either from all Christians I cannot so much as find there that ever there was any Bishop of ROME or that there should be any there afterwards much less that all Christians are to own that Bishop for their Head and Christ's Vicar And finding nothing of all this I must needs wonder how manifest Scriptures should be produced to prove this Supreme Authority over all Churches And yet if there be such an Authority and if it be so necessary for all Christians to believe it and submit unto it I cannot but think that it ought to have been as manifestly declared in Scripture as any other point whatsoever St. Peter in whom this Authority is said to have been first setled saith not a word of it in his Epistles St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans who should in all reason have been best acquainted with it says nothing at all of it To the Civil Magistrate which the Church of ROME makes to be much inferior to the Church in Authority they both teach us our Duty and strange it is if they knew of any such thing that they should not as plainly instruct us in our Duty to the POPE or Church of ROME wherein our Salvation the main thing they were to take care for is so deeply concern'd But what are these manifest Scriptures at length I find our Blessed Saviour saying to St. Peter Matt. 16. 18. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. but I find not that all this whatever it may signify was manifestly said to the Bishops of ROME The plain and obvious Sense saith Bellarmin of these words is that we may understand the Primary of the whole Church to be promised to Saint Peter under two Metaphors And yet by all the Light that he is able to afford me I cannot discern in these words whatever was promised to St. Peter the Supremacy much less the Monarchy of the Bishop of ROME over all Churches And it is no wonder if a Protestant Heretick be so blind when such eminent Persons as Origen St. Austin St. Hilary Ambrose Chrysostome and Cyril could no more see it than I as the learned Cardinal himself there confesseth Nay here 's not a word to assure us that this Rock must needs be a Monarch invested with a Supremacy of Power over the whole Church or that this Monarch must needs be the Bishop of ROME or that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against the ROMAN Church for all this we must be beholden to that Church's own Word or we shall never find it in this place I find again that Christ commanded St. Peter Joh. 21. 16. to feed his Sheep and his Lambs as indeed it is the Duty of all Pastors of the Church to do and both St. Peter 1 Pet 5. 2. and St. Paul Acts 20. 28. tell us as much and so much the apter am I to doubt whether the POPE be so much as a good Pastor of Christ's Sheep or no seeing he takes so little care to Feed and so much to Fleece them I am sure I read of no more but one chief Shepherd and Bishop of Souls which St. Peter tells us is Christ JESUS himself 1 Pet. 2. 25. The Apostles were all Shepherds under Him but where is this manifest Scripture to shew that St. Peter was made Head-Shepherd with Commission to Feed and Rule too not only the Sheep but the Shepherds also But especially where is the Commission given to the Bishops of ROME successively for ever to govern the whole Flock of Christ with Soveraign Authority Feed the whole I am sure he neither doth nor can Many great and wonderful things as Bellarmin tells us are said of St. Peter in the Holy Scripture and very deservedly for he was a very great and eminent Apostle But the Scripture never saith That he was a great Monarch nor that he was Bishop of ROME nor that he had a Throne or but a Chair there and least of all that this Imaginary Monarchy was to descend unto the next Bishop of ROME and to his Successors for ever and that St. Iohn who long out-lived St. Peter became thereby subject to some of those Bishops which did not well suit with the Dignity of an Apostle I read those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 12. 21. The head cannot say to the feet I have no need of you But that the POPE is the Head and all Christians Kings as well as others the Feet I may possibly read in some such Iesuit as Bellarmin but I am sure I shall never read it in the Scripture Many more such parcels of Scripture as these they give us but after the most serious perusal of them all I profess I cannot find any thing like manifest Scripture for the Authority of the ROMAN Church And therefore it seems yet as plain to me as that Two and Three make Five that the bare Word of that Church without any kind of solid Proof is all that she hath to shew for her Authority She says great things of her self and talks sometimes of Scripture but much more of Fathers and Councils and Universal Tradition and indeed every thing that 's Venerable but when all is spell'd and put together 't is but the Oral and Practical Tradition of the present Church that is her own very confident Asseveration If we have a little Scripture for Fashion's sake we must take it as she hath taught it to speak in her own Vulgar Latin which the Council of TRENT was even then pleas'd to make the only Authentick Translation when it was confessedly very faulty and hath been since that divers times corrected And then we must take it in her own Sense too tho we know not well where we may be sure to find it Her private Doctors she will not allow us to trust for it nor indeed do we find them any better agreed about it than others are only they have for the most part either the Modesty or Cunning to refer all to the Iudgment of Mother Church could they but tell us where to find it for she is loath once for all in some publick Comment or Exposition of the Scripture to tell us what it is If we may be allow'd to hear the Testimony of the Fathers she must stand at their Elbows and prompt them what to say we must have them in her own approved Editions and if they have been at School long enough in the Vatican or some Religious House 't is probable they were reasonably well instructed in her own Language before they were allow'd to go abroad again However ere they pass the Press an Expurgatory Index can teach them either to Speak or to be Silent as she thinks most seasonable Councils may be heard but only such as have his Holiness's stamp upon them and how we can understand them any better
