forced to take mans flesh upon him to teach it us because it was so high and transcendent beyond all that our eyes had ever seene or that our eares had ever heard or that our imaginations had ever conceiued or fancyed that a lesse authority then Gods essentiall verity was not enough to settle our beliefe upon so sublime and so admirable mysteries Now this being so can we imagin that the discussion of ambiguous words in which such incomprehensible mysteries are hidden should be left to the fancyfull changeablenesse of human apprehensions Who seeth not that mans vnderstanding must of necessity alwayes incline the ballance towardes those thinges he useth to be conversant with that he is wont to see to heare and to conceiue Which is in effect directly contrary to the reason of our Saviours coming And accordingly we dayly meete with some that laugh at the doctrine of the real presence of Christes Body in the blessed Sacrament some at the blessed Trinity euery one framing grounds to himselfe according as his fancy driveth him or as the company he cōverseth with draweth him Now if the scanning of ambiguous wordes will not serve to settle the beliefe of Christian doctrine in the hearts of mankinde It is cleare that nothing but Tradition can performe that worke since there remaineth nothing else that can pretend there to And consequently nothing but Tradition can be the meanes to plant and continue Religion in the world Lastly let us looke into the quality of this doctrine And presently it appeareth to us that it ought to comprehend all our actions and consequently ought to precede the very first of them while as yet there is no judgement in us and when we are growne to the ripenesse of judging it ought to Master our very judgement it selfe since the exercising of that is also one of our actions How then can it be supposed that Religion ought to be studied and learned like a science or skill when as it ought to be possessed even then when we begin to study and that our very study ought to be regulated by it The sixth REFLEXION That the Scripture duely read will bring a man to the truth of Religion SEeing it is agreed on by all parties that the Scriptures were written by the same spirit which guided the Apostles in their preaching There can be no doubt but that the doctrines contained in their witings must needes be conformable to what they delivered in their sermons and in other vocall instructions with this difference that there could he no dispute about their meaning in what they preached and catechised by reason of their often inculcating and plaine expressing it Whereas nothing can be more cleare then that in what they have written their sense is oftentimes obscure and very difficult to be discovered and penetrated into And therefore the Scriptures are to be interpreted by the law writtē in the heart of that Church which hath alwayes adhered to the doctrine that from time to time they have received from their predecessours though withall I have no scruple but that if the Scripture be read in such sort as it ought to be it will of it selfe bring the man who so readeth it to the true Religion The conditions that I require for the due reading of Scripture are these First that he have a sincere intention and affection to submitt his owne minde and judgement to the Scriptures and not straine them to his opinion Secondly that he have a sound understanding not apt to be carried away lightly Thirdly that he meddle with no commenter or interpreter that is more cunning then himselfe nor rely upon any thing for the minde and sense of the Scripture but what the Scripture it selfe affordeth him Fourthly that he reade it long and attentively And Lastly that what he understandeth by reading of the Scripture he endeavour to put it in practise and governe his life accordingly For practise doth wonderfully enlighten any Booke which giveth rules in any kind of operation These thinges observed I doubt not but who taketh Scripture for his rule will not faile of becoming a Catholike at the last For both the reason before delivered in the beginning of the reflexion and experience and the instances of doctrines whereof part follow and more might be brought do manifestly declare that this effect must of necessity follow To see what the Scriptures will direct us in order to Catholike doctrine Let us begin with this very question concerning the interpretation of the Scriptures themselves It is planely set downe that it ought not to be by the private spirit Pet. 2. c. 1. That Christ sett in his Church Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors Doctors for the of building his body that the faithfull may not be turned round by every blast of doctrine Ephes. 