of controversies in Religion proved by our Saviours and his Apostles authority and practise 254 CAP. 24. That all their objections drawn from dissentions amongst the learned or the uncertainty of private spirits either conclude nothing of what they intend against us or else more then they mean or at the least dare avouch against Gods Prophets and faithfull people of old 260 CAP. 25. How farre upon what termes or grounds we may with modesty dissent from the Ancient or others of more excellent gifts than our selves That our adversaries arguments impeach as much the certainty of human sciences as of private spirits 266 SECT IIII. The last of the three main Objections before proposed which was concerning our supposed defective means for composing controversies or retaining the unity of faith fully answered and retorted That the Roman faith hath no foundation 271 CAP. 26. Containing the true state of the question or a comparison betwixt the Romish Church and ours for their means of preventing or composing controversies 272 CAP. 27. That the Romish Church hath most need of some excellent means for taking up of contentions because it necessarily breeds so many and so grievous 275 CAP. 28. Of two sences in which the excellencie of the Romish Churches pretended means for retaining the unity of faith can onely possibly be defended the one from the former discourse proved apparently false the other in it self as palpably ridiculous 278 CAP. 29. That their arguments drawn from conveniencie of reason or pretended correspondencie between Civil and Ecclesiastical Regiment do prejudice themselves not us 282 CAP. 30. That the finall triall of this controversie must be by Scriptures that the Jesuites and modern Papists fierce oppugning all certainty of private spirits in discerning the divine truth of Scriptures or their true sence hath made the Church their mother utterly uncapable of any Plea by Scriptures for establishing her pretended infallibility 285 CAP. 31. The insufficiencie of the Roman Rule of faith for effecting what it aims at albeit we grant all they demand in this controversie The ridiculous use thereof amongst such as acknowledge it The sufficiencie of Scriptures for composing all contentions further illustrated 297 CAP. 32. Brieflie collecting the summe of the second Book 306 THE ETERNAL TRUTH OF SCRIPTURES AND CHRISTIAN BELIEF thereon wholly Depending manifested by its own LIGHT The first Book of Comments upon the Creed First Generall Part. SECT I. I believe in God the Father c. IF in any at all most of
men in all points They would judge it damnable presumption for the most learned amongst their Laitie to professe as great skil in the Canons of their Church as their Cardinals Bishops Abbats or other principal Members of it either have or make shew of a great presumption of Heresie in any of their Flock to discusse the Meaning of their Decretals as accurately as their Canonists or sift other Mysteries of their Religion as narrowly as the Casuists do Should one of their greatest Philosophers that were no Clergy-man or profest Divine professe he knew the Meaning of that Canon in the Trent-Councel Sacramenta conferunt gratiam ex opere operato as wel as Soto Valentian or Vasques did Suarez or other their greatest School-men in Spain or Italy now living do it would breed as dangerous a Quarrel in their Inquisition as if he had entred comparison with a Rabbin in a Jewish Synagogue for skil in expounding Moses Law 9 That the Scriptures therefore may be said a sufficient Rule of Faith and Christian Carriage to all sorts or Conditions of Men it is sufficient that every Christian man of what sort or Condition soever may have the general and necessary Points of Catholick Faith and such Particulars as belong unto a Christian and Religious Carriage in his own Vocation perspicuously and plainly set down in them And no doubt but it was Gods Wil to have them in matters concerning one calling not so facile unto such as were of another Profession that every man might hence learn Sobriety and be occasioned to seek if not only yet principally after the true Sense and Meaning of those Scriptures which either necessarily concern all or must direct him in that Christian Course of life whereunto his God hath called him But shal this Difficulty of some Parts which ariseth from the Diversitie of Vocations be thought any hinderance why the whole Canon of Scripture should not be a perfect Rule to all in their several Vocations Suppose some universal Artist or compleat Cyclopedian should set out an absolute System or Rule for all secular sciences it would be ridiculous exception to say his Works could be no perfect Rule for young Grammarians Rhetoricians Logicians or Moralists because he had some difficult Mathematical Questions or abstruse Metaphysical discourses which would require a grounded schollers serious Pains and long search to understand them throughly and if he should admonish young students to begin first with those common and easie Arts and not to meddle with the other until they had made good trial of their Wit and Industrie in the former this would be a good token of a perfect Teacher and one sit to rule our Course in all those studies which he professeth And yet the Scriptures which the Jesuites would not have acknowledged for the rule of Christian Life besides all the infallible rules of Life and salvation common to all admonish every man to seek after the Knowledge of such things as are most for Edifying or most besitting his particular Calling 10 And even in S. Pauls Epistles which are the Common Places of our Adversaries invention in this Argument after he comes to direct his speeches as in the later end of them usualy he doth unto Masters of Families servants or the like or generally where he speaks of any Christian dutie either private or publick his Rules are as plain and easie to all men in this Age as they were to those Housholders or servants or the like unto whom they were first directed So plain and easie they are unto all Ages and so familiar especially to men of meaner Place that I much doubt whether the Pope himself and all his Cardinals were able in this present Age to speak so plainly unto the Capacitie or so familiarly to the Experience of men of their Qualitie unto whom he wrote For setting aside the absolute Truth and Infallibilitie of his Doctrines his manner of delivering them is so familiar so lowly so heartily humble so natural and so wel befitting such mens disposition in their sober thoughts as were impossible for the Pope to attain unto or imitate unlesse he would abjure his triple Crown and abstract himself from all Court state or solace unlesse he would for seven years addict himself unto Familiaritie with such men in a Pastoral Charge It was was an excellent Admonition of one of their Cardinals if I mistake not and would to God our Church would herein be admonished by him to begin alwayes with the later end of S. Pauls Epistles For once well experienced in them we should easily attain unto the true sense and meaning of the former Parts which usually are doctrinal and therefore more difficult then the later Yet the true reason of those difficulties in the former Parts containing doctrine is because he wrote them against the disputers of that Age especially the Jews Even in this Age they are only seen in matters that concern learned Expositors of Scriptures not necessary for private and unlearned persons to know And the especial reason why his doctrine in some Epistles as in the Epistle to the Romans seems obscure difficult and intricate is because learned men of later Times have too much followed the Authorities of men in former Ages who had examined S. Pauls doctrine according to the rule or Phrase of those Arts or Faculties with which they were best acquainted or else had measured his Controversie with the Jews by the Oppositions or Contentions of the Age wherein they lived Were this Partialitie unto some famous mens Authoritie which indeed is made a chief rule in expounding Scriptures even by many such as in words are most earnest to have Scriptures the only rule of Faith once laid aside and the rules of Faith else-where most perspicuously and plainly set down by S. Paul unpartially scan ned his Doctrine in that Epistle would be so perspicuous and easie unto the Learned as it might by them be made plain enough and unoffensive to the Unlearned For the light of Truth elsewhere delivered by this Lamp of the Gentiles might it be admitted as a Rule against some Expositions of that Epistle would direct mens steps to avoid those stumbling Blocks which many have fallen upon But to conclude this Assertion their Difficultie take them as they are is no just Exception against this Part of Scripture because it remains difficult stil even for this reason that it is held generally for difficult and is not made a rule indeed for our directions but other mens Opinions or Conjectures concerning it are taken for an Authentick Rubrick by whose level only we must aim at our Apostles Meaning from which we may not without imputations of Irregularitie swerve in the decision of Points to say no worse as now they are made hard and knottie 11 Thirdly from the diversitie of Capacities or different Measure of Gods Gifts in men of the same Profession we may safely conclude that the difficulty of the same Portion
