are sensible they are not to be proved in the same way they find themselves obliged to give the same Authority to one as the other and to bring down the Scripture to the Church or exalt the Church to the Authority of Scripture So that if we will look for things necessary not contained in Scripture we must have recourse to the Church which can as they say ordain new Articles of Faith and which whenever so ordained are as much to be believed and received as those which have their Authority immediately from Scripture And after our Author hath beat about and done his endeavour to loosen the Articles of our Faith from the written Revelation and the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles hither he would bring the Case that we are obliged to stand to the Determination of one particular Church as he insinuates page 4. But now to return his own words upon him If you remit me to the Decision of the true Church it will be necessary to know which is that Church For since there are several pretenders and there are Christian Arrians as he saith and many other Dissenters how shall I find out this True Church and why that more than others Is it because she herself saith she is the True Church All the rest claim the like Character of being a True Church and besides this is to demand the thing that is to be proved Is it that she is like a City upon an Hill or the Sun in the Firmament to be known by a self-evident Light Why is it not then as well known and indisputably owned to be the true Church and the only True Church as a City to be a City or the Sun to be the Sun Is it to be found out by the Notes and Marks of the True Church Then we must find out the Marks before we find out the Church that is to be known by them And then the pinching Question comes on Where must I seek these Notes It 's to be feared that will lead us to the Scripture and then we know what follows Lastly Are we to find out the Church by an Infallible Guide Then we are to find such a Guide out of the Church and that we have no direction where to seek or by what Notes we may know it Here indeed we are left in a Maze to beat out the way and they that have made the Church a Guide have appointed no Guide to lead us to the Church That is a Track we must find of our selves there we must use our own simple Reason Consideration and Enquiry So that how certain soever we may be when in the Church we can never be infallibly certain which is the Church that we are bound to follow because this kind of certainty is peculiar to the Church and not to be had out of it But since we have gone thus far upon Supposition let us take it for granted once more that the Church is upon the Hill visible and demonstrable yet because the Church is a Collective Body where is the Seat of that Infallible Authority that I am to attend to and finally to be determined by Is it in every particular person Then because Infallibility knows no degrees I my self should in that Church be as Infallible as the Supreme Pastor of it Is it in one particular person or in a General Council Who and where is it Must I suspend till I know or till all the parts of the Church agree in it If you tell me all joyned together as our Author has taught me to Reason then it follows I am bound to believe nothing of this kind but what all agree in for what they disagree in cannot be the Sentiment or Decision of the whole Church but only of a part of it I am not then obliged to believe the Pope's Infallibility for the Councils of Basil and Constance and the French Church tho Papists deny it Nor am I obliged to believe a Council Infallible without the Pope because those at Rome deny it And because what 's a good Argument in one case is good in another let me have our Author's Warrant that I am bound to believe neither Infallible since neither of these agree with the other For certainly I am no more obliged to believe the Infallibility of their Church which they do thus disagree in than our Author would perswade us that we are not obliged to believe the Trinity because the Arrians tho Christians deny it But supposing that the Seat of Infallibility be clear and evident Yet how can I that am at a vast distance of years or place from that Oracle whatever it is be infallibly assured that these that are put into my hands are the very Results and Decrees of that Authority Or that this that I think or am told is the true and undoubted sense of them Or to speak modestly How can I be as much assured of the Truth of these matters as I am of the Authority and Sence of Scripture Or that Christ hath not spoken as plainly and intelligibly in the Scriptures as his Vicar or Substitutes have in any of their Canons and Decrees So that tho the Church be Infallible and I a Member of that Infallible Church yet what will that Infallibility avail me when I am without the doors of that Infallible Council or out of the reach of the immediate Dictates of the Infallible Chair And unless the spirit of Infallibility descends from the Chair to the meanest Priest who is to instruct and direct me or is indorsed upon every Decree and inspires every Article with its own unerring sense I am not infallibly certain And I may be no more certain of the true Doctrine of the Infallible Church than I am of the sense of Scripture under the Conduct of a Fallible Church since the immediate