this Principle of Dr. Sherlock be reasonable the Jews ought when he disputed in their Synagouge not to have stirr'd an inch not to have hearkened to him till he had disowned infallibility In the Defence the Honest Footman is ashamed of so unchristian a Principle and would disown it saying That it appears plain and natural to him that he may submit his judgment to an Infallible Judge and yet the Church of Rome may not be that Judge true but this is contrary to Dr. Sherlock's Principle For how long is the Protestant not to stir an inch till the Catholic hath proved his Churches infallibility There would have been some common sense and reason in that Advice but not so says Dr. Sherlock but till he disowns infallibility 'T is as evident then as Noon-day-light that Dr. Sherlock lookt upon infallibility pretended unto as inconsistent with disputing and pretending by reason to convince an other of the truth and that consequently he takes the Jews's part against St. Paul. The Footman Mistook here his Masters Errant Preservative fol. 6. Dr. Sherlock asks this Question What difference is there betwixt mens using their private judgment to turn Papists or to turn Protestants I answered the same as betwixt two sick men the one whereof chooses to put himself in an able Doctors hands whom he knows to have an infallible Remedy whilst the other chooses his own Simples and makes his own Medicin As between two at Law the one whereof is guided by his Reason to take Advice from a wise Counsellor the other to be his own Council c. The Doctor 's second Answers by this Question And is not here private Judgment used all this while A shrewd Question indeed Dr. Sherlock had asked what difference there was in these two uses of private Judgment I produce the difference then as if the Question had been forgot still says the Footman there is use made of private Judgment it were as nice a Reply had one asked what difference is there betwixt an Ounce of Gold and an Ounce of Silver if when the different value is express'd he should wisely return this answer why there is still an Ounce in both cases Is there no difference then betwixt one who follows his fancy in choosing his way and him who chooses a good Guide and follows him because both choose do both equally rely on their fancy What Position can more abuse common sense Certainly the Ingenious and Learned Gentlemen of the Temple cannot but smile at this strange way of Reasoning in their Master so different from theirs Preservative fol. 9. They cannot with any sense dispute with us about the particular Articles of Faith because the sense given of Scripture and Fathers takes its Authority from the Church understanding it so I Replyed that the sense takes its Authority from God who spake the Word though we are certain that we have the true sense of that Word because we receive it from the Church which is guided in delivering to us both the Letter and Sense by the infallible Spirit of God that is to abide with Her for ever according to Christs promise Joh. 14. 16. I added that if John and William dispute which is the right way to a place John is not disabled of convincing William of his mistake because he receives the Reasons he uses from an infallible Guide This was plain and full what answers the Doctor 's second He cites some Catholic Divines how truly it belongs not to my present purpose saying that the words of Scripture brought in proof of Transubstantiation might be taken in a different sense from that which the Catholic Church hath ever received and delivered and that had not the Church ever taught that sense one might believe otherwise for all the Letter of Scripture Let it be so but what follows here But the necessity of an unerring Interpreter So that Text 1 Joh. 5. 7 8. There be three which give Testimony in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three be one and there be three which give testimony on Earth the Spirit Water and Blood and these three be one in the sense the Church hath ever received it in proves the strict Unity of God in the Trinity of Persons The Arians gave it a contrary and as natural a sense doth this prove that we follow not Scripture and this very Text in our belief of the Holy Trinity Once more I appeal to the Learned Gentlemen of the Temple hoping they will join with me maintaining against their Master that all the Judges of the Land may very reasonably convince by Law an impertinent Party though he should oppose that they may not do it because their Interpretation of the Law is to deliver the true sense of it The Preservative fol. 11. moves this Question Must the belief of an infallible Judge be resolved into every mans private judgment Must it not be believed with a Divine Faith and can there be a Divine Faith without an infallible Judge I gave this answer There can be no Divine Faith without a Divine Revelation nor a prudent one without a Moral evidence in the Motives of Credibility on which may be grounded the evident obligation to accept it The judgment being possess'd with that Moral infallibility rests not there but observing that goodness and mercy of God which cannot permit that falshood should be propounded in his Name with all the apparent marks of his Hand and Seal and without any like appearance on the Contrary inclined by a pious motion of the Will called by the famous Council of Orange affectio credibilitatis and strengthen'd by that Grace of God which bestows the Gift of Faith fastens on Gods Veracity and with a submission not capable of any doubt embraces the revealed truth If the infallibility of the Church were more than Morally evident it were impossible that any Heresy should be To this the Second of Dr. Sherlock hath nothing to oppose and is willing to submit if I can shew a Revelation that there is an infallible visible Church I will comply with so reasonable a demand and since not one in a thousand of those who oppose our Doctrin in this fundamental Point which once being cleared bears away all disputes understands what that infallibility means on which we ground the admirable certainty of each Point of our Belief give me leave Sir to be somwhat more prolix on this Subject than the narrow compass of a Letter would otherwise allow What is and whence proceeds this infallibility Many do suppose and object unto us that we hold a Man or many to be infallible in themselves a Title to which God alone can lay a Claim who only as he is truth so he is alone infallible They wilfully suppose that we place this infallibility in the sense and judgment of men so that whatever by their own Light they resolve and order must infallibly be true and just that such may frame new Articles
Dr. SHERLOCK'S PRESERVATIVE CONSIDERED The First Part and its Defence Proved to contain Principles which destroy all right use of Reason Fathers Councils undermine Divine Faith and abuse Moral Honesty In the Second Part Forty malicious Calumnies and forged Untruths laid open besides several Fanatical Principles which destroy all Church-Discipline and oppose Christs Divine Authority In Two Letters OF F. LEWIS SABRAN of the Society of JESUS With Allowance LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And are sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Black-Fryers 1688. TO THE READER YOU will find in the Postscript an Answer to the Preface set before the Defence which being a Heap of undigested Untruths and ill-contriv'd Calumnies I conceived it most proper to expose them that relate to me in particular after I have wiped off the Dirt which the Defence hath cast upon the Churches Doctrin Besides I thought my self bound in Justice and good Manners to yield the Preference to the Honest Footman whose Style is not near so Lewd and Unmannerly as the outragious Preface-maker's who may with reason be supposed a Minister that CANONICAL GOWN having these late Years been a constant Sanctuary to so many Libelling Slandering Prophane Reviling Peevish and Uncharitable Pens that the greatest part of those Books which in any of these kinds have appeared of late Years in this Kingdom have been the notunnatural Issues of these Meek Charitable Humble and Loyal Levites SIR THO' you have declared to some Friends That you do not conceive your self under any Obligation of Answering my first Letter the Licensing of a Book being I perceive but a Friendly Office and a cheap one too when Conscience only and Reputation may be concern'd in it and not obliging the Licenser to boggle at any Calumnies he meets with in it nor at any Falshood that imposes upon the Readers tho' in a Concern of so high a nature as the True Faith and Eternal Salvation However I will tempt your good Nature and Civility once more hoping that you may at least make use of Dr. Sherlock's happy Contrivance and when you are sensible that Five or Six Weeks Endeavors cannot suggest any Answer that may appear to Public View without betraying the weakness of your Cause and the unwarrantable Methods us'd in its defence you will find out some Honest Footman who will not blush to own all the Wrong and impertinent Reasoning which must make up a seeming Answer I am confident how unkindly soever you may deal with others that you owe Dr. Sherlock so much Deference as not to License a Book Printed in his Defence without his Perusal and Allowance Wherefore not to trouble the Footman whose Circumstances as we are told can expect but a small allowance of time I shall look on the Answers given by Dr. Sherlock's Second as offered or at least owned by him and Examin how he supports those Principles by which I pretend that he overthrows First All right use of Common Sense It is a Catholic Principle That he who has an Infallible Guide need not mistrust him so as to enquire farther whether he be in the right Way tho' he may and ought to improve himself in the knowledge of the Way he is directed in Dr. Sherlock in opposition to this self-evident Principle Preservat Fol. 3. charges the Catholic Church with this great Crime That it will not allow the reading of Heretical Books adding That God not only allows but requires it This seemed to me extravagant not to say impious and to all those who have inherited from St. Paul that Faith to which he exacts so firm and unwavering an adherency that if an Angel from Heaven should teach us Gal. 1. 