from me in the interpretation of it It may be they have not followed those Rules which thou taughtest them Lord give me grace to meditate aright upon thy Testimonies so shall I have more understanding then my Teachers But what if the most reverend and Ancient Fathers of former times were of a contrary mind O Lord they were faithfull servants in the House and yet faithfull but as Servants not as thy Son and it may be thou didst suffer those thy worthy Servants to go awry to try whether I thy most unworthy Servant would forsake the footsteps of thine anointed Son to follow them but Lord teach me thy Statutes so shall I in this point wherein I differ from them have more understanding then the Ancient Thy Name hath been alreadie glorisied in their many excellent Gifts all which they received of thy bounteous hand and it may be that now it is thy pleasure in this present Difficultie to ordain thy praise out of such Infants mouthes as mine They out of this thy fertile and goodly field have gathered many yeers Provision for thy great Houshold thy Church but yet either let somewhat fall or left much behind which may be sufficient for us thy poor Servants to glean after them either for our own private use or for that small flock which thou hast set us to feed And let all sober-hearted Christians judge yea let God that searcheth the very heart and reins and Christ Jesus the Judge of all mankind give judgement out of his Throne whether in reasoning thus we are more injurious to the Ancient Fathers deceased then they unto the Ancient of dayes and Father of the World to come in denying the free Gifts and Graces of his Holy Spirit unto succeeding as well as former Ages We reverence the Fathers as men endued with an especiall measure of his Grace as men that have left many excellent Writings behind them fit for the instructions of later Ages as well as former They will not honour God as much For their Arguments conclude if any thing Him to have been a gracious God and his Spirit a Guide onely of some few Generations of old but in this present and all late past They make him a God his Spirit a Guide and his Word a Rule onely of the Pope who must be the onely God the onely Guide and his Decisions about Scripture the onely Rule of all other mens Faith yea a Rule of Scripture it self as shall afterwards appear SECT IV. The last of the three main Objections before proposed which was concerning our supposed defective Means for composing Controversies or retaining the unity of Faith fully answered and retorted That the Roman Faith hath no Foundation THE last Objection is Our Church hath no Means of taking up Controversies seeing we permit the Use of Scriptures unto all and every man to follow that Sense of them which he liketh best We do indeed permit every man to satisfie his own Conscience in matters of Salvation and God forbid for by his Apostles he hath forbidden we should usurp any Supreme Lordship or absolute Dominion over their Faith Yet a Christian Obedience unto Pastors we require in the Flock unpossible in our judgement to be performed aright unlesse undertaken more for Conscience then for fear of Punishment And as Obedience if not framed by Conscience can never be sincere so Conscience unlesse regulated by the Sacred Canon man needs be erroneous and alwayes relish more of Superstition then Religion The Gospel we ever esteemed as a gladsom Message of Peace and Salvation and do we by seeking to square mens thoughts and affections unto it prepare their hearts to deadly Warre It is we know and you denie not the Fountain of Life apt to season the waters of Marah and Meribah a Medicine able to allay all bitternesse of Contention and qualifie the poisonous roots of Strife and do we by setting it open for fainting Souls to quench their thirst dig pits of Destruction for them to fall into The Scriptures in general we have proved to be a plain and facile Rule a Light unto mens feet and a Lantern unto their paths and do we by permitting the free Use of it to all first explicated and unfolded by the Dispensers of Divine Mysteries lay stumbling-Blocks in their way not possible to be descried or avoided or spread a snare to catch their Souls in Darknesse we permit everie man to follow that Sense or Meaning of it which his Conscience hketh best but we permit no man to frame the liking of his Conscience to his Lust we teach the contrarie as a Principle of Faith and Christian Obedience If any disobedient Spirits list to contend where they should perform Obedience we know the Church of God hath no such Custome all such Contentions we detest and labour as much as you by all Means lawfull to quell The same Internall Means God 's Word are alike free to both but more used by us which relie more upon them all the Difficultie is about Means External CAP. XXVI Containing the true state of the Question or a Comparison between the Romish Church and ours for their Means of preventing or Composing Controversies 1 THe Question them must be first whether we can as well discern such as read Scriptures as you such as read your Church Decrees with Contentious minds Secondly whether we have Means as forcible and effectual as you have any to reform them or stay the spreading Contagion of their Heresie To begin with the later 2 Such as you discern to be contentious or to dissent from that Doctrine which you conceive or teach for true you threaten with what The Pope or Churches Curse Such as we discern to breed Contentions amongst us or Dissentions from that Truth which we in Conscience think all ought to professe we threaten with Death and Damnation and the terror of that Dreadfull-Day which shall accomplish that we denounced against all 〈◊〉 by whom Offences come Will not the continual preaching of this Doctrine be as forcible to deterre a man from sowing Sedition as the Anniversarie Solemnitie of the Popes Curse Will men Believe a Jesuite from the Pope when they will not Believe Moses and the Prophets nor Christ Jesus himself But you will say although men will not be kept in Order with Peters Keves yet will they dread Pauls Sword or rather if they will not dread the fire of Hell which must but long hence torment their Souls yet will they stand in awe of the fagot alwaies readie in your Church for plaguing Hereticks If this were the best Means to stop mens mouthes from professing what they are in Conscience perswaded the Scripture tels them The Fundamentall Points of Christianitie had never been known either to you or us Christian Religion it self had been martyred with Christs Martyrs But as their Ashes was the fertilest Soil wherein the seed of the Gospel could be sown so was the long and cruel Oppression of
continuance of your Lordships wonted favours whom I still request the Christian Readers as many as reap any profit from my pains on my behalf to remember with such respect as is due to Honourable Patrons of religious studies or cherishers of painful endeavours in good causes From Corpus Christi Colledge March 25. 