Authority I depend upon for the Doctrine and the Sense of it is all this while Fallible As for example I am told that there is such a Creed as that before mentioned of Pope Pius IV. that contains in it such Articles that every one is so bound to believe as without the belief of which no Man can be saved And I find in that Creed that the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches And yet how shall I be Infallibly assured first that there ever was such a person as Pope Pius the 4th or that he ever composed such a Creed or that the foresaid Supremacy of the Church of Rome is one of those Articles The Pope I never saw nor am like to see A Council is a rare thing and what they care not to hear of at Rome and are able to do as well without as with it And therefore where shall I be infallibly instructed in these matters How shall I then be sure that the Article aforesaid is not to be understood that the Church of Rome is the Mistress of all Churches within the particular Diocess of Rome only For
all Christians agree and let me have your Warrant that I am bound to believe neither the Trinity nor Incarnation nor any thing wherein all Christians do not agree Now if you tell me I am obliged to stand to the Determination of one particular Church or some and not all tell me which and why that or those more than others What Church for Example were particular Persons bound to follow Two hundred years ago before the Reformation Our Author at first put the Question Whether all things necessary to Salvation are contained in Scripture And upon this he argues If they be then they are either clearly contained in it so that there is no need of an Interpreter for the meaning of them or not If the Addresser could have gained the first Point That all necessaries are not contained in Scripture then the Case lay fair before him and it would follow as he supposes that there must be some external and speaking Authority from whence those Necessaries not contained in Scripture are to be received and where they are to be fought This is a Case he puts to the Question If not where must I seek them But there he leaves it Indeed it was a tender Point because of late they would have us believe that they have Scripture for what they differ from us in and then to talk of Necessaries not to be found in Scripture and to instance in those Necessaries would be to give up that Cause which they have so much laboured to support in that way and to tell the World that the Church of Rome is the Treasurer of all those Necessaries is a Doctrine not so suitable to the Genius of the present Age as it was to others heretofore But if that would not be yielded That all Necessaries are not contained in Scripture he then puts in with a Second That they are not so Clearly contained in it as not to need an Interpreter and if this be yielded he would in his own opinion save his Cause for then he concludes there must be some Guide and Interpreter and it will be necessary to know who and where the Interpreter is Now if we may guess what kind of Interpreter or Guide it is that he would have it 's one that is necessary for all to believe and whose Interpretation all are obliged to receive a Guide that is a Judg and whose Judgment is absolute final and conclusive into which all is to be resolved and from which there is no appeal that is to teach all Necessaries to Salvation not contained in Scripture and to interpret the meaning of those that are without which we cannot know whether there be a Trinity or our Saviour was Incarnate and upon whose determination all the Articles of our Faith do depend for their declaration Here the Case is immutably fixed says our Author I must believe it 's necessary to believe I am obliged to believe and am bound to follow as he puts the Case But now we that are for Ministerial Guides and Interpreters that are appointed by God for the teaching his Church and whose Office it is to teach them so as they may understand and judg for themselves know nothing of such a Guide as he would introduce upon us and we have reason to be cautious when we find both the Apostle declaring against it 2 Cor. 1.24 Not for that we have dominion over your Faith but are helpers and our Saviour warning us against such an Imposition Matth. 23.8 9 10. Call no man master on earth for one is your master It 's his Prerogative alone to challenge such an absolute submission from us and it 's a gross Usurpation in any other to claim and assume it So that we may leave our Author to find out Who and where the Interpreter is for we own no such Guide or Interpreter as he would impose upon us whether he means by it any particular Church or any part or Society of that Church or indeed any humane Authority whatsoever And when he or his Partizans think it worth the while to undertake the proof of it and shall as clearly prove it as the Trinity and Incarnation are from Scripture we that profess the latter and are as sincerely desirous of finding out the Truth as he can be do promise him to own the former and for this Reason and that they may have a fair occasion offered to try their skill upon it I shall put the Case a little forward I am sensible our Author would take it in good part to have it granted that all things necessary to Salvation are not contained in Scripture and to have it brought to his