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authority_n	believe_v	scripture_n	tradition_n	2,838	5	9.5550	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76262	A Legacie left to Protestants, containing eighteen controversies, viz. 1. Of the Holy Scriptures. 2. Of Christs Catholick Church, &c. 3. Of the Bishop and Church of Rome, 4. Of traditions needfull, &c.	Bayly, Thomas, d. 1657?,; T. B.	1654 (1654)	Wing B1512; Thomason E1667_2; ESTC R208395	72,275	206

A LEGACIE left to PROTESTANTS Containing Eighteen Controversies viz. 1. Of the Holy Scriptures 2. Of Christs Catholick Church c. 3. Of the Bishop and Church of Rome 4. Of Traditions needfull c. DOWA Printed 1654 To the Reader THese ensuing Controversies were found in a learned mans study dead nine years since and commended to the care of a Friend who dyed soon after him or otherwise they had been printed long since with the foresaid Title by the Author himself prefixed u● to them desiring not to have his name or any dedication added unto them but this That many learned Freinds had read and approved them that he heartily wished they might help to convert unto the true faith of Christs Catholique Church such Protestants as should read them which I wish also his Friend Whil●st he lived T. B. A Table of the severall Controversies 1. OF the Holy Scriptures pag. 1. 2. Of Christs Catholick Church in generall not colourably now among Christians the first part pag. 14. The second part pag. 30. 3. Of the Bishop and Church of Rome pag. 48 4. Of Traditions needfully added into the Canon of Scripture pag. 69 5. Of Protestancy begun here in England under Queen Elizabeth pag. 82 6. Of the holy Eucharist pag. 92 First part concerning our Saviours reall presence therein ib. Second part pag. 101 7. Of honouring Saints and praying to them pag. 109 8. Of reverencing of Saints Reliques pag. 116 9. Of holy Images kept and honoured by us pag. 120 10. Of Purgatory and Prayer for the dead pag. 131 11. Of Sacramentall Confession pag. 135 12. Concerning the number and effects of Sacraments pag. 145 13. Of Free-will pag. 157 14. Of Calvins Solifidian Justice pag. 16● 15. Concerning the merit of good Works pag. 169 16. About the possibility of keeping Gods Commandements pag. 177 17. Of Feasts and Fasts Apostolically ordained and neglected both by English Calvinists and Independents pag. 183 18. Concerning praedestination pag. 191 THE First Controversie Of the holy Scriptures WHerein our Adversaries do notoriously wrong us and make simple people believe that we Catholicks yeeld no more authority to sacred Writings then our Church alloweth them Whereas we firmly believe them to have been inspired by God and therefore attribute a divine and infallible authority unto them when they are sufficiently declared to be such and truly Expounded unto us For without the former condition to wit an undoubted knowledge of them no man can securely rely on any doctrine contained in them and without the latter condition of being rightly understood all Heresies have been formerly and may now also be drawn pernitiously from them So as about these two points our Adversaries and we chiefly and indeed only differ They for example Calvinists especially for a certain knowledge of them rely upon-their own private Spirit and an imaginary light shining to all faithfull Readers of them no lesse clearly distinguishing true Scriptures from false then light by our eyes from darknesse is discernable by us which internall light is a meere Chymaera say we and other great Protestants with us by Calvin purposely devised to accept or reject what Scriptures he liked and interpret them as he pleased without any authority to controle him which is as St. Austine told Faustus his Manichean Lib. contra ●um 13. c. 5 Adversary to take away all authority both of Church and Scripture licensing every man to believe what he lifte●h Whereas we Catholicks for a certain knowledge of true Scriptures rely upon the exteriour and infallible t●stimony of Christ's Church by himself warranted unto us when he commanded us to heare and obey such as he appointed therein to govern and guide us no lesse then himself And whereas Calvin deemeth it a thing very inconvenient and against the Majesty of Scripture to be subjected to mens judgements about declaring the sacred authority thereof we say no and prove it to be no more inconvenient for Scriptures then for other points of Faith to be made known by the Church's testimony unto us And if the holy Scriptures have been written by men divinly inspired and guided in the penning of them as assuredly they have been why may they not also by men assisted by the holy Ghost be made known infallibly unto us especially sithence they cannot give testimony of themselves as Hooker and other chief Protestants Lib. 2. sect 14. Lib. 2. sect 4 7. Lib. 3. s●ct 8. have proved because if part of Scripture should give credit to the rest that very part might be doubted of likewise Unlesse besides Scripture there were something els● that might assure us which he acknowledgeth to be the authority of Christs Church Insomuch as Egidius Hunnius a cheife Colloquio Ratisbonen si Lutheran Divine and sixteen others with him at Ratisbone before sundry Princes of Germany were by Gretzerus and Tanner Catholick Divines inforced to admit the Church's testimony and historicall tradition as they c●lled it altogether needfull for an undoubted knowledge of Scripture as heretofore many forged Scriptures have been rejected and others approved by it Albeit they proceed