8. any thing in opposition to it we ought not to mind him or to return him any other Answer than Anathema How can said I this positive Certainty stand with an Obligation of reading Heretical Books which oppose that Faith to frame by them and settle a Judgment By what Text doth God deliver this Injunction I asked farther how standing to the first Principles of Common Sense a Church that declares all Men bound to Judge for themselves could Countenance Laws which exact of Dissenters that they stand not to that their Judgment but Comply against it and that constrain their liberty of Judging by the dread of Excommunications Sequestrations Imprisonments Exclusion from the chiefest Properties of free-born Subjects even by Hanging and Quartering which is to make it Death not to act against a strict Duty of Conscience acknowledg'd by the Persecutors to be such These were three material Questions I waited Six Weeks for an Answer and he returns me at last by his Footman this wonderful one That I leave out what was said of the Bible Dr. Sherlock blaming the Church of Rome for not suffering her People to dispute their Religion or to read Heretical Books nay not so much as to look into the Bible it self that I take it for granted that all the Writings of Protestant Divines are Heretical Books nay the Bible it self too I wonder not the Doctor should give this his Answer by a Footman he hath yet I conceive some remnants of Modesty But is there here one word of Answer to my three Questions No not a syllable nor of Truth neither I reflected on no Divines of any Persuasion I found Heretical Books in the number of those which he blames our Church for not recommending and which he assures us God requires the reading of This being an Objection of a new Coin and a Proof of his own Invention I shew'd the Unreasonableness of the one and asked an Instance of the other passing by that trivial Calumny so often Answered That the Catholic Church suffers not her People to look into the Bible it self which supposes that we lock up the Bible as the Romans did their Sybillin Books whereas many thousands are commanded by the Catholic Church setting aside all temporal Concerns to make the reading of the Word of God their continual study and to teach daily the Doctrin of it to those who not having learnt to read or being of too weak a Judgment to carry away the Sense of a Book or too much taken up by their Trades and Employs by which they support their Families and earn themselves a necessary Livelihood have not the Leisure or Capacity to gather the Articles of Christian Belief or the different Parts of Christian Duties from it for to all others who conceive they may reap a Benefit from it leave is never deny'd to read the Bible translated to that end into all vulgar Tongues In the close an Answer is attempted and the Author of the Defence tells me He is not content with an Implicit Faith That we are commanded to try the Spirits and to try all things These are the Texts produc'd to maintain Dr. Sherlock's three Positions That we are obliged to read Heretical
of Faith and a new Religion or at least Phanatick-like by Enthusiasms and new marvelous Revelations make new additions to our Faith so that we may have daily a different one their Votaries like a blind Herd being driven now to one Opinion then to another yet still supposing themselves infallibly right all this is a monstruous misrepresentation without one word of truth but men who themselves follow a lawless fancy and loose liberty must thus disfigure that admirable Guide which God hath left us otherwise they would soon be without any followers this account I shall deliver here of the infallible Guide which Catholics follow the Church of God will I am sure represent her in very different because in her true proper Colours Our Guide then is the Catholic Church either diffusive in its whole extent or representative in its Head and Bishops the Pope and a General Council for as in the State here in England we have a Common Law and a Statute Law the first not compiled by any one Lawgiver but delivered by all the Judges and Sages of the Law and preserved in all Courts and the daily use of the whole Kingdom the second delivered particularly by the Kingdoms Great Representative in its Head and Members the King and lawfully convened Parliaments So in the Church there is a general Faith first received from Christ and his Apostles and preserved by all Bishops in their respective Diocesses and in the mind and actions of each faithful Believer in the whole Catholic Church and when any difficulty arises by the opposition of new Heresies then the Church Representative the Pope and a General Council or Synod of the ablest and Holiest Bishops of the Catholic Church deliver their Sentence in favour of the ancient Truth ever followed in the Church which Decisions or Canons are like our Statute Law only declaring and applying to particular instances the Common Law or Belief of the Church We hold that this general Faith received from the Apostles and preserved in all the Members of the Catholic Church explained upon occasion by the Church Representative is infallibly true and this is all the infallibility the Catholic Church pretends unto neither the whole Church nor any person or persons in it are held to possess any intrinsick infallibility which we own to be proper to God alone Nay no man in this present state or condition of life as our Divines observe can be in himself impeccable or infallible all are of themselves subject to Error Scotus in 2. diff 2 3. Q. as well as to sin and whatever God doth in favour of his Church doth no more alter her defectibility than a strong man lifting up a great weight with a Child takes away the natural weakness of the Child which remains still the same though the weight not moveable to the Child be in effect drawn or lifted up Hence Rufinus observes that we do not say in our Creed I believe in the Holy Catholic Church as we say I believe in God the Father In Jesus Christ In the Holy Ghost By that Preposition that syllable in we separate the Creator from his Creatures Divine help from In Symb. art Eccless S. Cat. Hac prepositionis syllaba Creator a Creaturis secernitur divina humanis separantur Humane means but we say of these humane means appointed by Almighty God that although they be fallible and exposed to error in their own nature yet by Gods appointment and Grace they will prove infallible as to us and certainly lead to the knowledge of truth We do not say that they cannot of themselves deceive us but that God according to his promise directing them by his infallible Spirit it cannot possibly happen that they should deceive us If then says S. Thomas our Creed as many understand it teaches us to believe in the Catholic Church this is the sence of it That is to say our Faith leans on the Holy Ghost and the meaning of these words are I believe in the Holy Ghost who sanctifies the Hoc est intelligendum secundum quod fides nostra refertur in Spiritum sanctum Sanctificantem Ecclesiam holy Church and Guides her When God revealed to St. Paul that he should come to Rome and die there or to St. Peter that being grown old he should be Crucified were either of them immortal the one till he came to Rome the other till he became old not the least they were as srail as before as exposed to Diseases within as capable of being wounded and that mortally yet in a true sense they were immortal for that time because that by reason of the Revelation and protection of God it was impossible they should die before they came the one to Rome the other to old Age according to the Revelation Thus should God reveal to a Traveller in a wild Wilderness full of wild Beasts and beset by Thieves that he should pass certainly unhurt and not fall he nor those who follow him into the Hands of these or Claws of those this man would remain as weak as ignorant of the ways as exposed to danger as before yet would prove an infallible Guide to those who would follow him So supposing which I shall presently prove that God hath promised to the Catholic Church that his holy Spirit should guide her in all truth that she shall follow that true Guide and ever avoid falling into Error though each Member of the Church remain as fallible as weak as subject to Error as before yet it evidently follows that this Church will infallibly avoid all Errors never lead any of her followers into it and this is all we mean by the Churches infallibility A thing when thus rightly understood as clear as evident as certain as that God's Revelation cannot prove false as that the Holy Ghost and Christ himself who remains with the Teachers of this Church be in themselves infallible We do not expect any new Revelations or Lights we do not admit any new Article of Faith though where a doubt arises the Church hath infallibly power to declare what hath been revealed by Christ to the Apostles and Preached by them which perchance some part of the Church might have had a less clear understanding thereof and though when the sense of Scripture appears doubtful to some this Church can explain infallibly what the true sense and meaning is and deliver more explicitly what is implyed in the Word of Scripture for example if some doubts whether in the Mystery of our Lords Supper there be a true Change of the substance of Bread into that of the Body of our Lord. This Holy Church can declare that these plain words This is my Body do declare it and to avoid further mistake may give a new clearer Name to the old Mystery so revealed by Christ and Preached by the Apostles calling it Transubstantiation as She calls the Mystery of God one in Nature and three in Persons Holy Trinity a