1614. Your Lordships in all observance THOMAS JACKSON To the indifferent Reader specially to the learned Artists of the two Famous UNIVERSITIES CHristian and beloved Reader I have been detained in this entrie though not longer then the Structure of it required yet then I my self or thou perhaps could have wished for speedier dispatch of the main edifice intended Somewhat notwithstanding to my apprehension I had observed whereby Artists more accurate but younger Divines then my self whose furtherance in the like throughout all my meditations I still respect might be directed for taking sure hold of their slipperie Antagonists in this conflict and finding my self every day then other more unapt more unwilling at least to be any Actor in quarrels of this nature because most desirous to spend my mortal spirits in opening the pleasant Fountains of immortalitie I thought it not altogether unlawfull to dispence with these labours for a while in hope to prosecute them more safely and with better successe hereafter by seconding such as had gone before me with my small strength for intercepting these despitefull Philistims which continually labour to damme up these sacred Wels of Life Many excellent wits and grave Divines as well in our English as other reformed Churches I knew had accurately deciphered the special characters of the Beast and demonstrated most properties of great Antichrist upon the Pope But that the fundamental Charter of the Romish Church or the Commission pretended by Jesuites for the erection of it should as the manner was to demolish lesser religious houses for building others more magnificent extend to raze the very first foundations of Religion as common to Christians Jews and Turks that the acknowledgement of such infallibilitie as they Deifie her with should be more incompatible with Christianitie then any Idolatry of the Heathen that such as absolutely believe all her decrees without examination truely believe no article of this Creed with the like principal branches of Antichristianisme were points for ought I knew rather touched by the way or proposed as clear in themselves to the indifferent and ingenuous that judge of the Romish Church by the known picture of her misse-shapen lims then prosecuted at large or with purpose to pull off that artificial painting where-with late Jesuites have so beautified this uglie Monsters face that the World bewitched with gazing too much on it cannot but love her other deformities though in themselves most loathsome For though the practises enjoyned by her be so vile as would have caused Rome Heathen to have blushed at their mention or her other doctrines so palpably grosse that her own Sons heretofore have derided them and as yet spare to speak ought in particular for their defence yet to salve all this it must suffice that the Church which cannot erre hath now authorized them If any think I prejudice the truth of moderate accusations by laying such heavie imputations upon this doctrine as make it incomparably more detestable then any other he speaks not inconsequently to his positions if he hold the Trent Councel was infallibly assisted by the holy Ghost or that the Pope in Cathedral resolutions cannot erre But he which thinks foul impieties may bring Romish Prelates out of favour with the Spirit of Truth and make them as obnoxious to errors as others are or can perswade himself that many practises and opinions by that Church already authorized are in their nature abominable and impious must either accord to me or dissent from Reason Conscience and Religion For these so be will but vouchsafe his silence or attention joyntly proclaim aloud that nothing amisse either in matter of doctrine or manners can be so detestable without this presumptuous groundlesse warrant of absolute infallibilitie as with it that albeit a man would set himself to practize all particulars directly contrary to what God hath commanded or to contradict God and his goodnesse yet his iniquity without this absolute belief of full authority derived from him so to do would be but as a body without a soul in respect of the Romish Churches impieties which makes the Holy Ghost the principal Author of Gods written Word the abettor of all her fraud untruths or villanies Briefly as it is not the doing of those materials God commands us to do but faithfull submission of our Wils to his in doing them which as S. James instructs us makes us true Christians so is it not the doing or maintaining of what God forbids or hates but the doing of it upon absolute submission of our souls and consciences to other lawes then he hath left which makes men live members of Antichrist as being animated informed and moved by the spirit of errour Now this perswasion of absolute infallibility and universall warrant from the Holy Spirit without condition or restraint being peculiar to the Romish Church admitting it to be as faulty in practises and as obnoxious to errors as any other none can be reputed so truely Antichristian as it For albeit Mahomet pretended divine revelations yet his Priests challenge no such absolute infallibility as doth the Pope they make no second Rocks or foundations no ordinary Pastor equivalent to their great Prophet Whence although the Turks hold opinions in themselves or materially considered more grosse and maintain some practices not much lesse villanous then Jesuites do yet the grounds or motives of their belief which are as the soul or spirit of Religion are nothing so pestiferous nothing so directly opposite to the Holy Spirit as is this Jesuiticall rule of faith Nor do they either professe such belief in Christ or acknowledge him for a foundation so elect and precious as brings them within the Temple of God within which unlesse Antichrist sit his contrariety unto Christ could not be so essential so immediate or direct as by the rules of sacred Philosophie we are taught it must be Yet I know not whether the indignity of this doctrine is more apt to affect Divines and Men rightly religious and fearing God then the sottishnesse of their arguments to perswade it to provoke the just indignation of ingenuous Artists which cannot endure though in matters of indifferencie to captivate their understandings to positions devoid of sense To require some probabilitie of reason civil or natural is on their part no insolent demand for exchange of Christian faith or adventuring their inassurance of life eternal in the service of meer forrainers whom they never saw Yet unto peremptory resolutions no lesse dangerous do Jesuites solicit us not onely without any tolerable shew of probabilitie but quite contrary to Gods principal lawes and our natural notions of good and evil as by these
with the corrupt remainder of former heresies for these thousand years and more And unto many grosse errours in Romish religion which this imperfect translation did not first occasion It yet affords that countenance which the pure Fountains of the Greek and Hebrew do not but rather would scour and wipe away were they current in that Church Finally though it yield not nutriment to enlarge or feed yet it serves as a cloak to hide or cover most parts of the great mysterie of iniquity 6 Yet besides the favourable construction that may be made for that religion out of the plain and literal sense of this erroneous translation the Church wil be absolute Judge of all controversies concerning the right interpretation thereof So as not what our consciences upon diligent search and just examination shall witnesse to us but what the Church shall declare to them must be absolutely acknowledged for the true intent and meaning of Gods word as it is rendred by the vulgar interpreter To this purpose is the very next decree 7 Moreover for brideling petulant dispositions it is decreed That no man in confidence of his own wisdom or skill in matters of faith and manners making for the edification of Christian doctrine shall dare to interpret Scriptures wresting them to his own conceipt or sense against that sense or meaning which the holy Church our mother to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of sacred writ heretofore hath held or now doth hold albeit he never purpose to publish such interpretations 8 It is further added in the same place because I take it had been specified in a Synod before that no man shall dare to interpret Scriptures against the unanimous consent of Fathers Which I think were impossible for any man to do though were it possible few or none would attempt besides the Papists For neither can it be known what all of them hold in most places whereupon are grounded controversies of greatest moment and in such as we have best plenty of their interpretations albeit they do not contentiously dissent yet absolutely agree each with other they do not Even one and the same Father oft-times thinks of many interpretations sundry alike probable most of them unwilling by their peremptory determinations one way or other to prejudice the industrious search of others though their far inferiours for finding out some more commodious then any they bring oftentimes intimating their doubts or imperfect conjectures in such manner as if they would purposely incourage their successours to seek out some better resolution then they could find Whence it is evident That we should not alwayes interpret Scriptures against the joynt consent of Fathers albeit we went against all the particular interpretations which they have brought because they were more desirous to have the truth fully sifted then their conjectural probabilities infallibly believed Nor were it possible more to contradict most of them then by following their interpretations upon such strict terms as the Romanists would bind all men to do when they seem to make for their advantage Not the least surmise or conjecture of any one Father but if it please them must suffice against the joynt authority of all the rest For in all the three points above mentioned they admit the Church as may appear from the decrees cited for a Judge so absolute That no man may imbrace any opinion upon what grounds