Controversies about Faith and Religion now in question amongst Christian People which few I know have leisure or means fewer Capacity to look throughly unto or ability to distinguish always Light from Darkness Truth from Falsehood in them But my Endeavour is to stir you up to a serious consideration of certain general Heads and undenyable Truths which this little Treatise doth present unto you easie to be conceiv'd yet powerful to lay open even to mean Understandings the assured Light of the True Gospel of Christ and the absolute necessity of admitting some sure and un-erring Interpreter of God's Word by him ordained and enabled to deliver the right meaning thereof unto us in all Ages but especially when Controversies about Faith and Religion are raised which Interpreter being once admitted of and agreed upon all other Controversies about points of Belief will quickly be at an end Peace will be restored again to Christians and nothing will remain for the securing of Souls conjoin'd together in the Communion of Saints but a studious care to decline from Evil and to do Good and Industriously to imitate the Blessed Life of Christ But further yet to facilitate this affair be pleased to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks whom I often call Papists to condescend to the Style of Protestants so terming them for adhering in Religion to the Pope in Latine Papa this word signifying Father as the common Spiritual Father of Christians and supreme Pastor of the Flock of Christ be pleased I say to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks Divine Faith from Humane Their Articles of Faith from Humane Stories which many distinguishing not and thereupon perswading themselves that Catholicks with equal certainty and obligation believe the one and the other that is their Articles of Faith and the Humane Stories which relate the Lives Actions and Miracles of certain Saints and finding some of these to be very strange and to savour in their conceit of fraudulent Fictions take this to be a sufficient Warrant for them to contemn Papistry as a foolish ungrounded and fabulous Religion and to repute Papists indiscreetly credulous and plainly to be led in darkness and blindness But these do much mistake for the truth is that although all Catholicks be strictly bound to believe those points of Doctrine which their Church doth propose for Articles of Faith contained in the written word of God or in the perpetual Tradition of the Church or deduced by General Councils or by the Pastors of the Church out of God's Word when Heresies are condemned yet they are not bound to believe the Relations of particular Authors concerning the Actions and Miracles of Saints or other like things farther then discreet Prudence and Christian Piety doth lead them every Man being at liberty to weigh the worth and honesty of the Relator and the probability of the thing related and then to believe or not to believe as Reason and Piety shall dictate unto him Yet not forgetting that God is admirable in his Saints That His Wisdom Power Justice Mercy and Sweetness in Governing the World and in contriving and ordering the Affairs of Man's Salvation is far above the reach of our weak Understanding That frequently there is less danger in believing too much than in believing too little and that there are some as strange things related in the Holy Scriptures at which Atheists do stumble as are in the approved Histories of the Church Neither do Catholicks believe these Stories and their Articles of Faith with one and the same certainty for these Stories they believe meerly with Humane Faith for the Authority of the Relators who may Err mistake or deceive But their Articles of Faith they believe with Divine Faith for God's Authority speaking in his Word and by the ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church being bound under pain of forfeiting the Name of Catholicks and of incurring damnable Sin not to disbelieve wittingly any one of these Articles all of them being Divine Verities warranted for Truth by the Holy Ghost who continually guideth and directeth the Church in her Doctrine of Faith as is hereafter shewed out of Gods Word And so by disbelieving stubbornly the Articles of Faith which the Church professeth Heresie is incurred which is not incurred by disbelieving her Stories Furthermore if hereafter I affirm not for want of Charity but forced by unanswerable Arguments drawn from the word of God that the Followers of the Protestant Religion so dying are not sav'd take me to speak of those who culpably prefer this Religion before the Catholick or culpably dye therein being thereby destitute of that Faith and Charity which is of necessity required to Salvation and not of those who being truly Baptiz'd and brought up among Protestants have excusable Ignorance of the Catholick Faith and Church by reason either of their tender Years or of their weak Capacities or else of their mean and rude Education for such are secret Members of the Catholick Church and therefore if they depart this Life cloathed with those Garments of Christ with which he adorned them in the Sacrament of Baptism not having fallen into mortal Sin they shall certainly inherit the Kingdom of Heaven In which happiness none shall be Sharers that pass out of this Life destitute of Divine Faith which is the Gift of God of which more hereafter or defiled with Mortal Sin which is so called because it destroys the supernatural life of the Soul received by Regeneration in Baptism consisting in Divine Faith and other Celestial Virtues but especially in Sanctifying Grace and divine Charity without which Divine Charity nothing doth avail to Salvation as the Apostle teaches 1 Cor. 1. 