highest impiety or the most rash arrogancy In fine that by the Authority of such Councils Truth is setled and confirmed and all doubts are removed The Oracle of Christ our Lord in this case stands Mat. 8. If he submit not to the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen and a Publican This St. Cyprian was convinced of when he declared That no one can have God for a Father who pays not to the Church the submissive Duties which a Mother hath right to challenge that as no one out of the Ark escaped death in the Deluge so no one can avoid perishing if he revolt from the Church that no one can live to God and be out of her Obedience because that God hath but one House and no body can be saved out of the Church Next the practice of the Apostles for as we find Acts 15. there being a debate about the Obligation that Christians lay under in reference to the Law they appointed Paul and Barnabas to go up and certain others of the rest to the Apostles and Priests unto Hierusalem upon this Question There was made a great disputation and the Conclusion was this Decision of the Church It seemed good to the Holy-Ghost and unto us c. according to the Promise made by Christ Joh. 15. 16. When the Paraclite comes He shall give testimony to me and You shall give testimony to me which words assert the future perpetual union in the same sense betwixt the Invisible infallible Spirit and the Visible Church Hence St. Cyril Patriarch of Hierusalem owned the true Church to be called Catholic not only by reason of her Continuation in all Ages and extent into all places but also by reason that She teaches Catholicly that is Vniversally without Ecclesia vocatur Catholica quia docet Catholice hoc est universaliter sine ullo defectu vel differentiâ omnià dogmata quae debent venire in cognitionem Omne hominum genus pié subjugat Principes privatos Cyr. Hier. Catech. 8. any Error or Variance all that a Christian ought to know submitting piously to her Authority all sorts of men both Princes and People St. Paul though an Inspired Scripture-writer owned this Ordinary Authority as the only sure Guide saying of himself Gal. 2. 1. I went up according to Revelation God ordering it for our Example and instruction and confer'd with them the Gospel which I preached lest perhaps I should have run or had run in vain Not that the Churches approbation added any thing to the truth which had been revealed to him whence he says To me those that seemed to be something added nothing So now the Churches Authority addeth nothing to the truth revealed in Scripture but offers infallibly that truth to be obey'd In which sense St. Augustin owned that he would not believe the Gospel were Ego vero Evangelio non crederem nisi me Catholicae Ec clesiae commoveret Authoritas ad Ep. fund c. 5. Etisi contumax superba obundire volentium multitudo Ecclesia tamen â Christo non recedit Et illi sunt Ecclesia plebs sacerdoti adunata Pastori suo grex adhaerens Ep. 69. he not moved to it by the Authority of the Catholic Church to wit the present one then declaring against the Manicheans for the Church as St. Cyprian had observed before him that is the people united to their Priest the Flock adhering to their Pastor never falls off from Christ though stubborn and proud multitudes of men fall off from Her. How can God abandon the Church to Errors and yet give her Teachers and Pastors the Power to exact a full submission of judgment this St. Paul bears witness unto 2 Cor. 10. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God casting down all imaginations or reasonings and every thing that exalts it self against the knowledge and bringing into Captivity all understanding in obedience to Christ and he declares to the Ephesians 4. 11. before cited that these Pastors whose teaching will preserve us from wavering and from being tost to and fro will still be until we all come unto the unity of Faith until the Body of Christ be built which will not be compleat till the Worlds End. Yet our Merciful God to bear away all cavilling excuses of those who should pretend the Church to have been lest and abandoned by her Teacher the infallible Spirit of God hath most clearly ingaged his unerring Word for the contrary This is my rest says he by David for ever and Psal 132. ever here will I dwell because I have chosen it And St. Paul assures us that this House of God is the Church of the living 1 Tim. 13. 15. God to omit the greater number of these Promises by Isay he offers these Thou shalt be no more for saken as the Synagogue Isay 60. 10. 62. 3. but thou shalt be called my delight in her upon thy Walls Hierusalem I have appointed Watchmen all the day and all the night in the calm of Peace and in the storms of Persecution for ever they shall not hold their peace There shall come Idem 59. a Redeemer to Sion and to them that shall return from iniquity in Jacob says our Lord as for me this is my Covenant with them my Spirit that is in thee and my words that I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds Seed from the present and for ever by Hieremy he promises I will give them one Hier. 32. heart and one way that they may fear me for ever I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them but will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me By Ezechiel he thus expresses himself There Ezech. 37. 24. shall be one Shepherd over them all they shall walk in my Judgements I will set my Sanctuary in the midst of them for ever By Malachy thus I will make her who was cast off the Church gathered amongst the Gentils a strong Nation and the Lord shall reign over them from hence forth and for ever And by the Prophet Osee he assures that Church That he hath Espoused her in Faith for ever Was it possible that God should reveal more expresly more fully that his Church should never fail to follow the directions of her Guide the Holy Ghost what wonder that all holy Fathers should continually deliver us a truth of which they had received so frequent and plain Revelations St. Cyprian following the Prophet Osee assures us that this Spouse of Christ can never fall into Adultery must remain Chast and unstained ever dwell in One House and Adulterari non potest sponsa Christi incorrupta est pudica unam domum novit Quisquis ab Ecclesiâ segregatus Adulterae jungitur à promissis Ecclesiae
with which these late Heresies are patch'd up But the last Defence brought for Dr. Sherlock is surprising and I could well quarrel with you Sir as a Christian for Licensing it What do you own that we only are to look on the Faith even as Preached by Christ as necessarily Infallible Is it no part of your Belief that you are any way concerned in that that certain Faith which Christ exacted from the Jews St. Paul from each Christian must of necessity be Infallible 'T is impossible by Reason to prove that Men must not make use Preservative of their own Reason and Judgment in Matters of Religion That Men must use Reason to come to this Knowledge that Answer Fol. 5. God hath revealed what they believe is very certain As the Jews Exod. 14. Crediderunt Domino Moysi servo ejus Did believe God and Moses his Servant As all Nations believed Christ and his Apostles So each Christian now believes Christ and his Church the first as Author the second as Witnesses Commission'd from God of their Faith being moved by the Proofs they offered of their Commission So far Judgment Thus the Apostles believed Christ teaching himself to be the Son of God their Judgment having first been convinced that God spoke by him which Method appears more particularly in the Man born blind whom Christ our Lord cured and who Nin̄ Dominus esset cum illo was thereby convinced that God was with him taught by him and in consequence to that Conviction having barely heard from Christ that he was the Son of God he fell prostrate and adored him not exacting any farther proof beyond his Word After a full conviction that God speaks by those who Preach to us there is no farther use of Reason if we believe St. Paul but in order to the bringing into captivity all Vnderstanding in obedience to Faith. 2 Cor. 10. Defence f. 7 8. If my Sense and Reason will serve me to find out an Infallible Church it is a little severe to renounce it when I come there The Apostles were as Infallible as the Church can pretend to be now yet 1 Epist John 4. 1. Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits if they be of God. 1 Cor. 10. 15. I speak to wise Men judge you what I say And Acts 17. 11. we have this particular Commendation of the Bereans that they were more noble than those of Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily to see whether what they heard were conformable thereto or no. Answer Do I renounce my Reason when I embrace what my Reason hath convinced me to be infallibly true Sure Sir you have too much Sense not to own this to be a sensless Position But let us apply it to another Case When a Protestant is convinced and that if you please infallibly that the Word of God in the Bible delivers a Truth and his Reason hath convinced him of it is he not to abandon whatever Reason can object against the Mystery If you say he is not then a Man may doubt of the truth of Gods Word A very Christian Protestant Principle If you say he is then 't is not severe but most reasonable to renounce Reason when it opposes it self to a Truth infallibly Preached and received from an Authority acknowledged Infallible As for the three Texts I have before shewed how the First is wrested from its plain natural Sense to the opposite The Third is against him for the Bereans received First the Word with all readiness of mind and then searched the Scriptures to see in them those Texts which the Apostles used to convince the stubborn and so do Catholics The Second is neither directly nor indirectly to the purpose For St. Paul having brought a Reason why they were to abstain from such Meat and Drink as was offered to Idols to wit that since they did partake of the true Sacrifice of Christ's Body and Blood they could no more use what was Sacrificed to Idols than serve at two opposite Altars and adore the true God and the false ones he asks them Whether this Reason is not convincing Now I would know whether a Supreme Judge much more an infallible one doth disclaim his own Power because he offers evident Reasons for the Sentence he gives and shews the Parties obstinacy that should refuse to submit to them As for those words As to wise Men I speak the honest Footman little understands the meaning of them it being the Language of the Primitive Church when any thing was touched concerning the great Sacrament of our Blessed Lord's Body and Blood not to publish that high Mystery but to refer to the private Instruction about it which was given after Baptism and never trusted to the Catechumens an evident Proof that in this Sacrament there was a high Mystery beyond the Faith in Christ our Redeemer as Saviour of the World and Food of our Souls by his Passion without which no one was admitted to Baptism Thus St. Augustin ever expressed himself in this Subject The Norunt fideles norunt qui Initiaati sunt In Ps 39. 33. Ps 109. Hom 42. c. 4. l. 50. Hom. Orig. in Levit. Hom. 9. Chrys Hom. 27. in Gen. Hom. 5. ad Antioch c. Faithful know what I mean those understand me that have been Christned Thus Origen and St. Chrysostom before him and St. Paul himself I speak to you more boldly of this Mystery as to the wiser and more fully taught Pray Sir leave off Licensing such wretched Trifles and such wonderful wrested Texts or never expect there should be any Answer returned to them tho' how far this Motive will prevail with you I have some small reason to doubt Preserv f. 21. We have as much assurance of every Article of our Faith as you have of the Infallibility of your Church First because we are in general assured that the Scriptures are the Word of God. Answer f. 5. This is the great Point indeed which if a Protestant loses he loses all For 't is certain and evident that the Catholic hath the same assurance for each Article of his Faith proposed by the Church which he hath of the Churches infallibility as I have the same certainty of all that my Friend says to me which I have that he speaks nothing but certain truth He proves it first because he is in general assured that the Scriptures are the Word of God Hitherto there holds some parity though but lame but suppose it were entire the Conclusion would be this Catholics are as certain of the sense of Scripture as Protestants are that they have the Letter whence it follows demonstratively that when Protestants differ in the sense from Catholics they have less assurance for it than Catholics who have always the same assurance for the sense as Protestants have for the Letter Defence f. 6. and 7. You are Judges in your own Case