4. That the Church is the Pillar and strength of our faith These and many more texts he shall find to shew him that the interpretation of Scripture ought to depend on the Church In other places he may reade that the Scripture is usefull for our comfort for preaching and for exhorting c. But not one word of looking in it for our faith unlesse when it selfe is taken into the question That is to say when the question is whether the new Gospell be conformable to the old which is the sole matter of controversy wherein the Scripture that is to say our Saviour in the 5. of St. John and St. Paul in the 17 of the Acts directeth the searching and looking into Scriptures For in both these places this onely was the point they spoke unto If the question be of the Popes supremacy that is to say of St. Peters Primacy among the Apostles For onely so much can belong to Scripture Wee have it expressely in the 10. of St. Mathew Simon the first And so he is counted by the other two Evangelists Whereas the order of the other Apostles is not kept Wee have tribute payed for Christ and for him as a speciall officer Matth. 17. We have him forwardest in the confession of Christ Matt. 16. The Church promised to be built upon him and the keyes in a speciall manner to be delivered to him So that it is not to be wondered att if presently after the tribute was particularly payed for him We have the sheepe of Christ in a speciall wise recommended unto him John the last We have Christs prayer personally for him and a charge given him to confirme the rest Luc. 22. We have him ordering the Church in the election of St. Matthias Acts the first Him first preaching to the Jewes Acts the 2. Him first receiving the Gentiles by Gods speciall order Acts the 10. Acts the 12. the Church praying for him Hee first giveth the Holy Ghost Acts the 8. Acts the 16 he in the Councell is the first that resolveth the question So that if the Scripture be sincerely consulted in this point there is all appareance or rather evidence of St. Peters
there had been no place for that disjunctive Syllable I easily believe that many a pert batchellour will be ready to tell us that he can find wayes to salve all these places of Scripture and many more if they were urged But that cōcerneth not me I enquire onely what the outward face of Scripture is and to what belief it wil leade an honest heart left to its owne strength For if those queinte disputants do encounter with a person that is not enured to the Sophistry they will turn blacke into white make two egges three as the tale goeth of the impertinent forward scholler and bring to passe whatsoever they undertake Therefore it was necessary to impose among the conditions of reading the Bible this for a principall one That they who by Scripture ayme at coming to the truth should admitt of no Interpreter And this because of the danger in lighting upon a false one instead of a true one before one hath groundes to discerne which is a false one and which a true one For the case is very indifferēt betweene a Catholike Interpreter and any other The Catholike knoweth the doctrine of Christ that is to say the sense of the Scripture independently from the words of the Scripture And therefore in substantiall points which concerne Christs doctrine he cannot teach or interpret amisse without swerving from his owne faith But it is evident that every other who hath no rule for his beliefe besides the bare letter and words of Scripture is subject to errour through every passion and prejudice which hiddenly swayeth his heart awry and corrupteth his judgement by pride or other affection So that he may be rightly compared to a rotten cane that being leaned upon will breake and with its splinters wound and gore him that expected support from it The seventh REFLEXION That the reading of the Fathers will bring a man to the truth of Religion And that naturall reason will greatly advance a man thereunto IT seemeth strange to mee that any man who acknowledgeth Scripture should reject the Fathers since he can not renounce them without professing att the same time by so doing that he believeth himselfe to be able with his little witte and generally lesse study and learning to penetrate deeper into the intelligence of Scripture then so many ages eminent for industry sciēce and holynesse could reach unto And all this upon no other pretence but because they were men and consequently liable to erring As if himselfe were not a man but something else so farre beyond comparison with all other men that we ought rather to confide in his ability and honesty then in all mankinde that went before him Which is so unworthy and so intolerable a pride that I admire how any auditory can endure it But to come more closely to the point I say that seeing the Holy Fathers did both receive the prevaching of the Apostles neerer hand then wee do and did hold the truth of Scripture as strongly as we do and did spend much time in the earnest study of it and proceeded therein with as sincere hearts as wee can It may in no wise be doubted but that they had the meanes and the wills of having the true faith and consequently that they had it Therefore what was their universall Tenet in Matters of faith can not bee false nor ought to be rejected Or with any colour of reason be questioned by us as disagreeing with Scripture Besides their writings being large and numerous in which upon severall occasions and in differing