and will give full satisfaction in that Point if he were but capable of receiving it And I presume I have given him more than he can answer in the Reflexions upon the Lateran Council I. The Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Catholick Church P. 21. This he undertakes to consider how far it may bear and appear reasonable to an impartial Reader These words are not worth the notice but that they tempt out a little suspicion that they are here set for a reserve in case of opposition for if it be said as most truly it may that there is not one plain proof either of the supreme Authority or Infallibility of the Roman Church in all this Discourse Our Authour may reply that he never undertook to give it All that he engaged for was appearances P. 23. and that he has performed by using the words oft tumbling and tossing them as Hay-makers do their mown Grass one while Authority is uppermost and soon after Infallibility Authority must lead in Infallibility and Infallibility must vindicate Authority but where either of these is to be found the Man neither proves nor knows and plainly says that he is not concerned whether there be any such thing as Infallibility or no p. 24. he says Were there no Infallibility as I believe there is I would still submit my Reason and regulate my Conscience P. 24. according to the Decrees of the supreme lawfull Ecclesiastical Authority This is my belief pray blame me not All this is nothing else but appearances for neither is the Church of England nor the Church of Rome concerned in his belief or his fancy or his opinion for these may be wise or may be foolish may be well or may be ill grounded But yet it is admirable to see what great command he has over his Reason and his Conscience that he can make them turn which way he pleases and if he does but suppose a Supreme lawfull Authority to be in Ebion or Cerinthus Nailor or Muggleton or the Church of Rome He can be a Convert to any of them to day to this and to morrow to the quite contrary and that with as much reason and as good conscience to the one as to the other For which way soever he turns he may still say this is my belief pray blame me not His last Conversion was to the Church of Rome and he intimates that he changed upon this belief that there was a Supreme lawfull Ecclesiastical Authority to be found there but he has not the least reason to prove it though it must be confest that he has some appearances which I will impartially consider in their order 1. He gives us some Citations from Protestants Pag. 22 23. from Luther one and from Melancthon another whom he calls the Phoenix of Learning a fine word I wonder from whence he borrowed it another from Somaisius or Salmasius Another he would give from Grotius but what it is he has forgot he thinks it is somewhere in his Annotations upon the New Testament And then to make weight he throws in the Names of Jacob Cartwright Huss and Beza P. 23. And from hence he argues in these words These eminent Protestants were men of great learning and they had searcht and understood Scripture and History and if my judgment concurs with theirs in this point as I profess it doth then have I found that lawfull Supreme Authority Now these are dangerous words from the mouth of a new Convert it is well for him that he is not now in Spain for if he should make such a declaration there That his judgment concurs with the judgment of Luther Melancthon Huss and Beza in the Point of the Pope's Supremacy or the Supremacy of the Church of Rome he might perhaps be in danger of the Inquisition All the World knows the judgment of those men in this point and if he were before the Fathers of the Inquisition they would not be put off with a small Citation found they know not where and perhaps inserted by they know not whom He had done much better to have mistrusted his Copy than to depend upon such an Allegation Sure I am that if he made any use of those mens judgments or laid any great stress upon the words which he cites under their Names in his search or presumed discovery of a Supreme Authority of the Church of Rome he used both his Reason and his Conscience very hardly It is certain that Luther did speak variously of the Pope's Power sometimes higher and sometimes lower as appears to any one that reads either his Works or Cassander's Citations from him And as to Melancthon the Phoenix of Learning I am not concerned to search what he wrote to the Cardinal Belay And it may be I am civil in doing it He was a Wit that once charged it as an incivility upon his Acquaintance that he should take so much pains to prove him a Lyar. It is certain that Melancthon in his Loci Communes where he treats professedly upon this Subject declares fully and roundly against all this that is cited from him And therefore I presume that his judgment does not concur with Melancthon's for if it does he is no new Convert for he has found nothing that can call for a submission of Reason and Conscience nothing like to that Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Catholick Church which a new Convert is bound to defend But because our Authour in desence of the Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Church has given such Citations from Protestants I 'll indeavour to requite him by one from a very good Roman Catholick and that is Cassander He in his Book de Officio pii hominis speaks to this purpose That there are some who because they see yet remaining amongst them not a few things that have descended down from Antiquity or the first Christians will keep up the present state of the Church just as it is though it be corrupt and foully stained by abuses that have crept in by little and little Nor will they suffer any thing to be alter'd though it may be done agreeable enough to the Decrees or Canons of the Ancients Pontificem verò Romanum quem Papam dicimus tant um non Deum faciunt ejusque Autoritatem non modò supra totam Ecclesiam sed supra ipsam Scripturam Divinam efferunt sententiam ejus Divinis Oraculis parem imo infallibilem fidei regulam constituunt hos non video cur minus Pseudocatholicos Papistas appellare possis The Roman Bishop whom we call Pope they make little less than God They set up his Authority not onely over the whole Church but over the holy Scripture it self and make his determination equal to the Divine Oracles and no less than an infallible rule of faith I see no cause but that you may give to these the name of false Catholicks and Papists Thus said that good man concerning the
do and has the same Creed and the same Sacraments that we have And so she must be a Church But yet she is corrupt and foully stained by the many additions that have been made to her Faith to her Sacraments to her Worship to her Government and to her primitive rule of Faith and all this in virtue of an usurped Authority and vainly pretended Infallibility All these things we charge upon Rome and we think the Charge high enough and if our Authour could have distinguished betwixt Errour and Schism he might have spared all his impertinent Queries concerning Separation from her self or Separation from the Catholick Church and where that Catholick Church is to be found for all this is but trifling in an over eager pursuit of Consequences from a possible sense of a word If Rome has thus erred she may be said to have left and gone from or be separated from that first holy Catholick and Apostolick Church without the making of an open Schism or Schismatical Separation For seeing particular Churches are called Catholick as the Catholick Church in Smyrna Euseb lib. 4. cap. 15. and the Catholick Church of Alexandria upon the accompt of their continuance in the true Faith with the rest of the Church of God or from their coherence with that Church which was properly and originally called so upon which accompt Clemens Alexandrinus Stro. 7. joins those two words together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ancient and Catholick Church So far then as any Church now in being shall depart from the Doctrine of that Ancient Catholick Church and profess great and many Errours and broach new Doctrines unknown to the Primitive Churches and lay mighty stresses upon them so as to make them necessary for Communion here and to Salvation hereafter Such a Church may be said to depart or separate it self from that ancient one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church And now our Authour may have that satisfaction which he says he must have and I agree with him that his Salvation is highly concerned in it He would know where that Catholick Church from which she Rome separated remained and where she may be found I am sorry he knows it not but he may easily be taught that she was and is in Heaven There are all the glorious Company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs There are all the Servants and Saints of Jesus Christ who have lived and died in the true faith of him and thither all the faithfull Members of the true