Responses The learnedst of the Romish Church are not yet well agreed about it and if the English Representer or French Expounder have had the luck to hit it I am sure that many heretofore who thought themselves as wise as either of them have strangely miss'd it Or else that Council and the Religion call'd Popery hath several Faces for several Times and Countries and in one place and time shall look like it self and in another shall be made to look as like the Protestant Religion as the Artificial Painter dares make it But that which here put us to a stand in this That as the Pope at first taught that Council to speak so hath he reserved the Interpretation of its Decrees to the See Apostolick or himself only and He is not always pleas'd in plain terms to let us know his Mind and if he should for once speak out plainly it will be a little hard for him to assure us that none of his Successors shall hereafter contradict him unless he can satisfy us that he has as well the Gift of Prophesying as that of defining and interpreting However it is for not believing the new Articles of Trent that we are accounted Hereticks and out of the way to Heaven And the reason is because these Articles are supposed to be as firmly grounded on the Word of God as any of those old ones which we believe For the Word of God saith the Council of Trent is partly contain'd in the Books of Scripture and partly in Traditions unwritten these are to be received with the same affection of Piety and Reverence and therefore he that disbelieves any Article grounded upon unwritten Tradition is no less a Heretick than he that disbelieves what is written in the Books of Scripture If I knew how to be satisfied concerning the Authority of this Council I could easily tell what Credit I should give to this which it so confidently affirms But so long as I cannot discern the reason of it's pretended Authority I am a little apt to suspect that it was not the clearness of this Principle that moved it to make so many either unscriptural or antiscriptural Decrees but rather the desire it had of vindicating its unscriptural Doctrines and Practices that made it necessary to espouse such a Principle And indeed when I well consider it I am not a little comforted by it that this equalling unwritten Tradition with Scripture which is the very Basis of the Romish Religion is one of the most incredible things in the World of it self and as destitute of any tolerable Evidence whence it may gain any Credit to it self It must needs seem very strange to any considering Man That the wise God should leave us a Rule in writing on purpose to direct us how to honour Him and attain to Salvation and give it this Commendation that it is able to make wise unto Salvation and yet omit a great many things altogether as necessary to those ends as those that are written and without the Belief and Practice whereof those that are written can no whit avail us and yet never so much as once tell us in all that Writing whither we should go to seek and learn them Nay that he should omit therein the principal Point of all and without which all that is either written or unwritten can signify nothing that is to tell us That the Roman Church is the only true Church the only sure and Infallible Interpreter of all that is written and the only faithful Keeper of all that is unwritten from the Mouth whereof we must receive all saving Truth This I think is a thing that must needs be very hard for any one to believe that believes the Infinite Wisdom Goodness and Veracity of God. And how it can ever be made evident that there are such necessary unwritten Traditions or that these which the Church of Rome holds are they I think no Man living can imagine I am sure if the Papists way of reasoning be good it 's safer not to believe this For all Sides consent that the Scripture which we have is the certain Word of God but all Sides are not agreed that unwritten Traditions are the Word of God therefore it is safer to believe the Scripture only to be the Word of God and not Traditions We hold us to Scripture and the Papists grant that to be the safest Rule their greatest strength lies in unwritten or as they are wont to speak Oral and Practical Traditions which in plain English is no more but Report and Custom and whether there can reasonably be thought any certainty in these equal to that of the written Word of God given by Divine Inspiration can be no hard matter for a very weak Understanding to determine That which makes these unwritten Traditions of the less Credit with me is the assurance I have that a pretence to them and a vain confidence in them hath produced much Error and Division in the Church 'T is well known how far and how long the Errors of the Millenaries and of administring the Eucharist to Infants to mention no more prevail'd on this account And the early Schisms betwixt the Roman and Asian Churches about the keeping of Easter and the hot Contests between the Roman and African Churches about rebaptizing Hereticks