know that this Gospel and these Books are true And all these are not to be confounded by the simple pretence of calling for a fixed medium or principle § 7. VI. Determining signifieth either the private decision or determining of doubts in the minds of particular persons or else the publick decision of doubts as they are managed in the Church by a publick Judge And this either as binding mens Consciences or Minds what to believe or only as ruling their tongues and actions in teaching and conversation § 8. VII By Vnity in faith is meant either unity in a general faith which they call Implicite or in a particular explicite faith And that is either a unity in all the essentials of Christianity or also in all the Integrals or also in all the accidentals which are revealed by God And it is either a secret unity of minds or a publick unity for communion that is meant If he think any of these distinctions needless let him prove it and then cast them by I am sure confusion is fit to deceive but not to edifie CHAP. III. The rude and summary answer to the confused Question § 1. LEst the Querist should pretend that by distinguishing I avoid a plain and direct answer to his Question I will here first suppose him to be as rude and confused as his Question would imply and give him such an answer as it will bear But so as that it cannot be satisfactory to a distinguishing understanding for whom therefore I shall afterward answer more distinctly § 2. I cannot answer with common sense in a narrower compass than by distinguishing these Questions 1. How know I the words and Bible 2. How know I that this Doctrine and Book is the same which was delivered by the Apostles to the Churches 3. How know I the meaning of the words 4. How know I that this Doctrine and these words are of God or a Divine Revelation 5. How know I that they are true § 3. I. To the first Question I answer that I know that I hear and read the words and that this Bible containeth in it all its visible contents by my sense my sight and hearing and my intellective perception of things sensible And though this be a principle in which the Papists agree not with us I am never the more in doubt whether I see and hear the words § 4. II. To the second I know that this Doctrine and Book is the same which by the Apostles were delivered to the Churches by Infallible History not such as dependeth on the honesty of the speakers only and so begetteth but a humane faith much less such as depends on the bare Authority of the King of Rome and his narrow selfish sect or party and Kingdom but by such History as hath a certainty in it from natural principles by which we prove it impossible that there should be deceit there being so full a concurrence of all sorts of Christians and enemies also and infallible circumstantial evidence Even as I know that there was such a man at Rome as Gregory 1. and Gregory 7. and such persons in England as Henry 8. King Edward 6. Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth c. And as I know that our Statute Books are not counterfeit And as your Doctors know that the Acts and Decrees of Councils the Works of Bellarmine Baronius c. are not counterfeit which is not because the Pope or a General Council saith so but by rational evidence of certain History which leaveth not mens minds in doubt § 5. But I am not equally certain of some questioned Books or Readings no nor of the sense of some difficult words as I am of all the rest which being more evident are more past controversie § 6. III. I know the meaning of the words spoken or written as you know the meaning of a man that talketh with you or of any other writings as of your Councils Decretals Mass-book Bellarmine c. that is by the significance of such words by humane usage from those daies till now which Lexicons Books and successive practice fully prove § 7. But there are plain passages in Scripture which I understand certainly not because the Pope saith This is the meaning Such are all the essentials of Christianity and abundance more And there are difficult passages which I am not certain of the sense of § 8. IV. I know that this Doctrine and the Bible containing it as such are of God or are his word by the spirit attesting and fealing it not in the fanatick sense as they think they have an inward impulse perswading them that so it is as some Papists think the Pope and Councils know that to be of God which they decree by Prophetical Inspiration But 1. As to the Gospel the spirit attested it by antecedent Prophesie 2. The image of Gods Power Wisdom and Goodness imprinted on the Scripture is its essential constitutive evidence being unimitable by meer man and that which is its intrinsick self evidencing light so that a spiritual well disposed soul may from a sensibleness tast that it is Gods word if a Bible had come to them by chance and they had never heard of it before I say that they may do so if you can suppose them spiritually disposed before But if not yet they may strongly suspect that it is Gods word when they read that it affirmeth it self to be so and that the image of God upon it is so clear 3. But the Concomitant Evidence of the spirit maketh up the proof in the miracles of Christs Life Resurrection and ascension and in the miracles of Apostles and primitive Christians abroad the world by which the Gospel was fully sealed 4. And the effected subsequent evidence of the spirit compleateth all the evidence which is the spirit of holiness given by the means of this same word to all true serious Believers in the world in all ages and nations which Holiness is the Image of God himself and is such a gift as none but God can give and as God would not give by a Doctrine which he abhorreth as a lie Therefore 1. It witnesseth objectively as an evidence 2. And it witnesseth effectively by inclining the heart to tast and close with and receive the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the innaturalized word as life and health cause a man to know suitable food by a gust which proceedeth from a suitable nature so is it in the new nature and the sincere milk of the word And indeed though the intellect be the proper apprehender of Truth as such suo modo yet the will is quaedam natura and hath a natural propensity to Good as Good which is natural to it and is the pondus motuum in the rational soul And it is not an universal notion or nothing under the name of good which it thus inclineth to but existent good in some being that is Vnum Verum Bonum as Rada and other Scotists well prove And therefore it hath