holy Catholick Church now living hope by the grace of Jesus Christ in the methods of the Gospel by keeping close to the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints in their due times to come and be received into that most happy and everlasting Communion This is my opinion and for once I will pray our Authour not to blame me for it I know he may bring against me Supreme lawfull Authority in the name of Pope John XXII who really designed and heartily indeavoured to make the contrary Doctrine to pass for an Article of Faith and if he had lived a little longer would have declared ex Cathedra that the Souls of the Saints do not come to bliss and happiness untill the general Resurrection I beseech him not to meddle with this but if he does I 'll promise to defend my Opinion from Scripture and Fathers and Councils and doubt not by my little Reason sufficiently to repell him and his Authority too But if he can think with me that the Members of the first Churches the holy Apostles and blessed Servants of our Lord are in bliss and happiness and is willing to find them and be with them He ought then to think again of the change of his Religion and of this accompt that he has given of the Motives to it for if he seriously reflects upon his own Salvation and is heartily concerned for it he will be ashamed and repent of all his rude and unseemly treatment of the Reverend Fathers of this Church It is not huffing and braving that speaks a religious Mind it is not saying In good faith Fathers my Salvation is concerned in it that speaks a pious and hearty sense of that great blessing of God He that with humility and reverence studies the mind and good pleasure of his Saviour cannot rant where he is ignorant despise his betters trample upon those whom he calls Reverend Fathers Such actions may be agreeable to a Man that has no sense of Salvation He that has thrown off one Religion and forgot to take up another He that can easily say and so good night to Christianity may doe this But a Convert to any Sect or Party of Christians or such as are willing to be reputed Christians should not doe it Because such actions speak a Man to be proud and ambitious and designing upon this World and something worse than I am willing to say I must stop onely in requital for some Texts of Scripture which p. 25. he advises us to consider I request him to reade these Rev. 2.5 Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and doe the first works Eph. 4.14 That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive 2 Cor. 2.17 We are not as many which corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity but as of God in the fight of God speak we in Christ Our Authour goes on p. 27. But I must not follow him in all his Impertinencies P. 27. I shall speak of Augustine the Monk afterwards And shall at present onely teach him one thing which he there says he does not understand And that he gives us in these words How you should rise a pure Church after you had been buried so many hundred years in a corrupt Church I do not easily understand Thus he says but yet certainly he may understand it for the same way that I advise him to take that he may become a good man was taken by our Predecessours and by virtue of that proceeding they ceased to be a corrupt Church and became a pure one and that was by remembring from whence they were fallen and by repentance and by reformation they saw the Errours which Rome had taught and proudly imposed they were sorry to have been so long abused they withdrew themselves from slavery and knockt off the chains and fetters that an unjust Power had laid upon them they studied and learnt their true Rites and Liberties their duties to God and to their Saviour and to their Prince and when they knew these they practised them And so they did their first works that which Christ and his Apostles taught and so became a pure Church This was then done but such an answer as this will not satisfy our Authour for he inquires in the next Paragraph by what Authority
IMPRIMATUR Sept. 5. 1687. Jo. Battely AN ANSWER To a BOOK Entituled Reason and Authority OR THE MOTIVES OF A Late Protestant's Reconciliation TO THE Catholick Church TOGETHER With a brief Account of Augustine the Monk and Conversion of the English In a Letter to a Friend LONDON Printed by J. H. for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1687. AN ANSWER To a BOOK Entituled Reason Authority c. SIR I Have just now read over a late Book entituled Reason and Authority I read it with an excess of pleasure being surprized and amazed to find Reason so baffled and a monstrous Authority advanced against all reason Non-sense I perceive is in fashion and if I and You have as little sense and are as impertinent as others I may be a Writer and You a Reader I perceive by that Book P. 2 3. that a certain Man has left our Church without reason He was advised to take reason and make the best use of it in the choice of his Religion and the setling of his life and practice in order to salvation but he could find no reason to serve him P. 4 5. He narrowly escaped being an Atheist with reason and had almost denyed the Being of a God or at least his Providence with reason and something that looked like to a demonstration against the immortality of the Soul had so confounded him that he was up head and ears in the water all soused and plunged in the doubt and whether he is yet out of it we know not The Man goes on and considers the grounds of Religion the Jewish and the Christian and finds little reason to think that the five Books commonly ascribed to Moses P. 5. were ever written by him he finds so many mistakes and so many errours in the beginning of Genesis that he gives you to guess his meaning though he will not speak it to be that the Jewish Religion is little else than a forgery and that it has but small evidence of a Revelation from God Almighty Thus leaving the Jewish Religion the Man in all haste goes to the Christian P. 6. and considers the New Testament as the Book which all Christians in all Ages have owned to be the Records of the Christian Doctrine He does not say by whom they were written but at the reading of the first Chapter of St. Matthew he was hair'd out of his wits He met with such difficulties that his reason could not answer if he brought any with him to the reading of it for it is to be suspected that he used none because a little reason in such a case as this would at this time have lead him to have consulted his Authority For if he whom this Man calls God's Vicegerent and the great Elias that is supposed to solve all doubts can say no more to this difficulty than he himself could he might have kept his Reason still as bad as it was and have been content to be ignorant with Reason as well as under Authority But Dear Friend look about you now Thus far our Authour booted and spurr'd and whipping on has gone without reason just now reason comes in a most unlucky time I think for no other purpose but to fool the Man and set him to combate with an Adversary that will certainly be too strong for him for instead of fighting us he now attacks Christianity it self and does all the mischief he can to that Common Faith which he and we profess To this end he revives old Controversies and starts new ones and makes Schemes of Christian Doctrine and that to shew to the World that Christianity has as weak a Foundation as the Jewish Religion was declared before to have To this end I suppose he tells us the three next things 1. P. 7. That some of the Orthodox did not receive into the Canon of the Scripture some of the Books that are now in it P. 7. for near 200 years after the death of our Saviour 2. That every Christian is not able by reading of the Scripture to compose such a Creed as that of Athanasius 3. P. 7. That there are some obscure Doctrines hard to be understood amongst Christians and here he sets down the Trinity Consubstantiality Transubstantiation Predestination and Freewill every one of these are altogether impertinent to this Man's purpose they may be of some use to an Atheist and serve him that is resolv'd to give a secret wound to Christianity but they signify nothing to a Roman Catholick or to him that would plead for Authority to determine Controversies in Christianity in opposition to Reason For first All the Churches in the World are now agreed about the Books of the New Testament and when the Orthodox in ancient times concurr'd in the acceptance of the Books that are now in the Canon they came to this conclusion merely by the reason of the case without the least interposition of any Authority of Pope or Council the last Book doubted of was the Revelations and the reasons for receiving of that Euseb lib. 7. cap. 27. any man may reade in Eusebius lib. 7. cap. 27. as he sets them down in the words of Dionysius of Alexandria Now I cannot imagine to what purpose this Gentleman puts us in mind of this old Controversie if he has Authority for what he does it