circumstances they repeate and inculcate the same thinges by different wordes and expressions it must needes thence follow that their sense and meaning in most things of importance can not choose but be sufficiently explicated So as who ever shall reade them with candour ingenuity and judgement can not possibly doubt of it And accordingly experience hath shewed us that the judicious Protestants who gave themselves to the reading of the Fathers were in judgement neere unto Catholikes in most of their opinions And that which detained them from being absolutely Catholikes was besides the chaines of interest nothing but a secret pride of not submitting themselves to the Tradition of the Church in some particular points in which Tradition was not so cleare to them Though withall I deny not but that a wrong apprehension of some Catholike Tenets presumed upon the explication of some particular Doctors might unhappily contribute to this their obstinacy No doubt then but if any indifferent person not preimbibed with any wrong maxime shall bestow competent paines in reading the Fathers he will infallibly become Catholike Especially if hee take this rule along with him to compare the practise of Protestants with the practise of the Fathers and of the former Church By which he will see that this which they call Reformation hath cut away under pretence of abuses not the abuses but the very thinges themselves in which the abuses were like unskillfull Chirurgians that cut of a leg to cure a small sore in it or like Mahomet who tooke away all use of wine to cure drunkennesse And in the meane while they cavill att petty questions in which they strive to shew that the Church hath erred As for naturall reason No man will expect that it should be an entire meanes of attaining to the knowledge of the supernaturall truths which are contained in Christian Religion But onely that it may be a helpe thereunto by shewing that they are so farre from contradicting reason as indeed nothing can be more conformable to true reason then the whole oeconomy of them is And I dare promise whosoever shall seeke this that if he come unto it armed with true and sound Philosophy he may arrive to a full contentment of his understanding and heart in all that concerneth so noble an enquiry Now since Catholike Religion hath been so intelligibly divulged in the world St. Augustin maketh mention that he found the Mystery of the Trinity in the Platonists Bookes Now if you aske me how this came to passe I answere that God provided in Alexandria a City much addicted to learning one Ammonius Hermias a great Philosopher and a Christian Hee to make Christian Religion more acceptable sought to joyne it with Platonicke Philosophy Which was no hard matter to do Plato having bing been as Numenius sayth of him Moses speaking Greeke that is to say one who having lighted upon the Hebrew learning had sucked much out of it Now this Ammonius finding in Plato the Ideas of Being and of Vnity and of Life and such other ayery notions easy to be wrought upon to what hee designed endeavoured by these to instill into his Schollers the Mystery of the Trinity Which he did with such happy successe that of the three prime wittes of his Schoole the one Origen became so great and eminent a Doctor of the Church as antiquity hath acknowledged him The other two Amelius and Plotinus prooved two Conductours of the
Defendant for his answering And accordingly since it is well knowne that nothing but Demonstration can give security of a disputable truth He who in a Disputation of this nature undertaketh to prove an assertion ought first to engage his credit that in his conscience hee esteemeth the argument hee intendeth to propose to be Demonstrative How ever he may apprehend a failing on his part in pressing it either through want of sufficient skill or through the over proportion of his adversaries abilities or through the difficulty of well opening the Matter and making the truth appeare If hee refuse to do this he is to be protested against for a thiefe and a robber as our Saviour himselfe styleth such who hath a designe to abuse his hearers and to draw their soules for some private interest of his owne into eternall damnation And the Auditory is to be contested that such a disputation as the Arguer intendeth is a meere juggle and imposture a brabbling base counterscuffle not fitt for a grave Man to have a share in but a meere scolding losse of time and vexation both to the hearers and to the actours The Respondents taske is not so rigorous It is enough for him to maintaine that his adversary can not convince his Tenet of falsity Hee being for this passage but a defendant not a prover Thus farre for Opponents and Defendants in common But now to apply this to Catholikes and to those who have parted from them Let us begin with considering how their maine difference consisteth in this that the Catholike holdeth his doctrine because it came to him by his fore-fathers from Christ and relyeth upon his fore-fathers for the truth of this The Adversaries Universally do rely upon either