Commentators And yet must we know Translations and Copies only by the Popes determination III. Your own Popes ex Cathedra have given the Church various Translations That Edition of the Vulgar Latine made by Sixtus 5. and that made about two years after Clemens 8. differ in so many hundred passages and abundance of whole verses and sentences that if a Bible be a Divine Revelation one of them shamefully erred about Divine Revelations or de fide See Dr. Iames his Bellum Papale and its Defence against Gretser Where then is your Certainty IV. You are utterly uncertain and disagreed among your selves who it is that hath this Ascertaining Determining Authority You say it is your Church But some say that the Infallibility and Power is in the Pope alone in Cathedra Some say it is a General Council though the Pope dissent Some say that the Pope and Council must agree and some say that the Church Essential of all Countries must receive the decrees before they are infallibly ascertaining And who can be Certain of Gods word by an Authority which is it self so uncertain See the proof in Safe Relig. p. 192 193 194. V. Your own sentence condemneth your own Judges as uncertain General Councils as Constance and Basil have concluded that Popes may err in matters of faith yea accused and Condemned them as Hereticks if not Infidels And shall we not believe a General Council in matter of present fact and yet must believe them what is Gods word And that one Council hath Condemned another and Popes have Condemned Councils I have ibid. proved at large And if Popes and General Councils distinct are deceitful how shall we be sure that two false parties when they meet do make one true one VI. Popes and General Councils have often erred from the faith as our Church of England truly asserteth and therefore we are not sure that they never will do so more Bellarmine himself noteth about fourty Popes charged with error or Heresie Liberius subscribeth the sentence against Athanasius and received the Arrians to Communion and subscribed the Sirmian faith Hane ego libenti animo suscepi in nullo contradicens See his Epist. 7. in Binnius To. 1. p. 465. and his notes on it See more in my safe Relig. p. 249 c. And of Councils p. 274 c. The sixth General Council at Constantin approved by Pope Adrian and by the seventh Council hath many errors as have many others there instanced in What Certainty then can they give us VII The Ancient Christians and Churches received not the Certainty of their faith upon the Authoritative determination of a Pope and Council Therefore there is a Certainty to be had without it The Churches that Paul or any Apostle Converted believed not at first upon the Authority of a General Council nor of a Pope Till the Council of Nice for above 300. years the world was without a General Council And were they without faith Frumentius and Aedesius that preached to the Indians and all other Christian Preachers that then converted souls took another course They did not first convince men of the Authority of a Pope and General Council to tell them what was Gods word before they brought them to believe it VIII Scripture it self never mentioneth this Method or Evidence And would it be silent of the only way of Certainty It never saith to the world You must know by the Judgement of Peter or the Pope and a General Council what is the word of God Did Christ forget it IX The Ancient Defenders of the Christian Faith did all go another way Iustin Tertullian Athenagoras Tatianus Minutius Faelix Arnobius Lactantius Eusebius in his two first Volumes de Praepar Demonstrat Augustine and all such writers seek to prove our faith by other Evidence and never say the Pope and a General Council are the only ascertaining declarers of it X. Our Proof of the Matters of fact is incomparably more certain than yours For 1. As to the Power of Judging we maintain a concurrence of the peoples Discerning Iudgement the Pastors Teaching or Directing Iudgement and both Magistrates and Pastors Deciding and Governing Judgement not to be the only Determiner of mens minds de fide but to Rule the publick Doctrine and Communion of the Church according to Gods foreknown Laws And as to the Truth of Copies Miracles and the actual delivery of the Gospel in the Scripture and in the distinct Catechistical Articles aforesaid we rest on Tradition which hath a Natural Infallibility and not a pretended Authoritative Iudge Your Tradition receiveth its credit from pretended Power to Iudge which all the wise men in the world will deny till it s proved Our Tradition hath its credit from a Natural Impossibility that the History should be false I have shewed you the proof of this in my More Reasons for the Christian Religion and else where If you will not read them there I know not whether you will read them here and therefore will not write them again We have all your Evidence which is Evidence indeed and far more with it And as Hierom saith The world is more than the City Your Tradition is that of a Popes judging Power only as some say and of a Pope with his Council as others say and of the Pope with his subjects as your few moderate Latitudinarians say You are not above the third or fourth part of the Christian world If you deny this your Impudent lying may cheat a woman that never read the state of the world but will shame you the more with learned men And is not the Tradition 1. Of all the Christian world for 300. years before there was any General Council 2. And of all the Christian world since even Greeks Armenians Syrians Copties Abassines and all others more than the Tradition of a Pope and a few inslaved Priests The Council of Trent had for a considerable time but 42. Bishops even when it set up your Tradition as a supplement to Scripture And is the Pope and these 42. of equal historical credit to all the Christian world 3. Yea our History takes in Hereticks yea and Infidels and Heathens too so far as they have left us any Testimony of these things Even a Pliny a Celsus a Porphyry a Iulian and any other the bitterest Enemies Because we prove it Impossible that so many men of different Countries and no converse and contrary minds and Interests should confederate or agree to deceive the world and be undetected in such a matter And what is the Pope and 42. or two hundred Prelates most of Italy to such Historical Evidence as this O that you could lay by partiality and base selfish respects but for one day or hour What if the Question among us were whether ever Paul was at Rome Or Iustin wrote his Apologie Or Origen was a professed Christian Or Constantine the Great professed Christianity Or whether the writings of Iustin Tertullian Cyprian Augustine c. be