may be something for his own satisfaction I am sure he has no reason to offer in the case that can be allowed by any man else for the Church of Rome is as zealous to preserve every one of these Books in their esteem and reverence as Ours is I guess that possibly he may be tempted to shew his skill in Controversie and therefore he sets down with an appearance of accuracy that such Books were not received into the Canon by the Orthodox for near 200 years after the death of our Saviour But here the Man's skill fails him for it is certain that Irenaeus quotes the Revelations in several places Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 37. as a Book of like Authority with the rest of the New Testament and he himself tells us that he wrote in the time of Eleutherius and Bellarmine sets him down as a Writer in the Year 180. after our Saviour's birth and that will lessen the time mentioned of 200. after his death by fifty This mistake is not worth the noting if it did not give us to see how ready some men are to lay aside not onely Reason but the Sacred Records of the Christian Faith not considering the true consequences of their own Action since it is most certain that if a full Authority be not allowed to the Books of the New Testament there can be no pretence to any either in Pope or Council or in any thing that is called Church But our Authour goes on to a second thing and proceeds with more than ordinary caution and seems as wise as
a certain Spanish Don P. 7. he treads out the ground measures the length of his Weapon makes a Speech and would tempt a man to think he is resolved to fight but he withdraws safely and calls in two others to engage a desire he has to see the Holy Scriptures and Athanasius his Creed to combat one another for his divertisement Now which of these two he is for he says not nor yet seems to guess which would have the better in case of a Contrast But alass this man mistakes those two are Friends and if there were any difference between that Creed and the Holy Scriptures Athanasius if he were now alive would be the first man to declare against that Creed it is certain he learnt and sounded all his Doctrines upon those no man read them with greater care and attention no man cites them oftner or with greater veneration Whether our Authour knew this or no I cannot tell but after all his preparatory flourishes he gives no more than this dry insipid request to the Fathers of our Church that they would not tell him that every Christian suppose every Baker Shoemaker or Cobler upon a sincere perusal of this Holy Book would certainly have composed the Creed of Athanasius Now this is a thing which never was spoken either by Bishop Presbyter or Deacon or Parish Clerk Can any Reverend Bishop be presumed to think and say that the great Athanasius had not more wit and reason more art more skill in Consequences than every Cobler and Tinker or than this Man 's two Friends Nailor and Muggleton it is prodigious to think how men dote that undertake to write Books against Reason But whatever this Man does or can say most certain it is that if Athanasius was the Composer of this Creed he did it upon a sincere perusal of the Holy Scriptures by the power of a good Reason and by the skill which he had in Consequence As for Authority of Pope or Council he had none for this Composition this Creed lay in obscurity and was unknown in the Church long after the days of Athanasius and as it was composed at first so it was brought into the use of the Church afterwards for some time without any considerable Authority morely by the private reason of some that were little more than private Men. Thirdly In the next place our Authour sets down some matters of Faith great and necessary Articles P. 7. as he calls them and these are the Mystery of the Incarnation the Doctrines of the Trinity Consubstantiality Transubstantiation Predestination and Free-will These he examined by his Reason but he does not tell us what account his Reason gave of them It is possible after a sincere perusal of the Holy Scriptures that he might find great reason to believe the Incarnation of our Lord and the Doctrine of the Trinity and by consequence that of Consubstantiality and something of a Predestination and it is possible that from thence he found no reason to believe the Doctrine of Transubstantiation for herein many other Mens Reasons would agree with His. This he does not tell us but yet this I will presume in favour to him that he does not think that the Fathers in the Council of Nice and those in the after Councils who fixed the Doctrine of the Trinity and Consubstantiality I say he does not think but that they made their Determinations with highest reason I will presume too that he thinks that the Fathers in the Lateran and Tridentine Councils had reason to determine the Doctrine of Transubstantiation for though we think that in these two later Councils the generality acted by false reasons by prejudice and by worldly interest yet we do not doubt but they all and every one of them pretended to act with reason for certain it is that the private reason of any single man is a much better guide than the private Spirit of a Quaker or any other for a Reason may be urged and is upon information to be corrected but the pretence to the Spirit is not But if the majority of those Fathers at the Council of Nice were able by Scripture and Reason to establish those Doctrines of the Trinity and Consubstantiality to be Articles of the Christian Faith I know not why our Authour since he has the same Scripture and like Reason might not have done the same Sure I am that after this Council Athanasius pleaded much in the defence of the truth of these Doctrines and that not from the Authority of the Council but from the true sense and meaning of the several Texts Sozom. lib. 7. cap. 12. the same way of arguing was used in the first Constantinopolitan Council and so it continued till Theodosius by advice of Nectarius which he received from Sisinnius took another method After these doughty performances P. 8. our Authour comes in the next place a little more closely to Scripture or the sacred Records of Christian Religion and sets his reason to search and examine them and if possible to draw from thence a scheme of Christian Doctrine But here it seems his Reason was jaded and tyred out much more than in all the rest of his Disquisitions perhaps he found not there any thing like to the Doctrines that make up the Apostles Creed He does not tell this though he ought to have done it if he had compared his scheme with it But he tells us that he disagreed from all Churches the Church of England in her 39 Articles P. 8. and all the Catechisms of Catholicks Calvinists Lutherans and Socinians I was pleased that in his opinion the Doctrine of the Church of Rome did no more agree with Scripture than that of the Church of England But though I was pleased in this yet I was not very confident of any advantage from it because our Authour oft queries and seems to doubt whether his Reason does not much differ from other Mens I know that God Almighty has given different Talents to Men for Heads and Brains and Wits as well as Hearts are not alike in every Man I am sure the Ancients by virtue of plain honest reason were able to find the Christian Doctrine in the Holy Scriptures so did St. Irenaeus St. Athanasius St. Hierome St. Chrysostome St. Augustin and the rest This was a light to their feet and a lamp to their paths sufficient to satisfy those good men in matters of Faith and as this Man speaks in the great and necessary Articles But though this Man could not find the Christian Doctrine there yet it seems that he thought that he found something there that pretty well agreed with the dreams of Ebion and Cerinthus and with those of his dear Friends P. 8. Nailor and Muggleton The first of these I am much enclined to believe and if I were as impertinent as He is perhaps I might give some evidence of the second As for Ebion and Cerinthus this Gentleman is too close