as a piece of Wood is the Material Square of a Carpenter their application of Sense to this Letter is that which makes their real and Formal Rule as the streightness or crookedness of a Rule is the true Rule of the Carpenter that uses it 'T is against this I write and against Dr. Sherlock's Principle that tho' several Men using the same Method of making Rules find and own that their several Rules make different Lines yet it follows not says he that the Rules they work by are not true nor their Methods of making themselves a Rule erroneous Preservat f. 83 84. Were all Protestants of a mind would their Consent and Agreement prove the certainty of their Faith Answer f 7. Not at all but 't is a most ridiculous Inference of yours This is the same Rule and their Disagreement proves not their uncertainty All Union is not an Argument of the Spirit of God for People may combine to do ill But St. Paul assures us Disunion and Dissention is a certain Mark of the absence of the Spirit of God. Defence f. 21. You should have added in some not in all the disagreeing Parties If the Question be put amongst a company of Men to go rob such a House is it a Mark of the absence of the Spirit of God in those which do not agree to that Wickedness Answer Certainly this honest Footman is hired to write as wide as may be from Reason that in Comparison with it Dr. Sherlock's Errors may appear tolerable I speak of People led into Disunion by the same Principle which from thence I conclude to be no good one And I pray those who refuse to go and rob the House do they act in this Refusal by the same Principle by which others are moved to the Robbery If they be for Example out of Spite tho' their Refusal be just and good their Motive or Rule they act by and of that only I speak is stark naught Dr. Sherlock's Principle which makes void all Scripture-proof IF a Mystery appears against Sense and Reason Preservative fol. 72. we must have a Scripture proof as cannot possibly signifie any thing else or else it will not answer that Evidence which we have against it Sense and Reason proving it naturally impossible Answ f. 7. A Text which cannot possibly have an other sense doth not leave it in any ones liberty who owns Scripture to be an Heretic therefore the Church produced no such Texts against the Arians or Nestorians to whom the Mysteries of the Trinity and of Christs Human and Divine Nature in one Person appeared against Sense and Reason whence it evidently follows that according to Dr. Sherlock the Arians and Nestorians were bound not to believe the Trinity and Incarnation of Christ A happy Ministerial Guide and well led such as follow him Defence f. 22. The Trinity and Incarnation which the Arians and Nestorians disputed they are Mysteries indeed and might seem to be above Sense and Reason but they are not contrary to it But that Transubstantiation contradicts both is plain Answ The Footman had better have minded his Masters business than to pretend an Answer to what he doth not as much as understand Certainly the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation are not against Sense and Reason but they did appear so to the Nestorians and Arians and that is the Case put by Dr. Sherlock and therefore 't is evident that according to his Principle Arians and Nestorians were bound not to leave their Heresies Dr. Sherlock's Principle making void all use of Councils and Fathers AFter he hath respectively told us That Preservative fol. 73 Learned men may squabble about the Fathers he gives these Rules without which they be of no use 1. We must know that the Father is truly Author of the Book or the Council of such a Decree 2. That he was not corrupted by the ignorance or knavery of the Transcribers while they were in the hands of the Monks and to make this impossible he assures us They not only pared their Nails but also their very Habit and Dress to fit them to the Modes of the time 3. That the Father doth not in some other place Contradict what there he says 4. That he did not alter his Opinion after Answer f. 8. That 's to say some of these requisites not being possibly to be known no use is to be made of them Defence f. 23 24. These requisites that man that will build any thing upon their Authority must know or else he may be miserably mistaken yet this is not to deny any use of Fathers and Councils for Learned men may dispute about them Answ A rare Privilege granted to Learned Men that they may dispute about Fathers and Councils but not till they have resolved some doubts first which cannot possibly be resolved This is to sport pretty pleasantly but not to answer Dr. Sherlock's Principle which makes void all use of Civil Charity and Moral Justice to our Neighbor IT lies in his last Chapter in which he attempts Answer fol. 8. in vain to colour the Misrepresentations which his Party hath ever been guilty of It is when a mans Exterior Actions are naturally capable of a good and pious meaning and he ever and clearly declares that it is His. Yet to fasten upon him another opposite design and meaning taken from his opposers contrary Principle Than which there cannot be a greater and more unjust disingenuity this he calls to join Protestant Principles with Popish Practices For Example to insinuate That a Catholick thinks the blessed Virgin more Powerful in Heaven than Christ He tells us that he says ten Ave Maria's for one Lords Prayer And this though he knows that the first half of the Ave Mary is in memory of and thanksgiving for the Incarnation of Christ and the other half asks of the Virgin only to pray for us to Christ which is all the Power we allow her in Heaven Defence p. 24. The matter of Fact is true Suppose he doth not think her more powerful than Christ yet sure he must think her more merciful and ready to hear his Prayers Answ This is in lieu of excusing his Masters Malice and disingenuity meerly to make the Proverb Good like Master like Man. Mary her self her Merciful concern for us her Prayers are an Effect and Gift of the Mercy of Christ But to see how people will speak in spight of Sense when they are resolved to impugn Truth how can it prove that I believe a person more merciful than another because I repeat oftner my instances and Petition Naturally we call that a greater mercy which is sooner moved and yields to a single address But the whole is a most false Calumny as it insinuates that our Church applies her Devotions more to our blessed Lady than to Christ Our Mass our Church Office except now and then a short Prayer of three or four lines our Meditations our Fasts are all
directed to God and Christ from him only we expect the whole Mercy that must blot out our Sins and the whole Goodness that must make us Eternally happy Preservative f. 89. The Papist believes it unlawful to commit Idolatry and most damnable to Worship any Breaden God which is spoke like a Protestant but yet he pays Divine Adoration to the Sacrament which is done like a Papist Answ f. 8. This I call the most disingenuous Representation and the most false Calumny imaginable as a supposed and owned Truth to wit That Catholics Worship the visible Species in the Eucharist A most impudent slander no Catholic being guilty of it no more than the Apostles of Worshiping and Adoring the Cloths of Christ when they Adored him upon Earth Defence f. 21. There is no mention made of Species but the word is Sacrament Answ This is what I called disingenuity If he takes not Sacrament in the Catholic sense therein lies his fraud in Expounding by his opposite Principles our Actions and in the Catholic sense nothing hath a reference to his Accusation of a Breaden God but the visible Species of Bread. I concluded with this address to Protestants in Dr. Sherlocks words putting as I owned the word Scripture in the lieu of Fathers to shew that according to his very way of Reasoning the meer reading of Scripture could not serve for an useful Guide at least to the far greatest part of Protestants The Sentence is as follows Preservative f. 76. Amongst Christians there is not one in a hundred thousand who understands all Scripture and it is morally impossible they should and therefore there must be certainly an easier and shorter way to understand Christian Religion than this or else the generality of mankind even of profess'd Christians are out of possibility of Salvation Think well on it as you will answer at Gods Tribunal for the care you took of the one only necessary the saving of your Souls seek out that easier and shorter way and walk faithfully in it Defence f. 26 27. We do not only say but we find that Scripture in all points necessary to Salvation is plain and easie so that we may run and read 'T is true there are some Texts which we that are unlearned cannot readily find the true sense and meaning of but they are not such as immediatly concern Salvation and we are not destitute of helps as to these for we have learned and Religious Divines Answ Is it not pleasant to say that Scripture is plain and easie in all points necessary to Salvation and yet to see that those who use the same Method for the understanding of it differ as much as may be in the belief of these Points Is it not against plain Scripture to say that such Texts as the unlearned cannot readily find the sense of are not such as immediately concern Salvation whereas Scripture teaches us that there be Texts which the unlearned wrest to their own perdition Well I am weary in following this Footman running Extravagantly out of all Way and Reason Neither Sir have I any mind to add to this long Letter any farther Advice adress'd to your self If the exposing to your Eyes the Characters of the Books you License doth not move you not to prostitute so easily your Name to those heaps of disingenuous Cavils ill-laid Calumnies and monstrous