or probabilities soever but with humble submission to her censure Whatsoever she shall injoyn in all or any of these points albeit we have reasons many and strong not to hold it to hold not one besides her bare authority yet must all believe it alone as absolutely as if we had the apparent unanimous consent of Fathers yea of Prophets Apostles or Evangelists and all good writers in every age 9 Hence Bellarmin rejects as dissonant to the former decree this resolution of Luther That albeit the Pope and Councel conclude points of Faith yet have private men a free arbitrement so far as it concerns themselves whether they may safely believe their conclusions or no. Luther gives two reasons for his assertion both most forcible The one because the Pope shall not answer for private men at the hour of their death The other because none are competent Judges of false Doctrines but men spiritually minded when as it often fals out that in their Councels there cannot the found one man much lesse a major part of men without which how many soever there were all were as none that hath any the least relish of the Divine Spirit The like assertion doth the Jesuit condemn in Brentius 10 It is not lawful saith Brentius for any man in a point of salvation so to rely upon anothers sentence as to imbrace it without interposition of his own judgement The reason is there intimated because every man is to be immediately judged by his own conscience and may for avoiding the just censure of condemnation by it safely disclaim their opinions the execution of whose sentence or bodily punishment he may not decline seeing they are as was observed before publick and lawful yet Fallible Judges of controversies in Religion And Bellarmin bewrayes either grosse ignorance or great skil in wrangling when he exclaims against this position of Brentius as absurd and repugnant to it self That the Supream Magistrate or publick Judge may be bound to command where the subject or inferiour is not bound to obey For as well the Prince in commanding as the people in obeying must follow whither their consciences lead them Both may and in case they disagree the one or other cannot but erre in the precedent information of their consciences and herein properly doth their sin consist not in doing what erroneous conscience upon so strict terms as penalty of eternal death doth unnecessarily urge them to 11 The people saith Canus did absolutely not upon condition believe God and his servant Moses and unlesse men So believe the Church they make it of no authority Nor is it enough to believe it to be Infallible in points of Moment or such as might overthrow Faith unlesse it be acknowledged so absolutely inerrable in all as it cannot either believe or teach amisse in any question of Faith for if in any seeing there is one and the same reason of all it might as wel fail in receiving some books indeed not such for Canonical and Divine Whereupon it would follow that this argument would not follow The Church acknowledgeth Saint Matthews Gospel for Canonical therefore it is Canonical The denial of which consequence is most impious and absurd in this mans censure fully consonant to Valentian before cited That Scripture which is commended unto us and expounded by the Authority of the Church is now even in this respect because the Church commends it most authentick 12 Unto these and far more grosse conclusions all their modern Writers for ought
greatnesse of authority is alwayes measured by the manner of obedience due unto it The Minor is as evident from the former reason Our obedience is more absolute and strict unto that authority from which in no case we may appeal then unto that from which we may in many safely appeal but by the Romish Churches doctrine there lies alwayes an appeal from that sence and meaning of Scriptures which Gods spirit and our own conscience gives us unto the Churches authority none from the Churches authority or meaning unto the Scriptures or our own consciences 7 Our Saviour Christ bids us search the Scriptures S. Paul try all retain that which is good S. John try the Spirits whether they be of God or no Suppose a Minister of our Church should charge a Romanist upon his allegiance to our Saviour Christ and that obedience which he owes unto Gods Word to search Scriptures trie Spirits and examin Doctrines for the râ—tifying of his faith he wil not acknowledge this to be a Commandment of Scripture or at least not to be understood in such a sence as may bind him to this practise What follows if our Clergie charge him to admit it he appeals unto the Church And as in Schools simus and nasus simus is all one so in their language is the Church and the Church of Rome This Church tels him he may not take upon him to trie of what spirit the Pope is nor examin his determinations decisions or interpretations of any Scripture by other known places of Scripture or the analogie of faith acknowledged by all Unto this decree or sentence of the Church although he have it but at the second hand or after it have passed through as many Priests and Jesuites mouthes as are Post Towns from London to Edenburgh he yields absolute obedience without acknowledgement of farther appeal either unto Scriptures or other authority whatsoever further manifestation of Gods wil he expects none Let all the reformed Churches in the World or all the Christian World besides exhort threaten or adjure him as he tenders the good of his own soul as he wil answer his Redeemer in that dreadful day of final Judgement to examin the Church or Popes decrees by Gods written Laws his answer is he may not he cannot do it without open disobedience to the Church which to disobey is damnation of soul and body But O fools and slow of heart to believe and obey from the heart that doctrine whereunto ye were delivered Know ye not that to whomsoever ye give your selves as servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether it be the man of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousnesse Of all Mankind are onely Roman Catholicks not bought with a price that they may thus alienate their souls from Christ and become servants of men that they may consecrate themselves by solemn vow to the perpetual slavery of most wicked and sinful men even monsters of Mankind CAP. V. That in obeying the Romish Churches decrees we do not obey Gods Word as well as Them but Them alone in contempt of Gods principal Laws 1 BUt the simple I know are born in hand by the more subtile sort of this generation That thus obeying sinful men they obey Christ who hath injoyned them this obedience unto such That thus believing that sence of Scripture which the Church their mother tenders unto them they do not believe her better then Scriptures because these two Beliefs are not opposite but subordinate that they prefer not her decrees before Christs written Laws but her interpretation of them before all private Expositions This is the only City of refuge left them wherein prosecuted by the former arguments they can hope for any succour but most of whose gates already have been all shortly shall be shut upon them 2 That they neither believe nor obey Gods Word whilest they absolutely believe and obey the Church without appeal is evident in that this Church usually binds men not unto Positive points of Religion gathered so much as from any pretended sence of Scripture expounded by it but to believe bare Negatives as that this or that place of Scripture either brought by their adversaries or conceived by such amongst themselves as desire the knowledge of truth and right information of conscience have no such meaning as the Spirit of God not flesh and bloud as far as they can judge of their own thoughts hath revealed unto them 3 But the Spirit may deceive private men or at least they may deceive themselves in their trial of Spirits They may indeed and so may men in publick place more grievously erre in peremptory judging private men because obnoxious to errour in the general erroneous in this particular wherein they ground their opinions upon Gods Word plentiful to evince it at least very probable reasons they bring many and strong whereunto no reasonable answer is brought by their adversaries whose usual course is to presse them only with the Churches authority which appears to be of far greater weight then Gods word unto all such as yield obedience to her negative decrees without any evidence or probability either of Scripture or natural reason to set against that sence and meaning of Gods Laws whereunto strength of arguments unrefuted and probable pledges of Gods Spirit undisproved have long tied their souls Do we obey God or believe his word whilst we yield obedience to the Church in such Commandments as to our consciences upon unpartial examination seem condemned ere made by the very