comes to the Church of England and demands it there they deny that they have any such Authority Not content with that he puts himself to the trouble to prove it p. 11. he goes to the Church of Rome they say they have it p. 12. and he presently believes them and after a few rubs removed out of his way he reviews Bellarmine's marks and signs of a true Catholick Church and by them endeavours to shew that there is such an unerring Authority and Sovereign Guide in the Church of Rome Now all this is nothing but a plain begging of the Cause or a discovery how little he knows in this Controversie for certain it is that the Church of England and all other Protestant Churches ever since the Reformation have demanded and most earnestly required one plain positive proof that ever God Almighty or our Blessed Lord did ever appoint any such Sovereign Guide and unerring Authority in the Church But they could never receive any plausible Answer to it by all the ways whereby a Negative can be proved they have shewed that there is no such order or appointment in it Nay lately some Writers have asserted with good reason that such a thing is not agreeable to the methods that God has us'd in the Government of the World and that it would not be of any considerable use to the advancement of piety or any eminent vertue amongst men and that the pretence of it serves onely to support an unreasonable Usurpation over the Church of Christ Great Volumes and strong Arguments remain unanswer'd and yet at this time of the day the dull and stale old accompts of it without any new ornaments or new force are sent abroad without any ground or hope of victory to vindicate the interests of it This deserves a sharper Censure than I will give but yet I would have our Authour know that a New Convert to his Old Friends the followers of Ebion and Cerinthus might have alledged in his behalf all that which our Authour here does and that to as much purpose he might have said that he had wished that God had left an unerring Authority in his Church and that God had not left the World without Government and given us Laws without lawfull Judges and Interpreters and that therefore he presumed that such an Authority was somewhere to be sound As for Irenaeus his Church and those in Communion with it they did not in the least pretend to it but the followers of Ebion and Cerinthus did fully and loudly challenge it and therefore his Reverend Fathers Irenaeus and the rest of the Orthodox Bishops must have him excused for he will rather put himself under an unerring Authority than trust to the Guidance of Those that confess themselves to be no more than fallible men But to let that pass P. 13. the next thing we find in our Authour is Bellarmine's Notes of a true Church I suppose he puts them down to encrease the bulk of his Book He could not but know that they are of no Authority with us And Answers are given out to each of them in their Order He might have added strength and force to them whilst they are so briskly attacked but he has no pretence to build upon them or defend himself by them But besides he of all men living has the least right to expect any advantage from them because the chiefest of these Notes are grounded on sayings of the Prophets and he that has so far depreciated the true value of the Five Books of Moses p. 6. will hardly persuade another that he gives any great credit to the writings of the Prophets He there gives us an objection against the Pentateuch P. 6. from the supposed intermedlings of Esdras but does not well reflect that he derives that objection by several Medium's from the Samaritans who were the first and are at this day the chiefest Adversaries and greatest Calumniatours of Esdras Now these very men keep close to the Five Books of Moses and for this they offer some pretences of reason but our Authour without any reason at all would make advantage by the Prophets and throw contempt upon Moses and all this by virtue of the credit which he seems to give to the objections made against Esdras by the Samaritans But Most certainly in this he acts beyond his skill and talks without book for be it what it will Bellarmine's Notes are of no use to him and can do him as little service as that formidable force of Pagans and Turks and I know not how many Nations which he brings in to his assistance p. 11. where he himself says he has no Adversary It is well for him that that impertinency and this did not come together into his head at the same time for if he had thought but as much of the Pagan as he does of the Atheist and Theist perhaps his reason might have been as favourable to them as it was to those others p. 4. and then if Bellarmine's Notes had come into his way who knows but that the man might have turn'd Convert again and wrote another Book of the motives for his reconciliation to old Paganism for methinks it is very probable that our Authour might have found these amongst the Pagans Vniversality and Visibility Vninterrupted continuance and Succession till the days of Constantine lastly Vnity and Vniformity he might have seen there too that which they call a High-Priest and Holy Altar and a Holy Sacrifice Miracles and Religious Colleges and Abstinence P. 14. and vowed chastity and a great many Doctrines Authoritatively imposed and universally received throughout the World I will presume this Gentleman never read either Pausanias or Zozimus or the Epistles of Symmachus and it is happy for him that he did not I will venture the little skill that I have that any impartial Reader shall find better flourishes sairer turns of the Pen and more appearance of Argument in that Speech which Symmachus makes to the Emperour Valentinian Theodosius and Arcadius in the Name of Rome Pagan than our Authour gives us here against the Church of England to our Bishops Now if these little thoughts governed him in the change of one Religion it is well for him that he never ingaged in the consideration of the other But our Authour has Bellarmine's Notes and he will make something of them by virtue of them he says he sound what he was resolved to find before the true Catholick or one Church that may be said to be true in opposition to all others Now upon this foundation he builds apace P. 15. 1. That this being one Body must have one Head upon Earth and he after our Saviour's Death was St. Peter and after St. Peter's his Successours and they are the Bishops of Rome and those are every one of them in their several times not only Successours to St. Peter P. 16. but Christ's Vicegerents This their Authority he says has been owned
by General Councils and so by the Catholick Church and they have been in peaceable possession of it for many hundred of years P. 16 17. and now they cannot be divested of it neither by themselves nor by others neither in whole nor in part All these things he sets down I suppose as his own opinations and sentiments and would have his Friends to judge him by them as Orthodox and a true Convert He is not concerned whether they be true or false for he knows or may know that every one of these pretences has been proved by Dr. Barrow to be gross falsities and that almost to the evidence of Demonstration and yet our Authour brings not the least proof for any one of them from any Old Authour Indeed he tells us that we have the Succession of Bishops of Rome delivered to us by St. Augustine and that is true P. 15. but he was unlucky to put us in mind of that passage and much more because he never read it himself for had he seen the 165. Epistle of St. Augustine where that Succession is mentioned and the very next to it he might have found in that great Father a full contradiction to all his thoughts concerning the Scriptures and concerning Authority and then perhaps he would have imployed his time to better purposes than in writing this Book St. Austine in that Epistle sets down the succession of the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter and that for no other purpose but to shew that none of all those Bishops was a Donatist Augustinus Epist 165. And that because a Donatist had set down the succession of their Bishops before not that he thought any one of them after St. Peter was a Sovereign Guide or had unerring authority in him for he himself presently adds to this that if any of them had been a Donatist or worse yet the Christian Doctrine would not have suffered the least by it In illum ordinem Episcoporum qui ducitur ab ipso Petro usque ad Anastasium qui nunc super eandem Cathedram sedet etiamsi quisquam traditor per illa tempora subrepsisset nihil praejudicaret Ecclesiae innocentibus Christianis This I suppose our Authour is not willing to think because he depends so much upon Authority and so little upon the Scriptures but St. Augustine did because he relyed upon the Scriptures to teach us that Doctrine which Jesus Christ and his Apostles had revealed to the World and therefore in the same Epistle he slights all his other Arguments and fixes intirely upon the Scriptures as those alone which could give us a full and solid evidence for the truth of a Christian Doctrine Augustinus Epist 165. these are his words Quanquam nos non tam de istis documentis praesumamus quà m de Scripturis sanctis and then he cites a Text. But in the next Epistle and that against the Donatists after some other velitations and general topicks whereof Councils was one as appears by those words Faciant mille concilia Episcopi he comes to the holy Scriptures and triumphs in his Arguments and doubts not to defeat his adversaries by the force of them He begins with words frequent in his writings Augustinus Epist 166. In Scripturis didicimus Christum in Scripturis didicimus Ecclesiam has Scripturas communiter habemus quare non in eis Christum Ecclesiam communiter retinemus Then he throws out near twenty Texts one after another comments in short upon them and never doubts but that he and his Adversaries did