not conformably therein by not admiting into their Canon all Books and parts of Scripture so approved For if the Churches testimony be false in declaring some Books surely it cannot be certain in declaring others and so we can receive no infallible assurance from her Turtullian notwithstanding prescribeth Lib. 1. praescript c. 6. this for an undoubted truth that what the Apostles preached and Christ revealed unto them cannot be testified unto us but by the Churches which they founded and St. Austine so affirmed the same as he saith He Tom. 6. contra Epist fundament cap. 5. would not believe the Gospel were it not that the Church by her authority commended the same unto him So far was he and other Fathers from dreaming of Calvin's inward light communicated to all faithful Readers of Scriptures wherein the Lutherans might claim an equall share with him as his Companions and so they might agree about their Canon of Scripture as now they do not nor with any antient Church before them Lib. 33. contra Faustum cap. 6. Whereas St. Austin speaking of our Canon which himself amongst other African Bishops had declared in the third Councel of Carthage as St. Innocentius the first had done before him and many both Popes and Councels Epist ad Exup●rium have done since those Books saith he by the consent of Christian Churches and Bishops of them succeeding each other downwards from the Apostles have been warranted for true Scriptures unto us and are onely denyed by you speaking then of the Manicheans as we doe now of Protestants few in number and lately risen because they make not for your Doctrine And whereas they provoke us to the Originals to wit the Hebrew and Greek Texts of the old Testament and seek by what means they can to disgrace our Vulgar Edition We answer them first that they

himself recounteth So did the Wiclifests as Waldensis citeth their words and proveth it still to have been the custome of Hereticks to cloak their Novelties under a specious and fraudulent pretence of imbracing onely the Lib. 2. de doctrina fidei cap. 9. Scriptures by themselves falsly expounded which is as there he saith to follow their own judgments and not Scripture consisting as S. Hierome told the Luciferans not in the words but in the true meaning of them an adulterated sense being no lesse harmfull than a forged letter to be imbraced So as this learned Author demanded well of Wicklif Why said he should we believe your lately devised Interpretations of Scripture to prove your Heresies more than you believe all the ancient Fathers and Doctors of Christs Church in all places of the world and ages before you for if you tell us that they were men and might erre I may answer that you are not Angels or Doctors sent from heaven that Christians now after 1300 years should learn a new Faith and Exposition of scripture from you wherein also you differ no lesse among your selves than you have done from all antiquity before you as having no certain rule of Faith to determine differences between you And those very Scriptures out of which you pretend to gather your Faith wholy neither are nor can be but by the Churches testimony certainly notified unto you for as they cannot give testimony unto themselves nor any one part to the rest so as Calvins inward light pretended to be given unto all faithfull persons for the knowledge of them is a meer fancy as elswhere I have proved And whereas Protestants affirm that we have in our Church many vain and unprofitable traditions yea repugnant unto Scripture yet in their authority equalled by us unto them they do herein affirm many untruths together for that with us all Traditions are not equal in their authority and such as are truly Apostolical and have had their origine from the Apostles are we say of no lesse authority as the Church retaineth a memory still of them than if they had been by their first Authors written and we have certain rules whereby they come to be known infallibly by us The first is taught by S. Austin in these words that point or practice Lib. 4. contra Donat. of faith not taught in Scripture nor decreed in Councels yet ever retained by the Church is rightly believed to have from Apostolical authority descended to us such is the Baptism of Children c. The second Rule is this if any point of faith hath been unanimously taught by the holy Fathers and yet not mentioned in Scripture it may be securely imbraced as an Apostolical tradition such is the perpetual Virginity of the mother of God the number of the Gospels c. The third Rule is if any thing hath been practiced and believed still in the Church which could not be at first by humane authority introduced and established it is to be thought to have come from the Apostles such are the matters and form● of Sacraments their number and the proper effects of them prayer for the dead c. The signe of the Crosse used in Baptisme and other such religious customs which if as things of light moment they should come to be neglected saith S. Basil and not regarded the Lib. de Spiritu Sancto belief and practice of the Church in points of greater moment would totter also and become weakened in their authority sithence the Gospels themselves are not more certainly than by the Churches tradition and authority confirmed unto us Tertullian with S. Basil teacheth such traditions and Lib. de pudicitia de coronam clitis so doth S. Ambrose S. Austin and many other chief Fathers even such as lived with or neer the Apostles themselves as S. Dennis S. Ignatius S. Irenaeus S. Justin Martyr Origen and S. Cyprian blamed therefore by the Calvinists 2. cent cap. 4. 