Scripture or reason As for reason it is evident that it can not bee a sufficient ground of a doctrine that is held by authority And as for Scripture the Catholike maintaineth it as strongly as they Neither have they it but upon the credit of Catholikes And therefore all the arguments they can bring out of Scripture against Catholikes do beare in their fore-head a prejudice of being either false or att least uncertaine The tienth REFLEXION Of some particulars belonging to Catholikes Others to their Adversaries OUt of these premisses there follow some very considerable differences betweene Catholikes and Protestants in point of Disputation The first is That a Catholike ought not for his owne satisfaction to admitt of any disputation att all in Matters of Religion For he relyeth upon a better ground then any his Adversary can offer to him Namely an infallible and irrefragable Authority Hee taketh reason for an insufficient Judge in controversies of this Nature And against disputing out of Scripture he hath two prejudices The one that he holdeth his faith by the same rule by which hee receiveth the Scripture and therefore if Scripture should proove any thing against his faith which is impossible it would make him believe neither and so would not change him to be of a new Religion but cause him to be of none The other prejudice is That he who argueth out of Scripture proceedeth Texts whose sense is disputable in the words themselves Whereas the Catholike is before-hand assured of the sense as farre as concerneth faith Therefore it were in vaine for him to search in an uncertaine instructer the knowledge of that which he already knoweth certainly Yet further If any Catholike doe admitt Disputation for his owne sake and satisfaction he leaveth being a Catholike For the end of Disputation is to cleare a doubt And therefore where is no doubt there is no neede of disputing Neither can a Catholike have any doubt in any Matter of faith unlesse hee suspecteth his rule Which if he once do he is no longer a Catholike On the other side The Protestant building all his faith upon the ambiguous words of Scripture so loud disputed and eternally disputable must necessarily if he bee a rationall man live in perpetuall doubt For the very oppositiō of so many wise and learned men as affirme that the wordes he alleageth do not signify that which is necessary for his position is sufficient to make any rationall man be in doubt of an exposition of wordes that may beare severall senses which he seeth is so obvious and ordinary a rock of mistaking Therefore a Protestant were not rationall if he should not alwayes demand searching and disputing untill experience shall have taught him there is no End of it or by it Hee must resolve either to be ignorant and to trust or else to dispute without end And in very truth his disputing is to no end For suppose he be the arguent and do convince his adversary yet after all his paines he hath gained no more then onely to perceive that his adversary is a weaker disputant then hee or that peradvēture he was at that time surprised so that when he shall be in his better wittes he may happily be able to salve his arguments And if he be the Defendant and chāce to maintain his positiō yet it followeth not that a better Opponent then he had to deale withall mought not have convinced him So that on neither side there is any security to him because he bringeth no Demonstration but onely the bare appearance of ambiguous wordes There is an other impurity betweene Catholikes and their adversaries in this that if the Catholike be the Opponent he can dispute but of one point namely of the Infalliblity of the Church because his adversary is obliged to no other For take what point you will besides and one may be a perfect Protestant whether he hold it or deny it The authority of Bishops is the maine point of Protestācy by which it is distinguished from all other Sestaries Yet when it is for their turne the French Presbyterians so great enemies to that governmēt of the Church are their deare brethren The Greeks the Lutherans the Socinians the Anabaptistes how many positions do they maintaine different from the Protestants Neverthelesse when it pleaseth a Protestant to make his boasts of the large extent of the Reformed Churches all these are of this communion Nay Nay when he talketh of the Vniversall Church No Arrian Eutychian Nestorian or other Professour of whatsoever damned Heresy that hath a share against Popery is excluded by him from being an Orthodoxe Member of the Catholike Church but all are registred in his Kalendar as Professours of the onely true faith and as witnesses of Christs doctrine So that if a Catholike be to argue he looseth his labour in disputing of any point but of the Infallibility of the Church because he advanceth nothing by having the victory in any other For though he should reduce his adversary to be of his minde in all other articles yet not being so in this too he is as farre as ever from being a Catholike since the not believing of any one article of faith maketh a man no Catholike or which