of faith For both waies is the Measure of faith exceeded and men deviate from the continence of the Holy Scripture which expresseth the Measure of faith And this Measure God assisting we will hold that we may write or teach nothing dissonant from the Holy Scripture But if by ignorance or inadvertencie we should write any thing let it be ipso facto esteemed as not written And so on And Prolog q. 1. his description of Theologie is 1. For a habit by which we only or principally assent to those things that are delivered in Scripture and as they are there delivered And so Theologie differs not from faith The reason of which is because the things that are delivered in the Scripture are so only held by Divine Authority Scotus Prolog Q. 2. doth conclude p. 7. that the Doctrine of the Canonical Scripture is sufficient to the attainment of our end And that the Holy Scripture containeth sufficiently the Doctrine necessary to a Viator a man in this life II. And to prove this Scripture to be true he giveth us these ten proofs which I must not repeat at large 1. From the predictions of Scripture which God only could do 2. From their notable concord 3. He proveth that their own Doctrine against Lying and such like prove that the writers lied not 4. From the great diligence and concord of the Receivers 5. From the Rationability of the Contents 6. From the unreasonableness of all other waies 7. From the stability of the Church 8. From the Miracles which God would never affix to a lie which he largely urgeth 9. From the testimony of aliens and adversaries 10. That God would not give up those to a lie who so seek him with all their hearts as many Christians do Abundance of their Authors more I could cite who thus argue for the truth of Scripture and not from an Authoritative decision of a Pope or Council only And what in this they give to them at other times doth but shew that their foundation was so much weaker than ours CHAP. III. That where the Learned Papists differ from us they are so far from building on a Certainer foundation that so far they are forced to deny all Certainty of faith TO prove this it may suffice to mind the Learned Reader how even the most judicious as Greg. Armin. Prolog Estius and commonly most Schoolmen deny a proper Certainty of Evidence to faith Not only that the Object is not Evident to sense which all confess but that the truth of the conclusion is not Demonstrable and that Faith is a pious act of the Election of the will which were not meritorious if it had rational demonstration or evidence And that it is but opinion which is resolved into humane Authority and yet that they believe the Scripture to be Gods word and this or that to be the sense meerly because the Church holdeth it I cannot stay to cite many Plain Durandus shall be instead of all Who Prolog q. 1. saith p. 6. c. 1. Faith which resteth on humane Authority differeth not from opinion because the place from humane authority is topical and an argument thence taken is the weakest And therefore the faith which resteth on that authority is the weakest opinion But pag. 9. of the faith which resteth on Gods authority he granteth us that it may stand with Science of many of the same things and that Divine authority and demonstrative reason may concur to cause the same assent But p. 10. he dissenteth from them that hold that Gods attestations were such to those that saw Christs Miracles and Resurrection c. as certainly proved the truth of his Godhead and so of his word which is Aquinas his honest Doctrine 3. q. 43. act 4. against which Durandus writeth this And because it is us as well as Aquinas that he opposeth I will briefly confute his reasons The first is Because Demonstration necessitateth the understanding to believe But many that saw Lazarus raised c. believed not Christ to be God c. Therefore Miracles were not a sufficient demonstration Answ. Not sufficient to all things but sufficient to do their own part By this you would prove that there is no demonstration of any thing almost in the world For there is almost nothing which convinceth all men I distinguish therefore of a disposed and an indisposed understanding And as to the later I deny the major Demonstrations constrein not millions of undisposed Intellects Recipitur ad modum recipientis What need any other proof than your oft mentioned denial of Bread in the Eucharist Because millions deny the perception of all mens Senses and Intellects thereby are not things sensible demonstrable or evident Can you hope to bring more cogent proof And yet this is rejected And so were Christs miracles The second is Gregory Faith hath no merit where humane reason hath experience and there is Science Answ. A falshood as easily denied as asserted without proof If by Merit you mean Rewardableness For it is only Natural involuntary necessity which evacuateth moral Good or Evil. The will may shew its virtue or vice in receiving or rejecting Objective ascertaining Evidence The third is that it was not known of it self that this miracle attested the truth of what Christ said But whether per se or by consequence it is a most evident certainty that a man yea abundance of men that assert such a point of unspeakable consequence to the world doing abundance of open notorious miracles as professed witnesses or proofs of their Doctrine could not do this but by Gods extraordinary providence And that if this be not to be taken for a Divine Testimony we know of none that mortals are capable of nor a possibility of the worlds escaping the deceit as caused unresistibly by God His Answers to this are not worthy the repeating The same Author li. 3. d. 23. q 7. Enquiring of the Certainty of faith whether it be certainer than Science brings in the several answers of others 1. That there is a Certainty of Evidence and this Science hath and a Certainty of Adhesion and this Faith hath But this he rejecteth and sheweth truly that Adhesion is not properly Certainty and also that the fullest Evidence causeth the closest Adhesion 2. That Faith hath most Certainty in se in the thing and Science most Certainly quoad nos as to us But the vanity of this he truly sheweth For to be Certain in it self and not to us is but to be True And all things True are equally True But no truth is Certain to us or Credible without revelation to us And as he saith The Certainty of Act or habit is not from the Certainty of the object in it self but from the mode which the habit putteth as to the person and the act No way therefore saith he is the act or habit called Certain unless it be certain as to us Therefore he is forced to conclude that many habits and acts of