first Question If so where must I seek them Or that They are not clear enough in Scripture without an Interpreter that at least the next Question may be brought on Who and where the Interpreter is And therefore to gratifie him as much as I can I shall for the present suppose that all things necessary are not in Scripture and then in his order and words I ask What those necessaries to Salvation are that are not contained in Scripture and where each of them may be found Now he that supposes this must proceed upon the Principles of the Church of Rome since no Church besides that I know of is of this mind And whither may we expect to be directed so soon as to the Creed of Pope Pius IV. which contains the chief of those Doctrines they differ from other Churches in and which are made as necessary to be received and believed as the Articles of the Nicene Creed being by that Pope's Authority in consequence of the Order of the Council of Trent incorporated into one and the same Profession of Faith. By which means they are forced upon one of these two Difficulties either to prove their new-coined Articles by Scripture as well as those of the Nicene Creed or to show that the Articles of the Nicene Creed are no more to be proved from Scripture without Tradition and the Churches Explication than those of Pope Pius The former they are never able to do and all their attempts that way have proved vain and unsuccessful and therefore they have taken several ways for the latter sometimes detracting from the Sufficiency or Perspicuity of Scripture at other times exalting Tradition and church-Church-Authority to an equality with it For since all these Points are made by this means equally necessary to Salvation and since it 's as necessary to believe on pain of Damnation That the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly really and substantially together with his Soul and Divinity in the Sacrament and the whole Substance of the Bread is turned into the Body and the whole Substance of the Wine into his Blood c. Since it 's as necessary to believe this as the Being of a God the Trinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour and that they
here is a different use of the same Word and if in our Author's way of Arguing a different use of the same word will render us uncapable of attaining the sense contained in these words it would be to little purpose to read the word without an Infallible Assistant always at hand to explain it clearly and certainly to us So that if there be no better way to end the many Controversies of this Age than what he calls the only and surest way they are likely to continue for his time And if their Church has no surer way to bring the Case to an issue than this of exposing Christianity to save themselves they will as soon make men to quit all Religion as that which they have to be of theirs of which they cannot be but by subverting those Principles upon which the best Religion in the World the Christian is supported Here I might have concluded but our Author may take it ill if after I have traced him from Paragraph to Paragraph I should leave out his pathetical Conclusion which is as follows I conceive an Answer to these Doubts absolutely necessary for the Salvation of my Soul. For how can I be saved if I know not what is necessary thereunto I need not say a satisfactory one for no other can flow from your Learned and virtuous Pens I only fear that some Pin-feather'd Divine out of an itch to appear in Print may prevent yours and put me off with a Flim-flam or an uncharitable Jeer or Railing against some particular Church he may fancy me to be of which is nothing to my purpose who seek where I may find securely Necessaries to Salvation not where I cannot find them This would be also prejudicial to the Church of England for when Men see Doubts so sincerely and submissively Proposed Answered only with Jeers Railing and Invectives or omitted and let pass as not deserving an Answer they must needs doubt of the Learning ae well as of the Virtue and Charity of their Leaders Now were the Satisfaction I here desire intended for myself alone it might have seemed more proper to have made my Address in particular to some one of your Reverend and Learned Body but forasmuch as it concerns so many others and as I perswade my self will prove extremely beneficial to Religion it being the surest nay only way to end the many Controversies of this Age I am forced to desire of you whose high Character obliges you to a Zeal of Souls a publick and withal a speedy Answer by which you will highly oblige SIRS Yours ever LONDON Printed for Randall Taylor 1688. Our Author has too plainly discovered himself and had reason to suppose his Reader might well fancy him to be of some particular Church and he may as well expect to receive a due Correction for this his Dissimulation that pretends to be in doubt and yet to be in a Church as he supposes Infallible that pretends the Answer to these Doubts absolutely necessary for the Salvation of his Soul and yet is of a Church in which he is judged to hazard his Soul if he doth but doubt that Presents An Address to the Ministers of the Church of England to resolve his Doubts and yet has a Guide of his own whom it's necessary to believe and whom he is bound to follow that pretends to be sincerely desirous of