happeneth when the Auditory is ignorant of some Theologicall point with is out of the listes of the Matter So that the debate is drawn to an other businesse And the Auditory remaineth unsatisfyed and discontented thinking it is the disputants fault whereas it is their owne After the Incapacity which arriveth by nature and that which proceedeth from want of study The third is that which accrueth out of Custome And this is likewise twofold The one generall the other particular The first is when the Auditor hath been used to slight discourses in Matters of study or learning and so never bendeth himselfe to penetrate deepely into the proposed question but taketh his resolution by fancy who speaketh well who doth not The particular incapacity of the Auditor proceeding from Custom is when he is meanely versed in the question it selfe and hath been used to heare certaine termes for the finall solution of it unto which when the disputants are arrived hee taketh it for granted that all is sayd that can be sayd and never considereth whether the solution be solide or the reply upon it be efficacious or no This incapacity is proper to halfe-witted men and to that kind of science which is called Inflans That is a portion great enough to make one talke and thinke himselfe wise but not able to make him know any thing solidely Thus having gone through what concerneth the understanding We are now to consider what imperfections springing from the will may render an Auditory unfitt to assist att a disputation Lett the first be a Vanity or secret pride which maketh some men come to it not to see the truth of the thing in question for they suppose they are already perfect in that as thinking themselves to know more then any man else doth and esteeming all knowledge to be but flashes of wit but meerly for passe-time or to censure the disputants Now these Men having no ayme or desire to improve themselves in any truth If any good happen to them by being present att a disputation it is against their will For they seeke none There is an other sort of Auditors faulty through the contrary disposition For they are so diffident of themselves that they dare not judge of any thing Or which is worse though possibly themselves know it not they have their opinions and beliefes absolutely tyed either to the repute of wisedome ad learning or to the Eloquence of some particular person they passionately esteeme Now clearely it were labour lost to dispute for their sakes who dare not trust themselves to see the evidence of what you say But either conferre afterwardes with your adversary about it and have not an equall recourse to you Or will not heare you speake unlesse they have some body by toblott out the notions you endeavour to imprint in their understandings before they can settle in them So that it is in vaine to cast your seede into such high wayes Where the birdes of the ayre are continually picking it up before it can take roote A third and that the most Universall imperfection of the Will in an Auditour consisteth in some affection or interest which he who hath it either can not or doth not see Some are in awe of their Parents or some powerfull Friends others apprehend their wife or some familiar acquaintance some are afraid of perscription some have pretences and hopes of rising in the world some of marrying themselves or their children some are carried away with the esteem of other persons either for their learning or for their wisedome Every one of them is byassed by some respect or other Yet if you tell them so they are ready to protest that were the truth evident unto them they would value none of these thinges more then the durt of their shooes God forbid I should thinke they counterfeit when they say so For you may often perceive in them evident tokens that their hearts go along with their wordes So that they deceive themselves more then they do others And which is their greatest unhappinesse they never suspect that these interests do prevent their seeing the truth and hinder them from penetrating and sticking to what they heare and weakely apprehend The seventeenth REFLEXION What is the best Manner to find the truth of Religion by Conference OUt of what hath been hitherto said it followeth that Disputation seldome happeneth to be the meanes of advancing any man in the truth of Religion For laying for your foundation that disputes in Religion betweene contrary parties are not to be instituted but for the finding out of truth you presently discerne that all such arguments as pretend not certainly ought to be excluded Else Religion is not to be taken for a speculative truth This being done disputation is in a Manner cutt off All Grammaticall arguments are taken away and layed aside as a laudable exercise for boyes but unworthy of grave Men All such arguments as are called probable are likewise banished the lists And these two being taken away there remaineth little worth the noise of Disputation On the other side in relation to the Auditory It is not to be undertaken but before such a one as is able to