necessary volitions as of its own felicity c. which yet are free and not meerly per modum naturae though natural as being ex sua natura And this three or foursold witness or attestation of the spirit sometime Antecedent alwaies Constitutive Concomitant and subsequent though a holy soul that is suited to it and hath the witness in it self may most fully and certainly discern yet another also may discern The Miracles being Intelligible attestations to them and the beauty of Wisdom and Holiness in the Scripture and in the Saints being refulgent and discernable by a stander by though not as by a possessor § 9. But I have not an equal Certainty of all the parts of it that they are the word of God because 1. All the Books Texts and Readings are not brought to me with equal historical Evidence 2. And there are abundance of passages in it which are but Accidental to the Christian Religion which have not the same self-evidencing luster in them as the Essentials have And there is no Necessity of an equal knowledge of the parts § 10. The parts which I am fully Certain of in the Scripture are 1. All the Essentials of the Christian Religion Because 1. They are delivered in Scripture frequently plainly past all Controversie of which I will cite your testimonies anon 2. Because they were as certainly delivered to all Christians and Churches in the whole world distinctly by themselves twelve years before any of the New Testament was written and above threescore and ten years before all of it was written even in the Covenant of Baptism renewed in the Lords Supper and in the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue which are the exposition of the Covenants professed by all Christians in all Christian Churches at every sacred meeting And these two waies of Tradition in Scripture and by themselves are fuller than one 2. And all the rest of the holy Scriptures in which the full concord of Copies and the plainness of the words doth leave no room for rational doubting § 11. V. I know that all this word is True because God is True verax and it is impossible for him to lie For whoever lieth must want either Wisdom to know what to say or Goodness to Love Truth or Power to make good his word and attain his will by better means But God is perfect in all these Which you seem to grant us § 12. That all things necessary to Salvation have been delivered by the Apostles to the Churches two waies as by two hands viz. Distinctly by word of mouth and in the Bible is our Doctrine That more than all in the Bible hath been delivered by word of mouth and this as necessary to the Salvation of some men I know not whom who have no more wit than to create necessity to themselves is your Doctrine But yet your famousest contentious Doctors confess that all things commonly necessary to Salvation are plainly expressed in the holy Scriptures Concil Basil Orat. Ragus Bin. pag. 299. The holy Scripture in the literal sense soundly and well understood is the Infallible and most sufficient Rule of faith Bellarm. de verbo Dei lib. 4. c. 11. In the Christian Doctrine both of faith and manners some things are simply necessary to the salvation of all as the knowledge of the articles of the Apostles Creed of the ten Commandments and of the Sacraments The rest are not so necessary that a man cannot be saved without the explicite knowledge belief and profession of them These things which are simply necessary and profitable to all the Apostles preached to all All things are written by the Apostles which are necessary to all and which they openly preached to all Costerus in Enchirid. cap. 1. p. 49. We do not deny that those chief heads of faith which to all Christians are necessary to be known to Salvation are plainly enough comprehended in the writings of the Apostles § 13. By the way hence judge of the jugling of your praters when they call to us for a Catalogue of Essentials or Fundamentals as if no such distinction were to be made § 14. But the ancient Fathers talkt at a higher rate even as Theophil Alexandr Epist. Paschal 2. Cont. Orig. Biblioth Patr. To. 3. pag. 96. Ignorans quod daemoniaci spiritus esset instinctus sophismata humanarum mentium sequi aliquid extra Scripturarum authoritatem putare divinum i. e. not knowing that it is the instinct of a devilish spirit to follow the sophisms of mens minds and to think that any thing is Divine without or besides the authority of the Scriptures CHAP. IV. The distinct Questions all Implied or Confounded in his one Quest 1. What are the Revelations in Controversie § 1. I Must now for the satisfaction of him if he be judicious answer his Question more distinctly and therefore divide it into all these Questions Quest. 1. What are the Revelations of God about which our Controversies lie 2. Whether it be true that the Papists grant us that all Divine Revelations are true 3. What Certainty have we what is a real Revelation of God 4. What Certainty have we of the true Copies and Readings 5. What Certainty of the Canonical or Divine books 6. What Certainty of the Truth of Translations 7. What Certainty have we of the true sense of the words 8. What unity of faith may be expected to be consferred by such certainties 9. What Determination is necessary to this Certainty and Unity And the Questions what Principle and what Medium is established will be Answered in these § 2. Quest. I. What are the Revelations of God about which our Controversies lie Answ. To mention no more than I needs must there are three sorts of Revelation which we assert and rest in 1. Of Natural Production and Evidence such as is the Light and Law of Nature in the Nature of all things especially of man himself as revealing Gods will per modum signi 2. Infallible Oral and Historical Traditition And so 1. All the Covenant of Grace in the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper with the Catechistical explanation in the Creed Lords-prayer and Decalogue have been particularly delivered by themselves 2. And so the Bible hath been delivered to us in the bulks 3. Written Revelation in the sacred Records of the Spirit which is the holy Scriptures themselves § 3. Of the first more anon The second they grant us so far as to confess 1. That the said Covenant and Catechistical Principles have had that way of delivery by themselves as well as in the Scripture But they tell of much more I know not what delivered the same way than is in them and the Scripture it self 2. Yet as you see they confess that none of that addition is commonly necessary to Salvation The third they grant us that all those books which we receive are the Certain word of God But 1. They say that there are more 2. And that we must