sufficiently understand them without the assistance of a Sovereign Guide or an unerring Authority if our Authour had considered this it might have done him good but because he is pleased to find the Succession of Roman Bishops in St. Augustine I will shew him what he seems not to know two very considerable uses which that great Father made of that topick the First was to conciliate a most profound veneration to the Holy Scriptures thus therefore he writes August contra Faust Manich lib. 11. cap. 5. contra Faustum Manichaeum lib. 11. cap. 5. Distincta est à posteriorum libris excellentia canonicae Authoritatis veteris novi Testamenti quae Apostolorum confirmata temporibus per successiones Episcoporum propagationes Ecclesiarum tanquam in sede quâdam sublimiter constituta est cui serviat omnis fidelis pius intellectus A Second use that he made of this consideration of the Succession of Bishops in their Sees was in case of a dispute about a Text to evidence what was the first and so the true Christian Doctrine To this end he very frequently in his disputes with the Donatists requires them to search what was taught in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Ephesus Philippi Thessalonica all the Churches that had the honour to receive Apostolical Epistles Now if all these having several Successions of Bishops should agree in any one point that was controverted St. Augustine took their consent to be a good Argument that such a Doctrine was original and true he sends them indeed to Rome too but upon no other accompt and no higher reason than he does to those other Apostolical Churches Now I think I may presume in kindness to our Authour to give him one advice and that is this to have a care when he refers to St. Augustine that he knows his mind and that St. Augustine did write what he cites him for for I can tell him that a certain person who was of his opinion concerning a Soveraign Guide and unerring Authority to be sound in the Church of Rome came at length to believe and that consequentially to his opinion that the decretal Epistles of the Popes were of the same Authority with and to be reckoned amongst the Canonical Scriptures and to confirm his opinion he cited St. Augustine for it and this his citation had got into Gratians Decretum but the last Roman-Correctours of Gratian found it to be either gross forgery or a gross mistake and they have done St. Augustine right and a favour to such Persons as our Authour is to let them know that St. Augustine is no great friend to such fond and absurd opinions You may see Gratiani Decreti prim part Distin 19. Cap. 6. But because it may be some trouble to consult that Authour I will give you the truth and the forgery together St. Augustine in his Book De Doctrina Christiana lib. 2. cap. 8. had given us these words In Canonicis Scripturis Ecclesiarum Catholicarum quam plurium authoritatem sequatur inter quas sane illae sunt quae Apostolicas sedes habere Epistolas accipere meruerunt c. Now this was plain and good advice in the examination of Books that might be alledged to be Canonical Scriptures to give a preference to the testimony of those Churches that were called Apostolical Seats and such as had the honour to receive Epistles from the Apostles as Rome Corinth
Pope's Supremacy In charity I was bound to pity him and tell him something which he did not know and thereby if possible to move him to take more care if ever he writes again I pitied the World too to see it in danger to be abused by such impertinencies at this time of day Onely allow me the favour to acquaint you that Petrus de Marca speaking of those Sardican Canons lib. 7. Petrus de Marca de concord Imper. Sacerdot cap. 15. par 4 5. expresly asserts that they were unknown in Africa and other Provinces till Zosimus his days and withall he shews how the Africans at last came to submit to them and that was upon many and those not commendable reasons the first of which is this Cessere tandem ob pertinaciam sedis Apostolicae Pontificum qui nihil remittere voluerunt ex jure sibi legitimè quaesito in Concilio Generali Occidentis Sardicensi nimirum praesertim cùm possessioni eorum consensissent Africani Episcopi qui ad certum tempus morem gesserant defideriis Summorum Pontificum And the last is from the difficulties which the incursions of the Vandals brought upon them who being Arians made it necessary for the Churches of Africa at any rate to purchase the savour and assistence of the Romans incursio Vandalorum Ariani erant in Africa dominabantur Africanos necessitate adigebat ad arctissimam unionem cum Ecclesia Romanâ It seems then that the Popes after long contests prevailed not by the merits of their Cause but by their stiffness or pertinacious insisting upon demands right or wrong And by making advantages of the necessities of others when Vandals and those too Arian Hereticks had master'd them and lay hard upon them for then those Orthodox Christians were forced to yield up their rights to the Popes before they could obtain necessary reliefs from them Thus said that wise and learned Roman Catholick And he himself in the writing of this gives us cause to believe the truth of this remark for he then found in his own experience the same stiffness and pertinacity and therefore puts in words to please them quite contrary to the design of his Discourse For he shews plainly that they had no right and yet was forced to say they had ex jure legitimè quaesito He shews that the Sardican Fathers who made this Canon after the secessionof the others could not make up any shew of a general Council yet says that right was obtained in Concilio generali Sardicensi nimirum Now Sir if you can think that the Roman Bishops have proceeded in these methods I hope you will hereafter less puzzle your self and your Friends with your Queries concerning the prodigious Power of the Papacy how it could get up at first by such slender pretences and how it could hand with such weak props how men could be so bold as to challenge in behalf of the Roman Bishops so illustrious a Supremacy so unlimited Authority so glorious a Vicegerency as the Vicariatship of Christ himself must speak All these will be much easier to you when you have considered these two things first the mighty effects of a pertinacious stiffness in demands right or wrong and secondly what it is to take all advantages upon the necessities of others especially at such a time when those barbarous People Goths and Vandals and Huns and Saxons had overrun so many parts of the World 2. A second point of Controversie between the Church of Rome and the Church of England which according to our Authour was determined by ancient Councils is that about the Apocryphal Books P. 20. which he says were taken into the Canon of the Old Testament in the Third Council of Carthage signed by St. Augustine Baruch onely not named Canon 47. Now to this it is sufficient to say that the Subject is exhausted and there is nothing left for another Writer to add to it The Learned Dr. Cosens in his Discourse of the Canon of the Scripture parag 82. has said more than enough for the satisfaction of any learned Roman Catholick as well as Protestant and if our Authour would presume to reply it will cost him more pains than the writing of a dozen such Books as these But some small return may be expected He shall therefore have this That the Canon he quotes out of the Council of Carthage Canon 47. apud Binnum Canon 27. in Synodico Bevereg does not provide for the taking of Books into the Canon of Scripture but for throwing of Books out of the Church It says at first that no Books should be read in Churches but these and then it says in the close that they had received from the Fathers that these were there to be read Now our Authour knows that though we call these Books Apocryphal yet we reade them in our Churches and that as much and more than they do in the Church of Rome and that all of them except the two Books of the Maccabees Now as to these Dr. Cosin 's Scholast Hist p. 112 113. they are nt mentioned in any of the Greek Copies of this Canon nor yet in Cresconius his Collection of the African Canons and how they came to be inserted we must remit him to Dionysius Exiguus for his satisfaction But if our Authour had any material doubt concerning the Church of England's Doctrine about Canonical and Apocryphal Books he would have done well to have considered the sentiments of the Doctours of the Roman Church before he had concluded against us Now I believe that Cardinal Cajetan where he endeavours to reconcile the Council of Carthage with Saint Augustine would have given him reason enough never to have used this objection against the Church of England He says indeed against Protestants but not those of the English Communion in fine Commentariorum ad Hist V. N. T. Ne turberis Novitie si alicubi reperias libros istos inter Canonicos supputatos vel in sacris Conciliis vel in sacris Doctoribus libri isti non sunt Canonici ad confirmanda ea quae sunt fidei possunt tamen dici Canonici ad aedificationem fidelium ut pote in Canone Biblii ad hoc recepti autorati Cum hâc distinctione discernere poteris scripta Augustini scripta in provinciali Synodo Carthaginensi Now this agrees well enough with the Doctrine in the Articles and practice prescribed in the Rubrick of the Church of England And besides Can. Apostol 85. this distinction has its foundation in a very venerable Authority for the Apostolick Canons make a great deal of difference and that upon the same ground between some and other Books calling some of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venerable and holy but then of the Book called the Wisedom of Solomon or the Son of Sirach and that most certainly is the best of the Apocrypha say it is to be learnt by the Young Men or the Catechumens for