3. cent c. 4. for this doctrine Eusebius also affirmeth Hegesippus a disciple of the Apostles themselves to have wrote five Books in a simple stile but with great sincerity of such traditions as had been left to the Church by them against Calvins impiety peremptorily after his manner and proudly condemning for sacrilegious and superstitious all external rites used in the Service of God and not expressed in Scripture Yet we finde that himself in the order of his Genevian Congregation hath many new rites and ordinations of his own appointment no where mentioned in Scripture presuming so of a power in himself above the Apostles themselves to ordain them for that his must be imbraced and theirs condemned and deemed sacrilegious albeit Lib. 3. ●4 never so authentically testified unto us Perchance he had never read or little regarded that important question which antient Irenaeus proposed about Traditions and verities of faith believed by all good Christians yet not expressed in Scripture What saith he if the Apostles had left no Scriptures at all behinde them ought we not to have followed the order of Tradition which they left unto those Bishops unto whom they recommended those Churches which had been founded by them and to speak no more hereof even now in our time we know many barbarous Nations to have received by their preaching the faith of Christ and to persevere holily therein flying and detesting all Heresies contrary in any sort unto the same who as wholy unlearned never had any Scriptures at all but onely stick unto the Traditions which were at first by the Apostles themselves delivered unto them And if such Traditions as are now in our Churches retained and observed for the order of divine Service and decency therein to be used should be accounted sacrilegious and abominably superstitious as Calvin would have them The use for example of s●cred Vestments the signe of the Crosse in Baptisme Prayers said at the burial of the dead bowing at the name of Jesus and other like Ceremonies that admonition of S. Pauls would come to be neglected charging the Corinthians to do all things honestly or in a seemly 1 Cor. 14. manner and according to order in the Church as we can prove from assured testimonies the Primitive Christians did during the fi●st hundred years after Christ in their publick sinaxes or meeings at divine Service and Sacraments together recounted by S. Dennis of Areopagita in his Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy in the 2 or 3 chapters together by S. Justin Martyr in his second Apology for Christians to Antonius Pius the Emperour and by S. Ignatius insinuated plainly enough in many places of his Epistles by Tertullian also in his book ●● pudicitia and other fathers living in or near unto the age of the Apostles And such Ceremonies as are by Calvin so rejected and condemned in the publick order of divine Service are thus by S. Austin approved in such things as are not determined in Scripture the customs of Gods Church

as may be instanced in all ●●●●ticks of former times whereby the other three Patriarchical Seats of Alexandria Antioch and Hierusalem have been first corrupted and afterwards with Mahumeti●m overwhelmed as now likewise hath almost happened unto the Churches of Greece after they had been ten severall times unit●d to the Church of Rome and faln again from it who yet never arrived unto that fra●●tick and witlesse folly of Protestants affirming the Succession of Popes in S. Peters Chair even almost since the Apostles time for 1000. years at l●ast past to have been Antichrist that single man and professed enemy of Christ mentioned by S. Paul who is certainly to be received by the Jews to raign in Hierusalem and tread the holy City under his feet to sit as a God in the Temple reedified by him to kill Enoch and Elias there the two faithful witnesses of Christ lying afterwards three dayes together naked in the Streets of that City the glory of whose raign is to continue but three years and a half called by Daniel and S. John a time two times and half a time numbred by forty two months or which is all one by 1260. dayes when Christ shall shorten the rage of his persecution for the good of his elect and kill this wicked man with the breath of his own mouth All which particulars contained in Scripture one by one can no more agree to the whole Succession of Roman Bishops than to the Turkish Emperours for these thousand years past nor indeed so much because these have had the possession of Hierusalem for many ages together and ever have been enemies to Christ and Christians whereas Popes have ever been his faithfull Servants his Vicars here on earth and chief Pastors of his flock by his own Ordination So as ●othing could have been devised more injuriously to Christ or more derogating from his glory in redeeming us than to affirm as in effect they do that the Devill timely prevailed against him for the overthrow of his Church and that also by the Roman Bishop and Chaire of Peter whereon as a Rock he promised to build so firmly as hell gates to wit no power of men or Devils should prevail against it In the mean time if ad Thess 2. we will with holy Fathers and all antient or modern Interpreters examine that obscure place of S. Paul concerning the mystery of iniquity working in his time it was not understood of Popes but of Hereticks beginning then to rise and preparing a way for Antichrists coming for which cause they are called by S. John Antichrists