Binnius Surius or any others the subscribed Names to all the Councils and then peruse the Maps and Topography of the Roman Empire and the notitias Episcopatuum even Aub. Myraeus famed for a feigner and you will see that all the Councils were made up of the subjects of the Empire alone or such as had been thereto accustomed while they were their subjects and but few of them unless some odd Bishop that no man knows what he was Indeed when Scythia and Persia wanted help they placed a Bishop in an Imperial City neer Scythia as Tomis and Persia and gave him leave to help the Country as far as he could and called him Bishop of Scythia or Persia. But what is this to a true General Council representing all the Churches in the world on the terms as Dr. Holden honestly requireth If you have a mind to laugh at the mans Ignorance in Cosmographie you may read Mr. Iohnson alias Terrets Reply to me which I am not so idle yet as to answer confuting me by instances out of Thracia and such like But the thing is most Evident in History that as the Scots call the meeting of their Ministers a General Assembly meaning of that Kingdom and not of all the world so the Councils in the Empire were called General only as to that Empire and not to all the world which I am ready to make good to any man that can understand History The Pope was by one Prince made the chief Patriarch of that Imperial Church as the Kings of England preferred the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury And four others they joined with him of which one claimed Primacy when the Imperial seat was removed thither never dreaming of a Divine right else he could never have laid that claim And the Councils were only as our Convocations and seldom extended to half the Empire And little did those Emperours think that thence their subject Popes and Councils would claim Supremacy at the Antipodes and turn the orbis Romanus to orbis terrarum XVIII There never will be nor must be nor can be a true General Council in the world I have fully proved it in the second part of my Key for Catholicks Read it there or Choose XIX Your Popes and Councils have made no determination at all of many of the matters in your Question Where have they determined which are the true Copies of the Hebrew and Greek Text Do you call us for our only Certainty to a Determination that was never made to this day O for Modesty and Conscience Where have they determined which are the right among all the various Readings What need Lucas Brugensis Alba and so many others search after this with so much industry if the Pope have determined it Where have they determined which are the only Currant or true Translations however they have extolled the Vulgar Latine Is Montanus and other such Condemned Where are all the Translators differences reconciled by the decision of Pope or Council When did they determine the Controversies of Commentators of the sence of a thousand Texts of Scripture I must confess that a just indignation ariseth in me at the reading of such soul-cheating snares where men have the Impudence to perswade us that we can be sure of none of our faith unless we be sure of Copies Translations c. by that Authority that never durst nor did determine of the many remaining Controversies thereabout And where hath the Pope or Council given us a Grammar or Lexicon to know the true sense of words by for the future Fathers differ Papists differ the world is disagreed of the sense of words and many Texts The Pope hath an infallible skill and power with his Council to decide all and will not Was there ever a crueller wickeder wight in flesh To see all this difference and darkness and not vouchsafe to speak a few words or write one Infallible Commentary to end them Just as if the plague or feaver were common and one Physicion would say all men shall die that will not believe that I can cure all men when in the mean time he will not cure those that do believe it What is it that your Pope and Councils are to determine Is it the great Essentials of Religion We thank them for notthing Cannot we know that there is a God and a Christ till the Pope judge it Have we not the Sacramental Covenant of Grace the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue surely delivered before any Pope or Council judged of them Or is it of the hard controverted points Do it then and let us see that you can do it XX. Hath the Pope power to judge in utramque partem either way or only one way May he judge that there is a God or no God a Christ or no Christ a Heaven or no Heaven a Scripture or none at his pleasure If so must we believe him if he be for the Negative Take you that Certainty we will have none of it Or is he only to Iudge truly and then only to be believed that there is a God a Christ a Scripture c. So may and must every Teacher yea and every Christian Judge If you say that he cannot go besides the truth General Councils and Pope Adrian himself said otherwise XXI The Pope and his Council differ from the Council of Laodicea and the ancient Church upon this very Question What is the word of God even of the Canon of the Scripture For full proof whereof I refer you to Bishop Cousins Book which bringeth full testimony from antiquity XXII The use of Authority is not to disclose all Verities but to Govern Societies in the management of them If the King of Rome could prove himself King of all the world that would but enable him to Govern the world When one man that is at his footstool that is more Wise and Learned may know better than he and his Council too what 