were occasion'd and upheld by Pretences on all hands to Tradition This was the only Refuge of old for Hereticks when they were confounded by the Scripture to take shelter under Tradition whence Tertullian call'd them Lucifugas Scripturarum Men who shunn'd the Light of the Scriptures Again saith he They confess indeed that the Apostles were ignorant of nothing and differed not among themselves in their preaching but they will not have it that they revealed all things to all for some things they deliver'd openly to all some things secretly and to a few and that because St. Paul useth this saying to Timothy O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust And again that good thing which is committed to thee keep Irenaeus also makes mention of Hereticks who affirm'd That out of the Scriptures the Truth could not be found out by them who understood not Tradition because it was not deliver'd by Writing but by living Voice for which cause also St. Paul said we speak Wisdom among them that are perfect St. Augustine in his 97th Tract upon Iohn saith that all the most foolish Hereticks who desire to be accounted Christians used to colour their audacious Fictions with a pretence from that Sentence of the Gospel Joh. 16. 10. I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Thus did the Hereticks of old both plead Tradition and sought to strengthen their Plea by such places of Scripture as these which are the very same that the Papists produce to the same purpose as may be seen in Bellarmine and others But I find that the Orthodox Fathers of the Church were of another Mind The
things which we find not in the Scriptures saith St. Ambrose how can we use them Ambr. Offic. l. 1. c. 23. Let those of Hermogenes his Shop saith Tertullian shew that it is written If it be not written let them fear that Woe design'd for those that add or take away Irenaeus saith that what the Apostles had preach'd the same afterwards by the Will of God they deliver'd unto us in the Scriptures to be the foundation and pillar of our Faith. St. Hierome against Helvidius calls the Holy Scriptures the only Fountain of Truth Let us bring saith St. Austin for trial not the deceitful Ballances where we may hang on what we will and how we will at our own pleasure saying this is heavy and this is light but let us bring the Divine Ballance of the Holy Scriptures and in that let us weigh what is heavier nay let us not weigh but let us own the things already weighed by the Lord. And elsewhere The Holy Scripture saith he fixeth the Rule of our Doctrine And indeed the excellent sayings of the Antients to this purpose are so well known that I should be very vain to cite any more here If now after all this I should suppose what I can by no means yet grant that God having order'd the Scriptures to be written and said so much in the Commendation thereof they do not yet contain all things necessary to Salvation but that some part of those necessary things as both some Hereticks of old and Papists now would have it believed was only whisper'd privately into the Ears of the Apostles as Mysteries unfit at that time to be communicated to vulgar Christians and that the Apostles tho they were commanded by Christ to preach upon the House-tops that which he had told them privately in the Ear Mar. 10. 27. did not yet think themselves obliged to obey this Command in writing all that was necessary but rather to conceal for a time a considerable part of that mysterious Doctrine Yea suppose that this was one principal use of St. Peter's Keys to lock up all these Mysteries in the Cabinet of the Churches Breast let the Church signify what it can to be communicated to the World in after-Ages by piece-meal so as she should find Men prepar'd by a blind credulity to receive them Yet after all I must needs think that we are too hardly dealt with to be called Hereticks for not believing these things till something be produced whereby we may be assur'd either that these things which they commend to us come indeed from Christ his Apostles or that we are obliged to take the Church of Rome's word for a good Assurance It seems to me a very unreasonable thing that we should be condemn'd as obstinate for not believing things never sufficiently proved whilst we know and declare our selves prepared in Mind to yield upon the first rational Conviction Why should not that Church have the charity to forbear her Censures till she have tried the strength of her Arguments Why was the Council of Trent contrary to the Custom of other Councils so liberal of her Curses and so sparing of her Reasons One good Reason would do more to make us of her Communion than a thousand Anathema's Would not a Man suspect that they have no good Reasons to shew who keep them so close The plain Truth is there have been such vain Pretences to Tradition in all Ages one contradicting another that it seems impossible in this Age to discern between true and false Did not Clemens Alexandrinus call it an Apostolical Tradition that Christ preach'd but one Year And did not Irenaeus pretend a Tradition descending from St. Iohn that Christ was about fifty Years old when he was crucified And do the Papists accout either of these to be true Many things might be named which for some time have been received as Apostolical Traditions which the Church of Rome will not now own to be so And those which she owns she can no more prove to be so than those she hath rejected It were easy to shew this even from abundance of their own Writers who assert the Perfection of the Scripture and complain of the Mischief this pretence to Tradition hath done and who confess they cannot be proved to come from