the good rules and instructions that are in it and for this end it is read in the Church of England It is something more and to be hinted here Concil Laod. Can. 60. that the Laodicaean Council expresly requires that no Books be read in the Church but those that we accompt in strict sense Canonical Can. 60. And in the Canon 59. of that Council it is absolutely forbidden that any private Hymns or Psalms that is such as have been made by private Persons since the consignation of the Canon of Scripture should be used in Churches Now if our Authour knows his Breviary and allows any Authority to these Councils He may have more reason to object against the Church of Rome for having so many private Hymns in their Service than against the Church of England for having so few Books in that which is properly called the Canonical Scriptures This bye-consideration might have given some stop to a man that was not resolved to run too fast from his Church 3. But he mentions a third Doctrine determined in ancient Councils against us P. 20. and that is concerning the unbloudy Sacrifice now this is for want of matter to give words it is certain that the Church of England at the end of the Communion-service in the last Collect teaches us to pray to God that he would accept this our Sacrifice and our Authour knows that it never owned any Sacrifice but an unbloudy Sacrifice to be offered there I wish our Authour had told us whether the Sacrifice which the Church of Rome pretends to offer be bloudy or unbloudy They tell us ordinarily that there is bloud on the Patten and bloud in the Cup bloud with the Body concomitanter for the benefit of the Laity and bloud in the Cup to the satisfaction of the Priest I think both these are offered up according to their Doctrine as a Sacrifice propitiatory for the dead and the living They that believe Transubstantiation must believe that one part of the Sacrifice is really bloud and nothing else but bloud and they may be concern'd to call it a bloudy Sacrifice but not at all to call it unbloudy Pope Vrban the Fourth seems to have been of this mind when he instituted the great Feast of the Body of Christ commonly called Festum Corporis Christi For he did it upon this occasion that a certain Host being broken by the Priest either bled or shed drops of bloud they say miraculously but how or whether true or no we know not Now this I presume may be call'd a bloudy Host or Sacrifice Brietius Ann. 1264. in these words tells us the story Vrbanus quartus ex occasione miraculi de Eucharistia Briet Annal. in An. 1264. Hostiâ à Sacerdote fractâ reddente sanguinem Festum Corporis Christi instituit The institution of this Feast was to give honour to the Host and that not as unbloudy but as bloudy and it was to insinuate this Doctrine that all the other Hosts have bloud with them as well as this though the bloud does not always appear But as they say then it did and if so it came in seasonably to confirm the Doctrine of the Lateran Council about Transubstantiation and that which soon follow'd after it the communicating of the Laity in one Species So happy was the Church of Rome then to have a Miracle or the story of a Miracle to come in at the nick of time to patronage that which old Councils and old Fathers and sense and reason and all that is in man must have disclaim'd and oppos'd But now after all this our Authour is most unlucky to put us in mind of the true ancient Catholick Doctrine and to summon up old Councils in the defence of a word which we accept and use with submission and that most properly we believe the holy Eucharist to be a Sacrifice and that in plain and strict sense an unbloudy Sacrifice and so as the ancient Councils and Fathers did we call it And though the Doctours of the Church of Rome use the same word yet when they reflect upon the Doctrine of their own Church they must explain themselves by a much harder figure than we use when we interpret the words of our Saviour's Institution But yet our Authour will have the Councils against us and he tells us of a Council at Constantinople which he says was a thousand years agoe and that it seems used these words and so do we those old Councils are better Friends to the Protestant Doctrines than he is aware of for the Protestants studied them and learnt of them and took their rules and measures in the Reformation as near as they could after the holy Scriptures from them Then he cites the ninth Council of the Apostles now I wish he had told us whether this was a thousand or fifteen hundred or two thousand years agoe I thought at first he meant the 15th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles But our Authour has declar'd so much against the Scriptures that we can never hope to find his sense there it is possible he means the ninth of the Apostolick Canons And that is as little to his purpose as the ninth Council of the Apostles to be sure it speaks nothing against the interest of the Church of England and nothing to the advantage of the Church of Rome Thus it is and will be as often as men adventure to write Books without skill 4. P. 20. The fourth point our Authour gives us as determined in Councils is that of the veneration and worship of Saints Relicks as also of Martyrs and holy Images which he says was according to Apostolical Tradition established in the second Council of Nice with the general concurrences of ancient Fathers This Council indeed speaks to the point for which it is alledged but because our Authour is pleas'd to fortify it with concurrences I 'll give him account of some other Councils that as to time do almost concur with this they treat upon the same subject and determine as resolutely and when he has ballanced all the concurrences together perhaps he may find as little pleasure in this allegation as in all the rest The first Council that ever determined any thing about the worship of Images was at Constantinople Anno 754. * See the Acts of the second Nicene Council in Binnius p. 621. Col. Edit Ann. 1618. This called it self the seventh general Council and so it was esteemed for thirty years after This condemned the worship of Images and declared that it was abominable that Images were Idols and the Worshippers of them Idolaters and that all and every Image was to be thrown out of Christian Churches and they spake as high in this way as any have done since the Reformation †See Binnius his Collection as before and Balsamus and Zonaras on the 7th and 9th Canons of the second Nicene Council This appears by the Acts and Canons of the second
Nicene Council where those Fathers speak against it A little more than thirty years after another Council was convened at Nice This cancelled the Acts of the former and called it self the seventh general Council This declared the worship of Images to be lawfull but gave no requisite bounds and measures to it nor yet taught the expediency of it This was done when Irene an Imperious Woman in the behalf of her young Son swayed the Empire But seven years after this Charles the Great gets another Council to meet at Francfort there met three hundred Bishops who unanimously as much damned the second Council at Nice as that had damned the former Walafridus Strabo Ado Viennensis Regino Prumiensis tell us that in this Francfort Council Pseudosynodus Graeca pro adorandis Imaginibus habita falso septima vocata ab Episcopis damnata est And Hincmarus Rhemensis tells us Tempore Caroli magni Imperatoris jussione Apostolicae sedis generalis Synodus in Francia convocante praefato Imperatore celebrata est secundum Scripturarum tramitem traditionémque majorum ipsa Graecorum Synodus destructa penitus abdicata est And a little after he tells that by the Authority of this Synod the veneration of Images was somewhat repressed But yet Pope Adrian was of another mind and his Successours after the death of Charles Pupparum suarum cultum vehementius promoverunt stirred much to advance this worship to which he gives a name which I shall not English insomuch that Lewis the Son of Charles was forced to write sharper against the worship of Images than his Father had done Now this is material and it might in