judge of the due forme and lawes of disputation that can determine what is pertinacy what well replyed and can moderate the heate of the disputants Now such a one where may we hope to finde Surely men indued with parts fit for such a purpose are not to be mett with in multitudes Therefore to have any good proceede from such a conference the Auditors should not be above two or three or some very small company For as it is not easy to find many so qualifyed as is necessary for such an Action So likewise if they were found and assembled they would not easily concurre to the right governing of it some of them understanding thinges one way some another After the manner of disputing and the qualities requisite in the Auditory that is to be present att the disputation there remaineth a third thing to be considered Which is the subject or Matter to be disputed of This ought to be confined to such points as are necessary to be believed Though in very deed this caution is onely for Catholikes all others being free to what ever they can defend doth not contradict Scripture So that being bound to maintaine nothing att all they have in their owne behalfes no occasion to dispute And when they do it it is meerely for the unsettling of others especially of Catholikes who onely have a settled rule and are bound to a knowne doctrine Wherein if Catholikes would hold themselves to such Tenets as are truly necessary without engaging themselves in others that are not so they would mainely disappoint the large objections of their Adversaries But to approach to our Conclusion If disputation do carry in it such difficulties as it can scarce ever be either necessary or profitable And yet the worke of drawing to the true
us to follow them doe demolish the fences and bullwarckes of the same Christianity and good life But all they who deserve the name of heretikes do agree to charge the Church of Christ with corruption and adultery and do deny in her both infallibility to know Christs doctrine and power to governe And consequently they destroy externall unity and the essence of it Which as it is not formally to ruine good life so it is more then to breake downe her outworkes since it entrencheth upon the very substance in common and leaveth no meanes but meere chance and hazard to come to the knowledge of Christs law and consequently to eternall salvation Whence we may understand what this name Popery signyfyeth to witt An affection or resolution to maintaine faith and good life and the causes of conserving them There are divers other points controverted betweene Catholikes and Sectaries But they are such as for the most part require no explication but a flatt denyall As when they accuse us to have deprived the Laiety of halfe the Communion we deny it For besides that the generall practise of Christians hath bin from the beginning to give the sacrament sometimes in one kinde ometimes in both the Church hath alwayes believed that the entire communion was perfectly administred in either We likewise deny that ever the Church held the necessity of communicating Infants The Popes personall infallibility that Indulgences can draw soules out of Purgatory that Prayers ought of necessity be in an unknowne tongue to though we may thinke it fitting in some circumstances that the publike service for reverence and Majesty be so performed that faith is not to be kept with Heretikes that the Pope can dispense with the subjection to Princes And many such other Tenets which are injuriously imposed upon Catholikes by Sectaries and are flatly denyed by us and therefore require no further explication or discourse about them A Sampler of Protestants Shuffling in there Disputes of Religion COntroversy Logick or the art of discoursing in matter of Religion between those who profess the Law of Christe can not be complete unless as Aristotle made a Book of fallacies to avoide cavills in his Organe or instrument of science so wee also discover the common fallacies used in controversies Not all but the chiefest and most ordinarily in this business This then is the scope of my present work For which the first note I make is that owre Ancients have taught us and by experience wee daylie finde that Heresie is in a manner as soon overthrowne as layed open falshood like turpitude being ashamed of nakedness Therefore 't is falshoods game to vest it self like an Angel of light in the skin of the lamb and to seeme to weare the Robes of truth I mean by words like those of the Catholick party to delude the simplicity of the Innocent and welwishing People And now must it be our theame to unvaile theire Shufflings The first Shuffle Of the Word Scripture And first If we aske them what they rely upon they braggingly answer on Gods word upbraiding Catholicks to rely upon men when they fly to the churches witness but if we press thē to declare what they meā by Gods word to wit the Book of the Bible or the meaning of it they are forced to answer the sense for even beasts can convince them that wee have the Book as well as they Marching on another step and pressing