Misrepresentations which you daily License it shall be to me a sufficient Note and Character of a Book not worth the reading much less the Censuring where ever I see you have opened it the Press which will in part ease of an ungrateful and unnecessary toil SIR Your Servant to all Christian Offices LEWIS SABRAN Of the Society of JESVS POSTSCRIPT THO' the Preface to Dr. Sherlock's Defence might very naturally have challenged to be first Answered yet because the Defence did attempt tho' most vainly to undermine the very Foundation of the Christian Faith that Rock of the Catholic Church on which Christ our Blessed Lord raised it whereas the Preface was stuffed chiefly with forged Calumnies against me I thought it my Duty and ever shall to pass by my own private Concerns till I had vindicated the Church of God. Now Sir I come to my own Defence I find my Adversaries Choler heated to the highest Ferment because I Answered the Celebrated Preservative an excellent Tract says he proved so acceptable by the Vniversal Entertainment it met with in a single Sheet which he says was a ridiculous Answer to so great a Book I omitted nothing Sir that even pretended to the appearance of an Argument and if your Celebrated Books swell so with words and prove void of Sense and Reason am I blameable for it He should have pointed at some pretended Proofs which I slighted to expose or have praised me for not wearying my Readers with a dull Prolixity But it seems we must copy these Men's Faults or abide their Censure He tells us next That the Accusations of Forgery of Clipping of Texts Fathers and Councils Run high on both sides That the Reader hath this certain way of knowing where the Guilt lies That the Church of Rome accuses us but do's not prove it but our Men do not only accuse them but prove it upon them This is indeed somewhat material and he instances upon my Forgeries on the one side and those that Dr. Comber Author of the Advice to Roman-Catholics is accused of on the other I am content to joyn issue upon this matter and having produced the Grounds on which these several Accusations are bottom'd I will leave the Decision to your and every unbiassed Reader 's Judgment having first owned Forgery to be the greatest Mark of a bad Cause and that even owned such by those who thus defend it He produces against me three Letters written as he says by one of their Learned Writers in which no less than One and twenty such Forgeries are proved upon me and Protestant like because I am accused concludes me guilty without taking the least notice of my full Answers given to those most false Calumnies he and his Learned Author following both the old Advice Calumniare fortiter aliquid adhaerebit Do but Calumniate boldly something will stick of the Dirt you cast First then I will shew the confident Impudence of my Accuser I Preached on the 25th of August last before his Sacred Majesty at Chester on the Conversion of St. Augustin from Heresie and a loose Life and throughout that Sermon I laid out in the B. Saint's own words those mistaken Reasons that hindred him and keep off present Sectaries from a due Reconciliation with the Catholic Church I offered evident Motives taken from the same Saint's words which obliged Him and do as efficaciously exact from all Protestants under pain of Eternal Damnation when a most dull Ignorance doth not excuse them to return to the Communion of that one only Church which they professed themselves Members of at their Baptism Those unanswerable Arguments of
Books That God commands it That each one is to judge finally for himself I offer the following Observations on these Texts to your second thoughts With reason St. Paul commands each Christian to try all Omnia probate quod bonum est tenete 1 Thes 5. Nolite omni Spiritui credere sed probate Spiritus si ex Deo sunt 1 Joan. 4. Quoniam multi Pseudo-Prophetae exierunt in Mundum things and to retain what is good And St. John in plainer terms Not to credit every Spirit but to try the Spirits if they be of God for as St. John observes in that very place many false Prophets have appeared in the World And since ' t is necessary that Heresies arise there will ever be many such the Ministers of Satan as St. Paul minds us 2 Cor. 11. 15. transfiguring themselves like unto the Ministers of Justice We ought not then to believe each Man that pretends to the pure Word of the Lord to the Spirit of the Lord. The Question is How we ought to try these different Spirits Each Man says Dr. Sherlock is to read all Heretical as well as Orthodox Books to hear all False Prophets as well as the Teachers of Truth Each ignorant Tradesman Husbandman Day-Laborer having read the Bible heard and read what the Dissenting Divines can say is to Decide as Sovereign Judge without Appeal Alii Prophetia alii discretio Spirituum 1 Cor. 12. 20. All are to choose thus their Religion Not so says St. Paul On some only is bestowed the Gift of Interpreting on some only the Gift of discerning Spirits A necessary Caution for as St. Cyprian observes Hence arise all Heresies that People Hinc Haereses ortae quod unus in Ecclesia Dei ad tempus Sacerdos ad tempus Judex vice Christi non cogitatur l. 1. c. 3. cont Haer. De Ecclesia in Academiae porticum descendunt sensui communi sed suo non Ecclesiae se sistunt Contr. Hermog Nil laborant nisi non invenire quod credunt l. 2. c. 2. de Gen. con Man. Semper discunt numquam ad scientiam veritatis perveniunt 2 Tim. 3. Visum est Spiritui Sancto nobis Act. 15. do not consider that there is one Priest in the Church of God for the time one Judge in lieu of Christ but challenge each of them the Prerogative of Judging for themselves Heretics says Tertullian abandon the Church repair to Schools of Philosophy or Natural Discourse and the Judgment of their Reason appeal to Common Sense but to their own not to that of the Church They profess in their Creed to believe the Catholic Church but as St. Augustin said of the Manicheans All they endeavor is not to sind what they believe and having left the School of Christ and those Teachers he had appointed them they make good by their continual Debates about Religion without any fixure on a certain and unwavering Faith without any secure Principles to build on that Character which S. Paul gives of all Heretics They are ever seeking ever learning and never attain the science of truth What is their Duty then but to seek out those to whom the infallible Direction of the Holy Ghost is promised by Christ our Lord and accordingly given so that they have Authority to resolve all Doubts with a The Holy Ghost declares this and we declare it That no other Method can bring us to a steddy and unwavering Faith. St. Paul did acknowledge to the Ephesians when having warned them To be careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace he Ephes 4. 3 11. declares that God gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and other Pastors and Doctors to the consummation of the Saints unto the work of the Ministry unto the edifying of the Body of Christ and that not for some Age or Ages only but until we meet all unto the unity of Faith and Knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect Man into the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ that is to the last day of the General Resurrection this Method of standing to the Decisions of such lawful Pastors being necessary That we be not children wavering and carried about with every wind of Doctrin in the wickedness of Men in craftiness to the circumvention of Error That this is the Sense of the two Texts cited in opposition to it is most evident from the very places whence they are taken for St. John having advised Christians to try the Spirits gives this standing Rule and Method for all Ages He that knows God by a true Faith hears Vs he that is not of Qui novit Deum audit nos qui non est ex Deo non audit nos in hoc cognoscimus Spiritum veritatis spiritum erroris 1 Jo. 4. 6. God hears us not By this Mark you shall discern the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error Behold St. John condemning Dr. Sherlock who will have each Man Judge for himself of the Doctrin whereas St. John declares we must try the Spirits only by this Mark That they have the Spirit of God who hear with Submission their lawful Pastors whereas those who Judge for themselves without that Deference are certainly possessed with the Spirit of Error 'T is also evident that by VS he means all lawful Pastors and not the Apostles only for they were all dead when he writ that Epistle Could any Text be a fuller and more pressing Evidence for me or assure us more positively that an unerring Spirit guides the Pastors and Teachers in the Church of God and that whoever will not fall into Error must submit by an Implicit Faith to that Churches Authority and embrace the Doctrins which she teaches by her Prelates The other Text so unhappy these Men are in their choice is as full and plain to the same effect for St. Paul having first warned the Thessalonians in the foregoing Verse not to despise the Gift of Prophecy or Interpretation given to the Teachers of the Church for the Instruction of others he bids them by this Text not to receive all sorts of Interpreters but such only as had received from the Holy Ghost the Gift of Prophesying and were Commissioned by a lawful Authority to Preach But so far he was from advising them to converse with or read the Books of those that were Aliens and out of the Church that he had warned before the Ephesians with caution to converse with such But let us In sapientia ambulate cum iis qui foris sunt Eph. 4. 5. Si quis Evangelizaverit praeterquam id quod accepistis anathema Gal. 1. Irreformabilis fides observe the several Marks given by the Apostles and by Christ whereby to distinguish those who are to be admitted of from those who ought to be rejected St. Paul gives the Galatians this Rule Whoever Preaches beside what you have received be he accursed that