finding out the Truth and doth all he can to involve it Lastly that brings these very Doubts to the Ministers of the Church of England that have been of late so frequently answered by them to the Confutation tho it seems not altogether to the Silencing of their Adversaries I will direct him to the Books and I hope by way of Courtesie he will in his next direct us to the Answers that have been since returned to them The Peoples Right to Read the Holy Scripture in Answer to the Representer A Discourse concerning a Guide A Vindication of the Answer to some late Papers Page 40 c. An Answer to a late Dialogue between a New Catholick Convert and a Protestant to prove the Mystery of the Trinity c. The Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared c. in 2 parts An Answer to the Request to Protestants to produce plain Scriptures c. With the Vindication of it called A Short Summary of the principal Controversies An Answer to a Book Entituled Reason and Authority Page 1 2 c. The Difference betwixt the Protestant and Socinian Methods in Answer to the Potestant's Plea for a Socinian All these Books with several others to the same purpurpose were Printed the last year and if our Author had consulted them as he ought and had as sincerely read them as he pretends to propose his doubts whatever his Confidence might I am apt to think his Conscience would not have found any just occasion to have made this Address nor needed Another to Answer it But it seems nothing less will satisfy our Author than an Answer from the Ministers of the Church of England It 's not a particular person that he conceives sufficiently qualified to undertake his Case and to rescue his Soul which he is so solicitous to save out of this danger and to instruct him in this weighty Affair But it is their Reverend and Learned Body as he fleeringly stiles them that he presents his Address to from whom he expects a Publick and withal a Speedy Answer He writes as if they were now in Convocation or that they were all obliged through the Two Provinces forthwith to assemble about this important Case and by one Solemn Act of theirs to return an Answer to these Doubts which is absolutely necessary for the Salvation of his Soul. But because it 's now not a season for this purpose and 't will be too long to stay till the days grow longer and the ways better I thought I might as well presume to try what might be done by a private hand and he might as well accept of it as he might Present an Address to the Ministers of the Church of England in behalf of himself and others and at last subscribe in his own name with a Sirs Yours ever FINIS Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is prefixed a large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4 0. With a Table to the Whole Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By W. Wake M. A 120. The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A Private Prayer to be used in difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29. 1687. between A. Pulton Jesuit and Th. Tenison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 4 0. The Vindication of A Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of thier Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4 0. Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion A Discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction with an Account of the Occasions and Beginnings of it in the Western Church In Three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom The Pamphlet entituled Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass considered in its False Reasonings and Quotations There are added by way of Preface two further Answers the First to the Defender of the Speculum the Second to the Half-sheet against the Six Conferences A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exceptions of Mons. de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART In which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully Vindicated the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in Point of Image-worship more particularly considered 4 0. A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the New Exceptions of Mons. de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The SECOND PART The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 4 0. Mr. Pulton Considered in his Sincerity Reasonings Authorities Or a Just Answer to what he hath hitherto published in his True Account his True and Full Account of a Conference c. His Remarks and in them his pretended Confutation of what he calls Dr. T 's Rule of Faith. By Th. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Ancient Church relating to the Eucharist wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church and inconsistent with the belief of Transubstantiation Being a sufficient Confutation of Consensus Veterum Nubes Testium and other late Collections of the Fathers pretendâ—ng to the Contrary 40 An Answer to the Representer's Reflections upon the State and View of the Address Answer Address Answer De Doctr. Christ. l. 2. c. 9. Sum. Part 3. Tit. 18. c. 3. ff 3. White 's Way to the true Church Sect. 8. N. 2. Enarrat in ps 8. In John 1.1 c. 4. Homil. 1. in Math Hom. 3 de Laz. Address Answer Address Answer Address Answer Q. 4. Address Answer Address Answer Address Answer Address