's true or false XXIII Your very foundation is a Contradiction in its self What do you make a Pope to be but the Vicar of Christ And mark Reader can any man be sure that he speaks true as Pope or Christs Vicar that never knew that he was Pope or Christs Vicar Or can any man believe that Christ hath an Infallible Vicar before he believe in Christ himself and that he is Infallible It 's a contradiction to believe the Pope as his Vicar or Pope before we believe Christ. If you believe that the Pope hath Power or Infallibility you must believe that Christ gave it him And if you believe that he gave it him it must be by some Revelation that he gave it and that you must believe it And can you believe that Revelation that made him Pope or Infallible before you believe any Revelation XXIV The same contradiction there is in believing a Council or the Church before you believe Divine Revelation For you cannot know till you believe Divine Revelation that Council or Church have any such
being or power XXV Either the Pope and Council themselves know the true Copies Readings and Translations from the Authority of former Councils or by their own or by the Evidence of the thing and Common History or by Inspiration or Supernatural Revelation If all the rabble of wicked Popes and Prelates pretend to Rule the Church and our faith by Inspiration they are crackt-braind fanaticks Sure they were no Prophets before they were Popes or Councillers But if it be by their own Authority who will take a self-made faith of men that Believe only because they Believe And must have all others believe only because they believed before them Then it is themselves and not Christ that they believe If it be former Popes and Councils that they believe tell us whom and why the first believed Mark that you cannot arise to St. Peter For the various Copies and Translations which we are in question of were all made since St. Peters daies XXVI When in a Council the major part carry it by vote perhaps by one or a few How shall we be sure that all the minor part were deceived XXVII How shall all those Abassines Armenians Indians in New-England or others that know not that ever there was a Pope or General Council in the world become Christians Or are you sure they are none XXVIII We see by experience in the foresaid Nations and feel in our selves that men may have a certain faith without receiving it from the Pope Can you make me know that I do not believe when I know that I do And can you prove that only the third part of Christians in the world are true Christians and have Certain faith because all the rest receive it not from the Pope and why may not the major part of the Church be sure as well as he XXIX Hath the Church a twofold foundation for faith If the Pope and Council believe Gods word to be his word on one Ground and all other men on another ground that is because they say it then we have two faiths and two Churches on two foundations But if otherwise then Pope and Council do as we must do by their doctrine even believe it because they say it themselves XXX The Councils Decrees of Faith are so Voluminous that not one Priest of fourty knoweth them all and not one lay man of many thousand The very bulk therefore of your faith must make it more uncertain than ours is And who can tell whether he have it all XXXI The words of your Councils are as obscure as Scripture words and are controverted by your Doctors And how can it be otherwise when humane language is so ambiguous in such huge Volumes How then shall the sense of your Councils themselves be certainly known XXXII Councils are rarely extant God only knoweth whether ever there will be anothor even a pretended one And must we have no judge in the mean time to give us a Certainty of the meaning of the very foregoing Councils themselves Most confess that the Pope himself may err XXXIII It is but few persons in the world that ever saw and consulted with a Pope and a General Council How then shall we be all sure what they said or determined How know we whether the Records of them be truest in Crab in Surius in Nicolinus in Binnius or in none of them What was Caranzas's fault that he is blamed for Which of the various Copies of Canons are true which are given us oft by the same Author Who knoweth what alterations the Index expurgatorius not infallible maketh in the books Have we no more or other Certainty of our Creed than of all these Councils so variously and doubtfully delivered XXXIV Seeing that each lay man that never saw Pope or Councils can know them only by believing the Priest that telleth him This the Church saith is that Priest Infallible Can no man be be certainer of the Creed than of that Priests words Is not the faith of almost all your vulgar Papists resolved into the Priests affirmation And so is it not a humane faith And how ignorant and wicked is many a Priest Is our faith uncertain because we take it not on such a mans credit XXXV If you say that an Implicite faith that all is true and of God which the Pope and Council saith is so will save men 1. How do the people know whether the Pope and Council determine any thing at all but on the Priests credit 2. Then all Infidels may be saved without believing that there is a Saviour or salvation so they do but believe in the Pope and Council 3. Then believing in the Pope and Council is made far more necessary than believing in Christ. 4. Why will not an implicite belief in Christ go as far as yours XXXVI By your way we can never be Certain when we have all the Christian faith For more Councils may still make more decrees as hitherto they have done and who knows when they will hae done And so you make a Christian quite another thing than he was in the primitive Church And you cruelly make it far harder to be saved when as then a man might be saved that believed the Covenant and Creed and foresaid Catechism and now he must also believe so many Canons as that the Councils containing them in the last Edition exceed the purse of a poor Minister to buy them and the time and brains of most to read them XXXVII You confess all our faith and Religion to be true as far as I can learn but we deny all your additions Both parties therefore being agreed of the truth of ours it 's like to be the surer Our Religion in the Essentials is nothing but the Sacramental Covenant the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue with the Law of Nature And in the Integrals it is nothing but the Scriptures which we receive as Canonical And all this you commonly confess to be true And I told you before how Bellarmine Costerus and others confess less to be sufficient to Salvation as commonly necessary But your additions we reject as uncertain or false XXXVIII We see you to be a Carnal Kingdom set up against Christs express determination Luk. 22. 