the Apostles But I shall now content my self with the ingenuous Confession of the Bishops assembled at Bononia in their Counsel given to P. Iulius the 3 d. We plainly confess say they among our selves that we cannot prove that which we hold and teach concerning Traditions but we have some conjectures only And again In truth whosoever shall diligently consider the Scripture and then all the things that are usually done in our Churches will find there is great difference betwixt them and that this Doctrine of ours is very unlike and in many things quite repugnant to it What said Erasmus long since on the 2 d Psalm They call the People off saith he from the Scriptures unto little humane Traditions which they have honestly invented for their own Profit And Peter Suter a bitter Adversary of his hath these words Since many things are delivered to be observed which are not expresly found in Holy Scripture will not unlearned Persons taking notice of these things easily murmur complaining that so great Burdens should be laid upon them whereby the Liberty of the Gospel is so greatly impaired Will they not also easily be drawn away from the observance of Ecclesiastical Ordinances when they shall find that they are not contained in the Law of Christ And must we be Hereticks for not believing these so uncertain Traditions Must our Faith be accounted defective and not entire meerly because we do not believe what no Man can make us understand to co come from God This seems very hard It is now time for me to consider the second Objection made against our Faith which is That it is not rightly grounded it is not built on the Authority of the Church that is the Church of Rome And indeed so much weight I find laid upon this one Point that I have some reason to think that they who have been very forward at all times to give such liberal allowances of implicit Faith to their Friends at home would be contented with a very small measure of explicit Belief in us if we would once be taught to ground our Faith aright on the sole Authority of that Church It seems to me that for the talk about it they are no such rigid Exactors of an entire explicit Faith in order to Salvation but that if we will explicitly believe this one fundamental Point the Supreme Authority of the Roman Church over all Christians they will deal very favourably with us in most others and excuse our Ignorance easilier than they can perswade us to be content to be ignorant I think I have very good reason to believe this because I know they can have no reason to reject them that
believe but this one Point for when once this great Gobbet is swallow'd down the Passage will be so well open'd that all other Points of Faith either go down with it or will slip after it without the least straining or grutching The Authority of God himself speaking in Scripture will be of no farther consideration to us for that we must suppose to be included in the Authority of our Mother the Church And whatsoever we shall thence-forward perceive to be the Will of our Mother we must without all scruple conclude it to be also the Will of our Father The Representer hath lately told us that tho the Scripture which is the Word of our Heavenly Father may be the Law yet the Mother the Roman Church is the Iudg. Having learn'd from her the sense of the Scripture we are obliged to submit to this and never presume on our own private Sentiments however seemingly grounded on Reason and Scripture to believe or preach any new Doctrine opposite to the Belief of the Church And there 's reason for this if it be true which he elsewhere tells us That a Man may very easily frame as many Creeds as he pleases and make Christ and his Apostles speak what shall be most agreeable to his humour and suit best with his Interest and find plain proofs for all he means in Scripture the truth whereof as of all other Points of Doctrine stands as he saith upon the same Foundation of the Churches Tradition which if it fail in one leaves no security in any This is indeed to advance the Church to the very top-branch of all Authority and to make the holy Scripture as very a Nose of Wax and as Leaden a Rule as any of that Church ever thought it seeing a Man may form and work it into Creeds of all fashions and find plain proofs in it for any odd Humour or carnal and Worldly Interest This then as far as I can learn by him is the only way for me to be a thorow Papist and a good Catholick I must lay aside my Reason and the Scripture and heed no more what either of these tell me only I must have my Ear open to the Voice of the Church and be wholly at her teaching and command and I shall be safe enough Upon the most serious consideration of the Character which the Papist is pleas'd to give us of himself I cannot find what it is for which they of that Church are so severely bent against us Protestants save only that we will not like tame Animals without any understanding of our own learn to come and go at a whistle or trot on the Road as we are driven and stoop to take on our Backs whatever Load it shall please the Roman Church to lay upon us confessing her to have absolute and uncontroulable Authority over our Faith. The standing out against the Catholick Church makes Men Hereticks and without erring against this no Man is guilty of Heresy said the Iesuit Fisher in his Answer to certain Questions propounded to him by King Iames I. This then is the only Heresy to disown the Authority of the Roman for that he calls the Catholick Church Again saith he One fundamental Error of the Protestants is their denying the Primacy of St. Peter and his Successors the Foundation which Christ laid of his Church necessary