to know by what instruments or means they have the sense there is no subterfuge from confessing it is by reading and their owne judging or thinking the sense of the Scripture is that which they affirme though all Catholicks affirm the contrary And although even in this they are cosened following for the most part the explication of their preacher Yet I press not that for they know not that they do so But I conclude see what you meane when you say you rely upon Scripture or Gods word to wit that you rely upon your owne opinion or guessing that this is Gods word So that this glorious profession of relying upon Gods word is in substance and reality to rely upon the opinion or guessing of a Cobler or Tinker or some house-wife when the answerers are such or at most of a Minister who for his owne interest is bound to maintaine this is the meaning of Gods word The second Shuffle Of Generall Councils SOme Protestants are so bold as to profess they wil stand to Generall Councils Now a General Council in the language of Catholicks is a general meeting of the Christian World by the Bishops and Deputies of it to testify the Doctrine of the Christian Church And is accounted inerrable in such determinations and therefore to have power to command the faith of Christians and to cast out of the Church al who do not yield to such their determinations and agreements and by consequence to have a supreme Authority in the Church in matters of faith The Protestants loath to leave the shadow though they care not for the substance use the name but to no effect For the intention being to manifest the Doctrine of the Christian World They first agree not upon the notion of what a Council is Requiring sometimes that al Bishops should bee present sometimes that all Patriarks though known to bee professed Hereticks and under the Turk sometimes objecting want of liberty and mainly that they decide not by disputation out of onely scripture or that they taught false Doctrine So that to the Protestant a Council signifies an indefinite and uncertaine when and what it is meeting of men going upon the scripture Which as it is before declared signifies every cobler or Ministers fancie which hath no authority to binde men to believe and is to bee judged by the Doctrine or agreement in faith with the Protestants The third Shuffle Of the consent of Fathers THe consent of the Fathers or Doctours of Christians before oure age and controversies beares so Venerable an aspect as that few Hereticks dare at least before honest understanding Christians give it flatly the lye Therefore the discreeter part of Protestants acknowledg it yet with a salve that they were all men and might bee deceived which in effect is to say that it is no convincing or binding Authority as Catholicks hold it to bee nay to bee a stronger authority then that of Councils as being the judgement of the Catholick Church or the learned part of it which is al one as to faith The Protestant first at one clap cutts of a thousand or 13. hundred yeares nay some 15. hundred The one saying S. Gregory the great was the last Father and first Papistrie the more ordinary course being to acknowledg onely the Fathers of the Persecution time before Constantine finding Popery as they call it to publick afterwards some pressing that ever since the decease of the Apostles the Church hath been corrupted So that they neither give any authority to the consent of Fathers nor
Sexes dedicated to God Religious Ceremonies and all sorts of enticements to love heaven and follow good life So that the Antiquity the Protestant pretends to is of wanting wilfully those means of helping soules which the primitive Church wanted by the Violence of Persecution and the Antiquity meaned by Catholicks is of being like the Ancient Church in all things that promote vertue inwardly and outwardly The ninth Shuffle Of the Word Tradition TO Antiquity hangs Tradition that is the receiving of Doctrine and Customes from the Ancient Church The which Catholicks place in this that it is derived fom the Apostles to us by the continuall and immediate delivery of one Age to another the sons continuing their Fathers both beliefe and conversation in Christian life and treading the same paths of Salvation This was a bit of too soure a digestion for Protestants being not able to shew any Masters from whome they had received theire beliefe Yet a Tradition they must have not to be openly convinced of having forged their doctrine Some of them therefore sayed they received their doctrine by the Tradition of the Bible made unto them by the Churches continuing since the Apostles time Wherein you see an open equivocating in the word of Tradition Catholicks taking it for the delivery of doctrine that is of sense and meaning the Protestants for the delivery of a mute book or killing letter Others call Tradition the Testimony of the Fathers of all Ages and so att least divert the Question Turning the proof of Religion which is plaine and easie to every ordinary understanding into a business of learning and long study in which though they be