's all the regard St. Paul bids us have for all such Innovators as pretend to a reformation of Faith which as Tertullian teaches is not liable to any because 't is not exposed to the least danger of failing the Gates of Hell Errors not being permitted ever to prevail against the Church which mov'd St. Augustin to declare thus his Sense We are certain Certi sumus neminem a communione genium se separare potuisse nam non quisque nostrum in suâ justitiâ sed in scripturis sacris quaerit Ecclesiam ut promissa est reddi conspicit Epist 48. Dic Ecclesiae si Ecclesiam non audierit sit tibi velut Ethnicus Publicanus Mat. 18. that no one can divide himself from the Communion of all Nations for not any one amongst us must seek the Church in his own Justice such as his own private Judgment frames but in the Holy Scriptures and he will find the Church such as she is there promised What Mark did our Blessed Lord set In whatever Offence received from a Brother whatever Scandal and there is not any greater than Heresie and Schism in case he hearken not unto obey not the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen or a Publican that is have no Converse with him separate thy self from him Certainly this Advice of Christ is perfectly opposite to that Obligation Dr. Sherlock would impose on all St. Irenaeus who received the true meaning of Christ's Doctrin from St. Polycarp St. John's Disciple understood it in a very different meaning when in his Fourth Book against Heresies he thus expressed himself ' T is necessary Qui in Ecclesiâ sunt Presbyteris obaudire oportet qui successionem habent ab Apostolis qui cum Episcopali successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum patris acceperunt reliquos vero qui absistunt à Principali successione quocunque loco colliguntur suspectos habere vel quasi Haereticos malae sententiae vel quasi scindentes eiatos sibi placentes aut rursus ut Hypocritas quaestus gratiâ vanae gloriae hoc operantes qui omnes decidunt à veritate l. 4. c. 42. to obey the Priests of the Church who have their Succession from the Apostles who with Episcopal Succession have received a certain Grace or Gift of Truth according to the Will of the Father all others who Separate themselves from the Principal Succession in whatever Place they may Combine together we must suspect as Heretics and of a wrong Opinion or as Schismatics proud Men full of the love of themselves or again as Hypocrites thus dividing themselves for Interests sake and Vain-glory who all of them are fallen from the Truth Is this to send us to read their Books St. Augustin also must be own'd of a very different Principle who having stated the Case as it is at present in this Nation gives this opposite Advice in his Third Sermon on the 30th Psalm Many Tongues contradict divers Heresies divers Contradicunt multae linguae diversae Haereses diversa Schismata personant linguae multae contradicunt veritati tu curre ad tabernaculum Dei Ecclesiam Catholicam tene à regulâ veritatis noli discedere protegeris in tabernaculo Domini à contradictione linguarum CC. 3. in Ps 20. Schisms and Divisions speak loud what Method is to be followed in this Case Run you to the Tabernacle of God the Catholic Church of which no Heresies contradicting one another can be Parts Do not depart from that Rule of Truth behold what Dr. Sherlock blames and calls Implicit Faith you shall be protected in the Tabernacle of God from these contradicting Tongues This is the true way taught and followed from the beginning of Interpreting Scripture of adhering to the genuin word of God when the Letter bearing several Constructions cannot reconcile different Opinions as the same holy Doctor observes We follow in this also the Authority of Canonical Scriptures when we follow what is Decreed Sequimnr sane in hâc re etiam Canonicarum Authoritatem Scripturarum cum hoc facimus quod universae Jam placuit Ecclesiae quam ipsarum Scripturarum commendat Authoritas c. L. 1. Cont. Cresc c. 31 32 c. by the Vniversal present Church which the Authority of the Scriptures themselves recommends unto us and because the holy Scriptures cannot deceive us whoever fears to be misled by the obscurity of this or any other Question let him consult about it that Church which we are without the least obscurity directed unto by the holy Scriptures This he had learn'd from St. John who assures the Members of that Church That they are not to seek any other Masters to teach them having that Holy Spirit Non necesse habetis ut aliquis vos doceat unctio enim ejus docet vos de omnibus 1 Joa 2. promised unto and guiding that Church which teaches them all truth St. Paul was of a very different mind as well as Religion from Dr. Sherlock when he orders even the Learned Bishop Titus to avoid an Heretic after one or two endeavors Haereticum hominem post unam secundam Correptionem devita sciens quia subversus est qui ejusmodi est delinquit cum sit proprio Judicio condemnatus Tit. 3. 10 11. to reclaim him knowing that such an one is cast off and is in sin being condemned by his own judgment which he opposes to that of the Church The first General Councils and the first Christian Emperors were of a different Religion and mind from this Doctor who Commanded all the Books written by Heretics to be burnt I will conclude this Point with St. Augustins Advice perfectly opposite to these unreasonable Principles a seasonable advice given to all Heretics wearied out with seeking in vain the truth by their own judgment without the direction of this unerring Guide Return and lie at Revertere sede in portu Catholicae fidei ubi nulla te possit fluctuosae curiositatis tempestas turbare Aug. in Hypognost Anchor in the Haven of Catholic Faith where no storm of a wavering curiosity can disturb you Dr. Sherlock in his Preservative f. 4. gives his Protestant this advice Ask them whether they will allow you to judge for your self in matters of Religion If they do not why will they trouble you with disputing You cannot be convinced unless you judge too and thereby resolve Faith into a private Spirit Here let our Protestant fix his Foot and not stir an Inch till they disown Infallibility I observed that this was to say 't is impossible to convince a man that in reason he ought to submit his judgment to that of another though infallible That such a Principle makes void all the right use of reason when it should lead us to submit to a just Authority that St. Paul pretended to Infallibility through the assistance of the Spirit of God who directed him and consequently that if
Name not found in Scripture which so displeased the Arians heretofore and Calvin of late not by making any new Article of Faith but more clearly delivering what was ever believed by the Apostles and all Catholics from their time to this so that still we own Sanctae Scripturae sufficienter Continent omnem scientiam Necessariam Scotus Q. 2. prologi Viatori That Holy Scripture contain all that is necessary to a Christian to know in this life and with Bellarmin Non est de fide nisi quod Deus per Apostolos aut Prophetas revelavit aut quod evidenter inde deducitur That nothing is of Faith but what Christ revealed by the Prophets or Apostles or what is Evidently deduced from it The Church being only our Guide to the understanding of the true and full sense of Scripture This Pope Celestin owned to the General Council of Ephesus Agendum nunc est ut Labore Ep. 7. Communi Credita per Apostolorum successione detenta servemus That the whole work of the Church representative is only to Conserve by a clear Exposition of it what the Church diffusive retained in a continual Succession as first taught by the holy Apostles and so continually by their Successors This is all the Council of Trent pretended unto For Councils says an Eminent Member of it have the assisting presence of the Holy Ghost only to declare those Articles infallibly true which Christ from the beginning revealed And Secondly When Errors and Abuses arise to a growth to gather infallibly from what hath been revealed those Truths which all Christians are bound to believe and to follow in Faith and Manners Ad Extirpandos errores abusus infallibiliter etiam ex revelatis Colligere populo Christiano credenda Vega. usurpanda in fide moribus Then continues the same They are gathered in the Name of Christ when they declare only such things as were revealed by Christ and brought down to us in the Holy Scripture or certain Apostolical Traditions The Apostles themselves used no other Method and St. Paul as Infallible as he was owned That he presumed Rom. 15. to teach only what he had from Christ to which witness was born by Miracles Non Audio aliquid loqui eorum quae Per me non efficit Christus in veritate signorum And this infallible Certainty we allow to the Church only in such things as She declares necessary to be known and believed in order to our Salvation not in impertinent or indifferent things For we say still with Tertullian Nobis curiositate non opus est post Christum inquisitione post Evangelium We seek not curiously into any thing but what is clearly revealed but what was taught when the Gospel was first preached Our Church then hath not power to make new Articles of Faith nor ever pretended to it but is a mere yet infallible Witness to the anciently revealed ones In Her Name Tertullian declares Ibidem Nobis nihil licet ex nostro arbitrio inducere Apostolos Domini habemus Authores qui nec ipsi quidquam de suo arbitrio elegerunt quod inducerent We can bring in nothing of our choice the Apostles are the Authors of what we teach who themselves taught nothing of themselves Christ promised to be with them and their Successors Mat. 28. till the end of the World only in order to the declaring of these things which he himself revealed and taught especially in those forty days betwixt his Resurrection and Omnia quaecunque mandavi vobis Et loquens de regno dei Ascension when he taught them all that concerned the Kingdom of God on Earth his Church The infallibility of the Church being thus Expounded and such is that which Catholics believe and are guided by I cannot conceive how any Christian can object any thing against it who believes that what God revealed must necessarily be true and that Christ and the Holy Ghost be infallible I proceed then to prove that God hath revealed the Catholic Church should ever be guided by his holy Spirit and ever follow that Guide and never fall into any Error in Faith and to do it most convincingly against all Sectaries I will prove it by the Texts of Holy Scripture such as their very Bible offers and this not by two or three which would suffice but by a number and that I may not seem to give my own sense to those Texts I will join to them the Exposition of the Holy Fathers given in all Ages according to the sense of the Catholic Church By the Catholic Church I mean not only the Church of all Ages but the whole Church of any Ages and consequently the Catholic Church of this Age for it is the same Church there being but One as all our Creed teaches us I say as the Jews did yield a full belief to God and his Servant Moyses to God as the author of their Faith and to Moyses as the Exod. 14. Crediderunt domino Moysi servo ejus Propounder and Witness of it so each Catholic in any Age believes God and the Church of his Age that Church being Causa Exemplaris the Pattern and Exposition of his Faith. That this Church is an infallible Witness to all that Christ did teach is evident from the Commands laid upon us by the Prophets by Christ our Lord by the Apostles to receive with an entire submission all that it delivers for it is inconsistent with Gods infinite Veracity that he should oblige us to believe an Error Almighty God by Isay teaches us that all Nations shall resort unto Her as a Judge Adding Every Isay 2. 