for the perpetual Government thereof And again He that forsakes the Church puts himself into a dead and damnable State and may have all things besides Salvation and Eternal Life Bellarmine speaks out and tells us very plainly No Man can tho he would be subject to Christ and communicate with the Celestial Church that is not subject to the Pope If then we believe this Authority of the Roman Church we believe all and if we believe not this we believe nothing at all in the Papists account or to any better purpose than to our own Damnation So that without this Belief our Faith shall never pass for an entire Faith and when we once believe this it shall never be any more question'd whether it be entire or no. Now it seems a very hard matter to believe this great Point of Faith till very good Reasons be given us for it and yet it should seem the want of such Reasons will not excuse us from being Hereticks and in a State of Damnation no not tho we be never so ready to believe it when we shall have Reasons given us for it For he is an Heretick we are told who thinks any thing against the Definition of the Church yet stands so affected that he will think the contrary if he be convinced by Arguments or if the matter be propounded to him by a Learned Man. And on the contrary if we do believe this we can hardly be Hereticks whatever Errors we believe or this Belief draws us into For if a Rustick saith Cardinal Tolet believe his Bishop about the Articles of Faith teaching him some Heretical Doctrine he merits by believing altho it be an Error So weighty a Point is this of believing the Authority of the Roman Church and grounding our entire Faith upon it that I perceive I am concern'd above all things to examine it throughly and this I shall have fitter opportunity to do now I am come to the second thing propounded SECT II. Hitherto I have been considering what ground I have to hope for Salvation as I am a Protestant and of the Church of England I am now in the next place to enquire Whether I can find any Reason to believe that the Church of Rome can put me into a more hopeful Way to it should I turn Papist and be of her Communion Now seeing I have already found that the great Reason why we are held uncapable of Salvation as now we are is this That we have no entire Faith and the Defect in our Faith is this That we believe not all the Articles of the Roman Faith and that which makes it necessary for us to believe all those Articles is the Authority of the Catholick that is as they interpret the Roman Church to declare and define what things are necessary to the Salvation of Christians I perceive I have no more to do for my full Satisfaction in the present Inquiry but to consider what Reason I can have for the owning and submitting to this Authority And to discern this I think this Method fittest to be taken I will inquire into three things I. What things are implied in that Submission to this Authority which is required of me II. What the Grounds and Reasons are whereon this Authority is founded and which should perswade me to submit III. Where this Authority may be found and to whom I must submit And this is all I think that I need to do for I can never think fit to submit my Faith and Conscience and to trust my Salvation to an Authority which either requires of me such things as are
for her own Authority It cannot I say be any thing else because the thing they are proving is That She alone is the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church And were it any thing else they would never discover it to us because they would thereby give us an unanswerable Argument against what they would prove her to be for if they will shew us any other Church or Churches by the Testimony whereof Her Authority may be proved we are thereby enabled to prove She is not the Only true Church out of which there is no Salvation What then can this Testimony be Is it that of the First and purest Ages of the Church before POPERY was brought forth Not so to be sure for POPERY was they say from the beginning and glorieth of her Antiquity above all things Is it the Testimony of all others in the World that profess Christianity It cannot be for all these if not of her Communion are Hereticks and in a state of Damnation for denying her Authority and were it possible for them to witness that to be which they deny to be yet is their Testimony invalid because they confess themselves Fallible and this point of Faith cannot stand upon a fallible Testimony By this 't is very clear to me that the Testimony of the Catholick Church of Christ if it be produced for the Authority of the Church of ROME can be nothing else but the Church of ROME's own Word and I never doubted but she hath a good word for her self any more than I doubt lest it should be thought a good proof of her Authority I have heard again much talk of Universal Tradition among ROMAM CATHOLICKS but if they alledg this for their Church's Authority they give us only the same thing again in other Words Universal Tradition can be nothing else but the Testimony of the Universal Church and that must be the Church of ROME and so we are not advanced one step farther than we were before The Credit we are to give unto Universal Tradition depends on the Authority of the ROMAN Church which we have not yet sound but are enquiring after If Fathers and Councils be brought in to Witness this Authority all the noise they make will prove but the Voice of the ROMAN Church crying her self up for the great Diana of the World and thundring Anathema to all that will not fall down and worship her Will she abide by the Testimony of either Father or Council if they speak not