reason have stopt our Authour from laying any great stress upon the second Nicene Council And all this he knew or might have known for Dr. Beveredge Notae Beveregii in Concilium Nicenum secundum in his learned Notes upon that Council had laid all this before him But to add a little more in the year 825. Ludovicus Pius called another Council at Paris and this declared as much against the worship of Images and the second Council at Nice as that at Francfort had done before The Acts of this Council lay in obscurity unknown a great while but they were printed in the year 1596. and since that time the Friends of the present Church of Rome have nothing to say against them and nothing for themselves but that Jonas Aurelianensis disputed in that Council for Images against Claudius Taurinensis Bellarminus de Script Ecclesiast An. 820. de Jona Aurelianensi But yet for all his Arguments the unanimous determinations of the rest of the Fathers was against them And besides this very Jonas though he had something to say against Claudius yet he said not enough to serve the Interest of the present Church of Rome For Bellarmine de scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis tells us that he wrote three Books pro defensione sacrarum Imaginum But he advises men to reade them with caution because he says that he and Agabardus and all the chief Writers of the French Nation in that age are in one and the same errour who though they will allow some worship for Images yet they deny that any religious worship is to be given to them Thus our Authour might have seen that we have against them three Councils for one One in the East before that of Nice most high and positive against Image-worship and two in the West and those not onely declaring against that Worship but as positively cassating and annulling the Acts of that second Nicene Council which allowed it and these two convened by the direction of two great Princes Charles the Great and Lewis the Pious who were the best Friends that ever the Church of Rome had And with these Councils agree or very near agree all the chief Men of skill and learning who were Writers in that age in the West And then in the East it is most certain that the second Nicene Council had no Credit or Reputation or Authority a great while after for all the Historians that write of the Times after the Deposition of Irene the Empress tell us of three or four Emperours immediately succeeding who fully declar'd against Images and their worship threw them out of Churches and severely punished all those that pleaded in defence of them And nothing is so common amongst them as severe and bitter complaints against the Persecution of the Iconoclasts All this is true matter of fact and it is enough to depreciate the credit of the second Nicene Council and that perhaps with our Authour himself But yet for all this it may puzzle some others to find that this second Nicene Council appears in the World as the seventh General Council and that in ancient as well as modern Collections and not onely in the West but in the East The consideration of this is beside my business but yet it is strange and surprizing and would tempt a man to venture at a guess which perhaps may move others to speak something in the case that is more material I have heard of a Proverb or proverbial saying that three things joined together will doe wonders and they are these A little good luck and some Art and a great deal of Face Now the second Nicene Council has had on its side all these three most remarkably First as to good luck about the time of this Council whilst Irene was Empress there hapned a most prodigious strange Miracle at Berytus in Phoenicia An Image of our Saviour being wounded by a Jew in the breast gave out as my Authour says so much bloud Brietii Annales in An. 765. as being divided would be sufficient to be kept and shown in all the Churches of the East and West This was soon carried abroad and a little of it as most sacred and venerable was reposited in most of the famed Churches Some of this we find was shown at Mantua and great noise and talk there was about it perhaps some were for the Miracle and some against it And it is likely that Charles the Great had not faith enough to believe it for in the year 804. he got Pope Leo the Third to determine the Controversie whether that bloud came from the Image at Berytus or no and at that time he gave his judgment against the Image but when he added that the bloud there shown came out of the side of our Saviour an honest Jesuit dare not credit him Brietius says de hoc viderint eruditi Briet Annales An. 804. Now when this bloud was shown in Churches far and near in the East and West it could not but conciliate great veneration to sacred Images in the People For they saw the bloud and it was shown with a great deal of devotion and the Priests and Monks told the story no doubt with confidence enough and it being told in so many places and so oft and after the same manner How the Jew blasphemed
Sticklers for Roman Authority and Infallibility and that in a time when he contended most earnestly to bring in peace and good temper amongst Christians and had endeavoured passionately to persuade men to lay aside ill Language and odious Names such as one Party threw at another all which he says were cast up out of Hell such as these Papists Antichristians Ministers of Satan and on the other side Hereticks Schismaticks Apostates Though he heartily wish'd these Names out of the World yet he could be content that two or three of them were always ready to be thrown in the teeth of such Persons as our Authour would seem to be This remark I give to shew our Authour that I do not set down the Sayings and Opinions of others without considering first what weight and stress is to be laid upon them For I must consess that it is to me a scandal and matter of offence to find this Set of Authorities which our Authour uses in the same order and in the same words in another late Book intitled Pax vobis this seems to speak that the Authours of both these transcribed and never considered what force was in their Citations Is this fair dealing with a Man 's own Conscience or with his Readers when he is weighing of Religions and offering motives of Reconciliation either to himself or to others to act thus supinely This is worse than to take a journey to Edinburgh upon the next Hackney and never consider whether he be a Jade or no. A journey to Heaven is long to be sure of greatest importance He that takes up a new Religion to carry him thither had need use eyes and ears and heart and head too St. Paul had reason when he advised us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling but all men will not doe this they are in too much haste They that take satisfaction without reason and in spite of reason change their Religion cannot act with that caution which the great Apostle requires If I am not much out in my guess which I must leave to the Reader 's judgment when he has compared this Set of Citations with those in Pax vobis Pag. 70 71. we have here one of the most wretched Pleas that ever was used by a Writer It is not more than this I have met with some sayings of Men whom I care not for when or where or to what end they were spoken I never considered nor yet whether upon second thoughts they did not retract them my judgment concurs with them therefore I have found that lawfull Supreme Authority I searched for and where this Authority is there is Infallibility That is the first Motive to persuade that the Roman Catholick Church has Supreme Authority over all and Infallibility in the exercise of it He should now proceed to a second But instead of that we have Pag. 24 25 26 27. a discourse upon a new Subject so far is our Authour from making these Doctrines to appear reasonable that for so long together he 'll e'en let them shift for themselves his present business is to talk and talk he will of Separation or how the Church of Rome can be said to have separated either from her self or from the Catholick Church either whole or part and where that whole or part remained from whence the Church of Rome separated and then again where she remained and where she may be found and here he is urgent and importunate and will have an answer and that from the Bishops themselves for he comes up closely to the beards of them and tells them In good faith Fathers my Salvation is highly concern'd in this question and I must be satisfied He prevents them from giving such and such answers and swaggers it bravely out in these words I 'll sooner suffer my self to be knockt down with a true Protestant Flayl than with such a Protestant Answer and at last he adds from this reasonable and important request you shall never beat me whilst I live The Man grows warm and it is well for some that they are out of his way who knows what he may doe The occasion of all this noise and clamour he gives us in the 24th Page in these words You had often told me