3. 54. 7. 60. 12. Ezech. 44. tongue resisting thee in judgment thou shalt condemn and the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish The plain reason for it is given by Ezekiel where God promises that when Controversies arise he will decide by his Churches Verdict They shall stand in judgment and shall judge according to my Judgment Hence St. Augustin looking upon the judgment of the Church as certainly that of God declares the only reason why St. Cyprian though in an Error yet was no Heretic to be because his Error was not yet Condemned Nondum plenario Concilio decisus l. 1. c. 18. de Bapt. Certissimam fidem ibid. c. 9. c. 4. Nolle primasdare vel sumae impietatis est vel praecipitis arrogantiae De util Gred. c. 17. Donec plenario rotiqs orbis Concilio quod saluberrime sentiebatur etiam remotis dubitationibus firmaretur Habere Jam non potest Deus Patrem qui Ecclesiam non habet Matrem c. Neque enim vivere foris possunt cum Domus Dei una sit Et nemini salus esse nisi in Ecclesiä possit Cypr. de Unit. by the Churches Representative a General Council That a most firm belief is to be yielded to such Decisions and that Not to submit to the Church is the
about infallibility We have the concurrent testimony of all Churches that we have those Canonical Books But let us suppose a while that your Church were infallible what greater certainty for that is the point you know which the Doctor was upon have you of it than we have of any particular Point of Faith as for the certainty of Reason and Argument That we have and would fain see you shew more What we believe is according to Scripture and doth not Contradict either Sense or Reason nor any other Principle of Knowledge Answer Never was a starved Cause so pitifully defended No wonder a Footman only doth not blush to appear in its Defence the Learned and judicious Gentlemen of the Temple had each of them too much Honor Conscience and Wit and therefore none of them would Patronize so wretched a Cause and support such weak Contradictions as the Excellent Master of the Temple so the Preface-maker calls him had blundered out Pray Sir review this last Discourse blush that your License Authorises it and hereafter have some care of your Reputation and set not your Name to such Stuff This is the Case on one side there is supposed an Infallible Interpreter of the Christians great Law-Book for thus Dr. Sherlock states the Case on the other are some men far the greater part unlearned and weak who allow not any sense to this Book which seems to them to Contradict either their Sense or Reason or any other Principle of their Knowledge And I am asked whether I proceed more prudently in receiving the sense of the Law from that Interpreter which is actually supposed infallible or in proceeding by the second method Sir if you are so weak or wilful as not to declare that I have a greater certainty in submitting to that infallible Interpreter your Counsel is not worth the asking and I appeal to that of the judicious Gentlemen of the Temple But I must not omit the untruth couched in those words We have the Concurrent Testimony of all Churches that we have those Canonical Books For no part of the Catholic Church no part of the Greek Scismatic Churches own the same Canon of Scripture-Books which you do Preservative Ibid. In particular we are assured that the Faith which we profess is agreeable to Scripture Answer fol. 5. If he means they have the same Proofs for this which Catholics have for the infallibility of the Church that is for the Continued Being of that Church which assures us that She is infallible in directing us for a Church Erring in so Fundamental a Point would cease to be the Church of Christ then it is evidently fase since each Christian in this Age hath the same Evidence of Her being the Church of Christ and of Her teaching all Truth and consequently of Her being as She declares infallible in thus teaching which he hath of Christ to wit the ancient Prophesies those of Christ himself his Miracles and the Miracles wrought in that Church according to the Promises of Christ besides the Conversion of Nations to Christianity c. These things Protestants do not so much as pretend unto as Proofs of their particular Sense in Interpreting Scripture Defence fol. 10. This is a pretty Conceit the infallibility of the Church that is to say the Being of the Church can't a Church be without being infallible We have heard much of Miracles but could never see any Answer Do you allow such Answers Sir that have so little of Sense and less of Piety Can a Church remain the Church of Christ and yet teach her self to be infallibly guided by the Spirit of Christ whil'st she is abandon'd to the Spirit of Error and that so far as Idolatry and the Evacuating of the Passion of Christ Are we come to own that Herod might well be excused from believing in Christ because he had heard much of his Miracles but could never see any Well Sir when you License such an other Discourse add to your Titles that of a Christian that we may think you are one Preservative fol. 23. If you must not use your Reason and private judgment then you must not by any Reasons be persuaded to condemn the use of Reason Answ f. 5. I never heard so much and so little of Reason All he says might with equal weight be said by a sick Man who dissuaded from choosing his own Remedies and desired to send for a skilful Doctor should answer ' T is impossible by Reason to persuade me not to use my Reason in governing my self by Reason as my own Reason teaches me which would be to Condemn Reason and yet be guided by your Reason or the Doctor 's Reason Such a Discourse would prove the Sick party at least somewhat light-headed What 't is a Symptom of in Dr. Sherlock I will not be positive Defence f. 11. Is this Sick Man persuaded to renounce his Reason or rather is it not that he should submit his judgment not renounce his Reason in that case to that Person whom he hath all the reason in the world to believe hath better knowledge and understanding of those things which are to be used for his recovery than himself And all this while methinks he is governed by Reason though he doth not think fit to trust his own skill But this bears no comparison Religion is or ought to be the Concern of all Answer The Footman prevaricates here or is ashamed of his Master 's gross Sophistry and will not stand by it 'T is Dr. Sherlock who pretends that a Catholic by following an infallible Guide renounces his Reason I contend that all the while he is governed by Reason and chiefly because that in a matter of that Concern he thinks not fit to trust his own skill which God hath as often declared to be too weak in any private person as he hath declared he would give to all such Pastors and Teachers as should guide them and Commanded each to repair to them to be guided by them But Religion is or ought to be the Concern of all a wise Observation So is or ought to be each ones health and the preservation of his life as therefore each one ought to advise with a good Doctor concerning his Health a good Lawyer for the preservation of his Fortune so and much more with a good Guide and since it can be had an infallible one for the securing of his Souls eternal happiness the Practice of Religion is the duty of all but the teaching it of those Doctors whom God hath appointed to that end as St. Paul teaches us Eph. 4. is not this Sir a most evident truth Preservative f. 25. Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve is such a plain and express Scripture that no reason can justifie the Worship of another Being Answ f. 6. A rare Consequence to Infer a Negative for an Affirmative Antecedent that bears no opposition with it 'T is like this a Subject must
love his King and pay Allegiance to him alone therefore no Reason can justifie the love of a Man for his Wife or of a Child for his Father St. Augustin drew from that very Text the contrary Conclusion he takes off all blame from Abraham who is said in Genesis to Q. 61. in Gen. have Adored or Worshipped the People of the Land because 't is observable says the Holy Doctor That in the Commandment 't is not said thou shalt Worship God alone as it is said and him alone thou shalt serve which in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such a service of Latria is given to God alone Defence f. 12. What a delicate piece of Sophistry is here The Commandment is to serve God only which service we must of necessity understand to be that which is Divine but Worship is so Therefore the Text is plain against the Worship of any other but God. Answ All that is plain in this Answer is that men necessarily want a Guide in the interpreting of Scripture and that an infallible one also for such is the pride of some men that even an ignorant Foot-man as you see thinks he understands the Bible better than the Holiest and most Learned of Doctors S. Augustin and what reason teaches of the Service of God better than the most enlightened Patriarchs Abraham Worships men S. Augustin declares that the Commandment hath nothing against it there being an inferior Worship which is far below Divine Service but the Protestant Doctor teaches his Footman to aver that all Worship so he should have said to have spoken sense is Divine that the Text is plain against the Worship of any other but God. How likely is it they shall by their own judgment and reason understand the Bible who cannot construe right the Commandments no not the first of them and if Dr. Sherlock and his Footman understand right the first Commandment St. Augustin did not Do you not blush Sir to License the boldness of such ignorant Pride Preservative f. 26. Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image Is so express a Law against Image-Worship that no reason must be admitted for it Answ f. 6. What if you be told that the Jews may perhaps have had a Command of making no graven Image c. yet this being a positive Law and not renewed in the Gospel doth not oblige us will this Reason be admitted of No no reason and yet you have no other reason for passing by as Express a Law of Sanctifying Saturday What if it be rejoyn'd that only the making to themselves by private Authority making that to be which is not a Statue for Example which of its nature is the representation of a Man or a Calf to be to them a true God an Idol to adore it which divine Worship thus misapplyed is forbidden Cannot this Reason be heard No then Belezeel by Gods direction and Command making several likenesses of things on Earth below and in Heaven above Salomon placing such in the Temple sinned against the first Commandment for the making of such is as distinctly forbidden as the Adoring So if a Law thus says Thou shalt not carry any Arms thou shalt not strike the carrying of Arms would be as directly against the Law as the striking so do all Painters and Carvers and all our London Merchants that hang out a Sign-post The truth is what sense they put on any Text is the express Law against which no reason must be heard so they challenge to themselves that infallibility which they so sturdily deny to the Church of God. Defence f. 13 14. 'T is held on all hands that the keeping of the Seventh day was Figurative and so abolished at the death of Christ but as far as it was Moral namely that a Seventh Day should be kept that still remains Besides Christ and his Apostles were Authors of this change Christ as he rose on that day so he usually did appear on that day to his Disciples and Scripture maintains the Celebration of it by the constant practice of the Apostles Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 21. Answ We have four untruths in very few lines The first that 't is agreed on all hands that the keeping of the Seventh day was Figurative all that understand Scripture right say the contrary to wit that it was not a meer Shadow of a thing to come as Figurative speaks but a Memory of the past and never to be forgotten benefit of the Creation from the work whereof God rested on that day and says Moses blessed the seventh day 'T is a second Untruth then that the Moral part of it was only the keeping a seventh day and that Christ our Lord altered it 'T is an untruth that Christ our Lord usually appeared on that day to his Apostles for Acts 1. 3. S. Luke assuresus he appeared every day to them Perdies quadraginta apparens Eis Act. 1. 3. Act. 2. 7. Salutatio mea manu Pauli 1 Cor. 16. 21. How St. Pauls meeting at Troas with many in the participation of the Sacraments and disputing till Midnight it being the Eve of his departure or his subscribing his Epistle with his own Hands for these are the two Texts produced is a Proof that the Scripture maintains the constant practice of the Apostles of keeping Sunday Holy I leave it to you Sir to make out the truth of it Defence f. 14. 'T is sufficient with Catholics to submit to an infallible Guide and that too if he declares as the Council of Constance did Concerning the Eucharist that notwithstanding our Lord did Institute it in both kinds and the Apostles so celebrated it yet now it should not be so But for us Protestants we cannot think that any Reason can be sufficient to lay aside an Express Text. Answ The meaning of these words as they lay here is to persuade the Readers that the Council of Constance did own that Christ did Institute or order that the Sacrament should be taken by all in both kinds and that in the Apostles time it was ever so taken yet that by the Church Authority it was ordered it should hereafter be otherwise If the Honest Footman means not so and would not have all to believe so there is no sense at all in this his Inference That Protestants cannot think that any reason can be sufficient to lay aside an express Text. But in this sense 't is a most outragious Calumny and though a Footman's ignorance may be excused yet with what face Sir can you pretend to judge of Books and License them if you are in the same gross Error or if wilfully and wittingly you License such impudent Slanders against the whole Churches Representative what Libels and Lampoons are you not qualified and disposed to License These Decreta Concil Cons Dec. 4. are the words of the Council Although Christ did Institute this Venerable Sacrament after Supper and did administer it to his Disciples under both the
uncertain whether he meant the Sword of Martyrdom or the Word of God heavy and sharp beyond any double-edged Sword. 'T is evident says the Minister this same Isidore is cited in the Thirty fifth Sermon which could not therefore be of S. Augustin's composing who lived Two hundred years before this Isidore This indeed hath the face of a Proof therefore I offered these following Reasons why the Isidore quoted in the Thirty fifth Sermon was not the Isidore of Sevil. 1. In the Thirty fifth Sermon in debate are these words In our time no Author among the Latins can be found who treating of the Blessed Virgins Death hath been positive and express Now S. Gregory of Tours being one of the most famous Authors of the Sixth Age and having as fully and positively written of this Assumption as any since the Author assuring that no one amongst the Latins had done so could not be a Learned Bishop that lived after the Seventh Century and therefore the Isidore whom he cites cannot possibly be Isidore of Sevil. Again the Sermon cited under the name of S. Hierom and at least as ancient as the Fourth General Council and which was cited by the famous Hincmar Bishop of Rheims by S. Odilo and others contemporaries with Fulbertus could not have escaped his knowledge As for the words of Isidore of Sevil they vary as much from those that are cited in the Thirty fifth Sermon as the words which express the same sense in Epiphanius who writ before S. Augustin Hence I inferr'd that since we know many Isidores and famous before S. Augustin's time 't is far more probable that one of these was cited in the Thirty fifth Sermon and therefore without any danger of Forgery I might well cite a Sermon as S. Augustin's especially in a meer Introduction to a Sermon which the greatest Divine of the latter Ages and whom most do follow in this had cited and that as a Proof in Arguing All that is replied to this is That the Author of the Thirty fifth Sermon looked upon S. Gregory as mistaken But can that allow him to say that no body writ Positively on that Subject meaning only that they were mistaken This is the Issue of that Controversie which this Preface-maker stiles me Famous for I leave it to your Judgment Sir whether my Defence doth not prove it a Calumny in the Minister who accused me in citing this Sermon of Disingenuous Forgery He knew well his weak Surmises misplaced by him for Arguments could not make it out therefore having espied in my Second Letter that I resolved to take no farther notice of such unknown Masks or Persons who concealed their Names that their Errors when baffled their Calumnies when cleared may not put them to the Blush he confidently puts out a Third Letter without any the least addition of a new Proof and again conceals his Name to secure himself from an Answer which he knew I had publickly professed I would not give if he thus concealed his Name and only repeated what I had Answered then he most disingenuously brags that I had dropt the Question Now Sir a full account of the Controversie being thus given observe the vain silliness of the Preface-maker's accusing me of Forgery I have now proved how false 1. The 35th Sermon of S. Augustin a Forgery this Charge is 'T is owned at all hands for 2. The 14th Sermon de Sanctis a Forgery S. Augustin's not disproved or denied by my very Adversary in his last Answer who only complains that the Citation in the Margin did not lead him to it My very adversary owns that 3. The 18th Sermon of S. Augustin de Sanctis a Forgery the Louvain Divines Printed it amongst those Works of S. Augustin which they own for his but not with an undoubted Certainty I expresly cited it as a Sermon S. Hierom ' s Sermon a Forgery that went under S. Hierom's Name and therefore added Or an Author of the same Age. Not a word hath been attempted to prove there was not such a Sermon in that Age. Pray where lies the Forgery My words were A Sermon under S. Meliton ' s Book a Forgery S. Meliton's Name 'T is evident there was such an one by the very Censure of Pelagius in a Council above 1200 Years ago when it was reckoned amongst the Apocrypha that is of an Authority doubted of and not asserted to its Author Wherein lies this Forgery But in one of my Letters it was Printed Malion for Meliton tho' corrected in the next These Men are as wonderful Persecutors of Errata's as Dr. Tenison of Errors in Spelling But such Trifles must be the Pageantry of these great Writers Atchievements and those it seems who at the end of their Books note the Errata's of the Print own themselves guilty of great Forgeries And why Nicephorus who writ The Story about Juvenal and Marcion a Forgery it lived almost a thousand years after S. Augustin and was the first Historian found to have mentioned it Doth not this prove me guilty of a great Forgery in citing Nicephorus What Proof for it Every man S. Athanasius de Incarnatione a Forgery indeed hath owned it to be his Work but the last Critick one du Pin hath lately questioned it therefore a Forgery Is not this a shameless Nonsense Luther did not own S. James's Epistle Canonical therefore 't is a Forgery is as good an Inference I cited to him the Leaf in his own A Prayer to the Virgin not a syllable whereof was to be found there a Forgery Century-Writers where the Place and Leaf in Athanasius's his Works are cited to be found where the Centuriators quote them yet this must be a Forgery I proved evidently in my first S. Cyril ' s Quotation falsifi'd a Forgery Letter to you Sir that the Minister had egregiously falsified it and that I had it right according to all the Greek and Latin Copies In the same Letter I have convinced Nectarius upon Theodore a Forgery the Minister of his dull Ignorance and taught him where to find that Sermon of Nectarius but no Answer given me no notice taken of mine yet it must be a Forgery I cited not one of these but told That the Prayers out of Methodius Ephrem Syrus Athanasius S. Leo are Forgeries my Minister I could cite from those Authors if need were evident Instances of Praying to Saints He very wisely not so much as knowing what and whence I would cite declares they must needs be Forgeries this Preface-maker adds confidently that certainly they are so Is not this a bold kind of Calumny No Proof of this but the Minister's S. Gregory Nazianzen ' s Prayer to the Blessed Virgin a Forgery plain Assertion against the general Sense of the Learned World. Is not this a pleasant way of proving upon us Forgeries How is this proved I do not find The Proof from S. Ambrose is a