worstted yet the People cannot see it nor descry theire falshood The tenth Shuffle Of the word Really TO descend from the Universality or defence of their whole Religiō to speciall articles of it wee shall finde them there like themselves As for example those who beare an outward respect to the Fathers finding them concurring so thick to testify Christes Body to bee in the Holy Eucharist will see me to say the same and use the word of Christ being Really and verily and truely in the Sacrament and that they onely question the manner how he is there which is lawfull amongst Catholicks to do So that you cannot almost distinguish them from Catholicks Vntil you come to explicatiō There the Catholick sayeth that Christes Body is in the sacrament as the substance of Bread was in the thing which before wee called Bread and now is no more but turned into that body wich was hanged on the Cross by an entitative and reall mutation The Protestant wil tell you that it is stil Bread and naturally and entitatively the same thing wich it was before consecration but that by faith which is a real actiō it is Christes true body to us How to justify these words that by Faith it is Christes true body is impossible unless they wil have us believe by faith what they tell us is false Therefore others say it is an assurāce of Christs Body as a bond is of mony Peradventure of enjoying Christe in Heaven But how different both senses bee from the Catholick which they seek to be thought theirs and from the natural meaning of the words every mā cā see So that the manner of being Christes Body which they question signifies whether it bee truely there or no but onely by a false apprehension they call Faith The eleventh Suffle Of the Word Sacrifice The like is of the word Sacrifice and Altar and such other In which the Catholick position makes these words proper and that the Mass is as or more properly signified by the word sacrifice as the sacrifice of the old law That there is a true and real separatiō of the body of our Saviour from his bloud and more proper to the names then nature can make which can not make a true body when the bloud is separated nor true bloud whē the body is left out wich in this sacramēt is performed and nevertheless Christe entire and untouched But a Protestāt wil tel you that whē the Holy offering is called a sacrifice it is meaned a sacrifice of praise or thanks giving that is in reality no sacrifice but an outward ceremony of praise or thāks giving others that it is a resemblāce or represētatiō of a sacrifice to wit of that of the holy Cross so that you see the differēce of the two significatiōs is no less thē whē by the same word as of Christes one means Christs Person another a Crucifix or the picture of Christe The twelfth Shuffle Of the Word Priesthood In consequēce and conformity to this they abuse the Word of Priesthood For finding al Antiquity gloriously full of this name they must also use it and finding St. Paul had too expressely taught us that a Priest was a publick Officer ordained to offer to God giftes and sacrifices and that he ought to be legitimately called to the office and that Catholiks take Priesthood in this meaning And how on the other side themselves had taken out of the Church all solemn offerings and sacrifice the business of a Priest and nevertheless shame on one side and ambition on the other egged them on to call themselves Priests they were forced to corrupt the Word sacrifice first as is declared to come to the name Priesthood So that Priesthood in the Protestant meaning is an officer chosen to sing Psalmes in the sight of the People The which how different it is from the Catholick explication of being the publick Officer of the eternall sacrifice is too plain to be declared Onely I must add that who takes ordination with the intention onely to become the chief or high singer of the Parish receiveth not Priesthood as it is meaned and used in the Catholick Church The thirteenth Shuffle Of the word Faith THe abuse of this name Faith must not bee omitted which Catholicks taking for a perswasion of such truths as are necessary to bring us to good life and salvation which perswasion wee settle upon Christes doctrine delivered unto us by Tradition of the Church The which meaning is cleare in the Apostle who expresseth himself to speak of faith that works by Charity The first Protestants took the word Faith as excluding Charity and cryed downe good works as improfitable the latter ashamed of this as destroying good life and plainly contrary to the whole designe of Scripture and Fathers took it for the same faith that Catholicks do but would have it have force precisely out of its being a persuasion and the working to follow to no effect but as a hanger on without any End whereas Catholicks make the persuasion to bee chiefly or wholly to breed Charity which is the true cause of salvation But the presbiterian party and the plainer dealing Protestants have quite changed and destroyed faith saying faith is a Persuasion that the believer must have that hee in Person is one of the