that She the Church of Rome had fallen from her primitive purity and separated her self from the one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Answer to Protestant Queries p. 10. declared also to be Antichristian and the true Church latent and invisible by that famous Napper to King James Brocard Fulk Sebast Francus Hospinian and many others Now what is all this to the Bishops of the Church of England must they answer for every thing that has been said by Fulk and Brocard and Napper or as you call him that famous Napper I pray how famous is he has any of the Bishops of England cited him these forty years does any of this Church reade him or depend upon him if your studies have been upon such Authours the Church of Rome have no great prize of you and these Motives as bad as they are were good enough to make you a Convert But yet there remains one Expression cited out of a little Book which it may be few of the Bishops of England ever saw but yet they must give an accompt of it and all the consequences he can gather from it for he says p. 26. his Salvation is highly concerned in it And it is a reasonable and important request And must the Bishops of England be accomptable for every little writing which they know nothing of would the Bishops of Rome think it fair that all the impertinences of our Authour should be charged upon them certainly no. But he argues that if the Church of Rome was once a pure and uncorrupted Church she remains so still for she can neither separate from her self nor from the Catholick Church Now if this Argument be good he himself is bound to answer for all the consequences that can come from a presumed separation either from it self or from the Catholick Church for we have oft proved and are always ready to prove that the Church of Rome is not the same as to purity and incorruption which it was It is changed it is altered multitudes of Innovations have overspread it and great numbers of Errours by little and little as Cassander says have crept in and prevailed over it But yet for all that we own and assert that there is a Church of Rome as well as a Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch and that though this as well as they have erred not onely in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith So speaks the Church of England in her 19th Article And if she be a Church she must be a Member of the Catholick Church for every part must be contained in the whole None of us doubt but that the Church of Rome receives all the Canonical Scriptures that we
this could be done and would not have us to pretend to derive Authority from the Church of Rome when she was in her purity and perfection Now this is wonderfully wise to inquire by what Authority we presume to obey God to amend our ways to throw off Errours to follow Truth Let him be assured that we shall not pretend to have derived Authority from Rome neither in her corruption nor in her purity to doe this And our Authour in the next Paragraph owns that we need not in case the one be an Errour and the other be a Truth But he adds we are now seeking for that Authority which shall declare this Truth and set forth this Errour Now this is honestly said that he is seeking for that Authority I am sure he has made no discovery of it as yet He undertook pag. 21 22. to shew that and the Infallibility of the Church of Rome and has talkt out eight Pages and has not given us the least Argument for either of them now he says he is seeking for it and he may seek all his days at this rate for he seeks just as one did for the Hare in the top of the Steeple If there were any such Authority and Infallibility as he pretends it must be as apparent and as visible as the Church it self there would need no long seeking for it He must be blind or fool or mad that did not see it or know it I rather think that our Authour is seeking for Arguments to prove it and in this he is unhappy for he finds none But Pag. 28 29 30. he endeavours for one and that is to this purpose that there are Errours and Heresies in the World He tells us of Socinians of Luther and Calvin and Beza and I know not how many more of late days And from thence P. 30. p. 30. he talks in these words Fathers if these instances be not sufficient to require a Supreme Judge to determine the right Faith and silence the wrong then and then and I know not what but at last then pray excuse me if my reason and piety and the reverent notion which I have of a Just God and a mercifull Saviour totally force my Judgment and Conscience to dissent from you in this particular Now this is no Argument that there is such an Authority in the Church either Eastern or Western Roman or Graecian but a wheedling Discourse to persuade weak Persons that there may be such an one because in our Authour's Opinion it would be fit or requisite or proper for God Almighty in this method to direct the interests of his Church And to bring People on to this belief here is an audacious and presumptuous intimation that God would neither be wise nor good in case he did it not Here we beg our Authour's pardon we will believe God to be wise and good and mercifull whether he sets up such an Authority or no He knows what is fit and requisite and proper much better than such pert confident men He permits sins great and most enormous in the World though he could as easily give a stop to them as to Errours and Heresies There are Errours amongst Protestants and there are Errours amongst Romanists and if the Temporal Authority did not doe more than the Spiritual they themselves would complain of many more than now they do There are Errours and Heresies of late days and there were so from the first beginnings of Christianity in all times and places St. Paul tells of some in his days and Ignatius of others and Irenaeus of others and those most gross and vile and filthy Now if God had made provision of the pretended Authority and Infallibility to give stop to them it were most improbable if not impossible that ever these should have been Their existence therefore is plain argument and demonstration that there are no such powerfull means set up and appoionted by God to prevent hinder stop or silence them He has done enough against them as he has done against all sins it is presumption not to acquiesce in his Wisedom or to challenge that he must doe that which we cannot prove that he has done But our Authour leaves this and says he must proceed P. 30. p. 30. and that he does yet not to evidence the Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Church by better Arguments but to plead the interest of it in general from the performances of Augustine the Monk This is an Argument that pleases him he had been nibling at it three times before p. 18. p. 21. p. 27. There he intimates that this Augustine first taught the English Nation Christianity and that he taught them those very Doctrines as Christian Truths which we at this day oppose He says p. 21. That all the Controverted Points particularly and by name were declared by some of your selves to have been brought into England by Augustine the Monk above a thousand years since I suppose he means that his Friend the famous Napper or some of his Apocalyptical Acquaintance had declared this But after all he comes to treat more closely upon this Argument pag. 30 31 32. I shall consider what he says and then give a full accompt of the whole matter But before I begin I must complain for it is a grief that I have an Adversary so weak and yet so consident For those two learned Men their Mr. Cressey and our Reverend Dean of St. Paul's have accurately considered and weighed all the particulars of this Dispute and made the best advantages of it But the man knows nothing of their Writings Pope Gregory he names and Bede he names but gives us not any ground to think that ever he has read over Bede's History or consulted Pope Gregory's Epistles and both these ought to have been well studied by a Writer upon this Subject if he had due regard for Truth or his own Credit 1. First he says If you tell me a Story of the Abbat of Bangor I answer that the particular ground of it is evidently false and forged Now Bede is the man that tells us a Story of the Abbat of Bangor and the numbers of Monks in that Abbey Bede l. 2. c. 2. And the Story as it lies in Bede gives all the advantage to Protestants that they can wish lib. 2. cap. 2. And if there be something added to that Story from an Ancient Record found and published by Sir Henry Spelman the skill and integrity of that excellent Person would persuade an indifferent man not presently to damn it for a forgery for he was not likely either to contrive one or to be cheated with one But be this what it will the Story that Bede gives is sufficient for our uses and that I hope he will not say is false or forged 2. P. 30. He says that the Britains received the Christian Faith in the Apostles days but being persecuted by Romans Picts and Saxons Religion fled to the Mountains