13. Lastly because divers Protestant Teachers endeavour to make their Followers believe That the Fathers of the Primitive Church were Protestants seeking thereby to Illustrate the Protestant Religion that the greatness and boldness of this Imposture pardon the Word for I know not how otherwise to express truly the dealing of these Men may clearly appear I humbly intreat all understanding Protestants which know it not to take notice That those ancient Worthies and Lights of the Church of Christ were either Monks or Founders of Monastical Discipline or at least Approvers and Praisers of the same St. Anthony was a Monk and St. Athanasius his Praiser St. Basil the Great a Monk and the Founder of a Monastical Institute which in the Eastern part of the World is yet practised St. Gregory the Divine was a Monk St. Chrysostom a Monk St. Hierom a Monk the Great St. Augustine the Founder of a Monastical course of Life St. Martin a Monk St. Benedict a Monk and Founder of the Famous Order of Benedictine Monks which does yet flourish in the Western Church St. Gregory the Great was a Monk and by the Labours of Fourty Monks did first plant Christianity amongst the English Let any Man judge how likely or how true it is that these men were Protestants Secondly take notice that
unto us and to guide us in Matters of Faith and Religion if ever they mean to repress justly the Irreligious boldness of Fanatical Interpreters and to see Peace again restored to the Christian World. Which Root of Dissention is no other thing than that liberty to Read and Interpret the Holy Scriptures which the Protestant Religion instilleth into Men while it denieth the Infallibility of the Church admitteth of no certain and un-erring Judge of Controversies to whose definitive Sentence all are bound to submit and maketh the written Word of God of it self without an Interpreter the sole Rule of Faith by which all Men ought to square out their Belief and Religion By all which it appeareth to be manifest That according to the Grounds and Tenets of the Protestant Religion the Sacred word of God is not only unprofitable but even hurtful and pernicious to Mankind for want of a Sure Interpreter appointed by God to guide us in Faith and Religion to the right Sense and Meaning thereof As beside the Reasons given the manifold Examples of divers unfortunate Men do convince who by over-boldly searching into the Bible have either crack'd their Brains or fallen into despair or turned Jews Turks or Atheists or imbraced absurd and ridiculous Opinions for what made Hacket formerly Naylor and others lately to give themselves out for New Christs What made so many false Prophets and Prophetesses appear in the late Confusions of England Or what occasion'd then so many Sacriledges Barbarities and Cruelties but too much poring into and medling with the Bible Question VIII Whether the State of the Great Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is of his Church do require a Supream Spiritual Head or no ALL understanding Protestants will easily grant that no Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army or Navy can be fittingly and rightly ordered and govern'd without some Head or Supream Magistrate to whom Subjects may have recourse and from whom they may receive Directions as need shall require Which being so I demand of Protestants whether the State in Earth of the Great Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is his Church doth of necessity require for the fit Uniform and peaceable Government thereof a Supream Head a Supream Spiritual Magistrate to whom the Subjects thereof may have Recourse and from whom they may re-receive Directions in matters of Faith and Religion as need shall require To deny the Necessity of such a Supream Magistrate for the fit Government of the Church of Christ consisting of Men yea of so many several Nations differing in Laws Customs Affections Empire and the like is manifestly against Reason And to affirm that although such a Magistrate be extreamly needful for the due Government of His Church yet he neglected to provide Her of any such is to accuse him of want of Wit and Discretion for there was never yet amongst Civil People so simple a Founder of a Commonwealth or so simple a Law-maker that ordained no Supream Power in his Commonwealth no Interpreter of his Law no Judge to decide and end Controversies Christ then being Founder of the best Commonwealth that ever was and maker of the best Law that Mankind ever received it can be no less than Blasphemy to affirm that