what she has taught them or against what she holds Or shall they be allow'd to over rule the Oral and Practical Tradition of the present Church of ROME Are Councils of any Credit more than the POPE's Confirmation gives them And are single Fathers of more Credit than they If not we have yet no more but her own Word for her own Authority If they bring us SCRIPTURE to prove this Authority I must say that as we reverence Fathers and Councils so we adore with Tertullian the fulness of the SCRIPTURE neither can we desire any better Proof than its Testimony Yet when I consider how these men use the SCRIPTURE I am at a stand to think how they can in good earnest produce it as a Witness in this matter for after they have said almost all the ill they can of it calling it imperfect insufficient obscure unsens'd they seem to ridicule both it and us when they bring it forth thus disabled for a Witness Do not they tell us again and again that both the Canon and the Sense of SCRIPTURE depend as to us on the Authority and Interpretation of their Church And can its Testimony then possibly amount to any more than that Church's bare Word Do not they deny us a Iudgment of Discretion whereby we should discern for ourselves whether it speak fór or against their Church's Authority And will they yet produce it to convince us of the Authority by which alone we are both to receive and understand it It cannot be produced to convince us in our Iudgment for we are not allow'd any use of our Iudgment in the Case It must be only to convince themselves that we are Hereticks and I dare say that may be done without the Scripture as well as with it whilst their Church must give the Sense of it But because they know we magnify it they will produce it tho I cannot see to what other end than to persuade us to take heed of trusting too much to it or thinking it worth any thing after it hath shew'd us the true Church It must be believ'd no longer than it is authorized to speak by that Authority which is to be proved by it so that by shewing us that Authority it loseth all its own Authority for ever For this saith Stapleton that God hath commanded us to believe the Church we do not hang our Faith on the Authority of the Church as upon the proper and sole cause of this Belief but partly on manifest Scriptures by which we are remitted to the teaching of the Church partly on the Creed c. This then is the end of producing the Scripture that we may be convinced by it that we are no longer to learn of it after we are once brought by it to the knowledg of the Church's Authority but thenceforward are to depend wholly upon the teaching of the Church unto which it remits us All the use then that we have of the Scripture is to be guided by it to the Church of ROME tho it cannot do so much for us neither but as that Church guides it and having thank'd it for its kindness we are then to bid it good Night Now seeing manifest Scriptures are promised us to guide us to the ROMAN Church I think it reasonable to expect that they produce such Scriptures as are more manifest to us than their Church's Authority which is to be proved by them seeing it is by their Evidence I am to be convinced of that which as yet is unevident to me Neither ought the Sense of these manifest Scriptures depend upon the Interpretation or Authority of that Church the Authority whereof they are brought to prove as a thing to me not yet evident for so I shall be still but where I was before and instead of manifest Scriptures be shuffled off with the Church's bare Word I mean with such Interpretations of Scripture as I have no reason to receive but by that Authority whereof I am yet at least in doubt Now that there are indeed no such manifest Scriptures I am reasonably well assured before-hand I have read the Scripture over and over and find not the least mention therein made of this Authority of the ROMAN Church The POPE of ROME or his Supremacy is never once named from the beginning of the Bible to the end nor can I meet with one Syllable touching either the Infallibility or Iurisdiction of Him or his Councils or of any kind of Subjection due to
follow him thither where according to him I can have nothing to do but to run headlong upon any thing without Wit or Fear Reason he is pleased to call a hoodwink'd Guide and following it all we can hope for is that we may possibly stumble into the Truth or Church Possibly it should seem a Man may stumble upon it with his Eyes in his Head and truly I dare not pull them out lest I should stumble on a blind Leader and we should both fall into the Ditch Secondly Whensoever I resolve to enter into the Roman Communion I fear I must also bid farewell to my Senses or resolve never any more to trust them no not about those things which are the proper Objects of Sense to discern which God gave me my Senses and of which it will be impossible for me to have any distinct knowledg without them How unreasonable and dangerous a thing this is I must needs be very sensible if I be not resolved already to hearken no more to my Reason If I must no longer credit my Eyes about Shape and Colour nor my Ears about Sounds and Words nor my Nose about Smells nor my Palate concerning Tasts nor my Hands and Feeling about Hot and Cold Hard and Soft I shall not know how to believe that God gave me all these Instruments of Sense to any purpose at all I am sure I cannot think my self in a comfortable and safe Condition I know not to what end our Blessed Saviour should bid St. Thomas Handle and see him or how his Faith could be thereby confirmed if such Senses are not to be trusted nor why the Apostle should hope to have the more Credit given to their Narratives by telling us they were Eye-witnesses of the things they relate 2 Pet. 1. 