as by corrupting the true faith forerunners of him And never any Sect or sort of Hereticks did perform this wicked Office against Christ his Church more than modern Hereticks have done in their pretended reformation of our Church and Religion Whose malice against the Bishop of Rome is so far extended as even that blessed Apostle himself whose Chair they succeed in is so undervalued by them that they seek to deny many especial privileges of our Saviours love towards him magnified by all ancient Fathers and Interpreters of Scripture before them as his having been from his first calling by the imposall of a new name designed by Christ to be the head foundation of his Church and under the title of his Flock thrice commended the same to his government prayed for him that his faith might not faile willing him to confirm his Brethren He prayed not In quaest Novi testamenti q. 75. saith S. Austin for James or John or any of the rest but for Peter alone that his faith might not faile because on him as a sure foundation next to himself the firmity of his Church chiefly depended So as from this Text the un●rring judgment of him and his Successors in points of Faith hath been as well by ancien● Fathers as later Divines rightly gathered Neither can it be convinced that any Bishop of Rome hath as a private Doctor erred in any point of Faith much lesse guided the Church amisse by falsly declaring any point or practice of Christian Doctrine And if amongst such a multitude of most Learned Holy and eminent Persons which in the See of Rome have from age to age succeeded each other some few have been blamefull in their lives as one amongst the twelve Apostles was a Judas and another amongst the first seven Deacons is commonly held to have been horribly vicious in his life and doctrine yet prejudiced not the sanctity of the rest nor the holinesse of their Function for why should the glory of other good Popes come to be obscured or the high authority of that See be lessened by them Such scandals being some of those gates of Hell which were permitted by Christ to be opened against his Church but never to overthrow it Yet I may truly say here that in numbring and naming such Popes Protestants have notably erred and with great malice made Boniface the eighth and other Popes black and abominable in their lives who by the certain testimonies of most holy and learned persons living in the same age and time with them were very good holy and zea●ous Bishops and wrongfully defamed by unconscionable wicked men professed adversaries unto them And should any Pope swarve in any point from the professed and known faith of Christs Church and in any publick manner prof●sse his error there would not as our Adversari●s teach be wanting in the Church authority or means enough to ●e●ose or rather declare him to be no true member of the same and so no more h●ad thereof which is spoken of a thing in the ayre and that will never h●ppen N●ither is it to be marvelled at that we Christians should b●lieve that the cheif Pastor and Head of Christs Church for whom himself prayed that his faith might not faile for the confirmation of his Brethren in their Christian and Catholick profession should be in●allible in his publick teaching sithence the High Priest of the Jews a type onely and figure of ours was to be so strictly followed and obeyed in his doctrine as the refusers of his sentence were by death and no lesse penalty to be punished and such as sate in the Chair of Moses and exercised that power which was provided by God for the instruction of his People were by our Saviours command notwithstanding their bad lives to be followed in their doctrine and can we think that he would leave his Church void of such an external and infallible means in all points and practices of faith to rely on For should the Churches teaching be held fallible and uncertain even scriptures themselves might be questioned in their authority approved as I have said before by her testimony and tradition as other declared points of doctrine And to say that this infallible authority should be more in the flock than in the chief Pastor thereof more in the body than in the head more in the family than in the father and governour

Tables of the Church to perfect the Sacrifice He saith Gaudentius who descended In cap. 2. Exodi from heaven said the Bread which I will give shall be my Flesh who being Lord and Creator of all things a● he produceth Corn from the earth to make Bread so both he can and promised of Bread to make his Body And he who of Water made Wine can of Wine make his Bloud c. think not therefore that to be earthly which is heavenly Truth cannot lye c. St. Orat. magna Cate●hetica Gregory Nissen likewise biddeth us to consider how Christs Body received in many places ●nd by thousands together can wholly and intirely be communicated ●●●●ch one of them wherefore I do rightly believe Bread by Gods word to be transmuted or wholly changed into th● Body of Christ and not to remain both together in the Sacrament as Luther even Harmoni● in cap. 26. Matth. in Calvins opinion absurdly affirmed And indeed all the Authorities of ancient Fathers hitherto alledged by me do plainly prove a totall change of Bread into the body and of Wine into the bloud of our Saviour fitly called in the great Laterane counc●l Transubstantiation And that in the distinct Consecrations of our Saviours Body and Bloud at the Altar under the forms of Bread and Wine is celebrated his misterious Sacrifice according to the order of Melchisedech