fundamental Laws of Religion and all this oft-times without any shew or pretence of Scripture to warrant us that we do not disobey God in obeying them 4 But doth the Romish exact absolute obedience in such points as if it were possible they could be false may endanger the very foundation of true Religion without evident demonstration that their daily practise neither doth nor can endanger it Yes For what can more concern the main foundation which Christians Jews and Mahumetans most firmly hold then those precepts in number many all plainly and peremptorily forbidding us to worship any Gods but One or any thing in the Heaven or Earth but Him only The Romanists themselves grant that cultu latriae God alone is to beadored that so to adore any other is Idolatry and Idolatry by their confession a most grievous sin O how much better were it for them to hold it none or Gods Word forbidding it of no authority then so lightly to adventure the hourly practise of it in contempt of such fearful threatnings as they themselves out of Gods Laws pronounce against it upon such broken distoynted surmises as are the best they can pretend for their warrant 5 To believe Christs flesh and bloud should be there present where it canot be seen or felt yea where we see and feel another body as perfectly as we can do ought is to reason without warrant of Scripture but a
of penitency unto Saint Peter for his former personal offence He had found extraordinary mercy at his Lord and Masters hands and was to communicate the like unto his fellow servants more guilty of his offence Christ after his faith had failed did convert and strengthen him against the like temptation and he converted was commanded to convert and strengthen others Whom Not such as by conversion might become his brethren or rather his children in Christ but rather such as were hewn out of the same rock and could truly call Abraham their father Sarah their Mother joint professors with him of Moses Law and the Prophets more then his brethren and associates in denying him of whom Moses and all the Prophets bare testimony 4 To subtract all matter of calumniation from men too much disposed to cavil without any probable cause or just occasion notwithstanding his threefold denial of Christ I deny not a triple or quadruple prerogative in Peter in respect of Christs other Apostles yet consisting not in any authority more infallible in it self or more soveraign for superiority over such as were to depend upon him as a chief messenger of the Lord of Hosts but in an extradinary efficacie of his ordinary Apostle-ship In what respect then was his ordinary Ministrie or Apostle-ship so extraordinarily powerful In respect of the universal Church throughout all Ages or of the Jewish Synagogue for the time being only S. Paul confutes the former as evidently as he plainly avoucheth the later When they saw the Gospel over the uncircumcision was committed unto me as the Gospel over the circumcision was unto Peter for he that was mighty by Peter in the Apostle-ship over the circumcision was also mighty by me towards the Gentiles James and Cephas and John which were counted to be pillars knew of the grace that was given unto me they gave to me and to Barnabas the right hands of fellowship that we should preach unto the Gentiles and they unto the circumcision 5 Here the lesse in speech I amplifie the more in heart and mind I tacitely admire the unspeakable power and wisdom of our God that by the extraordinary offences or infirmities of one or two can firmly establish the faith of all his Saints Albeit he used the Ministerie of every other Apostle in reconciling the world unto himself yet Paul and Peter were as the two principal intermediate elements proportioned and qualified of purpose for the more apt connecting this mixt inferiour Globe with the Heavenly Sphere the sons of men with the son of God the one by symbolizing with the Jew the other with the Gentile in his sin both with Christ in true wisdom in all good gifts and graces of the spirit Saint Pauls offences against God manifested in the flesh have the same proportion to Saint Peters that the ignorance infidelity or idolatry of the Gentiles had with the Jews delinquency or Apostacy from the God of their Fathers Saint Paul had not known our Saviour in the flesh ignorant of his wisdom in teaching or power in working and in his ignorant zeal unto Moses and the Law did persecute his followers and disciples after his resurrection hereby made a fitter Symbole for reconciling the Gentiles unto God whom they had not known usually misled in a blind devotion to their dumb Idols and traditions of their elders to hate and persecute the Jews the only professors of true Religion the only servants till that time of the everliving God S. Peter had long conversed with our Saviour heard him teach as never man taught seen him do what no man else could ever do his eyes had beheld the brightnesse of his excellent glory and out of his apprehension of his Deity he had professed more then ordinary love ‖ Lord I am ready to go with thee into the Prison and to death yet when he comes unto his trial flatly denies that ever he knew him hereby more fitly qualified for recovering the backsliding Apostatical Jews who had known the Lord and all the wonders which he had wrought for Israel they had professed such love and loyaltie to him as no people could do more unto their Gods posterity stil retaining the protest ations of their Religious fathers All this is come upon us yet do we not forget thee neither deal we falsely concerning thy covenant Our hearts are not turned back neither our steps gone out of thy paths Surely for thy sake are we slain continually and are counted as Sheep for the slaughter Yet when he came in the similitude of man to exact obedience and allegeance at their hands they wil not know him but as Samuel had foretold cast him off from raigning over them and openly protest against him We have no King but Caesar 6 Answerable to this observation is the successe of their Apostleship registred by the Evangelist We never read so many Jews at once so throughly converted by our Saviour or so seriously affected with his Doctrine in his life time as with that memorable sermon of S. Peter The manner of his reiterated appellations Ye men of Judea and ye all that inhabit Jerusalem Ye men of Israel Men and Brethren Of mentioning Gods promises made to them and to their children of his reply his earnest beseeching and exhorting them that had appealed joyntly to him and the other Apostles argue these were the brethren he in particular was injoyned to convert confirm and strengthen And like a skilful Surgeon that knew by his own recovery how to prick their consciences without giving them a deadly wound he presseth them in the last place with crucifying the Lord of glory The mention whereof had been enough in others judgement to have moved them to despair but this comforter knew by experience that to be throughly toucht in heart as he had been for such foul offences past was the readiest way to that true repentance which he found and such repentance the surest holdfast of lively faith But he that was thus powerful in the circumcision became a stone of offence unto the Gentiles with whom he had to deal at Antioch For by his tripping in an uncouth way as being out of his natural Element he made them stumble justly reproved for his amphibious conversation with men of tempers so contrary by S. Paul under whose hand the edification of the Gentiles did better prosper Yet he nothing so powerful in converting the Jews though his zeal towards them was no lesse then S Peters was his endeavours to sow the seed of life in their hearts as great but with small hope of seeing any fruit of his labours But it wil be worth the Readers pains I am perswaded to observe that albeit he presse the Jews at Antioch with the very same arguments but more forcibly and artificially framed wherewith S. Peter had converted so many yet is enforced to make a contrary conclusion Peter concludes in hope prognosticating successe Amend your lives and