26. 1. Pet. 5. 3. As the Geographia Nubiensis saith In Vrbe Roma c. In the City of Rome are the seats of a King called the Pope Nor is there any superiority in dignity above the Pope and Kings are lower or inferior than he We see that you have compaginated your policie all for these carnal Ends and that dignity and dominion and riches and worldliness is promoted by your faith And that your Religion is propagated and upheld by most inhumane cruelties and bloodshed and they must be burned that seem not to believe as you do And will it not raise suspicions in us of the fidelity of such men when they make their own faith and tell us that we have no certainty of ours but by their determination
When also we see the wickedness of mens lives among you in common Fornication and other heinous sin when the certainest faith will have the holiest life when it is Subjectively as well as Objectively certain XXXIX You destroy or greatly discredit the Grand Evidence of the Christian faith even Miracles How then can your faith be the most Certain For when you pretend that Miracles are as common through all the world as Priests Masses are in turning bread into no bread as aforesaid and yet no man seeth any proof of one such Miracle when really it is no less than Christs Resurrection which you pretend to be so common before all the Churches what is this but to tempt men to take all the Scripture and Apostolical Miracles to be no surer And then where is our faith XL. Lastly I end where I almost began If our sense be true the Pope and his Council are false and therefore our faith not to be received only nor chiefly on their trust For their faith teacheth us not to believe Gods most Natural Revelations to the sound senses and Intellective perception of all men in the world as I have shewed about the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament And when a Controversie it brought to sense it self we can bring it no lower And when we must either believe your faith and its foundation false or believe Gods most Natural Evident Revelation false and all mens Senses and Intellective perception false we are not able I say not able to be of your faith And now judge whose faith is more Certain the Protestants or the Papists And whether you do well so zealously and busily to make use of such soul-traps and fool-traps as the paper is which I have answered September 12. 1672. FINIS APENDIX CHAP. I. I. WHereas I have here and more fully in my More Reasons for the Christian Religion asserted a Certainty in some Morals it will give some light into the matter if I give you Ocham's decision of the Certainty of Moral Science in it self which because it is short I will translate Quod lib. l. 2. q. 14. Quest. Whether there can be a Demonstrative knowledge of Morals Resp. It seemeth not Because there can be no demonstrative knowledge of those things that are subject to the will But such are Morals ergo c. But contrarily Morals are a Science In this Question 1. I will expound one Term of the Question 2. I will give you one distinction 3. And then answer the Question 1. As to the first I say that Moral is sometime taken largely for humane Acts which are under the will absolutely Sometime more strictly for Acts subject to the Power of the will according to the natural dictate of Reason and according to other circumstances 2. As to the second you must know that Moral Doctrine hath many parts of which one is Positive another is Not-positive Moral Science Positive is that which containeth humane Laws and Divine which oblige us to follow or avoid things which are neither good nor evil nor because prohibited and commanded by a superiour to whom it belongeth to give Laws But Moral Science not positive is that which without any command of a Superidirecteth humane actions as Principles known by themselves or known by experience so direct As that all that is honest is to be done and all that is dishonest is to be avoided and such like of which Aristotle speaketh in his Moral Philosophie 3. As to the third I say That Moral Positive Science such as the Science of Lawyers is is not Demonstrative though in many things it be regulated by that which is demonstrative Because the reasons of Lawyers are founded on humane Positive Laws which receive not propositions evidently known But Moral Science not positive is Demonstrative I prove it Because all knowledge deducing conclusions Syllogistically from Principles known by themselves or by experience of him that knoweth is demonstrative But such is Moral Doctrine ergo c. The Major is known The Minor is proved Because in Moral Philosophie there are many Principles known by themselves As that the will is to conform it self to right reason that all evil is to be avoided and such like In like manner many Principles are known by Experience as is evident to him that followeth experience And I further say that This is more Certain than many other things in as much as every man may have more Experience of his own acts than of other things From whence it is plain that this is a Science very Subtile Profitable and Evident To the Argument for the Contrary I say That of things subject to the will may be formed Propositions true and known by themselves which can demonstrate many Conclusions CHAP. II. How much the wisest Papists are for our way of Resolving faith before Luthers time by controversie perverted them IT was ordinary till Luthers disputing convinced them that the Scriptures would not serve their turn for the wisest Papists 1. To make Scripture the perfect Rule of faith without the supplement of Tradition to add more 2. And to give such Reasons for their Faith as we now do for ours I. I must not be tedious in citing many 1. Aquinas Cont. Gent. Cap. 9. fol. 3. saith But the singular manner of convincing an adversary of this truth is by the Authority of the Scripture confirmed of God by miracles And Summ. 1. q. 1. a. 8. ad secundum he saith that Sacred Doctrine useth the authority of the Canonical Scripture arguing properly and from necessity but