and foretold by Malachy the Prop●et is so plainly and frequently testified by Ancientest and Chiefest Fathers of Christs Church as when we cite the Testimonies even of such as lived Lib. de vera reformatione Ecclesiae with the Apostles themselves Calvin passeth on us this mild and modest censure Solemne est istis nebulonibus c. It is the custome of these knaves to rake up out of the ancient Fathers whatsoever hath been written erroniously and ●alsly by them when therefore they object Malachies foretelling a continuall Sacrifice c. We answer saith he that these Fathers also taught Chri●●s bodily presence in the Sacrament but so ridiculously as Reason and Truth inforce us to leave them Could a Devil in human● shape have more proudly or contemptuously censured St. Irenaeus St. Justin St. Cyprian St. Alhanasius St. Chrysostom St. Ambrose St. Hilary St. Augustine and many others chief lights of Christs Church in their time for learning and Sanctity highly renowned And elswhere I see saith he the Fathers Lib. 4. In●it cap. 28. Sect. 11. even the ancientest and chiefest amongst them to have wrested the memory of Christs sacrifice on the Crosse and to have acknowledged therein the face of a renewed oblation more than was agreeable to the institution thereof imitating so the Jewish manner of sacrificing more than Christ ordained or the Gospel permitted as if he alone knew better than all ancient Doctors before him what Christ ordained in his last Supp●r even such as had known the Apostles themselves or conversed with some of their chiefest Disciples in his Commentary also on St. Pauls Ep. to cap. 6. v. 9. the Hebrews he hath these words I cannot but wonder to see the ancient Fathers so preoccupated with the opinion of Christs corporall Presence in the Sacrament but a● one errour draweth on another when they had forged a sacrifice in the Lords Supper and adulterated thereby the sam● they laboured to gather colour●ble Arguments whereby they might seem to maintain their errour So as mentioning no further his impudent and unchristian boldnesse in accusing so many glorious Saints now raigning with Christ in Heaven of Judaisme Idolatry and Superstition practised by themselves and taught to others I will accept here what he so plainly confesseth that all the ancientest and chiefest Fathers of Christs Church held the reall presence of our Saviour in the Eucharist and acknowledged a true sacrifice in the daily Consecration thereof celebrated still by us after their example and our Saviours institution mentioned also by St. Paul blessing Bread and 1 Cor. 10. Wine and distributing them as the Body and Bloud of our Lord according to S. Irenaeus his words our Lord saying of Bread this is my Body and Lib. 4. c. 32. confessing the Challice which he consecrated to be his bloud taught us a new oblation of the new Testament which the Church having received it from the Apostles offereth to God throughout the whole world as Malachy had foretold c. And not to speak of those ancient Li●urgies extant in Greek and Latine under divers Apostles names and proved to have been truly theirs by many grave and learned Authors one●y because Protestants are not pleased for such to accept them I will boldly here affirm that no point or practice of faith can be more faithfully made known and testified by all manners unto us and even in Protestant Authors themselves more plainly confessed than that this great and onely sacrifice of Christians hath still in all ages since Christ even untill this very time both in our Western and those Eastern Churches of Greece Syria Armenia E●ypt and India it self been celebrated so as yearly out of those and other parts of the world Christians come with their Priests unto Jerusalem many thousands of them together having no other publick service of God but the celebration of this sacrifice used amongst them never but in their first Apostolicall Conversions taught unto them and since still retained by them And albeit Nestorisme besides other ancient and condemned heresies have crept in lamentably amongst them yet in a Catholick belief of ●ur Saviours presence in the Sacrament and sacrifice of the Masse ordained by him there is no disagreement at all between them and this concord of many Nations remote from each other and void of all commerce between themselves for many ages together Lib. de Pr●script according to Tertullians rule non error sed traditio est is no error but tradition still continued amongst them The second Part. FOr proof of the Masse also I could here if Calvins former confession that the ancientest and chiefest Fathers acknowledged and celebrated the same saved me not that labour heap up many pregnant testimonies out of their authenticall works truly collected that being most true which S. Epiphanius affirmed that all the Apostles severally prescribed the order of celebrating this sacrifice And St. Isidorus lib. 2. Officiorum telleth us that the Masse used in his time in these Western parts of the World was according to St. Peters Ordination which mysterious and unbloudy sacrifice albeit in the Host it self and chief Offerer thereof it be all one with the sacrifice of the Crosse yet is it far different in the manner and ceremonies thereof for whereas in that his body and bloud were painfully parted and his death thereby caused in this they are onely by distinct consecrations of them mysteriously severved So as to distinguish these sacrifices we may fitly call that other the sacrifice of our redemption consummated indeed fully by it and this