Jove Caesar habet Jove and Caesar are Kings and Gods But Jove of heaven that 's the only ods That Christ should retain the title of the supream head over the Church militant and the reality of supremacy over the Church triumphant our adversaries are not offended Because there is small hope of raising any new tribute from the Angels and Saints in heaven to the Romish Churches use and as little fear that Christ should take any secular commodity from it which anciently it hath enjoyed 14 But though it were true that we were absolutely bound to obey an absolute Monarch of whose right none doubts yet may we examin whether every Potentate that challengeth Monarchical jurisdiction over others or gives forth such insolent edicts in civil matters as the Pope doth in spiritual do not go beyond his authority in these particulars albeit his lawful preâ—ogatives in respect of others be without controversie many and great yet limited both for number and magnitude For suppose King Henry the eight after he had done what he could against the Pope should stil have professed his good liking of Romish religion opposing only this to all his Popish Clergie that had challenged him of revolt Am not I defender of the faith The Pope whom I trow you take for no false Prophet hath given me this prerogatrâ—… amongst Christian Princes as expresly as ever S. Peter bequeathed him his supremacy above other Bishops It is as impossible for me to defend as for his Holinesse to teach any other besides the true Catholick Faith Let the proudest amongst my Prelates examin my expositions of his decrees and by S. George he shall fry a fagot for an Heretick Would this or the like pretence though countenanced by royal authority have been accepted for a just defence that this boisterous King had not contradicted the Pope but the tatling Monks or other private expositors of his decrees would this have satisfied the Popes agents until the King and his Holinesse had come to personal conference for final debatement of the case yet for Christs servants thus to neglect their masters cause is no sin in the Romanists judgement yea an heresie is it not to deal so negligently in it For a sin of no lower rank they make it not to submit our hearts minds and affections unto the Popes negative decrees though against that sence of Scripture which conscience and experience gives us Unto all the doubts fears or scruples these can minister it must suffice That the Pope saith he expounds scripture no otherwise then Christ would were he in earth but only controls all private glosses or expositors of them But can any Christian heart content it self with such delusions and defer all examinations of doctrine until that dreadful day come upon him wherein the great Shepheard shall plead his own cause face to face with this pretended Vicar and his associates Do we believe that Christ hath given us a written law that he shal come to be our Judge and call us to a strict account wherein we have transgressed or kept it yet may we not try by examination whether these Romish guides lead us aright or awry Whether some better or clearer exposition may not be hoped for then the Pope or Councel for the present tenders to us What if the Pope should prohibit all disputations about this point in hand whether obeying him against the true sence of Scripture as we are perswaded we yield greater obedience unto him then unto Scriptures may we not examin the equity of this decree or his exposition of that Scripture which happily he would pretend for this authority his amplius fili mi ne requiras No by their general Tenent and Valentians expresse Assertion it were extream impiety to traverse this sence or exposition under pretence of obscurity c. By the same reason for ought I can see it would follow that if the question were whether obeying the Pope more then God we did obey man more then God we might not examin at least not determin whether the Pope were Man or God or a middle nature betwixt both which came not within the compasse of that comparison CAP. X. In what sense the Jesuites may truly deny they believe the words of man better then the words of God In what sense again our writers truly charge them with this blasphemy 1 IF we review the former discourse we may find that equivocation which Bellarmin sought as a knot in a bulrush in our writers objections to be directly contained in their Churches denial of what was objected Whilest they deny that they exalt the Churches authority above Scriptures or mans word above Gods this denial may have a double sence They may deny a plain and open profession or challenge of greater authority in their Church then in Scriptures Or they may deny that in effect and substance they overthrow all authority of Scripture save only so far as it makes for their purpose 2 That the Pope should openly professe himself competitor with God or in expresse tearms challenge greater authority then Scriptures have was never objected by any of our writers For all of us know the Man of Sin must be no open or outward enemy to the Church but Judas-like a disciple by profession his doctrine indeed must be a doctrine of devils yet counterseiting the voice of Angels as he himself though by internal disposition of mind a slave to all manner of filthinesse and impurity must be enstiled Sanctissimus Dominus the most holy Lord. If the poison of his iniquity were not wrapt up in the titles of divine mysteries it would forth-with be disliked by many silly superstitious souls which daily suck their bane from it because perswaded that the Scriptures which they never have examined whose true sense they never tasted but from some reliques of heathenish zeal idolatrously worship in gross do fully warrant it When our Writers therfore object that the Papists exalt the Popes laws above Gods had not these holy Catholicks an especial grace to grow deaf as often as we charge their mother with such notorious and known whoredomes as they see might evidently be proved unto the world if they should stand to contest with us their meaning is plain that the Pope in deed and issue makes the Scriptures which in shew he seems to reverence of no authority but only with reference to his own That he and his followers should in words much magnifie Gods word written or unwritten we do not marvel because the higher esteem men make of it the higher still he may exalt his throne being absolutely enabled by this device to make all that belongs to God his Word his Laws his Sacraments the pretious Body and Bloud of his Son blessed for ever meer foot-stools to his ambition For if the authority of Scriptures or such traditions as he pretends be established as divine and he admitted sole absolute infallible Judge of their meaning it would argue
much grieved at the Trent Councels impietie but now I wonder at these grave Fathers folly that would trouble themselves with prescribing so many Canons or overseeing so large a Catechisme when as the beginning of Protagoras Book one or two words altered might have comprehended the entire confession of such mens faith as rely upon their Fatherhoods The Atheist thus began his Book De dijs non haâ—â—o quod decam utrum sint necne Concerning the Gods or their being I can say nothing A private Roman Catholick might render an entire account of his faith in termes as brief De Christo Christiana fide non habeo quod dicam utrum sint necne Whether there be a Christ or Christian Religion be but a Politick Fable I have nothing to say peremptorily yea or no the Church or Councel can determine whom in this and all other points wherin God is a party I will absolutely believe whilest I live if at my death I find they teach amâ—e let the devil and they if there be a devil decide the controversie Yet this conceit or conditional Belief of Christ and Christianity conceived from the former serves as a ground colour for disposing mens souls to take the sable dye of Hell wherewith the second main stream of Romish impietie will deeply infect all such as drink of it For once believing Gods Word from the Churches testimony this absolute submission of their consciences to embrace that sence it shall suggest sublimates them from refined Heathinisme or Gentilisme to diabolisme or symbolizing with infernal spirits whose chiefest solace consists in acting greatest villanies or wresting the meaning of Gods written Lawes to his dishonour For just proof of which imputation we are to prevent what as we late intimated might in favour of their opinion be replied to our former instance of light and colours 9 Some perhaps well affected would be resolved why as he that sees colours by the sun sees not only the sun but colours with it so he that believes the Scriptures by relying upon the Church should not believe the Church onely but the Scriptures too commended by it The doubt could hardly be resolved if according to our adversaries Tenent the Churches declarations did confirm our faith by illustrating the Canon of Scriptures or making particular truths contained in it inherently more perspicuous as if they were in themselves but potentially credible and made actually such by the Churches Testimony which is the first and Principal Credible in such sort as colours become actually visible by illumination of the principal and prime visible But herein the grounds of Romish doctrine and the instance brought by Sacroboscus to illustrate it are quite contrary For the light of the Sun though most necessary unto sight is yet necessary onely in respect of the object or for making colours actually