he left this his Noble Common-wealth without a Supream Magistrate to whom his People might have recourse and his Divine and Evangelical Law containing so many obscure Verities so many profound Mysteries without an Interpreter without a Judge to decide and end Controversies Moreover If Christ hath ordained no such Supream Magistrate Head or Guide of his Church in things Spiritual appertaining to Faith and Religion it seems to follow clearly and manifestly that every man is at liberty to believe what he list and to practise what Worship of God he thinks best What Unity then in Faith what Uniformity in the Worship of the Divinity can there be in the Church of Christ Or what sure means have Christian People to know who be right and who Heretical Believers Or to discern their true Prelates whom they are bound to obey Heb. 13. 17. from False Prophets from Heretical Teachers whom they are to shun under pain of Damnation Matth. 7. Tit. 3. Yea How can any man be proved to be a false Teacher if there be not some known true Teacher If no man hath Power and Authority from God to direct the Faith of others If no man be bound and obliged by Christ to Believe or to Teach as an other would have him how can any man be justly esteemed to Believe or Teach amiss Or why should he be reputed to Believe or Teach amiss if he be not bound to limit and square out his Faith and Teaching by the Judgement and Discretion of some other Wherefore either we must say that the Church of Christ is not to be obeyed that false Prophets are not to be avoided that no man doth Believe or Teach amiss so long as he Believes and Teaches well in his own Judgement and that no man is or can be in respect of Men an Heretick or a false Prophet All which is contrary to the Word of God and plainly overthroweth all Christianity or else we must affirm as the certain Truth is that God hath ordained and appointed some to teach and to direct others what they ought to Believe and Practise to obtain Life everlasting and others to be taught and guided What will Protestants to this Will they deny all possibility of Vnity and of Order in the Church and Family of Christ or else will they grant as Reason and as the Truth requires that God hath ordained some visible Ministerial Head some Supream Spiritual Magistrate in his Church to whom all may have Recourse in the Affairs of Religion and by whom all are bound to be directed in Points of Faith and in the Practise of his Divine Worship If this they grant I demand which is this Head this Spiritual Magistrate and in whom doth reside this Supream Spiritual Power and Authority Doth it reside in Supream Spiritual or in Supream Temporal Magistrates If in Supream Temporal doth it reside in one or in many If in one who is this Supream Temporal Magistrate Who hath Power and Authority even by Gods Ordination to direct the whole World all the Nations of the Earth in matters of Faith and in the Practise of Gods Worship And how is this proved out of the Word of God If this Supream Power reside not in any one Supream Temporal Magistrate Doth it by Gods Ordination reside in many that is in the Supream Temporal Magistracy of each Common-wealth in such sort that the Supream Temporal Magistrate Prince or King of each Commonwealth or Kingdom hath Power and Authority from God to direct the Subjects thereof in Faith and to appoint them what Religion they shall follow what Worship of God they shall practise If so then the Subjects of each Commonwealth are bound under Pain of
particular all the Articles of Faith which the Learned Pastors of the Church believe yet they are bound under the Penalty of Eternal Damnation not to deny wittingly any one of them nor to doubt stubbornly of the truth of them nor to believe wittingly the contrary for he that so doth falleth thereby into the damning Crime of Heresie Which ever includes an Election or Culling out of certain Articles out of the Doctrine of the Church which are imbraced for true and a Rejection of the rest as Doubtful False or Erronious Which presumptuous discarding of Divine Verities revealed by Christ to his Apostles for the direction of Mankind to Eternal Happiness and by them laid up in the Treasury of the Church as a Sacred Depositum 1 Tim. 6. 20. under the sure Custody of the Holy Ghost is no less than High-Treason against Christ our Saviour in regard that it raises a most pernicious Rebellion in his Spiritual Kingdom bringing part thereof again under the Tyranny of the Devil It frustrates the full Operation of his Passion extinguishes the true and right Worship of God despoils Christian People of Divine Faith and thereby of the true means of Salvation It deprives the Saints of due Honour defrauds the Faithful departed of necessary Relief It robbs Heaven of Souls and inriches Hell with innumerable unwary and most unhappy People For which respects it is rightly stiled one of the greatest Sins and of the loudest crying Crimes that is Although I say the Unlearned of the Church are not bound to believe explicitly all Her Sacred Verities yet they are bound not to deny any one of them wittingly even as they are not bound to