the authorities of other Doctors of the Church as arguing from its own but Probably For our faith resteth on the Revelation made to the Apostles and Prophets who wrote the Canonical Books but not on the Revelation made to other Doctors if there were any such Whence August to Hier. I have learnt to give this honour only to the Books of Scripture called Canonical as that I firmly believe that no Author of them did at all err in writing them But others I read so as that how excellent soever they were in Learning and Holiness I take it not to be therefore true because they so thought or wrote Durandus in his Preface hath little else but of the Scripture excellency in Dignity Goodness Certainty and Profundity And from Hier. ad Paulin. saith Let us learn that on Earth the knowledge of which will continue with us in Heaven But this is only in the Holy Scripture 3. The Holy Scripture exceedeth all in Certainty of Truth We must speak of the mystery of Christ and universally of those things which meerly concern faith comformably to what the Holy Scripture delivereth As Christ Joh. 5. Search the Scripture c. If any man observe not this c. The Measure is not to exceed the Measure of Faith which Measure consisteth in two things that is that we take not that from faith which belongs to faith nor attribute that to faith which is not
Science are Certainer to us than faith and its act and that both extensively Science having both certainty of Evidence and Adhesion if that be Certainty And intensively for Science hath no doubt permixt as faith oft hath And he is forced to conclude his faith into the further uncertainty following CHAP. IV. That the most Learned Doctors of the Church of Rome resolve their faith in earnest or jeast into such an Inspiration of the Pope and Prelates in Council as the Apostles had and so are meer Fanaticks And this against notorious sense and experience THe said Durandus saith ib. li. 3. d. 23. p. 573. Nothing is more certain than experience to which the resolution of other things is made that we may have the fuller certainty But experience telleth us that there is Bread after consecration And that he took the belief of humane authority for the weakest opinion I told you before And v. 12. he saith How are we sure that God saith what we believe Non nisi quia sic tenet Ecclesia Only because the Church so holdeth Which he brings to prove that Divine Authority is not surest to us And Ocham Quod l. 5. q. 31. so answereth the question Whether the substance of Bread remain after consecration as I verily believe he did but Ironically jear them and shew that he durst not speak his thoughts Mentioning three opinions The first that the substance of bread which was there before is after the body of Christ I think he meaneth Durandus opinion condemned by Bellarmine c. he rejecteth The second saith he that the substance of bread and wine cease to be and the accidents only remain and under them Christs body begins to be is the common opinion of all Divines which I hold for the determination of the Church and not for any other reason The third that there remaineth the substance of bread and wine with Christs body would be very reasonable if the Churches determination were not contrary for that opinion solveth and avoideth all the difficulties which arise from seperating the accidents from the subject And the contrary to it is not had out of the Canon of the Bible nor doth it include any contradiction for Christs body to consist with the substance of bread any more than with the accidents And after more answering the argument of Mass-miracles by every Priest he saith Sometime about some things there must more Miracles be put though it might be done by fewer and that because it pleaseth God And the Church knoweth this by some Revelation that so it is and therefore the Church hath so determined Either he jeareth them or else he professeth that their faith even of daily miracles against common sense is resolved into a Revelation which the Church hath of that which is not in the Bible which must be Prophetically The like you have in Paludanus Durandus save that he leaveth them as aforesaid Scotus c. I will end with learned Rada who Vol. 4. Contr. 7. a. 1. pag. 164 165. having shewed that This is my Body will not in its own proper sense infer what Aquinas and others gather saith Yet indeed now we must not take that sense but as the Church taught by the Holy Ghost understandeth those words For the Scriptures are expounded by that spirit which they were made by And so it must be supposed that the Catholick Church by that spirit which delivered us the faith even taught by the Holy Ghost so expounded and exploded the first sense and chose this being that other was not true as to the remaining of the substance of bread after consecration But this sense he chose which is true and so delivered by our Lord himself as it is solemnly declared C. firmiter c. And he concludeth that This is my body is not enough to convince a Heretick but as understood by the Church by that spirit by which they were given and delivered they exclude the substance of bread O all men of common sense and reason in the world we appeal to your humanity in the Controversie between the Papists and us While they assert a Miracle by every Priest every day that he masseth in all the world and deny the truth of Gods primary natural Revelation to all mens common senses they resolve their faith of the Certainty of all this not into the Scripture but into such an Inspiration of the Holy Ghost as the Scriptures themselves were written by The Scripture must not be our proof of this Inspiration but must be proved by it We must believe that thus every wicked Pope and the Prelates of the major vote in his packt Councils have this Inspiration When they do no Miracles they live so much worse than other Ministers of Christ that the Reforming of them hath long been the vain wish and attempt of the Christian world They murder the servants of Jesus in their Inquisitions and yet we must lay all our faith and salvation on it that they have all a Prophetical spirit Well If it be proved Certainly to the world that the Pope and his Church are all Prophets or Inspired by the Holy Ghost as the Apostles were then I declare that the Papists are in the right If not I will be no willing Subject of the KING of Rome while he so abuseth the Word the Church the Honour of the Churches King FINIS