visible which made such or sufficiently illuminated are instantly perceived without further intermediation of any other light then the internal light of the Organ in discerning colours alwayes rather hindered then helped by circumfusion of light external For this reason it is that men in a pit or cave may at noon day see the starres which are invisible to such as are in the open air not that they are more illuminated to the one then the other but because plentie of light doth hinder the Organ or eye-sight of the one Generally all objects either actually visible in themselves or sufficiently illuminated are better perceived in darknesse then in the light But so our Adversaries will not grant that after the Church hath sufficiently proposed the whole Canon to be Gods Word the distinct meaning of every part is more clear and facile to all private spirits by how much they lesse participate of the visible Churches further illustration For quite contrary to the former instance the Churches testimony or declaration is onely necessary or available to right belief in respect not of the object to be believed Scriptures but of the party believing For as hath been observed no man in their judgement can believe Gods Word or the right meaning of it but by believing the Church and all belief is inherent in the believer Yea this undoubted Belief of the Churches authority is that which in Bellarmine and Sacroboscus's judgement makes a Roman Catholicks belief of Scriptures or divine truths taught by them much better then a Protestants If otherwise the Churches declaration or testimony could without the belief of it infallibility which is inherent in the subject believing make Scriptures credible as the light doth colours visible in themselves a Protestant that knew their Churches meaning might as truely believe them as a Roman Catholick albeit he did not absolutely believe the Church but onely use her help for their Orthodoxal interpretation as he doth ordinary Expositors or as many do the benefit of the Sun for seeing colours which never think whether colours may be seen without it or no. For though it be certain that they cannot yet this opinion is meerly accidental to their sight and if a man should be so wilfull as to maintain the contrary it would argue only blindness of mind none of his bodily sight Nor should distrust of the Romish Churches authority ought diminish our Belief of any divine Truth were her declarations requisite in respect of the object to be believed not in respect of the subject believing 10 Hence ariseth that difference which plainly resolves the former doubt For seeing the Sun makes colours actually visible by adding vertue or lustre to them we may rightly say we see colours as truely as the light by which we see them For though without the benefit of it they cannot be seen yet are they not seen by seeing it or by relying upon it testimony of them Again because the use of light is onely necessarie in respect of the object or for presenting colours to the eye after once they be sufficiently illuminated or presented every creature endued with sight can immediately discern each from other without any further help or benefit of external light then the general whereby they become all alike actually visible at the same instant The Suns light then is the true cause why colours are seen but no cause of our distinguishing one from another being seen or made actuallie visible by it For of all sensible objects sufficiently proposed the sensitive faculty though seated in a private person is the sole immediat supreme Judge and relies not upon any others more publick verdict of them On the contrary because the Romanists supposed firm belief of Scriptures or their true meaning ariseth only from his undoubted belief of the Churches veracicie which is in the believer as in it subject not from any increase of inherent credibilitie or perspicuitie thence propagated to the Scriptures Hence it is that consequently to his positions most repugnant to all truth he thinks after the Church hath sufficiently avouched the Scriptures divine truth in general we
Doctor adviseth him to believe the Church cannot teach anusse 14 To conclude then He that absolutely believes the Pope as Christs Vicar general in all things without examination of his Decrees by Evangelical precepts neither believes Christ nor his Gospel no not when this pretended Vicar teacheth no otherwise then his Masters lawes prescribe For thus believing a divine truth onely from this mans authority he commits such Idolatry with him for the kind or essence as the Heathen did with Mercurie their false Gods supposed messenger though so much more hainous in degree as his general notion of the true God is better whose infinite goodnesse cannot entertain an interpreter no better qualified then most Popes are did his wisdom stand in need of any But if when the Pope shall teach the doctrine of Devils men absolutely believe it to be Christs because his pretended Vicar commends it to them in thus believing they commit such preposterous Idolatrie as those of Calecut which adore the Devil upon conceit doubtlesse of some celestial or divine power in him as the absolute Papist doth not adore the Pope but upon perswasion he is Christs Vicar and teaches as Christ would do viva voce were he again on earth And lesse it were to be lamented did these Pseudo-Catholicks professe their allegiance to Sathans incarnate Agent as to their supreme Lord by such solemne sacrisices onely as the inhabitants of Calient performe to wicked spirits But this their blind belief of whatsoever he shall determine upon a proud and foolish imagination he is Christs Vicar emboldens them to invert the whole Law of God and nature to glory in villany and triumph in mischief even to seek praise and honour eternal from acts so foul and hideous as the light of nature would make the Calecutians or other Idolaters blush at their very mention It is a sure token he hath not yet learned the Alphabet of their religion that doubts whether Jesuitical doctrine concerning this absolute belief extend not to all matters of fact And if out of simplicity rather then policie so they speak I cannot but much pity their folly that would perswade us it were not the fault of Romish Religion but of the men that profess it which hath inticed so many unto such devilish practises of late I would the Jesuite were but put to instance what kind of villany either hath been already acted on earth or can yet possibly be hatched in the region under the earth so hideous and ugly as would seem deformed or odious to such as are wholly led by this blind faith if it should but please the Romish Clergie to give a mild or favorable censure of it No brat of hell but would seem as beautifull to their eyes as young todes are to their dammes if their mother once commend the feature of it or acknowledge it for her darling Did not some of the Powder-plot after Gods powerfull hand had overtaken them and sentence of death had passed upon them even when the Executioner was ready to do his last office to them make a question whether their plot were sinfull or no So modest were some of them and so obedient sonnes to the Church of Rome that they would not take upon them to say either the one or other but referred the matter to their mothers determinations hereby testifying unto the world that if the Church would say they would believe so great an offence against their Countrey were none against God One of them was so obstinate as to sollicit his fellow whilest both were drawn upon one hurdle to the gallowes not to acknowledge it for any sin Or if these must be reputed but private men not well acquainted with their Churches Tenents and therefore no fit instances to disapprove her doctrine let the ingenious Reader but peruse their best Writers answers to the objections usually made against the Popes transcendent authority and he shall easily perceive how matters of fact are included in the Belief of it how by it all power is given him in heaven and earth to pervert the use and end of all Lawes humane or divine I will content my self for this present with some few instances out of Valentian CAP. XXXI Proving the last Assertion or generally the imputations hitherto laid upon the Papacie by that authority the Jesuites expresly give unto the Pope in matters of particular Fact as in the canonizing of Saints 1 HOw oft soever the Pope in defining questions of faith shall use his authority that opinion which he shall determine to be a point of faith must be received as a point of faith by all Christian people If you further demand how shall we know when the Pope useth this his absolute authority this Doctor in the same place thus resolves you It must be believed that he useth this his authority as often as in controversies of faith