know all that is in the Sacred Scripture yet they are bound not to deny any thing therein contain'd though it be never so small a thing because all is warranted by the Authority of God which is of equal Force and Worth of equal Truth both in great and in small things which therefore are of equal Certainty it being as far from God to lie and deceive in small things as in great And therefore prudent Men in Matters of Faith and Religion seek no farther than whether this or that be warranted by Gods Authority or no which they learn by the Teaching of the Church guided by the Holy Ghost for there is no other sure and infallible Means on Earth to direct us in the obscure Misteries of Faith about which anew God now reveals nothing but leaves us to the Teaching of his Church guided as I said by the Holy Ghost which makes all Discreet Christians to submit so humbly their Judgements to the Church and to relie so securely upon her Authority God himself assuring them that She is the Pillar and Ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Second Truth is That the Subjects of the Church of Christ are not bound either to know or believe certain disputable Points of Divinity not defin'd by the Church which are controverted among the Learned The pernicious Falshood inferred out of these Truths is That Christian People who are not Learned are not bound under hazard of their Souls to believe those Articles of Faith taught by the the True and Catholick Church of Christ which false Prophets which Heretical Men reputed Learned do question deny and dispute against As though the Bad Proud Rebellious and Ungodly proceeding of these Men were a sufficient Warrant unto others to doubt of the Truth of Gods revealed Verities to mangle and believe by halves his Sacred Religion to disobey their Lawful Prelates to deprive their Souls of the fruitful use of Christs Divine Sacraments to contemn the Doctrine and to forsake the Communion of the Church Which is manifestly absurd and untrue being contrary both to Reason and Scripture as I have shewed Which teach that Christian People in the profound Mysteries of the Christian Religion are bound to be guided by those Doctors and Pastors Act. 20. which God hath placed in his Church and authorised to Teach Direct and Guide them And that they are likewise most deeply obliged to beware of and to shun false Prophets and Heretical Teachers and not to heap to themselves new Masters with itching Ears leaving the Truth of the Pillar of Truth the Church of the Living God and turning to Fables that is either to their own Self-conceits or to the Self-conceits of others which in the Mysteries of the Christian Religion when they swerve from the Doctrine of the Church are no truer than Fables though they be gilded over with the fair Title of the true Light of the Gospel and therefore the Faith of those who are guided by such Conceiters is never Divine never the Gift of God never available to Salvation For the clear understanding of which Assertion Note First That most true it is that God hath revealed many profound Misteries and Divine Verities for Men to believe to be thereby directed fittingly what to hold and to practise for the obtaining of ever-during Happiness Note Secondly That it is also most true that Man of himself without the Aid of Coelestial Grace is not able to believe these Verities fittingly and suitably to his Supernatural End. Note Thirdly That God cannot stir up and draw men by this his Heavenly Grace to believe these Verities unless they be proposed to be believ'd without all mixture of Falshood for if any Falshood be packt in among them and proposed with them for a Divine Truth revealed by God he cannot draw men by his Grace to believe them thus mingled and proposed with Falshood as is manifest because he cannot induce men to believe any Falshood at all And therefore whosoever doth thrust in among some Divine Verities any false Doctrine contrary to that which God hath revealed proposing the same to be believed as a Divine Truth and therein stubbornly contradicting the Teaching of the Church he debars God from co-opperating with his Grace and from drawing People to believe with Divine Faith the Doctrine so mixt and proposed Note Fourthly That Gods revealed Verities will fall out to be of no utility at all to Mankind but rather a Trap to ruine them unless there be some sure un-erring and infallible Proposer of them who doth propose them to Gods People without any mixture of Falshood at all in such sort that he doth not propose any thing as an Article revealed by God which is not so or which is false and contrary to that which God hath indeed reveal'd And therefore that God may draw men by the special aid of his Grace to believe with Divine Faith his revealed Misteries and Verities he must cause them to be proposed to men sincerely and without all mixture of Falshood He I say must cause them to be so proposed because no man of himself without the continual guidance and assistance of the Holy Ghost is able always so to propose them All then that will have Divine Faith must be guided by Gods Proposer of Divine Doctrine and