16. Luke 1. 2. Nor why St. Iohn 1 Ioh. 1. 1. should talk so much of hearing seeing and handling as things qualifying them for bearing witness What a Christian am I like to be if I can have no Assurance of what I see or hear if I may not trust my Eyes when I read the Scripture nor my Ears when I hear the Instructions of my Teachers How could the first Christians be sure themselves or assure us that Iesus is the Christ if in hearing his Words and seeing his Miracles and reading the Prophets they might not safely trust their Senses If Sense be not to be trusted all Teaching must be by immediate Inspiration and Faith comes not by hearing as St. Paul affirms it doth and the Infallible Church can teach no more than we except she can teach without Speaking or Writing or any thing that is to be understood by Hearing or Seeing and so Oral and Practical Tradition can be of no more use to us than to the Blind and Deaf On this Supposition I may easily mistake a Harlot for my Mother and stumble into Babylon instead of Hierusalem hearken to the Voice of the Wolf instead of the Shepherd eat and drink Poison instead of wholsome Food and feel no Pain nor Loss when my Eyes are pluck'd out Now if the Church of Rome do not command us to renounce all Credit to our Senses she cannot command us to give any Credit to her Doctrine of Transubstantiation And I fear without our believing this Point she will not admit us to her Communion We believe already a Real Presence of that which we see not yet will not this serve unless we believe also a Real Absence of that which we both see handle taste and smell In the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist I am commanded to believe that there is not any Bread but Flesh nor Wine but Blood and yet there I see smell taste and feel both Bread and Wine and nothing else I hear it read that our Blessed Saviour took blessed brake and gave Bread and Wine and of the same he said Take eat and drink I hear St. Paul again and again 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28. speak of eating and drinking the Bread and the Cup. And yet I must not trust any of these five Senses but against the clearest Evidence and Testimony of them all I must believe if I can that there is neither Bread nor Wine but that which neither my Senses can discern nor my Reason conceive nor doth the Scripture any where say the very Natural Flesh and Blood of Christ under the Colour and Form the Taste and Smell and all other proper Qualities of Bread and Wine and yet neither that Colour nor Form nor Taste nor Smell nor any other Accident which my Senses there perceive are in the Flesh and Blood tho there is nothing else there for them to be in That tho I break and chew with my Teeth what I take and eat yet I break not nor chew with my Teeth the Body of Christ and yet I take and eat nothing else If I cannot believe this I am told that I have not Faith enough and only because I have yet Reason and Sense too much to be of that Communion This is another step that I must take in going over to the Church of Rome And when I am got thus far I may think it seasonable enough to lay aside the Scripture too For what good Use I can make of it without the free use of my Reason and trusting my Senses I do not understand Thirdly If I be a Lay-man and not of so good credit with the Curate or Bishop as to obtain a License that is if I will not promise to adhere only to the Doctrine of the Roman Church and take all that I read in that sense only which she is pleas'd to give it I must not be suffer'd to read the Scripture at all but must give away my Bible upon pain of being denied the Remission of my Sins And truly if I may be allow'd to read it upon no other terms than of being thus tied up to learn nothing by it but what I am before-hand taught without it I shall think a License too dear even at a very low rate if yet it may be obtain'd as I find it question'd whether it may or no any where else but in such places as a License to read some of their own may prevent their itch of looking into our Translations However whether I be of the Lay or Clergy if I will learn of them who are most busy in endeavouring my Conversion I am sure I must be taught to speak very dishonourably of the Word of God and this seems to be no more than the Religion commended to me requireth I must needs here say That nothing in the World doth and I think I may say ought more to prejudice me against any Religion than to find it constrain'd in its own Defence to say undecent things of that which it grants to be the Word of God. And if I might be thought worthy to advise the Missionaries they should not harp too much on this ungrateful String if they would draw any after them that
her Soveraignty It will therefore concern me to ask How I may be rightly inform'd in both these great branches of her Power unto which my subjection is required upon pain of Damnation 1. She claims a Power of Interpreting or giving the certain Sense of Scripture of Iudging and finally Deciding all Controversies of Religion of peremptorily Defining and Determining in all matters of Faith and Religious Practice so that all are bound without any further dispute or search to submit to all her Determinations and Decrees INFALLIBLE then we must believe this Church to be and that she cannot Err in her Definitions of Faith and Manners And yet where this INFALLIBILITY is to be found is a Question she is not to this day able to resolve In short I find that this Infallible Church which tells us that she cannot Err when she is desired to make this apparent to