he so determines for the one part that he will binde the whole Church to receive his decision Lest stubborn spirits might take occasion to calumniate the Pope for taking or the Jesuites for attributing tyrannical authority unto him this Jesuite would have you to understand that the Pope may avouch some things which all men are not bound to hold as Gospel nay he may erre though not when he speaks ex Cathedra as Head of the Church yet when he speaks or writes as a private Doctor or Expositor and onely sets down his own opinion without binding others to think as he doth Thus did Innocent the third and other Popes write divers books which are not in every part true and infallible as if they had proceeded from their Pontificial authority Yea but what if this present Pope or any of his Successors should bind all Christians to believe that Pope Innocents Books were in every part infalliblie true Whether must we in this case believe Valentian or the Pope thus determining better If Valentian in the words immediately following deserve any credit we must believe the Pope better then himself yea he himself must recant his censure of Pope Innocents works For so in the other part of his distinction he addes Secundo potest Pontifex asserere The Pope again may avouch something so as to bind the whole Church to receive his opinion and that no man shall dare to perswade himself to the contrary And whatsoever he shall thus avouch in any controversie of Religion we must assuredly believe he did avouch it without possibilitie of Error and therefore by his Pontificial authoritie His proof is most consonant to his assertion I will not recite it in English lest the meer English Reader should suspect any able to understand Latin could be possibly so ridiculous 2 These lavish prerogatives of the Popes authoritie the Jesuites see wel to be obnoxious to this exception When the Pope doth Canonize a Saint he bindes all men to take him for a Saint Can he not herein erre As for Canonizing of Saints saith
his gracious providence from time to time hath afforded for manifestation of it right senâ—e and meaning abuse Philosophy wherein they excel with all other gifts of art and nature to transform the most essential attributes of the diviâ—e nature to turn his truth into lies his goodness into all abomination For having this natural notion in their brain Whatsoever God saith is true whatsoever â—e approves most just and good Their next presumptuous assumption is But God saith whatsoever the Romish Church or Pope saith exCathedra whatsoever he allows God allows the same And this Assertion which thus confounds the liâ—its of Gods Truth and the Popes that the Christian world cannot discern one from another once wrought in mens hearts what untruth or falshood what Heresie can be hatched so dangerous what villanie conceived so abominable but may be presently fathered upon that Holy one from whom proceeds nothing but good Thus may bloody and prodigious massacres be iâ—vested with the most glorious Titles the best of Christs Saints ever enjoyed for their best deeds Just reward for matchless impieties that benefit them may be set forth to the world as the Crown of Martyrdom Finally their gain is hereby made the measure of goodness their Pomp and glory the Rule of piety and end of every Christians faith unto which he must not stick to sacrifice his soul as an Holocaustum ever burning never consuming in that brimstone lake If it shall please the Pope to authorize murther though of the Lords anoynted God the Son must be the chief Assasinate to give power and strength and heaven for the reward unto the Actor If pleased he be to give way to incest as for the Uncle to marry the Neece a fornication not named but with distaste amongst the ancient heathens I would abhor to speak it would they be ashamed to give just occasion the Holy Ghost must not disdain to be his Bawd or Pander If disposed to dispense with perjury God the Father must be as his Vassal to suffer disgrace at his appointment to recall the sentence of vengeance which the party swearing by his name did imprecate upon his own head if he relented Though this be the greatest injurie that can be offered to so great a Majestie unto whom execution of just vengeance properly belongs yet must the Almighty at the Popes appointment be content to put it up 6. It is a qualitie in Kings very commendable saith Paulus Quartus Legate and Nephew unto Henry of France Religiously to observe their oathes but when the Popes dignitie comes into danger religion it self is in hazard and a prepostorous course it were religiously to observe aâ— oath unto the overthrow of Religion With these and the like suggestions impiously acute did this sweet Cardinal by Commission from the Pope his Master authorize and animate this French King to violate the League lately confirmed by solemn oath betwixt him and Philip of Spain Might he not as justly though not so politickly in plain terms have told him either you must dishonour God or suffer the Pope to be disgraced choose which you list Doubtless in the language of Gods Spirit which searcheth the heart he that dispenseth with an oath of this nature especially solemnly taken is greater then he by whom men swear and is in heart and deed so estemed by such as acknowledge his authority in thus dispensing or sue unto him for like dispensations But as if wilful and open perjurie without deep and hellish hypocrisie were a sin too plain and simple for the Man of sin to countenance the Legate first invests this besotted Prince with the glorious Title of Defensor Ecclesiae Romanae and in witness hereof delivers him a sword consecrated by his Holinesses own hand ere he make him forswear himself and forsake his God who hath now forsaken him and for his sin scarce expiated unto this day plagued the Realm of France For as the judicious Historian who hath the Articles of this perfidious confederacy yet in his custody wel observes this was the root of all the miseries have since befallen that flourishing Kingdom and by Gods just judgements exposed it to the insolencies of the Spaniard through their means especially that wrought the King to breach of his oath with Spain for entring this new confederacy with the Pope 7 Whilest reading this story I called to mind the perfidious and cruel usage of that Renowned Admiral in the Parisian massacre the treacherous impiety of his politick enemies seemed highly to extol the wisedom and justice of his God calling him to suffer his chastisment in this life that he might not perish with the wicked or such as were impenitent for their former grievous sin wherein this worthy Counsellor had in some sort though with grief yet for the good of others I must utter it communicated with the Pope and his perjured Soveraign For knowing the breach of peace was fully resolved upon by the State of France he thought it a point of warlike wisdom to begin with the enemy in his own land rather then expect his onset upon notice of war proclaimed and fair opportunity as he apprehends it being offered from an insinuating Heremites discovering of the situation and readiest way of expugning Doway he attempts the surprisal of it but prevented of his purpose by an old woman that awaked the Garrison he deemed it a shame to return home with empty hands though fil them he could not but with just imputation of being the first that had actually broken the league as afterwards his venerable person was the first upon whom these perfidious Assasinates and actors in the Parisian massacre did practice their intended butchery contrary to the oath and faith which they had given him God grant such as in Reformed Churches do most detest be never tempted by like opportunities to imitate the worldly policies of the Papacy that all our consultations to prevent their malice may alwayes relish more of the Doves innocencie and integrity then of the Serpents subtlety 8 He that would accurately observe the weak supportance of the Roman See at that time when the French could not relieve it how since that time the Popes have mufled themselves into the Spaniards favour to the great prejudice of France who in love to them had brought it self so low may by these modern stories easily discern the Papacies advancement in times past to have been wrought by such means as our Writers out of ancient records have deciphered I specially by sowing enmity betwixt Christian Princes by seeking supportance now from one then from another as several Popes for the most part by-standers in such broils yet skilful to bet alwaies on the fairest side saw fittest occasions until at length they got both feet on Princes shoulders and being once mounted learned cunning to sit fast and ride them safely For most of that succession being stil of several lines and different parentages none of them