the World can tell us certainly both How and in What she can Err and in this I doubt not but she is Infallible enough but who they are in all her Communion or in what things it is that they cannot err this she could never tell us certainly and yet it is this alone that can make her Infallibility if she have it to be of any use to us The REPRESENTER saith That the PAPIST believes that the Pastors and Prelates of his Church are Fallible that there is none of them and yet the POPE is one of them and COUNCILS are made up of them but may fall into Errors Heresy and Schism and consequently are subject to mistakes And further he tells us That tho some allow the POPE the assistance of a Divine Infallibility without being in a General Council yet he is satisfied 't is only their Opinion and not their Faith there being no obligation from the Church of assenting to any such Doctrine And tho he maintain the Necessity and Right of General Councils lawfully Assembled yet is it not so plain whether he count them infallible or no by what he says in that Chapter of Councils This we are told That if any thing contrary to what Christ taught and his Apostles should be defined and commanded to be believed even by ten thousand Councils he believes it damnable in any one to receive it But in the following Chapter he speaks out and says That by the Assistance of the Holy Ghost they are specially protected from all Error in all Definitions and Declarations in matters of Faith And this is true tho he grants it possible that the Pastors and Prelates there assembled may be proud ignorant covetous enormous sinners and infamous for other vices and at other times may prevaricate make Innovations in Faith and teach erroneous Doctrines Now a man would think That if all the Guides and Pastors of the Flock not one excepted may err then the Sheep which are bound to follow their Shepherds may err also and if the Fallible lead the Fallible 't is not impossible for both to err and who it is that is infallible is hard to see And again seeing he tells us That Christ committed the care of his Flock to St. Peter and that the POPE or Bishop of Rome is in this charge St. Peter ' s Successor and that God assists those who have this charge with a particular helping Grace such as has a special respect to the Office and Function and that such as was given to the Prophets and to Moses when he was made a God to Pharoah I cannot see but it must be as consequent to all this that the POPE should be Infallible as that a General Council is so especially when it is his Approbation that gives force to its Decrees Moreover it is not easy to believe that God hath made a promise of Infallible Assistance to any number of Pastors and Prelates who are no better qualified than he supposes they may most of them be with Pride Ignorance and Vice Turbulence and Covetousness and assembled it may be under an Heretical Pope for such 't is granted he may be and as vicious too and ignorant as any of them However there are two things which make it very hard to find out this Infalliblility where he sends us to seek it in a General Council For first they must be lawfully assembled and next they must determine nothing contrary to what Christ and his Apostles taught otherwise 't is damnable to receive their Determinations Now it will be hard for me to find out how lawfully they were assembled and therefore as hard to believe all their Decrees as Infallible and I fear I must not be allow'd to examine their Definitions whether they be according to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles or no lest I thereby seem to follow my own private Iudgment or Spirit rather than the Infallible Iudgment of the Church Representative This is all then that I can learn from his Discourse I must take it for a Truth that this Infallibility is lodg'd in a General Council and that it can determine nothing contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and then I need not inquire whether it have done so or no tho if it have done so 't is damnable for me to receive its Determinations But I will hear what others tell me Bellarmin saith That all Catholicks are thus far agreed That the POPE as he is POPE in the midst of his Councellors or together with a General COUNCIL may Err or Iudg amiss in matters of Fact. And if this be true he may even so err in the whole Faith as far as I can yet see for he may thus err in determining that there were such Men as Christ and his Apostles that any of them Preached planted Churches writ Books that these are their Books or that St. Peter was at ROME and was Bishop there left the Bishops of that See his Successors in all his Power that there hath been an uninterrupted Succession of Bishops in that Church that any unwritten Traditions concerning Faith and Manners were left to the Custody of the Church and many more such things which were matters of Fact and on which the Faith of that Church depends Again he saith That the POPE as a private Doctor may Err even through Ignorance in matters both of Faith and Manners And thus the Church whether Virtual or Representative may err But I would fain hear wherein she cannot Err and whether all Catholicks are agreed as well in that The famous Chancellor of Paris Gerson Almain Alphonsus a Castro the Parisian Doctors yea and no less man than P. ADRIAN the VI th saith the same Author have taught That the POPE as he is POPE may be a Heretick and teach Heresy when he desineth any thing without a General COUNCIL And truly If as a Man he may be a Heretick I see no reason why he may not be so as a POPE for I take the Man and the POPE to be here both one But further these last named will